26 APRIL 1856, Page 18

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

BOORS. •

THE bustling excitement of the Naval Review has not prevented the publishers from labouring in their vocation. Messrs. Parker- and Son send us Mr. Froude's " History of England" during the most eventful part of the Tudor dynasty ; Mr. Bentley, the completion of Professor Creasy's " Ottoman Turks." China, and Persia with its adjacent re- gions, furnish the subjects of two books of travels. Mr. Ruskin contri- butes another volume to art ; Mr. Beaumont discharges a filial' duty in a volume devoted to the life of his father the Wesleyan minister. In addi- tionho fictions noticed and reserved, there are also no fewer than 'five publications directly or indirectly connected with the Scriptures, some account of which will be found below.

History of Ragland from the Fall of 'rainy to the Death- of Elisabeth. By James Anthony Froude, M.A., late Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. In two volumes.

History of the Ottoman Turks from the beginning of their Empire to the Pre- sent Time. Chiefly founded on Von Hammer. By E. S. Creasy, M.A., Pro- fessor of History in University College, London, &c. ; Author of " The Fif- teen Decisive Battles of the World," &c. Volume II.

Traeelsin Persia, Georgia, and Koordistan • with Sketches of the Cossacks and the Caucasus. From the German of Dr. Moritz Wagner. In three volumes. The Chinese and their Rebellions, viewed in connexion with their National Philosophy, Ethics, Legislation, and Administration. By Thomas Taylor Meadows, Chinese Interpreter in H. M. Civil Service.

The Life of the Reverend Joseph Beaumont, M.D. By his Son, Joseph Beau- mont, Esq.

Modern Painters. Volume IV. Containing Part V. Of Mountain Beauty. By John Ruskin, M.A., Author of " The Stones of Venice," &c.

Leonora. By Mrs. Maberly, Author of "The Love-Match," &c. In three volumes.

Tease and Leonora : The Commentaries of Ser Pantaleone degli Gambacorti, Gentleman Usher to the august Madams Leonora D'Este. By the Author of " Mary Powell."

The Heirs of Blackridge Manor : a Tale of the Past and Present. By Diana Butler. In three volumes.

Sibert's Wold : a Tale. By the Author of " A Trap to Catch a Sunbeam," &c. Glenmorren ; or Nancy Rectory : a Tale. By H. T. Millissy.

St. Paul and Modern Thought : Remarks on some of the Views ad- vanced in Professor Totoett's Commentary on St. Paul. By J. Llewelyn Davies, M.A., Incumbent of St. Mark's, Whitechapel.—A newspaper cannot engage in a discussion which involves and turns upon propo- sitions incapable, it appears, of being expressed in language less mystical than that the human race was primordially " constituted in Christ," that Christ is "the ground of humanity," and other like phrases with which the readers of Mr. Maurice's writings are familiar, and which are there perpetually reasserted as the central facts of Christian theology, as the key to St. Paul's writings and to the mysteries of human experience, and the solution of all the practical and speculative difficulties of life, But, having read Mr. Davies's criticism upon Professor Jowett, we can say that 'seldom has theological polemic been conducted with such ample courtesy where such profound difference of view existed. And, though we cannot enter into the questions themselves that form the subject of this essay, we must confess that the Professor is proved to be wavering and inconsistent in thought and language, and seems in- capable of understanding St. Paul, mainly because of his own want of precision, and because he views the constitution of man as an individual and as a member of society from a standing-point antipodal to that of St. Paul; and so, what was most real to St. Paul becomes to Professor Jowett a violent figure of rhetoric—what was most clear and distinct to St. Paul is only.apprehended by the modern Professor as a hazy con- fusion and misconception, arising from the peculiar modes of thought, or rather non-thought, of a Jew of strongly religious temperament in the first century of our sera. -We can heartily recommend Mr. Davies's essay as the production of a gentleman, who does justice to -the many high and good qualities of his opponent, while he does not shrink from the most complete exposure of that opponent's errors, or from indicating plainly what he believes to be their fatal consequences to morals and re- ligion.

The Genesis of the Earth and of Man. Edited by Reginald Stuart Poole M.R.S.L., &c.—This volume is the extension of a pamphlet originally printed for private circulation, which received the notice of Professor Baden Powell, and has excited some attention in the religioM world. The object of the book is to uphold both modern geological dis- coveries and the Mosaic account of the creation, by—strange as it may seem—maintaining an opinion which has had a sort of half-countenance from some religious and scientific minds, that a race or races of men ex- isted before the creation of Adam. Scripture, chronology, history, and philology, are successively examined by the author, without, as it appears to us, arriving at a plausible conclusion. The primary evidence is from Scripture ; but the texts which affirm Adam to be the original man—the first of his species—seem clear and positive, while they can only be twisted to a contrary meaning by explanations and glosses. On the other hand, the texts adduced to support the existence of Preadamites do not palpably suggest that conclusion, and are only made to suggest it by the same mode of gloss and explanation : the strongest argument is Cain's dread lest he should be slain. The shock which the theory ad- vanced must give to the already difficult enough questions connected with 'Evil, Necessity, and the like seems to have escaped the writer.

The argainents derived from chronology and history seem to us even less forcible than those drawn from Scripture. In fact, khey are more conjectural than even speculative. The hypothesis amounts to this. The Preadamites were Negroes, seated in Negroland or Nigritia ; the Adam- ites are the Caucasians. The other races of men—as- Mongolian, Malay—have been produced by crosses, or by the influence of climate

and circumstances on .the Negro; Black man, it appears, having

more of a tendency to advance than the Caucasian to retrograde. The author rather inclines to the opinion that the original Negroes were only a pair, but that there may have been two pairs, with slight phygo- 114031 differences to facilitate the advance into other races. It is difficult to see what result can follow from all this, except the approbation of the Southern States of America. It seems clear that if this theory be true, the Negro must be an inferior race—" Cursed be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be."

The Doctrine of Inspiration : being an Inquiry concerning the Infalli- bility, Inspiration, and Authority of Holy Writ. By the Reverend John Macnaught, M.A., Oxon.—The conclusions to be drawn from this vo- lume, if we deduce them rightly, are of the following purport. Accord- ing to the author, the word translated "inspiration" has no precise counter-term in Scripture ; and indeed it cannot have, because the root of inspiration is Latin, and the words of Scripture are Iebrew and Greek. *The words translated "inspiration," being eiraminwl, mean, in the Old Testament, Providence or Nature : but probably the best idea of Enoch will be found in the passage towards the end of the first book of the Essay on Man, beginning " All are but parts of one stupendous whole, . Whose body Nature is, and Ged the soul."

In. the New Testament, the Greek Pneunus means the Holy Spirit—the Holy Ghost—such as all true Christians pray for, and obtain, in a degree. In the Hebrew sense of the word, all good men are inspired in their g�0000ddness (not of course in their vices) ; in the New Testament sense, all Christians, who by prayer attain to grace, are inspired : and this inspi- ration differs in nothing but degree from the inspiration of Scripture. It therefore follows, as we understand it, that the inspiration of the Scriptures only excels in their degree that of any other good book of what we are accustomed to call profane literature.

Of course this is only an outline of what we conceive to be Mr. Mac- naught's views; and -many other topics are handled at large, besides the general idea we have endeavoured to present.

A Dissertation on Sacred Chronology. By the Reverend Nathan Rouse. —The aim of Mr. Rouse is to reconcile the Egyptian and Scriptural chronology, so as to cut away from the sceptic the objections founded on that discrepancy. This he does by extending the period between the Creation and the birth of Christ to 8833 years; taking the Septuagint as his-authority to the birth of Abraham, but extending the time between that period and the accession of Cyrus, by enlarging, on grounds derived from internal evidence, the chronological intervals left blank in the Bible. The dynasties of Manetho, handled upon the principle of Bunsen that they represent not successive but contemporary dynasties, are recast altogether, and made to harmonize with the Bible chronology. The arguments are ingenious, sometimes sensible ; the statements succinct and clear. The reverend author, however, starts upon a principle which is by no means scientific—that Manetho must in case of difference give way to Moses. His own admissions will be of a startling kind to many Wesleyan, to which body Mr. Rouse appears to belong. He limits the inspiration of the Scriptures to moral and theological truth; all the rest he gives up if reasons be shown.

St. Paul and his Localities in their Past and Present Condition. By John Aiton, .D.D., Author of " The Lands of the Messiah, Mahomet, and the Pope," &c.—It may be doubted whether a kind of geographical life of St. Paul, in which the events of his career should be described along with the past and present appearance of the scenes where the events took place, is required. The uncertainty as to how some of the ancient places appeared when the Apostle of the Gentiles looked at them, would lead to disquisitional or imaginative pictures ; or, could this be avoided, the continued intermixture of such incongruous subjects as bio- graphy and topographical word-painting would distract the reader's attention. Dr. Aiton has further complicated his themes by introducing reminiscences of his travels not already used up in The Lands of the Messiah, and expanded his work by historical recollections,—Alexander's bath in the Cydnus, and his magnanimity to his physician, to wit. There is considerable force of writing, though of rather a platform style ; but the olla-podrida character of the contents, and something of a book- making appearance, will limit the interest of the work to certain classes of readers, especially as the freshness arises mainly from the writer's own strength of character as infused into his literary manner. The larger features of St. Paul's travels are not new : the elaborate work of Mr. Smith on the Apostle's voyage and shipwreck may be instanced.

The following are not altogether mere reprints. " The Manual of Quotations " is the very considerable extension of a sort of Dictionary by Macdonnel, in which mottoes, proverbs, and sentences from authors, were arranged in alphabetical order. " The Good Time Coming " is a reprint of an American tale " adapted to the Faglish public "; "the good time" being that which we can create for ourselves by limiting our desires, attending to our duties, and so forth. The tale involves a hus- band ruining himself by his ambitious aspirings, and a speculative sharper baffled at last both in his villany and love. The adaptation pro- bably consists in toning down " King Cambyses' vein." We are not sure whether Mr. Pallisir's ' Solitary Hunter" has been published before. It is one of Boutledge's cheap editions ; and tells, in

somewhat roystering, manner; the author's sport- ing adventures in the Prairies, and his journey thereto.

Manual of Quotations, from the Ancient, Modern, and Oriental Languages;

including Law Phrases, Maxims, Proverbs, and Family Mottoes. By E. H. Michelsen, Ph. D. Forming a new and considerably enlarged edition of Mac- donnel's Dictionary of Quotations.

The Good Three Coming. By T. S. Arthur, Author of •' The Maiden," &c. Copyright edition, adapted to the English public.

The Solitary _Hunter; or Sporting Adventures in the Prairies. By John Pallisir, Esq.