NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8580, 30 May 1891, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Present Day Lessons fkom : Habakkux. In tea lectures. By the Rev. P. Barclay, M.A. .Edinburgh : Macniven and , Wallace.

The Rev.. Mr. Barclay, we ; may remind our readers, was for several years Presbyterian minister at Napier, and was an occasional visitor to Auckland between 1850 and 1866. He is now i resident in Edinburgh;), The volume is dedicated to the Free Church congregation at Canonbie, where Mr. Barclay had officiated for some time during the illness of the pastor of the church.. In the preface Mr. Barclay states that his object -has been " to make a small portion of Holy Scripture interesting and instructive to j common readers." Much cricicaU contention has raged round the writings; of ■'-: Habaklcuk. Into this Mr. Barclay does not enter.; He says :— " The predictive element is also present in this prophecy.:, of Habakkuk, the. time of , its fulfilment being spoken of, and the Chaldeans being named as those who should bring it'to pass. The mention of the Chaldeans might cause those who heard it to wonder marvellously. For, at the time when the prophecy;: was uttered they had ho need to fear any great evil from them." This - assumes? everything as to the date The Rabbinical tradition is that Habakkuk wrote in the reign of Mauassoh. German scholarship inclines to place him 'in the

reign of Jehoiakim. Looking at the book itself, one would scarcely think that it was a prediction at all, seeing how carefully ib is composed in its metre and arrangement, and how finically particular the author is as to the tune to which different parts are to be sung. At the beginning of the third chapter he directs that that matchless "Pindaric ode," as Ewald calls it, shall be sung "in dithyrambic measure;" in the middle he indicates the places where instrumental accompaniments are 'to come in ; and at the end he addresses it "to the conductors of the Temple music," and intimates in the words, "With my: stringed instruments," the kind of orchestral accompaniment to which ib is to be set. All this would seem to show that the writings of Habakkuk were composed for the purpose of being sung in the Temple service, which would scarcely be the case with a prophecy uttered centuries : before j the .vents. Mr. Barclay, however, does nob enter at length into the later criticism of the , book. In his ten lectures he goes carefully through the three chapters ol his author, showing how the truths he utters in his grand and forcible language apply to the present day. The last lecture is on that most' impressive passage, " Although the fig tree shall not blossom," &c VVe quote the following passage :—

This psalm of praise, 'expressive.-, of so much, confidence and joy in God, is universally admired and often suns;. But J fear that often it is no more than the echo which is sent back as from some dark cavern into space, and not the strong psalm itself rising tip to God from the innermost heart, enlighteAed by the light of Heaven. .. . This man ,-was no pessimist. He did not think that everything was going to wreck and ruin he does not say that life ia not worth living. No doubt the prospect was of the saddest. But God remaineth : " The God of my salvation;" the everlasting, the ever loving, the ever, blessed God, the Holy One of Israel. : "Art not Thou ' from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die." His joy is entirely different from the joy of those that know not God—from the joy of the Chaldeans and of all. the workers of iniquity. . . . Is it not possible still to take,such a heavenly flight? Are our wings dipt by scepticism, rationalism, worldliness, or are they weighed down by the heavy atmosphere arising from these things? Are they but few who can arise, like the lark in early morning, and sing of the loving kindness of the Lord.?. Surely there are. not a few, though with our colder, more reticent Western natures tHey do not speak out in the same striking way.' ' Several of the booksellers in Auckland. have copies of the book. ; *

Canadian Studies is Comparative Politics. By John George Bourinob, C.M.G., L.L.D., D.C.L., clerk 'of the House of Commons of Canada, and author of .■■" Constitutional History of Canada." •Published by Messrs. Dawson Bros., Montreal.— author divides his work into three sections, and treats (1) of the English character of Canadian institutions; (2) comparisons between the political systems of Canada arid the United States'; and (3) Federal Government in Switzerland compared with that in Canada. 'The history of the political development of the several provinces which now constitute that wle Dominion, extending from Cape Bretonron the Atlantic Coast to Vancouver, on the Pacific shores, ; possesses many features of considerable interest ; for the students of comparative politics. The history of Canada, as a French colony, '.'. which ended in 1750, was a record of autocratic Government, which gave.no opportunity to the expansion of Canadian intellect; the history of the province as an English dependency has been the record of a people working out their political destiny, on the well understood principles of. that wonderful system of ; government which the experiences of centuries teaches lis is admirably calculated to develop individualism, and a spirit of self-assertion and self-reliance, \ and to enable ■ a people to solve successfully, those great social and political problems on which ; rests the happiness of mankind. The history of the .Dominion of Canada as a self-governing community commenced really with the concession of representative and legislative institutions to the several provinces which are how compripjd within its limits. Contrasting the state of things in the United States with the machinery of administration in tlv.i Dominion, Mr- Bouiinot says : — i

We must at once see that the : results should be greatly to the advantage of Canada. While Canada has been steadily her destiny on sound principles, she has in nc wise shown an inclination to make the United States her model of imitation in any vital ; particulars. It is quite clear that Canadians who have achieved a decided success so far in working out their plan of federal union on well-defined lines of action— ■'; consolidating the union of the old provinces, in founding new provinces and opening up avast territory. to settlementin covering every section of their own dominion with a network of railways— in * showing their ability to put down dissension and rebellion in their midst, it is quite clear they are not ready in view of such achievement to confess failure, an absence of a spirit of Selfdependence, a want of courage and national ambition, an incapacity for self-government, and to look ; forward ito annexation to the United States as their "manifest destiny." But whatever may be the destiny of • this youthful and energetic community, it is the earnest wish of every ' Canadian that while the political fortunes of Canada and the United States may never be united, yet each will endeavour to maintain that free, friendly, social, and commercial intercourse which should naturally exist between peoples allied to each other by ties of a common neighbourhood and a common interest, and that the only rivalry between them will be that which should prevail among countries equally interested in peopling this continent from north to south, from east to west, in extending the blessings of free institutions and in securing respect for law, public morality, electoral purity, free thought, the sanctity of the home, and intellectual culture.

Mr. Bourinob points out that the federal system which now unites the Swiss cantons has many features in common with that of Canada, and especially with that of the United States, which has, in fact, been closely studied by them and by the Canadians. .After giving an able historical resume of the growth of the Swiss Confederation, and contrasting its : powers with! those of the Dominion and of the United States, the writer concludes his interesting work in these terms: " I believe that the great governing principle of the world in the future is federation. The colonies of Australia are awakening from the indifference and the jealousies which have hitherto prevented them from forming, that complete union so necessary to the development of their common interests, and to the security of their island continent, and are at last moving to follow the example of their co-workers in America in the cause of civilisation and good government." The work is written in a scholarly style, characterised by considerable historical research, and from the dispassionate; and judicial tone adopted by the author, will well repay the careful perusal of the student of history.

Pretty Miss Smith. By Florence Warden. Published by William Heinemann, London. tale -is an exciting one, the plot cleverly framed and well worked out, the interest being sustained and the solution kept a mystery until almost the closing page of the story. The guardian of a ward, a victim to the habit of gambling, violates his trust, attempts the . murder of another ward, murders his former mistress, and ultimately commits suicide on his crime being discovered by his niece and sou. The scene of marly of the incidents of the story is an old distillery, supposed to be haunted by ghosts, and the authoress, in her preface, ■ says :—" For the technical details of the various processes of distilling, and a correct description of a distiller"', its buildings and appliances, lam indebted* to the kindness and courtesy of Messrs. Danville and Co., of Belfast, who spared no pains in supplying me with the information necessary for my story." Macmillan's Magazink.— number for April is a very readable one. Mr. \V. O'Connor Morris contributes a capital study of Lord Nelson, the great seaman.; Mr. C. Parkinson, in his paper on "The Farmer's Friends," sets up a vigorous defence for the small birds. He says :— " lb is impossible to read Miss Onnerod's exhaustive ' Manual of Insect feats' without the thought arising a hundred times in our minds that the prevalence of blight and prcdaceous larva? among ; the crops bears a direct relation bo the lamentable destruc-,

tion of small birds, ; which is ;so ruthlessly urged from year to year. "'= As, the birds are killed or driven away, so the • insects ; increase." " Scot&s Heroines," Lucy Ashton, Amy Robsarfc, Erne Beans, by Clara Mowbray,'is an excellent sketch, while Mr. H. A. Perry's article oh " The Prospects of Greater France" is impartial in spirit 5 and tone. He concludes thus:—"For Europe at large the question is how long can France continue responsible for peace and order within the largo territories over which her flag flies, and which touch at so many points the possessions of other European Powers. To me it seems that two things alone have , rendered it possible for her to maintain, so far, the very, semblance of a colonial vocation. First of these stands the great wealth of France, which enables her to meet the cost of dependencies which other countries would have either turned to -ccviimere.'aJ account or discarded as useless eiiravag&nces. Second in order comes the invariable patriotism of Frenchmen, which renders them prone to minimise all public failures which can in any way discount the glory; and greatness of France." Mr. P. Gardiner's biographical sketch of Schliemanh is a fitting tribute to the memory of the man who amid the buffetings of fortune and the cares of business never once swsrved from the determination to,. realise the dream of his . youth. , Ho set out to prove the ■literal truth- of Homer's Iliad, and ,revealed;. instead unsuspected mines of knowledge in regard to the life and art, the manners and commerce of the Greeks of the prehistoric ages. The Australian ' Critic—;/.May'j number is to hand, and is a capital number. The articles on general literature are well written. There is ah/ interesting article on "Two New Australian Poeta'S— G. Essex Evans and Thomas N Heney. In science is a paper on " The Destruction of Eucalypts," and in art a trenchant article, . " Side Lights, on the: Melbourne National : Gallery," which should be carefully perused by those who take an interest in the addition of works of art to : the Auckland Art Gallery. ■