"Few readers of French are unacquainted with the works of Florian. His style, at once elegant and easy, has universally recommended him to the teachers of language, and Telemachus is commonly succeeded or supplanted by some work of Florian. In the circulating libraries the Tales of Florian are almost as generally read as those of Voltaire and Marmontel. He possesses indeed very great attractions for the lovers of light reading. His narrative is spirited and interesting. Love, Friendship, and Heroism are his themes, and he commonly descants upon them with that genuine warmth which results from the combination of sensibility with genius.
"The feelings with him are never exalted at the expense of virtue. His women are tender without licentiousness, and his heroes daring without violating the laws of their country, or questioning the existence of their Creator. He combines the morality of Fenelon with the enthusiasm of Rousseau or St. Pierre. His writings derive an additional charm from his glowing descriptions of the beauties of nature. He seems tenaciously to uphold the poetical connection between rural life and moral purity, and loves to annex to tales of love and hardihood their appropriate scenery of rivers, woods, and mountains."--_London Quarterly Review._
The Unity of the Truth in Christianity and Evolution. By J. Max Hark, D.D. 12mo. 293 pages. Small Pica type, leaded, cloth, gilt top, uncut pages, _90c._
Few books of its kind recently published have aroused more discussion and called forth more varied and contradictory opinions. For example, _The Andover Review_ gave fifteen pages to a criticism of its positions; while _The Christian Union_, of equal authority, declares that "The volume deserves to take rank with the works of Munger, Newman Smyth, and Prof. Drummond." The N. Y. _Independent_, though granting that "in many respects the volume is instructive and suggestive," and "its aim merits commendation," has devoted over four columns to combatting its arguments; whereas the critical _Sunday-School Times_ has heartily commended it in a leading review. While the _Presbyterian Quarterly_ (S. C.) condemns it as being "of no more use than to show the antagonism of the human heart to the things of God," the _Reformed Review_ (Pa.) praises it as "an earnest effort towards the solution of a grave and difficult problem," and says, "The author deserves the thanks of all who are sincerely interested in the progress of religion and in the welfare of the Church." Such contradictions from such sources are the strongest proof of the importance of the work, and of the need of every intelligent person's reading and judging it for himself. At the same time, however, by far the greater weight of criticism, religious and secular, is favorable to it, as will be seen by the following few