The Book of Martyrs. By John Foxe. Revised, with notes
and' an appendix by Rev. William Bramley-Moore, M.A. With illustra- tions by G. S. Thomas, John Gilbert, G. du Manlier, &c. (Cassell, Petter, and Galpin.)—This handsome edition of the famous martyrology will gratify Protestants, if it does not satisfy philosophers. The editor has continued the chronicle quite in the spirit of the original ; he has included in the appendix episodes from the Irish rebellions and ths dragonnades of Louis SIV.,—even, indeed, an account of the recent out- break at Barletta,--and would seem to hold in the nineteenth century, as his predecessor did in the sixteenth, that the theory of persecution is confined to the Church of Rome, or at least that only pagans, besides papists, have the privilege of conferring on their victims the dignity of martyrdom. But the truth is the book is intended to be looked through, not read. If the editor has not brought modern thought to bear upon the- subject, he has availed himself considerably of the assistance of modern art. He has gone to some of the best draughtsmen of the day, and they have furnished him with a profusion of very striking wood engravings. Perhaps the subjects for illustration have not been all well selected ;. such horrors as the breaking on the wheel at p. 653, the Inquisition torture at p. 97, and the worrying of the early Christians by dogs at p. 5, are really too painful for representation. But the majority of the illustrations, both of scenes and places, are vigorous and interesting, rather sensational, but calculated usefully to remind an easy-going gene- ration of the sufferings that its precursors have thought fit to endure for the sake of principle.
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