ARTICLE VII. NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS. In the present Number we begin a running sketch of German works on the Darwinian controversy.- In eleven lectures on the Rise of Animals and Plants by Natural Selection, Dr. George Seidlitz, Lecturer on Zoology at the University of Dorpat, sought to further Die Darwinische Theorie. His position is that Darwin's theory is a real answer to the question how organisms arose, and that now the assumption of supernatural creative causes is totally unnecessary. He blames all who use the word hypothesis respecting Darwin's view, and believes it to rest on facts, and facts alone." He accepts the reality of generatio aequivoca, and, in short, swears by Darwin and Häckel; but adduces little or no fresh evidence of the truth of Darwinism. One good feature of this book we must mention; namely, that he gives a list of the literature of Darwinism up to the time of the delivery of his lectures. Professor Spiller of Berlin has written a work entitled Populäre Kosmogonie whose aim is to show "how everything in the universe has become what it is; how everything remains in an eternal becoming (Werden), and how all phenomena are the outflow of an eternally operative, indestructible, and identical natural force." His theory is really based on that of Laplace, which he had expounded in a prior tractate on "the Creation of the World from the Point of View of Modern Science"; and his estimate of its satisfactoriness is not a low one. He expresses the hope that he will be found to have transferred the subject from the domain of fancy and superstition, represented by philosophers and theologians, to that of exact science; and that his production will not prove to be a mere fancy; though he also hints a fear lest he should be deemed "a too bold architect in the world of thought." There is a delightful naiveté in much that Professor Spiller writes; one would sometimes suppose that he had received special information about the pre-historical period of the world's existence. How very bold are his flights may be judged from the following sample: "If an artist, more bent on giving knowledge than on edifying the faithful, were desirous of depicting Adam true to nature, he would represent him with woolly hair, small but narrow head, projecting jaws and teeth, brown skin well covered with hair, flat nose, slim body and short, thin legs, almost without calves." Spiller's boldness in the one direction is equalled by his bitterness as regards Christianity. No less bitter against Christianity, but more shallow and self-complacent, is the Geschichte und System der Natur (History and System of Nature), of Dr. J. H. Thomassen, author of " Bibel und Natur," etc. Published by Ed. H. Mayer in Leipzig. Similar to the Homo versus Darwin of the Rev. W. P. Lyon (translated by the way, into German), that is, humoristically-serious defences of the biblical against the Darwinian view of man, are two smaller books by the pseudonymous Dr. Henrico Starke and Herr Graw. The former has the characteristic title; "Victory of the Infallibility of the Animal Descent of Man; Proclamation and Scientific Exposition of the Animal Origin of Man, and final reply to the reply of Herrn Herrmann Sallmeyer"; the latter is entitled Moses und die Materialisten. An appendix to the latter, on "How it came to pass that the silly monkey received a reasonable soul," contains some hard hits at the chief Darwinists of Europe. More serious in form is the apologetic work of the able Professor Michelis (formerly of the Seminary of Braunsberg, now an old Catholic) Der Gedanke in der Gestaltung des Thierreichs (Thought in the Formation of the Animal Kingdom) in which an attempt is made to show the impossibility of the descent of man from the ape, by the principles of scientific morphology. This work is a further development of ideas contained in the same writer's "Formentwickelungsgesetz im Pflanzenreiche" (Law of the Development of Form in the Vegetable Kingdom). So too the Beiträge zur Kritik der Darwinischen Lehre of Dr. E. Askenasy, who advances a number of well-grounded objections to Darwinism from the vegetable kingdom. He seems to be a well-informed and scientific botanist. His own position is, that organisms are now constantly being originated from germs so small as to have hitherto escaped observation. We hope to continue this sketch of German works on Darwinism in a future Number. 8. STUDENT'S HEBREW LEXICON. A Compendious and Complete Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, chiefly founded on the Works of Gesenius and Fürst. Edited by Benjamin Davies, Ph.D. Second edition. London: Albert Cohu (Asher and Company). So far as we can now judge, this is a very carefully edited lexicon of the Hebrew and Chaldee languages. The editor was for many years Professor of Old Testament Exegesis at the Regent's Park College, and was the translator of Roediger's Gesenius's Hebrew Grammar. He had given ample proof of his fitness for the task he undertook. The book is also very well got up. The Hebrew words, especially, stand boldly out, and thus greatly facilitate reference. An index of the English words whose Hebrew equivalents are explained in the lexicon, extending over more than fitfy closely printed pages, adds very much to the utility of the work. Altogether, we can commend it heartily to all who require a cheap, handy, and trustworthy Hebrew lexicon. 8. THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH; a Commentary, Grammatical and Critical, upon Isaiah lii. 13-liii. 12. By William Urwick, M.A. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark. 1877. This work embodies the substance, carefully revised, of lectures delivered by the writer as Professor of Old Testament Exegesis at the Congregational New College, London. It consists of two dissertations; one on the Authorship of the Great Prophecy of Isaiah xl.-lxvi., the other on the Signification of the in (servant of Jehovah) in the Prophecy; of the Commentary specified in the title; and of a note or excursus on the distinction between sin and trespass-offerings in Leviticus. At the close there is a list of works directly or indirectly bearing upon the subject. With regard to the authorship of the section above mentioned, Mr. Urwick says that "the external testimony, the locus standi of the writer as witnessed by the prophecy itself, the relation of the prophecy to other Old Testament books, and the testimony of the language, all lead to the conclusion that chapters xl.-lxvi. are, as the Jews believed, and as they placed them, part and parcel of the genuine prophecies of the great Isaiah, the son of Amoz." His conclusions in the second dissertation are the following: (1) That the title "Servant of Jehovah" is not used in one and the same sense; (2) that in the later chapters (liii. to lxvi.) it is used in the plural only, and to designate a class of characters; (3) that it occasionally refers to the prophet himself, or to the prophets, as distinc from the people; (4) that it is often expressly given to Jacob and Israel, the chosen people; (5) that in three passages, of which lii. 13-liii. 12 is chief, it refers to a person distinct from himself and fellow-countrymen righteous servant who, though holy, suffered sorrow and death to whom alone the Eternal Son corresponded. These two dissertations evince great care, and show very ample learning. The commentary is full and exact. Under the Hebrew the Septuagint and Vulgate translations are always given. The conclusion arrived at in the valuable excursus on sin and trespass-offerings is, that "both the sin-offering and the guilt(or trespass-) offering had to do with, and were expiatory offerings for, real sins; and that by means of them, by God's appointment, the guilty Israelite obtained the forgiveness of sins." a person The outline we have given will show that the method pursued by Mr. Urwick is thoroughly scientific. To examine the reasonings on which he bases his conclusions would require more space than there is at our command. We welcome this first-fruit of the author's labors, and trust he may be encouraged to go on in the same direction. It is refreshing to receive so thorough a monograph on a limited subject from the pen of a Congregationalist; for Congregationalists are most frequently burdened with such a multiplicity of functions that they have no leisure for the scientific study necessary to the production of a work like this. 8. THE BOOK OF PSALMS; a New Translation, with Introductions and Andover: The first edition of these volumes was published in 1864; the second in 1870; the third in 1873. The rapid sale of the volumes is a proof of the estimation in which they are held in Great Britain. Thirty pages of the first volume are devoted to three distinct Prefaces, and eighty-two pages to an elaborate Introduction. The first chapter of the Introduction treats of David and the lyrical poetry of the Hebrews; the second, of the use of the Psalter in the church and by individuals; the third, of the theology of the Psalms; the fourth, of the position, names, division, and probable origin and formation of the Psalter; the fifth, of the inscriptions of the Psalms. These subjects are treated, if not in an exhaustive, yet in an interesting manner. No faithful pastor can read this Introduction without receiving an impulse to the devout study of the Psalms. Some parts of it breathe the spirit of a genuine poet, and the moral bearing of it is excellent. In his Commentary Dr. Perowne has made a truly judicious use of the writings of De Wette, Tholuck, Stier, Delitzsch, Ewald, Hupfeld, Bunsen, Hitzig, Bleek, and other German authors; of Horne, Hammond, Horsley, G. Phillips, Thrupp, Alford, and many other English expositors. He has most faithfully studied the writings of Luther and Calvin in relation to the Psalter. He has avoided the pedantry so common among recent commentators on the New Testament, and has expressed his thoughts in a good English diction. The naturalness and heartiness of his style will commend his work to the great majority of our scholarly clergymen. He has not intermingled with his translation the more learned comments upon it, but has relegated these comments to notes which the scholar may examine at his leisure, and thus avoid the mental distraction which is caused by the intermingling of different trains of thought in the same paragraph. His Commentary is not so erudite and exhaustive as that of Hupfeld and some other Germans, but is better adapted to the wants of the mass of educated clergymen in our own land. It is written with care, and thus its statements are safe; with candor, and thus it exerts a healthful influence on the heart; with a comprehensive view of truth, and thus tends to save the reader from the bigoted and one-sided speculations of some German and English exegetes. Dr. Perowne's Commentary will be read by American divines more generally than they read Hengstenburg, Delitzsch, or Hupfeld; it is far more learned than the Commentaries of Barnes, Alexander, and Tholuck on the Psalms; the last edition of it was written since the Commentary of Dr. Moll in Lange's Bibel-work, and in a style more perspicuous and attractive. Of course there are scholars who will prefer the more scholastic Commentaries of the more advanced German philologists; but the hard-working pastors, the literary yet practical sermonizers, of our own land, will make a more frequent and a better use of Dr. Perowne's Commentary than they would make of a work more technically learned, more exhaustive in the discussion of minutiae. MANUAL OF UNIVERSAL CHURCH HISTORY. By the Rev. Dr. John Alzog, Professor of Theology at the University at Freiburg. Translated with additions from the Ninth and last German Edition, by F. J. Pabisch, Doctor of Theology, of Canon and Civil Law, President of the Provincial Seminary at Mount St. Mary's of the West, Cincinnati, Ohio; and Rev. Thomas S. Byrne, Professor at Mount St. Mary's Seminary. In three volumes, with three Chronological Tables and three Ecclesiastico-Geographical Maps. Vol. II. pp. 1096. Cincinnati : Robert Clarke and Co. 1876. We have already spoken of the first volume of this history in commendatory terms, such as we see no occasion, on the whole, for modifying in what we have to say of the second volume. We have looked with much interest to see in what manner this Catholic historian would dispose of certain matters which have always been regarded as quite discreditable to the Romish church. One of these matters is that of the so-called False Decretals of Isidore. In the ninth century it had come to be felt, and, as all candid inquirers are willing to admit, with reason, that as the power of the German emperors waned, and a spirit of insubordination became general, the exertion of a power superior to the civil, was needed in order to place an effectual check upon this spirit. This power was supposed to exist in the Romish church; and it was often exerted, we are not unwilling to allow, to a very salutary purpose. At the same time, such means were resorted to for the purpose of demonstrating the validity of the claims of the Romish church to this great power, as no enlightened conscience can justify. One of these means was the promulgation of the False Decretals of Isidore. They were a recension of a body of canons based ostensibly on what is styled the Isidorean Collection. “A large number of confessedly spurious fragments, borrowed," as Alzog affirms, "from private collections, and bearing on their face incontestable evidence of the ignorance of their authors, had been introduced. It contained also a number of false documents. There were altogether above a hundred spurious decrees of popes. These Decretals are proved, both by intrinsic and extrinsic arguments, to be impudent forgeries" (Vol. ii. p. 269). A Catholic historian could not, we think, be expected to speak of this subject in stronger terms of condemnation than Alzog has here done. In adverting to the moral condition of the monastic orders during the Middle Ages, Alzog candidly admits that " a spirit of laxity soon crept in, and the conspicuous contrast between their vows of poverty and their great wealth and vast possessions foreboded, and, in matter of fact, brought on, their |