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406 NEW BOOKS. stand it. To his qualities as a controversialist the author sometimes adds a delightful freshness of repartee. In reference to a statement of Dr. Temple that ' I am not constrained to believe that if one event is followed by another a great many times it will be so followed always,' Dr. Gore remarks ' 1) that many theological persons do not feel con- strained to believe any scientific ideas which appear to contradict their fixed doctrinal beliefs ; (2) it requires much more scientific experience than such persons usually have had to become fully convinced of the universality of natural causation '. The argument is neither enlightened nor profound, but its tone at least is ingenuous and its complacency amusing. Nor indeed are the obiter dicta of this work less noteworthy than its sustained apodeictic. What is to be said of a man who tells us that ' two of a trade rarely agree, because their special ideas respecting their calling are often inconsistent with each other,' and that ' the influence of Mahomet, .lesus Christ, Shakespeare, and Newton are felt even now ' ? We cannot but conclude that Dr. Gore's book had much better been left unwritten. After making all allowances for its scientific standpoint, the foolish rancour against Christianity, the arrogant materialism, the cold passion for temporalities, there is yet much that cannot be con- doned. The book has unhappily an individuality of its own. We are struck by the exercise of a brilliant ingenuity in adapting the verses of Pope and Longfellow to any context, and by a wearying reiteration of catch-phrases, ' immutable energy,' ' unprovable dogmas,' etc., which constitute the author's single line of defence. The only morality in the book is a scant elaboration of one or two common maxims, finally embodied in ten of the most comprehensive platitudes ever submitted to the moral palate. ' To do the greatest good' (2nd rule), 'to continually improve ' (5th rule), ' to properly value all things ' (Oth rule) this sort of stuff is the reader's only reward for nearly six hundred pages. Dr. Gore has intimated that this is ' a work for the future ' : we may at least agree with him that it is a startling anachronism. E. A. MENNEER. The Conscience ui She Kinr/. Bv JAMES CARMICHAKL SPEXCE. London : ' Swan Sonnenschein, 1809. Pp. 280. '1 he title of this book is not an obvious key to its contents, and yet after finishing Mr. Spence's pages one is obliged to admit that the name he has selected for them is in many ways appropriate. Mr. Spence tells us that some years ago he was engaged on a scheme initiated by Mr. Herbert Spencer, the object of which was "to present briefly in a tabulated form the contents of our statute book from early days onward, showing why each law was enacted, the effects produced, the duration, and if repealed the reason of the repeal ". This scheme after much preliminary work had been done was ultimately abandoned. Mr. Spence's share in it consisted in reading and making digests of the oldest of our statutes. This work opened Mr. Spence's eyes to the crimes and follies of legislators. One of the first things he found out in examining these old statutes was that many of the schemes which are now current for bettering the condition of the people by Act of Parlia- ment had been tried in the past and found to fail. This led him to ask, Vhy did these laws fail ? It was not because men were worse in the past than they are now. It is because the good intentions which are a safe guide in private life are not merely useless but positively mischievous in politics. Legislation hag in the main been based on good intentions