LITERARY XOTICES. 



699 



reach of human reason, and because the al- - 

 leged revelations from God upon them are 

 the mo~t scanty and uncertain. The creeds 

 of the future will begin -where the old or 

 ended : upon the nature of man, his condi- i 

 tion on earth, his social duties and civil obli- j 

 cations, the development of his reason, I 

 spiritual nature, its range, possibilities, edu- ' 

 cation the doctrine of the human reason, of 

 the emotions, of the will man as an indi- < 

 vidual. man social and collective ; and, from , 

 a sound knowledge of the natu. i I mind, 

 developed within the scope of our experience ; 

 and observation, we shall deduce conceptions 

 of the great mind the God id I from 



our best ascertainments in the sphere with- 

 in which our : Ities vrere created to act 

 with certainty of knowledge. Our creeds 

 will ascend from the known to the unknown, 

 which is the true law and method of acquir- 

 ing knowledge. Hitherto they have expend- 

 ed their chief force upon that which is but 

 dimlv known. 



TEE DJJIWIX MEMORIAL. 



A movement has been started in 

 England to get up some kind of a me- 

 morial in honor of Mr. Charles Darwin. 

 The English Executive Committee has 

 requested the following American gen- 

 tlemen to co-operate with them in pro- 

 moting the object: Asa Gray, chair- 

 man ; Spencer F. Baird, James D. Dana, 

 Charles W. Eliot, D. C. Gilman, James 

 Hall, Joseph Le Conte, Joseph Leidy. 

 O. C. Marsh, S. Weir Mitchell, Simon 

 Xewcomb, Charles Eliot Xorton, Fran- 

 cis A. Walker. Theodore D. "Woolsey ; 

 Alexander Agassiz. Treasurer. Sub- 

 scriptions may be sent to Alexander 

 Agassiz, Cambridge, Massaeh:> .:>. 

 who will acknowledge the same and 

 forward them to the Treasurer of the 

 English Executive Committee of the 

 Darwin Memorial. 



The American committee, in their 

 circular, without date, say that the form 

 which the memorial is to take has not 

 yet been decided ; it will probably in- 

 clude an endowment for a scholarship 

 to carry on biological research. Noth- 

 ing could be more appropriate to the 

 character of the man wh.ose memory is 

 to be honored than thus to link his 



name with the progress of knowledge 

 in the field which he has done so much 

 to make his own. But the " Athe- 

 naeum " announces that the memorial 

 will take the customary form of a mar- 

 ble statue, and that the trustees of the 

 British Museum will be asked to plu 

 if in the large hall of the museum 

 South Kensington. The English sub- 

 scriptions are reported as amounting 

 to $12,500. The United Kingdom will 

 probably be able without help to pay 

 for a marble statue ; and would it not 

 be well for the American committee to 

 entertain the idea of doing something 

 independently in this country I The en- 

 dowment for a biological scholarship, if 

 abandoned in England, might well be 

 taken up here. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



A Geographical Reader. Compiled and 

 arranged by James Johoskot, author of 

 " Country School-Housv - Xew York : 

 D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 416. P: 

 1.25. 



The compiler believes : is no 



advantage for the readingdessons given to 

 the pupil in school to be primarily dnv 

 to some subject of thought. " If the food 

 is also palatable as well as nutritious,'' the 

 pupil becomes interested and his mind en- 

 gaged with the substance of the lesson, and 

 he will gain all the advantages that other- 



_ _ 



wise cost so much labor, without direct and 

 conscious enV The reading exercises 



should also be bed to the condition of 



the pupil's mind at each period of growth, 

 and should constitute appropriate models of 

 style, leading in the direction of literary ex- 

 cellence. Hence b sgested the propriety 

 of introducing lessons bearing on some topic 

 of study which the pupil is pursuing at the 

 same time. Text-books rive, necessarilv, the 

 bare outlines. The reading-books might 

 help to fill up the outlines with details, 

 giving fuller descriptions of the most inter- 

 esting features, and the stories which the 

 children love so web. When these supple- 

 mentary elements are chosen from co- 

 authors, we have what we might call an 



