The Expositor. Volume XI. (Hodder and Stoughton.)—The most striking paper
in this volume is an essay by Professor Plumptrc on the " Author of Ecclesiastes,' " an essay which the writer describes as an " ideal biography." According to the theory here unfolded, the author of this book was a wealthy Jew, who migrated from Jerusalem to Alexandria early in the second century B.C. There is much in it certainly that suits the state of society such as we know to have existed under the Ptolemies, far better than it can be supposed to snit the Jerusalem of Solomon. " Of making of books there is no end," might seem true enough under the shadow of the great library of Alexandria, but would hardly suggest itself in a city which pro- bably contained scarcely a hundred volumes. Professor Plumptre works out his ideas with even more than his wonted ingenuity and skill. We only doubt whether a speculation of this kind, suitable as it is for the pages of the Expositor, will be equally in place in the "Bible for Schools," for which it is ultimately destined. Dr. Sanday contributes an admirable series of papers,—" The Value of the 'Patristic Writings for the Criticism and Exegesis of the Bible," and the editor continues his valuable exposition of the Book of Job. There arc other papers of interest, and the whole volume is fully up to the high average which this periodical maintains.
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