Notice of Recent Publications [pp. 443-477]

Notices of Recent Publications.
curious record of past beliefs.'Gossip' or'gossib,' as Chaucer spelt
it, is a compound word, made up of the name of'God,' and of an old
Anglo-Saxon word still alive in Scotland, as all readers of Walter
Scott will remember, and in some parts of England, and which means
akin; they being'sib' who are related to one another. But why,
you may ask, was the name given to sponsors?"
"Out of this reason:-in the Middle Ages it was the prevailing
belief (and the Romish church still affirms it), that those who stood as
sponsors to the same child, besides contracting spiritual obligations on
behalf of that child, also contracted spiritual affinity one with another;
they became sib, or akin in God, and thus'gossips;' hence'gossipred'an old word exactly analogous to'kindred.' Out of this
faith the Roman Catholic Church will not allow (unless by dispensation) those who have stood as sponsors to the same child, afterwards
to contract marriage with one another, affirming them to be too nearly
related for this to be lawful.
" Take' gossip,' however, in its ordinary present use as one addicted
to idle tittle-tattle, and it seems to bear no relation whatever to its
etymology and first meaning. The same three steps, however, which
we have before traced will bring us to its present use.' Gossips' are,
first, the sponsors brought by the act of a common sponsorship into
affinity and near familiarity with one another; secondly, these
sponsors, who being thus brought together, allow themselves with one
another in familiar, and then in trivial and idle talk; thirdly, they are
any who allow themselves in this trivial and idle talk,-called in
French, comm(rage,' from the fact that' commere' has run through
exactly the same stages as its French equivalent."
Christianity and Positivism: A Series of Lectures to the Times on
Natural Theology and Apologetics. Delivered in New York, January
16, to March 20, 1871, on the Ely Foundation of the Union Theolo gical Seminary. By James McCosh, D.D., LL. D., Presidlent of
the College of New Jersey, Princeton. New York: Robert Carter &
Brothers. 1871.
Seldom if ever has any course of Lectures so extended, on questions
so profound and abstruse, kept up an interest so unflagging, and attracted audiences so large and growing to the very end, as these ten
lectures by Dr. McCosh. This is due to various causes. The great
eminence and world-wide fame of the lecturer no doubt stimulated the
curiosity of large numbers to see and hear him. This,-however,
would account only for the earlier assemblies, but not for the sustained
and increasing audiences. Nothing will explain this but the intrinsic
444
[JULY,