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��Book Reviews.
��who have come to see " the Hght of the world " under a new radiance ; a radi- ance that actually gives it the breadth and power of its claim.
Dr. Bowen's personal career in coming to this light, as related in the preface, is full of interest ; and this preface is impressively wrought with the system of creative law that he aims to outline, and that the verse of Mr. Wait labors to elaborate. This author is firmly loyal to the sacred Scriptures as divine reve- lation, and, as such, he aims to show that, in their inmost sense, they system- atically unfold the creative process, which consists of divine operations in the human soul by which, through varied series of growth, it becomes fully conjoined to, and illuminated with creative life — the light and life of Jesus, the Christ. The process from Adamic to Christ states of soul. Dr. Bowen finds was effected through suc- cessive births by " the overshadowing power of God ; " so the immaculate conception of the virgin, that gave " the highest " full embodiment in Jesus Christ was simply a revelation of the ultimation of creative power in outward realms ; as such, " was the completion of the plan for the creation of man, through a serial gradation of over- shadowings, or the sowing of seed and the insertion of shoots " — this " indi- vidual case being but the universal method of God in creation."
Dr. Bowen goes on to show the re- lation and bearing of this ultimate order of creative life in the human form to the mental and physical conditions of man, and holds it to be the saving term to our human nature, in all respects.
The body of the book, consisting of nearly five hundred pages of " verse " by Mr. Wait, is an ingenious elaboration
��of the principles and forms of this or- der, especially as it is found held in the Hebraic Roots, throughout the incom- parable system of divine revelation. But, indisputably, the treatise would have been far more forcible and impres- sive if it had been dressed with the direct and vigorous style shown by the author in his preface. Not the least in significance in this remarkable publication is a pocketed chart by Miss Fairchild. But the whole must be pe- rused and pondered in order to give proper impressions of its real value. To the mind of the writer of this brief notice, the book will greatly aid the struggling thought of this manifestly transitional era, in that it points so dis- tinctly to the oncoming theological science that is to effect a complete revo- lution in prevailing conceptions of cre- ative order. W. H. K.
��PHILOSOPHIC QUESTOR: or Days in Concord. By Julia R. Anagnos, Bos- ton : D. Lothrop and Company.
This is a little book — only sixty pages — but it is entirely unique in its plan and style. Its purpose is to give an outline sketch of two seasons of the School of Philosophy. To secure this purpose, the author has taken as '"'a sort of half heroine the shadowy figure of a young girl; " and, as seen to her, the proceedings of the school are sketched. Most of the persons and places have fictitious names ; Mr. Al- cott is called " Venerablis ; " Concord, '• Harmony ; " the school, " the Acad- ame." Mr. Emerson retains his real name ; the girl, who observes and writes, is " Eudoxia."
One who opens the book will be apt to read it through, not as much for its real value as for its quaint style and sometimes beautiful epxressions.
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