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" Voltaire and his Times " naturally prepared the way for Robespierre—not that the first commanded the evil , but that the one was a necessary consequence of the other : —• " No doubt , " says Mr . Bungener , " those grand destructives of the eighteenth century would have returned also , had they seen what their work was to come to in the hands of their adepts . Call to mind Raynal , and his courageous letter ; Condorcet , and his bloody despair . Yes , Voltaire would have denounced the Reign of Terror very differently from the way in which he denounced that of the

League ; he would not assuredly have spared so many new follies the lash of his old scourge . As to Rousseau , I love to figure him to myself snatching from the hands of Robespierre those pages , so gentle in form , so ruthless in reality , in which the man of the guillotine had learned coolly to calculate how many heads had to be taken off in order that the ' Social Contract' might become the gospel of France . Voltaire and Rousseau , the day on which a Marat was given them as their companion in sepulture and in glory , seem in my ears to mutter with rage in their dust . I think I see them start up , and thrust him from them with horror . Such is the rehabilitation I offer them . "

"We have commented largely upon this very interesting work , which is ably written , well translated , and put before the public in Mr . Constable ' s usual style . There are many other points to which we would direct attention ; but the author well deserves a careful and entire perusal , and this we would urge upon all who are interested in the important topic of which he treats .

Choral Harmony : a Collection of Tunes in Short Score , for Four Voices . A . Companion to Metrical Versions of Psalms and Hymns By the Uev . Petee Maurice , D . D ., New College , Oxford , —The Rev . Peter Maurice is already well known as a graceful composer of classical sacred music ; hence the present volume must be looked

upon as the valuable contribution of an experienced hand to a most important subject . Every one who knows how many of our fine old psalm and hymn tunes have been garbled by spurious ornaments , or corrupted in the very basis of their harmonies , will hail with delight a collection of two hundred and fifty tunes , arranged in a manner

" * t V » "VXT h I / " » K » T ~ f ~ \ / " < " 11 /" ^ l */ i T- K » / "k T ¥ T / - » -l" »/~ l CI /~ k 4- 4 ~ U » / - » Tl / MT / - \ T »/ rn / I A /] ii-rtM iC * - » I 1 X- » « - » » -r- . rw " in which , " to quote the words of the reverend editor , " all have the advantage of taking the part suited to their compass of voice , without undue prominence of melody being given to any part in particular . Such , " he continues , " was the general character of the

older psalmody of the Protestant churches ; and its main excellence consisted in a judicious distribution of melody to the several parts , so that each voice might have its just proportion of variety ; whereas in the modern style , the melody is too often confined to one or two parts , while the other voices are left to fill up the harmony mechanically , with scarcely any melodic progression at all . "

The following observations are correct , and attest the excellency of Dr . Maurice ' s method : — " Attention has been paid to the restoring" of many old tunes to their original simplicity , by pruning off the additions , or grace-notes , so unsparingly appended to them , by which their true character bad been altered , and their chief beauty destroyed . Various are the sources to which these deformities might he traced ; but the chief one , no doubt , is that love of display by which an attempt is made to show off the voice or the instrument , which is too often a sign of want of taste ,