period consisted of uncritical expositions of German liberal criticism based upon the mediating pattern established by S. R. Driver, with only slight variations on the fundamental theme being countenanced. Such were characteristics of the books by J. E. Carpenter, H. E. Ryle, A. F. Kirkpatrick, W. H. Bennett, J. Strachan, A. T. Chapman, and A. B. Davidson.27 Although the tide of literary criticism was running high at the end of the nineteenth century, its onslaught by no means went unchallenged In