[ -53 ] 



JLbc IRoniance of Science* 



By the Rev. Hilderic Friend, F.L.S. 



N' EVER were greater efforts made than at the present time 

 to create and sustain an intelligent interest in Nature, and at 

 no former period of our history have Christian people been 

 so fully alive to the great advantages of such an interest. It is 

 well that we should remember how certain it is that if the 

 Churches, and Christian organizations do not supply the public 

 with reliable information on scientific matters, the work will be 

 done by men whose influence will very probably tend to injure the 

 faith and morals of our youth, rather than stimulate and elevate 

 them. Such being the case, it is right that a magazine conducted 

 on avowedly Christian principles, should give prominence to works 

 published under the auspices of such Committees as represent 

 the Religious Tract Society and the Society for Frornoting Christian 

 Knowledge. It has been a source of gratification to many of our 

 friends, that the latter Society has recently done so much for 

 popular science by the publication of standard works of a non- 

 technical character. The title at the head of this paper has been 

 chosen because of its happy employment by the S.P.C.K. in 

 connexion with a series of books which the Committee is now 

 issuing. The first three volumes of the series are before me as I 

 write, and as I have read every word in each book, it' is possible 

 for me to speak of them as one who knows their real merits. 



The titles are as follows : — 



The Story of a Tinder-box. By Charles M. Tidy, M.B., F.C.S. 

 Price 2s. Containing 40 illustrations and 105 pages of letterpress. 



Time and Tide (A Romance of the Moon), By Sir Robert 

 Ball, F.R.S. Price 2s. 6d. Six illustrations, index, and 188 pages. 



Diseases of Plants. By Prof. Marshall Ward, F.R.S. Price 

 2s. 6d. Fifty-three illustrations, index, and 193 pages of matter. 



The two former works consist of lectures delivered by their 

 authors, and are intensely interesting. The tinder-box story 

 carries us back to the time of our great-grandfathers, when electric 

 light, lamp, safety-match, and gas were alike unknown, and shows 

 us how they struck a light in the good old times, as well as how 



