and one-sided view, either of our actual position, or even of history; faults into which young and over-zealous converts to Church-principles are apt to fall. Such must not take offence, if we remind them that they are altogether inconsistent with the perfection of the saintly character.

The two great "serials" of the Church, the Oxford Library of the Fathers, and the Anglo-Catholic Library, are proceeding with creditable punctuality and care. Each has been enriched with two volumes: the former with a volume of S. Chrysostom's Homilies, and another of S. Athanasius (enriched by Mr. Newman's erudition): the latter has brought out another portion of Beveridge, and the first part of Thorndike; and we are glad to find Johnson, Gunning, and Marshall already announced. It is scarcely possible, at the present juncture, to overrate the importance of this collection; and, while it is almost fearful to find what treasures we have hitherto disregarded, it is of course most encouraging to watch their present success. Happy omens are around us, if we will be worthy to retain them.

Very late in the month we received Dr. Grant's Bampton Lectures for 1843, on "Missions," (Rivingtons.) The interest of the subject, the author's station, and the occasion on which these sermons were delivered, combine to render this one of the most important volumes of the year. We propose any other course would be disrespectful to devote an early paper to this very interesting and delightful work.

A curious little-what shall we call it?-instrument, and explanatory pamphlet, called "The Orientator," has been put forth by the Cambridge Camden Society, to determine, by an extensive examination of examples, how far a rule obtained in determining the eastward bearing of our ancient churches. Wordsworth, of moderns, was among the first to observe that they varied according to the sun-rising on the day of dedication.

The Marquis de Custine's remarkable book, "The Empire of the Czar," &c. has been translated, (Longman,) and will be found well worth reading, not merely for the sake of its subject, but of the opinions expressed in it on the state of Europe, especially on ecclesiastical matters. These are striking,-too striking, it may be; for M. de Custine is a Frenchman, and not given to say things in a quiet way,-but yet they are worthy of attention.

We cannot think highly of the greater part of "Harry Mowbray," by Captain Knox, (Ollivier.) The foreign scenes seem to us a good deal better than the home ones. The author is, we believe, a man of real talent; and we have heard others of his works well spoken of by a competent authority; but, on the present occasion, we think he has aimed too high. The creation of character does not seem his forte, which rather resides in the narration of incident and adventure. He would write, we think, a romance better than a novel.

We have not for a good while seen so thoroughly important and serviceable a book as "Notes on the Episcopal Polity of the Holy Catholic Church," &c. by T. W. Marshall, B.A., (Burns.) The "Account of the Development of Modern Religious Systems" is full of valuable information, and ought to be in the hands of every religious inquirer in our land. It is very common to speak of presbyterian Scotland as a splendid exception to the common tendencies of schism, and there are respects in which it is so; at the same time, we have always suspected that her doctrinal and practical condition, for the last century, have been regarded by all parties in a far more favourable light than the facts would be found to warrant, and Mr. Marshall establishes this. We wish, however, he had gone into it more fully, as those who are willing to surrender foreign Protestantism have often far too good an opinion of Scottish presbyterianism.

Whilst we are on the subject of Scotland, we must recommend Mr. Lyon's very interesting "History of St. Andrews," (Tait, Edinburgh; Simpkin and Marshall, London.) This will give much information on a subject concerning which all parties, Churchmen and sectaries, Scotchmen and Englishmen, the illiterate and the well-informed, have been contented to remain in inconceivable ignorance, and under the falsest impressions-we mean the religious state of Scotland during the latter half of the seventeenth century. We are sorry that the writer has committed some literary blunders, which will damage its authority.

Of course the author (we believe we should say the authoress) of "Christ our Law," (Seeley and Burnside,) does not expect us to approve of the theology contained in the volume so entitled. The book is nearly all rhetorical, and sometimes truly eloquent, though the grammar is not always sounder than the doctrine. We are led to notice this volume, because it partakes of the characteristic which we lately commented on in the case of Charlotte Elizabeth-a boldness, a fearlessness of consequences, very unlike the usual simpering and inanity of assertion and denial, which we find in the common run of modern Evangelicalism-a turn for reality rather than phrases, which is both encouraging and alarming, as bringing the person in whom we see it near Truth and near Heresy. The writer of the work before us seems a person who could be brought on to Catholic sentiment, and could too easily fall into fearful and deadly errors.

The latter tendency is but too apparent in Mr. Barham's "Life and Times of Reuchlin," (Whittaker,) as it was in his memoir of Savonarola, We do not, however, dread the progress of Syncretism in England, there being little in it congenial to the national mind; and Mr. Barham has further disarmed himself of power, by writing in a style outrageously pedantic. The subject, we need not say, is an interesting one, and the book gives much information in spite of the author's perversities.

"Modern Wesleyanism compared with the teaching of Mr. Wesley," (Leslie,) is a pamphlet affording one proof more of a fact, about which there can be no doubt, the apostasy of the Wesleyan body from many of the most important sentiments of their founder.

The Rev. T. Lathbury has published an important Letter to Sir R. Peel on "the Restoration of Suffragan Bishops," (Parker,) deprecating having recourse to Parliament for the purpose, inasmuch as the authority of Crown and Convocation seems to him sufficient.

Our catechetical stores have been increased by "A Historical and Practical Exposition of the Catechism of the Church of England," &c. by the Rev. Thomas Halton, (Burns,) which is sensible and orthodox, besides giving further information than do most books of the sort.

We have sometimes had to regret what we could not but consider something more than the wisdom of the serpent, an unjustifiable timidity in the orthodox Scottish Clergy. We have no such accusation, however, to prefer against the Rev. J. B. Pratt, M.A., who has published a sound and stout-hearted Pastoral Letter addressed to his Congregation, on the Opening of the new Church of St. James, Cruden," (Brown & Co. &c. Aberdeen; Burns, London.) Though bold and faithful, there is nothing indiscreet or eccentric in it. It is strange and sad to find so much ritual irregularity, and such very rare communion, as seem, from Mr. Pratt's account, to have hitherto characterised the Church at Cruden, in the part of Scotland in which Church principles have been generally supposed to have had a more powerful sway than elsewhere, and which was under the influence of the Skinners and the Jollys, who witnessed so powerfully for primitive truth.

A Mr. Bell has put forth the first number of a series of line engravings "illustrative of the Liturgy," (Longman.) By the term Liturgy the whole Prayer-book seems meant, the contents of this first number having reference to the Apostles' Creed. The first two are by much the best.

"Pietas Domestica," by the Hon. and Rev. Samuel Best, M.A., (Cleaver,) is a guide to family devotion, seemingly on a very good plan, but we have had no time to examine it. The second paragraph of the preface requires modification. Mr. Best speaks as if the family altar were the only one which survived the Jewish Temple.

"Oxoniensis," the author of "An Apology for the Universities," (Macpherson, Oxford,) does indeed refute the formal assertions of his opponents, and in great measure succeeds in exonerating the Universities from the imputations cast upon them in respect of neglecting theology as a distinct study. It is quite true, as he says, that their theory does not contemplate such study during the student's progress in arts; and that if people will leave them, on taking the first degree in that faculty, they preclude themselves by their own act and deed from academic guidance in divinity. But though this be so, "Oxoniensis must admit that residence after the B.A. degree is to most a matter of extreme difficulty, and that it would be most desirable to find some plans, though certainly not such as should impair the existing course of study, for remedying the defect. Again, it is too much to say that the Universities are blameless in the matter of general religious education. Their theory, we grant, is entirely so; but, in all loyalty and affection for them, we ask what their practice has been? Of a mixed character, surely, at best, and, we are thankful to add, of an improving one; but that, surely, is all which can judiciously be

said.

The Propagation Society has printed an interesting letter from the Lord Bishop of Calcutta, giving an account of one or two features in his late Metropolitical Visitation, and of a subsequent Ordination in his own diocese, at which three of the candidates had been educated entirely at Bishop's College.

"A Paper on Monuments," (Oxford, Parker) read by Mr. Armstrong of Exeter before the Diocesan Architectural Society, is on a subject which dulness itself could not make tiresome. Mr. Armstrong, however, is a very lively writer, and exposes, as all of us have done, with infinite gusto the present mural and Pagan abominations. We are glad that he has given examples of the ancient flat stones inscribed with crosses plain and floriated; but we lack a coped grave-stone. Among the headstone crosses Mr. Armstrong has supplied one, the absence of which we noted both in Mr. Paget's and the Camden Society's collection, the simple coped wooden cross. From his suggestion to copy a piscina for a monument we differ poles asunder: the piscina has a use, and ought always to be used; to reproduce it for an insertion bearing a mortuary inscription is as bad in taste as copying an altar in cast iron for a stove.

Our single sermons have this month, much to our discomfort, expanded into volumes, some not a little ponderous. "Discourses on the Festivals," by Mr. Marsden, of Tooting (Hamilton) are heavy, and in theology exceptionable, but it is comforting to find the subject taken up in this particular quarter.

We have also to notice "Sermons designed chiefly for Parochial and Family use," by the Rev. F. E. Tuson, M. A., (Hatchard; Rivingtons,) of which the profits are designed for the author's church.

We are glad to see another able and excellent "Charge," by the Archdeacon of Bristol (Rivingtons).

We have just received a copy of the promised "Appeal to the Members of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge on doctrinal Changes lately introduced into the Series of Tracts circulated under their authority," (Burns, Leslie, &c. and Parker, Oxford.) We are sufficiently aware of the painful importance of this subject (on which we must enlarge in our next) to every member of the Society, and we have seen enough of the present striking " Appeal" to warrant us in recommending it to general and most serious attention. May we suggest, for yet more general distribution, a reprint of the proofs of GARBLING, adduced against the managing body of the Society? Its state only requires to be known to be remedied; and that both speedily and effectually.

249

MISCELLANEOUS.

[The Editor is not responsible for the opinions expressed in this department.]

TO THE REV. PROFESSOR MAURICE.

DEAR SIR,-I have just been reading, in the Christian Remembrancer for the month of October last, your remarks on the Review of Mr. Carlyle's work on Hero-worship. There is nothing that I read with so much delight as the thoughts which flow from your pen: they excite in me always a feeling of respect and of sympathy for you, which I hope you will forgive me for taking the liberty thus to express, by way of preface, to one or two observations which I wish to submit upon the subject of this review.

You quote Mr. Carlyle's definition of a Hero as being one who looks straight into the face of things, as not content with second-hand reports of them, and does not submit to receive semblances for realities; and you maintain that this is a true definition of the Heroic characters, as exemplified in the instances adduced by him of Mahomet, Cromwell, and Rousseau; of Mahomet, because, you say, he felt the will of God to be a reality, and devoted himself to the fulfilment of it: of Cromwell, because he felt the spiritual life in man to be a reality, and devoted himself, in like manner, to the service which it dictated; and of Rousseau, because he felt that there was a deep ground of fact against the conventional maxims of his age, and that they must perish if set against it. You, probably, intended to add, with respect to Rousseau, that he powerfully, publicly, and fearlessly taught and asserted what he so felt; for, unless he had done this, he could have had no claim to the title of a Hero.

If, my dear sir, I rightly understand your meaning, I entirely agree with you; but permit me to ask, whether I do rightly understand it, and whether your expression of it may not admit of some improvement.

The point you wish to establish I conceive to be this; that there was some elementary principle, common to the three individuals in question, and to which the moral power and influence exercised by them in their generation, is mainly to be attributed. If this be so, the principle in question might, I think, receive some more adequate definition than that which either you or Mr. Carlyle have supplied.

What, then, is the Ileroic principle, by means of which one man obtains ascendency and influence over his fellows, claiming and receiving their homage as God's vicegerent? Is it, according to Mr. Carlyle, merely a spirit of earnest and disinterested love for, and search after, truth, and of active, zealous, strenuous, and fearless working in support of it: or does it, according to your improvement, involve the acknowledgment of some superhuman and supernatural power, to which man yields instinctive obedience, making himself its willing and devoted instrument; or must we not, in order to perfect our idea, still further add to our definition the attribute of wisdom, implying the knowledge, as well as the love of truth, and a just apprehension of that Higher Power to which allegiance is rightfully due?

If, in order to be a Hero, it is not sufficient that a man be earnest, disinterested, self-devoted, and religious; if it is further required that he be wise, there will be no difficulty in ascertaining the causes of failure in all the Heroes who have ever appeared upon the theatre of the world, with the single exception of that One, Whose wisdom, and Whose only, was perfect, being a direct and unsullied emanation from the pure Fountain of all Truth.

A man may seem to be a Hero, and for a time be acknowledged and enthroned as such, by the acclamations of the world, who founds his pretensions merely upon a shrewd and just apprehension of some popular notions, opinions, or propensities, which chance to be prevalent in the world in his day, and upon his devotion to them; that is to say, taking these for his god, and, more especially, if he has the art to mix with them something of superstition, some pretension to an authority derived from some unseen, dark, mysterious, superhuman power. If he begins by deceiving himself in this, he will more easily mislead

others; and if he begins by deceiving others, he will soon come to believe his own lie, by witnessing its temporary efficacy; but his ultimate failure will be an inevitable consequence of the defect in his fundamental supposition.

It follows, therefore, that a man who is earnest, disinterested, self-devoted, active, zealous, strenuous, and fearless in maintaining a principle, though he may seem to be a Hero in the eyes of the world, ought not to be so accounted unless his principle be founded upon that Wisdom which is from above, according to such manifestation of it as is vouchsafed to the age in which he lives.

I remain, my dear Sir, yours, &c.

G. T.

MANUSCRIPT FRAGMENTS OF S. T. COLERIDGE.

To the Editor of " The Christian Remembrancer."

MY DEAR SIR,-In transmitting to you the accompanying fragments of Coleridge, I am sure that you will sympathize with my wish not willingly to let die any of his "Sybilline leaves," however trifling; and as your Review still retains somewhat of its Magazine profession, I am induced to think that you will allow space to some of the fugitive thoughts of one of our great thinkers. The following scraps scarcely require authentication; for the most part, they at once authenticate themselves; but it may be as well to mention Coleridge's practice one well known to all his intimates-of scribbling most unmercifully on the fly-leaves and margin of every book which passed through his hands: even the otherwise-sacred pages of the books of the Highgate Society had no immunity; and our periodical sales were sometimes enriched by extra biddings for works more than usually bepencilled. From one of these, the dissenter Vaughan's Life of Wycliffe, in the possession of a friend, I copied what I now send; and, though I did not reside at Highgate till after Coleridge's death, I am acquainted with his handwriting, having seen many of his MSS. in the possession of his and my friend, the late Mr. Gillman. Had they come into my possession earlier, they would have been forwarded to Mr. H. Nelson Coleridge, whose Remains of his uncle are derived in part from similar sources; and I am not without hope that, if the example be set, you may recover other fragments.

The readers of the CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER do not require to be reminded that neither you nor I wish to be considered implicit followers of Coleridge; nor to attach undue value to his unequal, and often inconsistent, speculations. What Coleridge might have been, had he lived until the present restoration of the Church had assumed greater prominency, and which he watched with so keen an interest, many, perhaps you among the number, may have amused themselves with conjecturing. You will agree with me in considering these notes as eminently characteristic of his very opposite tendencies and opinions; and should the author of Ancient Christianity be disposed to plume himself on the admissions of the first two passages, his triumph will be dashed by the remarkable observations on the relative offices of the Church and Scripture, in a subsequent note. They are Coleridge all over, both in thought and expression.

Should any critics discover other such mistakes as placing Ulphilas in the second century, they will do well to bear in mind that few writers expect themselves to be very accurate in such fugitive thoughts as fall from them in this desultory way and I do not know that it would be quite fair to any author's reputation to make him incur grave responsibility for the like: indeed it would become a question, had not Coleridge been already, and perhaps to an injudicious extent, subjected to the publication of all his Adversaria, whether it was right to publish them. However, should there be any literary responsibility, it must be fastened upon, my dear sir,

HOXTON, Nov. 7, 1843.

Yours, very faithfully,

WILLIAM SCOTT