of original researches, prosecuted with an admirable industry among the recondite monuments of the past. They throw much light on interesting portions of medieval history. Mr. Lea is a thorough student, and has had at his command the literature requisite for his elaborate investigations.

TRENCH'S LECTURES ON MEDIEVAL CHURCH HISTORY.*-This volume, which in the reprint of the Messrs. Scribner is beautiful in its mechanical execution, comprises twenty-nine lectures on as many topics connected with the character, institutions, and fortunes of the Church in the middle ages. Many readers, who are familiar with his previous works on "the Miracles" and "the Parables," not to speak of other writings less widely known, will greet the reappearance of the venerable scholar who, of late years, has written little for the press. These lectures cannot be considered a contribution to knowledge upon the subjects of which they treat. They contain very little that is new to historical scholars. Nevertheless, their clear style, general accuracy, and judicious selection and arrangement of subjects, conspire to make them pleasant and profitable reading even for cultivated students. Occasionally, we have observed that a point is discussed with less fullness, or an opinion pronounced with too confident an emphasis. An example is in the passage devoted to the consideration of the safe-conduct given by Sigismund to John Huss. The real import of that document is not quite so clear as Archbishop Trench supposes. A more complete presentation of the evidence might have led him to qualify some of the statements under this head.

NEW EDITION of the Life oF SAMUEL JOHNSON.†-The world of letters will never tire of Boswell's Johnson. It is a notable example of most successful biography which while investing the subject with deep and lasting interest has somehow reflected little honor on the author. To magnify Johnson it could not be thought necessary to belittle Boswell, yet the two effects were here singularly combined. Such has been the charm of the work, with whatever sacrifice of respect for the writer, that the older reader may scarcely pardon the edition before us for its distinguishing feature,

*Lectures on Medieval Church History. Being the substance of lectures delivered at Queen's College, London. By RICHARD CHEVENIX TRENCH, D.D., Archbishop of Dublin. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1878.

The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Including the Tour to the Hebrides. By JAMES BOSWELL. The Original Text relieved from passages of obsolete interest. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 689 pp. 1878.

which is the omission of "passages of obsolete interest," naturally fearing that the original, which is claimed to be thus "relieved," may be rather impaired, especially as it has been a merit of the ample pages to be opened any where again and again with renewed interest; nor can the new editor's judgment be taken for granted, since his name is not mentioned, and no preface or note beyond the title page explains his method. We have not the time for comparing this volume with the original, but no doubt for younger readers there may be omissions which will be no appreciable loss and what is retained may thus get the more attention amidst the multifarious mass of modern publications. A foreign reviewer

has recently remarked how far the common estimate of Johnson has been drawn from Boswell's delineation, holding the man as in the light of a personal acquaintance, and he has attempted to reconstruct a judgment of him, intellectually and morally, as an author, from his writings alone. The difficulty of the discrimination shows the impression left by the biography. A comparison between Dr. Johnson's written style, as found in his essays, and his conversation as reported by Boswell, showing the superiority of the latter in simplicitly and adaptedness to popular effect, might furnish a wholesome lesson to debaters and writers for the newspaper-press.

NEW EDITION OF JOHNSON'S LIVES OF THE POETS.*— -Any intelligent reader looking into the title page of this volume will own that he can scarcely find elsewhere within the same compass so much valuable and agreeable matter. Of all that Dr. Johnson wrote, the Lives of the Poets best keeps its place, and if he could not be always the despot he once was in the literary world, he is yet honored as the chief critic of his time for his acuteness, judgment and learning. Here are six of the choicest of those "Lives," selected for their intrinsic interest and their representative character (330 pages), with a felicitous preface by Matthew Arnold, showing the relation of these authors to the history of English literature, especially in the formation of the modern prose style, and Macaulay's Life of Johnson, prepared for the Encyclopædia Britannica, the latter filling thirty-two pages. Then by a happy thought we have in an appendix Macaulay's essay on Croker's edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson, from the Edinburgh Review,

* Johnson's Chief Lives of the Poets, being those of Milton, Dryden, Swift, Addison, Pope, Gray, and Macauley's Life of Johnson; with a Preface by Matthew Arnold, to which are appended Macauley's and Carlyle's Essays on Boswell's Life of Johnson. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1878. 12mo, 439 pp.

and Carlyle's from Frazer's Magazine, of about the same date, on the same subject. These two famous essays are the more properly brought together in this connection not only for their well known ability, but their singular contrast in style and treatment. The reason given in the "publisher's note" for introducing them here may hold good no less for the matter of this whole volume," the lately expressed opinion, that if a young person were to ask from what portions of English literature he could gain most benefit in a single sitting, nothing could be more safely recommended" than these two essays. The curious reader may entertain himself also with the gilt picture of Johnson's bust on the cover and the symbolic owl on the title page.

Our English BIBLE.*-Dr. Stoughton has made an attractive and popular book, the result of many years of investigation and study. Less bulky than Eadie's octavo volumes, and less critical than Westcott's, with numerous wood-cuts and fac similes, it bids fair to be a favorite. Investigations into the history of the authorized version have received a new stimulus from the measures adopted for its revision, and it is to be expected that many minds, while waiting to know what changes will be proposed by the Revision Committees now at work on both sides of the Atlantic, will be interested in the detail of the steps by which the present version was perfected. The author's study of the subject began nearly forty years ago, and much of this work has already appeared anonymously in print; but he has aimed to correct and revise, and adjust his statements to the light afforded by the most recent investigations. We notice frequent references to Mr. Stevens' Catalogue of the Bibles in the Caxton Exhibition, and due credit is given him for his indefatigable researches, especially in respect to Coverdale's Bible. Dr. Stoughton accepts Mr. Stevens' conclusion that the first edition of this book was printed at Antwerp with the aid of Van Meteren, but he sees no evidence that the latter is entitled to be called the translator.

We regret to say that, with all its attractiveness, Dr. Stoughton's book bears many marks of inaccuracy and carelessness; so many as to impair its value as an authority. Quoting from Dean Trench on pages 282, 283, he not only omits two words affecting the

*Our English Bible: its translations and its translators. By JOHN STOUGHTON, D.D., author of "Homes and Haunts of Martin Luther," "Lights of the World," "The progress of divine revelation." etc. London: The Religious Tract Society. New York: Scribner & Welford. Price $2.00. 310 pages.

sense, but also substitutes some for since, and verify for imply. Attempting to give, with quotation marks, the title page of the Soldiers' Pocket Bible, he changes the order of words, and prints the for he and fully for fitly. Of this Bible he says (page 266), "no original copy is known to exist except that which may be found in the British Museum;" a statement which at least does not show large familiarity with the subject, since the copy in Mr. Livermore's library at Cambridge has been well known for years through the fac simile which he caused to be published in 1861. It must be the author's, and not the printer's mistake which gives us this perplexing sentence in a note on page 270. "Mr. Stevens quotes from Cotton Mather that a blundering typographer made him exclaim, in a Bible printed before 1702, Printers have persecuted me without a cause.' What Mr. Stevens did say was this: "we have always had great sympathy for David in his agony over proof sheets ever since we learned from Cotton Mather that a blundering typographer made him exclaim in a Bible printed before 1702, Printers have persecuted me without a cause."" (Psalm exix. 161.)

Dr. Stoughton on page 154 describing the title page of the Great Bible-a reduced fac-simile of which is inserted on the opposite page says, "on one side, below the title, appears the Primate Cranmer, and on the other, the Lord Secretary Cromwell, employed in distributing the Scriptures;" the fact being that while many figures are below, these dignitaries are on the right and left of the title.

It is by no means necessary to give a list of the misprints of names and inaccuracies of quotation which we have marked. They are not generally such as would be noticed by the casual reader and do not detract from the interest of the story; but if the book were to be republished in this country, it should certainly be revised.

THE BLESSED BEES.*-John Allen is a remarkable man! His

book is one chapter of an autobiography, covering a single year which was spent in the backwoods of Michigan. The death of his father terminated his studies at the Agricultural College at Lansing, and threw upon him, while yet a youth, the responsibility of caring for the household, which comprised his mother with a younger brother and sister. The patrimony consisted of

*The Blessed Bees. By JOHN ALLEN. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 182 5th Avenue. 169 pages.

a farm of sixty acres, on which were log buildings. Fifteen acres were well stocked with apple trees, which yielded 5,249 bushels of apples; and under the apple trees were seventeen hives of bees, from which 708 pounds of honey were taken. He concluded to devote his energies to bee-keeping, and to do it on scientific principles. He bought the best books and studied them-Cook, Quinby, Langstroth. He figured on possibilities. He dreamed. He looked ahead five years, and saw in the distance 5,120 hives and an income of $12,800. He rubbed his glasses and looked again. This time he counted 2,917 hives and an income of $5,835. His desires were moderate, and he went on. He bought lumber, and manufactured frames and hives. Nineteen swarms were bought in addition, besides a colony of Italian bees. All the bees were transferred to improved hives. All the queens were replaced by Italians. In the honey season the closest attention was given to details. The bees were stimulated and helped to do their utmost. As fast as their combs were filled the fresh honey was extracted from the cells, and the frames were replaced in the hives. When there was an intermission in the harvest the honey was fed back to them, to be stored in boxes for market. For details see Mr. Allen's book. At the end of one year, after paying all expenses, he had received a net cash income of $2,966.52, besides a gain in the value of his stock of $780. Nothing seems to have gone wrong. All his plans were carefully formed, not at hap-hazard, but studiously, and as carefully and successfully executed. That year he struck twelve, and he intimates that his experience in later years has been no less satisfactory.

His story is rose-colored; but it is undoubtedly true that the art of bee-keeping has become a new thing since the introduction of Mr. Langstroth's improved hives some thirty years ago; and the intelligent and industrious apiarian may now do what was formerly never conceived of. The Langstroth frames give access to every part of the hive at any time and as often as can be desired. The importation of Italian bees, and the new methods of rearing queens; the invention of artificial comb-foundation, and the invention of a machine by which the combs may be emptied of honey without waste or injury, combine to elevate bee-keeping to a high rank among the industrial pursuits of our people. The wise and skillful man is now the lucky man, and he who would make the most of his hives,-whether few or many,-must read, and study, and think, and watch, as much as in any other pursuit. Doing so he may expect a large reward.