WATTS’S LITERARY GUIDE. BEING A MONTHLY RECORD OF LIBERAL AND ADVANCED PUBLICATIONS.
No. 8 3 . ]
OCTOBER 1 5 , 18 9 2 .
[ P r ic e On e P e n n y .
N E W P U B L IC A T IO N S .
O U R L I B R A R Y S H E L V E S .
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“ T h e Liberty Annual ” for the new year, which will be published by Messrs. Watts & Co. on the last day of the Present month, will contain as its leading attraction a specially-written paper by Mrs. Henry Fawcett, wife of the eminent statesman and political economist ; the subject she has selected being “ Liberty for Women.” Mr. A. Milncs, who is favourably known as a vigorous and untiring opponent of the Jennerian imposture, will write at length on “ The Vaccination Fiasco;” Dr. Carus, the editor of the Monist, will expound his views on “ Capital and Labour ; Dr. Brewer and J . S. Ransome will grapple with the problem of “ Employer and Employed while there will also be contributions by George Beken, the Hon. Auberon Herbert, Charles Fairfield, and Frederick Millar.
M r . A r t h u r B. M o ss’s forthcoming work, “ Christianity and Evolution” (2s. 6d.), has been largely subscribed for, and is now being rapidly passed through the press. It will he issued to subscribers about the 25th of the present month, and will be on sale early in October.
M r . C h a r l e s C . C a t t e L l will publish shortly an invaluable critical exposition of the Spencerian philosophy.
M e s s r s . Sw an S o n n e n s c h e in & Co. will issue immediately the promised new edition of George Eliot’s translation of Strauss’s “ Life of Jesus.”
M r . E. B e l f o r t B a x is seeing through the press a volume dealing with “ The Problem of Reality.”
M r . W a l t e r S cott has issued a “ Life of Voltaire ” (is. 6d.), by Francis Espinasse, as one of the “ Great .Writers ” series.
Mr. L e s l i e S t e p h e n , who contributes the opening paper to the current “ Agnostic Annual,” has prepared for publication a new volume of essays, to be issued under the title
“ An Agnostic’s Apology.” M e s s r s . W a t t s & Co. will issue shortly an extremely valuable history of “ The Free Trade Struggle in England” (cloth 3s. 6d., paper is. 6d.), by M. M. Trumbull, a distinguished American litterateur. ( M r . g . M. M cC r i e ’s recent essay in the Open Court on Miss Naden’s ‘ World-Scheme’ ” (6d.) will be issued in Pamphlet form by Messrs. Watts & Co. in the course of a few days.
G e n e r a l F o r lo n g is preparing a p r lc is of the Bud_ tic and other faiths for publication in a small volume. Th e October number of the Monist contains some important papers. Professor E. D. Cope writes on “ The uture of Thought in America Dr. Alfred Binet on “ The Nerv°us Ganglia of Insects and Dr. Felix L. Oswald on
Wntal Mummies.” The Editor’s article is on “ Necessity.”
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L e s s packed with details than Dr. Tylor’s “ Primitive Culture,” less graced with literary skill, but more powerful in its broad grasp of theory, is Mr. Herbert Spencer’s
“ p r in c ip l e s of so c io lo gy,”
Part I. (Williams & Norgate; third edition, 1885; Parts II. & I I I . are bound up in the same volume, 883 pages in a ll; 2 is.). Mr. Spencer’s text is here, as always, Evolution ; the illustration under review Human Society, its growth, structure, functions, and habits.
After an introductory glance at the action of external factors (climate, etc.) and internal factors (physical type and habit) in the social evolution, Mr. Spencer collects the leading traits of modern savages, and out of these constructs an imaginary picture of what primitive man probably was. The traits are grouped under the three classes—Physical, Emotional, Intellectual. In following out the descriptions here given, one feels how necessary such a preparation is to a due valuation of prehistoric religion and ethics. Without such a guide, how easy it is to err in constructing theories of the beginning of creeds, or the birth of politics. Though, at the best, there must be a chasm between the civilised mind and that of the untaught child of nature, still much may be done, by digesting the material here furnished, towards obtaining a more adequate realisation of what early man was like. A strange, grim, cruel, capricious, timid creature he must have been, warring with wild beasts by day, and trembling at evil demons by night. It is startling when one first comes across Mr. Spencer’s ghost theory; yet, on reflection, the idea becomes more and more rational. The ghosts of the dead, which the uneasy savage dreams of as he tosses in his hut, are the ancestors of a long line of spirits, devils, and gods, including the Supreme Deity whom Christendom reveres to-day. In elaborating the theory, Mr. Spencer runs counter to esteemed authors like Professor Max Muller and M. Albert Reville ; but his facts are voluminous and consistent. It would be hard to say what travellers he does not quote from.
From the ghosts which the savage thinks he beholds in dreamland Mr. Spencer traces the conception of spirits onwards, through their supposed influence in cases of swoon, epilepsy, and trance; through the first faint doctrines of resurrection and a future life 5 through the belief in spirits animating brutes, plants, stones, etc.; through the kaleidoscopic forms of fetichism and idolatry, up to the gods of Greece and Rome, of papal St. Peter’s or Protestant St. Paul’s. Sometimes he will drop a caustic comment on the way, when he lights upon curious survivals, in the modern orthodox world, of old-time superstitions. Thus, when he touches on the subject of the resurrection of the body, he quietly pillories Dr. Wordsworth (of Lincoln) for his more than mediaeval conceptions of the rising again of the dead; and he adds : “ Had he been similarly placed, the Bishop would, doubtless, have taken the same course as the Ynca Atahuallpa, who turned Christian in order to be hanged instead of burnt, because (he said to his wives and
