Catholic Historical Researches. Quarterly. Edited by Rev. A. A. Lambing. January, 1886. Pittsburg. Pp. 40. Price, 25 cents a number, $1 a year.
This is a new naming, appropriate to the enlarged scope of the "Historical Researches in Western Pennsylvania, Principally Catholic," which the editor began in July, 1884. The publication is intended to contain matters relating to the past history of the Roman Catholic Church in this country; to chronicle the progress of Catholic historical inquiry, giving proceedings and papers of societies; to reproduce original historical documents, registers, letters, etc.; and to contain departments for brief historical notes, inquiries, and replies, with book reviews.
Evolution and Religion. By Henry Ward Beecher. New York: Fords, Howard, and Hulbert. Part I. Pp. 145. Price, 50 cents. Part II. Pp. 295. Price, $1.
"The universal physical fact of evolution, postulated as a theory of the divine method of creation," says Mr. Beecher, "is one which so naturally and simply fits many a puzzling lock, that it is gratefully seized by many who seem to themselves to have been shut out from hope and from the truth. For myself, while finding no need of changing my idea of the divine personality because of new light upon his mode of working, I have hailed the evolutionary philosophy with joy. Some of the applications of its principles to the line of development I have to reject; others, though not proved—and in the present state of scientific knowledge perhaps not even provable—I accept as probable; but the underlying truth, as a law of Nature (that is, a regular method of the divine action), I accept and use, and thank God for it." Mr. Beecher has learned that he has in fact been for fifty years, without knowing it, preaching a doctrine of evolution in its application to a spiritual growth, and now fervently believes that that doctrine is bringing "to the aid of religious truth, as set forth in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, a new and powerful aid, fully in line with other marked developments of God's providence in his Word." For two years he has preached with specific application of this principle to practical aspects of Christian life. These discourses are incorporated in these two parts of a single work. In the first part are placed eight sermons, discussing the bearings of the evolutionary philosophy on some of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith—the divine nature, the question of human sinfulness, the inspiration of the Bible, the divine providence, and correlated subjects. The second part contains eighteen sermons, pointing out the specific application of those general principles, and showing the main lines along which Mr. Beecher believes "the main course of the old ship will largely be laid."
Introspective Insanity. By Allan McLane Hamilton, of New York. Pp. 8.
In this paper is given a study of a remarkable phase of morbid affections, known to the French as folic du doute and to the Germans as Grubelsucht, which varies in intensity from mere morbid nervousness or eccentricity to positive insanity. It is described as a condition of mind which is manifested by a morbid feeling of doubt and consequent indecision under the most ordinary circumstances, when both the doubt and indecision are unreasonable in the extreme, but the individual, under the mandate of an imperative conception, yields more or less to his disordered emotions. It appears under numerous aspects, some of which arc illustrated by the relation of cases.
On the Development of Crystallization in the Igneous Rocks of Washoe, Nevada. By Arnold Hague and Joseph P. Iddings. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 44.
In studying the lavas from the Pacific coast volcanoes, the authors were struck with insensible gradations in the micro-structure in the ground-mass of rocks of the same mineral composition from a purely glassy form to one wholly crystalline, and corresponding to a fine-grained granite-porphyry. They were convinced by the chain of microscopical evidence that the glassy and crystalline rocks were simply the extreme forms of the same magma. This pamphlet gives the account of the experiments and investigations.
