In a religious point of view Mr. Wright's researches shew how the Christian faith was, during the Middle Age, gradually, and with continual additions, corrupted by adventitious le gends and superstitions.

"Nothing was ever more true than the stigma of idolatry applied by the earlier Reformers to the religion of papal Rome. The Roman Catholic system was (and continues to be) a mixture of Christianity with Paganism, in which too generally the pure religion of the Gospel is stifled under the weighty superstructure. Superstitions, such as those described in the present Essay, were at first tolerated among a newly converted and ignorant people; they were subsequently approved and encouraged by a political priesthood, as a powerful instrument of domination and oppression, till they were finally accepted as an integral part of the doctrines of the Church."

but

Mr. Wright's original intention was to treat the subject generally, and he has proceeded on that plan in his earlier chapters, which comprise a variety of Purgatory legends, AngloSaxon, Welsh, and Irish, and also continental. In his fifth chapter he proceeds to the examination of the many poetical works to which the subject gave birth, from the Pilgrimages of William de Deguilleville to the Divina Commedia of Dante, and the popular Pilgrimage of our own Bun

Legendary Rhymes. By Mary A. E. Charnock. The writer of this volume, her husband informs us in his preface, is no more. The poems are not discreditable to her fame, and, had she lived to correct them, would have deserved a higher praise. We shall quote two of the sounets.

TO THE WHARF.

Oh, moorland river! beautiful and wild,
I love to see thy light waves onward roll,
Impetuous and impatient of control
As some untamed and fearless mountain child.
Thou rushest swiftly past the haunts of men,
As uncongenial to thee; for thy choice

Is the lone meadow, or the rocky glen,
Or ancient wood, where ringdoves' plaintive

voice

Alone is heard; mirrored in thy clear flood Are mould'ring towers, relics of those whose

name

yan, some of whose prototypes have been recently discussed by our correspondents. The sixth and seventh chapters are devoted to the Purgatory of St. Patrick, which has given name to the work, and which has obtained "because it is the that prominence most remarkable of all the Purgatory legends, and the only one which has remained in force to the present day." Lough Derg, or the Red Lake, is situated among the barren mountains of Donegal, not far from the county town, and contains the famous island which has for ages attracted its crowds of devotees. There still stand the chapels and toll-houses, and thither still repair the trains of pilgrims who would wash away at once, by a visit to those holy shores, the accumulated Mr. Barrow has sins of their lives. stated a revenue of 2001. or 300l. a year is derived by the land-proprietor from the traffic, and that sometimes 900 or 1000 pilgrims are in the island at once. The modern superstitious proceedings of the pilgrims have been well detailed by Carleton in his "Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry."

The eighth and last chapter, on the influence of these legends on the literature of the sixteenth century, is not the least valuable and interesting of the whole.

been.

But, as the studies that enrich the mind Leave on the brow of man their withering trace,

So, to increase thy usefulness design'd,

Art has despoiled thee of thy native grace;Where thy free waves once flowed through woodlands green,

The forge's glare, the factory's smoke are seen.

Tales of the Town. By Henry Walford Bellairs. Henry Howard-Ambrose Elton. Of these tales, intended to correct the laxity of opinion so prevalent on religious institutions and faith, and to inculcate the doctrine, that to neglect or

laxity of religious principles may be traced the thoughtlessness and error of a worldly life, leading at once to the loss of private honour and of public character-of these tales we should say, that they are written in such a manner, that the very useful instruction they convey is rendered doubly interesting by the lively and dramatic form it assumes in the respective stories.

The Spiritual Creature, or Soul's New Birth. A Poem. By Mrs. M. Roberts. This poem is written in a truly philosophical spirit, and with much poetical feeling and power. "It is an attempt," as the author says, "to express spiritualideas, as drawn forth from material existence." It is written with great correctness of language and versification, and subjects remote from ordinary inquiry and common sym. pathy are treated at once with clearness of reasoning, and elegance of illustration. The correspondence or relation between the spiritual and physical creation, between the objects of sense and the qualities of the mind, are prominently brought forward, and therefore a careful perusal of the author's preliminary observations, in which the principles and plan of the poem are unfolded, should on no account be omitted.

The Latin Governess, for Mothers and Governesses. By J. W. Freese, B.A.— Here young ladies may learn to conjugate "amo,' "and decline" fidelitas." Here they may get by heart the short and monitory lessons, "lupus vorat agnum,"

and

puella tenet poculum;" or they may know that in certain cases of delicacy and difficulty," Epistola ab ancilla dominæ datur;" but, if they turn from the moral lesson to the grammatical construction, they will find this little manual to be very clearly and accurately drawn up, and such as will teach the elements of the language in the order and to the extent that is required.

The Churchman's Companion; a Help to Christian Knowledge.-A little work admirable in its purpose, and judicious in its execution. In it are some brief but pleasing sketches of females, eminent at once for their piety and talent, as Mrs. H. More, Mrs. Carter, &c.

A Metrical Version of the Book of Psalms. By Francis Skurray, B.D.— This volume is dedicated to Mr. Wordsworth, not only "as a master in the art of poetry, but because his muse has always been the handmaid of religion and virtue." It consists of a version of the Psalms,

followed by sacred miscellanies. We are only able to give a single specimen, Psalm cxxii. p. 253.

A SONG OF DEGREES OF DAVID.

The words were music to my heart,
When friends were heard to say,
Come let us instantly depart,

To hear, and sing, and pray.
Unto God's temple let us crowd,
With neighbours all around,
To hear men shout with voices loud,
And instruments resound.

Magnificence shall soon be spread
To our admiring eyes,

Then shall we pass the gates and tread
The city of the skies.

The tribes prolong their stay from home,
The while the feast shall last,
They pray for blessings yet to come,
Praise God for mercies past.
And now the palaces appear

Where Judah's kings abide ;
And halls of justice too are near,
Where magistrates preside.

Let not thy prayer for Salem cease,
When joy to thee would spring,
Pray for the royal city's peace,

And honour for the King.
For friends who of my love partake,
I wish thee peace and food,
And I will, for thy temple's sake,
Still seek to do thee good.

Cant, a Satire.-A severe satire. The author intends it to be on the Clergy;

for "Cant" means "Clerical Cant."
Cant in this age infects the very air,
Cant fills our morning and our evening prayer,
&c.

And, speaking of "Fancy," he says,
Nor would she fear of theme to be bereft,
Whilst Oxford, Cambridge, Exeter, is left;
Nay, were she silent, or made stricter search
For argument to prop a falling Church,
Rapacity of reverend parents born,
That child of ostentation and of scorn,
Revenge-the light of Persecution's brand,
These holy vultures shadowing the land
With meanness, whose lean figures all detest,
Have wrought men's hatred-Pusey does the
rest.

of a rather startling fact, "that there are at present more women than men devoted to literature in England;" and yet, notwithstanding the number, "that never was there greater scope for the literary talents of women than in England in the present day." Now considering that the "weaker vessel" is growing the stronger, and that Mr. Tennyson must, in his next edition, alter the expression in his verse, "Woman is the lesser man,"-seeing this forthcoming change,wethinkit advisable at least for our male readers to peruse this little work, in which one of the literary amazons of the age has given her "thoughts on the proper sphere of female writers, and on their power of usefulness." We think to chap. XI. in which the social disadvantages of literary women are pointed out, might be appended another containing the private and domestic; among which we beg to say, that we never yet saw a literary lady with clean fingers and nails, as if the very body of learning had turned to dust and ashes with them. The cœrulean colour of their stockings prevents any nice observation of similar defects in them. The author has a chapter on the literary women of ancient times, in which she has failed to notice that, in Greece, literature, and poetry, and the fine arts, and the cultivation of the mind, were exclusively the profession of ladies whose characters were rather equivocal, and who, having more time on their hands than fell to the lot of the matrons and mothers, became the companions of the poets and prime ministers of the age; while in our days, such is the change, we seldom hear that these ladies favour us with any of their productions; or, if they do, that they attract much attention beyond their own level. Sappho and Corinna are still read with delight; but what has become of the fame of the illustrious Mrs. Aphra Behn, Mrs. Pilkington, Mrs. Bellamy, and a host of others, whose fairness and whose frailty are alike proverbial. But their works are rottenness, and have properly perished. A better generation has succeeded, and we gladly hail the names of Edgeworth, and Austin, and Joanna Baillie, and Miss Carter, as persons whose masculine undertakings ill assorted with their female attire. But we must add our great surprise, that the author has passed over in silence one name, not less worthy of praise and admiration than any mentioned-we mean that of Mrs. Barbauld, whose elegant and interesting works we confidently rank among the English classics.

Architectura Canonica; or, Canons of

Church Architecture.-A very useful and interesting little work, containing ob. servations, and sketches, and illustrations of Church architecture, adapted to the rites of the English Church. So much has authority and the example of the ancient Church been lost sight of, that there is scarcely any innovation that may not now be ventured on; and, as a striking instance of this fact, it appears that the mother church of one of the largest parishes in London, viz. that of St. Marylebone, is built north and south; and, as a consequence of this irregularity, a difficulty arises as to how the dead are to be laid, or the grave-stones fixed, and it was only settled by the authority of the bishop, who directed that the interment and laying of the monumental slabs should take place crosswise to the church. As to heterodoxy in places of sepulture, the author refers to the interments in Kensall Green Cemetery passim. This little work may be referred to with great advantage, as an authority on the subject of church architecture and decoration.

Poems by Alexander J. B. Hope, M.P. -Such lines as

"Augustus Cæsar led the Italians to the fight-" and,

"Shame, follows him an Egyptian wife " won't do, nor will (p. 80)

"And he felt it, the Mede with flowing hair." But there is better stuff in other parts; and we quote the verses to the Rev. C. Whytehead, with a copy of St. Augustine's Works.

Dear friend, who at stern duty's call, exile
To fame, preferredst well content to dwell
Where round old Vectis' rock-encircled isle, 1
With endless boom, tumultuous billows swell,
As once from out luxurious Italy
Augustine, at Ambrosius' call, did flee
To distant Hippo, there with watch and ward
Steadfastly God's beleaguered Church to guard.
Receive his writings, then, that worthy art
Of converse with an apostolic heart,
As through thy life to these cold times appears
The meek deep piety of bygone years,
And in thy youthful countenance we trace
Features all bright of an old saintly face.

Agnes de Tracy; a Tale of the Times of St. Thomas of Canterbury. By the Rev. J. M. Wale.-Why the author should have named his book from a person who is an inferior personage in his history we cannot say; but the work really is a clever and elegant history, formed in the framework of a tale of fiction, of the dispute of Becket with the Crown, and of his death.

Aunt Eleanor's Lectures on Architecture. -Few subjects have of late years been more improved in the mode in which they have been treated than that of architecture, especially that of our own country. This improvement we owe both to the existence of individuals and the formation of architectural societies, to which the revival of religious feeling, and a reverence for those who lived in older and better times than ours, has given a true direction. This enlarged and improved feeling and taste is practically developing itself, both in the erection of churches of a more orthodox construction, and in the improved decoration and arrangement of the old. This little book seems to us to be very correct, and will be useful to young readers, as an introduction to a fuller knowledge of that subject; and it will be particularly serviceable to those who live in Sussex, as it contains a very particular account of the architecture of the churches in that county. In her next edition, on the subject of altar-cloths, (p. 121), the author must not omit to mention the beautiful cloth worked by the lady of Young the poet, which now adorns the table, and the still handsomer hangings which on festivals are suspended round the commandments, in the church of Welwyn. The rarity of the gift, and the celebrity of the giver, alike demand a public and peculiar acknowledgment, in a work of this kind, when the instructor in art and our teacher in poetry is a female.

He was

Episcopalia; or, Letters of Bishop Compton, with Memoir of the author. By S. N. Cornish.-Bishop Compton was a prelate of the Church, whose memory must always be held in honor, and his name mentioned with reverence. a learned and conscientious churchman, a man of enlightened mind, firm in his principles, and mild and conciliatory in the discharge of his sacred office. His attachment to the Protestant principles of the Church to which he belonged, was severely tried, and was always superior to the trial. When he was suspended from the spiritual functions of his bishopric, he retired to Fulham, and amused his leisure in the study of botany and horticulture, and was among the first persons in England who introduced exotic trees into this country, of which some fine specimens remain even now in the garden of the palace. The present little publication is very acceptable, and for which we thank the editor.

Select Tales from the German of De

La Motte Fouqué and others.—Some of these tales have not been translated before; others, like that of the "shadowless man," are more generally known. There are three by Tieck, one by Chamisso, and the remainder by Fouqué. They partake more or less of the fancy, wildness, and grotesque and strange imagery which distinguish the fiction of the German writers, mixed with those occasional touches of tender and natural simplicity, that find their way at once to the heart, often leaving the path they have trodden wet with tears.

The British Church, and other Poems. By the Rev. D. J. Waugh, A.B. 12mo. pp. x. 136.-The principal poem in this little volume, entitled "The British Church," takes a view of that subject from its origin to the present time, concluding with an acknowledgment of our missionary obligations to the heathen. The author appears fully sensible of the difficulties of didactic poetry; nor is it surprising that he should occasionally exemplify them, for, to say that he does not, would be greater praise than almost any one is entitled to who has encountered them. He has, nevertheless, many pleas ing thoughts and lines; and some passages, particularly that at page 24, on the exaltation of England, as owing to religion, might fitly be chosen by teachers for their pupils to learn by heart. The rhythm might occasionally be revised with advantage, as, for instance, at page 90, in one of the smaller poems:

Does He in sacrifice so much rejoice,

As in the soul that hearkens to his voice? Where the former line would read better as

Does He so much in sacrifice rejoice? unless our ear is unreasonably critical. The poem on the subject of "Bring back the days of youth," is one of the most pleasing. But we would hint, that, in the sixteenth stanza, sin and remain do not rhyme; and in the fourth line there is a redundant syllable, in the particle to, which the sense does not require, as it follows the conjunction and. Yet an author, we must say, in fairness, cannot be wanting in poetical mind, who has found materials for poetry in Lord Strafford; as at page 81, in the poem on Contentment: And how too generous Wentworth bled, To save his master's doomed head; alluding to that nobleman's urging Charles to pass the bill of attainder against himself. We are not aware whether the author appears before us as

such for the first time, or not; but at all events, we may say, Festina lentè, or, in plain English, persevere and revise.

The Statutes of the Fourth General Council of Lateran, recognised and established by subsequent Councils and Synods, down to the Council of Trent. By the Rev. J. Evans, M.A. 8vo. pp. vii. 90.-The third canon of this council has long been an object of controversy, though the battle has not been fought precisely upon that ground. By its decrees all persons convicted of heresy were to be delivered for capital punishment to the temporal rulers, whose backwardness in punishing them was to be chastised by the release of the vassals from homage and fealty, and by bestowing their possessions on others who would obey the injunction more readily. In order to evade the charge of persecution, drawn from this canon, it has been argued, that the acts of the council have not the character of decrees, but are merely constitutions of Pope Innocent III. and this representation has been too easily acquiesced in on the other side. Mr. Evans has therefore undertaken a new and important line of research, to show that their decretory character is recognised by a succession of Councils and Synods. The Council itself was held in 1215, and its acts are specifically referred to as "Statuta Concilii Lateranensis IV." by the Council of Arles in 1234, including the third or persecuting canon. They are quoted in even an earlier document, the constitutions of Richard Poore, bishop of Sarum, in 1223, as is evident from the phrase, in Lateran, Concilio statutum est. From that period to the Council of Trent there is a chain of similar authorities; and even if there were not, the language of that assembly would thenceforth substantiate them, per Laternuense Concilium Ecclesia statuit." (Sessio xiv. cap. 5.) To this it may be added, that they are cited by the Synod of Lambeth, held in 1556, at which Cardinal Pole presided, as the preface distinctly maintains "the decrees of the General Council celebrated under Innocent III." It has been further argued, that the third canon is wanting in the Mazarine MS.; but the fact is, that the leaf which contained a portion of it is wanting, so that it is imperfect, the deficiency having been occasioned by mutilation.

Some writers have regarded the canon as only directed against the Albigeois; but, though that persecuted community may have been intended, the language is too general to be restricted to them: "Excommuniamus et anathematizamus omnem hæresiem." The abstract

we have thus given will serve to convince our readers of the value of the book, as illustrating and confirming a most important point in ecclesiastical history.

A History of the Church, in five Books, from 322 to 427. By Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus. A new translation. 8vo. pp. xxiv. 360.-This volume belongs to the series of Greek Ecclesiastical historians of the first six centuries, which has been introduced to our readers in a notice of the History of Eusebius.* A Life of Theodoret is prefixed, with an account of his writings, including a critical notice of this very work, to which we refer our readers, for a view of the particular character of this history. It contains many important events omitted by other writers, and also several epistolary documents. The celebrated exclamation of the emperor Julian, "Galilean, thou hast conquered!" rests on the early authority of this history (b. iii. c. 26). Its chief defect is the want of chronology, and occasional oversights, which require attention on the part of the student, though they do not affect the value of the history as a whole. For an extensive notice of the life and writings of Theodoret, the reader may consult the Succession of Ecclesiastical Literature, by the late Dr. Adam Clarke, and his son the Rev. J. B. B. Clarke, vol. ii. p. 154-185, where his history is praised as abounding in original documents.

The Grumbler, a novel. By Miss Ellen Pickering, author of " The Fright," "The Expectant," &c. 3 vols.-Whilst we are writing this notice, we perceive the decease of the talented authoress announced in the papers. The death of this lady will be felt as a loss by all lovers of works of fiction. Miss Pickering has for some years held a high place amongst writers in this class of literature. She was particularly successful in sustaining the interest of her various tales up to the very termination of the story, and also in her delineations of character, some of which are drawn with no slight degree of force and spirit, and are, moreover, in very good keeping. The present work is one of the best of her productions, and possesses both the characteristics to which we have alluded in a marked degree. The "Grumbler" is true to himself and his title throughout. Blanche St. Aubyn, the heroine, as a beautiful union of the playfulness of childhood and the strong sense

*Gent. Mag. February, 1843, p. 172. + Now Incumbent of Bagborough, Somerset.