LITERARY NOTICES. 



131 



ing moisture, and chimneys. Chapters are 

 devoted to the ventilation of halls of audi- 

 ence, theatres, schools, and hospitals, and 

 to ventilation by aspiration. The volume is 

 illustrated by seventy-two plates and dia- 

 grams. 



Natural Law in the Spieitcal "World. 



By Henry Drummond, F. R. S. E., F. G. S. 



New York: James Pott & Co. Pp.414. 



Price, $1.60. 



This interesting book is directed to the 

 problem of the relations of religion and sci- 

 ence, and presents a new view from an ad- 

 vanced stand-point, which many regard as 

 helpful and healthful in its influence. It 

 is not to be denied that the author's pur- 

 pose is an exalted one, nor that he deals 

 with his subject in an independent and origi- 

 nal way, and with skill and power. His 

 object is the essential harmony of science 

 and religion, and his method is to show that 

 the system of law which is established in 

 the natural world holds equally true in the 

 spiritual world. The work is eminently lib- 

 eral, not so much from any peculiarity of 

 the author's religious opinions, as from his 

 fundamental position that the natural world 

 is to be studied fii-st, and its laws worked out 

 as scientific verities, and that this scheme of 

 order is to be rediscovered in the spiritual 

 world as a part of the universal system. 

 The position taken is not that of Horace 

 Bushnell, who describes the spiritual world 

 as "another system of nature incommuni- 

 cably separate from ours " ; and further 

 says, " God has, in fact, erected another 

 and higher system, that of spiritual being 

 and government, for which Nature exists, a 

 system not under the law of cause and effect, 

 but ruled and marshaled under other kinds 

 of laws." After referring to the argument as 

 presented with acknowledged ability by Mr. 

 Murphy in " The Scientific Basis of Faith," 

 and to the reasoning of Butler's "Analogy," 

 Mr. Drummond remarks : " After all, then, 

 the spiritual world as it appears at this mo- 

 ment is outside of natural law. Theology 

 continues to be considered, as it has always 

 been, a thing apart. It remains still a stu- 

 pendous and splendid construction, but on 

 lines altogether its own." It is therefore 

 the ambition of the author to show that 

 the natural and spiritual worlds are con- 

 structed upon the same system, so that to 



the degree in which we understand the 

 method of Nature shall we be prepared to 

 understand the method of the spiritual 

 world. By the implications of the argu- 

 ment, our first concern is with science, 

 which elucidates natural truth ; and as this 

 is a gradual process, one science after an- 

 other having slowly appeared in a necessary 

 order of succession and preparation, the 

 higher following the lower, so theology, the 

 master-science, and to which all others are 

 finally tributary, is to be developed by ex- 

 tending and establishing the natural laws 

 in the spiritual sphere. It is a great thesis 

 that Mr. Drummond has undertaken to il- 

 lustrate and sustain, but he brings to the 

 task a very able command of the results 

 of modern science, an earnest and catholic 

 spirit, and a reverent regard for the inter- 

 ests of truth, whatever forms they take. 

 As a book of reconciliations, the volume is 

 one of the best of its class. 



Forestry in Norway : with Notices of the 

 Physical Geography of the Country. By 

 John Cropmbie Brown, LL. D. Edin- 

 burgh : Oliver & Boyd ; Montreal : Daw- 

 son Brothers. Pp. 227. 



The series of Dr. Brown's books on for- 

 estry has already become quite a library (we 

 find twelve volumes catalogued in the list 

 prefixed to the present number), and bids 

 fair to present all that is most important ini 

 the literature of the subject and in the ex- 

 perience bearing upon it. The present vol- 

 ume relates to a country in which the con- 

 ditions are most favorable to forest-culture, 

 and to the restoration of the woods as they 

 are cut down. Yet the reports show that 

 abundance has led to waste, and that, not- 

 withstanding the great recuperative power 

 of the Norwegian forests, they are becoming 

 impoverished under the excessive drain that 

 is made upon them. The greater part of 

 the book is occupied with descriptions of 

 the general and special features, geographi- 

 cal, topographical, and climatological, of 

 Norway, and their influence upon the dis. 

 tribution and growth of the forests. The 

 last chapter, on " Remedial Measures," gives 

 account of the experimental plantations 

 at Aas, the purchase by the Government of 

 estates on forest-lands, and the allotment, 

 in their several districts, of the forest offi- 

 cers of the government stafP. 



