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NOTICES.

Two Catechetical Manuals,' and both bearing the authorship of Ramsay, reach us. The one is Dean Ramsay's (of Edinburgh), which in its seventh edition (Grant), may be supposed to have acquired a dignified elevation beyond the range of criticism. We should not ourselves have assisted to place it in so lofty a position, for we-think it coldly correct as far as it goes, which is only about half-way, and heavy.-Mr. Arthur Ramsay, of Trinity College, Cambridge, in his Catechiser's Manual,' (Macmillan,) has given us a much more original and thoughtful work: his favourite study is etymology, and some of his little notes on the meaning of words in the Catechism are instructive and important. His taste for these verbal refinements is occasionally overdone and we were surprised (p. 44) at Mr. Ramsay's adoption of Dr. Donaldson's apparent inversion of the use of the word gossip.' He seems to say that the word was used for a sponsor, because it signified,' the most intimate and friendly conversation.' Whereas, being the technical name for a sponsor-God-sip-it came to be applied to vain and trifling talk, on account of the habit to which such affinities gave rise of indulging in familiar intercourses.

The author of Forest Scenes in Norway and Sweden,' (Routledge,) has not in the fishing-jacket of former years disqualified himself for the cassock of his present life, as his useful Sermons' and' Guide to Confirmation' show. Mr. Newland, like Walton and Donne, is a fisher of men as well as of salmon. In either character he writes with entire good sense and his love of anecdote and keen appreciation of character make him agreeable both as a tourist and a preacher. The Forest Life' contains more about the Scandinavian social and religious state than most professed volumes of travel. All that Mr. Newland writes flows agreeably.

'An Oxford M. A.' has sent us a pathetic appeal in favour of Public Nurseries.' (J. H. Parker.) What is to be said for and against infant schools-and the moral argument is not all on one side-applies to this scheme. It is at work in Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields; and its beneficial results on the child are unquestionable; that it throws the mother into an unnatural, if unavoidable, condition, is perhaps as plain.

We are glad to welcome the tenth part of the second volume of ' Instrumenta Ecclesiastica,' (Van Voorst,) a useful set of working drawings, published by the Ecclesiological Society. A list of tradesmen of whom the various articles may be procured would be found useful, particularly to colonial church builders.

Mr. J. H. Parker's 'Scripture Prints '-especially the glazed copies-are a vast improvement on our extant stock. But what is wanted for cottage walls is colour; and the Christian artist who would supplant the ugly but intelligible daubs which, both here and abroad, find such favour with the poor, by good and religious coloured designs, would be a benefactor of no small value. The thing is not impossible, though difficult. Uneducated

eyes are incapable of understanding miniature reproductions of the great Italian master-pieces; the style of fresco, and its broad masses of powerful colour, are alone suited for the common mind.

The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology' (Macmillan) improves as it advances. The third number is the best, though its predecessors were of high promise. The English school of classical criticism is reviving.

....

Two volumes of Calvin's French Letters have been collected and published by M. Jules Bonnet, from the Archives of Geneva: 'Lettres de Jean Calvin.' (Paris: Meyrueis.) They form a supplement to the well-known Latin Letters, and the chief value of the present collection is, that they are from a recent collation, and form a complete series. The most valuable portion of M. Bonnet's volumes, Calvin's correspondence with M. de Falais, has been long before the world, and the letters on English ecclesiastical affairs are familiar to all students of the Reformation period. The new letters amount to about a hundred and seventy: they confirm occasionally what we had already ample evidence of, that Calvin possessed a remarkable reper. tory of brutal language. In the way of a contribution to history, we do not detect much value in the new matter which M. Bonnet's pious care has disinterred from the congenial dust of the Library at Geneva; and perhaps the fame of the burner of Servetus had been better consulted, had Calvin's encomiasts withheld this additional proof of their hero's disregard of decency, and proficiency in the vulgar tongue. We pluck, quite at random, a florilegium of Christian and evangelical exhortation: Ceste malheureuse beste Orry,' vol. i. p. 373. Nous faisons trop d'honneur à ces bestes 'connues de les appeler évesques . . . ce brigant qui a occupé le siége 'de Dieu,' ibid. p. 353. 'Ceste beste sauvaige,' vol. ii. p. 16. 'Ceste 'beste venimeuse,' ibid. p. 19. We find that it is by no fault of the gentle Calvin that Servetus and Gentilis had not many companions at the stake and on the scaffold. Writing to a lady, Madame de Cany, we find Calvin expressing the following amiable regrets with respect to an earlier victim: 'Je vous asseure, Madame, s'il ne fust si tost eschappé, que, pour m'ac'quitter de mon debvoir, il n'eust pas tenu à moy qu'il ne fust passé par 'le feu.' Vol. i. p. 336. The present Editor may well express his curiosity about the person who evoked, to use his own euphemistic language, Ces 'paroles empreintes de l'âpre rigueur du réformateur?' John Calvin, however, has his consolations: he thinks that the God of mercy will accept the will for the deed. He and his pleasant lady correspondent find a pious hope in the belief, Toutesfois si le bien que nous taschons de faire 'n'adresse comme il seroit à désirer, c'est bien assez que Dieu accepte 'nostre service,' ibid. At vol. i. p. 69, note, we find M. Bonnet repeating Beza's foolish fanfaronade of Calvin's volunteering his services to attend the plague patients in 1542. Mr. Dyer, in his recent Life of Calvin,' has proved incontestably that Calvin, in common with the whole body of ministers, exhibited the greatest reluctance to attend the hospital and visit the sick; and it was on this occasion, although Calvin had contrived to get a vote from the council keeping him at home, because he was wanted to serve in the church, that the ministers refused to repair to the hospital, and said they would rather go to the devil.' On this occasion, 'Calvin

and his brother ministers appearing before the council on the subject, 'were dismissed with the significant resolution, "Resolved: To pray to 'God to give the ministers more constancy in future." At vol. ii. p. 461, we find a curious letter of reproof to a certain minister, Desprès, who had celebrated a marriage between a man and his deceased wife's sister: Calvin remarks, Quant au fait en soi, Luther estoit encores assez novice et mal ' exercé en l'Escriture, quand il fait le sermon que vous alléguez. Nous avons esté esbahis de l'annotation qu'on a mise sur le 18 du Lévitique.'

We have received from Mr. Van Voorst what we presume is a reissue of his famous edition of the Vicar of Wakefield,' with Mulready's illustrations. Many gift-books have appeared since this publication; but taking into account both the especial suitableness of this the most popular fiction in the English language, the powers of the illustrator, combining both delicacy of touch and poetry of conception, and the dignity as well as grace with which the wood has been cut by Mr. Thompson, we think that on the whole the volume may be taken as a model of English attainments, literary and artistic. Mulready's illustrations recall Hogarth's suggestive fulness without his coarseness, and, what is rare in art, they show that the grotesque need not degenerate into caricature. In their truthfulness of conception and honest scrupulous execution, every line cut as sharply as in an etching, the woodcuts are little short of perfection.

In A Guide to the Parish Church,' (Deighton & Bell,) by Mr. Harvey Goodwin, many things are agreeably and characteristically talked over, and persuasively enough recommended. The day ought to be past, indeed, and in many quarters is so, for dwelling on divers of the points here discussed at large. The book, in fact, is much in the old-fashioned style of Stanley's Faith of a Church-of-England-man.' Is it quite so faithful as books of that date were, to the highest and truest aspects of Christian doctrine? Mr. Goodwin, in his definition of a priest, omits his characteristic and determinative,-the power, viz. of consecrating the Eucharist. In critical points like this, he is always just short enough of the truth to be sure to be popular. In all other respects he well deserves to be so.

Mr. Wigan Harvey, in his two volumes On the Creeds,' (J. W. Parker,) has done something more than reproduced the labours of Pearson. The treatise is independent, and in many respects is eminently suited for theological students, who are often deterred from Pearson by the ruggedness of his style. In his theology the present writer is decidedly orthodox; and his Hebrew and Syriac acquirements invest some of his commentaries with unusual interest. The Apostles' and the Nicene Creeds are treated in a combined discussion: the Athanasian Creed receives a separate discussion. Here Mr. Harvey proposes, with sufficient modesty, to assign an earlier origin to this illustrious confession than that assigned to it by Waterland. Hilary of Arles is deposed in favour of Victricius of Rouen; and Mr. Harvey argues that S. Augustine, in the Treatise de Trinitate, illustrates the Creed as an older document, Waterland's argument being that the Creed was rather compiled from the Bishop of Hippo's previous teaching. In this latter view, antecedent to other points of criticism, we are disposed

to agree with the present author: it is more probable that a single writer should illustrate a formal and accredited document, rather than that an ecclesiastical symbol should be only a cento from a contemporary, however distinguished, author's works. As to the point of attributing the Quicunque Vult to Victricius, we are unable to accompany Mr. Harvey. It is certain that he was accused of heresy, certain also that he cleared himself of the charge. But Paulinus of Nola, the only evidence appealed to by Mr. Harvey, does not say once that Victricius published a confession at all. He merely says, writing to Victricius, No doubt you said so and so: I feel confident that you agree with me in believing and teaching thus ' and thus.' Paulinus does not even profess to have seen Victricius' confession, and bears no witness even to its existence all that he does is to suggest certain language for his correspondent's avowal. We think this slender ground for attributing any published Creed to Victricius: to connect him with the (so called) Athanasian symbol there is no documentary evidence whatever. Le Brun, the Paris editor of Paulinus, in a particular dissertation on the Life of Victricius, (Paris, 1685,) gives no intimation whatever that he ever composed a Creed on the occasion of the attacks on his orthodoxy. The question as to the age of the Creed within thirty or forty years is, however, very immaterial. We desire to recommend Mr. Harvey without any hesitation or drawback.

The body of Cambridge writers who are engaged in editing the important series of Ecclesiastical Manuals published by Macmillan, seem to be supplying a need which ought to be recognised by the Universities themselves. It is the Times Fund supplementing-as they say-a deficient and ill-arranged commissariat. Mr. Procter's History of the Book of Common Prayer' is by far the best commentary extant: somewhat of the credit of this must of course be attributed to the fact that it is the last. It is all but impossible not to improve upon Wheatley with the works of Cardwell, Palmer, Maskell, and Lathbury extant. In availing himself of these sources, Mr. Procter only claims to have epitomized their labours. He has done more. He has harmonized them. Not only do the present illustrations embrace the whole range of original sources indicated by Mr. Palmer, but Mr. Procter compares the present Book of Common Prayer with the Scotch and American Forms; and he frequently sets out in full the Sarum Offices. From the recent Parliamentary paper he gives a full account of the mischief threatened in the abominable suggestions of 1689. It seems an especial indication of a providential care over the future of the English Church, that just as the subject of Liturgical revision or readaptation is presenting itself, our sources of knowledge should be at the same junction so much enlarged. There is not a thoughtful or wellinformed Clergyman in England who would not denounce, and be enabled to resist, on intelligent grounds, the sort of haphazard suggestions of twenty years ago. The subject is understood: and as a manual of extensive information, historical and ritual, imbued with sound Church principles, we are entirely satisfied with Mr. Procter's important volume.

Mr. George Hill's pamphlet, A Letter to the Rev. Dr. Barrow,' (J. H, Parker,) is intended to show that Queen's College has no right to appoint

the Head of S. Edmund's Hall. It is a difficult matter to prove that a power which has been publicly exercised for some three hundred years, of which the grounds disputed were long ago examined, and decided to be unquestionable, is unfounded; and we must say, we think Mr. Hill has failed in his object. He suggests that the Hall should be incorporated, and the Head appointed by a certain number of the members. Of course, if one Hall has this new constitution, all ought to have it; because the Chancellor's power of appointment is, we apprehend, quite as much an encroachment on Aularian rights as that of a College. Whether such a scheme would answer we should think questionable, and its being an interference with vested interests and the claims of property must prove fatal to it. The general tone of Mr. Hill's pamphlet is excellent, though we think his arguments very weak.

'The Cross and the Dragon,' (Smith, Elder & Co.) is, as far as matter goes, a succinct and, as far as we can judge, a trustworthy account of the early attempts to introduce the Gospel into China. On the whole, Mr. Kesson, its author, is fair; but we fail to discover that he has any very distinct religious sympathies. He pronounces all attempts to evangelize China equal failures; and with intrepid impartiality he looks with equal despair both on Jesuits and Tract Societies. To the former he does some justice, especially on the necessity of some sort of compromise with such strange materials. It is painful to find that Church of England missions find no place in the present writer's review; nor do we anticipate much from Bishop Smith's episcopate. Mr. Kesson dismisses with contempt the notion, much cultivated at May meetings, that the revolt in China had a religious, still less a Protestant,' purpose. He attributes it only to the secret societies: and it is much more like a Socialist than a religious movement. Does not Mr. Kesson judge of Buddhism in its most unfavourable aspect, when he selects the Siamese and Chinese developments as its typical forms?

A very unpretending tract, by Mr. Philip Freeman, who has transferred his learning and activity from Chichester to Cumbrae, under the title of 'Plain Directions for understanding and using the Morning and Evening Services,' (Edinburgh: Grant,) is really a deep and instructive analysis of the principles implied in the Church's Ritual and Liturgy. It is, we find, and are glad to find, the sketch of a larger and forthcoming treatise on the subject. As sooner or later the revision of, as well as additions to, the extant Services must come before us, Mr. Freeman's labours in showing the deep principles upon which our Offices are constructed are especially well timed.

Reckoning among our readers the Vicaress as well as the Vicar, we desire to introduce with all commendation the work of a lady (S. W.), 'Directions for cutting out and making Articles of Dress,' published by the S.P.C.K. We regret, speaking from our own experience, that needle-work has of late years been too much neglected, and too much mechanically taught, in our national schools. And as we suspect, the visit of the inspector has not a little helped to discourage needle-work. The lady who sends us this little manual has met this necessity of our schools, and