The herald., 1894-10-14
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The story ia aa old as the story oil David
and Bethsheha, and in treating such
story, though there Is no straining after
moral. it is evident that. as one critic
has said, the author feels himself in the
!, grasp OF the moral.
Two men love the same woman. Be-
trothed to one, in his absence
she loves the other and gives him
her final pledge. Pete. the hero, re-
turns end marries Kate, believing she
loves him. He finds oct only when che
foreakes him end the child, for her
lover, that he never had her heart or
her faith.
The self-renunciation of the great
souled, simplehearted Pate, which fol.
lowe, is as powerfully done as anything
in modern fiction. Inotead of flaming
into revenge against the guilty two, he
feels that it was not Phillip who had
| robbed him OF Kate. bnt that it was he
who had robbed Phillip by marrying
one who had given herself unreservedly
to him. Thus he gives up not only the
wife who had been the glory of life
to him, but the child whom he had be-
lfeved to be bune OF his bone, to the
man whom he guessed to be her real
father.
This is the simplest outline of the
story, which elaborates itself in the no
| less successful treatment OF lesser
themes, as for instance the penalties of
mans marrying beneath him, and the
gripping power of heredity in life, both
of which are wonderfully developed in
the career and character of Phillip
Christian.
Pete the hero. Pete the "by.child,"
Pete the lover, Pete the husband, Pete
the guilelese, simple, betrayed friend,
Pete the plaything of fate, still all love
and loyalty-s at once one of the most
touching, the truest, the ssddest, types
in fiction. Kate is as real q woman as
Pete is man. She 10 IN exquisite crea-
ture, full of passion and love of life and
the good of life, full, too, of patient and
faithful love-and winsome, graceful,
healthy.
The book is as strong in local
as If it had no plot, and ss
strong in plot as If it had no
local color. 1t will interest the most
careless reader and fasoinste until the
last page 10 read.
THE ASCENT OF MAN, by HENRY DRUM
MoND, author OF the Greatest Thing in the
World, etc. Published by James Pott &
Co., New York city. For sale by The A.
W. berry stationery company, 10 south
I spring street.
In these pages an attempt is made to
"tell in plain way few OF the things
which science 10 now seeing with regard
to the ascent of man. Whether these
seeings are there at all is another mat
ter. But even ii visions, every thinking
mini, through whatever medium,
should look at them. What science has
| to cay about himself is OF transcendent
interest to man and the practical bear
ings OF this theme are coming to be
more vital than any in the field OF
knowledge. The thread which binds
the facts is, it is true, but hypothesis.
As the theory. nevertheless, with which
at present all scientific work is being
done, it is assumed in every page that
follows.
Though it5 standpoint is evolution
and its subject Man, this book is far
! from being designed to prove that man
has relations, compromising or other
wise, with lower animals. It's theme is
ascent. not descent. 1t is story, not an
argument, and evolution. in the narrow
sense in which it is often used when ap-
piled to man, plays little part in the
drama outlined here. So far as the gen.
eral Echeme of evolution ia introduced
and in the Introduction and elsewhere
this is done at length-the object is the
important one OF pointing out how it's
nature has been misconceived, indeed,
how its greatest factor has been over
looked in almost all contemporary
scientific thinking. Evolution was given
to the modern world out OF focus, was
fret seen by it out of focus, and has re-
mained out OF focus to the
| rra ha
and explains. Its general basis
has never been re-examined since
the time of Mr. Darwin, and not only
such speculative sciences as theology.
but working eciences like sociology have
been led astrsy by fundamental omis
sion. An evolution theory, drawn to
scale and with the lights and shadows
properly djusted-adjusted to the
whole truth and reality OF nature and of
man-is nesded ct present as standard
for modern thought, and though re-
construction o! magnitude is not here
presented, q primary object OF these
pages is TO supply at least the accents
| for such a scheme
Beyond an attempted readjustment OF
the accents, there is nothing in this val
ume for the specialist-except, it may
be, the infection OF his own work. Nor,
apart from theology, 10 there anything
for the theologian. The limitations OF
| q lecture audience mako the treatment
OF such themes as might appeal to him
impossible; while owing to the brevity
OF the course, the ascent had tos be
etopped at point where all the higher
interest begins. All that this present
volume covers is the ascent of man, the
Individual, during the earlier stages OF
his evolution. 1t is q study in embryos,
in rudiments, in installations; the scene
is the primeval forest; the date,
the worlds dawn. Tracing his rice ss
far as Family Life, this history
does not even follow him into the tribe,
and as it is only then that social and
moral life begins in earnest, no formal
discussion o. these high themee occurs.
All the higher forces and phenomena
with which the sciences of Psychology,
ethice, and theology usually deal, come
on the worlds stage at later date, and
no one need be6urprised il the Remi.
savage, with whom we leave of. ia
iound wanting in 80 many OF the higher
potentialities Of human being.
! The ascent of mankind, as dis.
tinguishod from the ascent of the indi.
vidual, wes originally summarized in
one or two closing lectures, but that
stupendous subject would require a VOL
ume for itself, and those fragments
were omitted for the present. Doubt
lesE it may dissppeiRt come that at the
close of ali the bewildering viciasitudas