270 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



any poet of our time has spoken so di- 

 rectly to the consciences of the more 

 enlightened portion of his contempo- 

 raries as Matthew Arnold. If, as the 

 Roman poet has said, '' there are tears 

 in things," so also are there deep and 

 grave admonitions, earnest pleadings, 

 ever a voice for those who will hear, 

 calling to man to walk in the light and 

 realize the bliss of moral freedom. Mr. 

 Arnold has made himself the interpreter 

 to us of the truth of things, and this is 

 what gives his poetry its acknowledged 

 weight and value despite its somewhat 

 restricted imaginative range. To read 

 it is to commune with Nature, not with 

 human authority. Carlyle talks of the 

 "eternities" and "immensities." Mr. 

 Arnold does not talk of them, but he 

 brings us into their presence — 



" The world that was e'er I was bom, 

 The world that lasts when I am dead." 



In his "Empedocles on Etna,*' written 

 before he was thirty years of age, Mr. 

 Arnold may be said to have sketched 

 a scientific philosophy of life. We are 

 tempted to quote a verse or two : 



" In vain our pent wills fret, 



And would the world subdue. 

 Limits we did not set 

 Condition all we do ; 

 Bom into life wo are, and life must be our 

 mold. 



" Born into life ! — man grows 

 Forth from his parents' stem, 

 And blends their bloods, as those 

 Of theirs are blent in them ; 

 So each new man strikes root into a far fore- 

 time. 



" The world's course proves the terms 

 On which man wins content ; 

 Eeason the proof confirms — 

 We spurn it, and invent 

 A false course for the world and for om'selves 

 false powers. 



" I say : Fear not ! Life still 

 Leaves human effort scope. 

 But, since life teems with ill. 

 Nurse no extravagant hope ; 

 Because thou must not dream, thou need'st 

 not then despair ! " 



The world has lost in Mr. Arnold a 

 man ever loyal to the cause of truth, 

 and ever interested in the cause of hu- 

 manity. We may sometimes have been 

 tempted to regard him as an opponent 

 of scientific discipline ; but upon-a gen- 

 eral review of his career we are com- 

 pelled to recognize him as an ally, not 

 an adversary, and as one who, just be- 

 cause he cultivated a special field of his 

 own by methods of bis own, will not 

 easily be replaced. All the more, then, 

 must we value, as elements of progress, 

 the spirit that breathes through his 

 works and the influence bequeathed by 

 his character. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The Religious Sentiments of the Human 

 Mind. By Daniel Greenleaf Thomp- 

 son, author of " A System of Psycholo- 

 gy," " The Problem of Evil," etc. Lon- 

 don and New York : Longmans, Green 

 & Co., 1888. 



In the volume before us, Mr. Thompson 

 has entered upon a fruitful field of thought 

 and discussion — one, moreover, which re- 

 quires great tact and delicacy in its cultiva- 

 tion if tlie author would secure the sympa- 

 thetic and respectful attention of his readers. 

 In this respect Mr. Thompson has been 

 notably successful. His treatment of his 

 topic is calm, temperate, philosophical, free 

 from bias, appealing to reason rather than 

 to theological or anti-theological prejudices. 

 While liis discussion of the religious prob- 

 lem is entirely frank, manly, and unconven- 

 tional, it is also duly considerate of those 

 conceptions which he is compelled to dis- 

 credit and oppose. Some of his conclusions 

 will, nevertheless, probably surprise not 

 only those who are conservative adherents 

 of the Christian faith, but also those who 

 have accepted agnostic or radical views. 



Our author defines religion as " the ag- 

 gregate of those sentiments in the human 

 mind arising in connection with the rela- 

 tions assumed to subsist between the order 

 of Nature (inclusive of the observer) and a 

 postulated supernatural." His use of the 

 term " supernatural " appears somewhat 

 misleading, on account of the character of 

 the antithesis popularly assumed to subsist 



