The Press. — London, England, 1857-12-26 00:00:00

THE PRESS, DECEMBER 26, 1857. wild boar, besides elephants. He details his adventures in a lively style, his descriptions are extremely animated and graphic, and the final results of his experience of sporting in South Africa are comprised in much excellent practical advice to brother sportsmen. The volume is handsomely illustrated with several characteristic sketches taken from life, snd is altogether one of the most entertaining and presentable books of the season. pit the Right Use of the Early Fathers. Two Series of Lectures, delivered iu the University of Cambridge. By the Rev. J. J. Blunt, B.D. London : Murray. Tuts very valuable work of Professor Blunt has come before the public at a time when such a testimony to the value of patristic learning was perhaps never more needed ; for although it be true that an unhealthy craving after novelty has traced and dogged the Church in all ages, yet never perhaps did this evil assume a more dangerous and °neatening aspect than at present, when all that is old is suspected, and whatever scheme that steps for the first time only upon the stage is cer tain of admiration and patroutge. It is a matter therefore of sincere congratulation to the Church that the voice of this truly learned and able Professor should speak forth, as it were from the grave, to recall to the remem• brance of the present generation the unde• niable truth, that the Church of England lots ever clung to the practice and the teaching of antiquity, and regarded the early Ante-Nicene Fathers as the great champions of catholic and primitive truth in her controversies alike with Popish bigotry and puritanical fana ticism. This fact is established in the first lecture, by the authorised documents of the English Church, and by the writings of Phil pot, Olinda', and other eminent Reformers. Neither ought it to be at all a matter of sur prise that the revival of this study of the Fathers shpuld have raised a violent storm of opposition on the part of those who desire to expunge all Church principles from among us. The supporters of anti-episcopal tenets must naturally desire to shelve the writings of those Christian teachers who afford such unques tionable evidence that doctrines subversive of their own were the creed of the primitive Church. It is only natural for them to cry out— Non tali auxilio, nee dAinsolibus istis Tempus eget, but such persons manifest a sad ignorance of the value of those weapons which our own Reformers wielded with such power against Romish recusants. Those, in fact, who decry the Fathers in the present day are the persons who are receding farthest from the principles of the Reformation ; while those who are fear lessly appealing to their writings are alone acting in the true spirit of that great move ment which the popular party of the day praise without understanding, and profess to rollow, while in truth they are drifting away from it. " It is," says Mr. Blunt, " precisely " the same feeling which prompts the Ro " manists to disparage the primitive Fathers, " that prompts Daille and the foreign Pro " tostatuts to do the same—viz , that their " authority is unpropitious to them both." The object, then, of Professor Blunt's pre sent work is to defend the writings of the Fathers who lived before the Council of Nice from the charges which have been brought against them by the opponents of the catholic principles and practices of the English Church. The first writer of any mark who undertook to write down the Fathers was Daille, the Pro. testant pastor at Charenton (it town in France), in 1626. He published many works on Divinity, in Latin and French, chiefly on controversial subjects, the most celebrated of which was h a treatise "1 e Usti Patrum." in which he endeavours to establish certain grave ()Nee tiote to the study of these ancient teachers of the Church. Speaking of this publication, Professor Blunt observes, p. 21:- I)aille's treatise has been circulated with great industry. It probably had its ellect, even on such men as Chillingworth, and contributed to give his theology the bias; it has. It certainly has been read by thousands who 1, have never troubled theniaelves to look into it page of the Fathers for themselves; nor, after reading it, wuall they Vt, perhaps test mush inclination to do so : yet, without read. ing the Fathers, it is impossible to see the unfairness of Dailies arguments; and I well remember that all the early years ut my life, my impression of these authors was wholly that which Daille ha l given we ; as altnust all the labours of my later years have tended to efface it. After Thalia came Jean Barbeyrae, an eminent French jurist, born in 1674, and the son of Calvinist parents, who upon the revoca tion of the Edict of Nantz fled into Switzer land. Barbeyrac was a rather voluminous writer. Of this work Professor Blunt thus peaks, p. 226: The work which, nest to that of Daillc, has produced an unfavourable itnpression of the Fathers on the minds of a great number of persons, is liarbesrac's " On the Morality of the Fathers." attack upon them, made by a Prof••ssur of Law at Gro ningen in the course of a preface which he wrote to Puttendolfs " Right of Nature and Nations." In the first series of these lectures Professor Blunt has most ably examined and refuted the objections of both these adversaries of the study of the Fathers ; and in the second series he exhibits in fifteen lectures the advantages to be derived from their study, which " are " arranged in the form of answers to the in " sinuations of Gibbon" (p. iv.); and it is shown how the writings of the Fathers may be made tributary to the evidences of Chris tianity, and to questions connected with the rank and character of the early Christians, the exercise of miraculous powers in their times, the nature and construction of the Church, the Call/311a Scripture, the text of the New Testament, the meaning of Scripture, and the doctrines of the early Church. The limit of this review forbids any attempt to analyse the learned and convincing argu ment of the Professor. For these lectures, without any ostentatious display of learning, are full of learning. They are the production of a mind that has searched deeply and fully into the subject he treats of; and after the publication of such a work as the present, we feel sure that no honest searcher after truth will venture to pass sentence on these vener able remains of early and catholic times with out having first honestly and carefully examined the statements and arguments herein con tained. The following extract, however, will exhibit the conclusions which the careful re searches of Professor Blunt have lead him to form, and may induce the reader of this review to become himself acquainted with these valuable lectures. At the end of the third lecture, in which he defends them from the charge of forgery and interpolation, he sums up thus:— Let them (the readers) explore the question for them selves, by mastering fir themselves the primitive docu ments which are of good repute, and I undertake to say that they will then iise from the perusal of Daille very often, perhaps generally, with a feeling that he is a special pleader, and has a cause to make good. In Lecture VIII , at p. 19i, after a caref it examination of a grave charge brought against Cyprian, he concludes : Cyprian's testimony cannot be used for anything else but the bare existence of such a practice in his time ( viz. of Infant Communion. and not fur its necessity, as Ditilk would have sail). Now surely this proceeding of Ladle's, this shuffling of names and quotations, so as to seem to get the conclusion he desires, and to make those who do not refer to his authorities believe that he does so fairly, is at least as di-ingennous an act as any he can lay to the account of the Fathers. At p. he gives the reason very ably why both Dissenters and Romanists reject the use of the Fathers. We conclude this brief and imperfect re view of a most valuable and useful publication witli au earnest reco►nmendation to all students of theology to make themselves at once ac quainted with its powerful and convincing argument. Lays of the Holy Land. From Ancient and Modern Poets. With Illustrations from Original Photographs and Drawings. Lon den: Nisbet and Co. AMONGST the gift-books of the season this beautifully illustrated volume is particularly distinguished. It contains a choice series of engravings, representing incidents and scenes in Scriptural llistory. The designs aro by some of the best artists of the day, and the getting up of the work is extremely rich for its price of one guinea. Moses on the Nile," by Mr. Millais, is a remarkable piece of draw ing, tlaougn open to criticism• The dress of 1257 the principal figures is more suggestive of Indian than Egyptian costume ; the attitude of Pharoah's daughter, and the peculiar mode in which she is holdin„► lip her robe, is natural but not graceful. The effect obtained, however, is bold and original The solemnly pictu resque landscapes of the Holy Land, with their palm and cedar trees, are finely ren dered. We would particularly notice, also, the drawings of Jerusalem, which are excel lent specimens of book engravings. " Vul tures," by Woolf, is very clever : a broken colonnade is in the distance, and in the fore ground are two of those gloomy birds; but it is inappropriate that the letterpress should ho addressed "to the eagle." " The Will Gazelle," illustrating Byron's beautiful lines (one of his finest minor pieces), is very clever. " The Old Aqueduct near the Jordan," by Dalziel, is masterly in its drawing, and the light and shade are well brought out in the engraving by the Brothers Dalziel. The " Wailing Place of the Jews," by the same artist, is spirited, though the grouping is not skilful, and the engraving is rather blotchy ; but the effect aimed at is attained. The letterpress is tasteful and appropriate, and a judicious selection of religious poetry has been made from favourite authors. On the whole we are justified in recommending it to notice as one of the handsomest and most appropriate gift-books of the season. There is a contrasted variety in its matter, not always found in books of this description. NEW NOVELS AND POEMS. 1. Caste. By the Author of " Mr. Arle." Three Vols. London : Hurst and Blackett. 2. White Lies. A Story. By Charles Reade. Three Vols. London : Triibner. :1. Court Secrets. By Mrs. Thernson. Three Vols. London : Hurst and Blackett. 4. The Gables. By Julia Melville. Three Vols. London : Newby. 5. Early Straggles. By Mrs. A. Crawford. Three Vols. London : Newby. G. The Lady of Glynae. By the Author of " Mar garet and Her Bridesmaids." Three Vols. London! Huist and Blackett. 7. Frank Mil(ward. By W. Kenrick, Esq. Two Vols. London : Skeet. 8. The Handwriting on the Wall. By Edwin Ather stone. Three Vols. London : Bentley. POEMS. 9. Gardenia. A Poem. By William Stephen Sandes. London : Milliken. 10. Corona, and Other Poems. By E. J. Reed. London : Longmans. 11. The Hundred Days of Napoleon. A Poem in Five Cantos. By Archibald Belaney. Lon- don : Hall and Co. 12. Pastoral Poems. By William Wordsworth. Illustrated by George Thomas, Henry Warren, and Birket Foster. London: Sampson Low and Co. 1. THE authoress of " Mr. Arle" has made a great advance in her present work, which is one of the most powerfully-written novels we have met with for a long time. To her conception of character and the general probabilities of life we are disposed to think many exceptions may be taken ; but these do not touch the excellencies of her execution, which after all is the thing that most affects the comfort of a reader during the perusal of a story, however severe may be his judgment atter he has finished it. It is impossible to open this book anywhere, and look at a sentence or two, without seeing, to use a common expression, "that there is something in it" —that the writer does not belong to the ignota injle toque turba of fictionists whom a sort of fissiparous gemination sends forth annually from the press, and of wln,m we shall meet with some characteristic specimens before concluding this article—but that she has a substantial and marked individuality, an original and most readable style, and a view of life and manners which may or may not be true, but which is at any rate unborrowed from conventional mudels. Isabel Weld is the daughter of a trades man, and though beautiful, intellectual, and without any objectionable connections, feels or fancies the shadow of trade dogging her steps wherever she goes. The story hinges on her love for a suitor in every way, except that of birth, adapted to her, and ou her perverse rejection of him, for fear her low ori. gin abould prove 3 bar to his advouneuient, Mach I 4/