Life and Letters of John Cairns, DD. By Alexander R.
MacEwen. (Hodder and Stoughton.)—One's first impulse on taking this massive volume—it contains more than eight hundred pages—into one's hands, is to exclaim against the inordinate length of the biography. Dr. John Cairns was hardly in the front rank, and the space seems disproportionate to any one less exalted. Yet we venture to say that no one will actually find the book too long. It tells the story of a life, not full of incidents indeed, but abundant in work, and of a mind ainsrularlv rich in its attainments and varied in its energies. Dr. Cairns was by birth a member of one of the minor Presbyterian bodies,—the Secession of 1733. He remained to the end of his life a firm opponent of church establishment. In theology, his tendencies might be described as conservative, with a liberal bias. But no definitions of his opinion are of much avail to show what the man really was. He is set before us, mainly by his own letters, in this volume, and there is absolutely nothing but what, differ as we may from him in this or that opinion or course of action, we must heartily admire. His early days as a herd-boy, his steady efforts at self-education, his calm patience and steadfastness in examining, when the inevitable time for questioning came, the foundations of his belief, his work as a student, as a minister, as a teacher, all these things are full of living interest. We thank Dr. MacE wen for the admirable picture, so bold in outline, and, at the same time, so rich in detail, of Dr. John Cairns.—A somewhat similar volume is Reminiscences of Andrew A. Boner, Dl)., edited by his Daughter, Marjory Bonar (same publishers). Dr. Bonar, as he appears in these notices, was not so many-sided a man as Dr. Cairns. The remarkable thing about him was the magnetic attraction of his personal piety. Possibly this quality and the incidents in which it results are less good to read about than to know by a personal knowledge. Still the filial piety of Dr. Boner's daughter has done well in collecting and spreading these records. Dr. Bonar was the youngest of three brothers ; of the three the best-known is Horatio, the writer of some of the best hymns in the language.
In the "Abbotsford Series of Scottish Poets," edited by George Eyre-Todd (W. Hodge, Glasgow), we have the Scottish Poetry of the Seventeenth Century, containing the works of nine poets, Sir Robert Aytoun, Sir David Murray, Sir Robert Ker. Sir William Alexander, William Drummond, Montrose, and the three Semples of Beltrees, James (1565-1626), Robert (1595 1665), and Francis (1616-82). Each collection is prefaced by a critical introduction. It is to be noted that all excepting the Semples wrote in English, and that the earliest, Aytoun, is the smoothest versifier, except- it g, possibly, the latest Semple. Here is the first stanza of his "To an Inconstant Mistress : "— " I loved thee oree, h vs no wore,
Thine be the grief, as is the blame ; Thou art not wha. th n wast before, What reason rhould I be the same? Be that can love un'oved again Rath better store of love tban brain God send me love my debts to pay, While unthrifts fool their love away."
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