LITERARY NOTICES. 



561 



in the accompanying plates. An interesting 

 chapter in the history of fish-culture is the 

 record of several attempts at Transplanting 

 Lobsters to the Pacific Coast, by Richard 

 Rathbun. The volume contains also sev- 

 eral shorter papers. 



The New Religion : A Gospel of Love. By 

 E. W. Gray. Chicago : Thome Publish- 

 ing Co. Pp 423. 



The New Religion unfolded in these pages 

 is an exposition of the doctrine of Christ that 

 love is the law of life. The author holds 

 that the introduction of this motive of growth 

 differentiates the Christian faith from all 

 antecedent beliefs. The Egyptian, Brah- 

 man, Buddhist, Greek, Roman, and Jew are 

 spurred on by fear under inexorable law 

 " the gods of the old religion are not gods of 

 sympathy and love." 



In judging Christianity it must not be 

 confounded with any parasitic "ism." Su- 

 perstition must be stripped away, the dog- 

 mas of Church fathers and apostles disre- 

 garded until the teaching of Christ himself 

 is reached. This is found to be greatly at 

 variance with the commonly accepted notions 

 of Christianity. " The practice of going into 

 public for the express purpose of prayer and 

 worship has no sanction in the New Relig- 

 ion," neither has a paid priesthood, nor pub- 

 lic worship as such. The Church is over- 

 grown with externalism which saps its life. 

 Educational ministries are, however, pro- 

 ductive of good, and the public meeting of 

 the people beneficial for instruction. An- 

 other ecclesiastical excrescence is the undue 

 value of organization. For the first two 

 hundred years, Christians did without church 

 or creed, " and it may well be doubted 

 whether both the organization and the creed 

 have helped more than they have hurt Christi- 

 anity." Dr. Gray believes that Jesus was not 

 God and man, but God-man, and his explana- 

 tion of the Christ-nature is at least ingenious. 

 He asks whether the domain of animated ex- 

 istence may not be extended, and suggests 

 that, " for a specific and expressed purpose, 

 an addition of another order of being was 

 made." Christ was sui generis, a new va- 

 riety. The transfiguration, resurrection, and 

 ascension are received in their entirety as rev- 

 elations of spiritual existence. The author 

 holds that " if we accept Christianity at all, 



VOL. XXXIX. 10 



we must accept what is called the super- 

 natural." Miracles are not contrary to the 

 laws of Nature, but transcend them, and may 

 be in agreement with laws still unknown. 



Dogmas of later date than the creed are 

 not gently entertained. " An instantaneous 

 transformation of character " is " one of 

 the chief postulates of the New Religion." 

 This is effected not by faith, or redeeming 

 blood, but by the compelling love of Christ. 

 Dr. Gray points out that Christ teaches 

 plainly a new and positive morality : " Do 

 good to them that hate you " ; " Lay not up for 

 yourselves treasures upon earth." He insists 

 that these directions are practical and oblig- 

 atory for all Christians. Statistics are cited 

 to show that one church controls $150,000,- 

 000 of property ; another, twice this amount ; 

 and he dryly observes, " There is no scarcity 

 . . . but the scarcity of love the virtue of 

 the second commandment." The author is 

 never consciously evasive, but direct, as well 

 as reverent in his search for truth. 



The Psychology of Attention. By Th. 

 Ribot, Professor of Comparative and 

 Experimental Psychology at the College 

 de France. The Open Court Publishing 

 Co., Chicago. Pp. 121. Price, 75 cents. 



This little work is devoted exclusively to 

 an investigation of the mechanism of atten- 

 tion. The subject is divided into two dis- 

 tinct forms. The one, which is spontaneous 

 and natural the true primitive and funda- 

 mental form of attention has been neglected 

 by psychologists ; while the other, which the 

 author calls voluntary, is but an imitation, a 

 result of training and education. It is de- 

 rived wholly from spontaneous attention, and 

 yet it is the only form to which psycholo- 

 gists have given much consideration. In 

 this volume Prof. Ribot goes to the root 

 of the matter in the emotional states of ani- 

 mals and young children ; and he holds that 

 it is only by a study of its primitive form 

 that we can reach an intelligible explanation 

 of the higher forms of attention. 



In his chapter upon spontaneous atten- 

 tion, the author discusses its physical mani- 

 festations : vaso-motory phenomena, motory 

 phenomena, or phenomena of expression ; ex- 

 plains that its supposed effects are really its 

 constitutive elements, that it is only the sub- 

 jective aspect of the physical manifestations 



