LITERARY NOTICES. 



497 



mental faculties he should be liable to 

 be cast out of his communion as an 

 heretical culprit ? What right had 

 they, or what right has any man, to 

 assume that a statement of doctrine 

 at any time is final, and to enslave 

 themselves to its life-long acceptance ? 

 This question is one for theological stu- 

 dents, and if the decisions at Kingston, 

 Princeton, and Aberdeen, are to be 

 taken as indicating the authorized policy 

 of the orthodox world, the young man 

 who contemplates entering that field of 

 labor should make up his mind whether 

 he is prepared to cut himself off from 

 the spirit of the age, to abjure the pur- 

 suit of truth, and sink into the office of 

 a mere passive repeater of cut-and-dried 

 formulas, prescribed to him by the 

 powers to which he contracts allegiance. 

 He must understand that the less he 

 can have to do with science the safer it 

 will be for him. Its spirit will rebuke 

 him at every step. He will have, more- 

 over, to iearn that theological science, 

 so called, is a misnomer and a mockery. 

 Where the scientific element enters, 

 movement begins, and progress ensues. 

 It implies intellectual activity, free 

 questioning, escape from error, and ad- 

 vance to new conclusions, and upon all 

 this, from present indications, there re- 

 mains the interdict of theological au- 

 thority, paralyzing free thought, just as 

 it did centuries ago. 



We print an essay of Dr. Cones, the 

 naturalist, which will sufliciently vindi- 

 cate scientific men from the imputation 

 of not doing honor to the regal faculty 

 of imagination. No brain-cracked poet 

 could go further in rhapsodical glorifica- 

 tion of the image-making power of the 

 mind than this devotee of observation 

 and induction. What more can be 

 asked to disprove the alleged arrogance 

 of scientists, and to establish their char- 

 acter for humility, than for one of their 

 eminent representatives to go over into 

 the midst of the guardians of all that is 



most exalted and ennobling in intel- 

 lectual effort, and say to them, "One 

 excellent and most useful purpose which 

 the imagination subserves at the hands 

 of the gifted few whom the higher de- 

 velopment of this faculty makes leaders 

 of thought, and watchful guardians of 

 human progress, is, to put men of sci- 

 ence on their proper level, and to teach 

 them to know their place?" Various 

 queries might arise at this point, but as 

 the doctor evidently went over to the 

 literary society to unbend, and have a 

 frolic of fantasy in their direction, he 

 probably thought it not worth while to 

 take his logic along, and spoil the fun. 

 And so nothing remains but to improve 

 his wholesome lesson. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The Cyclopedia of Education : A Dictiona- 

 ry of Information for the Use of Teach- 

 ers, School-Officers, Parents, and Others. 

 Edited by Henry Kiddle and Alexan- 

 der J. ScHEM. Pp. 868. Price (cloth), 

 $5. (Sold by subscription.) New York : 

 E. Steiger, 



It is a curious fact that, while the edu- 

 cated class in England and this country have 

 been for a hundred years making cyclopae- 

 dias on all sorts of subjects for other peo- 

 ple, they have only j\ist now succeeded in 

 getting one for themselves. Lawyers, doc- 

 tors, clergymen, architects, engineers, and 

 farmers, all have their alphabetical summa- 

 ries of special knowledge for ready refer- 

 ence, until such works have long since come 

 to be indispensable ; but only this year have 

 we 3rst got a cyclopaedia of education in 

 the English language that will give teach- 

 ers, school-boards, and all interested in the 

 subject, available and easy command of the 

 wide range of information which bears upon 

 the vocation of instructor. The explanation 

 of this tardiness is not obvious, for no sub- 

 ject is more amenable to this mode of treat- 

 ment, and certainly none more imperatively 

 requires it. But it does not much matter 

 how long the work was delayed, now that the 

 want has been so adequately and admirably 

 supplied by the work before us. The editors 

 have been equal to their formidable task, 



VOL. XI. 



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