April 28, 1910] 



NATURE 



247 



segregation, a "devolution." The incarnation of 

 Christ was the essential effort of the whole Cosmos 

 to redeem the earth. Mr. Sampson provides a cos- 

 mogony for the great spiritual order. The planetar\' 

 circles and the zodiacal angles in their various rela- 

 I tions define the home of the spirit in its various stages 

 I of development from the " atom " of original divine 

 ! letheric essence to the perfection of Deity. Into the 

 , elaboration of this scheme the author has worked 

 I much ingenious allegorisation of biblical stor)', and 

 much mysterious symbolism from Astrologer and 

 Rosicrucian. It is a not uninteresting and hence not 

 unsuccessful attempt in mythology ; at least it must 

 I appear so to all who do not possess, as Mr. Sampson 

 j seems to, the clue to the esoteric illumination of 

 church and brotherhood. 



Mr. Kingsland writies with much earnestness to 

 show that truth, beauty, and goodness are only to 

 be realised by man in his union with the .Absolute, 

 the one primordial substance, who is at once subject 

 and object, whose nature can be expressed only in 

 paradox, the eternal source and sustainer of all finite 

 existence. We approach Him by ascent from plane 

 to plane of existence — for He is essentially differen- 

 tiated into planes variously approximating to His own 

 self-sufficiency. For Mr. Kingsland individuality is 

 an involution, and its extreme limit is physical deter- 

 mination ; from that man is now evolving towards 

 a realisation of the spiritual ego, which is the "uni- 

 verse " of many human personalities or incarnations. 

 It again is but a phenomenal appearance of the 

 spiritual form of humanity, the one " Divine Son," 

 which is itself a phenomenon of the .Absolute. Thus, 

 though Mr. Kingsland professes a belief in immor- 

 tality, it is necessarily an immortality in which in- 

 dividual experience is not preserved as individual. 

 The temporal individuality must be merely a means 

 for a higher life which transcends it ; and, though 

 the author may assert that we are at the same time 

 ends, for the One is within us, this paradoxical con- 

 junction has never satisfied man's moral demands 

 for an end which is both p>ersonal and metaphysically 

 genuine. The book is well written, and the exposi- 

 tion of recent scientific theory is admirable, but in 

 the more metaphysical portions repetition is a great 

 b'.emish. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



lanual of Botany for Indian Forest Students. By 



R. S. Hole. Pp. xi + 250+xxi + xx plates. (Calcutta: 



I Government Printing Office, 1909.) 



I This work has been prepared primarily for the use of 



I the pupils of the Imperial Forest School, Dehra Dun. 



[ in which establishment the author holds the post of 



I forest botanist. The manual ought to prove a good 



! text-book. It is quite up to date and is written in 



clear, concise language. Should a new edition be 



called for, and when one considers the object the work 



is intended to serve this will almost certainly be the 



case, the author will be well advised to treat systematic 



i botany more fully than he has done in the edition 



before us. A compact synopsis of the natural families 



of plants to be met with in British India would be 



of great value as an aid to the student who will, when 



NO. 2 1 13, VOL. 83] 



he has left the forest school, have occasion to make 

 use of the " Flora of British India," or of one or other 

 of the regional Indian floras based on that funda- 

 mental work. The author might also consider the 

 advisability of adding a glossary to the work. Such 

 an addition, besides being of considerable utility in 

 itself, would have the further advantage of enabling 

 him to relieve the morphological part of the work of 

 a certain amount of purely terminological matter and 

 at the same time of allowing terminology itself to be 

 treated somewhat more completely. 



Another point to which the author's attention may 

 be directed is the somewhat meagre character of the 

 illustrations. It is, of course, true that, especially at 

 the outset, there is some difficulty in providing for the 

 full illustration of a work published by Government 

 and prepared for the special purpose which underlies 

 the one under notice. So long as it is understood that 

 the work is merely intended to assist the student 

 generally while he is at the forest school, the want 

 of illustrations in company with the text is not likely 

 to be greatly felt. But the work ought to have, and 

 no doubt will have, a further use. Most students will 

 carry the work away with them when they leave the 

 school, and will find frequent occasion in after life to 

 refer to it and refresh their memories. It is then that 

 the need for good illustrations, which help to restore 

 faded ideas and their associations, will be most acutely 

 felt. 



In directing attention to these points we would, 

 however, desire it to be understood that no reflection 

 is intended either on the author or on his work as it 

 stands; what appeals to us in making them is rather 

 a purpose that the work, modified as suggested, is 

 calculated to fulfil than the purpose which, as the 

 author explains, it is intended to serve. That it 

 should serve this latter and narrower purpose well we 

 do not doubt, and Mr. Hole is to be congratulated on 

 the presentation of a useful and serviceable manual. 



The Light of Egypt, from recently discovered Pre- 

 dynastic and Early Christian Records. By R. de 

 Rustafjaell. Pp. x-h 169. (London: Kegan Paul 

 and Co., Ltd., 1909.) Price los. 6d. net. 

 Mr. ue Rustafjaell 's book is a curious mixture, as 

 its title shows. It consists chiefly of a description of 

 various Egyptian objects, some apparently owned by 

 the author (though this is not made quite clear), 

 others bought by him and sold later to the British 

 Museum. These objects are illustrated by fine photo- 

 graphs. They are strung together by means of a 

 general talk compiled by the author from various 

 authorities, which is intended to give an idea of 

 the "light" shed by Eg\pt upon early civilisa- 

 tion. So far, so good, and the work is not badly done ; 

 but the author also launches out into one or two 

 theories of his own, which are hazardous. We may 

 instance his supposed discovery of limestone " vessels " 

 of " Palaeolithic " age found with (undoubted) Palaeo- 

 lithic flints on the Theban plateaux. These objects are 

 not artefacts at all, but merely either the hard 

 matrices of flint nodules or else weathered siliceous 

 masses. They are common enough on any Egyptian 

 gebel of rough stones. Mr. de Rustafjaell has dis- 

 covered nothing here. The translation by Mr. Crum 

 of the Coptic manuscript sold by Mr. de Rustafjaell 

 to the British Museum, and included by him in his 

 book, is interesting. The Nubian manuscript also 

 originally obtained by Mr. de Rustafjaell, to whom 

 Mr. Griffiths sends a summary- description of it, has 

 alreadv been published in facsimile by Dr. Budge . for 

 the Trustees of the British Museum. It is of great 

 importance ling\iistically. 



