School economy-the Parish-Church-services-Charitable offerings-Parochial institutions-Lay help."-With reference to Church improvements, Mr. Sandford is in favour of restoring the interior as far as possible to its original state; and recommends low open seats, stalls in the chancel, encaustic tiles, stone fonts, lecterns, stone pulpits, elevated altars, sedilia, almschests, &c. He is favourable to monumental crosses in cemeteries to daily service where it can be adopted-to public baptism and catechizing-and to the offertory where practicable. On the whole, we have been much pleased with the tone of this publication, and though of course we cannot pretend to agree with the author in all his views, we can have no hesitation in recommending his work to the particular attention of the younger clergy.

VIII. Sermons on the Festivals. By the Rev. JOHN ARMSTRONG, B.A., Priest Vicar of Exeter Cathedral, and Rector of St. Paul's, Exeter. Oxford: Parker.

THIS volume includes thirty-two sermons on the Festivals of the Church throughout the year, each feast being made an occasion for communicating some practical lesson. The subjects are such as the following:-"Hidden saints-Want of faith-Ways of Christmas rejoicing-The intermediate state-Love before Controversy-The love due to children--Forms necessary for spiritual worship-Gospel privileges-Warnings-Daily common prayer," &c. From what we have seen of these discourses, they appear to be perfectly sound in doctrine; and they are written with an ease and gracefulness which is not usual in compositions of this kind. We select the following passages as examples of the author's style. In reference to hidden saints it is remarked that

"God reveals some of His saints to the gaze of men, He conceals others; He sends forth His confessors, and some go into the cities, and others into the wilderness: some are spectacles and gazing-stocks, and fight the fight of faith among multitudes; they wear their cross in Cæsar's palace, in the highways of the world; their names are in the Christian calendar, and they are known even here as sons of God and the lights of the Church: but others of equal faith are hidden from view; they live and die, and there is no sound either of their life or death. These are the secret saints of God, the obscure disciples, whose life is in the shade, who come and go without observation, who win unnoticed victories over the body of sin the temple of their faith is built up, like that of old, without sound; it rises like the flowers in the open spaces of vast trackless woods, which grow silently, and when they

are grown there are none to look on them, and one thinks how much beauty of the woods thus runs to waste, as though God were not rejoicing in His own works... At the last day all will be clear, for then will be the manifestation of the sons of God;' as yet they are not manifest, for we cannot look over the whole world, and we only see the surface of men, the outside life, where our glance does extend; some saints are altogether unknown, some are only partly known. Many who now sleep in the green church-yards of country villages, many who passed their years in the dark rooms and dismal corners of crowded cities; or who, after a life of labour, a life that was, as regards the flesh, but just life, sheltered their grey hairs in gloomy workhouses, who were veiled by a thick veil of wretchedness; and others of richer state, who veiled themselves that they might be never seen of themselves, and might keep their motives pure, and might not be moved to mix the love of the worldly praise of religion with the love of the praise of Christ,-will at the latter day come forth to the light, and, the earthen tabernacle being broken through, their light will appear, and Christ will confess them as children of the light."—pp. 3-6.

IX.-The Curiosities of Heraldry, with Illustrations from Old English Writers. By MARK ANTONY LOWER. London: J. A. Smith.

WE fear that the public taste has sadly degenerated, even from the days of Master Ri. Braithwait, who, according to the work before us, complained of his contemporaries,

They wear their grandsire's signet on their thumb,
Yet ask them whence their crest is, they are mum.

We fear that the "grandsire's signet" is almost forgotten in the present day, and were it not for our hereditary nobility, whose honours are in some degree dependent on this science, we apprehend that few people would know any thing of crests, or shields, or supporters. Mr. Lower, in his interesting volume vigorously contends against this prevalent corruption, and we should be glad to think that his protests were likely to be heard; but we fear that the apathy is too general. The design of the work includes the fabulous and authentic history of heraldry, the rationale of its figures, its chimerical figures, the language of arms, allusive arms, crests, &c. "heraldic" mottoes, notices of the college of arms, genealogy, &c. It will afford much interest and amusement to those who are interested in such pursuits.

x.-The Teaching of the Prayer-book, &c. By JOHN WOOD WARTER, B.D. &c. London: Rivingtons.

THIS treatise is, as the learned author informs us in his preface, "the condensed notes of a series of sermons, delivered to a country congregation, all poor and all unlettered, during the series of eleven years. The great object was to impress upon them the value of their Prayer-books; and this was done, off and on, in the openest manner. All that was ancient, provided it was scriptural and devout, was laid before them; but it was done affectionately and persuasively, and unaccompanied with that pith and dryness which almost necessarily attend so condensed a statement as the present. Indeed the whole may be invidiously called but a bundle of notes." Mr. Warter is familiar with all the principal authorities on liturgical subjects, such as Muratori, Mabillon, Renaudot, Assemani, Martene, Bingham, Goar, Le Brun, Gavanti, &c.; and he has made excellent use of his knowledge, having brought together a great mass of accurate information within a very small space, and combined too with much practical and spiritual instruction. The work treats on all the offices of the book of Common Prayer with the exception of the forms of prayer at sea, the state services, and the ordinations. We strongly recommend it to all who are engaged in the study of the English Ritual. We could have wished that the style had been somewhat less "archaic," for we think that it is not advisable to deviate much from ordinary modes of expression in works which are intended for popular use. We offer this suggestion very respectfully to the learned author of the work before us, with a view to render it more acceptable in case the text should be reprinted (as he intimates may be the case) for general circulation.

x1.-The Life of Baber, Emperor of Hindostan. By R. M. CALDECOTE, Esq. London: Darling. Edinburgh: Chisholm. THE life of Baber was one of remarkable vicissitude and romantic adventure. A sovereign and a conqueror at little more than fifteen years of age; a fugitive in the mountains for years; the conqueror of a new kingdom; and, in fine, the subjugator of Hindostan, and founder of the Mogul dynasty, Baber's life is possessed of far more interest than attaches to those of the generality of oriental sovereigns. His autobiography is amongst the few authentic pieces of oriental history. It is quite singular in its nature, as comprising a minute account of the life of a great Tartar monarch, and the unreserved expression of his thoughts

and feelings. Its great charm consists in the spirit of warmth and kindness of heart which distinguishes it throughout. The volume under consideration is an abridgment from the translation executed by Leyden and Erskine, and the editor has "altered and enlarged" the geographical descriptions, and apparently made other alterations, so that the work does not throughout "come from the pen of Baber." This is, we think, a serious drawback on the pleasure which might have been anticipated from the perusal of the biography, and which it is still calculated, in some degree, to impart.

XII.-The Symmetry of Revelation a witness to the Divinity of Christ. An Argument in three consecutive series of Advent Lectures. By R. C. CoxE, M. A., Vicar of Newcastle-uponTyne, &c. London: Rivingtons.

THIS series of Lectures is intended to establish the following positions: first, "that the nature and extent of the preparations made for the coming of the Messiah are indicative of his supreme divinity; secondly, "that the leading peculiarities in Christ's earthly career, quadrate and harmonize with the preparations made for his coming, and corroborate the inferences thence deduced;" and thirdly, "that the demeanour of Jesus Christ after his resurrection, and the conduct and teaching of his apostles, are not to be explained or reconciled with previous intimations of Scripture, but by the admission of Christ's supreme divinity." The respected author in his preface apologizes for entering on a discussion like this, at a moment when the controversy with which it is connected is not of any immediate urgency, and when points of comparative insignificance harass and disturb the public mind. He wishes rather to withdraw the attention of the Church from such minor questions to the great truths on which it is based; and with this view, the lectures under consideration have been published. As far as we have been able to see, they are sound and orthodox in doctrine; and though not pretending to deep theological research, they are calculated to impart much exceedingly valuable information to serious inquirers; and their plain, affectionate, and earnest style, must command respect and esteem for the writer.

XIII.-Origenis Opera Omnia, quæ Græce vel Latine tantum extant, et ejus nomine circumferuntur. Edidit C. H. E. LOMMATZSCH. 12mo. Berlin, 1831-1844.

Or this very neat edition of Origen's Works, sixteen volumes

have already made their appearance, which include all his exegetical treatises. It is very correctly printed, and has accurate indexes of the texts of Holy Scripture which are quoted; points which have been too frequently dispensed with in the recent reprints of the Fathers. For a portion of one of the volumes the various readings of a Venetian MS. are given; but they do not seem to be of any importance. Dr. Lommatzsch has carefully collated the ante-Benedictine editions; but from his using an inaccurate reprint of Huet's edition, he has sometimes ascribed strange mistakes to that very able scholar. The two first volumes contain a good many conjectural emendations, but the editor seems afterwards to have tired of his task, which we regret, since some of his conjectures were, to say the least, plausible. He also promises a selection from Huet's Origeniana, and a Lexicon of his author, which, if well executed, will be very important.

But here our commendation of this edition must stop, and there are several heavy drawbacks to it. I. The pages of the former editions are not marked, which, in an author so constantly quoted by the page, renders this edition wholly useless for the purposes of reference. Conceive the practicability of hunting for "contra Celsum, p. 766, ed. Ben.," or, "in Matt. p. 253, ed. Huet!" Had Dr. L., besides those of De la Rue, marked also the pages of Huet and Merlin, which are referred to by the older divines, he would have greatly enhanced the value of his publication. II. We must object to the omission both of a large portion of the old translation of St. Matthew, and of the modern Latin translation of what is extant in the original. Even if the latter was incorrect, still its absence will greatly diminish the utility of the work among that very large class who read Greek with difficulty, while others even will miss it in looking for some particular passage. III. But the third

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fault is much more serious. Huet compared the extracts from Origen's lost works, which may be found in the unedited Catenæ, a boundless ocean." The Benedictines collected many of these, but much still remained to be done; and accordingly, hardly a collection of Anecdota has been published since, which does not contain some fragments from Origen. Those published by Dr. Cramer at Oxford would alone supply a numerous collection, and the miserably corrupt state of most of them would have furnished an ample field for editorial acumen. It may perhaps be supposed that these fragments and those which Cardinal Maio has published, have not had time to penetrate into the hyperborean regions of Northern Germany; but what can be said for the total omission of any allusion even to those reprinted more than