into the past, present, and future of the world as we now
possess.

The work just mentioned[1] is especially interesting as an
attempt to bring the probable destiny of the human soul into
connection with the modern theories which explain the past and
future career of the physical universe in accordance with the
principle of continuity. Its authorship is as yet unknown, but it
is believed to be the joint production of two of the most eminent
physicists in Great Britain, and certainly the accurate knowledge
and the ingenuity and subtlety of thought displayed in it are
such as to lend great probability to this conjecture. Some
account of the argument it contains may well precede the
suggestions presently to be set forth concerning the Unseen
World; and we shall find it most convenient to begin, like our
authors, with a brief statement of what the principle of
continuity teaches as to the proximate beginning and end of the
visible universe. I shall in the main set down only results,
having elsewhere[2] given a simple exposition of the arguments
upon which these results are founded.

[1] The Unseen Universe; or, Physical Speculations on a Future
State. [Attributed to Professors TAIT and BALFOUR STEWART.] New
York: Macmillan & Co. 1875. 8vo. pp. 212.

[2] Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, based on the Doctrine of
Evolution. Boston: J. R. Osgood & Co. 1875. 2 vols. 8vo.


The first great cosmological speculation which has been raised