< Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu
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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The Childhood of Religions: embracing a Simple Account of the Birth and Growth of Myths and Legends. By Edward Clodd, F. R. A. S. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 288. Price, $1.25.

The author of this book published, two or three years since, a little volume entitled "The Childhood of the World," in which he presented, in a familiar way, designed for perusal by the young, the modern doctrine of the antiquity of the world, and something of that which is now regarded as known concerning the primitive condition of man. The success that attended his former undertaking has led him to break into another and a kindred field, and to present, in a popular and readable form, what is considered to be known in relation to primitive religions. The author regards the two works as but parts of one argument, and the present volume as the natural and necessary outgrowth of the former. Of the need and purpose of such an exposition he remarks, at the opening:

"The question which forces itself upon all who are interested in the education of the young is what they shall be taught regarding the relation of the Bible to other sacred scriptures, and to the declarations of modern science when they fail to harmonize with its statements; and it is as a humble contribution to the solution of that question that the present and preceding volumes have been written. In an age which has been truly characterized by a leading thinker as one of 'weak convictions,' it seems to me incumbent on those who, in accepting the conclusions to which the discoveries of our time point, regard the inevitable displacement of many beliefs without fear, because assured that the great verities remain, to be faithful to their convictions, and to show that the process of destruction is removing only the scaffolding which, once useful, now obscures the temple from our view. In the absence of any like elementary treatise upon subjects regarding which much ignorance and apathy prevail, and the treatment of which is at present confined to works for the most part high-priced, and not always accessible. I hope that this book may not be regarded as needless, however far it falls short of the requirement which appears to me to exist, and which it ventures to temporarily supply."

The book is very plainly written, and gives a great deal of interesting information about myths and legends of the creation, religious beliefs of the Aryan or Indo-European nations, the religion of the ancient and modern Hindoos, Buddhism, and the ancient religions of Persia, China, and the Semitic nations. Much is said upon these subjects nowadays by learned men, and Mr. Clodd's volume is a good popular introduction to this field of literature.

The Physical Basis of Immortality. By Antoinette Brown Blackwell. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 324. Price, $1.50.

This volume is an intrepid attempt to establish the doctrine of personal immortality on the scientific basis of modern physical theories. The indestructibility of matter and force, and the existence of atoms or units, are the principles Mrs. Blackwell employs as the foundation of her argument. We cannot here analyze it, but will give the author's standpoint in her own words:

"It must be a part of my effort to offer sufficient evidence that actual indestructible centres of force do exist in Nature; and that no force is or ever can be, during the present order of natural events, separated from its own individual centre of activities. If this form of the atomic theory can be proved; if atoms can be shown to exist, and to persist in the midst of all changes, these atoms then become the unshaken basis of a personal immortality. We have only to further show that there are centres of atomic force, some of whose modes of energizing are sentient modes, and the whole case will be gained" (page 89).
"Mind is matter and something more. Every mind is an indestructible material unit, constituted by allied force and extension, jointly conditioned with sentient force or consciousness. The whole is an indivisible and immortal conscious personality" (page 175).

William Whewell, D. D., Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. An Account of his Writings, with Selections from his Literary and Scientific Correspondence. By I. Todhunter, M. A., F. R. S. Two Vols., 416 and 439 pp. New York: Macmillan & Co. Price, $9.

We have long waited for a life of Dr. Whewell, and although we have not found it in these volumes, in the usual sense of the biography, yet we have here what may be called a history of his intellectual life, as disclosed in the informal and fragmentary passages of an extensive correspondence. Sir John Herschel has said of Dr. Whewell that "a more wonderful variety and amount of knowledge in almost every department of human inquiry was perhaps never in the same interval of time accumulated by any man." Of this, his numerous and learned publications bear ample witness, and it is of course from these that

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