It was not a disappointment, but a glad discovery, to find himself more orthodox than he had supposed.*

My re-examination of those two volumes-not often consulted since I first read them more than a quarter of a century ago— and my recollections of the theological and ecclesiastical disturbance of which they were the occasion, have given me a new perception of their value as a contribution not to theology only but also to the advancement of religion. Freely and thankfully acknowledging their effect on myself, I cannot doubt that they have had a similar effect, though not always the same, on other minds. As their author called no man master, so he founded no school or party, and has left behind him no disciples that call themselves, or are called, by his name. But, what is far better, his influence embodied in those volumes has contributed much to make our New England theology-let me rather say, all the Evangelical theology of our English tongue-less rigidly scholastic, more Scriptural, broader in its views, more inspiring in its relations to the pulpit and to the Christian life. The one theme on which dissent from his doctrine has been loudest and most persistent is the work of Christ, the Atonement. Yet on that theme he has been an efficient teacher even of many who protest against his teaching. If, in their understanding of him, he has too little regarded those illustrations of the Atonement which theologians, and especially our New England theologians, have drawn from the nature of a moral government, he has nevertheless taught even the most scholastic and logical expositors that the saving work for which He who was at once the Son of God and the Son of Man came into our human world and lived and died, is a theme too large, too transcendent in its relations to the infinite and the eternal, to be illustrated by any one analogy, or to be comprehended and carried about in any formula. It is increasingly

*This is the explanation of what seemed to some of his friends a sort of inconsistency. Independent as he was in his thinking, he felt very painfully the accusation, the suspicion even, on the part of his brethren, that he had swerved from the truth of the gospel. He assumed that their experience had been not wholly unlike his own; and he was grieved that the views which had given him relief and victory in the conflict with the difficulties of theology, and had enabled him to see with joyful intuition so much of the glory of Christ, were to any of them the offense of heresy.

characteristic of Christian thought in these last years of our century, that the Evangelical Churches are turning from dogmas about Christ to Christ himself, "the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of his person.'

It is your privilege, dear Madam, to say, as you think of your honored husband who has gone before us, "I thank God that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee." I can say so with you.

Aug. 16, 1878.

Respectfully yours,

LEONARD BACON.

ARTICLE VII.-NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

PROFESSOR BORDEN P. BOWNE'S STUDIES IN THEISM* will be welcomed by all our readers who remember the excellent Articles in our Journal, which were afterwards enlarged and published in a volume under the title of The Philosophy of Herbert Spencer. The acuteness, boldness, and candor of those papers have been acknowledged by most critics who have read them. They have exerted a wholesome and much needed influence in dissipating the glamour with which the authority of Spencer has been invested in the minds of many confiding readers whose capacity for the ready discernment of remote analogies outstrips their sagacity in discriminating decisive differences, or whose viridescent acceptance of what they consider the dominant time spirit, overmasters their confidence in anticipating the judgment of all time. The present volume of Studies occupies a wider field of topics than the earlier volume, and gives evidence of wider reading on the part of the writer, and higher philosophical genius, if this were possible. It consists of a series of papers written from time to time, as would appear from the manner of treatment and the thoughts which are prominent in each. The topics are as follows: Knowledge and Scepticism; Knowledge and Belief; Postulates of Scientific Knowledge; Mechanism and Teleology; The Conservation of Energy; Substances and their Interaction; Theism and Pantheism; Relations of God to the World; The Relation of God to Truth and Righteousness; The Soul; Spiritualism or Materialism; Postulates of Ethics.

The thoughtful reader will easily discern the importance and significance of these topics, and also an order of progress in their arrangement. The significance of most of them will not be completely appreciated until each essay has been read and pondered, and its relation has been comprehended to the great questions involved in the assertion and defence of a truly Theistic Philosophy. The brief and abstract diction of the several titles scarcely indicates the nature of the topics discussed, and gives

* Studies in Theism. By BORDEN P. BOWNE, Professor of Philosophy in Boston University, and Author of The Philosophy of Herbert Spencer. New York: Phillips & Hunt. Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Walden. 1879.

no impression of the fullness and ability with which each of these topics is treated by the author. To the reader who is competent to understand and appreciate it, it cannot fail to commend itself as one of the most timely and satisfactory volumes which has of late been given to English readers upon the one yet manifold problem of modern thinking. The author gives abundant evidence of familiar acquaintance with the physical, the mathematical, and metaphysical aspects of modern science, of an erudite and yet critical mastery of the new and the newest products of German philosophizing, and of an earnest yet rational, ethical, and religious faith. Besides these essential qualifications for the successful solution of the problems proposed, he has brought to his task an independent and earnest love of truth, an acute yet thoroughly comprehensive and many sided judgment, and the command of a condensed and forcible style. If he fails at all, it is in presuming on the part of his readers a greater familiarity with the questions discussed than he has any right to suppose, and more than all in not sufficiently exemplifying the positions which he assails or criticises, by references and citations. We notice the absence of these and other desirable elements of a personal and concrete interest in his manner of treatment, simply because they may tend to diminish the interest of the so-called reading public in the volume. To those who will read it as a matter of course, and to those whose attention is specially directed to it, it will justify and commend itself as a work of rare excellence, and a fruitful treasure-house of valuable and timely thoughts.

FAITH AND RATIONALISM. BY PROF. FISHER.*-This thoughtful volume grew out of the preparation of an address delivered before the theological school in Princeton. Having written more than could be delivered, the author has published the address as written and has appended seven short essays on related subjects.

In the address the author presents the characteristics of faith, and the characteristics of rationalism; indicates the safeguard against superstition; notices the fact that "about every great Christian truth there is a debatable ground" in seeking the rationale of the truth and the "place for it in the general sum of knowledge;" and indicates "the limit of the believer's responsibility in relation to difficulties and objections brought against the

* Faith and Rationalism, with short supplementary essays on related topics. By GEORGE P. FISHER, D.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Yale College. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1879. 188 pp.

Articles of the Christian faith." Then, in the light of the principles thus set forth, he discusses several of the leading truths of religion, viz: the sources of our belief in God; the sources of Faith in a future life; the mystery of the Trinity; the problems of universal sin and individual responsibleness; the insufficiency of the moral view of the atonement; the reasonableness of the doctrine of the Spirit's influence; and the doctrine of the Scriptures, which are the rule of our faith and conduct.

The subjects of the appended essays are: the teaching of theology on the moral basis of faith; the doctrine of Nescience respecting God; the doctrine of evolution in its relation to the argument from design; the reasonableness of the Christian doctrine of prayer; Jesus not a religious enthusiast; the moral and spiritual elements in the atonement; the unity of belief among Christians.

This is a small book on great subjects. The treatment is designedly fragmentary-"little more than hints which I leave you to follow out for yourselves." The "hints" suggest lines of thought rather than single ideas, and open these lines of thought rather than develop them. The author's full and thorough knowledge of the history of doctrine is drawn upon to throw light on his subjects; for example, he exemplifies the teaching of theology as to the relations of faith to intelligence by citing the utterances of eminent theologians from Augustine to J. H. Newman; he traces an agreement in the representation of certain moral and spiritual elements of the atonement in Edwards, Campbell, Luther, Schleiermacher, and Rothe.

The volume is rich in thought, is eminently quickening and suggestive, and may be read with interest and profit by all earnest and vigorous thinkers on the great subjects which it dis

cusses.

MAN'S MORAL NATURE. BY DR. BUCKE.*-The author asserts that the doctrine of this volume is an original and spontaneous outgrowth of his own protracted thinking, and declares his conviction that it "has some novelty, truth, and importance." He discusses it solely from the point of view of the so-called Positive Science. He selects, as the elements of all moral feeling, the two *Man's Moral Nature; an Essay by RICHARD MAURICE BUCKE, M.D., Medical Superintendent of the Asylum for the Insane, London, Ontario. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Toronto, Ont.: Willing & Williamson. 1879. 12mo, xiii. and 200 pp.