Insects have also the power of conveying information to each other, some by sound, others by crossing the antenne. When an ant has found a new store, it hastens away to the nest imparting the intelligence to all that it meets in the way; and soon great multitudes are seen busily engaged in carrying away the treasure to the common store-house. The same may be said of bees, who, when deprived of their honey without being destroyed, have been known to sally forth in a body to remove it from the hive that has been taken, the way to which has been discovered by one of their companions. But the sense by which bees find their way back from the distant heaths where they collect their honey, and dart to their respective hives with the speed and certainty of an arrow, appears to us still more marvellous.

The wasps assume a far more interesting aspect in this volume than any in which we have hitherto been accustomed to regard them: some of the species constructing their nests underground and single-handed with almost incredible effort and toil: others building them on the pendent branches of trees in most beautiful forms, and sometimes even manifesting a taste for colour in the arrangement of the cells. "We have seen a nest of this description built upon a rose tree in a gentleman's garden, near a paper manufactory, in the construction of which the fibres of paper had been exclusively made use of; and, oddly enough, the tasteful architects of this pretty fabric had employed white paper and blue paper alternately, so that the nest had exactly the appearance of a blue and white damask rose" (229).

The spiders form a very interesting section of the work; and its concluding chapters are devoted to crabs, lobsters, and scorpions, which have many features in common. But we have said enough to enable our readers to form a fair estimate of the nature of the work; and, when we add that it is characterized throughout by a tone of piety, we need say nothing more to recommend it to their notice.

It is scarcely necessary to observe that the hundred and four wood engravings are of the same excellence which characterizes all Van Voorst's publications; and they strike us as being even superior in force and accuracy to anything of the kind that we have before seen.

The History of the Christian Church.
Doctor of Philosophy and Theology.
Esq., of the Scottish Bar.

Bosworth.

By HENRY W. J. THIERSCHI,
Translated by T. CARLYLE,

1352.

THIS is the first volume, and treats only of the apostolic

age of the Church. It is, unquestionably, an able and learned work; but we think that the statements it contains, on the origin and functions of the bishop's office, are very questionable and want the support of Scripture: not that we doubt the divine origin of episcopacy, but that we think the ascribing it to Peter, and giving the first bishop named by him an universal jurisdiction, though that bishop had his seat at Jerusalem, savours too much of Popery.

We think, too, that Dr. Thiersch is in error in placing Mark's Gospel so early as A.D. 44, and making it the foundation of the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, and especially in placing Matthew's the last of the three. We believe the Gospels were written to meet the wants of the Church; and, as the first Church was gathered from the Jews, Matthew's Gospel was written for them; the second Church being gathered from the Gentiles at Antioch, and Luke's Gospel being written for them by a native of Antioch; and the third stage of the Church was an amalgamation of Jew and Gentile, to which condition the Gospel of Mark is especially adapted, it being written at Rome when we know, from St. Paul's epistle to the Colosians, iv. 10-14, that both Mark and Luke were with him.

But Dr. Thiersch has a still more extraordinary theory concerning those shorter epistles of St. Paul, as well as his epistles to Timothy-namely, that they were all written at Cæsarea, before Paul went to Rome, during the two years that he was imprisoned there. "During this period of dark providence, Paul sent forth from his solitary confinement his epistles, full of light and comfort, to the distant Churches. Shortly before the second to Timothy, he dispatched those to the Ephesians, to the Colossians, and to Philemon by Tychicus. Creseens, who went to Galatia, probably carried with him that to the Galatians. At a later period, when there was a hope of release, he sent that to the Philippians, probably not from Rome, but still from Cæsarea " (165).

It is not true that Paul's first imprisonment, either at Cæsarea or Rome, was a "solitary confinement;" and we think that still greater inaccuracy is shown in classing together the epistle to the Galatians, which internal evidence proves to have been among the earliest of Paul's epistles, with those written to the Ephesians, Philippians, and Colosians, and above all with the second of Timothy, which was unquestionably written long after, and among the very last. The labours of Paley in his "Hora Paulina" have settled these questions, and we need not open them afresh.

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Differing so much from Dr. Thiersch in these respects, we are glad to quote his opinion of the Gospel of St. John, in which we can entirely agree:

"This document was framed, not for Jews or Heretics, but for the Church of God. Its composition and solemn publication formed an important part of that apostolic labour by which John sought to bring the Church to perfection. He did a work which had been reserved for him. He added to the already existing three canonical Gospels a concluding one, which the Church had reason to expect, as soon as she had practically experienced and appropriated the contents of the others ......John pre-supposes the existence of the three other Gospels. He holds back all which they contain, not as unimportant, but as already sufficiently certified. He does not publish, as it were, a sheet of additions to supply things omitted by chance; but, in this respect, he so completes his predecessors that he produces a treasure of truth and light which they had no occasion to publish" (249).

A Latin Grammar, containing, Part I. The Eton Grammar, Revised and Corrected: Part II. A Second or Larger Grammar in English, for the Higher Classes in Schools, &c. By the Rev. J. T. WHITE, A.M., of C. C. Oxford, Junior Upper Master of Christ's Hospital, Editor of "Xenophon's Anabasis," &c. London: Long

man. 1852.

THE object of Mr. White is to present a revised and corrected edition of the "Eton Grammar;" and to that end he has repudiated many errors in the Accidence: remedied deficiencies and simplified definitions, so as to render the introduction to the language less difficult to the pupil. He has divided the Imperative Mood into two tenses, in conformity with the views of the ancient grammarians, in which he is supported by later critics of repute. The Irregular Verbs are given in a form more readily intelligible to the learner and the Defective Verb, Fari, so puzzling to tyros, are so presented that such tenses and persons as occur only in the compound forms are distinguishable at a glance. The Propria Quæ Maribus, Quae Genus, and Prosody, have been corrected, while their original form has been, in the main, preserved, the editor's purpose being to exhibit the Eton book in as perfect a shape as possible. In the Syntax much has been done to simplify the subject.

Part II. is certainly original. Every subject treated of in Part I. has here a place assigned to it. In Part I. the concord of the nominative case with the verb is simply proposed as a dogma which the youthful mind must receive. In Part II. the subject is largely elucidated. The editor's views and

authority for his division of the Imperative Mood are fully given, and the Subjunctive Mood fully discussed. The Infinitive Mood is also fully explained, while the Participle is assigned to its proper position-namely, as part and parcel of the Verb. An entirely new Prosody has been composed for the use of more advanced students, and illustrated by various examples of Latin metre. By way of appendix we have Tables of the Horatian Measures and the Roman Calendar. We can confidently recommend this laborious and learned work of Mr. White's to the serious attention of all who are immediately or relatively interested in the subject. It is highly creditable to the editor's erudition and industry, and places beyond question his qualifications for the responsible office he holds as a master of Christ's Hospital.

Irish Ethnology Socially and Politically Considered: Embracing a General Outline of the Celtic and Saxon Races: with Practical Inferences. By GEORGE ELLIS, M.A., T.C.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland. Dublin: Hodges and Smith. 1852. THE position which Mr. Ellis endeavours to establish in this able and interesting little work is this-that the Celt has no self-reliance, and that the Saxon has very great self-reliance; and that this is sufficient to account for their different circumstances wheresoever the one or the other race preponderates; and he looks to a larger infusion of the Saxon element into the population of Ireland as the only probable means of its recovery; and suggests a railway to be driven through the heart of Ireland, from Dublin to Galway, as at once the best mode of communication with the American continent, and also the most effectual means of arousing the Celtic indolence by the example of Saxon energy and enterprise.

"The existence of the two races, the Saxon and Celtic, is universally admitted. Their habitats are distinctly marked. What their condition was two thousand years ago is known. The testimony of ancient writers, of unimpeachable veracity, is most clear and striking as to their physical and moral characters at that remote period; and all who choose may test the permanency of these characters by comparing them with those which, according to all historical evidence, have been exhibited by these races at different intervals during this long course of ages, and with those which furnish at the present day their still equally well marked peculiarities......... Thus, to illustrate our meaning by a single instance, excitability of temperament with regard to the Celtic race has so long appertained to it in all places as to have rendered this peculiarity proverbial. The Fluellen of Shakespeare, and Hector Mac Intyre of Scott, represent accurately this temperament in the Celt of Wales and of the Scotch Highlands. The

French Celt, whether of Canada, of France, or of New Orleans, exhibits everywhere similar constitutional excitability, and the Irish Celt is certainly not alien to his race in this particular. We shall presently see that other characteristics of extreme interest and importance equally attach to this race, and that the study of these is indispensable to correct views of the questions which affect its progress" (10).

The Saxon race at present inhabits the northern parts of Germany along the shores of the Baltic: they are numerous in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland, and the greater part of England, and form the mass in the United States of America; to which may be also added some portion of Switzerland, the lowlands of Scotland, and the north of Ireland. Their physical characters are thus described by Knox: "In all climes, and under all circumstances, the Saxons are a tall, powerful, athletic race of men-the strongest as a race on the face of the earth. They have fair hair, with blue eyes, and so fine a complexion that they may almost be considered the only absolutely fair race on the face of the globe. Generally speaking, they are not a well-made or proportioned race, falling off most in the limbs; the torso being large, vast, and disproportionate." This description accords with that of Tacitus "Coerulei oculi, rutila coma, magna corpora ;" and he also speaks of them as a peculiar, unmixed race-as very independent and free, and as differing from most other nations in the respect paid to their women; attributing to them a prophetic character, and on some occasions regarding them as

divinities."

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As a consequence of their innate love of liberty and selfreliance, the Saxon race, at the time of the Reformation, was foremost in throwing off the yoke of Rome, and it is only in countries where Saxons predominate that the religious liberty then acquired has been able to keep its ground against the assaults of the Jesuits. "The startling result now stands clear before the world: the branches of the Saxon race wherever found, wherever scattered, under all circumstances, in every region of the earth, whether living side by side with those of a different faith, or separate under their own free governments, are all, without one exception, professors of the reformed religion; while of all the other races in the world who, at the time of the Reformation, were in subjection to the Roman Church, none, with the exception of a small, and peculiarly circumstanced portion of one race, have as yet, though spiritual freedom is now making rapid strides, professedly rejected her doctrines, and abjured her spiritual authority" (21).