CURRENT LITERATURE.

EvERLASTINO PUNDMIdIetT.—The Kingdom of God; or, What is the Gospel. By Henry Dann. (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.) The Word! or, Universal Redemption and Salvation. By George Mann de la Voyo. (Whittaker, Trilbner.) Can it be True? An Inquiry as to the Endlessness of Future Punishment. By William Miall. (Elliot Stock.)—We have classed these three works together, as treating with something like an agreement of feeling, though with very different methods, a subject of immense difficulty, the ipiritual destinies of the human race and of individual men. Mr. Miall, in grappling with his subject, shows a simplicity of purpose and a courage which are worthy of all praise. His pamphlet divides itself into two parts, the general argument, and the argument from Scripture. In the first, he presses the adherents of the popular doctrine very hard. A man who believes that nino-tentbs of mankind will go into endless torments must be a madman if ho begets children, and inconceivably hard of heart if he can enjoy a single hour of peaco. The argument from Scripture seems to us less forcible. Mr. Miall fails, we think, to apprehend the meaning which is to be assigned to the word aie.010;. It is a quite insufficient handling of the difficulty to say that it signifies incessancy or continuance, without regard to the time of continuance. It is better to remove the idea of time altogether, to interpret it by what is surely the cardinal passage on the subject, Vo Ct.7 /32,51rf;lhEnt agYia; so that "eternal life" signifies, to quote Mr. Miall's own words, "the highest style of life possible to be predicated of even God Himself." If this be so, it is quite needless for him to concede that "to understand literally is impossible." Mr. Miall begins by quoting certain passages from orthodox divines ; horrible as they are, it is satisfactory to see that there is an advance from President Edwards, who states the physical torment most uncompromisingly, to Dr. Pusey, who dwells wholly on the moral aspects of suffering. Wo doubt whether any modern divine preaching to educated persons dare say that hell means actual fire, burning its victims for ever. We have no wish to speak unkindly of Mr.,—or perhaps we should say Professor,—Do la Voye's book. We shall simply acknowledge ourselves as probably unworthy, and certainly unable to comprehend it. Such questions as "Why was not Satan punished with instant annihilation?" "Why was a fratricide the firstborn child of Eve ?" " Why should not incarnated angels and metempsychosed spirits have been our forefathers ?" "Wherefore three Almighty Gods ?" are a few of the questions which the author asks and answers with apparent confidence. A mere mortal critic can only look on with respectful astonishment. Mr. Dunn's book contains a theory of redemption ably conceived and carefully studied. He distinguishes between what he calls "the Gospel of the Church" and "the Gospel of the Kingdom," the latter being in his view the larger and nobler. He takes the kingdom to be the reign of the Saints with Christ. The Saints are the Elect, but the elect he takes to be not those saved from the ruin to which the multitude is doomed, but those chosen to a higher destiny and more perfect life for the ultimate benefit of the multitude. He seems disposed to admit in a modified sense the theory of destruction as opposed to torment, in which the popular theology is showing a tendency to seek a refuge from its own intolerable hardness. This destruction is supposed to come on to those who are obstinately impenitent; thus the difficulty presented by the fact of a free will which oven infinite love cannot control is supposed to be met. Mr. Dunn's book is certainly worth study.

POEMS.—The Harp of the Valley. By W. S. Ross. (Provost and Co.)—We are scarcely prepared by the title, which seems to promise quiet and gentle strains, for such a flight of song as the following. It is headed "Lytton," and must be supposed to refer to Lord Lytton, whom the poet in his dedication describes as "a tutelar spirit presiding over the sympathies of the emotional and intellectual nature of humanity."

"Lo, genius in her skirts of fire Around the stellar orbits rode, And worked the telegraph of soul With wires from south and boreal polo, Into the heart of Lied.

"Through starry rifts there fell the sheen Of heaven's angel van

On a miud-hero's daring brow—

The mightiest name that brightens now The army-roll of man.

"Night's candelabra of fierce stars He tore from heaven's concave, And, red in the tremendous glare, Earth almost sees now how and where To overleap the grave."

There are, the reader should know, some five or six thousand more verses in the volume, not all as good as this, but some, if possible, better.—Latin Verse Memorials by Ultor Ego (Bell and Daldy.)—This volume is, as it wore, a legacy bequeathed by a retiring master to his old school. The poems contain allusions which an outsider cannot understand, but they seem, on the whole, fairly good, and are sometimes felicitous. One thing we must note. If we may judge of the " Ultor Ego's" precept from his practice, he must have taught his pupils to use a short vowel before " We notice "arte striae" on p. 1, and " lacida atolls" on p. 13. This must be a terrible remorse to haunt his old age.—Rhynte and Reason by S. Stockton Horner (Longmans, Gall gnani.)—The "favour of a circle of private connection" which has indaced the author to publish his poem is one of the most untrustworthy of things. We cannot say any more for this volume than that it does not manifestly belie its title. Mr. Horner is apparently an American,. and if he is ever inspired, naturally it is when he writes of Paris. "Paris out of Doors" has some spirit, but the metre halts. Mr. Montgomerie Ranking rises above the average level of occasional verse writers in his Fair Rosamond and other Poems. (Rotten)— "St. Christopher" recalls not unpleasantly the narrative poems.. ofLeigh Hunt. "The Mead of Much Desire" is, perhaps, the best thing in the book. It is a vision in which the dreamer sees some of the most famous men and women of the world. The plan of the poem reminds us of Mr. Tennyson's Dream of Fair Women; the language, which is not without beauty and force of expression, suggests the influence of Mr. William Morris. Altogether, it is worth while te recommend to Mr. Rankine the limce labor, for there really is something to be polished.— Claudius and Eudocia. By Gertrude Grey. (Tweedie.) —The composition of this volume, we are told, lessened the tedium of sickness to the author, who kindly hopes that its perusal may do as much for others. Comment may appear ungracious under the circumstances, but it is unhappily true that there is much verse which it is more pleasant to compose than to read, and the following is of such a kind :—

"Twas in Domitian's reign, and he, at first, 'Twill be remembered, seemed disposed to treat His subjects who professed the Christian faith With clemency and favour," &e.

This is, perhaps, the lowest level to which we find Miss Grey sink, but. then we cannot say that she ever rises to what is worth preserving. —Palingenesia. By A. T. Teetgen. (Williams and Norgate.)—The second title of the book is "The Modern Apostate," a hard name, which, we suppose, the author expects to get from some of those who read him. As far as we can make out his meaning, which is not always very apparent, he is a pantheist. The last stanza runs thus :— "For Life let this Tremendous Right Be mine,—There is a Better Thing

Than Loving God,—Be God; and wing

Thy self-subsistent way to light."

There is some thought and power of expression in the volume, which is a distorted recollection of in Memoriam, but the writer seems sadly hampered by having to grapple with necessities of rhyme which are too'strong for him. Here is an instance,—

" Root down upon the abstract rock, Let nothing second intervene, And so thy character 'twill green,

Thy life with silent beauty frock."

Phcedra, and other Poems. By Henry Martin. (Rotten.) — Mr.. Martin chooses for his subject one of the most painful of the Greek legends, and uses a grossness in treating it which makes the choice look like a deliberate offence against morality. He writes, "In MemoriamAdah Isaacs Menken," a monstrous rhapsody, which makes one rub one's eyes, and ask whether there really are men to whom such women are heroines. The volume does no credit either to author or publisher.

FRENCH CIASS-BOOKE.—French Classics. A Selection of Tales by modern writers. Vol. V. By Gustave Masson, B.A. (Clarendon Press.) —This must be reckoned, we suppose, among school books ; but it will please any one who may like to read some well-chosen tales, which have all the charms that are characteristic of French fiction, and are free from the faults which are too commonly associated with it. M. Masson gives us Xavier do Maistre's now classical Voyage autour de ma Chambre, Madame Dura's Ourika, Fiovoie's La Dot de Suzette, and two other tales less known, but quite worthy of their place, by Edmond About and Rodolph Toppfer. A chronological table of French fiction has the useful peculiarity of giving besides the bare date some "synchronism" or simultaneous event, often very suggestive of analogies or contrasts. A short sketch of the life of each author is prefixed to his work, and a few notes are added at the end of the volume.—Pensard's L'Honneur et l'Argent appears, edited with English notes and memoir of the author, by Professor Cassal, LL.D. (Triibner.)--The drama is probably known to most of our readers. It is a comedy of the severest sort, full of fierce satire, of which the object is sufficiently indicated by the title. Rodolphe's views on manages de convenance (act iii., sc. 1) may be taken as a specimen of Ponsard's vigorous invective. Professor Caesars notes are copious, but better, we think, in the philological than in the exegetical department. The first page affords a specimen which will illustrate our meaning. A student gains little from being told that "Je as connais que vous pour trailer galamment," means, "You are the person who, to my mind, gives the handsomest dinners." He wants to have constructions explained to him, not to ba supplied with neat renderings. The notes however, contain much useful matter.—Contes par Emile Souevestre, by Augustus Jessop, MA. (Nutt), has reached a third edition.—English and French Cotrespondence for Young Ladies (Cassell and Co.) embodies, a very good idea, which, however, is not perfectly well carried out. A young lady may learn here how to give and accept an invitation, how to write a servant's character, how to ask for a loan, and how to grant it, but not, surely a more difficult task, how to refuse it; and various other things. The contingencies of life are so numerous that the attempt to provide for them is hopeless ; here it is scarcely made. In the translation of the classical models sufficient care has not always been taken. Madame Sevigne, for instance, thanks M4nage for some verses, and says, "Vous no pouvez donter gull no me soft agritable, puisque mon amour propre y trouve si Men son compte, et quo j'y subs cehibrde par le plus bel esprit de mon temps." The phrase italicized .is not represented at all by the English, "My self-love is flattered by the subtlest wit of the time," and it happens to be the only phrase of any difficulty in the letter.

Niriv EDITIONS AND ItErancrs.—We have received a third edition of the Laws of Thought, by Alexander Robertson (Longmans), the title seeming to be a misnomer, for the book is really a treatise on natural theology. Dr. George Moore's well-known treatise, the Power of the Soul over the Body (Longmans), appears in a sixth edition, which has been revised and enlarged. We have also to acknowledge now editions of the Working Women of this Century, by Clara Lucas Balfour (Cassell and Co.), and of Words of Comfort Addressed to Parents Bereaved of Little Children, edited by William Logan (Nisbet). The Society of Friends (Friends' Book Depository) reissue a volume of -documents, covering in date the period from the foundation of the Society to the present time, which illustrate their doctrine and discipline. Messrs. Rivington reprint Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, and Messrs. Triibner Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, with notes and an introduction by the translator. This has reached a second edition. The October volume of English Reprints, edited by Mr. Edward Arbor, A.K.C. (Alexander Murray), contains John Lily's Euphues and Euphues and his England. That for November is the Duke of Buckingham's Rehearsal. We hope this valuable series meets with the success which it deserves.

Nature's Nobleman. By the Author of Rachel's Secret. 3 vols. (Hurst and Blackett.)—Surely this title is something of a misnomer. Nature's nobleman ought to be some heroic "Son of the Soil," whereas he is a gentleman of old family, and of an ancestral estate which he has to win back by hard work, work about which we are left in much doubt, though we see that it had something to do with a quarry. The story of his fortunes and his loves may be followed with some pleasure. Some of the characters are fairly well drawn and have a certain grace, though they never rise above the conventional level. Some, we are bound to say, are nothing but caricatures. The vulgar mayoress may be possible ; there may be women so transcendently silly as to be capable of saying the foolish things which are put into her mouth. But her son the Rev. Adolphus is not possible. It is difficult to exaggerate the pitch of vanity and indolence to which a petted clergyman may reach, but the most vain and indolent never say that they think it beneath them to visit the poor. While wo allow that the tone of the book is generally good, we must protest against the repulsiveness of the suspicion, altogether so needless, which is suffered to rest for a time on the character of the heroine. May we suggest to the writer that it is not according to les convenances for a young lady to go for a tete-a-tete picnic with a gentleman, even though he be a "Nature's nobleman "?