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Jesus on the Throne of his Father David; or, The Tabernacle of David. When will it be Built again? A Sequel to "The Promise of Shiloh." By JOSEPH L. LORD, M.A., of the Boston Bar. 16mo., pp. 92. New York: James Inglis & Co. Letter and Spirit: Winchester Lectures. By RICHARD METCALF. 16mo., pp. 186. Boston: American Unitarian Association. 1870.

The Spirit of Life; or, Scripture Testimony to the Divine Person and Work of the Holy Ghost. By E. H. BICKERSTETH, M.A., Vicar of Christ Church, Hampstead. Author of "Yesterday, To-day, and Forever." Pp. 192. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers. 1870.

Flowers and Fossils, and Other Poems. By JOHN K. STAYMAN, Professor of Ancient Languages and Classical Literature in Dickinson College. 12mo., pp. 322. Philadelphia: Claxton, Remson, & Haffelfinger. 1870.

Anniversary Gems. Consisting of Addresses, Conversations, and Scripture Illustrations for the Sunday-school Concert or Anniversary. By REV. SAMUEL L. GRACEY, Wilmington Conference. 24mo., paper, pp. 215. Philadelphia. Perkinpine & Higgins.

The Unkind Word, and Other Stories. By the Author of "John Halifax, Gentleman," etc., etc. 12mo., pp. 418. New York: Harper & Brothers.

1870.

By ANTON CLYDE, Author of "Maggie Lyune." Illus-
New York: Harper & Brothers.

1870.

The "B. O. W. C." A Book for Boys. By the Author of "The Dodge Club," etc.
Illustrated. 16mo., pp. 321. Boston: Lee & Shepard.
Under Foot. A Novel.
trated. 8vo., pp. 134.
The Wonders of Pompeii. By MARC MOUNIER. Translated from the Original
French. 16mo., pp. 250. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1870.
Adventures of Caleb Williams. By WILLIAM GODWIN, Esq., Author of "St. Leon,"
"Cloudesley," etc. Complete in One Volume. 18mo., pp. 231. New York:
Harper & Brothers.

1870.

Only Herself. A Novel. By ANNIE THOMAS, (Mrs. Pender Cudlip) Author of False Colors," "Dennis Donne," etc., etc. 8vo., pp. 139. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1870.

Kitty. By M. BETHAM EDWARDS, Author of "Doctor Jacob," etc., etc. 8vo., pp. 143. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1870.

Hirell. A Novel. By the Author of "Abel Drake's Wife," "Martin Pole," etc. 8vo., pp. 157. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1870.

The Poetical Works of Alfred Tennyson, Poet Laureate. Numerous Illustrations. 8vo., pp. 232. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1870.

Vick's Illustrated Catalogue and Floral Guide, for 1870. 8vo., pp. 84.
Baptism: Its Subject and Mode. In Two Parts. By Rev. M. TRAFTON, A.M.
Second Edition. 24mo., pp. 91. Boston: J. P. Magee. 1870.

Light and Truth; or, Bible Thoughts and Themes. The Acts and the Larger
Epistles. By HORATIUS BONAR, D.D. 12mo., pp. 414. New York: Robert
Carter & Brothers. 1870.

The History of Rome. By THEODORE MOMMSEN. Translated, with the Author's sanction and Additions, by the Rev. WILLIAM P. DICKSON, D.D., Regius Professor of Biblical Criticism in the University of Glasgow. With a Preface by Dr. LEONHARD SCHMITZ. New Edition in Four Volumes. Volume II. 12mo., pp. 568. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1857.

Journal of a Visit to Erypt, Constantinople, The Crimea, Greece, etc., in the Suite of the Prince and Princess of Wales. By the Hon. Mrs. WILLIAM GREY. 12mo., pp. 209. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1870.

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels. For Family and Private Use. By Rev. J. C. RYLE. B. A. St. John, Vol. II. 12mo., pp. 382. New York: Carter & Brothers. 1870.

The Tone Masters. A Musical Series for Young People. Mozart and Mendelssohn. Illustrated. By E. TOURJEE. Red and gilt. 24mo., pp. 193. Boston: Lee & Shepard 1870.

The Odes and Epodes of Horace. A Metrical Translation into English. With Introduction and Commentaries. By Lord LYTTON. With Latin Text from the Editions of Orelli, Mac Leane, and Yonge. 12mo., pp. 520. New York: Harper &

Brothers. 1870.

- Religion. New York

Brake Up; or, The Young Peace-makers. By OLIVER OPTIC. Red and gilt. 24mo., pp. 303. Boston: Lee & Shepard. 1870. Topics for Teachers. By JAMES C. GRAY. Vol. II, Art. Carlton & Lanahan. Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Walden. Dialogues from Dickens. Arranged by W. ELLIOT FETTE, A. M. 24mo., pp. 260. Boston: Lee & Shepard. Department of Public Instruction, City of Chicago. Fifteenth Annual Report of the Board of Education, for the Year ending July 3, 1869. 8vo., pp. 318.. Chicago Church, Goodman, & Donnelly. 1869.

Green and gilt.

The Life of Mary Russell Mitford, Authoress of "Our Village," etc. Told by Herself in Letters to her Friends. Edited by the REV. A. G. K. L'ESTRANGE. In two volumes. 12mo., pp. 378, 365. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1870. The Four Gospels. Translated from the Greek Text of Tischendorf. With the Various Readings of Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Meyer, Alford, and others; and with Critical and Expository Notes. By NATHANIEL S. FOLSOM. 12mo., pp. 476. Boston: A. Williams & Co. 1869.

Some of the Methods and Results of Observation of the Total Eclipse of the Sun, August 7, 7, 1869. By PROF. CHARLES F. HIMES, Ph. D., Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. Reprinted from the Evangelical Quarterly Review. 12mo., pp. 15. Gettysburgh: J. E. Wible.

1869.

THE RELIEF MAP OF PALESTINE is a beautiful method of presenting the surface of the Holy Land to the eye. It is remarkable that in the Greek Testament the word mountain has so frequently the article the before it that a skeptic remarked that there was but one mountain in the book. To this Ebrard spicily replies that Palestine is but one mountain cut by vales. This mountaincharacter is strikingly visible in the Relief Map.

In order to make the map cheap for all, it is sold direct, and not through intermediate agencies. Send one dollar to Rev. W. L. Gage, Hartford, Conn., and when you receive it, you will wonder at its cheapness.

NOTICE TO CONTRIBUTORS.

1. FROM the large number of articles usually in hand, and from the necessity of making up a proper round of topics in each number, a writer cannot usually expect that his production can be published in an ensuing number The Editor must be left at liberty to time the articles as will best suit the purposes of the periodical. 2. An article of over twenty-five pages will rarely be inserted. Each writer should assume beforehand that such is the rule for him. 3. Articles are liable only to the postage of book-manuscript.

METHODIST

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

JULY, 1870.

ART. I.-MOMMSEN'S HISTORY OF ROME.

The History of Rome.
P. DICKSON, D.D.
American edition.

By THEODOR MOMMSEN. Translated by the Rev. WILLIAM
With a Preface by Dr. Leonhard Schmitz. In four volumes.
New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1869, 1870.

It is certainly one of the most striking and paradoxical phenomena attending the history of the human race, that its record in much, if not the greater part, of its extent should need to be re-examined and rewritten. The statements of contemporaries, or of those who lived much nearer to the events they chronicle than we do, might naturally be supposed to be entitled to be accepted as final. The historical criticism of the present skeptical age is, however, little inclined to such passive acquiescence, and there is no small weight in the arguments which are advanced at least in behalf of a free discussion of the grounds upon which the legends of the ancient world repose. Even the value of the authority of a contemporary may be largely overrated. Undoubtedly, if he holds the pen of a ready and lively writer, while his eye is quick to discern, and his apprehension to lay hold of the salient points in the events that take place in his immediate vicinity, he may give us a picture of unsurpassed brilliancy and distinctness; but it must, almost of necessity, be contracted to a comparatively narrow field. In the battle of life few, if any, are so admirably posted as to be able to obtain a wide and well-proportioned view of all its leading features. In fact, the result of a comparison of different FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XXII-21

contemporary writers is frequently as bewildering as the attempt to reconcile different accounts of a single military engagement, and to extract a consistent narrative from them. Personal prepossessions and prejudices, constitutional peculiarities, varieties of experience, unequal opportunities of observation, and many other circumstances, lead to consequent discrepancies of statement for which the unskilled or cynical critic can find no means of accounting save upon the foolish and uncharitable supposition of willful misrepresentation. The prospect even of the prime actors is far from being uninterrupted, and it is reserved for a subsequent age to rise above the mists of party passion and sectional jealousy, and gain a panoramic view of the wideextended ground.

It is a still greater mistake to give to writers who lived comparatively near the time of the occurrences they describe implicit faith because of this circumstance, for it not unfrequently happens that a cultivated and intelligent investigator, far removed both in time and place, will avoid the mistakes into which the ignorance and credulity of his predecessors have fallen, while his means of obtaining positive information may be equal, if not superior. After a certain distance has been reached, it becomes a matter of comparative insignificance whether the interval is measured by decades or by hundreds of years.

Yet it must be admitted that criticism, when employed as a means of extracting truth from history that borders upon legend, is a dangerous instrument. Probability, resting, as it does, upon so many and obscure particulars, is always an uncertain, often a treacherous, touchstone. Reasoning from what would be likely to happen is undeniably as unsatisfactory a method of investigating the past, as of prophecy respecting the future. We need not go back to a former age to find ourselves plunged in perplexing incongruities; the history of the day furnishes us with an ample fund, and destructive criticism could perhaps discover quite as many reasons for "Historical Doubts" respecting the existence and achievements of the third Napoleon as concerning those of the first.

We are in a singularly unfortunate situation as respects the early history of that State which, after Palestine and Greece, is undoubtedly the most interesting and important of antiquity. Of the history of Rome under the kings, and for a considerable

period after their expulsion, the learned Niebuhr and his school have made short work. With a single dash of the pen three centuries of the records of the imperial city were obliterated, and every thing before 450 or 500 B. C. became an empty void. Nor were there wanting plausible reasons for this wholesale slaughter of popular traditions. The incredible character of some of the incidents, the large admixture of the supernatural, the poetical tinge given to the entire narrative, all conspired to render it suspicious; and the arguments of the skeptics were supported by an array of such undeniably thorough scholarship that the favorable verdict of the literary world was carried as by storm. Yet it would be contrary to fact to allege that the victory so brilliantly won has remained undisputed. The fatal consequences of pushing the theory of Niebuhr to its legitimate. conclusions soon became evident in the depreciation of the value of human testimony in comparison with the deductions of the speculative philosopher. The denial of all truth in the legends respecting the history of an important city for a long period, (all of it subsequent to the era of the Olympiads,) unaccompanied by the substitution of any positive record in their place, was too sweeping to leave the world fully satisfied, and there has consequently been a reaction too marked to be altogether slighted.

Dr. Mommsen is a follower of Niebuhr, and we must not look in his work for any higher appreciation of the legendary history of Rome. Indeed, he takes for granted the truth of the main result at which his great predecessor arrived, and does not undertake to prove its untrustworthiness. While we cannot condemn him for this, we are compelled to regard it as a defect in his treatment of his theme that he does not even deign to give the familiar legends a place, but mars the completeness of his work by rendering his reader dependent on his previous knowledge for all which has passed current for the story of the regal period. Aside from this lack, we welcome this work, for the first time rendered accessible to the American public, as a very valuable and timely addition to our gradually increasing circle of histories truly deserving the name. The remarkable attainments and natural endowments of the author qualify him to cope successfully with a difficult subject. To a profound acquaintance with the language of Rome, and a prolonged

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