NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.
Every attempt, undertaken in a reverential spirit, to facilitate the labours of the inquirer after Scripture truth, deserves especial favour at the hands of those who may have the opportunity of directing public attention to such endeavours. The Emphatic New Testament, according to the Authorized Version, compared with the various Readings of the Vatican Manuscripts. The Four Gospels. Edited, with an Introductory Essay on Greek Emphasis, by John Taylor; which is an attempt to represent to the English reader certain peculiarities in the Greek text, is a work of this class, and therefore, without entering into any minute detail of the manner in which Mr. Taylor carries out his endeavour, we will let him speak for himself on the subject of its results. "If any one were known," says Mr. Taylor "to be in possession of a copy of the Greek Testament so marked by its inspired writers as they would wish to have it read; and if the system of notation, when applied to the English translation, were found to be
equally efficacious in conferring distinction on the corresponding words in that language, should we not deem it a great treasure, and be eager to obtain a marked copy, esteeming it next to hearing the words in the tone adopted by Our Lord and His Apostles? Yet something of this kind is offered to our notice in the present work; without altering the expression, it often makes the meaning clearer; it adds certainty to many readings, which before could only be founded on conjecture; and it may altogether be considered as a kind of running commentary of no less authority than the original text."
We have received the first Part of Mr. Akerman's Remains of Pagan Saxondom, which contains engravings of some beautiful Personal Ornaments from a Barrow near Devizes; of a Gold Buckle found at Ickworth, Suffolk; and of the curious Glass Vase found at Reculver, now preserved in the Canterbury Museum. The price of the Part, half-a-crown to subscribers, is apparently a high one; but it must be remembered that all the objects are represented of their natural size, so that the plates become in some measure a substitute for the antiquities themselves.
The Society of Antiquaries having, on the ballot taken on Thursday week, adopted the proposal to return to the old rate of subscription, we can only hope that all parties—those who so strenuously and honestly advocated the measure, and those who as strenuously and as honestly opposed it—will now meet on the common principle by which both were actuated, a desire to promote the well-being of the Society, and co-operate in bringing forward those judicious reforms, without which the present step would only be delusion.
We are very glad to find, from the recently published Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire and report concerning the ancient laws and institutes of Ireland, that Lord Eglintoun, the present Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, has recommended to the Treasury the immediate publication of the Brehon Laws. In a very interesting letter from Dr. Jacob Grimm, which is appended to the Commissioners' Report, he well describes the benefits which will result from this measure of justice to the literature of Ireland. "To the historians and philologists of Europe," observes Dr. Grimm, "a valuable and important monument of Irish antiquity remains as yet shut up. It is only suitable to the dignity of the Irish and British nation to effect the publication of the Brehon Laws, as has been already accomplished in the case of the laws of Wales."
After this mention of Irish antiquities, we may remind such of our readers as may be desirous of promoting the very praiseworthy objects of The Kilkenny Archæological Society, that they may still be supplied with complete copies of its Transactions upon payment of the four years' subscription; and we scarcely know how they could better employ twenty shillings.
Books Received.—Sketches in Canada, and Rambles among the Red Men, by Mrs. Jameson, which forms two Parts of Longman's Traveller's Library, is a reprint, with the omission of all that was of a merely transient or merely personal nature, or that has become obsolete in politics or criticism, of this accomplished writer's Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada. This graphic work will supply pleasant reading for a railway journey, and not be hastily thrown aside when the journey and its perusal are completed.—The Valiant Little Tailor, and other Stories; forming the second Part of the very satisfactory translation of Grimm's Household Stories, which Addey and Co. are publishing, with admirable illustrations by Wehnert, for the especial delight and gratification of all "Good Little Masters and Mistresses."