270 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



who are without hope. In fact, the James 

 territory, which includes the adjacent corners 

 of four States, is a region which seems closely 

 to resemble in its religious and moral condi- 

 tion a Frankish kingdom in Gaul in the sixth 

 century. Every one knows how very early 

 in the history of the Church the tendency to 

 make faith take the place of right-living began 

 to show itself. St. James had to warn the 

 very first generation of Christians that pure 

 religion and undefiled consisted not in sound 

 belief, but in good deeds. Tbe difficulty of 

 making people show their faith by their 

 works has beset Christianity ever since. Bar- 

 barians rapidly accepted the Christian dog- 

 mas, and took eagerly to the rites and cere- 

 monies of the Church, but they never were 

 quite ready to accept its views about behavior. 

 Gregory of Tours, in his most instructive 

 chronicle, tells some very grotesque stories of 

 the difficulties which the bishops had in Gaul 

 in his day in refusing the communion to no- 

 torious evil livers. One Frankish chief a 

 great robber and cut-throat insisted on hav- 

 ing it administered to him, and the bishop 

 had to let him have it, in order to save life, 

 for he threatened to kill all the other commu- 

 nicants if he was not allowed to partake also. 

 The comfort the Italian and Greek brigands 

 find in the external observances of their creed, 

 while committing the most atrocious crimes, 

 is now an old story. A skeptical or agnostic 

 robber is in fact unknown in Eastern or South- 

 ern Europe. 



The devout brigands all belong to the 

 Catholic or Greek Church, which has always 

 greatly exalted the value of external worship 

 and pious credulity, and thus furnishes only 

 too much temptation to those who are ready 

 to believe without limitation for the purpose 

 of postponing any change in their habits. 

 The Protestant Church has been much more 

 exacting in the matter of conduct, and in fact 

 has afforded in its teaching but few of the 

 refuges for easy-going sinners which its great 

 rival provides so plentifully. But the fight 

 between faith and right-living nevertheless 

 rages within its borders unceasingly, and not 

 always to the advantage of the latter. It is 

 not only in the James district in Missouri 

 that one comes on the strange compromises 

 by which a certain external devoutness is 

 mado to atone to the conscience not only for 

 spiritual coldness, but for long and persistent 

 violations of the fundamental rules of moral- 

 ity. Startling as are these revelations about 

 the state of society in that part of the coun- 

 try, they are hardly more startling, every- 

 thing considered, than the frequency with 

 which our defaulters and embezzlers in this 



part of the world prove to have been vestry- 

 men, deacons, Sunday-school superintend- 

 ents, and prominent church-members durin^ 

 long years of delinquency and perfidy. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC 

 No. XL. 



SERIES. 



Myth and Science. An Essay by Tito 

 Vignoli. D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 372. 

 Price, $1.50. 



Though an opportune and much-needed 

 book upon a subject that is exciting wide 

 attention in the higher circles of inquiry, yet 

 this treatise is of a much graver character 

 than its title might imply to those familiar 

 with current mythic literature. It is not a 

 book of old fairy tales nor of the mytholog- 

 ical legends of different peoples, but it is a 

 compact disquisition on the origin and nat- 

 ure of the common mythical element mani- 

 fested by all grades of intelligence. It is a 

 philosophical essay, and some critics declare 

 it to be as hard as metaphysics, which is 

 saying a good deal, because the book is far 

 more interesting than metaphysics. 



A leading element of interest in this vol- 

 ume comes from the point of view taken by 

 the author in the investigation. He assumes 

 evolution without any reserve, and declares 

 that " it is evident, at least to those who do 

 not cling absolutely to old traditions, that 

 man is evolved from the animal kingdom." 

 It is true that Mr. Max M tiller, the gram- 

 marian of mythical romance, not long ago 

 republished his prophecy that " the idea 

 of a humanity emerging slowly from the 

 depths of animal brutality can never be 

 maintained again in our century." But it 

 certainly does not look much as if the doc- 

 trine were at present thus discredited. Mr. 

 Darwin, its great apostle, was yesterday en- 

 tombed in Westminster Abbey with the sing, 

 ing of an anthem composed expressly for the 

 occasion, in the presence of the best talent 

 of the country and a formal deputation from 

 the University of Oxford and representa- 

 tives from learned societies, the import of 

 the whole being that " Darwin's work was 

 at length claimed by the nation as its own," 

 while, by the verdict of Europe, the author 

 of the " Descent of Man " was pronounced 

 to be the greatest scientist of his age. At 



