nearly the whole of revealed truth. We differ from him on "human ignorance of divine things," on "future retribution," and on "the doctrine of election." In this department of our Review, we can only give judgment in a case of this sort without giving our reasons: and on mature deliberation, we pronounce this a bad and worthless book, worthy of having no man's time bestowed on it, to the extent that we, for readers' behoof, have sorrowfully been compelled to bestow ours.

Fireside Thoughts, Ballads, &c., &c. By CLARIBEL. London: James Nisbet & Co., 21 Berners Street. 1865.

us.

We remember once to have heard a criticism from a learned professor, himself a true critic and a genuine poet, which applies to the volume before He encouraged his students, of whom we are proud to reckon ourselves one, to write, and give him for criticism, occasional snatches of poetry. One young man sent in a piece with which the Professor was so pleased, that he read it in the class, with high encomiums. The poor fellow, encouraged by the professor's kind words, kept firing off piece after piece, till the worthy old man at last lost patience, and one day read another of the would-be poet's pieces, in his best style; and added the following criticism, which it is needless to say stopped the inflow of poetry on the Professor: "This is the poetry of a man who has read poetry, not of a poet." The criticism occurred to our mind frequently as we read this slim little volume, which, however, is partly prose and partly poetry. Archbishop Whately once said to a poetic friend of ours, "If I could write as good prose as you, I should never attempt any poetry." The prose of the author of this volume is so good that we feel inclined to tender a similar advice. But the poems after all are really pretty things of their kind.

Hymns of the Cross. Selected and arranged, with Introductory Meditations, by Mr and Mrs H. Grattan Guiness. London: J. Nisbet & Co. 1865. This volume, elegantly printed and "got up," contains a very well known and very choice selection of hymns. Some of them are original. And we are bound to say that those which bear the signature of "Grattan Guiness,' are very far from being the worst in the volume; they are worthy of their companions, and do no disgrace, suggest no unpleasant comparison with the very best of them. The volume is every way praiseworthy.

The Godly Man's Ark or City of Refuge in the day of his distress. Five Sermons, designed for the support and consolation of the Saints of God in the time of their affliction. By EDWARD CALAMY, B.D., late pastor of St Mary's, Aldermanbury. Nisbet & Co. 1865.

This is an elegant little volume, a reprint, and a new edition of Calamy's Five Sermons on Affliction. The five sermons are on the same text; the first is a funeral sermon, preached at the burial of a lady, and out of it the other four grew. It is one of the most cheering signs of the times, that reprints of the Puritan divines are in such demand. This little book has always been a great favoutite, and it has been very often reprinted; in its present form it is a model of neatness and elegance in paper, print, and binding.

Thoughts at Seventy-nine. By the Author of "Thoughts on Devotion," &c., &c. London: Jackson & Walford. 1865.

These "Thoughts" are very miscellaneous. The venerable author is discursive, and writes with equal elegance in prose and verse. We are not so sure of "metrical prayers." A man does not pray in metre; his thoughts, when before God, do not wait for the trammels and fetters of

rhyme. There are some translations in metre which seem to us in a happier vein. Readers will know the author of "Thoughts on Devotion," and rejoice that he is still spared to think,-to think so wisely and to express his thoughts so well, as he does in this volume.

A Memoir of the Rev. Richard Davis; for forty-nine years a Missionary in New Zealand. By the Rev J. N. COLEMAN, M.A. London: Nisbet & Co. 1865.

This volume would have been interesting at any time; it is doubly so in the light cast on it by recent events. We have here properly no biography; the author, rather editor, does well simply to call it "a Memoir." The materials consist almost wholly of letters addressed by Mr Davis over a long series of years to the editor, and very interesting and sensible letters they are. The author of them was a substantial yeoman farmer in the west of England, when it pleased God in his grace to call him out of darkness, through the instrumentality of Mr Coleman's ministry. All his life long he felt towards his spiritual father the affection of a son, an affection which Mr Coleman well reciprocated. Mr Davis was accepted by the Church of England Missionary Society, and sent out to New Zealand, as one of their earliest agents on that field, as a sort of missionary, mechanical, Catechist. Many years after he was ordained deacon, and priest, and finally died as he lived and where he had laboured. The letters from Mr Davis to Mr Coleman extend over a great many years, from 1816 to 1862, and are supplemented by sundry extracts from letters to other members of his family, and from his own private journals. The volume lacks much, but it has much. The materials are exceedingly valuable. The letters are the plain and private thoughts of a shrewd, sensible man, full of devotion to his Master's work; whose faith never fails, and whose diligence never flags. We can honestly commend the volume to any reader who wants to have a look at New Zealand, and its missionary work, from the commencement of that work, down nearly to the present time. No one can read the volume without being benefited and stirred up by the earnest efforts, and diligent and daily labours of this worthy man, who, under God, owed so much to his own unaided efforts; for Mr Davis was as nearly as possible a self-taught man, and as such he deserves a place among those whose names and deeds are on record as "self-taught men,"

Like unto Christ. De Imitatione Christi, (Ascribed to Thomas à Kempis.) "A New Translation." London: Sampson Low. 1865.

There is no end of editions of Thomas à Kempis. Like Bunyan or Shakespeare, each year sees some new effort. This is not only a new edition, but a new translation. "In 1828, M. Languinais reckoned the editions and translations of the Imitation, a book which Johnson said 'the world had opened its arms to receive,' at more than two thousand. He saw in the library of the Vatican translations in the Catalan, Castilian, Flemish, Portugese, Dutch, Bohemian, Polish, Greek, English, Hungarian, Ilyrian, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Turkish, Armenian, Persian, and other languages." We can say of this translation, that it is accurate and elegant, so far as we have compared it; the print, paper, binding, editing, are all first rate; and to our readers we can safely tender the advice, if they are without a copy, and wish to possess one, this edition is one of the very best we have seen, and we can commend it. There is an admirable prologue on "The Book and the Man," which contains a great deal of valuable biographic and bibliographic lore. The footnotes are pertinent, and every way admirable.

END OF VOL. XIV.