Philip Melanchthon, 1497 - 1560. By the late Rev. George Wilson, F.L.S.
(R.T.S.)—As a sketch of the life of a great man whose name ranks next to that of Luther in the history of the Reformation, this little volume is deserving of high praise. The reader will do well to remember that it is nothing more than a sketch, and he will regret, with the editor, that the accomplished author did not live long enough "to produce that volume on the great Reformation scholar which he had hoped would have been the crowning work of his life." There are many highly picturesque scenes in the story, and much which places the character of its hero in every genial light. Melanchthon did not like controversy, and he dearly loved literature, so that his days were spent in a constant struggle between the theologian's high sense of duty and the student's delight in retirement and in books. "What tempests are these that drive me," he writes, "from the quiet and more useful studies I love into the heart of these bitter contro- versies which I abhor ?" and, again, he exclaims : "Why have I, born for my Greek studies, been set thus in the high places of theo- logical passion and war ? " Mr. Wilson mentions the Leipsic Interim, which he had a share in drafting, as one of the great misfortunes of Melanchthon's life, but he forgets that he is writing for the "general reader," who will probably ask what the Leipsic Interim was.
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