LITERARY NOTICES. 



623 



everything that belongs to government, 

 reform, philanthropy, education, social prog- 

 ress, communism, etc. The present volume 

 is the first of a series to be carried out as 

 the leisure or opportunity of the author 

 may allow. 



The Problem of Problems, and its Va- 

 rious Solutions ; or, Atheism, Darwin- 

 ism, and Theism. By Clark Braden, 

 President of Abingdon College, Illinois. 

 Cincinnati : Chace & Hall. Pp. 480. 



In a note prefixed to this volume, and 

 addressed to reviewers and critics, the au- 

 thor requests these parties to " carefully 

 read the book before they review it." 

 This is only fair, and we undertook to 

 comply with the writer's wish, but failed 

 to get through with it either carefully, 

 hastily, or in any other way. For life is 

 short at the best, and is rapidly shorten- 

 ing, while work multiplies, and but little 

 time is left for reading. Moreover, Presi- 

 dent Braden's volume is very substantial, 

 and contains a good deal of printed matter 

 on a page, which increases alarmingly after 

 the 342d. Beyond doubt, if the depth of 

 the work is in proportion to its length, it 

 must be valuable. Not having carefully 

 read it, we shall not venture to review it, 

 but we quite agree with the author as to the 

 importance of the discussion ; and, as in 

 his title he has sandwiched Darwinism be- 

 tween Theism and Atheism, our readers will 

 infer his point of view to be that of the 

 theologian. The book is a theological on- 

 slaught upon the school of thinkers of 

 which Mr. Darwin is now the most con- 

 spicuous representative. We gather from 

 the introduction that the author formerly 

 did vigorous service, and probably won his 

 theological spurs, as a fighter of infidels in 

 public debates and written discussions. 

 He considers that this has afforded him a 

 valuable " training " as a champion of re- 

 ligion against the new phase of scientific 

 infidelity, and which enables him to deal 

 very decisively with Darwin, Mill, Huxley, 

 Spencer, Draper, Tyndall, and the like, 

 whom he cuff's and mauls about, in his book, 

 without the slightest mercy. The " Prob- 

 lem of Problems " is obviously a good deal 

 such a work as " Modern Physical Fatal- 

 ism," which we noticed last month, but is 

 much longer. 



Aerial Navigation. By the Late Charles 

 Blatchfield Mansfield, M. A. Edited 

 by his Brother, with a Preface by J. M. 

 Ludlow. Macmillan & Co. Pp. 513. 

 Price, $5. 



The author of this book, who wrote 

 also " Travels in Paraguay and Brazil," and 

 a "Theory of Salts," is said by Mr. Lud- 

 low, in his preface, to have been a man of 

 great fertility and originality of mind. He 

 says : 



"Those who knew him intimately a now 

 fast-narrowing circle recollect well how there 

 would come upon him occasionally, after inter- 

 vals of quiescence, a kind of divine afflatus, and 

 for n time his mind would bring forth one device 

 after the other in rapid succession, as those to 

 whom the world restricts the name of poets 

 multiply their works during periods of creative 

 energy. The present volume is the fruit of 

 one of these periods, and the words at the close 

 of the author's preface, ' My object in writing it 

 will he simply to deliver my brain of a burden 

 which came upon it uninvited,' express, I be- 

 lieve, the strictest truth as to his meutal ex- 

 perience. . . . 



" If it be asked why, after the lapse of a full 

 quarter of a century, an unfinished work by one 

 who is no more on earth is presented to the 

 public, the answer is 1. That the author him- 

 self wished to have so presented it when per- 

 fect, and that he was one of those whose wishes 

 have a right to be carried out as far as may 

 be practicable. 2. That although the fact 

 that he never completed it might militate 

 against its publication unfinished, yet it does 

 not appear that any publication issued since 

 his death has in any wise taken the place which 

 this volume was meant to occupy. 3. That 

 during the same intervil events of high grav- 

 ity in the world's history have shown that 

 the question of aerial navigation may be one of 

 life and death to a nation. For we have lived 

 to see, what Charles Mansfield did not, Fiance 

 governed through balloons from besipfred Paris, 

 and a dictator, who refused to despair of his 

 country, cross the air over the heads of hostile 

 armies." 



Mr. Mansfield believed in the prac- 

 ticability of aerial navigation, and that the 

 problem will at length be solved, and the 

 work is a close and searching inquiry into 

 the principles upon which such solution 

 must depend. It will, therefore, be impor- 

 tant to the students of aerostation. 



The following passage from that witty 

 philosopher, Hans Christian Andersen, 

 when treating of the " ugly duckling," 

 serves as a motto for the volume : " ' What 

 next, I wonder ? ' said the hen. ' You have 

 nothing to do, and so you sit brooding over 



