Of what value is the maxim? The theme awaits an exhaustive treatment by itself. It may savor some of enthusiasm, but such only as the splendid and challenging results of this happy incident will go far in justifying, to say, that as the inspiring principle of a very lofty species of culture, this maxim is comprehensive and complete. We could propose no better specific for the ills of our times. We are living in an age when the realistic or scientific element is in threatening preponderancy, and the idea is in a fair way of sinking to an abstraction. There is clamor enough for truth, it is true, but the ponderous reality is in danger of being miserably dwarfed, by the prevailing dogmatism of the experimental sciences, which do often persist in groveling with the facts and forces of nature, as if all beyond were a boundless inane. Our affinities must have room to play in a field so immeasurable as that which takes in the essence of things, and opens to us what in some sense is the substance whereof the worlds were made. Poetic exaltation has a legitimate and long-consecrated but now much desecrated place in all grand discovery, and there is no ground in reason that the stern utilities of our time should part company with so beautiful, so indispensable an evangel. Let Goethe be re-called that he may impress anew upon us the divine mission of his art, for if truth is not mainly the discovery of the poet, it is at least true that, after science has wrought her marvels, and unrolled her grand schemes of classification an use, there is yet behind her scrolls, and tables, and crucibles, and scales, a region of human capability and want, whither science unattended cannot come and minister, and to which she may pay tribute only by yielding her work to be taken up and transfigured in the light of poesy.

ARTICLE X.-NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

THEOLOGICAL AND RELIGIOUS.

MEYER'S COMMENTARY ON GALATIANS.*-The English translation of Meyer's great work on the New Testament, which has been promised for some time by the publishing-house of T. & T. Clark, makes its first appearance in this volume. It is introduced to this country, like all the publications of this house, by Messrs. Scribner, Welford & Armstrong, of New York. That it will meet a welcome reception and command an extensive sale can scarcely be doubted. Meyer is to be regarded as the leading commentator of the world. For forty years he has been engaged in the preparation of this work, devoting to it his time and energies, and by the successive editions and revisions he has kept it in the advance of the rapid progress of the studies in this department during the past generation. About four months since-in June of the present year he died at Hanover, where he had so long resided, and where he held a prominent position in the Church. His commentary is, thus, introduced to the American and English public just as he has closed his labors, and we have, in the translation now made, the work in its final form, as left by its author. We are glad that a new language has, as it were, taken up the results of his learning, and is about to present them to a new and wider circle, so that his fame, now that his life is ended, may become as wide-spread in these English-speaking nations as it is already in his native land.

The translation, as a whole, has been placed in charge of Professor Dickson of Glasgow, the translator of Mommsen's History of Rome, and was intended to contain the latest notes and suggestions of Dr. Meyer as each successive volume should appear. Provision was, thus, made for giving it the greatest possible accuracy and value. It is, of course, now impossible to hope for any further additions from the author, as his work must

* Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. By HEINRICH AUGUST WILHELM MEYER, Th. D., Oberconsistorialrath, Hanover. From the German. The translation revised and edited, with the sanction of the author, by WILLIAM P. DICKSON, D.D., Professor of Divinity in the University of Glasgow. Part VII. The Epistle to the Galatians. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. 1873. Svo, pp. 354.

remain as he left it at his death. But we shall have, in the English form, the latest editions, and, thus, the latest and most matured views which he held. The work of such a scholar, gradually growing up and continually made more and more excellent as the studies and reflection of forty years enlarged his power, is a treasure which cannot be too highly valued by the Church. It will be a source of knowledge and a guide to all those who, by their theological education, are able to study the New Testament as scholars, and will, through them, exert its influence everywhere.

Dr. Meyer was one of the best class of German scholars, viewed in relation to their best characteristics. He was a patient, candid student of the Scriptures; very able; very free from love of party as compared with love of truth; always growing nearer to the truth as he was growing older and more learned; ready to say calmly and fearlessly what he believed to be the truth; meeting opposition without passion, but with the force of weighty arguments; always bringing the results of his wide-extended knowledge to bear upon the subject under discussion; and always pressing on to the most complete and exhaustive knowledge in his own field. He had great clearness in the expression of his thought; a conciseness of statement, which, if not carried to the extreme point of de Wette, was noticeable as compared with most German writers, and was as great as is desirable in any writer; a knowledge of the Greek language unsurpassed by any of his contemporaries; and a remarkable insight into the thought, in its precise form and shade, of the passage on which he was commenting. He was possessed, thus, of the qualifications and characteristics requisite for a commentator of a high order; and he became, as such a man must have become, better qualified as he passed on in life. As distinguished above other German commentators even, he was an exact observer of the grammatical rules and idiomatic peculiarities of the Greek language, and was a linguistic commentator in the strictest sense. Indeed, in cases where he is led aside from the true meaning or intent of the text, it is, very generally, where his exactness in these matters binds him too closely to the letter. But the careful student of his commentaries will be more and more impressed with the ability exhibited in them, in this regard, and will feel the force of the considerations which he presents from the rules and uses of the language.

Meyer's work is of a far higher order, and, if carefully used, will be of far more value to students in the theological field, than any other which has, as yet, been translated from the German. It is

It is designed

designed for Biblical scholars, not for popular use. exclusively for Biblical scholars, and not, like the American edition of Lange's work, partly for them and partly for others. If the members of the clerical profession are thoroughly interested in the study of the New Testament in the original language, they will prize this work as of the greatest service to them. The addition of it to the best recent English commentaries will make the facilities for such study, for those preparing to enter the profession, much greater than they have ever been in this country.

The publishers promise the utmost care in the preparation of the translation. The present volume seems to justify the hope that we shall have Dr. Meyer's thoughts presented accurately in an English form. It is a satisfaction, also, to see that the editor, who has the work in charge, has determined to make no additions or omissions. In the case of a work like this, the reader prefers to have it as it came from its author, and without anything inserted from foreign or inferior sources. The intermingling of any such extraneous matter seems to alter the character of the book, and, in just that degree, to diminish its value. The translators of German works have too frequently adopted the plan which Dr. Dickson has happily rejected, and we are the more gratified that this one comes to us as it does. The commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians was presented to the public by Dr. Meyer, in its first edition, as long ago as the year 1841. Four subsequent editions have been prepared, from the last of which, issued in 1870, this translation is made. The successive revisions of the work have added very greatly to its value. Nothing which has been published in connection with the Epistle, or which has tended to throw light upon it, has escaped the author's notice, or the attention which it deserved. The commentary is both critical and exegetical. Dr. Meyer's judgment in regard to the questions of textual readings is worthy of very high respect. To each chapter he prefixes a brief statement or discussion in respect to all the principal variations of the different manuscripts, which are to be found in it, with the readings adopted by the leading critical authorities. The exegetical notes cover every point suggested by the verses, and include the examination of historical questions and of the views of other writers which differ from his In the notice which he takes of those who, from the standpoint of the so-called higher criticism, or from some preconceived theory, would, mainly or wholly, set aside the New Testament record, he does not act the part of a mere controver

own.

sialist. His presentation of the strength of the argument is as calm as it is clear, and as convincing to a candid mind as it is calm. He opposes others in the spirit of a true scholar, whether the opposition be in relation to smaller or to greater matters. The introduction to the Commentary, in which he considers the dates, the object, the contents, the genuineness of the Epistle, and the people to whom it was written, is quite brief. The questions arising with reference to these points are not so involved or difficult, in the case of this Epistle, as in the case of some other parts of the New Testament, and the very nature of his Commentary—as a handbook for the whole New Testament-renders the most extended discussions of these questions anywhere quite impracticable. No investigator of these subjects, however, can pass over Dr. Meyer's introductions, without losing some of the most important suggestions which are to be found in any writer. The Epistle is regarded as the first of that series or section of the Pauline writings which includes, in addition to this one, the Epistle to the Romans and the two to the Corinthians.

Dr. Meyer wrote a preface for the English edition of his Commentary, which is to be published in connection with the volumes on the Epistles to the Romans,-the first one of which is promised during the present month. This preface will, very probably, set forth his views in presenting his Commentary to English and American readers, and will contain his formal authorization of the translated work. We are glad thus to be brought into immediate connection with the author, as if he had himself prepared his Commentary for us, and we could wish that he might have lived longer, not only to carry forward his work in future years, but also to receive the acknowledgments of the great benefit he was conferring from many students in this western land, where, as Dr. Dorner of Berlin, now visiting this country, has said, is to be, in the future, the stronghold of Protestantism-that system which looks to the New Testament rightly interpreted as the highest and final authority.

VAN DOREN'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.*-This Commentary, in two volumes, is the second or third, which has come to our

* A Suggestive Commentary on the New Testament, with Critical and Homiletical Notes, on an Original Plan. By W. H. VAN DOREN, D.D., Chicago, Ill., assisted by eminent Biblical Scholars of England and America. Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, by THOMAS ROBINSON, D.D., author of "The Evangelists and the Mishna." New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1873. Two vols. 12mo, pp. 520, 379.