The Evolution of Immortality. By S. D. McConnell, D.D. (Macmillan
and Co. 5s.)-This is a highly interesting book, of which we cannot pretend to give an adequate appreciation. We have been compelled to reconsider many things which our fathers regarded as axiomatic, and we have been introduced to discoveries of which they did not dream. The utter breaking down, e.g., of the old distinction between reason and Instinct is an instance. The popular doctrine of immortality can hardly escape the same fate. But we may hope that it will be evolved into something more tenable and self-consistent. "In a word," says Dr. McConnell, "the last discovery in physics and the last experi- mentation in psychology seem to be approaching each other." On the one side we have the generalised form of matter dispersed through the universe; on the other, the phenomena of hypnotism, &c., and the facts which are slowly working out in unprejudiced minds the conviction that there is "a survival of some minds after death."
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