PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
Sermons on the Death qf the Prince Consort.—We have received eight sermons on the death of the Prince Consort, in most of which is more or- less mingled the consideration -of the (then) impending calamity of an American war. Mr. Kingsley's brief words (Parker and Bourn) are manly and impressive without bearing any other marked characteristic. They touch courageously on the unjust suspicion with which the 'Prince's Ger- man leanings were watched in England in the early part of the reign, and the key-note of the sermon is the consolation to be derived from the 'fact that by this terrible shock to the nation God has at last made the Prince's "righteousness as clear as the light," and his "just dealing as the noon- day." Dean Alford's two sermons (Rivingtons) were preached in Canter- bury Cathedral, and are entitled "Mourning and Praise." They deal with the theme of nationalgrief and the thanksgiving that should go with grief, in a rather ordinary manner, and are only remarkable for mixing up a dis- cussion of the special duties of a cathedral choir in praising God with those which affect the national mind at large. Dr. Alford half apologizes in his Preface for connecting the defence of" intonation" with the general subject of national thanksgiving. We must say that it is notinterwoven in any very natural or effective manner. By far the most thoughtful of the series—too refined and subtle, indeed, for an ordinary congregation—is Mr. Thom's, of Liverpool (Whitfield). The preacher enforces the truth, that wide sym- pathy with humanity is the pledge of Divine influence, and illustrates it in the two different political spheres in which Englishmen have been lately called upon to prove that they can feel that sympathy. "It is good for us that our sympathy should thus go so far away from ourselves and our own status, and feel that nothing can separate us from what is simply human ; that it reverently removes all barriers, enters the stately hall of kings, passes the guards unchallenged, and penetrates to the secret chamber where a widowed heart knows that the stroke is to her even as to others— that nothing but what is simply human is now of the least avail, and that God, who is the strength of every spirit, alone can comfort hers." In reference to the American danger, Mr. Thom enforces a still more needful lesson, and finds, truly enough, that England has been wanting in the true spirit of sympathy even if her political judgment has been right. "We might, even if we held it to be inevitable, have uttered a more genial lamentation at the passing away of the cherished vision of a vast Republic, founded in the main on noble reliances, and which not long ago we all trusted would by its own workings eliminate its inconsistent elements. We might have exhibited a more natural revolt, even if we believed that God would make them work for good, from revolutionists whose motive to action was the unrestrained extension of slavery—and a more genial shudder -at the prospect of a slave empire, even if we thought that thus it was making surest destruction for itself—a scorpion girt with fire!" This is fairly and truly said. Mr. Calvert (Freeman) deduces a lesson for the people which chiefly consists in the close proximity of death, the evil of sin, and the power and glory of the Christian faith. Its merit is that it is a sermon for the people, and not a panegyric, though it represents the universal feeling of grief and dismay. It is too rhetorical. The canon reeidentiary of Peterborough, Rev. Dr. James (Rivingtons), is painfully personal, indulging in pictures of the Queen's demeanour on her loss, and printing all the physicians' bulletins, and the exact address of condolence sent by the faithful inhabitants of Peterborough, in an appendix. The sermon almost gives the impression
that it required some courage in Providence to strike down so high a head. Mr. Bowditch, of Wakefield (Rivingtons), reviews the Prince's political career in England with discriminate praise. Unlike his right reverend brother of Oxford, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol (John Murray) does not appear to entertain any particular fondness for the doc- trine of vicarious sacrifice, nor does he discover the germs of typhoid fever in the sins of a nation. In simple and vigorous language he prefers to dwell on the reality and suddenness of death, and the utter and incompre- hensible change it produces in all that we know and love. He has also consolation for mourners and encouragement for the weak-hearted, so that what was written for one sad occasion may be read with advantage throughout all time. Nor may we withhold a word of praise from a funeral sermon of the Rev. J. H. Gurney (Rivingtons), though of a less practical character and, therefore, less generally applicable. However, it is free from cant, and, indeed, bears the impress of truth and earnestness. The occasion was, perhaps, not an easy one for the more real kind of pulpit eloquence, but there are few of these sermons in which we can find any great reality of thought. Travels in the Holy Land. By Frederika Bremer. Translated by Mary Howitt. In two volumes. Hurst and Blackett.—Miss Bremer resembles Miss Martineau, in that she has no tendency to fetichism. She declines to bow down and worship stocks and stones and graven images merely be- cause they are set up in the Holy Land. At the same time in her poet's heart there is a deep source of reverence for all that is really pure, loveable, and sacred, which comes welling up in earnest thoughts and ardent expres- sions, but her enthusiasm is ever tempered by sound sense and religious so- briety. In obedience to an irresistible Impulse she started off alone, and without preparation, to visit the land where the most momentous events of human history have been enacted. On her way she stopped for a while in Sicily and in Malta, and describes her impressions of those historical islands in the most spirited and happy manner. Intending, then, in the first instance, to pass the winter of 1858 in Egypt, she was deterred from doing so by the breaking out of the plague, which would have rendered it impos- sible for her to prosecute her journey into Palestine in the following spring. Under these circumstances she gladly accepted the pffer of a Russian Princess, that she should travel in her company to "the City of the Great King." At Jerusalem Miss Bremer made good use of her time, and enjoyed many favourable opportunities of seeing more than falls to the lot of ordinary travellers—and her mental vision was even more acute than her physical. Her reflections on the various strange scenes she witnessed evince both breadth and depth of thought, with an undercurrent of love for all that is good and beautiful. Equally free from bigotry and scepticism, though naturally moved by her poetic temperament, she neither affects to conceal the emotion she experienced nor works herself up to a state of artificial enthusiasm. Of the many travellers' books that have appeared on the subject of Palestine, there is not one more calmly suggestive, more thoroughly rational, or more pleasant to read. From Syria Miss Bremer proceeded to Constantinople, and though she has nothing new to tell us of that corrupt and degenerate race, who were once the terror of Europe, as they are now its disgrace, still what she does say is well worth hearing, and inspires the reader with regret that her stay in Istamboul was not more prolonged. Urged onward by that craving for travel which is produced by travel, Miss Bremer hastened from Turkey into Greece, whence we sincerely hope we may again soon hear from her.
• The Ladies' Tree:awry: an Illustrated Magazine. No. LIX. Edited by Mrs. Warren. Houlston and Wright.—It is not a little startling to find in a Ladies' Treasury the pattern of a man's suit of clothes—coat, waist- coat, and trousers. Is this intended as a preparation for the Carnival, or does it foreshadow an early "secession" to establish the rights of woman ? The next thing we expect to hear is that our "lovely allies" have taken to poking the fire from below, or that they have ceased to grumble at the club and the homeward return of their husbands with the milk, "early in the morning." One question, however, we humbly venture to ask—Is the crinoline to be worn within, or without, the nether garments of the male ? Obviously, it will make all the difference in the world.
Red Eric ; or, the Whaler's Last Cruise. By R. N. Ballantyne. Routledge and Co.—In the eternal fitness of things it was necessary that the gorilla should take the lead in society in the year of grace one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-one. It is appalling to think of the mental destitution to which writers of Christmas baks would have been reduced had not M. du Chaffin opened up a new world of adventure to redress the balance of the old. Mr. Ballantyne, at least, would have been sorely put to it had it fallen to his hard lot to be born before the era of the Franco- American Munchausen, even though Mr. Kingsley does stand in the light of a stepfather to the second part of his narrative. Be this as it may, juvenile readers will be delighted with his spirited description of the wonders witnessed by those who go down to the sea in ships, and many a bold youth will long to emulate the courage, tenderness, and strength of Glynn Proctor, even at the price of being cast away upon a desert island. Others, again, may prefer the strange exciting scenes enacted on the western coast of ,kfrica, but there is ample variety to please every taste. Mr. Coleman's illustrations, also, are full of life and vigoar, and very fairly reproduce the incidents they profess to depict.
The Planet. No. I. Conducted by Thomas McNicoll. Groombridge and Sons.—It may seem ungenerous not to speak a kindly word on behalf of a new candidate for public favour, but we greatly fear that in violation of the ordinary laws that regulate the heavenly bodies, the attractive power of The Planet will prove to be in the inverse ratio of its specific gravity. It is much too heavy to wander far, unless it fly off into limbo. There is but one light article out of the eleven, and that has fallen into the hands of a bungler. It is called "Two Old Stories," which are taken from a quaint old book entitled "Fisher's Cheerful Companion to promote Laughter," and the contributor sagaciously remarks that they belong to "a kind of litera- ture that has gone out of fashion with court fools and quasi-practical jokes —jokes not necessarily malicious, but intended laboriously to display the joker's wit." Such pranks as they record, he goes on to say, are not in harmony with the spirit of our age, but the humour they embody may be found in Boccacio, Chaucer, and Shakspeare. No doubt of it, but why not state the reason, which is simply this, that the literature in question was borrowed from the East, whence it was introduced into Europe by the Trouveres during and after the Crusades ; and every one knows that the light literature of the middle ages was entirely founded upon the old fabliaux.
Chesson and Woodhall's Miscellany. No. XIII. Bombay : Chesson and Woodhall.—Addicted as "the services" in India have ever been to the use of the pen, it is somewhat strange that they have never succeeded in keep- ing up a literary periodical with any pretensions to merit. There have been many started, but not one has long held its own against its European rivals. Within a few years the Anglo-Indian community hat been invited to sup- port the Meerut Universal Magazine—or M.U.M., as it was facetiously de- signated—the Benares Magazine, Saunders's Magazine for All India, Ledlie's Miscellany, and now, last and least, the Miscellany at the head of this notice. Through the patient enterprise of its publishers it has now reached its thirteenth month, a truly wonderful circumstance, seeing that the price is four shillings a number, that is, 120 pages of matter far below zero.
Letters from Rome to Friends in England. By the Rev. John W. Burgon, M.A., &c. (John Murray.) Aids to Faith. A Series of Theological Essays. By several Writers. Edited by William Thomson, D.D., &c. (John Murray.) Christianity Agreeable to Reason in its Evidence, its Doctrine of the Atonement, and its Commemorative Sacrament. 71, which is added, Baptism from the Bible. By the Rev. Edmund Mortlock, B.D., &c. Second Edition. (Macmillan and Co.) The Northern Circuit ; or, Brief Notes of Sweden, Finland, and Russia. (Macmillan
and Co.)
Baronscliffe; or, the Dead of Other Days. By M. R. S. P. M. Latham. (Bell and Daldy.)
Poems from the German. By Richard Garnett (Bell and Daldy.) Will-o-the-Wisps; or, Lights and Sprite.s. Translated from the German. By Lady Maxwell Wallace. (Bell and Daldy.)
Childhood and Youth. A Tale. By Count Nicola Tolstoi. (Bell and Daldy.) Nugz Criticm. Occasional Papers written at the Sea-side. By Shirley. (Ed- monston and Douglas.) History of the University of Edinburgh, from its Foundation. By Andrew Dalziel. With a Memoir of the Author. Vols. L and II. (Edmonston and Douglas.) The Two Prima Donnas, and the Dumb Door-Porter. By George Augustus Sala, Author of "Dutch Pictures," &c. (Tinsley Brothers.) Thirty-three Years in Tasmania and Victoria ; being the Actual Experience of the Author. By George Thomas Lloyd. (Holliston and Wright.)
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