stranger instance in Isaiah xliv.: A man hews him down a tree in the wood, and part of it he burns; with the residue thereof he maketh a god. With one part he furnishes his chimney, with the other his chapel. A strange thing that the fire must first consume this part, and then burn incense to that; as if there was more divinity in one end of the stick than in the other; or, as if it could be graved and painted omnipotent, or the nails and hammer could give it an apotheosis."

Dr. South was, undoubtedly, one of the most influential preachers and ecclesiastics of his day, and his sermons, apart from their intrinsic merits, have also historic importance.

THE LIFE OF NATHANIEL GREENE, MAJOR-GENERAL IN THE ARMY OF THE REVOLUTION. By George Washington Greene, author of "Historical View of the American Revolution," Historical Studies," etc. In three vols. 8vo. New York: Hurd and Houghton; Cambridge: Riverside Press. 1871.

pp. 607, 523, 582.

No one can form a right estimate of the Revolutionary War as a whole, without consulting these volumes. The personal character of General Greene is a good specimen of the fibre which characterized our early heroes and statesmen. Many passages in this rich Memoir are beautifully written, the last not least. We have been particularly interested in glimpses which the Memoir affords us into the private life of Greene, his study of Locke's Essay and of Watts's Logic; his early, but brief interviews with Judge David Howell, Dr. Ezra Stiles, Lindley Murray; hist feelings in view of being "read out of meeting," etc., etc. The religious associations of our revolutionary fathers are finely illustrated in the account of the "Thursday lecture" in the "old brick meeting-house" in Boston. These, however, are but incidents in the narrative; the main design of which is to illustrate the relation of General Greene to our country and to the other eminent men who labored for our national independence. This design is faithfully executed.

ILLUSTRATED LIBRARY OF WONDERS. New York: Charles Scribner and Co.

This series of volumes is well fitted to interest and instruct, not only the young, but a class of adults who cannot find the time for extended scientific treatises. We have no doubt that a similar series of works might be prepared for our Sabbath-schools, and might take the place of that fictitious literature which now threatens to emasculate the religious community. The enterprising publishers of this series deserve the thanks of the literary, and above all the religious, public for so many volumes combining rich entertainment with solid profit. Whether such books be remunerative or not to the publishers, they are eminently conducive to the intellectual and moral elevation of the community. We have received

the following volumes of the series: Wonders of Bodily Strength and Skill. Translated and enlarged from the French of Guillaume Depping by Charles Russell. The Phenomena and Laws of Heat. By Achille Cazin. Translated and edited by Elihu Rich. - - Thunder and Lightning. By W. DeFonville. Translated from the French and edited by T. L. Phipson. Wonderful Escapes. Revised from the French of F. Bernhard, and original chapters added by Richard Whiteing- Wonderful Balloon Ascents. From the French of F. Marion. - The Wonders of Engraving. By Georges Duplessis. - The Wonders of the Heavens. By Camille Flammarion. From the French, by Mrs. Norman Lockyer - The Wonders of Optics. By F. Marion. Translated from the French and edited by Charles W. Quin. - Wonders of European Art. By Louis Viadort.

In addition to the volumes noticed above from the press of Hurd and Houghton, we have received the following: JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE; containing the Transactions of the American Association. Number III. 8vo. pp. 246. 1871. Very valuable papers are contained in this volume. Especially interesting are those on " Art Education in America"; "Representation of Minorities"; "Minority Representation in Europe "; and "Houses in the Country for Working Men."-THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE; an Episode of the Thirteenth Century. By George Zabriskie Gray. 16mo. pp. 238. An interesting and instructive volume, prepared with scholarly caution; well characterized as a "unique chapter in history," "an episode of the thirteenth century.". SIX BOYS: A Mother's Story, as told in Extracts from her Journal. 12mo. pp. 339. Boston: American Tract Society.-BIBLE SKETCHES AND THEIR TEACHINGS. For Young People. By Samuel G. Green, B.A. Third Series. The Life of Christ upon Earth. 16mo. pp. 296. Boston: American Tract Society. STORIES AND TALES. By Hans Christian Andersen, author of "Wonder Stories told for Children." Illustrated by M. L. Stone and V. Pedersen. Author's edition. 16mo. pp. 551.- THE STORY OF MY LIFE. By Hans Christian Andersen, author of "The Improvisatore," "Wonder Stories told for Children," etc. Now first translated into English. Author's edition. 16mo. pp. 581. It is needless to say that these two volumes of Andersen hold a preeminent rank in the species of literature to which they belong.

THE

BIBLIOTHECA SACRA.

ARTICLE I.

PREHISTORIC LITERATURE.

BY PROF. W. A. STEVENS, M.A., DENISON UNIVERSITY, GRANVILLE, OHIO.

LATE years have done much in the way of research and criticism to throw light on the literary beginnings of nations. Despite the demands of modern literature and science our age is busy as never before with the products of primitive thought. There is a vast reading public with the Iliad in its hands in the noble English of Bryant and of Derby; there are repeated versions of the Scandinavian Sagas, of the German Lay of the Nibelungs; Müller is toiling to render accessible to us the songs of the remote Hindu Rig-vêda; Tennyson interprets anew the Celtic legends of Arthur; the Occident and Orient, the steppes of Russia and the wilds of Tartary are explored for such poetic relics as they may have preserved. We design in the following pages to bring together, and appropriate to use, some results of comparatively recent criticism in the field of prehistoric literature. The discussion may prove of incidental value to the student of early English poetry; it will deal directly and especially with the question concerning the literary character of the Homeric poems; it will assist to apprehend more clearly the real nature of a favorite rationalistic theory of biblical interpretation.

Such a discussion can hardly avoid reference to the poems of Homer at the outset.. For it is to Homeric studies that we are chiefly indebted for the most influential movement in literary and historical criticism of the present century. That the result and positive value of this movement are still sufficiently far from being recognized, we need not look far for proof. Mr. Gladstone's Juventus Mundi is a confirmatory instance. Commend itself as it may to our acceptance as Homeric fruit from modern soil with modern methods, it is yet in its spirit an exponent of an old school of thought, and in so far, is a century behind its time. It shows in this respect little improvement on the earlier and larger work of which it is an abridged revision. There are some considerations on the date and origin of the Homeric poems, which, although not demonstrated facts, have a generally admitted value, that Mr. Gladstone has omitted to recognize. Several of the more important conclusions at which he arrives are seriously vitiated by this defect of view. It must be admitted, however, he has re-wrought old mines to good purpose, striking new veins, and smelting over ancient slag-heaps, with a considerable product of solid ingots. The Juventus Mundi rightly treats of Homer as "historic song." Homer "has probably told us more about the world and its inhabitants at his own epoch than any historian that ever lived." Gladstone's work accordingly becomes a valuable common-place book of fact and inference bearing on the worship, social life, and culture of the heroic age of Hellas. Such materials are invested with additional value in a time like the present, when history with new constructive facilities is flinging its pontoons far towards the other margin of a prehistoric past.

But the history of the poems themselves has an interest, even deeper and requires profounder research. The genesis of such extraordinary phenomena of human thought would seem to have a deeper significance to the philosophic inquirer than could any collection of the external incidents of history. That epic impulse, which, striking on the Grecian mind, has passed down through all the western world with

ceaseless energy and widening influence, where did it originate, and what forces dominated at its birth? Critical research in this direction started the intellectual agitation which dates from the issue of Wolf's "Prolegomena ad Homerum" in 1795. By virtue of this movement the Homeric poems hold a relation to the thinking of the nineteenth century different from any preceding one; they have indirectly rendered effective assistance in the "intellectual deliverance," if we may use Matthew Arnold's phrase, of this century, and inaugurated a permanent advance along the whole line of critical science.

Professor Blackie several years ago wrote: "The name of Wolf in connection with Greek literature, and of Niebuhr in reference to Roman history, wear a significance that extends far beyond the particular spheres where their gigantic critical excavations were conducted. If the Wolfian theory with regard to the origin and composition of the Homeric poems be looked at beyond the surface, it will be found to underlie a great number of the most important literary, historical, and theological questions that stir the mind of England at the present hour."1 These remarks are suggestive as coming from one who does not accept the theory. The year 1795 is as much an epoch in the history of critical thought, as is 1789 in political history. The revolution then begun is beyond doubt the most suggestive phenomenon connected with the development of classical studies since their revival in the Middle Ages.

Of Wolf himself, and his one book, both possessing a career of singular interest, we should be glad to speak further. But we hasten from this historic reference to consider the subject of early popular literature, particularly epic poetry, as illustrated and brought into prominence by the advancing investigations of comparative criticism.

It has puzzled many a critic and many a thoughtful reader to analyze the felt difference between such poems as, for instance, the Iliad and the Aeneid, a difference similar to

1 Homer and the Iliad (Edinburgh, 1866), Dissertation vi.