CURRENT LITERATURE.
Through Bible Lands. By Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D. (Nisbet and Co.)—So many excellent clergymen of various countries and creeds have travelled over the route followed by Dr. Schaff and his party,. and so many have given their friends and the public the result in a volume of travels, that there is not much to say about this book, un- less it be to remark that Dr. Schaff, who is an American, has had more in view what may be called the critical side of the subject than many of his predecessors. He enjoys the novelties by the way, the Eastern peculiarities, the beauty or grandeur of the various landscapes ; but he has ever his Bible in hand, and his pages are filled with quota- tions from it, and from almost every recognised commentator thereon. Of course, this gives the book its own special interest, but it is not of the kind usually excited by books of travel. There are some good remarks on the hieroglyphics and other antiquities of Egypt, and Dr. Schaff makes a shrewd guess at the true origin of the famous Sinaitio inscriptions, which he rightly says are " as worthless as the inscrip- tions of modern scribblers and tourists, who wish to immortalise their obscurity by disfiguring the works of God or the monuments of man ;" but he does not appear to know that his wish about a fuller investigation of the subject has been realised, and confirms his own impression. The book is illustrated by some clever and useful diagrams and a great many wood-cuts. Those of familiar scenes are interesting, from the good points of view chosen.
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