It is questionable whether for thoughtful readers there is any
better value in modern literature than that offered by the series of reprints (Longmans, Green, ls. or 8d. each) from The Bulletin of the John Rylands Library. Man- chester may not look like Oxford or Cambridge, but it pro- duces its own fine type of scholarship, a feature of which is the wedding of erudition to humour and charm. Four delightful new issues lie before us. Dr. S. Alexander pays homage to The Art of Jane Austen, and Professor Powicke; in Gerald of Wales, throws some valuable and entertaining sidelights upon twelfth-century Welsh history. The other paniphlets are by Manchester's two 'leading Divinity scholars. Dr. A. S. Peake gives us a penetrating study of Paul the Apostle : His Personality and Achievement, while Dr. Bendel Harris, learned but light-hearted as ever, deals with John Bunyan and the Higher Criticism. After some Whimsical reflections upon Higher Criticism in general, and some witty comments about the manner in which Bunyan is ofterl " adapted " for Sunday School or Roman Catholic reading,
Dr. Harris examines the evidence for and against the Bunyan
authorship of various works attributed to him in his "own day. Bunyan himself complained of other writers pirating not only his style, but " half my name and Title too." Dr. Itarris gives actual instances of such counterfeiting.
Previous page
