Church still has in a reasonable though modified sense, not an offering for sin, but still a sacrifice-a priest and an altar.' The whole essay is lacking in strength. Professor Alfred Cave contributes a much stronger essay on the Levitical Sacrifices, their classification, principles, relations to the patriarchal times before, and the New Testament times after them, &c. The Expositions and Homiletics are by the Rev. F. Meyrick. They are done with vigour and penetration, but the details of the book are very minute and complicate. The Homilies are by Professor Redford, W. Clarkson, R. M. Edgar, J. A. Macdonald, and S. R. Aldridge.

The Variorum Editions of the New Testament, with Various Renderings and Readings from the Best Authorities. Edited by Rev. R. L. CLARKE, M.A., ALFRED GOODWIN, M.A., and Rev. W. SANDAY, D.D. Eyre and Spottiswoode. Although the Authorized Version is here used, the work is by no means superseded, for even the revised edition will not enable us to dispense with the knowledge of various renderings and various readings here given; and the various information accompanying the text is of course of perennial importance. The editors have been permitted throughout to collate the Greek text determined by Westcott and Hort and recently published. The chief manuscripts are enumerated and described. The address of the translators of 1611 to the reader is reprinted, and the notes comprise the chief results of Greek scholarship as applied to the text. The names of the editors are a guarantee for the highest exegetical scholarship. English readers are thus put in possession of a critical apparatus consisting of the renderings and readings of the highest and latest authorities.

A Practical Commentary on the Gospel according to St. Mark. By JAMES MORISON, D.D. Third Edition Revised. Hodder and Stoughton.

Dr. Morison's Commentary on Mark has won for itself a distinct recognition. It is full of delicate appreciations of peculiarities of phrase and nuances of thought. Recognizing the thought of Peter as imbuing his disciple Mark, he emphasizes both the interest and the importance of this. The subtle and difficult questions involved in the inter-relationship of the three Synoptic Gospels are treated with great minuteness and critical insight. The Revised Version has been consulted throughout. Dr. Morison congratulates himself on having in the previous editions anticipated a large proportion of the Revisionists' emendations. He has also justified his claim to have avoided a repetition of expositions in his work on Matthew, and to have furnished fresh veins of representation and illustration, the result of fresh labour and research, thus making each work complete in itself. But think of 470 closely printed octavo pages bestowed on Mark's short memoir. What a marvellous book the Bible is!

A Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. By JOSEPH AGAR BEET. Second Edition. Hodder and Stoughton. Mr. Beet's very able theological commentary has reached a second edition. On its first appearance we spoke in strong commendation of both its principles of interpretations and of its execution. Much more than the exegesis of the mere grammarian is needed in the interpretation of a theological treatise; for if words determine the sense, the general purpose of the writer often gives a colouring to the meanings of words. The only satisfactory process is to connect the two. Mr. Beet's scholarship is of a high order, his thinking is both lucid and severe, and his religious reverence -the prime qualification for the study of a religious book—is all that can be desired. Among all the expositions of this great epistle with which we are acquainted, we are disposed to give this a place in the foremost rank. We regret our inability to bestow upon it the detailed criticism which it justly claims.

Expository Lectures on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans. By the Rev. WILLIAM TYSON. Wesleyan Methodist Book-room.

The Epistle to the Romans has always had a strong fascination for Christian theologians. As the fullest and most formal formulation of Christian dogmatic theology in the apostolic writings, it has necessarily specially this attraction. It is significant that just now it seems to be engaging the attention of Wesleyan theologians. To the scholarly and critical work of Mr. Beet is now added this vigorous and able exposition by Mr. Tyson; less critical in form, but with a competent underlying scholarship. It is synthetical rather than analytical. Mr. Tyson grapples with the scope, argument, and spirit of the epistle in a very masterly way. Delivered, we presume, as lectures from the pulpit, these discourses are popular in form-they are not, that is, encumbered with critical processes, but broadly state and adequately justify the positions taken. They are not hortatory, in the sermon-sense of the term, but they are imbued with a practical religious spirit and urgency, the lessons fairly coming out of, or rather naturally conveyed by, the exposition. We have examined with some curiosity the expositions of such crucial chapters as the eighth, ninth, and tenth, to see how Wesleyan theology would deal with them. We are not prepared to endorse all that Mr. Tyson has said. We do not think his exposition of faith, for instance, altogether satisfactory; intellectual belief and faith have radical differences; but our exceptions would not affect our accord with his general positions and conclusions. They are not those of the rigid Calvinistic creed of personal and unconditional election; but they are such as broad spiritual conceptions and reverent common sense, supported by the analogy of Scripture and the general principles of Christian theology, must, we think, lead to. Mr. Tyson is especially full and

skilful in his Scripture references and analogies. It is a wise, strong book, and will be of great service to students of the epistle, and to preachers who care to make the spirit and scope of their texts the substance of their sermons. Mr. Tyson gives promise of valuable service to theology.

Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the Epistles of St. Paul to Timothy and Titus. By JOHN ED. HUTHER, Th.D. Translated from the Fourth Improved and Enlarged Edition by DAVID HUNTER, D.D. Peter and Jude, by JOHN ED. HUTHER, Th. D. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark. In the preface to the first of these two volumes, Dr. Huther pays a tribute of admiration to the great learning, conscientiousness, and reverence of Dr. Meyer. The present work was contributed to the third edition of Meyer's Commentary published in 1866. Since then it has been carefully revised. The introduction is very ample, extending to more than seventy pages. It amply discusses all questions pertaining to the authorship, character, and contents of the Pastoral Epistles. The author concludes that they were not written within the period of Paul's life described in the Acts, but probably during Paul's second imprisonment in Rome. The heresy against which they contend was, he thinks, Gnosticism. He vindicates Paul from hierarchical tendencies, and thinks that he maintains the primitive character of the apostolic Church organization. The introduction to the Epistle of Peter extends to forty pages, while that to the Epistle of Jude occupies only seven. Dr. Huther is a cautious and well-balanced commentator, and the two volumes are worthy of the series in which they find a place.

Fichte. By ROBERT ADAMSON, M.A., Professor of Logic in Owens College, Manchester. Edinburgh: Blackwood.

The editor of the series of Philosophical Classics for English Readers' has been careful in the selection of his writers. In Professor Adamson he has secured a competent student of Fichte, who is better known to Englishmen by what he himself was than by what he did in philosophy. Most readers know something of Fichte if only from what Carlyle has written about him, not to speak of Dr. William Smith's admirable translations of his popular works. But the aspect of him which has made the deepest impression is Fichte as a patriotic German who, when his country was struck down by the great Napoleon, never despaired of her future, and by his 'Addresses to the German Nation contributed in no small measure to inspire hope and kindle aspiration at a time when his fellow-countrymen had been almost reduced to despair, and when the great men of the age-Goethe and Hegel among thembowed the knee to the common idol. Professor Adamson has therefore done wisely, for the immediate popularity of his little volume, to devote about one-half of the whole to a sketch of Fichte's life and career. This

sketch is kept separate and distinct from the part expository of the philosophy of the subtle thinker, and we suspect will be chiefly read by those who take up the book; for the second or purely philosophical portion is remote from general sympathy and comprehension. In spite of the abstract and obscure character of much, if not most, of Fichte's writings, his life was full of dramatic interest. It was impossible, therefore, to give even an outline of his biography with any care without producing a narrative of more than merely technical interest. This fact does not detract from the merits of the biography, which is the fruit of study and research, and is written with evident sympathy and appreciation of the noble life which is here represented before us. When we have said this, however, we have said nearly all that can be advanced for the work. We are unable to add that Professor Adamson, with all his familiarity with Fichte's thought, and his knowledge of Kant and Hegel, has succeeded in giving an outline of the Fichtean philosophy which commends itself to general comprehension. He warns us, indeed, in a prefatory note, that the volume has no pretensions to be regarded as more than an introduction to the philosophy of the great idealist. But an introduction ought to make clear the leading principles of the system which is to be introduced, and we cannot pay Mr. Adamson the compliment of saying he has succeeded in doing that. If it be true, as he says, that there are not probably half a dozen students of Fichte's works, it was the more necessary to aim at a lucid treatment of his subtle speculations. We think, indeed, that this estimate does injustice to the philosophical students of Great Britain. We ourselves could name half a dozen who have studied deeply the Wissenschaftslehre,' and Germany would supply a much larger contingent. This, however, merely en passant. Professor Adamson has not certainly succeeded in making the Fichtean philosophy plain to those who were before ignorant of it. Although he writes with much assumption of superior knowledge, and in regard to Kant and Hegel, as well as Fichte, often poses as interpreter par excellence, he leaves the dark places of the Wissenschaftslehre' as obscure as he found them. He merely repeats, without elucidating, many of the most abstract catchwords and sentences of the system. To talk of the Ego positing itself as determined by the non-Ego, or of the Ego positing the non-Ego as determined by the Ego, is to reproduce what for purely English readers must be unintelligible formulæ. In spite of the pedantry which is not infrequently visible, the interpretation of Fichte differs in little from the interpretations of previous writers. The account of the Anstoss, for example (an important part of the system), is neither better nor worse than may be found in popular writers on the history of philosophy, like Lewes or Morell. Altogether, we fear that the part of the book dealing with the Fichtean philosophy will scarcely contribute to make it better known among English students. It will be helpful to those who are able to study Fichte's writings at first hand for themselves, who will, in following Professor Adamson, find useful guidance and significant suggestions. But as meant for purely English readers, and as an inter

pretation for them of a writer of great subtlety and obscurity, and whose thoughts are remote from the ordinary currents of even philosophical reflection in our own time, we cannot pronounce Professor Adamson's Fichte a success.

Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.

MAX MÜLLER. Two Vols.

Translated by

Macmillan and Co.

The readers of Professor Max Müller's works do not need to be informed of the keen interest which he has always cherished in Kant, and more particularly in the great 'Kritik.' It appears that he had long entertained the design of translating that work into English, and he has taken the opportunity of the centenary of its first appearance to put it before the English public. The views of Kant's position in the history of thought which led him to form the project which he has now fulfilled doubtless appear strange in the view of many who have been accustomed to look to the gifted translator as their guide, philosopher, and friend. He has been to them the exemplar of the wise use of the comparative method, His researches in language have brought home to multitudes the reality of a region of intellectual inquiry in which results are obtainable through diligent investigation which has only lately disclosed itself to view. But the sphere of metaphysics presents no attractions to many of them. They have been accustomed to apply the touchstone of sense experience in all directions, and where that experience fails they have, or think they have, no solid ground under their feet. Some of these friends or followers, it appears, have regarded the translation of the Kritik' of the Pure Reason as a mere waste of labour. 'How can you waste your time on it?' is the question several of them have put to Mr. Müller, and the preface to the translation supplies his answer. We do not think there will be any doubt that it is answered satisfactorily, both as regards the translator and his work. The advantages of a translation which is the work of a German scholar will readily suggest themselves. For nearly thirty years I have been waiting for some one really qualified who would be willing to execute such a task, and have waited in vain.' Mr. Max Müller therefore undertook to do it himself, and the reasons he assigns for the undertaking are fully set forth. The Kritik' has been his constant companion during life, for his first attempts in philosophy were essays on it. He learnt from Kant what man can and what he cannot know, and then he sought explanations why man fancies he could know so much more than is possible in religion, mythology, and philosophy. Special studies were therefore necessary, but the ground plan of his life was suggested by Kant. The critical philosopher is regarded by him as having supplied the point of view from which in these days we must regard the problems of thought, and in the last resort all problems. All the systems that followed were offshoots from the Critical Philosophy, which performed for thought the same office as the Copernican system did for astronomy-by transforming the points of view. In England the ante

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