Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/267

 ID"- S.V.MARCH n, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

roundly. Though he is a " Doctor Juris," he hardly seems to possess the judicial frame of mind and accurate learning which entitle him to convict scholars like Noldeke and Wellhausen of ignorance and absurdity. He singles out Winckler, who is notoriously one of the most speculative and fanciful of German savants, and dilates on his extravagances as if they were fair samples of what is urged and approved by the Higher Criticism generally.

Indeed, we have some doubts whether the writer himself is immaculately orthodox when we find him reserving his praises for writers like Buckle and Mr. J. G. Frazer, Giordano Bruno and Spinoza. He quotes with approval the opinion of the last named that the true knowledge of Hebrew has perished from among men, and that " the meaning of many words which occur in the Bible we are utterly ignorant of, or they are matter of dispute " (p. 37). Surely this strange remark from a Biblical critic is suicidal. He is cutting off the very branch on which he is sitting. If we do not know the language in which the Old Testament is written, there is no room for criticism, High or Low. Dr. Reich is content to use this very crooked stick to beat the critics, because it is one chief part of his argument that " the nightmare of Ancient Oriental philology " supports the enemy. For his part, he would have been well content if the hieroglyphs of Egypt and the cuneiform of Assyria had never been deciphered (p. 5) a candid and characteristic admission of obscurantism ! And yet, with strange inconsistency, he readily accepts and grasps at the accounts of the legends of the Masai, a rude African tribe, which have lately been reported by a German explorer, Capt. Merker, because they suit his pur- pose. One would think the interpretation of the Masai dialect was much more open to suspicion than that of Hebrew or even Assyrian.

We notice, too, that Dr. Reich ventures some-

times to play the Hiher Critic on his own account. The w

writers of the Tel-el-Amarna letters

(about 1500 B.C.) bewail their helpless condition in the presence of their invaders, and appeal to the Pharaoh for reinforcements. " This cannot be de- nied," yet Dr. Reich puts his own gloss on these docu- ments, and asserts that these writers were not help- less at all nor dependent upon Egypt (p. 43). Again, he defeats his object by extravagant statements like these : " The Old Testament is by Higher Criticism declared to be a forgery " (p. 83). " The spade, now so busy in Palestine, will undoubtedly, and in the near future, unearth a copy of Genesis in the cunei- form script, dating from the thirteenth or twelfth century u.c ....... This is the lie direct to all the

theories of the ' Higher Critics '" ! (p. 186).

Many other minor matters we blench at, e.g., the playful apostrophizing of an opponent as "Doctore subtilissime " (p. 100) ; the misspelling of Goldziher's name (p. 142) ; the reference to Prof. Cornill as "the mmical Higher Critic" (p. 163), and to "the ill-scanned atmosphere of reality" (p. 183).

In fine, Dr. Reich's slight and crude attempt, flippant in manner and ponderous in persiflage, is not conclusive against the critics ; and if any one of them should think it worth while to issue a reply, he might fairly entitle it ' The Failure of the Attack on the Higher Criticism.'

MR. E. J. SAGE. At 10 th S. iv. 480, 540, reference was made to the decease of this old contributor to 'N. & Q.' We may now add that Mr. Sage be-

queathed to the Stoke Newington Public Library the whole of his books, prints, pictures, and manu- scripts, to be kept as part of the reference library. The bequest comprises 5,000 to 6,000 volumes of standard works, including early editions of John- son and Walpole, much about Sir Joshua Reynolds,. &c., and large collections of manuscripts relating: to the districts of Barking and Romford in Essex, beside some very valuable prints. As Mr. Sage- resided for a long time at Mark's Gate, Dagenham, where his father was deputy steward of the lore? of the manor he had unique opportunities to- collect.

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES.

MR. EDWARD BAKER, of Birmingham, has a cata- logue devoted to books on Railways. Those who- want to know about the origin, rise, and progress of railways (including atmospheric and electric- railways), also about accidents, Acts of Parliament, and people connected with them, should procure this list. Mr. Baker has also a general list of books, mostly new, " at bargain prices."

Mr. Thomas Baker has Dngdale's ' Monasticon. Anglicanum,' 1817, 24. ; a set of the Bampton Lec- tures, 112 vols., 35/. ; ' Ephraem Syri Opera Omnia/ 10/. ; 'S. Thomse Aquinatis Opera Omnia,' 18 vols-., 1570, HI. ; Morris's ' Old English Mansions,' 4 vote. 4to, II. 5x. ; and Philbert's * Annales de la Societe des Soi-disans Jesuites,' 5 vols., 4to, 21. 12-s. 6V/. Mr, Baker also publishes a list of books " Wanted fco Purchase"; he leaves to would-be sellers the re- sponsibility of stating price.

Mr. Thomas Baker has also a catalogue of Catholic Theology, which is divided into Modern Books and Old Books. The latter includes Mansi, 'Conciliorum Nova et Amplissima Collectio,' 175$- 1798, 31 vols., folio, 60^. ; Gallandus, Bibliotheca Grseco-Latina Veterum Patrum,' 1765-88, 14 vols folio, 381. : and ' St. Thomse Aquinatis Opera Omnia,' 1570, 18 vols. in 14, folio, 121. 10s-.

Mr. B. H. Blackwell, of Oxford, devotes hi* March list mostly to topographical works. We- note a few : Collinson's ' Somerset,' Bath, 1791, Ql. 6s.; Atkyns's 'Gloucestershire,' 1768, 8/. Ss - Dunkin's 'Oxfordshire,' 1823, 51. 5s. (only 100 copies printed, of which 70 were for sale) ; Fulleylove-'s 'Oxford,' 1903, 21. 2s. (one of 300 copies) ; Kilkenny Archaeological Society's Transactions, 1855-90, 4^.' and Archceologia Cambrensis, 51 vols., 211.

Mr. Bertram Dobell has first and early editions of Byron, Dickens, Scott, Tennyson, and Thacke- ray ; also the first edition of ' Fors Clavigera,' 50-$. ~ 'Modern Painters,' vols. i.-iv. (vols. iii. and iv. first editions), 51. 10*. ; Lamb's 'Tales from Shake- speare,' fourth edition,, 10*. 6d. Landor's 'Ima- ginary Conversations,' 1826-9, 5 vols., 40-9. ; Leigh Hunt's Reflector, original edition, 2 vols., 10-9. 6d. - and Charlotte Bronte's 'Shirley,' first edition, 1849^ 26*. There are interesting items under Alpine, taking us back to the days of Albert Smith.

Messrs. William George's Sons, of Bristol, have- a very interesting catalogue of 850 items, entirely military.

Mr. George P. Johnston, of Edinburgh, has two. catalogues, one being devoted to English Pamphlets 1618-1700. The other contains rare Scottish Tract* before 1700. About 350 of the entries bear the imprints of Scottish printers. Most of them have- been collected during the last ten years, and many