Divine Inspiration; or, the Supernatural Influence exerted in the Communication of Divine Truth, and its Special Bearing on the Composition of the Sacred Scriptures. By the Rev. E. Henderson, Doctor in Philosophy. London: Jackson and Walford. 8vo. pp. 574.

THE author of this volume has treated a subject of no common difficulty in a manner highly creditable to himself, and to that body of lectures (the Congregational) of which his work forms the fourth series. Perhaps the least interesting portion of Dr. Henderson's book is that which is contained in the first three lectures, which, after some preliminary matter on man's need of a revelation, treat of the signification of terms, of the history of the doctrine, and of the different modes in which God's will has been revealed to man. The fourth is taken up with a critical essay on the interpretation of part of the twelfth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. The fifth and sixth contain the grounds for our belief in the inspiration of the scriptures. The seventh and eighth discuss the nature and extent of that inspiration. The ninth (in which there have been collected some valuable quotations from the Fathers on the subject) treats of the means we have for settling the canon of scripture. And the tenth, after briefly stating the argument for the cessation of the miraculous operations of the Holy Ghost, as distinguished from his ordinary influences, concludes the whole with some suggestions of a practical nature. The notes, which present a rather learned appearance, contain, amongst other things, a list of some recent English and foreign works on the subject, and a brief account of the chief pretences to inspiration, from the time of the apostles to our own. It is, of course, impossible to enter, in a notice like this, on a detailed consideration of every view set forth, or to express one's unqualified admiration of all the opinions advocated in a work of such compass and magnitude; and, to mention a matter of but small importance, the book would have been as agreeable to the reviewer if it had been written in a style somewhat more simple, and free from such Latinized terms as impartation, perennity, punctators, canonicity; but few will read it without feeling grateful for the care and diligence with which the author has amassed his materials, or without being pleased at the candour and sobriety of thought by which it is uniformly pervaded.

A Memorial of Pastoral Ministrations; Sermons principally on points of Christian Experience, delivered in St. Matthew's Chapel, Denmark Hill. By the Rev, Thomas Dale, M.A. London: Richardson. 8vo. pp. 265.

THESE pages are beyond the pale of unfriendly criticism, having been printed at the expense of Mr. Dale's former congregation, with a view originally to private distribution among the subscribers; a small portion of the impression, however, remaining, the surplus copies are to be disposed of for the benefit of a charitable fund. They present us with twelve excellent sermons, preached, for the most part, at a weekly lecture. If he was asked to particularize, the reviewer would perhaps say that he was best pleased with those entitled, "Meditation upon God sweet to the believer," and "the Christian race, with the Chris

tian's prize." Every one who is acquainted with Mr. Dale's talents and piety knows how well he deserves the affectionate regard of those among whom he labours; and one cannot but be anxious that this most pleasing memorial of the mutual feelings of a clergyman and his flock may answer those high purposes which one feels, in every line, the estimable writer had in view.

Edinburgh Cabinet Library, No. IX. Northern Coasts of America. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh. 12mo. pp. 444.

THOSE who are acquainted with the very pleasing volumes on geography and natural history, forming some of the previous numbers of this series, will gladly welcome the present work, which contains an interesting account of the progress of discovery on the more northern coasts of America, by Mr. Tytler, with descriptive sketches of the natural history of those regions, from the pen of Mr. Wilson. The woodcuts (one of which is after the portrait of Cortes by Titian) are excellent.

By the late William
London: Smith and

The Widow's Offering: a Selection of Tales and Essays. Pitt Scargill, Author of " Truckleborough Hall," &c. Elder. 1837. 8vo. THESE Tales and Essays have most of them been inserted in different periodicals, but are now first collected and published for the widow and family of the author. The late Mr. Scargill was the author of some very able papers in this Magazine, entitled the "Anatomy of Socinianism," which were never finished, owing to the writer of them being literally worn down by exertions and privations. It is to be hoped that this publication will be the means of giving some relief to his family. Those who obtain it will find much to amuse them. There is a great deal of shrewd and original observation, and much humour, in many of the articles, which occasionally remind one of Elia, and seem embued in some degree with his spirit.

The Book of the Young; an Invitation to Early Christian Piety. By the Rev. Joseph Jones, M.A., of New Church. Oxford: Talboys. 12mo. pp. 340. A VERY pleasing little work, written by a thoughtful and gentle-spirited Christian, consisting of brief summaries of instruction and admonition for the young, each section commencing with quotations from some of our sterling writers, such as Bishop Taylor, Bishop Hopkins, S. T. Coleridge, the author of the "Christian Year," and the like, and closing with a collect from the liturgy, and a prayer. As a fair specimen of the author's manner and sentiments, take the following extract from the chapter on Redemption:

"If you would be true Christians, you must receive Christ. There must be an entire renunciation of ourselves, a complete submission of the soul to Christ, a spiritual reception of him, to be saved and to be ruled by him. God is holy and just: man is depraved and guilty: Christ is the Redeemer, the Prophet, Priest, and King of his people; by whom all real believers, all who truly and spiritually receive him, are justified, sanctified, instructed, governed, and preserved. Here is the simplicity

of the gospel. But mere ideas of these things are not sufficient. There must be spiritual transactions and operations. Christ is our Saviour when we receive him through grace as our Saviour. (John, i. 12, 13.)”—p. 94.

The Curate of Steinhollt : a Tale of Iceland. London: Longman & Co. 2 vols. 8vo. 1837.

THIS tale appears to shew much familiarity with the manners and customs of Iceland, and is entertaining enough on that account, for it is a land so removed from us, by climate and sympathies, that one is glad to be let into the domestic habits of the Icelanders, while reading a pleasant story. It seems quite un-English from the strangeness of the manners, &c.; but it does not purport to be a translation. The incidents are sometimes of a fearful nature, drawn from the terrible convulsions of nature-earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, &c. There is also a sprinkling of the adventurous, in exploits with robbers or pirates; but the pictures are mostly of a quiet, domestic cast. The sentiments that run through it are just and proper; and altogether they are volumes that may very well amuse a vacant half-hour.

Mammon Demolished; or, an Essay on the Love of Money. By Bourne Hall Draper. London: W. Darton. 12mo. pp. 100.

THIS essay, which was written for Dr. Conquest's prize, can hardly be said to fulfil the promise set forth in the first words on its title-page. It contains, however, a good deal of ill-digested matter, which might have been better worth publishing if nothing had been written recently on the same subject.

The Church of the Middle Ages. (A Visitation Sermon, preached in the Church of St. Mary-de-Lode, Gloucester.) By the Rev. J. G. Dowling, M.A., of Wadham College, Oxford, Rector of St. Mary-de-Crypt, Gloucester. London Rivingtons. 8vo. pp. 40. 1837.

THIS learned sermon is intended to shew, that notwithstanding the corruptions of Romanism, and the false doctrines which at length prevailed in the church of Rome, yet that as the great doctrines of Christianity-the atonement, the trinity, and the incarnation, &c.-were maintained by it, and transmitted to us, our Saviour's promise, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against his church, has been performed, and that we are thus to look for it in the great body of the Christian church, and not in scattered communities. The author traces also the mode in which the errors of the church of Rome grew up, and shews that these errors are not to be pleaded against the fulfilment of the promise, "because his promise only engaged him to preserve the fundamental principles of the gospel, and to make them of practical efficacy on the human heart. The views of this well-informed writer, as displayed in this sermon, may be recommended for their general soundness and matured judgment.

The Bard. By Gray. With Illustrations from drawings by the Hon. Mrs. John Talbot. London: Van Voorst. 8vo. 1837.

66

EVERY one will remember with pleasure the illustrated edition of the Elegy in a Country Churchyard," published by Van Voorst, and will augur well for the present work. Some of these designs are very spirited, and do credit to the lady from whose pencil they proceed. Although not so popular a poem as the Churchyard Elegy," The Bard" is so rich in historical allusions, that it is well adapted for graphic illustrations. It is to be hoped that it will meet with the same success as the former work.

A Translation of the Anglo-Saxon Poem of Beowulf; with a copious Glossary, and Philological Notes. By John M. Kemble, Esq., M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge. London: Pickering. 8vo. 1837.

(From a Correspondent.)

THE Anglo-Saxon text of Beowulf, together with those of the Traveller's Song and the Battle of Finnes-burh, was edited by Mr. Kemble, in 1833, with a long preface, in which the author laboured to determine the chronological period of Beowulf's historical existence. The present work, which is intended as a sequel to that volume, is introduced by a longer preface, written, like the former, in rather a positive style, and called a 66 postscript to the preface" (scil. of the former volume); in which the said preface, with all its chronological disquisitions, is "declared," with the most authoritative dignity, "to be null and void, upon whatsoever authority those dates may pretend to rest." It is certainly honest to confess one's blunders; but, surely, Mr. K. would have done better had he reserved his dissertation until he had sufficiently considered the subject to be able to write on it with fixed ideas: and had he not put forth a volume in 1833, wherein all that he advances of his own is a string of conjectures, not very well digested, which require an additional volume in 1837, containing fifty-five pages of preface, dedicated to the purpose of retracting these conjectures, and advancing others, which, possibly, in his promised work on the Teutonic Mythology, he may see fit to "declare" also "to be null and void, on whatsoever authority those conjectures may pretend to rest."

But what more particularly brings Mr. Kemble's work under the notice of the writer, are a few expressions to be met with in the "postscript," not very pleasing to a Christian ear. Having given us an account of the finding of Sceaf, who was when a child exposed on the sea in a boat with a sheaf (rceár) of corn at his head, and who, in the Saxon Chronicle, a.n. 854, is called the son of Noah,* and said to have been born in the ark, Mr. K. sees in this," the necessary result of engrafting heathen upon Judaic Myths." That is to say, the Mosaic account of the Flood is but a Judaic Myth. To enter into the proof of the world's having been at some period subjected to a universal flood would occupy more space than can be here assigned

Se pær geboren on dære eance Noe. Sax. Chron. Ingram, p. 96. VOL. XII.-July, 1837.

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to the consideration of Mr. Kemble's work, and the task has been already so often and so ably performed as to render it wholly unnecessary. But the reviewer would recommend Mr. K., before he again ventures to talk about the Deluge as a Judaic Myth, to read Cuvier's "Essay on the Theory of the Earth," and also Parkinson's "Organic Remains of a Former World;" and, possibly, though his prejudice may refuse acquiescence in the authority of inspiration, it may yield to the force of scientific demonstration.

The next offence is of a yet graver nature. Geáta is by some chroniclers reckoned a god, and by others the son of a god. "Not, indeed," says Mr. K., "the Deus exercituum or Deus Deorum, but unus* ab idolis eorum quae ipsi colebant. But in cases of this nature, the son of God and God are one and the same thing.' (Post. to pref., p. xxi.) This, if intended as a sneer at the sacred doctrines of the Christian faith, deserves not a moment's notice, and is so meanly introduced that one despises it the more; but if it be not so intended, why is the indefinite article omitted before the word God, and why is the sentence introduced with a parade of the sacred expressions, "Deus Deorum" and "Deus Exercituum," applicable only to the Almighty? Mr. Kemble, if he meant no sneer, ought to take care not to write in such a way as to lead his readers to suppose that he did.

Το

Such transgressions as those just noticed are the more to be deplored, because the work is in other respects very creditable. translate Beowulf was a very difficult task, and Mr. Kemble has executed it with a degree of accuracy which will be appreciated by those who have laboured, either wholly or partially, through the poem, by the aid of Dr. Thorkelin's faulty text, and more faulty Latin version. For a conspicuous instance of the superiority of this translation, we need seek no further than the introductory canto, which no previous editor or commentator has either understood or rendered correctly. Mr. Conybeare has not translated this canto, but from the account he has given of it in his "Illustrations," (p. 35,) it will be readily perceived that he had misunderstood it. And any competent scholar, who will compare Mr. Kemble's translation of this canto with that of Mr. Sharon Turner, (Ang. Sax. vol. 3,) or with Dr. Thorkelin's, in his edition of the poem, will at once see that Mr. Kemble is the first editor or translator who has satisfactorily rendered the text of the original.

For the sake of brevity, these remarks on the present work will be here closed, as an adequate notice of the glossary which follows would be a work of considerable labour and extent, and the reviewer altogether declines the task. Mr. Kemble, by this translation and glossary, has undoubtedly rendered an important service to the AngloSaxon philologist; but in preparing his next work for the press, let him carefully remember, that a tone of more modesty would only render what there is valuable about his work more acceptable; but above all let him remember that admirable remark attributed to Dr.

* ? Unum.