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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 .
No. 79.]
JUNE 15, 1892.
[Price One Penny.
N E W P U B L I C A T IO N S .
OUR L I B R A R Y SH E L V E S .
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Mr. S. Laing has completed the revision of the “ proofs” of his new volume, “ Human Origins” (3s. 6d.), the publication o f which may now be expected immediately. The work is divided into two parts— (1) Evidence from History; (2) Evidence from Science. The first part is devoted to Egypt, Chaldea, Other Ancient Nations, Ancient Religions, Ancient Science and Art, Prehistoric Traditions, and the Historical Element in the Old Testament; while the second includes a summary of the evidence of Geology and Palaeontology, the Glacial Period, Quaternary Man, Tertiary Man, and the various Races of Mankind.
Mr. G. J. Romanes’s new volume, “ The Darwinian Theory” (10s. 6d.), will be found to be one of the most valuable treatises o f modern days. It is avowedly intended as an introduction to the study of Darwinism, and comprises a general history of organic evolution as this was left by the stupendous labours of Darwin. '1 he work is embellished by innumerable woodcuts.
Professor Huxley will shortly issue through Messrs. Macmillan the controversial essays, including the one on the Gadarene swine, which he has during recent years contributed to the Nineteenth Century. The papers in exposition and defence o f Agnosticism will also form part of the volume. An important introduction will be prefixed to the essays.
Messrs. W. Blackwood & Sons have published an important work on “ The Progressiveness of Modern Christian Thought ” (6s.), by James Lindsay, M.A.
M r. A lfred Sidgwick has issued, through Messrs. Longmans, under the title of “ Distinction, and the Criticism o f Beliefs ” (6s.), a work which is intended to be a plain statement of the difficulties arising from acceptance of the doctrine o f Evolution, with especial reference to the question of their removal.
Mr. Moncure D. C onway’s " Life of Thomas Paine ” (two vols., 2 is.) is approaching completion, and is expected to be ready at an early date. A large amount of unpublished correspondence will be included in the work.
M r. J. M. R obertson has w'ritten an introduction to a useful pamphlet entitled “ Religion and Morals in Board Schools” (id.).
Sir C. Gavan Duffy has issued in book form his “ Conversations with Carlyle” (6s.). The work is delightful reading.
M iss Olive Schreiner, the talented author of the heterodox novel, “ The Story o f an African Farm,” has written a new work of fiction, which is now in the printers’ hands.
T he intellectual position of modern Christianity is best indicated by its apologists. One of the most popular apologists is Professor Henry Drummond, who has extended Bishop Butler’s argument from analogy in his
“ natural law in the spiritual world” (Hodder&Stoughton; 24thedition; 1889; 414 pp.; 3s. fid.). It is extremely readable, being abundantly adorned with illustrations from the natural sciences, especially biology; and the science is ingeniously interwoven with the doctrines of Christianity, or at least with such of them as arc particularly attractive to the Professor. The significance of the work lies in its testimony to the extraordinary advance which the conception of universal law has made in the public mind during the last thirty years. Darwin and Spencer have overshadowed Christianity and transformed it. Into what convenient nook Professor Drummond would thrust the miracles once so warmly defended by Paley and his school we can only conjecture. We will not cast any slur upon the Professor by suggesting that he has timidly shirked them ; but, as a matter of fact, they are severely let alone. Possibly they are reserved for consideration in a future volume. The omissions of the work are more striking than its positive contents. Hell is only casually and figura tively referred to (p. 113). The Fall is once vaguely hinted at (p. 144). But of the virgin-birth, the resurrection, and ascension of Jesus; of the much-debated Gadarene swine; of Jonah’s immortal whale, and Joshua’s docile sun and moon, not one word ! The Christ of Professor Drummond is the Christ, not of the three synoptic gospels, but of “ John” and Paul— a mystical, Philoniscd Christ, who is to be “ put on,” in whom the Christian is to “ abide,” who is to be built up in the Christian’s inner nature, etc. The Professor’s doctrine of the spiritual life is a sort of quietism. Christianity is not a wrestling or a warfare. It is composure and peace and tranquil growth. Why, indeed, should the Christian harry his soul with anxiety o f any kind ? He is elect; he ranks among the chosen few. For, remarks our Professor, on almost the last page, “ of the millions of possible entrants for advancement in any department of Nature the number ultimately selected for preferment is small.” And as in nature, so in the spiritual world. The great majority of men arc dead. Even the Agnostic, though he may be “ of noble calibre, enriched by culture, hightoned, virtuous, and pure,” is dead, because he does not know God. The Christian is alive ; he is “ organic.” The non-Christian is dead; he is “ inorganic," and cannot live until touched by the Divine Spirit, just as in the first law of physical motion : “ Every body continues in its state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line, except in so far as it is compelled by forces to change that state.” Hence the Agnostic mother, though she may wear out her heart-strings in tending her babes, is, after all, a dead, “ inorganic ” thing — as beautiful as a crystal of copper sulphate, but not more living. Here, surely, is Calvinism dressed up in a Darwinian robe, or, at any rate, in a clever imitation of that philosophic ^material. It is true that Professor Drummond nowhere
