Wordsworth as finding in Shakespeare "five hundred and fifty biblical allusions, and not one of his thirty-seven plays is without scriptural reference." Like the painters and musical composers of immortal fame, the great poets as Milton, Dante, Tasso, Klopstock, find their themes in Scripture, while a large part of the poetry of second yet important rank, finds its inspiration in biblical truths. Tennyson, Longfellow, Bryant and Whittier can be understood in their best moods only by the student of the Bible.

In truth, so broad and fundamental is the relation of the Bible to human life and literature, so potent is it over the minds of men that the study of it is needed to give basis and unity to all our study. That which is so widely educational upon the popular mind must be understood in its various bearings by the educated man, and that which is so helpful to the general mind will be found more so to the mind under special training.

The effects to be expected from such study of the Scriptures in college may be inferred in some measure from single familiar instances. The wonderful speeches which Louis Kossuth delivered through this country in 1849, in behalf of Hungary, were remarkable in nothing more than in their English. The secret of the fact was that when sent to an Austrian prison, he asked for and obtained for his companionship an English Bible and a copy of Shakespeare. The most majestic prose to be found among the productions of American statesmen is in the speeches of Daniel Webster. It is full of biblical allusion and pervaded by a biblical tone. In early boyhood he committed large portions of the Bible to heart. He acquired considerable local fame for reciting them. While he was a mere lad, farmers would stop their teams on the road to listen to him by the half hour. In later life, he illustrated the justness of another lawyer's view, who accounted for a Bible being found among his law books, saying, "I read Paul's epistle to the Romans that I may know how to convince the understanding of men, and the Psalms of David that I may be able to move their hearts." This article has not to do with the religious use of the Bible, but one incidental result of this study will be to allay youthful skepticism. To a young man who has enjoyed ten years of intellectual training and growth, notions of his childhood seem of little worth. If he have no other than a boy's conception of the Bible, the book has slight hold upon his respect. Unless he be held by a vital religious life, he easily infers that such a book as he thinks the Bible to be, is unworthy of the confidence of a

rational mind. Ignorance of the Bible is one occasion of doubt. Large intelligent study of it is an effective remedy for doubt. Many things, by themselves perplexing, are made clear and forceful when seen in their historic connection. One who sees the book in its parts and in its unity, who gets a proper idea of the growth and relations of it, is compelled to accord to it profound respect and confidence.

But for this end, the study of the Bible must be thorough, scholarly and exhaustive. The opinion of President Jordan, of Indiana State University, has a good basis in fact: "I do not think that the results have been valuable from such work as conducted in most of the Western colleges which have tried it; but the causes of failure are obvious." Ordinary methods of teaching the Bible must be superseded by such as shall make all ordinary knowledge of it seem elementary, and shall impose hard work upon the student. Familiar as he may be with the surface, he should be made to find every day, as much that is novel as well as important, in the Bible lesson, as in his Plato. Such work will both command his respect and enlist his interest.

The value of the views presented in this article are likely to be tested by experience. Indeed, in some measure they have been not only tested but confirmed. From the foundation of Wellesley college, there have been required two lessons a week in the Bible throughout the entire course. The conception of the work has not been that of the ordinary Bible class, but the scholarly treatment of the book as literature and history. And it is safe to say that the graduates of no institution in the land are so well versed in the Bible as the graduates of Wellesley. The work has been done with increasing thoroughness and with growing satisfaction with the results. Yale and Amherst have this year introduced the Bible as an elective. The Inductive Bible Studies published in the Old Testament Student, are made the basis of instruction, and students are finding the work exacting and richly remunerative.

The public mind is doubtless favorable to the movement to put the Bible into all colleges. The approving public will do well to remember that to establish a new course of instruction requires money and men.

S. H. LEE.

CURRENT LITERATURE.

A DAY IN CAPERNAUM.*—In this little book of one hundred and sixty-six pages, Dr. Franz Delitzsch, one of the most eminent Old Testament scholars of Germany, has sought to sketch, in a realistic manner, a day of our Lord's ministry in Capernaum. He takes as his groundwork several events, which, without doing violence to the narratives given in the Synoptic Gospels, may be represented as having occurred in so short a period of time. To reproduce these events with something of the vividness of life, he uses the methods known to the historical novelist. He endeavors to make us familiar with the Sea of Galilee, with the hills along its shores, and with Capernaum, as they appeared to the group of disciples who dwelt with Jesus in the house of Simon's wife's mother. In the streets of the city mingle Jews and Galileans. We may listen to their remarks about the wonder-working prophet who is a sojourner amongst them, or we may observe their manner of dress and their quaint customs. Nor is this all. The writer assumes the difficult task of rehearsing to us the conversations of those who live in Simon's house, and of describing the feelings which the various events of the day awaken in their minds. It is therefore easy to see that the different parts of the book may be of unequal value. Those portions which represent the results of Prof. Delitzsch's studies into the history and archæology of the New Testament times undoubtedly render much clearer the surroundings of Christ's Galilean ministry. But when we leave the domain of fact and enter that of fiction, the case is different. One might venture to assert, without running the risk of being esteemed narrow-minded, that the life of Jesus is not within the province of the novelist. No imaginary words

*A Day in Capernaum. By Dr. FRANZ DELITZSCH, Professor in the University of Leipzig. Translated from the third German edition by Rev. G. H. Schodde, Ph.D., Professor iu Capital University, Columbus, Ohio. New York: Funk & Wagualls, 1887.

or fancied experiences of his can furnish valuable criteria for solving the problem of his being; nor can they form the groundwork upon which faith can be built. Even when they are, as in this book, the creation of a devout and gifted mind, they seem weak and artificial, if compared with the narratives contained in the Gospels.

The comment which Jesus is said to make upon Andrew's allusion to a sunset viewed from the hill on which Nazareth was built is in point here. It is as follows: "You are right, Andrew, . . . I, too, can never forget that hill; it has become for me what Sinai was for Moses." This remark betrays the man of introspection, who is watching the changing moods of his own feelings, and who is a sentimentalist in religion. (A sentimental Lord would be a poor Saviour for this self-conscious generation.) Even the interview between Jesus and his mother cannot be regarded as entirely free from this same weakness. The artificiality of some of the remarks ascribed to Jesus appears in the question he addresses to Mary: "Does the city upon the hill continue to be white without and dark within ?" Notwithstanding these defects, however, the book will leave a distinct and helpful impression upon the mind of the careful reader, and will throw light upon many pages of New Testament history. The translation is well made, although in one or two words, like "reverenceinspiring," there seems to be a tendency to construct compounds after the analogy of the German.

HENRY E. BOURNE.

PROF. BAIRD'S HUGUENOTS.*-Nearly forty years ago, Macaulay told Sir James Stephen as he was entering upon the duties of the professorship of modern history at Cambridge, that of all the periods of French history, that of the "Wars of Religion" was the richest and least exhausted. That this rich field has been occupied by an American scholar-and occupied at once with such learning and candor as to discourage rivalry--cannot fail to be a source of pride to all of Prof. Baird's fellow-countrymen. When his "Rise of the Huguenots" appeared, it was immediately granted a place near, if not beside, those remarkable contributions of the last generation of American writers to the illustration of European history.

*The Huguenots and Henry of Navarre. By HENRY M. BAIRD, Professor in the University of the City of New York. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

If Prof. Baird's work sometimes lacks the fire and brilliance of the "Rise of the Dutch Republic," it is superior to it in impartiality. But Prof. Baird's impartiality is not that of indifference. He so thoroughly believes in the righteousness of the cause, whose historian he is, that he feels he can be perfectly fair and just to the other side. And he is so. He not only gives prominence to any excuses that may be urged for the Catholic party, but, what is a greater test of fairness, he does not omit the excesses of the reforming party.

His work is based upon careful study of both the original authorities and the most valuable special works of modern scholars. In fact, his preface and notes may serve as a most useful guide to the best sources of information upon the whole time of the Reformation in France. This period of French history is so involved that it is almost hopeless to try to get any clear idea of it from brief accounts. Prof. Baird, while not going excessively into detail, has arranged his facts with clearness, and discussed them most instructively.

These volumes open with a brief explanatory introduction, and then take up the main narrative with the accession of Henry III. in 1574. The first volume covers the ground to 1588, and the second continues the story to the death of Henry IV., the leading figure in the work. Prof. Baird has a sober and qualified admiration for the great Henry-an admiration which grows warm over his finer qualities, but which neither palliates nor conceals his moral defects. The characters of the other leaders in this struggle are also portrayed with vigor and insight. In awarding these volumes the high praise they deserve by reason of their learning, impartiality, and interest as well as of the importance of the struggle which they illustrate, we must express the hope that Prof. Baird may be enabled to continue his work, with the History of Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which he proposes.

RECENT BOOKS ON PSYCHOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH.*-The American Society for Psychical Research is nearly three years younger than the British, and the difference in the amount of work the two societies have done and published is *Vol. 1, No. 1, July 1885, and vol. 1, No. 2, July, 1886. Damrell & Upham, Boston,