WATTS’S LITERARY GUIDE B E I N G A M O N T H L Y R E C O R D O F L I B E R A L A N D A D V A N C E D P U B L I C A T I O N S .

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No. 51.]

F EBRU ARY 15, 1890.

[Price One Penny.

N E W P U B L I C A T I O N S .

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O U R L I B R A R Y S H E L V E S .

T he Open Court Publishing Company have just published an authorised translation of Professor Ribot’s “ Psychology o f Attention ” (3s. 6d.). The work is a most useful and interesting contribution to mental science.

Messrs. Macmillan & Co. have issued an English edition, by Mr. J. T . Cunningham, o f Professor Elimer’s work on “ Organic Evolution, as the Result of the Inheritance of Acquired Characters According to the Laws o f Organic Growth.”

Mrs. C harles Watts’s recent papers in Secular Thought, which won such high encomiums from Freethinkers in the Old and the New World, have just been issued in pamphlet form under the title o f “ Christianity : Defective and Unnecessary ” (sd.).

Miss Constance Naden’s forthcoming posthumous volume will comprise her prize essay on “ Induction and Deduction,” a remarkable essay on “ Evolutionary Ethics,” and two papers on Carlyle and on the autoplastic theory of the universe. The book will cover about 250 pages.

A new “ Individualist ” journal, entitled Liberty, is announced by Mr. Auberon Herbert. * It is to record “ the battle between Theism and Materialism,” “ the signs of increasing breadths in the views of the Orthodox Churches,” and “ the growth o f Spiritualism and Theosophy.” It will also advocate “ the abolition of all compulsory rates and taxes.”

A half-crown edition of “ Robert Elsmere ” will be published on the 26th inst.

Time is now issued under new auspices. The editor is E. Belfort Bax, whose works on Socialism have been highly commended in these columns, and he is assisted by Dr. E. B. Aveling.

Mr. A. Stephen Wilson, the author of “ A Creed of To-morrow,” and other books, has in preparation a new volume, entitled “ Creation the Work of To-day.”

T he first number o f Psyche, edited by Leo Michael, will be issued on March 1st. It will contain, among other remarkable contributions, one by Mr. George Chainey on “ Episodes in a Life of Religious Adventure,” and another on “ Revelation the Supreme Common Sense,” by Mr. Edward Maitland. The price of the magazine— which, as we have already mentioned, is to be a monthly— will be 6d.

T he new issue o f Cassell’s serial, “ Science for All ” (yd. monthly), is deserving of record in these columns. The work is beautifully illustrated, and the contributors are of recognised standing in the scientific world.

M r . Robert Forder has issued a curious little work entitled “ Will Shakespeare, Tom Paine, Bob Ingersoll, and Charlie Bradlaugh ” (6d.).

T here is no historical work on which the Rationalist places a higher value than Henry Thomas Buckle’s “ History o f

C IV IL IS A T IO N IN EN G L A N D ”

(Longmans; new edition, 1878; 3 vols.— 505 pp., 597 pp., and 548 pp. respectively; 24s.). It is unfinished. Death touched the great writer’s hand when three volumes had been given to the world. But they are sufficient to indicate the new historical method which it was his great aim to propound— a method based on the connection between physical laws and conditions and the progress of civilisation. While life and strength held out Buckle laboured like a giant. The authorities he studied occupy a list thirty-two pages long. His footnotes (those true tokens o f industry and accuracy) crowd the pages like serried battalions. When Buckle saw that his half-built temple could not be completed he broke into one of the most pathetic sighs recorded in English literature. The moving passage occurs in the third volume, and is abruptly inserted into an account o f the Scotch intellect and religion. After sketching his general plan of treatment, he adds : “ Perchance the human mind is hardly ready for so vast an enterprise. At all events, he who undertakes it will meet with little sympathy, and will find few to help him. And let him toil as he may, the sun and noontide of his life shall pass by, the evening o f his days shall overtake him, and he himself have to quit the scene, leaving that unfinished which he had vainly hoped to complete. He must lay the foundation ; it will be for his successors to raise the edifice. Their hands will give the last touch; they will reap the g lo ry; their names will be remembered when he is forgotten. It is, indeed, too true that such a work requires, not only several minds, but also the successive experience of several generations. Once, I own, I thought otherwise. Once, when I first caught sight of the whole field of knowledge, and seemed, however dimly, to discern its various parts and the relation they bore to each other, I was so entranced with its surpassing beauty that the judgment was beguiled, and I deemed myself able, not only to cover the surface, but also to master the details. Little did I know how the horizon enlarges as well as recedes, and how vainly we grasp at the fleeting forms which melt away and elude us in the distance. O f all that I had hoped to do, I now find but too surely how small a part I shall accomplish.” We would ask any reader as yet unacquainted with Buckle, but who intends to approach these volumes, to turn first o f all to the passage of which we have cited the commencement. It will put him in sympathy with the author, and make him pronounce judgment in a kindlier spirit, if he should find occasion to differ. In our opinion, Buckle is somewhat lacking in appreciation of religious tendencies and aspirations, and was inclined to place illegitimate stress on the influence of climate, food, soil, mechanical inventions, and the like. His demonstration (it was more than a theory), that these factors arc of immense consequence in the formation o f nationality and mental character, was superb; but his temperament scarcely