232 
Analyses of Books . 
[April, 
The Perfect Way, or the Finding of Christ. London : Field and 
Tuer, and Hamilton and Adams. 
On opening the anonymous book bearing this not unassuming 
title we expected to find a religious treatise the examination of 
which we must decline as outside our competence. But we 
soon became convinced that the writers, if hostile to agnosticism 
and materialism, — we might almost venture to add “ and to 
modern Science,” — are no less at issue with historical Christianity 
and with the teachings of the orthodox churches. We find here 
many startling assertions, to some of which we may refer in 
detail, and we naturally seek for their evidence. How have the 
writers learnt that which they set forth ? Have they detected 
any phenomena, hitherto overlooked, from which their conclu- 
sions are legitimately induced ? No ; they seem to derive their 
dodtrines from intuition. “ The ledtures,” we are told on p. 4, 
“ represent the results of Intuitional Memory, developed and 
otherwise assisted by the only mode of life compatible with 
sound philosophic observations.” Now we will not deny the 
possible existence of “ intuition as a faculty and a source of in- 
formation,” though we suspedf that much of what is called 
intuition in man, and instindl in beasts, has a different source. 
But we ask, How can one man’s alleged intuitions be evidence 
to another ? How is B to know whether A’s intuitions have 
anything but a pathological origin ? How have the writers as- 
certained, and how can they prove, what modes of life are 
“ compatible with sound philosophic observations ” ? 
Among the strange opinions to be met with in this volume 
may be mentioned the following : — The planets are persons, pos- 
sessing memory (pp. 8 and 9). Man is a fourfold being, com- 
posed of a material body, an “ astral” body or “ perisoul,” a 
soul, and a spirit. Maimonides is quoted with apparent appro- 
bation for the didtum — “ When thy senses affirm that which thy 
reason denies, rejedt the testimony of thy senses, and listen only 
to thy reason.” Was therefore Maimonides the philosopher 
who, when told that fadts were against his theories, calmly re- 
plied “ So much the worse for the fadts ” ? 
On p. 15 we read — “ Whether of the individual or the universal, 
Soul is Substance, that which sub-stands all phenomena. This 
substance is original protoplasm.” It may here be remarked 
that a play upon words is a very prominent feature of this book. 
It should have been preferably written in the German language, 
which yields greater scope to such performances. We further 
find (p. 16) that matter and spirit are merely “ two states of the 
same thing.” Matter is “ substance in its dynamic state.’ The 
following passage, if we misunderstand it not, is put forward as 
an explanation of the origin of life :■ — “ The soul’s entrance into 
matter and primal manifestation as an individual occurs in the 
