dogmatism, but, like his master, Clement, before him, strove to confute them with argument, and conquer them with their own weapons.

Though the creator of Biblical Criticism, and Hermaneutics, as an expositor he is not to be trusted. Though his comments are often unsurpassable, and set forth the profoundest meanings with grandeur of expression, yet is he generally misled by the allegorizing fashion-undervaluing the literal sense, and extolling the mystic and the moral.

Origen passed through good and ill report. Though of low rank in the world, and in the Church, no other ancient Christian since the apostles ever made so great a noise, or wielded, during his life, and after his death, so extensive and lasting an influence. His doctrines were loudly condemned, yet found numerous and noble adherents in his own and subsequent ages. Occasioning violent controversies, they have perhaps more largely leavened the theology of Christendom than those of any other teacher since the apostles. The reader will be interested by some of his peculiarities :

His notions concerning the Divine attributes are sufficiently orthodox, and he discourses admirably about them; but on the doctrines of the Person of Christ and the Trinity, he speaks so indefinitely and variously as to give occasion to cavil. He is accused of believing that the death of Christ was of advantage to all rational, and even to irrational, creatures. He affirms the pre-existence of human souls. He says much of free will, and too little of grace, which he believes to be infused into souls, according to their merits, before birth. He thinks that angels are spirits invisibly embodied, and that creatures rise and fall in rank according to their behaviour, but that no rank is irrevocably fixed. He believes the stars to be animated with souls.

Origen was a very voluminous writer, but most of his works are lost. His name will ever be associated with two most important editions of the Old Testament, called Tetrapla and Hexapla. The former contained the four Greek versions of Aquila, Symmachus, the Seventy, and Theodotion, in columns; the latter contained, in addition, the Hebrew text in its proper characters, and also in Greek characters. These six columns contained all the books of the Old Testament. Besides these, there were three other columns, anonymous, less literal in rendering, and containing only

some of the books. Marginal notes were added. Only some fragments of this important work are extant.

The following works of Origen are extant, in the original Greek-A treatise "On Prayer;" "Exhortation to Martyrdom;" Apology for the Christian Religion; "Against Celsus;" the Epicurean; various "Epistles ;" part of his Commentaries on the Books of the Old and New Testaments; and the "Philocalia," which consists of extracts from his works, made by Gregory of Nazianzen, and Basil the Great.

Of these, the most important is that "Against Celsus," who had written in opposition to Christianity. Origen's reply is in eight books. He answers the subtile objections of Celsus, and proves the truth of the Gospel history, and the truth and excellence of the doctrines of Jesus Christ. This work has always been regarded as most excellent, and is, indeed, the best of all the ancient "Apologies." The style is exact and polished.

The Commentaries are, of all his extant productions, the most characteristic of their author.

Besides these, there are Latin versions, by Jerome and Rufinus, of certain works of Origen, the chief of which is "Of Principles," in four books. Had this work come down to us in the original, we should have had a far completer notion of Origen and Origenism; but Rufinus, alas! has, by his own confession, tampered with his author. This was done from regard to Origen's reputation, as in the original he had probably laid himself much open to the charge of rash speculation.

Among his lost works may be mentioned two books "On Anastasis," and ten of "Stromata," in imitation of those by Clement.

The standard edition of Origen is that by the Delarues, 4 vols., folio. Paris: 1733-1759.

W. C., M.A.

[WE hold it to be the duty of an Editor either to give an early notice of the books sent to him for remark, or to return them at once to the Publisher. It is unjust to praise worthless books; it is robbery to retain unnoticed ones.]

THE REVIEWER'S CANON.

In every work regard the Author's end,

Since none can compass more than they intend.

PATRIARCHY; OR, THE FAMILY: Its Constitution and Probation. By JOHN HARRIS, D.D. London: Partridge and Co.

THE MYSTERY; OR, EVIL AND GOD. By JOHN YOUNG, LL. D. London: Longman, Brown, and Co.

TYPICAL FORMS, AND SPECIAL ENDS IN CREATION. By the Rev. JAMES M'COSH, LL. D., and GEORGE DICKIE, A.M., M.D. Edinburgh: Thomas Constable and Co.

HOURS OF THOUGHT. BY WILLIAM M'COMBIE. Third Edition. London: Ward and Co.

THE INSPIRATION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. Five Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge. By the Rev. Lord ARTHUR HERVEY, M.A. Cambridge: Macmillan and Co.

WE class the above works together, not only because they relate to the same general order of subjects, but also because they are discussed by minds of much the same general type-minds too original in force, and philosophic in bias, either to wear the livery, or walk in the path, of mere conventional ideas. For such minds, whether their conclusions square with our notious or not, we have the highest appreciation. We hail their productions as amongst the best means to stir and purify the stagnant lake of thought. We invoke the great "Father of spirits" greatly to multiply their number.

"PATRIARCHY" is the third volume in a series of deep and closely connected thinkings upon the science of sciences—the science of God.

The great subject of the present volume is the family in its "Constitution and Probation." It is divided into four parts. The first is devoted to the laws or method of the domestic constitution ; the second indicates the stages and changes through which the patriarchal community may have passed in the course of its probationary history ; the third part unfolds the reason of the method and of the history; and the fourth, the ultimate end of the family probation and economy, as a means of Divine manifestation. Under each part there is an immense amount of independent, profound, and consecutive, thinking, upon those subjects in Christian theology, which ever challenge the investigation of every honest student of history and the Bible. Though we are not great admirers of Dr. Harris's style of writing-like Robert Hall's and Macaulay's, it is too measured, elaborate, and stately, for our unclassic taste-we will yield to none in appreciation of his style of thinking. We like the step of his intellect ;-though somewhat slow, it is firm, manly, dignified, and, because regular, travels over much ground. He walks, as is his wont, from a priori abstractions to historical facts, with remarkable ease. He enters the field of fact with ideas taken from the realm of abstraction, and thus makes history a luminous and living revelation of God. Men who wish a thoroughly thoughtful book upon momentous subjects, by a first-class thinker, who thoroughly scans history, and translates facts into principles, should study "PATRIARCHY."

"THE MYSTERY; OR, EVIL AND GOD," treats of the INFINITE ONE as He is in Himself, and in the kingdoms of matter and mind; and develops the harmony of His attributes with the facts of the universe. It examines evil, physical and moral, in the light both of reason and revelation, and in its existence vindicates both the character of God, and the freedom and responsibility of man. It deals with those abysmal problems with which the great intellects of every age have wrestled, with the concentrated energies of their nature-problems which, by the immutable laws of thought, rise into the mind of every man who truly thinks, like waves from the bosom of the deep. Dr. Young is a thinker; and because of this, they come up in all their mysterious forms to his intellect; and we are interested in the way in which he takes off their specious garb, and brings them into the twofold light of reason and the Bible. We have heard this book denounced as heretical, and been cautioned not to commend it. Albeit, though we cannot endorse all the author's conclusions, we can, with a hearty good will, commend it to the attention of every thoughtful man. It will launch him, it is true, into the depths of ontological and ethical thought; but it will keep radiating over his head, at the same time, the "light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," the bright light of "the glorious Gospel of the

blessed God." The book is terribly provocative of thought: every page comes on the mind like the strong breeze on the windmill; it puts every inner wheel into action.

"TYPICAL FORMS, AND SPECIAL ENDS IN CREATION" is a book more scientific, in a physical sense, than either of the former works. Its design is to show that the two principles of "order" and of "special adaptation" run through the structure of the Cosmos. These principles are made abundantly evident by examples taken from inorganic objects, the structure of plants, and the conformation of animals; and they are shown to proceed from, and to be addressed to intelligence. The book is a splendid contribution to Natural Theology, in every way worthy of a place in the library, by the side of "M'Culloch on the Attributes." If such works cannot logically prove a God, they certainly do make the Atheist appear what he really is-A FOOL.

"HOURS OF THOUGHT" contains a series of essays on a variety of subjects, such as intellectual and moral greatness, poetry, luxury, defects in evangelical preaching, the pulpit in relation to the age, Christian union, the rationale of future retribution, &c. These subjects are all of general interest, and are treated with great ability. The author reminds us much of Foster. If he is not so gorgeous in his illustrations, and so terrible in his imagery, as the great essayist, he seems every whit as keen in his insight of the real, as broad in his view, as severe in his logic, and as profound in his sympathy with the true, and in his abhorrence of the false.

"THE INSPIRATION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE" is a book consisting of five sermons preached before the University of Cambridge, on the Inspiration of the Scriptures." The discourses are founded upon 2 Tim. iii. 14—17. The theory of inspiration adopted, which is in considerable advance of conventional orthodoxy, may be gathered from the following short quotation :-"If the sacred writers were not clerks, but, so to speak, secretaries of state,-men entrusted with God's secrets, imbued with the mind and counsel of God, acquainted with His secret will and designs; receiving from Him, when necessary, precise verbal instructions; when this was unnecessary, speaking from the fulness of their own knowledge, but in every case (to keep up the metaphor) having to submit the dispatches to the eye of the GREAT KING, to receive His sanction and authentication, before sending them forth as documents containing their Master's pleasure, their diversities of style, and individual idiosyncrasy breaking out, is exactly what we should expect." Very superior mental and moral endowments are displayed by the author of this volume. The distribution of the subject indicates much philosophic analysis and logical skill. The manner in which the grammatical import of the passage is