LITERARY NOTICES. 



37i 



(k.) The placing of revolving lights on 

 our light-ships. Experience has shown this 

 to be possible, as in Great Britain 30 out 

 of 43 light-ships have revolving lights, while 

 in our own service the only lights so placed 

 are constant. 



These recommendations are well worth 

 the consideration they will obtain, for the 

 subject is an important one, not only to 

 light-house boards, but to all those who " go 

 down to the sea in ships," as who does not 

 in these days of steam ? E. S. H. 



History of the Conflict between Re- 

 ligion and Science. By John Wil- 

 liam Draper, M. D., LL. D. 373 pages. 

 Price $1.75. D. Appleton & Co. In- 

 ternational Scientific Series, No. XII. 



This second American contribution to 

 the "International Scientific Series" was 

 published December 4th, simultaneously in 

 London and in New York. Translations 

 of it into the Continental languages are in 

 rapid progress, and it will be shortly pub- 

 lished in Paris, Leipsic, Milan, and St. Peters- 

 burg, so that the views presented by the 

 writer will thus promptly be laid before the 

 leading minds of the civilized world thanks 

 to the progress of science, which has given 

 us these vast facilities of rapid intercom- 

 munication and diffusion of knowledge, and 

 created a liberal public sentiment in all the 

 leading nations by which the expression of 

 advanced opinions is welcomed and appre- 

 ciated. No more appropriate work could 

 have been done at the present time than to 

 write the history of that long and terrible 

 conflict between the agencies of intolerance 

 and of liberalization which has given fise to 

 modern civilization, and triumphed in that 

 large measure of free opinion which the 

 present age enjoys. In writing such a his- 

 tory, Dr. Draper has done an important 

 service to his time. 



Our readers have been alrea'dy apprised 

 of the nature of Dr. Draper's work, through 

 the statements of the Preface, which ap- 

 peared in the December Monthly ; and else- 

 where, in the present number, we have 

 spoken of its bearing upon great questions 

 now extensively agitated in the public 

 mind. It only remains to add that it is a 

 book to which no notice or review can do 

 justice, because it requires to be read as a 



whole, like a novel with a well-sustained 

 plot. It is a book crowded with varied 

 information, presented in historic unity, a 

 monograph illustrating and elucidating a 

 single great idea. One of the incidental 

 characters of the volume is the large amount 

 of interesting information it contains regard- 

 ing the progress of scientific knowledge. 

 Dr. Draper gives us a succession of vivid 

 pictures of the state of actual science among 

 the early Greeks and the later Romans, at 

 the birth of Christianity, at the epoch of 

 the " Fathers of the Church," in the middle 

 ages, at the period of the rise of modern 

 knowledge, at the time of the Reformation, 

 and in the present century. We know of no 

 work that can compare with this volume in 

 the clearness and fullness of its summary of 

 man's scientific achievements from the birth 

 of knowledge to the present time ; and, al- 

 though these copious facts have been gath- 

 ered and digested by Dr. Draper for the 

 elucidation of his main subject, they are 

 nevertheless of great value and interest, in- 

 dependent of the use he makes of them. 

 All parties are certain to appreciate and 

 enjoy this valuable portion of Dr. Draper's 

 book. 



We are constrained also to call attention 

 to the admirable character of the work as 

 a literary exposition. We often hear about 

 the " dryness," and " repulsiveness," and 

 " hard technicality," and general dullness of 

 scientific writers, and the objection is often 

 too well taken, but it does not apply to 

 Dr. Draper. He writes with a clearness, a 

 simplicity, and a warmth of feeling, that 

 give pleasure to the reader, and he thus 

 gains the chief object of an interesting style. 

 Though a discoverer in science, and one 

 who has spent a large portion of his life in 

 the laboratory, and written many original 

 scientific memoirs, he is not the victim of 

 these pursuits, but has cultivated the grace- 

 ful in literature and given play to imagina- 

 tion, not only in his beautiful researches, 

 but also in his pages, which are often models 

 of forcible and impressive statement. There 

 are many passages in his writings which, 

 for felicity of expression and sheer elo- 

 quence, deserve to be placed among our 

 gems of literature, and the reader will find 

 many such examples in his newly-published 

 volume. We are impelled to call attention 



