HiiNIG'S LUTHER.*
This volume aims high both in substance and in form. It tells the life of Luther in designs illustrated by brief biographic descriptions, and after- wards in a longer and connected narrative,
We are told in the preface, that "the elegant drawings from which the artistic engravings of the original work were made created a great sensa- tion at Munich a few years ago ; they found so many and such ardent admirers, that it was resolved to publish them, together with a biography of Luther." We presume that the designs, which here appear as small wood-cuts, neatly but not by any means delicately engraved, are in the original larger, and perhaps steel outlines or etchings; but there is no definite intimation on this point. Their paternity is almost sufficient description, allowing for defects in the rendering : a German artist is profoundly German, and really artistic. They have that Teutonic in- tended blending of the realistic and the abstract which leaves the former -hard and unpliant, the latter encumbered with a parade of flesh, muscle, and accessory. Genius or high power we certainly fail to discover in the series ; and there are only two or three,—as for instance that of "Luther, mentally and corporeally exhausted, strengthened by the consoling ex- hortations of an old Monk,"—tbat we can say we like. The literary portion is by M. Gazer. This also is of a decidedly Ger- man tone ; being somewhat analytic and theorizing, and in religious ten- dency between the Mystic and the Rationalist. Whatever may be its deservings in these respects, it is the work of a cultivated person ; steers a good middle course between the mere narrative of events and the study of character; has the true merit of con-4ually quoting and deducing
• The /ife of Martin Lanier, the German Reformer : in Fifty Pictures, from De- signs by Gustav KOttig. To which is added, a Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Reformation in Germany. Published by Cooke.
from Lutbe,r's own great and brave words ; and suppluss iiihny interest- ing,partiCulars. of reformatory movements before as w, ,as during its hero's time. The translating also . is well done—by a 10Y, as it intl.- deptally appears; 'English in expression, but with a sufflOnt flavour of German for duly confessing its origin.
For binding, typographP, and general appearance, the book ranks among those which combine handsomeness with unexceptionable good taste.
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