PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. An extra copy of THE LIVING AGE is sent gratis to any one getting up a club of Five New Subscribers. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & GAY. Single Numbers of THE LIVING AGE, 18 cents. DEATH THE POET'S BIRTH. THE poet may tread earth sadly, 'Yet is he' dreamland's king, And the fays at his bidding gladly Visions of beauty bring; But his joys will be rarer, finer, Away from this earthly stage, When he, who is now a minor, Comes of age. Roll on, O! tardy cycle, Whose death is the poet's birth; Blow soon, great trump of Michael, Shatter the crust of earth; Let the slow spheres turn faster ; Hasten the heritage Of him, who, as life's true master, Comes of age. Transcript. ment of their argument, nor shall we have space to notice all the collateral points of interest. From The British Quarterly Review. THE UNSEEN UNIVERSE.* AMONGST books which have recently made a sensation in the literary world (and At starting, the authors assume the exof late there has been a not inconsiderable istence of a Deity, who is the Creator of number), perhaps not one is more remark- all things; also that "the laws of the uni able than that whose title stands at the verse are those laws according to which head of this article. A true product of the the beings in the universe are conditioned age, in dealing with the relations of science by the Governor thereof, as regards time, and religion, free from conventionalism, place, and sensation." These are assump and noticeable for the boldness and origi- tions which the class of readers addressed nality of its views, it seems to point out would certainly allow; yet it seems to us the direction in which we must look for that by adopting them the authors at the the sweeping away of present artificial very outset of their inquiry have contrabarriers between science and religion. If vened their proposed method of proceedits conclusions be accepted, the horizon of ing, viz., to argue from purely physical scientific inquiry will be extended, and data; and this is the more to be regretted Christ and the future life will be brought in that, without greatly enlarging their into more intimate and vivid connection plan, they might have given physical rea with the visible material universe. Hith-sons for the existence of a creator; inerto the theological world has regarded deed, they do try to strengthen their posi Christ only in his relations to the moral tion by quoting Herbert Spencer. and spiritual needs of mankind, but the should not, however, have touched upon authors of "The Unseen Universe" find a this here, were it not for the use made need for him also in the general economy of it in the argument. In approaching of the universe, and strive to prove their the consideration of the universe from the point, not without some plausibility, even scientific side, we must take the laws therefrom the Scriptures themselves. of well defined as in this work we find Their chief aim, they tell us, is "to endeavor to show that the presumed incompatibility of science and religion does not exist; to show, in fact, that immortality is strictly in accordance with the principle of continuity (rightly viewed); to address themselves to those who see strong grounds for believing in the immortality of man and the existence of an invisible world, but who at the same time are forced to acknowledge the strength of the objections urged against these doctrines by certain men of science." But at the same time they seem to have gone beyond this, and to have attempted some sketch of what as a whole the universe may be, or rather perhaps some sketch of things and processes that may occur therein. Whether they have succeeded in their design, and with what measure of success, it will be the endeavor of the following pages to examine. In doing this, however, we shall not confine ourselves to the exact arrange The Unseen Universe; or, Physical Specula tions on a Future State. Second Edition. Macmillan and Co. We them- and argue backwards as far as we can to the First Cause; but by no means may we use teleological arguments, such as our authors employ when they affirm what the intention of the Creator was. We cannot conceive of God as conditioned in any way, neither ought we, indeed we are not able, to judge of his manner of action or thinking, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord,"-but, reverently regarding nature as the expression and outcome of his laws and working, we should attempt to arrive at such knowledge of them as we can by earnest, honest seeking and following the truth wherever it may lead, taking care that it is the truth, well knowing that, as dealing with works of the same being, scientific inquiry and true religion cannot be at variance. In connection with this a remark may be necessary on the limits of scientific inquiry. Some good people resent the intrusion of science into questions con. cerning the origin of life and things, whilst others, who allow the right of inquiry, at once into the presence of the Eternal?"” This is a question we cannot answer, but, being willing to learn, we will pass on. These remarks being premised, we proceed to give a short and concise statement of the line of argument. would perhaps not go so far as to say, "We think it... the bounden duty of the man of science to put back the direct interference of the great First Cause the unconditioned as far as he possibly can in time." Further on the authors say: "If, then, two possible theories of the production of any phenomenon are presented to the man of science, one of these implying the immediate operation of the unconditioned, and the other the operation of some cause existing in the universe, we conceive that he is called upon by the most profound obligations of his nature to choose the second in preference to the first." The first statement, it must be granted, is rather startling in its bare-ing, which can be nothing else than the ness, and certainly requires to be "conditioned;" but the second, we think, is not far wide of the truth, provided the theory proposed is easily conceivable. The principle of continuity, the great guide of our inquiries into the past and future, is one of those magnificent generalizations which are the most striking results of modern science. Almost a truism, when its meaning is once grasped, it is remarkable for the great light it has thrown on problems heretofore regarded as practically unsolvable. It asserts that no phenomenon can happen without naturally flowing from a cause antecedent to it; that in passing from one state to any other, a body must pass through intervening states; that there must not be a sudden break without any connection between an event and the preceding one, such, for instance, as would happen if matter were to disappear for a time from the universe. It follows that if the principle of continuity be true, it is "the heritage of intelligence that there shall be an endless vista reaching from eternity, in each link of which we shall be led only from one form of the conditioned to another, never from the conditioned to the unconditioned." Lest this view of things should frighten the ordinary reader, the writers ask in the chapter on physical axioms, "Is it less reverent to regard the universe as an illimitable avenue that leads up to God, than to look upon it as a limited area bounded by an impenetrable wall, which, if we could only pierce it, would bring us With respect to the present visible universe, the authors come to the conclusion that it had its beginning in time, and must come to an end in time; at least, to an end so far as present modes of life are concerned. At these two barriers they must by their principles allow no discontinuity, and therefore the present universe must have been developed out of, and will again sink into, some one older and more last unseen universe of ether. How it has upon the second. principle of continuity asserts that in that other order of things life must still be conditioned, and since there must be an organ of memory and power of action, there must be a body of some kind. In order to explain memory, it is supposed that every thought and impression, which is known to produce changes in the brain, also affects a spiritual body, which is in some mysterious manner connected with the present material body, and which lives on after the latter has passed away. For this idea of spiritual bodies the authors quote the authority of the Christian writings: e. g., St. Paul says, "There is a natural body and a spiritual body." There is nothing here that contradicts the principle of continuity, therefore a future state is not impossible. If this be true, the | to glance at the conservation of energy and other allied principles. It is impossible within the limits of this article to explain these fully, yet a short statement may perhaps be desirable for those who are not well acquainted with physical science. So far as our observation goes, matter is indestructible; however we may change its form and states, the quantity of matter cannot be altered. We may call this the law of conservation of matter. Now matter is not the only thing conserved in the universe; there is besides, what scientific men, after Young, have termed energy, of which they recognize two kinds-kinetic and potential. The former depends upon the motion of matter, the kinetic energy of any small portion of matter being proportional to the product of the number representing its mass (or quantity of matter) into the square of the number representing its velocity. The latter-potential energy—is due to the configuration of But further, the principle of biogenesis asserts that life does not arise except from previous life, and hence life seems to be something essentially different from mat-matter, whereby it possesses the power of ter and energy. If, therefore, even the doing work, or of producing kinetic enmost advanced evolutionary theory be the ergy. Thus, a ball held at the top of a true one, that all living things have devel- house has energy owing to its position. If oped from a single primitive germ, we it be let fall it will strike the ground with cannot allow that it suddenly came into a certain velocity, depending upon the existence, since life is something sui gene- height fallen through, and therefore with a certain kinetic energy. If we consider it at any point of its downward path, it will have the kinetic energy due to the space it has already fallen through, and the potential energy in virtue of the space it has yet to fall through; and the sum of these is constant, i. e., the energy is conserved. All physical phenomena are the results of transformation of energy in matter. Thus heat consists of motion of very small parts of bodies; light, of motion of small parts of the ether; electric and magnetic phenomena depend, some on the motion of this ether connected with matter, others on certain states thereof. Now we find that in all cases the sum of the two kinds of energy in the universe is constant; if one form disappears it reappears in some other form, but no energy is destroyed. This is what is meant by the conservation of energy. ris. The principle of continuity asserts that it must have existed before; and since it could not exist in the visible universe, it must have done so in the previous invisible one. Hence there is not only the possibility, but even the strong probability, of a future state, inasmuch as there is no more reason for expecting a break of continuity in the future than in the past. Such, stripped of illustrations, proofs, and digressions, is the outline of the argu ment. Interspersed with the reasoning, several questions are treated of, not bearing directly on the argument; as for instance, miracles, “Are there beings superior to man in the present visible universe?" etc. Also at the end of the book comes a consistent theory of the universe in general, the truth of which, it is allowed, is very problematical, but which is given for the purpose of fixing the reader's ideas. Before criticising the successive steps of the above reasoning it will be necessary Closely connected with this is another principle — the dissipation of energy. To do work, we must have transmutation of |