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 abun dant 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.

pairs of qualities, Love and its opposite Hate, Faith and its opposite Fear. Of these four elements he supposes all the complex qualities of moral character are compounded. The Physical Basis of the moral nature is not the cerebro-spinal nervous system, but "the great sympathetic nervous system," ganglia and their ramifications which have important influence on the action of the heart, stomach, and intestinal tract. Thus he recognizes s physical basis for the popular and the scriptural language repre senting the "heart" and "bowels" as the seat of feeling. The Moral Nature is not a fixed quantity, but changes with the development of man from barbarism to civilization. According to the laws of evolution the change must be a progressive moral improvement, love and faith more and more gaining ascendancy over hate and fear. History shows that such has been the change. In confirmation he cites the fact that the Jewish race "is of all civilized races the first in vitality." "The average life of the Jew is at least six or eight years longer than the average life of the nonJewish inhabitants of the various countries in which the Jews live." This conclusion he rests on data given by Richardson in his last great work, "Diseases of Modern Life." Richardson explains this superior vitality as the result of better moral conduct. He says: "Happily we have not far to go to find many causes for the high vitality of a race which by comparison with the Saxon and Celtic is physically feeble. The causes are simply summed up in the term 'soberness of life.' The Jew drinks less than his 'even Christian;' he takes as a rule better food; he marries earlier; he takes better care of his poor; and he takes better care of himself. He does not boast of to-morrow, but he provides for it; and he holds tenaciously to all he gets. To our Saxon and Celtic eyes he carries these virtues too far; but thereby he wins, becomes powerful, and scorning boisterous mirth and passion, is comparatively happy." Dr. Bucke doubts whether there is sufficient difference in the outward conduct of Jews and Christians in the same country to account for the superior vitality of the former. But he believes it is due to a superior moral nature which is proved by their history. "Although these considerations (adduced by Richardson) are entitled to a certain amount of weight, I do not propose to rest my argument on them. I have surer ground. This ground is that the Jews have initiated the most advanced religions of the world during the whole course of its history. Could a race with a low moral nature origi