CURRENT LITERATURE.
The Testimony of the Catacombs. By the Rev. W. B. Marriott_ (Hatchards.)—We have here the answer to the controversial side of the work lately published on the same subject by Dr. Northeote and Mr. Brownlow. Mr. Marriott treats of three subjects, "The Cultns of the Virgin," "The Supremacy of the Roman See," and "The Doctrine of the Sacraments." We cannot pretend to judge of the success with which he handles them without a far more extensive comparison and examination of authorities than we can pretend to have made. Mr. Marriott declares that, after a careful examination, he "can find but one Orante, properly so called, in all the Catacombs, which can, with any probability, be in- terpreted as referring to the Virgin Mary," and is certainly quite right in saying that figure, without any conventional attributes, whether re- presenting the Virgin or no, has no polemical significance. He gives at the same time a remarkable instance of the way in which misrepre- sentation may be made without any sinister purpose. One of Dr. Northcote's plates represents our Lord as the Good Shepherd and a female °route by his side, the two figures forming one composition—the lat- ter represents the Virgin—and furnishing an apparently strong arga- ment for certain views about her intercessory office. Dr. Northoote declares it to be the Virgin, but in the original plate it is clearly marked out as a martyr by the presence of an instrument of torture, which is wanting in Dr. Northcote's engraving. This looks like bad faith, but it is nothing of the kind ; the symbol was omitted for want of room by the artist who prepared the copy of the original for Dr. Northcote's use.
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