LITERARY NOTICES. 



501 



quiry. In this respect, also, Arnott's " Ele- 

 ments of Physics " is more harmonious and 

 well-proportioned than many of the later 

 works upon the subject. Its careful editors 

 have brought it up to date by introducing 

 clear accounts of the various advances in 

 physics that have been made during the 

 last twenty years. The modern doctrines 

 of Energy, Correlation of Forces, the Me- 

 chanical Theory of Heat, the Kinetic Theory 

 of Gases, Barometric Gradients, Weather 

 Areas, and Storm - signals, TyndalFs and 

 Helmholtz's Acoustical Investigations, Spec- 

 trum Analysis, the Radiometer, and many 

 other results of research in recent years, are 

 all introduced in their appropriate places, 

 and briefly and succinctly explained. But 

 they fall into their proper relation as but a 

 small part of the great system of truths that 

 must now be comprised in any standard trea- 

 tise upon the science of physics. The editors, 

 we observe, have caught the spirit of the 

 work, and assimilated the new matter to the 

 method of exposition adopted by the author. 

 And it is in this that the unrivaled merit 

 of Dr. Arnott's work chiefly consists. The 

 style in which it is written, as is well known, 

 is a model of easy simplicity. It is the most 

 readable book on natural philosophy that 

 we have in the language. Another adr 

 rable feature is the copiousness and diver- 

 sity of its illustrations and concrete appli- 

 cations of physical principles. These are 

 mainly drawn from the familiar field of 

 every-day life, and, notwithstanding the 

 numerous books that have appeared on com- 

 mon things, familiar science, etc., Arnott's 

 " Physics," is still our best book of this 

 kind. He has been much copied, but his 

 statements have not been improved upon. 

 The new edition of this work may therefore 

 be strongly recommended to schools as a 

 text-book, a reference-book, or a reading- 

 book, and, however used, it will be pretty 

 sure to do good service. 



Modern Physical Fatalism, and the Doc- 

 trine of Evolution, including an Ex- 

 amination op Mr. Herbert Spencer's 

 " First Principles." By Thomas Raw- 

 son Birks, M. A., Knightbridge Pro- 

 fessor of Moral Philosophy, Cambridge. 

 New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 311. 

 Price, $2.25. 



We have here another attempt to de- 

 molish Herbert Spencer, and it is note- 



worthy chiefly as emanating from a digni- 

 tary of the University of Cambridge. Those 

 in quest of objections to Spencer's system, 

 and not very particular about their quality, 

 will find in this volume a great deal of ma- 

 terial adapted to their purpose. But as a 

 polemic it is by no means equal in subtilty, 

 force, or originality, to various replies to 

 Spencer that have previously appeared. In 

 our judgment, it is quite inferior in logical 

 acuteness to Prof. Bascom's criticism in the 

 Bibliotheca Sacra of last October, while in 

 candor, courtesy, and philosophic liberality, 

 the English author is not for a moment to be 

 compared to the American reviewer. The 

 book is dominated by an intense theologi- 

 cal bias, and is written from the stand- 

 point and in the interest of the most un- 

 modified type of orthodoxy. The author 

 writes in behalf of such vast interests that 

 he cannot be trusted. Absorbed in the 

 interests of the eternal world, he is lax and 

 careless about the things of this world 

 does not represent them as they are. In 

 the first chapter, and on the very first 

 page, he says that in Spencer's system of 

 thought " science is identified with phys- 

 ics," and that this is the way he reconciles 

 religion and. science. This, of course, is 

 absolutely false, and not only so, but it is a 

 misrepresentation so fundamental as to 

 taint the work through and through. A 

 writer who would commit so flagrant a mis- 

 representation at the threshold of his work 

 forfeits at once his claim to the confidence 

 of intelligent readers, who will see that a 

 discussion so vitiated and loosely carried 

 on is not worth pursuing. 



Dr. Birks makes wholesale objections 

 to the doctrines of the Unknowable, the 

 Relativity of Knowledge, the Indestructi- 

 bility of Matter, the Conservation of Force, 

 Evolution and Natural Selection, and closes 

 his book by saying: "The doctrine of the 

 Unknowable is a lower depth in the scale of 

 intellectual and spiritual darkness than the 

 old Athenian idolatry. The Persistence of 

 Force, and the Indestructibility of Motion, 

 when set up to replace the true and living 

 God of the Bible, the Almighty Creator of 

 heaven and earth, will be found on inquiry 

 to be still meaner and more worthless than 

 the old heathen idols of wood and stone. 

 One sentence of the Word of God, in the 

 song of the heavenly elders, lays the foun- 



