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 TV O F I N T E L L E C T U A L P R O G R E S S .
No. 1 1 5 . ]
JU L Y 1, 1895.
[Price One P enny.
N E I V P U B L I C A T IO N S .
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T he problem which often perplexes the mind of Agnostic parents, “ How best to introduce the Bible to our children,” will shortly receive a practical solution in a 100-paged manual by Mr. F. J . Gould, entitled “ Tales from the Bible, Told to my Daughter” (is.)./ The book will present the leading myths and incidents of/ the Old Testament in clear and simple language. The narrative will, of course, be freed from the occasional grossness of the original. While the author avoids irrelevant attack on orthodox beliefs, he leads the young reader, by passing but significant suggestions, to the conclusion that the interesting old Hebrew legends are not to be accepted as genuine history.
Mr. E dward C lodd, who has lately been most indus trious with his pen, is now engaged upon a little work to be entitled “ Joseph the Dreamer,” in which he will give, in a series of interesting pictures, the story of the life of Joseph, set in its natural surroundings, from the black tents of the shepherds of Mesopotamia to the gilded palace of the King of Egypt.
A new edition of Mr. Samuel P. Putnam’s “ Four Hundred Years of Freethought” (21s.) is nearly ready, and will contain some additional portraits. The first edition, we are informed, consisted of 1,500 copies—a very respectable figure for a guinea volume.
S aladin (W. Stewart Ross) has a new work in the press, uniform in size and price with “ The Bottomless Pit.”
Mr. C harles Watts’s forthcoming booklet will be entitled “ The Claims of Christianity Considered, from a Rationalist Standpoint.” It will be published early in September.
Messrs. Williams & Norgate have issued the third and fourth volumes of Dr. A. Hausrath’s “ History of the New Testament Times ” (10s. 6d. each).
T he new volume of the “ Eminent Women Series,” issued by Messrs. W. H. Allen & Co., is devoted to a biography of “ George Eliot,” written by Miss Mathilde Blind, who is, as our readers know, a pronounced Agnostic.
Mr. B ertram Dodell has reprinted “ Iamblichus on the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldteans, and Assyrians ” (7s. fid.), by Thomas Taylor, the Neo-Platonist. This volume will be welcomed by students of ancient philosophy, the original edition being rare and costly. We shall review the book in our next issue.
W e understand that the second volume of “ Darwin and After Darwin,” which the late Professor Romanes had nearly completed at the time of his decease, will shortly be published.
O U R L I B R A R Y S H E L V E S .
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HUXLEY'S COLLECTED E S S A Y S . - I . “ To promote the increase of natural knowledge, and to forward the application of scientific methods of investigation to all the problems of life to the best of my ability, in the conviction which has grown with my growth and strengthened with my strength, that there is no alleviation for the sufferings of mankind except veracity of thought and of action, and the resolute facing of the world as it is when the garment of make-believe, by which pious hands have hidden its uglier features, is stripped off.” That, to use his own words in the prefatory Autobiography given in
“ METHOD AND R E SU L T S ”
(Vol. I. of “ Collected Essays ” in Eversley Series ; Macmillan ; 18 9 4 ; 430 pp.; 5s.), has been the life-aim of Thomas Henry Huxley.
With the shortest of short autobiographies which Professor Huxley has judged well to place before us at the outset of these “ Collected Essays,” the world should respectfully be content. Curt as it is, it glistens with that characteristic humour, so bluff yet so delicate, which almost makes his opponents rejoice to furnish the occasion for the Professor’s wit. He was born on May 4th, 1825, at Ealing.
“ I am not aware,” proceeds the Professor, “ that any portents preceded my arrival in this world, but in my childhood I remember hearing a traditional account of the manner in which I lost a chance of an, endowment of great practical value. The windows of my mother’s room were open, in consequence of the, unusual warmth of the weather. For the same reason,' probably, a neighbouring beehive had swarmed, and the new colony, pitching on the window-sill, was making its way into the room when the horrified nurse shut down the sash. I f that well-meaning woman had only abstained from her ill-timed interference, the swarm might have settled on my lips, and I should have been endowed with that mellifluous eloquence which, in this country, leads far more surely than worth, capacity, or honest work to the highest places in Church and State. But the opportunity was lost, and I have been obliged to content myself through life with saying what I mean in the plainest of plain language, than which, I suppose, there is no habit more ruinous to a man’s prospects of advancement.” The mother was an emotional, energetic, and clear-thinking brunette. Thomas, when a small boy, preached a sermon to the maids in the kitchen. His first school was a den of inefficiency. While there he beat an adversary in a stand-up fight, and yet came away with a black eye, the adversary’s face escaping untarnished—“ one of my first experiences of the extremely rough-and-ready nature of justice, as exhibited by the course of things in general.” Young Huxley passed his first M.B. examination at London University, gained an appointment at Haslar Hospital, sailed about the world for four years in the “ Rattlesnake,”
