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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The Childhood of Religions : embracing 

 a Simple Account of the Birth and 

 Growth of Myths and Legends. By 

 Edward Clodd, F. R. A. S. New York : 

 D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 288. Price, $1.25. 



The author of this book published, two 

 or three years since, a little volume entitled 

 " The Childhood of the World," in which 

 he presented, in a familiar way, designed 

 for perusal by the young, the modern doc- 

 trine of the antiquity of the world, and 

 something of that which is now regarded as 

 known concerning the primitive condition 

 of man. The success that attended his 

 former undertaking has led him to break 

 into another and a kindred field, and to 

 present, in a popular and readable form, 

 what is considered to be known in relation 

 to primitive religions. The author regards 

 the two works as but parts of one argu- 

 ment, and the present volume as the natu- 

 ral and necessary outgrowth of the former. 

 Of the need and purpose of such an expo- 

 sition he remarks, at the opening : 



" The question which forces itself upon all 

 who are interested in the education of the young 

 is what they shall be taught regarding the rela- 

 tion of the Bible to other sacred scriptures, and 

 to the declarations of modern science when they 

 fail to harmonize with its statements ; and it is 

 as a humble contribution to the solution of that 

 question that the present and preceding vol- 

 umes have been written. In an age which has 

 been truly characterized by a leading thinker as 

 one of ' weak convictions,' it seems to me in- 

 cumbent on those who, in accepting the con- 

 clusions to which the discoveries of our time 

 point, regard the inevitable displacement of 

 many beliefs without fear, because assured that 

 the great verities remain, to be faithful to their 

 convictions, and to show that the process of de-' 

 structiouis removing only the scaffolding which, 

 once useful, now obscures the temple from our 

 view. Iu the absence of any like elementary 

 treatise upon subjects regarding which much 

 ignorance and apathy prevail, and the treatment 

 of which is at present copflued to works for the 

 most part high-priced, and not always acces- 

 sible. I hope that this book may not be regarded 

 as needless, however far it falls short of the re- 

 quirement which appears to me to exist, and 

 which it ventures to temporarily supply." 



The book is very plainly written, and 

 gives a great deal of interesting information 

 about myths and legends of the creation, 

 religious beliefs of the Aryan or Indo-Euro- 

 pean nations, the religion of the ancient 

 and modern Hindoos, Buddhism, and the 

 ancient religions of Persia, China, and the 

 Semitic nations. Much is said upon these 



subjects nowadays by learned men, and Mr. 

 Clodd's volume is a good popular introduc- 

 tion to this field of literature. 



The Physical Basis of Immortality. By 

 Antoinette Brown Blackwell. New 

 York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 324. 

 Price, $1.50. 



This volume is an intrepid attempt to 

 establish the doctrine of personal immor- 

 tality on the scientific basis of modern phys- 

 ical theories. The indestructibility of mat- 

 ter and force, and the existence of atoms or 

 units, are the principles Mrs. Blackwell em- 

 ploys as the foundation of her argument. 

 We cannot here analyze it, but will give 

 the author's standpoint in her own words : 

 "It must be a part of my effort to offer suffi- 

 cient evidence that actual indestructible centres 

 of force do exist in Nature ; and that no force is 

 or ever can be, during the present order of nat- 

 ural events, separated from its own individual 

 centre of activities. If this form of the atomic 

 theory can be proved; if atoms can be shown to 

 exist, and to persist in the midst of all changes, 

 these atoms then become the unshaken basis of 

 a personal immortality. We have only to fur- 

 ther show that there are centres of atomic force, 

 some of whose modes of energizing are sen- 

 tient modes, and the whole case will be gained " 

 (page 89). 



" Mind is matter and something more. Every 

 mind is an indestructible material unit, consti- 

 tuted by allied force and extension, jointly con- 

 ditioned with sentient force or consciousness. The 

 whole is an indivisible and immortal conscious 

 personality" (page 175). 



William Whewell, D. D., Master of Trin- 

 ity College, Cambridge. An Account 

 of his Writings, with Selections from 

 his Literary and Scientific Corre- 

 spondence. By I. Todhunter, M. A., 

 F. R. S. Two Vols., 416 and 439 pp. 

 New York : Macmillan & Co. Price, $9. 



We have long waited for a life of Dr. 

 Whewell, and although we have not found 

 it in these volumes, in the usual sense of 

 the biography, yet we have here what may 

 be called a history of his intellectual life, 

 as disclosed in the informal and fragmen- 

 tary passages of an extensive correspond- 

 ence. Sir John Herschel has said of Dr. 

 Whewell that " a more wonderful variety 

 and amount of knowledge in almost every 

 department of human inquiry was perhaps 

 never in the same interval of time accumu- 

 lated by any man." Of this, his numerous 

 and learned publications bear ample wit- 

 ness, and it is of course from these that 



