A SELECTION FROM
CHAPMAN AND HALL'S PUBLICATIONS.
EVOLUTION: Its Value, its Evidences, and its Relations, to Religious Thought. By J. Le Conte, Professor of Geology and Natural History in the University of California. Second Edition, revised. Crown 8vo, 6s.
The Guardian says:—"Among the numerous hooks which appear professing to deal with the relations of physical science and religion it is a very rare pleasure to meet with one like the volume before us. We have had 'reconciliations' from men who knew much science and no theology, and from theologians who did not know the outlines of the scientific doctrines they discussed. We have even had contributions from those who might at least claim fairness on the ground that they had no real knowledge of either natural or theological science. It would be an exaggeration to say that in Professor Le Conte we have found what we have so long looked for in vain. But we are able to say, after considerable experience of this kind of literature, that it stands on a different level and is written in a different atmosphere from all, or almost all, the books of the kind which it has been our good or ill fortune to come across. Professor Le Conte is a professor of geology and natural history in the University of California, and therefore has a right to speak on the scientific question, and, moreover, without being a professed theologian, he knows what religion really has to fight for, and what, whether it be true or not, is not essential to Christianity. He can distinguish a scientific conclusion from the metaphysic which lies behind it, and, more wonderful than all, he can distinguish between what may claim to be proved and what, however convinced he may be of its truth, is as yet only a theory or a private opinion. But we have seldom, if ever, found a book, covering so much ground, with which a Christian theologian may, on the whole, find himself so much in agreement, and from which he may derive so much that is helpful, even where he cannot as yet admit the conclusions as true."
CONSTRUCTIVE ETHICS. A Review of Modern Moral Philosophy in its Three Stages of Interpretation, Criticisms, and Reconstruction. By W.L. Courtney, M.A., LL.D., Fellow of New College, Oxford. A New Edition with a Preface by the Author. Demy 8vo, 3s. 6d.
The Spectator says:—"The book is of a very high order indeed. It is clear, incisive, the statement of various systems of ethics is fair and adequate, and the criticism of them, if brief, is trenchant and conclusive. We have read with much pleasure the historical part of the book, and consider it a most important contribution to the literature of ethics.... There are many chapters in the book worthy of special notice."
THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE: Its Origin, Course, Promoters, and Results. By J. Villon Marmery, with an Introduction by Samuel Laing. Demy 8vo, 7s. 6d.
* * *Mr. Samuel Laing considers Mr. Marmery's book "a work of great learning and research, conveying in a clear and intelligible form a mass of most useful and interesting history of the Progress of Science, from its first dawn in Egypt and Chaldea, through the Greek, Arabian, Mediæval, and modern periods, down to the present day. It comprises also brief memoirs of the illustrious men to whom we are indebted for the principal discoveries of Science, from Thales and Pythagoras down to Darwin and Herbert Spencer, and I can confidently recommend it as alike interesting and instructive."
The Daily Telegraph says:—"It gives evidence of conscientious care in verification, and sound judgment in the selection of materials. We fail to detect any important step in the advance of science emitted, and as a rule the estimates of the men who have reared the temple of knowledge are just and discriminating." The Daily Chronicle says:—"A really useful work.... Mr. Marmery has read much and carefully, and in almost every instance his short descriptions and other statements are given with such admirable conciseness and accuracy that his volume fully deserves the confidence of those to whom it appeals.... A really praiseworthy work."
London:CHAPMAN & HALL,Limited.
