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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



asylum at Girifalco, who was able to know, 

 observe, and study the subject of this book." 



Bianchi defines Antonino M. as a grapho- 

 maniac. His memoirs are important docu- 

 ments in many ways. For example, they 

 help us to estimate how far those modern 

 and ancient writers were sincere who have 

 given to us real or fancied confessions. In 

 some respects, mutatis mutandis, these pages 

 recall to our minds Rousseau's famous Con- 

 fessions. Here, as there, we encounter an 

 absolute lack of the sense of shame which 

 seems a distinctive feature of the instinctive 

 criminal. And who, judging Rousseau by 

 modern standards, would deny that he had in 

 him many traits of the born criminsil ? This 

 work should make jurists and sociologists 

 pause to think Surely prison life should turn 

 out its inmates not only punished but correct- 

 ed. Yet from these pages we learn that they 

 are apt to issue forth more expert thieves 

 than they entered. This book is really to the 

 thoughtful an indirect apologia for capital 

 punishment. 



Signor Bianchi's book is a new proof of 

 how incessantly the positive school of crimi- 

 nal anthropology labors in Italy, and what 

 many and diverse modes they adopt to make 

 known and to popularize their science. 



The Bible : its Origin, Growth, and Char- 

 acter. By J. T. Sunderland, D. D. Put- 

 nam s. 



This book makes no claim to originality, 

 but is an excellent summary of the most 

 probable conclusions of modern scholarship 

 on the questions discussed. It covers the 

 ground admirably for so small a work. It is 

 reverent in spirit and judicious in statement, 

 and all who desire to know just what the 

 best thought on biblical criticism is should 

 read this book. Its chapters on the canon, the 

 text, and the infallibility of the Scriptures 

 are specially fine and interesting, and it is as- 

 tonishing that any one, with such facts before 

 him as are here stated, can believe in the in- 

 errancy of the Bible, and it is still more as- 

 tounding that those who dispute this dogma 

 should be expelled from the Church. The 

 vexed question of the Pentateuch, or rather 

 the Hoxateuch, the origin and authorship of 

 the Old Testament histories, the Psalms, the 

 Prophecies, etc., the composition of the Gos- 

 pels and Epistles of the New Testament are 



all ably discussed. The author holds that 

 " sacred books or Bibles come into being 

 naturally. They are a necessary and inevi- 

 table outgrowth of the religious nature of 

 man." Again he says : " Our Bible, particu- 

 larly our New Testament, is greatly superior 

 to any of the Bibles of the so-called heathen 

 peoples. But the difference is one of degree, 

 not of kind." He denies the mechanical 

 theory of inspiration, which makes the Bible 

 writers mere penmen of the Deity, but ad- 

 mits that they were "quickened by touch 

 with the Infinite Mind and illuminated by 

 that Light which lighteth every man that 

 Cometh into the world." These quotations 

 are sufficient to give a general idea of the 

 nature of the book. An excellent biblio- 

 graphical appendix is added. 



The Story of mt Life from Childhood to 

 Manhood. By Georg Ebers. New 

 York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 382. 

 Price, $L25. 



In this volume Dr. Ebers tells of his 

 family relations in childhood, of his school 

 days, of the beginning of his career, and 

 of the friendships he formed, with only a sin- 

 gle sensational element in the political dis- 

 turbances of 1848 ; and we follow the whole 

 with deep interest. As he was born in a 

 country quarter of Berlin where now the 

 city is dense around, before there were rail- 

 roads, when the journey to his grandfather's 

 in Holland required several days, and when 

 tinder boxes had not been superseded by 

 matches, his story helps us realize the extent 

 of the social changes that have taken place. 

 Remarkable changes have likewise been 

 wrought during his lifetime in the political 

 affairs of Germany ; and nothing gives him 

 more cause for gratitude " than the boon of 

 being permitted to see the realization and 

 fulfillment of the dream of so many former 

 nations and my dismembered native land 

 united into one grand, beautiful whole. I 

 deem it a great happiness to have been a 

 contemporary of Emperor William I, Bis-' 

 inarck, and von Moltke, witnessed their great 

 deeds as a man of mature years, and shared 

 the enthusiasm which enabled these men to 

 make our German Fatherland the powerful 

 united land it is to-day." A picture is given 

 of the revolutionary excitement of 1848 in 

 Berlin. Dr. Ebers passed through the Keil- 



