The Brothers Witien. Memoirs and Miscellanies. Edited by Samuel Bowles
Pattison. (Hodder and Stoughton.)—The two Wiffens wore members of the Society of Friends, and natives ot Woburn. The elder, who died suddenly in the prime of life, was librarian to the Duke of Bedford ; and his chief work was a history of the Russell family. Another work, on Tease, WWI destroyed absolutely, it would seem, from what his biographer says, just before- publicatioh. Jeremiah Wiffon also wrote some very graceful verse,. which has at least as good a claim to live as much that we commonly find in collections. The younger brother, Benjamin, devoted the greater part of life to the publication of the works of the Spanish Reformers, an almost untrodden field, in which his unwearied industry enabled him to make some discoveries of importance. Benjamin also hed some poetical power. The two were men of great intelli- gence and culture, and of wide sympathies, of whose character an& life it is well to have some record. Perhaps it would have been bettor if this had been given in a simpler style. "The Pale Messenger, 'bearing the banner inscribed, Kuno dimittis,' " is a curiously magniloquent periphrasis for death.
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