nate a high religion? That is like asking, has a man with a low moral nature a high moral nature? or, is a short man tall? No one, I fancy, will dispute, if he is capable of understanding what he is talking about, that the race which produced the lawgivers, psalmists, prophets, and finally Jesus himself, was and therefore doubtless is, the race which possessed and possesses the supreme moral nature of this planet. Here, then, we have one instance of length of life associated with a high moral nature."

The Means of the moral development of the race have been Natural Selection, Sexual Selection, Social Life, Art, and Religion. This development must go on towards completeness, realizing a much higher moral nature in the future. The whole development has revealed and will more fully reveal the essential fact of the universe: "The real nature of the universe is such that it warrants on our part unlimited love and absolute trust. ... The highest moral nature is nearest in accord with the truth of things."

CODMAN'S "ROUND TRIP."*-The connection between the States which border on the Pacific and those on the Atlantic is now so intimate, that it is felt everywhere among us to be important that we should be kept informed of the changes which are being made there so rapidly. This book of Mr. Codman, who has just made the "round trip," is not a mere record of the incidents of travel. It will be found to give just the information with regard to all the great industrial pursuits of the people, and to all the questions of public interest which intelligent people at the East desire to obtain. His views on the "Chinese problem" are especially deserving of attention. His chapter on that subject concludes with the following paragraph: "To the everlasting disgrace of Congress, in obedience to the insensate clamor of politicians-but for the President's veto power-it would have humiliated our nation in the eyes of the Christian and the heathen world by the violation of a solemn treaty. Now let this be partially atoned by justice to the Chinese. Because they are yellow, not white-yellow, not black, let our treatment of them no longer give the lie to our Declaration of Independence and to our profession of religion. Let us prove our belief that all men are free and equal, and that God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the

*The Round Trip, by way of Panama, through California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and Colorado, with notes on railroads, commerce, agriculture, mining, scenery, and people. By JOHN CODMAN. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1879. 331 pp. 12mo.

earth.' Let us give the Chinese the boon of suffrage. Then while they are aiding us to develop our industries, they will not be treated as pariahs and beasts of burden. The only danger will be that they may be too much flattered and caressed. And when they return to their home, we may send missionaries with them with better grace, for they can tell the Chinese that the Christian religion is practiced by ourselves."

BRIEFS BY A BARRISTER.*-The title of this little volume of "occasional poems," as we are told by the author in his preface, is intended" more to assert the often denied right of the Bar to express itself otherwise than in prose, than to mark the character of my verses, which were composed largely as relaxation from professional duties." The subjects of his Muse are very various, and his treatment of them bears testimony to the fact that his conceptions are elevated and his taste refined. Perhaps one of the best of the poems is "The Coming of the Frost," so ardently desired at the South at the time of the devastations of the terrible fever of last year.

""Twas early dawn, and Dinah, wearied, slept;

Where Edith lay, a lily pale and weak,

A tiny sunbeam rested, it had crept

Through the closed lattice, and it kissed her cheek.

In the dim room it seemed a heavenly guest,
First of a throng whose radiant forms outside
Pressed close to enter on some holy quest;

And so I stole and threw the lattice wide.

And oh, what glory met my joyful sight!

The landscape, covered with a silver sheen,
Glowed splendidly in morning's rosy light,

And diamonds flashed amid the bushes green.

'Awake!' I cried, 'for God hath sent the frost,
The blessed frost, to save us all from death;
Awake, good Dinah, Edith is not lost,

Hope has come back in autumn's frosty breath.'

And on our knees we fell beside her bed,

Sobbing with joy in happy, thankful prayer,
Until she woke; and a faint glow had spread
Upon a face that smiled away our care."

*Briefs by a Barrister. Occasional verses. By EDWARD R. JOHNES. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1879. 122 pp. 12mo.

IS LIFE WORTH LIVING? BY MALLOCK.*-The author uses the word Positivism not as denoting the doctrines of Comte, but more loosely as a convenient name for the general doctrines of Mr. Huxley and his school as to the sources and extent of human knowledge. The work is principally occupied with proving that Positivism is incompatible with the recognition of any worthy end of life: that is, of any end worthy of rational and moral approval. The author shows that this system of thought is incompatible with Theism, and that Theism is essential to morals. He examines in detail the various ends of life which Positivism proposes, and shows that it is incompatible with the recognition of any moral worth in them. For example, Positivists claim that their system. requires devotion to truth for its own sake: not for the sake of its consequences but in scorn of them-the only principle that is really worthy of man. And this Mr. Huxley and Leslie Stephen speak of as lofty and sacred. "What Professor Huxley's philosophy really proves to him is, that it is true that nothing is sacred; not that it is a sacred thing to discover the truth." "According to the avowed principles of positive morality, morality has no other test but happiness. Immorality therefore can have no conceivable meaning but unhappiness, or at least the means to it, which in this case are bardly distinguishable from the end; and thus. . . . the human race will not have reached the lowest depths of misery so long as it rejects the one thing which ex hypothesi might render it less miserable. Either then all this talk about truth must be irrelevant nonsense or else. . . . the test of conduct is something distinct from happiness." Other ends of life proposed as worthy by Positivists are examined at length and shown to be incompatible with Positivism. Positivism rejects religion by a test which equally requires the rejection of morality.

He proceeds to prove that Positivism is equally incompatible with the recognition of free-will, so that, if consistent with itself, it must deny not only morality but the existence of moral beings. He examines what he calls the "superstition of Positivism," and shows that its substitutes for religion, such as humanity, worship, and enthusiasm for human progress are no more compatible with it than is Theism.

In the four last chapters he discusses "Morality and Natural Theism;" "The Human Race and Revelation;" "Universal His*Is Life Worth Living? By WILLIAM HURRELL MALLOCK. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 182 Fifth Avenue. 1879. 8vo. pp. xxiv. and 323.

tory and the claims of the Christian Church;" "Belief and Will." In the chapter on "Universal History, etc.," he advocates the Roman Catholic Church as the only organization through which belief in divine Revelation can be perpetuated.

Mr. Mallock's argument is dashing and brilliant, but his posi tions are not always carefully taken and secured. A more thorough knowledge of theology would have saved him from some needless concessions to the Positivist claims. The glaring incor sistencies and reactionary force of his argument on Romanism remind one of the "Tale of a Tub," and suggest the suspicion that it was designed to be sarcasm.

His discussion of the relation of morality to Positivism on the one hand and to Theism on the other, is enriched with brilliant illustrations from literature and the fine arts, and is a valuable contribution to the argument for the existence of God from man's moral consciousness.

The very asking of the question, "Is life worth living ?" is the outcome of abnormal conditions. So far as Positivism is responsible for forcing it on human thought, and for the Pessimism which accompanies, it has proved its own falsity and its unfitness to be the guide of life.

THE SOUL HERE AND HEREAFTER. BY PROF. MEAD.*-This volume is a refutation of the doctrine of Conditional Immortality. It originated in a series of articles in the Independent, controverting a volume by C. L. Ives, M.D., entitled The Bible Doctrine of the Soul. On this account our author throughout gives a special prominence to the positions and arguments of this volume more than is desirable in a broad discussion of the subject, painfully suggesting before he is done with it, that it is needless to "break a fly upon a wheel."

The work is almost exclusively, as it purports to be, a Biblical study. The author devotes one chapter to a discussion of the principles of interpretation, in refutation of false literalism; four chapters to an examination of the meaning of the words used in the Old and New Testaments to denote the soul, the spirit, and the distinction of body and spirit-chapters constituting a valuable investigation of biblical psychology; one chapter to the scriptural teaching that human existence is not terminated at

* The Soul here and hereafter. A Biblical Study. By CHARLES M. MEAD, Professor in Andover Theological Seminary. Congregational Publishing Society, Boston. XV. and 492 pp.

death; two chapters to the scriptural doctrine concerning the state of the dead before the final judgment; one chapter to the scriptural representation of the resurrection; five chapters to an examination of the true significance of Life and Death as used in the Scriptures; and the closing chapter to general observations.

We think the treatise proves irrefutably that the doctrine of conditional immortality is not taught in the Scriptures and that the attempt to educe it from them must issue in violent interpretations and inextricable difficulties and contradictions.

THE METAMORPHOSES OF A CREED.*-This volume is designed to show that the Idealism or Transcendentalism of the Brook Farm in 1842, and of The Dial is the legitimate and essential philosophy of Unitarianism and by logical necessity issues in Pantheism. This thought is developed by examining in successive chapters the Unitarian doctrine as to the Divinity of Jesus Christ, the Providence of God, and the Atonement, showing by citations from prominent Unitarian writers what their doctrine is, and its necessary issue in Pantheism. A chapter follows on Christian Theism. In this the author recognizes what he regards as the true Transcendentalism, a philosophy which recognizes in man intellectual functions transcending the senses. "Transcendentalism, such as was that of Jesus and Wordsworth, is faith in the intuitions to test, not to produce what is said to be true; and when to a soul thus comparisoned by nature it is hinted that God is, the reply of the whole man is, yea, and even here. The salvation of Theism is faith in first truths." He distinguishes Theism, not only from Pantheism, but also from Deism. Theism rejects the Deistic conception of God as a Mechanician, external to the machine he has made and withdrawn from it after it was made, and recognizes God as personal indeed, yet as immanent in his works. He presents Wordsworth's poetry as the type of Theism, distinct alike from Pantheism and Deism; and Watson's Institutes as a type of Christian thought vitiated by Deism. In the remaining chapters he discusses the question, "Is Christian Pantheism the religion of the Future !" Here he reviews at length the essay of Dr. Littledale entitled "The Pantheistic Factor of Christian Thought," and that of Allanson Picton on "Christian Pantheism," showing that while Christianity takes up into itself

*The Metamorphoses of a Creed. An Essay in present day Theology. By FRANK WAKELY GUNSAULUS. Chillicothe, Ohio: Gould & Kello. 1879. pp. xiv. and 376.