No. 8. (New Series.)
Xtterat^ (5utbe
A RATIONALIST REVIEW.
[ESTABLISHED 1885.]
F E B R U A R Y i, 1897.
Pro r &
Montiii.y ; T wopence.
1Rc\v ipmblications.
M r. G r a n t R ic h a r d s announces that he has in preparation a new work by Mr. Grant Allen, entitled The Evolution o f G o d : Researches into the Origin o f Relig ion . It will be an endeavour to trace the evolution of the Christian idea o f God from its earliest beginnings in po ly th e ism first to the Hebrew monotheistic ideal, and then to the Christian God in three persons.
Mr. Francis Darwin announces that he is preparing a supplementary series of the letters of his father, the late Charles Darwin, which will comprise a selection from those letters of purely scientific interest which he was unable to print in the L i fe, together with whatever fresh material may come to hand.
M. Zola is hard at work on his new novel, P a r is ,
which,
he says, will contain “ the whole philosophical balancesheet of the century. It will even be a synthesis of the development of thought since the Great Revolution.”
M r. F. J. Goui.d has nearly completed the third volume o f his Concise H isto ry o f Religion, and it will be issued early this month by Messrs. Watts & Co. It traverses a very wide field , in which figure Paul, Jesus, the early Christians, and the many writings, Jewish and Christian, o f the latter half o f the first and the whole o f the second century. The book covers about 300 closely-printed pages, and, having regard to the invaluable information it contains and the labour expended in its production, the publishers cannot he regard ed as in any way extortionate in fixing the price at five shillings. The work is, in some respects, a Rationalist’s library in miniature.
Mrs. I’ . F. F itzgerald has written an attractive work on The Rational, or Scientific, Id ea l o f M ora lity, containing a theory of cognition, a metaphysic of religion, and an apologia pro amove.
“ A letheia, M.D.,” who some time since wrote A n Agnostic's Prim er,
has now compiled A Rationalist's Manual,
containing a mass of useful information for the student and thinker. The volume is in the press, and will be issued by Messrs. Watts &: Co. at an early date.
pioneers of Evolution.
T h e Open Court Publishing Company have issued a translation o f Gustav Freytag’s M a r tin Luth er, with twentysix illustrations. The work is more than a biography of the great reformer. It is a powerful philosophical sketch o f Luther’s import and mission in the mighty, irresistible development o f universal history ; an appreciation o f the man without equal in literature. It will also be found to afford a charming picture o f the social and intellectual life of the sixteenth century. The illustrations are taken from famous paintings or engravings.
D r . H . S m it h is engaged upon what he regards as the most important work he has yet undertaken. It will be entitled A P le a f o r the Unhorn, and will strongly insist ‘‘ that children should be born with a pure mind in a pure body ”
M e s s r s . T. a n d T. C l a r k have published an additional volume of the Ante-iVicene Christia n Library containing early Christian works discovered since the completion o f the series, and selections from the commentaries o f Origen. The volume is edited by Professor Allan Menzies.
M e s s r s . L ongm an s & Co. are publishing a new work in two volumes by Professor F. Max Müller. Its title is Contributions to the Science o f Mythology, and it is ¡„tended to fill the gap between his Science o f Language and the Science o f Religion.
M e s s r s . S o n n e n s c h e in & Co. announce a new volume o f the Schopenhauer series, entitled On Human N a tu re being essays (partly posthumous) in ethics and politics! The volume has been selected and translated by Mr Bailey Saunders, M.A.
Mr. Fisher Unwin will publish next month, under the title o f The Tenth Muse, a satire, in the form of a fragment o f Herodotus, on what are generally regarded as our most cherished institutions. An onslaught on certain dominant religious superstitions will be a leading feature o f the work The author is Mr. Herbert Flowerdew, who, above various pen-names, has contributed for years to the periodical press.
Pioneers o f Evolution , from Thales to Huxley. With an Intermediate
Chapter on the Causes of Arrest of the Movement. Iiy Edward C lodd. With portraits of Darwin, Wallace, Spencer, and Huxley. (Grant Richards.) 250 pp.55s. Mr. C lodd’s reputation as a painstaking and scholarly writer is so well established that we naturally look for something exceptionally good and lasting in everything that bears the imprint of his name. And when the announcement was made some time ago that he was engaged in writing the story of the origin and growth of the Evolution idea, we anticipated that the work would be a solid and brilliant contribution to the literature of the Rationalist movement. Needless to say, our expectations have, in every respect, been fulfilled. In this volume we find the same clear presentation of facts, the same lucid exposition, and the same earnest and convincing tone, to which the popularity and the influence of those delightful books, The Childhood o f the World, The Childhood o f Religion,
and The Story o f Creation, are so largely due. To-day the Evolution idea reigns supreme in the world of thought; yet the most confused notions prevail with regard to it. Evolution is a word in every-day use among so-called educated persons ; yet how few there are among this class who could explain its meaning and significance. Such a work as Mr. Clodd has here given us has long been wanted, to enable men and women of average intelligence, who have neither the time nor the aptitude for real study, to learn something of the great theory which, after centuries of struggle for supremacy, has at last asserted itself as the one true guiding principle in the philosophy of life.
In the opening chapter of his book, which deals with the period n.c. 6oo- a .d . 50, Mr. Clodd points out that, although the Theory of Evolution, as we define it, is new, the speculations which made it possible are, at least, twenty-five centuries old. As far back as six centuries before the Christian era, there lived in Greece men who doubted the truth of the theory of special creation. Thales, Anaximander, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Aristotle, Epicurus, and Lucretius were the real pioneers of Evolution; and had it not been for the arrest of inquiry brought about by Christianity, and the centuries of theological hostility to
