4i6 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the relative date of the more important of 

 the Old Testament books, and particularly 

 of the Pentateuch. lie examines the view, 

 which has been traditional among Jews and 

 Christians foi* two thousand years or so, 

 that the books containing the Law of Moses 

 are the oldest part of all the sacred writ- 

 insrs, and belon" to the time of Moses him- 

 self; pointing out that on this hypothesis 

 we "may reasonably expect to find many 

 references to it in the historical and pro- 

 phetic books, which would show that its 

 ordinances were well known and were 

 obeyed at least by the loyal worshipers 

 of Jehovah, even if neglected by a large 

 part of the nation during its frequent 

 lapses into idolatrous worship. And he 

 remarks with great truth that, considering 

 not only the importance of ritual in early 

 times, but the great prominence given to 

 ceremonial in the Levitical system, the way 

 in which "the feasts, the sacrificial ritual, 

 the ordinances of ceremonial purity are al- 

 ways in the foreground, as the necessary 

 forms in which alone the inner side of 

 religion, love to God and man, can find 

 acceptable expression," the observance of 

 these forms and rites must have been a 

 matter of the highest consequence, a mat- 

 ter in which the devotion of good kings 

 and priests would appear, and on which 

 the prophets would frequently insist in 

 their exhortations to the people. The Law 

 purporting to be, as we read it, a complete 

 revelation of God's will for Israel's life, a 

 rule of absolute validity, the keeping of 

 which is the whole of Israel's religion, " the 

 religious history of Israel can be nothing 

 else than the history of Israel's obedience 

 or disobedience to the law." Moreover, 

 the position " that the whole legal system 

 was revealed to Israel at the very beginning 

 of its national existence, strictly limits our 

 conception of the function and significance 

 of subsequent revelation. The prophets 

 had no power to abrogate any part of the 

 law, to dispense with Mosaic ordinances, or 

 institute new means of grace, other methods 

 of approach to God in lieu of the hierar- 

 chical sacraments." The theory, the usual 

 orthodox theory of modern times, that the 

 prophets were '* exponents of the spiritual 

 elements of the law, who showed the people 

 that its precepts were not mere forms, but 



veiled declarations of the spiritual truths of 

 a future dispensation which was the true 

 substance of the shadows of the old ritual, 

 implies that the prophets were constantly 

 intent on enforcing the observance of the 

 ceremonial as well as the moral precepts of 

 the Pentateuch. Neglect of the ritual law 

 was all the more culpable when the spir- 

 itual meaning of its precepts was made 

 plain." 



To give this brief summary of Pro- 

 fessor Kobertson Smith's conclusions con- 

 veys a very imperfect idea of the admir- 

 able skill with which he applies his critical 

 method. It sets familiar facts and expres- 

 siors in a perfectly new light, illumining 

 for us the whole religious and political 

 history of Israel, and making that history 

 more intelligible, more self -consistent, more 

 instructive, than it had ever appeared upon 

 the traditional view. Abridged from the 

 Pcdl Mall Gazette. 



Trance and Trancoidal States in the Low- 

 er Animals. By George M, Beard, A. 

 M., M. D. New York. Pp. 17. 



Trance is defined by Dr. Beard as " a 

 concentration of nervous activity in some 

 one direction, with corresponding suspen- 

 sion of nervous activity in other directions." 

 It can be induced in all animals that have 

 the rudiments of a nervous system, and is 

 essentially the same in all, the differences 

 that may be observed being in degree rather 

 than in kind. The methods of inducing it 

 are infinite, and no one of those that are 

 best known can be said to have any special 

 or preeminent virtue over any other, except 

 of convenience and degree. Induced trance, 

 by whatever way it is brought about, trance 

 resulting from functional derangements, and 

 spontaneous trance, are all parts of and 

 obedient to the same law, and should be 

 studied under that view. Hence special 

 terms, like hypnotism, Braidism, somnam- 

 bulism, catalepsy, etc., are misleading, and 

 ought not to be used. Among the examples 

 of trance in animals. Dr. Beard cites the 

 various methods of subduing them by fear, 

 lion-taming, the horse-taming operations of 

 Rarey and Home, affecting them with mu- 

 sic, all the phenomena that pass under the 

 name of fascination, and stupefaction in 

 the presence of fire. 



