SCEPTICISM AND RATIONALISM.

ELECTIVE AFFINITIES AND HEREDITARY

DESCENT.

UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME.

COOK'S MONDAY LECTURES,

CONTAINING

LIFE AND THE SOUL.

BIOLOGY AND TRANSCENDENTALISM. GOD AND THE CONSCIENCE.

LOVE AND MARRIAGE.

LONDON: WARD, LOCK, & CO., SALISBURY SQUARE, E.C.

SCEPTICISM AND RATIONALISM.

ELECTIVE AFFINITIES AND HEREDITARY

DESCENT.

BY THE

REV. JOSEPH COOK.

BIBLI

OTHEGA

JAN 'F82

GODLEIANA

"Religious science, with the dim torch of reason, and not illuminated by revelation, is
a blind Michael Angelo, standing before the Torso of the religious universe, and feeling
blindly along fragmentary lines."-Lecture on Theodore Parker.

LONDON:

WARD, LOCK, & Co., WARWICK HOUSE,
SALISBURY SQUARE, E.C.

PREFACE.

THE Lectures included in this volume refer to two groups of subjects which are of the profoundest interest to thoughtful readers. The spirit of scepticism, which has so affected German philosophy and literature, the intellectual activity which has endeavoured to apply scientific tests to established beliefs, and substitute a cold Rationalism for the faith which has animated the spiritual life of unnumbered generations, is examined with the aid of all that acuteness of intellect and comprehensive knowledge which distinguish Mr. Cook. With similar power and largeness of view he has brought into the light of analysis and criticism the teachings of Theodore Parker, which have met with so great an acceptance in America, and have so largely influenced sceptical thought in this country. These Lectures are of the highest interest and value, and will be welcomed by thoughtful and religious readers as the ablest confutation of New England Rationalism which has yet appeared.

The second division of the volume contains a minute examination of the moral and physiological problems involved in the question of affinity and hereditary transmission of mental and moral qualities. The examination of the subject requires great scientific knowledge, no ordinary logical power, and sympathy with the springs of human thought and action. These qualities Mr. Cook eminently possesses, and his eloquence and command of appropriate illustration give a peculiar fascination to the Lectures.

It may be added that in this, as in the other volumes of this Series, the Lectures have been arranged in conformity with the subjects treated, and by that means the interest is maintained and the chain of reasoning can be more easily followed. The "Preludes on Current Events," inserted in some editions, are omitted, as being of local and temporary interest only, and occupying considerable space, while having no direct connection with the subjects of the Lectures.