562 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



opment? We know that men "rise on step- 

 ping-stones of their dead selves to higiier 

 ihinijs," and that the "iudlvidual withers, while 

 the race is more and more" ; but do the individ- 

 uals and their beliefs only resemble beads wliich 

 have been strung,' on a thread of endles^sly devel- 

 oping succession? What has the race been do- 

 ing during all this onward process of develop- 

 ment? And has it at every stage been the 

 victim of continuous illusion ? Or has it all the 

 while been in the closest contact with Reality, 

 a reality which it partially understands, and in- 

 terprets to good purpose? In other words, is 

 the history of religious ideas merely the record 

 of attempts made by men to project their own 

 image outward, to throw their thought around 

 an impalpable object which it has never yet been 

 able to grasp? Or is it the story of successive 

 efforts, more and more successful, to explain a 

 reality which transcends it, but to which it 

 stands in a definite and ascertainable relation ? 

 Do the gropings of experience in the matters 

 of religion record a long and weary search, with 

 no discovery rewarding it ? Or are they the ef- 

 forts of humau apprehension to realize the di- 

 vine, to get at the " lastclearelements of things," 

 with disclosure at every stage, and a steady ap- 

 proach to the goal which is continually sought 

 and approximately reached ? I think it is past 

 controversy that if the religions education of 

 the human race has been a purely subjective 

 process, if it has been merely an upward ten- 

 dency of aspiration, it is now no nearer its goal 

 than ever it was. If we can only approach the 

 Infinite by the journeyings of finite thought or 

 throuiih sii;h8 and cries of aspiration, the jour- 

 ney that way is endless, and the end is nowhere 

 visible. But may we not find the object every- 

 where? May not the discovery have been ns 

 continuou? as the search, and the two be simul- 

 taneous now ? I think that we may affirm that 

 the human race has lived in the light of a never- 

 ceasina: apocalypse, growing clearer through the 

 ages, but never absent from the world since the 

 first age began. 



Modern Thinkers : Principally upon Social 

 Science. What they Think, and why. 

 By Van Buren Denslow, LL. D. With 

 an Introduction by Robert tt. Ingersoll. 

 With Eicht Portraits. Chicago: Bel- 

 ford, Clark & Co. Pp. 384. 



This volume consists of a series of brief 

 personal sketches of several of the leading 

 thinkers of modern times, together with 

 critical disquisitions on their labors, influ- 

 ence, and character. The thinkers selected 

 for study are all of the aggressive or revo- 

 lutionary type, and they were chosen further- 

 more because of the more or less intimate 

 bearing of their advanced ideas on the sub- 

 ject of social science. Three Englishmen, 

 Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, and Her- 



bert Spencer; two Frenchmen, August 

 Comte and Charles Fourier; a Swede, 

 Emanuel Swedeiiborg; a German, Ernst 

 Haeckel ; and an American, Thomas Paine 

 are the characters selected for examina- 

 tion. 



The author has a brief preface explain- 

 ing the origin of his book, and offering 

 some preliminary suggestions regarding its 

 method and purpose. The essays were 

 written for the "Chicago Times," and at 

 the suggestion of its editor they were first 

 published in that newspaper. The intelli- 

 gent interest elicited by them has induced 

 the author to bring them out in this more 

 permanent form. It was an excellent idea, 

 and does credit to the editorial sagacity and 

 liberality of Mr. Storey. People are un- 

 doubtedly more and more confining them- 

 selves to the reading furnished by news- 

 papers, and we see no reason why, under the 

 pretext that their business is the promulga- 

 tion of news, the daily press should confine 

 itself exclusively to the scattering of in- 

 formation on ephemeral and frivolous sub- 

 jects. 



Colonel Robert J. Ingersoll contributes 

 a spicy introduction to the volume, briefly 

 presenting his views of the various charac- 

 ters it deals with, and pointedly reillustrat- 

 ing his well-known anti-theological position. 

 In this, however, he is in entire harmony 

 with the spirit of the volume, which is char- 

 acterized throughout by hostility to every- 

 thing theological, and abounds in unsparing 

 invectives against the Church, the priest- 

 hood, and the Christian gospel. The work 

 is written in a free, vivacious, and some- 

 what dashing style, and is eminently read- 

 able. The mode of treating the subjects is 

 independent, sensational, and bold. Much 

 of its exposition is instructive, evincing 

 good preparation; and much of it will be 

 unsatisfactory to those who prize deliber- 

 ate and unprejudiced work. As a piece of 

 manufacture, the volume itself is no credit 

 to Chicago. 



The essay that has most interested us is 

 on the American subject, Thomas Paine, 

 whom the author regards as the " represent- 

 ative critic, destroyer, and revolutionist of 



his period He was gifted, as no man ever 



was before or since, with the fatal and un- 

 happy faculty of suppressing the good and 



