638 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
an infinite personality who may exist upon his throne in one part of the Uni- 
verse, and whose all-pervading substantial! or entitative attributes, analogous to 
our senses, but infinitely surpassing them, may make Him literally omnipresent, 
causing his actual being to extend through all extent.” 
This quotation gives, as well as any single passage can, a condensed state- 
ment of the author’s theory of the Problem of Life, its origin, sustaining principle 
and connection with the future life; yet he denies that it is in any sense ma- 
terialistic. 
The chapters on the Nature of Sound were reviewed in these pages last year, 
and we find no reason to change our views then expressed, which were, in brief, 
that the experiments of the most learned, patient, pains-taking, catholic investi- 
gators of the world, repeated in every imaginable form and manner, and corrobo- 
rated in each instance, are not to be given up until after they have been met and 
controverted by equally careful and successful experiments based upon other 
hypotheses, which has not been done so far. Our author may succeed in over- 
turning evolution, but we do not think he has applied his lever at the right point 
this time. The book has its crudities and errors of logic, as all theoretic works 
are liable to have, but it has its corresponding attractions and will prove deeply 
interesting to popular readers of all classes. 
JouN SwintTon’s TRAVELS: By John Swinton. G. W. Carleton & Co., N. Y.; 
T2 NOL PP. 74 OPA pe menc: 
This little volume consists of ‘‘current views and notes of forty days in 
France and England,” in August and September, 1880 The author states in his 
preface that his reasons for publishing them will be found by those who properly 
read them; but after reading the book with some care, if he had any other object 
in view than to glorify the civilization and republican institutions of France to 
the disparagement of his own country, we have failed to ‘‘read properly.” 
THE EpEeN TasLEau: By Charles Beecher. 12mo. pp. 163. ea & Shep- 
ard, Boston, 1880; cloth, $1.50. 
In this work we find what the author terms ‘‘ an attempt at a more thorough 
and consistent application of the laws of analogic interpretation to one of the 
most interesting and vital portions of the Bible,” referring to the Mosaic legend 
of Paradise. In his preface Mr. Beecher favors his readers with a concise but 
comprehensive review of the various ethnic religions, including those of the 
Chinese, Japanese, Brahmins, Persians and Egyptians, in all of which he points 
out the idea of the spiritual origin of all things—the priority of the spiritual 
world over the material. In metempsychosis, which was the belief of the majority 
of mankind and from which sprang all religions, he finds but a corruption of the 
primitive doctrine of a celestial pre-existence, which was the original faith of 
Israel, and which was bequeathed to the early Christians. 
