726 
Analyses of Books. [November, 
colossal works of engineering. In truth the perfect man is not 
given to dreaming or to unduly exercising any one portion ot his 
nature. Savans , such as Faraday, who pedant-like stick through- 
out their whole lives to contemplative pursuits, are, as we have 
often asserted, inferior natures, like the famulus Wagner ot 
Goethe’s great tragedy !” 
Surely the writer forgets that his supposed “ perfetf. man, in 
forsaking Science, is under the especial guidance of the Evil 
One and that the “ aftive pursuits ” beginning with seduction 
and’ murder go on to finance operations, whilst the “ colossal 
works of engineering ” are executed at the cost of expropriation 
and bloodshed, as we see in real life. 
Goethe makes his Fiend give the student this advice : 
“ Verachte nur Vernunft und Wissenschaft 
Des Menschen allerhochste Kraft !” 
Thalassoplektos accepts this as bona fide, and would have us 
take Mephistopheles at his word • . . 
We do not see that Science has anything to gain or to learn 
from this work. Nay, we fear that its spirit must be regarded as 
decidedly anti-scientific, and as a verification of the forebodings 
expressed from time to time in this Journal,— to wit, that savans 
may in future experience ill-will, and even persecution, not from 
ecclesiastics, but from the champions of “ free thought.” 
We may well ask, who is “ Thalassoplektos ” that he should 
dare to pronounce Faraday an “ inferior nature,” and consider 
his life less perfedt than that of such nonentities as country gen- 
tlemen and idle cavalry officers ? Might he not have gone a 
little step further in the same direction, and pronounced the 
career of a gorilla a still closer approach to perfection ? There 
is, further, nothing “ dreamy,” “ contemplative,” or “ pedantic 
in the scientific nature. . . , . 
Into the religious bearings of this work we do not feel it within 
our province to enter ; but we would ask whether Pessimism is 
likely to be abated if we learn that there is no “ land of the leal 
where the weary may hope for rest ? 
Both Dr Lewins and “ Thalassoplektos prediCt the ap- 
proaching downfall of England. Their prophecies may possibly 
be verified, but if so the crisis will be due not to the survival of 
the religious element among us, but to the decay of the “ tribal 
instind.” 
Several important books stand over for review, on account of 
the want of space. 
