Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
Captain Jesse , on " Russia and the War ; " * and another , of a very comprehensive character , by Captain Spenser , on " Turkey , Russia , the Black Sea , and Circassia . " f To these must he added a reprint of a very clever article in leaser ' s Magazine , which excited very considerable and deserved attention , under the title of "Cronstadt , and the Russian Eleet ; " % while two law books , § ¦ on matters connected with maritime warfare and belligerent rihtscompleteup to the present timethe swelling list of
g , , , works which may be fairly considered the direct , and in these days of authorship , the necessary result of the war which is now dragging its slow length along in the North and iu the East . In the way of history we have to mention Dean Milman ' s work on " Papal Christianity iintil the time of Nicholas the Fifth , " || 1417—1455 . It is at present in three volumes , but whether it is to be continued and brought down to the present eentAiry we know not ; although we have
been given to understand that further volumes are in preparation . So fiir , however , as it extends , in the present , it is excellent . Tho rapid glance at the rise and progress of Christianity , which occupies the first volume , and the account of the origin and growth of Papal poAver in tho remaining two , are really exquisite pieces of English prose , apart from any other merit , which they most undoubtedly possess . The subject is an important one , and Doctor Milman brings to his task a liberal spirit of
fair inquiry , AA'hich we are glad to see has nothing either bigoted , indifferent , or intolerant about it . An eminent and painstaking contemporary critic has admirably illustrated the importance of the undertaking : — " The subjects , " he says , " are great in their actors , their wants , and the social interests they embrace ; they admit of being presented in marked epochs , which not only possess the interest of striking masses , but impress themselves distinctly on tbe mind . Their great importance , both as regards necessary knowledge and reliious disputesrather detracts from the novelty of the matter . The oriin and
g , g causes , the claims , powers , and usurpations of the popedom , have been narrated in various histories , as well as discussed in countless treatises . The great Fathers of the Latin Church , as Jerome , Augustine—the great missionaries of the heathen in Britain and Germany—the great schoolmen of the middle ages , more especially Abelard , from other causes than his scholarship—the great founders of disciplined monarohism , from St . Benedict downwards—and the leading popes , whether truly greatmen , like Gregory , or combining , likeHildebrand , cruelty and criminal ambition with mental and and the vices inseparable from the riesthood—have
grasp power , p been painted in special biographies , most of them in controversies , while they figure in regular history , whether secular or ecclesiastical . It is the same with the civil or military actors , whose greatness , or occasionally , whose weakness , vices , and misfortunes , made their age an epoch . The capture of Rome and the devastation of the Western Empire by Alaric and other barbarian leaders , the reigns of Justinian , of Charlemagne , of several of the German emperors , and of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
Captain Jesse , on " Russia and the War ; " * and another , of a very comprehensive character , by Captain Spenser , on " Turkey , Russia , the Black Sea , and Circassia . " f To these must he added a reprint of a very clever article in leaser ' s Magazine , which excited very considerable and deserved attention , under the title of "Cronstadt , and the Russian Eleet ; " % while two law books , § ¦ on matters connected with maritime warfare and belligerent rihtscompleteup to the present timethe swelling list of
g , , , works which may be fairly considered the direct , and in these days of authorship , the necessary result of the war which is now dragging its slow length along in the North and iu the East . In the way of history we have to mention Dean Milman ' s work on " Papal Christianity iintil the time of Nicholas the Fifth , " || 1417—1455 . It is at present in three volumes , but whether it is to be continued and brought down to the present eentAiry we know not ; although we have
been given to understand that further volumes are in preparation . So fiir , however , as it extends , in the present , it is excellent . Tho rapid glance at the rise and progress of Christianity , which occupies the first volume , and the account of the origin and growth of Papal poAver in tho remaining two , are really exquisite pieces of English prose , apart from any other merit , which they most undoubtedly possess . The subject is an important one , and Doctor Milman brings to his task a liberal spirit of
fair inquiry , AA'hich we are glad to see has nothing either bigoted , indifferent , or intolerant about it . An eminent and painstaking contemporary critic has admirably illustrated the importance of the undertaking : — " The subjects , " he says , " are great in their actors , their wants , and the social interests they embrace ; they admit of being presented in marked epochs , which not only possess the interest of striking masses , but impress themselves distinctly on tbe mind . Their great importance , both as regards necessary knowledge and reliious disputesrather detracts from the novelty of the matter . The oriin and
g , g causes , the claims , powers , and usurpations of the popedom , have been narrated in various histories , as well as discussed in countless treatises . The great Fathers of the Latin Church , as Jerome , Augustine—the great missionaries of the heathen in Britain and Germany—the great schoolmen of the middle ages , more especially Abelard , from other causes than his scholarship—the great founders of disciplined monarohism , from St . Benedict downwards—and the leading popes , whether truly greatmen , like Gregory , or combining , likeHildebrand , cruelty and criminal ambition with mental and and the vices inseparable from the riesthood—have
grasp power , p been painted in special biographies , most of them in controversies , while they figure in regular history , whether secular or ecclesiastical . It is the same with the civil or military actors , whose greatness , or occasionally , whose weakness , vices , and misfortunes , made their age an epoch . The capture of Rome and the devastation of the Western Empire by Alaric and other barbarian leaders , the reigns of Justinian , of Charlemagne , of several of the German emperors , and of