Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-03-21
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NEW PUBLICATIONS.


, New York, and for sale by a. L. Bancroft
& Co., San Francisco. 1t is scarcely
| necessary to enlarge, as the work invites us
to do, upon this admirable book, already SO
well known to the scientific and philosoph-
ical world of readers. The titled writer,
when he completed his volume entitled
The Reign of Law in 1866, and to
which this volume is the sequel, intended
to follow the chapter on g Law in Politics, !"
with a concluding one ON " Law in Chris
tan Theology" but he soon became con-
WINGED of the impossibility of treating the
subject in a single chapter. The Duke
himself says he found he could not enter
upon the subject without preparatory
investigations and preparatory arguments
which it would take volumes to exhaust
What has TO be done in the first place,
therefore, is to establish some method of
inquiry, and to find some secure avenue of
approach. Before dealing with any part
of the theology which is peculiarly Chris
tan, he found that he must trace the con-
nection between the reign of law and the
ideas which are alike fundamental to all
religions and inseparable from the facts of
nature. 1t is to this preliminary work that
the book before us has been devoted
Modern doubt, says he, has called in ques-
ton not only the whole subject of inquiry,
be pursued. Until these have been tested
and examined by some standard which is
elementary and acknowledged, we cannot
even begin the work. And he adds: A" 1t
has appeared to me that not few
of the problems which lie deepest in this
inquiry, and which perplex us most, are
soluble in the light of the unity of nature.
Or if these problems are not entirely So
luble in this light, at least they are broken
up by it, and are reduced to fewer and
simpler elements" His work is an attempt
TO follow this conception along few of the
innumerable paths which it opens up, and
which radiate from it through all the phe-
nomena of the universe, as from an ex-
haustless center of energy and of suggestion.
From the text of Argyll we quote at
is the great advantage of these paths that
they are almost infinite in number and
equally various in direction. To those who
walk in them nothing can ever come amiss
Every subject of interest, every object of
wonder, every thought of mystery, every
Obscure analogy, every strange intimation
of likeness in the midst of difference-the
whole external and the whole internal
worlds the province and the property of
him who seeks to see and tounderstand the
unity of nature. 1t is a thought which
may be pursued in every calling-in the
busiest hours of an active life, and in the
calmest moments of rest and reflection.
And if in the wanderings of our own
spirit, and in the sins and sorrows
of human life, there are terrible facts
which resist all classification and all an
alysis, it will be good result of our
endeavors to comprehend the unity of
nature, should it lead US better to see, and
more definitely to understand, those
features in the character of man which
constitute the great exception" The
general subdivisions of the sub
ject are thirteen in number and their
statement will give the reader
some idea of the method employed in di-
viding the theme. These divisions are
General definitions and illustrations of the
unity of nature, what it is and what it is
not; mans place in the unity of nature
animal instinct in its relation TO the mind
of man the limits of human knowledge
and its truthfulness; the elementary con-
stitution of matter in relation to the inor
ganic; the elementary constitution of mat
ter in relation to the organic man as the
representative of the supernatural the |
moral character of man the degradation |
of man the origin and nature of religion F.;
the corruptions of religion; and finally the |
pretended solvent of all knowledge and all |
belief, and the consideration of mans moral |
character as the one great anomaly in ma |
ture.
DR.. W. A. Hammond's novel, Lal, is |
published by D. Appleton & Co., New |
York, and is for sale by James I. White & |
Co, San Francisco. 1t somewhat surprised |
the reading public The profession of
medicine is not generally conceded to be |
conducive of romantic fancies. But DR.. |
Hammond proves, i'll this volume, that he
has brilliant and active imagination and |
a ready and graceful pen. 1t is not
story especially strong in characters, but
the combinations of personality are adj
mirably made and the plot naturally
evolved.
1t is scarcely necessary to remark upon
any of Bret Harte's stories In the three,
''At the Mission of San Carmel "A Blue
Glass Penelope" and :" Left Out on Lone
Star Mountain" his style is as markedly
peculiar as in any of his previous efforts.
The three stories are bound in a neat
pocket volume by Houghton, Miffiin & Co,
Boston, under the general title On the
Frontier" and is for sale by c. S. Hough-
ton, Sacramento, at 81.
John B. Alden, New York has reissued,
in most convenient form, Prescott's His
tory of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isa-
BELLA" 1t is, as originally, in two vol
lmes. This standard work has been more
but not more practically or
usefully, put out by book houses.
Love and Mirage, or the Waiting on an
Island,' is a graceful and very interesting
1ut-ofdoor romance from an unknown
zen. 1t is from the press of Harper &
Bros, New York, and is for sale by A. L.
Bancroft d Co., San Francisco.
MAGAZINES. ETC
From Houghton Miffiin e Co., Boston.
We have the Atlantic Monthly" for
April 1t is choice number, and presents
lmong others these leading papers % Po-
itical Economy and the Civil War" by
!. Laurence Laughlin; Fiammetta )" by
Helen Gray Cone; AN Unclassifed Phi
osopher," by Frederick D. Storey Ceres
salon and Her Friends" by Kathleen
)Meara a Ruffian in Feathers" by
dive Thorne Miller; George Frederick
Handel" by T. S. Dwight; "The Strange
iuest," by Edith NJ. Thomas :" The New
'ortfolio," with poem, 1.-The Old Song"
" Oliver Wendell Holmes; Easter
lilies" by John B. Tabb; " Fate Domi-
lant," by Frank r. Stockton; Time in
Plays" by Henry A. Clapp
Professional Poetry" Gosse's Edition
# Gray's Works, and the serials and reg
liar editorial and critical reviews. !,
The United States Service Magazine"
by T. H. S. Hamersly. S35 ;
Broadway, \. Y, and devoted to the inter-
SIS of the Military. Naval and Civil Ser
ice, presents, in the March number. some
cry interesting articles, among which are:
General Thos. Jontan's Description and
account of the Battle of Shiloh" The !
British Military Operationsin the Soudan,"
" Northumberland (Pasha) Stone: {
Over the Border (Mexico) with Macken-
ie," by Major Z. b. Beaumont: "a Dead
Iero,n by Il. Dorsey Mohun; ''The Battal-
On System for the National Guard by I
ieneral Snowden; Promotion in the Civil
erviee," by }. E. Vail; besides chapters in |
Continued Reviews, Editorial Notes. etc. a
his is magazine which will greatly inter- I
st especially all who have taken part in !