Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 42.djvu/726

706 true only in the sense that novels, poems, allegories, and parables are true. Job is a magnificent poem and a profound piece of philosophy, written by some unknown sage at an unknown date. Daniel is one of the several apocalypses which appeared about. 150, called forth by the sufferings of the Jews under their Greek oppressors. The author thinks that David did not write many if any of the Psalms, and they were attributed to him simply because he was Israel's greatest king, a lover of music, and the patron of poets and prophets. "The real power of the Old Testament is in its poetry," but we must "resolutely reject" many of the sentiments of the Psalms, such as their imprecation of divine wrath upon the enemies of Israel. Mr. Adams gives a fine sketch of the Persian, Greek, and Roman influence upon the Jewish nation and religion. It is commonly believed that Judaism degenerated between the exile and the birth of Jesus, but our author rightly says, during that period "the principal preparation was made for the introduction of Christianity." The Holy Scriptures were translated into Greek; synagogues were built in Alexandria and wherever the Jews were dispersed and settled. Their ideas of the world were broadened and their religious views were liberalized. Devout and learned scribes traveled from place, to place teaching the people. The Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes propagated various phases of religious belief and practice. The book of Ecclesiastes, written about 200, and therefore not by Solomon, shows us the effect Greek philosophy had on Jewish thought. It produced pessimism. "When the fullness of the times was come," God sent forth the great teacher of Nazareth to fulfill the law and the prophets. Mr. Adams accepts the critical and rational view of the Gospels, concluding that they were compilations by unknown authors from oral tradition and perhaps written sources, between. 70 and 150.

All "miracles" are rejected, except those that may be explained as extraordinary natural events. The bodily resurrection of Jesus and his birth of a virgin, in particular, are denied, and Mr. Adams thinks that a better statement of the Incarnation is a necessity. Commenting upon the doctrine of the Logos in the Johannine Gospel, he says: "The Word which has always been with God and is God becomes the rocks of the world, the water of the oceans, the stars of the sky, and in due process becomes flesh and dwells among us, full of grace and truth. Nothing is made without the Word. Jesus," he adds, "certainly did not build the worlds, but that manifesting Spirit, which became flesh in him, has always been uttering God."

On the whole, this book accomplishes its purpose very satisfactorily. The writer covers a large field, and it is remarkable that he has made no more mistakes than he has. His thought is clear and suggestive; his style easy and flowing; his spirit earnest and reverent; his conclusions judicious and undogmatic. Those who are not familiar with the subject treated will find the book very instructive; and those who are well versed in such matters will find it a good summary of scholarly opinions on the most important religious problem of the day. If Mr. Adams had appended a list of such authorities as those mentioned in the preface, he would have added to the value of his book, for one of the chief functions of such books is to make their readers read further and more thoroughly.

the chemical basis of the animal body has been presented in a brief appendix incorporated with the final book of Prof. Foster's Text-book of Physiology. But the advances of science, as well as the demands for more thorough knowledge, have expanded the fifty pages that sufficed, in the former editions of that text-book, to describe this subject, into the present volume. Dr. A. Sheridan Lea was the author of that appendix, as he is of this volume that constitutes a treatise on the chemical substances occurring in the animal organism.

In the first portion of the volume we find the section on proteids enlarged by the addition of the discoveries that have been made regarding those substances; methods of preparation are clearly and succinctly