Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 17.djvu/426

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

"The Japhetites and their Dispersion"; VI. "Principal Types of Mankind"; VII. "Limited Scope of Biblical Ethnography"; VIII. "A Glance at Hebrew Chronology"; IX. "Elements of Egyptian Chronology"; X. "Prenoachite Races"; XI. "Race Distinctions"; XII. "Biblical Antiquity of Race Distinctions"; XIII. "More Biblical Antiquity of Race Distinctions"; XIV. "Preadamite Races"; XV. "Hamitic Origin of Negroes considered"; XVI. "Negro Inferiority"; XVII. "Do Races degenerate?"; XVIII. "Theological Consequences of Preadamitism"; XIX. "Genealogy of the Black Races"; XX. "Genealogy of the Brown Races"; XXI. "Genealogy of the White Race"; XXII. "The Cradle of Humanity and the Dispersion of the Black Races"; XXIII. "Dispersion of the Asiatic Mongoloids"; XXIV. "Dispersion of the American Mongoloids"; XXV. "Dispersion of the Dravidians and Mediterraneans"; XXVI. "Condition of Primitive Man"; XXVII. "Antiquity of Man"; XXVIII. "The Patriarchal Periods"; XXIX. "Preadamitism in Literature.".

Dr. Winchell's book is got up in elegant form. It contains a large number of beautifully executed illustrations, with some finely worked charts. Press-work and binding are in the best style, doing credit to the enterprise of the publisher and to the proficiency of industrial art in the city where it was produced.

The Life and Writings of Henry Thomas Buckle. By Alfred Henry Huth. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 502. Price, $2.

Though the career of Buckle was not filled with striking incidents, such as are commonly supposed to be necessary to give interest to biography, it was, nevertheless, of so marked and individual a character that its delineation is certain to prove both instructive and entertaining to a large number of readers. Whatever may be the final verdict as to the value of his intellectual work, Buckle was certainly a power in the thought of his time—a man of force, originality, and independence, so conspicuous as to give significance to the personal particulars of his life. There was much curiosity about him as to who he was, and what had been his history, when he suddenly shot up from obscurity to a brilliant position in literature, and various sketches of him were called forth at the time, although they were meager and unsatisfactory. This volume is the first extended biography of Buckle that has appeared; and, although his intimate friend, Mr. Huth, writes as an ardent admirer, he has endeavored to make a just estimate of his character as a man and a thinker. The volume derives large interest from the considerable correspondence which it reproduces, and which throws much light on the habits, peculiarities, and opinions of the man. Mr. Huth makes an excellent summary of the leading conceptions of Buckle's work, pointing out what seem to be the fundamental conceptions that are due to him, and which it is claimed have largely contributed to place history in the category of the sciences. It may be freely conceded, at any rate, that he did a great service in presenting this view in so captivating a style, and with such a wealth of illustrations, as to make a profound impression upon the popular mind. His "History of Civilization in England" was a liberalizing book, and exerted an educating influence upon multitudes of readers.

Like many other men who have achieved a position and done valuable work, Buckle's early education was out of the common routine which more often cramps than develops. He was, in fact, allowed to do pretty much as he desired with regard to study, and was, therefore, free to follow his own bent. His individuality was but little interfered with, and he was left to the best of all culture—self-culture. The death of his father, when he was but nineteen years of age, left him in easy circumstances, with leisure to pursue his studies in the direction of his chosen life-work. The idea of the history was at first vague in his mind, and grew into more definite shape with advancing years. While yet without experience of the formidable labor before him, he drew up the most ambitious schemes of the history of civilization which he proposed to execute in a series of twenty volumes, but he died at the early age of forty-one, with only a fragment of his great design accomplished. It was a noble purpose to which he consecrated his life, and even in its very partial attainment