Antipopopriestian; or an Attempt to Liberate and Purify Christianity from Popery, Politikirkality, and Priestrule. By John Rogers. London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co.

THIS volume is the first of three intended by their author to purify Christianity from its present corruptions. It gravely parallelizes Popery, the Church of England, and Wesleyan Methodism. It may be briefly, but truly characterized as self-sufficient Sectarianism, clothing bad theology in barbarous English.

Of the author, we know nothing. From some passages in his work, he appears to be a man under the influence of personal religion. That such a mind could produce such a work, has forcibly reminded us of the Psalmist's words, "Lord, what is man?"

An Analytical Examination into the Character, Value, and just application of the Writings of the Christian Fathers during the Ante-Nicene period. Being the Bampton Lectures for the year 1839. By W. D. Conybeare, M.A. Ox

ford: John H. Parker.

THE writers of the Tracts for the Times have called forth a spirit of inquiry which cannot leave the Church of Christ as it has found it. Much

as we deplore the admixture of pernicious error which is in those tracts, and what we cannot but characterize as diluted statements of some of the best privileges of the believer in Christ, we cannot but rejoice that they have given a turn to the public mind upon the important topics of sacramental grace, church ordinances, government, and discipline, which is calling forth an exercise of mental energy upon them, which, under the Divine blessing, must result in great good.

The volume before us is an example of this. We have read it with unmingled pleasure, and we hope profit. Its title fully explains its object. The able author is neither the panegyrist, nor the captious critic of the venerable writers of Christian antiquity. If he exhibits their virtues, he does so with the sober moderation of a candid friend; if he exposes their errors, it is with the filial respect of one who passes a censure which truth compels him to do with justice, while affection forbids him to do it without pain.

He gives the Bible its supreme authority as the sole standard of our faith, while he claims for the church her lawful prerogative as "a witness and keeper of holy writ.”

We We regret that in his examination of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, he has omitted the consideration of the Shepperd of Hermas, the Epistle of Barnabas, and some other primitive writings on the ground of their not being the genuine production of the writers to whom they are ascribed. As works, which obtained very general approval and circulation, they appear to us to have deserved a place in his inquiry as illustrative of the state of opinion in the early church. Their omission is, however, a proof of the author's candour, for a reference to them would have very much confirmed his view of the moderate authority which can fairly be claimed for the early Christian writers.

We heartily recommend the volume to the perusal, we may add the attentive study of our readers.

The Authoritative Teaching of the Church, shewn to be in Conformity with Scripture, Analogy, and the Moral Constitution of Man. In eight Sermons preached before the Univer. sity of Oxford in the year 1838, at the lecture founded by the late Rev. John Bampton. By H. A. Woodgate, B.D. Oxford: J. H. Parker. THIS is another treatise whose subject originated in the Tracts for the Times. It is evidently the work of a man, whose views are in general accordance with them. The author assumes that, because the Bible was originally addressed to persons already instructed in the faith, it was intended as an instrument to teach by, and not a volume from which the entirely uninstructed could safely learn the mind and will of God. While we acknowledge the value and excellence of many of his statements, we have seen no reason from the perusal of the author's work to alter our conviction, that the simple word of God in the hands of the illiterate peasant is able to make wise unto salvation, through faith that is in Christ Jesus. The theological student who has learned to think for himself, may, however, derive much advantage from a careful study of this volume.

The Modern Literature of France. By George W. H. Reynolds. London: Henderson, 1839. THIS, without having any right to be described as a very well-written or pleasant book, is a convenient, and, with reference to its purposes, a useful one. It is convenient, as from it may be formed, at but small expense of

time and money, a sufficiently good notion of the contents of the French Circulating Library. We here have a selection of stories, if not from the best, yet from the most popular of the French writers since the last revolution, with biographical notices. There is an attempt not very successful to connect these writers together, as if, because they are contemporaries, they necessarily belong to the same class, possessing their gifts in common, and deriving their inspiration from the three days of July. The three days of July had nothing to say to the growth or development of any one of the writers from whom extracts are here given. The Guillotines of the first French Revolution did not, we believe, interfere with the sale of one profligate French novel, nor has the last retarded or created one of the kind. What the writers since 1830, have in common, is the bad taste which makes them imitators for their daily bread, of the anglo-German horrors of Mrs. Radcliffe and Maturin, the last writers of any genius among us, that were misled into the spectre-and-grave-yard style of Romance.

The English Critics of a few years ago described the revolution of 1830, as produced by the licentious novels and dramas of the day, and now we find the revolution in its turn blamed or praised for producing the novels.

We do not think any of the stories have as much merit, as the worst of the tales which every month appear in this Magazine, and which we should necessarily displace, were we to make room for extracts from this book. In the poetical translations, Mr. Reynolds is now and then not unsuccessful---better, however, in the serious than in the playful. La Martine is pretty well translated, Beranger, indifferently.

Euclid's Elements of Plane Geometry, with Explanatory Appendix, &c. By W. D. Coo. ley, A.B.

Geometrical Propositions Demonstrated, or a Supplement to Euclid. Being a Key, &c. by the same. London: Whittaker & Co. 1810.

WHILE fashions change and literary tastes vary round the compass, the first principles of mathematics stand unmoved-we might almost say unmolested, and modern classes persevere in studying the elemental treatise of the ancient Greek.

Considering the growing importance

of that study, and the immutability of its character, we have often felt surprised that so little should have been done to give it popularity and aid its extensive diffusion.

Mr. Cooley seems to have thought with us; and he has produced an edition of Euclid's Elements, which, for brevity, clearness, and discerning attention to the wants of learners, cannot be easily surpassed. When we add that it is remarkable for its typogra phical neatness, that its form is convenient and price moderate, we feel justified in predicting for it an extensive circulation.

It resembles Dr. Elrington's excellent edition of the Elements, in rejecting Euclid's syllogistic method, and in adopting conciser language; but it adheres to the Greek original in abstaining from the introduction of corollaries not absolutely necessary to the series of deductions. All the corollaries of Elrington's Euclid are to be found, however, in the Appendix to Mr. Cooley's edition, which undergraduates will do well to consult, as well as the Key, which contains a collection of deduced propositions calculated to make the learner familiar with the chief properties of geometrical figures.

The Polish Mother-by B, Kelly, Esq. Dublin, 1840.

We wish that our space permitted us to give extracts from this drama, or an analysis of the story. This is altogether out of our power; nor, indeed, do we think it quite fair to an author, some part of whose task must be the excitement of curiosity, to betray his stage

secrets.

The verse, though generally vigorous, sometimes wants ease and harmony. Snatches of song are introduced with good effect between the acts, in a form not unlike the ancient chorus. In Mr. Kelly's work, they

do not interrupt the action, but are in general so contrived, both with respect to the persons by whom they are sung, and the subject to which they relate, as to carry on the plot, and afford fit preludes to the after scenes. We augur favourably of the author's future success, if he make the drama his serious study. We should be glad to see the Polish Mother produced on the stage, with proper scenic embellishments, which it would require; it would, we have little doubt, prove an attractive and interesting play.

THE session progresses as it had begun, with cautious sparring on the part of ministers, together with a desperate tenacity of office, and somewhat more of stern determination on the part of the opposition, to put the incapables to their last shift, by pressing discussions which must cause them grievous inconvenience, and causing exposures by which they must be greatly disconcerted. But trouble and confusion is the element in which such a ministry can best live. In ordinary times, twenty occurrences and accidents which the present ministry have survived, would have caused the overthrow of any other administration. No other ministry dared encounter the disgraces of the British legion in Spain. The nation would have been up as one man to drive them, with ignominy, from office. No other ministry could have hoped to outlive the Canadian rebellion, which was caused by their incapacity alone. No other ministry could have survived the Chartist insurrection in Wales. No other ministry could have survived the exposures of the Normanby mal-administration in Ireland. No other ministry would have dared to adventure upon the infidel education project, by which such an insult has been given to the moral and religious feeling of the people of England, and such an outrageous indignity perpetrated against the church.

No

other ministry could have had the face to meet the parliament, after having so grossly mismanaged affairs in the South and East of Europe, as to have brought the country to the VOL. XV.

very brink of war. No other ministry could have had the brazen confidence to stand up and defend their profligate negligence and gross mispolicy, in relation to our intercourse with the Chinese empire, by which feelings of amity, and arrangements guaranteeing profitable intercourse, which had subsisted undisturbed for more than two hundred years, have been rudely violated; and fierce and bitter hostility generated, which may yet lead to consequences by which our existence as a nation may be endangered.

And let us look our new condition steadily in the face, and ask ourselves, why is this? To us, the answer is plain; it arises from the turbulent ascendancy of the masses, in contradistinction to the responsible worth and ability of the country, which has been caused by the reform bill. By that, the intellect of the nation has been addled and confused, so

that

it cannot steadily see its way through the difficulties by which it is surrounded. The quarrel of the ascendant faction is still so keen with their betters, who have been for a season put down, that every effort on the part of the latter to maintain the honour and the interest of Old England, by which the profligate men in power might be inconvenienced, is regarded with suspicion, if not positively resented as a rebellious manifestation of Tory predilections. By the concessions which have already been made, the appetite of the masses has been only whetted for a larger indulgence of democratic power. They

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