LITERARY NOTICES. 



849 



Catholic Histouical Researches. Quar- 

 terly. Edited by Rev. A. A. Lamuing. 

 January, 1880. Pittsburg. Pp. 40. 

 Price, 25 cents a number, $1 a year. 



Tnis is a new naming, appropriate to the 

 enlarged scope of the " Historical Re- 

 searches in Western Pennsylvania, Princi- 

 pally Catholic," which the editor began in 

 July, 1884. The publication is intended to 

 contain matters relating to the past history 

 of the Roman Catholic Church in this coun- 

 try ; to chronicle the progress of Catholic 

 historical inquiry, giving proceedings and 

 papers of societies ; to reproduce original 

 historical documents, registers, letters, etc. ; 

 and to contain departments for brief histori- 

 cal notes, inquiries, and replies, ■with book 

 reviews. 



EvoLCTioN AND Religiox. By ITexry 

 Ward Beecher. Now York : Fords, 

 Howard, and Hulbert. Part I. Pp. 

 145. Price, 50 cents. Part II. Pp. 

 295. Price, $1. 



"The universal physical fact of evolu- 

 tion, postulated as a theory of the divine 

 method of creation," says Mr. Beecher, " is 

 one which so naturally and simply fits many 

 a puzzling lock, that it is gratefully seized 

 by many who seem to themselves to have 

 been shut out from hope and from the 

 truth. For myself, while finding no need 

 of changing my idea of the divine person- 

 ality because of new light upon his mode 

 of working, I have hailed the evolutionary 

 philosophy with joy. Some of the applica- 

 tions of its principles to the line of develop- 

 ment I have to reject ; others, though not 

 proved — and in the present state of scien- 

 tific knowledge perhaps not even provable 

 — I accept as probable ; but the underlying 

 truth, as a law of Nature (that is, a regular 

 method of the divine action), I accept and 

 use, and thank God for it." Mr. Beecher 

 has learned that he has in fact been for fifty 

 years, without knowing it, preaching a doc- 

 trine of evolution in its application to a 

 spiritual growth, and now fervently believes 

 that that doctrine is bringing "to the aid 

 of religious truth, as set forth in the life and 

 teachings of Jesus Christ, a new and pow- 

 erful aid, fully in line with other marked 

 developments of God's providence in his 

 Word." For two years he has preached 

 with specific application of this principle to 



VOL. XXVIII. — 54 



practical aspects of Christian life. These 

 discourses are incorporated in these two 

 parts of a single work. In the first part 

 are placed eight sermons, discussing the 

 bearings of the evolutionary philosophy on 

 some of the fundamental doctrines of the 

 Christian faith — the divine nature, the ques- 

 tion of human sinfulness, the inspiration of 

 the Bible, the divine providence, and cor- 

 related subjects. The second part contains 

 eighteen sermons, pointing out the specific 

 application of those general principles, and 

 showing the main lines along which Mr. 

 Beecher believes "the main course of the 

 old ship will largely be laid." 



Introspective Insanity. By Allan McLane 

 Hamilton, of New York. Pp. 8. 



In this paper is given a study of a re- 

 markable phase of morbid affections, known 

 to the French as folic du doute and to the 

 Germans as Grubelsuch/, which varies in in- 

 tensity from mere morbid nervousness or 

 eccentricity to positive insanity. It is de- 

 scribed as a condition of mind which is 

 manifested by a morbid feeling of doubt 

 and consequent indecision under the most 

 ordinary circumstances, when both the doubt 

 and indecision are unreasonable in the ex- 

 treme, but the individual, under the man- 

 date of an imperative conception, yields 

 more or less to his disordered emotions. It 

 appears under numerous aspects, some of 

 which arc illustrated by the relation of 

 cases. 



On the Development of Crystallization 

 IN THE Igneous Rocks of Washoe, Ne- 

 vada. By Arnold Hague and Joseph 

 P. Iddings. Washington : Government 

 Printing-OfBce. Pp. 44, 



In studying the lavas from the Pacific 

 coast volcanoes, the authors were struck 

 with insensible gradations in the micro- 

 structure in the ground-mass of rocks of 

 the same mineral composition from a pure- 

 ly glassy form to one wholly crystalline, 

 and corresponding to a fine-grained granite- 

 porphyry. They were convinced by the 

 chain of microscopical evidence that the 

 glassy and crystalline rocks were simply 

 the extreme forms of the same magma. This 

 pamphlet gives the account of the experi- 

 ments and investigations. 



