New Publications [pp. 854-860]

856 New ~ubi?cat~,zs.
therefore diametrically opposes the sub- study and teaching, and was one of the
jective autotheism of the day. most eminent scholars, as well as elo The influence of the poet is the widest quent preachers, this country has pro and most lasting of influences; and duced. He was also a ~an of the high.
Tennyson's influence for good, espe- est order of personal attractiveness, of
cially on the youth of our times, is, in exquisite taste and culture in belles-let our judgment, inestimable. We believe tres, poetry, and music, and a humorist
that his influence is powerful to check nearly if not quite equal to the choicest
the follies and purify the tone of the age, wits of English literature. It is impos and we pray that this volume may not be sible to read his life without admiring
his last. and loving the man, and esteeming the
great scholar. He was a disciple, friend,
and compeer of the celebrated He~g
TITANIA'S BANQUET, PICTURES OF stenb erg, whose masterly vindication of
WOMAN, AND OTHER POEMS. By fl~e Messianic doctrine of flie Old Tes George Hill. Third Edition. Re- tament against Jews and neologists is
vised and Enlarged. New York: D. so well known. Professor Alexander's
greatest work is a Coni~ne;ttary on fsai Appleton & Co. 1870. as, written in the same spirit. He was
This volume contains many pieces a powerful opponent of that neological
and rationalistic school which under which prove the author a true poet. mines all religi~n by denying the divine
There are passages worthy of Moore, authority of its inspired records, and so
and even of Byron. We regret, how- far di
ever, that the author should have done d a great service to the cause of
such an injustice carelessness a Christianity. It is impossible not to
an and in to his powers }n see, however, that these great Protessow versification. "The tant scholars, who produce such solid
Ruins of Athens," too, b? far the best and valuable works in defence of that
long poem in the book, reflects too part of their doctrine which is Catholic,
patently considerable portions of the fail altogether in completing their strucfirst two cantos of "Childe Harold" ture. They stop short at a certain
more especially of the second.` point, and their genius immediately de We congratulate the author on his serts them.
conversion to the church. Had this Their exposition of the doctrine contaken place in his younger days, he a~~d~m~$ g the person of the Messias is
might have done service in the cause of able; but when they come to ex talents. We hope, plain the prophecies concerning the
Catholicity with his Messianic kincwdom
however~ it is not too late now., all vanishes into a
vague ideality or a prognostication of
some church of the future equally vain
with the Jewish expectation of a com LIFE OF J. A. A~~x~~~~~, D.D. By ing Messias. When we consider the
H. C. Alexander. New York: Chas. lives and works of men in many re Scribner & Co. 1870. spects so admirable, and who might
have been bright lights in the church of
This is an extremely well-written, in- God, we grieve more deeply over that
teresting, and, moreover, genial and en- deplorable schism which divides from
tertaining book, which any one, whether us so many who adore our Lord Jesus
he be religious or purely worldly, a be- Christ and reverence the prophets and
liever or an unbeliever in Christiani- apostles. Dr. Alexander was, of course,
ty, a friend or a foe of Presbyterian hostile to the Catholic religion, as he
doctrine, must read with pleasure. It must have been to be an ho~est Pres is not an ordinary clerical biography, hytenan; but there is surprisingly little
but the life of a man who, though be- in his biography that shocks the reli longing to the clerical order in his own gious sentiment of a Catholic, and it
denomination, was chiefly devoted to appears very clearly how unbounded