SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not been • reserved ibr review in other forms.]
Between Malachi mut St. Matthew. By Georgiana Al. Ford. (Skoffington and Sou. 2s. 6d.)—Miss Ford introduces into her first chapter some pertinent observations on the Apocrypha. We wish, indeed, that she had found herself able to devote more space to this subject. It is high time that the prejudices against this very valuable and interesting literature should be laid aside. There is no necessity to put all the Apocryphal books on the same level. The Second Book of Maccabees is obviously of very much less value than the First. But it is idle to pretend that the Wisdom of Solomon and Ecelesiasticus ought not to find a place in a collection of Hebrew literature ; and the Bible, whatever else it ii, is certainly that. Mills Ford, however, has a sufficiently largo subject iu the history of the Jeviish nation between the return from exile—she goes back beyond Malachi to that time— and the death of Herod the Great. This she deals with in a satisfactory way, both as regards style—for this is always simple and forcible—and the selection of matter. Now and then we should like to see some statement of authorities more precise than the bibliography given in the "Note." Who is responsible for the estimate that "one-seventh of the vast Roman Empire were Jews either by birth or as proselytes to the Jewish Church" ? In Dean Merivale's " Romans under the Empire" this population. is estimated at eighty-five millions. Can we suppose that Jews and proselytes made up a total of more than twelve millions ? Even in the forty-five millions assigned to Asia and Africa, a seventh of Jews is scarcely credible ; but that the proportion should he as great in the European forty millions is simply impossible.
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