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♦ KNOW^LEDGE ♦ 



[May 2, 1887. 



imagination -which fertilised the highways of human life in 

 a pre-historic pait. In considering this question, two 

 things have to be borne in mind, one general, the other 

 special, in its application. We find races at corresponding 

 levels of culture explaining like plienomena in much the 

 same way, and thus we may account for parallel lines of 

 thought and striking resemblance in the myths and legends 

 of races between whom no intercourse h.as been possible 

 for unnumbered centuries, and we should therefore differ 

 from Ml-. Clouston in his exception of many tales even 

 of common life, allowing for local differences, from this 

 explanation. As to the special bearings of the question, 

 let it not be forgotten that the Eurasian continent was 

 peopled with races in no mean stage of culture long before 

 Aryan and Semite attained historic prominence. It is on 

 this older culture, -which obtrudes or overlaps in many a 

 persistent type of race and many an archaic belief, that the 

 higher civilisation rests. Rich veins await the smelting iire 

 of sober inquiry which shall extract the secret of their 

 deposit, and to this work the efforts of students of human 

 progress -wUl, we feel persuaded, be increasingly directed. 

 But we must not take leave of Mr. Clouston after this 

 inadequate notice without heartily commending his volumes 

 to the attention of all such workers, as also to a wider 

 class, for the feast of good stories therein. 



The Geological and Geographical Distribution of Animals. 

 By Professor Angelo Heilprin. (Kegan Paul, Trench 

 & Co.) — In this newest addition to the well-known Inter- 

 national Scientific Series we have an excellent compendium 

 of the facts of past and present distribution of animal life. 

 The principles and phenomena of this distribution have 

 received copious exposition in the important works of 

 Wallace, Sclater, and other authorities, but .science knows 

 no finality, and Professor Heilprin has embodied enough 

 fresh material to render his book -welcome and opportune. 

 He has made some essential alterations in the arrangement 

 of the great zoological regions into which naturalists 

 commonlv divide the land area of the globe, and his book is 

 enriched by an interesting discussion on the origin of the 

 pelagic or deep sea fauna as the modified descendants of 

 primary shore fauna. The important light thrown upon the 

 theory of derivation by a study of the conditions deter- 

 mining the distribution of life is familiar to students of 

 Mr. Darwin's works — in fact, as is well known, it was the 

 observation of the fauna of the Galapagos Islands as com- 

 pared with that of South America, the nearest mainland, 

 which gave so great an impetus to his investigations. 



Through the Fields with Linnceus. By Mrs. Florence 

 Caddy. (Longmans.) — The title of this book led us to 

 expect a ramble by flowery meads, whereas it turns out to 

 be a prosy and padded account of the career of the great 

 botanist. It is difficult to see for what class of readers Mrs. 

 Caddy is catering, since her book is too tedious to interest the 

 general reader, and too flimsy to be of service to students of 

 the science in which Linnaeus holds foremost place. 



Woodland Tales. By JfLlus Stixde. Translated by 

 Ellis Weight. (Fisher Unwin.) — The issue of this smooth 

 and pleasant translation of Dr. Stinde's short sketches is 

 probably due to the enormous success of his " Buchholz 

 Family." But though his sketches are short, they are not 

 .slight ; the workmanship in each is thorough, the subjects 

 are all more or less touching, sometimes, as in " Brother 

 .Johannis," bordering on the terrible. The sombre scenery 

 of the forest invests them ; the weirdness and pathos of 

 forest.life informs them ; and the novel-reader, bored with 

 the small talk and tedious analysis of much of the stuff 

 which Mudie sends him, should read these " Woodland 

 Tales " with fresh appetite. 



Sonnets Round the Coast. By H. D. Rawxsley. 

 (Swan Sonnenschein & Co.) — In these poetic seascapes Mr. 

 Rawnsley has skilfully avoided the risk of monotonous treat- 

 ment of that perilous subject — descriptions of the ocean — 

 by availing himself of the rich significance of material 

 which fringes our coast in historic relic of abbey, shrine, 

 and grave ; as well as of the equally suggestive material 

 supplied by quaint tradition and heroic deed. The sonnets 

 betoken a cultured mind, and are marked both by vigour 

 and freshness of thought, as well as by grace of expression ; 

 notably so in those which have certain aspects of nature for 

 their theme. 



The Perfect Way ; or, The Finding of Christ. By 

 Anna B. Kingsford, M.D., and Edward Maitland, B.A. 

 (Field & Tuer. ) — This book is printed in type of remark- 

 able beauty, and altogether produced in a style " regardless 

 of expense." But what meaning may lie in it, if there be 

 one at all, only astral spirits, such as the authors claim 

 to possess, may fathom. To otir terrene and unillumined 

 mind it is a farrago of cabbalistic rodomontade. 



A Concise Histori/ of Etiglfind and the English Peoph. 

 By the Rev. Sir G. W. Cox, Bart., M.A. (London : Joseph 

 Hughes. 1887.) — Admitting to the full the modest 

 allegation in Sir George Cox's preface that " a history of 

 England given in a few hundred pages must necessarily be 

 a sketch," we must, in common fairness, add that he has 

 shown how, in such a sketch, a large amount of 

 really valuable historical information may be conveyed 

 in a lucid and very readable form. A leading cha- 

 racteristic in his treatment of the events he describes, 

 is his fairness and impartiality. Comparatively few- 

 clergymen, we venture to think, could be found to narrate 

 the events of the reign of Charles I. in so absolutely calm 

 and judicial a spirit as our author has done. He has pro- 

 duced a work of real value to the incipient student of the 

 history of his own country. 



The Making of Xeiv England. By Samuel Adams Drake. 

 (London : T. Fisher Unwin. 1886.) — In a very simple, 

 but not on that account less interesting manner, ISIr. Drake, 

 who is an American, tells the story of the colonisation of his 

 native land, from the time of its discovery by Sebastian 

 Cabot down to the date of the Confederacy of 1643. 

 Copiously illustrated with maps, plans, views of localities, 

 and engravings of people and objects of archoeological 

 interest, this volume may be read with jjrofit and advantage 

 by all who care to learn how slowly and painfully New 

 England was peopled from the Old Country, and in what 

 humble beginnings the vast American Republic had its 

 origin. So far the tale has never been better told for educa- 

 tional purposes. 



Joint Scientific Papers of James Prescott Joule, D.C.L., 

 LL.D., F.R.S. Vol. 11. (London: Taylor & Francis. 

 1887.) — Three years ago (Knowledge, Vol. V., p. 245) 

 we reviewed in these columns the first part of the noble 

 contribution made to the advancement of science by the 

 Physical Society of London in the shape of their reprint 

 of the scientific papers of our immortal physicist, James 

 Prescott Joule. As we write, the second volume lies before 

 us. In it we find the details of Joule's experiments on the 

 mechanical powers of electro-magnetism, steam, and horses, 

 made ostensibly in conjunction with Dr. Scoresby, but 

 practically performed by Joule himself; his investigations, 

 conducted with the aid of Sir Lyon Playfair, on atomic 

 volume and specific gra\dty ; and a mass of other researches, 

 chemical and thermo-dynamical, the latter performed with 

 the co-operation of Sir Wm. Thomson. Nothing is more 

 striking than the absolute thoroughness of all Joule's work. 

 It was this very thoroughness, and the scientific conscien- 



