LITERARY NOTICES. 



851 



facts, and become unable to take a view of 

 human life as a totality. The whole range 

 of evidence must be traversed if we are to 

 secure an harmonious representation of the 

 constitution of human nature." The book 

 has not been produced in the pure spirit of 

 science, but under a bias, and to sustain a 

 foregone conclusion ; yet the work is done 

 with ability, and will be useful. 



The Round Trip by Way of Panama, 

 through California, Oregon, Nevada, 

 Utah, Idaho, and Colorado. By John 

 Codman. New York : Putnam's Sons. 

 1879. Pp.331. Price, $1.50. 



This is a truly valuable book of travel. 

 The author is a keen observer of man and 

 of nature ; and, moreover, he is a skilled 

 literary artist. He sees with his own 

 eyes, and not through the eyes of a guide- 

 book writer, and he carefully eschews the 

 commonplace. He writes of the railroads, 

 commerce, agriculture, mining, scenery, and 

 populations of the great States and Territo- 

 ries visited on the " Round Trip." 



Lectures on the History of England. By 

 M.J. Guest. London: Macmillan. 1879. 

 Pp. 598, with Maps. Price, $1.75. 



The author offers in his preface an apol- 

 ogy for adding to the already over-large 

 number of " Histories of England." Having 

 to deliver lectures to men and women (work- 

 ing people, presumably) on English history, 

 he found, on beginning to prepare his les- 

 sons, "no one book which was not either 

 too learned, too copious, too trivial, or too 

 condensed." Plainly, then, there was still 

 room for one history more. Special indebt- 

 edness is acknowledged to Green's " History 

 of the English People." 



A Complete Scientific Grammar of the 

 English Language. By W. Colegrove. 

 New York : The Authors' Publishing 

 Co. 1879. Pp. 362. 



In the preface to this book it is said 

 that " at present English grammar is in the 

 same condition in which Copernicus found 

 astronomy." The author appears to be pret- 

 ty confident that his work has established 

 the " reign of law " in this chaos, and that 

 henceforth grammar is to rank as a " sci- 

 ence " in the strictest sense of that term. 



Free Religious Association. Proceedings 

 . at the Twelfth Annual Meeting of the 

 Free Religious Association, held in Bos- 

 ton, May 29 and 30, 1879. Boston: 

 Free Religious Association. Pp. 79. 

 Price, 25 cts. 



The " Free Religious Association " is 

 one of the extreme reactions against the 

 restrictive spirit of ecclesiasticism which is 

 still dominant in modern society. That 

 spirit has unquestionably declined in pow- 

 er with the rise and advance of scientific 

 thought. Protestantism was a revolt against 

 the tyranny of the older religious organiza- 

 tions. The liberal Christianity of our own 

 century was, again, a revolt against the 

 spiritual repressions of Protestantism. And 

 now " free religion " carries on the liber- 

 ating work still further by rebelling against 

 the restrictions of liberal Christian theology. 

 Something is gained to freedom of religious 

 thought at each step, and the advance 

 movement is ever engaged upon a whole 

 some and necessary work. The " Free Re- 

 ligious Association" announces its objects 

 to be, to promote the practical interests of 

 pure religion, to increase fellowship in the 

 spirit, and to encourage the scientific study 

 of man's religious nature and history. It 

 avows no creed, but leaves eaeh individual 

 member responsible for his own opinions 

 alone, and declares that nothing in its con- 

 stitution shall ever be construed as limiting 

 membership by any test of speculative opin- 

 ion or belief, or as interfering in any other 

 way with that absolute freedom of thought 

 and expression which is the natural right 

 of every rational being. 



It would seem to be impossible to go 

 further in the declaration of religious free- 

 dom. Nothing remains to be gained on that 

 score. Yet the Association does not at all 

 admit that it is therefore out of business. 

 It has important ethical objects to secure, 

 and therefore plenty to do. In fact, free 

 religion itself is held to be a means of at- 

 taining exalted moral ideals, and from this 

 point of view it has before it endless occu- 

 pation and a positive basis of union. Be- 

 liefs, views, doctrines now come in order, 

 and there seems to be the necessity of some- 

 thing resembling a creed or declaration of 

 convictions. The need of some ground- 

 work, or platform, or avowal of doctrine 

 that can furnish a common basis and give 



