engineers and chorographers by a systematic survey from a carefully-measured base.

Whether the volumes before us are all that they might be, and all that they claim to be, is another and distinct question. But that they possess high merit is at least indisputable. Nothing equal to them is to be found in other countries. France is still contented with improved and enlarged editions of Calmet -that especially which has been issued by M. Migne in his gigantic Encyclopédie Théologique'—a work which, though incorporating many of the researches of Oriental travellers and scholars, scarcely ventures on some timid advances in the departments of scientific illustration and of Biblical criticism. There are doubtless many scholars in France eminently fitted for the task required. But, as Credner has truly observed, the 'unchangeable decrees of the Council of Trent hinder all free, 'critical, and scientific treatment of the subject' in the Roman Catholic Church; and any united action of French Protestants for the purpose seems very unlikely at present. Even in Germany the want still remains. Winer's Biblisches RealWörterbuch' is still (we believe) the last and best attempt to supply the deficiency. But highly and deservedly as this is esteemed by scholars, largely as it has contributed to the execution of the works before us, and favourably as it often contrasts with both of them, not only in comprehensive grasp, but also in the less usually German excellences of terseness and decisiveness, it lacks both the range and the completeness to which these works aspire, and which was claimed with some justice in comparison with it even twenty years ago for Kitto's Cyclopædia.'

But if these volumes be in some respects a proud trophy of British scholarship and judgment and enterprise, we cannot pretend that the learning which they embody is drawn chiefly from native sources. On the contrary, both the impulse and the guidance come in much the largest measure from Germany. In the case of the Cyclopædia,' a considerable number of the actual contributors are German; and in both books, indeed, more especially in the Dictionary, it is to German scholars and German thinkers that by far the greater part of the critical information is due. What our own country has contributed, except in some noticeable departments, is mainly the strong good sense, the practical tact, and the power of sifting cumbrous heaps of learning, which has reduced whole libraries to an available compass, and made accessible to ordinary students what none but the few could attain before, and they with prodigious labour. And if this practical good sense is some

times accompanied also by too strong and decided a conservative leaning, we must not quarrel with that which is eminently an English characteristic also, and one which fulfils so important a purpose in the economy of Christendom.

The most casual examination of these volumes will show the supremacy which the great German authorities have acquired among well-instructed English theologians. Indeed, the progress of Biblical studies amongst us during the last thirty years has been commensurate with our increasing acquaintance with German divines- an acquaintance hardly begun when Dr. Pusey wrote his famous manifesto, carried on, under much obloquy, by Hare, Thirlwall, Milman, and Arnold, conciliating gradually a more favourable notice in the hands of Trench, Alford, and Stanley, and harmonised with a stricter Anglicanism in Ellicott; while its influence among Dissenters, encouraged by the example of Dr. Davidson, has been promoted also by the exclusiveness which drove them to the German Universities, and has been extended further among all denominations by the cheap translations published by Messrs. Clark of Edinburgh, till at last it has pervaded every section of the Church in Britain.

The accelerated growth of German influence amongst us is also due in great measure to the position occupied of late in their own country by such critics as Hengstenberg, Kurtz, Keil, and Delitzsch, who have conducted an extensive, and, in some sense, wholesome reaction from the rash and too often irreligious speculations of many who preceded them. And it is in this sense, we suppose, that by a claim literally rather than substantially true Dr. Smith professes to give his readers the results of the latest investigations of the best scholars.' How far this reaction has gone in Germany may be best estimated, we suppose, from an examination of Herzog's Real Encyclopädie, just completed. That it is both real and extensive there can be no doubt; nor, though it is due in great measure to political causes, are we disposed to underrate its importance in a higher aspect. Still we cannot believe that the present state of German opinion on Biblical matters is to be acceptedas the nett result of the critical labours of the last hundred years; nor that its permanent continuance is either possible or desirable. Meanwhile in England it has certainly facilitated the spread of an influence which here at least assumes the form of progress. An English disciple of Hengstenberg writes in quite a different tone and with quite a different object from Hengstenberg himself; and even when standing at the

VOL. CXXI. NO. CCXLVII.

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same point as his master, must turn his face in a very different direction to address an English audience.

In comparing the two works before us it would be unjust to forget what is due to the Biblical Cyclopædia' as the first in the field. It is now twenty years since the first edition of the 'Cyclopædia' was brought out by the late Dr. Kitto, being perhaps the most useful and valuable of the many productions of that remarkable man. He had obtained the assistance of several respectable and some eminent scholars and divines of both kingdoms and of various denominations of Great Britain, of others from America, and lastly, of some of the principal Biblicists of Germany, including Ewald, Hengstenberg, Hävernick, Tholuck, and Credner. And the result, though very unequal in merit, and in some points decidedly weak, was, on the whole, of great value, supplying to the candid reader help which he would vainly seek in the best of the recensions of Calmet, English or foreign. The work of Winer supplied to a great extent the model of the undertaking; and Dr. Kitto, while ably fulfilling the editorial duty of furnishing what his colleagues did not provide, abstained (and, as we cannot but think, wisely abstained) from harmonising the opinions of the contributors, and reducing them to his own theological views. The book, accordingly, though undeniably discordant, and (as we have observed) weak also in various points, was such as to cause an enormous impulse to the study and knowledge of the Bible, and soon acquired a position which till lately it had maintained without a rival.

Now, however, that Dr. Smith's Dictionary is completed, we cannot hesitate to acknowledge its decided superiority to its predecessor. Though confining himself almost entirely to England, and within these local limits to clergymen for the most part of the Established Church (balanced, however, by a lay element, of the utmost importance to the general result)*, Dr. Smith has secured the aid of a body of contributors who, for the purposes contemplated, have done almost all that could be wished. This is the more creditable to England and the English Church, and the more promising for the future, because (truth to say), with the exception of some fifteen or twenty, the contributors were not especially marked out for the task assigned them. The names of these excepted chiefs

The following is, we believe, a correct classification of the contributors-47 Anglican clergymen, 2 Scotch Presbyterian do., 1 Dissenting do., 4 American do. 1 Jew, 10 Protestant laymen, 1 Roman Catholic do.

will readily occur to all who read the list prefixed to the volumes, and among them assuredly must be placed the Editor himself. Dr. Smith has exercised his office in a much more thorough way than Dr. Kitto, yet without the unfortunate consequences which might have been apprehended. A learned and accomplished scholar himself, he has also brought to bear on the present work the fruits of his large experience in similar though less grave undertakings; and we see in the result the effects produced by consummate judgment and prudence. We cannot profess to have any personal knowledge of the secrets of his editorial closet, but knowing how much depends on the arrangements and distribution of a composite work like this, and how much may be done imperceptibly by editorial suggestions and counsels, we cannot but admire the forethought and skill by which so general a harmony has been secured. That very wide differences of opinion exist between the contributors is abundantly evident from the mere mention of their names; but inconvenient collisions are prevented by a skilful distribution of the parts. Sometimes indeed, even now, a simple reader is perplexed between the doctors whom he finds disagreeing in the columns of the same learned oracle: as when, after being convinced by Mr. Twisleton (art. Shiloh') that the popular interpretation of Jacob's prophecy is untenable, he finds (in art. Saviour,' followed by that of Prophet'), that the prediction thus interpreted is a great step made,' the 'first case in which the prophecy distinctly centres in one person:' or, as when Mr. Twisleton, on his part (art. 'Tyre,') maintains the late date of Job and of the second half of Isaiah in opposition to the writers of the articles on those books. More important discrepancies on far graver subjects come also sometimes to the surface, involving the questions of inspiration, tradition, modes of spiritual agency, and the relation of Judaism to Christianity: and these differences, while approaching perilously near to a contradiction in terms, are also sometimes brought into perilous juxtaposition by the alphabet, or actually confront one another on the same page, as in articles 'Micaiah' and 'Michael.' Still Dr. Smith has succeeded on the whole in producing a general coherency and agreement sufficient for all practical purposes. He has also discharged admirably that other office of an editor of which we spoke just now-the office of furnishing the connecting links, filling in the gaps, and supplying the articles which were overlooked in the general distribution of parts-a thankless office, for the most part, and a weary one, but which it is highly important to perform efficiently. In this he has had the able assistance of

Mr. Grove, of Sydenham, whose contributions far exceed numerically those of any other writer in the Dictionary, and whose more important articles are among the very best which it contains; and the co-operation also, in the later part of the work, of Mr. Aldis Wright, the librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge, whose learning and accuracy make him a useful ally, though his own contributions are sometimes dry and ponderous. Meanwhile the well-deserved reputation of Kitto's Cyclo'pædia,' and the desire of bringing it up to the level of the present day, has induced the proprietors, Messrs. Black, to issue a revised edition, which they have confided to the care of Dr. W. L. Alexander, of Edinburgh. We have here the first two volumes, issued in a still more gigantic shape than Dr. Smith's, and reaching as yet only to the letter L, with the promise (though one which we think scarcely possible to perform) of completing the work in one volume more. In this new edition the articles on Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities have been almost wholly re-written; as have also for the most part those on the Geography of the Holy Land; chiefly by two of Dr. Smith's own contributors, Mr. J. L. Porter and Mr. Stanley Leathes. And if, notwithstanding the very great improvements effected here, we can hardly allow that these departments have equalled Dr. Smith's, we must concede a counterbalancing superiority in another class of articles which have also been entirely re-written, those which treat of Jewish antiquities and embody Rabbinical and Masoretic lore; some of them by the learned Editor himself the greater part by a scholar favourably known to the public already by his works on the Megilloth, Mr. C. D. Ginsburg. Wisely resolving also to avoid too close a competition with his formidable and well-furnished rival, Dr. Alexander has carried out more fully the original diversity of the two works; and leaving to the Dictionary an acknowledged superiority as such, has enlarged his own department of Biblical Literature,' adding to Credner's and Davidson's articles on Biblical Criticism,'' Introduction,' and Interpretation,' a series of notices on eminent commentators and critics; which, though occupying too much space already, and ever tending to claim more, is highly appropriate and useful. On the other hand, a part which is little altered, and when altered not always we think for the better, is that which consists of introductory articles to the various books of Scripture. More should have been done to bring these up to the level of the day. It was a homage justly due to the respected memory of Hävernick to leave his contributions (those on the Pentateuch) unaltered, but living writers might in all cases have revised their articles with advantage.