368 Notices of Books. [July, 
the control of steam-power. There can be little doubt that due 
attention to such rules as those laid down in this little work 
would go far to prevent boiler-explosions, a class of accidents 
which in most cases may be traced to the ignorance or reckless- 
ness of those who are in charge. ‘‘ Be slow to believe, with 
some, that explosions occur from mysterious and unpreventible 
causes. For one explosion whose cause is obscure there are 
ten,”’ says the writer, ‘“‘ which can be traced to causes which an 
observance of the foregoing rules would assist to remove.” 
Principes de Science Absolue. Questions de Science Absolue ou 
Science basée sur une reduction naturelle, intégrale, ana- 
logique de Vunité du fait absolu. Par M. James THomson. 
Paris: J. Rothschild. 
WE have here a goodly volume, superfine paper, acres of margin, 
clear bold type, and a singularly tasteful binding. But the 
contents! We find a string of rhapsodical sentences, printed in 
a fantastic medley of italics, small capitals, and common 
characters—not the first time, by the way, that typographical 
eccentricities have done duty for argument—and lines of 
asterisks, in the manner of Tristram Shandy, to be filled up at 
pleasure by the charitable reader, or to be taken as a proof that 
M. James Thomson, like the parrot in the story, ‘‘ thinks more 
than he says.” English, or possibly Scotch, as is the author’s 
name, his language is purely French,—not, however, the French 
of science or philosophy, but of ‘ fast’ daily life, interspersed, 
like boulder-clay, with a new-coined terminology. He aims, 
evidently, at being profound, original, witty, and aphoristic. He 
succeeds, to a marvel, in being flippant, grotesque, absurd, 
sometimes positively loathsome. In support of so heavy a 
charge, we will quote a passage, after which few readers will 
care to inquire further :— 
‘«« Every individual convicted of aggressive movements, atheistic, 
socialistic, communistic, or anti-social (discourses, writings, 
conspiracies, rebellions, thefts, pillages, incendiarisms, assassi- 
nations, &c. . . . .) is placed outside the law, degraded 
from his rank as man, and assimilated to the brutes. 
“ This degradation and this assimilation signify that every 
individual thus designated is liable, according to the degree of his 
criminality, to be condemned to slavery, to torture, to the 
combats of the circus, whether against other megativists or 
against ferocious beasts ; to death; to the shambles. 
“It is certain that this last punishment involving the establish- 
ment of shops for selling the flesh of atheists constitutes a 
culinary question calculated to chill the souls of gourmets. 
‘‘ But at any rate a cutlet of atheist is still better than a cutlet 
of horse, mule, ass, rhinoceros, cat, &c. 
