The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-05-12
LIT e r A TU r e.

The appearance of Remains Life of Jesus =
some two years since, startled the orthodox
world with the skepticsm of its tone while il
delighted the critical by the beauty OF its style
and the wonderful consistency of its argument
1t pictured our Saviour as a man. it denied to
him all the attributes of Divinity, but made him
model for human imitation, pattern, an evil
dence of what our race should be. Being brought
before the destical population of France, gilt
tering as it did with the proofs OF originality
and genius, it preserved that which secured it
far greater success than any truth could have ac-
quired-a new style Of treating novel and ia.
teresting subject. 1t was addressed to the tastes
of Frenchmen and therefore in France it won
its greatest success.
"EcCe Homo" rather disrespectful title as
applied to our Lord is an American reprint, cover
ing the ground which Renan first discovered, but
robbed OF many of the most Objectionable fea-
lures OF the productions of this celebrated
foreigner.
The object of the work is clearly expressed IN
the preface. "Those who feel dissatisfied with
the current conception OF Christ, If they cannot
rest content without definite opinion, may feel
it necessary to do what TO persons not so dis
satisfied 1t seems audacious and perilous to do.
They may be obliged to reconsider the whole
subject from the beginning, and, placing them
selves in imagination at the time when he whom
we call Christ bore no such name, but was
simply, as st. Luke describes him, young man
OF promise, trace his biography from point to
point, and accept those conclusions about him.
not what Church doctrines or even apostles
have sealed with their authority, but which the
facts themselves, critically weighed, appear TO
warrant. This is what the present writer has un-
dertaken to do" And what the unknown author
set out to do, he has accomplished.
His work is far sounder than Renan's because
although going over the same ground the
one sought after truth by the light of Divine
revelation, while the other sought to prove
that revelation was Divine, but found truth,
and then compares it with the facts revealed
by the word OF God. One set forth to explore
an unknown country in the dark, the other took
the light in his hand, and walked as it showed
the way. "ECce Homo is production which,
TO speculative and doubling mind, would act
"a mighty argument in favor of Christianity.
1t is one Of the most profound works which has
fallen under our notice for years. and cannot
but prove satisfactory to the candid searcher
for truth.
Some of its ideas being new, may be termed
by many dangerous; but when ideas only tend
to prove the groundwork OF our faith to be firm,
why should they be rejected or feared, because
they had not been already worn out by the
Fathers? Every day brings us more light, and
the day will come when the perfect harmony
between science and Christianity shall be eyi-
denced; and believing that, why should we
seek to estrange them by clnging to exploded
theories or hanging on to doctrines whose only
CAIN is custom, and whose birth was in the
darkest day OF medieval superstition? Holding
these views, therefore, we are well pleased with
S'Ecce Homo" 1t does not deny or doubt the
perfect divinity ofChrist, but merely goes be.
yOnd what is written, and imagines him as he
probably was. The wonderful formation of the
Christian Church is examined, and compari-
son instituted between it and its co-eval repub.
lies 1t is a powerful, logical work, true in
spirit and if little too daring, does not invade
the bounds of sacred morality.
Occasionally the author rises with his sub.
ieCt and gives us a glowing sentence, eloquent
and lofty. The following brief extract will
show his style, and conclude our notice..
The Christian Commonwealth has already
Tar outasted all the States that were existing at
1he time OF It's foundation; 1t numbers far more
citizens than any OF the States which il has
seen spring up near it. 1t subverts without the
help oil armaments resting ON no accidental and
vi puyblCd support, DuJ on an inherent lmmOr-
taiity, 1T deded the enmity of ancient civlliza-
ton, the brutality OF medieval barbarism, and
under the present universal empire of public
opinion 1t is so secure that even those parts
seem indestructible which deserve to die 1t
has added new chapter to the science of
politics; it has passed through every change of
form which State can know; it has been demo-
cratCal, aristocratcal; it has made some ESSAYS
towards constitutional monarchy, and it has
furnished the most energetic aud scientific
tyranny of which history makes mention
The QUEENS FAvoRITB; OR, THH PRICE OF
CROWN. Historical Romance OF the FIJI
teenth Century. L. b. Peterson & Brothers
No. 3O6 Chestnut street.
The work before us has been out of print for
fifteen years, and is to all intents and purposes
a new book to the reading public. Probably
there is no other kind of romance which par
takes Of that peculiar fascination which en-
velOps novel with characters drawn from his
tory. What is truth and what is fiction, where
the boundary line divides the real and the ina.
ginary, and whether the parties painted did
really thus suffer, adventure, and love- are
questions which, while they may perplex, vet
ada thousand-iOld to the readers interest, The
"Queen's Favorite" is one of those strange vet
thrilling mixtures, partaking of the spirit 'of
Eugene Sue Ito whom the authorship has been
ascribed) and the dramatic power of G. R,
James. The scene is land in Spain, in the mid
die of the fifteenth century. The Don QuiXotes
had not then all disappeared. Chivalry and
teudalism we're yet dominant features in the poll
tical world. Romance was not a thing TO be
read Of and the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF semi baroarism
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