The liquid Latin vocable genitabilis is rather clumsily represented by the prosaic "fecundating" ("procreative" would have been happier), and "god. dess divine," (elsewhere repeated), seems prodigal of divinity; but the whole passage is very conscientiously and not unsatisfactorily translated. We may as well add, that

"On the true form and nature of all things"

is an extremely unpleasing expansion of the Lucretian phrase of three words, de rerum natura; as also is "and bound" an awkward verse-filler in

"O'erpowered and bound by Love's eternal wound." Calliope, Heraclitus, Cybele, Dicte[a]an, Curetes, are apparently mispronounced by the translator, though his theory of the mechanism of blank verse renders it a doubtful point to decide.

"Now, Memmius, as I approach my theme, may you ""Bring forth the shining grain, the herb luxuriant, and ”— are examples of the freedom with which he treats his measure-extreme examples, we acknowledge.

Good's 'metrical version is highly conventional in execution, but it is perhaps more agreeable reading as well as more scholar-like than Mr. Johnson's work. It is bound in the same volume with Watson's prose version (to which must in candor be given the preference over both its competitors) in Bohn's library of classic translation.

If the reader, however, can forgive mechanical versification that employs devices such as "pov'rty," "I'm," "can't," "they've," "I've," "moreo'er," "directeress," "propriate," etc., and can forgive also the traits of defective finish in scholarship that we have exemplified, we can promise him, on the whole, a fair appreciation of the verse of Lucretius from the study of Mr. Johnson's translation. The book is well worth reading, if only for the better understanding of Tennyson's Lucretius.

New Volume of Lange's Commentary. THE new volume of Lange's Commentary, just issued by Messrs. Scribner, Armstrong & Co., is occupied with the First and Second Books of Kings, and will be welcomed not only by reason of its intrinsic value, but because there is no other commentary on those books, of first-rate merit, accessible to English students. This volume has been translated and edited by the Rev. Dr. E. Harwood, of New Haven, and the Rev. W. G. Sumner, of Morristown, New Jersey. The editors have not hesitated to bring their strong American common sense to bear upon the occasional obscurities and even absurdities into which the best and most learned German scholars will sometimes fall, and which the excellent Dr. Bahr (who is the German editor of the present volume) has not wholly escaped. The second half of the volume, especially, owes much to the diligent and faithful

scholarship of Mr. Sumner, who has added not a little to the German text, enlarging, correcting, and sometimes confuting the comment of the original. Certainly the volume is not inferior in merit to any that have preceded it; while the subject with which it is occupied gives it special interest and value. It helps well on towards completion a great literary enterprise, by which the book-shelves of many a ministerial library have been made heavier and richer; and answers the often-repeated question of not a few discouraged students of the Bible-"What can we find to help us in the explanation of the Old Testament?" We hope for the best results from that increased interest in and intelligent appreciation of the books of the Old Testament, which such a work as this of Lange is so well suited to promote.

Dean Stanley's New Volume.

THE peculiarities of Dean Stanley's style of treat. ing the historical subjects which he discusses, are so well known that it is unnecessary to indicate them. The picturesque vividness of his narrative, the breadth and comprehensiveness of his view, the candor-or, as it has seemed to some, the latitudinarian indifference -of his admiration and sympathy, have made his lectures on the history of the Jewish Church and on the history of the Eastern Church more popularly interesting and attractive than it seemed possible for ecclesiastical history to become. Especially in his treatment of the Jewish history, the vividness with which he brings out the human element, in distinction from the divine, has been to some a surprise and a delight, to others a surprise and an offense. To make sacred history like any other history has seemed sometimes to be a dangerous leveling downwards, until it suggested the necessity for making all history seem sacred. To recognize the human in the divine is surely not less necessary than to recognize the divine in the human. And the students of church history owe much to the genius and the devoutness of a writer who, with no sacrifice of reverence, can make his books as real, and fresh, and full of human nature as the most vivid pages of the ablest of secular histori

ans.

When, therefore, it was understood that Dean Stanley had ventured to give before a Scotch audience a series of lectures on the history of the Scottish Church, the importance and interest of the announcement were immediately appreciated. But it is only after a careful reading of the volume in which Messrs. Scribner, Armstrong & Co. have given the lectures to the American public that one appreciates the difficulty and even the danger of the undertaking. To tell the truth with such unimpassioned candor as Dean Stanley is apt to exhibit, in his treatment of matters of church history, is not easy in a country where almost every listener is a more or less intensely prejudiced theologian, and probably a more or less bitter partisan. To treat of the Church of Scotland in such a loose and vague way that there is room in the lectures for a

But whether the book be approved or censured, it must prove fascinating both to friend and foe. Under the genial sunshine of the writer's charity, and his warm appreciation of the good which he discovers at the bottom of so many evil things, we have found our share of anti-Scottish prejudice (which is the misfortune of so many to whom Providence has denied a birthright in the land of the heather and the thistle) insensibly disappearing. It would seem, indeed, that no disinterested reader of this book could fail to have a grateful and affectionate regard for the great people in whose history so much of the presence of the Spirit of Christ has been manifested, in forms sometimes grotesque and awkward, it is true, but often wonderfully simple, tender, and heroic.

Maurice's "Sermons on the Lord's Prayer." MESSRS. HURD & HOUGHTON have brought out, in a little volume of great beauty, a new edition of the sermons on the Lord's Prayer, by the late Rev. F. D. Maurice, whose recent death, while still in the vigor of his mental and moral power, has been deeply felt by a large circle of admirers, and we may even say disciples. For, though Mr. Maurice was as far as possible from being a teacher of positive and dogmatic theology or philosophy, he was the most conspicuous master of a school of religious thought in which many devout and earnest souls were thankful to sit at his feet as learners. Perhaps no man in England made such an impression of personal excellence and Christlikeness upon those who were privileged to know him, or breathed through his writings a spirit so reverent for truth, so tolerant and tender toward error, so earnest for all good, so profoundly and purely hostile to all evil. Many a reader who has not assented to the conclusions of his thought, has owed to him more than could be well expressed of obligation for the purity and holiness of his spirit. It is manifest that what such a man would have to say by way of comment on our Lord's Prayer would be as far as possible from the dry and hackneyed literalism of some of our scholastic commentators, would be fresh and practical, devout and helpful, -a book for the study, indeed, but, hardly less, a book for the closet too.

Perhaps this volume, with which the publishers have chosen to introduce Mr. Maurice anew to American readers, is, on the whole, the best one that they could

especially the noble volume of lectures on "Social Morality," which was almost his latest work,-indicate a more robust and vigorous thought than the writings of his earlier years. But whoever reads with reverent and sympathetic spirit these sermons on the Lord's Prayer will hardly be content to stop without a wider knowledge of their author. Some slight effort is perhaps needed to fall into the almost rhythmic movement of Mr. Maurice's style; but when it is once appreciated there will be found in it a peculiar fascination.

There is prefixed to the sermons the admirable criticism on Mr. Maurice and the affectionate tribute to his worth, which appeared, at the time of his death, in the columns of the London Spectator. So good an example of commemorative biography has not ap peared, to our knowledge, for a long time.

"The Fourth Gospel the Heart of Christ." ANOTHER instance of the disintegration of the Unitarian denomination (which is upon all sides so evident) is just now afforded by the appearance of a volume from one who is still counted among Unitarian ministers, but whose doctrinal position, so far as the volume defines it, should entitle him to full and fraternal recognition from his orthodox brethren. The Reverend Edmund H. Sears is already favorably known as a writer on theological and religious questions, whose works have been characterized not so much by controversial intensity as by a reverent and honest spirit of inquiry after truth. And as it is always true that to such a spirit the truth will readiest disclose itself, so it has been true in this instance. There are few intelligent Christian ministers of any denomination (save possibly of one wing of the denomination to which Mr. Sears himself belongs!) who would speak of his little volume on Regeneration, published many years ago, in terms of anything but respect and commendation. And so there are few Christian men, anywhere, who would not be the better for the volume which is now published. (The Fourth Gospel the Heart of Christ: Boston; Noyes, Holmes & Co.) Consider, for example, such a sentence as this from a Unitarian writer, and see how little that word Unitarian may mean: "The Divine Incarnation in the Lord Jesus Christ, we conclude to be the distinguishing doctrine of the Johannean theology." Or, better still, this paragraph from the close of Chapter VII. (Part III.): "What we want in Christ we

always find in him. When we want nothing we find nothing. When we want little we find little. When we want much we find much. But when we want

everything, and get reduced to complete nakedness and beggary, we find in him God's complete treasurehouse, out of which come gold and jewels and garments to clothe us, wavy in the richness and the glory of the Lord."

The New Life of John Wesley.

It would seem that we are now sufficiently remote from the lifetime of John Wesley to consider, with

temperate fairness and with comprehensive breadth, the extraordinary work of which he is the recognized author. And, no doubt, it is better that the story of his life should be told by one who is his intense and devoted disciple, rather than by one disqualified, by a lack of sympathy, to appreciate the genius and the excellence of the great Methodist. But of course there was danger that discipleship might become partisanship, and intensity narrowness; and that sympathy might bring the writer so close to the subject of the biography that the character of his hero should not always be seen in its proper proportions.

This danger has not been entirely escaped by the author of the latest, and in many important respects the best of the lives of Wesley. (The Life and Times

of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., by the Rev. L. Tyer

man. In three volumes. Vols. I. and II. New York: Harper & Brothers.) He begins his introduction with the somewhat startling conundrum, "Is it not a truth that Methodism is the greatest fact in the history of the Church of Christ ?" And, lest the reader should give it up hopelessly at the outset, he follows with a dozen pages of statistics by which we may be helped to an affirmative answer. Nor are there wanting other evidences that the author is more Wesleyan than Wesley, and is somewhat less capable of appreciating the occasional reactionary conservatism of the man than his zealous and aggressive radicalism. There is also a defective sense of

humor, which is a somewhat serious disqualification for the writer even of a religious biography; and in regard to which the quotation of a single sentence will illustrate the justice of our criticism. On page 336 (Vol. I.) we are informed that "Charles Wesley alternated with his brother, though he preached far more at Bristol than in London. Ever and anon he composed one of his grand funereal hymns, and not unfrequently met with amusing adventures." The non-sequitur of the sentence in italics is extremely delightful.

But, notwithstanding the defects to which we have alluded, and certain other infelicities of style which are sufficiently obvious, the great diligence and research with which the author has gathered his materials, and the honesty and skill with which he has used them, will give the book a great and permanent value. The story of the labors and experiences of the great Methodist is told with a fullness of detail which, though it is minute, is seldom wearisome. And the second volume brings us to the sixty-fourth year of his laborious and useful life. The whole work is

deeply interesting; and no one who cares to study the present tendencies of Methodism-tendencies of extraordinary importance and significance-can afford to do without what must always be the standard life of its great founder. We cannot doubt that it will have a wide popularity. The orderly arrangement of the chapters and the promise of a complete index at the close of the third volume are worthy of all commendation.

Figuier's "To-Morrow of Death." "BUT man dieth and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the ghost and where is he?" It is the wail that has been plained in all tongues and by all peoples, since life entered the world and with it death. Pagan Catullus pierced with a sweet cry the space that mocked him with emptiness. And almost two thousand years later the Christian Laureate sang

"Oh, Christ! that it were possible

For one short hour to see

The souls we loved, that they might tell us

What and where they be."

Every generation calls on its beloved dead to speak, and still their lips are dumb. There is something so pathetic in this loyalty to a vanished love, something

so tragic in the loneliness that must have knowledge of the hereafter, that all gentle souls must needs look with tolerance on every reverent effort toward the comprehension of the future life, whether it call itself Spiritualism, Swedenborgianism, or by whatever fantastical title. The To-morrow of Death is one more attempt, futile as it seems to us, to penetrate the impenetrable. It is of that large class of books so melodramatic in attitude, so rash in statement, and so self-conscious, that sharp and brilliant criticism upon them is easily written. And yet it is so honest and earnest, the author has so evidently yearned to believe for his soul's peace, and so evidently hopes to bring belief to other baffled souls, that we cannot find it in us to laugh at his vagaries. His theory of the future existence is, that while bad souls are re-incarnated until, by repentance and uprightness, they are fit for the spiritual state, good souls rise at death to the planetary ether, some eighty miles above the earth. There these superhuman essences advance in knowledge and goodness until they are fit to enter the sun, where they become "pure spirit," and dwell in the visible presence of God. They communicate with their friends on earth by means of dreams and impressions. The rays of the sun are fructifying emanations from these perfect existences, to which we owe the germs of all animal life. The many steps by which the author mounts to his conclusions are too involved and too various to be set down here. His data he takes chiefly from astronomy, of which he is a loving student. His deductions he takes wholly from his own very remarkable mental processes.

Always readable and often eloquent, these speculations, which Monsieur Figuier with fond paternal blindness calls demonstrations, fill a dainty volume of four hundred pages. It is a book thoroughly French, yet neither material, infidel, nor irreverent. And if it fall far short of the author's daring hope, at least that aim was noble which sought, in his own words, "to consecrate the idea of God, without neg lecting the Universe of Nature."

By Louis Figuier, author of Primitive Man, Earth and Sea, etc., translated from the French by S. R. Crocker. Roberts Brothers.

"Dana's Corals and Coral Islands."

No voyage since the world-revealing cruise of the Santa Maria has had so great an influence on the development of human knowledge as the voyage of the Beagle, forty years ago. It was then that the theory which has given such a stimulus to scientific thought began to shape itself in Mr. Darwin's mind. It was then that he laid the foundation of that wide comprehension of natural phenomena which has given him such an influence over the minds of modern naturalists. One of the first fruits of the cruise was the solution of the vexed problem of the formation and physical history of coral islands and coral reefs. Soon after the return of the Beagle, and before the results of the voyage were made known, the American Exploring Expedition, under Capt. Wilkes, set sail. A chance newspaper paragraph, containing a statement of Mr. Darwin's theory of reef-formation, fell into the hands of the Scientific Corps of the Expedition while at Sydney, Australia. This paragraph, remarks the naturalist of the party, Prof. Dana, "threw a flood of light over the subject, and called forth feelings of peculiar satisfaction, and of gratefulness to Mr. Darwin, which still come up afresh when the subject of coral islands is mentioned." It gave the right clew for Prof. Dana's subsequent investigations, which, from their wider range, enabled him to speak of Mr. Darwin's theory "as established with more positiveness than he himself in his philosophic carefulness had been ready to adopt." After twenty years of seclusion in the few libraries fortunate enough to possess the Expedition reports, Prof. Dana's original observations and discoveries, supplemented by the results of later laborers in the same field, have been given to the public in a beautiful volume, popular in style without sacrifice of scientific accuracy, and handsomely illustrated without overpassing in price the ordinary student's means. (Corals and Coral Islands: Dodd & Mead.)

Describing first the coral-making organisms and their products, taking care to correct the popular error that coral-rock is the result of labor, Prof. Dana describes the characteristics of reef-forming corals, the causes influencing their growth and distribution in latitude and in depth, and their rates of growth. Then he studies the structure of coral reefs and islands, generally and specially; the causes modifying their form and growth; their geographical distribution; the history of coral regions as shown in the evidences of change of level; and closes with sundry geological conclusions in regard to the formation of ancient limestones.

Four very different kinds of organisms are instrumental in coral-making: Polyps, which contribute most to modern reefs; Hydroids, some of which form the very common and often large corals called Millepores; Bryozoans, which produce delicate corals, sometimes branching and moss-like, sometimes in

broad plates, thick masses and thin incrustations, and which in former and more abundant ages formed a large part of extensive beds of limestone; and certain kinds of sea-weeds. The first three classes belong to the animal kingdom. The common garden aster gives a good idea of the form and color of a polyp when expanded. Not all polyps are reef-makers. Many of the more beautiful forms-pre-eminently certain Alcyonoids-contribute but little to the material of coral reefs, though they add largely to the beauties of the coral landscape. They embrace some of the gayest and most delicate of coral shrubs. Almost all are flexible, and wave with the motion of the water. Not only are these polyps of handsome tints, but the whole shrubs are usually of a brilliant orange, yellow, scarlet, crimson, or purple shade. Dun colors also occur, as ash-gray, and dark brown, and almost black. Some kinds are too flexible to stand erect, and hang from the coral ledges, or in the coral caves, in gorgeous clusters of scarlet, yellow, and crimson. Species of this order are widely distributed, and occur at various depths down to thousands of feet. The reefmaking corals, on the contrary, have a narrow range both in latitude and depth, requiring a temperature of 70° and upward, and a depth not exceeding one hundred feet.

Prof. Dana notices the prevalence of very erroneous ideas respecting the appearance of coral-beds. The submerged reef is not, as often thought, an extended mass of coral, alive uniformly over its upper surface, and gradually enlarging upward through this living growth. "Coral plantation and coral field are far more appropriate appellations," he says, "than coral garden, and convey a juster impression of the surface of a growing reef. Like a spot of wild land, covered in some parts, even over acres, with varied shrubbery, in other parts bearing only occasional tufts of vegetation in barren plains of sand; here a clump of saplings, there a carpet of variously-colored flowers in these barren fields-such is the coral plantation." Large areas bear nothing; others are thickly overgrown. Coral debris and shells fill up the intervals between the coral patches and the cavities among the living tufts, and in this manner produce the reef deposits. While the quick-growing madre. pores add sometimes three inches a year to their slender branches, Prof. Dana estimates that the maximum rate of upward progress for an entire reef cannot exceed five feet in a thousand years; and to secure continuous growth there must be a submergence of the reef at a rate not greater than that, or the corals will be drowned out. As there are many living reefs two thousand feet or more in thickness, the minimum time required for their growth can be easily estimated. The extent of some of these reefs is something marvelous: New Caledonia has one four hundred miles long, while the great barrier reef of Australia has an extent equal to our entire Atlantic coast.

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