LATE FEARENSIDE & SON LATE FEARENSIDE & SON Royal 8vo. pp. 478, every page furrounded by an elaborate Woodcut Border. Alfo a cheap edition without borders, fcap. 8vo. 6s. or plain morocco, gilt leaves, by Rivière, 12s. 6d. BISHOP KEN'S CHRISTIAN YEAR HYMNS AND POEMS FOR THE FESTIVALS AND HOLYDAYS OF THE CHURCH. DL KMg' LATE FEARENSIDE & SON. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. From "The Times," Dec. 12, 1867. ISHOP KEN'S CHRISTIAN YEAR,' published by Mr. Pickering, is an exquifite edition of a book which would have been welcome in any shape. We are all familiar with the beautiful Morning and Evening Hymns which, originally compofed for the boys of Winchester College, have contributed even more than his virtues to immortalize the name of the exemplary Bishop. But comparatively few, perhaps, are acquainted with that series of poems on all the chief feftivals of the Christian year by which Keble's great work was anticipated in the last century. The book, indeed, is opportunely published while the memory of Keble is still fresh, for it can hardly be doubted that it must have exercised a great influence on Keble's mind. Apart from the general idea, one is ftruck with precisely the fame tone of devotional thought which is the characteristic of the favourite "Christian Year" of the prefent generation. One cannot but think, indeed, that Keble received the fuggeftion of fome even of his melodies from the ftrains of Ken. The earlier hymns are not without fome of the quaintnefs of the day, but they are not on that account the lefs natural; indeed, to our mind, they are fometimes even more natural. They are full of beautiful thoughts, beautifully expreffed. The book is handfomely printed on a fine page with an elegant border, and to any one who can appreciate a really artistic book it will have a greater charm than many more gaudy and more pretentious volumes. We could wish that Chriftmas books were more often of this character. They would be all the more valuable as prefents, if their infide, as well as their outfide, were of more permanent worth." A BISHOP KEN'S "CHRISTIAN YEAR." The Pall Mall Gazette. "It is a praifeworthy collection, and one that is likely to find the favour it deferves." The Guardian. "The laft claimant on our attention is a very attractive edition of Good Bishop Ken's 'Chriftian Year.' It is not, and it fhould not be, full of elaborate defigns within, and outfide gorgeous with gold and colour-a piece of oftentatious worldlinefs, fuch as the fimple-minded Bishop might not have liked to touch. It is plainly but ftrongly bound; the paper is good without being as fmooth as glafs or as thick as cardboard; and the text, which is printed in a flightly old-fashioned type, is furrounded by emblematic borders, of which the lines, like thofe of French illuminations juft before the Renaiffance, often cannot make up their minds whether to be ftiff or flowing. What is the meaning of the emblems or of the initials which are frequently interwoven with the defigns, we cannot prefume to fay: there is no room for doubting that they gird in moft becomingly these characteristic poems-fo quaint, yet fo unaffected; fo gentle, yet fo free from effeminacy; fo glowing to the core with the fire of genuine devotion." The Literary Churchman. "Few handfomer or more elegantly got up volumes have come before us than this collection of Bishop Ken's Poems, from which it is faid that our own John Keble derived the idea of his now world-famous 'Chriftian Year.' It is admirably printed, on good paper, and with ornamental borders of very chafte and pleafing defigns. As to the poems themselves, they make one feel very ftrongly how time will alter the ftyle and outward form of literary expreffion even while the bafis of thought and feeling remains the fame. People will not be buying a mere ditto of our Chriftian Year' in obtaining this 'Chriftian Year of a paft century, even though it may have fuggefted its fucceffor. Expanfion, not concentration, was the rule then; and the object would feem to be to turn a thought round and round and look at it on every fide; not to fhoot it into the reader's mind by one keen phrase in which it remains embalmed for ever. . . . We may fafely fay that every page bears the mark of that thoughtful tender reverence which we all of us affociate with the name of Bishop Ken. We may also add that the volume will not be without its ufe in bearing teftimony to the doctrines of the Keble of the feventeenth century. Ken was Keble's theological, quite as much as his poetical, precurfor; while the fact that Ken was one of thofe who refifted the Romanizing of James II. fhows that he had no Romanizing tendencies of his own." The Church Times. "This exceedingly handfome volume, in all the luxury of toned paper, old-faced type, and with each page fet in gracefully defigned cinque-cento |