learning, his excellent common-sense, his skilful disposition of materials, are everywhere manifest.

But we cannot entirely approve of this volume. It is a bold attempt to secularize biblical history. We are not bibliolaters; and we know perfectly well what we are saying. We know from experience the danger and the fascination of Dr. Stanley's position. He has no doubt come honestly into it. But in opposing textual fanaticism he verges to the extreme of what is called spiritual Christianity. This is the only really dangerous (and it is dangerous enough,) element in this book. We are ready to believe that it comes from the school in which he has been trained; that it is not the man Stanley, but the spirit Arnold. The element does not show itself in the Eastern Church," but here it is painfully manifest. You feel that the men and the places are immensely lowered from their position in the Bible. Moses is hardly the divinely appointed leader of the Host of Israel; he is the great prophetic hero. That wonderful march of forty years through the wilderness is described as you would picture one of Napoleon's campaigns. The giving of the law on Sinai is a very business-like affair. The sacrifice of Isaac is held to have had hardly more typical bearing than many events in Grecian and Roman history. The miracles are sometimes happily left in the dark, glanced over, but more often shown to have been merely natural phenomena which happened just so. Where the Bible ascribes events to God alone, Dr. Stanley tells them simply as history. He looks at his whole subject from a worldly point of view. He has written the history of the Jewish church, with the The theological element which you might justly expect is not here. He does away with those numerous little points in the sacred narrative which show to the careful reader that the Jewish church was only a preparation for the Christian. This is not atoned for by the general references which he frequently puts in. Compare his work with Dr. Jarvis's "Church of the Redeemed," and you will see the difference at once. Dr. Stanley is far more elaborate; but you miss the special element which goes to make a history of the Jewish church. He lowers his whole subject into nearly a worldly history. This is the grand defect of the book. Want of space alone prevents our

Jewish church left out.

quoting many of these offensive passages; but we can put the reader upon his guard. He avows himself an open sympathizer with Bishop Colenso in a note at the close of the volume. What more could we expect from the Regius Professor who has treated the Scriptures with such a liberal air? His case is not nearly so bad as that of Colenso, because he treats, for the most part of only plain undisputed matters of fact; but there are abundantly enough sore spots in his history which even the common reader cannot pass over. And when you can see fault enough in these plain matters, it is not necessary to go into minute points of criticism, for which, indeed, our author shows little relish.

We now turn to the good points in this work. It is full of life—no mere compilation of dates and names; the author tries to make you see Abraham and Moses, and the great Hebrew leaders as they appeared in their own times. He throws into them so far as he can the throbbings of a human heart. He unfolds the meaning hidden in Hebrew names; he studies the LXX; he contributes the results of two visits to the Holy Land; he shows you traditions which may possibly contain a kernel of truth. He illustrates his subject with the studies of a lifetime. He employs all the resources of literary art to render his sketches attractive. And we need hardly add that his history is brilliant, fresh, life-like, glowing like a landscape in June, or like the many-hued autumnal forest. His work is by far the liveliest contribution to sacred history made in English during this century. There is not a dull line in it. It must be popular. You read it as eagerly as you would the latest story. Although not continuous, it gives you new views of the chosen people; and had his own theological standard been higher, he would have imparted that reverence which belongs to the sacred story, and which is necessary in order to leave a right impression upon the mind.

Perhaps the most brilliant part of the work is the history of the Judges. The battles are described in a masterly manner. The lectures on the Prophets and their office are fresh and new. He here combines a wealth of information which we have often sought for in vain. And here he sets forth a higher degree of inspiration than the other parts of the volume acknowledge.

His illustrations also of many passages in the Bible make his work as useful as a commentary. His illustrations of the Psalms are specially happy and give us an insight into many passages meaningless in the English version. It is wonderful how Palestinian is the imagery of the Psalms. Dr. Stanley brings this out very often, and thus invests his pages with new interest.

We have thus shown that these volumes have all the excellences and many of the defects of modern historical and religious composition. They are written by a man singularly impartial in his sympathies, but somewhat biased in favor of a peculiar and modern school in theology. They show the research and thoroughness of an English scholar, while they exhibit the broadness, the humanity, the earnestness, and the deference to sceptical unbelief which belongs alas! to many of the best minds of this century.

ARTICLE IV.

GAME FISH OF THE NORTH.

Game Fish of the Northern States of America, and British Provinces. By BARNWELL. New York: Carleton. 1862.

IF any of our friends purpose to take for a vacation motto the apostolic resolve, "I go a fishing," we advise them to drop this volume into their pocket alongside the never to be displaced Walton. Like its inapproachable prototype, it is learned in the nature and habits of the finny tribes, in the mysteries of bait and tackle, catching and landing. But, instead of trolling along the sedgy banks of such tiny though immortal rivulets as the Trent and the Dove, whiling away whole mornings in poetical, philosophical, and moralizing dialogue, until you begin almost to despair of your dinner, this author has you away, with modern speed, " down between the grand old hills of the majestic Saguenay," where dark precipices a thousand

feet high throw densest shadows over a noble estuary of corresponding depth: or out upon the wide blue sea in chase of its tempting game. We shall leave the natural history of this volume to the leisurely study of the reader fond of these beautiful investigations, while our piscatory amateur shall tell his own story (in fragments) of exciting adventure and manly sport, with the careless, breezy abandon of which we are glad to relieve the languor of some of these fervid July hours, for which refrigerating use we have been reserving these cool morsels. We begin not very far from home.

"We caught our big trout in the Marshpee, and we will tell you how we did it, though the words make us blush as we write them. We were young then, and it is to be hoped innocent; and having gone to Sandwich on Cape Cod, in search of untried fields, discovered a jolly, corpulent landlord, named Teasdale, who, with his friend, Johnny Trout, so named jocosely, were the fishermen of the neighborhood. That was before the stream was preserved for the benefit of the "Poor Indian," and poorer fishermen mulcted, as at present, in five dollars a day for the privilege of fishing. We drove to the stream, almost six miles, Teasdale enlivening the early June morning with snatches of hunting songs, and when there plunged recklessly in. Oh! but the water was cold- a dozen large springs poured in their freezing contents - and the blood fairly crept back to our hearts. The stream ran through a narrow defile, overhung with the thickly tangled vine and creepers, rendering a cast of the line impossible, and had worked its way far under the steep banks, making dark watery caverns, where the great fish could lie in wait for their prey. We removed the upper joint of our fly-rod, which was heavy and strong, and leaving the line through the last ring of the second joint, we put on a bait next to the fly in beauty and effect, the minnow. The water was freezing cold- -the closely entwined boughs and leaves shut out the heavens above, and we were alone in the shadowy darkness with the tenants of the deep. The herring frequented the brook, and pursued by the large trout, darted in shoals between our feet. It is always a good sign when the herring are running, and we had excellent luck."

pp. 22, 23.

This is only the advance picket-skirmishing preparatory to the grand affray. The description gathers a real field-of-battle vigor and dash as the combat deepens :

"In the Marshpee I was using a single hook, keeping the bait well ahead of me, and creeping cautiously in the freezing water, watching the tiny float as it danced its merry course along, now borne swiftly over the rippling current, anon caught in an eddy and returning on its track, and then again resting motionless in some dark and quiet pool. It was scarcely visible beneath the dense shadows, and once in a while it would disappear from my straining sight; then followed a sharp blow with my rod, a fierce tug, and a short fight between fear, despair and cunning on the one side, and strength, energy and judgment on the other. The prey once hooked, and skill there was not; it was a mere contention of two brute forces, in which the weaker went to the basket. An exhibition of skill or tenderness would have resulted in an entanglement round the nearest root, and the loss of fish, leader and hook. Still, there was excitement; the situation was romantic, the narrow gorge, the deep and rapid stream, the closely matted trees and vines, the everchanging surface of the current, which adds beauty to the tamest brook, all combined to lend enchantment to the scene. The fish were large and vigorous, fresh run from the sea, where they had, the winter long, been a terror to the small fry, and early death to juicy and unsuspicious shell-fish. They fought fiercely for life and liberty, their homes and their household gods, and, alas! too often successfully. The risk of their escape added to the interest of the occasion, and the number of herring darting past gave continual promise of the presence of their arch enemy, the trout.

"I had half-filled my basket, and had met with wonderful escapes and terrible heart-rending losses, mingled with exhilarating successes. I had made about half the distance, as well as we judged, and felt proud and happy as no king upon his throne ever did or will. My rod, though a fly-rod, was whipped every few inches with silk, and thus strengthened had stood the unequal conflict admirably. Still hoping for better things-who will not hope for the impossible? -I strode on. in the stream, and eddied swiftly under the overhanging bank. The brook almost disappeared in what was evidently a vast cavern deep in the bowels of that bank. In such watery palaces, amid the worn rocks, the tangled roots, the undulating moss and weeds, fierce-eyed, monstrous trout delight to dwell. In such fortresses they await unwary travellers, and dark deeds are done in the congenial darkness -outrage, riots and murder stalk boldly about. The migratory herring, harmless and unsuspicious, peers in and starts affrighted back, then peers again, at last ventures forward, and then, compelled by instinct to ascend, tries to dart hastily by; there is a

Below me the current made a sudden turn at a bend