Theological and Literary Itelligence [pp. 569-580]

1875.] THEOLOGICAL AND LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. 571
earliest times, while the remaining texts describe historical incidents of the reigns
of former monarchs. None are so important, however, as the lists of the Assyrian
eponymes, that is, officers after whom each year was named. These lists are, of
course, of purely Assyrian origin, and they have enabled scholars to restore the
chronology of Assyria (and thereby of Judea, also) with absolute precision from
the tenth century B. C.
The librarians were called "the men of the written tablets." The first librarian
of whom we know was a certain Mul.Anna, the son of Gandhu. His signet cylinder is now in Europe, and we learn from it that he presided over the library of an
early Accadian king of Ur. Ur is the city mentioned in Genesis as the birthplace
of Abraham, and the signet must be assigned to a very ancient date-more than
4,000 years ago. Such is the antiquity of the office of librarian, and of the respect
paid to books.-L on don Booksdler.
GERMANY.
Theolo~irche Studien und Kritiken, Part 1., 1875, contains an artice by Rudolph
Schmid on "The Darwinian Theory of Development," and its present attitude
toward theology. Accepting as not atheistic certain elements of that theory, it
criticises the use made of it against the fundamental truths of theology, exposing its
incongruity, and its inadequacy to explain phenomena. The author notes the
groundless but tacit assumption on the part of some writers, that what is subsequently
developed is found potentially in the original life-cells; making these as mysteriously
potent as the intelligent creative cause to which they except, and which it is their
design to eliminate. The value of his article of sixty pages is mainly in its exhibition
of the present state of speculation in Germany, and in its criticism of H~ckel, whose
work has been reviewed by Huxley in the Acad~my, from which the Social Science
Monthly, in this country, has copied the article. A comparison of Huxley's excessive
eulogy with Schmid's searching criticism will leave a humiliating impression of
Huxley's flippant exultation over the bearing of H~ckel's work on revealed religion
The principal works reviewed are Neiff's Die Chrirtliche Glaubenslehre, which is
highly appreciated, and Lechler's L~ of Wyci?ff'e, of which the third part, taking
up the career of Huss, has now been published. Lechler's investigations have
thrown much new light on Wycliffe's career. Wycliffe's "poor preachers" were
first clerical, but afterwards laymen. The charge against him, that he made the
validity of the sacraments dependent on the character of the administrator, is disproved. As to Huss, upon whom Wycliffe's influence made a deep and abiding
impression, Lechler presents an outline of his career, and discusses some controverted questions connected with it. He pays special attention to the circumstances
of the German secession from the Prague University, to the safe conduct given to
Huss by Sigismund, and the relations of the Bohemians to the Council of Constance.
The contrast between the manly, robust, and even defiant Wycliffe, and the more
gentle, peace-loving, but finally resolute Bohemian reformer, is finely drawn. Each
character has its own peculiar excellence and attraction. In the close of his work,
Lechlerhas noticed several other predecessors of Luther, among them Goch, Wessel,
Wesel, and Savonarola.
The most notable contribution in the Second Part is the continuation of the able
discussion on John's Gospel, by Prof. D. W. Beyschlag, of Halle, of which we have
already given some account. In this article, Dr. Beyschlag takes up the specific
objections to the Johannean origin of the fourth Gospel, and replies to them in detail,