ii8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



they are therefore desirable to be got, ex- 

 haust the knowledge of both. With all 

 our vaunted enlightenment, we have a cur- 

 rency bedeviled by politicians in the interest 

 of selfish greed and rampant speculation, 

 and maintained by a demagoguism as un- 

 scrupulous and vicious as the world has 

 ever seen. With so much gross ignorance 

 and stupid superstition among the people 

 in regard to the nature of money, and 

 the laws of its use and influence, that the 

 present state 8f things is openly defended 

 and its continuance demanded, it becomes 

 in the highest degree desirable that sounder 

 views should be disseminated as rapidly and 

 as widely as possible. We want a knowl- 

 edge of money as a branch of natural his- 

 tory. We want to know how its use has 

 grown up ; what wants it answers to in 

 human societies ; what laws it is subject to 

 that spring from the very nature of things ; 

 what are its imperfections, and how they 

 may be supplemented ; what are its dan- 

 gers, and what the delusions and impost- 

 ures of which it is made the means by cal- 

 culating men and unprincipled governments. 

 Prof. Jevons's work deals with the subject 

 very much from this point of view. He 

 offers us what a clear-sighted, cool-headed, 

 scientific student has to say on tlie nature, 

 properties, and natural laws of money, with- 

 out regard to local interests or national 

 bias. His work is popularly written, and 

 every page is replete with solid instruction 

 of. a kind that is just now lamentably needed 

 by multitudes of our people who are vic- 

 timized by the grossest fallacies. 



Religion and Science in their Relation to 

 Philosophy. By Charles W. Shields, 

 D. D. New York : Scribner, Armstrong 

 & Co. Pp. 69. Price, $1.00. 



This essay consists of two parts, in the 

 first of which are stated the scientific hy- 

 potheses and the religious dogmas that have 

 been offered for the solution of such prob- 

 lems as the origin of the universe, the for- 

 mation of geological strata, the origin of 

 mar, the nature of mind and of matter. The 

 case for both sides is stated fairly enough. 

 In the second part the author endeavors to 

 show that these problems are neither exclu- 

 sively scientific nor exclusively religious, 

 but philosophical. " It is not too much to 

 say that they can never be decided by any 



merely scientific process. . . . And it is safe 

 to say that by no purely religious method 

 can they ever be settled." The author re- 

 gards these problems as "partly scientific 

 and partly religious," but " strictly philo- 

 sophical." Hence philosophy is the um- 

 pire when religion and science are in con-- 

 flict. " Paramount as religion must be in 

 her own sphere with her inspired Bible and 

 her illumined Church," she cannot judge the 

 theories of science; but no more will re- 

 ligious men accept from mere scientists a 

 judgment upon their doctrines. The author 

 thinks that in the ''broad plain of philos- 

 ophy" the religionist should accept scien- 

 tific truth resting upon " foundations of 

 proof that cannot be shaken ; " and that 

 the scientist should no longer ignore " that 

 vast body of truths, doctrines, dogmas, 

 backed by evidences which have been accu- 

 mulating for eighteen centuries under the 

 most searching criticism." There appears 

 to be no reason why men of science should 

 reject the arbitration of philosophy. 



Proceedings of the American Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences ; from May, 1874, to 

 May, 1875. Selected from the Records. 

 Boston : John Wilson & Son, 1875. 



This is the second octavo volume of 

 " Proceedings " of the " New Series," and the 

 tenth of the " Whole Series " published by 

 the American Academy ; Volume I. having 

 been published in 1848. Besides the octavo 

 Proceedings, the Academy has long pub- 

 lished quarto volumes of Memoirs which are 

 of the highest value. T^is volume contains 

 535 pages, of which 462 are devoted to 

 scientific papers, 13 to brief notes of the 

 several stated meetinos, 41 to the Report of 

 the Council (into whicli are incorporated 

 the obituaries of deceased members or as- 

 sociates), six pages to the list of the mem- 

 bers, etc., and the rest of the volume to a 

 very copious index. 



We learn that the Academy contains 

 195 Fellows, 91 Associate Fellows, and 70 

 Foreign Honorary Members. The losses by 

 death during 1874 have been painfully large, 

 and many of them will not be felt by Mas- 

 sachusetts alone, but by the world at large. 

 Short biographical notices are given of the 

 following deceased members: B. R. Curtis, 

 ex-Judge Supreme Court; George Derby, M. 

 D., Professor, Harvard College ; F. C. Lowell ; 



