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. 120.]
D E C EM B ER i , 1895.
[Price One Penny.
N E W P U B L I C A T IO N S .
Mr. F. J. Gould’s “ Tales from the B ib le ” (is.) will be ready this week. The little work is intended for children not yet in their teens, and presents, in simple language, a connected, chronological view of the Old Testament, with hints as to how the Hebrew scriptures came to be written. It should be added that the stories are combined with suggestions and warnings which will prevent an intelligent child from believing that all the narratives o f the Bible are historical, or all its teachings pure.
Messrs. Williams & Norgate have published a translation of Professor Willibald Herrmann’s “ Verkehr des Christen mit Gott.” Professor Herrmann writes from the standpoint of the school of Ritschl, and this is the first book, we believe, to appear in English from the pen of one o f Ritschl’s followers. It will form a volume of the publishers’ Theological Translation Library. The next contrition to the Library will be the second volume of Professor Weizsiicker’s work on “ The Apostolic Age.”
“ A Sinner’s Sermons” is the title of a new book shortly to be published by the same firm. In it the tables are turned, and the preacher is preached to. It is a severe, but not unkindly, indictment of the follies in belief and practice of many religious people.
Messrs. Cassell announce as now ready a new and revised edition o f Dr. E. C. Brewer’s “ Dictionary of Phrase and Fable” (10s. 6d.). This edition has been entirely revised throughout, and is enlarged by several hundred pages. An immense number of new words have been added, and the book as now issued is practically a new work. The bibliographical section has been brought up to the latest date.
M r. J. M. Robertson has issued through Messrs. Sonnenschein his long-promised work on “ Buckle and His C r it ic s ” (10s. 6d. net). It is a spirited defence of the author of “ The History of Civilisation ” against the attacks of Leslie Stephen, Mr. Gladstone, John Fiske, Theodore Parker, and others. A valuable feature of the book is a concise summary of Buckle’s arguments.
Mr. C harles Watts’s “ The Claims of Christianity” (6d.) is issued. The booklet has been written for propagandist purposes, and its calm and judicial tone should add considerably to its usefulness.
T he Open Court Publishing Company will shortly publish a new work by Professor E. D. Cope, entitled “ The Primary Factors o f Organic Evolution.”
Messrs. Watts & Co. have in the press a new edition of Professor Huxley’s “ Possibilities and Impossibilities" (3d-).
Messrs. R eeves & T urner and Mr. Bertram Dobell will publish shortly “ Biographical and Critical Studies,” by James Thomson (B.V.). This volume will consist for the most part of essays which have not been previously collected. It will include articles on Rabelais, Ben Jonson, William Blake, Shelley, Garth Wilkinson, John Wilson, James Hogg, Walt Whitman, and others. The book is intended to form the first volume of a collected edition of the author’s prose writings, which will make five volumes in all. It will depend, however, upon the reception of this first volume whether the publishers will see their way to issue, as they desire to do, the whole of Thomson’s prose works.
Among the works which crowd upon us at this season of the year one of somewhat unusual type appears under the title of “ Christ and the Creator Glorified; or, Our Saviour and Science Reconciled ” (10s. 6d.), by “ One Oppressed.” His 800 pages the writer does not so much write himself as make theologians, poets, philosophers, and Freethinkers write for him through the medium o f copious quotation. The author is by no means so orthodox as the title might suggest. A review o f the work will be presented in our New Year’s issue.
Messrs. K egan Paul have issued a valuable work entitled “ Lao-Tsze, the Great Thinker, with a Translation of his Thoughts on the Nature and Manifestation of God ” (5s.), by Major-General G. G. Alexander, C.B.
Mr. J. M. Wheeler’s “ Footsteps of the P ast” will extend to two volumes, the first being announced as on the eve of publication.
O UR L I B R A R V S H E L VES.
H U X L E Y ’S COLLECTED E S S A Y S . - V . Colenso smote the defenders of Old Testament infallibility hip and thigh. From the Ark o f the New Testament he withheld his critical hand, though we suspect that, had his life been prolonged, he would have thrown a Rationalistic dart into the sanctuary of the Christian theology. Huxley’s opportunities and intrepidity enabled him to cross the Rubicon that divides Judaism from Christianity. His fifth volume o f essays bears the ominous title of
“ S C IE N C E A N D C H R I S T IA N T R A D I T IO N ”
(Macmillan; 419 pp.; 5s.). It contains some o f the most famous o f his controversial articles. This volume alone would invest him with the character o f a redoubtable champion of Rationalism.
Amusingly ironical is his plea that he never willingly went out o f his way to attack the Bible. He could not help coming into violent contact with it. Ecclesiastical zeal
