144 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 500. 



ence in the seliools, a more detailed review 

 than has been possible of the book as a whole. 

 " Science should be taught first in a large, 

 all-comprehensive way, not without a distinct- 

 ly religious spirit." In childhood and youth 

 we should encourage the ' sentimental re- 

 sponse ' to nature. Then should come popular 

 science with many object lessons and stories 

 of the heroes of science. Then the applica- 

 tions of science ; ' the practical technological 

 side of science should precede its purer forms.' 

 ' Last and highest comes pure science.' For 

 example, in physics teach boys and girls much 

 about the heroes of science and the drama of 

 research, diminish quantitative work, be more 

 superficial for the sake of harmony with the 

 recapitulation theory, make large use of me- 

 chanical toys, photography and the like. Let 

 astronomy declare the glory of God . rather 

 than of precise measurements. Let biology 

 emphasize life activities and the general theoi-y 

 of evolution. In general President Hall's 

 destructive criticism of present high school 

 test books of science, in which the zaan of 

 science seems to postulate that what he hap- 

 pens to know and be interested in is what 

 school-boys should learn, is stronger and will 

 be more profitable than his positive suggestion 

 that we revert to the personification of ani- 

 mals, ecstasies over nature and the goodness 

 of God, and superficial cosmologies. The 

 superficial cosmology has, perhaps, more in 

 its favor than the present generation of men 

 of science will admit. But it seems to entail 

 rote memorizing as a method of study. 



Two general features of the volumes, one 

 of content and one of style, it is the reviewer's 

 duty to note. The acts and feelings, normal 

 and morbid, resulting from sex are discussed 

 in a way without precedent in English science. 

 To realize the material presented one must 

 combine his memories of medical text-books, 

 erotic poetry and inspirational preaching. 

 Witness the following : " Every gemmule is 

 mobilized and the sacred hour of heredity 

 normally comes when adolescence is complete 

 in wedlock and the cerebro-spinal rings up 

 the sympathetic system, and this hands over 

 the reins to the biophores and germ cells, 

 which now assert their dominance over those 



of the soma. In the most unitary of all acts, 

 which is the epitome and pleroma of life, we 

 have the most intense of all aifirmations of 

 the will to live and realize that the only true 

 God is love, and the center of life is worship. 

 Every part of mind and body participates in 

 a true pangenesis. This sacrament is the an- 

 nunciation hour which the whole world re- 

 flects. Communion is fusion and beatitude. 

 It is the supreme hedonic narcosis, a holy 

 intoxication, the chief ecstasy, because the 

 most intense of experiences; it is the very 

 heart of psychology, and because it is the 

 supreme pleasure of life it is the eternal basis, 

 and guarantee of optimism. * * * 



" Keproduction is always sacrificial. Man 

 learns to live by dying and his life is at best 

 a masterly retreat. Relaxation and detumes- 

 cence are the first faint symptoms from afar 

 of' senile involution and the Nemesis of death, 

 toward which the individual shrivels. After- 

 the high tide in which the ars amandi cul- 

 minates, lifting existence, like the great bore 

 on the Chinese rivers, the law of post coitum 

 triste is gradually accentuated with increasing 

 years. Now man truly knows good and evil,, 

 euphoria and disphoria, and is, polarized to 

 pleasure and pain." 



The feature of style is a baffling junction 

 within the same paragraph, or even sentence,, 

 of statements which to the commonplace mind 

 have no logical connection. The extraordin- 

 ary range and vivacity of the author's in- 

 terests are probably the cause. But some 

 sacrifice should have been made to the com- 

 monplace thinker who will puzzle long and, 

 perhaps, in vain to see the unity or logic of^ 

 the hundreds of passages like the following: 

 " The chief reason why our Bible is the best 

 of all ethnic Bibles is because it is so deeply 

 based upon genetic truth. The story of crea- 

 tion is full of ancient and subtle symbols of 

 divine generation. The tale of Eden and the 

 fall, whatever historic validity it may or may 

 not have, is a masterly allegory of the first 

 stage in the decadence of love. Abraham, a 

 nomad sheik, was a breeder of cattle, and the 

 promise was that he should be a breeder of 

 men like the stars of the heavens for multitude. 

 Circumcision was a hygienic measure of great 



