AuGtsT 2, 18S6.] 



* KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



317 



Himself to the spiritual natm-e of luau in His word, and to 

 the intellectual nature of man in Hi.s works, and, since both 

 revelations must accord, evolution is not true : species are 

 not mutable, man has not risen from an apelike ancestry, 

 but, as Genesis declares, w;is created pure and noble, only, 

 being left to himself, went to the bad, from which redemp- 

 tion finally rescues him. The subject is not to be discussed 

 here, but it may be pointed out that the one important 

 flaw in the reasoning is the assumption that a venerable and 

 valuable collection of documents of unsettled origin, of un- 

 certjiin authorehip, and of disputed meaning, is in anj^ sense 

 a revelation. A revelation, which can onl}' be from an 

 omniscient source, must comply with two conditions, 

 nameh', make known matters which man cannot find out 

 by himself, and make them known in language absolute!)' 

 clear and guarded against all possible risk of alteration from 

 transcribers, translators, and printers. The book, which 

 has some pleasing photographs of Brazilian scenery, repro- 

 duced by the Meisenbach method, has a copious index — 

 indeed, so copiou.s as to embrace every triviality of the text. 



Letters to Dead Authors. By Andrew L.wr,. (Long- 

 mans.) — Mr. Lang's power of cunning workmanship was 

 never shown with happier effect than in these addresses to 

 the members of the " choir invisill' ." Some of his critics 

 have taken exception to the imitation of the style of the 

 several authors addressed, but Mr. Lang may retort that 

 " imitation is the sincerest form of tlattery." Any way, this 

 is not a book to be analysed or dissected ; it is a delicate, 

 graceful piece of writing, to be enjoyed in passivity of soul 

 away from the din of reviewers and the strife of tongues. 

 The letters to Thackeray and Shelley strike us as particularly 

 fine. 



Vaniti/ Fair. Two Vols. (Smith, Elder ct Co.)— It is 

 a pity that Mr. Lang's letter to Thackeray could not have 

 been prefaced to these initial volumes of a tasty pocket 

 edition, for which the publishers are to be thanked, and 

 which every lover of the great master — the greatest since 

 Fielding — will welcome. How we alike renew our youth, 

 and find echo of the deeper experience of life, as, wearied of 

 the inane or nauseating fiction of the present, we reopen 

 " Vanity Fair," " Esmond," and the rest, and rejoin the 

 familiar company, known as if they had lived in the flesh 

 amongst us. 



SfiU a Wife's Sister. Three Vols. By A. E. Schlotel. 

 (Grifiith, Farran, cfc Co.) — After re-reading "Vanity Fair" 

 who can be in the humour to enjoy a novel which, so far as 

 its purpose may be divined, seems to teach how to dodge 

 the Deceised Wife's Sister Bill ? There is no lack of 

 material for an interesting story in these volumes, but 

 the author has let it run to waste over a thousand closely- 

 printed pages, where it is lost in a veritable delta of 

 prolixity, swamping syntax and sense with it. Re-cast 

 and cut down to one-third of the present size, the story 

 might run, and justify a description applied by the author 

 to a novel by her heroine: "Much that would have been 

 dull and heavy was made buoyant by wit and cheerful 

 scenes." 



Comrades. By S.\r.\h Tytler. (Hodder & Stoughtou.) — 

 A graceful and wholesome story, with an outside tasty 

 enough to make it a desired school prize. 



The Determination of Roch-Forming Minerals. By Dr. 

 Eugene Hussak. Translated by Erastls G. Smith, Ph.D. 

 (New York : John Wiley ik Sons; London : Triibner ct Co.) 

 The microscopic analysis of rock-sections, which Mr. Sorby 

 was the first to make some thirty years ago, has proved a 

 most important instrument in geological research, throwing 

 light upon internal structures and origins. The present 



Translated and 

 Keatlev Moore, 

 —The story of the 



work describes the mechanie\l methods for preparing and 

 examining rocks suitable for optical study, and also supplies 

 tables of determination of minerals. It is essentially a 

 practiciil handbook for the lithologist. 



Autobiography of Friedrich Froehel. 

 annotated by Emii.ie Michaelis and H 

 Mus. Bic. (Swan Sonnenschein ik Co.' 

 founder and foundation of the Kindergarten system, for 

 which may all childhood, present and to come, made hap- 

 pier by its teaching, and quickened into delight in gain of 

 knowledge through emplo3'ment of fingers as well as br.ains, 

 bless Froebel's name. With the foregoing we may couple 

 Miss Hale's Infant School Management (St:inford) as an 

 excellent manual of practical application. The authoress 

 has a worthy ideal of the teacher's duty, and of the prune 

 importance of the "tone" to be given throughout the 

 school, reminding one of the influence of Arnold of Rugby 

 over his boys. Said one of them : '• I can't tell the doctor 

 a lie : he trusts one so." We like Miss Hale's insLstance on 

 the need of discrimination of mental and physical diff'erences. 

 Altogether she has written a good book, both for the home 

 nursery and the school. 



A Uandij Guide to Xorway. By Thomas B. Willson, 

 M.A. (Stanford.) — We can testify, as old travellera in 

 " Gamle Norge," that such a, clear and concise guide to that 

 land of stern grandeur and honest folk as the present book 

 designs to be, is wanted. We can recommend it to intending 

 tourists as giving them suflicient information for .all practical 

 purposes, and Mr. Stanford has done his usual share of good 

 service in the small maps illustrating tha several beaten 

 tracks. For a first visit Route V. .should be taken. 



Official Catalogue to the Colonial and Indian E.chibition. 

 ( Wm. Clowes & Sons.) — Iler Majesty's Colonies : a Series of 

 Original Papers issued un<ler the authority of the Koyal 

 Commission. (Same publishers.) — The Commission is to be 

 thanked for this timely and valuable collection of papers on 

 the origin and history of our several colonies, together with 

 its stores of information about their peoples and productions. 

 The introduction to the work is appropriately written by 

 the author of the " Expansion of England." Prof. Seeley 

 rarely warms to his subject, but he touches the right note 

 when he defines the relation of the colonies to the mother- 

 country as that of limbs whose life depends on a heart and 

 bi-ain outside themselves. For the union between us is not 

 mechanical but vital, and they who would sever it arc— well, 

 dividera of men. 



The Joyous Story of Toio. By Laura E. Richards. 

 (Blackie & Son.) — The following report on this book is 

 addressed to us by a competent critic, to whom we delegated 

 our duty : — 



"Mv Dear Father, — Toto is a very nice book. The plot is 

 that Toto, who is a little boy, lives with his blind grandmother. 

 He was very good to her, and very fond of the wild animals in the 

 woods near his cottage. And since he liked them, they liked him 

 too, and they came to him every day to tell him such pretty tales, 

 so that it make? you think they must be real, and that the animals 

 did talk. And it all ends very prettily. Edith." 



English Coins ami Tokens, with a chapter on Greek and 

 Roman Coins. By Llewellyns Jewitt and Barclay V. 

 Head. Sea-Weeds, Shells, and Fossils. By Peter Gray 

 and B. B. Woodward. (Swan Sonnenschein, Le Bas, 

 ife Lowrcy. 188G.) — In these additions to the '• Young 

 Collectors' Library" the respective writers have managed to 

 give in small compass a succinct and clear introduction to 

 each subject, as well as practical instructions in aid of the 

 several tastes to which they appeal. Written b}' experts, 

 and illustrated with woodcuts far above the average of 

 manuals, the volumes are marvels of cheapness. 



