have been numerous. The object is not only laudable in itself, but for many scholars it has all the charm of fascination. No labour is grudged, no travel hesitated over; no tax on years thought too heavy, if only some results reward the patient researches devoted to it. And these rewards have been many, and some of them of late years-chiefly owing to the discovery of MSS. and Versions that have long been buried out of sight and forgotten-as startling as unexpected. Dr. Taylor is evidently one of those eager and laborious students, and he has given us in this volume the fruits of his labours on the Book of Micah. He goes carefully over the Massoretic text of the book, verse by verse, comparing it with all the ancient versions at our disposal, with all the existing translations that have the weight of authority and of years, and with all the references to any passage in it that may be regarded as shedding light on its primitive state, not of course forgetting the Targum on it. Taking the testimony of each and of all of these, where they show a variation to have existed, he carefully weighs its value, and endeavours in this way to restore the text to what he regards as most likely its original condition. Many of his emendations and suggestions will meet, we think, with approval, though of course scholars will differ from him, as differ from him some of his predecessors in the same field do, on other points. But Dr. Taylor himself points out with commendable precision where his suggested corrections have the weight of ancient testimony in their favour, and where probability alone and textual fitness have determined him. He has in all cases weighed too the opinions of other scholars against his own. His work is a monument, if not a large one, of patient industry, ripe scholarship, and judicial caution. Die Bedeutung der Theologischen Vorstellungen für die Ethik. By Dr. WILHELM PASZKOWSKI. Berlin: Mayer & Müller. 1891. This Essay-as we may call it; it consists of ninety-two pages of ordinary octavo-does not pretend to do more than merely outline the course which a thorough study of the subject ought to take, in order to lead to sure and satisfactory results. The author divides his essay into two parts. In the first he passes under review the ideas or conceptions of deity entertained by the rudest and most uncivilized races, and those next of the higher civilisations, and shows how those ideas of God have affected for good or evil the development of moral sentiments and the progress of moral conduct among those who entertained them. As has been the conception of deity, so has it helped or hindered that development. In the second part he shows how certain doctrines and certain ceremonial practices, common to many, if not all, of the more advanced religions, have operated in the same or in a similar way, and for a similar reason—some promoting and some retarding the moral progress of those holding or practising them. The influence of religion is seen to be conditioned by the contents of the credo, and the nature of the consequent cult in every case. The causes that have impelled the mind to pursue the path of progress here in some cases are shown to be complex, and religion has now exercised a helpful and now a hurtful influence on it. Religious ideas, religious rites, religious art, have all played a part in promoting or retarding the advancement of the moral education of humanity, and our author seeks to point out what that part has been. He presents, as we have said, but an outline of the subject, but the outline is sketched in a very masterly way, and every page is rich with illustrative instances of the points he wishes to establish, Pseudepigrapha: An Account of certain Apocryphal Sacred Writings of the Jews and Early Christians. By the Rev. WM. J. DEANE, M.A. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. 1891. The study of the Apocryphal writings either of the Jews or Early Christians has for a time at least been almost in abeyance in England, and the revival of it is not without significance. Neither the one nor the other of these writings may be of much theological importance, but from a historical point of view they are deserving of the closest study. They reflect the life of the period to which they belong, and are not without their value as aids to the interpretation of Scripture. Mr. Deane does not profess to give an account of all the Apocryphal writings. He has selected a few. These he has arranged as Lyrical, Apocalyptical, Prophetical, Legendary and Mixed. Under the first of these divisions he treats of the Psalter of Solomon; under the second of them, the Book of Enoch, the Assumption of Moses, the Apocalypse of Baruch, and the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs; under the third, the Book of Jubilees and the Ascension of Isaiah; under the last, the Sibylline Oracles. The work has apparently been written for ministers and students, and partakes very much of the character of an Introduction to the various writings. But in addition to discussing their date, origin, and contents, Mr. Deane shows their relation to the Sacred Scriptures, their historical allusions and settings, and the purpose for which they were written. There is a good deal of solid learning in his volume. He is well acquainted with the literature of his subject, and from time to time discusses the theories advanced by recent German writers. For many readers Mr. Deane will have opened a new field of study. Although the ground which his volume has left untrodden is very extensive, so far as it goes, what he has here written deserves commendation, and suggests the hope that, since so good a beginning has been made, he will go on and complete what he has here begun. Books which Influenced our Lord and His Apostles: Being a Critical Review of Apocalyptic Literature. By JOHN E. H. THOMPSON, B.D. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. 1891. Mr. Thompson here endeavours to cover the same ground as Mr. Deane in his volume entitled Pseudepigrapha. The two works, however, are widely different. Mr. Deane, as we have said, has apparently written for ministers and students; so also has Mr. Thompson; but their mode of treating their common subjects is far from being the same. Mr. Deane's volume may be regarded as an Introduction to the Jewish Apocryphal writings. Mr. Thompson's is written from a theoretical standpoint and in the interest of a theory, and though he brings together a considerable number of facts connected with the Pseudepigrapha, he is less interested in adding to our knowledge, than in showing how they favour his theory as to the origin of the writings in question. Mr. Thompson's volume, however, has this advantage over Mr. Deane's, that it is written in a much more popular style, some parts of it being quite pictorial. That it is as weighty, is doubtful. The first part of it takes us over much the same ground as Hausrath and Schurer, and is occupied with an account of the political, religious, and intellectual condition of the Jews at and immediately before the advent of our Lord. The second part deals with the origin of the literature with which he is concerned; while the third is mostly critical. According to Mr. Thompson, our Lord belonged to the sect of the Essenes, and most of the Jewish Apocryphal writings had their origin in that sect; most of them at Engedi, one of them in Jerusalem, two of them in Rome, and one in Egypt. That our Lord was an Essene in the 6 sense that S. Paul was a Pharisee, Mr. Thompson does not assert. 'All that we know,' he says, 'is that, as the ordinary way of becoming a teacher, which to fulfil His office He had to be, was to belong to one of the received sects, He chose that to which He was most akin. Of the four sects of Essenes we may be sure that He belonged to that which was likest to Him and trammelled Him least.' The arguments which Mr. Thompson adduces in support of this theory do not, we must own, appear to us to be strong. They partake more of the nature of assumptions. The first is drawn from the silence of the Gospels respecting the Essenes. The second rests on the fact that here and there our Lord refers to doctrines which are believed to have been held by the Essenes, and from this it is argued or assumed that some relationship with them is implied. Next it is assumed that those who were present at the presentation in the Temple, and those again who visited the empty Sepulchre were Essenes. Then it is said that the presence in the Church very early of a strong Essenian element proves an historical connection with its Founder. Further,' it is said, the ascription of the title Rabbi to our Lord implies that he had received Rabbinic ordination from the members of one of the recognised sects, and the Essene sect is the only one from which He can have received it.' With all deference to Mr. Thompson, it seems to us that the arguments, if we may call them so, which he here advances are in the air and worthless. Take one of them the fact that our Lord now encounters or rebukes the Essenes implies some relationship to them.' In the first place it is not certain that those encountered or rebuked in the passages referred to were Essenes and in the second, assuming they were, if our Lord's meeting with or rebuke of them implied that He belonged to their sect, it would be easy to show that He belonged to all the other sects among the Jews as well. The title which Mr. Thompson has given to his volume is catching, but we have read its pages in vain in the hope of finding how and to what extent our Lord and His disciples were influenced by the ideas prevalent in the Jewish Apocryphal literature. Much, however, that Mr. Thompson has written will be found helpful, and though we are unable to accept his theory and are far from adopting many of his statements, the work is worth reading as dealing with a subject little known in this country, and deserving more attention than it has now for many years received. Principles of Natural and Supernatural Morals. By the Rev. 2 Vols. The main purpose of these volumes is to establish the thesis that there are, not one, but three sciences of morals. According to the Authors, the first of these deals with the motives and ends of conduct that belong to pagan or non-religious man, to man regarded simply as a voluntary agent forming a part of the world of nature. The second, while it includes the former, takes account also of other phenomena arising from man being brought into conscious relations with God. Of the phenomena with which this science deals Jewish morality is taken by Mr. Hughes as the type. The third science is that which embraces within its scope all the phenomena of the moral life of the present, those which are Jewish as well as those which are distinctively Christian. That there are these three kinds of morality, that they have much in common, and that each may and ought to be distinguished from the other there can be no doubt. But whether Mr. Hughes is justified in saying there are three sciences of morality is a different question. So far the general opinion has been that there can be but one science of morality. Of course, Mr. Hughes, if he chooses, can say there is a science of Pagan morality, another of Jewish morality, and a third of Christian morality. All the same, the three are but divisions of one and the same science, dealing with one and the same subject, at different stages of its development. Mr. Hughes might as well split up the science of Astronomy into three great historic periods, for instance, ancient, mediæval and modern, and speak of three sciences of Astronomy. Fundamentally there is no more reason for the one than there is for the other. In either case the method is equally indefensible. At the same time there is something to be said for Mr. Hughes' thesis. It has the advantage-an advantage, however, which is much more obvious in some of the German text books on Ethics-of giving prominence to the fact that morality, i.e., actual, not ideal morality, has not always been the same, nor had its origin in precisely the same motives. Further, it emphasizes the differences between the three stages of morality, and refutes the assertion which has sometimes been made by writers of considerable authority, that moral ideas undergo no development. From the opinion expressed by Mr. Hughes that there are elements in the morality of the present, or in Christian morality, which are not to be found either in that of heathendom or of the Jews, few will be disposed to differ. The same cannot be said, however, of the assertion that pagan morality is identical with that of the non-religious man, or what is tantamount to it that pagan morality is unreligious. It is doubtful whether there is such a morality. It is not improbable that all morality is at bottom religious, and has its origin in the sense of awe or reverence for some deity or power higher than man. Mr. Hughes would almost seem to make out that man is originally an utilitarian. But even the 'life-force' and 'constraint of order,' which represent for him the fundamental elements in pagan morality, seem to indicate higher origins, sanctions, and restraints than those of mere utility. The line between morality and religion is extremely thin, and it is difficult to say where the one begins and the other ends. When dealing with natural morality Mr. Hughes follows very much the same lines as Aristotle, and discriminates between his own doctrines and those of Butler, Kant, J. S. Mill and later writers. For the nature of Christian morality, Mr. Hughes, as might be expected, rests upon the New Testament Scriptures, to the language of which he adheres very closely. Christian morality, we are told, is consequent on the new birth of man brought about by the death and resurrection of Christ. 'Christ's surrender of his life in perfect submission to his Father's will,' it is said, was, 'according to the Eternal purposes of God, an essential condition in the way of ransom or price, of the regeneration of humanity,' and in evidence of this, of the fact that the new birth bestowed upon mankind, by God, through Christ, was purchased by Him by His death upon the Cross,' several passages of Scripture are quoted. It is further shown that this new birth is a birth into a state of organic union with His (Christ's) glorified human nature,' and that the Christian. in so far as he is in living union with Christ, is subject to the same moral rules which governed His life. Four rules are mentioned as distinctive of Christian morality, viz., the new commandment of love, purity of heart, continuing instant in prayer, and partaking of the Eucharist. 6 Life and Letters of Robert Browning. By Mrs. SUTHERLAND ORR. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1891. Mrs. Sutherland Orr has written a very bright, attractive and instructive biography. The subject she has had to deal with is not an easy one, but with rare power of condensation and admirable art she has managed to give within the compass of a single volume a remarkably vivid account 6 both of the incidents in Mr. Browning's life, and of his inward growth and development. To students of Mr. Browning's works her narrative will be both of the greatest interest and exceedingly helpful. They will find in it much that they have been seeking for; while those who have been deterred from the study of his works by the difficulties of his style, will find in her pages such explanations of his poems as will enable them to renew their perusal in a more hopeful and appreciative spirit. The interest of the volume is almost entirely literary, but it is an interest which will appeal to a wide class of readers. A couple of interesting chapters are devoted by Mrs. Sutherland Orr to the Browning family, in which the notion that Mr. Browning was of Jewish extraction is entirely dissipated, as is that also of Dr. Furnivall, that he had a dash of dark blood in his veins derived from his grandmother. The poet's father was a man of remarkable ability, fond of reading, of considerable artistic taste, and with an extraordinary power of versifying. His knowledge of old French, Spanish, and Italian literature is said to have been wonderful. Of the poet's mother Carlyle used to say she was the true type of a Scottish gentlewoman.' She was the daughter of William Wiedermann, a Hamburg German who had settled in Dundee as a ship-owner. On the maternal side she was Scotch, and is described as delicate, very anæmic during her later years, and a martyr to neuralgia. Her husband on the other hand was strong and healthy. Both of them had strong religious instincts. Of the mother Mr. Kenyon used to say that such as she had no need to go to heaven, because they made it wherever they were. Robert Browning was born at Camberwell on May 7, 1812, soon after a great comet had disappeared from the sky. The account given of his childhood shows him to have been handsome, vigorous, fearless, sharing as he grew older his father's passion for reading, quick to learn, and like his father a ready rhymer. He had few playmates beyond his sister. The fondness for animals for which he was noted through life, was conspicuous in his very earliest days. His education was superintended by his father, in whose house, crammed full of books,' he learned more than at the schools to which he was sent, and acquired a life-long and loving familiarity with the English poets. Byron was his chief master, and under the influence of his writings he produced a volume of short poems when only twelve years of age, under the title Incondita. For a short time he attended University College, London, and at eighteen finally chose literature as his profession and began to qualify himself for it by reading and digesting the whole of Johnson's Dictionary. His literary father' was the Rev. W. J. Fox, an Unitarian Minister, and Editor of the Monthly Repository, who in the pages of that periodical wrote a favourable review of Pauline,' and was the first to recognise his genius. 'Pauline' was published anonymously, and was little known or discussed beyond the immediate circle of the poet's friends. A publisher was found for Paracelsus,' but with difficulty. The Athenæum called it rubbish. John Forster, however, reviewed it in the Examiner. He had taken it up as a likely subject for a piece of slashing criticism, but recognising its worth declared it to be a work of unequivocal power and brilliant promise. But if neither 'Pauline' nor 'Paracelsus' brought popularity to the poet, the latter poem at least opened the way for him to many friendships, and compelled his recognition by the rising and leading literary men of the day. Among others he came to know Macready, for whom he wrote Strafford,' and A Blot on the 'Scutcheon,' of which latter Mrs. Sutherland Orr has given a full account. In due time came 'Sordello,'' Pippa Passes,' and those rare sheets with the title Bells and Pomegranates. The one piece of romance in Mr. Browning's life was his marriage. He and Miss Barrett were married with strict privacy 6 |