4 MARCH 1882, Page 23

The World's Foundations. By Agnes Giberne. (Seeley and Co.)— This

is an effort, and, on the whole, a successful effort, to popularise geology. It is a book intended, the preface tells us, for "beginners of all kinds," and will serve this purpose very well. The exposition is clear, the style simple and attractive. The difficulty of the subject is its point of contact with the records of Scripture. It is not snr prising that Miss Giberne should deal with it somewhat timidly. She seems anxious, for instance, to cling to the Mosaic chronology' though we must confess to being not quite clear as to her meaning, and she tries to minimise the evidence for the antiquity of man. She seems, again, to be going beyond what is needful in what she says of the Mosaic cosmogony. Sorely, it is safest to describe the first chapter Of Genesis as a Psalm of Creation, with, perhaps we may say, a hint of an order and development in creation. To stake our faith on any- thing more than this, seems dangerous in the extreme.