thoroughly comprehend it, must read all the authorities cited above. Mr. Vizetelly describes himself as editing, as well as translating, M. Topin's book. Had he done so, he would have given M. Loiseleur's refutation of M. Topin's views in an appendix; as it is, he furnishes us with only one side of a case, which is indeed ingeniously argued, but which crumbles under the proofs produced by M. Loiseleur.

Plato's Phaedo. With Notes, Critical and Exegetical, and an Analysis, by Wilhelm Wagner, Ph.D. (Cambridge, Deighton, Bell & Co.)

Ir seems strange that we should have had hitherto in England no satisfactory school edition of any of Plato's dialogues. Until a year ago, when Dr. Wagner brought out his edition of the 'Apology' and the 'Crito,' schoolmasters who wished to introduce their pupils to the study of Plato had no choice but to place in their hands the well-known commentary of Stallbaum,-a work which contains much that is valuable, but which labours under the capital defect of being written in Latin. We have indeed an excellent edition of the 'Phædrus' by Dr. Thompson, and editions of the 'Theætetus,' 'Politicus' and 'Sophistes,' by Prof. Campbell, with English notes and appendices; but these dialogues are manifestly disqualified for school use; the 'Phædrus' by the delicacy of one of its topics, the other three by their difficulty. Meantime, whether there be a suitable edition or no, the teacher cannot allow his pupils to neglect Plato, especially as boys now-a-days read a very considerable portion of the works of Thucydides, and would come to think, if not provided with a corrective such as is afforded by Plato, that the asperities of the great historian's diction were an integral part of Attic style. Teachers, moreover, know, or ought to know, that there are many boys to whom the study of Plato is a sort of revelation; that there are many whose appreciation of classical literature dates from the first perusal of the 'Apology' or the 'Phædo.' The eloquence of Demosthenes is lost upon young beginners; but there are few readers, however ignorant and however youthful, who are not roused by the grandeur of Socrates's character, and moved by the story of his death. We are rejoiced to find that a scholar so competent as Dr. Wagner has come forward to supply this deficiency in English school literature: the work has not suffered in his hands.

The edition of the 'Phædo' now before us

consists of a text, with a useful analysis of the most important various readings, a commentary, and a collation of the Bodleian MS. made by Mr. Ingram Bywater. This last will This last will be of more use to professed scholars than to beginners; but though it is therefore to some extent an excrescence upon the original scheme

of the work, we cannot complain of the insertion of so valuable a contribution to Platonic

literature.

sity of the above-named scholars to seek uniformity of phraseology at the cost of reckless emendation. The commentary is intended to supply all the help which a well-grounded student can require. So far as regards grammar, usage, and the meaning of particular phrases and sentences, this end is fully attained: we venture, however, to think that, in some cases, Dr. Wagner might with advantage have given a fuller explanation of the argument, and that the headings which precede the notes upon each chapter are not a sufficient summary of the discussion. A continuous analysis, prefixed or affixed to the commentary, would have materially enhanced the value of the book. It may be presumed that Dr. Wagner thinks that such an analysis would not have come within the scope of the work, which "does not profess to exhaust the philosophical thought of the dialogue." We have, of course, no-right to object to the limit ations which the editor has imposed upon himself, but we are always sorry when the philosophy of a philosophical work is postponed to the critical and grammatical explanation of it; and we cannot regard any commentary on any portion of Plato's writings as exhaustive if it does not notice those occasions on which Socrates is made to put forward unsatisfactory arguments; for, despite Addison, Plato does not always "reason well." reason well." Dr. Wagner's critical and grammatical notes-in fact, all those which deal with what is technically called "scholarship"-are excellent. scholarship "—are excellent. In some few places we venture to differ from him, but it is on points on which scholars have differed before, and will differ again. For instance, on p. 84 E, poßeiobe μn dvσкodúτeρóv τι νῦν διακεῖμαι ἢ ἐν τῷ πρόσθεν, he comments as follows::

Prof. Goodwin at p. 116 of the work already quoted.

Why does Dr. Wagner make the infinitive of verbs in áo terminate in -av instead of in -âv! We thought that ópav, for example, was generally allowed to be the correct form, not ὁρᾷν. The does not appear in δηλοῦν, from now why, then, should it be subscribed in the infinitive of the first conjugation of contracted verbs?

It is to be hoped that Dr. Wagner will not rest content with what he has already done to further the study of Plato. Even as it is, schoolboys and University students have reason to be grateful to him.

NOVELS OF THE WEEK.

Beyond These Voices. By Lord Desart. (Tinsley Brothers.)

Baptized with a Curse. By Edith S. Drewry. (Tinsley Brothers.) Diary of a Novelist. chel's Secret,' &c.

By the Author of 'Ra(Hurst & Blackett.) LORD DESART is a promising pupil in that school of fiction to which he has attached himself. This is, we believe, only the second novel that he has given to the world, and already he shows, not fertility of invention, for there are but ten Commandments to break, and consequently, the materials for this class of novel are limited, but considerable familiarity with those materials, and boldness in manipulating them. A murder, a bigamy, adultery, seduction, perjury and lying ad libitum, such are the agreeable ingredients which, mixed up with a due amount of dull and rather profane moralizing on the ways of Providence and the destiny of man, a few bad and vulgarish jokes, and some scraps from a book of 'Familiar Quotations,' fill three octavo volumes, and are called by the name of a novel. There is but one Guy Livingstone (to parody the creed of the personage whom Lord Desart, not quite clear about the difference between Arab and Turk, calls "Mahomet Effendi "), and Ouidà is his prophet; but Lord Desart, we say again, cadence of the school. The stalwart limbs and is a hopeful disciple, though he shows the demighty forms are gone: the vices only remain undiminished.

The hero (to what base uses may words no less than men come!) is a young Irishman, named Dillon, owning an estate in Tipperary, ful youth seduces a beautiful peasant, whom, where he lives with an elder sister. This hopeto do him justice, he afterwards marries, more, however, to save the life of an English friend evicted the girl's mother, and is threatened by who, having just come into the country, has her brother, than from any feeling of honour. The friend' is murdered, nevertheless, while Dillon and his wife are in England; but, though a reward of 5,000l. is offered, of which Dillon discovered. Dillon, however, suspecting his contributes 4,500l., the murderer is never brother-in-law, most unjustly takes a dislike England and forming a liaison with the wife to his wife, and treats her very badly, going to of a nobleman, one of his friends. His own and taken care of by an elderly Fenian. Dillon, wife runs away to Dublin, where she is found neighbouring Earl, under the direction of an supposing her dead, marries the daughter of a intriguing priest: though, why the priest, who wants to convert Dillon, should make him, a

Protestant, ally himself with the family of a Protestant Earl we do not understand. Of course the first wife turns up; Dillon tries to murder the priest, who has known all along that she was alive; she then dies. Dillon makes an honest woman, as the saying is, of his second wife by marrying her legally; they then, most unnecessarily, separate, and all, including Miss Dillon-who has been the victim of a hopeless attachment to a Fenian Head-Centre, now in a lunatic asylum,-live unhappily (as is the fashion now-a-days) ever afterwards.

We have given merely the framework of the story, which is filled up with descriptions of a Fenian meeting, the inevitable run, in which the hero is always three fields ahead of any one else, small talk, et id genus omne. The first half is in an autobiographical form, which gives way after a time, during which we have got thoroughly disgusted with Mr. Dillon, to a narration by another person. Of course, the author indulges in the affectation, now so common, of having personally known his cha- |

racters.

We almost forgot to mention that there are some songs in the first volume, which are about up to the level of the sentimental song of the period, not worse and not better.

Miss Drewry and Lord Desart resemble each other in one particular - both their stories are told partly in the form of autobiography, partly as narrated by another person. There is this difference, that while in 'Beyond These Voices' the change once made is kept up throughout the rest of the book, Miss Drewry professes to base her story on a manuscript, given me by one who received it from the writer, and what he has of necessity left blank another hand has filled in." The consequence of this is, that the book is divided into " manuscripts," with occasional "chapters," acting as a sort of chorus, and explaining what is to follow, or connecting it with what has gone before. We cannot but think this double personality, so to speak, a somewhat clumsy device. A novelist is by convention allowed a greater knowledge of the actions and thoughts of his personages than would be possible in actual life, and with this allowance he ought to be contented. Indeed, the great art of a writer of fiction, and the great means of giving reality and life-likeness to his characters, consist in not over-straining, in not drawing too largely on this allowance, and in telling his story as though he had no special advantages, but saw only so much of the actions of his dramatis persona as any one else might, and showing his penetration by deducing "characters" from actions, and keeping them throughout consistent with themselves. If he is to be allowed to see both sides of the curtain at the same time, he may make a fairly interesting story; but art there is none.

awaiting his execution, having at last been somewhat influenced by the ministrations of a clergyman. His character, though not unskilfully drawn, is not quite satisfactory. The author must, we think, have sat down to make a villain and shrunk from the task, till it was necessary to sustain her accuracy, and bear out her assertions of his wickedness by making him do something very wicked indeed. If it were not for the explanatory "chapters," and if we had only his own "manuscripts" to judge him by, we should take him for no worse than other people; but whenever he stops speaking, and the writer gets a word in, we are told that he is everything that is bad. As to the other people, there is the friend who is murdered, a great sculptor; a mysterious Italian, who turns out to be the sculptor's long-lost brother, and a Provençale, who sells cameos, and does amateur detective work, ultimately married to the long-lost brother, and a host of minor characters, all fairly drawn; though we wish that Miss Drewry would not make them talk polyglot. Everybody, English, French, or Italian, speaks a mixture of all three languages in a most aggravating way. There are some, though not many, blunders in all three; for instance, "young as her," "deceive you or I," "tiens-toi" (for tiens), "Transtiverina." Lastly, we doubt if" the Queen's name" would have much power in arresting a criminal in France.

In spite, however, of these and other faults, Miss Drewry has written a readable book, and with pains may yet do well.

6

After reading the Diary of a Novelist,' the principal feeling is one of regret at the time that has been wasted in writing, printing, and publishing it. There is absolutely nothing worthy of the telling in the whole book, and it is a mystery why it was ever given to the world. The diary (which fills a goodly-sized volume) The diary (which fills a goodly-sized volume) commences on the 10th of August, 1869, and terminates on the 23rd of August, 1870, and the only incidents recorded during that time are the following. On the 2nd of September, 1869, there happened to the author perhaps the most important event mentioned in the work, and that was a drive to Sherwood Forest with a lady friend and her husband, "to see the picture which Mr. Macdonald, her husband's friend, was painting there, and to take tea with her in his shanty." After this "delicious drive," in which "each breath was a delight," nothing of great moment to the civilized world is described

-if we except a visit of some nine days made by the author to her godmother in Yorkshire-until we come to the 10th of October, 1869, and then an episode in the writer's life, almost as thrilling and exciting as the celebrated visit to Sherwood Forest, is thus shortly summarized in the diary: "I have been visiting again! And such an entertainment too; as much out of the ordinary way as that in the artist's shanty, and There is, nevertheless, considerable power in I think almost as pleasant." This memorabel 'Baptized with a Curse,' although the story is visit so "much out of the ordinary way," an unpleasant one. The hero, English by birth, was to no more nor less important a place than though of mingled German and Creole descent, a thatched cottage on the borders of Strewall and bearing the name of Casper von Wolfgang, Common," where dwelt one Nanny Dobson, “a has been brought up by an atheist mother in funny little woman in a blue cotton gown and her own principles, with a want of all moral checked apron, who talked in the very broadest sense, which only strengthens as he grows older. of country dialects, and who entertained her As a boy, he is much like other boys, high-guests in an apartment that served as the spirited and somewhat conceited. He grows up a selfish and sceptical man, ends by murdering a friend, of whom he has been jealous all his life, and we leave him in the condemned cell

drawing-room, dining-room, and kitchen." Nothing, however, of a particularly exhilarating nature occurs during this visit, notwithstanding its extraordinary character: but, apparently for

fear her readers should be too much excited by the unwonted action of the narrative, the author allows them a complete rest till the 16th of July, 1870, merely filling up the interim by a little more than seventy pages of reflections upon the beauties of nature and the goodness of God. On the 16th of July, 1870, the next great event in the order of this moving tale comes off; and the startling character of the event will be at once seen by our readers, when we tell them that even the author, accustomed though she is to occurrences of no ordinary nature, herself remarks concerning it: “I feel in somewhat of a flutter this afternoon." This stupendous event is described by the author with a simplicity that will not fail to remind her readers of the style in which certain equally great events have been recently told by King William to his queen Augusta. The author says,

"Hester and her husband are going to drive over from Linthwaite and have tea with me." There is a simple grandeur in this method of describing startling facts which will commend itself to every one, and the author cannot be accused of plagiarizing King William's style, as she refrains from any direct allusion to Providence as being the ultimate cause of the wondrous events. This celebrated tea, however, is the last occurrence narrated in the diary, and the remaining hundred pages or so are filled up with more reflections upon the beauties of Nature and more declarations of the goodness of God.

As we have before remarked, it is a mystery why this so-called diary of an absolutely blank life was ever published, although it is not difficult to guess how and why it is written. Let any intelligent person lead a solitary life for a year or so, in a beautiful country, and that person is as certain to take to moralizing in a vague, gentle, pleasurably melancholy sort of a way, on nature and religion, as a duck to take to water, and in the end to become so impressed with the sublimity of his own reflections as to feel convinced of the importance and benefit to the world of having them put into print. In the majority of cases recourse is had to poetry; more rarely, as in this case, the solitary brooder flies to a prose diary. The worst, perhaps, of this moralizing and rhapsodic reflection, besides its inutility, is, that it is either so vague as to be unintelligible, or if intelligible, is so commonplace as to annoy. Of the two we prefer the vague, for there is always a little amusement to be obtained in trying to discover a meaning. In this diary, unfortunately, the commonplace rather forms the staple, but the vague, although rare, occurs now and then; and the following is a charming piece which entertained us for some time, until we satisfied ourselves that it really had no meaning: "And the great Vitality, the unseen Force, the nameless unknown Life, which to us is but a mystery that we call Nature, seems dimly to have discerned the secret of creation's sadness, and to have learnt with it a fuller sense of sympathy with the burden of humanity."

OUR LIBRARY TABLE.

Catalogue of a Collection of Sanskrit MSS. By A. C. Burnell. Part I. (Vedic MSS.) (Trübner & Co.)

ACCURATE catalogues of the various European collections of Sanskrit MSS. are just now one of the most pressing wants of Oriental scholars. Professor Weber and Professor Aufrecht have

clearly discern the various modifications of meaning which the general idea expressed by the root has undergone. A good account of the crude form system is given in the introduction, while the body of the work well illustrates its value as a means of instruction.

Phædrus. With English Notes, by Claude Long, M.A. (Willis & Sotheran.)

PHEDRUS arranged for beginners, by the explanation of anything likely to prove a difficulty to them. Even the present tense of each verb as it occurs is given at the foot of the page. We are not sure that Mr. Long has not gone rather too far in the direction of making things easy: beginners learn none the worse for having to puzzle things out for themselves. We have noticed a few misprints, but otherwise there is little in the book calling for remark. Scala Græca: a Series of Elementary Greek Exercises. By the Rev. J. W. Davies, M.A., and the Rev. R. W. Baddeley, M.A. (Bell & Daldy.) THESE exercises consist of English phrases and sentences, to be translated into Greek, with the assistance of grammatical rules prefixed and uninflected Greek words annexed in their proper order, as in Bradley's Latin Exercises. The editors think this is, on the whole, the best way of furnishing the pupil with a command of Greek words, and familiarizing him with their proper arrangement. We prefer the plan of giving vocabularies of words and phrases, with model sentences to be committed to memory. Problems in Geometry for Science and Art Students. By John Lowres. (Longmans & Co.) THIS book contains a fair collection of problems. The constructions given are good and clearly expressed. There is no proof given of the constructions, but we are glad to see references to the propositions of Euclid, on which they principally depend. Such references, however, become much less frequent and less satisfactory in the more difficult constructions. We cannot recommend the study of such books except to those who are acquainted with Euclid, and who desire to apply it to the working of problems. Such students will be assisted in some degree by the constructions here given.

First Grade in Inorganic Chemistry. By T. Ward. (Simpkin & Co.)

SCIENCE having successfully asserted its claim to be admitted into the course of education, elementary works are needed, which can be obtained at a moderate cost and be easily understood. Such is the work before us, which, though short and simple, contains enough to enable the careful student to pass a very good examination. The definitions are printed in prominent type, the leading parts are presented in a tabular form for comparison; there is a great abundance of illustrations, and each lesson is followed by questions which have been, or are likely to be, set at examinations.

Heald's Examination Cards. (Simpkin & Co.) FOUR packets, each containing twenty-five cards, on which are printed arithmetical questions adapted to the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh standards of the Revised Code. The answers to the questions are given on a separate card in each packet. Model Examination Cards. By W. T. Greenup. (Simpkin & Co.)

A SET of writing copies, including a few sums in simple addition and subtraction, on cards, arranged according to standards.

LIST OF NEW BOOKS. Theology.

Bacon's Short Analysis of Paley's Evidences of Christianity, 2/6
Badger's State of the Blessed Dead, 2nd edit. 12mo. 3/6 cl.
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England, by Gidley, cr. 8vo. 6/
Bickersteth's Comforting Thoughts for the Weak and Weary, 2/6
Hymns for Experienced Christians, by F. C. 26 cl.
Irons's Christianity as Taught by St. Paul, 8vo. 14/ cl.
Pears's Sermons at School, 12mo. 4/6 cl.
Teachings from the Church's Year, cr. 8vo. 6/ cl.
Twelve Parables of our Lord, illust. cheap edit. roy. 4to. 21/ cl.
Wardlaw's Leading Christian Evidences, cr. 8vo. 4/6 cl.
What is Truth? a Layman's View of Christianity, 12mo. 2/
Law.

Adams's Elementary Education Act, 1870, 8vo. 2'6 cl. limp.
Paterson's Practical Statutes of Session 1870, 12mo. 12/6 cl.
Tomkins and Jencken's Compend. of Modern Roman Law, 14/

Fine Art. Hamerton's The Unknown River, 36 Etchings, imp. 8vo. 15/cl. Mountains and Lakes of Switzerland and Italy, 42 cl.

Poetry.

Aldine Poets, Vol. 11, 'Pope's Works, Vol. 1,' 12mo. 1/6 cl.
Bell's English Poets, re-issue, Vol. 15, 'Butler, Vol. 3,' 12mo. 1/3
Scott's (Sir W.) Lord of the Isles, Photos, 12/ cl.
Weatherly's Muriel, the Sea-King's Daughter, &c. 12mo. 5/ cl.
History.

Bolingbroke's Letters on the Study and Use of History, &c. 3/
Creasy's History of England, Vol. 2, 8vo. 12/6 cl.
O'Flanagan's Lives of Lord Chancellors of Ireland, 2 vols. 36/
Stanhope's (Earl) Reign of Queen Anne, 2nd edit. 8vo. 16/ cl.
Tappan's (A.) Life, Preface by Rev. Newman Hall, cr. 8vo. 7/6
Philology.

Ginburg's The Moabite Stone, a Fac-simile, 4to. 10/6 swd.
Horace, Satires, in Rhythmic Prose, by Millington, cr. 8vo. 4/;
Epistles and Satires, cr. 8vo. 6/6 cl; Epistles, cr. 8vo. 3/6 cl.
Virgil, the Bucolics, translated by Millington, 12mo. 5/ cl.
Science.

Jarmain's Systematic Course of Qualitative Analysis, 8vo. 1/6 Storer's Cyclopædia of Quantitative Chemical Analysis, Pt. 1, 7/6

General Literature.

All the Year Round, Christmas Numbers, roy. 8vo. 3/6 cl.
Chambers's Miscellany, Vol. 12, 12mo. 1/ bds.
Concordance (A) to The Christian Year, cr. 8vo. 7,6 cl.

Dasent's Annals of an Eventful Life, new edit. cr. 8vo. 5/ cl.

De Liefde's Walter's Escape, or the Capture of Breda, 12mo. 3/6
Ewing's The Brownies, and other Tales, 5/ cl.

Eyre's (Sir V.) Fortnight's Tour among French Ambulances, 1/
Fairy Mary's Dream, by A. F. L., illus. roy. 8vo. 6/ cl.
Flower Emblems, or the Season of Life, illus. imp. 8vo. 12/6 cl.
Gillmore's A Hunter's Adventures in the Great West, 8vo. 15/
Greenwood's True History of a Little Ragamuffin, cheap edit. 3 6
Household Stories from the Land of Hofer, &c. 12mo. 5/ cl.
Kingsley's (H.) Madlle. Mathilde, 12mo. 2/6 el. limp.
Kingston's Manco, the Peruvian Chief, new edit. 12mo. 36 cl.
Kingston's Salt Water, or Neil D'Arcy, the Midshipman, 3, 6 cl.
Leslie's Milly's Errand, 18mo. 1/6 cl.

Marsh's (Lord) A Book about Shams, cr. 8vo. 3/6 cl.
Original (An) Collection of Extant Epitaphs, 8vo. 2/6 cl. limp.
Palgrave's Five Days' Entertainments, Wentworth Grange, 6/
Pressensé's Madeleine's Trial, and other Stories, 12mo. 3/6 cl.
Routledge's Christmas Annual, Christmas, 1870, 8vo. 1/ swd.
Thin's The Tientsin Massacre, &c. 12mo. 2/6 cl.

Tom Brown's School Days, illus. cheap edit. 8vo. 10 6 cl.
Scott's Miscellaneous Works, Vols. 25 and 26, 12mo. 2/6 each
Scott's Waverley Novels, Centenary Edit., Vol. 11, 'Abbot,' 36
Soares's Sketches on the Wing, cr. 8vo. 6/ cl.

H.I.H. PRINCE RHODOCANAKIS.

The Clarendon Hotel, New Bond Street, Nov. 1, 1870.

In your last issue I noticed a critique upon my brochure relative to the Imperial Constantinian Order of Saint George. This article is so plainly intended to be personally offensive, that I should consider it unworthy of notice had it not been that your unscrupulous contributor, in his zeal for truth, has wandered into the domains of libel, and bracketed my name with that of the "Duke of Roussillon," and sought to prejudice the public by misquotations from my work. This being so, I expect you to retract and apologize for the imputation upon my character. With regard to the dynastic claims to which I allude in my book, I am perfectly willing to submit their validity to any respectable and duly qualified antiquary nominated by yourself, on condition of your giving to the results of his investigation the same publicity and prominence that you have afforded to my anonymous libeller. Requesting the justice of having this letter inserted RHODOCANAKIS. in your journal, I am, &c.,

*

by a gentleman who, like H.I.H., dated from the Clarendon Hotel, New Bond Street.

RICHARD CRASHAW.

St. George's, Blackburn, Lancashire, October 26, 1870. HAVING read the full notice of the above poet in the Athenæum of October 15th with much interest, it may be allowed me, through the same channel, to make public certain things relating to his works that will, doubtless, be acceptable to the writer of that notice, and to the increasing band of admirers of our fine old singers. Crashaw never has been fairly presented to the world. Successive editions have gone from bad to worse, and from worser to worst, by errors of omission and commission. Of the former, take these: First of all, for upwards of two centuries the Commonplacebook of Archbishop Sancroft, while at the University, (now) preserved among the Bodleian Tanner MSS., seems to have been left absolutely unconsulted, certainly unused, in so far as Crashaw is concerned; and this, though it contains unpublished poems by him, "from his own copie," before publication of the first edition of the 'Steps to the Temple' and the 'Delights of the Muses,' equal in quantity to the whole of either of these, or fully a third more than hitherto has been printed. Nor is quantity the main thing: the quality is supreme, and of the rarest biographic interest, touching, as many of these unpublished poems do, alike on some of his deepest friendships and his most central Christian experience. Then, Sancroft having had access to the author's "own copie " of all, he has also preserved a large proportion of those subsequently printed; and in these are found "various readings," revealing the crystallization of some of the most felicitous images, and altogether of the richest worth and interest. Other omissions will come out in the sequel. Of errors of commission, the difficulty is, where to begin. Collation shows that the already-printed text demands the most vigilant supervision. Ungracious and painful as the task is, we feel called upon, in the interests of our elder literature, to prove that the only available professedly complete edition of Crashaw, viz., Mr. Turnbull's, in Mr. Smith's valuable "Library of Old Authors," is throughout untrustworthy. Fundamentally, Mr. Turnbull did an extraordinary thing: he truthfully enough describes the 1670. edition (copying Peregrine Phillips's error of 1649 for 1648, and so imagining a separate edition in 1649, and a fresh title-page only in 1670) as "in its text the most inaccurate of all," and then does -what? Puts it aside? Nay, verily, it was the most common and easily got; and so he actually follows its text, uncritically and slavishly! He dips now and again into Phillips's 'Selection,' and into the 1648 and 1652 editions-that of 1646 he never saw-but his "copy" is self-revealed to have been the edition of 1670, by the undeviating repetition of its most flagrant errors-errors peculiar to it. How preposterous a procedure! To pronounce a given edition correctly as "in its text the most inaccurate of all," and then, with Chineseples. Two, almost pathetic in their helplessness, like imitativeness, reprint it! I would give exampresent themselves at a glance, and are accompanied by other typical evidences of the perfunctory and slovenly character of Mr. Turnbull's editing: e. g. prefixed to the famous 'Panegyrick' addressed to the Queen, is an 'Apologie,' exceedingly character

** Had it not been for the magnificent seal which adorns Prince Rhodocanakis's missive, and the imperial arms, the stamping of which does great credit to the stationer, whoever he may be, we should at first have hardly believed that this letter came from the Prince, so surprised were we at the effect our article has produced on the imperial mind. Far from expecting to be called so many hard names, we fancied that H.I.H. would present us with a very grand cross indeed of the Imperialistic, of fourteen lines. This 'Apologie did not Constantinian Order of Saint George, as a reward for informing the world of the existence of a line of monarchs of whom we strangely find no mention in

the Almanach de Gotha. But H.I.H. is mistaken in supposing we presumed to pass judgment on his claims or to dispute their validity, and we are sure we are incompetent to understand the heraldry of A.D. 538, even if expounded by a friendly antiquary. The "misquotations" we shall be glad to correct when H.I.H. deigns to point them out to us. It would have been better, perhaps, if instead of undertaking to review H.I.H.'s brochure ourselves, we had printed a very nice notice of it, which was kindly sent us a couple of weeks ago

appear in the 1646 edition, but did in that of 1648; but again, being inadvertently dropped in the 1670 edition, was not missed by Mr. Turnbull; and so is wanting in his edition. From the same cause, in the body of the 'Panegyrick,' no fewer than forty-nine lines, among the most brilliant, are totally left out! Nor is even this all. At line 110th of the 'Panegyrick,' the 1670 edition omits a line, to the utter dislocation of the rhyme and meaning. It reads thus:—

A brood of phenixes, and still the mother:
And may we long, long may'st thou live t'encrease
The house, &c.

Phillips, as before, also using the 1670 edition,
prints so, and adds in a foot-note,
"A line seems

wanting, but it is so in the original copy." Instead of collating the "original copy," Mr. Turnbull follows suit, and says, "Here a line seems deficient." If either had consulted the "original copy" he professed to know, he would have found the missing line, and read correctly, as in the 1648 edition:

A brood of phenixes: while we have brother
And sister-phenixes, and still the mother:
And may, &c.

and so not have left "mother" without its companion-line and rhyme of "brother." Similarly, in the 'Description of a Religious House,' from Barclay, the 1670 edition (as in 1652) thus makes nonsense of a couplet :

Hands full of harty labours: doe much, that more they may.

Mr. Turnbull unintelligently repeats the blunder, instead of going to the other editions, when again he would have found all clear, as follows:

Hands full of harty labours; paines that pay And prize themselves: doe much that moro they may. Another example of discreditable neglect occurs in the celebrated Persuasion' to the Countess of Denbigh. Mr. Turnbull records the edition of 1653, and knew that a copy (believed to be unique) was in the British Museum: and yet he contented himself with his wretched text of 1670; and thus, in common with every editor hitherto, failed to discover an absolute omission in this single poemunsurpassed for its ardour and wistfulness and music of sixty-nine lines! This too, exclusive of half-lines and various readings of uncommon value. So likewise, in the poem on the 'Assumption': the 1670 edition leaves out sixteen lines, and Mr. Turnbull does the same. He professed to have collated the 1648 edition: but these and other equally careless omissions, prove he did not. Thus, in the last poem he betrays his use of the 1670 text, by misreading in line 12,

No sweets since thou art wanting here; thereby verging on blasphemy, and leaving out the fine compliment of the correct reading:

Noe sweets, but thou,-are wanting here.

Again in line 3 "light" is misgiven for "earth"; and again, line 7, he misreads

She's call'd again; hark! how th' immortall dove! for "Shee's call'd: Hark! how the dear immortall dove"; and yet again, line 42, for the favourite "dread" of Crashaw, we have "great"; and still again, line 63, omits "the,” and line 64 "our," and in line 65 misreads "We'll," and line 76 "and" for "the"-all in blind adherence to the emphatically and justly condemned 1670 edition. Turning to another vivid poem, the 'Epitaph upon a young married couple,' short as it is, we find it sorrowfully mangled by Mr. Turnbull. Following as usual his 1670 text, he omits altogether lines 11-14. These lines appeared first in the 1648 edition, and afterwards in that of 1652; but the 1670 edition blunderingly dropped them. Here they are:

-though they ly as they were dead, Their pillow stone, their sheetes of lead; -Pillow hard, and sheetes not warmLoue made the bed; they'l take no harm. En passant, curiously enough, Ellis in his Specimens (iii. 208, 1845 edit.) inserts these four noticeable lines in his text, within brackets, adding the following note:-"The lines included in brackets are in no printed edition: they were found in a MS. copy, and are perhaps not Crashaw's." This is a mistake. So far from appearing in "no printed edition," they did appear both in that of 1648 and of 1652. Thus is it throughout, in wellnigh every poem and page of Mr. Turnbull's edition. It were the easiest thing possible to adduce score on score of similar errata with those enumerated, amounting to an aggregate of hundreds, and independent of the modernization of orthography-by which process the bloom, as of a peach's cheek, is brushed off. The Latin and Greek text is something indescribable. Here are a few blunders within less than half-a-dozen small pages:-" minis minisque" for nimis, nimisque, and "est" over and over for eat, and "regno" for regni, and "abi" for alis, and "putre" for putri, and "incertus" for incertas, and "mens" for meus, and "Junus" for Janus, and "melle" for molle; and in the Epigrammata, "In Asinum Christi Victorem" for Vectorem. It were

tedious to exhibit even a tithe of Mr. Turnbull's

misprints, which, unfortunate anywhere, are peculiarly so in such dainty things as the Epigrams; and, indeed, comparable there only to chips in the nice fascets of jewels that in the granite or sandstone might pass unheeded.

It cannot be needful to say more to show the utter unreliableness of the only accessible edition of Crashaw (Gilfillan's being avowedly incomplete); and the very same verdict must be sorrowfully pronounced on Mr. Turnbull's 'Southwell.' Without an atom of sympathy with the ultra-Protestant bigotry and uncharity that hounded him from his post among the State-Calendarers, as believing he was incapable of consciously mutilating or of suppressing documents entrusted to his care, I must, nevertheless, profoundly regret that Mr. Turnbull proves on examination to have been as an editor of 'Crashaw' (and of 'Southwell' and others) inadequately furnished, uncritical, inaccurate and practically useless. His laboriousness and manifold undertakings, without pecuniary return, must be accepted as indicative of bookish tastes and unselfish co-operation with fellow-workers in the fields of our old Literature; but taking Crashaw' (and 'Southwell') for specimen, he must be pronounced an incompetent editor.

All this being so, and holding in my possession careful transcripts of the whole of the Sancroft MSS., and of the original and early editions and scattered separate poems, I propose to include a complete and worthy collection of the works of Crashaw, with Memorial-Introduction and Notes, in my "Fuller Worthies' Library"; and to translate for the first time his 'Poemata' and 'Epigrammata,' and related prose. I am just sending forth detailed information concerning my edition, to those friends and fellow book-lovers who share with me the expenditure on my privately-printed and privately-circulated books (none published, and the impression strictly limited to 106 large paper and 156 small paper). I shall lay out a good deal of pains and money on my edition in every respect; and readers of the Athenæum may be glad to know that, in addition to the usual large paper, I shall prepare twenty-five in quarto, on extra-thick toned paper, and largely illustrated with (a), Photo-lithographs, by Francis's new process, of six of the poet's own designs in the 1652 edition; (b), the engraved title-page of 1648; and (c), a great variety of exquisite head- and tailpieces including at least six specially drawn and engraved for the work by W. J. Linton, Esq., and other illustrations peculiar to these twenty-five select copies.

Elsewhere I hope to set forth the potential influence of Crashaw on Milton, Pope, Young, Jeremy Taylor, Heber, and others. Meanwhile, two points in the Athenæum notice of him call for a passing remark. First, granting the quaint grotesqueness to us of the particular line objected to in the 'Sospetto d'Herode,' the writer must be respectfully reminded of what apparently he forgot, viz. that Crashaw translates Marini therein. As near as possible this is the English of the original:

And of the tail twisted about himself
He bit off all the tip, with rage. (St. 19.)

It will be seen, therefore, that while elsewhere our poet expands magnificently, he keeps close to Marini in rendering

The while his twisted tail he gnawed for spite. Then, I can hardly credit my own eyes as I read in the Athenæum that George Herbert is unapproachably above Crashaw. Yielding to none in loving appreciation of the "sweet singer" of Bemerton, I must, nevertheless, regard this as something very like paradox. The Temple' seems to me full of all "sweet odours," and its antique windows daintily filled with softly-toned if somewhat ill-drawn figures i' the glass, and ever and anon the ear catches vanishing bursts of celestial music; but the 'Steps of the Temple' lead along avenues of lofty thought and into depths of tender spiritual experience and impassioned emotion infinitely beyond The Temple.' In Herbert, there is sweetness: in Crashaw, the sweetness, and also a thyme-flavour as of the honey of Hymettian bees: outlook, clear-eyed and calm, in Herbert; in Crashaw, the outlook too, but, besides, penetrative insight: in Herbert, all gracious

and fine charities of meditation; in Crashaw, more than all this, and transfiguring all the God-given light of genius. In short, save Shelley, in recent days, I know not where to look for a poet with such quantity of the divinest "stuff" of poetic inspiration as I find in Crashaw; so that to me comparison between Herbert and Crashaw is ludicrously unequal, so thin and bleak and uninspired is Herbert; so matterfull, so radiant, so creative, so seer-like, Crashaw. Henry Vaughan, the Silurist, and Richard Crashaw I venture to pronounce poets; George Herbert, beside them, only a gentlehearted, narrow-brained versifier of the blessed commonplaces of the Faith. ALEXANDER B. GROSART.

THE PROSPECTS OF UNIVERSITY REFORM,
Oxford, Oct. 31, 1870.

THE beginning of another Academic year has introduced a renewal of the weary contest for religions equality in the Universities. It is a contest in every way to be regretted by the friends of learning and of true progress; the energies of the best men are being wasted on a miserable fend; the feeling of bitterness which it engenders is con tinually increasing, and has created a kind of schism in Oxford, which is absolutely ruinous to the interests of the University, dividing it into two camps, with a very marked line of separation be tween them. To continue the struggle until the victory is gained is a necessity of the Liberal party; and however much they may regret the expenditure of time and strength on an internal dissension, they can always find comfort in the reflection that the longer the battle the more complete will be the victory, and that any sort of compromise is now rendered impossible by the obstinate resistance which has so long frustrated their efforts. It is very strange that the Conservatives are not conscious of the suicidal nature of their own policy; for, putting aside the question of justice, any one who watches the march of events must know that it is merely the story of the Sibylline books over again, and that each year of delay will put the Nonconformists in a better position, when once they have effected their entrance into the beleaguered city. They indeed can well afford to wait, even though two thousand of them are ready to enter at Cambridge as soon as the fatal barrier is removed; they may well remain content outside the walls, leaving those who are still in possession of the fortress to "cook in their own juice," to continue the civil war which is likely to rage fiercely for another year. It is true, that a few of the more intelligent of the Conservative party are conscious of the danger which they are bringing upon them. selves, but a false kind of chivalry seems to urge them to their own destruction; and their distin guished leader, intoxicated by the brilliancy of an Oxford Commemoration, and proud of the almost regal pomp with which he was received, appears to have lost that shrewd common sense which formerly modified his Conservatism, and to have ceased to appreciate the necessities of the situation. In throwing out the Bill for the Abolition of Tests there is no doubt that he has dealt a very serious blow not only to the interests of the Universities, but to the stability of the Church of England, and, in some degree, to the institution of an hereditary legislature. It needs but a superficial acquaintance with English politics to be conscious of the advancing position of Nonconformists; they are no longer satisfied with toleration, but claim to be in every way put on an equality with Anglicans. Fully aware of the justice of their claims, they are resolved to gain their point; and if it is necessary to destroy the Church of England in the process, they will not see her fall with much regret. When once they have laid a firm hold of the Universities, they will no longer have any real obstacle in their way; the dissensions of Anglicans, the numerous sects contained in her fold, weakened by their own quarrels, will be able to offer no substantial opposition; the enemy will come in like a flood, with all the bitterness which long injustice tends to foster, and will scornfully sweep away all those restrictions which a selfish or mistaken policy has so long