H t t c r a c p

A RATIONALIST REVIEW.

[ESTABLISHED 1885.]

No. s- (New Series.)

NOVEMBER i, 1896.

IRcw publications. Professor K arl Pearson will shortly publish, through Mr. Edward Arnold, a volume entitled The Chances °o f Death, and O ther Studies in Evolution. The work will be embellished with illustrations and diagrams.

Monthly ; Twopence.

Hrcbtusbop flfcaocc anb Honosticism. The Life and Correspondence o f William Connor Magee, Archbishop o f York, B ishofo f Peterborough. ByJohn Cottf.r Macd6nnei,i.,D.D.,

T he Delegates of the Clarendon Press are adding to their “ Series o f Sacred Books of the East ” vol. xlii., Hymns o f the Atharva-Veda, translated by Mr. M. Bloomfield • vol. xliii., The Satapatha-Brahman a, translated by Mr | Eggeling, part iii.; vol. xlvi., Vedic Hymns, translated by Professor F. Max Muller and H. Oldenberg, part ii.

T he next volume in the Collected Works of Friedrich Nietzsche will be A Genealogy o f Morals, translated by Dr. William A. Haussmann.

Mr. A. S. C antlay is preparing for publication the first part o f a work on Our Sacred Books, in which the latest conclusions of the Higher Criticism and the latest discoveries of the archreologists will be set forth and examined

A new volume of Triibner’s Oriental Series will be devoted to an exposition of The Faith o f Islam .

Messrs. Longmans & Co. have in the press two posthumous books by the late George John Romanes. One is a volume o f essays, to be edited by Professor Lloyd Morgan of Bristol, dealing with such general subjects as primitive natural history, man and brute, and mental differences between men and women. The other is a selection from his poems, with an introduction by his Oxford friend Mr T . Herbert Warren, president of Magdalen.

Mr. Philip Green is publishing the lectures on Theism delivered by the Rev. R. A. Armstrong, of Liverpool, at the University Hall Settlement, under Mrs. Humphry Ward’s auspices. The same publisher will issue a volume by the Rev. James Forrest on Religion and the Scientific Sp ir it

M r. Joseph McCabe’s article in The Agnostic Annual has been considerably enlarged, and will be published in pamphlet form at the end of November.

Dr. Henry Smith has written a 'booklet entitled The Christian 's Looking-glass, which will be published immediately by Messrs. Watts & Co. It is a forceful but temperate examination o f Christian pretensions, and will directly appeal to the orthodox church-goer.

T he Apocalypse o f Baruch has been translated from the Syriac by the Rev. R. H. Charles, and will be published shortly. The work, which has been known to scholars only about thirty years, is believed to come from a Hebrew original.

Canon Residentiary of Peterborough. (Ishister & Co.) 2 vols.; 293-320 pp.; 32s. D u r in g the nineteenth century the English Church has enjoyed the distinction of having had more truly great men at its head than any other Church in Christendom, and among these Dr. Magee will always rank as one of the most eminent. The exalted position he occupied at the time of his lamented death was attained, not by royal, political, or other patronage, but by his ability and worth ; and both as ecclesiastic and statesman he filled that position in such a way as earned for him the admiration, not only of his own countrymen, but of Englishmen of all creeds and opinions. As an orator he was peerless ; and, whether from the benches of that august assembly which he so often electrified by his eloquence, or from the pulpit from which he held spellbound those immense congregations that were attracted by his fame as a preacher, his words were always those of a wise and sagacious man, of one who was as sincere as he was eloquent. In the two handsome volumes before us we have the record (for the most part told by Dr. Magee himself) of a laborious life devoted to the glory of the God he worshipped, and to promoting the welfare of the Church he loved. To those who share the vulgar error that the lot of a prelate of the English Church is one of luxurious ease, the story of Dr. Magee’s life will reveal a good many facts which show that the office of bishop or archbishop is very far from being a sinecure.

But it is not our purpose to speak of Dr. Magee as a theologian, or to refer to the chapters of these volumes that bear upon matters relating to the Church or to the Church’s mission. We are more concerned with Dr. Magee’s attacks upon Agnosticism, and his attitude generally towards Rationalist religious thought. For a Christian priest so thoroughly sincere as Dr. Magee to have looked upon the growth of the Rationalist movement in this country with any degree of complacency was not to be expected; and the stimulus given to Agnosticism by the writings of Huxley and others was naturally viewed by him with considerable alarm. His duel with Huxley in the Nineteenth Cen/ury 'm 1889 will be fresh in the memory of our readers. Dr. Magee did not cut a very happy figure in that polemical combat. To use his own words, he had to “ climb down.” For once he found his match— more than his match, in the man who was indubitably the prince of modern controversialists. It is now most interesting to have l)r. Magee’s own comments on that famous controversy, and to read that even he himself recognized that he was unequal to the task of routing the “ infidel” champion. In a letter to Canon Macdonnell, enclosing a proof of his “ Apology to Huxley,” he says:—

T he next volume o f Mr. Heinemann’s “ The Greek Educator ” Series will be entitled Rousseau, and Education According to Nature.

Mr. Leonard Huxley has made considerable process with the biography of his father. He has been successful in obtaining many interesting letters for the volume.

Mr. R. BORDER has published a cheap and unabridged edition o f Mr. J. M. Wheeler’s A Biographical Dictionary o f Freethinkers o f A l t Ages and Nations. The book is a very valuable compilation, and in its more accessible form it should secure a greatly increased circle of readers.

I have, I hope, given him a fairly palatable salad, which I have dressed on the reverse principle of that of the Spanish recipe, which is “ oil like a prodigal,” and vinegar like “ a miser.” I did not care to take him seriously, and thought that a tone of civil and good-humoured contempt was the best to adopt. How Huxley would have enjoyed this precious morsel!

In another letter to Canon Macdonnell, Dr. Magee, referring to the distress of Christian people at Huxley’s article in the Nineteenth Century, says that “ the fact is Huxley’s bumptious air of omniscience imposes on feeble folk j” and he was of opinion that “ Wace, if he answers him, ought to knock him into a cocked hat.” We all know how far Dr. Wace succeeded in this respect. Impartial readers of the controversy rather inclined to the conclusion