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 IC A T IO N S .
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No. 64.]
M ARCH 15, 1891.
[P rice One Penny.
N E W P U B L I C A T IO N S .
OU R L I B R A R Y S H E L V E S .
Messrs. Watts & Co. announce as ready two further pamphlets by Julian on the Bible. The titles are “ The Four Gospels” (id .) and “ The Subject of the Four Gospels” (id.). These and the two previous essays will be published immediately in booklet form, with neat wrapper, under the title o f “ The Old and New Testament Examined ” (6d.).
P rofessor Max M uller’s third course of Gifford Lectures, recently concluded at Glasgow, are to be published under the title, “ Anthropological Religion.”
As theology, or the science o f God, wanes, anthropology, or the science of man, waxes. The age we live in is characterised by a remarkable interest taken in all things relating to man and civilisation. Whereas our grandfathers recommended youth to peruse a collection of sermons or a doctrinal treatise, we now-a-days think our duty is better discharged by placing in the hands of the young student such an admirable work as Dr. E. B. Tylor’s
“ anthropology ”
Mr. G. J. H olyoake’s essay on “ The Life and Character of Charles Bradlaugh,” with considerable additions, will be issued shortly.
Mr. R. Bruce Boswell is engaged upon a translation o f some o f Voltaire’s romances, including “ Zadig ” and “ Candide.” The publishers will be Messrs. George Bell and Sons.
M r . G. H. Martin, the author o f “ A Song for My Son,” which is attracting much attention in critical circles, has in preparation a further volume, to be entitled “ Essays for My Son.” The “ Essays” will, like the “ Song,” be political and anti-theological.
(Macmillan ; 1881; 448 pp.; 7s. 6d.). It is written in a style which makes it a model of exposition. Many a savant who essays to popularise his special subject manages, in his introductory pages, to maintain a familiar and explanatory manner; but as soon as he plunges into the middle o f his scheme he forgets his part, and scares or bores the learner with technicalities and an overpowering display of knowledge. Dr. Tylor, drop on his chapters where you will, is always lucid, always easy to follow, yet always careful and exact in statement. The result is that this volume, with its interesting subjects so deftly handled and so well illustrated by some seventy or eighty woodcuts, forms a treasury of information and a delight for leisure hours.
M essrs. Sonnenschein & Co. announce for immediate publication a criticism of General Booth’s scheme, from the ethical point o f view. The writer is Mr. Bernard Bosanquet.
A new edition o f the brilliant Agnostic novel, “ The Story o f an African Farm ” (is., cloth is. 6d.), by Olive Schreiner, is just issued.
Saladin’s magnificent elegy on “ The Death of Charles Bradlaugh” (id .) has, by special request, been published as a leaflet.
Dr. H ardwicke is seeing through the press a work which is intended to be a continuation of his “ Rambles Abroad.” Messrs. Watts & Co. will be the publishers. The work may be expected early in June.
A cheaper edition of the authorised “ Life of Charles Bradlaugh,” by A. S. Headingley, is now issued. The price is is. 6d.
Mrs. A lexander I reland has written “ A Life of Jane Welsh Carlyle,” to be published by Messrs. Chatto and Windus.
Colonel I ngersoll’s address in honour of Walt Whitman has been published by the Truthseeker Company, New York, in a tasteful little volume (is.), which is graced with an artistic portrait o f the venerable poet. It is, indeed, a magnificent oration, sparkling with those gems o f thought and flashes o f brilliant humour which, as every admirer of the great Colonel knows, characterise his every utterance.
There are sixteen chapters, the first o f which throws a backward glance at the antiquity of man, and those dim centuries when the flint implements were chipped and savage artists portrayed the mammoth on a fragment of its own ivory. Man’s place in nature is examined, and comparisons are made between man and ape. In chapter iii. the author takes us on a charming tour round the world, and gives us glimpses o f the many human races and their outward features. The illustrations are all founded upon photographs— a method which lends the fascination of reality to the pictures ; one, for example, presenting a group o f female portraits— Negro, Asiatic, and English. Four chapters follow on the topic of language, spoken and written. Philology would have given Dr. Dryasdust an awful opportunity of weighing like a nightmare on the breast o f the unhappy reader. But Dr. Tylor’s treatment is simply perfect. In his hands even Egyptian hieroglyphics and Chinese characters become invested with human feeling. Numerous little etymological scraps brighten the treatise like illuminations in a monkish scroll. Thus we are told how check “ is really the Persian word Shah, meaning king, which came to Europe with the game of chess as the word o f challenge to the king, and thence by a curious metaphor passed into a general word for stopping anybody or anything.”
Next we arc led through five chapters on the arts o f life and the arts o f pleasure. We are introduced to the workshops of the ancient world, and see the barbarian grinding corn, fashioning weapons, weaving his scanty garments ; or races in a higher stage o f civilisation building water-mills and ships, turning the potter’s wheel, coining money, and adorning their temples with sculpture. From art we are led on to science, with a brief history of arithmetic
