welcome to the relics
which he left in the dust under his feet.

In our own country some worthy efforts have been made to set forth
certain grand provinces in the spiritual history of the human race. Such
was Mrs. Child's most readable book,--does she ever write anything which
is not readable?--"The Progress of Religious Ideas." We have seen also
some fine lectures on "Eastern Religions,"[53] which ought to go into
print. And now Mr. Alger comes forward with his large and laborious
work, seeking to contribute his portion to these new and precious
constructions.

Mr. Alger's book is a real _work_. It is the result of no light nor
trivial labor, of no timid nor indolent essay of thought. His aim has
been to pass in _judicial_ review the thoughts and imaginations of
mankind concerning the destiny of the human soul. It is an instruction
to the jury from the bench, summing up and passing continuous judgment
upon the evidence on this subject contributed by the consciousness of
the human race.

Mr. Alger is a brave man. He does not hesitate to grapple with the
greatest thinkers, nor to measure the subtlest imaginations of all time.
In the opening chapter, for example, which is appropriately devoted to a
consideration of theories of the soul's origin, he lays hold of the
boldest speculative imaginations to which the world has given birth,
with no hesitating nor trembling hand. Occasionally the reader may,
perhaps, be more inclined to tremble for him than he for himself. One
remembers Goldsmith's line,--

"The dog it was that died";

but our author comes forth from the trial in ruddy health, and does not
seem at all out of breath. And all through the book he delivers his
sentence like a man who has earned the right to speak.

And has he not earned it? For some years Mr. Alger has been known to
scholars and others as a most indefatigable and heroic worker. This book
justifies that reputation. The amount of reading that has gone to it is
almost portentous. To us, who can hardly manage twelve books, big and
little, in as many months, this mountainous reading furnishes matter for
wonder.

Neither has this reading been chiefly a work of memorizing, nor has it
been expended chiefly upon works of history commonly so called. A
product of man's spiritual consciousness being under consideration, it
is works of thought and imagination, rather than works of narration,
which claim our author's critical attention; and his reading h