WATTS’S LITERARY flDIDE: 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 IC A T IO N S .

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No. 61.]

DECEM BER 15, 1890.

[P rice One Penny.

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

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Messrs. Watts & Co. will publish next month a thoughtful and spirited poem, entitled “ A Song for My Son ” (2s. 6d.). The aim of the writer, Mr. G. H. Martin, who is an intensely earnest Freethinker, is to awaken in the mind o f the young reader a desire to study and investigate the credentials of his religious and political faith. The poem is strongly militant in tone, and in the appendix— appropriately desig­ nated “ Chapter and Verse ’’— the author arrays a mass of facts to substantiate his argument.

Mr. Forder announces the publication of “ The Col­ lected Speeches o f Charles Bradlaugh ” (5s.), with portrait specially executed for the volume.

Messrs. W. Stewart & Co. will shortly issue a valuable booklet from the pen o f Mr. Robert A. Riddell, M.A. The subject will be “ Christianism and Natural Religion ” (6d.).

“ F inger-posts to Truth ” (6d.) is the title o f a collec­ tion of choice extracts from heterodox thinkers which will be issued immediately by Messrs. Watts & Co. The little book will be found extremely useful for propagandist purposes, and it might suitably be used as a Christmas or New Year’s Gift. Copies elegantly bound, with gilt edges, may be obtained at is. 6d. each.

Mr. Arthur B. Moss has issued a new and cheaper edition of his “ Lectures and Essays ” (is.).

Julian’s brochure on the Old and New Testaments, to be published for the Propagandist Press Committee by Messrs. Watts & Co., will be ready early in the new year. It will be followed by two pamphlets from the pen of Agnosco, to be entitled “ Why I am a Freethinker ” and “ Freethought and Morality.” T o the same series it is expected that Mr. G. J. Holyoake, Mr. Charles Watts, Saladin, Mr. Frederick Millar, and Mr. F. J. Gould will contribute. The whole of the essays will ultimately be issued in volume form.

D r. Martineau’s new volumes will be entitled “ Essays, Reviews, and Addresses.” The essays are to be classed as (1) Personal and Political, (2) Ecclesiastical and Historical, (3) Theological and Philosophical, (4) Academical and Religious.

T he Progressive Publishing Company has published Colonel Ingersoll’s “ Oration on Walt Whitman ” (4d.).

Messrs. Sonnenschein & Co. have issued, as one of their Social Science Series, an English copyright edition of Mr. Laurence Gronlund’s “ Our Destiny : The Influence of Socialism on Morals and Religion; An Essay in Ethics ” (2s. 6d.).

T he Rev. Charles Voysey has published in pamphlet form his recent addresses in criticism of “ Lux Mundi.” The theory of Biblical inspiration is caustically treated.

Dr. W. C. C oupland, M.A., has published through Mr. Fisher Unwin a most suggestive work under the title of “ The Gain of Life, and Other Essays” (7s. 6d.). It will be reviewed in these columns next month.

M r . J. C roll has written a useful work on “ The Philosophical Basis of Evolution ” (7s. 6d.).

OU R L I B R A R Y S H E L V E S .

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I n “ First Principles” Mr. Herbert Spencer is the philosopher pure and simple. He is still the philosopher, but more of the citizen o f the world, in

“ the study of sociology” (Kegan Paul & C o . ; International Scientific Series; eleventh edition; 1883; 446 p p . ; 5s.). The style is more conversational and discursive. The spirit of satire not unseldom lights up the page. Mr. Spencer’s shafts, however, while they always fly true to the mark, lack grace and brilliancy. Illustrations of the propositions advanced are freely drawn from daily experience. There is altogether a more familiar and easy manner in this work than in the austere tomes of the Synthetic Philosophy.

The book may be readily summarised by slightly expanding the title into “ The Study of Sociology : Its Nature, its Necessity, its Hindrances, and its Preliminaries.” In the opening chapter the author points out the complexity of social phenomena, and their wonderful interdependence. “ You break your tooth with a small pebble among the currants, because the industrial organisation of Zante is so imperfect. A derangement of your digestion goes back for its cause to the bungling management in a vineyard on the Rhine several years ago;” and soon. Mr. Spencer severely complains that, in spite o f the enormous intricacy of social interests, people lightly pass judgment on public affairs, and lightly invent and apply remedies, without regard to the lessons taught by similar action in the historic past, or to the many results which are sure to follow besides those intended and desired. To study social causes and effects, to generalise from social phenomena, to forecast social results, to trace social growth and structure— all this belongs to sociology. The author then considers, through a scries of chapters, the various difficulties in the way of clear apprehension of social questions. First, there is the variation in the testimony of those who profess to record social facts. Then there is the distortion produced by an inability to adapt one’s intellect to the study of foreign ancf remote manners and customs. The emotions mislead us. Our upbringing and our social position tend to produce in us an educational bias, the bias o f patriotism, the class bias, the political bias, and the theological bias. Suppose these obstacles are fairly surmounted; the student still needs a special equipment before presuming to launch out into active participation in social progress. He requires discipline, a scientific habit of thought; he requires an acquaintance with biology— that is, with living