TO THE MEMORY OF PROFESSOR MANSfield. QUESTIONING. BY WILLIAM WIRT SIKES. INTO the night I gaze with weary eyes; Dead! He is dead! Never again to sit Holding my hand, and reading me his heart. Dead! And this death? What must I think of it? Where, when men's souls their mortal shackles split, Pass they away? In what fate have they part? Waters, oh waters, sighing in the night, Symbol you Death, in darkness and unrest? Winds, roaming far, with feet that ne'er alight, Symbol you Death? Yon stars, that pale your light Behind yon clouds that pall-hang all the West, Symbol you Death, with light in shadow hid With curtain broad? Come, answer me my quest; Which of you symbols that which his soul rid Of its mere clay? Oh, these drear figures mid, My heart aches wearily, and finds no rest. False are ye all-dark night, pale stars, black waves! Ye symbol Death! Read me no more that cheat! Death is a sleep. It deals with more than graves; Beautiful sleep! which all his best part saves, And keeps for me till that day when we meet. AN EXAMINATION OF MR. J. S. MILL'S PHILOSOPHY: Being a Defense of Fundamental Truth. By JAMES M'Cosн, L. L. D., Professor of Metaphysic, Queen's College, Belfast, Author of "The Method of Divine Government," "Intuitions of the Mind," etc. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers. 1866. We opened this book with no very sanguine expectations of pleasure, having an impression that the author, though a man of some reputation, is primarily a theologian of the old school, and a metaphysician scarcely otherwise than in the interest of his creed. British metaphysic is commonly limited enough even when discussed with a pure interest; bound beforehand to determinate theological results, it could hardly be tolerable. The beginning of the book, though agreeable reading enough, gave no decisive token of power. And on the fortieth page were found a few words which seemed quite discouraging. Dr. M'Cosh there permits himself to speak of Spinoza as "ending in the bogs of a horrid pantheism." This appeared to make it certain that he is one of those who, beyond a limited range, do their thinking with the nose. Though no partizan of Spinoza, we could ill conceive how any man capable of appreciating spiritual elevation, or moved by a predominating sympathy with ideas, should vent upon him this commonplace cant of the pulpit. Yet the book utterly disappoints these evil prognostics. Though not to be named a great thinker, Dr. M'Cosh is unquestionably an able man, fully competent to cope with Mr. Mill in metaphysical discussion, if not decidedly his superior, as we think he is. His intelligence is perspicacious, his judgment sound, and he writes in a style of perfect transparency, though of some amplitude. The points which he makes against Mr. Mill are exceedingly well chosen; and we do not find a single instance wherein he fails either to carry his point perfectly, or at least to show that the doctrines he assails must stand by new supports, if they stand at all. He first takes issue with the other upon the origin of our ideas. Mr. Mill, as is well known, traces these exclusively to sensation. His statement is not merely that sensation is involved in all our thinking, but that an idea is nothing but the sum total of many sensations linked together by the principle of association. To be sure, in his last book he begins to waver, and indeed makes special admissions which are wholly inconsistent with this doctrine, but without abandoning the doctrine itself. Dr. M'Cosh shows this position to be not only ill-defended, but indefensible. On this point his triumph is no less than complete. He makes it indubitable that such a doctrine can be rendered plausible only by a wholesale system of slipping in intuitive ideas without acknowledgment. No one who has read Mr. Mill's discussions with some closeness of scrutiny, can fail to have detected this curious process; and the clearness with which his critic exposes it, must needs give such a reader satisfaction. Without leisure even to indicate the course and method of the discussion, we cordially commend the work to all who find themselves interested in such matters. The author sometimes misses his mark, and toward the close of the book, where he approaches Theology, becomes equally limited with his opponent, if not even more so. But in general his criticism merits attention and respect, though he does not fairly break through the ordinary limits of British metaphysic. His range of thought is not perhaps ampler than that of Mr. Mill, but he is less hampered by a system, and is capable of a nicer critical attention. In one case he touches upon a point of great importance for his general purpose, but slips past it without more than a casual remark - the fundamental relation, namely, of Belief to Knowledge. He finds Belief first of all in Memory, where Mr. Mill also admits its presence. This is coming far short of the fact. It can easily be shown that Belief is the necessary substratum, as it is the crown, of all knowledge — that it is involved in ordinary perception, and indeed in everything which may be called mental action. And an accurate exposition of this matter would deal a death-blow to Positivism. D. A. W. BOOKS RECEIVED. CHRIST AND THE PEOPLE. By A. B. Child, M. D., Boston: Adams & Co. 21 Bromfield St. 1866. WOMAN'S DRESS; ITS MORAL AND PHYSICAL RELATIONS, being an Essay delivered before the World's Health Convention, New York city, Nov. 1864. By Mrs. M. M. Jones. New York: Miller, Wood, & Co., 15 Laight St. 1865. ALCOHOLIC MEDICATION. By R. T. Trall, M. D., New York: Miller, Wood & Co., 15 Laight St., 1866. THE EASTERN, OR TURKISH BATH; with its History, Revival in Britain, and Application to the Purposes of Health. By Erasmus Wilson, F. R. S. with notes and appendix by M. L. Holbrook, M. D., New York: Miller, Wood & Co., 15 Laight St., 1866. THE TOILERS OF THE SEA. A Novel by Victor Hugo, Author of "Les Miserables. " New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, Franklin Square, 1866. RALPH, and other Poems. By Henry L. Abbey. BONDOUT Horatio Fowks. New York: N. Tibbets, 37 Park Row, 1865. Address. R. W. EMERSON. III. Bond or Free. SAMUEL JOHNSON. IV. The Lord's Supper. CONTENTS, No. II. I. Saving Faith. J. C. L. (Poetry) • 33 II. ww 34 49 59 . 63 64 1 65 66 68 V. Sonnets. Pride-The Guests. W. A. WASSON.. VII. The Denial of Christ. FRED MAY HOLLAND. CONTENTS, No. III. I. On the Foundations of Religious Belief- Past and II. Saadi's Thinking. JOHN WEISS. (Poetry) III. Concerning Enemies. IV. The Lord's Supper. DANIEL BOWEN. VI. The Humming Bird. MYRON B. BENTON. (Poetry). IX. The American Social Science Association. XI. Letter from London. M. D. CONWAY. CONTENTS, No. IV. I. On the Foundations of Religious Belief- Real and Im- aginary Authority. SAMUEL JOHNSON. II. Not in Word. W. H. FURNESS. IV. Do Men Need Salvation? C. K. WHIPPLE. V. The Lord's Supper. DANIEL BOWEN.. VI. The Lost Thought. (Poetry.) VII. Personal Experience. How I turned "Parkerite," FRED MAY HOLLAND. 113 126 133 135 138 142 143 VIII. England at the Grave of Palmerston M. D. CONWAY.. 146 148 CONTENTS, No. V. I. Hymn for the New Year. J. C. L. 153 II. On the Foundation of Religious Belief-The Fallacy VI. Constitutional Amendment. JOHN WEiss. 180 186 IX. Book Notice. - The Works of Epictetus. CONTENTS, No. VI. I. The New Epoch in Belief. D. A. WASSON, . 187 191 II. The Little Song. FROM UHLAND. 193 204 III. Grotta-Savngr the Quern Song. FROM THE Elder Edda. 205 VII. American Social Science Association. Second Gen- I. The Adequacy of Natural Religion. SAMUEL JOHNSON. III. Fetichism at Home and Abroad. DANIEL BOWEN, III. Revolutions. From Matthew Arnold's Published Poems. 290 IV. Sursum Corda! M. D. Conway. 291 V. The Policy. Wendell Phillips. 295 VI. Jesus the Sublime Radical. H. W. Beecher. From The Inde- |