646 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



happen to like. It recently tried to 

 fasten the imputation of materialism 

 upon Mr. Douglas Spalding, on account 

 of his psychological views; but that 

 gentleman repelled the charge, and, 

 apparently in much confusion over the 

 subject, the Spectator now formally 

 asks, " What is modern materialism ? " 

 a question which it might better have 

 settled, for its own guidance, some time 

 ago. And the answer which the Spec- 

 tator gives to its own question is cer- 

 tainly extraordinary. In the first place, 

 it informs us what materialism is not ; 

 and, strange to stay, it declares that a 

 belief in the materiality of the soul 

 that its qualities are physical, visible, 

 or tangible, instead of spiritual is not 

 materialism. The editor says: "It is 

 not properly, we think, materialism to 

 believe, as some very eminent thinkers, 

 and some very eminent and (in their 

 day) orthodox ecclesiastics have be- 

 lieved, that the soul of man is a physi- 

 cal entity, existing only at some par- 

 ticular point of space." On the other 

 hand, the Spectator affirms that the 

 pure idealist, who goes so far as to deny 

 the existence of matter, and to resolve 

 all things into immaterial or spiritual 

 agencies, may yet be a materialist. 

 Hence, according to this oracle, he who 

 believes in nothing but matter need 

 not be a materialist; and he who be- 

 lieves in nothing but spirit may still 

 be liable to the reproach of materialism. 

 But, if materialism has nothing to do 

 with the question of matter and spirit, 

 in what does it consist ? Why, accord- 

 ing to the Spectator, it consists in be- 

 lieving that the universe unfolds from 

 a lower into a higher state, and " that 

 the higher order of phenomena are 

 strictly dependent on the lower." Nor 

 does it make any difference if the uni- 

 verse is held to have been caused and 

 to be governed by a Creative Spirit ; if 

 that government proceeds by the meth- 

 od of a gradual unfolding from the 

 lower to the higher, he who believes it 

 is a materialist. And so, in the last 



exigency of polemics, an obnoxious 

 term is wrenched from its strict and 

 loug-sanctioned significance to be used 

 simply as a vehicle of opprobrium. 

 The Spectator would have been equal- 

 ly honest and less absurd if it had com- 

 pressed its article into two lines as fol- 

 lows : " What is modern materialism ? 

 A dirty label to be plastered upon the 

 evolutionists." 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Prehistoric Races of the United States 

 of America. By J. W. Foster, LL. D. 

 Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co., 1873, pp. 

 415, price $5.00. 



In briefly referring last month to the 

 sudden and lamented death of Dr. Foster, 

 we mentioned that he had just completed a 

 new work on the prehistoric American races. 

 A careful examination of the book has sat- 

 isfied us that it is one of the most interest- 

 ing and important contributions to Ameri- 

 can archaeology that have yet appeared, 

 aud will take rank with the leading treatises 

 upon the general subject by European ar- 

 chaeologists. We had thought of making 

 some extracts from the volume, but it is so 

 full of interest, from beginning to end, as 

 to make selection perplexing, and were it 

 not for the restraints of copyright we should 

 be tempted to run the whole work through 

 The Popular Science Monthly, as it con- 

 tains just that kind of information, in clear, 

 compressed, and intelligible form, which is 

 adapted to the mass of readers. Although 

 drawing upon various authentic sources for 

 his facts, Dr. Foster was very far from be- 

 ing a mere compiler. He had an enthusi- 

 astic interest in the question, and pursued 

 it by direct observation and extensive origi- 

 nal inquiries. The author explains how he 

 was attracted to the investigation, in the 

 opening passage of his preface. He says : 

 " In early manhood, when, for the first time, 

 I gazed upon the works of that mysterious 

 people known as the mound-builders, my 

 mind received a class of impressions which 

 subsequent years have failed to efface. 

 These works are in the vicinity of Newark, 

 Ohio ; and, although not the most stupen- 

 dous, are the most elaborate in the whole ' 

 series. It was a bright summer's morning, 



