usual track of the ordinary tourist, a fact which renders his work of more value. The general interest and attractiveness of the volume is greatly enhanced by a series of fifty-nine beautiful plates from the photographs taken by his wife. The whole is got up in the tasteful style, and the clear type, already familiar to us in Au delà du Jourdain, which also have their influence in making the whole a most attractive and readable book.

In The Light of Shakespeare1 Miss Clare Langton does not attempt to add to the long series of critiques upon the genius of the immortal dramatist, but simply offers to the public a collection of quotations from his works, illustrative of the religious feeling and faith of their author. "There is one point," she says, in her delightful introduction to the book, "which, though recognised by many of his ablest critics, has not, in a general way, been brought into sufficient prominence, and that is the depth and reality of his religion, nor is the fact insisted upon that his higher teaching is at once the most conspicuous and most precious inheritance bequeathed to posterity." This is a want, regarded by many as a serious one, which Miss Langton now supplies by a most judicious selection of those sublime passages from Shakespeare, which are permeated by the highest moral feeling and the deepest faith and reverence. These selections are divided suitably into different sections, according to the subject with which they deal. They are grouped under such titles as the Godhead, Conscience, Mercy, Guilt, Repentance, Sin, &c., so that any passage can be readily found without unnecessary trouble. This little book will be a valuable possession to all students of Shakespeare, and its introduction alone, apart from anything else, should gain for it a place in every Shakespearian library.

Voices of the Day,2 by C. S. Wardle, is a prettily written and elegantly got up little book, which aims at conveying to the minds of men absorbed in earthly cares, the divine message contained in all nature. God's voice is to be heard through all His works, "in the wind sighing among the trees, in the silent movements of the white clouds, in the blue depths of the summer sky." Therefore, just as we study the Bible for God's message, let us study nature-" the splash and murmur of the streams, the winsome beauty of the flowers, the hum of the insects, and the songs of the birds -for the divine Voice and Revelation. Such is the aim of the book, an aim which has been carried out and developed in an interesting and successful manner.

1 Passages illustrative of the Higher Teaching of Shakespeare's Dramas. London: Elliot Stock, 1897. Cr. 8vo, pp. xx. 116. Price, 3s. 6d.

2 Voices of the Day; or, "Thoughts on the Message of God in Nature," by C. S. Wardle. London: Elliot Stock, 1897. Cr. 8vo, pp. 140. Price,

3s. 6d.

Village Life in Palestine,1 by the Rev. G. Robinson Lees, B.A., F.R.G.S., is another interesting little volume about the Holy Land. It deals mainly with the life of the peasantry of the country, and it presents us with many good descriptions of the ways and manners and life of the people, which we do not find in the ordinary book of travel. It gives a considerable amount of information about the religion, life, manners, customs, social characteristics, and superstitions of the peasants of the Holy Land, with reference to the Bible," and is the "result of study and observation during a residence of six years in the country, combined with a knowledge of the language of the people." It seems to be a book that one can trust as regards the accuracy of the information it contains. It is intended as a handy volume for the use of Sunday School and Bible Class teachers, and is enriched by twenty-six illustrations from the negatives of the author, which increase its value and interest.

From Professor H. Sidgwick, under the title of Practical Ethics,2 comes another volume of the Ethical Library which Professor J. H. Muirhead is editing. This addition consists of a series of essays delivered before various ethical societies lately founded in London and Cambridge. These societies, it must be remembered, are not gatherings of professed philosophers, nor are they limited to any special school of thought. Their object is the wider one of attracting men of all schools and all lines of life who are interested in such questions, to discuss with one another in a thoroughly practical way common questions of conduct that present themselves to all thoughtful men. The first two lectures are devoted to considering the scope of such societies, and the others may be taken as models of what their discussions should be, as regards both subject and treatment. Most have already been published in the International Journal of Ethics. The titles sufficiently indicate the questions at issue. After the two introductory chapters come essays on Public Morality, the Morality of Strife, the Ethics of Religious Conformity, Clerical Veracity, Luxury, the Pursuit of Culture, Unreasonable Action. All these are at once seen to be very debatable topics, and Professor Sidgwick deals with them all in an eminently broad-minded and

1 Village Life in Palestine. A description of the religion, home-life, manners, customs, social characteristics, and superstitions of the peasants of the Holy Land, with reference to the Bible. By the Rev. G. Robinson Lees, B. A., F. R. G.S., author of "Jerusalem Illustrated," "Jerusalem and its People," and joint-author of "Palestine," in Dr Lunn's Guide Book, "How to visit the Mediterranean," &c. With twenty-six illustrations from photographs by the author. London: Elliot Stock, 1897. Cr. 8vo, pp. 138. Price, 2s.

2 Practical Ethics. By Henry Sidgwick, Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Cambridge. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., Ltd.; New York: The Macmillan Company.

Price, 4s. 6d.

common-sense way, and in a manner well calculated to stimulate thought, and sometimes criticism, in his readers. That on the Ethics of Religious Conformity evoked considerable discussion on its first publication, and the essay on Clerical Veracity is Professor Sidgwick's rejoinder to his chief critic, the Rev. H. Rasdall. Whatever view one takes of this question, it is good for the recognised leaders of religious thought to see how it presents itself to the mind of an able layman, who, from his position, must exercise a wide influence over the cultured youth of our country. It cannot be maintained that Professor Sidgwick errs on the side of extreme strictness; he would allow great latitude in interpretation, but thinks that the line must be drawn somewhere, and that is at the beginning of direct and conscious deception. This is an age of intellectual activity and interest, and, should the laity come to think that their religious teachers are repeatedly professing and inculcating doctrines, held to be fundamental to Christianity, which they have themselves thrown over, the result would be disastrous to religion and morality. The power of sincerity in a teacher is enormous, and the Churches will get much nearer their cherished goal by taking the laity into their confidence, and speaking frankly to them only what they fully believe. No thoughtful man will rise from a perusal of this sane little book without getting much food for reflection, and much help in solving many of the everyday ethical problems that all have to face in one form or another.

The first appearance of Professor James Seth's Study of Ethical Principles1 was very favourably reviewed in these pages three years ago, and the fact that a third edition is called for so soon proves that that approval has been widely endorsed. This edition has been thoroughly revised and enlarged. Two new chapters are introduced which will considerably enhance the value of the work as a textbook. The first of these is on the method of Ethics, and the author tries to limit its scope and free it from the admixture of various other inquiries quite separate from it, but often confused with it. Ethics is a science, and its method is absolutely and truly scientific, not metaphysical. It differs from other sciences only in its content. "The common task of all science is the rationalisation of our judg ments through their organisation into a system of thought." But these judgments may be either judgments of fact or judgments of worth. The natural or descriptive sciences deal with the former, while the normative or appreciative sciences, like ethics, logic, and aesthetics, have to do with the latter. The natural history of morality is a very useful, even essential, study, but it is strictly only the handmaid of

1 A Study of Ethical Principles. By James Seth, M.A., Sage Professor of Moral Philosophy in Cornell University. Third edition, revised and enlarged. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons. Price, 7s. 6d.

ethics as a normative science. The confusion of these two separate inquiries is seen not only in the psychological theories of Hume and Mill, but also in the later evolutionary theory, which explains the relation of the fact to other facts, but not the ethical value of the fact. The sphere of metaphysics, on the other hand, lies away behind all the sciences as their true foundation. It has to examine the ultimate validity of all our judgments, which validity must be assumed by the separate sciences for their very existence. The normative sciences, however, since their function is to judge the value of the actual in terms of the ideal, are thus brought into closer relationship with metaphysics than are the natural sciences. But all science ultimately merges in metaphysics, and especially in ethical inquiry is the metaphysical question forced upon us, and hence the author devotes Part III. of his book to the metaphysical implications of morality. The second new chapter is on "Moral Progress," and is a very able attempt to show that the law of moral progress is "the progressive discovery of the individual"; not the individual as an isolated unit, but the individual in his whole social setting. The growth and development of the idea of the value and position of the individual is traced in a masterly fashion in a rapid historical survey, and the effect of this in deepening and widening man's view of morality is thoughtfully presented. Although at present the stress of the existing industrial system is somewhat obscuring the individual's true place in society, the author thinks there are already signs of a still truer and fuller recognition of the personal worth of man. The whole book is conspicuously able, the style is fluent and lucid and elevated, and a student of ethics could read no more suggestive and helpful manual. An index has been added, and a very useful sketch of the literature of the subject has been appended to each chapter.

Practical Idealism1 is the title of a small volume by Mr William De Witt Hyde, President of Bowdoin College. Its origin was a course of lectures delivered at various summer schools in America, and it is an attempt "to interpret the spiritual significance of everyday life." It is not a treatise on metaphysics or ethics, but it ranges pleasantly over a wide field, with many a quotation and reference to philosophical writers. It is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the Natural World, under the headings— the World of Sense-Perception, the World of Association, the World of Science, the World of Art; the second part is devoted to the Spiritual World, and contains other four chapters, entitled the World of Persons, the World of Institutions, the World of

1 Practical Idealism. By William De Witt Hyde, President of Bowdoin College. New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd. Cr. 8vo. Price, 5s.

Morality, the World of Religion. It is impossible to criticise such a medley, but its practical tone and happy way of putting things may, as the author hopes, stimulate young readers to undertake a more extended and strenuous journey along the same roads.

To a 66 Society of ministers accustomed to meet for free and brotherly conference we are indebted for a volume which deserves more notice than can be given it here and now. Its title, The Ancient Faith in Modern Light,1 indicates so far its purpose, which is to restate and reaffirm certain fundamental doctrines of Christianity in accordance with modern ways of thinking. It consists of a series of Essays, in which old questions are reconsidered, and the attempt is made to distinguish in each between the permanent and the transient, between what is of the special time and circumstance and what is of the certainties of truth itself. The writers include Principals Tymms, Cave, and Vaughan Pryce, Professor Medley, Mr Brock, Drs S. G. Green, Joseph Parker, Guinness Rogers, and the late Principal Henry Robert Reynolds-clarum et venerabile nomen. These are all men worth listening to, and some of them can command an audience anywhere. The opening paper, which is by the Head of Rawdon College, deals at some length and with much insight with the question of "Christian Theism," comparing it with Hebrew Theism and other Theistic systems. The discussion of the ethical problems involved in Christian Theism is perhaps the best part of this able essay. Dr Parker provides a racy paper on the "New Citizenship," in which he says many incisive and suggestive things on the ideas of Church, State, and Nation. Dr Rogers delivers his message, a strong and ringing message, on the "Pulpit and the Press," one object of which is to show how far preaching is from being a spent force. Dr Newth states in clear and definite terms the "New Testament Witness concerning Christian Churches." Mr Brock writes wisely and sympathetically of "Christianity and the Child." Professor Medley says some good things about the " Permanent significance of the Bible," and the paper by the late Dr Reynolds on the "Witness of the Spirit" is of such merit and interest that one regrets it is but a fragment. In addition to these we get three distinctively doctrinal papers. One of them is on the "Bible View of Sin" -an instructive discussion, in which Principal Cave takes us over a wide and difficult field, handling with special ability the whole range of questions connected with the teaching of Scripture on the Adamic and generic consequences of sin. Dr Green writes

of the "Deity and Humanity of Christ," giving a careful summary of the facts which establish our Lord's Divinity, and exhibiting the principles of the Incarnation. Dr Green's examination of the

1 Edinburgh : T. & T. Clark, 1897. 8vo, pp. xxvii. 416. Price, 10s. 6d. Vol. VIII.-No. 2.

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