book xiv

. chap. 4.), Origen was the first who preached extemporaneously, and not until after he was sixty years old. The great divines of the time of the English Reformation preached both written and oral sermons: many of these, especially of the former, are included in their printed works. The same remark also applies to the early Fathers of the Church. The use of the homilies, which were drawn up for the ignorant clergy at the Reformation, at once gave a sanction to the practice of _writing_ sermons. The story of the preacher turning over his hour-glass at Paul's Cross, and starting afresh, must of course refer to an _unwritten_ discourse. Sermons, being explications of scripture, used to follow the reading of the psalms and lessons: now, for the same reason, they come after the epistle and gospel. In olden time, the bishop was the only preacher, going from church to church, as now-a-days[2], with the same sermon or charge; and he addressed the people from the altar steps: afterwards the priest, as his deputy, preached in the pulpit, but the deacons were not allowed to preach at all.

[Footnote 2: One of the highest dignitaries in our Church recently declined to print a sermon, as requested; because, he frankly said, he should want to preach it again.]

ALFRED GATTY.

_Bogatsky_ (Vol. iii., p. 478.).--The little work, so justly popular in England, under the title of Bogatsky's _Golden Treasury_, is by no means a literal translation of the original; but was almost entirely re-written by Venn, the author of the _Complete Duty of Man_. This I state on good authority, as I believe; but I have never seen the original.

R. D. H.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.

Under the title of a _Hand-Book of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy: First Course--Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Hydraulics, Pneumatics, Sound, Optics_, Dr. Lardner has just issued a small closely printed volume with the object of supplying that "information relating to physical and mechanical science, which is required by the medical and law student, the engineer and artisan, by those who are preparing for the universities, and, in short, by those who, having already entered upon the active pursuits of business, are still desirous to sustain and improve their knowledge of the general truths of physics, and of those laws by which the order and stability of the material world are maintained." The work, which is illustrated with upwards of four hundred woodcuts, is extremely well adapted for the object in question; and will, we have no doubt, obtain, as it deserves, a very extensive circulation among the various classes of readers for whose use it has been composed; and, in short, among all readers who desire to obtain a knowledge of the elements of physics without pursuing them through their mathematical consequences and details. The illustrations are generally of a popular character, and therefore the better calculated to impress upon the mind of the student the principles they are intended to explain.

The new volume of Mr. Bohn's _Standard Library_ consists of the third of Mr. Torrey's translation of Dr. Neander's _General History of the Christian Religion and Church_. The period included in the present division of this important contribution to ecclesiastical history extends from the end of the Diocletian persecution to the time of Gregory the Great, or from the year 312 to 590. A translation of _The Fasti, Tristia, Pontic Epistles, Ibis and Halieuticon of Ovid_, with copious notes by Henry T. Riley, B.A., is the last addition made by Mr. Bohn to his _Classical Library_. Though these translations furnish very imperfect pictures of the manner and style of the original writers, they supply the mere English reader with a good general notion of their matter, especially when they are as copiously annotated as the work before us.

We are informed that, in consequence of the great care and delicacy which is found to be required in the presswork of the _Lansdowne Shakspeare_, a beautiful volume, unique as a specimen of the art of typography, the publication will be unavoidably postponed for a few weeks.

Messrs. Sotheby and Co. (3. Wellington Street, Strand) will commence, on Wednesday next, a seven days' sale of the valuable Library of the date Rev. Dr. Penrose, which is particularly rich in books illustrated with engravings.

Books Received.--_Illustrations of Mediæval Costume in England, &c._, by C. A. Day and J. H. Dines: