character is not properly pointed out. These deficiencies, however, are probably common to all existing English dictionaries, and the present work certainly contains an abundance of idiomatic phrases which we should fail to find in its predecessors. Among these we note the expression "adventure school," which we had thought to be a coinage of the last few years, but which is here illustrated by a quotation dated as far back as 1834.

venient) word aphetized, which he employs
frequently in his etymological remarks.
We reserve for a second notice the etym-
ology and phonology. Meanwhile, we may
briefly say that in these departments, as in
those already discussed, this opening part of
the "Great Dictionary? fully satisfies the
high expectations which have been formed
respecting it. It is earnestly to be hoped
that the work will be carried to its conclusion
in a manner worthy of this brilliant com-

HENRY BRADLEY.

A Naval Career during the Old War: being
a Narrative of the Life of Admiral John
Markham. (Sampson Low.)

The most valuable feature of the new Dictionary is of course its wealth of illus-mencement. trative quotations, and the skill with which these have been arranged so as to exhibit the successive changes of form and meaning which the words have undergone since the time of their earliest appearance in English. The examples, as already stated, are placed under the definition which they severally illustrate, the original sense of the words being first explained, the derivative senses following in the order of their logical descent. In the case of words of foreign origin, it does not always happen that the original English sense of a word is that indicated by its etymology, as such words were often first introduced in some technical acceptation, which was afterwards extended in accordance with the wider meaning of the Latin or other original. In these cases the editor has varied his mode of treatment according to the circumstances. Under the word Advent the ecclesiastical and religious senses of the word are mentioned first, and it is afterwards pointed out that it has been in later times applied to "any important or epoch-making arrival," and "poetically or grandiloquently to any arrival." This order is justified by the fact that the earlier applications of the word have given a colour to its subsequent extension of meaning. In the article Annunciation a different course has been followed, the etymological sense of the word being first given, and afterwards its applications to the church festival and to the event which it commemorates, although these technical senses are of earlier occurrence in English.

But,

prosperous in Nottinghamshire for several
centuries, "producing a bishop, two judges,
many knights of the shire and military com-
manders, two authors, and a traitor."
at last, in the lavish days of Elizabeth and
James I., there succeeded a "valiant consumer
of his estate." Sir Robert Markham, of
Cotham, was "a fatal unthrift and destroyer
of this eminent family." Its place in Notting-
hamshire knew it no more. It had too much
vitality, however, to remain long in obscurity;
and Sir Robert's great-grandson, Major
William Markham, paved the way to the
complete restoration of its fallen fortunes by
his unselfish devotion to his children, and
especially by the care which he bestowed
upon his eldest son, the future Archbishop,
who was described by so competent a
judge as the learned Dr. Parr as possessing
" 'powers of mind, reach of thought, memory,
learning, scholarship, and taste of the
very
first order." The passages relating to this
truly great man are by no means the least
interesting part of the book.

John Markham entered the navy, at the age of thirteen years and nine months, in 1774, and saw much active service during the American War of Independence. The Archbishop's brother was at that time in command of the 46th Regiment, and his description of the fighting near New York gives an excellent idea of the course of events on shore.

·啊

STORIES of the old war time at the end of the last and the beginning of the present centuries can never fail to stimulate the patriotism and excite the enthusiasm of English readers; and the narrative of Admiral Markham's career is exceedingly interesting if regarded merely as a page of naval history. It has, however, a double claim to welcome from the reading public on account of the insight which it gives us into the lives of some of the most prominent men of the period. Admiral Markham was employed for a quarter of a century afloat during very stirring times, and afterwards for a similar period in Parliament and in office. He was engaged in scenes and at places which are historically interesting, Young Markham reand his parliamentary and official career is turned home from the West Indies when identified with measures which were im- peace was proclaimed between England and t portant at the time, and are worthy of careful France in 1782, and was promoted to the attention now. There is naturally much in rank of post-captain in January 1783. His such a life which makes a knowledge of it age was then only twenty-one years and useful; and, though Admiral Markham char-a-half; but he had become a thorough sailor acteristically declined to supply materials for by incessant cruising, often in very severe a biographical notice in the Naval Chronicle, weather, and by commanding prizes. He had he seems to have been willing that his papers learned the duties and responsibilities of an should be utilised in the time to come. At officer, and had won the esteem and regard all events, he methodically preserved, docketed, of the captains and admirals under whom he and arranged all his official correspondence, had served. He had also specially distinguished and a considerable selection from his private himself at the siege of Charleston and in the letters; and it is mainly from the papers action in the Chesapeake Bay. Soon after the Exception may perhaps be taken to the so preserved and arranged that this volume siege of Charleston, he received news of the frequent introduction of examples from pub- has been prepared. The result is a tone of great danger to which his father and family lications of the last two or three years, which unmistakable freshness and realism. The men had been exposed during the anti-Catholic may seem to savour too much of the affecta- who were at work in our places a hundred riots in 1780; and a very graphic description tion of "bringing the work down to the years ago are brought before us as living of these disgraceful scenes is contained in latest date." It should be remembered, how-realities. We are enabled to see the kind of a letter from the Archbishop to his son. ever, that in a few years many words now work they had to do and how they did it, to current will probably have become obsolete or share their aspirations and hopes, to contemchanged in sense, and in such instances these plate their homes, and even to enter into their latest examples will be of especial value to home feelings, with as close a sympathy as students of the history of the language. We if they still moved in our midst. It is have noted one or two cases in which useless not often that we can do this. "The greator misleading quotations are given, or in grandsires of most of us, and even many which examples are ranged under wrong historical personages of those days, are mere heads. Under Advertiser, the title "Morning shadows now-names marking dates, and Advertiser" is quoted, with the date 1882 nothing more; " and the author may well (why not still later?). This conveys a wrong believe that, when materials have been preimpression, as the signification which it is served which tell the life-story of one such, intended to exemplify was obsolete long before "the labour of arranging and condensing them the time here indicated. In the article is generally well spent." When, as in the Amour the extracts from Chaucer and from present instance, this labour is performed R. Burney given under the first definition with unvarying tact and discretion, combined really belong to the second. It is rather with literary ability of a high order, we may amusing to find that the only authority well congratulate ourselves on such an excepadduced for Anamorphose is a quotation from tional opportunity of becoming acquainted "J. A. H. Murray, in Mill Hill Mag. iv. 79." with our predecessors. When Part II. of the Dictionary appears, we shall see whether Dr. Murray is able to quote any precedent for the (certainly very con

Admiral Markham was the second son of Dr. William Markham, Archbishop of York, the head of a family which was influential and

During the breathing-time which followed the American War, Capt. Markham spent three pleasant years in the Mediterranean in com mand of the Sphinx; and then followed a interval of half-pay. When the long w broke out in 1793, he was again activel employed under Howe and Jervis, but wa invalided home from the West Indies in 179 and in the following year married the Hot Maria Rice, sister of Lord Dynevor. The were stirring times in the Navy, howeve and his services were not long dispensed wit In March 1797 he received the command the Centaur, a fine seventy-four-gun sh and soon afterwards had to sit on the cour martial which followed the Mutiny at t Nore. After this painful duty, he took active part in the Minorca expedition and blockades of Cadiz and Brest-avery severe dangerous service, for which he received of the gold medals presented by Lord Vincent to those officers who had served un him, and with whose conduct he was m

pleased. In 1801, Lord St. Vincent accepted the office of First Lord of the Admiralty, and Capt. Markham was selected as one of the Naval Lords-a further proof of the high esteem in which he was held by his chief. Lord St. Vincent's administration was distinguished by those splendid triumphs which confirmed the naval supremacy of England, and annihilated the squadrons of France, Spain, and Holland, as well as by important reforms in the civil departments of the Navy. In this great work Admiral Markham played a distinguished part. He carried a Bill for the appointment of a Commission of Naval Inquiry, which led to the exposure of a host of abuses, and he introduced measures which were productive of permanent good. He retired from office when the Government known as "All the Talents" went out in 1807, but he continued to represent Portsmouth in Parliament, with only one interruption, until 1826. He died at Naples in 1827 at the age of sixty-five years and eight

months.

This admirable narrative is a fitting memorial of the work and worth of a zealous and single-minded public servant and a loyal and warm-hearted man. Lord St. Vincent, who laid the foundation of our modern Navy, and who was certainly not given to indiscriminate praise, wrote to Mr. Grenville : "You will find in Markham firmness and integrity to the backbone, happily combined with ability, diligence, and zeal." That his name does not stand out more prominently in his generation is due to the fact that his fearless denunciation of abuses made him enemies; but "he is an example of one who did the work he found before him with all his might, without self-seeking and without fear," and "such an example can never be wholly without its use to others." It is only ecessary to add that the book is well illustrated with sketch maps, and that the text enriched with copious notes. It contains a large amount of varied information, and no can fail to derive genuine pleasure as well as instruction from its perusal. GEORGE T. TEMPLE.

opportunities may hereafter develop a purely
scientific school of American Egyptology; but,
in the meanwhile, pioneers could take no safer
point of departure than the Biblical platform.
It may be conjectured that these pioneers start
under certain disadvantages; that their public
libraries are probably poor in Egyptological
works, and that the students themselves have
yet, perhaps, to become familiar with the
relative value of such books as those libraries
contain. Merely to know which guides to
trust and which to doubt, merely to distin-
guish between the progressive and the sta-
tionary, demands a long critical experience.
One frequently looks in vain for evidences of
that experience in the writings of American
scholars whose industry and general learning
are beyond question. It is necessary, in fact,
that they should more clearly grasp the
importance of going direct to original sources
for their information, and of keeping abreast
with the higher periodical literature of
Egyptology.

01

ventional ethnographic type which reproduces with remarkable fidelity the general cast of features prevailing even to this day among the natives of Palestine.

The American Oriental Society holds its meetings, apparently, twice a year-in October at New Haven, and in May at Boston. The memoirs and discussions are of a very high order of scholarship and of exceeding interest, ranging over the whole field of Oriental research, from Egyptology and Assyriology to Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Siamese, and Thibetan literature. In the last number of the society's Proceedings I must especially note Prof. I. H. Hall's important paper on "A Temple of Zeus Labranios in Cyprus" (Zeus of the Axe), and the Rev. J. P. Peters's memoir on the "Origin of the Phoenician Alphabet." Egyptologists will not, however, agree with the last named scholar in regarding De Rouge's discovery of the derivation of that alphabet from the hieratic script as "a still unproved theory."

The author of Ancient Egypt in the Light Mdme. Lee-Childe is neither chronological, of Modern Discoveries tells us that he has ethnological, nor Biblical. She is not par"long been a student of Egyptian history and ticular as to the era of Mena. Neither does archaeology," and that his studies have been she afflict herself (or us) about the pyramid pursued not only in the great European inch, the sacred cubit, the astronomical calmuseums, but also on the banks of the Nile.culations of Biot, or the precise value of the The result comes to us in the form of a well- final vowel sound in proper names. She is filled and pleasantly written volume, in which simply an intelligent, observant, highly the arts, the monuments, and the history of educated gentlewoman, of whom it is scarcely Ancient Egypt are severally discussed; the too much to say that she is a French Lady reigns and dynasties being briefly epitomised Duff Gordon. Mdme. Lee-Childe has as rapid from Brugsch and Lenormant, and the religion and elegant a pen as the celebrated author of from Le Page Renouf. The ethnic and Letters from Egypt. Her touch is as light; chronological problems are lucidly and care- her sympathies are as quick; her good breedfully stated, the chapter devoted to the last-ing is as perfect. She does not tell us that named subject being by far the best in the these pages are reprints of private letters; book. It is to be hoped that Prof. Osborn in but it is impossible not to recognise in them his second edition will correct the errors of the ring of the best epistolary style. Her the first, which are too numerous. With descriptions of Cairo bazaars, mosques, hareems, more study, however, and a wider range of streets; of Nile scenery; of the fellaheen, references, this volume may yet take rank as the children, the camels, the asses, the vila valuable hand-book. lages, the pigeons, the palms, the ruins, the I do not know that I can pay Mr. Kittredge's desert, are like the sketches of an accomInaugural Address a higher compliment than plished amateur-sketches rapidly pencilled, to liken it, for breadth, brilliancy, and accu- with bits of careful detail and touches of racy, to the Lectures of M. Alexandre Ber- colour delicately put in here and there. Such trand. Even as regards style, I am reminded sketches often charm us more than the masterly of the incisive brevity and the master- studies of the professional artist. Thrown method of the great French archaeologist. by the happy accident of travel among the Mr. Kittredge is secretary of the Chautauqua most distinguished company of savants on the Nile, Mdme. Lee-Childe enjoyed the precious (Cin-founded a lectureship for the purpose of pre-opportunity of seeing Karnak and Luxor and senting its members with an annual digest of the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings under the results of modern research in their rela- very learned auspices. In profiting by what tion to Bible history. Upon this important she so heard and learned, she has had the rare topic Mr. Kittredge tells us that "Chautauqua tact to enrich her narrative without marring demands the latest reliable facts, the freshest its unaffected simplicity and grace. Even herself abreast of the age." To many of us word from the monuments, that she may keep when she touches upon archaeology she is still charming, and always-or almost always Chautauqua, though not far from the city of-correct. Of what professed Egyptologist It is impossible not to watch with interest New York, is probably a terra incognita; but would one venture to say so much? growing earnestness with which the study with such legitimate aspirations, and with so what Egyptologist would ever have thought of Egyptology is being taken up by thought- able a lecturer to satisfy them, this town with of comparing a long-eyed, melancholy Nubian ful Americans. It was to be expected that the difficult name is certainly in no danger of beauty, rich in adornments of “barbaric pearl the Biblical, rather than the archaeological or lagging behind the age. Would, however, and gold," to a Madonna of the Byzantine Filological, aspect of the science would that Mr. Kittredge had not revived Cham- school? What Egyptologist would have had arliest attract Transatlantic students, and pollion's exploded reading of Judah-Melek, the quick eye and the quick wit to see in the that the majority of those first disciples or followed Cardinal Wiseman's lead in withered mummy-head of Pinotem I. a likeald consequently be students of divinity. recognising a special" Hebrew physiognomy" ness to the philosopher of Ferney? Yet that This is so far fortunate, since it vests the in the head of the Karnak shield-bearer! That likeness is so startling that, being pointed out, bject in the hands of scholars whose pre-head is but one among 101, all representing one marvels how it should not have been Ts studies have in some measure prepared Syrian and Sinaitic captives, all precisely observed before. them for the work. Time and improved alike, and all modelled according to a con

SOME BOOKS ON EGYPT AND EGYPTOLOGY.

Ancient Egypt in the Light of Modern Dis- Archaeological Society, which appears to have
coveries. By Prof. H. S. Osborn.
tinnati Clarke.)

Bible History in the Light of Modern Research.
By J. E. Kittredge. (New York: Geneseo.)
Proceedings of the American Oriental Society.
Boston and New Haven.)

In Hiver au Caire. Par Madame Lee-Childe.
(Paris: Lévy.)

But

"Pénétrant avec M. Maspero derrière la bar

Д

rière qui sépare de la curiosité du public cette
royale compagnie, il soulève pour nous les toiles
qui enveloppent la tête du roi Pinotem. Il me
semble voir le masque ricanant de Voltaire.
Elle est d'un effet saisissant, noircie, desséchée:
Avec ses cheveux bruns, ses dents usées, qui
apparaissent entre les lèvres amincies, elle garde
encore une expression effrayante de vie" (p. 42).
But I must not venture further
upon the

AMELIA B. EDWARDS.

was delivered as a lecture at Dublin in 1866. It is needless to state that it is already well known as an able contribution to our sonnetliterature, and it has been altered and revised to meet the requirements of the present volume. We must, however, point out that in the following respects further alteration would seem to be necessary. It contains no pleasant paths of quotation, or, in truth, I allusion to Sir Thomas Wyatt, who introduced should not know where to stop. the Sonnet into England when, as Mr. Deshler has shown, the Earl of Surrey could only have been about fourteen years of age. And although it refers to the sonnets of Tennyson, and also quotes one by Lord Browning, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, or Mr. Houghton, it does not mention those by Mrs. Matthew Arnold. These are strange omissions. Again, it makes a passing reference to Hayley, Anna Seward, and Charlotte Smith; but Shelley's "Ozymandias," and his other famous sonnet, beginning" Ye hasten to the dead! what seek ye there," are not mentioned. Nor is there any allusion to Keats' "Last Sonnet," though the one which ends with the terrible couplet and the terrible rhyme― as those whose sobbings Werc heard of none beside the mournful robins "

With

The Sonnets of William Wordsworth.
an Essay on the History of the English
Sonnet by the Archbishop of Dublin.
(Suttaby.)

THIS book will prove a pleasant companion to many readers and admirers of Wordsworth. It is, indeed, somewhat surprising that the sonnets of one who has been called "our greatest English sonneteer" should not have been put forth in a separate volume for so many years. With regard to the majority of our poets, the small number of their compositions in this form of verse has necessarily prevented their being published by themselves. Thus Milton, for instance, only wrote eighteen sonnets, and those by Keats do not exceed fifty, whereas there are upwards of four hundred sonnets by Wordsworth in this collection. Moreover, these four hundred are so varied in subject and sentiment, as Sir Henry Taylor has pointed out, that they do not weary the reader by perverse repetitions or continued harping on one string. After the "Miscellaneous" series follow the "Political,"

or

is

quoted in extenso.

worth.

Α

or more pertinent than the Archbishop's
On the other hand, nothing could be wiser
observations respecting the sonnets of Words-
"What a noble record," he writes,
that agony of England's fate we possess in
of the temper of England's noblest sons in
these Sonnets to Liberty' of which I speak
for in his hands, also, as in Milton's before
great poet who has recently been taken from
him, the thing became a trumpet.'
almost invariably present
us observed a few years ago that a "reticence
was fatal in his
eyes to the highest pretensions on behalf of
Wordsworth's sonnets.
reticence an essential part of that "chastened
But is not this very
fervour" for which they have been praised
by others? And, in truth, there is no special
reticence noticeable when the poet cries aloud
in passionate scorn,

"Great God! I'd rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;"

"Sonnets to Liberty" (to our mind the finest series of all); and these, again, are succeeded by the "Itinerary Sonnets," the "River Duddon" series, and the "Ecclesiastical Sketches." Nor is the general excellence of at least one-half of them to be questioned, although there are, perhaps, only about fifty which may be classed among the poet's best work. The number, however, of those that are palpably defective either in "fundamental brainwork" (to use Rossetti's phrase) or as regards execution is incon- or when, addressing Milton, he exclaims, siderable. Yet even among the rightly dispraised "Ecclesiastical sonnets there are many above the average standard of ordinary sonneteers. The two best known of these are, doubtless, that on Walton's "Book of Lives,' and the one on King's College Chapel, beginning "Tax not the royal Saint with vain expense; but the following, which we choose almost at random, will suffice to in

dicate their worth :

"Ye, too, must fly before a chasing hand,

Angels and Saints, in every hamlet mourned!
Ah! if the old idolatry be spurned,
Let not your radiant Shapes desert the Land:
Her adoration was not your demand,

The fond heart proffered it-the servile heart;

And therefore are ye summoned to depart, Michael, and thou, St. George, whose flaming

brand

The dragon quelled; and valiant Margaret

Whose rival sword a like Opponent slew :
And rapt Cecilia, seraph-haunted Queen
Of harmony; and weeping Magdalene,
Who in the penitential desert met

Gales sweet as those that over Eden blew!"

[FEB. 16, 1884.-No. 615.

Blushing she eyes the dizzy flood askance;
To stop ashamed-too timid to advance;

She ventures once again-another pause!
His outstretched hand he tauntingly with-
draws-

She sues for help with piteous utterance!
Chidden, she chides again; the thrilling touch

Both feel, when he renews the wished-for aid:
Ah! if their fluttering hearts should stir too much,
Should beat too strongly, both may be
betrayed.

The frolic Loves, who, from yon high rock, see
The struggle, clap their wings for victory!"

could be wished as regards binding, and
It may be added that the book is all that
very tastefully printed; but the best version
would appear to be owing to their having
of the sonnets is not always given. This
been reprinted from the 1838 edition, and
several of them were subsequently not only
altered, but, in many instances, greatly in-
proved.
beauteous evening, calm and free," is a case
The sonnet beginning "It is a
in point.
SAMUEL WADDINGTON.

Military Italy. By Charles Martel. (Macmillan.)

UNDER the pseudonym of "Charles Martel" portant, and indeed an of the War Office has written a very in an officer of the Intelligence Department account of the military resources of the almost exhaustive, youngest of the Great Powers. The work is portions of it are also of considerable interest of special value to the technical student, but to the general reader.

The first chapter consists of an essay on of the political aspect of the present warlike "The Italy of To-day," and gives a fair idea condition of the country. Next is given a

Summary of Recent Military Reforms." Under this head the various laws under which enunciated. The subjects of recruiting and military service is regulated are clearly numerical strength are then handled; and in connexion therewith much valuable statistical information is afforded, not only concerning the Italian army, but also in regard to the armies of Germany, Austria, Russia, and France. We are told that during the last fourteen years no less than thirty per cent. of the Italian conscripts have been found unit to serve on account of physical reasons other than low stature. In regard to the question of reserves Charles Martel says:

is quite true that the poet of Rydal did of song, but chose rather to inhabit his own not build himself a "lordly pleasure-house" "pensive citadel" of poctic thought. Sage and sedate, perhaps too sedate, his words were usually those of a thinker and philosopher expressed in poetry, and not seldom in poetry of the highest order. But, although his musc was, as a rule, staid and stern, it could at It is noteworthy that Russia devotes a larger almost "vain and amatorious," times be gay and sportive, and occasionally proportion of war expenditure to matériel than does as Milton any other of the five Continental military complained was the Powers. Austria has the greatest proportion with Sidney's Arcadia. In the second of the two sonnets In France the cost of a soldier is most, and in of cavalry to infantry, and Russia the smallest entitled "The Stepping-Stones," which we quote from the "River Duddon" series, this Austria least. It would appear that the lighter vein in the poet's work is pleasantly

instruction they so evidently require be given: they are being passed to the front, or in the In the heavily laden railway-waggons, while crowded transports?" (p. 86).

illustrated:

case

The collection is preceded by an Essay on the
History of the English Sonnet" by Arch-"Not so that pair whose youthful spirits dance
bishop Trench, the greater portion of which
With prompt emotion, urging them to pass;
A sweet confusion checks the Shepherd-lass;

invasion of Italy will be rash if not prepared to eventually cope with a million of wellarmed and well-disciplined soldiers" (p. 110). Proceeding to the consideration of "The War Formations of the Army," the organisation of the various arms and supply branches is minutely portrayed. Among the various heads dealt with are the staff, the territorial organisation, the supply of small arms and ammunition, the equipment, the commissariat, and the transport arrangements. The great war magazines of the kingdom are at Turin, Florence, and Naples. It would appear that the intendance, supply, and transport services are not at present in a very efficient state. The character, training, and tactics of the Italian soldiers are then discussed, and in conjunction therewith much useful information is furnished concerning the Alpine troops and their warlike habits.

In the chapter on railways and fortresses, the various fortifications and defences of the country, both landward and seaward, are fully investigated, and some of the writer's comments thereon are of great value. In reference to an idea which has been suggested of Converting Bologna into a huge fortified camp, capable of receiving the whole army destined to defend the Trans-Appenine frontier line, he says:

in

Italians should have preserved these old
fortresses, for such places do not necessarily
detain troops from the field, since the greater
portion of their garrisons may consist of men
untrained and unfit for field service.

The concluding chapters deal with mobilisa-
tion, the military geography of Italy, and the
defences of the North-west and North-east
frontiers respectively. The work is supplied
with a map showing the territorial distribu-
tion of the army, and also the various
fortresses and fortified towns. The whole
treatise provides valuable food for reflection
to those who take an intelligent interest in
the military problems of the day. It would
seem unquestionable that the Italians are not
by nature a military nation, and that their
army must necessarily be wanting in that
cohesion which is given by traditions and war-
like associations. With the exception of the
old Sardinian forces, the whole of the army
is new, and it cannot possibly as yet have
acquired much tone. However, a very
patriotic spirit appears to pervade the nation;
and it can hardly be doubted that in a purely
defensive campaign the army would not be
found wanting.
A. PARNELL.

NEW NOVELS.

La Fortunina. By Mrs. Comyns Carr.
vols. (Sampson Low.)
Mr. Nobody. By Mrs. J. K. Spender.
3 vols. (Hurst & Blackett.)
The Perfect Path. By Elizabeth Glaister.
2 vols. (Smith, Elder, & Co.)
Caught in a Snare. By Mrs. Houston.
3 vols. (White.)

In 3

In

In

In

Dr. Heidenhoff's Process. By Edward Bel-
lamy. (Edinburgh: David Douglas.)
Soldiers' Stories and Sailors' Yarns. (W. H.
Allen.)

ensure it a better home than the Foundling
Hospital he allows his mother and his gossips
to believe that La Fortunina is his own
illegitimate child. Pietro's amiable weak-
nesses, his doting fondness for his mother,
and his love for his adopted daughter bring
him endless woes, which, if not quite Homeric,
are sufficiently complicated and hard to be
borne.
The one causes his betrothal to
Teresina della Fontana, a heartless and mer-
cenary coquette, although his own heart is
with a mysterious beauty whom he has seen
dancing on the green at Casella Fair; the
other leads to the rejection of his suit, not to
speak of physical violence worse than a box
on the ear at the hands of the woman who,
after all, turns out to be-but it would be
unfair to indicate how an ugly scandal develops
into a pretty romance. Pietro Paggi is
really a very fine fellow, who takes the reader
of La Fortunina by storm in the first chapter;
and at the end of the third volume the
mysterious, meteoric Vittoria Vite proves not
less deserving of sympathy.
All the
secondary personages that revolve round Pietro
and Vittoria are well drawn; Marrina, the
motherly Genoese greengroceress, in par-
ticular, is a charming sketch. Carlo Strappa,
the "Americano" and Don Giovanni, who
astonishes the natives of his village with the
wealth he has secured abroad, is the single un-
satisfactory figure in La Fortunina; one never

seems to meet him in the flesh. He recalls the

scoundrel of the comedietta that precedes the play in a drawing-room theatre, and occupies the stage for half-an-hour. He does terrible things behind the scenes, and everybody on the stage speaks of and against him, yet the audience never sees him.

The central incident in Mr. Nobody is rather trite. A novus homo returns to his native place to exact vengeance on the persons who have by cruelty and injustice embittered his childhood and warped his whole nature. Mrs. Spender, however, suc

ceeds in giving an air of originality to this old story. To begin with, it is a novelty to make Reuben Sellwood, or "Mr. Nobody,"

ruin his own brother. Then Mrs. Spender makes Reuben a really original and vigorous personality, who, moreover, improves as the story proceeds, "both morally and intellectas the popular lecturer would put

Later campaigns in Europe do not seem to advise the erection of a huge army trap in a position where a magazine-fortress, a fortified bridge-head, or a tête-de-défilé would not only suffice, but be of incalculably superior value.' In the light of the great Metz capitulation of 1870 this observation contains much truth, for if ever a country was ruined by the existence of its fortified camp that country was France, and that camp was Metz. It is painful, however, to learn later on in this hapter that the Italians are actually at the present time forming their capital, Rome, into One of these imbecile traps; that they are, fat. imitating the French, who, in spite of MRS. COMYNS CARR's new work possesses very there lesson taught them by Metz and high artistic merits. The simple country-folk different degree) by Paris as well and market-people of North Italy who figure daring their last great conflict with Germany, in La Fortunina are true children of its soil are now busily engaged in preparing future and its sun, and not English peasants, milkdisaster by making the latter city a sort of maids, and such like in disguise and temporpl ultra of fortified camps with a peri- arily lodged in the farmhouses between Genoa ter of no less than seventy miles. The and Turin. To a certain extent, Mrs. Carr r's theory as to the uselessness of the challenges comparison with "Ouida; "" but ually," ateinte fortresses, of which there still she does not trouble us with unwholesome it. Reuben fights an clection well, and figures a large number, seems more open to passions or heavy-shotted preachings. still better when, brought face to face with tism. He suggests an imaginary attack of does she crowd her canvas; all her portraits the companions of his questionable past, he of these places, and he attempts to show are carefully drawn and, with one exception, turns at bay and bids them do their worst. their escarps could easily and quickly be are satisfactory. Above all things, there is Geoffrey Sellwood is not so interesting as his sad. But he entirely ignores the possi- not a line of careless or strenuous writing in father; his pride and his economical heresies of the defenders mounting some very these three volumes. But he, too, will Even when worthy are decidedly tiresome. tguns on the ramparts of these escarps, Pietro Paggi attains the summit of his hopes, is undertaken, at the end of the third volume, improve, one is certain, since his improvement the fire of these guns making the breach- and finds at last within his reach the woman cess a work of perhaps considerable time, who has so long filled his heart and imagina- by the very amiable young lady who has hed, and expense. Moreover, he forgets tion, his passion makes no wilder manifestation wrought such a charm on his father, and who tae main use of any permanent fortifica- than the discovery that "her eyes are like the is by far Mrs. Spender's best character. is the obligation under which it puts the stars in heaven, her mouth is like a drink of Nobody is not all compact, and Mrs. Spender be possessor of the place of bringing cold water on a hot summer's day, her cheeks should spare us some of her vague enthusiasms ege train of more or less magnitude, are like the soft leaf of the tea-rose that and crude theories; but it is full of promise placing his siege-guns and ammunition upon the walls of the house that he has left and force. aborately prepared and carefully pro- behind him." Mrs. Comyns Carr has treated signs of vantage. This is the first a very peculiar subject in a very delicate st important half of the siege; and the fashion. Pietro Paggi, a countryman on his - element of disadvantage which it way to market at Genoa with his cabbages on the besieger is that of delay. It and his lettuces, saves a female child-"La 14 then, to be wondered at that the Fortunina" of the story-from drowning. To

Nor

grows

Mr.

A Perfect Path is a duel between Apollyon and Christian, which extends over two volumes printed in large type. Apollyon is Monte Carlo, with its flirtations, gambling, and slang. Christian is Southshire, with its lawn-tennis proprieties, its model vicar, and

unpleasant or unwholesome tale in the whole.
There are at least animal spirits and Irish
humour in "True to the Core."
WILLIAM WALLACE.

RECENT THEOLOGY.

its model lover, who adores and is inspired by
the model vicar. Christian triumphs, of
course; in other words, Cordelia Ashby gives
up Mentone, allows George Kingdon, her
admirer there, to poison himself with chloral,
and settles in Southshire as Mrs. Mayne
Wastel, the devoted admirer of good vicars,
and of Philip Odiarne, the best of them all, Christian Charity in the Ancient Church. By
who has become Bishop of Assiniboine. G. Uhlhorn. Translated from the German,
Apollyon is, however, by far the more pic- with the Author's sanction, by Sophia Taylor.
turesque and real personage. The Monte (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.) This book
Carlo scenes are the only tolerable ones in is a careful and learned, if somewhat dry,
the book; the rest are forced and farcical. monograph on a subject which, always inter-
A Duncan Lichfield figures in A Perfect Path. the public attention than perhaps at any pre-
esting in itself, is just at present more before
He is intended to be "an officer and a vious time, so deeply does the question of the
Christian;" but he is " very rummy,' as his condition of the proletariate stir men's minds
outspoken sister-in-law Cordelia terms him in in every European country, and also in those
her hoydenish, heathenish days. He is a cari-States of the American Union where the pres-
cature; but whether of a Fifth Monarchy man
sure of population begins to be felt, or where
or of a modern Salvation Army sergeant it manufactures of fluctuating demand are carried
would be difficult to say.
on upon a great scale. It is important to know
that history tells us of a period when the pro-
blem was a larger and more complex one than
that we are called to deal with, scarcely any
of the palliations of the evil now at work being
able measure
so much as imagined, and yet that a consider-
of improvement was effected
within a comparatively short time by the new
agency which appeared on the scene when the
Christian Church set itself to contend with the
social mischiefs of the Roman Empire. Dr.
Uhlhorn divides his book into three main
sections, in the first of which he contrasts the
old and the new methods, devoting the second
summing up in the third the results attained
to the age of conflict between the two, and
after the victory rested with the Church. In
the first chapter, which he names, with a touch
of German sentiment that not the less em-
bodies a truth, "A World without Love," he
points out clearly that the temper which the
ancient Christians, and we ever since, have called
caritas was entirely absent from the pagan
ancient Greek or Roman signified something
system of ethics, and that the liberalitas of an
quite different and by no means so lofty. He
does not deny that a change in this respect was
just beginning to creep over the temper of at
least a section of society when the Church was
founded, but denies that heathenism could have
originated any organisation of charity which
would have done effective work. The second
chapter, somewhat too brief and sketchy for its
subject, deals with the provision made for the
poor by the Jewish Church, with which the
author, while allowing that splendid alms-
first century, finds fault as hard and legalised.
giving was found among the Israelites of the
Chap. iii. is properly a sermonet on the mani-
festation of love under the gospel, and thence
we pass to the foundations and beginnings
of charitable organisation in the apostolic age.
Here, and indeed throughout the work, Dr.
Uhlhorn is in absolute conflict with the theories
advanced in Mr. Hatch's Bampton Lectures.
He does not appear to have seen Mr. Hatch's
volume, and thus there is no controversial
handling of the questions at issue; but for that
very reason the contrast of view is all the
more striking, and Dr. Uhlhorn's scholarship, as
attested by the copious references to authorities
(somewhat inconveniently printed at the end
of the volume, instead of at the foot of the
pages to which they belong), is the wider and
in-deeper of the two. He starts with the theory

Mrs. Houston informs us that she has written Caught in a Snare with "the hope of vindicating by a simple statement of facts the character of a misjudged friend from longstanding and unjust aspersions." Her book should in that case have been printed for private circulation only. It is a very bad specimen of a very bad class of novel. It is full of what Mrs. Houston terms "material passion; one scene is hinted at in the amours of Millicent Carew and Vere Hadleigh which is French in its riskiness, and the reverse of French in its vulgarity. Mrs. Houston's "ladies" and "gentlemen" indulge in flirtations with the wrong people of course, and talk choice English like exposy and exquisite French like le premier pas qui conte; and she surfeits us with "not illiberal displays of snowy shoulders" and "charms-compressing corsets," and all the rubbish of what is known on the other side of the Channel as the decolletage school of fiction, the gloating over which by female novelists is such a puzzle to their male mind. When is the modern Mrs. Aphra Behn to make her appearance? We know at least how she would dispose of her characters.

Dr. Heidenhoff's Process is a psychological study-very painful, very powerful, mystical, and quite American. The "process" which gives the name to Mr. Bellamy's short story is the only element of weakness in it. The reader who has followed the fortunes of poor Madeline Brand with keen and pitying interest feels himself completely "sold" when he learns that Dr. Heidenhoff and his system of galvanising away morbid thoughts and dismal memories are but the creations of a drugged brain.

Mr. Bellamy's portrait of Madeline Brand, however, his description of the unhealthily intense religious life of Neuville, and his narrative of the unequal struggle between honest love and mere passion in the persons of Henry Burr and Harrison Cordis would be not unworthy of the author of the Scarlet Letter. The close of Dr. Heidenhoff's Process is tragical, but the tragedy is

evitable.

Nothing in Soldiers' Stories and Sailors' Yarns is equal to Nights at Mess and less famous collections. But in some degree the book makes up in variety and bulk for what it wants in quality, and there is not a single

that the seven officers appointed in Acts vi.
were not deacons, as has been commonly said,
but the first presbyters or elders, whom he con-
siders to have held the office of almoners, in
their own persons and in those of their succes-
sors, long before it passed into the hands of the
bishops. How this organisation took shape
later is shown in chap. iv. of the second

part, which treats of officials and offices for
charity. The best part of the volume is that
part of the third section which discusses the
incompatibility of the imperial system with
Christianity, and shows how inevitable it was
that they should fight to the death, and in s
what marked contrast their institutions and
methods stood to each other. The accumula-
tion of solid facts at the close makes that part
of the book very convenient for reference, as
giving a trustworthy summary of results
and methods; but it is more like an index
than an essay, and owes nothing to charms of
style.

of its series of

THE S. P. C. K. has issued two more volumes Readers," being St. Hilary of Poitiers and St. "The Fathers for English Martin of Tours, by Chancellor Cazenove, and St. John of Damascus, by the Rev. J. H. Lupton, These same gentlemen have previously dealt with the same subjects in Smith's Dictionary of a Christian Biography, and the present volumes are simply those former articles expanded and popularised by the omission of the more technical points of scholarship and the amplification of such episodes as give colour and movement to the narrative. But we have thus in both cases a warrant for first-hand and independent study of the subjects on the part of the two authors,

who

men's labours, as is too often the case with are not mere compilers from other the writers of books intended to make part of a popular series. Dr. Cazenove's two biographies, depicting two diverse types of energy

volume deals with a

the man who was first and chiefly a theologian in an era of controversy, and the man who was wild and pagan society-happily contrast and above all things ascetic and missionary in a together, a really helpful guide towards supplement each other, and form, taken understanding that peculiarly complex and difficult time, the latter half of the fourth century, when the break up of the Western Empire had begun and was in full progress, but not yet consummated. Mr. Lupton's unknown to Western readers who are not figure comparatively professed scholars, though his influence on of Thomas Aquinas in Latin Christendom Oriental Christianity may be compared to that while, besides being the chief formal theologiat of mediaeval Greece, he is also of note as a controversialist against Mohammedanism and Mr. Lupton presents him to his readers under as one of the chief poets of the Eastern Church. all these three aspects, though giving less spac to the famous Treatise on the Orthodox Faith than its historical importance as having crys But he has done full justice to John as tallised Oriental dogma might seem to requir hymnodist; and it is saying much that, whe that prince of translators, John Mason Neale giving versions of some of his best pieces b his own, which accompany them, are well ab to bear the juxtaposition.

The Revelation of the Father: Short Lectur on the Titles of the Lord in the Gospel of S John. By B. F. Westcott. (Macmillan.) T lectures in this volume were to have been giv by Dr. Westcott at Peterborough last summe but, owing to what with most charitable reticen he speaks of as the unexpected breaking of connexion with the cathedral, they were delivered. The subjects are "The Bread Life,' ," "The Light of the World," "The Do of the Sheep," &c., with two prefatory lectu on "The Coming in the Father's Name," a "The Christ," and one in conclusion on Vision of the Father in Christ." In an A pendix are added three sermons preached Cambridge. The book is marked by Dr. W cott's usual characteristics, his breadth of vi his endeavour to express himself exactly, careful scholarship, and by less than his us