Seven Essays on Universal Science. By Thomas Clark Westfield. (Robert
Hardwicke.)—An air of ridicule is thrown over this work by its pretentious title, and by the author's having been so ill advised as to prefix to it his portrait and autograph, a step which is not justified by the fact that he appears thereby to be a well-looking, smartly dressed gentle- man of about thirty-five. Mr. Westfield is a firm believer in the scien- tific exactness of the Mosaic cosmogony, and his object is to set forth his reasons for the faith that is in him. That he succeeds in proving his thesis we cannot truly say, nor does he appear to us to have by any means that acquaintance with physical science which would justify any one in undertaking so difficult a task. However, his speculations are often ingenious, as when he contends that there is no discrepancy between the accounts of the creation of man in the first and second chapters of Genesis, because the first relates to the creation of angels, or Preadamito men glorified under that title. We fear this sort of support of the theory of verbal inspiration will not be acceptable to the Record, and we are sure that it introduces ten difficulties for every one it removes.
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