4H 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



field. This plea gives scant credit for gen- 

 ius to the women who have done well. Many 

 of the essays overrun into the fields that be- 

 long to others ; most of them contain irrele- 

 vant matter or are overdressed with rhetoric 

 and poetical quotations ; nursing as a means 

 of support is mixed up with the charitable 

 care of the sick ; and there is other evidence 

 of defective arrangement and editing. Taking 

 it altogether, however, the book has a great 

 deal to tell to any one who is interested in 

 " the woman question," and this consists in 

 not only the facts which the writers have set 

 forth, but largely, also, in what the char- 

 acter of the volume unconsciously reveals of 

 woman's intellectual peculiarities, her mode 

 of action in various circumstances, her atti- 

 tude toward certain questions of the day, etc. 



Physical Religion. By F. Max Mitller. 

 London and New York : Longmans, 

 Green & Co. Pp. 410. 



This volume contains the author's sec- 

 ond course of Gifford Lectures, which 

 were delivered before the University of 

 Glasgow in 1890. The first course was 

 chiefly of an introductory character. In it 

 the questions were discussed of the limits 

 of natural religion, the proper method of 

 studying it, and the materials accessible for 

 the study. The principal manifestations of 

 natural religion were found to be physical, 

 anthropological, and psychological. The 

 present course is devoted to the consider- 

 ation of the first of these aspects. Physi- 

 cal religion is defined as a worship of the 

 powers of Nature. The author finds it most 

 completely developed, in its simplest form, 

 in the India of the Vedas ; and this leads to 

 a survey of the Vedic literature, the circum- 

 stances of its discovery, and its age. The 

 whole process of deification is laid before 

 our eyes in the greatest fullness and most 

 perspicuity in the Vedas. In the hymns 

 grouped under that name we may trace " the 

 gradual and perfectly intelligible develop- 

 ment of the predicate God from out of the 

 simplest perceptions and conceptions which 

 the human mind gained from that objective 

 nature by which man found himself sur- 

 rounded." The name of deva, or God, in 

 Sanskrit, meant originally bright, and came 

 to mean God after a long process of evolu- 

 tion. Of the many Devas, or Gods, of the 



Pantheon of the Veda, Agni, or the God of 

 Fire, is selected for an analysis, by means of 

 which the history may be understood " of 

 that long psychological process which, be- 

 ginning with the simplest and purely mate- 

 rial conceptions, has led the mind to that 

 highest concept of duty which we have in- 

 herited, together with our language, as mem- 

 bers of the great Aryan, and not of the 

 Semitic family." In the lectures succeeding 

 the introduction of Agni, Prof. Miiller dis- 

 cusses the biography of the divinity Agni as 

 divested of his material character ; the use- 

 fulness of the Vedic religion for a compar- 

 ative study of other religions ; fire as con- 

 ceived in other religions ; the mythological 

 development of Agni ; Religion, Myth, and 

 Custom ; Other Gods of Nature ; and the 

 conclusion to which the whole leads " that 

 the human mind, such as it is, and unas- 

 sisted by any miracles except the eternal 

 miracles of nature, did arrive at the concept 

 of God in its highest and purest form, did 

 arrive at some of the fundamental doctrines 

 of our own religion. Whatever ' the im- 

 pregnable rock of Scripture truth ' may be, 

 here we have the ' impregnable rock of 

 eternal and universal truth.' ' There is a 

 God above all other gods,' whatever their 

 names, whatever their concepts may have 

 been in the progress of the ages and in the 

 growth of the human mind. Whoever will 

 ponder on that fact, in all its bearings, will 

 discover in time that a comparative study of 

 the religions of the world has lessons to 

 teach us which the study of no single re- 

 ligion by itself can possibly teach." 



Arr-LETONs' School Physics. By John D. 

 Quackenbos (Literary Editor) and oth- 

 ers. New York : American Book Com- 

 pany. Pp. 544. Price, $1.50. 



This volume embraces the results of the 

 most recent researches in the several de- 

 partments of natural philosophy. It is in- 

 tended to meet a demand for a thoroughly 

 modern text-book on the subject, which 

 shall reflect the most advanced laboratory 

 and pedagogical methods, and at the same 

 time be adapted, in style and matter, for 

 use in the higher grades of our grammar 

 schools, high schools, and academies. In 

 order to secure the best expositions of the 

 several departments of the science, the dif- 



