A new edition of the Venerable Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica appears
under the care of Mr. G. H. Moberly, A.M. (The Clarendon Press.)— it is of a very convenient size and shape, and the editor has furnished it with an introduction, and with what we should judge to be an effective series of notes. The facts known about the life of Bede are few indeed ; it is probable that there were very few to be known ; but the detailed account of his death, written by his friend and disciple Cuthbert, is one of the most pathetically interesting things in all biography—how the old man, feeling his end at hand, sends for "the precious things" that he had in his chest, pepper, and handkerchiefs, and incense, and distributed them to the brethren ; and how his boy scribe (he had been translating St. John's Gospel) said to him, " There is one sentence, dear master, not finished," and the old man said, "Write quickly," and shortly the boy said, " The sentence is finished," and ho answered, " Thou hast said well ; it is finished," and sitting on the floor of his cell, he yielded np his spirit to God. The reader will find this at full length in Mr. Moberly's introduction. Generally, we are glad to see one of the chief sources of our early ecclesiastical history brought within easy reach by this con- Tenient volume.
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