AMONG THE BOOKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1957, 23 May 1889, Page 34

AMONG THE BOOKS.

"John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides :an Autobiography." Edited by his Brother. This volumes open with a very pleasant picture of Scottish peasant life and Scottish piety in the opening years of the century. So pleasant is it, indeed, that one is tempted to suppose that distance which lends enchantment to the view has led the writer unintentionally to exaggerate the fine qualities of his parents and the happiness of his youthful days. As a missionary to the New Hebrides, Mr Paton fought one of the hardest of battles. His life appears to have been in daily and almost hourly danger, and again and again he cwed his safety to the splendid' courage of his faithful dogs. An unloaded revolver was also of service. After a struggle of four years to maintain his post on the island of Tanna, Mr Paton, with other missionaries, had to flee for his life, and amply justifies himself for doing so. His greatest obstacle to success was the atrocious conduct of tbe white traders, whose acts* in some instances were like those of fiends rather than • of human beings. Men ill with measles were landed on the islands in order, as one captain

said, to' sweep, the natives away : 'so that white men might occupy the soil. On one occasion they allured a chief on board with , the promise of a present, confined him in the hold ■ampngst natives ill with measles, and kept him there without food for 24 hours. , Then he was put on shore, having caught the disease, which spread rapidly through the country. So terrible was the plague that the natives feared to give water or food to the sick, and were afraid sometimes even to bury the dead. "It need not be

surprising,"* Mr Paton writes, "though we did everything in our power to relieve and save them, that the natives associated us with the white men who had so dreadfully afflicted jbhem, and , that their blind thirst for revenge did not draw fine distinctions between the traders and missionaries. , Both were whites,— that was enough." , Several missionaries, the best known, perhaps, being John Williams, have died for their faith in the New Hebrides. The autobiography closes with the year 1862; but Mr Paton proposes to continue his narrative, and to relate what has been done since that time toward spreading Christianity and civilisation in these islands, and especially in Aniwa, the whole population of wbish, owing to the writer's ministrations, has, he says,- become Christian. The book is an interesting record, and would be still more interesting had the writer chiefly confined himself to a statement I of facts, and left it to the reader to estimate the faith and self-denial that prompted his labours. He protests too much, and' the passages which express the greatest humility \ are those which we read with the least ' pleasure. At the same time it is impossible to say for how much of this Mr Paton is responsiblesince his brother, whoedits the work, writes that he has pruned here, and expanded there, and largely modified and recast some sections. This is a mistake, and detracts from the value of the book. If Mr James Paton wished to rectify mistakes, or to describe events of which he himself was an eye-wit-ness, he might have done so in an appendix.

"Mediaeval England," by the Rev. A. Jessop, D.D. All readers of Dr Jessop's interesting articles in the " Nineteenth Century" will welcome this collection of them, entitled "The Coming of the Friars." They give us a Vivid picture of former days, and we specially commend the lecture " Six Hundred Years Ago " to ' the attention of those who wish to learn the domestic history of an East Anglian 1 village at that remote time. ■ England in the thirteenth century was very different from the garden of to-day. The greatest part of it was a waste of wood, moor, and water, whilst the cultivated portions, most- numerous in the south-east; would have, appeared badly farmed to the eyes of anyone accustomed to modern methods. Estates 'were large, but farms were small, : and the conditions of tenancy were very varied. The bulk of the villagers were serfs,' bo«nd4o the land and compelled to work for their lord. This obligation was gradually narrowing 'itself to work at certain times of the year, so that the villeins were j becoming small farmers, holding by servile tenure, or paying work instead' of rent. Although this condition was much above actual slavery, under a harsh lord it pressed very heavily on the people, and hence we find them continually escaping to large towns where if they were unclaimed for a year and a day, they became free. The towns, at this period, were falling under the rule of the Craft-guilds, or associations of artisans, but the unskilled labourer had no rights and was little cared for either by Church or State. It is a striking fact that the charms of personal liberty appeared to them to compensate for their wretched homes in the filthy lanes of these' towns, without the least attempt at police or sanitary regulation. This' influx had swollen the poor, Uf'ban districts to such an extent that the clergy could not cope with the^need and had given up the task in despair, as too many have done in our day in London and the large cities. Into this mass of wretchedness came' the Friars, men as poor as them- | selves, who had sacrificed everything to help their needy fellow creatures. The impression they produced was immense, and can only be compared to the similar resnlts that followed from tbe labours ■of Wesley, centuries later. As also in the latter instance, the revival thus commenced spread' to the parish clergy, where there must have been many like Chaucer's Country Parson. A century passed by, arid the revival was dying away,' and the friars themselves had begun to degenerate; when the country was struck by one of the greatest calamities inhisfcory — the Black Death. Finding England at the height of military glory, it struck her down, and left her' unable to continue the war with France except by mercenary troops. Of its fearfnl ravages Dr Jessop's essays will give us a glimpse. Despite his warning not to over-rate its effects, vre believe that in England this was the deathblow of the mediaeval organisation of society. In this very book we find additional evidence to show that its effect on the Church was mainly for evil.

"Thanksgiving Tabernacle," by Phoebe Allen, is a curious 'mixture of sensible, pracj tical lessons on life among the lower classes, and of satirical, exaggerated portraiture of Dissenting church methods. " Thanksgiving Tabernacle" is a small " cause," presided over by Hezekiah Mogg, who on Sunday discourses to the little community called the " Saved Band," and on week days manages the Aston Drapery and Provision Stores, with merciless and sordid greed. Side by side with the story of Mir Mogg's keen and hypocritical career runs the experience of a humble family named Collins. Widow Collins is a poor, industrious soul, rather weak in her indulgence of one of her girls, and severely outspoken to the others, Mary Collins is like many other girls of her class. She throws up a good situation in a fit of impertinence, and has to get her experience in a rough school' afterward. There is another daughter, who also suffers for her self-will, and yet another, poor crippled Betty, whose sad, brave little life comes to a merciful end in early youth. It seems almost a pity to drag into light such an obsolete phase of Dissent as Mrs Allen has chosen for her subject.

To Overcome Weakness.— Pepper's Quinine and Iron Tonic gives New, Life, Appetite, Health, Strength, and Energy. Cures Nervous Debility, Neuralgia, Indigestion.—Half-orown .bottles. Everywhere, Insist on having