December 1, 1886.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



45 



far as the large mass of examples is coaoemed, this leaves 

 nothing whatever to be desii'ed. In addition to the short 

 list of errata ou a slip inserted in the volume, we may note 

 that on pp. 10, 26, and elsewhere the lines dividing the 

 numerators and denominators of fractions have slipped out ; 

 that on p. 71 the log. of -00527 is printed as 3-721811, 

 which should, of course, be 3-721811 ; and that in example 

 20 on p. 221 " declination" appears where latitude is ob- 

 viously intended. Such microscap'c blemishes as these, 

 however, can scarcely be held to detract from the value of 

 a book which may be confidently recommended to all who 

 desire to master the application of trigonometry to nautical 

 astronomy and terrestrial surveying. 



Liste Generalf, des Obsarvaloires et des Astronomes, des 

 Societes et des Revuis Asironoinii/ues. Par A. Lancaster. 

 (Brussels: R Hayez. 188G.)— This is intended as a kind 

 of directory of all persons and institutions connected mediately 

 or immediately with astronomy, but it seems to us to be 

 susceptible of considerable improvement. Names of abso- 

 lutely luiknown men have crept in, together with those of 

 dead ones (such as IMr. C. E. Burton and Mr. E. C. 

 Carrington) of more eminence; while, in the list of instru- 

 ment makers, Simms is omitted altogether ! On page 92 

 occurs the sole note appended to any name in the list, and, 

 with reference to the one which does appear there, we must 

 say that unless it was inserted by the request and with 

 the sanction of the gentleman to whose name it is attached, 

 (which we find it impossible to believe), we can only think 

 that M. Lancaster has been guilty of a piece of very gross 

 impertinence indeed. 



T/ie Enjllsh Illuifnifed Magcaiae, 188G. (Macaiillan 

 &, Co.) — There is no falling off either in the illustrations or 

 letterpress of this excellent serial, which, with its four com- 

 plete novels, one of which is from the vigorous pen of Mr. 

 Christie Murray, and another from the delicate pen of Miss 

 Veley, and its miscellaneous papers, makes well-nigh the 

 welcomest, certainly the cheapest, gift-book of the year. 

 Creditable to the taste and judgment of its conductors is 

 the prominence given to insular and rural subjects, with 

 their beautiful woodcuts of our old seaports, and of com- 

 mons which are happily safe from the land-grabber. 



Merciful or Merciless, by Stackpool E. O'Dell (London : 

 T. Fisher Unwin, 1886), is a novel which should be read by 

 all those who are inclined to take a desponding view as re- 

 gards the future life. The book is entirely directed against 

 the belief in everlasting jjunishment after death ; but its 

 strong appeals, both to the feelings and to the logical faculty, 

 are so skilfulh' interwoven with the very interesting plot and 

 with a variety of incidents that no odium whatever can be 

 attached to it as what " Ouida " calls " that misguided thing, 

 a novel with a purpose." The hero, George Graystone, 

 having been overtaken by a storm when out at sea with his 

 little companion, Florence Harper, is separated from her 

 and picked up by a passing vessel, leaving her and all his 

 friends in Daffydale, a village near Ventuor, to mourn him 

 as drowned. This incident introduces the theme of the book, 

 as Mrs. Harper believes that the boy's soul has been lost, 

 owing to his want of faith in the doctrine as to salvation 

 preached by her favourite minister, Mr. Heron. Florence, 

 however, breaks away from this gloomy creed, unwilling to 

 believe that a merciful God can doom any soul to an eternity 

 of torture. George Graystone, who has been picked up, 

 suffering from injury to the head, owing to the concussion of 

 his canoe with the rescuing steamer, is carried to New 

 Zealand, and in the hospital at Auckland he recovers, but 

 with the loss of the memory of all his former experience, 

 having to be re-taught to speak, read, and write. His name 

 being unknown, he has been given that of the ship in which 



he arrived, "John Hammond," and this he unquestioningly 

 adopts. Cases such as his are by no means unknown in the 

 annals of psj'chological medicine, and the whole delineation 

 of this character is skUful. Having grown into a strong 

 man, he meets by chance with his former comi)anion, Jim 

 Harper, who has come to New Zealand to try his luck, since 

 the family has gi-own poor under the religious extravagance 

 of Mrs. Harper. The two make friends without recognising 

 each other, and succeed in discovering and pegging out 

 claims on a goldlield, which makes them both rich men. 

 The excitement of sudden wealth is, however, too much 

 for Jim, and he falls ill. While he is thus prostrated, 

 he receives a letter from Florence to the effect that 

 their mother has mortgaged their home, " The Petrel," 

 in order to build a chapel for Mr. Heron, and that 

 the house in which they were born will have to be 

 sold. Jim being too ill to move, Hammond goes to 

 England to stop tlie sale. He meets his father, 8ir James 

 Graystone, in the train going down to Daffydale, and the old 

 gentleman is attracted to him, owing to his likeness to his 

 son. They, however, quarrel when each discovers that the 

 other's business is to buy the " Petrel." On coming amidst 

 the scenes of his childhood, George Graystone's memory 

 gradually revives, and his cui-e is completed by the sight 

 of Florence, his child-sweetheart, whom he eventually 

 marries. All thus comes right in the end, the old baronet 

 recovering his heir, and the young heroine her lover, and 

 everyone attains the conviction that God is " merciful, not 

 merciless," even the preacher, Mr. Heron, seceding from his 

 gloomy faith. He is led to do this by the knowledge of the 

 evil it produces, and decided by the death of one of his con- 

 gregants. " I was with her to the last," he says. '■ I 

 always looked upon her as one of the most religious persons 

 who went to my chapel, but her deathbed was terrible. Up 

 to the last moment of her life she had a dreadful fear that 

 she had committed the ' unpardonable sin ' ; that she was 

 an outcast from God, predestined by Sovereign Will to be 

 everlastingly lost. To her mind devils were awaiting her 

 last breath, in order to drag her down to hell. Her agony 

 was frightful. This deathbed made me think as I never 

 thought before concerning the effects of our theology, so I 

 decided not to preach it again — at least not the portion of 

 it that relates to everlasting punishment." It is a pity that 

 many a clergyman in real life should not take ivarning from 

 cases such as these, with which each preacher of this 

 ghastly doctrine m-ast frequently meet. A religion which 

 serves to render a deathbed a scene of horror instead of one 

 of peaceful resignation does not deserve the name of religion 

 — a creed which serves to people our madhouses as this does, 

 and represents the Deity as the most cruel of tyrants, should 

 be banished for ever, and its teaching regarded as a crime. 



The Silence of Bean Maitland. By ^Maxwell Gray. 

 (Kegan Paul, Trench k, Co.) — The gap among novelists of 

 the first rank caused by the death of George Eliot remains 

 unfilled. A few promising candidates are in the field, but 

 .as yet their works have not justified their election, and 

 they have now to face the imminent risk of being passed by 

 the authoress (for surely only a woman could have written 

 it) of this powerful and pathetic story. If the high level 

 which it reaches at a bound is maintained, and its success 

 does not tempt Maxwell Gray to " walk into the parlour " 

 of the publisher with any less matured work, her high 

 place is assured. Never, in our judgment, hav^e the refined 

 and illiterate, yet shrewd, types of English rural life been 

 more skilfully depicted ; there is not a lay figure in any of 

 the characters the tragedies of whosa lives compose thLs 

 drama, and we take reluctant leave of them as of men and 

 women known in the flesh. For vivid and delicate descrip- 

 tion we can recall nothing of its kind which excels, and 



