The Press. — London, England, 1854-01-14 00:00:00

JAIMARY 14, 1854. tion is not directly made of the occupation of " George and Robert Seeleye," and the form of the genitive in that age was mostly used w ith a preposition, as " Church of Saint Dun stan s." There is further bad imitation of the old spelling in the introduction, which we may c ite as being explanatory of the contents of the volume : Courteous Reader, My good Aunte Mistress Marian, late deceased, having at her Peth bequeathed to me this her Diane, or Booke w herein she was won t manic Times to set down her Thoughtes, with other Matter relating to those troublous Tapes in which she lived, I, desireing the Comforte of all P odlie Women thereby, bane caused the same to be prynted, in that Forme wherein she writ it, heartilye beseeching Him who did guide her by some roughs Wayes, yett with marvellous Peece and Assurance thorough this trouble some Worlde, soe to make her Ensample of Protitt to others as shat seeme good unto Him. Maye the btb, x D XCII. RICHARD FAULEXBRIDGE. The affectedly antique spelling of this passage would not bear critical dissection. Several of the words suggest a modern manufacturer. Upon the titlepage we read "Imprinted," and on the next leaf we find the word " prynted "; and similar diversities might be noted through the volume. But, while the mere imitative execution does not satisfy our bibliographical percep tions, we may record a favourable verdict of the substance of the diary. Its author has powers that do not require the aid of fantastic typographical tricks. Many passages are written with the delicate sweetness of a re fined nature, accustomed to dwell habitually in high and holy thoughts, and its authoress has considerable pathos of manner. We may doubt whether she be capable of planning out a dramatic story with a complicated plot, but she has sufficient subtlety to analyse charac ter, and she has a natural vein of fancy. Some of the koetical passages interspersed in the " Diary have much sentimental grace. We will extract one on a child's baptism : This days was the lytell babe chrystened, to whom was green the name of Gerald. I was his gossyp, and dvd carry him in myne armes to the fonts. Eftsoones were broght wafers and hypocrass, and we did all drynk to his helth. Poore lytell babe, he did crie lamentably and be wayl ; and I wryt this poor verse for the nonce. Nay, lytell babe, thou sholdest not wepe so sore, We bryng thee unto One, Who on the Crosse thy spines and trespasse bore Long synce, for thee to attone ; And praye to Him to kepe thee evermore, Nay, lytell babe, thou needst not weep so sore. We bryng thee unto Him who once dyd call The ehyldren to his knee, Fulle smalwere they, but he dyd take them all, And blesse them lovyuglye ; And in his arms the tender lambes he bore, Nay, lytell babe, thou sholdest not wepe so sore. Post wepe, poore babe, to see what euill case By nature we are in, Foule and uncleano afore oure Maker's face, For father Adam's synne ? But thou shalt heare Bowe loue bath opal a doore, Hush, lytell babe, and doe not wepe so sore. Dost wepe to loke upon the dreadefull pytte Where we are Tyke to fall, If by the Savyour's grace we be not quitte, That gaue His lyfe for all : That where dyd syn abund, grace myght m ache more, Nay, lytell babe,thou needst not wepe so sore. I trowe He wyll oure feeble voyses catch, And to oure worries gene hede, He sayeth, To whom shal knocke I lyft the latch, And byd goe in wyth spade ; He cries, Whatso thou wylt, I grannt thee more, Then, lytell babe, thou needst not wepe so sore. The flow of the rhythm and the tone of thinking in these verses belong to a later age, and suggest that the author must be familiar with the poems of George Herbert and Her rick. As a specimen of the style of the prose, we will extract the description of the death of the little child Dayly we watch besydo the chylde, sorowcing to see him suffre anie doloure ; yett as goode Master Frenche who was here but nowe, sayeth, We be wel perswaded he is in a Londe marvellous tender, and more louynge than we be, and we nede not to feare that He wyll handle him anie sorer than shal make for his goode. And so Joan is conforted therby, and desyreth to leaue her carefulnesse and over pensyvenesse of herte, and to wayt mekely upon Him that )(meth her lytell one, and chastyseth onelye for mire proitt. The babe is gone! and so all oure fearer and watchynges are over, for no"ht, shal nowe berme nor yett afilyet hym. fester e'en I prated Joan to take her reste, and kept vigyl by him whyleas he slept. Verie tranquill dyd he lye, his pale prettie face preaced upon his ryghte arme, and his lytell 'mule stretched forthe upon the pyllowe. The fayre lyddes drooped d owne over hi s awete ems, lyke to the leauea of floures that close up theyr prettie golden heames. i sate a goode space in meditacyon, harkenyng to his heavie tbyeke breathe as it came and went. Anon it grew more THE PRESS. hushed, and methoght he slept peaceftillye, but abought two of the clocks I was myntled to luke at hym, so takyng a lyghte, I came close, and bowed myne heads towarde him. He was eerie styll, yea so styli, that myne herte beat ouer faste as I lystened for his breathe. It came not. I toke his lytell honde, it was growyng colde, and it fell agayn from myne, as a deade wayght that bath none power of lyfe. I called to Joan in hest. She came and Joked wyth me, but it was all too late ;—too late for him to hears ours voyses thogh neuer so luwd, for swete babe, he was harkenyng to the angellicsll softe musyck of heauen, and the dulcet voyses of fayre spotlesse creatures, and the swete murmurs of the crystall ryver of (1011, and methoght he heard One speakyng and sayeing, " Of suche is the Kyngedome of heauen." So he has shortlye entred into his rests, after a lytell space of payn and doloures, whych nowe he remembereth not, for suche thynges I wet are passed awaye. Smal know ledge had he of this erthly lyfe and its vanyties, and fulle none bath he begun the heveuly lyfe. But we are left be hynd, still tossyng to and fro. lett we luke to reach the same safe harborough, for He who kenneth ours frayltye wyll not suffre us to fayle, and we are marvellouslye by Hym euer holpen and couforted. The poore mother loketh fondlye to the tame whenas she mays beholde her lytell one in glorye. She bath some bytternesse of apyritt truelye for her onelye sonne, but she maketh no murmurs, and syth he be her bests and metteet, desyreth to gene him up a lytell sacryfyce unto her Ood, and rejoyceth to thynke that uowe he prayseth Him in His house for euer moe. There are many other passages in the vo lume which testify to the pathetic power of the writer. " Ephemeris" will please readers who are of a serious and sentimental turn of mind; and its composer is fitr above the ave rage of the fictionists who write for " cir culating _libraries." In its piety there is no gloom ; in its religious musings there is no thing mawkish ; and its eloquence is often tender and impressive. Memoirs of the Princess Palatine, Princess of Bolumht. By the Baroness Blaze de Bury. London : Bentley. THE late Professor Smyth, of Cambridge, in teaching his class the practical method of arriving at the value of historical works, recommended careful examination of the foot notes, and intimated that where these are deficient the research of the author might not be relied on. The notes to this volume are " angelical " in being "few and far between," and we find no proofs that the compiler has added in the slightest degree to what is already known upon the subject. The volume is com posed of old matter, treated without novelty of manner, and the work will only be found interesting by those who are not versed in modern history. The authoress gets out of her depth in introducing a sketch of Descartes and his philosophy, and she fails to indicate his influence on the French mind, as well as over the understanding of Pascal. Few of the softer sex, like a Racier, a De Staa, or a Somerville, are fitted for abstruse research or profound investigation ; and we think that the Baroness Blaze de Bury might better employ her powers on less difficult themes than meta physical disquisition or historical inquiries. On the State of Man subsequent to the Promulga tion of Christianity. Part IV. London J. W. Parker and Son. (Small Books ou Great Subjects. No. 22.) Wz have long regretted the absence from our literature of some single work which should comprise within reasonable compass the re sults at least of the great contributions made by recent writers to the social and religious history of Europe during the middle ages. The profound and invaluable researches of Guizot, Hallam, Sismondi, Bunke, and others, are naturally, from their wide extent, inacces sible to a large class of readers, who are de terred by want either of leisure time, or of special bias for the pursuit, from entering upon a study so vast, and involving so great a mastery of details. The little work before us, without claiming to be considered as a manual of the subject in the strict sense, or present ing a dry, technical summary of events in de tail, is to be recommended as a clear, vigorous, and graphic sketch of the whole period of which it treats ; a character, drawn only in outline, but full of truthfulness and point,—of the progress of European society, as influenced by, and itself reacting upon, the religion of Christ. Passing rapidly over the leading events and changes of the time, it traces their 41 causes, their connection, and their results, with the eye and hand of a religious philoso pher. It is a history of Christianity, not as a system of doctrinal truths, but as the belief and practice of living masses of mankind. The present volume forms but a fourth part of the entire work, and treats of the social state of Europe from the beginning of the twelfth to the end of the fourteenth century. One object of the author has been to supply a fair and correct estimate of the institutions of the age, so unjustly regarded in general from our modern point of view : There has been a very general misapprehension of the institutions of medileval times ; some decrying them as mere contrivances of a restless and grasping ambition ; others looking back with blind fondness to a period which can never return, and would be a curse if it could.—p. 21. The leading idea and scope of the work may best perhaps be illustrated by the following passage, which is a good example of the au• they's style:— The action and reaction of Christianity on the age, and of the age on Christianity, has been going on from the first, and still continues: every century gives its own ver sion, more or less pure, of the faith of Christ; and every century pronounces confidently that now its institutions are perfect, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them. The next finds many of the institutions unsuited to its needs, and the dogmata taught aro mixed u p with an antiquated phraseology not always intelligible : tt pro bably, with the accustomed versatility of human nature, cries out aloud that Christianity is a worn-out system, and that something fresh must be devised : a great convulsion follows, rivers of blood flow, and what then? Mau sits wofully in the midst of the desolation he has made; he has set up' idols, and they have not helped him; he retunis at last to his God, and finds that the Christianity which he had thought antiquated and worn out is in fact intertwined in the very substance of his nature, that he must love, and hope, and do, as Christ did ; and that in the attempt to tear away Christianity he must tear away also all that is good and great in humanity. He will then discover what he would have done better to have discovered sooner, that he has been complaining only of the institutions of men, and that the real truths of the gospel tymain the striver, yesterday, to-day, and for erer.—p. ;13. The gradual steps which prepared the way for the Reformation are well delineated ; and we trust, through the diffusion of sounder views by means of books like the present, to see the end of that narrow and unphilosophic temper which could busy itself in assigning one single specific cause to every important event in history seeing in so widely-spread ing an event as Le Reformation, for instance, only the result of a tyrant's caprices or the in trigues of a maid of honour : It would be a k,freat mistake to suppose that these causes were purely religious. No doubt the indignation and dia• gust excited by the vices of the clergy, the exactions and ambitions of the popes, and the falsification of gospel doctrines which with the increasing knowledge became every day more apparent, hail their share in causing the general upheaving of the middle and lower orders which took place at this period; but this would hardly have pro duced so general a movement had not political wrongs created a large sum of discontent with the existing order of things.... .The humbling the ecclesiastical body and the spoliation of its rich endowments were iu fact the aim of the aristocracy, and probably of the King also ; while the people in their turn saw in the preaching of their reformers the dawn of better times for them; and then, mingled with occasional passionate yearnings for a doc trine which might satisfy the heart and understanding, worldly and political interests played their part.— pp. 2b7-9. We are reminded, with much regret, that with the next and final portion of this work the series of" Small Books on Great Subjects" will be brought to an cnd,—a series for which we have heartily to thank both projectors and editors. Their interest and value may be truly said to be in the ratio of their subject, not of their size. One Word for Ruisia, and Two for Ourselves. By I'acificus. London : Murray. _ - - WE remember that in the days of his yrnth on the Pacifico debate Lord Aberdeen played very happily on the word Sapienza, which was the name of one of the islets to which the Lord High Commissioner of the lonian Islands had then recently laid claim on behalf of Great Britain. His lordship will there fore perhaps pardon us if we suggest that Pacificu.s may afford some clue to the" Athenian " author of the pamphlet before us. The title, also, is suggestive, but the internal evidence is conclusive, that this pro duction is the composition of a coalition, for each proposition in it diametrically contradicts Rome other that either precedes or follows it.. The whole pre sents just such a heterogeneous conglomerate as would result from any compound to which each of ber Majesty's servants had contributed a part. The author is astonished that English journals should . ‘l4lllr l '