316 



♦ KNONATLEDGE ♦ 



[August 2, 1886. 



advance during centuries, for which it is primarily respon- 

 sible. In all that Miss C'ummitig lias to tell us on this 

 matter, the strength of her observations has its contrast in 

 the weakness of her inferences from them. Now and then 

 we rub our eyes in the feeling that a missionary report has 

 been accidentally stitched-in with the sheets, till we find 

 that we are having the conventional comparisons between 

 the Christian and non-Christian religions which the orthodox 

 mind, with priiiiil facie warrant, but with obtuseness to 

 underlying parallelisms and identities, invariably draws. 

 And then we regret that, through lack of acquaintance with 

 modern theories of the evolution of morals and religion, so 

 genial and sympathetic a writer .should be deficient in that 

 sense of relation between the faiths of mankind which gives 

 the key to problems otherwise puzzling and depressing. Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer will find these volumes an armoury of 

 weapons in defence of his tlieory of ancestor-worship as the 

 base of myth and religion, but the coexistence of nature- 

 worship with it must be set against that, and be allowed its 

 weight in the argument that the base has a wider area than 

 any one theory can cover. 



Carhjle and the Open Secret of Ids Life. By Henry 

 L.\RKiN. (Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co.) — This book may be 

 commended to intending students of Carlyle as a convenient 

 and interpretative introduction, making clear many a dark 

 saying of the man. It consists, in the main, of extracts 

 from Carlyle's writings, and of expansions of the very useful 

 and compact summaries which are api)ended to many of his 

 works, and for which his readers have to thank jNIr. Larkin. 

 Then a few pages are given to Carlyle's relations with Lady 

 Ashburton, and to sundry other causes of friction between 

 the philosopher and Mrs. Carlyle, notably on questions of 

 housekeeping cost, on all which the gossip-hunter may gorge 

 himself in Mr. Fronde's biography. But the open secret 

 which is flaunted in the title is told in a couple of lines. It 

 is this : Carlyle wanted to make history as well as write it ; 

 to become " one of the seven to eight hundred Parliamentary 

 Talkers with their escort of Able Editors ami Public 

 Opinion." But the death of Peel appears to have wrecked 

 any such purpose. 



British Ftin'ji. By Eev. John Stevenson, Hon. Sec. 

 Cryptogamic Society of Scotland. (London : William Black- 

 wood & Sons. 188G.) This is the first of two laborious and 

 important volumes classifying the various species of those 

 strange quasi-animal organisms of which the common mush- 

 room is the type. The features, habitats, comparisons be- 

 tween difl'erent species in appearance and affinity, together 

 with the spore-measurements, are catalogued in detail, and 

 the author's established position in mycology, or that branch 

 of botany which deals with fungi, combined with that of 

 other authorities to whom his book is indebted, are guaran- 

 tees as to its accuracy and completeness. 



Buckle's Miscellaneous and Posthnmous Works. Edited 

 by Gr.\nt Allen. (Longmans.) — This is a new and abridged 

 edition of the minor writings of Mr. Buckle which were 

 issued in 1872 under the editorshi|) of Miss Helen Taylor, 

 whose biogi-aphical sketch, with its interesting contributions 

 from Buckle's intimate friends, is reprinted. Mr. Grant 

 Allen explains in his brief preface the principle of selection 

 adopted, which wisely excludes the extracts from other 

 authors by which the earlier edition was so unduly swollen. 

 The longest and most important paper is on the reign of 

 Elizabeth, and is largely concerned with the moral and 

 economical .state of England during that period. Both it 

 and the numerous fragments, historical and miscellaneous, 

 supply a goodly amount of rough material which students of 

 history may work up with advantage. Buckle was a brave 

 and high-souled pioneer in the investigation into causes 



determining human progress or stagnation, and if the results 

 of a more complete and more scientifically conducted method 

 have been to show the limitations of his data and their 

 treatment, not the less is the debt of his age to so fearless 

 and laborious a worker to be ungrudgingly recognised. 



Ecclesiastical En/jlish. By G. Washington Moon. 

 (Hatchards.) — This is Pai-t II. of Mr. Moon's expose of the 

 grammatical and syntactical blunders of the Company of 

 Revisers who have been tinkering with the Authorised 

 Version of the Scriptures. The culprits' names, with their 

 full academic dignities, are all arraigned, and then follows 

 a mass of illustrative evidence in support of the indictment. 

 They are, without doubt, what Wordsworth calls "bad, bold 

 men," and the sentence upon them — Right Reverend Fathers 

 in God and Profe.^sors all — i.s that they do forthwith repair 

 to 16 New Burlington Street, to take private lessons in 

 English on the terms advertised in the prospectus at the 

 end of this book. 



A Sea-Painter's Log. By R. C. Leslie. (Chapman & 

 Hall.) — We are glad to renew acquaintance with cei-tain 

 vivid sketches of foreshore life and scenery which appeared 

 in the St. James's Gazette, and which are now reprinted with 

 the additional attraction of photographs, reproducing the 

 author's sketches very delicately and softly. Mr. Leslie may 

 take rank with a delightful company of waiters — Grant 

 Allen, Richard Jefferies, Phil Robinson, and others — who, 

 leaving the cloud-capped snow-peaks, the majestic and im- 

 jiosing in Nature, skilfully and lovingly describe her quieter 

 and less striking aspects — tidal rivers flowing through long 

 stretches of lowland ; mudlands, with their creeks and 

 treacherous ooze, which to tlie vinobserving eye seem tame 

 and monotonous, but which, in the glory of colour they 

 reflect, in the unbroken horizon that shuts out neither sunrise 

 nor sunset, and in their solitude and silence, are lich in 

 material for the artist, be he poet or painter. Mr. Leslie 

 takes us over rough seas in quaint ships, manned by quaint 

 salts of the past, but we like best to ramble with him along 

 the seaboard, or by some decayed harbour with its broken- 

 down quays, its picturesque craft, with here and there a 

 skeleton of timljer protruding from the " hard " like the 

 bones of camels in the desert. The long-aeglected, obscure 

 towns on our southern and eastern coasts are coming 

 more and more into fashion, and visitors to the old Cinque 

 Ports, or to the rotten boroughs of the Suffolk coast, should 

 take Mr. Leslie's book with them. 



A Year in Brazil. By Hastings Charles Dent, C.E. 

 (Kegan Paul, Trench <& Co.) — Mr. Dent took advantage of 

 a year's stay in Brazil, whither professional work called 

 him, to collect information concerning the fauna, more 

 especially entomological, of the country. The letters and 

 notes written during his absence have been woven into 

 a record which is unaffected, pleasant to read, and of value 

 as well as intei-est. But the more important parts of the 

 work, so far as the matters treated of are concerned, are 

 relegated to appendices, the first of which tells us a good 

 deal about the political and social condition of the empire, 

 and the customs and ideas of the native races. Mr. Dent's 

 remarks upon the finances of the country should be noted 

 by the holders of Brazilian bonds, a security which, in our judg- 

 ment, is too riskv for hoiiAfde investors. Th3 second appendix 

 deals with the natural history, climate, and geology of 

 Brazil, and includes an excursus by the author into matters 

 theological, the gist of which may be predicated from the 

 prominence which he gives to his member.ship of the Victoria 

 Institute on the title-page, and from the note appended at 

 page 119 for the benefit of the P.sychical Research Society. 

 In Mr. Dent's judgment, acceptance of the theory of evolu- 

 tion leads to denial of a personal God who has revealed 



