LITERARY NOTICES. 



125 



ciful relations in nature and holding them 

 to be truths of nature. The growth of true 

 science has been little else than an historic 

 fight of the human mind against its tendency 

 to substitute its own cheap and frivolous im- 

 aginations for verifiable facts and demon- 

 strative truths. Theology for thousands of 

 years interpreted nature by such superficial 

 conceptions of the relations of its parts as 

 could be arrived at without serious investi- 

 gation or any real knowledge. For thou- 

 sands of years the explanations of nature 

 were deduced from the properties of words, 

 and modern science only arose through a 

 protracted struggle with this tendency. It 

 is but recently that the connection between 

 succeeding forms of life, which paleon- 

 tology reveals as a great fact in the his- 

 tory of the earth, was held to be but an 

 ideal relation as taught by theology; while 

 the recent progress of biological science has 

 consisted in substituting for it a genetic 

 relation, or an actual dynamic causation. 

 Science, therefore, must be regarded as 

 most strictly occupied with its proper work 

 in establishing the actual causal and deter- 

 mining relations among phenomena. So far 

 as analogy can be made a help in arriving 

 at such positive and substantial results, 

 its function is legitimate for scientific pur- 

 poses ; but, pressed further, it will probably 

 continue to be regarded as an impediment 

 to fruitful investigation. 



But Mr. Andrews is a courageous and 

 independent thinker, who wants no instruc- 

 tion from us as to the value or importance 

 of the work he is doing. He claims to be 

 already the center and master of a group 

 of disciples which form a normal school of 

 preparation for larger operations in the way 

 of propagating his ideas. We are, moreover, 

 informed that " a university for the elabora- 

 tion and diffusion of the new science (Uni- 

 versology) has for several years been char- 

 tered under the general act of Congress for 

 the District of Columbia, and is only waiting 

 more ample endowment to take on large and 

 imposing proportions." Certainly plenty of 

 work is cut out for such a university. A 

 part of its programme is " one language for 

 the whole world," the " future vernacular of 

 the planet." This might seem to be a vast 

 gain (assuming incidentally its practicabil- 

 ity), as we should hope that such a language 



would supersede the multitudinous tongues 

 that are now such a burden in education. 

 But the hope is vain ; Mr. Andrews says 

 that " Alwato so facilitates the acquisition 

 of all other languages that the prior exist- 

 ing languages will be kept living, and the 

 valuable literatures of the world retained 

 and their acquisition made easy. . . . Eng- 

 lish, French, German, etc., will survive for 

 their special literatures and localities. . . . 

 So greatly is the scientific method superior 

 to the crude natural spontaneity which 

 merely lets matters drift 'at their own 

 sweet will.' " Nevertheless, this spontane- 

 ous drift of things in which Mr. Andrews 

 has so little confidence, inasmuch as it has 

 given us all the sciences and arts, and cre- 

 ated civilization, and brought the primitive 

 man through the route of development up 

 to his present status of intelligence and 

 cultivation, ought not, we think, to be too 

 lightly discarded in behalf of a university 

 at Washington, although chartered and even 

 endowed by the American Congress. 



Vice Versa ; or, a Lesson to Fathers. By 

 F. Anstet. D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 

 349. Price, $1. 



We have here a most humorous novel 

 with a very original plot. It is vigorously 

 and vividly written, and has a great deal of 

 naturalness in its descriptive and narrative 

 parts, while it is pervaded throughout by 

 a most fantastic and egregious absurdity. 

 After the first shock, however, the reader 

 accepts the ridiculous situation, and enjoys 

 the wit and fun with no little curiosity to 

 know what the author will make of his 

 whimsical fancy. The odd conceit upon 

 which the story hinges is the exchange of 

 personalities between a father and son ; that 

 is, they are mutually transformed in bodily 

 aspect, the father into the son and the son 

 into the father, while their minds are not 

 affected. The lad becomes outwardly the 

 dignified London merchant, though still re- 

 taining all his boyish ideas ; while the old 

 merchant is shrunk into the school-boy and 

 with the thoughts and feelings of an old man 

 is packed off to the hated school, where his 

 son had been before. The old gentleman's 

 misadventures in his new and extraordinary 

 situation in the school, and the boy's tan- 

 trums in charge of the old merchant's resi- 



