hibited first, then the contrary examples of Abraham, Lot, Rahab; of the prophets Elijah, and Elisha, and Ezekiel, and David; finally he calls the martyrologies of SS. Peter and Paul τὰ γενναῖα ὑποδείγ ματα πῆς γενιᾶς ἡμῶν, the Apostles themselves being οἱ ἀθληταὶ yevóμevas eyyiσta. On the Ignatian Controversy Mr. Rawlinson does not speak definitely. He is afraid to commit himself to the views on this question maintained by Professors Blunt, Jacobson, and Hefele. He says when describing the discovery of the Nitrian MS., that it "has induced some learned ones of our own day to adopt the view that even the shorter Greek recension is largely interpolated, and that nothing beyond the three Epistles of the Syriac version can be depended upon as certainly written by the Antiochian Bishop.' An historical summary of the seven genuine Epistles is then given, and afterwards the testimony of the mutilated Syriac fragments is added up. We regret to see this truckling in such a manly defence of the Christian faith as Mr. Rawlinson has put forth. When time has cleared up, as most assuredly it will, the mist that hangs over Mr. Cureton's reputation as an Oriental scholar, then his Syriac fragments will cease to create an Ignatian controversy.

S. Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians abounds with allusions to our Blessed LORD, the letter which S. Irenæus wrote to Florinus tells us how the sainted Bishop of Smyrna used to converse with S. John Evangelist concerning the miracles of JESUS. The testimony of the "Shepherd" of S. Hermas is also taken, of limited extent, owing to the allegorical nature of the treatise; we are sorry to see these words in the text of the lecture, "there are reasons for assigning it to a later Hermas, the brother of Pius, who was the ninth Bishop of Rome."1 This comes of believing in the Muratorian fragment, falsely ascribed to S. Hegesippus, and backed by the ecclesiastical authorities of Alford, Bunsen, and Norton. The Apologetic Age is treated of next-the writings of Quadratus and S. Justin, the testimonies of this latter Father occupy a note comprising four closely printed pages, and are skilfully grouped under twenty-five heads. Further than this Mr. Rawlinson thinks it useless to proceed, and looking back on the Patristic evidence adduced and feeling critically its immeasurable value, it seems distressing to have to acknowledge the truth of Mr. Rawlinson's remark, that what to us appears so certain, is a doubtful point with many who "regard the early infancy of Christianity as a dim and shadowy cloud-land, in which nothing is to be seen, except a few figures of bishops and martyrs, moving uncertainly amid the general dark

ness."2

The book closes with an appeal to the evidence of another kind, and when the Roman Catacombs, the monumental remains of early Christian times have told their tale, Mr. Rawlinson's task is accomplished. A brave witness does he make out of those old sepul

1 P. 275.

2 P. 281.

"The

chres, and their spoils in the Vatican gallery. Pompeii and Herculaneum are not more to the pagan world, than are these mighty relics of the dead to the Ante-Constantinean Church. Was Tacitus correct when he called the Christians of his day an "ingens multitudo"? The Catacombs extend over nine hundred miles of streets; and contain seven millions of graves, implying, if they were filled in four hundred years, an average population of from five to seven hundred thousand Christians. Were the early Christians exposed to much danger and suffering? In the Catacomb tomb is found a phial, red with the martyr's blood, and the wall bears the palm-branch, and the inscription tells the tale of tortured death. Now and then the dirge rises high, "O tempora infausta! Parum vixit qui vixit in Christianis temporibus." It does not matter much, the same inscription records the unquenched hope, " Tandem in cœlo corrus cant." What of the doctrine of these early Believers? Christian is not dead-he 'rests' or 'sleeps'-he is not buried, but 'deposited' ('dormit,' 'quiescit' 'depositus est') and he is always at peace' ('in pace.')" The Anchor, the Phoenix, and the Peacock, are the early Resurrection symbols. The Cross, the emblem of Salvation, is in the Catacombs found everywhere, and the Good Shepherd' oft repeated. Scenes too are added from the Old and New Testaments which prove, the early Christian's belief in the historical narrative of the Bible. What more do we want to ask the Catacombs? But a final question. The Gospel talks of "mighty works," and SS. Justin, Irenæus, Theophilus, with Tertullian and Minutius Felix, all vouch for the miraculous power which was invested in the Primitive Church, a power that triumphed over sword, cross, stake, and the wild-beasts,-a power bound up inseparably with the veracity of the Gospel History, and which overcame all prejudices of education, and which was tested by hundreds of thousands of converts. The belief of the early Church was no passive creed-she had ten most bloody persecutions, yet "the Church counted her Martyrs by thousands." The Catacombs too, bear witness to miracles. All this history taken into the account, forms a long story without variation. A contrast to the fluctuating, multiform myth, including miracles without grotesqueness, and details which the mythic element scorns to notice-a story that gives GOD His grace, and man his dignity, unites heaven. with earth in an unbroken tie: a story told at first by type and prophecy, and then by history wonderfully concentrated round the Person of Him, of Whom they that bear their true testimony, say that they have heard, seen, "which their hands have handled of the WORD OF LIFE, that was manifested unto them-while that which they have seen and heard, that also declare they unto us."

MISS PROCTER'S LEGENDS AND LYRICS.

Legends and Lyrics: a Book of Verses. By ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER. Fourth Edition. London: Bell and Daldy.

THE fact that this pleasing volume has reached a fourth edition is a tolerably sure evidence of its intrinsic merits. The authoress-the daughter of a well-known poet, who has written much under the nomme de plume of Barry Cornwall-contributed a considerable number of the verses here collected, to Household Words, where they are said to have gained a wide circle of ardent admirers. Both their tone and character are such as to render them not only fully deserving of that approbation and success, but also of reproduction in a more permanent shape.

One manifest cause of this success lies upon their very surface, Miss Procter's verses are free from any pedantic affectations, and are thoroughly intelligible. She evidently aims at being plain instead of obscure; moreover, there is a devotional tone pervading the great majority of the poems, which is quite calculated to render them attractive and acceptable to many who would not be found reckoned amongst readers of poetry in general.

If there is one fault more than another which is manifest in so much that is published under the title of poetry in the present day, it is that straining after vagueness, which few can fail to have observed. Some writers seem to imagine that unintelligibility and originality are convertible terms, and that the more thoroughly an idea is draped in a swaddling clothes of words, the more beautiful its appearance will be, when the public are invited in to look at it. Imitators of the Poet Laureate too frequently err in this particular: until so-called “ poems are published, which are nothing more or less than versified puzzles, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

But while this is a palpable and wide-spread error on the one hand, there are not lacking faults on the other. When Mr. Wordsworth first wrote, the most stilted affectations were accepted as sublime, and the Muse as it were walked in brocaded satin and powdered hair. Phyllis sat on a thymy bank, while somebody else played a tune for her satisfaction on a Pandean pipe; or else the Popian couplet was repeated ad infinitum, to dress up the most ordinary morality and the most commonplace thoughts. Nature was altogether ignored; so that the Lake school had enough to do. However, their work, though great, was accomplished, and now a natural and simple style is in the ascendant. But there is even a danger here. Just as every ad

vantage has a corresponding disadvantage, so does every style of poetry stand a chance of becoming in time grotesque and exaggerated. Even simplicity may descend; and the interval between it and absurdity is by no means great.

But Miss Procter seems to have hit upon the happy mean, and to have entirely avoided both the Scylla and Charybdis of verse-makers. Her poems are simple, unaffected, clear in their meaning and admirable in their tone and spirit. Even where religious sentiments are not distinctly prominent, the undercurrent of thought is invariably good and true.

That this is so, our readers we trust will learn for themselves, by a careful perusal of the volume. "One by one "-reminding us of Longfellow, though no imitation—is a poem of great simplicity and power; "True Honours" and "A Woman's Question" deserve similar praise. "Life and Death," likewise, is a pleasing composition, and the same may be said with truth of "Waiting," and a "Cradle Song of the Poor."

The poem "Give Me thy heart" is one of a more distinctively religious character, and is a good example of the author's deep and sound principles. The objective and subjective in such a production are often difficult to blend, but here we see how harmoniously and well each accords with each.

"The Wayside Tree," is a poem of great sweetness, and displays a deep knowledge of human nature. But the gem of the entire volume is "A Little Longer," (p. 191,) from which, as we have not room for the whole, we will not quote a fragment, but content ourselves with again recommending the book to our reader's attention.

Before we conclude, we cannot pass by one or two manifest defects which occasionally meet the eye in perusing the volume. The prominent one is a certain carelessness in regard to rhythm and rhyme, which ought certainly to be avoided. "Pain" and "noted" hardly correspond, though we find them at p. 131. There is a similar irregularity of metre at p. 202. The same is manifest in the use of "afraid" and "spinning" at p. 142. Nor can we approve of making "hours" a two-syllabled word, as is done at p. 198 to let it rhyme with "showers." The presence of such slips of the pen and defects only make the general ease and flow of the poem more manifest, but still they are defects, and ought not to have appeared. We do not write this in a carping spirit, but in order to call the author's attention to the point, that for the future, such may be carefully avoided.

REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

God's prohibition of the Marriage with a deceased wife's Sister (Lev. xviii. 6) not to be set aside by an inference from a restriction of polygamy among the Jews. (Lev. xviii. 16.) By the Rev. E. B. PUSEY.

THIS pamphlet is of great value as exhibiting the real character of the Divine Prohibition. Dr. M'Caul's plea on behalf of marriages with a deceased wife's sister has been met by a very able letter which the Marriage Law Defence Association have put forth. The fallacies which are mixed up with all the details of his argument are well pointed out by it. Dr. Pusey's object is to show the force of the general command of GOD not to contract marriage with those who are near of kin whether by consanguinity or affinity. This more general consideration is a most important one. If GOD has forbidden the whole class of marriages to which this belongs, it matters little whether He has specified this particular instance amongst the examples which He has given for the illustration of that prohibition. Dr. Pusey assumes that the text, "a woman to her sister," is to be taken of sisters and not merely as meaning two women. Thus far he is agreed with Dr. M'Caul. But he shows by a consideration of the Hebrew phraseology that "the flesh of his flesh," to which a man is forbidden to approach by the previous (sixth) verse of the chapter, must include not only blood relationship but the relations of the wife. From a general command of GOD we have no right to make deductions because He has not appended a commentary coextensive with all its bearings. However, in addition to this certain general prohibition, Dr. Pusey shows that the limitation of the subsequent text makes the imagined-to-be-implied permission very doubtful. While he accepts the reading a woman to her sister," as meaning two sisters, he shows that the words " so long as she liveth," may apply just as much to the surviving sister as to the deceased one. The argument at least holds as good for the permanent as for the limited prohibition. The idea of a husband wishing her to be out of the way in order that he might marry a sister who had been necessarily brought into close intimacy with him, would be just as harassing to a wife amongst ourselves, as the taking of her sister to be one of his many wives could be if polygamy were allowed. In fact, it is difficult to see the force of the argument when taken the other way. A second wife is a natural cause of vexation; but a wife who is a sister could be no more a vexation than another. If Leah and Rachel quarrelled, so also did Peninnah and Hannah. The special vexation to a wife must rather consist in the idea of the consummation of a contemplated marriage depending upon her own removal as a necessary preliminary. She can safely trust the brotherly regard which unites her husband and her sister if she knows that after her own death her sister will be to her husband a sister still as long as she liveth. She may find comfort then in looking to her sister as the protectress of children whom she may leave against the

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