LITERARY NOTICES. 



133 



politicians as well as the faulty results of 

 our "primary elections." An antagonist 

 worthy of the author's steel might be the 

 Hon. W. E. Gladstone, who declares the 

 " Constitution " in question to be the great- 

 est "fiat" that ever issued from the hands 

 of men. We ourselves have somehow the 

 impression that unscrupulous politicians 

 and packed primaries exist in spite of the 

 Constitution. Nevertheless, the volume be- 

 fore us tends to modify the weight that 

 Americans customarily attach to their non- 

 anyletical method of dealing with national 

 shortcomings and political abuses. Fur- 

 ther, the author places us en rcwport with the 

 monarchical governments of Europe, both an- 

 cient and modern, and strenuously argues in 

 favor of similar policies or at least one 

 such institution being adopted in the United 

 States. Notwithstanding the trenchant analy- 

 sis applied, as long ago as and by Lord 

 Bacon, to the faultiness under specified 

 conditions of the syllogistic argument, and 

 its invalidity as demonstrated by the late 

 John Stuart Mill ; still, Mr. Marcotte very 

 quietly settles the " divine right of mon- 

 archy " as follows : " The form of govern- 

 ment which best administei-s justice is of 

 divine right ; monarchy is that which best 

 administers justice ; therefore, monarchy is 

 of divine right." Evidently our author cares 

 very little or nothing for previous questions. 

 But the foregoing sample is the very 

 worst feature of a work the contents of 

 which introduce us to such excellent matter 

 as the story of Democracy, the Greek Re- 

 publics, Media and Persia, the Athenian 

 Commonwealth, the Roman Empire, the Great 

 American Republic, the Origin of the Ameri- 

 can People, etc. In a second edition of this 

 work the author's genuine good nature will 

 doubtless incline him to deprecate pessimism 

 and anticipate an epoch on this continent 

 when impartiality will have become a neces- 

 sity and human justice as natural as the law 

 of gravitation. 



Secularism : Its Progress and Morals. By 

 John M. Bonham. New York : G. P. 

 Putnam's Sons. Pp. 396. Price, $1.75. 



A WORK that forces reflection of an eth- 

 ical nature will inevitably fill an exalted niche 

 within the radius of scientific activity. Such 

 a volume lies before us and invites the read- 



er's thoughtful consideration for many good 

 reasons. The philosophy underlying the in- 

 ferences deduced in Secularism will as far 

 as one can judge have a twofold efPect. 

 Such as may deem it a duty to oppose the 

 author will indubitably have to reconsider 

 their own position, and those who agree with 

 him, will doubtless discover new data where- 

 with to augment their polemical outfit. 



The scope of the question taken up by 

 Mr. Bonham is far from limited by even the 

 copiousness of his book, though the compre- 

 hensiveness of the author's design is appar- 

 ent throughout. The main initial purport of 

 the argument, as a whole, is to examine 

 minutely the relative force of influences bear- 

 ing upon beliefs theological, in the first place 

 through industrial results, and in the second 

 by such surroundings as are traceable to the 

 intellectual field of view. The next point 

 of import rendered lucid by the author's 

 method of reasoning is the fact that the 

 masses, with but few exceptions, are disin- 

 clined to philosophical abstractions, and that 

 those influences which go farthest to build 

 up their ethical natures are discoverable in 

 their occupations and the deductions sup- 

 plied from inductions gathered through the 

 physical phenomena affecting their daily 

 lives. This would be putting the matter 

 with unwarrantable brevity were we unable 

 or disinclined to further note the exhaustive- 

 ness of this engaging book. Besides the su- 

 periority of relative truth over the presump- 

 tions of supermental dicta being succinctly 

 treated, the history of the decline of theo- 

 logic anathema against ascertained knowl- 

 edge finds a place. The true value of au- 

 thority per se is justly weighed, and the 

 evolution and dissolution of things once 

 sacred are so touched as to evidence a de- 

 cided mastery over historical detail. The 

 chapters on Ethics are lengthy and full to 

 diffuseness in their estimate of the compara- 

 tive values of the scientific and theologic 

 theories affecting conduct, together with the 

 impersonal entities that frequently control 

 ethics. There is nothing perfunctory no 

 uncertainty of tone in the treatment of secu- 

 lar as contrasted with ecclesiastical morality. 

 Idealism, realism, intuition, justice, the laws 

 of Nature, and the assumptions that have 

 signally failed to explain ultimate causes, 

 all receive their full quota of consideration. 



