950 



SCIENCE. 



[N.S. Vol. XIX. No. 495. 



But, even admitting these points, it would 

 be a great mistake to dismiss the work there- 

 upon. Its account of the progress of science, 

 and of the resultant transformations wrought 

 upon mediseval beliefs and whimsical supposi- 

 tions, is very well done. Nay more, it marks 

 a distinct advance over nearly all statements 

 of the kind known to me. A few passages, 

 culled at random, serve to prove this clearly: 

 "The belief that the writers of the Bible were 

 under the special influence and guidance of 

 the Divine Spirit is a very different thing 

 from the belief that their opinions were always 

 just, their arguments always conclusive, or 

 their knowledge of the facts always accurate " 

 (p. 85). " We have come to regard as the 

 main function of prophecy, not the construc- 

 tion of a map of all future history with sym- 

 bols and names in cipher, but the presentation 

 of warnings, consolations and moral exhorta- 

 tions, to reform or confirm the religious faith 

 and life of the people addressed" (p. 106). 

 " The conclusion which seems forced upon us 

 is that no reconciliation between the geological 

 record and that of Genesis is possible " (p. 

 111). "Apart from the dogma of the iner- 

 rancy of the Bible, the question of the date of 

 the origin of man has obviously no theological 

 significance whatsoever " (p. 117). "Wallace 

 announced many years ago the remarkable 

 proposition, that ' every species has come into 

 existence coincident both in space and time 

 with a preexisting closely allied species.' It 

 would be impossible actually to prove that 

 proposition in regard to every known species, 

 since our knowledge of extinct life is so 

 far from being complete. Nevertheless, the 

 proposition can be shown to be true in so 

 many instances that there is no reasonable 

 doubt that it is to be accepted as a universal 

 law. * * * The cumulative force of that 

 evidence reveals itself only in prolonged study 

 of some one or other of the departments of 

 biology" (pp. 19^5, 198). "The theory of 

 evolution is indeed the implacable foe of that 

 sort of theistic philosophy which has been 

 happily satirized in the phrase, ' the carpenter 

 God'" (p. 254). "I can not escape the con- 

 viction that the tendency of evolutionary 

 thought is decidedly towards monism" (p. 



268). " It is difiicult to see why that parallel- 

 ism of ontogeny and phylogeny does not have 

 the same significance in regard to psychical 

 as in regard to physical characteristics " (p. 

 272). "The alternatives for the philosoph- 

 ical thinker seem to be dualism and monism, 

 but with a third alternative of suspended 

 judgment — agnosticism" (p. 275). "Neither 

 volition nor any other mental state has a 

 quantitative relation to physical energy. The 

 recognition of the absolute disparateness of 

 thfe two classes of phenomena is essential to 

 sound thinking in regard to them" (p. 296). 

 " The things which we can not predict we can 

 pray for. The things which we can predict 

 we can not pray for" (p. 346). "It is need- 

 less to say that no claim of certainty can be 

 maintained in regard to Christianity as a 

 system, or in regard to any particular doctrine 

 of Christianity" (p. 406). All this is pretty 

 well. These views, and others like them, are 

 decidedly symptomatic. 



Part I., which deals with science and its 

 advance, will be of great service to many. 

 Parts II. and III., which contain the philo- 

 sophical, theological and religious considera- 

 tions, can not be ranked in the same class. 

 They are immensely weakened by absence of 

 a transitive grasp upon first principles and, 

 therefore, on the whole, they never really face 

 the ultimate question. What are we compelled 

 to infer to-day from man's knowledge of the 

 physical universe, of the physiological body, 

 and of the psychological organization? Yet, 

 even at this, the book must be strongly com- 

 mended to thousands who have hitherto been 

 fed on mush, discreditable to its cooks and 

 positively harmful to its consumers. Por 

 many babes Dr. Eice may prove strong meat, 

 indeed. And from this point of view, his 

 work deserves hearty recognition as a valuable 

 installment, likely to carry advantageous 

 weight in certain quarters. 



E. M. W. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 

 SECTION OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY. 



The regular meeting of the section was held 

 April 25 at the American Museum of Natural 



