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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ply permanency, nationality, and non-partisan- 

 ehip to the executive, while an elected execu- 

 tive would always be the mere chief of a party 

 and never the head of a nation ; or that the 

 bungliui? charlatanism of the unskilled democ- 

 racy^might result iu misgovernment, waste, des- 

 potism, and passionate folly. So little did he 

 comprehend both sides of the question, that, in 

 The Eights of Man," he predicted that within 

 ten years the monarchical and aristocratic prin- 

 ciples would have disappeared from all enlight- 

 ened governments of Europe. The instant his 

 supposed government of the people had got un- 

 der way in America, Paine immediately saw iu 

 it an oligarchy in power, new in personality, 

 but not materially different in meanness and 

 avarice. 



The Scientific Basis of Spiritualism. By 

 Epes Sargent. Boston : Colby & Rich. 

 Pp. 372. Price, $1.50. 

 This work, copyrighted in 1880, has but 

 just appeared, but siace its publication its 

 versatile author has passed away. Mr. 

 Sargent was bom in 1812, studied in Har- 

 vard College, and early became an editor in 

 Boston. He pursued this vocation awhile 

 in New York, and then again resumed it in 

 Boston. He edited various popular " Speak- 

 ers " " Readers," and rhetorical books for 

 the schools, and wrote many plays both comi- 

 cal and tragical. He also wrote "Life of 

 Henry Clay," a volume of poems, an aboli- 

 tion book,"and " Arctic Adventures." That 

 he should have dipped into spiritualism was 

 but natural with his love of diversified lit- 

 erary occupation ; and so, a dozen years ago, 

 he printed " Planchette, or the Despair of 

 Science," and closed his career with the pro- 

 duction of the volume now before us. 



As was to be expected, the work is one 

 of considerable literary merit, well digested, 

 attractively written, and made lively by a 

 pervading spirit of criticism. If we may be 

 allowed the paradoxical suggestion, Mr. Sar- 

 gent goes the " whole hog " in spiritualism. 

 He believes it all, sticks at nothing, and slash- 

 es right and left at everybody who objects 

 to it. He claims to be on the winning side, 

 and says that in the last forty years spirit- 

 ualism has gained twenty million adherents. 

 One would think that with this he might 

 "rest and be thankful," but it does not 

 satisfy him. It seems that, among these 

 twenty million believers, the scientific men 

 generally are not to be found, and it is 

 this fact which caused Mr. Sargent to write 

 his book. He thinks the twenty million 



people of all sorts, who need not be further 

 characterized, are right, and that the scien- 

 tific men the sole class whose business it 

 is to search out the truths of nature are 

 wrong; and it is his object to show that 

 spiritualism has just as much a valid scien- 

 tific foundation as any of the recognized and 

 established branches of science. We shall 

 not undertake to answer his arguments, if 

 such they may be called, but will only ob- 

 serve, as we have repeatedly done before in 

 this connection, that the most fundamental 

 of all distinctions is confused throughout 

 the work. The supernatural, or that w^hich 

 by its very term is above and beyond nature, 

 is mixed up and confounded with nature 

 itself, and spiritualism is declared to be " a 

 purely natural fact." Yet, if this doctrine 

 had twenty times twenty million adherents, 

 science could not accept it, because it takes 

 for its object of investigation the natural as 

 opposed to the supernatural. In so far as 

 alleged " spiritualism " involves human phe- 

 nomena, it is of course within the purview 

 of science, and scientific men will be cer- 

 tain to take these phenomena up in their 

 own way and in their own time. But they 

 must be allowed to mark out their own work, 

 and the problem as presented by the twenty 

 million does not come in a shape suitable to 

 be dealt with by rigorous scientific methods. 

 The men of science begin by doubting, and 

 cultivating this state of mind as a virtue ; 

 they continue to doubt until evidence extorts 

 acquiescence, while assent even then goes 

 no further than to things regarded as actual- 

 ly proved ; the " twenty million," on the 

 contrary, begin by believing, hold this state 

 of mind to be a virtue, and go on believing 

 without much perplexing themselves over 

 questions of evidence. To them the phrase 

 " the scientific basis of the super-scientific " 

 would involve no contradiction. 



Progress and Poverty; an Inquiry into 

 the Cause of Industrial Depressions and 

 of Increase of Want with Increase of 

 Wealth: The Remedy. By Henry 

 George. New York: D. Appleton & 

 Co. Pp. 512. Cheap edition, with a 

 new preface, in paper cover. Price, 

 75 cents. 



We are glad to announce the appearance 

 of a cheap popular edition of this suggestive 

 book, by which it will be made accessible 



