CONTENTS OF No. C. I-1. The Communion of Saints. An attempt to illus- trate the true Principles of Christian Union. By H. B. Wilson, B. D. Oxford. 1851. 2. An Introduction to the Study of Dogmatic Theo- IL-The Temples of Jupiter Panhellenius at Ægina and of Apollo Epicurius at Bassa, near Phigaleia in Arcadia. By C. R. Cockerell, R.A.; Professor of Architecture in the Royal Academy, London; Member of the Institute of British Architects; Honorary Doctor of Civil Law, Oxford; Member of the Dilettanti Society; Associated Member of the Institute of France, and Chevalier of the Legion of Honour; Member of Merit of the Aca- demy of St. Luke in Rome; Foreign Member of the Academies of Munich, Copenhagen, Geneva, etc., etc., etc. London; John Weale. 1860. III.-Introduction Historique et Critique aux Livres du Nouveau Testament. Par Reithmayr, Hug, Tho- luck, etc. traduite et annotée par H. de Valroger, V.-1. The Noble and Gentle Men of England. By Evelyn. Philip Shirley, Esq. M.P. F.S.A. (Second Edition.) 1860. London, J. B. Nichols and Sons. 2. The County Families, or Royal Manual of the Titled and Untitled Aristocracy of the Three Kingdoms. By Edward Walford, M.A. formerly Scholar of VI.-1. Correspondence Relative to the affairs of Hungary. 1847-8. Presented to both Houses of Parlia- ment by command of Her Majesty, 15th August, 2. Hungary and Transylvania. By John Paget, Esq. London: Murray, 1850. 2 vols. 8vo. 3. The War in Hungary, 1848-9. By Max Schlesinger. Translated by John Edward Taylor. Edited, with Notes and an Introduction, by Francis Pulzsky. London: Bentley, 1850. 2 vols. 4. Hungary: its Constitution and its Catastrophe. By Corvinus. London: Murray, 1850, 8vo. VIII. Memoirs of the Most Rev. Oliver Plunket, Arch- bishop of Armagh, Primate of all Ireland, who suffered Death for the Catholic Faith in the year 1681. Compiled from Original Documents by the Rev. Francis Patrick Moran, D.D., Vice-Rector of IX. The Sisters; Inisfail; and other Poems. By Aubrey de Vere. London; Longman and Co. X.-Lectures on the MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History, delivered at the Catholic University of Ireland, during the Sessions of 1855 and 1856. By Eugene O'Curry, M.R.I.A., Professor of Irish History aud Archeology in the Catholic Univer- sity of Ireland. Dublin and London, James XI.-The Geraldines, Earls of Desmond, and the Perse- cution of the Irish Catholics. Translated from THE DUBLIN REVIEW. MAY, 1861. ART. I.-Iceland, its Volcanoes, Geysers, and Glaciers. By Charles S. Forbes, Comr. R.N. London: Murray, 1860. THE HERE are few if any countries within the circle of the European family which can put forward so many and such varied titles to our attention as Iceland. There are, of course, a hundred other lands, which can each advance some special and absorbing claim to our admiration, respect, or serious contemplation ;-some long train of glorious reminiscences and imperishable deeds, some mighty part borne in the history of mankind, some immense benefit conferred, or enduring influence exercised upon our race. And, at the present moment, when the world is standing still in mute expectancy of some great change, it can hardly be presumed that the condition and fortunes of a remote and thinly peopled island, placed almost beneath the Arctic circle, should attract even a moderate share of general consideration. But we have in mind more normal circumstances which allow a larger scope and a wider range, to our investigations; and do not limit our attention to the situation of the moment in the overbearing anxiety for what the morrow may bring forth. It is with reference to such circumstances, and taking that larger view of the history of European communities, that we believe the position of Iceland to be unique, at least among the countries of our quarter of the globe. VOL. L-No. XCIX 1 Placed on the very verge of the habitable world, and situate beyond the line which marks the farthest limit of travel suggested or stimulated by other motives than those purely selfish ones of commercial gain; Iceland, notwithstanding its isolation and our unfamiliarity with its special points of interest, presents to us features which must secure the sympathy of the philosophical student, and excite the curiosity of the man of science and the secker after novelty and adventure. In an island lifted by volcanic action from the ocean's bed, where that bed lay deepest, girt by almost perpetual ice, continuously trembling through violent shocks of earthquakes, and ravaged by incessant volcanic eruptions of the most terrible and varied character; in a moist climate, where a dreary and tempestuous winter scarcely allows sufficient time for the warmth of summer, and forbids even the simplest forms of husbandry; in a country cut off from all save the rarest intercourse with the rest of the world, desolated by periodic pestilences of most formidable magnitude and direful effects,-we may well marvel that man ever fixed his abode, still more, that his perseverance and ingenuity have achieved a greater triumph than to eke out a precarious existence. Yet, here man not merely vegetated, but lived a life of literature, politics, and religion. Here he not so much triumphed over the natural obstacles and restrictions of his situation, as forgot them in the refinements with which he surrounded himself. Here, anticipating history by many centuries, a free people, by their orderly government and prudent administration, succeeded in resolving the highest political problem, and consolidating the peace, comfort, and prosperity of the whole community; while, by their spirit of adventure, they forestalled the glory of the discovery of America. At a period when all the rest of Europe was one wide theatre of chaos, of sanguinary wars and social revolutions, the Icelanders presented the enviable spectacle of a civilized state in which learning flourished, poetry was cultivated, and the arts practised; combatting with unwearying patience and unflagging industry the difficulties of their Arctic home, and obviating by their commercial enterprize the evils which they could not overcome. Here, accordingly, although originally but an exiled colony from the parent land of Norway, we find the first recorded essays of Norse literature, and the more polished and ambitious productions of its more cultivated period. Here we find those inimitable Sagas, so life-like a reflection of the Norse mind, which embody the whole system of mythology of the Northern nations-a mythology which contrasts with the graceful fables of Hellas, as much as do the frank worshippers of Woden and Thor with the effeminate votaries of Aphrodite and Apollo. Hither, too, must the laborious student betake himself in search of those chronicles and memorials which do not so much recount as paint the early fortunes, the strong personal character, the social life, and political institutions of that hardy race which over-ran Europe from sea to sea, and rolled back the tide of Moslem invasion in the crisis of its fate. The student of Norse history and Runie lore may well be pardoned, if he turns to Iceland with feelings akin to those which swayed Herodotus, when he sought in Egypt the primitive vestiges of the civilization of Greece. But it is not merely on intellectual and historical grounds that Iceland can claim a large share of attention. It is not the antiquarian or the political philosopher only whom she may expect to attract to her shores. There are special features of interest for the naturalist and the man of science, tempting allurements for the crowd whom pleasure or the love of change or healthful excitement yearly sends forth to travel. There are marvels in abundance, stern and sublime, such as cannot be matched, or at least met with elsewhere. Any one who loves to view nature in her primitive and most rugged forms, to contemplate the effects of great efforts of the mighty forces which lie slumbering beneath the crust of our globe, and to moralize on the helplessness of man and the frailty of his works, when placed in conflict with the irresistible agencies that moderate the vicissitudes of the physical world, will have full opportunity of gratifying his passion during the brief space of an Icelandic summer. He must not look for the teeming fertility, the luxuriant light and shade which robe the sides of Etna, nor for the blue sky and bluer water in which that king of fire-mountains is set. must not expect to find ice-giants, like those which keep watch and ward over the sublime and beautiful scenes of Switzerland. He may not even hope to meet with that ever varying succession of fen and forest, waterfall and ford, snow-capped peak and mossy dell, which throws such enchantment around a summer ramble in Norway, He |