P P U f l . ' f *
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A RATIONALIST REVIEW.
[ESTABLISHED 1885.]
No. 16. ( N ew S e r ie s .)
OCTOBER i , 1897.
M o n t h l y ; T w o p e n c e .
IRcw publications.
M e s s r s . W i l l ia m s & N o r g a t e have issued the third volume of the English translation of I)r. Adolph Harnack’s important work, The H istory o f Dogma. This section deals mainly with the development of ecclesiastical dogma There is also an appendix on Manichreism. Another volume will complete the work.
M e s s r s . B l a c kw o o d & S on s have nearly ready a number of important books on religion and history. Among the former is Dr. C. P. Tiele’s Elements o f the Science o f Relig io n , consisting of the author’s Gifford Lectures last year at Edinburgh University. A second work will contain the two lectures on Theism lately delivered at Princetown University by Dr. Andrew Seth.
M e s s r s . H o u g h t o n , M i f f l i n , & Co. will publish shortly A Correspondence between fo h n Sterlin g and Ralph JFa Ido Emerson, edited, with a sketch of Sterling’s life, by Emerson’s son, Mr. W. E. Emerson. Most of these letters have appeared in the A tlan tic M onthly; but the volume will contain new information concerning Sterling, gathered from Emerson’s papers.
M r. F i sh e r U n w in has arranged to publish A Selection o f the Poems o f Mathilde B lin d , to be edited, with an introduction, by Mr. Arthur Symons.
T h e first two volumes o f Messrs Service and Paton’s new “ Whitehall Library” will be Kingsley’s Hypatia and C a r l y l e ’s Sartor Resartus.
M e s s r s . S w a n S o n n e n s c h f .i n ’s autumn announcements include Aristotle’s Psychology and Ueberweg’s H istory o f Contemporary Philosophy, both translated by Professor W. A. Hammond ; translations of E th ics and Physiological Psychology by Professor Wundt; and P ractica l Ethics, by Professor H. Sidgwick.
M e s s r s . W i l l ia m s i t N o r g a t e will shortly issue two useful volumes, entitled Modern Thoughts on Religion and Culture and Modern Thoughts on L ife and Conduct. The first volume is a collection of the recorded beliefs and aspirations of leaders of thought in the nineteenth century, especially illustrating the transforming influence of science on religion and morals; in the second volume the object has been to supply a convenient manual, ranking between a collection of aphorisms and formal essays, and designed, by widely collated extracts from eminent modern writers, to bring into prominence the permanent elements which go to make and improve our social life. The compiler of both volumes is Mr. H. W. Smith.
M e s s r s . W a t t s & Co. have issued two new pamphlets, both of a propagandist character. The first, The O ld B ib le , from a Hew Poin t o f View, is a careful criticism o f Dean Farrar’s recent remarkable work ; while the second, The Triumph o f Mammon, endeavours to show that Christ has been betrayed by the clergy, who, to use the author’s words, “ are far more concerned about postures and vestments and empty ceremonies, about titles and preferments and fat ‘ livings,’ than about the performance of any genuinely-helpful Christian duty.”
Professor Bascom, a well-known American authority on psychology, ethics, and theology, has written a volume dealing with Evolution and Religion. He divides his work into four parts. First he considers evolution as a conception ; then he deals with it as giving unity to the field of knowledge and action ; next he discusses evolution in its present spiritual phases, and finally evolution in the evidences which it adduces on the spiritual side.
Messrs. Bliss, Sands, & Co., who issue many excellently-got-up and remarkably cheap standard works, will devote their next volume of the “ Apollo Poets ” to The Poetical Works o f Percy Bysshe Shelley. This book is to be sumptuously produced in every particular, and the price will be 3s. 6d.— truly one of the marvels of the century, judging by previous volumes of the same firm.
Professor G. T. Ladd, of Yale University, has issued through Messrs. Longmans a bulky volume on Philosophy o f Knowledge, which claims to be an inquiry into the nature, limits, and validity of human cognitive faculty. He dedicates his book to “ those whoby serious and prolonged inquiry, however sceptical, aspire to approach the truth.” “ If I may claim,” the author says in his preface, “ any peculiar merit for the method followed in discussing the problem of knowledge, it is perhaps chiefly this : I have striven constantly to make epistemology vital— a thing of moment, because indissolubly and most intimately connected with the ethical and religious life of the age.”
Mr. Heinemann is issuing a translation from the French of M. Guyau’s Non-Religion o f the Future. The book deals with the possibilities of an unification of the great religions, but argues, at the same time, that religious education is on the decline.
The new issue of the Agnostic Annual, which will be ready on the n th inst., will be one of the most important yet published. The place of honour is given to Miss Constance E. Plumptre, who discourses very pleasantly “ On the Progress of Liberal Thought during the Last Sixty Years Professor Goldwin Smith follows with a deeply interesting paper on “ Liberal Orthodoxy Mr. Leslie Stephen writes with characteristic charm and vigour on “ The Will to Believe,” the article covering nine closely-printed pages; Mr. Joseph McCabe, the ex-Roman Catholic priest, elucidates “ The Sources of Modern DoubtMr. Mortimer Cecil (author of Pseudo-Philosophy, one of the best books recently issued from the Rationalist press) and Mr. F. J. Gould engage in an intellectual duel on the question, “ Is Progress an Illusion ?” ; Mr. Edward Clodd unmercifully criticises Dean Farrar’s recent work on the Bible, thoroughly exposing its absurdities and weaknesses; Mr. Charles Watts exhibits “ Immortality in the Light of Evolution ;” Mr. W. Stewart Ross (Saladin) writes sympathetically on “ In a Strait betwixt Two,” dealing with the unenviable position of the clergyman who, through worldly considerations, is compelled to remain in the Church whose teachings he no longer accepts; Mr. Charles E. Hooper, the associate-editor of the Literary Guide, adumbrates a new theory of “ The Gods;” while Mr. Amos Waters, in the form of an interview, shows the trend of “ Agnosticism in the Broad Church,”
