“The Carters have done a good service to the cause of juvenile literature in publishing the ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ in a style more attractive for boys and girls than any other edition before the public.”—Christian Observer.
Footnotes
[1]. The Athenæum of September 25, 1875. In this article we find a curious anecdote which we admit, not without some reserve. It serves as a support to the considerations which follow. The writer of the article relates that he once heard a discussion between M. Merle and Professor Ranke respecting certain features in the lives of his favorite heroes. The former defended them at all points; while the German historian, with his sceptical temperament, seemed to take a malicious pleasure in bringing forward their weaknesses. At the close of the discussion M. Merle exclaimed with some impatience—‘But I know them better than any one, those men of the sixteenth century. I have lived with them. I am a man of their time.’ ‘That explains every thing,’ replied Professor Ranke, ‘I could not believe when reading your books that you were a man of the nineteenth century.’ As our own age differs so greatly in every respect from the age of the Reformation, it must be counted a very fortunate circumstance that a man of the sixteenth century has arisen to depict for us that great epoch.
[2]. Journal de Génève, 30 April-1 May.
[3]. Vol vi. p. 412.
[4]. ‘Purgationem objecimus.’—Calv. Opp. tom. x. p. 107.
[5]. ‘Nos iniquissime in suspicionem adductos.’—Ibid.
[6]. ‘Cujus libelli latinitate donandi occasionem præbuit Petrus Caroli, Sorbonæ Parisiensis doctor atque prior.... Is igitur iniquis contra Farellum Viretum et Calvinum sparsis rumoribus, tandem eo prorupit ut palam illos viros, collegas et doctrina et moribus præstantissimos hæreseos accusaret, arianismi scilicet et sabellianismi, aliarumque talium pravitatum. Nulla alia tunc publica exstabant fidei ecclesiæ Genevensis monumenta præter illam (Farelli) quam diximus confessionem et Calvini catechismum quæ tamen utpote Gallici conscripta, ceteris Helveticis ecclesiis fere incognita erant. Calvinus itaque suum catechismum et Farelli confessionem latine loquentes fecit ut omnibus istis fratribus fidei doctrinam a se huc usque Genevæ traditam et falso hæreseos accusatam hac versione declararet.’
[7]. Le Christianisme au dix-neuvième Siècle, of February 18, 1876.
[8]. La Littérature française, depuis la formation de la langue jusqu’ à nos jours, by Lieutenant-Colonel Staaf. The first edition bears the date of 1870. The fifth (1873) is now before us.