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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. 125.]
MAY 1, 1896.
[ P r ic e One P en n y .
N E I V P U B L IC A T IO N S .
L I T E R A R Y C H A T S .
M r. J ohn B ertram A skew lias issued, through Messrs. Sonnenschein & Co., a useful and marvellously cheap brochure entitled “ Pros and Cons : A Guide to the Controversies of the D a y ” ( 3 1 1 pp.; is.). Among the subjects included are Agnosticism : Blasphemy Laws; Christianity: its Divine Origin; Christianity: is Dogma a Necessity? Church Attendance by Non-believers ; Immortality; Liberty of Opinion, Speech, and Worship ; and Theism. The book appeals to a wide circle of readers, and should have a large circulation.
C onsiderable progress has been made with Mr. Leonard Huxley’s biography of his father, the late Professor Huxley ; but the work is not expected to be completed before the autumn.
Messrs. G eorge B e l l & Sons have published Miss Harriet Martineau’s condensed translation of “ The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte” (three vols., 5s. each), with an introduction by Frederic Harrison.
Mr . F ish er U nwin has issued a second and revised edition of Mr. G. J . Holyoake’s “ Public Speaking and Debate.” The volume has been a distinct success.
T he Prussian Academy of Sciences is preparing a complete critical edition of Kant’s works.
M r . C harles C a tt ell is publishing, by subscription, a little volume entitled “ Gems from the Ocean of Truth ” (is. 6d.), selected from the learned of all ages. The character of the compilation will he after the style of the author’s “ String of Pearls,” which has long been out of print.
M r . Murray announces that he has in the press two volumes which have been edited from the notes and lectures of the late Professor Croom Robertson. They will be entitled “ Elements of Philosophy ” and “ Elements of Psychology,” and will be edited by Mrs. Foley Rhys Davids.
Messrs. D. A ppleton & Co. have published Professor Andrew D. White’s “ History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom.” Several chapters of the work originally appeared in the Popular Science Monthly, and have been quoted freely in the liberal press. The book is a distinct acquisition to Rationalist literature.
Mi lssrs. H en ry & Co. announce as ready the first volume of the English translation of the works of Friedrich Nietzsche. It contains “ The Case of Wagner,” “ Nietzsche Contra Wagner,” “ The Twilight of the Idols,” and “ The Antichrist.” The price of the volume is 10s. 6d.
Mr. H einemann includes in his Spring announcements a work on “ The Agnosticism of the Future,” from the French o f M. Guyau.
XI.—WITH THE REV. CHARLES VOYSEY, B.A. A healthy exhilaration stirs the blood when one spends an hour with a rebel against a creed incompetent to answer the needs of modern thought. Mr. Voysey, once vicar of Healaugh, Yorkshire, has the honour of being a rebel against the dogmas of the Church of England. The Church recognised his ability by casting him out. The Theistic church in Swallow Street, Piccadilly, stands as a monument of his energy and his convictions.
That the Literary Guide represented the Agnostic school in no sense damped my desire to pay a visit to the notable heretic who exhorts men to love an Eternal Father ; nor will the fact, I trust, prevent the reader from honest appreciation of Mr. Voysey’s virile struggle towards freedom of soul. It would ill become a journal that pays homage to Voltaire and Paine to withhold the right hand of fellowship from Charles Voysey. On his side, also, the catholic spirit reveals itself. When I told Mr. Voysey that I marched under the banner of the Ethical Movement, he replied, with good-humoured bluntness, that he was sorry to hear it. For a brief space the blades of argument crossed and flashed, but we concluded a happy truce in the mutual recognition of the claims of morality, and of the need for an appeal to conscience in order to evoke the ethical impulse.
There is, perhaps, a secret link between heresy and the stars. Astronomers are the natural enemies of the Christian creed. Astronomy opens up abysses of brilliance in which the poor little creeds sink and disappear. And Mr. Voysey, like Kant, delights in the majesty of the starry heavens. He possesses a noble telescope, a 7-inch reflector. The glass was ground by the expert hand of Dr. Vallance, who lightly bears his burden of ninety years. I descried on Mr, Voysey’s shelves Sir Robert Ball’s “ Story of the Heavens ” and Nasmyth and Carpenter’s work on the Moon.
Among the literary treasures I found a foremost place assigned to the elaborate and ingenious “ Rivers of Life,” by Major-General Forlong, who, following after the pioneer labours of Godfrey Higgins in the “ Anacalypsis,” has worked out an extensive scheme of the influence of Phallicism on religious beliefs and symbols. And the symbols, gleaming in red and gold, often decorate the windows of churches 1 A word of greeting, also, Mr. Voysey gave to Inman’s “ Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names.” He allowed that the speculators in these esoteric regions did sometimes overrun the just limits of their theories, but considered a mass of truth remained after a due discount. He did not, however, receive much of the daring doctrine of Mr. Gerald Massey; nor could he follow the yet wilder flights of Professor Johnson into the cloudland of the Benedictine conspiracy; and I quite concurred in his doubts as to the reliability of Kersey Graves’s “ Sixteen Crucified Saviours.”
Mr. Voysey’s hand rested tenderly on George Macdonald’s
