The Village Chimes: A Pastoral (1871)
https://books.google.gr/books/about/The_village_chimes_a_pastoral_c.html?id=zWgCAAAAQAAJ&redir_esc=y
The Brontës: Fact And Fiction (1897)
"THE nucleus of the longer essay in this little volume is an article in the Westminster Review of October 1895, which is now out of print. I enlarge it and republish it at the solicitation of some of those who read it in its original form, and with the desire to set at rest a vexed question of Bronte bibliography. An attempt to apply the methods of the ''higher criticism" to a modern book is novel and may prove not uninteresting.Let me hasten to say that I make no charge of dishonesty against Dr. William Wright. I concern myself with the credibility of the book, not with the motives or character of its author. In the seventeenth century, long before the key to Egyptian hieroglyphics was discovered, Kircher professed to give translations of Egyptian stelae ; he was enthusiastic, he was honest, he had spent years in studying the subject, nothing could be laid to his charge except, perhaps, a little unconscious self-deception—and yet his translations bore not the slightest resemblance to the true meaning of the originals. So Dr. Wright has, I am informed, been diligent in inquiry, and I do not accuse him of bad faith ; but I am convinced that his volume is unreliable almost from cover to cover.
It may, perhaps, be thought that the matter is here dealt with in too great detail. It may be asked. Why break a fly upon the wheel ? But It must be remembered that Dr. Wright's book has passed through several editions, It was received with a chorus of approval by the critics, and Its narratives have been widely accepted as history : only a very thorough exposure of Its unreliability can extirpate the errors which It has sown broadcast. But I have no doubt that the facts set forth In the following pages will carry complete conviction with them, and that those who possess The Brontës in Ireland will henceforth merely treasure it for what it is—one of the curiosities of nineteenth-century literature.
The other essay In this little book—which is here printed first—deals mainly with the secret tragedy In Charlotte Bronte's life which had so remarkable an effect in quickening and directing her genius. Circumstances have made it necessary to treat the matter now with perfect frankness, but I trust I have said nothing which is not compatible with entire reverence for one of the noblest and most gifted of women." (Preface)
https://archive.org/details/brontsfactandfi00masogoog
https://archive.org/details/brontsfactandfi00mackgoog
https://archive.org/details/brontsfactfict00mackrich/page/n7/mode/2up
The Churchman's Introduction To The Old Testament (1907 · 2nd Edition)
"THIS volume is intended primarily for the intelligent layman. It is hoped that it will prove helpful to him in two ways : by removing some of the difficulties which accompany the study of the Old Testament as a whole, and by rendering the several books comprised in it more easily comprehensible.Every educated man who has reached middle age must be aware that certain views regarding the Old Testament writings which were almost unquestioned in his childhood are now regarded by many earnest and gifted Christian scholars as partially erroneous. He is dimly conscious that the latest results of science will not square with these views ; that the word "inspiration" has to some extent changed its meaning ; that modern methods of criticism do not always confirm what was formerly assumed concerning the dates and authors of the books of the Old Testament. He sees that the theory of evolution throws light not only upon the phenomena of the physical sciences but upon human life in all its departments, and he cannot but suspect that it ought to have a similar illuminating power when applied to religion. Too often the uneasy consciousness of these facts prompts the man who is bent upon retaining his faith to one of two erroneous courses : either he maintains an unnatural separation between his secular and religious beliefs, or he steadily refuses to look at any form of knowledge which even seems to conflict with opinions in which he has been brought up. It is the purpose of the following pages to expose the unwisdom of such timidity; to show that if we set aside merely fantastic speculations and accept only what modern criticism has fairly established, the result is not loss but gain—a gain which may be thus summarised : innumerable difficulties inherent in the narrative under the old view are removed ; the books gain in intelligibleness by being placed in their right historical setting ; and, above all, the Divine economy of revelation, so to speak, is seen to possess a cohesion and an orderliness which were formerly lacking. This book is in no sense, then, an apology ; it is a vindication.
Besides removing some of the difficulties which accompany the study of the Old Testament as a whole, it is hoped that these pages may make clear the meaning of the several books contained in it." (Preface)
https://archive.org/details/churchmansintrod00mack/page/n5/mode/2up