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A Manual of Catechetical Instruction. By Dean RAMSAY. Edinburgh, Grant; London, Rivingtons.

THE "seventh edition" of this little book having been lately sent us, we have been at the pains of examining some of the statements contained in it, and regret to find that it forms no exception to the general untrustworthiness of our most popular elementary works. We will give a few specimens.

At p. 45, in answer to the question "Who are the elect?" we have this most extraordinary answer, "Those who do not resist or grieve the HOLY SPIRIT of GOD, but who desire and pray for His help.'

In an equally curious manner, is the process of sanctification described. "It is effected gradually by the HOLY SPIRIT of GOD applying the Word of God to the heart of the believer."-p. 100.

At p. 74, the purport of Confirmation is said to be, "that persons when they come to suitable age may then take upon themselves their Baptismal engagement."

Does Dean Ramsay consider that before their Confirmation children are under no engagement? It is no wonder that Presbyterians should reject such a useless ceremony as this would be!

The two sections on the Sacraments are full of errors, of which we can only correct a few.

1. "Generally," does not mean "where they may be had." Our LORD, in saying that Baptism and the reception of His Body and Blood are necessary, makes no such qualification; neither does the Church. Dr. Ramsay should know that the Latin rendering of this word is in genere: i. e. for the whole race of mankind. 2. In Baptism water is not "the sign of the necessity of our hearts being cleansed," (i. e. of a thing yet future,) but the sign of their being cleansed in that Sacrament. 3. If none receive grace in Baptism, save they "who desire" it (p. 72), what is the state of our children? Once more: what right has Dean Ramsay to say, that "the chief design" of the Holy Eucharist is "to remind us of the exceeding love of CHRIST dying for us ?" The Catechism says no such thing. It speaks, indeed, of a commemoration or remembrance; but nowhere says that it is made exclusively or chiefly "to us." Rather, we believe that by it CHRIST ever liveth to make intercession for us with the FATHER.

We had marked several other passages for comment, but probably these will suffice.

The Bishop of SALISBURY has issued a new edition of his excellent Letter on Cathedral Reform, (Rivingtons,) prefixing an address to the members of his diocese, and appending to it a series of recommendations, founded substantially upon it, which were submitted by a unanimous vote of the Dean and Chapter to the Commissioners, together with two letters from the late Bishop, who appears altogether to have endorsed Bishop Hamilton's plan. If the Commissioners reject a scheme so recommended, we do not see how they can be said to have the good of the Church at heart.

Archdeacon DENISON has taken advantage of new editions of his Sermons (Masters) being called for to publish them in a compact volume,

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and we trust that in this new form they will gain a much extended circulation. There have certainly been not a few among high churchmen who doubted the propriety of the Archdeacon, as examining chaplain, propounding the questions that have led to these proceedings, and who have thought that some of his statements were scarcely expressed with that cautious reverence which the mysteriousness of the subject demanded; but after making all necessary deductions on this score, (which only applies to the question of what the wicked receive,) the doctrine of the Real Presence is here affirmed in a more pointed and dogmatic form than in any other publication that can be named,—and, his very enemies being judges, (for the commission appointed by the archbishop was a most palpably unfair tribunal,) without any leaning to Romanism and dogmatic theology is the very want of our times. If the legal proceedings are now, as it is rumoured, at an end, we trust that no time will be lost in exposing the very crooked course which has been followed by the Archbishop in this matter.

The Rev. J. MURRAY WILKINS, Rector of Southwell, has published a spirited Lecture on Early Church History, (Masters.) We hope soon it may find its way into the reading rooms of many "Literary Societies."

Parish Sermons, by the Rev. WILLIAM FRASER (Oxford and London J. H. Parker) are distinguished by their clearness, thoughtfulness, and orthodoxy, and might be very advantageously selected by many a Parish Priest as a model for his own Pulpit Discourses.

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.1

THE Rev. C. A. Martin, who writes to us from Upthorpe, in defence of M. Mudry, shall not be denied that respect which he claims on the score of age. But we must be allowed to say that he should not speak on subjects with which he is unacquainted. We complained, in our Review, that M. Mudry (1), in apparent ignorance of the charges that had been brought by Mr. Scott against the S. P. C. K.'s English edition of Bishop Wilson (or (2) of their books in general), had translated that edition into (3) indifferent French, instead of following the (4) authentic edition recently published (5) by J. H. Parker.

Mr. Martin seems to be a friend of M. Mudry; and naturally enough, would vindicate his friend if he could. Our readers shall judge if he is qualified to do so.

First then, Mr. Martin tells us that he has never seen Mr. Scott's pamphlet. Secondly, he is unacquainted with the S. P. C. K.'s books in general, and Bishop Wilson in particular. Thirdly, he is no French scholar. Fourthly, he has not heard that Bishop Wilson's own MS. has been recently discovered and published. And fifthly-which is not a matter of much importance-he has never heard of Mr. Parker, the respected publisher of Oxford.

From respect to Mr. Martin, we do not publish his letter.

1 This has been overlooked for several months.

THE UNIVERSITY, AS THE PLACE OF HIGHER
EDUCATION.

Oxford Essays. London: J. W. Parker and Son.

UNION without unity is the order of the day; and the "Oxford Essays" are an exemplification of the rule. They are bound together upon the principle that none of the authors is in any way to be compromised by the sentiments of his neighbour. They have thus a great disadvantage compared with an ordinary review. In that case each of the articles gathers a certain value more than proportionate to its own intrinsic merits, from its possessing the imprimatur of certain conjoint authorities. The whole book is taken as the exponent, not of an individual but of a party. This is in a measure a compensation for what is the necessary defect of such publications, their miscellaneous character. They have neither unity of mind as the collected works of any one author, nor unity of subject. People will not find any satisfaction in the proposed basis of these Essays,-unity of University. "Oxford Essays" suggests the old phrase, "Oxford Tracts;" but that name was not given to those tracts by their authors, but by others; and it was given as implying that those tracts represented a rising and important school of thought in Oxford. But the "Oxford Essays" represent nothing. Their writers cannot look upon themselves as Oxford's representative men. They are not Essays to which Oxford has given the prize. We have yet to see whether they are Essays for which Oxford will give the money.

We do not deny that they evince a considerable amount of talent. Mr. Sellar's Essay upon Lucretius deserves especial praise; and Mr. Cowell opens up, with much knowledge and elegance, the little studied department of Persian literature. Then again, Professor Phillips' account of the geology of the neighbourhood is a clear and interesting handbook of facts, which may add much to the profit and pleasure of the Oxfordshire pedestrians; and would add more, if it were to be obtained in a separate. and less costly form. We cannot, however, think that Mr. Smith would have added a third to the Essays on Planetary Tenancies unless he had received a call to be one of Oxford's representatives, and found that he must write something. We shall confine our remarks chiefly to those points in which they bear upon "Oxford Studies," which give the title to Mr. Patteson's Essays, and are the express objects of Mr. Froude's Remarks upon the Teaching of History.

We propose to consider this subject under three aspects; and it will be seen that we accept most of Mr. Patteson's data, but differ VOL. XVII.-APRIL, 1855.

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from him in the relation between them and that philosophic temper which is the gem of value which ought to be treasured as the great inheritance of the sons of Oxford. What the result of Oxford education should be we are willing to accept as described by Mr. Patteson, but we consider him to have failed altogether in catching the vital principles of that result. That result is not an éπıyıyvóμsvóv It is an inward principle, developed into its proper maturity by right discipline. We shall arrange our remarks under three heads:

TI.

I. The aim of the higher education.

II. The means employed in it.

III. The connection of this educating body with the world external to it.

I. The aim of the higher education is, of course, the develop-: ment of all the faculties of man in their most perfect energy. Primary and secondary education can only deal with what is subordinate in man's nature. The higher education is intended to complete the work. When we speak of that which is subordinate, we do not mean that any part of man's nature can be rightfully neglected by the lower school. Both the intellectual and the moral portions of our nature must be cultivated from the beginning. The difference consists, not in the matter with which we have to deal, but in the manner of our dealing with it. The intellectual faculties have to be nourished by information, and the moral by habits of unreasoning obedience. The facts of science, the principles of morality, and the dogmas of the faith have not to be laid aside when we approach the higher sphere: but they are then to be inculcated in a different manner; their bearings upon each other have to be drawn out; the power of self-reliance has to be matured, differing from self-sufficiency not in want of vigour, but in the acknowledgment that its vigour is derived from those that have been before, and can only be maintained by the preservation of unity with those from whom it is derived. The aim of the higher education, therefore, is the perfection of moral training, by which those who as boys have received the teaching and discipline fitted to their age, are ushered into the larger sphere of the duties of manhood.

Here we are, of course, practically met by the difficulty that those who come to Oxford seeking the higher education have not, for the most part, received that secondary education which is the necessary step towards profiting by what comes after it. The deficiency of our public schools, and the (almost) worthlessness of our private seminaries, are facts now pretty generally admitted. It is useless, however, to entertain enthusiastic ideas of progress in the University until the evil has been remedied; and of course the remedy requires time. We must not suppose that our best efforts in the University can work properly until we have a proper mate

rial to work upon. We must not lose sight of what our work there is, but we must remember to prepare our material in order that it may profit by the training which the University shall supply. To do otherwise would be like buying up a splendid set of chargers, and giving them to an infantry regiment. We must not be surprised to see some awkward tumbles in our riding school. Unhappily, the evil is met by two endeavours, which are both of them defective. One is made by the school; the other by university reformers. One class of school reformers, in their consciousness of the deficiency of recent school-work, aim at changing the school into an university. This is, as it were, to force plants into early blossom in stoves, and pot them out in the spring. There is a great appearance of forwardness, but no power of stability and future progress. We must be content to let seed time and harvest come at their proper intervals, if we would have the work of education done in a healthy and permanent manner. What then, do our university reformers say? Why, they feel that what impedes them in their work is the absence of intellectual development in their alumni. Accordingly, it is supposed that the great work of the university must be to do what the school has failed in doing, namely, to implant as much information as can be given in three years. What shall be taught is a matter of dispute. The poor lad, knowing nothing when he comes up to Oxford, is likely to be as much embarrassed by the calls of the different professorial schools, as he would be if he landed at Boulogne, by the pulls of commissionaires trying to get hold of his passport, and the shrieks of basket-women anxious to impanier his portmanteau. At Oxford indeed, as at Boulogne, the claimants on his attention will mock him by pretending to talk his own language. It will be, however, but a broken conversation which he can hold under the circumstances. Popularized science, like the commissionaires' English, will leave him with a vague notion of what he has been going through; and in the one case he will find himself minus three or four francs in his hotel; in the other, minus three or four years in his manhood. He will look back upon the time as a short transit of extraordinarily abnormal bewilderment, wondering why he could not get into France without the one, or into life without the other.

The school, then, must not aim at opening the mind, but must supply those elements of growth which shall make the bud to swell into an opening flower in its proper season. The university must not think that it can forego its own work, in order to do only the work of the school under a greater pressure. The aim of the university must be to give the most perfect moral training to those who come to seek the benefit of her culture. Moral training, we say for William of Wykeham has summed up the truth in his comprehensive aphorism, "Manners makyth man." The object of the university is to send out men, well-made men, men of perfect

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