PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
The Boy's Own Library. Wild Sports of the World, Part 3. The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine. Vol. III., No. 15. London : S. 0. Beeton.—This number of "Wild Sports of the World" con- cludes the account of lion-hunting, and gives a narrative—condensed, of course, from Mr. du Chaillu's work—of the manners and customs of the gorilla. When relating hunting adventures, the author is quite at home, and appears to considerable advantage; but he is less fortu- nate when he attempts to handle any subject of a scientific nature. He would have been wise to make no allusion whatever to the ques- tion of the affinity of the gorilla to the human species ; for all he has to say on the matter is that, "to his humble thinking," the idea is simply absurd, and that he regrets that scientific men should have thought it worthy of serious confutation. Of the importance of the point at issue men of science are, we venture to think, the best judges; and the only conclusion that we can draw from the author's remarks is that he is entirely incapable of appreciating any of the arguments which have been adduced on either side of the question.—Fiction, the fashions, and the polite art of embroidery, form, as usual, the staple of the current number of the Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine. The artist who presides over the second of these departments is evidently well acquainted with the peculiar tastes of the domestic Englishwo- man; witness his (or her) introduction of a detailed description of an elaborate morning toilette by the observation that it was ." the dress of a titled lady whom we saw descending from her carriage at the opening of the Horticultural Gardens." Among the illustrations to the story entitled "The Family Secret," we are glad to recognize un- mistakably one of the great variety of lovely creatures who did duty for Teresa Longworth, in the illustrated edition of the Yelverton marriage case. The Errors of Homceopathy. By Dr. Barr Meadows, L.R.C.P., Edin- burgh, &c. London : Renshaw.—" When the professors of homeo- pathy, forced to acknowledge its failure as a scientific truth, fall back on credulity and superstitions for support, and holding up Similia- this modern serpent, like to its predecessor in nothing but the brass— claim its acknowledgment as a truth of divine origin, 'a Great Some- thing;' God's universal and inflexible law of cure,' &c. ;"' then, Dr. Meadows tells us, "we feel it time to interfere." Our opinion of the efficacy of homceopathic treatment is, at bottom, much the same as that held by Dr. Meadows; but we are constrained to acknowledge that the tone of his pamphlet is needlessly flippant and offensive, while it contains nothing in the way of argument that can by any pos- sibility be new to any unprejudiced person who has ever bestowed upon the subject five minutes' consecutive thought. The Bight to publish Official Documents. London; Pickburn.—Those of our readers who are so unfortunate as to dwell beyond the sphere of the circulation of the Clerkenwell Gazette may, perhaps, require to be informed that, on the 31st of May last, an action for libel was brought against Mr. Pickburn, the proprietor of that journal, by Mr. Popham, a druggist residing in the same parish. The alleged libel was con- tained in the report of the medical officer of the district, which the defendant had published verbatiini without a word of comment ; and it was urged by his counsel that this was, in fact, a privileged publica- tion. Mr. Baron Wilde, however, summed up against this view, and a verdict was returned for the plaintiff, with 25/. damages. Subse- quently, a rule nisi was obtained to set aside the verdict and to enter it for the defendant, on the ground of privilege; and so the matter now stands. Mr. Pickburn, however, is so impressed with the perilous consequences which may result from the ruling of Mr. Baron Wilde, that he has determined "to place a full report of the case, so far as it has yet proceeded, in the hands of every journalist in the United Kingdom." It is this report which is now before us. It will, pro- bably, be a publication of great interest to Messrs. Popham and Pick- burn, as the fullest account extant of the case in which they have been engaged ; but we doubt whether it will excite anything like a corre- sponding sensation among the general public. Something for Everybody. By John limbs, F.S.A. London :s.Lock- wood and Co.—This is another of those curious repertories of out-of- the-way facts, to the compilation of which Mr. Timbs appears to have acquired an almost prescriptive right. The information contained in the present work is principally of an antiquarian character, the bulk of the volume consisting of what is called' The Garland of the Year," which is, in fact, a brief history of each of the memorable days in our calendar, with an account of the customs and observances peculiar to each. The design is very similar to that of Hone's "Everyday Book," from which, indeed, Mr. Timbs tells us, he derived the idea of Ins own undertaking. The volume further contains a series of papers on mis- cellaneous ut analogous subjects, and by way of leaven, a short col- lection of useful hints, entitled "Prompt (Remedies and Small Ser- vices?" It is, Mr. limbs very modestly informs us, "the result of many intervals which he has employed rather in deriving instruction and amusement from the works of others than in attempting to afford
either by his own." The advantages resulting from this mode of em- ploying his leisure hours are, however, far from being confined to the author himself; for the reader must be at once very well-informed and very difficult to please who fails to find in Mr. Timbs's volume ample materials both for their instruction and amusement.
Letter to the Bev. Rowland Williams, D.D.: an Answer to his "Earnestly Respectful" Letter to the Bishop of St. David's. Second Edition. A Letter to J. Bowsteacl, Esq., 11.M.'s Inspector of British and Foreign Schools, concerning Education in South "Wales. Second
Edition. By Connop Thirlwall, D.D., Bishop of St. David's. London : Rivingtons.—The former of these letters contains a justification of some remarks made by Bishop Thirlwall on certain peculiarities in the religious belief of the Vice-Principal of Lampeter College, which, from the very nature of their subject, lie beyond the provinceof mere literary criticism. The latter, which was originally printed for private circu- lation only, is a comment on the refutation of a statement made by lir. Bowstead in one of his official reports, to the effect that the system of religious education adopted in National Schools is exceedingly dis- tasteful to the Nonconformist population of South Wales. Of the merit of either of these letters, regarded from a purely literary point of view, it is difficult to speak in too high terms. That the Bishop of St. David's is a master of close and logical reasoning, no one who is acquainted with his writings requires to be told; and he handles his opponents with a severity the effect of which is rather increased than diminished blr the perfect courtesy with which it is invariably tem- pered. Dr. Thirlwall is about the last antagonist with whom we would willingly enter on a controversy on any subject whatever.
A Charge addressed to the Clergy of the drchdeaconry of Ely, on Thursday, June 13, 1861. By Francis France, B. D., Archdeacon of Ely, and Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. Published by re.iest of the clergy. Cambridge : Deighton, Bell, and Co.; London : Bell and Daldy.—The principal subject dwelt upon in this charge is the existing material condition of the Church of England, looked at both from a local and general point of view. In connexion with this sub- ject, Mr. France gives a brief summary of the nature and tendencies of the various measures relating to Church matters which have recently been discussed in Parliament; and deduces therefrom the very sound advice to his hearers that the object of every clergyman ought to be to conduct himself in such a manner as to command the respect even of his bitterest adversaries. He is of opinion that doctrinal and con- troversial subjects do not come within the proper sphere of an Archi- diaconal charge; and accordingly he confines his reference to "Essays and Reviews" to a bare expression of his concurrence in the episcopal censure which has been pronounced on that work. The Old and New Theology; or, the Church of Christ not an Eclec- ticism. By Henry James, New York. London: Longman and Co.— This little work consists of a vigorous attempt to substitute a general and comprehensive, for a sectarian and exclusive, system of theology. Mr. James carries his opposition to a merely ceremonial religion to the most extreme point, and his affirmative idea of the Church is, in fact, identical with that conveyed in the following words of Swedenborg, which, we are authoritatively informed, may be taken as the key-note to the whole book; "The Church must needs vary as to doctrine ;
. . . but as long as each lives in charity, he is in the church as to life, whether he be as to doctrine or not ; and consequently the Lord's church or kingdom is in him." It will readily be conceived that a book, of which this is the leading idea, must contain much that will fail to meet with the approbation of English Churchmen; but, what- ever we may think of his doctrine, we cannot but do full justice to the earnestness and sincerity by which the author is actuated through- out.
Previous page
