CURRENT LITERATURE.
Annals of St. Pacts Cathedral. By H. H. Milman, D.D. (Murray.) —Dr. Milman did not find so good a subject ready to his hand as did his brother the Dean of Westminster. It was an inestimable advantage to the Memorials of 'Westminster Abbey that they could be perpetually illustrated by actually existing monuments ; St. Paul's has only the very few relics of the Fire that are more than two centuries old, and even if the old Cathedral were still standing, it could not contend in interest with the Abbey. But the materials which he had Dean Milman used with the skill and taste that distinguished him. This work shows no signs of failing power, though its aged author barely lived long enough to complete it. His prose, with all its vivacity and fascination, was always loosely constructed, and it is not more incorrect in the Annals of St Paul's than it often is in the History of Latin Christianity, and the reader will forget the defect, as he forgets it in the larger work, in his delight at the graphic power of description and the masterly delineation of character. At the same time, the influence of the circumstances under which this volume has appeared may be traced in the unusual number of errors which it contains. It is stated, for instance, that Prince Arthur " was in his grave in six weeks" after his marriage with Catharine of Arragon. The marriage took place November 14th (not the 21st), and the Prince died April 2 in the following year. But there is probably nothing which an editor may not easily set right without the least interference with the substance of the author's work. We feel that the book is one which we need not even recommend to our readers, and we will conclude with an extract which affords an interesting illustration of Dean Milman's habits of thought on a subject with which his name as a theologian will always be connected. He says, apropos of Bishop Lowth's Lectures on Hebrew Poetry, "We have had a Hooker who has shown what truths we receive from revelation, what truths from that earlier unwritten revelation in the reason of man. We want a second Hooker, with the same profound piety, the same calm judgment, to show (if possible to frame) a test by which we may discern what are the eternal and irrepealable truths of the Bible, what the imaginative vesture, the framework in which these truths are set in the Hebrew and even in the Christian Scriptures."
Three Wives. By the Author of Margaret and her Bridesmaids. 3 vols. (Hurst and Blackett.)—The three volumes contain each an entireladistinct tale. Of these the first and second call for no particular notice. They contain, indeed, not a few minor absurdities, and we doubt whether the writer is quite conversant with the doings of the very distinguished personages to whom she introduces us. Such a very dignified person, for instance, as Lady Elizabeth in the first volume would hardly go to the Derby. And as to probabilities, would it not have been found out long before the end of seven years that the heroine of the second tale had not drowned herself in the reservoir, simply from the fact that the body must have floated ? But the third volume surpasses its predecessors. Sir Osman Beaudeprol marries his cousin by command of his grandfather, leaves her immediately, and a few years afterwards gets himself engaged to a certain Lady Emma Dunargent. The Dunargents, mother, daughter, and eon, knowing the fact of his marriage, accompany him to his home where the wife is. living. Lawyers are brought down to discuss the question of a divorce, which the wife is to sue for on the ground of desertion. The host makes love to Lady Emma ; young Lord Dunargent makes love to Lady Beaudepre; and altogether we have one of the most extravagantly absurd complications that even female ingenuity ever devised. Its absurdity indeed may serve to shelter it from a severer censure. These inconceivably foolish people do not live in the same world as this. If they did, if they could be judged by human standards, we should say that their conduct was immoral and revolting in the last degree. It is true that things are turned the right way at last. Lady Emma, who is about as shameless a young woman as wo over met in a novel, is convinced of her errors by hearing what people say of her ; and Sir Osman falls in love with his own wife. No consolation is provided for the young earl. The writer has powers which might be better employed than on such monstrosities as these.
A Handbook of Pictorial Art. By the Rev. R. St. John Tyrwhitt, 3I.A. (Clarendon Press Series.)—This is a very carefully prepared, and, as far as we can judge, a very useful manual. Mr. Tyrwhitt brings to the work of criticism a fine taste and a large culture of mind, and he seems to have used a professional diligence in mastering the details of his subject. Ho may be classed as a disciple of Mr. Ruskin, to whom, indeed, ho makes the amplest acknowledgment of his obligations. "I owe everything," he says in his preface, "to his writings and personal advice and teaching." And, indeed, the only fault that we feel disposed to find with his work, is that he has borrowed from his teacher not only knowledge, but certain tricks of style, which give an impression of affectation and mannerism. But on these, in the very brief space which we can afford to him, it would be unfair to enlarge. As to the practical part of the handbook we can form no judgment, for " personal teaching," as Mr. Tyrwhitt calls it, however elaborately devised, almost always breaks down at some difficulty which no foresight can anticipate. We appeal to any one who has tried to learn a language or a science
from a book. Mr. Tyrwhitt has done his best, calling in, for instance, the aid of very efficient coadjutors ; and some of the exercises which he
gives at all events look intelligible. That his book will be of the
greatest assistance to students who can command the ordinary help we have no doubt at all. And, apart from its intrinsic value, it is especially welcome when we consider the circumstances of its appearance. The university which neglects art is surely incomplete, and Oxford, which has some special advantages for teaching it, does well to supply so patent a deficiency.
The Young Officer's Companion. By Lieutenant-General Lord de Res. (Murray.)—This book is very different from what one would expect. There is nothing technical about it, wo might also say nothing
professional, except that the persons whose sayings and doings it records were mostly soldiers. It is in fact little more than a collection of military anecdotes and accounts of sieges and battles. It touches
most nearly op the practical when it occasionally compares tho discipline, tactics, &c., of the armies of the past with what prevails in the present day. Doubtless, a young officer, like a young man of any other occupation, may well be the better for reading about acts of courage, magnanimity, &c., and ho certainly may have many worse companions, in the shape of books, not to speak of other shapes, than a gossiping volume ; yet surely Lord do Roe might have written what, without being technical, would have been of more use to him ? A plan of study, much needed in a life which is but scantily filled with occupations, hints about the relation in which ho should stand to his man, some estimate of the prospects of the profession, so often lightly adopted and lightly abandoned, are some of the subjects which at once suggest themselves.
Memorials of James Henderson, M.D. (Nisbet.)—Dr. Henderson was a specimen of one of the finest typos of Scotch character. Loft destitute by his father, who was an agricultural labourer, ho struggled upward with that marvellous courage and self-control which no race displays in such perfection. Much of the earlier part of his education he obtained while be was acting as groom to a doctor, or footman in a gentleman's family. Afterwards ho studied in Edinburgh, acting as man-servant to a lady while he was attending the classes of the Professors, and living all the while on half-a-crown a week. After some thoughts of the ministry, he turned his attention to medicine, passed his examinations with distinction, and finally went out as a medical missionary to Shanghai, whore bo died in his thirty-sixth year. With much of his religious views and feelings we cannot profess to be in sympathy ; as when, for instance, he tells us that at " eight o'clock, 22nd of March, 1849, he felt the burden of sin fall off his soul f' but it is impossible not to perceive that we have before us the record, well worthy of notice, of a fine, pure, manly nature. And there is value, too, in his pictures of China, and in the experience of is own peculiar work there.
The Biblical Cyclopmdia. Edited by John Eadio, LL.D. (Griffin and Co.)—This, the eleventh edition, has received, we learn from the preface, considerable additions and improvements. It gives within a very moderate compass a groat amount of information, which, as far as our examination has gone, appears ,to be accurate and well, put together. The article on Creation," with its survey of the question as it stands between science and the Mosaic cosmogony, may be cited as a specimen of the candour and liberality with which the editor has done his work. There is, perhaps, a little too much moralizing, excellent, doubtless, in itself, but rather out of place in such a volume as this. Under the head of "Wine," for instance, wo have some warnings against intemperance which might be more usefully given elsewhere.
Caricature History of the Georges. By Thomas Wright. (J. C. Hotten.)—This is a new and improved edition of a book which appeared some twenty years ago under the title of England under the House of Hanover. Its object is to illustrate the social and political life of the period by means of contemporary caricatures, and this is carried out with a completeness and skill which make it a most entertaining as well as a most valuable work. Its chief attraction and excellence is of course one to which we are wholly unable to do justice with the pen. The literary merits of the book are indeed considerable, but its chief merit lies in its copious and spirited illustrations. Of these our readers must judge for themselves. We heartily recommend them to do so.
Under the title of Pippins and Cheese (Bradbury and Evans), Mr Joseph Hatton collects a number of papers contributed to various magazines, together with some not published before. They are slight, some of them very slight, in texture; but it may be said without flattery that they deserve better than many of their kind to have the oblivion which happily entombs the ordinary magazine article postponed for a while. The essay styled "Lost Papers" is as good as any, a genuine experience which few of those who wield the pen will fail to enter into.
Boosts oe DEVOTION.—We have received a second edition of the Liber Precum Publicarum Ecclesdc Anglican; by Messrs. Bright and Medd. (Rivillgton.)—Among books of private devotion we have the Virgin's Lamp. The prayers were chiefly selected or composed by the late Mr. J. M. Neale ; the manual has been drawn up by the sisters of St. Margaret's, East Grinstead, in honour of their founder. The tone has, as might be expected, a certain extravagance, which it is impossible to criticize in detail.----The Manual of Family Prayers, by the Rev. R. H. Baynes, seems a safe and useful compilation. It gives forms of prayers, drawn from the Prayer-Book, for the mornings and evenings of a week, together with a useful selection of hymns.— Similar commendation may be given to Brief Prayers for Travellers, by J. B. Vacher (Hatohard). —From Morning to Evening (Rivingtons) is a book of devotion for invalids, adapted for Anglican use from the French of L'Abloo Henri Perroyve. This adaptation seems to have been carefully done, though of course it often supposes beliefs to which wo cannot subscribe. We have not seen the engine], but we should judge it to be a favourable specimen of Roman Catholic religious literature. It is curious to find that the translator has thought it necessary to remove expressions which Boomed to have a pantheistic tendency.—W) cannot commend Mr. Orby Shipley's judgment in going to Alfonso, Bishop of St. Agatha, for the Preparation for Death, tho second volume of the Ascetic Library (Rivingtons). Mr. Shipley shows less than his usual courage in substituting tho title of "Bishop of S. Agatha" for the name of "Liguori," by which his author is bettor known, if not more respected. As for the book, lot any one road the first Consideration "on the State of One Departed" with its hideous descriptions of death and decay, or the twenty-sixth, on "The Pains of Hell," and think whether there can be any real help to piety in such things.
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