LITERARY NOTICES. 



825 



but incidental to their own gratifications ; a 

 devil loves evil for its own sake. Some- 

 times a god belonging to a conquered tribe 

 is degraded to the rank of a demon in the 

 mythology of the conquerors. Again, there 

 are demons (or, as the case may be, devils) 

 created by pure accident ! " Belial " is an 

 instance of this, being an erroneous personi- 

 flcation of "godlessness." The author's 

 remarks on demonism in India are dpropos : 

 " The Hindoos have covered their land with 

 temples to propitiate and deprecate the de- 

 mons, and to invoke the deities against . . . 

 drought and famine. Had they concluded 

 that famine was the result of inexactly 

 quartered sun-dials, the land would have 

 been covered with perfect sun-dials ; but 

 the famine would have been more destruc- 

 tive, because of the increasing withdrawal 

 of mind and energy from the true cause, 

 and its implied answer. But how much 

 wiser are we of Christendom than the Hin- 

 doos ? They have adapted their country 

 perfectly for propitiation of famine-demons 

 that do not exist, at a cost which would long 

 ago have rendered them secure from the fam- 

 ine forces that do exist. We have similarly 

 covered Christendom, . . . while around our 

 churches, chapels, cathedrals, are the actu- 

 ally existent seething hells of pauperism, 

 shame, and crime." Demonism still sub- 

 sists among the most enlightened nations, 

 backed by the sternest sanctions it is possi- 

 ble to conceive. "A story is told of a man 

 wandering on a dark night over Dartmoor, 

 whose feet slipped over the edge of a pit. 

 He caught the branch of a tree suspended 

 over the terrible chasm, but, unable to re- 

 gain the ground, shrieked for help. None 

 came, though he cried out till his voice was 

 gone ; and there he remained dangling in 

 agony until the gray light revealed that his 

 feet were only a few inches from the solid 

 ground ! Such are the chief demons that 

 bind men till cock-crow. Such are the ap- 

 prehensions that waste also the moral and 

 intellectual strength of man, and murder his 

 peace as he regards the necessary science of 

 his time to be cutting some frail tenure sus- 

 taining him over a bottomless pit, instead 

 of a release from real terror to the solid 

 ground.^'' 



The passages we have quoted will give 

 an idea of our author's style and point of 



view. There is hardly a page of the work 

 which does not contain sentences full of 

 epigrammatic force. Speaking, for instance, 

 of the divers forms ascribed to the devil, 

 Mr. Conway says that " the whites painted 

 him black, and tlie blacks, with much more 

 reason, painted him white." 



Paradoxical Philosophy : A Sequel to 

 " The Unseen Universe." London and 

 New York : Macmillan & Co. 1878. Pp. 

 •235. Price, $1.75. 



The readers of " The Unseen Universe " 

 will find in the present volume, which is by 

 the same authors, a further discussion of the 

 question of a future state. The work pur- 

 ports to report the proceedings of an Imag- 

 inary " paradoxical society " at one of its 

 anniversary meetings, and the conflicting 

 views of many different schools of thought 

 upon this subject are set forth with con- 

 siderable force, and in a way that will in- 

 terest the most listless reader. The whole 

 subject is treated in the light of modem 

 science ; and, though the problem is not 

 brought one hair's breadth nearer to a solu- 

 tion by the clash of arguments, new points 

 of view are at least indicated, new proofs 

 suggested, new difficulties shown to lie in 

 the way of accepting whether the material- 

 istic or the idealistic philosophy. But no 

 less hopeless appears to be the attempt to 

 effect a reconciliation between these two ; 

 and the ancient enigma, "Whither are we 

 going ? " still remains. 



nO".V TO BE PLUMP, OR TaLKS ON PHYSIOLOGI- 

 CAL FEEDING. By T. C. Duncan, M. D. 

 Chicago : Duncan Brothers. 1 878. Pp. 

 60. Price, 50 cents. 



The doctor who writes this book had 

 the good fortune, several years ago, to be 

 employed in the family of an oyster-dealer, 

 and, though it is not stated that oysters 

 were at the time a " legal tender " in Chica- 

 go, they appear to have suddenly become a 

 rather large element in our author's bill of 

 fare, since he often ate them when he diid 

 not want them, " rather than let them spoil." 

 " Other food " was taken " after or with the 

 oysters " ; and whether absence of the har- 

 assing cares of a large practice can be 

 counted in or not, certain it is that the doc- 

 tor, oddly enough, soon found himself grow- 



VOL. XIT.— 53 



