616 NEW BOOKS.

teristics of the Rigveda and followed by a chapter on " The Order of the World " as conceived by the Rishis (c. iv., pp. 91-108), and an appendix on " The Cosmography of the Rigveda " (pp. 111-117). [Since these lines were written, a few weeks ago, the death of the young author has been announced. A life of much promise is thus cut short.] Agnostic Problems, being An Examination of Some Questions of the Deepest Interest, as Viewed from the Agnostic Standpoint. By RICHARD BITHELL, B.Sc., Ph.D., Author of The Creed of a Modern Agnostic. London : Williams & Norgate, 1887. Pp. viii., 152. This is a sequel to The Creed of a Modern Agnostic, noticed in MIND viii. 456. Its contents are sufficiently indicated in the sub-title. "The Agnostic standpoint," as denned by the author, is that " that which comes within the sphere of consciousness may be known. . . . But whether the realities which exist outside the sphere of consciousness correspond in any way with the conceptions of which we are conscious, is a question which we have no means whatever of solving." " On the side of the Know- able," the Agnostic " founds and cultivates his Science ; on the side of the Unknowable, he finds an illimitable arena for the exercise of Belief and Faith ". The Philosophy of Religion on the Basis of its History. By Dr. OTTO PFLEIDERER. Vol. II., " Schelling to the Present Day," translated by ALLAN MENZIES. B.D. London: Williams & Norgate, 1887. Pp. ix., 316. The present volume, following upon the one noted in MIND xi. 587, completes the historical half of Pfleiderer's work : the "genetico-specula- tive " half remains to be similarly broken up into two volumes. (It was an error in previous notice to speak of the translation as to be in three volumes, artificially divided.) The rendering continues worthy of the subject. Besides a few new sentences on the Zurich theologian Bieder- mann, the author, with English readers in view, has added a paragraph (p. 309) on Prof. H. Drummond's Natural Law in the Spiritual World, and gives at pp. 182-6 an estimate of Mr. M. Arnold's contributions to the theory of religion. He finds Mr. Arnold's conception of a " Not-ourselves " to be not less metaphysical and much vaguer than that for which it is sought to be substituted, and, after referring to his historical interpretation, thus sums up : " Arnold is no doubt a writer of great and many-sided acquire- ments ; all that he writes is pleasant to read and full of suggestions : but he possesses no real grip either in philosophy or in history, and if he thinks he can make this want good by dint of clever and eloquent writing, he is mistaken ; nor will it mend his error to exalt himself, and make his readers merry at the expense of those who have treated serious problems more seriously than he ". Matter and Energy : Are there two Real Things in the Physical Universe ? Being an Examination of the Fundamental Conceptions of Physical Science. By B. L. L. London : Kegan Paul, Trench, 1887. Pp. 85. This is an attempt to reconcile Science and Idealism by the assumption that the reality postulated by science is not Matter but Energy. Matter is merely phenomenal ; bodies are only " elements of our sense-experience," not "independently existent things". "Take an example a stone for instance. Do you, the reader asks, revert to Idealism, and say it ceases to exist when you cease to experience it ? We reply that the phenomenon we call a stone, which belongs to the class we call bodies, does so cease ; but that there continues to exist its external cause, which, however, is