for us, and for our want of feeling in putting such a question in the very presence of her who had sinned. So in very shame we turned, and left Jesus alone with the woman' (p. 64).

Then he represents that there was a great stir in Jerusalem, because, without a word of warning, a Roman officer had drawn his sword upon two young zealots--artisans that were popular with their fellows for their kindness of heart and good humour-who had fallen into an altercation with him, and he had killed one of them. Upon being remonstrated with by the young man's companions and the passers-by he gave a signal, and a multitude of soldiers poured forth from Antonia and struck without mercy among the crowd. Five were killed and many were wounded, and the whole city was in an uproar at this proof of Roman insolence' (p. 156). All were ready for an outbreak, and looked to Jesus to be their Leader. Then the question was put to Him, 'Is it lawful to give tribute to Cæsar or not? Shall we give or shall we not give?' (p. 158.) Upon hearing His answer the tide of popular opinion turned against Him, for if they were to give tribute to the Romans, for whatever cause, they were still to be under subjection to Rome; and then Jesus refused to be their Liberator; that had become clear to them of a sudden. And they drew still further from Him; 'and all the other men began to pass away from the court, leaving Jesus and his men alone with none to listen to him' (pp. 159, 160). For the word passed swiftly in the mouths of all the men of Jerusalem-He refuseth; he would have us be slaves of the Romans for ever' (p. 161).

It is unnecessary to point out the falsifications of history in this narrative, but in the account of the Crucifixion this is carried further. When our Lord was brought before Pilate,

'one of those who were waiting among the crowd came forward unto Pilate, and said unto him, "Master, it is a grace of our Lord the Emperor that at our Passover there be released unto us one of the prisoners, that are condemned to death." And Pilate answered and said, "That is so whom will ye that I release?" and many of those in the crowd cried out, "Jesus." And Pilate stepped back, and summoned to him a lictor. And shortly after soldiers came forward in the portico, bearing with them Jesus the Nazarene. Upon him was a purple robe of royalty, and upon his brow had been placed the faded rose-wreath of some reveller, which had been put on in haste, and some of thorns had torn the flesh, and blood was trickling down. When the people saw him many cried out, "Not this Jesus, but Jesus Bar Abbas." Shortly afterwards there came forward the man Jesus Bar Abbas of Jerusalem, of whom I have spoken to thee before. Now he had been very popular among the folk, and had lost his liberty in a rising against the Romans, in which a Roman sentry had been slain. And there stood the two Jesuses-the one that had risen against the Romans, and the one that had told the people they should pay tribute to their Roman lords. Then Pilate called out to them, and said, "Whom will ye that I release unto you: Jesus, who is called Bar Abbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?" And almost all the multitude cried, "Jesus Bar Abbas! Jesus Bar Abbas!"' (pp. 193-5).

Then no reference whatever is made to our Lord's performing miracles; and if the writer can quote so largely as he evi

dently does from our Scriptures, it is strange that no mention is made of these. And in an epilogue, professedly written some years after the earlier part of the narrative, he says:

'Why did he remain silent before us as to these ideas of his? If indeed these were his ideas; for even with the new light given by the Hebrew Memorabilia, I can see his thought but dimly. Why spake he not his own thought to the people in Jerusalem, and tell us no longer to hope for worldly dominion as the best means for spreading the Law of the Lord, but rather to be as servants of God, even as Esaias the prophet hath spoken? Was it that he wished to carry out the description of the prophet even to every iota of his text? For, behold, the prophet sayeth, "He let himself be humbled, and opened not his mouth." If so, then was the death of Jesus but a sublime suicide. For surely by this silence he has committed a grievous sin against us his people. For if we committed aught of sin and crime that handed him over to the Romans as a pretender to empire, he indeed shared our sin and crime by his silence' (pp. 212, 213).

Such statements as these could only have influence with persons entirely ignorant of the Gospels, and for the instruction of such persons they seem to have been made; for in them we read of the multitudes out of all the cities of Israel that followed Him, of the common people hearing Him gladly, of the thousands that He supernaturally fed, and of the great numbers that He must have supernaturally healed. If what is quoted from the New Testament may be relied upon, why may not the other parts of those Scriptures to which no reference is made? In days like these, when so many are eager to seize upon any interpretations or explanations that may help to weaken the authority of Holy Scripture, it seems desirable to call attention to inaccuracies that have in themselves little value, but which may be used to injure the faith of some. With respect to the book under review, there is no name attached as responsible for the real writing but nominal editing of it, and the absence of it diminishes any weight which it might otherwise have had.

1. Elementary Education: Some Account of its Rise and Progress in England. By ROBERT GREGORY, D.D., Dean of St. Paul's and Treasurer of the National Society. (London: National Society's Depository, 1895.)

2. Religion in Elementary Schools: Proposals for Peace. By GEORGE A. SPOTTISWOODE. (Nineteenth Century, July 1895.)

'IT really seems as though we were now standing at the parting of the ways with respect to this great question of education. One path leads to a fair adjustment of the question, and the providing so much pecuniary help by the State as is necessary to enable Denomination Schools of the country to keep up a vigorous and efficient existence. The other path leads to a system of secular education, by which the spiritual condition of England would be reduced to the miserable level to which it is fallen in France' (p. 164).

Such are the words in which the venerable Dean of St. Paul's fitly describes the crisis at which we have arrived in the Elementary Education of this country, of which he traces the 'rise and progress in the admirable volume before us. The subject is one on which

he has earned the right to speak with authority, and if any of our readers wishes to trace the successive stages by which we have reached the parting of the ways' he cannot have a better guide than Dean Gregory. In less than 200 pages he presents us with a succinct and clear account of the successive efforts to lay the foundation of a national provision for the education of all the children in the land. It would be beyond the scope of a Short Notice to attempt to follow in detail the noble efforts of the National Society (of which the Dean of St. Paul's is the Treasurer) to preserve the religious element in the National Education of the country from the encroachments of the Legislature and of bodies more distinctly hostile to the Church. The narrative is one of surpassing interest to every one who feels, and rightly feels, that in the religious training of the young lie all the hopes of the future of this country. We have now got to face a question of immense importance and of no small perplexity. Is it by Rate aid or by State aid that we must use our best efforts to secure that financial help for Church schools of which they so sorely stand in need? The Dean of St. Paul's, in the little volume before us, furnishes valuable materials for forming a judgment. He gives us, in extenso, the principal clauses of three most important legislative schemes on which the House of Commons will sooner or later have to decide. In the very able article in the July number of the Nineteenth Century, the title of which we have also placed at the head of this Notice, Mr. George Spottiswoode urges with much force and with great wisdom the urgency of endeavouring to merge the three schemes in some common action.

'If they all wish the same thing,' he says, 'why cannot the leaders of the Anglican and Roman Church and of such Protestant Dissenters as care for religious education, meet at a "Round Table," or in whatever way they think they may best consult together, agree upon a common platform, show a united front, and, at the first reasonable opportunity present a common Bill for the settlement of this long-standing grievance-a Bill which such a united force as is here suggested could carry triumphantly through Parliament ? '

We earnestly commend this article to the attention of our readers.

Neoplatonism. By C. BIGG, D.D., Christ Church, Oxford. Pub

lished under the direction of the General Literature Committee. (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1895.) THE 'Chief Ancient Philosophies' series of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 'deals with the chief systems of ancient thought not merely as dry matters of history, but as having a bearing on modern speculation.' Dr. Bigg admirably fulfils this intention, and his mastery of the subject is such that he can handle his materials with freedom and accuracy combined. As he 'runs over the history' (p. 9) he brings out its salient points with vivacity and humour, and loses no opportunity of placing ancient and modern thought side by side. We have bright and brief accounts of the Stoics, the Pythagoreans, and the old Platcnists (chaps. i.-v.) to prepare us for an intelligent study of Neoplatonism, and excellent chapters

on Plotinus, Porphyry, and Proclus (chaps. xi.-xxiv.) to tell us how the new theories worked. The problem of the Platonists was how to moralize the old heathenism (p. 62), and this is the same as saying that the Platonism of the second century was neither more nor less than 'reformed Paganism' (p. 79). It had to find some explanation for the devil-worship which was the necessary effect of Polytheism and heathen notions of divine wrath (p. 80), and it had to work under the great defect of being 'æsthetic and intellectual rather than moral' (p. 87). It is not surprising that it 'divested God of all relation to the world' which it had to look upon (p. 92), or that it afforded a breach through which the great Christian apologists stormed irresistibly in' (p. 97). In fact, it issued 'in a dualism' (p. 197), and all the reforming efforts of the Neoplatonists left them with a morality which was purely intellectual, purely individual, without fear of God, and entirely unpractical (pp. 271-2). A few instances ought to be given of Dr. Bigg's vivid and sometimes amusing parallels. The 'rhetorician was . . . a curious cross between an University Extension lecturer and an operatic singer' (p. 68), and 'the ambition of the Sophist' was to get the compliment paid to the genius of Swift, who 'could have written finely about a broom-stick' (ib.) The 'educated men' of the day 'felt towards the vulgar religion in much the same way as Rudyard Kipling's Baboo towards the Hindoo orgies' (p. 62). To have recourse to the philosopher is, in our modern jargon,' to consult 'the higher criticism' (p. 78). Plutarch was 'a sort of Greek Kingsley' (p. 82). The style of Plotinus 'is remarkably like the style of Browning in its subtlety and lack of grammar. There is no difficult word, but the whole is infinitely hard' (p. 187). The squirebishop Synesius of Cyrene resembled an educated Tory gentleman' (p. 338). There is a modern Neoplatonism which differs from the ancient by the assimilation of the scientific doctrine of evolution, and by the partial assimilation of the Christian doctrine of character' (p. 136). The reader who wishes to dip into interesting descriptions of persons and literature without really following the thread of the story can glance at the account of Celsus, that strange purveyor of objections to the Faith which have been so often served up afresh by succeeding generations of heretics (p. 98); the story of Cupid and Psyche, with Dr. Bigg's attractive interpretation of the allegory (pp. 128-33); the dialogue called 'Amatorius,' in which Plutarch handles the domestic affections with such insight as to win from Dr. Bigg the praise that it is worth all other heathen writings on morality put together' (p. 85); the well-drawn contrast between Clement and Origen (p. 162); the details in the lives of Plotinus (p. 182), Porphyry (p. 297), who has no one like him in the whole history of literature.. at once so sane and so insane' (p. 300), Proclus (p. 317); and the writings of 'Dionysius the Areopagite (p. 340). The only mistake which we have noticed is that Miss Gardner's biography of Synesius of Cyrene, in the S.P.C K. series of 'The Fathers for English Readers,' is mentioned on p. 338 as belonging to the same series as Dr. Bigg's own book.

INDEX TO VOL. XL.