New-York tribune., 1879-06-10
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
MALLoCK ON MODERN sCEPTIC1sM.

The wall of CaSSandra over the l1ipenuing laV0 VA
her country could not have surpassed the tragic
pathos with which the author Of this volume Ia
ments the destruction of religious faith through the
progress of modern science. Mr.. Mallock cherishes
o profound conviction that the religion of the past
is fading away under the influence of sceptical in
Quiry, which has placed it's blighting touch on the
traditions, the beliefs 1t may be, the superstitions
which have been at the foundation of social order
and morality for q succession of ages. He makes
no attempt TO sustain the fabric, which as
he alleges, is crUmbling into chaos; lie
does not call in question the validity OF
the attacks whose subtle poison he so feeiingly
deplores but accepting the perils of the hour
he presents o lurid picture of the consequences
which threaten civilization with intellectual an
archy and moral ruin. The tone of bis work is
neither cheerful nor wholesome. 1t can scarcely be
read without an appalling sense Of desolation.
Whoever receives It's conclusions must share the
pensive melancholy which tingcs its pages with
EOmbre cOlOrs The author brings no good udines
OF Joyous import his feet upon the mountains leave
only the print Of terror and desperation he secs no
morning star in the gloomy distance predicting the
dawn Of better day the watchman of the night
can tell only OF the rising OF the naneS with no aI
pauees at hand 10 arrest their destructive career
The nature of modern scopticsm, as compared
with the unbclef OF classical ages, is set forth by
The author In a strain of vivid eloquence which
illustrates the power of his imagination if not the
soundness Of his perceptions. IL the ancient world
says Mr.. Nallock, the supernatural was something
vague and indefinite. The classical thooogies could
embody but a very small part OF It. 1t was like q
dim and dffusod light, brighter in some places, and
darker in others, but focaized nowhere. Chris
tianity has localized IL, and united into one the
scattered point, OF brightness. The vague concep-
ton Of the Good received definite shape i'll the
form of the Deity. The Christian God absorbed IN
his own person the offices Of all the gods that were
before him. He became not only the first cause Of
the world, but the father Of the human soul, and
its judge; and what is more, its rest and
its delight, and its desire, Under the light
of this conception, man appeared ON ampler
being. His thoughts were forever gazed upon by
the great controller Of all things. lie was made III
the likeness of the Lord of lords lie was Of kin to
the power before which all the visible world trcm-
bled. Every detail in the life of human soul was
incomparably vaster than the depths Of space and
time. Christianity has declared a supernatural
more complete than the world had ever known, and
the consequence is that In these days we deny the
supernatural IN a way In which it never denied
before. Our denial is beyond all comparison moro
complete. "The supernatural for the ancient
world, was Ike perfume sceuting life out of hum
dred different vessels, of which only two or three
were visible TO tic same men or nations. They
therefore might get rid of these, and yet the larger
part Of the scent would still remain TO
them. But for US, it Is as though all the perfume
had been collected into single vessel; and If we
get rid Of this we shall get rid of the scent alto
gcthcr. Our air viii be altogether odorless" For
merly the supernatural could not be denied COM
potvly, because il was not known completely.
Many beliefs which the sccptics of the modern
world are denying, the sCcptcs Of the ancient world
more or less consciously lived by. The world which
We have been to a certain extent disregaIding las
been changing its character for In a number Of
ways its objective grandeur has been dWindling.
The Imagination cannot reinyest it with its old gor-
geous ooorng. Once the world was the centreOf the
whole creation. The mind had no larger conceptions
that were vivid enough to dwarf 1T. But now all
this has changed In the words Of a recent English
historian; The floor Of Heaven, inlaid with
stars has sunk back into an infinite abyss Of i'm
measurable space; and the firm earth itself unfxed
from its foundations is seen to be but small atom
intheawful vastness Of the universe" But the whole
position Is indeed reversed. The skies once seemed
10 pay the earth homage, and to serve 1t with
light and shelter. Now they do nothing as far as
the Imagination is concerned, but spurn and dwarf
It, Ia like manner, the earth's surface has become
small and paltry. 1t has lost its wonder and it's
mystery. An excursion around II is made holiday
trip. There are no more unknown wonderlands 70 be
explored. A large mass of the sentiment which was
once powerful in the world has passed away.
Patriotism can never again be what it was to
Athens and ROme-a matter of religion or PRIDE.
The intense self-oOnsciousness that is now de-
yeloped in the world is a new feature. Within
few generations man has curiOusly changed. His
old spontGneity of acton has largely gone from
him. lie has become q creature looking before and
after, and his native hue of resolution has been
scklied over by thought. We admit nothing now
without question we have learned to take all mo-
tlves for action to pieces we not only know more
than We ever knew before, but we are peTpetualiy
chewing the cud of our knowledge.
L. the opinion of Mr.. Mallock, when the present
age shall realize its own condition truly, the de-
lection of which it is slowly growing may
perhaps give way to despair The condition is so
portentous, he remarks, that it seems like dream.
But the more steadily look at it, the more real its
appalling features become. We are terallyin anage,
he anirms 10 which history can show no parallel.
II is a new experience Of humanity. The moral de-
lection of the present is a solid substance to which
that OF the past was only shadow.
The remedy for the evils OF scientific sccptcism,
in the opinion of the author is not TO be found
Protestant Christianity. The experience of three
Centuries ne AYERS, is beginning to exhibit the re-
suit OF the denial Of nfalibility TO religion that
pTOfe scs 10 be supernatural We are at last BEGIN
ming TO see in 1t neither the purifier of corrupted
revelation. nor the corrupter of a pure revola-
ton but the practical denial of all revelation what
ever 1t Is fast evapoTauing into a mere natural
thesm. We hud in it only the religion from which
the supernatural clement is disappearing and III
which moreover, the natural clement is fast becOm-
ing nebuous Ii is growing as II has been said it is,
into religion OF dreams. AL its doctrines grow
ING vague as dreams and like dreams their outlines
are forever changing. PrOtestantism is at last be
coming explicitly what it always was implictly,no
n supernatural religion which fulfls the natural,