Thomas Wingfold, Curate. By George MacDonald, LL.D. 3 vols. (Hurst
and Blackett.)—We are always glad to hear what Mr. Mac- Donald has to say, but we do not think that he does himself justice by his manner of saying it. He can write a good novel. The three which are mentioned on the title-page are of excellent quality. "Robert Fal- coner," especially in its earlier part, takes very high rank indeed. And he can write a good sermon. "Unspoken Sermons" is a volume of re- markable merit. Some of the discourses in it we should choose to read on occasion as readily as anything that we know. But a nondescript book like that which is now before us we cannot admire. The theo- logical questions which it raises, and the raising of which is manifestly its literary motive, are of the gravest kind. Let them be discussed, by all means. In any such discussion we should probably find ourselves, for the moot part, agreeing with Mr. MacDonald. Let them be dis- cussed, if the writer so will, in the form of dialogue. No one with a Plato before him can deny that this form may be the very aptest for such a purpose. The setting of human life and feeling which dialogue gives is often of the very greatest use, not to speak of the relief to the strain of severer interest which, under skilful management, it may give. But the startling incidents which are introduced to give Thomas Wingfold, Curate, a claim to be called a story really mar its effect. The miserable youth who commits a murder under the influence of opium, and the adulterous wife who turns out to be the mother of the girl whom he has murdered, are repulsive creatures, who only hinder the effect of Mr. MacDonald's teaching.
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