Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/585

Rh  Faith, or Salvation by Belief. It is not, as its title might imply, a devotional treatise, but a series of arguments directed against certain time-worn dogmas still largely held by orthodox churches. Starting out with a summary of the causes of the Lutheran Reformation—"an intellectual rather than a religious movement"—Mr. Olmstead, in a few pages of terse reasoning, demonstrates that the retention of the dogma of justification by faith vitiated the entire Lutheran system, since belief and unbelief are equally involuntary, and therefore neither blameworthy nor deserving of reward. This point, he claims, strikes at the very existence of the churches, and is fatal to their present form and organization. The psychological barrier with which orthodoxy is thus confronted is further strengthened by certain ethical considerations. "Salvation," says the author, "is not a proper incentive to the performance of duty"; and "the theology that looks to the mere salvation of the soul, whether from punishment or from sin itself, can be defended neither on principle nor, paradoxical as it may seem, on the plea of expediency; certainly not, if he be the happiest who is the most virtuous." Thus abandoning these tenets, which in the verbiage of the pulpit are called "essential truths," the author sees in the individual conscience a higher criterion of morality and a nobler guide to salvation, the conscience itself being derived from the aggregate of beliefs entertained for the time being by the individual. Here he recognizes the changeful character of all human thought, and makes provision for further development of religious belief. Although published originally nearly half a century ago, the work is still well abreast of the times, and a newly written introduction on the limitations of thought puts the book in the van of liberal thought. Mr. Olmstead has built up his thesis as if he were constructing a pyramid. His arguments are cemented with a cold and dispassionate logic which goes far to justify his own characterization of his doctrine as the Philosophy of the Undeniable.



Agricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins. Cornell University: No. 139. Japanese Plums. By L. H. Bailey. Pp. 16; No. 140. Potato Culture. By I. P. Roberts and L A. Clinton. Pp. 24; No. 141. Powdered Soap as a Cause of Death among Swill-fed Hogs. By V. A. Moore. Pp. 12.—New Hampshire College: No. 46. An Experiment with a Steam Drill; Methods of Road Management. Pp. 32.—United States Department of Agriculture. Oil-producing Seeds. By G. H. Hicks. Pp. 20.

American Physical Education Review, Vol. n, No. 3 September, 1807. Boston: American Association for the Advancement of Physical Education. Quarterly. Pp. 64. 50 cents; $1.50 a year.

American Trade Press Association. Presidential Address of E. C. Brown, 1897. Pp. 8.

Archer, Agatha. The King's Daughter and the King's Son; a Fairy Tale of To-day. New York: Fowler & Wells. Pp. 288. $1.

Audubon, Maria R. Audubon and his Journals, with Zoological and other Notes by Elliott Coues. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 2 vols. Pp. 532 and 535. $7.50.

Brindisi, Dottor Rocco; Sanderson, Dottor E. H.; and De Marco, Signor Giuseppe, editors. II Medico delle Famiglie (The Family Physician). A Monthly Review of Popular Medicine, Hygiene, and Affiliated Sciences. December, 1897. Boston: The Italo-Bostonian Publishing Company. Pp. 16. 10 cents; $1 a year.

Clarke, Samuel F., Edward C. Gardiner, and J. Playfair McMurrich A Reply to the Statement of the Former Trustees of the Marine Biological Laboratory. Boston: Alfred Mudge & Sons. Pp. 27.

Commelin, Anna Olcott. Not in It. New York: Fowler & Wells Company. Pp. 96. 75 cents.

Costantin, J. Les Végétaux et les Milieux Cosmiques (Plants and the Cosmic Environment), Adaptation, Evolution. Paris: Félix Alcan. Pp. 392. 6 francs.

Edridge-Green, F. W. Memory and its Cultivation. (International Scientific Series.) New York: D. Appleton and Company. Pp. 311. $1.50.

Free Traveling Libraries in Wisconsin. Madison, Wis.: Wisconsin Free Library Commission. Pp. 40.

Goode, G. Brown, Editor. The Smithsonian Institution, 1840-1896. The History of its First Half Century. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 856.

Indiana College Association. Addresses and Proceedings. Greencastle, Ind.: Banner-Times. Pp. 73.

Knowlton, F. H., Editor. The Plant World. A Monthly Journal of Popular Botany. Vol. I, No. 3. December, 1897. Binghamton, N. Y.: Willard N. Clute & Co. Pp. 8. 10 cents: $1 a year.

Merklen, Prosper. La Tuberculose et son Traitement hygiénique (Tuberculosis and its Hygienic Treatment). Practical Thoughts. Paris: Félix Alcan. Pp. 188. Paper, 50 centimes; bound, 1 franc.

Mexico: Office of the Secretary of Encouragement. Boletin de Agriculture, Mineria, é Industries (Bulletin of Agriculture, Mining, and Industries). For gratuitous distribution. Nos. 1 to 10. 100 to 200 pages each. La Fumagina y el Pulgon de los Cafetos (The Coffee-tree Fungus and Coffee Scale). Pp. 115; El Picudo (Anthonomus grandis, Boh. ). Pp. 100.

Nichols, Charles W. A Government Class-Book of the State of Michigan. Syracuse, N. Y.: C. W. Bardeen. Pp. 308. $1.

Reports, Bulletins, and Proceedings. American Forestry Association. Special Meetings at