[Prom tfatttrt, VoL 



XCVI. Paradoxical Philosophy*. 



On otumipg this book, the general appearance of the pages, and some of 

 UM phram on which we happened to light made us somewhat doubtful whether 

 \y within our jurisdiction, as it is not the practice of Nature to review 

 either norels or theological works. 



In the dedication, however, the book is described as an account of the 

 of a learned society, a species of literature which we are under a 

 to rescue from oblivion, even when, as in this case, the proceed- 

 those of one of those jubilee meetings, in which learned men seem 

 to aim nther at being lively than scientific. 



On the title-page itself there is no name to indicate whether the author 

 M one of those who by previous conviction have rendered themselves liable to 

 our surveillance, but on the opposite page we find The Unseen Universe; or, 

 Pkynaal Speculations on a Future State, to which this book is a " Sequel," 

 Moribod to the well-known names of Balfour Stewart and P. G. Tait. 



Mr Browning has expressed his regret that the one volume in which 

 lUfaelle wrote his sonnets, and the one angel which Dante was drawing when 

 he was interrupted by "people of importance," are lost to the world. We 

 ahall therefore make the most of our opportunity when two eminent men of 

 atteooe, "driven," as they tell us, "by the exigencies of the subject," have 

 laid down all the instruments of their art, shaken the very chalk from their 

 hands, and, locking up their laboratories, have betaken themselves to those 

 blissful country seats where Philonous long ago convinced Hylas that there 

 can be no heat in the fire and no matter in the world; and where in more 

 recent times, Peacock and Mallock have brought together in larger groups the 

 more picturesque of contemporary opinions. 



In this book we do not indeed catch those echoes of well-known voices 

 in which the citizens of the "New Republic" tell us how they prefer to 



ital PkilotojAy. A Sequel to The Untem Univerte (London : Macmillan <fe Co., 1878). 



