WATTS’S LITERARY GUIDE ■

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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 I C A T I O N S .

No. 91.]

JU N E 15 , 1893.

[P r ic e One P en n y .

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

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O U R L I B R A R Y S H E L V E S .

I n order to place the “ Open Court” publications within reach of persons of limited means, and to obtain thereby a wider circulation for the same, it is proposed to issue bimonthly, commencing in July, the following list of works, in paper covers, under the general heading, “ The Religion of Science Library.” The subscription price will be 8s. 6d. a year, postpaid; 4s. 6d. for six months; or is. 6d. for single numbers. The “ library” will contain among others:— “ The Principles of the Religion of Science,” by Paul Carus, Ph.D .; “ Three Introductory Lectures on the Science of Thought,” by Professor F. Max Muller; “ Three Lectures on the Science of Language,” by Professor F. Max Miiller ; “ The Psychology of Attention,” by Th. R ib o t ; “ The Psychic Life of Micro-Organisms,” by Alfred Binet; “ Fundamental Problems,” by Paul Carus, Ph.D .; “ On Double Consciousness,” by Alfred Binet; “ The Soul of Man,” by Paul Carus,” Ph.D .; “ The Diseases of Personality,” by Th. R ibot; “ The Ethical Problem,” by Paul Carus, Ph .D .; “ Epitomes of Three Sciences,” by Professor H. Oldenberg, Professor Joseph Jastrow. and Professor C. H. Cornill; and “ Homilies of Science,” by Paul Carus, Ph.D. Orders sent to Messrs. Watts & Co. before July 1st for one year’s subscription will be executed at the reduced rate of 6s. 6d.

M e s s r s . Watts & Co. will issue immediately a little volume by Dr. Henry Smith, a new author in the Rationalist movement. It will be entitled “ The Religion of the Brain ” (2s. 6d.). The writer is not a Materialist, as might be surmised from the title of the work, but an Agnostic.

T he new number of the L ib erty R ev iew, which will be published on the 24th inst., will contain an important paper by the Rev. Dr. Hayman on “ The Free Labour Triumph at Hull.” Mr. H. L. Mozley, of King’s College, Cambridge, will write on “ The State and Parental Freedom;” Mr. E. Stanley Robertson will impartially adjudicate on the merits of the Duke of Argyll’s recent work on “ The Unseen Foundations of Society;” Messrs. Raffalovich and Fielden will discuss the claims o f Bi-metallism ; Mr. Egmont Hake will contribute a characteristic article entitled “ A Strange Oversight;” Mr. Crews will vigorously defend “ Grocers’ Licenses;” while the Editor will survey and examine the literature of political and economic science during the past three months.

Messrs. Macmillan & Co. have issued in booklet form Professor Huxley’s recent address at Oxford on “ Evolution and Ethics ” (2s.).

Mr. H er b er t S pen c er ’s paper in the Nineteenth Century on “ The Inadequacy of Natural Selection” is published in pamphlet form. The price is one shilling.

T he theology now passing away had a marvellously facile mode of explaining wickedness—it was the machination of the Devil. Equally simple were the approved methods of ridding God and man of the disagreeable presence of the sinner. He was overwhelmed with brimstone, swallowed up by the yawning earth, cremated by lightning, or struck dead at the feet of irate apostles. To-day we follow a plan less sensational, not nearly so prompt, and yet, perhaps, much more rational. We study the evil-doer, probe his soul, measure his body, read his history, guage his motives, and think how best to influence him for a better life. Towards such study a notable aid will be found in Mr. Havelock Ellis’s

“ the criminal”

(Walter Scott; Contemporary Science Series; 1890; 337 pp.; 3s. 6d.). Before proceeding to the letterpress the reader will do well to examine with care the fifteen plates which present portraits of criminals, British and foreign. How significantly abnormal are the features, how suggestive of malignity and anti-social instinct is the expression ! The skull is over-depressed or protruded into a conical hillock ; the forehead distorted into regular angles, the eyebrows graceless, the eyes repellent, the mouth a revelation of inward bitterness, the chin too square or too receding, the ear ill-curved. What meaning underlies these physical eccentricities is exposed by Mr. Ellis in detail, in sections on the cranium and cerebrum, the face, hair, physiognomy, body, and viscera. Instructive facts are given on the subject of heredity, but not at length, for, as the author points out, heredity belongs to a wider science of sociology rather than to a scrutiny of the individual criminal. A curious link between the savage and the criminal, as found in civilised nations, is furnished by the common fondness for tattooing, “ twenty or thirty designs being occasionally found on the same subject.” This habit is one among other indications of the physical callousness of the criminal, with whom sensation is sluggish and coarse. And this irresponsiveness to pain and delicate stimuli is repeated in the psychical organisation. One of the most remarkable instances of the lack of moral feeling is seen in the case of the twelve-year-old Marie Schneider, who killed a little child, and showed not the slightest remorse, saying to the judge, with a ghastly simplicity, “ I knew that I should kill the child. I did not reflect that little Grete’s parents would be sorry. It did not hurt me, I was not sorry. I was not sorry all the time I was in prison. I am not sorry now.” Some interesting facts are marshalled with respect to criminal religion, Mr. Ellis remarking that “ in all countries religion, or superstition, is closely related with crime.” A singular example is cited from Italy. A Neapolitan, guilty of rape, was much offended at the loose conversation of his fellow-prisoners. “ I do not imitate them,” he said ; “ morning and evening I say my prayers.” Chapters on thieves, slang, prison inscriptions, criminal literature, art, and philosophy, abound in strange and pathetic illustrations