Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 5.djvu/771

Rh On the religious side, the causes of conflict pointed out are: "1. The absorbing claims and responsibilities of the ministerial calling, and the overshadowing weight of great moral themes; 2. A lingering half-doubt as to the legitimacy of the spirit of universal investigation; and, 3. A want of sympathy and intercourse with men of scientific pursuits." To these is added the want of a proper scientific education on the part of religious students, and to this the writer adds: "One of the last and most important points worthy of especial mention, as a cause of difficulty and alienation, is the harsh and captious mode of speech employed by many religious and other critics toward the views of men of science. How freely are such terms as 'infidel,' 'materialist,' 'unbeliever,' etc., applied to men who have really neither made nor intended any unkind allusion to religious men or religious truth, but whose discoveries have led them to the presentation of views which, marking an advance in scientific conceptions, involve, perhaps, some changes in the outward form of conceiving certain scriptural statements! Instead of calm and fearless inquiry, they are met with stern and positive denunciation. Instead of looking to see what new and valuable expansion of even our scriptural conceptions maybe found, many religious men at once raise the cry of infidelity, and force the unhappy investigator of Nature into a position of hostility which he never designed to assume. I myself was never more surprised than on finding the magnificent generalization of the unity and convertibility of material forces assailed on charges of this kind."

well-known doctrine of the correlation and equivalence of forces is here called in to account for the phenomena of spiritualism. Assuming that thought is the utilization by the brain of a force correlative and interchangeable with the other forces of the universe, it follows that the force thus utilized may be converted into other forms of force, and thereby made to move a table, insensibly communicate the thoughts of one person to another, and do many other seemingly inexplicable things. In this light a table, dancing over the floor by itself, and spelling out marvelous communications, is a very natural performance. It is the result of a train of forces set in motion by the brain of the medium, consciously or unconsciously, usually the latter. Thoughts long forgotten by a spectator, but still unconsciously present in his mind, may be unconsciously communicated to the medium, and by him revealed.

Mediomania is regarded as a species of insanity allied to hysteria, chorea, etc. It is produced generally by derangement of the sexual organs. Like other disorders, it is susceptible of treatment and cure. The book is interesting, and its conclusions are in accordance with the existing tendencies of scientific thought.

first edition of this valuable work and standard text-book of American geology was published in 1862. It is now revised, much extended, and brought down to the present date, by incorporating the results arrived at by the most eminent investigators in various departments, among whom acknowledgments are made to Meek, Marsh, Worthen, Lesquereux, Hall, Newberry, Winchell, Gilbert, Wheeler, Collett, Knapp, Broadhead, Dawson, Billings, Johnson, Verrill, Hayden, Holmes, Gardner, Hawes, and Bradley. From such a wide range of contributions to so progressive a science as geology, the task of revision was most laborious, but it has been very thoroughly performed by the author, so that his work stands alone as an exposition of the present state, both of the general science of geology and its American applications. Nor is it merely a résumé of the latest facts; they have all been incorporated into the structure of the work, and, by contributing to the further advancement of the science, they give to the present volume greater unity and completeness than were