The Dictionary of National Biography. Edited by Sidney Lee. Vol.
LX. (Smith, Elder, and Co. 15s. net.)—The latest volume of The Dictionary of National Biography contains a good many great names, among them Strafford and Wellington (Wentworth and Wellesley). The Life of the former by Professor Gardiner is perhaps the more interesting of the two. The two constitutional systems at issue in the trial of Strafford are set before the reader with admirable clearness, and the point upon which the trial turned—namely, his intention to use the Irish Army against the English people—is thus decided by the historian : " The most probable explanation is that Strafford's intention had been to employ it in Scotland, but that he had hypothetically expressed his readiness to use it in England if the English nobility rose in support of the Scots." Another great name in this volume is that of John Wesley, who " varied, but never dissented, from the Church of England." The Rev. Alexander Gordon well describes the building up of Methodism by this wonderful organiser and gives a vivid picture of the Evangelist as a man. Wesley declared when over seventy that he had never known a quarter of an hour's low spirits in his life. He seems to have enjoyed perfect health, and recommends fasting on Fridays as a cure for nervous complaints. Charles Wesley said of his brother that he was a born tutor, but his system with children would not suit modern ideas ; he thought they should" neither cry nor play." A fairly long biography is allotted to Isaac Watts. We commend it to those who are accustomed to think of Dr. Watts as the writer of " How doth the little busy bee," instead of as the author of some of the finest hymns in the language, among them "Oh, God, our Help in Ages Past." We, in our ignorance, had always looked upon him as a pillar of Calvinistic orthodoxy, and were amazed to find that he shrank from the doctrine of reprobation, expressed in his published writings what is now the Broad Church explanation of the doctrine of the Trinity. and probably died a Unitarian. The biographies of Wedgwood the potter and Watt the engineer are exhaustive, but technical, as perhaps they should be.
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