strengthened in obedience to the mother of our regeneration. It may be that these offences are permitted in order to work out our steadfastness, to turn our passive abiding in the Church into a conscious and energetic principle of loyalty. It is just on this point we are tried, and it is there we most need a trial," &c.

Though having little room, and at the expense of omitting extracts from the others, we must quote one more passage from the same discourse on the same point.

"The probation of every one of us is drawn to so fine a texture that we may be well fearful of our ownselves. So, perhaps, every age has said before, each one thinking his own trials greater than were ever known since the beginning. We may be only as our forefathers, nay, in the instant pressure of hard choices and great perplexities, it may be they were far more tried than we. And yet we seem to be at a point which is full of long-drawn consequences for the hereafter. Offences abound, yea and are multiplied, and tokens of offences yet to come hang upon the horizon, and we know not what may be ascending below it. Day by day new shadows arise out of quarters which were before fair; new agencies and powers, which for a time held back, seem like the stayed winds of Heaven to come down upon the Church. Past ages have bequeathed their offences to us; we have added our own. It may be that these latter times shall grow more and more perilous, till the end come, when, except these days be shortened, there should no flesh be saved.' The refiner's fire seems to be

6

It

fanned to a piercing heat; and he is setting us nearer and nearer within its range. may be that the prophet's words must needs be fulfilled in our days, 'Some of those of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge them, and to make them white, even to the time of the end,'"' &c.

We recommend the reader's attention to p. 55 et seq. in the sermon called the "The Work appointed us." The very learned and argumentative discourse (IV.), "Christ's Kingdom not of this World," will require and reward the best attention; while the last, called "The Gift of Illumination," is one that, listened to by the student and youthful and aspiring scholar, must have sown the seed of much thoughtfulness in his mind.

The "Dangers of Study" is an uncommon subject, but few perhaps are more needed; nor ever in times more than

these, when industry is quickened by intense excitement, reward and distinction is only to be obtained by painful superiority, and a separation has been acknowledged and acted upon between the cultivation of the intellect and the religious education of the heart. There are few writers of the present day, we think, whose eloquence is more impressive than Archdeacon Manning's, and from whom the language of truth and religion is heard with more authority; while, at the same time, his writings are free from that exaggerated representation of subjects which seems to us to be the great defect of a certain class of writers, who yet in piety and in emulation and application are not behind the very foremost in the age. A writer, like an orator, becomes warmed by his subject and employment, and kindles as he advances. His mind is detached from all ordinary things that distract and impair it, and centres its congregated powers on the great business it has to advance. The intellect and the moral feelings act and react on each other. Here there is danger that the result may be a tone of exaggeration gradually spreading over the whole reasoning and argument, something beyond the truth, the result of the particular action on the mind at the time. This is to be much lamented and carefully avoided, lamented, because truth alone, and nothing short or beyond it, is the lawful aim of all reasoning; and avoided, because it tends to destroy its own purposes; for, sooner or later, it will be compared with the reality of things, like an over-painted landscape with the genuine hues of nature, and pronounced false and doubtful. To fall below scripture is the doctrine of the world, which has a canon and gauge of its own; to go beyond it, seems too often the error of those, who, in their anxiety to remedy what they have had to deplore, can only do it, by raising themselves on things that cannot long support them, and by requiring exertions with which the common powers of nature, and even the stern feelings of duty, are unable to comply.

་

A Manual of British Historians to A.D. 1600; containing a Chronological Account of the Early Chroniclers

and Monkish Writers, their printed Works and unpublished MSS. By William Dunn Macray. 8vo.

THIS work supplies a deficiency which has long been sensibly felt by historical inquirers. Those who are really anxious to attain the best information are neither satisfied with the last nor the largest historians. If they confide neither in Lingard nor Sharon Turner, nor in Hume nor Rapin, nor in Carte nor Henry, so neither are they contented that any particular statement appears in the collected chronicles of a Stowe or a Holinshed. The question with them is, on whose authority does it first appear, and what is the weight of his authority?

By such persons a manual like the present has long been wanted; for no one whose attention is not constantly directed to one particular period of history, or who has not spent a life in the study of the whole series of writers, can readily know where to turn when a new subject of investigation occurs. He requires to learn which authors afford the best information for the period of his researches; where each historian stops, and where each first begins to be original and important; and also in what collection or edition he may be found.

It is now more than fifteen years ago since the Rev. Joseph Stevenson proposed to supply this deficiency in a work of more critical pretensions than the present. The relative credibility and personal characteristics of the several chroniclers were to have been discussed and the plan,-too extensive we imagine for a single octavo volume, was to have comprised

"I. An inquiry into the evidence, external and internal, upon which each Chronicle is ascribed to the author under whose name it passes.

"II. A brief notice of the life of each writer, compiled chiefly from the information contained in his own works, and in authentic contemporaneous records; adding, where necessary, the additional facts mentioned by Leland, Bale, Pits, and others.

"III. An examination into the sources whence each Chronicle may have been compiled; an attempt to ascertain the period at which it becomes important; notices of circumstances which may tend to authen

ticate or weaken its statements of particular events or parts of history; and remarks upon the chronology adopted by each writer.

copies of each Chronicle; a detailed ac"IV. A list of existing manuscript

count of those which the author has examined; and a brief notice of such as are supposed to have perished.

Remarks on the merits and defects observable in the editions of such Chronicles as have been printed; together with some observations which may be useful to future editors.

"VI. A list of the works of such early English and Scottish writers as are presumed to be lost."

Under the non-performance of this work of Mr. Stevenson's, Mr. Macray's Manual cannot fail of being useful.

It contains, in chronological order, author, followed by references to their some brief biographical notices of each works, whether distinctly published, or in general collections, or still in manuscript.

the editor, namely, to omit foreign We cannot approve of one rule of writers on English affairs, particularly when it is made to apply to so regular an historian as Polydore Vergil.

On two authors we have a slight additional remark to contribute:

1. John Gower. His Chronica Tripartita, written in Latin hexamaters, is printed in Gough's History of Pleshey,

4to. 1803.

2. John Rouse. Hearne's Richard II. contains not only Rouse's History of the Earls of Warwick, but also, in pp. 359-371, his separate life of Richard Earl of Warwick. The " several local histories," attributed to him may be struck out, or corrected by the accurate list of his writings, in our May number, p. 477.

The chronicle in the "Liber de Antiquis Legibus," preserved in the archives of the city of London, (mentioned in p. 89,) extends really to the coronation of Edward I. in 1274. It is now nearly finished at press, under the editorship of Mr. Stapleton, for the members of the Camden Society, to whom it will shortly be issued.

Mr. Macray, in his Preface, holds out some promise of bringing down this work to a later period hereafter, an intention we hope he will be induced to accomplish.

Sketches of Saffron Walden and its Vicinity. By John Player, author of" Home," &c. 8vo.

THE writer of this work, whose poem entitled "Home" was noticed with due commendation in our Magazine for April 1839, is the panegyrist of the local beauties of his neighbourhood, a pleasing task, which he performs with the best possible good nature, somewhat in the spirit with which Isaack Walton sets forth on his immortal rambles, combined with a minuteness of detail, reminding us of Miss Mitford's portraitures of the features of "Our Village."

Saffron Walden itself is but a small town, and very far less than that which is said to have been the prototype of Miss Mitford's sketches. It has already formed one of the subjects of a very handsome quarto vo

lume, the History of Saffron Walden, and Audley End,* by Lord Braybrooke; and we are happy to see that the accomplished owner of that noble mansion, and many of his family, have warmly greeted the present tribute to what a continental traveller has termed "the beautifully undulating country around Saffron Walden." (Thornton's Foreign Tour.)

The volume is composed of twelve walks, three describing the town, and the rest the neighbouring places. They are illustrated by several very artistic sketches drawn by Mr. John Mallows Youngman, a native of Saffron Walden, which are pleasing examples of the new art of glyphography. We are enabled to present one of these to the notice of our readers, a view of Hadstock Church, together with a portion of the attached description.

of which the villagers gladly avail themselves. The well-St. Botolph's well-is near the Church; and may it long continue a symbol of the purity of that heavenly lore which should proceed from that desk where the Rev. Addison Carr, so long known, and so much respected in this district, pursued the even tenor of his sacred calling for so many years.

"The lordship of Hadstock is, we believe, in the Malthus family. We do not pretend to know whether facts for the Malthusian theory were drawn from this locality; but we think benevolence of character has been the root of many a system highly prized by its advocate, though startled in its progress by much opposition. This manor again brings before us that character, dear to Essex, and other places, for his unquestionable philan thropy, Thomas Sutton, esq. already mentioned, to whom this manor, with that of Littlebury, was granted by Queen Elizabeth, in 1560."

The Lady's Country Companion. By Mrs. Loudon.-The object of this book, the author tells us, is to teach ladies how to enjoy a country life rationally. It is divided into six books and nineteen letters, each with its separate subject. The various mass of information to be found in it on all the subjects is remarkable, and must have been the effect of long experience, and wide acquaintance with books as well as real life. Indeed it appears to us that this may be called truly a hand-book of all necessary information, superseding Mrs. Glass on cookery and Dr. Lindley on gardening, and, in a short compass, embracing everything that belongs to rural life, from making pickles to assisting the poor, and from feeding rabbits to educating children. The work, as may be supposed, is as interesting as instructive; and, having read it carefully, we are able to pronounce it to be-very correct.

Purest pleasures are alloyed,

Gentlest musings mix'd with sadness,
None with happiness are cloyed,
Few can drink their full of gladness.
There I view thy beauteous face,

O Nature, and thy image trace
On many a flower and many a spray,
But enjoy not aught when he's away.
Sweetest flow'rets lose their fragrance,
Richest dyes please not the eye;
Soulless I view the vast expanse,

To all that's grand give but a sigh. Speed, my own love, quickly speed thee,

Elysium were but blank without thee; While hand in hand with thee I'll prove

A desert could be Heaven with love.

This poet has a great deal yet to learn, and he should study diligently before he again publis.es.

PEACEFUL AS THE GOOD MAN'S BREAST.

Peaceful as the good man's breast

Lieth all I see around me ; Earth and ocean are at rest,

Leaf not stirreth on the tree.

Lovely, lovely, holy, holy,

Raising soft emotions solely; Glorious sunlight, deep blue sky, Lift ye not our thoughts on high?

This treatise we consider is too deep for us. We do not understand "the drama of the weather," or the "hot line near the pole," which is governed by two great constitutional powers, the hills and the ocean; but the prognostication for 1845 we give, as it is more intelligible. "The progress of dryness is begun, but this being the first of its two or three years of observation, not in this will the midsummer season be scanty, not in this will be

wanting occasional and refreshing thunder-storms, intermingled with the dry and ripening days. What can be more propitious for the corn, for the cattle, for the pears, and the plums? Safely may we foresay it, in our part of the world there will be no scarcity of any good thing that Heaven bestows."

A Brief Memoir of the Life and Writings of Rev. Edward Pearson, D.D. &c. By W. P. Hunt.-This is rather to be considered as the affectionate remembrance of a friend than a work demanding attention for the weight of its matter, the variety of its information, or even the importance of its subject. Dr. Pearson was a very worthy, a very amiable, and a very enlightened man; but as his life was unattended by any remarkable circumstances, and as the correspondence which the biographer has given is limited to matters merely personal and official, we think the best monument he could have erected to the memory of his friend would have been the republication of the late Mr. Green's elegant memoir, accompanied with such notes as seem to be required either to illustrate the text, or to supply what was deficient.

The Rosary and other Poems, by the Rev. F. W. Faber. 1845.-This pretty little volume possesses the usual characteristics of Mr. Faber's poetry,-very considerable beauty of description, both of external nature and of the mental feelings, with that redundance of expression which we must consider as no trifling defect. We do not mean that his language is tautologous, nor that he gives identity of meaning in different words, which is mere verbiage, but that his command of language, and power of versification are so considerable as to lead him onwards, adding image to image and thought to thought, till he has completed so large and comprehensive a picture, that the mind of the reader can hardly retain the different parts and keep them connected in the memory. Our opinion (right or wrong) has always been, that a few leading touches, a few decisive strokes of the master hand, in poetry as well as in the sister arts, that will awake suggestions in the reader's mind, and leave him to complete what the poet or artist has called forth, at once imparts more pleasure and produces a greater effect than when the mind is left as it were to the passive impression, and when its own activity is impeded under the weight of the various images it receives. At least we think that such was the system on which the poetry of the ancients was composed, and to which it GENT. MAG. VOL. XXIV.

owes its permanently pleasing effect. Instead of extracting passages from the larger poems, the Cherwell, &c., we must content ourselves with a shorter one, that we may extract, in its entire form,

A COLD DAY IN MAY.

1.

Spring ebbed into the lakes and streams,
Or to the earth's warm heart;
And stalk and leaf, as with a dart,

Were pierced by winter's backward
gleams.

O May! O treacherous May! these months are very dreams.

II.

The clattering winds above me rolled,
Like chariots in a flight,

The sky was veined with blue and white,

With here and there some cheerless gold; The very brightness was no joy, it was so cold.

III.

But ah! with those true southern eyes
And olive-shaded brow,

Beneath the half-clothed linden bough,
A boy begins his melodies;

And now I live and breathe in pure Italian skies.

IV.

How vine-like is yon eglantine!
How genial grows the day;
And see, up Rothay's gleaming way,

How sweetly Arno's waters shine;
And thou, dear Fairfield, art a well-known
Apennine.

V.

Thus cold is manhood's summer day,
And grace perchance may be

In part the blissful memory

Of Christian childhood's marvellous lay, Ere the bad world had scar'd celestial sights

away.

VI.

Our penance then doth but retrace
A former road; we see

The scenes rever'd, and it may be

Dim through our tears; and what is grace But shame's lost song on earth, most sweetly out of place.

A Summary View of the Evidence of Christianity, in a Letter from the Right Honourable C. K. Bushe, &c. No name we believe is more honoured in Ireland than that of the late ChiefJustice of the King's Bench; we remember some one saying of him, "When he opened his lips, it was as if an angel spoke." Whatever therefore that should come from the pen of such a man we are delighted to receive, and are not a little pleased with the prospect of soon having his biography from the pen of the editor of the present little volume, Mr. S. Mills,

I