CURRENT LITERATURE.
English Eccentrics and Eccentricities. By John Timbs. (Chatto and Windus.)—This is, we suppose, the last work of an indefatigable com- piler, who had a talent for finding odd things hidden away in odd corners, and presenting them for the amusement of readers. The lite- rature of anecdote owes much to him, and ho never misused his pen to any ill purpose. His books are of a kind to which it is easier for a reader than a reviewer to do justice. Beyond saying, " This is amusing," and giving in proof as many good things as one has space for, criticism can do little. The religious " eccentrics " aro, perhaps, as curious and interesting as any of the shy, queer company whom Mr. Timbs has here gathered together. There is the story of William Huntingdon, for instance, with his "Bank of Faith." No one would dream of com- paring this vulgar fanatic, if he was fanatic rather than impostor, with such men as Mr. Muller of Bristol, and the American physician, of whose faith-supported sanitarium we spoke in these columns some time ago. Yet his mode of procedure was amazingly like theirs. For nearly all his life he was supported by "answers to prayer." This reminds us of an "experiment" which suggested itself to us a little while ago. The unbelievers should start an asylum, and see whether it gets itself sup- ported on what we may call " the do nothing but not pray " system. Joanna Southcote is another of the strange personages of Mr. Titubs's volume. We may supplement his account of her and her followers by reading what the present writer saw some seven or eight years ago,—a
small handbill recommending the remnant of the Southcottians to give in their adhesion to the Church of England. Meanwhile they were to reserve their peculiar faith. Surely this was a compliment to the Establishment Possibly our Dissenting friends will think that it was very much the reverse. But what will become of the waifs and strays when the English Church becomes as strait a sect as the rest ?
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