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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the doctrine of infallibility, and your path, as 

 a believer in Christianity, is beset with insu- 

 perable difficulties." Protestants, it appears, 

 have very erroneous conceptions of the mean- 

 ing of this doctrine, which if they were cor- 

 rect would rightfully condemn it. As defined 

 by the author, its true meaning is that " the 

 Pope, by virtue of a special supernatural as- 

 sistance of the Holy Spirit of Truth promised 

 to him, in and through St. Peter, is exempt 

 from all liability to err when, in the dis- 

 charge of his Apostolic Office of Supreme 

 Teacher of the Universal Church, he defines 

 or declares, in matters of or appertaining to 

 Christian faith or morals, what is to be be- 

 lieved and held, or what is to •be rejected 

 and condemned by the faithful throughout 

 the world." Besides the meaning of infalli- 

 bility, which is thus summarized, the author 

 considers the reasons why Catholics believe 

 in the dogma of infallibihty, the way they 

 meet the objections to it, and — in the appen- 

 dixes — The Ilappiness of Converts, Some 

 Facts relating to the Vatican Council, and 

 Pontifical Decrees and the Obedience due to 

 them. 



The Tvto REPtrnLics; or, PiOME and the 

 United States of America. By Alonzo 

 T. Jones. Battle Creek, Mich. : Review 

 and Herald Publishing Co. Pp. 895. 

 Price, $2.50. 



The purpose of this book is to study the 

 interrelationship of government and relig- 

 ion, in respect to which Rome and the United 

 States are regarded as occupying the two 

 extremes. " The principle of Rome in all its 

 phases is that religion and government are 

 inseparable ; the principle of the Govern- 

 ment of the United States is that religion is 

 essentially distinct and totally separate from 

 civil government, and entirely exempt from 

 its cognizance. The principle of Rome is 

 the abject slavery of the mind ; the principle 

 of the United States of America is the abso- 

 lute freedom of the mind. As it was Chris- 

 tianity that first and always antagonized this 

 governmental principle of Rome, and estab- 

 lished the governmental principle of the 

 United States of America, the fundamental 

 idea, the one thread-thought of the book, is 

 to develop the principles of Christianity 

 with reference to civil government, and to 

 portray the mischievous consequences of the 

 least departure from those principles." All 



Sunday legislation is so strenuously opposed, 

 that this may be regarded as the chief pur- 

 pose of the book. The Rome that is treated 

 of is that which was brought into relation 

 with Christianity, the empire, and the papacy. 

 The persecutions of the Christians, which are 

 regarded as simply the legitimate outcome 

 of the impartial enforcement of the laws 

 when inflicted by good emperors, and as a 

 part of their undiscriminating viciousness 

 when inflicted by bad ones, arc considered 

 the legitimate results of the union of Church 

 and State. As Christianity became stronger, 

 it is charged with having adopted heathen 

 features as a means of making its way more 

 rapidly — " the great apostasy " — and par- 

 ticularly those connected with the worship 

 of the sun (which is supposed to be, of all 

 pagan cults, the most abhorrent to Jehovah), 

 and among them the consecration of Sunday. 

 The growth of other features held to be in 

 conflict with pure religion and freedom is 

 traced through the lives of emperors and 

 popes. The transplantation of some of them, 

 even after the Reformation, to America, and 

 their gradual elimination under the work- 

 ings of our free institutions ; and the efforts, 

 in recent years, by the National Reform 

 Union, the Sabbath Union, and other socie- 

 ties, to secure the incorporation in the Con- 

 stitution of a recognition of the Christian 

 religion, and the enforcement of Sabbath 

 laws, are successively reviewed. " As sure- 

 ly," the author concludes, " as the movement 

 to commit the Government of the United 

 States to a course of religious legislation 

 shall succeed, so surely will there be re- 

 peated the history of Rome in the fourth 

 and fifth centuries," and our republic will 

 " be led captive in the ruinous triumph of 

 the papacy." 



The Positive Theory of Capital. By 

 Ecgen V. Bohm-Bawerk. Translated, 

 with a Preface and Analysis, by William 

 Smart, M. A. London : Macmillan & Co. 

 1891. Pp. 428. Price, $4. 

 In this volume Prof. Bohm-Bawerk deals 

 with one of the vexed questions of econom- 

 ics — the economic basis of interest — with 

 the question why the lender of a sum of 

 money, for instance, should demand at the 

 end of the period for which it is lent, not 

 only the original sum, but a bonus as well. 

 The different theories which have been 



