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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Huxley of being a "propagator of 

 atheism." Now, though these charges 

 are launched from the Episcopal throne 

 of Western New York, they are never- 

 theless not true. Bishop Coxe says, 

 "I bear a divine commission." Then 

 he has a divine commission to bear 

 false witness. His accusation is simply 

 a baseless calumny, and in none of his 

 communications does he offer a shadow 

 of proof to substantiate the charge. 

 Prof. Huxley has never avowed him- 

 self an atheist, and has never advo- 

 cated the doctrine, but on the contrary 

 he has distinctly condemned it and 

 declared it to be an absurd doctrine. 

 Bishop Coxe says he is " a propagator 

 of atheism," but where is the proof? 

 There are such people as avowed athe- 

 ists, and there is a party of them in 

 England that labors to propagate the 

 belief. Bradlaugh is one of their chiefs, 

 who boasted that he is the only man 

 who ever ran for Parliament on the 

 issue of being an atheist. Prof. Hux- 

 ley has never had anything to do with 

 this party, and is no more in sympathy 

 with it than is Bishop Coxe. If Prof. 

 Huxley has propagated atheism, lie 

 must have done it some time, some- 

 where, and somehow, and there must 

 be evidence of it. Has the bishop any 

 better source of information than other 

 people ? If not, then he has lent him- 

 self to a false accusation. He quotes 

 Scripture copiously in defense of his 

 course, and cites from St. John the fol- 

 lowing passage: "Many deceivers are 

 entering into the world. Look to your- 

 selves . . . receive them not into your 

 house." But, who are the deceivers, if 

 not those who mislead people by un- 

 truthful statements? The utmost de- 

 fense that Bishop Coxe can make is, 

 that he has heard Prof. Huxley called 

 an atheist, or that he infers from his 

 books that he holds atheistic opinions ; 

 but is a man to be stripped of his char- 

 acter, and loaded with opprobrious epi- 

 thets, and are all good Christians to be 

 invited to slam their doors in his face, 



because of mere idle rumors and in- 

 ferential constructions of his writings, 

 both of which are contradicted by his 

 explicit averments? The Bishop of 

 Western New York should migrate to 

 Rome, where he properly belongs, at 

 the earliest opportunity. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Talks about Labor, and concerning the 

 Evolution of Justice between the 

 Laborers and the Capitalists. Bv 

 J. N. Larned. Pp. 150. Price, $1.5(5. 

 D. Appleton & Co., 1876. 



This book is the result of an able effort 

 to analyze the present relations of capital 

 and labor, and to point out the directions 

 whence future improvement in those rela- 

 tions must come. It has not the preten- 

 sions of an exhaustive treatise ; neverthe- 

 less it is a study of the whole subject, and 

 reaches to large conclusions. It is con- 

 ceded on all sides tbat, as between labor- 

 ers and capitalists, grave problems have to 

 be settled before their relations can be ad- 

 justed to the higher notions of justice now 

 pressing on the minds of men. The men 

 with capital, and those without it, but with 

 capabilities for work, must be in constant 

 cooperation, the terms of which are deter- 

 mined by complex facts. The fairness or 

 unfairness of these terms bears closely on 

 our social life, and is an index to the qual- 

 ity of our civilization. We cannot turn 

 away from them, relying entirely for their 

 amelioration on the operation of forces be- 

 yond human control. The social philosophy 

 imbued with the spirit of science tells us 

 that the institutions of social life develop 

 only in obedience to irresistible currents of 

 educated feeling and opinion. 



Without stopping to consider this 

 thorny question, it may safely be said that 

 prevailing mental and moral conceptions 

 are a factor of intense importance in deter- 

 mining the forms of social action, and, as 

 they pass from lower to higher states, a 

 corresponding improvement occurs in ev- 

 erything upon wbich they act. With equal 

 safety we may assume that this progress 

 in our conceptions is in no way more pro- 

 moted than by that activity of mind which 



