ant, and admirable man, who wrote and taught and advised and ruled in the spirit of a reformer of the nineteenth century. The book gives a graphic picture of the Swiss life of the first half of the seventeenth century. (G. G. Breitinger: Zuerich. Eine Kulturbild aus der Zeit des dreissigjaehrigen Krieges.)

8. In the interest now taken in the relation of the church to the state, it is pleasant to have the opinion of the great mediæval dictator of faith. It is soundly Papal as we find it in the book of Dr. G. G. Baumann, "Die Staatslehre des heiligen Thomas von Aquino." The doctrine of this greatest of all Catholic philosophers, however, is not altogether favorable to royal tyranny, and has a suggestion of limited monarchy.

9. The Licentiate Pfannenschmidt attempts no exhaustive history of the order of monks with whom he was for a time domiciled; yet, in spite of tedious genealogies and long and rambling notes, he has given rather a picturesque account of the Trappist brethren. (Illustrirte Geschichte der Trappisten, oder der zur urspruenglichen Strenge zurueckgekehrten Benedektinen Cisterciencier-moenche seit ihrem Urspruenge bis auf unsere zeit.) The first third of the volume tells the vows and ways of the Benedictines and Cistercians and monks of Clugny; the second third relates the origin of the Trappists and the story of De Rancé and his influence; the rest of the volume describes the Order as the writer saw them, their dress, manners, routine, industry and piety. The good Licentiate thinks the silent brotherhood to be human benefactors. His authorities for Benedictine history are not quite adequate.

10. If vehemence of phrase and earnestness of zeal can strengthen a plea, Pastor R. Mobius has said an effective word for Christianity in the school. (Die Christliche Schule). He opposes the godless training that would keep out the Evangelical scheme from the national schools, and give them over to indifference, unbelief, and atheism. The school is the support of the church. Infidelity is a French importation which Herr Mobius patriotically hates.

11. From Berlin comes a small volume of riddles and charades (Raethsel und Charaden), which have special interest as the invention of the famous Schleiermacher. They are not religious, but they are as hard to guess as some of the religious puzzles which the great "veilmaker" proposed from the pulpit, and the meaning of which is still unrevealed.

[The two following papers have been officially furnished by the Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books. Apart from their intrinsic value, they illustrate the thoroughness and impartiality and the method of working of this Commission, and show how the results may help to create a higher standard in the writing and publishing of . books. ED.]

We would call the attention of our friends, who like to buy for their children something more instructive or more "solid" than the stories which make so large a part of juvenile literature, to two books which have come to our notice in the last year.

The first is Myths and Heroes; or, The Childhood of the World. Edited by Rev. S. F. Smith, D.D. It is a 16mo. volume, of three hundred and twenty-four pages, clearly printed on tinted paper, with fourteen illustrations. As no author's name is attached, Dr. Smith must be held responsible for whatever the book contains. Its first title is taken from what are designated as Parts III. and IV., which occupy two hundred and three pages of the body of the volume.

Part III. is the reproduction, in modern version, of some of the old Greek stories, which we had thought could never lose their charm. But, alas! the version is very modern, and the vigor, freshness, and beauty have been so dried out of the old tales that they are now only bare poles, from which shreds of improving reflections and moral sentiments flutter in the wind-shreds, do we say? nay, rather whole garments of singular construction. Part IV. is made up of episodes from Greek history, the stories of Themistocles, Epaminondas, Demosthenes, and others, each also pointing its moral, and made to say, at somewhat tedious length, "This is vice," or, "This is

virtue."

We do not ourselves like this style of writing for the young. There may be such a thing as morality made too easy, or, at least, too obtrusive; and we have heard that the most elaborately constructed scarecrows are not always the most effective. We know of many children, and perhaps some grown persons, who would sympathize with the little girl who thought it nice that "Moral" was printed plainly at the end of fables, "so that everybody might know just where to skip."

We have no means of knowing what may be the "editor's" share in the text of this part of the volume, but we think we are justified in attributing to him the foot-notes with which Part III. is enlivened. The following is the introductory note attached to the first story, that of the Golden Fleece. It strikes the key-note of the

whole: "In the fables of the heathen nations we often find fragments of Bible stories, strangely mixed up or distorted, and giving evidence that the Bible stories were once known to the people.” Here is another, with the account of Jason's pouring out a libation on his ship. The italics are our own. "These offerings of the Greeks must have had their origin in the offerings of the Mosaic ritual." Again, in the same story: "In these giants, conflicts, and slaughters there seems to be an indistinct reference to the progress of the Israelites in the conquest of the land of Canaan." So of Hercules: "The story of his weaving among the maids of Omphale, and being beaten by her with a slipper, evidently grew out of Samson's amours with Deliah." As if "Deliah," of whom we have always heard as "Delilah," were the only woman of old who had fooled a man and then scorned him. Again, in the translation of Hercules from his funeral pile: "This story is a reproduction of the history of the ascent of Elijah into heaven." Samson and Elijah together make a somewhat curious combination, but perhaps not more so than Joseph and Daniel, who are "reproduced" in the story of Bellerophon. Of the tradition of the difficulty of finding the grave of Theseus, the writer says, with, we think, too modest a use of exclamation points: "Does not this grow out of the narrative of the unknown grave of Moses!" And of the adventure of Ulysses, when he was tossed two days and two nights on the sea, but the third day lifted by a great wave and borne near the shore: "We can hardly fail to recognize an indistinct allusion to the narrative of Jonah." It is kind, but hardly safe, in the "editor" to attribute to his readers sagacity equal to his own. We confess that it never would have occurred to us that a maritime people like the Greeks would need to seek hints of the perils of the sea from the Jews.

The absolute certainty with which the writer speaks is impressive, and the probable result, as to chronological data, in the mind of a young person is worth considering, but all this is noteworthy mainly for the company in which we find it. The separate introductions to these two parts designate them as the appendix and the sequel to the earlier parts. It is, apparently, an innovation of this "editor" by which a book takes its title from its appendix rather than from its main text; but perhaps this is allowable when the appendix occupies two hundred pages, and the text ninety. For these ninety pages, as well as for the others, there is no hint of the real authorship, nor the slightest reference to authorities. But here we can supply the deficiency.

There was recently published in England a little book called The Childhood of the World, which is, as will be noticed, the second title of the volume we have been examining. It was written by Mr. Edward Clodd, F.R.A.S., and, in the words of the preface, "is an attempt to narrate, in as simple language as the subject will permit, the story of man's progress from the unknown time of his early appearance upon the earth to the period from which writers of history ordinarily begin." It is not too much to say that the attempt is entirely successful. The book traces, first, the material progress of man through the stone and iron ages, and then the development of his ideas about himself and the world of matter and of spirit around him. The whole is written in so fearless, yet so reverent and so loving a spirit, that it is invaluable to any one who would teach children the truths which of the scientific study of the last half-century has made known to us.

Of this book Mr. E. B. Tylor, himself an authority on this subject, says,

"This genial little volume is a child's book as to shortness, cheapness, and simplicity of style, though the author reasonably hopes that older people will use it as a source of information, not popularly accessible elsewhere, as to the life of primitive man and its relation to our own. If the time has come for the public to take to this book, it will have a certain effect in the world. It is not a mere compilation from the authors mentioned in the preface, but takes its own ground, and stands for itself and by itself. Mr. Clodd has thought out his philosophy of life, and uses his best skill to bring it into the range of a child's view."

"I read your little book with great pleasure. I have no doubt it will do good, and hope you will continue your work. Nothing spoils our tempers so much as having to unlearn in youth, manhood, or even old age, so many things which we were taught as children. A book like yours will prepare a far better soil in the child's mind, and I was delighted to have it to read to my children."

The mere statement of the way in which Mr. Clodd has worked, by the careful comparison of the earliest traditions and growth of all nations, and the result of such work, in a belief in the absolute and constant presence of God with all people at all times, is sufficient to indicate the difference between his theology and that which is founded on the supremacy of one book and one nation, and which is so apparent in the foot-notes we have been examining. It is evident that Mr.

Clodd could never have written those notes. It is certain that the author of those could never have written Mr. Clodd's book. It is hard to understand how any man could fail to see the impossibility of reconciling the two, or the absurdity of putting them side by side. without such reconciling. And yet the first ninety-two pages of the volume entitled "Myths and Heroes," &c., are a reproduction (with a few exceptions, word for word) of the English book. A part of Mr. Clodd's preface is even made to do duty for this entire volume: the part omitted contains personal remarks, and the acknowledgment of indebtedness to certain authorities. It is easy to see that such acknowledgment would be quite out of the line of the present "editor."

Of the alterations in the text of which we have spoken, we believe there is not one in the first sixty-five pages. It is in the introduction to Part II., which treats of man's ideas, that the "editor" begins his work. And this is how he does it. He omits Mr. Clodd's statement that some people have spoken of God as being near only a few of his children, and leaving the rest to care for themselves and never to find him. And he alters the following paragraph by omitting the parts enclosed in brackets and adding the words in Italics :

"The rudest, and to us in some things the most shocking, forms of religion were [not invented by any devil, permitted by God to delude men to destruction, but were, as we learn from savage races now] connected with the early struggles of man from darkness to twilight [for no man really loves the darkness], and from twilight to full day.”

And he omits the argument that, since in the face of the realities of life and death men could not have set themselves down to frame a deliberate lie, therefore the false opinions of some early nations came from ignorance, and not from wickedness. The "editor" is apparently a believer in total depravity. Here is evidence sufficient to show the style of his work. He carefully strikes out the incidental statement that some of the sacred books of other faiths are "older than our own," and qualifies the opinion that no ancient book is free from myths, legends, and coarse ideas about God, by the phrase, “except the Bible." And he omits Mr. Clodd's earnest appeal to the children to study some branch of natural science, and to use their knowledge well.

And then he takes this book, which, whatever may or may not be its merits, is at least entitled to the fair and unbiased consideration due to the work of a careful student and an honest man, and, without