14 MARCH 1863, Page 24

Hynntologia Christiana. By Benjamin Hall Kennedy, D.D., Head Master of

Shrewsbury School. (Longmans.)—Moved, perhaps, by a desire to emulate the fame of the Solicitor-General, Dr. Kennedy has given us swell-filled volume, containing 1,500 hymns and three or four dozen doxologies. He has enriched it with a rather pompous preface, in which he states his view of the duties of what he calls, perhaps unnecessarily, a. " hymnological editor." One of these duties is the somewhat questionable one of altering any hymns which may appear to him to be faulty, either in expression or doctrine. On this point, how- ever, there is a good deal to be said on both sides. Dr. Kennedy' collection may be of value for private use, though it is much too copious to be entirely suitable for public worship.