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It may readily be supposed that Mr. Norton, while himself an archheretic in the eyes of (so-called) orthodox Christians, had little tolerance for what he deemed heresy. He was so sure of his own beliefs, that he could hardly imagine those who differed essentially from him to be both honest and wise. The transcendental school of thought, with its intuitive philosophy, found no sympathy from him. While no man felt more vividly than he, or expounded with greater fulness and beauty, the evidential value of Christ's character and teachings, he could not bear that the historical and external evidences of Christianity should be in any wise depreciated. He was equally hostile to rationalistic explanations of the supernatural narratives in the Gospels. He could get no satisfying glimpses of substantial truth in the cloudland in which the thinkers and students of Germany are wont to dwell, and he regarded even Goethe as having no rightful place in the hierarchy of really great minds.

It is with regret that we forbear to quote what is said of Professor George R. Noyes, and of Professor Farrar.

The great danger of our country at present, which is everywhere recognised, is that men are placing too great a value on the acquisition of money. The only way to check this spirit is to convince them that there is something higher and nobler than material wealth. This is one thing that the American colleges are doing. Even for the real enjoyment of wealth, a man's ideas must be enlarged and ennobled, and his tastes cultivated. A man may become as rich as Croesus, but, if that be all, he must necessarily remain what the Japanese call "low class." Even the glimpse that this little book gives of a society of men devoted to learning may serve to convince some that "money" is not the end of life or the highest object of ambition.

PROF. FISHER'S CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES.*-Professor George P. Fisher has supplemented the admirable History of the Christain Church which he gave to the public a year ago with a short Manual, in which he has presented an outline of the evidences of the supernatural origin of the Christain religion. There are many excellent works that have been written on this subject which are deserving of high commendation, and which are not inaccessible to the general reader. But most of these give the argument at such length that many persons who would gladly read a shorter treatise are repelled. It is to meet the wants of this class of readers that Professor Fisher has written the present

* Manual of Christian Evidences. By GEORGE P. FISHER, D.D., LL.D.: New York. C. Scribner's Sons, 1888. 12mo, pp. 123.

work. It need hardly be said that for the preparation of such a book he is admirably qualified. He is thoroughly familiar with the subject, and is the master of a style of unusual clearness and precision. One of the distinguishing features of the argument, as he here presents it, is the prominence given to the antecedent need of a revelation, the intrinsic excellence of the system contained in the Bible, and its adaptation to the necessities of men. He also compares the Christian religion with other religions and other philosophical systems and shows its great superiority. For eighteen hundred years the enemies of Christianity have been trying new methods of attack. The Christian church has been likened to an anvil on which a thousand hammers have been shattered to pieces. Yet every generation listens to some new objection. Hence it becomes necessary that new books should be prepared to meet these new forms of attack. Professor Fisher has considered these changing aspects of skepticism and unbelief and made a book which is adapted to the wants of the private reader or student, and one which will also serve as an excellent text-book for the higher schools and academies.

WILLIAM L. KINGSLEY.

ETHICS OF MARRIAGE.*-In this book, Dr. H. S. Pomeroy, a prominent Boston physician who has given special attention to gynecology, has presented a strongly and clearly written treatise on the ethical and physiological principles which relate to the increase of the family. He vigorously denounces what he calls "the American sin" of preventing and checking such increase as a heinous offence against morals as well as against natural and physical laws, and points out the evils and dangers which are involved in it. It is not our purpose and this is not the place to discuss Dr. Pomeroy's ethical views, but those who hold with him that there is but one aspect in which the subject can be regarded as a question of morals will find themselves fortified by a perusal of his book. The introductory notes by Dr. Emmet and by Rev. Dr. Duryea endorse the character and object of the volume, and it is certainly entitled from its professional and literary ability to high respect and careful consideration.

HENRY T. BLAKE.

*The Ethics of Marriage. By H. S. POMEROY, M.D., Boston. With a prefatory note by Thomas Addis Emmet, M.D., LL.D., New York; and an introduction by Rev. J. T. Duryea, D.D. of Boston. Funk & Wagnalls, New York. pp. 197.

BOSTON MONDAY LECTURES.*-A poem dedicated to the genius of medley and a prelude on the popular taste of our age for the miscellaneous is recommended to the Boston Monday Lectureship as fit introduction to its next course of lectures. One valuable feature of such introduction would be that it would not be obliged to go far for the material of its illustrations. The volume before us may be called a masterpiece in the art of miscellany. Here we have poems, prayers, preludes, lectures, addresses, questions and answers, letters, essays, and, as if the genius of medley were making fun of us, we are informed in the table of contents that still another portion of the volume may properly be called "Miscellaneous," and to crown the whole we have an appendix. In addition also to the knowledge obtainable from such vast storehouse of miscellaneous wisdom we have the felicity of learning just how often the audience applauded, and such choice bits of information as that the "hall was crowded to the roof," that "large numbers were standing at several doors of both balconies," and "that it was estimated that from two to three thousand preachers were present with many students, ladies, and other educated men," are thrown in without doubt to enlarge still further the miscellaneous character of the book. It is a hardship to be obliged to deal soberly with such a volume. The most satisfactory result will probably be attained by not trying it. There are many good things said here. But the whole enterprise is on too vast a scale for the average mortal.

TURNING POINTS OF THOUGHT AND CONDUCT.f--This is a volume of sermons preached by Dr. Whiton in the pulpit of Dr. Dole's church in Birmingham, England, in 1887. They are published at the request of members of the congregation who heard them. No one who reads them even will fail to detect the sources of the impression which they evidently made upon that intelligent congregation. The volume is small and unpretentious. The sermons are twelve in number and are short. But they are compact with fresh, suggestive, and substantial thoughts, put in a very clear and graceful style. The themes are weighty and are discussed with the dignity befitting them, but they are also

* Boston Monday Lectures. Current Religious Perils, etc. By JOSEPH COOK. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, and Company. The Riverside Press Cambridge. 1888.

+ Turning Points of Thought and Conduct. By JAMES MORRIS WHITON, Ph.D. New York: Thomas Whittaker, 2 and 3 Bible House. 1888.

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handled with incisiveness and with a disregard of conventional opinion which leave no doubt of the preacher's independence and critical acuteness. One of the most interesting features of the sermons is the tone of downright reality, and of strong common sense that pervades them. In this and in many other respects they bear the marks of the best modern preaching.

RECENT BOOKS ON PHILOSOPHY AND PSYCHOLOGY.

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF PHILOSOPHY.*-This book has the great merit of being the first serious attempt to fill a distinct gap in English philosophical literature. As its author, when defining its aim in the Preface (p. iii.), assures us: "It is not an encyclopædia; nor is it intended as an introduction to any particular philosophical system, or to the history of the various systems, but to the study of philosophy itself." Accordingly, after a chapter upon the "Definition of Philosophy," we find discussed in three succeeding chapters, the relations of philosophy toward Religion, toward Natural Science, and toward Empirical Psychology. All Philosophy is thereupon divided by Dr. Stuckenberg into Theory of Knowledge (Noetics), Metaphysics, Aesthetics, and Ethics; each of these divisions is treated in a separate chapter; and the book closes with remarks upon "the Spirit and the Method in the Study of Philosophy."

On the whole, the most satisfactory chapter of the book is that entitled, "Definition of Philosophy." Here Dr. Stuckenberg sketches the slow and late development of the conception of philosophy as a discipline which, in any intelligible way, can be distinguished from the particular sciences. As a result of this survey, and "looking solely at the idea of philosophy, not at the actual attainments," we are told that "philosophy is the rational system of fundamental principles." (p. 46.) This definition expresses the more important elements of the true conception in tolerably succinct and exact language. We should prefer, however, to have the word "ultimate " substituted for the word "fundamental,” as applied to philosophical principles, and to have the whole definition somewhat expanded so as to cover, or at least suggest, the relation in which philosophy stands to the highest generalizations of the particular sciences.

The succeeding discussion of the relations in which philosophy

* Introduction to the Study of Philosophy. By J. H. W. STUCKENBERG, D.D. New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son. 1888.

stands to religion, to natural science, and to empirical psychology, seems to us unsatisfactory. Many excellent remarks are indeed found in these chapters. But they are lacking in a clear, strong, presentation of the important points brought forward. The distinction between theology and religion is not always sufficiently kept in mind; nor is it satisfactorily shown how theology and philosophy are, of necessity, most closely allied, and yet neither must be suffered to dominate the other, since they seek the same ultimate principle, though with differing means and materials at their disposal and from differing points of view.

It is well worth while to note in passing that Dr. Stuckenberg's position as to the limits and tests of philosophical truth is that of thorough-going Rationalism; it is, however, a rationalism of that reasonable sort which secures and evinces the chastened and cautious freedom characteristic of the genuine philosophical spirit.

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The division of philosophy is no easy task. We doubt whether it can be successfully accomplished with any strict regard for system. "A preliminary division of philosophy," says Lotze, "may be attempted simply with the design of separating the different groups of problems. We attribute little value to the reciprocal arrangement of these single groups under each other." In his attempt at division Dr. Stuckenberg has not been more successful than most of his predecessors, not so successful, in our judgment, as he might have been if he had earlier introduced and steadfastly adhered to a principle of division which he lays down only some time after his division has already been made. The opening sentence of the chapter on Metaphysics (p. 242), affirms: "By generalizing the various objects of profitable thought, we can comprehend all of them under the real, the possible (thinkable ?), and the desirable" (or as Lotze would say that which has "worth.")

Were it our purpose to criticize in detail the positions of the book we should be inclined to ask why ethics is made one main division of philosophy, when, as a science, it is only a department of psychology, and as metaphysics, may be considered as provided for under another division of philosophy; why, on the other hand, we have psychology as empirical considered in relation to philosophy, and as rational made a subdivision of philosophy under metaphysics; whether the theory of knowledge can be so separated from rational psychology, and from metaphysics, as to be constituted into the first great division of philosophy,

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