CURRENT LITERATURE.

The Education of the People. By J. P. Norris, M.A. (Lawrie.)—Mr. Norris was an Inspector of Schools for fifteen years, and acquired a well deserved reputation in that capacity. In this very unpretending volume he gives us some of his experience, and some of the conclusions to which it has brought him. Not a few of his suggestions seem exceedingly valuable. Such, for instance, is the suggestion to give to the parents, on the condition of the regular payment of the school fees, a share in the management of the schools. It is perfectly true that at present they look upon them as not in any sense belonging to them, and consequently fail to take the proper interest in them. We speak of course of English primary schools. Such, too, is the suggestion to introduce the same system of compulsory education into the agricultural districts as now exists in the manufacturing—that no child should be employed who cannot produce a certificate of having received or of receiving a certain amount of schooling. The papers on "Middle-Class Education" and on "Teachers' Difficulties " are also admirable.

The Apostle of Kerry. By the Rev. W. Graham Campbell. (Dublin, Moffat.)—This is the life of a certain Charles Graham, who spent some forty years in the latter part of the last century and in the beginning of this as a Methodist preacher in Kerry. We can gather from this book that he was an extraordinary man ; he could hardly have been otherwise, to conduct a revival movement in the face both of the Established Church and of the Romanist priesthood. But he is very unfortunate in his biographer, who is wholly without discrimination or power of description. It is but a small thing, perhaps, but we should have liked to know what manner of 1321111 to look at Mr. Graham was ; we can learn nothing except from an incidental notice that he was "too stiff " to be pulled down from a tub on which he was preaching. A revivalist preacher in Kerry ought to be "stiff," we fancy But there are nail

curio na facts of one sort or another in the volume, if any one cares to dig them out. Among other things, we learn with some surprise that

marriage is a bar to the regular ministry among the Methodists. There

is also mention of another phenomenon which we presume to be uncommon, a second conversion, not in restoration, but in development of the first.—In the same connection we may mention a Life of Lord Haddo, by Alexander Duff, D.D. (Religious Tract Society), a remarkable instance of the occurrence of the same phenomena, to use a perfectly neutral word, of Methodism in a totally different sphere.

Faithless; or, the Love of the Period: a Story of Real Life. By Spes. (Skeet.)—This is a flimsy story, made up of the slightest possible materials, ad without any pretensions to originality, and swelled in a most unconscionable way into two volumes. In the absence of anything more definite to notice, we comment on the extraordinary punctuation, with its bewildering confusion of commas and semicolons, or the abund ance of inverted commas, and on the numerous shortcomings in orthography. How far these are attributable to the author we cannot decide, bat we may certainly recommend him to look in future more carefully after the printer ; and we may oven add that he might find it profitable to study some easy and progressive work on English composition.

The Witching Time of Night (Bumpus) is a collection of moralizings on various social topics, not without good sense and humour. Nearly twenty subjects are discussed, and we cannot give to the book as many lines. But we can find room for a good specimen of the author's style. "or all forms of lying, flattery is the most barefaced and impudent. Why not make it penal ? Is it not of the nature of battery and assault ? It has the effrontery to attack your understanding and hoodwink your common-senso. Is it not a kind of burglary, when it breaks in upon the privacy of your individuality, and drags you off by the nose of your self-complacency ? Is it not a pickpocket, when it engages your vanity that it may slily insinuate its hand into the bosom of your generosity ?"

Sketches Abroad with Pen and Pencil. By Felix 0. 0. Darley. (Sampson Low.)—Mr. Darley comes from the other side of the Atlantic, and sketches England and the Continent. His pencil is unquestionably clever and humorous ; the chief virtues of his pen are kindliness and good-humour. Together they make up a little book which it Is very pleasant to look at, and which it never offends one to read. —A Journal Abroad in 1868 (Bentley) is the work of F. M. T., retat 16, and is commended by a preface from her father, the Rev. Francis Trench, a very pretty exercise indeed. We wish that all young ladies and gentlemen whit 16 could do as well.

English Homes in India. 2 vols. (Allen and Co.)—We advise the reader not to be discouraged by the absurdities, of which indeed there are not a few, that will meet him at the beginning of the book. The "accomplished" authoress has not had the opportunity, we are told, of giving it her final corrections. To this cause we may perhaps attribute so strange a phrase as "he was too late to do more than follow his chosen mother-in-law to the grave." A man does not choose his mother-in-law, who, on the contrary, is allotted to him by a destiny over which he has no control. Hence, too, doubtless, the not unfrequent grammatical mistakes, such as "between we three gentlemen." If the correction had also removed the utterly improbable character of the villanotis Captain St. George, who calmly and without any ambiguity proposes to a well-bred young lady to become his mistress, and even the absurd likeness and exchange between the two cousins, it would have been a decided improvement. Bat, as we said, the reader should surmount all this, and he will be repaid for his trouble. The descriptions of life in the book where there is no attempt to do anything but describe strike us as being very real and trathlike. The adventures of the English engineer in India, the way in which he sinks into the mire of debt and difficulty in spite of all his efforts to keep out it, all this is well told ; and the troubles which beset the womankind of the family are, as might be expected, told better still, The moral of the whole distinctly is that one had better not go to India. Latimer and his whole belongings would have been utterly lost, but for the intervention of the deus ex machind, Sir Ralph Everard; but he prospers in New Zealand. The other hero reaches prosperity only through the good fortune and the prudence, both equally exceptional, with which he avails himself of the opportunities of the cotton mania in Bombay.

Too True: a Story of To-Day. (Now York : Putnam.)—This is a story which is scarcely pleasant to road, though it is told with more than ordinary power. A German count, who has ruined himself and attempted to murder his wife, flies to America, ingratiates himself with a lawyer's family, becomes a suitor for the hand of one daughter, finds out that the other is in possession of some valuable jewels, and contrives to get himself transferred to her. One day the strange humour seizes him to tell his own story ; it strikes one of the family, a lad of fourteen, who has always hated him, as being "too tree." He soon persuades his father to send him to Germany, being resolved in his own mind to discover the truth. He does discover it, and writes home ; but the letter comes too late ; the count, after adding another robbery, murder, &c., to his list of crimes, has eloped with the girl. "The father brings her back to die, but she has the comfort (we can imagine that it is a comfort, though we do not understand why it should be) of knowing that she was really married, the first wife having died two or three days before. The count is left at large to impose upon other genteel families. There is

some very good character-painting in the book. The younger daughter, beautiful, but deformed by an accident, whom every one has always humoured; the brave, vigorous-minded older sister, the type of a quiet, sensible American girl; old Mrs. Grizzle, with her vulgarity intensified, but her kindness of heart not impaired by the sudden acquisition of wealth, these and others also are good sketches; and the whole hook has a " real " air about it.

Contributions to Christology. By Emmanuel Bonavia, M.D. (Triibner.) —This book is an attempt, not made now for the first time, to account for the miracles of the New Testament by the facts of animal magnetism. Dr. Bonavia, who dates from Lucknow (tho Indian sun seems to produce a strange fermentation of theological ideas), thinks that Christ was "a supremely good man, with a strong animal radiation." His theory of the action of which miracles are one mode we commend to the notice of "J. T. K.," the ingenious writer on "Brain Waves." He says, "Thought is atomic motion of the brain matter. This motion is transmitted to the surrounding other," &c. Of course, after all has boon said, a groat residuum of miraculous event remains which cannot be explained, except by suppositious of exaggeration, fraud, tte. There is the greatest and best-established miracle of all, the Resurrection of Christ. As to this, Dr. limavia is driven to the old-fashioned device of a bribe given to the soldiers by Joseph of Ariinathea, &c. We suppose this scrt of thing mast have a patient hearing, with everything else, but imagind the Evangelical story reduced to the fact that some eighteen hundred years ago there was a very powerful magnetizer alive in Judea! That would be a very poor sort of gospel.

Mrs. Brown op the Nile. By Arthur Sketchley. (George Routledge and Son.)—Mrs. Brown has been following in the wake cf Royalty up the Nile, and her descriptions,—but still more the gossipy recollections of old neighbours, their adventures and accidents, with which she richly interlards them—excite as much hearty and genuine amusoment as ever ; nevertheless, there are evidences that Mr. Sketehley is working out the Brown vein ; the confusions of the matronly mind are less natural, and the absurdities often far-fetched. "Ippanbottom uppermost" for hippopotamus, for instance, is the joke of a clown at a circus, not the natural mistake of an old woman ; on the other hand, there are touches of feeling, such as the story of the poor girl who died at Alexandria on her way from India, which we never noticed before, and which, without any incongruity, make the book something more than a mere incitement to mirth. We shall continuo to leek for Mr. Sketchley's books with pleasure.

Right Lines in their Right Places. By Ellis A. Davidson. (Cassell and Co.)—This book is meant to teach the very simplest rudiments of geometry. The child is to be familiarized with the aspect of linos, angles, figures, 440., before he is taught their properties. In fact, it is a little introduction to Euclid in the shape of a drawing book, and seems likely to be useful. Boys are plunged into the difficulties of Euclid much too soon, even clover boys are generally incapable of understanding it before the ago of fourteen. They often sit in a class for months without really knowing what an angle is ; anything that can smooth the way, and give fair scope for the intelligence, we welcome, and this little manual promises so much. By the same author, we have, In the series of " Cassell's Technical Manuals," Projection, a treatise on the second part of geometrical drawing, the delineation of solidi, that is, the art by which they are made apparently to project from the endue on which they are drawn.

Nsw Entrums.—The Distribution of Wealth, by William Thompson, appears in a third edition, under the care of W. Pare (Ward, Look, and Tyler). Mr. Thompson was a disciple and friend of Bentham, and one of the early preachers of the principles of co-operation. He was inclined to push these principles to extremes, sometimes even, it would seem, to socialism in its most offensive form. He advoeated, for instance, the abolition of marriage in the sooial communities which he proposed to establish, that is, as far as we can make out his system (p. 318), husbands would keep their wives, but the " unmarrried women would be at perfect liberty to refuse any other connections than those perfectly equal and voluntary ones which might take place within the society itself. .... they would be ander no necessity of suporadding the shackles of law to their own simple, voluntary, and perfectly equal contracts." The editor makes no sign of disapproval. Apart from these extravagances, which had a judicious care been exorcised in the process of condensation, would certainly have been removed, the book contains some sound teaching on questions of political economy.—In the reissue of the Works of Hugh Miller (Nimmo), we have the thiise of the Betsy and Rambles of a Geologist as the volume for May, and for June, the SketchBook of Popular Geology. The latter contains "Lectures on Geology" and some detached sketches, hitherto unpublished, connected with the same subject. —We have also received new editions of the Early Years of the Prince Consort (Smith, Elder, and Co.); of the Restitution of All Things, by Andrew Jukes (Longmans); of Mr. Hepworth Dixon's New America; of Knowledge, the Fit and Intended Formation of the Human Mind, by Thomas Hughes (Hodder and Stoughton).—The Archbishop of Dublin republishes his Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, drawn from the Writings of St. Augustine (51acmillan).—.The Autobiography and Correspondence of Edmund Gibbon have been reprinted from the first volume of Lord Sheffield's edition (Alex. Murray).—We have also received a new edition of Professor Roscoe's Lessons in Elementary Chemistry (Macmillan).

SERMONS. — Mr. J. J. S. Perowne publishes (Deighton and Bell) immortality; Four Sermons, being the HuZsean Lectures for the Year 1868. These are very able and eloquent discourses, mainly levelled against materialism, which they assail with energy, but without rancour. The future life as it is represented in the theories of materialism, pantheism, and spiritualism; the hope of the Gentile ; the hope of the Jew ; and the hope of the Christian, are the subjects of the four lectures. We cannot do more than express our general agreement with Mr. Perowne's argument, no part of which can be compressed within the space at our command. An extract or so will give an idea of the writer's vigour of style. He says of one side of the pantheistic theory, "If the sense of immortality is immortality, and if I am eternal because I think of the eternal, than there is no immortality for the crowd. There is no future life but for thinkers." And again, accounting for the vehement language of the Old-Testament writers, "May it not be pleaded in justification of those who, hating wickedness with all their hearts, saw it great and prosperous in this world, and knew not its terrible chastisement in the world to come, that they longed to see God's righteous judgments executed here,

and hoped themselves to be the instruinents of His justice? Surely had the eye of the Hebrew poet been opened to see the terrors of the world to come, his prayer would have been not, 'Blot them out of thy book,' but rather with Him who hung upon the cross, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'"

The Presence of Christ, by the Rev. Anthony W. Thorold, M.A. (Strahan), is a volume consisting of lectures, chiefly of a devotional kind, upon the Twenty-Third Psalm. There is nothing striking or original about them, but they are free from extravagance and bad taste.—Sermon Thoughts (Elliott Stock) are condensed materials for sermons, which the author has himself used in preaching, and which he hopes, and not, it would seem, without some reason, may be found useful by others. "Skeletons," of sermons, as they are technically called, cannot in the nature of things be attractive, but these have some substance in them.--The Irish Church Question appears in an unexpected and, we cannot but think, an undesirable form in Eight Sermons on the History of the Church of Ireland, by the Bishop of Lincoln (Rivingtons). They are chiefly historical, though the author also touches upon the present position and prospects of the Irish Establishment. Dr. Wordsworth displays his usual learning, and is as vehement as usual against Romanism and Liberal policy, which he now seems to himself to find united. It is impossible to enter again into a question which has been so often and so thoroughly traversed before.—Mr. Cordner, minister of a Unitarian Chapel at Montreal, publishes Twenty-Five Sermons; a Memorial of Twenty-Five Years' Ministry (E. T. Whitfield). They are discourses of some eloquence and power, often approximating in tone to what we hold to be a more satisfactory theology.—A Course of Sermons preached in the Bayswater Synagogue, by Hermann Adler (Triibner), is a volume of controversy directed against Christianity, and treating of the supposed fulfilment of prophecy in the events of the life of "the Nazarene." It seems to us that the weakness of the argument is this, that to a groat extent it tellsequally against the Messianic character of the prophecies. We have often wondered whether there is a real and vivid expectation of a Messiah, we will not say extant, but prevalent among the Jewish people.—Sermons for Boys, by Alfred Barry, D.D. (Cassell and Co.), are earnest and sensible, going straight to their point, not to be ranked among the very first of their class, yet well fitted for what is perhaps the most difficult of audit,ories to attract.—In School Life; its Duties and Responsibilities, by the Rev. C. Crowden, MA. (Rivington), we have two admirable sermons addressed to an audience of the same kind.— Changed Aspects of Unchanged Truths (Longnians) is a volume of sermons displaying the well-known characteristics of its author, the writer who describes himself by tho initials "A. K. H. B." The first discourse, "On the Limits of Free Thought in Religion," is not a favourable specimen of the author's work. It deals with a subject which we judge to be beyond his powers. Ho asks, is everything a fitting subject for free thought? Are we to hold ourselves ready and willing to discuss every question? His answer is scarcely satisfactory. We are not to dismiss, we are, on the contrary, to put away all suggested doubt about what he calls the "vital essential truths " of Christianity. "It is different with the outworks of the citadel ; on these we may take an attack more calmly." The only answer is that it is simply impossible to maintain such a distinction. To give one instance, Is the divinity of our Lord a vital queotion? It never has been found possible to treat that as "A. K. H. B." would have it treated. The second sermon, "Inferior Expedients," with its ingenious illustrations from the incident of King Ahaz taking down the brazen sea of Solomon from the oxen and putting it upon stones, is a specimen of the more successful style in which the writer deals with less difficult subjects. He writes thoughtfully and liberally, with no little practical wisdom. Possibly it would be better if he did not write quite so much. Comparing two sermons, "Heaven" and "No Night in Heaven," we notice the carelessness of a passage repeated almost verbatim (p. 73 and p. 179). And generally there is want of compression.---We may mention in the same connection Thoughts on Preaching, by Daniel Moore, M.A. (Hatchard), a new edition of a useful book, to which the author, who certainly has a right to be heard on the subject of preaching, has made considerable additions.—Hints on Clerical Reading, by the Rev. Henry Dale, M A (Rivingtons), are very sensible, such as any one may consult with profit. After all, the great thing is to understand what one is reading about, and the most useful part of Mr. Dale's book is where ho points out common mistakes, a task for which his acquirements (he will be known to scholars as the translator of Thucydides) thoroughly qualify him. But is he quite right when ho talks of "confounding the En6as of St. Luke with the classical 2En6as (Airsia) ? It should be spelt ./En6as. The original, and we know of no variation of reading, is Atviac.