We do not
remember these past existences, it is true; but when we become
ether-folk, we shall be able to look back in recollection over the whole
series.

Amid these sublime inquiries, M. Figuier is sometimes notably oblivious
of humbler truths, as might indeed be expected. Thus he repeatedly
alludes to Locke as the author of the doctrine of innate ideas (!!),
[14] and he informs us that Kepler never quitted Protestant England (p.
336), though we believe that the nearest Kepler ever came to living in
England was the refusing of Sir Henry Wotton's request that he should
move thither.

[14] Pages 251, 252, 287. So in the twenty-first century some
avatar of M. Figuier will perhaps describe the late professor Agassiz as
the author of the Darwinian theory.

And lastly, we are treated to a real dialogue, with quite a dramatic
mise en scene. The author's imaginary friend, Theophilus, enters, "seats
himself in a comfortable chair, places an ottoman under his feet, a
book under his elbow to support it, and a cigarette of Turkish tobacco
between his lips, and sets himself to the task of listening with a
grave air of collectedness, relieved by a certain touch of suspicious
severity, as becomes the arbiter in a literary and philosophic matter."
"And so," begins our author, "you wish to know, my dear Theophilus,
WHERE I LOCATE GOD? I locate him in the centre of the universe, or, in
better phrase, at the central focus, which must exist somewhere, of all
the stars that make the universe, and which, borne onward in a common
movement, gravitate together around this focus."

Much more, of an equally scientific character, follows; but in fairness
to the reader, who is already blaming us for wasting the precious
moments over such sorry trash, we may as well conclude our sketch of
this new line of speculation.

May, 1872.

III. THE JESUS OF HISTORY. [15]

[15] The Jesus of History. Anonymous. 8vo. pp. 426. London:
Williams & Norgate, 1869.

Vie de Jesus, par Ernest Renan. Paris, 1867. (Thirteenth edition,
revised and partly rewritten.)

In republishing this and the following article on "The Christ of Dogma,"
I am aware that they do but scanty justice to their very interesting
subjects. So much ground is covered that it would be impossible to treat
it satisfactorily in a pair of review-articles; and in particular the
views adopted with regard to the New Testament literature are rather
indicated than justified. The