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 14Q NEW BOOKS. experts the estimate of the objective worth to be assigned to the effort at deduction of the universal law of physical action, we must express the opinion, from the metaphysical side, that the reasoning seems to involve, as so many similar reasonings have done, the vice of subreption. It would be unjust, however, not to add that the treatment of the fundamental mechanical and thermo-dynamical laws has the merit of bringing into- relief the close connexion of the radical ideas involved. The Life of Philippus Theophrastus, Bombast of Hohenheim, known by the name of Paracelsus, and the Substance of his Teachings concerning Cos- mology, Anthropology, Pneumatology, Magic and Sorcery, Medicine^. Alchemy and Astrology, Philosophy and Theosophy, extracted and trans- lated from his rare and extensive Works and from some unpublished Manuscripts. By FRANZ HARTMANN, M.D., Author of Magic, &c. London : George Eedway, 1887. Pp. xiii., 220. The author is an enthusiastic devotee of "the teachings of Eastern, Adepts," and writes the present work because many things about which these "have to this day kept a well-grounded silence were revealed by" Paracelsus three hundred years ago". It is evidently based upon an intimate knowledge of the great magician's writings, and casts useful light upon some movements in these days. Chap. i. contains a short life of Paracelsus (pp. 1-21), with a list of his works (pp. 22-6) as collected by " John Huser, doctor of medicine at Gronglogan, on the request of the. Archbishop Prince Ernst of Cologne," and published at Cologne in 1589-90. Chap. ii. consists of Explanations of Terms used by Paracelsus, Including some other Terms frequently used by Writers on Occultism" (pp. 27-40). The remaining chapters set forth the teaching of Paracelsus under the heads enumerated in the title. An Appendix (pp. 199-213) consists of articles on various subjects from "Adepts" to "Zenexton," including one on " the Elixir of Life ". Perhaps the chapters on " Magic and Sorcery '" and on " Alchemy and Astrology " will best repay the curious reader. In the latter he will find directions for preparing "the Electrum Magicuin 7 * (p. 171), "homunculi" (p. 174), and "artificial gold" (p. 177). One of the notes (pp. 174-7) contains an account of the actual preparation "by a Joh. Ferd. Count of Kueffstein, in Tyrol, in the year 1775," with the assistance of "an Italian Mystic and Rosicrucian, Abbe Geloni," of "ten homunculi or, as he calls them, 'prophesying spirits' (consisting of a king, a queen, a knight, a monk, a nun, an architect, a miner, a seraph, and. finally of a blue and a red spirit) preserved in strong bottles, such as are used to preserve fruit, and which were filled with. water". Of this account the author remarks " There can hardly be any doubt as to its veracity, because some historically well-known persons, such as Count Max Lamberg, Count Franz Josef v. Thun, and others, saw them, and they possessed undoubtedly visible and tangible bodies ; and it seems that they were either elemental spirits, or, what appears to be more probable,, homunculi" (p. 177). L'tfvolution de la Morale. Lecons professees pendant 1'Hiver de 1885-6. Par CH. LETOURNEAU, President de la Societd d'Anthropologie, Profes- seur a 1'^cole d'Anthropologie. Paris : Adrien Delahaye et Lmile Lecrosnier, 1887. Pp. xx., 478. The author, who writes from a point of view which may best be com- pared with that of Dr. Maudsley in England, aims at preparing the way, by a study of the actual evolution of morality, for the construction of a scien- tific ethics free from all " metaphysics," 'and founded consciously, as the- first morality Was unconsciously, on social self-preservation and utility..