Literature.

Theological circles have been stirred during the month by the publication of a small shilling pamphlet by Dr. Salmond, Professor of Moral Philosophy in Dunedin, entitled The Reign of Grace. Several thousand copies were sold within a few days of issue, and the Presbyterian Church of Otago has appointed a committee to report upon the work. Dr. Salmond simply maintains what is called « the larger hope. » For thirty years he has meditated upon the uncompromising logic of the older Calvinism, and has definitely rejected it at last. The book is earnest and eloquent; but contains nothing new. In fact, one cannot help feeling that the writer is something of a religious Rip van Winkle. Who now holds the terrible dogmas he condemns? Such ideas may be found in old theology, and fairly deduced from standards which have ceased to be interpreted in their original meanings; but they do not to-day form the living framework of any Christian Church. The Christian world has a better grasp of the Gospel message than it possessed a century ago; the mechanical literalism, which gave birth to so many monstrous creeds, and turned the Scriptures into a web of contradiction, is no longer in vogue, and all living churches recognize that the dogma so shocking to the professor—that the heathen will be judged by a law of which they had no knowledge—is not only immoral, but unscriptural.

The Rev. James King Hewison, m.a., of Rothesay, has given the world a new estimate of Burns, who must, he says, be considered a minor poet. « He was a poor song-writer. He had written no great poems. With the exception of Tam o'Shanter, they lacked imagination. The Cottar's Saturday Night contained some fine sentiments, but was a piece of hypocrisy. An evil soul producing godly witness was like a goodly apple rotten to the core. Scots wha hae owed its popularity to the air which it appropriated. If Wallace and Bruce had never lived and fought, it would never have been composed. And it would have been better if the warriors had never fought. Burns was a coward, and void of patriotism. He had no high ideal, and no true love in his nature. Whisky gills were his highest aim. No doubt he had written some pretty verses. He could describe some feelings very well, but that was often done very happily in the local newspapers. Apart from these, his reputation rested chiefly on some thirty phrases which had become very common property. These would soon be consigned to oblivion with the rest of the trash the poet had written. » These are the main points of a lecture occupying an hour and a half. It is plain that a new critical light has burst upon Scotland. We hope the rev. gentleman will in good time favor us with his estimate of Moore, Byron, and Shelley.

We have to thank Professor C. Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer-Royal of Scotland, for a copy of his work New Measures at the Great Pyramid, and also for a little book by Mr Christopher Giles, Adelaide, entitled Why we do not adopt the French Metrical System. We have also to thank Mr William Blades for a copy of his dainty little volume The Enemies of Books. We shall deal more fully with these in a future issue.

Dr. B. W. Richardson's new book, to be issued by Longmans, will be looked for with much interest, as it is in a different branch of literature from that in which he has gained his brilliant reputation. It is called The Story of a Star, and is a history of the career of a false Messiah of the second century.

The expiration of the copyright of Carlyle's History of the French Revolution has been marked by the appearance of about half-a-dozen popular editions within a few days of each other.