WATTS'S LITERARY GUIDE: 'BEING A ilfONTHLY RECORD OF LIBERAL AND ADVANCED PUBLICATIONS.
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No. 97 ,]
[PRICE ON E PENNY.
NE W PUBLICATIONS.
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PROF ESSOR J 01-1 NSON is writing a brOc/lUre on the Pauline question. He will endeavour to show that , althou gh there have been criti cs in ou r tim e who have analysed this litera· ture and have rejected it a s fi ctiti ous-such as th e late Bruno Bauer (J850) and Professo rs A. D. Loman, Pierson, and Naber (J 887 ) - yet the chronologi cal and other questions have been neglected. It will be contended that the legend of Paul's life and lett ers was written during the Revival of Letters, and cannot be traced to an earlier epoch. The epistles were written on a system. Short, dogmatic sentences we re composed as section s for th e Service Book to be used on anniversa ry feasts of th e Churc h, With them were combined a number o f alleged autobiographi cal passages, which confirmed th e idea that Paul had been a very extraordinary man and had pa ssed throu gh marvellous experiences. People were thu s inclined to be li eve that he had writt en very man'ellous thin gs ; while, in fa c t, the epistles contain the commonplaces of the monastic theo logy and disciplin e. In short, according to Mr. Johnso n, th e whole is a work of monastic art. A variety of .details will be given, so far as space may admit. It will be argued that Paul is the mouthpiece of th e Catholic Church, and that the Church is distinctly a modern society-a soci ety of dogmatists who ha ve systematically set the dogma forth in the attractive form of romance. The Church was not a society of genuine historian s, nor is she an hi sto ri cal society in the sense commonly supposed. The Pauline and th e related Christian fiction s can hardly have been originated more than fifty years before th e meeting of the Counc il of Trent. But the extreme paucity and fabulous nature of th e evidence must leave us in much doubt as to the events which were actually occurring in that remote and d a rk time. It wi1l be made clea r that analysi - the great in strument of science- has never been thoroughly appli ed to the lit erary material, and that it must be so applied if we are ever to bring literature and human lIature it elf within the domain of science. The critical student will be addressed in this brocltttre ,. but at the same tim e Mr. J ohnson will en· deavour to make the subjec t intellig ibl e to all patient and thoughtful read e rs. The work will be publi hed by Messrs. Watts & Co.
TH E third volume of th e olle t d Works of P rofesso r Ruxley is entitl ed " c iell e and Educa ti o n " (5 . ), :lI1d i probably one o f th e mo t valuahle o f th e e ri es.
W~ are g1:td t learn th at, und r the t i tl e o f " Tile Ethi :11 Library," Me r . onn en he in pr po e to i lI C a c t o f books dealing, fr om th e point f vi ew and in th pi rit of the stude nt f philo phy, with q ue ti n whi h u cd t be regarded as the monopoly of theologians. Among the contributors will be Mr. Leslie Stephen, Professor A. Sidgwick, Mr. D. G. Ritchie, Mr. J. H. Muirhead, and Mr. B. Bosanquet.
MESS RS. CI-I APMA N & HALL announce that, with the approval of Mr. Spencer, Miss Julia Raymond Girgell has selected a little volume of "Aphorisms from the Writings of H erbert Spencer," which will be published almost immediately.
MESS RS. BICKERS & SON will issue early next year a new edition of th e late Miss Constance Naden's "A Modern Apostle," and other poems.
A WELL- KNOWN literary man has in preparation:i work d ealing with "The Evolution of Satan." The book, it is ex pec ted, will be published early in the spring.
l\1R. W. HALE WHITE is about to issue, through Mr. T. Fisher U nwin, a new edition of his translation, written in conjunction with Miss Stirlin g, of Spinol<,\'s "Ethic." A lo ng and important new preface will be substituted for that printed in the first edition.
OUR LIBRARY SHELVES.
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ONE might search, with the lantern of Diogenes a long time before finding a man who knew more of the dim rec.e~se s , the. cavernous secrets, and barbaric origins of rehglOus beli e fs and customs than Mr. Joseph Mazzini Wheeler. An excellent specimen of his method of work is seen in his
" DlDLE STUDIES,"
Essays on Phallic Worship, etc. (Progressive Publishing Company; 1892; 136 pp.; 2S. ~d.). Mr. Wheeler is eager to collect an? arr~~lge .facts, and IS comparati\'ely indifferent to style. . H ~s wnt~ng IS not elegant; it is far better than e1cga.nt- lt IS emlllent)y useful. These nineteen Bible Studies are crowded with information.
"The first and final problem of religion" remarks Mr Wheeler, "concerns the production of t'hings. Man'~ own body was always nearer to him than sun, moon, and stars; and early man, thi~king not in ~ords, but in things, had to ex~ ress th e very Idea of creatIOn or production in te r,ms of hi S own bod(' Th.at such phallic conceptions of d eny h~uld o~cur. III J ndla or Assyria the orthodox read e r will adm~t . wllhout di s t~rban ce of soul. But when Mr. Wheele r dl slllters nil klllds of hint s :ll1d obscure phra~es .fro.m the Bible, and roint ~ out their evidently phalli C sl g l1lfi c~ n ce, a , ~ ew and alarmlllg complexion is put upon the subject. 1 hey who have glib)y and devoutly read of "groves," and" ark ," and .. serpen ts" will receive a .shock from Mr .. Wheel ~r's ~alt c ry of antiquarian research .
III e su h promlllen I g ive n in ri ) ture t th e rile of
