how to suffer for their faith, but they were no less men who knew how to be diligent in business. The town-council were soon applied to for permission to set a-going manufactures which Zürich had never seen. A meadow, granted rent-free, was covered with mulberry trees, which throve luxuriantly in the new soil; silkworms were introduced and silk-mills rose; woad and other dyestuffs were grown, and the looms of Zürich soon sent forth fabrics to compete in distant markets with the choicest manufactures of Italy. As we follow Meyer through his many interesting details, we feel how manifestly God sent his blessing on the city when she stretched a kind hand to welcome Christ's persecuted children.

And now that the congregation were fairly settled in their new home, one would fain inquire more closely into their spiritual state. Willingly would we get beneath the surface, and know how far, through God's grace, their persecutions had been sanctified-how vital religion flourished among their members; but alas! it is not from kirk-session records, or such other documents as have come down, that this is to be learned. It is well to find Bullinger calling them the best Italian congregation in Germany or Switzerland; but we know really little beyond what relates to their external circumstances. They enjoyed certainly a high privilege in the ministry of Vermiglio, whom, in 1556, they called as colleague to Occhino. Vermiglio, better known by the name of Peter Martyr, is one of the best and noblest characters among the Italian reformers. After his escape from the Inquisition, he had taught as professor at Strasburg, where his talent and learning cast even Bucer into the shade. During the reign of Edward VI., he had, at Cranmer's request, gone to England, and Presbyterian though he was, had taught as professor at Oxford. When in the face of bloody Mary, Cranmer offered to defend the English Reformation, Vermiglio (Peter Martyr) was one of the associates on whose aid he relied. Cranmer fell, but his trusted friend escaped to Antwerp, and returned to teach at Strasburg. On the death of Pellican, in 1556, he was offered a chair at Zürich, and on his acceptance, the Locarnese congregation gladly elected him one of their pastors. It was a joyful day for Bullinger when Vermiglio was installed-they lived together as brethren, mutually beloved. The influence of such a man in the congregation must have been signally important.

They had their difficulties too; not the least of which was the dismissal of Occhino under the too clearly proved charge of having, in his extreme old age, lapsed into heresy. The congregation anxiously took steps to clear themselves from all appearance of participating in his sentiments, but we can well under

stand how sorrowfully they must have seen their aged pastor, with a stain on his memory, take his departure to die in a distant land. No successor was called to fill his place, or that of Vermiglio. A new generation was rising, familiar with the language and customs of Zürich, and ere long they dispersed themselves among the other congregations. Gradually, though with much difficulty, they won their way to the full enjoyment of all burghal privileges; by intermarriage they became connected with the leading families; and to this present day not a few who hold a high position in the society of Zürich, reckon among their ancestory the exiles of Locarno.

There is much interesting collateral information in this work, which we are unable here to touch. The closing days of Altieri are laid open-days of dark struggling for Christ's cause, of broken fortunes, and we almost fear of a broken heart. Dr M'Crie, however, seems to have been mistaken in supposing that he died in the Inquisition. The course of Vergerio is minutely traced, one of the most able and bustling of those Italians who adhered to the work of Reformation, but whom it is hardly possible to acquit of duplicity. A remarkable letter is given from Venetscher, a preacher near Wirtemberg, who had gone on a visit to his native Swiss valleys, and who paints the sad change wrought by religious contention and bigotry on the Romanist populationhow rudely they repulsed his salutations, and what suspicious glances they turned on him: They have lost,' he exclaims, these Swiss of ours, all the hereditary courtesy for which they were celebrated.' We have a complaint given in by Roll to the Diet, blaming the priests of Locarno for dressing badly, and tracing the progress of reformed opinion in a good measure to this uncanonical raiment; and the cantons take up the question of vestments in a spirit quite as enlightened as if they had been so many Oxford Puseyites. We are told in 1555, of a parcel of twelve Bibles accidentally discovered on their way from Zürich to the Vallais, and what a sensation this formidable fact excited,-how all Popish Switzerland was agitated-moved apparently by that instinct which teaches the Papist of every clime and age to shrink from Scripture as his most formidable foe. Then in 1559-61 we find a struggle on the part of the Jesuits to ef fect a settlement on Swiss ground, in which the daring pertinaeity of that body is met and successfully resisted by the Protestant authorities. How strangely do such things link the history of the past with events even now going on around us! How vividly do we feel, at every step, that the old struggle, with many even of its minutest circumstances, has come back into the world! How truly has God in these days called us to stand.

where our fathers stood! May it be given us faithfully to testify until the end shall come, looking to the great cloud of witnesses, and looking especially to Jesus who hath suffered for us, leaving us an example.

Switzerland has ever been interesting to the Scottish Presbyterian; but our feelings are now taking a deeper and more earnest tone, as we turn from day to day towards the Canton de Vaud. The land of Calvin has ever been dear,-her faithful Ichildren we have loved as almost our own kinsmen after the flesh; but that land is becoming dearer than ever,-her children are drawing closer than before, the ties of brotherhood. Through all her congregations our Church hath borne them on her heart to a throne of grace, and never was interest deeper than that with which we watch the path wherein our common God is guiding our beloved brethren.

If Switzerland, however, is to draw on herself the gaze of the religious world, the interest and value of such works as Meyer's will be much enhanced. To understand fully the present state of parties, it is necessary to let in on them the light of history. Zürich we have seen of old throwing her shield round the brethren of Locarno, and she stands to this day in the foremost rank of the Protestant cantons. Lucerne we have seen the fierce champion of Popery with her hand ever on the sword-hilt; and even now, she is wiping her sword, recently wet with Swiss blood, which she shed in fighting the battle of Jesuitism. Such an instance of parallelism sufficiently shows how valuable are the lessons of history, and how impossible it were to estimate aright the present position of the cantons, unless we take into account their ancient struggles and their ancestral faith.

We shall be glad, therefore, if the preceding sketch-slight when compared with the materials from which it is drawn-shall have the effect of calling attention to the volumes before us. They are replete with minute information on the history of Switzerland for a considerable period succeeding the death of Zuingle. The author is indeed no D'Aubigné, his spirit is more akin to the indifferentism of Ranke; but he has ransacked every repository of manuscript near him, with the industry of a German, and he has told the results with the patriotism of a Swiss. His narrative, without much profound thought, flows easily and attractively, while his notes and appendices (despite much antiquated, crabbed Swiss-German, somewhat hard to our foreign eyes,) give so many glimpses into old modes of life and thought, that they form one great charm of the book. We regret to learn that since the publication of his work the youthful author is dead; for whatever might be thought of his qualifications for

the highest functions of the historian, few have ever displayed such talent for patient research, and fewer still have embodied the results in a narrative so graceful or unpretending. We cordially recommend his volumes to all who wish a minute acquaintance with the period to which they refer.

ART. III.—A Dictionary of the English Language, containing the Pronunciation, Etymology, and Explanation of all Words authorised by Eminent Writers; to which are added a Vocabulary of the Roots of English Words, and an Accented List of Greek, Latin, and Scripture Proper Names. By ALEXANDER REID, A.M., Rector of the Circus Place School, Edinburgh; Author of Rudiments of English Composition," &c. Edinburgh, 1844. Pp. 564.

THE Columns of a dictionary seem to present little that is attractive, either to the reviewer or the reader, yet are they not suggestive of thoughts of deepest interest? They present to our mind the instruments of man's power, and of man's civilisation, and the means by which the tide of knowledge has been enabled ever to advance, still receiving fresh accessions from age to age. By these instruments man received from the living God his most holy law written on the tables of stone; by them have been transmitted to our own day the records of the primeval world; by them, fathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, though dead, yet speak; by them, the boundaries of space and time are at once removed, and the thoughts of those in the most distant countries, or at the most remote ages, are transmitted to us almost with the warmth and freshness with which they first issued from the mind that conceived them.

By nature a social being, and dependent on his sympathy and intercourse with others for much of his enjoyment, how limited would that intercourse be, and how curtailed his enjoyments, did man possess no other vehicle than speech for the transmission of his thoughts and feelings! The old Roman moralist has well described the position of man as a solitary being; and if the mere union of a family, or a tribe, can effect such a change, what important consequences may we not ascribe to that invention, by which nations the most remote, and people the most widely separated, can hold converse together :

"Fac nos singulos: quid sumus? Præda animalium et victimæ, ac vilissimus et facillimus sanguis; quoniam caeteris animalibus in tutelam sui, satis virium est. Quæcunque vaga nascuntur et actura vitam segregem

armata sunt. Hominem imbecillitas cingit: non unguium vis, non dentium terribilem, cæteris fecit. Nudum et infirmum, societas munit. So cietas illi dominium omnium animalium dedit; societas terris genitum, in alienæ naturæ transmisit imperium, et dominari etiam in mari jussit. Hæc morborum impetus arcuit, senectuti adminicula prospexit, solatia contra dolores dedit; hæc fortes nos facit, quod licet contra fortunam advocare."*

Written language is the instrument by which much of this has been effected; and in a dictionary we have the materials of which this language is composed. Here they lie scattered before us with all the pretence of order, and yet in the utmost confusion, so far as real method is concerned; and as our eye follows down each successive column, we may well excuse the weariness which steals over us, until sleep at length closing our eyes, strange visions, born of the disjecta membra,' on which we have been gazing, float before us. We see the primeval world appear, thinly peopled with the first races of mankind, giants in years as well as strength. Yon aged man, around whom are clustered a group of eager listeners,-eight long centuries have already passed over his head, and yet is not his eye dim, nor his natural force abated. No written documents,-no inspired Scripture, is to be found; and though centuries have passed since God conversed with man, yet these long lives seem preserved, that the fathers of the old world may transmit, with no uncertain sound, that Divine will, which, from the beginning of time, has been revealed to man. As yet there is no dispersion of the families of the earth; time and space have done little to separate these men of the old world; face to face, they can hold converse together, and the articulate speech with which they were at first endowed, serves every purpose which language can fulfil.

But other visions of the passages of time appear. Floating along the stream, which flows from the period of creation to the present moment, our progress is suddenly arrested. Much has passed in the world since last we looked upon it. The deluge has swept away a guilty race; one family alone has been saved, and by them the earth has been replenished. The three sons of that ancient preacher of righteousness have occupied their allotted places, and from their loins have sprung numerous families, by whom the world has again been peopled. No longer gathered into one, the Divine commission has been issued, by which the earth has been given to the children of men, and each family has gone forth to possess its lawful inheritance. We see them spread abroad upon the face of creation, and oral communication no longer serves for the interchange of thought.

* Sèneca de Beneficiis, lib. iv. c. 18.