Being in whom alone perfection dwells. Reid is right, therefore, in saying that the first cause of either is a divine Being whose volition immediately invests material objects, sounds and forms alike, with all their beautiful aspects. And so, beauty is nothing less than a revelation of the Unconditional, a manifestation of the divine thought." "In Augustine's phrase, all things bright and beautiful are 'footprints of the uncreated Wisdom.' A scientific writer of our own day, speaking with acknowledged authority, says, 'The fact that Nature is beautiful to us, that its action meets a swift response in our minds, is best explained, indeed is hardly explicable otherwise, by supposing that its informing spirit is akin to our own. Because of our intellect we are forced to suppose a like quality in the Power that shaped us.' In the tone world all lovely and uplifting music is thus both echo and evidence of perfect musical thought and feeling in the Oversoul of the universe." ELEMENTS OF GERMAN GRAMMAR. By Thomas H. Jappe. New York: American Book Company. Pp. 133. This book is intended for first year German instruction in schools, and is also specially adapted for self-instruction. About one-third of the book is devoted to a simple and concise arrangement of the necessary grammatical principles. The next portion consists of groups of questions on definite subjects. Each page of questions is followed by a blank page upon which the corresponding answers may be written. When completed the answers to each group of questions thus form a connected composition. The author suggests that at first only the simplest questions may be selected on each theme, and the rest added when reviewing. Just preceding the very complete vocabulary at the back of the book, both words and music of some fifteen folk-songs are inserted. These are to be memorized from time to time and the final singing of them induces further improvement in careful pronnuciation. The author offers ten rules of general application in acquiring practical knowledge of a foreign language. JAPAN YEAR BOOK. First Year Edition. Tokyo: Japan Year Book Office. 1905. Pp. 362, 50, iii. Price, 4s. net. This work appeared in August as the first of a promised series of annuals compiled for the purpose of providing a "vade-mecum for the foreign public who have thus far encountered considerable troubles whenever they wanted to get more than a skin-deep information about this new member in the family of nations and the now sovereign Power in the Far East." It is entirely the work of native Japanese who apologize for possible defects in their English, and express their intention to bring out the next number by May at the latest. The first chapters are of a descriptive nature, treating of the political and physical geography of Japan, and are followed by details of the imperial, legislative and local government and regulations, various industries and conditions, means of communication, details of the war and its finances. and conditions in Formosa and Korea. An appendix contains an import tariff list and a directory of the leading exporters and importers. An alphabetical index adds materially to the usefulness of the book. DER KAMPF UM DEN ENTWICKELUNGS-GEDANKEN. Drei Vorträge von Ernst Professor Haeckel is indefatigable. Scarcely had he decided to retire from active work and discontinue writing books when he was involved in a : : fierce controversy with Professor Loofs. In order to explain his position he wrote "The Riddle of the Universe," which was to be his philosophical and religious testament, when fierce attacks prompted him to give further explanation in "The Wonders of Life." Each time when he sat down to write another book he promised himself that this one should be his last, but new complications forced the pen into his hand again and again; and so we are not astonished to find again a pamphlet containing three lectures by Ernst Haeckel. The pamphlet is adorned by the author's portrait, which shows him to be in the exuberance of that health and vigor which is peculiarly his own in spite of his advanced age. The pamphlet has been caused by an invitation to deliver a proposed lecture in the hall of the Sing-Akademie in which he discusses the labors and difficulties of men of science in gaining a hearing and finding acceptance of their views. Upon the whole the lecture does not contain anything new except in personal detail, but it is written in the refreshing style for which he is famous throughout the world. THE TABERNACLE. Its History and Structure. By Rev. W. Shaw Caldecott. Philadelphia: The Union Press. 1904. Pp. xix, 236. While excavations have been made on a large scale in Babylon and Egypt, very little of such work has been done in Palestine, and yet we must expect great results from it for our comprehension of the Old Testament. Mr. W. Shaw Caldecott has specialized his investigations on the measurements of the Israelitic Tabernacle and the Temple at Jerusalem, and he has arrived at some definite conclusions which will most likely prove reliable. There is none other among the excavators who combines the qualities of mathematical with archæological and philological knowledge necessary to investigate this particular subject. Mr. Caldecott has made a thorough study of the Old Testament relying on the text only and putting aside traditional interpretations. The results of his investigations are very plausible. He has been in Palestine and compared the actual measurements of the ruins of Ramah, Nob, and Râmet el-Khalil with the Babylonian measurements, especially those of Gudea. Professor Caldecott's book on the subject which appears under the title of The Tabernacle, Its History and Structure, contains much interesting matter, the significance of which will come to be more and more recognized. Professor Sayce, who furnished a preface to it, concludes with the following comment upon Mr. Caldecott's work: "In reading what he has to say about Shiloh, more than once I have been inclined to exclaim, 'Oh, that the site could be archæologically explored!' Until Palestine has been made to yield up its buried past like Egypt and Babylonia, the Old Testament wili remain a battle-ground for disputants who have no solid basis of fact on which to stand." OPTICAL ILLUSIONS OF REVERSIBLE PERSPECTIVE. A Volume of historical and experimental researches. By J. E. Wallace Wallin. Princeton University, Princeton, N. J.: J. E. W. Wallin. Pp. 330. Price, paper, $1.85, Cloth, $2.25. Postage, 20 cents. Professor Wallin is demonstrator in experimental psychology in Princeton University, and the preparation for the present work was begun during his official connection with Clark and Michigan Universities. The historical portion treats of cameos and intaglios, concavities and convexities, geometrical outlines, and pseudoscopy. The larger portion of the book treats of the nature of experimental records, perspectivity in momentary exposures, distance and size estimations, accomodation and the third dimension, the effect of suggestion upon perspectivity with school children, the duration and alternation of perspective reversions, perspective presentations and practice, and a discussion of the psychophysical theory as against the psychological. ЧЕ EVOLUTION OF A GREAT LITERATURE. By Newton Mann. Boston: James H. West Company, 1905. Pp. 381. Price, $1.50 net. Postage 15 cents. Based upon a close study of Old Testament criticism, Rev. Newton Mann presents in this volume a sketch of the rise and development of Hebrew literature until it finds a final shape in the canonical Bible. The book is dedicated to the two main champions of higher criticism in Hebrew literature, Rev. T. K. Cheyne and Rev. W. C. Van Manen. INDIA E BUDDHISMO ANTICO. Di Giuseppe De Lorenzo, Bari: Laterza & Figli. 1904. Pp. 299. We are in receipt of an Italian book entitled "India and Ancient Buddhism" by Giuseppe De Lorenzo. The author discusses the relation between India and ancient Greece in the time of Pythagoras; the foundation of Buddhism; the personality of Gotama, his family, etc.; the discourses of Gotama Buddha; the relation of his doctrines with Kant; and finally Buddhism after Gotama; Buddhism in India, its definition, its degeneration, and European Buddhism. THE CHANGING ORDER. A Study of Democracy. By Oscar Lovell Triggs, Ph. D. Chicago: Oscar L. Triggs Publishing Co. 1905. Pp. 300. Oscar Lovell Triggs, Ph. D., who, as is generally known, has left the University of Chicago, and is now publishing a periodical entitled The Triggs Magazine, has published his maturest views in a book entitled The Changing Order. It contains essays on such subjects as "Democratic Art," "The Esoteric Tendency in Literature," "Democratic Education," "The New Doctrine and After," "A School of Industrial Art." The saints which he reveres are Tolstoy, William Morris, Walt Whitman, and Browning. If we judge of the author from the ideas expressed in his periodical, as well as in his book, he is (to use an expression of his own) a harmless and unoffending individual. In an idealism of his own he follows the tendency of asserting his individuality in a legitimate, although perhaps in a too personal manner, and is specially enthusiastic in educational fields. GARRISON THE NON-RESISTANT. By Ernest Crosby. Chicago: Public Publishing Company. 1905. Pp. 141. Ernest Crosby, the undaunted champion of human rights, and an advocate of non-resistance and peace, publishes through the Public Publishing Company a series of chapters on Garrison, his life and his work. It will be welcome to the many friends of the great abolitionist. The Open Court (Monthly) and Subscription By an arrangement with the publishers of THE LITERARY DIGEST we are enabled to make a most attractive offer of the two magazines at the price of one. THE OPEN COURT covers a field distinctly its own, and THE LITERARY DIGEST is one of the best in its class. season. This offer is good until January 15, 1906, only. Order now before the rush WHAT THE WORLD THINKS on all live questions of the day, Political, Scientific, Industrial, THE LITERARY DIGEST SIX DEPARTMENTS EACH WEEK Topics of the Day Science and In- is the Ideal Paper for busy men and women. It is an Illustrated Weekly giving all sides impartially. It tells just what one wants to know and stops there. (Four Pages) The Open Court The Religious (Four Pages) Foreign Topics Miscellaneous (Eight Pages) THIRTY-TWO PAGES WEEKLY All the periodicals in one The busy man's ideal journal All sides of all live questions A first-class chess department AN ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY MAGAZINE Devoted to the Science of Religion, The Religion of Science and the Extension of The Religious Parliament Idea. The Open Court on the one hand is devoted to the Science of Religion; it investigates the religious problems in the domain of philosophy, psychology, and history; and on the other hand advocates the Religion of Science. It believes that Science can work out a reform within the Churches that will preserve of religion all that is true, and good, and wholesome. |