Cristo, Frate Hieronymo da Ferrara dello ordine de Frati Predicatori,' in which the following passage occurs:—

'In the order of His wisdom infinite things are accomplished by mediate agents, and mediate things by the ministry of Christ. The angels being mediate agents between God and man, the prophetic illumination comes from God by means of angelic spirits, who not only illuminate the interior mind, but cause divers apparitions to appear to the phantasy. But they also speak inwardly to the prophets; and to them they also appear many times in human form, and announce future things to them, and admonish them of many things they have to do. And by the Divine light, the prophets clearly know those apparitions to be angelic, and that which is spoken to them to be true. In these three manners we have attained and know future things; some in one way, some in another. Moreover in each of these modes I have attained to the knowledge of them, and always have been certified of the truth of the aforesaid light.'—Life, &c. vol. i. p. 309.

Before concluding, we must make allusion to a comparison, which most English writers, and all German, make between Savonarola and Luther: the latter delight in telling us that Luther was born the same year (1483) that Savonarola commenced his preaching; and that the former on his way to Worms was shown a portrait of the latter, which acted as a stimulant to his energy. That Luther had read and admired the works of the other we know, since he published his Meditations on Psalms li. and xxxi.; that both were deeply impressed with the desire to reform the Church, we need not state; that this desire arose in both from a consciousness of the corruption that pervaded the whole body from the highest to the lowest, and that both set about to work a change, is also true: but here the connexion and the likeness ends. The two men were as opposite as the poles in mind, thought, disposition, as well as in the way that the work had to be done. The one irreverent, coarse, violent, sensual, unscrupulous; the other devout, consistent, chaste, ascetic. Luther gave a supper to his friends, passed the evening in mirth and jollity, and entered next morning into a monastery with his Virgil and Plautus under his arm; Savonarola, in humility and meekness, with only a desire to live a heavenly life, with his Bible and Prayer-book, asked humbly to be admitted among the lay brethren. Luther without scruple broke his vows, and then, apparently out of mere perversity, married a runaway nun; high principle, truth and holiness, formed no part of his character. No sin will separate you from God, but the sin of unbelief, i. e. non-assurance of salvation, was what he taught his followers; peccavit fortiter himself, he taught his disciples to do the same: the Word of God fared no better under his hands; the Epistle of S. James was an Epistola straminea, fit only to be thrown into the Elbe, because it did not square with his notions of justification by faith. Savonarola, on the contrary, was, as his enemies confessed, a 'true monk;"'

unblemished in life and conversation; with the deepest reverence for Scripture, he sought out its meaning with prayer, fasting, and meditation; that he erred, we have pointed out, but his error was not of presumption, but from a mistaken notion of the perpetuity of the Old Testament system. Had he studied more carefully how the Apostles sought to make the Church exist in the world, but not to be of the world-how the power of the Church was to pervade everything, governments as well as private families, but not to be an earthly power like them-his reform would have been more complete. But not only this, the idea of the Church, and of its functions, was totally dissimilar in Luther and Savonarola. Savonarola wished to reform the existing Church, Luther to overthrow it, and build up one of his own on its ruins. The former fully acknowledged the power, place, and supremacy of the apostolic chair, and of the divine order of the priesthood; he believed and held all that we are accustomed to call Roman doctrine-all he wanted was to purify it. Luther, inventing the idea of a universal priesthood of all Christians, denied divine right in the Episcopate and Priesthood-not that he objected to either, if people chose to have them; nay, they might, if they wished, have gorgeous vestments, crucifixes, altars, liturgies, as well as bishops, but it was quite indifferent; hold his dogma of justification, and they might do as they pleased in other matters. Luther succeeded, and Savonarola failed; because one eminently adapted himself and his religion to the world, and to worldly men; the other uniformly opposed both. The one therefore died in worldly honours, the other as an apostle of Christ.

NOTICES.

'URSULA' (Longman), from the valued pen of the "authoress of 'Amy Herbert,' as a tale of ‘middle life,' aims at a peculiar usefulness. The task is one of such acknowledged difficulty that it is little to say the writer has hardly attained her highest mark in it. The plan of the story is that of 'The Experience of Life,' the heroine being her own historian; but the style, to be in keeping with the difference of rank, is plain, abrupt, and sometimes bald to a degree interfering with the reader's pleasure; while under the same idea of adopting the habit of thought of the less educated classes, there is a prolixity, which is to be regretted as needlessly wearying the attention and protracting the story. And yet with such large sacrifices to consistency we cannot feel satisfied that the authoress has any familiar acquaintance with the farming life she describes. There strikes us to be a want of keeping, interfering with a right comprehension of the heroine's trials; for we must understand a person's social standing to estimate her social difficulties. She seems always above the drudgery attached by the authoress to her position, keeping herself down to it by an effort of principle, which shows itself in an almost ostentatious humility of detail. She records, àpropos to nothing, that her idolized brother goes into the back-kitchen to wash his hands. She puts on her apron, and curtseys, and says Ma'am' to her bitterest enemy, between whom and herself there is a trial of strength through the two volumes. These facts hardly seem in harmony with the brother's occasional run with the hounds, with her command of a pony carriage, or with his apology to her for not acting as her escort when she takes a railway journey. A good deal which seems anomalous is felt more from the autobiographic form, which we suspect in this case to be a mistake. We ought to allow for the inherent defects of this mode of telling a story, but it is hard to do so at all times, or to receive the impression the author intends of a young person who retains such an accurate recollection of every time she was ever put upon,' of every slight or affront her relations and acquaintance ever inflicted. It is not enough for her to assure her readers that she did not regard these indignities or behaved well under them; it is against our notions of magnanimity that they should be noted down at all. Our criticism is with the plan of the story. That there are some well-drawn characters, amongst whom we would especially particularise 'Miss Milicent,' that there is much sound religious instruction and practical good sense, we need hardly assure our readers already familiar with this prolific writer's excellent series of works of fiction.

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'The Day-Hours of the Church of England' (Masters) is a valuable addition to the many aids to devotion which are among the most precious signs of the deepening life of the present day. It is a work of a high order, and we shall hope to consider it more fully on some future occasion. It is an adaptation of the ancient services, on the same principle on which the English Book of Common Prayer was framed; the Psalms, Scripture portions, hymns and collects being harmonized to our use, and whatever was inconsistent with the doctrine of our Church eliminated. Not merely are there, as in the case of similar works lately published, Offices for the

Canonical Hours of every day, but also proper services for the seasons and holy days, with the many rich extracts and beautiful applications of Holy Scripture, suited to the changes of the Christian year, which is so marked and admirable a feature of the ancient Breviaries. With this completeness of aim the endeavour has been made, and, as far as the slight inspection that the brief interval since publication permits us to judge, made with considerable success, to simplify the rubrics and marks of reference. As the Preface anticipates, the work seems calculated to be of great value to the religious communities which of God's great mercy have of late years been raised up in our Church, and to those, we believe the many, who sympathise with them, living in their own homes, and, as circumstances permit, seeking to follow out the true traditionary system of catholic piety. We would specially direct attention to the Preface, which explains the objects and principles kept in view, including moreover an important catena of authorities for the use of the Hours in the Church of England. The following passage marks the spirit in which this work has been put forth; while earnestly pressing the value and efficacy of the use of the Hours, yet fully appreciating, without any invidious contrast, the piety which exhibits itself in other forms suited to the varying circumstances of individual calling or social claims. To those to whom in their 'special circumstances it is given to follow the full use of the Hours, it 'must be a cause of thankfulness and consolation-which many to whom 'such privilege is denied long to enjoy to feel that they are thus fulfilling David's high aim, of praising God" seven times a day;" that if "“the just man falleth seven times a day," they are offering a sevenfold 'confession of sin; that they are filling up the full measure of the Lord's ‹ Prayer, which is composed of seven petitions; that in the sacred language of Israel, seven means "perfect," and so in seven days the work of 'creation was perfected; and so, too, the new creation growing out of the 'Incarnation and bloody Passion of Jesus Christ is perfected by the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Ghost. On the other hand, they who are precluded 'by circumstances or constraining duties from following such a rule of 'devotion, may be comforted in the thought, that through the grace of God it is given to those who seek to live in a spirit of prayer, and to offer all their acts of obedience as a living sacrifice, to be accepted as "praying always," and "without ceasing;" and that, when the mind is 'so absorbed in care or earnest service, that a conscious offering of their 'work to God at all times is scarcely compatible with present infirmity, ' even then they may be sustained in the conviction, that there are cases "where" to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of 'rams."

Lady Wilkinson has, in her Weeds and Wild Flowers' (Van Voorst), produced an elegant volume, full of pleasant literature and exhaustive quotation from poetical and other sources, on the natural Flora of England. Botany, when pursued by a cultivated mind in this way, becomes a guide to very extensive reading, and we hardly know one who has done more to illustrate it than this accomplished writer. The moral reflections are occasionally [tedious, but the spirit in which they are conceived is unexceptionable.

'Beamish's Christian Visitor's Companion' (Wertheim) is a monograph of sermons, or, as we once heard them called, sermonets, supposed to be addressed by a curate to the bed-ridden poor in their own houses. Subjoined to each address is a hymn and prayer. The execution is not equal to the intention.

We are glad to announce the Second Part, from the Burntisland Press, of the Ancient Liturgies of the Gallican Church,' which now appears under the sole management of Mr. G. W. Forbes. Profusely illustrated, with full liturgical learning, and of inestimable value to the student of ecclesiastical archæology, it is with mingled pride and humiliation that we welcome this publication: with pride, that a single clergyman should unaided pursue so vast a work; and with regret, that he should be left to his own resources for prosecuting a work which ought to be that of a University. It will be a disgrace to us should this labour of love fail for lack of literary encouragement.

Mr. Gresley's new volume of Sermons' (Masters) is eminently characteristic of the writer. Plain, straightforward, and manly, with an utter disregard of the ornaments of style, they simply address the English common sense and common fairness. The late scandalous, and in its results absurd and contemptible, excitement which has attended the teapot tempest at Boyn Hill, will have achieved one result if it calls attention to Mr. Gresley's work at that place. Probably few things have done more to shake public confidence in the infallibility of the leading journal,' than the political mistake-for in such a quarter principle is not to be looked for-of making a heroine of that chaste matron' Nancy Arnold.'

The Guide to the Church Services in London and its Suburbs ' (Rivingtons) is, if we may so say, a sort of Ecclesiastical Bradshaw, giving with extreme fulness and accuracy the services at the various metropolitan churches. Modelled on the old Pietas Londinensis' of a century and a half ago, and comprising the substance of a similar hand-book published by Masters some years since, it has attained a completeness which leaves little to desire. It is regrettable to find that after all, with its population more than quadrupled, the present London does not yet attain the number of Church services which were celebrated in the beginning of the degenerate eighteenth century.

The Mediæval Architecture of Chester' is a production which attests the literature and "accomplishments of one of our Sosii, Mr. John Henry Parker, who combines what used to be the characteristic of a publisher in the days of the Stephenses. It is full both of technical learning and antiquarian research; and besides being a hand-book to the most interesting among our relics, this volume is a substantial contribution to Ecclesiology and Archæology.

If a school is an epitome of the world, school sermons ought to be capable of use to the whole Church. Such is eminently the case with 'Bishop Cotton's Marlborough Sermons' (Macmillan): though addressed to boys, and as we know with admirable effect in training character, they display a close and searching acquaintance with human nature. This is their excellence that they deal with the moral nature; and they teach their