From the Plough to the Pulpit, rid Cambridge. By Luke
Wesley Church. 3 vols. (Tinsley Brothers.)—Mr. Fishpond, the hero of this tale, is a sort of spiritual Quixote of the Wesleyan order, who becomes, however, converted in the end to the ways of soberness and truth which are found in the Church of England. The sympathies of the author are not doubtful ; it is evident that he once thought of Wesloyanism more favourably than he now thinks of it. Under such circumstances it is not easy to be just. The weak points of a system which the hero of the story is to abandon must be brought into a prominence which can scarcely fail to be unjust and disproportionate. Much of the description has, it would seem, been drawn from life, but drawing from life is not always faithful. The scenes at Cambridge are little more than caricatures. Yet the book is amusing, and occasionally even instructive. And some of the minor characters are drawn with a sobriety and truth which show that the writer might do better, were he to give a more single-minded devotion to literature, and let ecclesiastical controversies alone.
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