THE BOOK SHELF 



Billy the Boy Naturalist. Wm. A. Murrill, Assistant Director of the N. Y. 

 t Botanical Garden. Published by the author. Bronxwood Park, New 



York City. 252 pp. Many illustrations. $1.50. 

 I This little volume of nature stories and observations must be autobiographi- 

 cal, since they are the actual experiences of the boyhood of one living close 

 to nature's vast storehouse of teeming life. Each account is distinct and 

 complete in itself, and deals with many animals and plants portraying in a 

 true and accurate manner the happenings on farms in Virginia and Tenenssee. 

 The incidents are written in a manner attractive to children, and reveal 

 what good times and great stores of knowledge awaits the boy or girl brought 

 upon a farm, and makes one understand how such children become bigger 

 and stronger and get far more of what is worth while out of life. 



Since the stories are not connected they are well fitted to be read separately 

 as bed-time stories, and they touch upon many matters which lead to further 

 consideration, and at the end many questions may be asked, as a means for 

 stimulating deeper investigations into nature's ways. The illustrations are 

 many and attractive. Billy the Boy Naturalist is a most desirable addition 

 to the juvenile library. 



Our Palace Wonderful. Rev. Frederick A. Houck, D. B. Hanson & Sons, 

 Chicago. 178 pp., illustrated. $1.00. Third Edition. 



Few people who devote their lives to the study of the natural sciences, 

 fail to gain, as their knowledge grows, a greater reverence for the Creator of 

 the Universe. This may be all the more true because they rarely speak about 

 it. However, Father Houck believes it is well worth speaking about and 

 in this truly religious little volume he discusses the reasons why the more 

 we study our world the greater must be our appreciation of the wisdom and 

 the love of God. He says the aim of this little treatise is "rather to confirm 

 the believer than to convert the unbeliever." 



The first chapters are given to the discussion of the agnostic, the materialis- 

 tic and the pantheistic theories of the origin of the Universe, and leaves none 

 of them a leg to stand upon. The bulk of the book is used in illustrating 

 how a study of the minerals, the stars and the plants leads to the conclusion 

 that they all postulate a Creator. A chapter is given to "Man, the Sovereign 

 Tenant" of this world palace wonderful. Father Houck shows his own 

 gentle character and beautiful faith in arguing for the thesis, "Man, the Object 

 of God's Loving Providence in this World is Destined for Eternal Happiness 

 in the Next World." — and continues the revelation of himself in the chapter, 

 "The Study of Creation begets Charity." The author of the Palace Beautiful 

 is a religious man who loves his fellow men and feels at one with the whole 

 wonderful universe. 



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