mand the credence of many of his readers; but in its main features it is so much more rational than either of the current theories of the second coming of Christ, that those who have not become partisans of these theories will be likely to welcome it as throwing a good deal of light on a dark subject.

ANOTHER Compilation of the papers of Dr. Hodge has been made by his son and successor. These are brief analyses of discourses doctrinal and practical delivered on Sunday afternoon to the students of the Theological Seminary in which he was so long the most distinguished instructor. There are no less than two hundred and fortynine of these "skeletons," and it is fair to infer that they cover the whole field of Christian doctrine and duty. Dr. Hodge's analytical method is well exhibited in them, and one can obtain from them a complete knowledge of the system of theology which he taught. The volume will have great interest for the students of Princeton and for those ministers who accept the type of theology which Dr. Hodge taught, and may be useful to those of them who have moral courage enough to refrain from appropriating ready-made "plans." There is reason to fear, however, that the book will prove the innocent occasion of much laziness and larceny. Dr. Hodge's example should be a testimony against both these sins. He was an honest thinker and a faithful workman. His editor says of these discourses: "Although designed to meet no eye but his own these analyses are fully written out, and are complete in all their articulations. And although his audience was completely changed every three years it appears that he never used the same preparation twice, but prepared, even after he had passed his eightieth year, a new paper for each conference." This is a remarkable example of conscientious industry. The man who works in this way will keep his freshness and vigor, as Dr. Hodge kept his, till the day of his death.

MR. JOSEPH COOK is marching on. The sixth volume of his series of "Boston Monday Lectures" now invites the reader, and there are, we suppose, not less than three more in preparation, the fruits of the last winter's work. Such fecundity is something marvelous; Sir Walter Scott in his most prolific period could scarcely have published so rapidly, yet Sir Walter wrote novels and did not undertake philosophy or science. These lectures on Marriage are, like all Mr. Cook's lectures, earnest and eloquent. With the end that he has in view, the purification of wedlock, and the protection of the family, no good

Conference Papers. By Charles Hodge, D. D. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

2Marriage, with Preludes on Current Events. By Joseph Cook. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co.

man can quarrel; and the method that he takes to attain it is the method which it is natural for him to employ. For ourselves a treatment somewhat less dramatic would have been more convincing; we must own that Pliny's Villa ceases to be impressive before we see the last of it. But there are diversities of tastes, and the audience that heard these lectures, and that is again vouched for in the "Publisher's Note," was undoubtedly moved by this representation. It has occurred to us in reading that if this method is a good one it might be made still more effective by the introduction upon the stage of a model of Pliny's Villa and of figures representing the various characters who are admitted to it. Mrs. Jarley could give Mr. Cook some valuable suggestions as to the management of this part of the entertainment. Mr. Cook has several tilts with his critles in these lectures; once he kept his audience "after the doxology had been sung" to give one of them a roasting. The running head over the pages that contain this castigation reads curiously-“A Supreme Affection between Two."

Mr. NEWTON's Essays1 show us a busy alert and vivacious intellect taking hold of current questions with honest purpose, and giving us as the result, if not the final philosophy of them, at least fair working hypotheses for their practical management. Mr. Newton belongs to what is called the Broad Church party in the Episcopal Church of this country, a very different party from the one in England bearing the same name. His doctrinal views are substantially those called Evangelical, though some of the Orthodox tenets, as, for example, the substitutionary theory of the atonement, and the doctrine of endless punishment are not held with great rigor. The biographical essays, upon Savonarola, Edward Irving, Lacordaire, and "Representative men of the English Church," of whom he names Keble, Marsh, and Robertson, are pleasing sketches, and the papers entitled 'Causes of Heresy," and "The Narrowness of Breadth" are good tempered discussions of important topics of the time.

A FRESH and delightful book 2 is "Wild Life in a Southern Country." The title may mislead, for the "Southern Country" is in the south of England, and the book is devoted to a most careful and sympathetic study of nature in all the aspects which it presents in that locality. The writer takes his readers out of doors with him, and introduces them to birds and beasts and fishes and insects, to flowers and brooks and clouds and fields and woods and plains, and to

Essays of To-Day; Religious and Theological. By William Wilberforce Newton. Boston: A. Williams & Co.

2Wild Life in a Southern Country. Boston: Roberts Brothers.

the children of nature that he finds among the country folk. His observation is wonderfully sharp and accurate; the habits, the gestures, the movements of the living creatures are all familiar to him, and he teaches you to see and to enjoy the curious and wonderful things that everywhere offer themselves for study. Yet there is nothing pedantic about his teaching; his style is simple and straightforward; it is to the things that he is showing you and not to himself that he keeps your attention. Of course the book is of less value to American than to English readers; many of the creatures and plants that he studies are unknown to us; the larger number are, however, familiar,—some of them under other names; and in teaching the habit of observation the book will have great value. For summer reading in the country nothing could be better; the sharpening that it will be sure to give the perceptions of its readers will greatly increase the enjoyment and profit of outdoor life.

MR. STOCKTON'S extravaganza1 will be a delightful summer book. The fun is irresistible; and although the humor has the American quality of exaggeration, there is method in the nonsense, and the various fortunes of green housekeepers in the country are hit off in a laughable way. Pomona is a decided character; her management of the house during the summer vacation was a triumph of domestic genius, and the story of her wedding tour is better than many of the tales of chivalry. This book puts Mr. Stockton in the front rank of American hu

morists.

A WHOLESOME English story" for children is "The Little Brown Girl," by Esme Stuart. The little folks who appear in it are real children, some of them bad enough to serve as impressive warnings but none of them incorrigible. The sentiment of the book is genuinely Christian, and

it is not a love story; add it to your list for the Sunday-school library.

MISS WHATELY, an English missionary in Egypt, has written a little book of Egyptian sketches, intended for children but not beneath the notice of their elders. It is an intelligent account, by one who has long been a resident of Egypt, of the social life of that land at the present time. The collectors of books for Sunday-school libraries are likely to be attracted by the low prices at which Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Company, the publishers of this volume, are offering their publications. The books of this series, of

1 Rudder Grange. By Frank R. Stockton. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

2The Little Brown Girl. By Esme Stuart. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company.

3Letters from Egypt. By Mary L. Whately. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company.

from 175 to 300 pages, are retailed for sixty-five cents each.

MR. JOHN ESTEN COOKE is a good story teller, as the readers of the SUNDAY AFTERNOON

know; and his last book' proves that he knows how to adapt himself to the younger people. Our oldest colony affords an ample field for the raconteur; from the days of Captain John Smith and Nathaniel Bacon down to the close of the Revolutionary War there is no lack in Virginian Mr. Cooke seems to have made a wise selection history of romantic and stirring episodes; and among them, and to have described them not only with spirit but with fidelity. It is an excellent book for boys, and especially for Northern boys, who must not be allowed to forget the patriotic record of the South in the War of Inde pendence.

THE verdict of Mr. Southey and the fine enthusiasm of Mrs. Gustafson both fail to convince Indeed the failure of the poem2 now reprinted to us that "Maria del Occidente " was a great poet. attain popularity in its day does not appear to us anything wonderful; it would not be likely to

meet a different fate if it were given to the world to-day. It contains good lines and fair stanzas;

Egla's Song in the last Canto is fine; the passage quoted by Mr. Southey is poetical; but the greater part of the poem is rather dreary; the art is slipshod, the phraseology is stilted, the story is tedious. Mrs. Gustafson's ardent appreciation is contagious; she has done all that could be done to rehabilitate " 'Zophiel;" nevertheless, we do not expect to see the poem become a classic.

have been collected. The first of these is occuTwo more volumes of Mr. Gladstone's papers pied with discussions of various important questions respecting the foreign relations of England. One article printed anonymously by the Edinburgh Review in 1870 discusses the relations of

66

Germany, France and England" in that crisis with great breadth and moderation. Two other papers-one upon "The Hellenic Factor in the Eastern Problem," and the other upon "Montenegro" will be found of general interest. The fourth volume contains discussions of matters historical and speculative, of which a long critique upon "Ecce Homo," and two controversial essays upon "The Influence of Authority in Matters of Opinion" are especially valuable.

IStories of the Old Dominion: From the Settlement to the End of the Revolution. New York:

Harper & Brothers.

2Zophiel; or the Bride of Seven. By Maria del Occidente (Maria Gowan Brooks.) Edited by Zadel Barnes Gustafson. Boston: Lee & Shepard.

3Gleanings of Past Years, 1851-1877. By the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M. P. Vol. III, Foreign. Vol. IV, Historical and Speculative. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.