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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



at least that, in a broad way, he knows 

 what to expect, and does not look for 

 grapes from thorns or figs from thistles. 

 He sees cause and effect, action and re- 

 action everywhere, not like some spe- 

 cialists in certain selected spheres exclu- 

 sively. He believes in orderly progress, 

 knowing that great processes of devel- 

 opment can not be very materially has- 

 tened. 



In the field of education the views 

 derived from the general theory of evo- 

 lution have been found of the very great- 

 est value ; and were education to-day 

 free from the trammels of politics, and 

 were it commanding — as, but for its con- 

 nection with the state, it would com- 

 mand — the best thoughts and the best 

 energies of a host of freely competing 

 educators, the improvement in educa- 

 tional methods directly due to the new 

 views would be most conspicuous. 



The evolutionary philosophy is a 

 practical one, and it is to-day on trial ; 

 its principles are more or less penetrat- 

 ing and permeating the community ; 

 and the more they do so, the more they 

 are confirmed by experience, and be- 

 come impressed on the mental habits 

 of individuals. Of what competing phi- 

 losophy can the same be said ? It is 

 to this growing experience of the race, 

 therefore, that appeal must be made if 

 the validity of the general theory is to 

 be questioned. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The Evolution of Man and Christianity. 

 By the Rev. Howard MacQueary. New 

 York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 410. 



The assertion of Prof. Le Conte, which 

 furnished the motive, as the author avers, 

 for this book, that we are on the eve of the 

 greatest change in traditional views that has 

 taken place since the birth of Christianity — 

 a change involving a reconstruction of Chris- 

 tian theology — is verified by events which 

 have taken place during the current year in 

 the official centers of the most orthodox 

 Protestant bodies. The debate in the Con- 

 gregational churches about future probation ; 



the creed revision which has been resolved 

 upon by the Northern Presbyterian Church ; 

 the provision by the English Presbyterian 

 Church of a place for those who believe in 

 the evolution and extreme antiquity of man ; 

 and the retention of Professors Dods and 

 Bruce by the Free Church of Scotland after 

 their persistent avowals of doctrines far more 

 novel to the Calvinistic theology than those 

 for which Prof. Robertson Smith was deposed 

 seven years ago, are signs the meaning of 

 which can not be mistaken. The ris;ht to 

 criticise the Bible as any other book is criti- 

 cised ; to investigate phenomena regarded by 

 the Church as supernatural in the same way 

 that ordinary phenomena are examined ; and 

 to probe the foundations of Christian faith 

 to the bottom, has asserted itself there and 

 has commanded a hearing. Modern theol- 

 ogy can hardly be blamed for the existence 

 of errors which were ingrafted upon it dur- 

 ing the ages of darkness and ignorance ; but 

 it ought to have been more prompt to recog- 

 nize these errors and correct them, rather 

 than by cherishing them till their absurdity 

 was universally seen to have given temporary 

 advantages to the enemies of Christianity. 

 Professing, as it does, to seek the truth as 

 science is doing, it should welcome every 

 effort to make the truth more clear ; and 

 even mistaken searchings for truth are bet- 

 ter than persistent adherence to what has 

 been proved false. Science, the friend and 

 devotee of truth, can never do more than es- 

 tablish and make more accessible to men 

 the truth in religion ; and it is behaving as 

 the truest ally of religion when it throws the 

 light of a better and more exact knowledge 

 upon dogmas that were conceived by men 

 when their sources of information were 

 scanty and imperfect or did not exist. 



The author of The Evolution of Man and 

 Christianity is a clergyman of apparently 

 good standing in the Protestant Episcopal 

 Church. He goes further in the criticism 

 and analysis of doctrine than any other au- 

 thor who has written from within the Church. 

 He believes that a recasting of theological 

 thought is necessary to meet the advance 

 that has been made in physical science, 

 which is destined profoundly to modify our 

 idea of miracles; biblical criticism, which 

 has cast new views on the origin and char- 

 acter of the sacred books; and the social 



