HISTORY OF AND INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT OF RATIONALISM IN EUROPE. Seventh Edition, revised. 2 vols. crown 8vo. price 168. 'We opened these volumes, never having heard the name of their Author, and entirely ignorant of his pretensions to a place in English literature. We closed them with the conviction that Mr. LECKY is one of the most accomplished writers and one of the most ingenious thinkers of the time, and that his book deserves the highest commendation we can bestow upon it. . . . We hope to see this work take its place amongst the best literary productions of the age, and we doubt not that it will powerfully conduce to the ultimate triumph of that cause to which it is devoted.' ATHENEUM. Mr. LECKY is the historian of the rise and progress of that resistance to the Christianity of clerical interpretation which has gone by the names of private judgment, rationalism, latitudinarianism, blasphemy, infidelity, or atheism, according to the speaker and his bias. The heads are very few, but they are followed by long chapters. We see the whole subject treated under magic and witchcraft; the declining sense of the miraculous; the æsthetic, scientific, and moral development of rationalism; the antecedents of persecution; the secularisation of politics; the industrial history of rationalism. Mr. LECKY is learned, sensible, and readable; and we wish his book a wide circulation. It comes at a time when it is wanted. The collections of fact relative to the points treated give valuable access to many things which are not remembered and ought not to be forgotten.' PALL MALL GAZETTE. A book on the process by which theological opinions become obsolete or superannuated-often without being refuted-sometimes, indeed not very unfrequently, without even being undermined by any rational causes at all-is not, strictly speaking, a history of the rise of Rationalism, but rather a history of London, LONGMANS & CO. the modernisation of religious opinion, a process of which rationalistic change is only one of the leading elements. Mr. LECKY has written an admirable book, now and then a little youthful in its eloquence, but, on the whole, full of learning and acute criticism, on the modernisation of the Christian theology. . . . His book is exceedingly full of facts illustrative of the vitality and decay of dogmatic ideas. . . . The history of the decline of credulity and of the growth of the demand for evidence in modern society is exceedingly well given by Mr. LECKY.' SPECTATOR. 'It is scarcely possible to overrate the value of Mr. LECKY's able and vigorous book, both to those who agree and to those who differ with its implied teaching ; a book the style of which is as luminous and attractive as its learning is profound. No book more full of scholarly learning and popular interest, more graphic in thought, more lucid in exposition, more candid in temper, has been submitted to theologians for many years. It cannot but excite thought and stimulate study in the minds of all who read it, laymen or clergymen ; and for the last we should say it would be an invaluable discipline.' DAILY NEWS. This work may be regarded as a series of dissertations, a form of writing in which the Author shows great skill, and a command of clear and forcible expression. Thus, he exhibits not only the struggle of rationalism with credulity, but the origin and growth of the opinions with which the sceptical spirit had afterwards to contend. If this method keeps his main argument in suspense, and compels him sometimes to reiterate the terms of it, and even to remind himself by repetition of the proper aim of his whole work, it is a method which greatly adds to its historic value, and one which enables the writer to manifest his power of historical appreciation, as well as his perfect freedom from any merely destructive spirit. The two closing chapters of the work are specially dissertational, and they treat of a variety of topics of considerable present interest. . . . The ability of the writer is unquestionable. He is gifted with a style of easy, natural eloquence. His manner of dealing with each separate topic which he brings under discussion is clear and masterly. . . . On reading him it is impossible to avoid thinking of the late Mr. HENRY BUCKLE, if only because the labour of both writers has been employed over very much of the same ground and directed to similar ends. The differences between them are considerable, but there are marked features of likeness; and it is no discredit to the living writer to say that his readers might very often imagine themselves to be studying certain added chapters of the unfinished work of the great philosophic historian. London, LONGMANS & CO. Now in course of publication, uniform with EPOCHS of MODERN HISTORY, each volume complete in itself, EPOCHS OF ANCIENT HISTORY: A Series of Books Narrating the History of Greece and Rome and of their Edited by the Rev. GEORGE W. COX, M.A. late Scholar of Trin. Coll. Oxford; and jointly by CHARLES SANKEY, M.A. late Scholar of Queen's Coll. Oxford. Their 'The special purpose for which these manuals are intended, they will, we should think, admirably serve. clearness as narratives will make them acceptable to the schoolboy as well as to the teacher; and their critical acumen will commend them to the use of the more advanced student who is not only getting up, but trying to understand and appreciate, his HERODOTUS and THUCYDIDES. As for the general plan of the series of which they form part, we must confess, without wishing to draw comparisons for which we should be sorry to have to examine all the materials, that The GREEKS and the PERSIANS. By the Rev. G. W. Cox, M.A. late The EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE. From the Assassination of Julius Cæsar ROME to its CAPTURE by the GAULS. By Wilhelm Ihne, Author of "History of Rome.' With a Coloured Map. Fcp. 8vo. price 2s. 6d. The ATHENIAN EMPIRE from the FLIGHT of XERXES to the FALL The ROMAN TRIUMVIRATES. By the Very Rev. Charles Merivale, D.D. The ROMAN EMPIRE of the SECOND CENTURY, or the AGE of the The RISE of the MACEDONIAN EMPIRE. By Arthur M. Curteis, M.A. formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, and late Assistant-Master in Sherborne School. With 8 Maps. Fcp. 8vo. price 2s. 6d. The GRACCHI, MARIUS, and SULLA By A. H. Beesly, M.A. Assistant Master, Marlborough College. With 2 Maps. Fcp. 8vo. price 2s. 6d. ROME and CARTHAGE, the PUNIC WARS. By R. Bosworth Smith, M.A. [In the press. Assistant-Master, Harrow School. SPARTAN and THEBAN SUPREMACY. By Charles Sankey, M.A. late Scholar of Queen's College, Oxford; Assistant-Master, Marlborough College; Joint-Editor of London, LONGMANS & CO. Sketches HISTORICAL MEMOIRS, &c. of Ottoman | Critical and Historical History. By the Very Rev. R. W. The Eastern Question. By the Rev. MALCOLM MACCOLL, The History of England Essays contributed to the Edin- CHEAP EDITION, crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. Lord Macaulay's Works. Complete and uniform Library Edition. Edited by his Sister, Lady TREVelyan. 8 vols. 8vo. with Portrait, £5. 5s. A |