CURRENT LITERATURE.
The now number of the Quarterly Review is notable for the variety of its contents. It contains twelve articles dealing with such very different subjects as Wagner, and Nelson, "Ireland in '98" and "The Venture of Theism," "Gibbon at Lausanne" and "The London County Council," "Four Great Head-Masters" and "Fifty Years of Liberationism." The majority of them are admirably, some most vigorously, written. Perhaps the most convincing and opportune is that on the Irish Rebellion, which shows conclusively that not one among the questions which now agitate Ireland dates back to the period of the Rebellion, and that not a single item in the programme of the United Irishmen remains unaccomplished with the exception of Separation. The article on Wagner, which obtains the place of honour, is written with great care and discrimination. The author deals with the "mission" as well as with the artistic work of Wagner, but comes to the quite moderate conclusion that he was successful in the sense that he achieved the objects which be set before him, that he reformed the stage, and that he increased, beyond his contem- poraries and predecessors, the power of musical expression as applied to "definite actors and visible scenes." The writer of the paper on Nelson knows his subject well, but be might have shown his hand to more purpose than in such as sentence as,— " The blunders of Napoleon have for long been far more potent to guide and inspire our defensive policy than the genius and teaching of Nelson ; and the conqueror of Europe might have found a sinister consolation in his final discomfiture, could he have foreseen that for nearly a century after the campaign which undid him, the mistress of the seas, whose supremacy he never could shake, would bury the secret of her victory fathoms deep in the blue waters of Trafalgar, and close her eyes as they wept for Nelson, to the things which belong to her peace." Of the literary articles in this number of the Quarterly, "Gibbon at Lausanne," which is based on General Meredith Read's posthumous "Historic Studies," deserves special mention for its varied interest.
There is more polemical vigour than usual in the new number of the Church Quarterly Review. The recently published " Study " of St. Paul by Mr. Baring-Gould provokes an outburst of Macaulayan temper and "slashing." We prefer the style in which a paper on Dr. Hort's "Christian Ecclesia " is written. The author differs widely from the positions taken up by Dr. Hort, but he expresses his disagreement with an urbanity that does not take from his keenness in argumentation. The most interesting articles, however, are those of a biographical character, dealing with Dr. Pusey, Tennyson, and Jewett. The author of the last does ample justice to the Master of Balliol as "an able man of business, a staunch friend, an affectionate and self-sacrificing son and brother," and at the same time maintains that " Jowett's divergence from the Creeds and Articles went the length of a denial of the central doctrines of the Faith, and it is a flagrant offence against public morality that he sln,uld have never- theless clung to the positions he held, aggravated by the fact that he held on to these positions for the express purpose of exercising an influence in promoting his negative views." A very good feature of the Church Quarterly is to be found in the short notices of books, which are not hurriedly dashed off, but are written with as much care as the big articles.
The most "popular" paper in a rather heavy number of the Jewish Quarterly Review is without doubt "The Typical Character of Anglo-Jewish History," by Mr. Joseph Jacobs, which contains such a suggestion as : "I for one shall never be satisfied of the complete assimilation of Jews in the English nation till one of them has rowed in a 'Varsity race or played in England v.
Australia.'" Mr. Jacobs's article of course, largely of the nature of an appeal on behalf of his fellow-religionists for some- thing more than mere toleration. It is very effective, and Mr. Jacobs makes a skilful use of the aid that the Jews have rendered in the work of Empire-making. The other generally readable paper in this number of the Jewish Quarterly is "The Progress of Religious Thought During the Victorian Reign," but it is rather superficial. Of the articles that are of specially Jewish interest, "The Great Synod," by Dr. Samuel Krause, and "An Apocryphal Work Ascribed to Philo of Alexandria," by Dr. Leopold Cohn, are exceptionally good.
There is no question whatever that Professor Salmond of Aberdeen, who edits the Critical Review, succeeds in keeping his magazine in every way up to the mark, and—for a quarterly— wonderfully well abreast of the thought of the time. In some numbers the theological aspect of that thought may seem to have had an unfair amount of attention devoted to it as compared with philosophy. Such criticism cannot be applied to the January number, in which justice is done to several works of the nature of psychology and ethics, such as Fitzgerald's "The Rational or Scientific Ideal of Morality," Wundt's "Ethics," and Adams's "The Herbartian Psychology." The articles are all of a high standard, though naturally they are of especial interest to " experts." The ordinary layman will, however, appreciate such a paper as Professor George Adam Smith's on Mr. Buchanan Gray's "Studies in Hebrew Proper Names," and the critique of the Gifford lectures of Professors Bruce and Tiele, which comes from the pen of Principal Stewart of St. Andrews. Dr. Stewart does not approve of everything in Dr. Bruce's volume, which he considers "bold." In particular he does not take the same view of miracles.
The Expositor merits much the same criticism as the Critical Review ; it maintains a high standard of excellence, which can best be appreciated by experts in theology and exegesis. "A Criticism of the New Chronology of Paul," by Professor Bacon, of Yale, is a very scholarly piece of work. Dr. John Watson is not only a successful writer of fiction but a pleasing writer on religious sub- jects. His paper on "The Name of Names" in this number of the Expositor is, however, rather slight. His object in writing it may be gathered from this sentence :—" As a certain type of piety will ever be inclined to avoid and belittle the human side of Jesus's life, just as the same school dislikes and censures the human side of Religion, it is therefore the more needful that we hold by the Name which, as every one knows, affirms the real humanity of Mary's Son."
"Why we Measure People," by Professor Haddon, of Dublin ; "The Influence of Oxford on the History of Geology," by Pro- fessor Sollas, of that University ; and" The Bacillus of Plague," by Mr. Buckmaster, of St. George's Hospital, are among the out- standing papers in a valuable number of Science Progress. It is rather to be regretted that Mr. Buckmaster is not in a position to give us any more definite consolation in connection with the plague than the cautious statement that "the therapeutic use of antitoxic serum, which is admitted by all who are competent to form an opinion to be of the greatest use in tetanus, diphtheria, and snake-bite, is the direct outcome of bacteriological work, and the service rendered by this science to practical medicine in such a disease as the plague can hardly be overestimated."
Temple Bar is full of good things, the general articles being quite on a level with the stories, of which the chief is Mr. Norris's new and very promising serial, "The Widower." From "Chats with Walt Whitman," by Grace Gilchrist, one learns that he regarded Tennyson's treatment of historical subjects, as in his " Harold," as "like beautifully wrought china, nothing more," that he could not "swallow Victor Hugo's exaggeration and bombast," and that he contrasted two very different writers thus : "Emerson has not George Sand's art of preaching without appearing to be sermonising, which is the art of arts." "The Revolt of a Hard Shell" is a curious study in the American " Hard Church';" the tragedy at the close seems rather an Intrusion.
The February number of the Leisure Hour is hardly up to the average. The best things in it are Mr. Charles Lee's serial story, "Paul Carah, Cornishman," which shows that Mr. Baring-Gould has now a formidable rival ; and a bright and informing paper on "Chess-Playing To-Day."
The new number of the Windsor Magazine is an exceptionally interesting one. That is, of course, largely due to the fact of its containing no fewer than five stories. These are all good in various ways. The experiences of Jennie Baxter, an American journalist-detective, some of which are given in one of the five, are hardly so exciting as those of Sherlock Holmes, but there is in them a vein of not too Yankee humour. There is some very genuine because simple fun in "The Idyll of the Cinemato- graph,". which illustrates the painful disillusionment of two
elderly lovers. " Kronstadt," of which the second instalment appears in this number, promises to be the best that its author, Mr. Max Pemberton, has yet produced. The Russian officer, whose love for an English girl is evidently to make him a traitor to his country, is drawn with great care. Some of the " mis- cellaneous " articles are very interesting. There is nothing of the nature of magazine "padding" about " Tonbridge Ware" or "The Birkbeck Institute."
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