CURRENT LITERATURE.
The North British Review. June. (Edmonston and Douglas.)—This is a good number, though it cannot be said to contain anything very striking. The recent literature of School and University Reform is criti- cized with considerable ability in the first article, by a writer who takes up the position of a moderate advocate of classical education. The extra- vagancies of Mr. Farrar and of some of his fellow-essayists receive at his hands a severer castigation than we have yet seen administered to them. Some of the chimerical notions which surprise us in Mr. Pattison's gene- rally well considered "Suggestions " are also discussed. IIore the critic seems generally to follow the lino taken by Mr. Goldwin Smith. Ho writes, for the most part, temperately and acutely. Why, then, does he obtrude the irrelevant and rash assertion that " at no time had the Church of England so slight a hold on the educated laity ?" Surely, if this is true at all, it is true of all dogmatic Christianity. What church can he name that has a stronger hold ? Anyhow, the writer on " Churches and Creeds " seems to hold a very different opinion from his colleague's. This is a well written article, just and temperate in tone, and frequently very forcible in argument. We do not think, however, that it fully appreciates the views of those liberal supporters of Church establishment, who find a spokesman in Dean Stanley. These mon are not satisfied with the protection which the law gives to the minorities of non-established Churches. And, indeed, how can they be, when they look at the recent history of those bodies, of the Wesleyans, for instance, and the English Presbyterians ? The article on the " Memoirs of Bunsen " attracts us by its subject, and by the evident enthusiasm of the writer ; but the style is exceedingly harsh, and disfigured by incongruous metaphor. We find also a very elegant criticism on the "Greek Idyllic Poets," written, it would appear, by ono who has had the advantage of studying them in their native land ; and an interesting account of 31. Mistral's Provencal poem of " 31ireio." The articles on " Saint Louis" and on " Sleep," are readable, and that on the "History of Writing" appears to be learned.
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