ters and dissertations on the human spirit and soul, their nature and their condition, both here and hereafter, with remarks on future rewards and punishments," with eagerness, and reflect on them with candour. We have here fourteen letters, of which a concise abstract is given in the contents. This is followed by a disquisition on the human soul and its destiny in a future world, in two parts; to which there is added, as an appendix, a republication of a very interesting pamphlet, entitled "A Post-mortem Examination; or, What is the Condition of the Disembodied Human Spirit ?" The author is a member of the English Royal College of Surgeons, and was formerly House Surgeon in St. Thomas's Hospital in the Borough of Southwark, London. In the Reviewer department it is usual to avoid strong recommendations of books bearing on disputable topics, because it may be supposed that these notices indicate the feelings, inclinations, or opinions of the conductors. As, however, the topic has been discussed in these pages recently, we may here safely enough, though occupying only the subordinate place of a contributor, note that the writer is clearly on the negative side of the question, as he affirms that "the doctrine of the soul's immortality is in no way countenanced by Holy Writ, which teaches us that a resurrection is to be looked for as a necessity of our fallen nature." Yet the author does not deny a future life, but goes "to the full length of the orthodox in regard to the eternity of future rewards and punishments." It will be seen that he has a word to say which concerns thinkers on both sides. The idea is striking, and the mode in which it is treated is able and suggestive. We commend it to thinkers. How to Retain our Elder Scholars, and Regain some who have Left us. By J. A. COOPER, F.R.S.L. London: Hodder and Stoughton. THIS is a wise and worthy pamphlet. It is a revised reprint of "a paper read at the autumnal meeting of the Congregational Union, held at Wolverhampton, October, 1869." Its author is an earnest labourer in the cause of human elevation, and his name is a heartword among those who are employed in schemes of Christian usefulness; and there is probably no Sabbath school teacher in the three kingdoms who does not feel that he is an elder brother, whom to reverence and imitate is advisable. Sound discretion, careful thought, apt phrase, eminent suggestiveness, characterize all that he writes; while there is a suffusion of the whole with the very effluence of Christian grace, that charms and captivates those even who do not themselves feel the call of duty pressingly upon their souls. Those of our intelligent and thoughtful readers who desire to undertake a needful labour in an open field, would do well to read the pamphlet now spoken of. If the advices of the author be followed, there can be little doubt that many elder scholars would be retained in our Sunday schools, and that many would be regained, both to school and church. The pamphlet met with a warm welcome when read, and has been earnestly longed for in type by many thoughtful, earnest Christian men. The Inquirer. QUESTIONS REQUIRING ANSWERS. 858. Who was the author of the following line, and under what circumstances was it produced ?"The modest water saw its Lord and blushed."-D. H. F. 859. Any information which you could communicate to your readers at this time about Dr. Temple, the new Bishop of Exeter, would, I have no doubt, be highly acceptable. May I ask you to tell us all you know ?-JOHN C. 860. Notable sayings form a highly valuable portion of history. I should like to know who was the author of one which ought, in my opinion, to be written in letters of gold in the apartments in Downing Street sacred to the Chancellor of the Exchequer-"Give me a good policy, and I will give you good finances."-TH. N. 861. In the volume of the British Controversialist for 1855 appears a graphically wrought and most interesting instalment of an essay on "Byron," signed E. W. S. I have carefully looked through every successive volume for the concluding portion of this essay, but in vain. If it would not be asking too much, will our kind editor, or the esteemed writer, afford a word or two of brief explanation ?-O. D. 862. The following question, which appeared in the number for January, has not yet been answered:-Did Addison die drunk? I for one (and I have no doubt "Querist") would like some information respecting the last moments of Addison, as I have been greatly stunned by such a question as "Did Addison die drunk?" be cause that same beautiful writer, in his last moments, said, "See how a Christian can die."-D. H. F. 863. Hugh Miller, in one of his works, speaks in praise of Locke's "Essay on the Human Understanding,' "notwithstanding its fundamental error.' What is the fundamental error referred to? -J. B. T. 864. I have been told that one of Mr. Dickens' novels contains characters sketched from two celebrated poets. Which is it, and who are they?-A NOVICE. 865. It has been stated in a recent review that one Blake "wrote songs equal to Shakspere's." This suggests two questions: (1) What songs did Shakspere write? and (2) Who is Blake ?-J. C. A. 866. I was extremely pleased to see Dr. Ingleby's able remarks on the "Design Argument," but should like to know a little more concerning his views on the larger subject of the Possibility of any Natural Theology whatsoever. It is generally admitted, I think, that there can be but two ways of demonstrating the existence of a God-the à priori argument and the à posteriori method. Now I may be wrong, but I gather from Dr. Ingleby's observations on this topic that he holds with neither way. If this be the case, I should be much obliged if he will kindly say how he avoids the seemingly logical conclusion of Atheism.-T. S. B. 867. Is the ordinary use of "fitting" for fit, or of "fittingly" for fitly, in English composition baseable on any valid reason or plea save that of euphony?-O. D 868. To my simple taste it seems less correct to say "equally as," &c., than "equally with," &c. Am I right ? A friendly answer to each query will be esteemed a favour byO. D. 869. Whether is Mill or Hamil. ton at the head of modern philosophy?-WALTER SHERRINGTON. 870. Has Ireland any philosophy or philosophers of its own?-WALTER SHERRINGTON. 871. Had the ancient Egyptians any poetry ?-WALTER SHERRING TON. 872. What one writer could be safely adopted as a model for the formation of style ?-WALTER SHER RINGTON. 873. Is it true that Wm. Lisle Bowles was the father of modern poetry, and why ?-WALTER SHER RINGTON. 874. What is the best modern textbook of logic ?-WALTER SHERRINGTON. ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS. 831. Cheap legal handy books (at 1s. per volume) are published by Mr. Effingham Wilson, Royal Exchange. One of the series is on the subject mentioned by J. J. M. Instructions to executors are likewise clearly and well given in one of Messrs. Routledge's "Useful Library" series, price 1s. The title of the book is "The Law of Wills, Executors, &c., by W. A. Holdsworth, Esq." 838. Many excellent editions are extant, Cary's, Doran's, Gilfillan's, Robert Bell's, &c.; prices range from 2s. 6d. to 7s. 6d.-B. G. 841. H. B. will find a brief history of GEOLOGY in Chambers's Encyclopædia under the word.R. W. 843. In "Memoirs of Professor John Wilson ('Christopher North'), poet, critic, novelist, journalist, metaphysician, moralist, humorist, &c.," by his daughter Mrs. Gordon, "Youth" will find pretty full information. "Christopher North" was a nom de plume of John Wilson (Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh), which was used in various papers contributed to Blackwood's Magazine. The best known of them was a series entitled "Noctes Ambrosianæ."-D. 844. As yet the edition issued under the care of Robert Carruthers of Inverness is by far the best. Elwin has promised an edition for nearly a dozen years.-B. B. 850. The phrase 66 Lake School of Poetry appears to claim far more significance than is really attached to it. Professor Wilson ("Christopher North") called Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge, the "Lake poets," and their poetry the "Lake school;" but whether he did so because the three poets chanced to live together for a time at the Lakes-which indeed inspired their earliest lines,—or because he considered their works of a watery" nature, is not a matter of much moment. One scarcely ever hears anything now of the Lake school, and there never seems to have been any more in the name than there was in the title of that other poetic coterie which Wilson dubbed the "cockney school," and which numbered Leigh Hunt, Keats, and others among its students.-WALTER SHERRINGTON. The Lake school of poetry is a misnomer as applied to the works of the three poets, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey, to which it was first applied: so called because Wordsworth and Southey lived at the Lakes, and Coleridge, as a youth, wrote in conjunction with them, and later, used to stay there with them. The term origi nated with, I think, the Edinburgh Review in a severe notice of Wordsworth's "Lyrical Ballads," &c. Coleridge repudiated the title in the third and fourth chapters of his 'Biographia Literaria," where he speaks of the "fiction of a new school of poetry." The school is supposed to bear the marks of simplicity and sentimentality, a fidelity to natural objects, and a childish fondness for rustic scenes and unsophisticated feelings.-O. 853. Elizabeth Smith was born at Burnhall, near Durham, 1776, and died of consumption in 1806. She was the author of a new translation of the "Book of Job," and of a Life of Klopstock, the German Milton. She displayed remarkable talents in ancient and modern languages, mathematics, and polite letters. She drew skilfully, and was one of the learned ladies of last century.— R. M. A. 854. We believe 1768 to have been the year in which Napoleon was born. Alison, in his History of Europe (9 Ed. III., 246), says that he was born on the 5th of February in that year. Napoleon subsequently assumed August, 1769, as the date of his birth, in order to constitute himself a French citizen, because in the interval between these two dates Corsica had been incorporated with the French monarchy. A strong proof that he was born on 5th February, 1768, is to be found in the record of his marriage with Josephine, which still exists in Paris, and gives that as the date of his birth. The marriage register bears the signature of Napoleon; and, as Alison justly remarks, "this official act, signed by Napoleon himself on an occasion when no one but a very young man represents himself as 'older' than he really is, and when his interest lay the other way, as Corsica was not incorporated with France till June, 1769, decides the matter."-GEOR GIUS. Having the "Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte," by M. De Bourrienne, Napoleon's private secretary, I have taken the following extract relating to Napoleon's birth : -"Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio, in Corsica, on the 15th of August, 1769. The name was originally written Buonaparte; but during the first campaign in Italy he dropped the u merely to render the spelling conformable with the pronunciation, and to abridge his signature. It has been said that he suppressed a year in his age, and that he was born in 1768; but this is untrue. He always told me [De Bourrienne] that the 15th of August, 1769, was his birthday; and as I was born on the 9th of July in that year, our proximity of age seemed to strengthen our union and friendship when at the military school of Brienne." GEORGIUS D. E. "Samuel" should be cautious in his statements. Is it a "fiction " that Napoleon I. was born in 1769? Are a respectable" newspaper and Alison (a well-known blunderer) to be pitted against Wm. Hazlitt (a writer praised for his great care and accuracy) and Vieusseux (a French authority of value) ? These latter writers distinctly assert that Napoleon I. was born on August 15th, 1769, after Corsica had become a French dependency, and with the view of meeting discussion, give their proofs, which appear to be quite satisfactory.-WALTER SHERRINGTON. 855. The Rev. Edward Henry Bickersteth, the eminent sacred poet, is the only son of the Rev. Edward Bickersteth, Rector of Wotton, voluminous writer on religious subjects. The poet is the nephew of the Bishop of Ripon. He graduated at Cambridge in 1847, taking double honours (Senior Optime and thirdclass Classics). He gained the Chancellor's medal for an English poem in 1844, 1845, and 1846, and the Seatonian prize for a sacred English poem in 1854. This was the only occasion, from 1852 to 1863 inclusive, that the Rev. J. M. Neale was unsuccessful in competing for the Seatonian prize. The Rev. E. H. Bickersteth is also favourably known as the author of several practical religious works.-O. The Rev. E. R. Bickersteth is, I believe, either brother or first cousin to the Bishop of Ripon. When an undergraduate (Trinity College, Cambridge), he obtained the Chancellor's Medal for English poetry during three successive years, 1844-1846. In 1854 he obtained the Seatonian Prize, but has failed to take it since then. He has published several volumes of poems; the best known being that entitled "Yesterday, To-day, and for Ever," which has lately passed through a second edition. A poem by him on "John the Baptist" appeared in the last volume of the Sunday Magazine, apparently written for last year's Seatonian Prize.-CAMUS. Perhaps the following sketch from "Men of the Time" may be interesting to "Samuel." "Bickersteth, the Ven. Rev. Edward H., D.D., is the second son of the late Rev. John Bickersteth, M.A., and brother of the Bishop of Ripon; was born in 1814, at Acton, Suffolk. He entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1832; and graduated B. A. in honours at Sidney Sussex College, having previously obtained the Taylor's Mathematical Exhibition. He afterwards entered as a student in theology at Durham University, where he gained the first prize for a theological essay n 1837. He was ordained deacon at the end of that year, and priest in January, 1839. He served as curate to the late Archdeacon Vickers, at Chetton, Shropshire, in 1838-9, when he was appointed to the curacy with sole charge of the Abbey, Shrewsbury. Having occupied this position for nine years, he was presented by the Earl Howe, in 1848, to the incumbency of Penn Street, Buckinghamshire. He was appointed Rural Dean of Amersham by the Bishop of Oxford the same year; Vicar of Aylesbury and Archdeacon of Buckingham in 1853; select preacher before the University of Cambridge, 1861; Deputy-Prolocutor of the Convocation of Canterbury upon the resignation of the Dean of Bristol, and admitted to the degree of D.D., propter merita, by a grace of the Senate of Cambridge in 1864. He has published' Questions illustrating the Thirty-nine Articles,' 'Catechetical Exercises for the Apostles' Creed,' 'Prayers for the Present Times;' charges delivered at his visitation in 1855, 1856, 1858, 1859, 1861, 1862 ; 'God's Judgments in India, a Warning to England'-a sermon on the Fast Day, Oct. 7th, 1857; 'Church Music,' a sermon ; Convictions of Balaam,' an Oxford Lenten sermon; a · Catechism on Confirmation;' 'An Address from the Pastor to his Flock on Confirmation;' &c., &c."-WALTER SHERRINGTON. The 866. The answer to this query will be found at p. 472 of British Controversialist, vol. xxxi.-B. P. 870. Has not S. N., in British Controversialist, vol. xxx., pp. 393-397, replied to a query which involves that now put by "Walter Sherrington"? For therein we find an abstract of the history of philosophy in Ireland.-R. M. A. |