stance different from that of matter is still beyond the limits of human intelligence, and the physical or objective conditions which are the concomitants of thought are the only ones of which it is possible to know anything, and the only ones whose study is of value.

We are not, however, on that account forced to the conclusion that there is nothing in the universe but matter and force. The simplest physical law is absolutely inconceivable by the highest of the brutes, and no one would be justified in assuming that man had already attained the limit of his powers. Whatever may be that mysterious bond which connects organization with psychical endowments, the one grand fact- a fact of inestimable importance-stands out clear and freed from all obscurity and doubt, that from the first dawn of intelligence there is with every advance in organization a corresponding advance in mind. Mind as well as body is thus travelling onward through higher and still higher phases; the great law of evolution is shaping the destiny of our race; and though now we may at most but indicate some weak point in the generalization which would refer consciousness as well as life to a common material source, who can say that in the far-off future there may not yet be evolved other and higher faculties from which light may stream in upon the darkness, and reveal to man the great mystery of thought?

THINGS AT HOME AND ABROAD.

ESSAYS OF TO-DAY, RELIGIOUS AND THEOLOGICAL.*

These essays are all valuable and interesting. Those on the "Schoolmen," "Savonarola," " Edward Irving," "Lacordaire," etc., show the wide reading of the writer, and are suggestive to students of ecclesiastical history; but the essays showing the most original thoughts are found in the latter part of the book. The essay on the "Present-Day Elements in Christianity" is full of fresh generalizations in regard to the best conclusions of the age.

Some of the expressions are happy in their significance. "By the Church of Christ," the writer says, 66 we mean God's call to men." This is a broad and noble definition of that august thing, the Anglican Apostolic Church, from one of its own adherents. Such broadness as this would soon bring sects together spiritually if not visibly. It is a definition which appears to embrace also, in the writer's mind, all phases of real Christianity.

The essay on the causes of heresy is very fresh and pithy. The writer does not take into consideration the man who skins over everything lightly, and who finds a little good and a little bad in every kind of faith, but has none of his own. Such a man is not a genuine heretic in our writer's estimation; he is not earnest enough for real noble doubt. The real true heretics, our essayist divides off into three classes, and he shows real sympathy for these men, putting himself into their place for the moment. There is, he says, the heresy of temperament, the heresy of our surroundings, and the heresy of experience! And he goes on to illustrate this aptly by actual facts drawn from history and modern life, showing a fine appreciation of the best actors in the ecclesiastical drama of the past, and a generous comprehension of their motives, while he is ready to deal tenderly with the doubter of to-day. Such true catholicity of spirit is far from being indifferentism; for those who manifest this liberality generally love ardently their own form of faith, while they respect another man's convictions if they are sincere.

* Essays of To-Day, Religious and Theological. By Wm. Wilberforce Newton, Rector of St. Paul's Church, Boston.

The essay on the "Narrowness of Breadth" is racy and keen, and full of fresh suggestions.

The writer speaks of the extremes in the Christianity of to-day. On one side the sacraments, on the other the emotions. "The real presence of Christ in the sacrament is the gross extreme of one line, and the presence of the Holy Spirit on the telegraphic wire of the human feelings is the extreme of the opposite line." He thinks there is a third power making itself felt somewhere in every Christian communion, recognizing the good in either of these two sides, and rejecting that which is weak. Still he believes there is often "too much strain to preserve the balance, a stretched-out effort to be cultured in everything." This, he says, sometimes makes it a relief to hear men like Moody, "who are not cumbered with much philosophical serving, but have their half-a-dozen strong convictions."

So the writer raises his protest against this "narrowness of breadth," to which he himself pleads guilty, thus generously stimulating us to like confession, that we may have, as he says, "a general absolution and a second growth of moral force."

The balance of power to-day, he declares, is with men of earnest living and positive breadth. A moral necessity is laid on us to be true to the needs of this generation. But this breadth has a weak phase as well as a powerful phase. We must remember that the Christian Church is something wider than a philosopher's club. We are not only "to criticise our fellow-men, and try our hats on them, and measure the circumference and weight of their brains." We must help and bless them. We must remember that those who live on different mental planes need our support and sympathy, if they are earnest and true men, quite as much as if they were all Michaels and Gabriels, God's chosen archangels. "We must not think that the tribe-songs of those who differ from us are all cant; we must learn to look through much weakness, chaff, and foolishness even, and to recognize substantial results underlying these. We cannot afford to crowd such men with our critical pressure."

These are noble words; and would that more religious persons had the power to put themselves, for the moment at least, in another's place. We infer, from the broadness of the writer's mind, that when he uses the word Church, he uses it in no narrow sense, but means the whole circle of Christian believers; as where he says, for instance, "We must recognize the good in

every effort where good is done within the Church's walls, unless we are willing to hand over the leadership to some newer, fresher power."...

The writer quotes from a sermon of Dr. John Cotton Smith in regard to the movements of the Broad Church party in regard to reducing the "dogmatic basis." He agrees with Dr. Smith that this tendency is good, although it may be carried to too great an extent. He says, "Reduce your dogmatic basis, but make the essence of your reduction strong." When Mr. Newton begins, however, to enumerate the things on which men's minds should be made up, it seems to us that he makes out too long a list, according to his own theory. We supposed he was going to name the Personality, or, we might say, the Fatherhood of God, the Divine Missionary, Jesus Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, the sacred authority of many of the Hebrew Scriptures, the resurrection, the ascension and immortality, and the visible Church, with its venerated forms and symbols. We were prepared to agree with him and say, as we do feel, that the Christian Church cannot hold together or exist long without as much of a creed as this. But he enumerates a great many things which from his own liberal point of view ought not to be considered essentials: The problem of salvation; the nature of the atonement; the fall,-"Is it a fall up-stairs or down-stairs?" he says; everlasting punishment,-is it true? We grant that all these are extremely interesting questions; but when he says that we must answer Yes or No, as if our Christianity depended upon having them settled, we cannot agree with him, and we do not believe he quite agrees with himself in covering so much ground when he started with his dogmatic basis. We would much rather have the Apostles' Creed than to answer all these questions, or at least to make another man answer them before he could enter into our communion. This is a small criticism, however; and the writer may have merely intended to imply that a thinking man ought to have some opinions on these latter questions. We commend these attractive essays to all earnest lovers of the truth. (A. Williams & Co., Publishers, Boston.)

KEARY'S "DAWN OF HISTORY."

This is truly a charming book. The author, in his very modest preface, only professes to have prepared a book for the general reader, in hopes of inspiring him with a taste for something more

advanced in the end. But although a so-called popular work, it has required no little care, good judgment, and familiarity with these subjects to put them into such an interesting shape for the unlearned reader. Prehistoric science, he says, is in that early stage when workers are too busy to collect the results of their labors, "and place them upon their proper shelves in the storehouse of knowledge." The reader, he says, who is not a specialist does not know how to find what has been done; and that is the reason for this book. It is to answer this want. The book is a joint production. Two other members of the editor's own family have aided him, as we see by the index. He thinks no apology is necessary, as much reading has been essential, and the conclusions of different writers were to be balanced.

The first five chapters are by the editor, being "The Earliest Traces of Man," "The Second Stone Age," "The Growth of Language," ," "Families of Language," and "The Nations of the Old World."

We are struck at once by the simple, clear style and undogmatic tone of the writer. He is not eager to advance the last theory, to usher the reader into arenas yet half-discovered or imaginary, in order to show his attainments, like some of our scientific and religious investigators to-day, who are so intoxicated with new discoveries that they jump eagerly at every chimera, and mislead themselves and us. He goes carefully, making sure of every step, and leads us gently through clear chambers of knowledge, until at length we hold our breath in delight.

Can this be for us? Can it be that the results of all the labors of patient and learned men can be so given to us that we may drink in easily this pure wine of knowledge on a summer's afternoon? Verily, as Jesus said, some men have toiled, and others have entered into their labors.

The first chapters, on the two Stone Ages, are exceedingly interesting; and the third, on the growth of language, opens to us the ingenious and yet reasonable analogies which philologists have drawn in regard to the kindred ties which unite all languages and reveal the first stammerings of speech.

We have in the next chapters-"Families of Language," "The Nations of the Old World," "Early Social Life," "The Village Community," "Religion," and "Aryan Religions." All these chapters are exceedingly interesting. The editor seems to be a convert to the favorite theory of sun-gods and myths. For