Unbeaten Paths in Sacred Story. By Mrs. 0. F. Walton.
(R.T.S. 8s. 6d.)—Mrs. Walton's stories are interesting and picturesque. For some of them we have nothing but praise. "The Honest Sceptic," in which we have Nathanael represented, is such. "The First Dragoman" is a happy title for an account of Hobab. But a traveller by "unbeaten paths" is in danger of losing his way. The Claudia of 2 Tim. iv. 21 could hardly have been the daughter of Caractacus ; and Caractacus was certainly not the same as Cogidumnus (p. 3). This latter Prince was always on the Roman side. Ostorius Scapula gave him a sub- kingdom in South Britain, and Tacitus says of him : "ad nostram usque memoriam fidissimus mansit." He took the name of Claudius, and Claudia is supposed to have been his daughter. In other respects the account of Caractams differs from that given by Tacitus. It would have been prudent not to challenge contradiction by a picture of Hilkiah gazing on the hand writing of Moses. Whatever the book found in the House of the Lord in Josiah's reign may have been, it could hardly have been a holograph of Moses. The identification of Asaph with a particular " choirmaster " in the reign of David is very doubtful. The name more probably indicates a class or set of singers.
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