Epitaphs, Ancient and Modern, being a collection of specimens of poetical sentiment touching the dead, some serious and some comic.

Messrs. Deighton, Bell, and Co. publish new editions of Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy in England; and of Elements of Morality, by the late Dr. W. Whewell.

The second volume of The Handbook of the Geography and Statistics of the Church, by Mr. J. E. T. Wiltsch, has been translated from the German by Mr. J. Leitch, and published by Mr. Bosworth.

The conduct of our authorities during the recent disturbances in Jamaica, is not without precedent. Something very much like it is revealed in Captain Henderson's History of the Rebellion in Ceylon during Lord Torrington's Government, which is published by Mr. Skeet.

Four Years among Spanish Americans (Low and Co.), is the title of a work by Mr. Hassaurek, late United States Minister to the Republic of Ecuador, which contains a good deal of interesting matter, written in a clear and simple manner.

The third volume of The Despatches, Correspondence, and Memoranda of the Duke of Wellington, has been edited by the son of "the Iron Duke," the present Duke of Wellington, and published by Mr. Murray.

Mr. John Bruce has edited, and collected from the Public Record Office, a Calendar of State Papers of the reign of Charles I. The year to which they chiefly refer is 1637, when the question of religious liberty was in full agitation, and when the Puritans, who had resolved to flee from the discipline of the Established Church and set up their own form of worship in America, were prohibited any right or power to leave, unless under the sanction of the Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Messrs. Williams and Norton have ready some copies of the fac-simile edition of the Vatican New Testament in Greek. The work will consist of six volumes, of which five will contain the texts of the Old and New Testaments, and the other critical notes, fac-similes, &c. It is edited by Fathers Vercellone and Cozza, and is under the special auspices of the Pope.

Professor Alexander Bain has published at Messrs. Longmans, Mental and Moral Science: A Compendium of Psychology and Ethics, a work which, as was to be expected, is worthy the reputation of its author as one of the ablest exponents of the sensuous school of philosophy.

Mr. Edward Howland has published, at Messrs. Low's, Grant, as a Soldier and Statesman: being a succinct History of his Military and Civil Career. The brevity and terseness of Grant's speeches are very edifying and amusing. The book, though not quite up to the dignity of history, is, nevertheless, very interesting.

On and after the 3rd inst. The Pall Mall Budget will be published weekly. It will consist of a collection of articles from "The Pall Mall Gazette." It is to be hoped that they will be divested of some of their pertness, and of their reckless rashness of assertion.

B. A. L.

Literary Notice.

[We hold it to be the duty of an Editor either to give an early notice of the books sent to him for remark, or to return them at once to the Publisher. It is unjust to praise worthless books; it is robbery to retain unnoticed ones.]

THE REVIEWER'S CANON.

In every work regard the author's end,

Since none can compass more than they intend.

THE DIVINITY of our Lord anD SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. Eight Lectures,

by HENRY PARRY LIDDON, M.A. Rivingtons: London, Oxford, and Cambridge.

WE are right glad to receive a second edition of this work. It is an improvement upon the first in many respects. The author says of this edition that "he has availed himself of the opportunity to make what use he could of the criticisms which have come, from whatever quarter, under his notice. Some textual errors have been corrected. Some ill-considered or misunderstood expressions have been modified. References to authorities and sources of information which were accidentally omitted have been supplied. To a few of the notes there has been added fresh matter, of an explanatory or justificatory character. The index, too, has been remodelled and enlarged. But the book remains, it is needless to say, substantially unchanged. And if it is now offered to the public in a somewhat altered guise, this has been done in order to meet the views of friends, who have urged, not perhaps altogether without reason, that in the Church of England, books on Divinity are so largely adapted to the tastes and means of the wealthier classes, as to imply that the most interesting of all subjects can possess no attractions for the intelligence and heart of persons who enjoy only a moderate income."

The work consists of eight lectures, the subjects of which are, The Question itself concerning the Divinity of Christ; Anticipation of Christ's Divinity in the Old Testament; Our Lord's Work in the World a Witness to his Divinity; Our Lord's Divinity itself is witnessed by his Consciousness; The Doctrine of Christ's Divinity in the Writings of St. John; Our Lord's Divinity as Taught by St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. James; The Homoversion and Consequences of the Doctrine of our Lord's Divinity. All these subjects are discussed with unusual ability; all is thorough; the scholarship, the investigation, the grasp of the subject, and the spirit of loyalty to truth, are all thorough. In our judgment it is one of the best, if not the best, works on the divinity of Christ in the English language; it abounds with great thoughts, and magnificent passages. Take the following extract on the boldness of Christ's plan, considered as a religious and social enterprise, as a specimen of the author's thinking, spirit, and style. "Nor is the boldness of Christ's plan less observable in its actual substance than in the fact of its original production in such completeness. Look at it, for the moment, from a

political point of view. Here is, as it seems, a Galilean peasant, surrounded by a few followers, taken, like Himself, from the lowest orders of society; yet He deliberately proposes to rule all human thought, to make Himself the centre of all human affections, to be the Lawgiver of humanity, and the object of man's adoration. He founds spiritual society, the thought, and heart, and activity of which are to converge upon his person, and he tells his followers that this society which He is forming is the real explanation of the highest visions of seers and prophets, that it will embrace all races, and extend throughout all time. He places Himself before the world as the true goal of its expectations, and He points to his proposed work as the one hope for its future. There was to be a universal religion, and He would found it. A universal religion was just as foreign an idea to heathenism as to Judaism. Heathenism held that the State was the highest form of social life; religious life, like family life, was deemed subordinate to political interests. Morality was pretty nearly dwarfed down to the measure of common political virtue; sin was little else than political misdemeanour ; religion was but a subordinate function of national life, differing in different countries according to the varying genius of the people, and rightly liable to being created or controlled by the Government. A century and a half after the Incarnation, in his attack upon the Church, Celsus ridiculed the idea of a universal religion as a manifest folly; yet Jesus Christ has staked his whole claim to respect and confidence upon announcing it. Jesus Christ made no concessions to the passions or to the prejudices of mankind. The laws and maxims of his kingdom are for the most part in entire contradictions to the instincts of average human nature; yet He predicts that his Gospel will be preached in all the world, and that finally there will be one fold and one Shepherd of men. "Go," He says to his apostles, "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." He founds a world-wide religion, and He promises to be the present invigorating force of that religion to the end of time. Are we not too accustomed to this language to feel the full force of its original meaning? How strikingly must it not have fallen upon the ears of the apostles? Words like these are not accounted for by any difference between the east and the west, between ancient and modern modes of speech. They will not bear honest translation into any modern phrase that would enable good men to use them now. Can we imagine such a command as that of our Lord upon the lips of the best, of the wisest of men whom we have ever known? Would it not be simply to imagine that goodness or wisdom had been exchanged for the folly of an intolerable presumption? Such language as that before us, indeed, is folly, unless it be something else; unless it be proved by the event to have been the highest wisdom, the wisdom of One whose ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts our thoughts."

"Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all."-John xviii. 37, 38.

HIS incident occurs in the midst of our Saviour's passion. None any longer greet him as the King of Israel; and now He calls himself a king. Before the gates of Jerusalem, when the people met him with rejoicings, he was silent-poured no single drop of oil on the flaming excitement of the

people. Now, in bonds, covered with shame, and awaiting the sentence of death, He Himself maintains his kingly dignity. And, strange to say, even Pilate, the Roman, the heathen, the cold man of the world, cannot escape the impression that this strange prisoner is not misled by a wild delusion, is no fanatic, no dreamer; it becomes

VOL. XXIII.

S

apparent, too, that no emperor and no governor has anything to fear from this accused man; for if one will be a king, and truth is the only force on which he will rely, the only weapon with which he will fight, he is no very dangerous rival of the great of this earth; this sword which he alone wields sheds no blood; this flame which he kindles does not burn down towns and cities. Truth, too, is not a bait with which one can befool the multitude, and draw them to himself. If, yielding to a momentary good feeling, they were to follow this voice, they would soon turn round again, and fall away. "Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not," says the Lord to the Jews. And Paul needed to ask the Galatians, "Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?" But while Pilate finds little cause to fear this king, who will build his kingdom on truth, and rule by truth, he has, for his part, little desire to come into nearer contact with either the king or his kingdom. Truth! He knows that the wise men of Greece and Rome esteem it highly, and strive to attain it; but, like many of his contemporaries, He has come to view this strife as altogether vain and idle. In his opinion there is no truth-nothing certain; no supernatural, invisible, future world, and whoever thinks that he has found the truth, is only deceived. There is nothing on which the thinking spirit of man can nourish itself, and about which it can be busy except doubt; and the philosophy of life is to eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. On this account Pilate did not desire an answer to his question, What is truth? Having put the question, he went out, wishing only to be relieved of the whole affair as soon as possible.

But we are not in such haste to be away. If we would be Christians, if we hope in and wait for the royal kingdom of Christ, and would be subjects of it, we must know what that truth is which He has set forth as the basis of this kingdom, which is the chief message he came into the world to tell. We view the question, therefore, otherwise