'Voris ; or, the Three Creeds. By Dr. Maurice Davie.
3 vols. (Tinsley Brothers.)—Dr. Davies's hero begins as a Theist, becomes, by some process of thought which it is not easy to understand, a Roman Catholic, and ends as a Broad Churchman, with very vague opinions indeed. These changes are described, not without some cleverness, but at a tedious length, and in connection with a story which is certainly not attractive, and which, as regards part of it at least, it is not too much to call repulsive. There is a certain heroine, Elsie, whose diary occupies a considerable part of the three volumes, and who seems to us a distinctly objectionable young person. The way in which she is represented as talking to her aunts, to take one instance, is really outrageous. A modest young woman would hardly like to discuss, even in a hypothetical way, the question of living without marriage with the young man whom she loves, when she finds that her marriage with him would be visited by certain testamentary penal- ties. Dr. Davies has a great aversion, it is clear, to Evangelicals and pietist' in general. We doubt the propriety of showing this aver- sion by making the black-sheep of the novel an Evangelical clergyman, who seduces a young woman, murders her, and finally drowns himself in the pond into which he had thrown her body. And we do not doubt at all about the gross injustice of representing as existing in this gene- ration (for so much is clearly marked by the mention of contemporary facts) a bishop who ordains a candidate deacon and priest on successive days, under pressure of obligations under which he lies to his lawyer and secretary.
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