WATTS'S LITERARY GDIDE. 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. 67.]
JUNE 15, 1891.
[P r ice O ne P enny.
N E W P U B L I C A T IO N S .
O UR L I B R A R Y S H E L VES.
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M essrs. Watts & Co. will publish next week Mr. F. J. Gould’s Freethought novel, “ The Agnostic Island.” The illustration on the cover represents Janet Marlow, the heroine, discoursing in the heterodox pulpit. The work will be issued in cloth at 2s., and in boards at is.
D r . H ardw ic ke is seeing through the press a new work, entitled “ From Alps to O rient; or, Kambles in Italy, Sicily, Greece, Asiatic and European Turkey, the Balkan States, and Austro-Hungary.” The book will extend to over 200 pages, and will be issued at half-a-crown. Messrs. Watts & Co. will be the publishers.
M essrs. W illiam s & N orgate have issued a little work by an Agnostic, entitled “ A Plain Commentary on the First Gospel.”
M essrs. Sonnenschein have published a study in the philosophy of evolution, entitled “ Riddles of the Sphinx ” (12s.). The work deals with Agnosticism, Scepticism, Reconstruction, the Method o f Philosophy, the Metaphysics o f Evolution, Formulas o f the Law of Evolution, Man and the World, Man and God, and Immortality.
M essrs. W atts & Co. have just published a cheap edition of Dr. Hardwicke’s “ Rambles Abroad.” The price was formerly 5s.; that o f the new edition is 3s. Our Teaders will be well advised in procuring this instructive and entertaining work.
Mr. C harles C. C a t t e l l has written a pamphlet entitled “ Is the Second Coming of Jesus Probable in this Generation ?” (2d.).
M essrs. W. Stew art & Co. will issue immediately a heterodox story by Saladin (W. Stewart Ross), entitled “ The Whirlwind Sown and Reaped ” (6d.).
M essrs. W atts &: Co. have added to their list of celebrities new portraits of Mrs. Besant and Colonel Ingersoll. The price of the cabinets, produced in the finest style, is is. 6d. each post free.
M essrs. S im pkin M arshall will publish early in July a new booklet by Mr. Charles C. Cattell. The subject is " T h e Man of the Past ” (6d.).
M essrs. Sonnenschein will shortly issue, as one of their Social Science Series, a valuable work by Mr. J. M. Robertson, editor of the National Reformer, entitled “ Modern Humanists ” (2s. 6d.).
M r. A rthur B alfour has in hand a work on John Stuart Mill, descriptive of his philosophy and lightly sketching his life. It will be published by Messrs. Blackwood in cheap form.
T his is an age of “ guides” and “ introductions” and “ stepping-stones.” It would be as foolish to denounce such works as encouraging the mere acquisition of a smattering o f knowledge, as it would be to denounce primers and grammars. I f any subject needs a clear, concise, reliable guide, it is Evolution. Nor could a better book of its class be discovered than Mr. Edward Clodd’s
“ story of c r e a t io n ”
(Longmans ; sixth thousand; 1888; 232 pp.; illustrated; crown 8 vo ; 6s.). Mr. Clodd has an admirable power of exposition and selection of facts. Nothing could be easier than to overwhelm the inquirer with an avalanche of information and technicalities. But the “ Story of Creation ” resembles a well-ordered natural history museum. The cases are filled with attractive objects, but they arc not too numerous for the uninitiated eye, and they are labelled and classed with a skill which is positively artistic. There are eighty judiciously-chosen wood-engravings, and several useful tables o f animal and plant life, races of man, etc. Mr. Clodd’s style is characterised by lucidity, accuracy, and picturesqueness. He does not disdain the aid of general literature, and a wide range of reading enables him to adorn the severe outlines of science with many a flower borrowed from classic lore or the pages of history and poetry.
One-half of the work is occupied with fact, the other with theory, or, as the author terms his divisions, I. Descriptive, II. Explanatory. Naturally, the theory crops up occasionally among the facts, and fresh facts appear in the theoretical section; but the arrangement is very convenient for orderly reading and for reference. In the first part Mr. Clodd gives a general view of the universe, its constituents of matter and power ( = force and energy), the sidereal and solar systems, the leading features of geology, palaeontology, zoology, and botany. As the author observes, many facts are set down “ which every schoolboy is supposed to know, but which most folks whose schooldays are long past have probably forgotten.” This section ought not to be skipped. It is becoming the fashion to talk about Evolution ; but general platitudes are quite useless apart from at least such an acquaintance with physics and biology as Mr. Clodd here offers. The second part starts out with a preliminary glance at Evolution as a universal process, and then turns to the discussion o f the origin of life and living forms. As living forms are composed of elements which all occur in the organic realm, the difference between life and non-life “ must lie in the mixing;” but “ the ultimate cause which, bringing certain lifeless bodies together, gives living matter as the result, is a profound mystery.” Mr. Clodd, of course, is Agnostic in his attitude towards the problem of existence. As to the physical basis of life, the author inclines to Mr. Grant Allen’s hypothesis of “ protoplasm plus chorophyll ” as the foundation of living development, and believes in plant-forms having preceded animal-forms. An excellent summary is rendered of the arguments and proofs for the Darwinian doctrine o f the origin of species. These are
