Here is a theory which is worth considering.  May it not be that God adapts the proofs of that which it is important that man should know to the intellectual progress of mankind?  Is it certain that the same evidence which sufficed for the foundation of religious faith five hundred years ago will suffice equally well to-day?  Truths are eternal; laws of Nature vary not.  But of the world’s thoughts there is a childhood, a youth, a manhood; and there may be various classes of arguments suited to various stages of progress.

Again, assuming that the materialist takes a contracted view of the economy of human life, ignoring every portion of it except its present phase, (that phase being but the preparation for another and a higher,) may it not be, that, as the world advances, men may gradually be permitted, occasionally and to a limited extent, to become aware of influences exerted from a more advanced phase of existence over this?  May it not be that the links connecting the two phases of existence are gradually to become more numerous and apparent?

Such are the general views which William Howitt’s work is intended to illustrate and enforce.  He selects, as a title-page motto, an axiom from Butler’s “Analogy,”—­“There are two courses of Nature:  the ordinary and the extraordinary.”  By the supernatural he does not mean phenomena out of the course of Nature, but such comparatively rare phenomena as are governed by laws with which we are unacquainted, and as are, therefore, to us something extraordinary, something to be wondered at,—­miracles.

The author travels over a vast extent of ground,—­more, we think, than can be properly explored in the compass of two duodecimo volumes.  All ages, all countries, all faiths, furnish their quota towards his collection.  It is curious, interesting, suggestive, rather than conclusive.  It exhibits more industry than logic.  It consists rather of abundant materials for others to use, than of materials worked up by the collector.  It gives evidence of learning, research, and a comprehensive study of the subject.  It is a thesaurus of pneumatological knowledge, collected with German assiduity.  It will set many to thinking, though it may convince but few, except of the one truth, that the faith in the supernatural has been a universal faith, pervading all nations, persisting through all ages.

The number of those who take an interest in the subject treated of in Mr. Howitt’s book, and who believe that great truths underlie popular superstitions, increases day by day; and the work will probably have a wide circulation.