LITERARY NOTICES. 



775 



what is contained in the reading-books, but 

 that they may be able to read through life ; 

 so, let enough of the leading branches be 

 taught, if no more, to enable the pupil to 

 pursue whatever he may need most in after- 

 life. Let, then, an amount of geometry 

 commensurate with its importance be 

 taught even in the common schools ; let it 

 be taught at the same time with arithmetic; 

 let as much time be given to it, and we shall 

 find thousands who, instead of closing their 

 mathematical books on leaving school, will 

 be led to pursue the higher mathematics in 

 their maturer years." 



The Mystery op Matter and Other Es- 

 says. By J. Allanson Picton. 12ruo, 

 pp. 482. Price $3.50. Macmillan & Co. 



The purpose of this work is to reconcile 

 the essential principles of religious faith with 

 the present tendencies of thought in the 

 sphere of positive and physical science. Mr. 

 Picton is not a votary of modern skepti- 

 cism, although he recognizes the fact of its 

 existence, and its bearing on vital questions. 

 Nor is he a partisan of any of the current 

 systems of philosophy or science, but dis- 

 cusses their various pretensions in the spirit 

 of intelligent and impartial criticism. He 

 has no fear of their progress or influence ; 

 he accepts many of their conclusions ; he 

 honors the earnestness and ability of their 

 expounders ; while he believes that their re- 

 sults are in harmony with the essential ideas 

 of religion. It is possible, he affirms, that 

 all forms of finite existence may be reduced 

 to modes of motion. But this is of no con- 

 sequence in a religious point of view, for 

 motion itself is only the visible manifesta- 

 tion of the energy of an infinite fife. " To 

 me," he says, " the doctrine of an eternal 

 continuity of development has no terrors ; 

 for, believing matter to be in its ultimate 

 essence spiritual, I see in every cosmic revo- 

 lution a ' change from glory to glory, as by 

 the Spirit of the Lord.' I can look down 

 the uncreated, unbeginning past, without 

 the sickness of bewildered faith. I want no 

 silent dark eternity in which no world was ; 

 for I am a disciple of One who said, ' My 

 Father worketh hitherto.' My sense of 

 eternal order is no longer jarred by the sud- 

 den appearance in the universe of a dead, 

 inane substance, foreign to God and spiritual 



being. And if, with a true insight, I could 

 stand so high above the world as to take 

 any comprehensive survey of its unceasing 

 evolutions here a nebula dawning at the 

 silent fiat ' be light,' there the populous 

 globe, where the communion of the many 

 with the One brings the creature back to 

 the Creator I am sure that the oneness of 

 the vision, so far from degrading, would un- 

 speakably elevate my sense of the dignity 

 and blessedness of created being. I have 

 no temptation, therefore, to join in cursing 

 the discoverer who tracks the chain of divine 

 forces by which finite consciousness has 

 been brought to take its present form ; be- 

 cause I know he can never find more than 

 that which was in the beginning, and is, and 

 ever shall' be the 'power of an endless 

 life.' " 



With regard to the speculations of Prof. 

 Huxley, the author, so far from bewailing 

 their effects, pronounces them decidedly 

 favorable to the interests of religion. They 

 present a formidable barrier to the encroach- 

 ments of materialism. In this respect, he 

 thinks that Prof. Huxley has rendered ser- 

 vices to the Church, if less signal, not less 

 valuable, than those which he has rendered 

 to science. He has brought the religious 

 world face to face with facts with a vigor 

 and a clearness peculiar to himself. Not 

 only so. In the opinion of the author, he 

 has made suggestions concerning those facts 

 of vast importance to the future of religion. 

 He has defined the only terms on which 

 harmony is possible between spiritual re- 

 ligion and physical science. Equalling 

 Berkeley in transparent distinctness of 

 statement, while he far surpasses him in 

 knowledge of physical phenomena, Mr. Hux- 

 ley has shown that, whether we start with 

 materialism or idealism, we are brought at 

 length to the same point. He has thus 

 proved himself one of the most powerful op- 

 ponents that materialism ever had. All 

 that he did in his celebrated discourse on 

 the " Physical Basis of Life " was, to call 

 attention to certain indisputable facts. 

 " And perhaps it was the impossibility of 

 denying these facts which was a main cause 

 of the uneasiness that most of us felt. 

 Thus he told us that all organizations, from 

 the lichen up to the man, are all composed 

 mainly of one sort of matter, which in all 



