CURRENT LITERATURE.

The British Quarterly Review. January. (Hodder and Stoughton.) —The chief feature of this number is a long article, occupying more than a fifth of the whole, on "Church Principles and Prospects." It is an able essay, and well worth attention ; but written in an arrogant tone, which does not tend to make it persuasive. We can quite believe that a time may come when the Church may find it well to be free.from State support and State control. But such a time seems remote to us. We arc convinced that at present so-called freedom would not be helpful to it, not even, to quote the skilfully-chosen phrases of the writer, to "the purity and aggressiveness of its spiritual life ;" and we trust that we may entertain this conviction without being "blinded by unintelligent fears," or "utterly forgetful of the lessons of all past history." We cannot attempt to follow the writer over all the ground which he traverses. We must be content with touching on one point, the freedom of thought, surely the most essential of all to "pure" and "aggressive" spiritual life ! We doubt indeed which way the reviewer's sympathies tend. He makes in one place the boast that "our scientific theology has advanced beyond that of the Nicene Creed," a statement which may include anything from Dr. Newman's Theory of Development to Miss Cobbe's Dawning Lights. Bat when he comes formally to discuss the subject ho tells us that "the very basis of a church is agreement in theological dogma." The expression is vague, and must be interpreted by facts. We prefer as exponents of "theological dogma" the ancient creeds, or even the Articles widened as they have been by the action of time and successive schools of thought, to the stringent conditions which an acute conveyancer may put into the trust deed of a chapel, to the professional judgments of a conference of ministers, or the uninstructed opinion of a congregation. It is a simple fact that on theological questions which most deeply touch the hearts of men, such as inspiration and some similar question, the Nonconformists preserve an attitude of unyielding conservatism. Does the reviewer remember the case of the Author of the Rivulet? And he was accused, it must be remembered, not of heresy, but of being undogmatic, and that in hymn-writing, where surely we may have agreement without "theological dogma "? We find ourselves more in harmony with the writer of the "New Parliament and Mr. Gladstone." His essay gives a good review of the situation. The only point that calls for notice is the writer's acceptance of the plan of an "education rate," which may be taken, we suppose, to indicate the conclusion to which his party have come. The review of Dr. Davidson's Introduction to the New Testament is, of course, strongly condemnatory of that work, but not written in an unkindly or uncandid spirit ; agreeing as we do, in the main, with the writer, we naturally think that he has the best of the argument But is he not himself going beyond the most destructive critics when he calls the Ignatian letters "rubbish," and speaks of them as being published under a false name? Some genuine matter is generally allowed to exist in these letters, and though they may seem to favour Episcopalian theories, an orthodox champion should hesitate before he makes such sweeping assertions. An article on Dr. Vaughan relates, but with nothing like exaggerated and indiscriminate panegyric, the life and labours of an able, accomplished, and pious man, to whom the British Quarterly owes its existence. The purely literary element is represented by an essay on "Literary Forgeries," which displays much acuteness and a wide reading. In another article, M. Dores claims as an artist, and especially as an illustrator, are discussed, with more favour, perhaps, than we should be inclined to show. One merit, that of extraordinary fertility, M. Dore certainly possesses. In 1862 he had produced 44,000 designs !

The Temperance Bible Commentary. By Frederie Richard Lees and Dawson Barns. (Partridge.)—It may be said that the " Temperance " commentary is not more uncandid than other commentaries which have been written with a purpose. Messrs. Lees and Barns are not responsible for the vicious system the working of which their book illustrates. Their opponents have pressed them hard with texts of Scripture, and they do their best to take the edge off the weapons, or even to turn them to their own use. It seems to us that the whole discussion is irrelevant, and even profane. What is gained by its being proved that the Prophets and Apostles, even that our Lord himself, used fermented wine ? If it can be clearly made out that some social good more than outweighing all other considerations would come from not using it, then our duty is plain not to use it. Let Mr. Lees and his friends try to prove this, and not injure their own cause and do violence to Scripture by forced interpretations. For, of course, when they come to deal with particular passages they break down. It is sheer nonsense to say "that the Authorized Version is opposed to the assumption that thaLos and iasigoixes necessarily signify drinking in the sense of intoxication." It is quite certain that the word would not be used of drinking liquor that could not intoxicate. And what can be meant by saying that "the process of fermentation is one of decay, and it is not probable that it would have been imitated, or its results realized, by the fiat of the Saviour." As a matter of fact, fermented liquor is of all vegetable substances the one least liable to decay. Again, in the note on Tim. iii., 2, would it not be supposed by-a-casual reader that the possum or raisin wine, which we are told the Roman ladies were anciently permitted to drink, was unfermented? Whereas it was probably, like our own raisin wine, exceedingly strong. Celsus expressly says, "Passum quo ex sicciore uya eat eo valentius est." The ladies probably drank it as they now drink sweet Port or Fronti,gnac. But it is a waste of time to deal with such trivialities.

Rudiments of Mineralogy. By A. Ramsay. (Virtue.)—This is a compact and useful volume. It has been compiled from the standard works of Bischof, Dana, Rammelsberg, and Des Cloiseaux, but it presents one feature, at all events, of novelty and value. Mr. Ramsay appears, so far as we know, to be the first writer on mineralogy who has produced a systematic treatise on this science in which the new chemical notation is regularly followed. Cotta's instructive work on "Rocks," and Dana's new and splendid edition of his "Mineralogy," do not adequately recognize or adopt the advances made in scientific chemistry, although it is evident, even from such use of these advances as has been made in the little book under review, that great advantages will thus accrue to students of the mineral kingdom. One of the prominent features of Mr. Ramsay's treatise is "the reduction of the specific gravities to a scale of which hydrogen is the unit." We consider the numbers thus arrived at almost absolutely without meaning. Of what use is it to refer the specific gravity of garnet to the standard of hydrogen ? We cannot hope to turn garnet into vapour, and take its density in that state ; and, till this is done, its specifies-gravity is not comparable with that of the permanent gas, hydrogen. Gold, we are informed, is 216,396 times as heavy as hydrogen ; we cannot recollect such large numbers, and if we could, they would not convoy a tithe of the significance of the number 19.4, commonly assigned to gold, telling us, as it does, that the metal is more than nineteen times as heavy as water. We are not going to look out for errors and omissions in this volume, but we cannot refrain from noting that none of the minerals, such as Adamite, Langite, and Bayldonite, discovered within the last few years, are to be found in its pages ; and that some discarded notions and inaccurate definitions and observations are still preserved here and there throughout the volume. We would also counsel the author to remove from page 1 the feeble and flimsy definition of mineralogy quoted from a work by Mr. C. Tomlinson, who informs us that "mineralogy confines itself to an account of the separate items of which the external crust of the globe is composed." May we be permitted to inquire what is the exact nature of an item, and whether there is an internal as well as an external crust of the globe?

HaTer's Handbook for Travellers in Europe and the East. By W. Pembroke Fetridge. Seventh year. (Harper: New York. Sampson Low and Co.)—It is difficult to estimate the value of a book like this. Who knows enough about the hundreds of places to which it professes to guide the traveller to be able to test the accuracy and usefulness of its information ? Some sort of test is supplied by what we find the writer, who is an American, saying about England. This is not always quite accurate. He states, for instance, that the Martyrs' memorial at Oxford stands opposite Balliol, on the spot where the martyrs were burnt. Yet the book is, for all practical purposes, a safe guide ; tells the traveller what he ought to see, and gives him good advice about journeys, hotels, &c. ; and it seems complete, if we may judge from such inspection as we have been able to give. We turned to the article "Nile," and found what seems a very practical and useful summary of what should be known by the traveller who wishes to ascend the river ; as, for instance, what is charged in the steamers that run as far as Assouan, what is the cost of a private boat as far as the First and as far as the Second Cataract, &c., and the information appears recent. In shape and size the book is most convenient. It has the pocket-book form, and puts the substance of twenty handbooks into an octavo volume not too large to be conveniently carried.

Brothers-in-Law. 3 vols. (Hurst and Blackett.)--This novel, whatever its faults, certainly shows culture, thought, and power of expression. The author, whom we judge, chiefly from the acquaintance displayed with various feminine matters, to be a woman, has evidently thought it necessary to read not a little before she began to write, and she is able accordingly to give her narrative and dialogue an illustration which is often very felicitous, and which relieves and brightens them considerably. This is enough of itself to make the book unusually pleasant reading; and the dialogue is almost always good, and sometimes brilliant. When we come to speak of other things, our praise must be more qualified. The characters of the three sisters, the hard, intellectual Janet, the brilliant Lucy, and the tender Mildred are very carefully studied; with that of the selfish Walter Harewood equal pains have been taken, but the result is not so happy. The hero is a still more conventional representation of the qualities of resolution and integrity.

The plot has the great merit of being so far true to facts as to represent the main interest or life as lying in the time that follows marriage, rather than in that which precedes it. Bat the incident which creates the interest in the case of the heroine is but clumsily contrived. The promise by which Horace Vane undertakes to shield the guilty was

such as no man f his sense and strength of character would have given, and was positively unjust to every one concerned. It is only fair to say that the de-nouement is worked out with unusual power, and with a pathos which is not easy to resist. Altogether, Brothers-in-Law is well worth reading.

Mineralogist's Directory. By Townsliend M. Hall. (Stanford)—A guide to the localitied of British minerals has been long wanted. Refer

ences to localities are scattered through many manuals, through papers and proceedings of societies ; hero they are gathered into the convenient form of a portable directory. One satisfactory feature of this

guide is a list of synonyms, including most of the names by which the same minerals have been designated. Mr. Hall gives us also a list of atomic weights of tho elements, but they are out of date, and while containing a non-existent metal once called Pe/epitem, omit an existent metal of groat interest, namely, Indium.

The Seaboard Parish. By George MacDonald, LL.D. (Tinsley.)-The contents of these volumes appeared, we believe, in the Sunday Magazine. We think that distinct notice ought always to be given to the public in such a case. In this instance the omission does considerable wrong to the author and his work. The Seaboard Parish will not bear

the comparison which readers will naturally make with such a book as

Alec Forbes of Howglen. Mr. MacDonald can write a very good novel ; that he has proved more than once ; but this is not a novel at all, though

to those readers who look at the outside and the title-page it seems to claim to be ono. The thread of story is of the very slightest ; the moralizing and the preaching are abundant beyond measure. We would not be misunderstood. Wo take it that Mr. MacDonald moralizes and preaches as well as any man. For the purpose for which these papers were intended, to occupy the thoughtful leisure of a Sunday, or, indeed, of any day when one is in the thoughtful mood which Sunday typifies, nothing could be better adapted. And they are quite worth collection, quite worthy of being rescued from the form, —which to us at least is very displeasing,—of a magazine volume.

But if any one wants to enjoy the book, let him take it up and read about as much as he would read in a magazine, not attempt to read it through. We cannot say indeed that we think that the workmanship is quite equal to Mr. MacDonald's best. He knows so well how to compose, that he ought not to be contented with merely writing ; and there is something of that here, a good deal that we have no fault to find with, but simply don't want to read again. But there are many passages of great tenderness and beauty, full of those touches of genuine experience of which the charm is that they are so familiar and so new. Here is one, taken almost at random, very homely and simple, which many readers will appreciate. "What a wonderful satisfaction it may give to a father or mother to see this or that child asleep !" And there are bits of landscape painting, ono or two sunsets especially, which are in Mr. MacDonald's best manner. In the description of the stdrm in the third volume, and of the incidents which followed it, ho rises to his full height. The old Scotchman, who comes to look after his drowned daughter, grey and hard to look at, hut with a true spring of tenderness within, is a very fine figure.

Thurston Meverell, a Romance of the Peak. (Bomrose.)—In this book the author has attempted to employ two methods of exciting the

reader's interest. First, he gives us topographical, legendary, and antiquarian lore pertinent to tho locality of the Peak ; secondly, he introduces a love story, in which descriptions of scenery are interwoven with the incidents of the plot. We are far from sure that the result is a success. The story is abruptly broken off to make way for a legend or antiquarian dissertation ; these, again, have the look of being mere makeweights to the story ; the end of it is that we properly enjoy and appre ciate neither the one nor the other. The experiment of such a combination is a dangerous one. Sir Walter Scott, indeed, tried it with distinguished success, but an exception so thoroughly exceptional almost proves the rule of failure.