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 .

No. 60.]

NOVEMBER 15, 1890.

[Price One Penny.

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

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Messrs. Watts & Co. have just published a new and cheaper edition o f “ The Curse of Conventionalism ” (2d.), by a clergyman of the Church of England. This pamphlet, on its first appearance, created an extraordinary sensation in certain orthodox churches, and great pressure was brought upon the writer to withdraw it from publication. It was, however, discovered that the Rev. John Bacon, though amenable to reason and argument, was not to be coerced by threats or cajoled by promises. A further thunderbolt from the same earnest, vigorous pen may be expected shortly.

T he chief contributors to the forthcoming biography of the late Miss Constance Naden will be Mr. Hughes, Treasurer of the Corporation of Birmingham; Professors Lapworth and Tilden, of the Mason Science College; and Dr. Lewins, editor of her essays. The book will be published at 3s. 6d.

M r. M o n c u r e D. C o nw a y has nearly completed his “ Life o f Thomas Paine,” and it will be issued early in the new year.

The In tern a tio nal J o u r n a l o f E th ic s (2s. 6d.), the first number of which is just published, is a most welcome addition to our quarterly literature. The contributors comprise Professor Henry Sidgwick, Felix Adler, Professor Harold HoITding, Professor J. B. Clark, Bernard Bosanquet, Professor Josiah Royce, and W. M. Salter.

T he next volume o f the “ Minerva Library o f Famous Books ” will be a new edition o f Lockhart’s “ Life of Robert Burns,” brought up to date by Mr. John H. Ingram, who has added numerous notes and appendices on matters of importance in Burns’s life. A chapter on Burns’s biographers and a reprint of Carlyle’s and Wilson’s critical essays on Burns will make the volume a complete reportory of Burns lore.

Mr. G ladstone’s new book, “ The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture: A Series of Old Testament Studies” (3s. 6d.), is issued. Since their appearance in Good JVords the various papers have been revised and enlarged.

To the sixth volume of “ Chambers’s Encyclopaedia” Professor Huxley will contribute the paper on himself.

Messrs. T. & T. C lark, of Edinburgh, have published the first Edinburgh University Gifford Lectures, entitled “ Philosophy and Theology” (9s.), by James Hutchison Stirling, LL.D.

Messrs. W. Stewart & Co. announce as ready “ Freethinking and Free Inquiry ” (is. 6d.), by Agnosco. The writer of this admirable booklet is an assiduous and talented expositor of Rationalist thought, and it may safely be predicted that, in the near future, he will take high rank among the evangelists o f scientific religion.

Messrs. Watts & Co. have added to their list Mr. J. M. McCann’s “ Myth o f the Great Deluge ” (8d.), which is pronounced to be the ablest pamphlet yet issued on the subject, being scholarly, acute, and convincing.

Messrs. Waits & Co. have ready for immediate publication an able propagandist pamphlet by the talented writer, Amos Waters. The subject is “ Humanity and Dogma ” (id.).

M r. Samuel Laing’s brochure, “ Agnosticism and Immortality” (id.), is now ready. This and Mr. Waters’s little work are intended for wide circulation, and liberal thinkers are invited to co-operate in the distribution.

Julian is engaged upon a series o f four pamphlets for the Propagandist Press Committee. The subject will be the Old and the New Testaments— a theme in the masterly treatment of which the writer has probably few equals.

M r. John Murray will shortly publish, under the title of “ A Plea for Liberty : A Protest Against the Socialist Tendency of Modern Legislation,” a volume of Individualist essays. The work will be edited by Mr. Thomas Mackay, author o f “ The English Poor,” and will contain contributions from Herbert Spencer, George Howell, M.P., Wordsworth Donisthorpe, W. C. Crofts, Frederick Millar, and other well-known exponents o f Individualism.

“ T he National Secular Society’s Almanack for 18 9 1 ” (6d.) contains contributions by Mr. Bradlaugh, Mr. Foote, Mr. Arthur B. Moss, Mr. J. M. Wheeler, and others.

Mr. W. S. L illy has in the press a new edition of his work, “ On Right and Wrong.”

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

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“ T he further we collate the main Christian myth-motives with those o f Krishnaism, the more clearly does it appear that, instead of the latter being borrowed from the former, they are, not indeed in all cases the originals from which Christianity borrowed, but always presumptively the more ancient; and in one or two cases they appear to be the actual sources of Gospel stories.” This quotation gives the keynote of Mr. John M. Robertson’s

“ CHRIST AND KRISHNA”

(Freethought Publishing Company; 1889; 156 pp.; 2s.). There is a considerable number of features common to the history o f Krishna, the Indian deity, and the history of Jesus, the Christian Lord. Christianity came into the world as a younger child in a large family of religions— the Jewish, the Brahman, the Buddhist, the Persian, the Greek, the Egyptian, etc. To the quiet student, who worships at the shrines of none of these faiths, nothing seems more natural