LITERARY NOTICES. 



709 



ton society, or can not pretermit, if need be, 

 the professional function. Quite the con- 

 trary. There are many quiet poems in this 

 collection pervaded by genuine humor, or 

 with fine touches of feeling for nature and 

 human life, which show that the author 

 writes from the inspiration of true poetic 

 art. But the poems that most interest us 

 are those marked by the strong poetic ex- 

 pression of ideas and emotions with which 

 the author's mind is " possessed." The 

 poems entitled "Where is God?" "The 

 Age's Unrest," "Infidelity," "Galileo," 

 "Vanini," "Magellan," "Darwin," "Kep- 

 ler," and many other pieces, although mak- 

 ing up but a small part of the book, would 

 well justify the title, " Songs of Modern 

 Thought." 



The Gospel of the Stars, or Primeval 

 Astronomy. By Joseph A. Seiss, D. D., 

 author of " A Miracle in Stone," " Voices 

 from Babylon," " The Last Times," "Lec- 

 tures on the Apocalypse," " Holy Types," 

 etc. Philadelphia: E. Claxton & Co. 

 Pp. 450. Price, $1.50. 



This is an instructive book instructive 

 not because of the value of its information, 

 but because it is an excellent representation 

 of a certain phase of mind peculiar to these 

 times, which springs out of the conflict of 

 great adverse systems of thought. In the 

 struggle of religion and science, which has 

 been long developing, and is precipitated 

 upon this age with much intensity, the fun- 

 damental question is, Which order of ideas 

 theological or scientific shall predom- 

 inate, and which take the subordinate 

 place ? It is now universally held that all 

 truth is one. But, in the palpable issues 

 that arise, unity can only be secured by 

 some latitude of interpretation on one side 

 or the other. Though all truth is one, the 

 systems of belief are two, and there has got 

 to be a yielding somewhere before the al- 

 leged unity can become a real unity. Men 

 of science start with nature as it exists 

 around them, and is open to exploration 

 and the demonstration of its truths. And, 

 when any system of thought is offered for 

 acceptance, the men of science insist that it 

 must be brought into conformity by inter- 

 pretation with the order of truth established 

 by science. Religious teachers, on the other 

 hand most of them, at least start from 



theology, hold its doctrines to be in the 

 ascendant, and demand that nature shall be 

 interpreted in conformity with them aw a 

 subordinate system. 



The work of Dr. Seiss is a thorough-go- 

 ing example of the dominance of theological 

 ideas over scientific ideas. He, too, is en- 

 gaged in the laudable work of reconcilia- 

 tion, but, like Hood's butcher, who "con- 

 ciliated "his sheep by main force, our au- 

 thor reconciles science to theology by no 

 little violence of interpretation. Its lesser 

 details he knocks about without ceremony, 

 and its larger conceptions he waves aside as 

 illusions of not the slightest moment. Evo- 

 lution, he declares, "is a lie" and, as this 

 sufficiently illustrates, scientific truth has 

 no weight with him. Steeped through and 

 through with theological ideas, he can see 

 nothing in the universe but his own system 

 of divinity, while science is only useful as 

 furnishing material to be twisted into con- 

 formity with theology, as he understands it. 

 His book is pervaded with Scripture, and, 

 both from the titles of the works he has 

 formerly written and from the whole qual- 

 ity of this, it is seen that his mind is drawn 

 to the mystical, the obscure, the enigmatic, 

 cabalistic, and transcendental. 



The special object of the present work 

 is to show that " the true explanation of 

 the origin and meaning of the constellations 

 of the heavens, their figures and their names, 

 as they have come down to us from the 

 earliest ages of the human race," are only 

 to be found in connection with Christian 

 theology. It is commonly supposed that 

 those fanciful celestial groupings of the 

 stars into resemblances of animals, men, 

 and other objects were devices of primi- 

 tive times, before astronomical science had 

 arisen. Herschel characterizes "those un- 

 couth figures and outlines of men and mon- 

 sters usually scribbled over celestial globes 

 and maps" as "puerile and absurd." Dr. 

 Seiss declares all this to be mere " rational- 

 ist conjecture," and solemnly maintains, on 

 the other hand, that the constellations are 

 pious intimations, illustrations, and wit- 

 nesses of the scheme of salvation. The 

 breadth of his view of the Christian system 

 in the present year of grace is indicated by 

 the following passage : " The gospel is 

 chiefly made up of the story of the serpent 



