Short Notices [pp. 347-357]

Short Notices.
discourses-of which there are twenty-four in number-all
originally delivered to the author's own congregation, very
nearly in the form in which they appear. Of course, therefore,
there is no parade of learning. His aim in every case, however, is to find as nearly possible the mind of the Spirit, in
inditing the passage; and then to found upon it his doctrinal
and practical disquisitions. The necessary verbal criticisms,
and the references to critical authorities, are introduced in the
form of notes: which are rather scanty, and serve to indicate
rather than explain or justify the processes, by which the author
reached his conclusions. The discourses themselves are abundantly rhetorical for popular reading, without being diffuse to
weariness, or expanded to feebleness. The author's learning
and diligence are sufficiently evinced, by the use he makes of
the critical and expository labours of all the leading authors in
England and France, and also of such of the German commentators as wrote in Latin.
The indexes of the volume are remarkable for their completeness; and render references to any passage or authority perfectly easy to the scholar, notwithstanding the popular cast of
the work. And besides its adaptation for the use of private
Christians, it may serve both as an admirable model, and a
most valuable help to ministers, in that too much neglected
function of the pulpit-expository preaching.
Scripture Lands, described in a series of Historical, Geographical, and Topo graphical Sketches. By John Kitto, D. D., F. S. A., and illustrated by a
complete Biblical Atlas, comprising twenty-four Maps, with an Index of
Reference. 12mo. pp. 276 and 95. London, 1850. -H. G. Bohn.
This is a neat and attractive volume comprising much valuable matter, though hastily compiled. Its chief characteristic,
however, is the cool audacity of its plagiarism. Upwards of
sixty pages of the Historical Geography of the Bible by Rev.
Dr. Coleman, of Philadelphia, have been transcribed verbatim
in different parts of the book, and that without so much as one
word of acknowledgment, or even a single reference in the
whole work. Other authorities when quoted are constantly
referred to by name, but Dr. Coleman's Geography is no where
mentioned, except that on page vii. of the Preface it appears
undistinguished, the eighth in a list of nineteen works, "which
have been principally consulted, and to which he (Dr. K.) owes
the largest obligations." By way of specimen, see pp. 53-78,
which with the single exception of the account of Zoan given
p. 55, is taken bodily from Coleman's Geography, pp. 66-115.
The peculation is carried on to a greater or less extent almost
from the commencement of the volume to its close. All this is
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