LITERARY NOTICES. 



413 



hunted down for his heresies, and Professor 

 Robertson Smith has been very recently dis- 

 missed from the professorship of Hebrew, 

 in the Free College of Aberdeen, for the 

 same cause. 



In further illustration of this religious 

 hostility to independent thought, it may be 

 stated that the author of the book before us 

 contributed in 1873, to "Scribner's Monthly," 

 a series of papers entitled " Modern Skepti- 

 cism," which were simply a bold and forci- 

 ble statement of the present drifts of liberal 

 inquiry regarding theological matters. The 

 periodical was widely and vehemently de- 

 nounced for printing such discussions, and 

 there were public demands made for a new 

 editorship on penalty of the withdrawal of 

 patronage. Dr. Holland resisted the bigoted 

 crusade, and after a year or two another 

 paper was forwarded to him by Mr. Blau- 

 velt, in continuation of the argument. In 

 reply, Dr. Holland wrote : " Your last arti- 

 cle was received, and I have read it to-day. 

 At the conclusion of its perusal, I find my- 

 self called upon to make the most impor- 

 tant decision that has ever come to me for 

 its making, since I became an editor. I 

 must be frank with you. I believe you are 

 right. I should like to speak your words 

 to the world ; but, if I do speak these, it will j 

 pretty certainly cost me my connection with 

 the magazine." 



So much for freedom of religious 

 thought American freedom of religious 

 thought Protestant freedom of religious 

 thought, in the last quarter of the nine- 

 teenth century of Christianity ! Of course, 

 Mr. Blauvelt himself did not escape the 

 penalties of applying the scientific method 

 to theology. We do not notice the statement 

 in his volume, but if any one will turn to 

 " The Popular Science Monthly," for August, 

 1877, he will see that the reverend heretic 

 was stripped of- his office, turned out of the 

 church, and branded as a "betrayer of his 

 Master." It was a little too late to burn 

 him, but is not that about as far as Chris- 

 tian toleration has yet " progressed " ? One 

 thing is evident : if Mr. Blauvelt had been 

 a little more dishonest, had played fast and 

 loose with his conscience, and had not been 

 so anxious about the truth, he could have 

 spent all his days in pious comfort in the 

 bosom of the Church. Ever, and in the 



nature of things, repression of thought is a 

 bid for hypocrisy. 



Egyptian Obelisks. By Hejtry H. Gor- 

 ringe. Published by the Author, 32 

 "Waverley Place, New York. Pp. 187, 

 with 41 Plates. 



The propriety of regarding as a great 

 achievement the removal of a noble object 

 of the oldest civilization from the place 

 where it has rested for ages, to adorn a 

 modern pleasure-ground among surround- 

 ings as different as possible from those 

 among which it has stood, has been criti- 

 cised by admirers of the antique. The fact 

 that the English, French, Germans, and Ital- 

 ians have also taken obelisks from Egypt 

 may show that they are not innocent, but 

 can not excuse us if the act is, as some be- 

 lieve, a kind of vandalism. The criticisms 

 can not, however, be applied justly to those 

 who removed the obelisk in Central Park, 

 for they did not take it from before the 

 temple at Heliopolis, where Thothmes II set 

 it up, but from the place to which others 

 before them had removed it from there. 

 The offense of removal, if it was an offense, 

 was committed by the Romans nineteen hun- 

 dred years ago ; and they may have been 

 guiltless of actual sin, for they probably 

 found the obelisk already thrown upon the 

 ground. Americans have been guilty of 

 no " despoilment," or removal from among 

 " antique surroundings " ; for the most 

 prominent surroundings which Commander 

 Gomnge found about the obelisk at Alex- 

 andria " were a railway depot, a new apart- 

 ment-house, and an Arab fort," and it would 

 have inevitably been destroyed if he had 

 not taken it away. In other respects, a 

 feeling of disgust was aroused by the sur- 

 roundings, and " something more than curi- 

 osity was needed to induce one to approach 

 near enough and remain long enough to ex- 

 amine and appreciate it." The removal of 

 the monument from such a situation as 

 Commander Gorringe describes to one that 

 is fully worthy of it, though un-Egyptian, 

 should be considered an act deserving as 

 much praise as the tact, ingenuity, and en- 

 gineering skill that were displayed in effect- 

 ing it with complete success. Readers of 

 the present work will find abundant oppor- 

 tunity to admire these qualities as displayed 



