LITERARY NOTICES. 



)25 



to logic to science and to law." In the 

 present voluiiie he proposes a new theory 

 of trance, and considers its bearings on hu- 

 man testimony. Trance whether natural 

 as somnambulism, or self-produced as by 

 so-called " trance-speakers " results from 

 activity of a portion of the brain-substance 

 while the remainder sleeps : this is the " In- 

 voluntary Life." In this state men see 

 visions, receive revelations, and have ecsta- 

 sies, after the manner of Mohammed, the 

 mediaeval saints, and Swedenborg. 



Oriental Religions and their Relations 

 TO Universal Religion. China. By 

 Samuel Johnson. Boston: Osgood & 

 Co. Pp. 975. Price, $5. 



The author of this work is an Oriental 

 scholar of fine accomplishments, and a philo- 

 sophical student of theology in a very broad 

 and liberal sense. He isa transcendentalist, 

 and like Emerson and Ripley he formerly 

 preached, but like those worthies he out- 

 grew the function of pulpit teacher, but 

 only to devote himself more assiduously to 

 the pen. Starting with the religious prob- 

 lem of humanity, and treating it with the 

 freedom and boldness of the transcenden- 

 talist, Mr. Johnson was soon carried be- 

 yond the narrow boundaries of the faith he 

 had inherited, and was powerfully drawn to 

 the consideration of those ancient religions 

 of the East which are celebrated alike for 

 their antiquity, the vast multitudes of their 

 believers, and the philosophical interest of 

 their doctrines and dogmas. This line of 

 inquiry had such fascination for Mr. John- 

 son, and seemed so full of promise as a 

 source of enlargement and a more catholic 

 spirit to Christian thinkers, that he resolved, 

 twenty years ago, to devote himself to the 

 exposition of the Oriental faiths in connec- 

 tion with the life of the Eastern peoples, for 

 the advantage of English readers. 



In 1872 he published the first volume 

 of this research on the " Faiths, Religions, 

 Philosophy, and Life of India," as a contri- 

 bution to the natural history of religion. 

 His point of view was rational and scien- 

 tific, and he delineated the characteristics 

 of the Hindoo mind, its traditions and social 

 forms, its piety and morality, and the specu- 

 lative principles, ethics, and humanities of 

 Buddhism, with a deep sympathy for the 



vol. XI. 40 



human elements involved, but with the same 

 disciplined coolness of temper with which 

 Herschel explored the heavens, and Lyell 

 investigated the crust of the earth. " I have 

 written," he says, " not as the advocate of 

 Christianity or any other distinctive relig- 

 ion, but as attracted on the one hand by the 

 identity of the religious sentiment under all 

 its great historic forms, and on the other by 

 the movement indicated in their diversities 

 and contrasts toward a higher plane of uni- 

 ty on which their exclusive claims shall dis- 

 appear." 



The second volume in the same line of 

 study HOW appears, and is devoted to China. 

 This is especially opportune, now that we 

 have the Chinese problem upon us in so im- 

 minent a form on the Pacific coast. The 

 Californians will deal with it in the light of 

 race-prejudice, and in its passionate and 

 sordid aspects ; but the intelligent mind of 

 the country will desire to inform itself re- 

 garding the real character of this extraordi- 

 nary people. To all who are thus inclined 

 Mr. Johnson's volume will be full of grave 

 instruction. It is not a mere superficial de- 

 lineation of Chinese life, such as a traveler 

 would give us who had been Impressed by 

 its sensuous aspects, but it is an analysis of 

 the Chinese mind, an ethnic study, and the 

 survey of a civilization. Education, govern- 

 ment, language, literature, history, and 

 poetry, are taken up systematically in the 

 division of " structures," and an immense 

 amount of most important information is 

 here compactly presented. It is of but lit- 

 tle use to talk to Americans about educa- 

 tion anywhere else in the world ; yet, as we 

 are rapidly sliding into the Chinese system 

 of education by state control, our people 

 might profitably look into the working of 

 that system where it has had prolonged 

 trial and worked out its legitimate conse- 

 quences. 



Mr. Johnson has not failed to point an 

 incidental moral in this direction. He says : 

 " Chu-tsze defines learning as imitation 

 conformity to a prescribed standard ; and 

 in these schools even organization holds an 

 inferior place to the mere act of ' repeating 

 after the teacher, each by himself, in a 

 shrill voice, rocking to and fro.' This per- 

 fect image of automatism is not without re- 

 semblance to the arrangements into graded 



