sono desunti dall' opuscolo di S. Bonaventura, intitolato de Psalterio B. V. :"

The following are the concluding sentences of the "Canticle, like that of Habakkuk iii :"

"O Benedicta, in manibus tuis est reposita nostra salus; recordare, pia, paupertatis nostræ.

"Quem vis, ipse salvus erit, et a quo avertis vultum tuum, vadit in interitum."

"O thou Blessed, our salvation rests in thy hands. Remember our poverty, Ŏ thou pious One.

"WHOM THOU WILLEST, HESHALL BE SAVED; AND HE FROM WHOM

THOU TURNEST AWAY THY COUN-
TENANCE, GOETH INTO DESTRUC-

TION." (Tyler, p. 353).

The Te Deum, and what is commonly called the Athanasian Creed, are both lamentably (we might almost say blasphemously) perverted to the praise of Mary, whose pretended assumption into heaven is thus specified as one of the points necessary to be believed, on pain of losing all hopes of salvation !

"Quicunque vult salvus esse, ante omnia opus est ut teneat de Maria firmam fidem.

"Quam demum ipse in cœlum assumpsit, et sedit ad dexteram Filii, non cessans pro nobis Filium

exorare.

"Hæc est fides de Maria Virgine: quam nisi quisque fideliter firmiterque crediderit, salvus esse non poterit."

"Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that we hold firm the faith concerning the Virgin Mary: which except a man keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.

"Whom at length he took up (assumpsit) unto heaven, and she sitteth at the right hand of her Son, not ceasing to pray to her Son for us.

"This is the faith concerning Mary the Virgin, which except one believe faithfully and firmly he cannot be saved."(Tyler, p.365).

Mr. Tyler concludes his extracts from Bonaventure with the following prayer, directly addressed to the Virgin Mary; and as he has not given the original Latin, we have subjoined it for the information of our readers. It is taken from the "Crown of the Blessed Virgin Mary:"

"O igitur imperatrix et Domina nostra benignissima, IURE MATRIS IMPERA TUO DILECTISSIMO FILIO DOmino nostro, Jesu Christo, ut mentes nostros ab amore terrestrium ad cœlestia desideria erigere dignetur." (Bonaventura Opera, tom. vi., p. 466, col. 1, E. Moguntiæ, 1609 fol.)

"Therefore, O Empress, and our most benign Lady, BY THY RIGHT OF MOTHER, COMMAND THY MOST BELOVED SON, our Lord Jesus Christ, that he vouchsafe to raise our minds from the care of earthly things to heavenly desires."

Mr. Tyler adduces numerous passages from the writings of Biel, Damianus, Bernardinus de Bustis, Bernardinus Senensis, and other writers and saints of the Romish Church, as well as from various modern works of devotion in use among Papists, not forgetting the extract from the encyclical letter of Gregory

XIV., the present bishop of the Holy Catholic Church sojourning at Rome, which we gave in our last number. (See pp. 179, 181). Among the more recent manuals of devotion in honour of the Virgin Mary, one only has escaped his indefatigable researches, viz., "The New Month of Mary," No. 3 in our list at the head of this article. This is a reprint of a transatlantic publication, which is introduced with the approbation of "Francis Patrick Kenrick, Bp. Arath. and Coadj. of Bp. Philadelphia." Within the last few years the author states that the special consecration of the month of May to the honour of the Virgin Mary has been introduced into the United States, where it "has been practised by numbers of the faithful servants of Mary, who eagerly profit by this opportunity of testifying their love and gratitude to the Holy Mother of God." (Pref. p. 3). We have room only for one specimen, in which the misguided votary prays directly To the Virgin for conversion and for grace, which it is the peculiar office of God the Holy Spirit to confer:

"O most powerful, because most faithful, of God's creatures! I presume to approach thee with a lively sentiment of my own unworthiness to address God, whose indignation I have so much deserved ; and with a strong conviction in the efficacy of thy intercession with Jesus, thy Divine Son, who has placed in thy hands all power and strength. May these sentiments always increase within me, that I may never presume on my own strength, but place all my confidence in thee. OBTAIN FOR ME, O GLORIOUS VIRGIN, A SINCERE CONVERSION, STRENGTH AND RESOLUTION IN THE HOUR OF TRIAL, AND THE GRACE OF FINAL PERSEVERANCE. Jesus can refuse thee nothing; whereas my iniquities render my prayers unworthy of being regarded by him. Thou hast crushed the head of the infernal serpent, and snatched from him the prey which he hoped to possess for ever. 0 powerful Mary, preserve me against the rude assaults by which he endeavours to regain what he has lost; and do not permit me ever more to relapse into my former state of servitude. Amen." (New Month of Mary, p. 72).

We return to Mr. Tyler, to state that, in his appendix, he has convicted Dr. Wiseman, the most recent advocate of Popery, of citing as genuine various spurious passages of some of the fathers of the Church; but this is nothing new in the annals of Popish controversy. In an early part of his volume Mr. T. has convicted Bellarmine of the like fraud. In conclusion, we tender our thanks to Mr. Tyler for his valuable labours in exposing the idolatrous worship of the Virgin Mary by the Romish Church, and we cordially recommend his volume to our readers, who will derive much information on a prominent article of the Romish faith, respecting which the majority of Protestants are very inadequately informed.

429

ART. VII.-The Choephora of Aeschylus. With Notes, Critical, Explanatory, and Philological. By the Rev. THOMAS WILLIAMSON PEILE, M.A., late Senior Fellow and Tutor in the University of Durham. London: John Murray. 1840.

IN a shorter time than might have been expected from the nature of the work, Mr. Peile has produced his promised edition of a second play of Aeschylus-the "Choephori"-accompanied with a most laborious and voluminous commentary of nearly four hundred pages of very closely printed letter-press. Although the "Choephori" is a much shorter play than the " Agamemnon," the editor's notes upon it exceed in length those upon the latter by about fifty pages; and are, indeed, evidently penned in total defiance of the old adage-A great book is a great evil.

That these notes are a great deal too long, we are decidedly of opinion, be they intended for learners, matured scholars, or both at once; and that the writer of them is not gifted with the art of condensing, or expressing with conciseness, what he has to say, we think equally undeniable. The bulk of the work is augmented by a vast addition of Latin notes, which Mr. Peile has very freely extracted from previous editions, and interspersed with his own observations upon them and upon the text: the whole forming, when taken together, a painfully tedious and verbose miscellany, which few, we suspect, will have courage to encounter, and still fewer perseverance to read half through.

There are several objections to be made against the modern system of writing long rambling English notes in what is miscalled illustrating ancient authors: the fact being, that, in nine cases out of ten, the writers are anxious only to illustrate themselves. The necessarily high prices at which such works are to be procured; the great mass of extraneous matter they invariably contain; and their consequent liability to retard or discourage the enterprising reader in his progress through the entire works of an ancient author, by making him dwell an unconscionable time upon a very small portion of that author, "illustrated" by a commentary, which, perhaps, takes as long to read as would the whole of the original; these are some of the reasons which induce us to doubt the expediency of a practice which now appears likely to be generally adopted by too ambitious or too communicative editors. The same opinion we from the first entertained respecting the lengthy pleasantries of a learned editor of Aristophanes; but Mr. Peile has fairly out-Mitchelled Mr. Mitchell, and to him must the palm of prolixity now be awarded by unanimous consent.