Professor Pfleiderer says: "Judging by all past experience and by many a sign of the present, it may well be supposed that the progress of knowledge will not be toward the old tradition, but rather to a greater departure from it. Hence, we will do well to dwell more and more in the thought, that the real subject of our pious belief is not what has been, but what is eternal! "That alone which never transpired in any place, never becomes timeworn!' That is no reason at all why the history of the past should be held valueless; it contains the signs and guides of the eternal, but not the final and the highest at which we ought to stop." HUNDREDTH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY. By Charles Kirkland Wheeler. Boston: James H. West Company, 1906. Pp. 171. Price, $1.00. The author of this book proposes to discard "the ideas of the childhood of the race," and replaces them by "those of its maturity," and since he feels that he is ahead of the present age, he entitles his book, The Hundredth Century Philosophy. It is accompanied with a diagram which elucidates the mechanical process of the "perception of light and the conception of self." The ether waves fall into the eye and continue as it seems in the same direction into the field of consciousness where the author locates the point of impact of ether vibrations on cerebral agitations, which latter is said to be the point of origin of consciousness. Further down in the brain we come to the place which is denoted "concept self." The book is written in the form of a dialogue between Inquirer and Oracle, and we learn that matter, not matter as such but as something, is the foundation of everything. The final reality is veiled in its activity and is not to be reasoned out. Mind is only act or activity. Matter is the spring of consciousness, and life and mind are only physical forces. The volitional is utterly excluded, and the positive moral as well. Blessings are no evidence of beneficence and are such only in effect. Suffering has no mission and evil no mystery, and to characterize the significance of the individual, the Oracle ends with the exclamation. "I am God in Nature, I am a weed by the wall." THE SYLLOGISTIC PHILOSOPHY. Or Prolegomena to Science. By Francis Ellingwood Abbot. Two volumes. Boston: Little, Brown, & Company, 1906. Pp. 317 and 375. Francis Ellingwood Abbot is still remembered by students and scholars of this country. He represented in the philosophical world a peculiar theism which he based upon a logical consideration of the intrinsic necessity of science, and defended it under the name of scientific theism. He was not a Hegelian, yet he had many points in common with the great German philosopher. He was not a theologian whose God bore anthropomorphic traits. He was a philosopher of no mean accomplishments and at his death he left his main work in manuscript under the above title. This work, edited by his son, now lies before us and constitutes the most worthy monument in honor of the deceased thinker. The author has dedicated his book to the memory of his wife, who died before him, and whose death so strongly affected him that he followed her very soon after he had compiled the manuscript that now lies before us in its completed form. The wording of the dedication is characteristic, "To the memory of my wife, in whose divine beauty of character, life and soul I found the God I sought." We do not venture to touch upon the contents of this book as it would lead us too far, and so we are satisfied here to announce it to our readers. It consists of two volumes, each of over 300 pages, starting in the first volume with the discussion of "The Axiom of Philosophy," and in the second volume with "The Syllogistic Must," upon which his philosophy and God-conception has been built. WHAT'S NEXT OR SHALL MAN LIVE AGAIN? By Clara Spalding Ellis. Boston: Under this title Clara Spalding Ellis has compiled a book of testimonies as to immortality, from prominent Americans. The book is a labor of love and has been born out of the author's own needs. Her purpose is to build up, not to tear down; and yet she avoids gathering expressions merely of noted ministers or bishops, or to collect classical extracts of references to heaven and eternity. She goes outside of the pulpit and collects her material from the laity, persons of widely differing pursuits, and absorbed in other than ecclesiastical interests. Among the two hundred authors quoted we find such people as W. J. Bryan, Miss M. B. Cleveland, U. S. Grant Jr., President William R. Harper, John Mitchell, President of the United Mine Workers, United States Senator J. H. Mitchell, Rear Admiral W. S. Schley, James H. Hyslop, William James, Gen. Lew Wallace, Miss Lilian Whiting, and many others equally well known. THE ENGLISH PATENTS OF MONOPOLY. By William Hyde Price. Boston: The Harvard Economic Studies published under the direction of the department of economics of Harvard University, opens its series with this work on the English patents of monopoly, by William Hyde Price, Ph. D., instructor in political economy at the University of Wisconsin. The book contains a history of monopoly in England ever since the times of the several companies which were endowed by the English government with special rights and powers as a kind of protection such as was deemed most effective in those days. The book discusses the mineral companies, the mechanical inventions, the glass patents, the royal alum works, the cloth-finishing project, the iron industry, the salt monopolies, the soap corporations, and is fully supplemented with appendices, biographical notes and an index. THE OLDEST LAWS IN THE WORLD. Being an Account of the Hammurabi Code The Rationalist Press Association, Limited, has performed a valuable service in making accessible at a very low price a complete translation of the Code of Hammurabi. This little volume, besides a careful English rendering of the great Babylonian inscription which contains this wonderful code also includes an account of the discovery of the inscription, and a history of King Hammurabi's reign as well as the legal system of the Babylonians, and a discussion of the corresponding Semitic laws of Moses. LUCEM SEQUOR AND OTHER POEMS. By Maria Eleanor Vere Cust. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1906. Pp. 55. This little volume of poems indicates not only poetic talent, but also a depth of religious sentiment. In addition to lyric effusions the book contains a few versified legends and translations from the German, including a few from the French. The author's faith is perhaps too narrow. Here are a few instances of her verses: "Wisdom and Love divine Grant me, I pray. That through the darkest day "Lead me till life's last breath By faith alone Into the great unknown "Great Abbey in our center, Dear mother of my youth, I learn in thee God's truth, Of love that knows no end." A translation of one of Heine's best known poems reads as follows: "A pine-tree is standing lonely On a barren northern height, Adrowse, while the snow is wrapping Him up in a covering white. "He is dreaming of a palm-tree Alone she is mutely mourning 'Midst the burning desert sand." The book concludes with a couple of verses translated from the French of Margaret of Navarre. THE TRUTH ABOUT SECULAR EDUCATION. Its History and Results. By Joseph McCabe. London: Watts. 1906. Pp. 96. This little book was written to elucidate several points in connection with the system of English education about which the author thinks very improper and injurious fallacies are current among the people. Its interest, therefore, is chiefly local, but as its purpose is to give a full and clear statement of facts, it contains much that is of general value on the history of education from several different view-points. UEBER DIE ZELLE. Von Alfred Schaper. Edited by William Roux. Leipsic: The present monograph is a posthumous essay by Alfred Schaper, late professor of anatomy and history of evolution at the University of Breslau. It has been edited after the lamented author's death by his friend William Roux. It is a terse exposition of the history of our present knowledge of the cell beginning with the seventeenth century and bringing it down to the present day, mentioning the investigations of Malpighi, C. F. Wolf, Oken, Treviranus, Turpin, Raspail, Schleiden, Purkinje, Joh. Müller, Henle, Schwann, etc.; the result being that the cell is the ultimate organic unit both in the domain of animal and vegetable life. All higher organisms are mere complicated systems of cells, which may be either cell forms, or cell fusions, or higher combinations of cell combinations of a third order. Perhaps the most important part of Schaper's essay is the chapter on "The Morphological Construction of the Cell," its chemical physical qualities, its form and magnitude, the nucleus, the protoplasm and the structure in the protoplasm, with their several functions. Many physiologists have been laboring on the explanation of the cell, and their labors can by no means be regarded as finished. The latest publication of the Philosophical Library published by Dürr of Leipsic (Philosophische Bibliothek, Bd. 37) is a new edition of Immanuel Kants Kritik der reinen Vernunft, which is sold at the price of four marks unbound. The edition has been revised by Dr. Theodor Valentiner, and contains several improvements, the result of the redactor's concentrated study of this classical book on philosophy, Professor Haeckel's Last Words on Evolution was reviewed in these columns when it first appeared in the German edition, and later we mentioned the publication by Owen & Co. of Mr. Joseph McCabe's excellent English translation. We take pleasure in noticing that this is now published in America by Peter Eckler of New York. Messrs. Dutton & Co., of New York, have obtained from A. Owen & Co.. of London, the sole agency in the United States for the English translation of Dr. Conrad Guenther's Darwinism and the Problems of Life, which was reviewed in the columns of the July number of The Open Court. ADVERTISEMENT. Readers of The Open Court who have received sample copies of The Monist from time to time, and are now in possession of the first number of Vol. VIII of The Monist (October 1897), would confer a great favor by returning their copies to the publishers who lack this issue, and will be glad to make suitable compensation. Address The Open Court Publishing Company. 1322 Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Ill. Rare and Inexpensive Holiday Publications Karma A Story of Early Buddhism. By Dr. Paul Carus. Third Japanese art edition. Crepe paper, tied in silk. Quaintly illustrated. 75c. (3s. 6d.) "A thing of rare beauty."-Boston Daily Advertiser. "Simply a gem."-Presbyterian and Reformed Review. Says Count Tolstoi, who translated the story into Russian, and hence in its retranslations into French, German and English passed for its author: "I deeply regret not only that such a falsehood was allowed to pass unchallenged, but also the fact that it really was a falsehood, for I should be very happy were I the author of this tale.. It is one of the best products of national wisdom and ought to be bequeathed to all mankind." Karma A Story of Buddhist 1903. Ethics. By Dr. Paul Carus. Illustrated by Kwason Suzuki. American edition. Pp. 47. 15c. (10d.) In German, same illustrations in outline, 35c. Nirvana A Story of Buddhist Carus. Psychology. By Paul Illustrations by Kwasong Suzuki. 1902. Pp. 93. Board, 60c net. (3s. net.) Amitabha A Story of Buddhist Theology. By Dr. Paul Carus. 1906. Pp. 121. Boards, 50c net. Amitabha has an historical setting, for the progressive King Kanishka of Gandhara, who lived just before the Christian era, figures prominently in the story, as well as the great Buddhist philosopher of his reign, Acvaghosha. The plot has unity of interest, but gives ample opportunity in discussion. and incident to explain and illustrate some of the cardinal points of Buddhism, especially in regard to the way of salvation and the God-conception represented by Amitabha Buddha, the Source of Infinite Light and the Standard of Being, as distinct from the Brahman idea of a conscious personal deity. THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING CO., 1322 Wabash Ave., Chicago |