LITERARY NOTICES. 



29 



lessons, fundamental ideas and principles 

 are developed inductively, and then formu- 

 lated into simple and concise statements ; 

 each definition, for example, is preceded by 

 a problem that asks for it, making it thus 

 something suggested by what has gone be- 

 fore, rather than an arbitrary statement, the 

 meaning of which is to be found out by sub- 

 sequent application. Further on, definitions 

 appear at the beginning of subjects, and 

 principles are deduced from the solutions 

 of characteristic examples. And, still later, 

 propositions are first enunciated and then 

 logically proved. Thus the pupil is led by 

 easy transition from the more elementary 

 forms of reasoning to pure mathematical 

 demonstration. Examples have been care- 

 fully selected both to be worked at sight 

 and for written work, while long and point- 

 less examples have been generally avoided. 

 Factorinc: is treated with considerable full- 



EsSATS ON God and Man ; or, a Philo- 

 sophical Inquiry into the Principles 

 OF Religion. By the Rev. Henry Truro 

 Bray, Boonville, Mo. St. Louis : Nixon- 

 Jones Printing Company. Pp. 2*70. 

 Price, $2. 



The author, who is an Episcopal clergy- 

 man, assumes that " men are everywhere 

 drifting away from the old beliefs " ; that 

 the intellect of the world has " lost all faith 

 in the Church of the past " ; and declares that 

 in his own experience he hardly ever finds a 

 man who believes unqualifiedly the doctrines 

 of the pulpit. Yet he has faith in the reality 

 and permanence of religion, whose essence 

 has been overlaid by glosses and supersti- 

 tion. In this book he hopes " in a measure 

 to lead his readers to discriminate between 

 the evanescent and permanent, between the 

 temporal and the eternal ; and to know that 

 while they may doubt and reject the evanes- 

 cent, the local, or the temporal, they should 

 not and may not reject the permanent, the 

 universal, or the eternal." He lays down as 

 embodying the faith of the scientific world 

 the propositions that " there is an infinite 

 intelligence whom we call God ; man is by 

 nature a religious being ; every religion has 

 in it a nucleus of truth ; no religion is exclu- 

 sively true, or founded upon an exclusively 

 divine revelation." And he attempts to show 

 that religion is useful and natural ; that its 

 VOL. XXXIV. — 9 



essentials are one ; that God's revelation is 

 universal and continuous ; that God has been 

 no more mindful of one race than of another, 

 and is immanent in the universe, especially 

 in intelligences ; and " that our Bible, as the 

 other Bibles of the world, is, in the higher 

 sense, but the history of the attempts of the 

 people to express the impressions made on 

 the mind by God immanent in nature." He 

 further seeks to discriminate between what 

 is divine and what is human in religion, and 

 to show that man may reasonably expect a 

 future life. 



The Constants of Nature. Part I — A Ta- 

 ble OF Specific Gravity for Solids 

 AND Liquids. By Frank Wigglesworth 

 Clarke. Washington : Smithsonian In- 

 stitution. Pp. 409. 



The author published, in 18Y2, through 

 the Smithsonian Institution, a "Table of 

 Specific Gravities, Boiling-Points, and Melt- 

 ing-Points for Solids and Liquids," which 

 Prof. Henry made the first part of a work 

 he was contemplating under the title of 

 " The Constants of Nature." Other parts 

 were contributed by Prof. Clarke, and one 

 part by Prof. G. F. Becker. The present 

 volume is in effect a new edition of Part I, 

 revised, rearranged, and brought down as 

 nearly as possible to the date of printing. 

 The tables are, however, modified by the 

 omission of boiling and melting points, ex- 

 cept when those data seem essential to the 

 proper identification of a compound, that 

 want being supplied by Prof. Carnelley's 

 tables. The tables contain the specific gravi- 

 ties of 5,22Y distinct substances, and 14,465 

 separate determinations. 



Entomology for Beginners. By A. S. Pack- 

 ard. New York : Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 

 367. Price, $1.40. 



This work, the author of which is an emi- 

 nent naturalist, is intended for the use of 

 young folks, fruit-growers, farmers, and gar- 

 deners. While amateurs and dilettant ento- 

 mologists may find useful hints in it, " the 

 needs of those who wish to make a serious 

 study of these animals have not been over- 

 looked, and it is hoped that the book will be 

 of some service in leading such students to 

 pay more attention to the modes of life, 

 transformations, and structure of insects than 

 has yet been done in this country." Promi- 



