MISCELLANEOUS.

BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTES.

Richard H. Geoghegan, author of a learned article on comparative folklore in the current number of The Monist (Oct. 1906), in which he traces similarities between the Chinese and the Mayan calendars, has made an extended visit to the Aleuts, and writes as follows concerning their language:

"The Aleutian speech interests me much, and I am surprised that it has not been more closely investigated by English-speaking students; the tongue of the people who form a connecting link between the new and the old worlds surely merits consideration. While usually classed by linguists as an offshoot of the Eskimo, it is worthy of note that only two words (father, water) in the language bear any resemblance to the corresponding Eskimo terms. In com. mon with the Malay, Polynesian and Malagasi, it makes use of denominative verbs (to be good, to be a man, not to have a father) instead of predicative substantives and adjectives. In contradistinction to the Polynesian, but in exact conformity with the Malay, it has an extensive system of infixes; and the majority of its primitive words are dissyllables, like the Malayan. It makes use of possessive suffixes in place of separate possessive pronouns, just as the Malay, Philippine and certain Melanesian and Micronesian tongues do, and like these prefers a circumlocution (there is to me) rather than direct use of a verb 'to have."

In our frontispiece we reproduce from the Japanese art periodical, Bijutsu Gaho, (The Magazine of Art) for October 20, 1905, an illustration of a bronze group called "The Old Farmer and his Family." We prefer to call it in our reproduction "The Japanese Man with the Hoe," and we think that this Oriental conception of the man with the hoe is by far superior to the same figure in Western civilization. We can see that the Japanese laborer is hard worked, and inured to toil, but what a ray of light shines in the faces of these poor parents when the child on his mother's knee stretches out his hand to the dear father who earns a living for his little family by the sweat of his brow!

(The Bijutsu Gaho is published twice every month for 5.40 yen per year by Gahosha, Tokyo, Japan.)

THE LAUREL MUSIC READER. Edited by Wm. L. Tomlins. Boston: Birchard, 1906.

The present volume supplements a Laurel Song Book, which has become justly famous, and the public is justified in expecting a rare collection of

songs for young people when W. L. Tomlins gives the result of his wide experience in editing a "Music-Reader" for the use of schools.

Careful consideration has been given to the best interest of the voices of growing girls and boys,-especially the latter at the critical period when their voices change, and in a few "Suggestions" placed opposite the first page, teachers of young choruses are urged to bear these special needs in mind in a wise choice of selections and alternating assignment of parts such that all the natural tones of the voice shall receive continuous and systematic exercise.

One consideration that the editor rightly thinks important in a study which trains the child to the best self-expression, is that of the relation of text and music. He has therefore undertaken to make the choice of good literature one of the essential qualifications, as the opening with "Pippa's Song" will testify. Many of the most beautiful lyrics of our language are incorporated from Shelley, Southey, Wordsworth, Keats, Shakespeare, Browning, Whittier, Longfellow, Riley, Field, Emerson, Poe, Wm. Watson, Stevenson, besides many operatic selections and the simplest folk songs. Because man's nature finds most complete expression in music, "it follows that any collection of songs, to be superior must be characterized by a many-sided content, and therefore the editor has so compiled this work as to give voice therein to all the emotions of hope, love, worship and joy, and to all the immemorial thoughts and feelings of home, fatherland, religion and beauty in which our humanity finds its best and truest ideals." The result is that we find between the same covers, "Old Black Joe" and Handel's "Largo," the "Pilgrims' Chorus" from Tannhäuser and "When First I Saw My Peggy," "Lead Kindly Light" and "Dixie's Land."

BUDDHIST TEXTS IN JOHN. Buddhist Texts Quoted as Scriptures by the Gospel of John. By Albert J. Edmunds. Philadelphia, 1906.

Since sending the manuscript of his Buddhist and Christian Gospels to the Tokyo publishing house, Mr. Edmunds has continued to find parallels between the two religions, and is struck with the fact that in two passages in the Fourth Gospel (John vii. 38; xii. 34) the evangelist quotes as Scripture phrases which it has not been possible to trace to any source of Jewish literature, and which now can be clearly identified as portions from Buddhist writings, though in one case from a distinctly apochryphal work. The citations in John "as the Scripture hath said," and "We have heard out of the law," have puzzled many exegetists who tried in vain to find the original in Jewish, Greek or Roman literature. Mr. Edmunds makes the noteworthy comment, that "while one case of the mysterious Fourth Evangelist quoting a Buddhist text as Scripture would be remarkable, two such cases are sig nificant, and almost certainly imply historical connection, especially when taken together with the fact that other parts of the Gospels present verbal agreements with Pali texts."

We learn through Mr. C. O. Boring, of Chicago, that the annual convention of the World's New Thought Federation will meet in that city on the twenty-third of October.

FOUNDATION OF A LAY CHURCH

WHAT is the reason that so many people, and sometimes the very best ones, those who think, stay at home on Sunday and do not attend church? Is it because our clergymen preach antiquated dogmas and the people are tired of listening to them; or is it because the Churches themselves are antiquated and their methods have become obsolete? To many these reasons may seem a sufficient explanation, but I believe there are other reasons, and even if in many places and for various reasons religious life is flagging, we ought to revive, and modernize, and sustain church life; we ought to favor the ideals of religious organizations; we ought to create opportunities for the busy world to ponder from time to time on the ultimate questions of life, the problems of death, of eternity, of the interrelation of all mankind, of the brotherhood of man, of international justice, of universal righteousness, and other matters of conscience, etc.

The Churches have, at least to a great extent, ceased to be the guides of the people, and among many other reasons there is one quite obvious which has nothing to do with religion and dogma. In former times the clergyman was sometimes the only educated and scholarly person in his congregation, and he was naturally the leader of his flock. But education has spread. Thinking is no longer a clerical prerogative, and there are more men than our ministers worthy of hearing in matters of a religious import. In other words, formerly the pulpit was naturally the ruler in matters ecclesiastic, but now the pews begin to have rights too.

Wherever the Churches prosper, let them continue their work; but for the sake of the people over whom the Churches have lost their influence the following proposition would be in order, which will best and most concisely be expressed in the shape of a ready-made

PROGRAM FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A LAY CHURCH.

GENERAL PRINCIPLE.

It is proposed to form a congregation whose bond of union, instead of a fixed creed, shall be the common purpose of ascertaining religious truth, which shall be accomplished, not under the guidance of one and the same man in the pulpit, but by the communal effort of its members in the pews.

FOUNDATION OF A LAY CHURCH. (CONTINUED.)

NAME AND FURTHER PARTICULARS.

This congregation shall be known by the name of The Lay Church, or whatever name may be deemed suitable in our different communities, and a characteristic feature of it shall be that it will have no minister, but the preaching will be done by its own members or invited speakers.

Far from antagonizing the religious life of any Church, The Lay Church proposes to bring to life religious forces that now lie dormant. Religious aspirations have as many aspects as there are pursuits in life, and it is the object of The Lay Church to have representatives of the several professions, of business, the sciences, the arts, and the trades, express their religious convictions upon the moral, political, and social questions of the day.

The Lay Church will establish a free platform for diverse religious views, not excluding the faiths of the established Churches: provided the statements are made with sincerity and reverence.

Since The Lay Church as such will, on the one hand, not be held responsible for the opinions expressed by its speakers, and, on the other hand, not be indifferent to errors and aberrations, monthly meetings shall be held for a discussion of the current Sunday addresses.

The man of definite conviction will find in The Lay Church a platform for propaganda, provided it be carried on with propriety and with the necessary regard for the belief of others: while the searcher for truth will have the problems on which he has not yet been able to form an opinion of his own ventilated from different standpoints.

It is the nature of this Church that its patrons may at the same time belong to other Churches or to no Church. And membership does not imply the severing of old ties or the surrendering of former beliefs.

The spirit of the organization shall be the same as that which pervaded the Religious Parliament of 1893. Every one to whom the privilege of the platform is granted is expected to present the best he can offer, expounding his own views without disparaging others. And the common ground will be the usual methods of argument such as are vindicated by universal experience, normally applied to all enterprises in practical life, and approved of by the universal standards of truth-commonly called science.

(Reprinted from The Open Court for January, 1903.)

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