SERMONS.

_The Religion of the Present and the Future._ Sermons preached chiefly

at Yale College, by THEODORE D. WOOLSEY. (New York: Charles Scribner

and Co.) The name of the venerable and honoured President of Yale

College is well known on this side the Atlantic. His authority as a

jurist has been often cited in our international disputes with the

United States. His articles on the _Alabama_ question have probably

done as much as anything to convince his countrymen that there were

two sides to it, and to induce the temper which has happily led to the

recent convention. In the United States he is universally regarded as

_facile princeps_ on all questions of international law. Connected

with Yale College for forty years, its President for twenty-five, he

has just retired from the latter office into private life, carrying

with him a degree of public respect and of personal affection such as

few men are permitted to win. This volume is a record of his more

pastoral relations to the professors and alumni of Yale. None of his

predecessors, not even Dr. Dwight, have won more religious respect and

affection. His dignified and yet gentle wisdom, his high purity and

deep spirituality, and especially the affectionate sympathy called

forth by his unusual domestic sorrows--for, like Archbishop Tait, his

children have been taken from him more than one at once; his last

bereavement was two daughters, who died last December, in Jerusalem,

within two days of each other--these have gathered round his name and

his home a peculiar reverence, love, and influence on the part not

only of many hundreds of young men who have been under his care, but

of many thousands of his countrymen besides. This volume is a memorial

of his College-chapel preaching, compiled at the request of members

of his classes. It consists of twenty-five sermons on ordinary but

diversified Christian themes; all, however, indirectly having respect

to a collegiate audience. The circumstances of the publication place

the volume beyond our criticism, and were there anything in it to find

fault with, we should simply refrain from commendation. As it is, we

do not hesitate to say that its qualities of thoughtful, earnest,

catholic, practical religiousness, combined with finished scholarship,

high-toned simplicity, and cultured grace, are of a very high

character--every word is pure gold. We trust that it will find its way

into the hands of English readers. We cannot forbear transcribing the

elegant, touching, and characteristic dedication--'To those who have

now and then heard my voice in the pulpit of Yale College, and

especially to the graduates who have gone forth from these halls,

leaving me here until now, when my time of graduation is nearly come,

I affectionately inscribe these discourses as an acknowledgment of the

respect and love which they have shown me.'--_The Training of the

Twelve; or, Passages out of the Gospels, exhibiting the twelve

Disciples of Jesus under discipline for the Apostleship._ By the Rev.

ALEXANDER B. BRUCE, Broughty Ferry. (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark.) Mr.

Bruce has hit upon a good idea, and has wrought it out in a stronger

manner than his preface, which is somewhat fussy and egotistical,

gives promise of. He selects for elucidation the passages in the

Gospels which set forth our Lord's relations with the Twelve, and

examines them in the light of his great purpose to teach and train

these selected men as the founders of his Church and the Apostles of

his religion. Mr. Bruce's treatment is homiletical rather than

scientific, most of his chapters having evidently done duty in the

pulpit. He is, however, an intellectual and well-read expositor. If

there be nothing in his discoursing that is very penetrating; neither

is there anything inane. His predominant characteristic is sound,

practical common sense. He belongs to the school of Dr. John Brown.

His book is too big. An octavo volume of 550 pages is a great

undertaking for a reader, unless redeemed by originality, or power of

vivid presentation. Mr. Bruce is thoroughly orthodox, even according

to Scottish standards. But he is not blind. He has clearly thought for

himself, and he puts the result with intelligence and independence. It

must, however, have been a difficult task to speak of our Lord's

doctrine of Sabbath-keeping, and to refrain from a rebuke of the

Sabbatarianism into which some of his own countrymen have fallen,

which is surely as superstitious and burdensome as that which our Lord

rebuked; but Mr. Bruce has achieved this. His remarks on liturgies,

which, he thinks, are for private rather than public use, are moderate

and wise. Indeed, Mr. Bruce holds the balance in most things very

fairly. As we have said, a more profound, scientific treatment of his

subject is conceivable. At the hands of a man like Neander, for

instance, it would have received it; but as a practical exposition,

conducted on a high level of common sense, the book is a very good

one. It touches on multitudinous questions, and always intelligently

and wisely. Sometimes Mr. Bruce does not quite get to the heart of the

matter, as for instance, in the section on Peter's sifting. The true

nature of the crisis is brought out by Whateley, in his 'Lectures on

the Apostles,' much more fully and distinctly. But the book is worthy

a place by the side of Dr. Brown's expository volumes.--_Young Men and

Maidens; a Pastoral for the Times._ By J. BALDWIN BROWN, B.A. (Hodder

and Stoughton.) These sermons are only partially designated in this

title, for in addition to the two on young men and women, a third is

devoted to 'our elders.' What Mr. Brown has to say to these will be

anticipated by all who know his writings. His intense earnestness

almost irresistibly takes a monitory form. He stands in the midst of

his generation, like a Hebrew prophet, saying noble and eloquent

things; but he would speak more effectually if he spoke in a more

hopeful spirit of faith. There is evil enough in our life, God knows!

but there is also much good, more, perhaps, than ever there was; and

the most effectual of all inspirations in the battle with evil is the

inspiration of faith. Is it not saying too much of any vice among us,

that 'England is likely to die of it'? This is a rhetorical

exaggeration from which the good dissent, at which the evil laugh. Mr.

Brown's very intensity betrays him into this characteristic fault. Few

men, however, speak better things; and those three sermons cannot fail

to stimulate nobly all into whose hands they fall.--_Sermons_, by the

Rev. FERGUS FERGUSON, Dalkeith. (Edinburgh: Andrew Elliott.) We have a

dim recollection of reading some newspaper paragraph anent the heresy

of Mr. Ferguson, and some proceedings taken thereupon by the

Presbytery of his Church; and in this volume Mr. Ferguson prints a

request of 450 members of his congregation for the publication of it,

on the ground that such a charge was brought. We have utterly failed,

either to recall the nature of the charge, or to gather it from the

request, or from Mr. Ferguson's preface. We had no alternative,

therefore, but to examine the sermons themselves with the eyes of a

lynx-like orthodoxy. We have done so, selecting such as from their

subject seemed most likely to betray the cloven-foot. Our sagacity is

at fault. We have found nothing even suspicious, but only the sermons

of a strong, intelligent, devout man, everywhere fresh, and everywhere

wholesome and stimulating, occasionally fanciful in their ingenuity;

as for instance, in the sermon entitled the 'Centre of the Universe,'

the idea of which, derived from his position between two thieves, is

that Christ is the centre of the visible and invisible worlds, and of

the interstice between the two. We very heartily commend these true

sermons of a true man. God help the orthodoxy that is intolerant of

such teaching as this!--_Sermons_, by JAMES MCDOUGALL, Pastor of the

Belgrave Congregational Church, Darwen, Lancashire. (Williams and

Norgate.) Mr. McDougall's sermons are remarkable for their

independence and strength--a wonderful contrast to the puny pietisms

that are so often put forth under the name of sermons. Conceived in

unconventional modes, expressed in unconventional, albeit sometimes

rugged, phrase--_e.g._, 'eld-time,' 'age-lasting,' and similar

terms--they have a breadth, vigour, and independence that are quite

refreshing, and that are as creditable to hearers as to the preacher.

Mr. McDougall lays hold firmly upon the incarnation, but seems to

attribute the expiation of Christ unduly to it, rather than to his

death upon the cross. Doubtless, the entire human life of our Lord

enters into it; but the language employed by Mr. McDougall is

distributed and guarded compared with the enthusiastic emphasis given

to the cross by the sacred writers. This, however, may be merely

accidental. Perhaps the finest sermon in the volume is that on

Christian Theism, suggested by the British Association addresses of

Professors Huxley and Tyndall. With a feeling of true theistic

conservatism, Mr. McDougall seeks for points of sympathy rather than

of difference, and while uncompromising in his own religious

recognitions, is courteous and sympathetic towards those who fall

short of them. Readers of Mr. McDougall's sermons must feel great

respect for the Church that can produce such men, and rejoice in their

teaching.--_The Companions of St. Paul._ By JOHN S. HOWSON, D.D., Dean

of Chester. (Strahan and Co.) Dean Howson has made the sphere of

Paul's life pre-eminently his own. It is the field of literary and

theological culture to which he has devoted the best energies of his

life. Beside his life of the Apostle, written conjointly with Mr.

Conybeare, he has published, as a Hulsean lecture, 'The Character of

St. Paul: a Series of Papers on the Metaphors of St. Paul;' another on

'Scenes from the Life of St. Paul.' Now he portrays the companions of

St. Paul, Barnabas, Lydia, Luke, Apollos, Titus, Phoebe, &c. Dean

Howson is not a very fervid writer: he presents us with no glowing

pictures; but all that scholarly care, clear good sense, and elegant

simplicity can do, he does. Everything that he writes is instructive

and interesting. These sketches, especially of subordinate and

little-regarded characters will have a special value to all curious

about the bye-ways of Scripture history.--_Synoptical Lectures on the

Books of Holy Scripture._ First Series. Genesis--Song of Songs. By the

Rev. DONALD FRASER, M.A. (James Nisbet.) Mr. Fraser has attempted to

work out a very good idea. We quite agree with him as to the

pernicious effects of the proof-text system, as inducing fragmentary

knowledge, capricious interpretations, and arbitrary dogma. Preaching

from sentences was a thing unknown to the early Church. Mr. Fraser has

attempted to bring the whole scope of a book of Scripture within the

compass of a pulpit lecture. Perhaps a medium course, the treatment of

a single narrative or subject, would have been best. We do not think

that he has succeeded greatly. He has necessarily extended historical

exposition at the cost of religious instruction. It is, of course,

important to understand the Bible; but understanding the Bible is not

an end in itself; the preacher fails when the meanings of the Bible

are not applied either formally or by necessary suggestions to

practical religious life. It is no sufficient justification of a

preacher dealing with an audience of living souls that he has

explained the Bible to them. Mr. Fraser's discourses are necessarily

too much like a table of contents to be of much practical religious

use. On the other hand the popular character of spoken addresses

deprives his book of scholastic value. The points of difficulty, some

of them, at least, are popularly touched, and judgment is pronounced

upon them, generally in the light of sufficient reading; but Mr.

Fraser settles nothing. His chapter on the canon is very superficial.

We cannot but think that these exercises would have been more suitable

for a Bible-class than for sermons. Sometimes, as in the lecture on

Ruth, Mr. Fraser, in his desire to be practical, is driven to

allegorizing. Mr. Fraser, however, has failed only comparatively, and

in what is intrinsically impracticable. There is great positive value

in his synthetical attempt, in the habit of broad general views which

it necessitates, and in the exhibition of the successive links of the

grand chain of the revelation of God. Men sceptically inclined, and

men not sceptically inclined, who feel deeply and painfully, literary,

scientific, and religious difficulties in connection with the

Pentateuch and the Jewish histories, will be impatient with Mr.

Fraser; but those who feel no such difficulties will be benefited by

his generalizations, the more because they proceed upon intelligent

conclusions of his own.--_Vital Truths from the Book of Jonah._ By a

Labourer in the Lord's Vineyard. (S. W. Partridge and Co.) Those

addresses make no pretence to scholarly criticism; they are simply

practical exhortations by a lady to a Sunday class of young women,

delivered without notes, and written down from memory. Accepting them

for what they profess to be, they are to be commended as calculated

for practical religious usefulness. Criticism of their positions would

be out of place; the history is wholly subordinated to spiritual

uses.--_Sermons preached at Auckland, New Zealand._ By SAMUEL EDGER,

B.A., London. Second Series. (Bartlett.) Mr. Edger has produced a

second series of very thoughtful and interesting sermons, but, to our

mind, has spoiled them by a sour, angry, impertinent preface. Why

arrogate so exclusive a monopoly of Christian feeling, intelligence,

and candour? Why impute vulgar and base motives to all chapel-goers?

Why strive so hard to appear heterodox, and not succeed very well

after all? Many of the discourses are full of fine feeling and

ingenious speculation.--_Sermons chiefly on Subjects from the Sunday

Lessons._ By HENRY WHITEHEAD, Vicar of St. John's, Limehouse. (Strahan

and Co.) We have only commendation to give to these sermons, and

commendation of a high character. We do not mean that they indicate a

very high degree of mental power, or that they deal with high

theological speculations. Their great merit is not that they run along

lofty levels of thought, but that they are sermons eminently adapted

for ordinary hearers, and yet as eminently satisfactory to the most

cultured. They are simple and easy, giving no impression of effort;

but they are full of a quiet, natural thoughtfulness, spirituality,

and suggestiveness, which are eminently adapted to the nurture of the

spiritual life. Intuitively, Mr. Whitehead apprehends the spiritual

significance of things. Every incident is presented in its spiritual

root and fruit. The sermons are consequently full of a fine

catholicity of spiritual sympathy, which, while it is infinitely above

all mere ecclesiasticism, is very refreshing and very winning. The

little volume is a genuine help to all that is best in the spiritual

life.--_Sermons preached in Rugby School Chapel in 1862-1867._ By the

Right Rev. FREDERICK TEMPLE, D.D., Lord Bishop of Exeter. Second

series. (Macmillan and Co.) Dr. Temple published his first series of

Rugby sermons immediately after the publication of 'Essays and

Reviews'--that indirectly he might vindicate himself from the wild

charges of heresy and infidelity brought against him. They were

published, therefore, exactly as they had been preached. This second

series has presumably been more specially prepared for the press. They

are distinctively sermons to boys, and their characteristics are a

penetrating and direct practicalness--informed by a rare intuitive

sympathy with boy nature--its keen perception of reality and

earnestness, its equally keen sympathy with what is noblest in

sentiment and feeling. Avoiding all doctrinal disquisition, Dr. Temple

is in every sermon intensely practical--doctrine, however, apparently

ordinary evangelical doctrine, being implied--as for instance in the

sermons about 'Abiding in Christ' and 'The Comforter.' It is needless

to say that Dr. Temple looks at things in a fresh, unconventional way,

and puts things with cultured vigour. The sermons would be better were

the motive-force of the evangelical element more present, but they are

stimulating and instructive, in the best sense.

_Body and Mind; being the Gulstonian Lectures for 1870._ By Dr.

MAUDSLEY. Macmillan and Co.

In reading the volume before us we have been forcibly reminded of the

truth of the statement made by Lecky, in his 'History of Rationalism,'

that 'the discoveries of physical science form a habit of mind which

is carried far beyond the limits of physics;' for Dr. Maudsley, while

professing to confine himself within the domain of physiology, is

constantly pronouncing on psychological matters, and that, too, with a

dogmatism which is quite as genuine as that against which he

repeatedly protests. We admit that, from his general intelligence and

culture, he is eminently qualified to judge of psychological subjects,

but not as a professed physiologist. As long as he keeps to his own

science, we are prepared to listen to his statements, and to bow to

his authority; and when discoursing on these topics he is always

clear, interesting, and instructive; but whenever he meddles with

mental facts, those qualities seem to forsake him, and he involves

both himself and his readers in a maze. After perusing a previous work

of Dr. Maudsley on a kindred subject, we were quite prepared for a

violent tirade against metaphysical psychologists, and are therefore

not surprised to find them abused in terms which are neither very

correct nor very scientific. In the preface he says, 'The

physiological inquirer into mind may, if he care to do so, justly

protest against the easy confidence with which some metaphysical

psychologists disdain physiological inquiry, and ignore its results,

without having ever been at the pains to make themselves acquainted

with what these results are, and with the steps by which they have

been reached.... The very terms of metaphysical psychology have,

instead of helping, oppressed and hindered him (the physiologist) to

an extent which it is impossible to measure; they have been

hob-goblins, to frighten him from entering on his path of inquiry;

phantoms, to lead him astray at every turn, after he has entered upon

it; deceivers lurking to betray him, under the guise of seeming

friends tendering help.' Again, 'Without speculating at all concerning

the nature of mind, I do not shrink from saying that we shall make no

progress towards a mental science, if we begin by depreciating the

body; not by disdaining it, as metaphysicians, religious ascetics, and

maniacs have done, but by labouring in an earnest and inquiring spirit

to understand it, shall we make any step forwards,' &c. We deny the

correctness of these statements, in their application to psychologists

of the present day. There was a time, it is true, when the old

dualistic principle was supreme, when mind and body were regarded as

two distinct essences, formed and developed by entirely different

agencies, and adapted to each other for a time by some intelligent

power distinct from and superior to both; but as regards the present

time, of which Dr. Maudsley is here speaking, we do not hesitate to

state (if we may take the writer as a fair representative of his

class) that the metaphysical psychologists, who disdain physiological

facts, are neither half so numerous nor so bigoted as the

physiological psychologists, who pour contempt on psychological

science, without ever having acquainted themselves with its results,

and do not hesitate to express their disdain for the testimony of

consciousness, the only direct evidence we can ever possess in

psychical matters. Surely the masterly treatise of James Mill, the

voluminous expositions of Professor Bain, and the far more acute and

comprehensive analyses of Herbert Spencer,--all of whom regard mental

phenomena as so necessarily and essentially springing out of physical

conditions, that very little room is left to insinuate, even the

mildest form of spiritualism between them--are a sufficient refutation

of such assertions as the above. Is it a truly scientific procedure,

because the old dualistic hypothesis proved dull, incorrect, and

unfruitful, to refuse the evidence of self-consciousness, and to treat

with contempt all psychological inquiry?

Dr. Maudsley lays great emphasis on the close connection between the

mind and body; this is, in fact, the foundation-stone of the whole of

his fabric. We fully admit their intimate union, and their mutual

action and reaction on each other. Nay, more, we can conceive of

mental operations only in conjunction with some corporeal form; but we

nevertheless refuse to be shut up to the alternative that all mental

phenomena are strictly and absolutely dependent on physical

conditions, and to set aside all questions respecting the nature of

the mind as wholly futile and transcendental. Is it not much nearer

the truth to regard the mind as the formative principle, pervading and

adapting the body as its instrument, to its own nature and

requirements? Again, we fully admit that the author does not attach

too much weight to the statement that the abnormal phenomena of mind,

omitted by the earlier philosophers, as well as the normal, should be

included in a complete system of mental analysis, and that both should

form a part of the same inquiry. But this has been done (and

successfully we think), even by psychologists. Does Dr. Maudsley

ignore, or is he unacquainted with, the labours of Herbart, Beneke,

and J. H. Fichte, which do ample justice to this department of mind?

Would it not be well for him to take them into his counsel? We come

now to that which is in some respects the most important part of the

work, viz., where it treats of the well-known phenomena of reflex

action. In dealing with this subject, Dr. Maudsley's method is to

proceed from the lower nerve-centres to the higher, and to explain the

latter as developments of the former; to show that in the highest

nervous centres, the hemispherical ganglia, the organic properties,

and the various processes are essentially the same as in the lowest,

and that in all the different centres of action there is a simple and

necessary change in response to the external impulses. He sets out

with an examination of the 'purposive' movements of a decapitated

frog, from which he deduces the conclusion, 'that actions bearing the

semblance of design may be unconscious and automatic.' After remarking

that faculties are not innate in the case of man to the same degree

and extent as in the lower animals, and have therefore to be acquired

by education, but that when acquired they become as purely automatic

as the primitive reflex actions of the frog, he adds another

conclusion, 'that acts consciously designed at first, may, by

repetition become unconscious and automatic, the faculties of them

being organized in the constitution of the nerve-centres, and they

being then performed as reflex effects of an external stimulus.' Here

we expected to meet with a careful distinction drawn between

automatic, voluntary, and volitional movements, and a cautious

handling of the explanations and teachings of these facts; but we are

disappointed. Many explanations of them have been given. According to

some, the second conclusion is an explanation of the first; the

education of the 'sensory and motor nuclei,' in conjunction with the

law of inherited qualities, may make it conceivable that the various

'purposive movements' of the decapitated frog represent the

experience of its ancestors applied to purposes of self-preservation.

Others have ascribed the purposive faculties to a creative mind,

external to the organization, which chose its own instruments with a

view to its own ends. Others, again, have held that there is a twofold

life of the soul--a pre-conscious and a conscious; that the

pre-conscious manifests itself not simply in the building up of the

organization, but in all 'instinctive' action, and in all the

involuntary workings of the intelligence. Lastly, granting that there

is no _opposition_, but only a distinction in _degree_ between the

conscious and unconscious activities, is that mode of procedure above

all question, or is it not rather contrary to experience, to regard

the mental changes which respond to external stimulus as the mere

result of an outer mechanical and necessary influence exerted upon the

soul? Is it not more correct to consider the mind, by virtue of its

original powers as reacting independently, and that, too, with purpose

and design--not simply within the province of self-conscious thought,

but also in the unconscious region of our mental activities? Dr.

Maudsley does not even discuss this question, but with a dogmatism

which equals that of any of the metaphysical psychologists, he assumes

that the only explanation of the conscious and voluntary is to be

found in the unconscious and involuntary acts. On page 17, he tells

us, 'The highest functions of the nervous system are those to which

the hemispherical ganglia minister. These are the functions of

intelligence, of emotion, and of will; they are the strictly neutral

functions. The question at once arises, whether we have to do in these

supreme centres with fundamentally different properties and different

laws of evolution from those which belong to the lower nerve-centres?

We have to do with different functions certainly, but are the organic

processes which take place in them essentially different from, or are

they identical with, those of the lower nerve-centres? They appear to

be essentially the same: there is a reception of impressions, and

there is a reaction to impressions, and there is a registration of the

effects both of the impressions and of the reactions to them.' He then

defines on this principle the various mental operations as follows:

'The impressions which are made there--_i.e._, in the higher nervous

centres--are the physiological conditions of _ideas_; the feeling of

the ideas is _emotion_, for I hold emotion to mean the special

sensibility of the vesicular neurine to ideas; the registration of

them is memory; and the reaction to them is _volition_. _Attention_ is

the maintenance of the tension of an idea, or a group of ideas, before

the mind; and _reflexion_ is the successive transference of energy

from one to another of a series of ideas.' Precluded from assuming the

co-operation of mind, and barred from appealing to self-consciousness,

we are at a loss to understand where he gets these definitions from.

There are things included in them which physiology alone could never

discover. For all we know, a microscope may reveal a 'vesicular

neurine,' but surely not a 'group of ideas.' But all this is eclipsed

by his interpretation of memory, on pp. 19-20 (space will not allow us

to give the passage entire), where he says: 'A ganglionic centre,

whether of mind, sensation, or movement, which was without memory,

would be an idiotic centre, incapable of being taught its functions.

In every nerve-cell there is memory, and not only so, but there is

memory in every organic element of the body. The virus of the

small-pox makes its mark on the constitution for the rest of life.'

'And so,' he adds, 'is the scar of a cut on a child's finger; the

organic element of the past remembers the change which it has

suffered.' Again, 'the more sure and perfect memory becomes, the more

unconscious it becomes.' In our opinion, it would be difficult to find

a greater confusion of ideas than this passage contains. If, as Dr.

Maudsley implies, memory is to be assigned to any ganglionic centre,

whether accompanied by consciousness or not, then a rose has a memory

of its being budded, an apple-tree of its being grafted, the earth of

its being ploughed--in fact, every material thing which bears the

impression of any action upon it whereby its future destiny will be

affected, is endowed with memory. If we accept the statement that 'the

more sure and perfect memory becomes, the more unconscious it

becomes,' then it seems the more memory we have the less we remember.

In the former statement the author seems to confound memory as a

conscious act, and the sign by means of which the conscious act is

performed; and in the latter to give an undue extension to the term

memory--viz., that we _remember_ all which under certain circumstances

we might recall, but have really forgotten; and is therefore equal to

potential memory.

These confusions and contradictions establish the one-sidedness of the

method of investigation. The author has expended all his efforts on

the search for some single force which would afford adequate

explanation of all known phenomena. He has attempted to account for

the product of two factors by means of one, and the least important of

them. Physiology tells us that there is a contrivance for the

transmission of impressions from the tips of the fingers to the brain,

and that certain physical changes ensue, but here physiology comes to

a standstill. Further than this physiological investigations cannot

carry us. There is an impassable gulf between it and the facts

beyond--the facts of consciousness. Consciousness knows nothing of the

action of the brain and of the motor nerves. Dr. Maudsley has tried to

bridge the chasm by physiology alone; in that he has attempted the

impossible. Professor Tyndall, in the Report of the British

Association, says: 'The passage from the physics of the brain to the

corresponding facts of consciousness is unthinkable. Granted that a

definite thought and the definite molecular action in the brain occur

simultaneously, we do not possess the intellectual organ, nor

apparently any rudiment of the organ, which would enable us to pass by

a process of reasoning from the one phenomena to the other. They

appear together, but we know not why.' He denies that any acquaintance

with the action of the brain can show how 'these physical processes

are connected with the facts of consciousness.' The dissecting knife,

the forceps, and the microscope can render us no aid here. In the

paper on 'Life or Vitality,' the next greatest mystery to that of

consciousness, we find the same tendency and attempt to account for

all its phenomena by a combination of forces, necessary laws, nerves,

and muscles. Here, we are tempted to quote from Huxley's 'Lay

Sermons,' page 373; when men 'begin to talk about there being (or as

if there were) nothing else in the universe but matter and force and

necessary laws, and all the rest of their "grenadiers," I decline to

follow them.' When treating of the physical causes of insanity, Dr.

Maudsley is always interesting and instructive, and this work so far

will be gladly accepted as a valuable contribution to the alleviation

of this darkest and most blighting of human ills.

_The Public School Latin Grammar._ Longmans, Green and Co. 1871.

The very appearance of this book is decidedly unattractive, and we

fear that much of its contents cannot fail to intensify one's first

impressions. It consists of 540 duodecimo pages, crammed with matter

enough to fill two volumes of the same dimensions. It bears all the

marks of an attempt to put the greatest amount of information into the

smallest possible compass, and, as a natural consequence, its pages

are over-crowded, and its contents much more dull and unreadable than

even a Latin grammar need be. From the same cause, we presume, we have

frequently an appalling number of facts strung together, without the

enunciation of any well-defined connecting principles to guide and

assist the student in retaining and applying them; and that, too,

while professedly aiming, by systematic arrangement and philosophical

definitions, to bring into active exercise the reflective faculties.

It thus becomes chargeable with the faults of most of the older

grammars, which burdened the memory without quickening the intellect.

In addition to these general features of the work, we have noticed

that almost every subject is broken up into divisions, and

subdivisions, which are endless in number and far from definite in

character. They are enough to frighten the most courageous student at

the outset, and to bewilder him in his studies. Examples of this are

furnished on almost every page. Take, _e.g._, pp. 55-6, the gender of

consonant-nouns and clipt I-nouns, which are divided into three

classes, denoted by A, B, and C. A is again divided into (1), (2), and

(3), and (1) is again subdivided into (a) α, β, and (b) α, β. B and C

also undergo a similar dissection. Again, the pronouns are divided

into six classes, the sixth being universalia: the universalia are

again subdivided into five, called--relativa, libitiva, distributiva,

inclusiva, and exclusiva.

The adverbs are, first of all, divided into nine classes; and the

ninth, consisting 'of various logical adverbs used to modify

discourse,' is further divided into six kinds--the significative, the

concessive, the dubitative, the corrective, the affirmative, the

negative; a division which, if logically tested, will be found as

faulty as the much-criticised categories of Aristotle. In fact, if

there be as many principles as there are divisions in this book, the

student may justly conclude that Latin grammar is as boundless as the

ocean. For the same feature in syntax see the division of simple

sentences on p. 252.

Our readers, if they have had the patience to follow us thus far, will

have observed the occurrence of many new grammatical terms in the

quotations we have given; which is another characteristic of this

volume. They can be counted by the dozen, of which the following will

serve as specimens:--Phonology, or sound-lore; and morphology, which

the author renders _word-lore_; trajective adjectives, quotientive

adverbs, factitive and static verbs, annexive relativa, oblique

complement, circumstantive entheses, synesis, &c. The author has aimed

at a revolution rather than a reform. Novelty, however, should

constitute no objection to a terminology, provided it justifies its

own existence by its superiority over the old. The advantage of the

new terms should be such as to compensate for the trouble of learning

what they mean. We do not hesitate to say that in the 'Public School

Grammar' novelty has been carried to excess.

Once more we have observed great irregularity in the amount of

explanation given in different subjects; disappointing us both by its

abundance and deficiency; _e.g._, we have the origin and history of

cases explained by the ordinary diagram, as well as additional

explanation; but there is no explanation of mood, tense, and

conjugation. We are also informed in a foot-note that the names given

by grammarians to the cases are ill-chosen, but the meaning of the

terms--_e.g._, of genitive and accusative, is not interpreted. We

turn, accidentally, to the verbs, and we are told that _possum_ is

from _pote-sum_, and that _pote_ is from _pati_, lord, whence Greek

πόσις ποτνία (lord, lady); that _fero_ is from _bhar_, Gr. φερ; but of

_volo_, which comes between, we have no such explanation. Of this verb

the author only says that _vis_ is for _vol-i-s_, and _vult_ for

_vol-i-t_, but he omits to add that _vellem_ and _velle_ are for

_vellĕrem_ and _vellĕre_. The above we consider to be some of the main

defects of this work. A grammar brought out under such auspices as the

one before us, cannot fail to have many excellences. No doubt it meets

one of the great wants of the times--viz., a manual of convenient

size, and easy of reference, presenting a fuller account of the

structure of the language than the ordinary class-room grammars, and

containing, in a condensed form, the best results of the linguistic

discoveries of modern philologists. The syntax is copious, and

carefully arranged, and every important rule is illustrated by a

profusion of well-selected examples, in which the idiomatic

characteristics of Latin are clearly exhibited. One of the greatest

merits of the work is the vast amount of classical Latinity embodied

in its pages, taken directly from the best classical authors. The

Appendix, treating of 'Latin Orthography,' Latin 'pronunciation,'

Affinities in the 'Aryan family,' 'Umbrean' and 'Oscar dialects,' &c.,

furnishes valuable information to the advanced student. It is, in

fact, a complete and comprehensive manual containing the most recent

and useful information on all subjects coming within the province of a

Latin grammar.