276 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



who are ambitious about the development of 

 philosophy on this side of the Atlantic. The 

 work is, moreover, of an eminently practical 

 sort, and deals with the relations of political 

 and social science in their bearing upon the 

 interests of the community in such a way as 

 to entitle it to the consideration of states- 

 men and political economists. Besides, as 

 it offers a new synthesis of facts, and aims 

 to co-ordinate into a uniform scheme the 

 accepted truths of all the sciences, it can 

 not fail to awaken the interest of thinking 

 scientific men in all departments. And, as 

 the philosophy of religion is broadly and in- 

 dependently treated, the work is certain to 

 have an interest for all schools of religic- 

 philosophic speculation and inquiry. As 

 Mr. Ward's work is thoroughly up to the 

 times both in substance and spirit, the 

 reader will of course be prepared for a 

 good deal of freedom and boldnoss in dis- 

 cussion ; but the author is no trifler, though, 

 in the courageous expression of his convic- 

 tions, he goes no further than is justified by 

 the practice of this questioning age. 



We may add that the work is written in 

 a style that will commend it to popular read- 

 ers. Mr. Ward makes himself perfectly un- 

 derstood, and without effort on the part of 

 those who follow him. He is at times dif- 

 fuse, and we think the work would have 

 borne considerable condensation, but, believ- 

 ing that the views he desires to promulgate 

 are important, the author seems to have 

 been only solicitous for that fullness of state- 

 ment that shall give completeness to his 

 meaning in the reader's mind. The refer- 

 ences to collateral discussion are numerous 

 throughout the text, so as to facilitate the 

 following out of any special argument, and 

 the index to the work is careful and ex- 

 haustive. Mr. Ward has been arduously 

 occupied upon his treatise for a long time, 

 and may be congratulated upon the perfec- 

 tion of its form as a product of the book- 

 making art. 



It has boon our purpose in this notice 

 simply to give the best account we could in 

 so brief a space of the general characteris- 

 tics of the "Dynamic Sociology." Our 

 readers hardly need to be reminded of our 

 decisive dissent from the doctrines of the 

 school of which Mr. Ward will now easily 

 take the plaee of the ablest leader, but we 



have refrained from criticism, that our state- 

 ment might be as far as possible fair and 

 unbiased. There is, at any rate, a great 

 deal in this work that is instructive, and 

 to be cordially commended, and there are 

 parts of it that we could wish to see more 

 widely circulated than they can be in these 

 formidable volumes. Though disagreeing 

 with much that it contains, the book is 

 nevertheless to be welcomed as a timely 

 contribution to contemporaneous inquiry, 

 and it will unquestionably aid in giving a 

 fresh impulse and a fruitful direction to 

 the discussion of large and momentous sub- 

 jects. 



INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SERIES. 

 No. 5LV. 

 Man before Metals. By N. Jolt, Pro- 

 fessor at the Science Faculty of Tou- 

 louse. With 148 Illustrations. New 

 York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 365. 

 Price, $1.75. 



The subject of the early history of man- 

 kind, in the light of the modern doctrine of 

 the antiquity of man, is not only of growing 

 interest, but in its researches and its expo- 

 sitions it is enlisting much of the leading 

 talent of the age. It is established that we 

 have to go back of all written history for 

 that primitive basis of history which is writ- 

 ten only in the book of nature. Here sci- 

 ence comes to the aid of the philosophical 

 historian, and reveals those conditions of 

 man and society which are indispensable to 

 the understanding of the subsequent course 

 of humanity. Among the latest and ablest 

 contributions to this subject is that by the 

 eminent French authority, Professor Joly, 

 whose contribution to the International Se- 

 ries is now rendered into English in a very 

 popular f orm under the title of " Man before 

 Metals." nis book is an excellent corn- 

 pend of our present knowledge on the an- 

 tiquity and early history of man, and the 

 author's French clearness of statement has 

 been well preserved in the translation. 



In the first part of the volume, devoted 

 to " The Antiquity of the Human Race," 

 Professor Joly describes the discoveries that 

 have been made in the bone-caves, the 

 kitchen-middens of Denmark, the Sardinian 

 Nuraghi, and on the sites of the Swiss lake- 

 dwellings. A short chapter is devoted to 

 " Prehistoric Man in America," but the 



