ing exclusively through the spirit of man, are part of his nature, which has much in common with that of the Deity, since he was created by God in his own image,' and the Lord 'breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul."" After further combating the materialistic view, he says: "The nature of this union [of soul and body] is as yet unfathomed, but precisely because it is such a mystery we have no right to assume that it is altogether indissoluble during life; or that it ceases entirely at the moment of death. There is, on the contrary, overwhelming evidence that the soul may at times act independently of the body, and the forces developed on such occasions we have, for the sake of convenience rather than on account of the special fitness of the term, preferred to call magic powers."

While in the preface he says, "there is nothing known to us which would absolutely forbid the idea that these living souls [departed] continue to maintain some kind of intercourse with the souls of men on earth," "nor is there any reason why the soul in man should not be able, by its higher powers, to perceive and consort with souls detached from mortal bodies," yet in the chapter on "Black and White Magic," where he treats of modern spiritualism, he utterly denies the intercourse claimed by its advocates with departed spirits, maintaining that the "communications" reported bear marks of another origin in the minds of the living. Admitting many of the extraordinary facts alleged, and conceding some of them to be as yet inexplicable, he finds in them no proof of the agency of departed spirits. On this subject he takes the same ground with Mr. Lum in his work, already noticed in our pages. on "the Spiritual Delusion." And we believe it to be a stronger position than either the indiscriminate denial of all the attending wonders, or the reference of them all to imposture. Our respect for Benjamin Franklin may alone convince us that remarks purporting to come from him, even if we cannot tell whose they may be, are none of his.

Among the mysterious powers Mr. De Vere believes to have been proved are some of the most wonderful reported under the head of clairvoyance, particularly that of seeing and hearing otherwise than through the eye and ear, inspecting the interior condition of the body, and hence even rightly prescribing remedies for disease, knowing distant events without natural means of communication, and foreseeing things future with more or less distinctness. He concedes also in some persons a marvelous

will-power over others, controling, even without any external aids or signs, their acts, words, or thoughts, and even making several persons, collected as witnesses, think they see such remarkable phenomena as are chosen, which yet are without objective reality. The account he would give in this last way of some strange sights and sounds seems to us, at least, as incredible as to suppose the objects real and produced by invisible personal agents, just as those who would explain the Christian miracle of multiplying the loaves by supposing the multitude to imagine their hunger satisfied, are properly answered that their supposition involves, at least, no less a miracle. He believes that some persons are so endowed that they can diminish their specific gravity so as to hold their bodies suspended in the air.

It should be added that the author finds the exercise of these magic powers always associated with a trance-state, and also connected more or less closely with diseases, particularly with epilepsy and catalepsy. The facts reported do not seem to us to warrant so general a conclusion. We are not aware that what the Scotch call "the second sight" is confined to diseased persons. Certainly there is no proof that the "signs and wonders" recorded in the Scriptures, which the author considers as partaking of this character, while he also traces them to a higher source, were ever attended with any physical disorder in the performer, nor even that the prophets always went through any introduction or preparation at all resembling a trance.

The thoughtful interest felt in the phenomena here treated of turns largely on supposed relations to Bible miracles. As we have said, he distinguishes these last from the former, as of a higher origin, yet not as wholly foreign. He would not confine proper miracles "to the days of the apostles," nor "to the first three centuries after Christ," but finds them to some extent in "the time of the Reformation," and the first years of the Jesuits (p. 43). In this connection he says: "Magnetic and miraculous cures differ not in their nature but only in their first cause, precisely as the trance of somnambulists is identical with the trance of religious enthusiasts. The difference lies only in the faith which performs the cure; if it is purely human, the effect will be only partial, and in most cases ephemeral; if divine faith and the highest powers coöperate, as in genuine miracles, the effect is instantaneous and permanent." To this effect he contrasts "the man who at the Lord's bidding 'took up his bed and walked,' "

with "the countless cripples who have thrown aside their crutches at the graves of saints only to resume them a day or two afterward when, with the excitement, the newly-acquired power also disappeared." In speaking of "the prophets of Israel" (p. 322), he says, "In their case, however, divination was so clearly the result of divine inspiration that their prophecies can hardly be classed among magic phenomena"-which seems to be but a faltering denial of some apprehended inference; but he goes on to say, "The ground which they have in common with merely human forebodings and divinings, is the state of trance in which alone prophets seem to have foretold the future, whether we believe this ecstatic condition to have been caused by music, longprotracted prayer, or the direct agency of the Holy Spirit,"-the trance being here unwarrantably assumed, as we have said, to have always attended the prophetic utterances. The author's references to "Holy Writ" (as his phrase is) are sober and friendly. While as to many marvelous phenomena he may seem to lean toward credulity, yet in the chapter on "Possession" he adopts, with Farmer and others, the more rationalistic interpretation of the accounts in the New Testament of demoniacal agency, which he regards as a form of insanity exhibited also in later times, and so described in accommodation to prevailing belief. Indeed, we are left to infer from this and other places that while he admits that disembodied human spirits may have to do with this world, he does not hold the existence of a personal agent known as the devil, nor of evil spirits known as demons. And in the preface he suggests, though only as "mere speculation," that all human spirits may advance sooner or later to purification and peace. At the same time, he accords "the utmost consideration and respect" to the "many theologians" who hold this life to be "the only time of probation" followed by the judgment, and does not attempt to argue the question on grounds of either reason or ScripWe acknowledge our curiosity somewhat awakened as to how far his doctrinal belief may go in some directions, whether of agreement or divergence, if compared with received opinions.

ture.

Among the more interesting and certainly remarkable narratives in this volume will be found that of Mdle. Hypolyte Clairon (pp. 175-183) and those cited from the devout German Zschokke (pp. 294-297). The author has properly availed himself of some accounts already familiar to students in this department, but has culled many others from a wide range of reading, and brought

together from various sources as much as his limits would permit of matter marvelous and suggestive enough, at least, to deserve consideration.

If any readers think we have bestowed on this work, and Mr. Lum's, more attention than their subjects merit, certainly it is not in the interest of the "spiritism" of our time, nor of the gaping curiosity which it appeals to so successfully. On the contrary, we again express our conviction that the position taken by these writers, against the agency of departed spirits in the supposed communications from the other world, is so much the more effective by reason of the concessions made as to the accompanying phenomena. Spiritism is not to be refuted by disputing all its many marvels, but rather by leaving some of them inexplicable. We have another motive. There are those who talk of the world as outgrowing all old mysteries and their corresponding beliefs, and this century as too enlightened to tolerate what cannot be understood, and science as supplanting faith and awe. No boast can be more utterly mistaken. These days we live in are the era of spiritism, Mormonism, revived pilgrimages in France, and papal infallibility keeping pace with Romanism. They seem to us to have been permitted to show, what such a book as this confirms, that the human mind both craves and needs something more than what is called nature; that such have been and still are the faiths of mankind; that they will have the supernaturalism of the Bible, or some superstition in its place; that most of those who discard the Christian miracles will sooner or later take up miserable marvels for substitutes. Another thought: we would like to direct candid attention anew toward the doctrine of diabolism as it lies in the Bible, and to so much of it as is now held by Roman Catholic theologians. Let it be noted that this last form of the doctrine, however disfigured by superstition among the masses, does in fact serve them as a shield against later cruder superstitions.

WALKS IN FLORENCE.*-In old times, the vast majority of the people of different countries-even those who lived side by side— knew little and cared little about their neighbors. In our own country, too, and within the memory of many now living, our relations with foreign nations were so limited; so few of our countrymen traveled beyond the limits of their native land, so

Walks in Florence. vols. 12mo, pp. 463.

By SUSAN and JOANNA HORNER. With illustrations. Two
New York: George Routledge & Sons.

little reference was ever made in general conversation to what was going on outside of our own country, that it was comparatively an easy thing for a person to move in very cultivated society without being painfully reminded of the scantiness of the information which he possessed about foreign nations. But all this has been completely changed. So many of our countrymen have traveled and are traveling in Europe, that the conversation of ordinary society renders it almost essential for one's own comfort to have at command some pretty definite knowledge of the topography of other countries, and even some knowledge about the principal buildings in the various foreign cities, about the monuments, and the galleries of art which they contain. The book before us is intended to give just this information about the city of Florence, its churches, its art collections, its monuments of various kinds, which every one ought to know. It has been prepared with great care, and is equally of value to those who have been in Italy as to those who have yet that pleasure in prospect.

ESTES AND LAURIAT'S HALF-HOUR RECREATIONS* contain a characteristic exposition of the relation of Yeast to Protoplasm and the Germ Theory, by Mr. Huxley, and a somewhat novel theory of the relations of matter and force, by Prof. Tice, of St. Louis. Both of these essays are worthy to be read and are fitted to stimulate thought.

*Half-Hour Recreations in Popular Science; Dana Estes, Editor. No. 8. On Yeast Protoplasm and the Germ Theory. By THOMAS H. HUXLEY, F.R.S. The Relations between Matter and Force. By Prof. JOHN H. TICE, of St. Louis, Mo. Boston: Estes & Lauriat.