1875. | Notices of Books. 369 
“If Paris, when beseiged, had only consented to taste the 
atheist, it might have escaped easily, not alone from the enemies 
without, but from those within. 
“Tf, in the future, silly atheophagists should pretend that 
MM. the mmitaptap of negation are not tender, we should 
advise to pickle them.” 
Whether this is a stupid jest, or sober (?) sadness, we must 
pronounce it the most revolting passage which it was ever our 
misfortune to read. We have here a man original in atrocity at 
least; capable of surpassing even the Commune and _ the 
Inquisition. We have little love or respect, truly, for Robespierre 
and Cluseret, for Torquemada and St. Dominic. But even they 
did not eat their victims. ‘* Domini Canes,” we suspect, if not 
too merciful, were at least too judicious. 
We find, further, a declaration that the peoples of the true 
white races “‘ (Germans, English, Americans, French, &c.) are 
called naturally, necessarily, legitimately, in order to procure the 
social elevation of their own masses to dominate and to exploit* 
the inferior white races (Hindoos, Arabs, &c.), the yellow species, 
and those of the black species.”” This is evidently a fundamental 
idea of ‘‘ Science Absolue,” since it occurs more or less explicitly 
in several parts of the work. France is repeatedly advised to 
take possession of China, which would yield her an annual 
revenue of three or four milliards, whilst Africa would also prove 
very valuable. All this ‘‘domination and exploitation” is 
indeed to be restricted within the limits of ‘“‘ affirmation,” to be 
marked out, we presume, by M.James Thomson. But whatever 
theoretical distin¢étions might be drawn in practice, the result 
would be simply slavery, and as such it could not fail to prove a 
curse alike to superior and inferior. The Author holds that the 
human race consists of three distin¢ét and originally created 
species, the white, the yellow, and the black, and attempts to 
prove that this view is in harmony with the Mosaic cosmogony. 
He informs us that the serpent which tempted Eve was no 
reptile, but a ‘“‘ heathen Chinee,” and that her fall—the eating of 
the forbidden fruit—was an act of conjugal infidelity of which 
the result was the birth of Cain. 
We suspect that Biblical critics will find his exegetics as little 
satisfactory as is his ethnology. It is simply inconceivable that 
‘the Aryan race should speak of the Chinese as “sons of God,” 
Elohim or Asar, beings superior to themselves. To the Teuton, 
whom the Author considers as the purest specimens of the 
‘‘white race,” the Asar were his own deified ancestors, ruled 
over by Odin, king of Gods and men. 
M. Thomson informs us that ‘‘men are born atheists or 
communists, just as they may be born rachitic or scrofulous.” 
* We have no English word which exaétly covers the French ‘exploiter ”’ 
as applied to persons. It means to ‘use up,’ to “apply to our own 
purposes,” &c. 
