out carefully the argument of the epistle according to the author's view of it. A work of this kind has, of course, some disadvantages for the general student; but, at the same time, it may be peculiarly useful. It is calculated to make him look away from the single verses and paragraphs, as if they were mainly important as viewed in themselves alone, and to lead him to consider the scope and meaning of the epistle as a whole. For persons beginning theological study, and oftentimes for the common reader, the reading of such a book may be earnestly recommended. The author exhibits in this volume, much thought and careful study, and though he does not present the argument of the original writer according to what appears to us the best way in all respects he offers many suggestions and comments which will be helpful to the reader. There is scarcely anything in the way of an introduction to the epistle, owing, doubtless, to the fact that the work was left in an incomplete state. In a brief note, however, the author declares his belief in the Pauline authorship--the ground of this belief being, so far as there presented, the fact that the writer's interpretation and application of particular verses from the Psalms, quoted in the second chapter, seventh and eighth verses, to the Messiah, "cannot be said to arise from the mere laws of exegesis." This fact, he thinks, implies plenary inspiration in the writer, and plenary inspiration, as thus indicated, implies apostolic authorship. This argument--that the writer must be inspired in the highest and strictest sense because he uses a passage from the Old Testament with an application which exegesis would not discover in it --is one the pressing of which is of doubtful expediency as it seems to us; it is one, at any rate, which the opponents of the theory which the author holds might regard as capable of being turned, if we may so say, the other side outward. We question whether the author does not exhibit, throughout his volume, a little too strong a tendency in the direction which his confidence in this reasoning would indicate. The volume closes with the tenth chapter of the epistle, at the twenty-second verse, -where the author regarded the argument as closing, but there are a few additional pages of fragmentary notes on the concluding chapters, which have been gathered and arranged by the editors. The book is printed on excellent paper, and with large and good type, and may be obtained, like the other publications of the Messrs. Clark, at the establishment of Messrs. Scribner, Armstrong & Co., of New York.

THE MORAL OF ACCIDENTS AND OTHER DISCOURSES.*-Not a word too much has been said in English journals and reviews of the beauty and freshness of these last productions of Rev. T. T. Lynch. Originally written under the burden of acute and deadly disease, to be read on Sabbath evenings to his congregation in Mornington Church, London, the elasticity, aptness, and felicitousness of the style is something marvelous, in the circumstances, while the spiritual fervor, point, and depth of thought will draw readers, independent of the interest their peculiar history gives them. It is quite singular that the prayers before and after these sermons strikingly resemble those preached in "Plymouth Pulpit," though the author of these was anything but a popular preacher. They have as much variety, picturesqueness, tender feeling, sympathy, and warmth as any that ever came from Mr. Beecher. But it would be hard to find sermons or prayers freer from mannerism, or more flexible to the moods of a most religious and gifted soul.

MR. WILLIAM B. GREENE'S BLAZING STAR seems to us to shine by a reflected light, and that light, whatever there is, is reflected from the Appendix on the Jewish Kabbala, if this be not darkness visible. We frankly confess to have been able to gather little or nothing from both except the excitement of our curiosity to learn somewhat more of this same Kabbala. But whatever these first portions of this volume have failed to furnish has been more than compensated by the tract on the Philosophy of Spencer and the tract on New England Transcendentalism. The first is sharp, clear, and decisive, and abounds in the clear analysis of which the author is capable, and the soldier-like charge upon his adversary, in which there is nothing unchivalrous though it is annihilating. Mr. Spencer's pretentious inflations would not long survive a few such criticisms as this. The tract on New England Transcendentalism is equally able though not so long. Its affinity with Buddhism is clearly set forth, and there is a sad pathos and almost stern reproof in the reflections at the close.

* The Moral of Accidents and other Discourses. By the late THOMAS T. LYNCH. Pp. 415. N. Y., 416 Broome st.: Geo. Routledge & Sons.

Also a

↑ The Blazing Star; with an Appendix treating of the Jewish Kabbala. tract on the Philosophy of Mr. Herbert Spencer, and one on New England Transcendentalism. By WILLIAM B. GREENE. Boston: A. Williams & Co. 1872.

PLUMPTRE'S BIBLICAL STUDIES* is a very fair example of the better sort of English biblical scholarship as utilized for parish instruction. There are twenty papers, covering from a dozen up to fifty and sixty pages each,-thirteen of them on Old Testament subjects, seven of them on New Testament themes. The shortest are on the earthquakes in the days of Uzziah, and Simon of Cyrene, the longest of the Revolt of Absalom and the Babylonian Captivity. We doubt if they were ever used in the pulpit or the lecture room as they stand, having been shapen as they are for Dr. Guthrie's and Dr. McLeod's monthlies. But they show what sort of instruction Prof. Plumptre gives as a parish minister. There is no pretence in them and no common place, but plenty of excellent biblical teaching conveyed in an excellent style.

MISCELLANEOUS.

PROF. WHITNEY'S ORIENTAL AND LINGUISTIC STUDIES.t-If in collections of scattered essays we often see attempts to perpetuate what was essentially fugitive and transient, the work of Prof. Whitney has a very different character. The papers brought together in it are on subjects of permanent interest, and the author's treatment of his subjects is throughout profound and masterly. Even when the theme is one of limited range, it is handled in such a comprehensive way, it is so viewed in the light of general truths and principles, as to be full of instruction to the reader.

The first half of the volume is occupied with the old religious literatures of the Indo-European family, the sacred books of the Hindus and the Persians. The descriptions given of the Veda and the Avesta will be welcome not only to students of religious opinion, but to all who are interested in the primitive history and culture of mankind. The form and character of these venerable documents, the probable periods of their composition, the fortunes to which they have been subject in their transmission to our time. the general nature of the religious ideas, beliefs, usages, set forth

* Biblical Studies. By E. H. PLUMPTRE, M.A., Rector of Pluckley, Kent, and Prof. Divinity, King's College, London. Strahan & Co. 56 Ludgate Hill, pp. 564. + Oriental and Linguistic Studies.-The Veda; the Avesta; the Science of Language By WILLIAM DWIGHT WHITNEY, Prof. of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in Yale College. New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co. 1873. 8vo,

pp. x, 417.

in them—all these are presented here in a style singularly clear, vivid and interesting.

A separate essay is given to one branch of the Vedic religion, viz., its conceptions of a future life, together with its simple and cheerful rites in the burial of the dead. A paper on the translation of the Vedas shows, in opposition to the views of Wilson, Goldstücker, and others, that the traditional interpretation of the Hindu commentators has no claim to be received by scholars as of binding authority. A review of Müller's Rig-Veda translation, while it acknowledges freely that the work contains much that is valuable, shows that in many respec.s it fails to meet the expectations that could fairly be entertained of it. Another work of the same author-his History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature— is the subject of a more favorable criticism. The reviewer, however, points out the weakness of the proofs on which Müller grounds his determination of the periods in which this literature was composed; and he finds it impossible to accept Müller's opinion, that this literature-including beside the Vedas, themselves of great extent, a vast body of later productions, much of it in prose of the most diffuse and tedious character-that all this was handed down for ages by a purely oral tradition without the aid of writing.

The latter half of the book is taken up with essays and reviews, which relate to the science of language. A first article defends the Indo-European philology of Bopp and his successors against the attacks of Key, who impugns the methods on which it proceeds, and of Oppest, who denies that its results have any ethnological value, as proving an original connection of races.

The notice of Müller's lectures points out in clear but not discourteous terms the weaknesses of that popular work, and shows that their author, with all his acknowledged learning and ability, does not deserve the implicit faith and submissive reverence which have generally been accorded to him in England.

The essays on Schleicher and Steint hal enter into deep questions as to the nature of language and the force which have produced, maintained, and transformed it; but these questions are discussed in a manner as simple and intelligible as it is sober, moderate, and rational.

The views of language taken here are the same which the author has set forth in his admirable work on "Language and the Study of Language ;" and their general character cannot be better expressed than in the words of his preface:

"These main truths-that on the one hand the capacity of speech is an endowment of human nature, not, however, the only characteristic one, nor a simple one, but the sum and combined effect of qualities which have other and hardly less characteristic modes of exhibition; that every language, on the other hand, is a concrete result of the working out of that capacity, an institution of gradual historic growth, a part of the culture of the race to which it belongs, and handed down by tradition, from teacher to learner, like every other part of culture; and hence, that the study of language is a historical science, to be pursued by historical methods-these truths I have attempted to inculcate, persuaded that there is no other sound and defensible basis for linguistic science."

SHAIRP'S STUDIES IN POETRY AND PHILOSOPHY.*The readers of Principal Shairp's former work, "Culture and Religion," will be attracted to this volume from the same pen, and will not be disappointed. It is a collection of four essays that originally appeared in the North British Review,-on "Wordsworth," "Coleridge," "Keble," and "The Moral Motive Power,"-not otherwise connected than by an obvious affinity in three of the subjects, and the sentiments pervading all. We seldom find so much to commend with so little drawback, in the same compass, as in these pages. They are admirable specimens of "Studies in Poetry and Philosophy," abounding in clear, refined and discriminating thought, a manly, unaffected style, and a reverent spirit imbued with Christian sentiment. The modesty and candor of the author give a singular charm to his criticisms, and to his speculative treatment of mooted questions. The fourth essay deals with the history and present state of ethical science, sketching the principal theories of man's moral nature and of virtue, inquiring particularly into the "dynamic force" which empowers man for truly virtuous conduct, and emphasizing the Christian method. We have questioned whether he does not make the term moral, as qualifying motives, too rigidly exclusive of everything prudential. It occurs to us also that when, in reviewing those philosophers who represent conscience as a simple faculty and rightness as a simple idea, he still urges against them the question, What makes an action

* Studies in Poetry and Philosophy. By J. C. SHAIRP, Principal of the United College of St. Salvator and St. Leonard, St. Andrews: author of "Culture and Religion." Hurd & Houghton, New York, 1872. 12mo, pp. 340.