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jective existence but is merely a necessary form, a category of thought, if the universe is ever to be at rest it is at rest now. The very fact that it is in motiou, not as a mass, but in its molecules, shows that it has always been in motion; without heat there is no motion, and without motion there is no heat. Without gravity there is no motion, and even the first "flocculi" of Herbert Spencer could not have been formed.

Again, Carnot's rule (from which Spencer, Helmholtz, and Thompson have concluded that the universe must at some future time be at rest) is, that work is produced by heat only when heat is transmitted from a hotter to a colder body; and that even here the heat is but partially converted into work. The deduction from this is, that, since all the heat is not converted into work, a part of it is stored up and becomes static, and therefore less and less work must from year to year be done in the universe, until finally the heat is equally distributed, and the universe rests. That this conclusion is not altogether a just one may be seen when we take into consideration the fact that although heat is but partially converted into work, or motion, it may not be restored in its entirety, for motion may produce magnetism or electricity, which in turn will be converted into heat, the store of which is thus kept at its maximum. This plainly results from the doctrine of conservation of force. Matter itself is indestructible, or must be so considered, until it is shown to be otherwise, and its properties are therefore indestructible.

A SYSTEM OF CYCLIC CHANGES.

There will then come a time when all possible place-changes of the atoms have been exhausted, and nature must return upon its tracks, as when a pendulum has swung to its utmost limit it must return again. When all changes have been exhausted, the next position taken must be one which before existed. Ever in motion the atoms revolve, and all their revolutions must repeat what they repeated before. The order of the universe is unlimited, for there is nothing beyond to disturb it. Even the universe is a system of cyclic changes, ever turning upon itself.

THE PROOF OF IMMORTALITY.

Since all

These cyclic changes Dr. Slavonski calls "Periodicity." positions of the atoms repeat themselves after ages have past, there must come a time when the universe will be in the same condition as it now is, and consequently, the earth in all respects, be the same that it is at this moment and that it has already been a vast number of times. The geological eras which have made it what it is will again work out their necessary results, and man will appear again, each individual being precisely the same individual he is now, for he will be born of the same parents, be reared under the same circumstances,

live as he now lives

with those with whom he lives, and die as he will die a few years from now. But-resurgat-" he shall live again" when the cyclic change shall again have passed.

THIS IS IMMORTALITY.

To live is to be conscious, and that which affects us when we are unconscious is unnoticed by us. Suppose the reader of this article were to die before he had half finished it; the time which would elapse before he should reappear on earth as an infant would be unnoticed by him, and consequently for him it would not exist. So far as he is

actually concerned he would be immortal. If it were possible for him to die and be brought to life again between the successive swingings of a pendulum, the world would seem the same to him as when he left it; and yet not more so than if millions of years had passed — for at the close of the cyclic change the world will be actually the same it was when it began - between two seconds it would be apparently the same; and this doctrine is more beautiful than any other.

"IF A MAN DIE, shall he live AGAIN."- Job XIV, 14.

as

The old man's dream is to live over again the days of his childhood and youth, and this dream must become a reality. Death does not bear him into the region of the unknown, but into the known.

This is a resumé, a condensation of Dr. Slavonski's paper which has excited much attention among the thinkers of Europe. The objections which are urged against the paper may be stated as follows:

The first is that to which all systems are open which treat of the universe, namely that there is danger, and even great probability, that some essential element of the problem has been overlooked. The universe is large, and if one disturbing cause be not considered in arguments pertaining to it, the result may not only be, but must be vitiated. If this objection be a valid one, man can never arrive at truth and it is useless to seek for it.

A French critic, in speaking of it, condems the way in which it is brought forward, as audacious, and compares the "presumptous boldness" of it with that which La Place spoke of his

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NEBULA HYPOTHESIS :

Fe presente (cette hypothese) avec la defiance que doit inspirer tout ce qut n'est point un resultat de l'observation ou calculi."

Audacity is a funny thing for a Frenchman to condemn, and in reality Dr. Slavonski's theory is the result both of observation and calculation; it is a compound of physics and mathematics; it is A Physical and Mathematical Proof of the Immortality of Man.

It is hardly necessary to refer to "religious objections," for there

never was yet a theory made which did not have to contend with them. Suffice it to say that the objections are what they usually are. Others say that the doctors have measured the possibility of things by the possibility of thought. This objection is usually urged by positivists, whose opinions are always worthy of respect; but in reply it may be said that their own theories-those of Spencer and Huxley do precisely the same thing, and that no thinker can avoid doing so, except a philosophical skeptic. Moreover, the doctrine that the measure of the truth of a proposition is the unthinkableness of its opposites, is only a statement that the measure of the impossibility of things is the possibilities of thought. With this, Dr. Slavonski's theory is left for thought. True or not, it will suffer the fate of all theories.

In connection with Dr. Slavonski's theory one should also read that of Mr. Buxton, delivered as a lecture in Albany, N. Y., January 18, 1841, on “Analogy Out-Analogized, being the doctrine of Ontology Extended; proving the Earth to be Endowed with Animality." A resumé of this novel production may be given in a future number.

THE UMBRELLA-ITS HISTORY. In Queen Anne's time it is mentioned, both by Swift and Gay, that the umbrella was used by women, but up to the middle of the 18th century, it appears never to have been used in England by men; though Wolfe, the then future conqueror of Quebec, wrote from Paris, in 1752, describing it as in genera! use in that city, and wondering that so convenient a practice had not yet penetrated to England. Hanway, the famous traveler and philanthropist, who returned to England in 1750, is said to have been the first Englishman who carried an umbrella; and a Scotch footman named John MacDonald, who had traveled with his master in France and Spain, mentions in his curious autobiography, that he brought one to London in 1778, and persisted in carrying it in wet weather, though a jeering crowd followed him, crying, "Frenchman, why don't you get a coach?" In about three months, he says, the annoyance almost ceased, and gradually a few foreigners, and then some Englishmen, followed his example. Defoe had described the umbrella as one of the contrivancies of Robinson Crusoe, and umbrellas were in consequence called "Robinsons." They were looked upon for a long time as a sign of extreme effeminacy, and they multiplied very slowly. Dr. Jamieson, in 1782, is said to have been the first person who used one at Glasgow ; and Southey's mother, who was born in 1752, was accustomed to say she remembered the time when any one would have been hooted who carried one in the streets of Bristol. A single coarse cotton one was often kept in a coffee house to be lent out to customers, or in a private house to be taken out with a carriage and held over the heads of ladies as they got in or out; but for many years those who used umbrellas in the street were exposed to the insults of

the mob and to the persistent and very natural animosity of the hackney coachman, who bespattered them with mud and lashed them furiously with their whips. But the manifest convenience of the new fashion secured its ultimate triumph, and before the close of the cencentury umbrellas had passed into general use. - Lecky's History of

England.

VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION; or the Etiology of History; Religious, Esthetical, Political, and Philosophical. (Vol. I, p. 48.) The author of this work, anonymously written, in the preface, says that " History is written in America, biographically; in Britain, empirically; in Germany, scholastically; in France alone, philosophically; but nowhere is it written scientifically.". Who is the author of this book? LOGOS.

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After diligent inquiries, I have ascertained that the author of the above-mentioned work was James O'Connell; that he was a lawyer without practice in New York City, supporting himself by writing anonymously for reviews, and translating works from the French, etc; that not being appreciated he became a misanthrope aud recluse ; that shortly after the appearance of the Vestiges of which only a few hundred copies were published, and which fell flat, he left for London, and from there went to Paris where he died. I have further ascertained that he was educated at the College of William-and-Mary, at Emmettsburg, Md.; and that on account of a disagreement with the professors and his adjuration of Romanism, he left without taking his degree. This is all that my informant seems to remember, except faintly recalls reading a translation, by Mr. O'Connell, of what impressed him as a most remarkable French work, entitled, he believes, "The Tonlon Galleys." The translation was contributed to a paper published, he thinks, by one named Bullard.

Can any reader give me further information, or put me on the track of any, concerning the life and literature of this singular man. Any items in reference to his ancestry or career; especially any suggestions as to how I might verify the fact of his death, and get a trace of his last friends, would be cordially appreciated by the writer. I seek this information for literary reasons.

A. L. LEUBUSCHER, Water Mill, L. I. N. Y.

LITERARY INGENUITY. The following line is said, in an old book, to have cost the inventor much foolish labor, for it is a perfect line, and every word is the very same word, both backward and forward." ODO TENET MULUM, MADIDAM MAPPAN TENET ANNA.

SAYINGS OF JESUS (THE CHRIST). (Vol. III, p. 218.) Several times sayings of Jesus have been quoted in your magazine, which are not found in the King James' version. Can you give a selection of more of them, or state where such can be found? J. P. SHIELDS.

Many of the sayings of Jesus are quoted by the early Christian Fathers from the gospels then in existence, some of which are now extant, though considered apocryphal, that is, uncanonical. Some of these gospels have been collected and published by William Hone, Henry Cowper, S.-Baring Gould, Alexander Walker, and others. We will here give a chapter of these "Sayings," remarking that the exact wording varies slightly in some of them in the writings, just as some of those vary in the canonical gospels.

SAYINGS OF JESUS NOT RECORDED IN THE CANONICAL GOSPEls. I. "It is better to give than to receive."-Acts XX, 35.

2.

"And straightway, the Holy Spirit (my mother) took me by one of the hairs of my head, and bore me away to the great mountain called Thabor."--Origen, Homily xv; Jerome Hieronymus, Mich. VII 6, quoting from the Gospel of the Twelve.

3. "He who shall wonder shall reign, and he who reigns shall rest." Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromata 1, 9.

4. "Keep the mysteries for me and the sons of my house.”—Homily XIX, 20.

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5. Be ye proved money-changers; retain that which is good metal, reject that which is bad."-Stromata 1, 28.

6. "Be never glad unless ye are in charity with your brother."Jerome, Pelagius 1, 3.

7. "I am come to abolish the sacrifices; if ye cease not from sacrificing, the wrath of God will cease not from weighing upon you."— Epiphanius, Hæresies xxx, 16.

8. "I have a desire to eat the flesh of the Paschal Lamb with you."-Hæresies XXX, 15.

9.

IO.

"Let us resist all iniquity and hate it."-Barnabas, Epistle III, II. "He that is near me is near the fire, and he that is far from me is far from the kingdom."-Didymus, Patrum Nova Bibliotheca p. 34. II. "Be never joyful except when ye see your brother walking in love."-Jerome, Præfat. Com. in Jesai, lib. xvIII.

12.

"In those things in which I shall overtake you, in those things will I judge you."-Justin Martyr, Dialog. Tryphon.

The following "parable" is recorded by Irenæus (Adv. Hæres. v. 33)

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