LITERARY NOTICES. 



847 



bridge, Mass. ; B, Cleveland Abbe, 

 Washington ; 0, E. B. "Warder, Wash- 

 ington ; D, James E. Denton, Hoboken, 

 N". J. ; E, John 0. Branner, Little Rock, 

 Ark. ; F, 0. S. Minot, Boston, Mass. ; 

 H, Frank Baker, Washington; I, Rich- 

 ards Dodge, Washington. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The Philosophy of Necessity ; or, Law in 

 Mind as in Matter. By Charles Bray. 

 Third edition. Longmans, Green & Co. 

 1 vol. 12mo. Pp. 407. Price, $1.75. 



The readers of George Eliot's " Life," as 

 related in her letters and journals, will re- 

 call her intimacy with the Bray family. In 

 Chapter II of that work Mr. Cross speaks 

 of her acquaintance with and admiration for 

 Charles Bray, mentions the book whose 

 title is given above (which was first pub- 

 lished in 1841), and add3 that her associa- 

 tion with the author and his family "no 

 doubt hastened the change in her attitude 

 toward the dogmas of the old religion." 

 With Mr. and Mrs. Bray, and the latter's sis- 

 ter, there existed on the part of Miss 

 Evans "a beautiful and consistent friend- 

 ship, running like a thread through the woof 

 of . . . thirty-eight years." 



It would be an excellent thing if the 

 reading public could be induced more often 

 to turn back to the works of those who 

 have carefully thought out the problems of 

 existence, rather than to demand new ex- 

 pressions which are apt to be more crude 

 and superficial. Did they but know it, they 

 would not seldom find a greater degree of 

 novelty in the old than in the recent. And 

 the republication of books which have com- 

 manded attention, but which, though excel- 

 lent, are in danger of being forgotten in the 

 multitude of novelties, is a highly commend- 

 able enterprise. 



Among such works of a past generation 

 is " The Philosophy of Necessity," by Charles 

 Bray. It aims to justify the doctrine of the 

 uniformity of nature as construed by the 

 necessitarians and utilitarians, of whom the 

 Mills and Bentham are the type. The author 

 treats the subject first on the side of moral 

 and then of mental science. The best part 

 is the first division, wherein there is a very 

 able and valuable discussion of the origin, 



objects, and advantages of evil, pain being 

 considered " as the necessary and most ef- 

 fectual guardian of that system of organiza- 

 tion upon which happiness depends." Mr. 

 Bray is no pessimist. On the contrary, he 

 believes fully in the beneficial quality of 

 pain, that evil is only a means to .good, or 

 good in the making. The limitations of 

 human knowledge prevent us from seeing 

 this clearly, but an hypothesis to that effect 

 furnishes the only rational explanation of 

 the existence of suffering in the world. The 

 moral universe is governed by law, and its 

 laws " are as stable as those of the physical 

 world " ; and, while " the causes of many 

 evils must still remain unexplained," enough 

 is known to warrant the faith that " further 

 knowledge will make manifest the benevo- 

 lent tendency of all creation, and bring 

 home to every heart the all-cheering convic- 

 tion that ' whatever is, is right.' " 



The Garden's Story ; or, Pleasures and 

 Trials op an Amateur Gardener. By 

 George H. Ellwanger. New York : D. 

 Appleton & Co. Pp. 345. Price, $1.25. 



The author of this work is an "ama- 

 teur " in the sense that he has a genuine 

 love for the gardener's occupation; his 

 knowledge of the subject and familiarity 

 with plants and their relations with soil, 

 situation, weather, climate, and purpose, are 

 professional. His essay is practical in the 

 sense that one may learn from it well how 

 to manage a garden with the greatest suc- 

 cess, what plants to put in it, where to put 

 them, how to arrange them, and how to 

 treat them. It is to an equal extent 

 aesthetical, for it is permeated with the 

 sense of the beautiful and of whatever is 

 pleasing to a refined taste, and draws freely 

 for illustration on the world's stores of 

 poetry. Hence, whatever be the purpose of 

 the reader who takes it up, he will find 

 something respondent in it. The particular 

 design of the volume is to direct attention 

 to the importance of hardy flower-gardening 

 as a means of outward adornment and a 

 source of recreation ; to present a simple 

 outline of the art rather than a formal trea- 

 tise or text book of plants — " to stimulate a 

 love for amateur gardening that may be car- 

 ried out by all who are willing to bestow 

 upon it that need of attention it so boun- 



