“Bird Notes Afield.” Essays on the birds of the Pacific Coast, with a Field Check List. By Charles Keeler. Price, $2.00 net. Paul Elder & Co., San Francisco and New York.
This is a finely written, beautifully printed volume, uniquely gotten up, done in a rough, durable, crash-cloth cover, illustrated side and back. A little more than one-half of the unique volume consists of charming essays, Birds and Bird Haunts on the Beach, To the Farallone Islands off San Francisco Bay, Birds of Berkeley in the Pine Woods, In a Mission Patio, Among the Deep Somber Redwoods, In Sight of Shasta,—fourteen different sketches in all, admirably illustrated with reproductions of bird photographs. The last part of the volume is a descriptive list of the land birds of California, with a key and a splendid index. It seems as if every lover of birds would delight in the volume.
“Assimilative Memory; or How to Attend and Never Forget.” By Prof. A. Loisette. Price, $2.50. Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York and London.
It was not many years ago that men were taking lessons of Professor Loisette and paying as high as twenty-five dollars a course. Later, when large classes were formed, tuition for the course of ten lessons dropped to five dollars. That was the price of his book, if we rightly remember, when first placed upon the market. Now the complete course is offered for one-half that price. Professor Loisette claims that he was the first teacher to declare and insist that memory is not a separate faculty, but a physiological and psychological property of each mental act, and that such act records and retains the history of its own action; that memory is in reality concrete. The basis of his system is to learn by thinking. His method is to acquire first the Habit of Attention, then the Habit of Thinking, and these combining form the Habit of Assimilation. We do not recall one of Professor Loisette’s pupils who did not say that he was benefited by the lessons. This book opens them to all.
“Nephilim.” By William J. H. Bohannan. 236 pages, illustrated. $1.50 post-paid. Reeve A. Silk, Publisher, 1 Madison Ave., New York.
The attempt of the author is to show the errors of “science” in the cosmogony of the earth, and to present a theory which the author believes is in perfect harmony with the Bible. Some of the chapter headings give a fair idea of the scope of the work: The Basis of Science, The Newtonian System, The Form of the Earth, The Tides, The Wire-wound Rings, the Fields of the Rings, Motion of Rotation or the Ring of Regular Form, The Atom, The Constitution of the Heavenly Bodies, Gravitation, Inertia and Momentum, The Solar System,—twenty-three sections in all, closing with the Bible. The author believes that the Bible is the test of all science. We read to the last section before we find the meaning which the author attaches to the Biblical term “Nephilim,” sometimes translated giants. Mr. Bohannan’s book certainly gives food for thought, and, whether the reader agrees with all his conclusions or not, its perusal will at least be quite likely to affect his confidence in the scientifico-traditional views of creation. The author strikes some mighty blows.
“The Greatest Fact in Modern History.” By Whitelaw Reid. Price, 75 cents net. Thomas P. Crowell & Co., New York.
This little book is a paper prepared by the Hon. Whitelaw Reid, the American ambassador to Great Britain, on invitation of Cambridge University, and delivered in the Senate House of that university as the opening address of the course on the Eighteenth Century, for the summer meeting of 1906. The subject was chosen by the university. This “Greatest Fact” which Mr. Reid presents is the Rise and Development of the United States. It is a strong, clear review of the circumstances, motives, and principles which led to the formation and founding of the United States of America.
“Indian Myths of South Central California.” By A. L. Kroeber. Price, 75 cents. The University Press, Berkeley, Cal.
This issue is No. 4 of Vol. 4 of the University of California publications on American Archeology and ethnology. The pamphlet is written by one who has put years of study upon the Indians in the Golden State, their various types, arts, languages, dialects, traditions, and religions. In most of the myths the animals are deified, and in many cases they take on the lowest forms of nature worship. There are also gleams of light, which show that sometime their ancestors had much clearer ideas than their descendants now have. There are many passages which indicate degeneration and a far remove from their primitive traditions. They are useful chiefly in tracing likeness and relationship between the tribes, and in revealing how degenerate human beings without God become.
“A Supplemental Bible Question Course of Fifty-two Lessons.” By John B. Smith. Price, 50 cents net. The Sunday School Times Co., Philadelphia, Pa.
This little book is not designed to take the place of regular Bible studies in Sabbath-school or seminary, but to supplement these by arousing general interest in Bible study. It is a helpfully suggestive little book.
“The Second Book of Samuel with Map, Introduction, and Notes.” By Rev. A. F. Kirkpatrick, B.D. Price, one shilling. C. J. Clay & Sons, Cambridge University Press Warehouse, Ave Maria Lane, London.
This booklet is one of a series entitled, “The Smaller Cambridge Bible for Schools.” The map is clear and the notes brief and lucid, and generally excellent.
“Gems of Thought,” selected and arranged by Henry B. Damon, Katonah, New York. Price, 50 cents. Address the author.
This little booklet is admirably done on superfine paper, bound in deckle-edged imitation parchment. While the selections are not numerous, they are choice. The book would make a neat birthday or holiday gift.
“The House of a Hundred Doors.” By Will M. Clemens. Second edition. The Hawthorne Press, New York and London.
This little volume of less than a half-hundred pages presents in story form, in a striking way, the horrors and cruelties of vivisection.
“Bible Hero Classics.” Twelve little booklets giving in the language of the Scriptures the lives of (1) Abraham, (2) Jacob, (3) Joseph, (4) Joshua, (5) Samuel, (6) Solomon, (7) Elijah-Elisha, (8) Daniel, (9) Ruth-Esther, (10) Samson-Gideon, (11) Moses, (12) David. Numbers 1 to 10, six cents, post-paid; Numbers 11, 12, double size, ten cents, post-paid. In quantities cheaper. Hope Publishing Company, 150 Michigan Ave., Chicago.
These little booklets are designed to be read by the multitude, that all may learn of the marvelous wealth and value of Scripture biography. Each one makes an interesting story for evening reading. The same company publish “His Life,” the Gospel narrative, “His Friends,” and “His Great Apostle,” all in the language of the Bible.
“The Wonderful Story of the Wonderful Book,” “4500 Miles by Wagon in Utah and Idaho During 1906,” “Mormonism Proclaiming Itself a Fraud,” are booklets from the Utah Gospel Mission, Cleveland, Ohio. Their design is to teach the sufficiency of the word and to show some of the fallacies of the Mormon doctrine. A Biblical student might wish a number of things different in the setting forth of the doctrines of the Bible, but nevertheless the tracts are instructive. If there were more Bible and less theology, the tracts would be more effective.