Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 22.djvu/728

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and the cross—the doctrine of the fall and depravity of man through the subtlety of 'the dragon, that old serpent called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world,' and the recovery of fallen man through a still mightier One, who comes from heaven, assumes human nature, and, by suffering, death, and exaltation to the right band of supreme dominion, vanquishes the dragon, and becomes the author of eternal salvation. The preaching of this is the preaching of the gospel."

But the rubbishy erudition that seems necessary to understand this gospel, according to the present commentator, is something frightful. Certainly, if such a performance as this can pass muster, and the "Pastor of the Church of the Holy Communion, Philadelphia," has a rightful place in the Episcopal Church, Heber Newton has no business in the organization.

Moral Education, its Laws and Methods. By Joseph Rodes Buchanan, M. D. New York: S. W. Green's Son, 74 & 76 Beekman Street. Pp. 395. Price, $1.50.

Although this work, by its title, is limited to one phase of the great subject of education, and although the moral idea prevails throughout the exposition, yet the book is far from being a mere homiletic essay in the ordinary sense. The moral conception is dealt with in connection with many practical questions, so that there is a good deal of generality in the instructiveness of the treatise. Indeed, it is chiefly valuable from the breadth of the author's preparation for dealing with radical educational questions. Dr. Buchanan is an unfettered thinker, and his work is stamped with the individuality of his studies. He is, first of all, a physiologist—a student of man as a corporeal being, and he assigns to the subject of organization that fundamental place which it must hold in every rational system of culture, and which is beginning to be more clearly recognized in our own times than ever before. Yet the work is by no means and in no sense a physiological one, and the author is far enough from being a materialist. The truths of organic science are assumed rather than expounded, and on its basis and under its limitations the author deals with a whole range of the higher educational problems. No person interested in education can read the book without being helped by its information and its suggestions. It contains much of the philosophy of life, and many special problems that are now beginning to press upon teachers and educational managers are discussed with acuteness, ability, and much freedom from the restraints of tradition. It is impossible to enter here into any of the particular inquiries opened by Dr. Buchanan, and we have to confine ourselves to a general estimate of the character of the book. But, while very cordially commending it, the reader will not infer our agreement with all its views. We are all in that inquiring stage in regard to education which implies incompleteness of knowledge and a resulting diversity of opinion. We are working, it is to be hoped, toward a higher agreement, and such contributions as this of Dr. Buchanan are unquestionably valuable as means to this important end.

Fifteenth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Peabody Museum of American Archæology and Ethnology. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Printed by order of the Trustees. F. W; Putnam, Curator. Pp. 103.

The trustees of the museum, in an appeal to the public last year, called attention to the fact that it is the only institution in the country especially for the preservation of collections and the study of American archæology, and that its income (the interest of $90,000) is only $4,500 a year. Its rooms, reasonably commodious and containing larger or smaller collections from different parts of the world—several hundred thousand specimens in all—are open free to visitors during business hours, and are supplemented with free descriptive lectures by the curator. The additions during the year include a valuable series of objects from the Ainos of Yesso (Japan), by Professor Penhallow; more than two thousand stone implements from Delaware, by Mr. H. R. Bennet; new objects, by Dr. C. C. Abbott, from his own collections in New Jersey, and exchanges from Ohio, Kentucky, and England; new specimens of the Wakefield (Massachusetts) stone implements in every stage of manufacture; potteries from Southeastern Missouri and Southern New Mexico, by