Side-Lights on Scripture Texts. By Francis Jacox,BA. (Hodder and Stoughton.)—Mr.
Jacox has written another book which, like its pre- decessors, may bo described as the despair of critics and the delight of readers. We trust that many of those who see this notice will bo already acquainted with Mr. Jacox's method. Those will need no de- scription, and to others wo can say little more than to recommend them to make acquaintance with it for themselves. The first " text " with which he deals consists of two verses in the second chapter of Genesis, in one of which " the tree of knowledge " and in the other of which " the tree of life" is mentioned. Milton is the first author whom Mr. Jacox quotes. From Milton we go to Jeremy Taylor, and from Jeremy Taylor to Dante. Then ho gets among the commentators, as Dr. Spiegel and Dr. Kalisch, turning aside for a moment to point out the curious slip by which Thackoray in Pendennis speaks of the "awful Tree of Lifo which, from the beginning, has tempted all mankind." Chamfort, Sainte Beuvo, F. W. Robertson, Victor Hugo, Bacon, Bishop Berkeley, Mr. George Lewes, Lord Byron, Sir Thomas Brown, Asgill (nicknamed the " Translated," who was expelled from Parliament for assorting himself to bo immortal), Van Holmont, Whateloy, Southey, Sponsor, Balzac, Terence, John Henry Newman, Carlyle, Stuart Mill, Lord Lytton, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Disraeli, Mr. Hamilton Aide", Hartley Coleridge, Dr. John Brown, and Boileau form the goodly list of " authors consulted," which Mr. Jacox, bad ho been so minded, could have paraded on the first leaf of the first essay, an essay which yet does not go beyond fourteen pages. So it is through- out these forty-ono essays. Wo have a man of remarkably wide read- ing, and an equally remarkable gift of using what he reads, bringing forth from his treasures things now and old. We have given a " brick " as a sample, but the reader must see the building itself before ho can properly estimate the ingenuity and grace of its construction.
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