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once belonged to them. The interest of the vast world of the soul, however, can never be exhausted. There are always to be found phenomena to excite our faculty of marvel, and often to baffle our ability of explanation. Mr. Lang1 truly remarks that one half the world knows not how the other half think. And perhaps the time of many of us would be better employed in travelling with an observant eye through foreign climates of fancy, in all their exuberance, than in attempting to discover anything new within our more native horizons. Mr. Lang is an independent worker in mytho logical study we alluded last month to his article in the Encyclopædia Britannica. He is opposed to the " prevalent method of comparative mythology," who assumes that "myths are the result of a disease of language, as the pearl is the result of a disease of the oyster." The curious thing is that such an odd explanation should ever have been put forward, or, having been put forward, should have been persisted in. "Mr. Müller," as he is called by Mr. Lang, habitually thinks of language as a person, to whose diseases, forgetfulnesses, crazes, mythology owes its rise. Now this is itself mythology; for few can believe with "Mr. Müller," that language is a weak or wicked person; and if mythology is a craze, the proposed explanation is crazier. "Men at some periods spoke in a singular style of coloured and concrete language, and their children retained the phrases of this language after losing hold of the original meaning" (p. 1). That means: once men knew what poetry meant; their descendants went mad, and took old poetry for prose. There has been madness somewhere; but we are inclined to say to "Mr. Müller,”—De te fabula narratur. And then the "solar mythology," what is it but solar hallucination? The notion that " primitive men" could, by any known law of mind, report of the changes of the sky in allegories, violent and obscene; or if they could, that they would do anything so absurd! All over the world, the people guard their folk-tales and superstitions most jealously from the stranger. What are these precious secrets? That it dawns when the sun rises, and that rain is wet!-according to our solar and meteorological friends. The whole subject needs reconsideration. Mr. Lang, after much meddling with moly and mandragora, retains possession of his faculties; and we hope he will in future leave "Mr. Müller " to enjoy his peculiar opinions in peace, while he attempts his own reconstruction of facts which lie in the very root of human imagination.

1 Custom and Myth. By ANDREW LANG, M. A.

1884.

Pp. 304.

London: Longmans.

Mr. DRUMMOND's book has secured 31,000 readers, or at least buyers. This shows at least that the religious public relishes the fare here provided. And who is the critic that he should, if he could, stand near Sancho's chair and whisk away by a wave of his rod the dishes on which Sancho has set his heart? We would rather learn what are the tastes of our dear religious public than force upon its notice our own. When we first glanced at this book, we saw that it was a mystical affair. Personally we do not approve of making "anything out of anything, and turning everything into something else." There is a relation between "Hebrews" and "Huxley," as between Macedon and Monmouth; but we prefer to distinguish. The Arch-Mole may have committed original sin for aught we know, and have involved his posterity in the doom of burrowing under ground and of impaired vision; if so, this would be a discovery of "spiritual law in the natural world." But has Moley no eyes? If, on the other hand, we suppose him to enjoy himself as well as another beast, and not to need better optics, "analogy" would teach that men who are spiritually blind are so because their "environments" are such that they don't want spiritual eyes. The arguments of the book may be made to cut in exactly the opposite way to the author's. But we think we see why Sancho likes his fare. A pencilled copy fell into our hands. Following the pencil marks, we found that the baldest commonplaces were to the reader evidently a feast of fat things. Page after page, he went browsing on through the pleasant pastures of platitude, marking the juicy spots for them that should follow. We see other reasons for the popularity of the book. Sancho is a quiet and good-natured fellow. He has heard so much of "conflict of science and religion," disputes about "natural” and "supernatural," faith and reason, and authority and the like, that it is pleasant to him to recognise these personages, for so they are made to appear, flitting about without jostling, rushing into each other's arms, finally melting away and leaving before him a mirror in which he sees his own honest visage reflected! There is no reason why this book should not be as familiar in men's mouths as the Proverbial Philosophy of Mr. M. Tupper.

WE mentioned only in a previous number the appearance of the late Th. Keim's last volume of his Life of Jesus 2 in an English trans

1 Natural Law in the Spiritual World. By Prof. DRUMMOND. Hodder & Stoughton.

2 The History of Jesus of Nazara freely investigated. By THEODOR KEIM. Translated by A. RANSOM. Vol. vi. Williams & Norgate, 1883. Pp. 437.

lation. The contents are: The Arrest and Pseudo-Trial-the Death on the Cross-the Burial and Resurrection-the Ascension-the Messiah's Place in History. Apart from the question of the author's views, the book has a value from the ample knowledge of the modern literature of the subject. In Keim himself, a recluse thinker and an attached disciple of Spinoza, there is a strong contrast of the critical and the devotional mind. He equally dislikes the fanatics of extreme orthodoxy, and the "radical brawlers and enthusiasts" of the other wing. He resolves the narratives of the Resurrection into myths, yet believes in Jesus and the Resurrection with fervour, in some mystical sense. In an eloquent epilogue, he says: "If Spinoza acknowledged Jesus to be the Temple in which God most fully revealed Himself, we may exclaim still more joyously that Christianity is the crown of all the creations of God, and that Jesus is the Chosen of God, His Image, and Best-Beloved, and Master-Workman, and World-shaper in the history of mankind." The nova Creatura, the novissimus Adam, he says further, is the only tenable conception of Christ. He is the appointed Standard-Bearer in every spiritual conflict; and He "will triumph over the quagmires and the spirits of darkness of the nether Kosmos."

The translator has contrived to make the book more readable than translations from the German usually are. Those who are reading Weiss's work should compare his references to Keim with Keim himself, who complains in his preface of the obscurity of the former writer. The peculiarity of Keim's views, as expressed in some earlier works, was briefly adverted to by Dr. Liddon, in his Notes to Bampton Lectures, 1866: "He heartily believes in the reality of Christ's own Resurrection from the dead. He cannot account for the phenomena of the Church if the Resurrection be denied. He seems to consider that the life of Jesus as a spiritual, moral, and in some respects supernatural fact, is unique; but an intellectual spectre, the laws of nature,' interpose to prevent him from drawing the otherwise inevitable inference. Yet for such as he is, let us hope much."

SIR A. LYALL'S thoughtful and patient studies should receive attention from all interested in India, its religious and social state, and in the missionary enterprise. Perhaps the most important thing in the book is the exposure of Mr. Max Müller's mistakes in his lecture in Westminster Abbey, where he "prematurely interred" Brahmanism (p. 116). It is shown to be a living and still widely1 Asiatic Studies, Religious and Social. By Sir A. C. LYALL, K. C. B., C.I.E. London: John Murray. 1882. Pp. 306.

1

spreading religion; and it may be doubted whether it has to fear destruction at the hands of Buddhism, Mohammedanism, or Christianity-the three "missionary religions" of the lecturer. Sir A. Lyall also opposes current theories on the origin of religion in nature-worship, himself adopting "Euemerism." He justly observes: "All the vitality and the concrete impressive figures in the front rank of an Asiatic religion appear to come direct out of humanity below, out of the earth, as the scene of the exploits, sufferings, and passions of mankind, which are above all things of absorbing interest to man." But he seems to do injustice to his own comprehensive views by labelling them after Euemerus, who was a shallow fellow. Sir A. Lyall sees that worship is directed to spiritual beings, whether they be revealed in the changes of nature, or in the influence of the departed upon the living, or in that of living men themselves. Under our one word worship many different phases and moods of respect, reverence, adoration, service, may be and are included in Oriental religions. The distinctions of the Roman Catholic might remind us of the still greater subtlety of distinction required in studying religions where any possible object may be an object of some species of "worship." The Catholic indignantly repudiates the term Mariolatry; he does not render the Virgin latreia, but only donleia, he says. It is a pity the rage for isms is so prevalent. All the isms we know are to be found in India, and more. Sir A. Lyall writes with the modesty and the caution of a genuine lover of truth; and his book is a valuable one. Take the chapter on Clans and Castes and their Formation. The author shows how the state of society in midland districts of India, which have never undergone complete conquest, may be used to illustrate history, e.g. the Greek archaic times, or the Merovingian period. Two institutions "play a great part in all archaic societiesthe grouping of men by their folk and their faith, by kinship and worship." We venture to assert, from independent inquiry, that this is the only principle on which the rise of Greek polytheism can be explained. Sir A. Lyall demurs to the peremptory manner in which Grote denied the possibility of extracting history from the heroic legends; and here again we believe him to be quite in the right. Parallels in Israelitish tribal histories are also cited. The peculiar logic of myths and the grammar of their dialect has yet to be written. When these things are better understood, it will be found that much interesting history of substantial truth is to be discovered in tribal legends, the form being highly poetic and fictitious.

FOREIGN PERIODICAL LITERATURE.

THE third collection of Zeller's Addresses and Treatises1 has appeared. It is a treat to handle this excellent paper, to cast one's eye over this clear typography. Nor does the book promise to the eye and mock the ear of the reader. Zeller (O si sic omnes Germani!) always writes, even upon difficult subjects, with excellent lucidity, and with perfect polish and taste. But it is needless to speak of a writer so well known. Only we could wish that our orthodox friends would not permit the devil to have all the good tunes to himself, as Rowland Hill used to say. There is no denying it, the heretics of the day are the stylists, whether in England, France, or Germany. This by the way. The essays in this volume cover the period 18781884. The author compares them to separate blocks of buildingstone, which will be recognised by the attentive reader as parts of one structure. The subjects are :-The Doctrine of Aristotle on the Eternity of the World; the Greek Precursors of Darwin; a Heathen Apocalypse (translated in Nineteenth Century, April 1882); Scientific Instruction among the Greeks; Academic Teaching and Learning; the Importance of Language and Linguistic Instruction for the Spiritual Life; the Kantian Moral Principle, etc.; the Moral Law in its Conception and its Foundation in Reason; and the Reasons of our Belief in the Reality of the External World. The paper which has been translated is the shortest and slightest; the last in the volume the most elaborate and important, as we think. But we must deny ourselves the pleasure of presenting a précis of its contents. The book will be welcome to those who like clever handling, neat execution, gentleman-like form in writing, no less than solid substance in thinking.

THE 1st Part of the Theol. Studien u. Kritiken for 1885 contains a historical paper by Dr. K. Benrath on the Anabaptists in Venetia in the 16th century. An Anabaptist Council, consisting of delegates from churches in North Italy and Switzerland, met in 1550 at Venice. They numbered about 60. After forty days' discussion, the general agreement of the assembly was obtained to ten theological propositions. In these it was maintained that Christ was not God, but man, the son of Joseph and Mary, yet "full of all divine powers." Angels were defined as human servants and messengers of God. The 1 Vorträge u. Abhandlungen. Von E. ZELLER. 3d Sammlung. Leipzic. 1884.