The Book of Bander. By the Author of "The New
Koran." (Williams and Norgate. 3s. Csi.)—" The New Koran" is, we see, included in the Canon of " Theistic " Scripture; we hope it is superior to its successor, which is anything but conspicuous for wisdom. The ruling principle has been, it would seem, to take things by contraries. So Solomon's perversion by his heathen wives is regarded as an act of wise tolerance. Does the writer think that the world, on the whole, was served by the isolation of the Hebrew people, or that mankind would have been better if it thus had been broken down at ones ? Again, we read about the "lying stories of Jewish martyrs and slanders of Nebuchadnez- zar." Now we are not concerned to assert the historical character of the Daniel narratives. But they are fine patriotic stories, whether they be facts or not. The sect to which this writer belongs labours under a constitutional incapacity to distinguish between the noble and the base. Its high priest finds, for instance, nothing to admire in Jesus's commendations from the Cross, "Woman, behold thy son ! " and to the disciple, "Behold thy mother !"
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