GIFT-BO OK S.
" All Hail": Simple Teachings on the Bible. By Baroness Freda de Knoop. (A. L. Humphreys. 21s. net.)—We cannot do better than quote some words from the Preface: "The book, at first planned for young children, has grown into a serious attempt to help older children and even adults to understand the Bible... . The work of editing has proved very heavy, for much of the book has had to be rewritten. This work has been carried out by an old friend of mine, the Rev. S. Verschoyle. . . . He has done his best in discussing debated questions to improve a work conceived from the traditional point of view." This explains the situation exactly Considering the audience which the author seeks to address no other course is possible ; but the results have to be "improved." Only it is better to make too little change than too much. When a child, to take an instance, or any one whose understanding or knowledge is in the child condition has been reading the catalogue of heroes in the Epistle to the Hebrews, it serves no good end to tell him that this or that person was not a hero at all but a coward or a traitor. The books which have been consulted are of high class, though, of course, some are better than others (Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, for instance, is to be preferred to the Speaker's Commentary). On the whole the result is satisfactory. Of- the illustrations we can speak with high praise. There are one hundred of them, all excellently worked in colours. All are not equally admirable ; the " Conversion of St. Paul" is not an ideal rendering of the scene, and St. Stephen, with the monastic tonsure, does not appeal to us, even though it is the work of Francis; but many are very beautiful, as " The Compassion of St. John for the Virgin," by Lorenzo di Credi, and the military figure (Guidarello Guidarelli) which follows p. 379.
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