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Analyses. of Books* [.November, 
family circle, kind to the poor, modest, and humble. The 
author’s description may be true of the men who are “ reading ” 
for degrees, honours, &c., but it is not true of the men who are 
“ working ” for hitherto undiscovered truths. 
Concerning spiritualism the author says : “ The unexplained 
fadts that come under the heads of somnambulism, hysteria, 
mesmerism, table rapping, &c., which remain after much impos- 
ture is allowed for, cannot be denied by any but the straitest sedt 
of scientific pharisees. But to attribute them to anything but 
abnormal workings of the mind, or to anything that people 
think they mean by the term ‘spirits,’ is, in the present state of 
knowledge on the subject, simply superstitious.” Here, then, 
we see Mr. Constable firing off both barrels, and hitting Dr. 
Carpenter on the one hand, and Mr. A. R. Wallace and Prof. 
Zoellner on the other. But there is some truth in the following 
passage: — “The way men of science shirk these questions is 
cowardly in the extreme, and shows that their boasted love of 
truth is only love of themselves and of their little reputations.” 
The chapter entitled “A Hint or Two about Faith as distin- 
guished from Knowledge,” reminds us of M. J. B. Stallo’s “Con- 
cepts and Theories of Modern Physics,” and also of Mr. H. 
Griffith’s “Faith, the Life-Root of Science, Philosophy, Ethics, 
and Religion.” 
The “ germ theory ” is a pet bete noire of Mr. Constable. 
Perhaps, if he were acquainted with the evidence which has lately 
come to light, he would alter his opinion. 
The following passage is worth quoting : — “ What strange 
creatures men are. They run their sewage into the ocean, and 
then whine that they have no manure ; send their rainfall into 
the gutters, and then whine that they have no water; keep 
their cattle in unhealthy conditions, and then whine because they 
become subjedt to disease ; kill and bury them six feet deep, and 
then whine because they have no stock for their fields ; get 
higher pay for their labour, and then whine because the price of 
what is produced by that labour becomes higher : insist on and 
get equality, and then whine because they have thus lost liberty ; 
quarrel with and prevent the formation of capital, and then whine 
because wages are less than they think they should be, &c.” 
This is doubtless ably put, but is not Mr. Constable afraid of 
being called a pessimist — a class for whom he entertains no great 
affedtion ? By the way, the name “ pessimist ” is sometimes 
applied very illogically. A pessimist surely is not a man who 
sees and says that there is much evil in the world, but one who, 
inverting the old superstition that everything is right, maintains 
that everything is wrong and as far wrong as it can be. 
Inconsistency is of course to be expedted in a work like the 
one before us. The author defends field sports from the charge 
of cruelty. Be it so ; not being infedted with “zoo-folly,” we do 
not bring that charge, and we fully admit and uphold the 
