Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 22.djvu/530

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ence was more catholic than that of the fleshly school, properly so called, his aim being the apotheosis of man as man. Three lines from "One's Self I Sing" reveal to us clearly his point of view:

"Of physiology from top to toe I sing;
Not physiognomy alone, nor brain alone, is worthy for the Muse—I say the
form complete is worthier far;
The female equally with the male I sing."

Of what may be called skeptical writers, i. e., writers who treated different branches of study in a manner hostile to Christianity, and with their eyes distinctly turned upon it, it will be sufficient to mention Buckle, whose "History of Civilization" appeared in 1857; Draper, whose "Intellectual Development of Europe" was published in 1861; and Lecky, whose "Rationalism" appeared in 1865, and his work on "European Morals" in 1869. Dr. Jowett's "Plato" appeared in 1871, the introductions to the separate dialogues of which were a distinct contribution to contemporary thought, while they are valuable as a fair index to the results of moderate liberalism of the time in different fields. Thus, in his introduction to the "Republic," he defines the modern notion of God as an "intelligent principle of law and order in the universe, embracing equally man and nature." Spencer's "Study of Sociology" appeared in 1872, and the "Fortnightly Review" was started in 1865. In tracing the line of thought taken by writers more immediately concerned with the book before us, we come first to "Essays and Reviews" in 1860. Archdeacon Pratt had published, in 1856, an attempt to prove that Scripture and science were not at variance. The publication of the volume of "Essays and Reviews" may be taken as a symptom that intellectual Churchmen felt that the old stand was no longer possible; that concessions must be made to modern science, modern investigations, and modern thought; that the proper way to judge of an ancient work was to interpret it by the light of its own day. These views were to some extent popularized by the first series of Stanley's "Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church," appearing in 1863, the year following the publication of Bishop Colenso's work on the Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua. Stanley's preface tells us that it is his intention "to present the main characters and events of sacred narrative in a form as nearly historical as the facts of the case will admit"; to set the characters and institutions of the time in a clearer light; "to recognize in sacred subjects their identity with our own flesh and blood," at the same time not "wishing to efface the distinction which good taste, no less than reverence, will always endeavor to preserve between the Jewish and other histories." "Ecce Homo" appeared in 1865. It was an attempt to base religion upon the enthusiasm of humanity as preached by the man Christ, and was succinctly characterized at the time by a pious nobleman as "vomited from the jaws of hell." The author, now uni-