ders of poetry; and it is not hard to believe, if we
believe in ourselves for the future, that he is destined to an
ever-growing regard and fame. He makes appeal, however mystically, only
to what is fine and deep and true and noble in men, and no doubt those
who have always loved his poetry have reason to be proud of their
pleasure in it. Let us of the present be wise enough to accept
thankfully what genius gives us in its double character of bard and
prophet, saying, when we enjoy the song, "Ah, this is the poet that now
sings!" and when the meaning is dark, "Now we have the seer again!"

_An Historical Sketch of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the
Christian Church._ By HENRY C. LEA. Philadelphia: J. B.
Lippincott & Co. 1867.

This exhaustive treatise of Mr. Lea upon ecclesiastical celibacy we take
to possess, like his excellent work upon "Superstition and Force," all
the capital requisites of an historical monograph,--an immense body of
information and of reference on the subject in hand, a sufficiently cool
and dispassionate manner of presenting facts, and a severe adherence to
the central question. The amount of research and indeed of scholarship
involved in the preparation of this volume is such as to command the
warmest recognition. In these days of "picturesque" histories, of hasty
criticism, and of precipitate generalizations, it is very gratifying to
encounter a writer who construes his obligations with such austerity as
Mr. Lea. He is content to marshal his facts and his _data_ into such an
order that under a close inspection no one of them conceals the
half-genuine look of its neighbor. He lets them tell their own story for
good or for evil, and is never guilty, through the wish to be vivid and
effective, of spreading his colors outside of the lines drawn by his
authorities. Within these lines even his tints are sober and discreet,
and careful not to depart too widely from those somewhat neutral hues
which, wherever man's knowledge of the past rests upon accidentally
preserved documents and monuments, must continue to be the colors of
history. Nevertheless, with all the various merits of a well-executed
monograph, Mr. Lea's work has certain of the corresponding defects.
Perhaps, indeed, it were more just to say that these defects correspond
to the limitations of the general reader's knowledge, rather than to any
imperfection in the author's programme. In the course of a special
history executed on su