THE LITERARY GUIDE:
A M O N T H L Y R E C O R D A N D R E V I E W O F I N T E L L E C T U A L P R O G R E S S
No. 107.]
NOVEM BER i, 1894.
[P rice One Penny.
N E W P U B L I C A T I O N S .
T he second volume of Mr. F. J . Gould’s “ Concise History of Religion ” is now rapidly approaching completion, and its publication may be expected early next year. The work will give in compact form the results attained by the best Biblical criticism of the Rationalist school. In the opening sections useful particulars will be supplied as to the geography of Palestine and the ethnographic characteristics of the Israelites and neighbouring nations. Ancient Judaism will be traced from its first rude beginnings. The legends of the Patriarchs, of Joseph, and of Moses will be compared with similar legends in early non-Jewish histories. From the Judges and Kings, onward to the Exile, the Maccabaean war, the Roman conquest, and the times of Herod, Pilate, and Nero, the history of Israel will be followed on the lines of purely natural evolution ; and the whole of the Old Testament will be broken up into its original elements and placed in chronological order. Sketches will be also introduced of the Apocryphal books and other interesting Hebrew literature. Thus the reader will see, as in a clearly-engraved map, the sources and development of Judaism till the rise of Christianity; and the fortunes of the Hebrew people will be interwoven with the story of their scriptures. A careful account will be furnished of the growth of the belief in Immortality and of the Messianic hope. Finally, the relations will be indicated between Christianity and the religions that surrounded it at its birth. The volume will be larger than its predecessor, and will be published at 3s. 6d.
T he latest addition to the Religion of Science Library is Dr. Carus’s “ Fundamental Problems,” a bulky volume, consisting of 353 pages, and which is issued at 2s. 6d. There should be a large demand for this popular edition of a truly valuable work.
Messrs. W. S tewart & Co. have issued a new and revised edition of Dr. Robert Lewins’s “ Life and Mind, on the Basis of Modern Medicine” (is.). Mr. W. Stewart Ross contributes a biographical sketch of the author.
T he Open Court Publishing Company announce the early publication of a new work, “ The Gospel of Buddha,” by Dr. Paul Cams. The book, which is a simple exposition in the words of the original gospels of the life and doctrines of Gautama Buddha, as they bear upon the religious thought of the present, has received the approval of several Buddhistic churchmen, and is to be translated at once into Japanese by the ecclesiastical head of the Zen sect. Like all the volumes issued by the Open Court Publishing Company, the book will be elegantly printed and bound. Messrs. Watts & Co. will be the English agents.
T he Liberty Review Publishing Co., 17, Johnson's Court, E.C., will issue in the third week of November Mr. Frederick Millar’s “ Liberty Review Annual” (6d.), the contents of which will be of an extremely interesting character. Mr. Frederick Greenwood will write on “ labour’s Revolt and labour’s Duty;” Mr. Thomas Maekay and the Right Hon. Lord Stanley of Alderley will discuss Old Age Pensions, the former olTering a criticism on Mr. Joseph Chamberlain’s scheme, the latter venturing an alternative scheme; Mr. George Livesey, the well-known chairman of the South Metropolitan Gas Company, will answer the question, “ Shall the London Gas Supply be Municipalised?’ ; the Rev. Canon Hayman, D.D., will put forward “ A Plea for Free Labour;” Mr. J. C. Spence, the author of “ The Dawn of Civilisation,” will discuss the anomalies connected with “ I>aw and Marriage;” A Chairman of Brewster Sessions will have something important to say on the question of “ Magistrates and the Liquor Traffic ;” A Railway man will write on “ Railway Rates: An Object Lesson in State Interference;” and the concluding article, by A Plain Tory, will be entitled “ In the Last Resort.”
I)r. Henry Wace’s long-promised work, “ The Christian Faith and Recent Agnostic Attacks,” is at last about to be issued.
Mr. Samuel P. Putnam’s “ Four Hundred Years of l ’rcethought” (21s.) is issued, and the publishers are to be congratulated on having produced an invaluable acquisition to heretical literature. It comprises 874 large pages, in addition to 142 excellent cabinet portraits of the luminaries of the Freethought movement.
To commemorate the two hundredth, anniversary of the birth of Voltaire, Mr. J. M. Wheeler has written a popular account of the great heretic’s career, and the brochure will be shortly published by Mr. R. Forder.
Some studies on the books of Job and Ecclesiastes, under the title of “ The Sceptics of the Old Testament ” (7s. 6d.), are to be published this month by Messrs. Isbister. The author is Mr. E. J . Dillon, of the University of St. Petersburg.
T he second volume of Mr. Moncure D. Conway’s edition of the works of Thomas Paine is issued (12s. 6d.).
Mr. Philip G reen, the Unitarian publisher, announces a small book on “ Evolution and the Religion of the Future,” by Miss Anna Swanwick.
Messrs. Blackwood have published “ A Study of Ethical Principles,” by Professor James Seth, of the Brown University, America.
M r. Robert Forder has published, under the title “ Last Words on Suicide” (2d.), Colonel Ingersoll’s reply to the critics of his former essay, “ Is Suicide a Sin ?”
