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

1258

=happiness is the result ; and Isabel in a fit of
pique marries a man whom she does not love, and
whom she informs of the fact in anything but a con-
ciliatory manner. Driven from home by her cold-
ness, he becomes a gambler, and, though subs..
quently reconciled, is deprived by death of any op-
portunity of repairing his wrongs or of receiving the
atonement she at last becomes willing to offer. Her
life, in short, is an utter failure, and her cardinal mis-
takes of morbid pride and overwrought fastidiousness
drag down to misery all with whom she is connected.
We are afraid we must pronounce this plct, however
interesting in detail, to be an eminently unsatisfac-
tory affair, and we cannot tell what moral it enforces,
unless it be that of the utter futility of all personal
and intellectual gifts to one who has placed herself
in a false position. Men are often accused of mis-
representing and doing injustice to the opposite sex :
certainly they never represent them in so unfavour-
able a light as they represent themselves. All the
novels which describe painful selt-sacriticeß for un-
worthy objects, insensate pride and obstinacy, un-
worthy pique and unbridled passion, united with an
almost judicial blindness as to matters of mutual
feeling, in persons engaged in constant mutual inter-
course, are written by women. " Women painted by
themselves," that is, by the English female novelists
of the present day, would furnish a libel more severe
than any which has been levelled against the sex
since the days of Euripides. Of course there are
exceptions : we do not refer to Mrs. Gore or Mrs.
Gaskell, who describe their sisters with truthfulness
as well as power; but the most prolific of the pens
which supply the circulating libraries seem engaged
in a constant attempt to make us believe feminine
nature to be the clean contrary of all we have ever
heard or experienced it to be. We join issue with
the authoress by saying that we do not believe that
any one in the place of Isabel Wold would have
acted as she is described to have done ; and we con-
fidently appeal to the verdict of our sensible female
readers to support our opinion. It is easier to pro-
test against such delineations of human nature than
to account for the partiality which some writers show
for them. Are they the crude imaginings of youth•
fal and enthusiastic brains, unused to life and its
responsibilities, and preeumptuouely anxious to take
upon their shoulders all sorts of burden!' besides
those which Providence is certain to place there in
the course of their journey ? The fact that most of
these writers are unmarried would seem to support,
the great talent and observation displayed to forbid,
such a supposition. Are they a wholesome reaction
against the sleepy prosperity of the old-fashioned
style of fiction, where the white favours and brides•
maids loom in the distance through a prospective of
notinsuperable misfortunes, as surely as at the Lyceum
the Bowers of Blooming Beatitude gleam hopefully
through the machinations of the cleverele. and most
malignant demon ? If such be the case we may feel
sympathy, while we are obliged to withhold admira-
tion. We suspect, however, that the true cause is of
a different kind. The delineation of anomalous
and unaccountable conduct which we have been
ascribing to a certain class of female novelists is,
perhaps, a kind of safety-valve to them, just as the
portraiture of graver offences sometimes is to the
masculine temperament. As a man of imagination
pursues his impulses to their consequences, and
works out the tendency of cupidity, concupiscence,
or anger into forgery, adultery, or murder—so, pro-
bably, may the female mind luxuriate in theprobabi-
lities of mispla:ed affection or disappointed hopes—
may moralise on the ultimate result of some fault in
taste or temper, or exhibit in the concrete form the
miserable, though not criminal, consequences flow-
ing from some insignificant an,l apparently unim-
portant step. As man works out the problems sug-
gested by a more corrupt experience and a more
worldly knowledge, so woman, perhaps, follews to
their result the temptations of the heart, and circum-
scribes her "wreck of matter and crash of worlds "
by the round of daily life and domestic trial. As a
man may in imagination become an Angelo or an
lago—may make himself a beast or a fiend—so a
woman may, under like conditions, give her folly its
full swing, and develop a being like those with whom
eontemporftry stories have made us familiar. Such
deviations from the beaten tract, whatever scope
they may give to originality of treatment, are in
reality nowise preferable to that which they pretend
to supplant. They do not—which should he the
aim of the novelist and the poet—individualise com-
mon materials by the force of art and genius, but
they exalt abnormal motives and exceptional situa-
tions into the guides of conduct, and, throwing
principle overboard, commit the destinies of a whole
life to the caprice of temper or accident. Even the
worldly morality of the eighteenth-century novelists
would be preferable to such wild teaching as this,
which afflicts the sensibility without informing the
judgment, and irritates the sense of probability
without much enlivening the imagination.
Any friend who should persuade Mr. Charles
Reade to leave off his practice of writing prefaces,
and letters to the journals, would do him an essential