THE GALAXY. (continued 6)

VIENNA BREAD.

A "Vienna bakery" has been one of the most prominent objects at each of the last three international exhibitions, and probably there are many housekeepers who would be glad to know how this delicious bread is made. Unfortunately success does not always follow imitation, and several attempts to introduce the manufacture of this bread have failed, even when Vienna bakers were employed in the work; and yet there is absolutely no secret in the process. One of the American commissioners to the Vienna exhibition, Prof. E. N. Horsford, gave an elaborate report on this bread, and since he came to the conclusion that it can be made elsewhere, we will recount some of the causes upon which in his opinion its excellence depends. These are the mode of baking, the mode of making, the use of fresh "compressed yeast" which produces no acetic acid in fermentation, the use of selected flour, the mode of milling, and the kind of wheat.

The Baking.—The loaf should be so small that fifteen or twenty minutes will be sufficient to cook it through in an oven which is heated to a temperature of about 500 deg., or the melting point of bismuth. The rolls should not touch each other.

The Mixing.—The proportions are:

8 pounds of flour,

3 quarts of milk and water, in equal proportions,

3½ ounces of pressed yeast,

1 ounce of salt,

which should make about 380 rolls of the ordinary "Kaiser semmel" size. The milk and water in equal parts are first mixed and allowed to come to the usual temperature of a kitchen, and a small amount of flour is then mixed in it so as to make a thin emulsion. The yeast is added and well mixed in, first crumbling it in the hand, and the pan is left covered for three-quarters of an hour. Then the rest of the flour is slowly mixed in, with thorough kneading. The dough is left for two hours and a half, "at the end of which time it presents a smooth, tenacious, puffed, homogeneous mass, of slightly yellowish color." It is weighed into pound masses (all bread must be sold by weight in Europe), each of which is cut into twelve rolls. The proportions for twelve rolls should therefore be about as follows: 1-4 pound of flour, 1-5 pints milk and water, 1-10 ounce pressed yeast, and 1-32 ounce of salt. The small masses of dough have a thickness of three-quarters of an inch, and the workman, laying the back of his left forefinger in the centre of one, pulls out and folds up the corners of the irregular mass, and pinches them together. The little lump of dough is then reversed upon a smooth board, and after remaining there long enough to finish "rising," they are placed in the hot oven by means of a wooden shovel.

The Yeast.—Pressed yeast, which is now made in America, is obtained by skimming the froth from mash while it is in active fermentation. The yeast is repeatedly washed with cold water until it settles pure and white in the water. It forms a tenacious mass which is pressed in a bag. It will keep about eight days in summer, and indefinitely if put on ice.

The Flour.—Only a selected part of the flour is used in Vienna for the manufacture of white bread and rolls, amounting to about forty-five per cent. of the wheat. Precisely the same grades are not produced in the American process of milling, but Dr. Horsford thinks that good, fresh middlings flour will compare favorably with the average Hungarian flour.

The Milling.—A peculiar mode of milling wheat has grown up in Austria and Hungary, which is almost the antipodes of the old and crude methods of grinding. It is called "high milling," and consists in cracking the wheat by successive operations down to the required size. First the wheat is run through a coarse mill, which takes off the beard at one end and the germ at the other. The resulting powder is then sifted, to separate the grits from the dross and flour, and the central part is again cracked, and the products sifted. Some flour is produced in each of these steps, but the best of the wheat kernel is still in the condition of grits, and the bran and outer coat of the kernel having been separated by the sifting, the pure grits are now cracked once more, and number one flour is produced. All the other flour from these three operations is purified from bran, mixed and ground, making number two flour. In short, the essential characteristic of the Austrian system of milling lies in a gradual process of reducing the wheat, with careful separation of the products, or cleaning, at each step. These products are quite numerous, as the following list shows:

Class. Percentage.

A. 4.25 Lady groats.

B. Table groats, fine.

C. Table groats, coarse.

0. Extra imperial flour.

1. 5.53 Extra fine flour.

2. 5.76 Ordinary fine flour.

3. 5.51 Extra roll or semmel flour.

4. 6.48 Common roll or semmel flour.

5. 7.12 First pollen flour.

6. 13.30 Second pollen flour.

7. 11.85 First dust flour.

8. 9.95 Second dust flour.

9. 4.36 Brown pollen flour.

10. 6.32 Fort flour.

F. 8.94 Fine bran.

G. 6.87 Coarse bran.

H. 3.76 Chicken feed, loss, and dirt.

100

This chicken feed consists of the foreign seeds, the tares, which grow up with the wheat, and which are separated before milling. In the above list only 39 to 40 per cent. of the flour is fit for white bread making.

The Wheat.—Last of all, in following back the processes of Vienna bread making, we come to one of the essential requirements, a proper kind of wheat. "The virtues of this bread," says Dr. Horsford, "had their origin principally in the Hungarian wheat. These are not due to any particular variety of wheat, or to any marked peculiarity of soil or mode of fertilizing, or to a mean annual temperature characterizing the climate of Hungary as a whole, but to a peculiarity of climate, uniting especial dryness of the air during the hot season, from the time of the development of the milk of the berry, through the period of its segregation of the various constituents of the grain, down to its being housed for thrashing." The Hungarian wheat is red, shrivelled, and hard, and it is this hardness that fits it so well to the successive crackings which constitute the process of "high milling."

Vienna bread is white, fine grained, perfectly sweet, aromatic, agreeable without butter, thoroughly baked, and has a tender crust, and Dr. Horsford shows dearly that this combination of excellences is not the result of an art, but of the joint operation of many arts. Its introduction may be made an economical act, for its peculiar succulence makes butter or other condiment unnecessary. It is, however, essentially a baker's bread, for it should be eaten on the day it is made, and is at its best immediately after becoming cold. There is little room for expecting it to replace the kind of bread in vogue in American homes, for that is just as much the result of peculiar circumstances as the product of the Hungarian farm, the Austrian mill, and the Vienna oven. Economy in labor is just as much a consideration in most American families as it is in our workshops, and the semi-weekly or weekly baking is the means by which it is obtained. But American housewives can improve their bread by adopting from the Austrian system the whitening of the yeast by washing, the small loaf, and the rapid baking. The use of selected flour can hardly be obtained unless the millers are offered a market for the darker flour that remains. In Europe that is at hand in the nutritious "black" bread which is everywhere the staff of life, white bread being a luxury taken only with coffee. In fact it is American cake that the Vienna roll comes in competition with, and the habit of making cake almost daily, which obtains in so many American homes, shows that there is time and labor which can be turned to the production of the Vienna bread if desired.

MODERN LOSS IN WARFARE.

The German government has just published the official statistics of the losses in the war with France. The total killed and wounded was 3,919 officers and 60,978 men. The killed and dead of wounds were 1,374 officers and 16,877 men, the proportion being 1 killed to 3.44 wounded among the officers, and 1 to 5 among the men. The infantry lost 57,943, artillery 4,266, and cavalry 2,236. Fighting in line, and at such a distance as modern weapons command, have made the loss by artillery a minimum; 5,084 of the casualties being due to artillery and 55,862 to rifle practice. One noteworthy item is the proportion—12,717 out of the whole number—that were struck about the head and shoulders. This is held to show that the French troops fired high, but it may also be due to the attention now paid to field defences. It is quite possible also that all modern rifles are sighted a trifle too high.

A NEW TREASURY RULE.

The Secretary of the Treasury has lately issued a circular which affects rather uncomfortably the interests of educational, scientific, and literary institutions. They are allowed by law to import books, instruments, and illustrative collections free of duty, and the Secretary now says that the sale or distribution of articles imported in this way will not be allowed. They must be retained in the institutions that bring them into the country. It is quite probable that advantage has sometimes been taken of the law's liberality in this respect, but we fear this circular will really defeat the purpose of the law. Collections of all kinds in colleges and schools are kept up by a system of exchange, which is very necessary to them on account of the small sums of money at their disposal. To break up this system in the case of European specimens would be especially hard, for each institution would then be forced to import single specimens at much greater cost and trouble; or what is more likely, it would be found cheaper to pay the duty; that is, purchase through a dealer. So long as the exchange is confined to the circle of institutions which the law was designed to benefit, we cannot see that its provisions are unduly taken advantage of.

A HYGIENIC SCHOOL.

Dr. Agnew, the celebrated oculist of New York, has indicated his idea of a school for little children, in which health should be a first consideration, as follows: "If we could effect some alterations in the style of school architecture in our school houses, especially the primary departments, it would be a great desideratum. One of the greatest evils at present existing is the method of constructing the school room and of conducting the same. I never could understand why children of the primary age are kept sitting on benches for a large number of hours at a time. School houses ought to be built like the hospital building at the corner of Lexington avenue and Forty-second street, used for cripples, where there is in the upper story a large room, called the solarium, which is in fact a large play room, exposed to the sun, where these little ones are kept the greater part of the time. The upper story of the school houses should be so constructed; and children should be encouraged to bring their toys and playthings with them; and then, instead of changing the age of admission from four years, it might be kept as it is; and instead of shortening the hours of attendance, lengthen them. Of course it should be taken for granted that the school house is constructed for the accommodation of the poor children, and in this light it would be better that such children should spend most of the day in school houses having good sanitary conditions, rather than, as they now do, in tenement houses. Thus you would have these primary schools with plenty of air and light, which you can get in the upper story, and children would be glad to come early, and remain until three or four o'clock, or even later in the afternoon."

MICROSCOPIC COMPARISON OF BLOOD CORPUSCLES.

Dr. J. G. Richardson of Philadelphia, whose views upon the subject of proving blood stains by the use of the microscope have been described in this Miscellany, has lately prepared slides for the microscope so as to show blood corpuscles from two different animals on the same field. He did this by flowing two drops of blood down the slide, and nearly in contact. Dr. C. L. Mees has modified this proceeding. He spreads the blood by Johnston's method, which is to touch a drop of blood to the accurately ground edge of a slide, and then draw it gently over the face of the other slide, leaving a beautifully spread film. In this way one kind of blood is spread upon the slide, and another on the cover. When dry, one half of each is carefully scraped off with a smoothly sharpened knife, and the cover inverted upon the slide in such position as to bring the remaining portions of the film into apposition. When thus prepared the magnified image can be photographed.

THE SUMMER SCIENTIFIC SCHOOLS.

The Peabody Academy of Science at Salem, Massachusetts, will open the second session of its summer school of biology July 6, the course to continue for six weeks. Four days in each week will be given to lectures and laboratory work, and one day to a dredging expedition. Entomology, together with spiders, crustacea, and vertebrate anatomy, will be the especial subjects of study this year, and as usual the advantages enjoyed by this institution for studying marine zoology will be fully utilized. Dr. A. S. Packard, assisted by Messrs. Emerton and Kingsley, will have charge of zoölogy, Mr. Robinson of botany, Rev. Mr. Bolles of microscopy, and Mr. Cooke of the dredging parties. Fees, $15, or for lectures only, $5. Board $5 to $7 weekly. Application should be made to Dr. Packard.

A four weeks' school will be opened at the State normal school, West Chester, Pennsylvania, beginning July 11. Zoölogy and botany will be taught by Prof. M. W. Harrington, geology and physiological chemistry by Mr. V. C. Vaughan, and mineralogy by George G. Groff, all these gentlemen being connected with the University of Michigan. Elocution and industrial drawing will also be taught. Fees are for board and tuition $30, and tuition alone $12. Apply to Mr. George L. Maris, principal.

Scientific excursions seem to be the order of the day. Mr. Woodruff of Detroit has planned one to make the tour of the world; and Mr. J. B. Steere of Michigan university, who spent several years in a journey of scientific character, says: "The expedition will probably leave New York in October or November next, going directly to the mouth of the Amazon, where some time will be spent in making collections in natural history. The island of Marajo will be the principal field for this work. Rio Janeiro will probably be called in at, on the way to the Straits of Magellan, which will be reached in January or February (the summer season there), and a stay will be made for the purpose of collecting. The expedition will then make its way northwest, cruising among several of the rarely visited groups of islands in the central Pacific, where there is every opportunity for making large and valuable collections of sea shells and corals as well as of the myriads of other and rarer things brought up by the dredge. Some stay will probably be made in New Guinea; but the next great object of interest will be the island of Borneo. It is supposed that the northeast and central part of this great island, which are the parts still unknown, can be best reached through the assistance of the Dutch traders at Macassar on the island of Celebes, where the expedition will touch on its way. It seems probable that entering from the east side, with the proper guides and interpreters, the interior of the island can be reached and explored, and perhaps a party may be able to reach the west coast. Borneo is less known than Central Africa, and there is a grand opportunity here for Americans to solve the great problem of its interior lakes and plateaus. A journey through an unexplored country like this cannot fail also to give opportunity for collecting many new species of animals and plants. From Borneo the expedition will make its way to the Philippine islands, where there is great room still for discovery, not only in natural history, but also in fixing the geographical knowledge of the islands, which is at present very faulty. Several of the larger islands of the group are entirely unknown in respect to their animal and vegetable life. From the Philippines the expedition will go to the island of Formosa, off the coast of China. This island is rich in objects of interest to the naturalist, and the east and central parts of the island are unknown. There are Chinese traders who visit the west coast for the purpose of trade with the natives, and through their help there is no doubt that much new work can be done in that locality. The expedition will then visit Canton, and some others of the coast towns of China, and begin its return voyage by way of Singapore, which is a depot for all that is rare and curious in the East. Ceylon will then be touched at, and the expedition will pass through the Red sea and Suez canal. It is intended to spend some time in the Mediterranean in visiting various places of interest, and to return home by way of England. The voyage is expected to occupy two years' time, and to cost students $2,500 per year, this sum paying costs of expeditions inland and everything except personal expenses, clothing, etc. All the collections made will belong to those who make them." This plan seems to follow about the same line as Mr. Steere's own journey, and it would certainly be a great advantage to the excursionists to be under the guidance of an explorer who has so lately been over the ground. We believe the company is nearly completed.

A similar trip is proposed in France, where a society supported by the liberality of M. Bischofsheim, the well known banker, has been formed for the purpose of encouraging periodical voyages. The travellers will be scientific men, Dwuyn l'Lhuys being at their head, and as in the American expedition, the vessel will be commanded by a naval officer. The first voyage will be from Marseilles, and will occupy less than a year, the line of travel being to America and India.

THE WAGES VALUE OF STEAM POWER.

Prof. Leone Levi, in a lecture to workingmen on "Work and Wages," estimated the amount of capital required to carry on some of the industries in Great Britain. There are 20,000,000 acres of land cultivated, which at £8 is £160,000,000. The cotton trade requires £80,000,000, wool trade £30,000,000, iron trade £30,000,000, merchant marine £70,000,000; railways have £600,000,000 invested in them, and the waterworks, gasworks, docks, and other undertakings all call for similar vast sums. Construction may be considered as the fixation of work, and here we have about a thousand million pounds worth of fixed labor. Labor in use deals with figures and values that are quite as large. The annual industrial production of France is £480,000,000, and of this £200,000,000 is labor, the remainder being called material, though if the items of its cost were ascertained, current labor would be found to make up a great portion of that sum also.

But taking French manufactures as they are reported, we can obtain from them an estimate of the value of machines. The first steam engine was introduced into that country by the city of Paris in 1789, the year of revolution. At that time the cost of labor in manufactures was 60 per cent. and of material 40 per cent. of the whole cost. On this basis the £280,000,000 worth of material used now would require £420,000,000 of labor to work it up. The present industrial population of France is 8,400,000, though all are not fully effective, and on the old basis this would have to be increased to 17,640,000 persons. The other divisions of population, tradesmen, etc., would also increase, and the result is finally apparent that France is not large enough to contain and raise food for the people that would be needed to carry on the modern business on the old methods. The man power of the steam machinery introduced into the industries is estimated at 31,500,000, and as it replaces £220,000,000 worth of labor, we may reckon the wages of a steam man power at £7, or $35, per year, exclusive of food (fuel) and lodging.

THE NEGRO'S COLOR.

The chemical character of the coloring matter in the negro's skin has been investigated by Dr. F. P. Floyd, in the laboratory of the University of Virginia. Strips of skin were well washed with water and alcohol, in order to remove fatty matter, and then cautiously scraped with a blunt scalpel, to loosen up the pigment granules. This must be carefully done, for an examination of the scraped skin shows that the whole substance of the cuticular tissue may easily be broken up and mingled with the pigment, which cannot then be obtained pure. But by selecting the most strongly colored parts and treating them carefully, the following points were established: The coloring matter is insoluble in water, alcohol, and ether. It is also unaffected by dilute acids or dilute solutions of alkali. The strong acids, even concentrated nitric acid, attack it but slowly. Chlorine destroys it especially in presence of alkali. Heated for some time with a strong solution of sodium hydrate, it is gradually dissolved, and from the diluted solution it may be partially precipitated on neutralization with an acid. The ash of the negro skin gave twice as much ash as the white skin, or 2.4 per cent. against 1.15 per cent. Analyses of the ash for iron showed 2.28 per cent. of metallic iron in the black and 1.21 per cent. in the white skin. These facts confirm the general impression that the color of the negro's skin is nearly allied to the "melanin," or black pigment of the choroid coat in the eye. Both seem to be products of alteration of the blood.

This pigment appears to be similar to or identical with the black coloring matter of feathers. When perfectly white hair or feathers are heated gently with dilute sulphuric acid, they dissolve completely, though slowly. Black or brown feathers leave an insoluble residue. This subject was lately presented to the London Chemical Society by Messrs. W. R. Hodgkinson and H. C. Sorby. They took feathers of the English rook, which contain one per cent. of pigment, and having cut the vanes from the central rib, cleaned them from fat by treatment with alcoholic ammonia. Warm dilute sulphuric acid was then applied, until it was no longer colored, and the residue was treated with dilute hydrochloric acid and boiling alcohol and ether. Black pigment is usually found in black, brown, and dark red hair, but in the latter it is associated with a brown pigment that is soluble in dilute sulphuric acid.

Experiments were made by Dr. Floyd to determine the position of the pigment in the negro's skin. Many Southern physicians are under the impression that a blister upon the black skin is white, or nearly so. But this was disproved by experiment, and the microscope showed that the granules were dispersed through the whole of the cuticle, though less dense at the surface than in the deeper tissues. In fact Dr. Floyd thinks that the pigment originates in the outer layer of true skin, "its production being probably connected with the loss of vitality of the cells, and that it accompanies those cells all the way to the surface, where it is mechanically removed by desquamation." The alteration of the red blood corpuscles to black pigment may be due to feeble circulation in the superficial capillaries. The diseases of negroes, and their extreme sensitiveness to low temperatures, sustain this view.

The jurisdiction of London extends over 756 square miles; its area embraces 78,000 acres. It contains 4,000,000 of inhabitants, increasing at the rate of 75,000 a year, of various nationalities.

The rapidity of sewing machine work, even when not working beyond an ordinary manufacturing speed, is seen in the manufacture of 110 three-bushel sacks per hour, containing 35,640 stitches, or close on 600 per minute.

The pine woods of Michigan are said to contain in standing trees—

In Eastern Michigan 13,500,000,000 feet.

In Western Michigan 11,500,000,000 "

In Upper Peninsular 19,500,000,000 "

Total 44,500,000,000

A manufacturer lately sued the city of Paris for about $15,000 on the ground that the water supplied by the new works was so good that he could not make gelatine, and his business was therefore ruined! The suit was dismissed with costs.

A paste made of fifty-one parts of finely shaved stearine, melted in seventy-two parts of previously warmed oil of turpentine, will restore the polish to furniture. When cool rub on with a woollen rag, and when dry rub thoroughly with a clean dry cloth.

This winter is said to have been the coldest known in Russia for 153 years! In St. Petersburg the thermometer has been -32 deg. Reaumur, or 40 deg. below zero, Fahrenheit. Drivers have frozen in their seats, and the police kept large fires burning in the streets at night.

The difference between exploding powder under water and above ground is shown in the relative effect of 50,000 pounds of giant powder fired in the great Hell Gate blast, and the small quantity of 370 pounds of black powder which is the service charge of the 80-ton cannon at Shoebury, England. The former made but little shock or sound. The latter has shaken houses to pieces by the force of the concussion wave produced in the air. The first blood shed by the gun was that of a half dozen sea gulls. A canister shot, containing 2,170 balls, burst just in front of a large flock of them.

The United States issued 15,911 patents in 1876, and received 22,408 applications.

Important works in construction and other branches of engineering are now sometimes continued at night by means of the electric light. The buildings for the French international exhibition are pushed in this way, and the method is used at the Taybridge Works and others in England.

Among the interesting facts which have been developed by the careful study of ants is the existence of piracy among them. Mr. McCook has noticed that ants descending from trees with abdomens full of honey dew were waited for by workers from the hill, seeking food, and compelled to disgorge their accumulations. If this was not done willingly, force was used.

The walrus has a singular mode of adapting his attack upon enemies to the circumstances in which he is placed. They can shiver ice from four to six inches thick by rising from below and striking it with their huge heads. An exploring party near Novaya Zemla, while walking over a field of new ice, noticed a herd of walruses following them under the ice. They presently began operations, and broke the field in pieces on all sides of the party, which barely escaped by running for the main pack ice near by.

Oxford university, England, has a revenue of about $2,000,000 yearly, 43 professors, 160 lecturers and tutors, 2,400 undergraduates (1875), of whom 24 per cent. hold scholarships worth from $150 to $500 yearly. Seventy-five per cent. of these read for honors as follows: 33 per cent. for the school of Literæ Humaniores (philosophy, classical history, and philology), 20 per cent. for the school of modern history, 17 per cent. theology, 15 per cent. law, 7 per cent. mathematics, and 6.5 per cent. physical science. There are 360 fellows, of whom 140 are resident and engaged in teaching. The average endowment of a fellowship is $1,250. The average number of pupils to one professor or teacher is in Literæ Humaniores 5 1-2; in mathematics 6, in physical science 7, in modern history 5, in law 15 1-2.

Prof. von Zech lately mingled politics and science in a paper read before the Wurtemburg Anthropological Society. He compared the returns of a recent election with the known ethnological characteristics of the kingdom of Wurtemburg, and found that in districts where light hair and eyes predominated the government won the election. The black-haired and black-eyed portions of the population seemed to favor democracy and social reform, and the Ultramontanes form a medium class so far as complexion is concerned.

The misfortunes of the deaf and dumb are greatly lessened by the substitution of lip-reading for other modes of conversation. The words are read from the movement of the lips so that the deaf can join in an ordinary conversation. In beginning the instruction the lips must be moved slowly, but in time the pupil gains such facility that the words of a public speaker can be taken as well by a deaf person in the audience as by any other. Deaf mutes are frequently very intelligent, and it may be that the "kindergarten" system, which is a necessity in their case, has something to do with their proficiency. In the Clark Institute children are received at the age of five years, and the first year's instruction consists in laying sticks and rings in designs imitated from the teacher. Weaving, card pricking, and drawing are also taught. From this beginning the pupil's development goes on through physical studies, such as zoölogy, botany, physiology, and geography. After these come higher mathematics, geology, chemistry, history, psychology, etc.

CURRENT LITERATURE.

It would seem, or rather it would have seemed, almost impossible to present Shakespeare in any new light, so much has been written by the wise and the foolish, the learned and the ignorant, the bright and the dull, the competent and the incompetent, upon that marvellous man. But Mr. George Wilkes has managed to write a goodly octavo which, while it contains nothing absolutely new upon this subject, presents it as a whole in a fresh aspect.8 Mr. Wilkes says, in his brief preface, a few words which seem to be candid and truly modest. Rigorous criticism, he tells us, will not be unwelcome, not because he has any vain confidence in his own views, but "because they are put forward in good faith in order to elicit truth concerning a genius who is the richest inheritance of the intellectual world." He adds that he presents his book rather as a series of inquiries than as dogmatic doctrine, and that even if his views are controverted, he must be a gainer, "for it can never be a true source of mortification to relinquish opinions in favor of those which are shown to be better." This is indeed the fairest, best spirit of literary candor, and it is expressed with manly ingenuousness. If the author really feels what he utters so well, and we are both bound and willing to believe that he does so, he has set an example of a virtue which should be very much commoner than it is.

In giving to Mr. Wilkes's book the consideration which is due to its careful and intelligent preparation, we are, however, somewhat puzzled at the outset. What is an American point of view in regard to a literary subject, and above all a subject the historical position of which is previous, not only to the Declaration of Independence, but to the settlement of New England? We can apprehend what an "American" point of view might be as to a question of politics, or of society, or even of morals, in the present day; but what such a distinctive view could be even on those subjects, considered as they present themselves at a time when our forefathers, just like the forefathers of the present British people, were in England or in Scotland, we can hardly divine. And as to literature, the difficulty seems still greater. For, in the first place, literature and art are of no country and no time, except historically, and moreover the literature of a language and a race belong to that race and the speakers of that language wherever they may be. A man of English blood and speech loses no right in Shakespeare, he loses no right in any English author, because he happens to be born in New England instead of Old England, or in Australia instead of the Isle of Wight or of Man. Political divisions have nothing to do with literature. We hear nothing of Prussian literature or of Austrian literature; it is all German—"Deutsch." And the eminent German philologist Mentzner, in his great English grammar, that awful book in three octavo volumes, draws for his countless illustrations quite as freely upon Bryant, Irving, Longfellow, Hawthorne, Prescott, and their countrymen, as upon Tennyson, Browning, Macaulay, and theirs. English literature is the literature of the English race wherever it may be. It has nothing to do with the distinctions British and American. They are political only. This is true of all literature, even that of the day; but especially and absolutely is it true of all English literature that was produced before there was any New England. Shakespeare belongs to the people now in England because when he wrote he and their forefathers lived together in England and spoke the same tongue; and exactly for that reason he belongs to all of us here who are of his race and tongue. There is not the slightest difference between the relations of the two people to the one man. This consideration applies, without qualification, to all English literature before 1620; with slight external, unessential modification, to that between 1620 and 1776; and with somewhat greater external, but still unessential modification, to all that has been produced since.

Mr. Wilkes, however, may reasonably reply that while he may or may not agree with this view of English literature, there is in either case an American point of view as to every subject—a view taken from the position in which Americans stand politically and socially; a position which affects their vision and their judgment of all subjects, including literature, even in the form of dramatic poetry, the most absolute form in which it can exist. He is to a certain extent right; and waiving the question as to whether such a view is likely to have any peculiar value, particularly in regard to dramatic poems produced in the other hemisphere nearly three hundred years ago, let us see what in this guise Mr. Wilkes has to present to us.

He opens his book with a reference to the "Baconian theory," as it is called; that is, the notion that the plays published in 1623 as "Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies," were actually written by the great Bacon, incorrectly called Lord Bacon. This notion, which may in a certain sense be called "American," because of its setting forth by Miss Delia Bacon, a New England woman, some twenty years ago, is not and never was worth five minutes' serious consideration by any sane human being. It is too foolish to be talked about. No man who really knows anything about the subject has ever given this fancy a moment's entertainment; and we regret to see that Mr. Wilkes is at the pains of examining it carefully all through his book. It is not worthy of refutation. We therefore set small store by the probabilities which he accumulates against it. There is no more ground for reasonable doubt that William Shakespeare did and Francis Bacon did not write the plays attributed to the former than there is for doubt that Horace Greeley did and William Henry Seward did not edit the "Tribune" between the years 1845 and 1865. That Bacon was their author is indeed an American point of view, it having been taken not only by Miss Bacon, but by Judge Holmes of Missouri, and by an unknown American writer in "Frazer's Magazine" for August, 1874. But we are inclined to think that Miss Bacon's book is unknown to Mr. Wilkes except at second hand, else he would not speak of that tremendous octavo tome as a "pamphlet," which he does twice. It was as heavy metaphorically as it was in avoirdupois. It fell dead from the press. Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote the introduction to it, says in his "Old Home" that he believes that it never had but one reader, a young man of his acquaintance. He probably had not seen Mr. Grant White's statement, made in some of his Shakespearian books or writings, that "for his sins" he had read every word of it. And we must say from our knowledge of it, that the reading ought to go largely to his credit in his account with purgatory. Judge Holmes's book is very able and ingenious; so much so that it is to be regretted that he did not give his learning and his reasoning powers to better business. In Mr. Wilkes's book we probably have heard the last of this American view of Shakespeare.

Our author also gives much attention to the questions of Shakespeare's religious faith and his knowledge of the law. He is of the opinion that Shakespeare was a Roman Catholic, and that he had not studied law. In both cases we think Mr. Wilkes wrong. Such evidence as Shakespeare's works afford goes, we think, decidedly in favor of their writer's having been a Protestant of unusually "broad church" views for his time, and of his having made some study at least of the attorney's part of law. After considering all that Mr. Wilkes urges, we find nothing in his ingeniously extracted evidence to shake our faith in these probabilities. But in any case all this is of small importance. Suppose Shakespeare to have been a Romanist, and never to have entered an attorney's office: of what moment are these conclusions to the reader of his plays? The facts were important to Shakespeare himself, but are of only the slightest interest to any one else.

Mr. Wilkes's American point of view is finally and chiefly that which he takes of Shakespeare's social feeling, according to his—Mr. Wilkes's—conception of it. He says of him that it seems strange that "unlike all the great geniuses of the world who had come before or [have] come after him, he should be the only one so deficient in that beneficent tenderness toward his race, so vacant of those sympathies which usually accompany intellectual power, as never to have been betrayed into one generous aspiration in favor of popular liberty. Nay, worse than this, worse than his servility to royalty and rank, we never find him speaking of the poor with respect, or alluding to the working classes without detestation or contempt." This view of the great poet-dramatist is repeated over and over again, all through Mr. Wilkes's book. The point is not a new one. It has been considered by one or two of Mr. Wilkes's predecessors, and has been set aside as of no significance by those who have brought it up for consideration. We cannot congratulate Mr. Wilkes upon his success in establishing his position. The subject is of some interest, and for example we take Mr. Wilkes's remarks in his twenty-third chapter, which is entirely devoted to the support he finds for it in the first part of "Henry VI." He quotes passages in which La Pucelle (Joan of Arc) calls herself "a shepherd's daughter," speaks of her "contemptible estate," and her "base vocation"; in which Talbot expresses his insulted feeling at a proposal that he, when a prisoner, should have been proposed in exchange for a "baser man of arms," and in which he and other noblemen speak with contempt of peasants. And then he exclaims, "Lords, lords, lords; nothing but princes and lords, and The People never alluded to except as worthless peasants, or to be scorned as scabs, and hedge-born swains." The reply to all this is much like the famous one as to the stealing of the kettle; which was first, that the defendant did not take the kettle; next that he returned it; and finally that the plaintiff never had any kettle. First these sentiments are not put forth as those of the writer of the play, but as those of the personages who figured in the historical incidents therein dramatized; next it is undeniable that such were the feelings which noblemen and gentlemen of Henry VI.'s time, and of the time when this play was written, had and expressed toward peasants; and finally, whether or no it makes no difference as to Shakespeare's sentiments in regard to his humbler fellow men; for Shakespeare did not write this play. No editor or competent critic of Shakespeare believes that Shakespeare wrote one single scene of the first part of "King Henry VI." True the same feeling is expressed by noblemen and gentlemen in plays which Shakespeare did write; and we notice this particular passage chiefly because of its evidence that Mr. Wilkes, although an intelligent and careful reader of Shakespeare, is not sufficiently acquainted with the history and the literature of his time, or with dramatic literature generally, to undertake to pass judgment upon Shakespeare from the higher points of view, however he may be so to judge him from "an American point of view." For the assertion that Shakespeare was in this respect "unlike all the great geniuses of the world" is absolutely untrue. If Mr. Wilkes will carefully examine the works of the playwrights contemporary with Shakespeare, he will find their dramatis personæ equally made up of "lords, lords, lords," and he will find the lords speaking in just such a way of the common people. If they did not do so, the portraiture would be unfaithful; it would not "hold the mirror up to nature." And if he will look through the plays of Molière, who stands next to Shakespeare as a dramatist, and who was like him a player and a man of the people, he will find all the lords and gentlemen who ruffle through his delightful pages speaking with contempt and ridicule of the lower classes. Moreover, it is absolutely untrue that Shakespeare was even thus indirectly a sycophant to kings and nobles, and a maintainer of their essential superiority. On fitting occasions he puts into their own mouths satires against themselves, their rank, and their pretensions; and he shows, when opportunity offers, a warm sympathy with and tenderness for the lowly and the oppressed. Whoever chooses to do so may find this shown in a few pages of Mr. Grant White's essay on Shakespeare's genius. ("Life and Genius of Shakespeare," pp. 298-302.) If we are to have a peculiarly American view of Shakespeare, pray let us have one founded upon thorough knowledge and taken in a fair spirit. Not that we mean that Mr. Wilkes is intentionally unfair, but that his judgment has been perverted by his strong democratic feeling, and that he seems not to have been able to investigate his subject with the research which it properly demands.

We are sorry to observe also a reckless tone of disparagement running through Mr. Wilkes's book. True, Shakespeare's reputation may be able to bear it; but for the very reason of Shakespeare's preëminence the world—the thoughtful part of it at least—would welcome a close, careful, and competent examination of his claims, even in an adverse spirit. Such an examination Mr. Wilkes, notwithstanding the voluminousness and the method of his book, has not been able to give them. It is not—for example, in his chapter on the "Merchant of Venice"—by calling Antonio a "blackguard" and a "ruffian," and Bassanio "an unprincipled, penniless adventurer, a mere tavern spendthrift and carouser, who borrows money that he may cheat a wealthy maiden of her dower," by calling Gratiano and Lorenzo "poodles and parasites," the first of whom "is willing to put up with Portia's waiting maid Nerissa," that Mr. Wilkes can hope to win respect for an American view of Shakespeare. If Mr. Wilkes had informed himself more thoroughly in regard to the manners of Antonio's time, he would have found that in those days men, otherwise kind-hearted and generous, treated Jews as he treated Shylock; that Nerissa was probably, if not surely, as well born and as well bred as her mistress was; and that Bassanio's desire to marry an heiress, beautiful, loving, and by him beloved, was not peculiar to the hero of the "Merchant of Venice." Indeed, very estimable men have not been found averse to such a proceeding in these days, and even in America. And what is strange the beautiful heiresses have forgiven them, and if they behaved kindly and lovingly as husbands, have been very happy, strange as it may seem. Why should Mr. Wilkes speak of Bassanio's going to Belmont "to swindle Portia"? He does no such thing. Such criticism of Shakespeare, if it were truly and representatively American, would justly hold America up to the world's ridicule.

Scattered through Mr. Wilkes's book, making us regret the more such passages as we have noticed, are others which show fine insight and robust common sense. In this very chapter on the "Merchant of Venice" there are two or three pages of sound criticism of the dull and pompous platitudes of the sham-profound German critics, for which we thank the author. They are well and heartily written, and they do not overstep the bounds of literary decorum. In many parts, Mr. Wilkes's book, although it is a very unsafe guide, contains stimulating suggestions to reflection.

Lord Amberly, the recently deceased son and heir of Earl Russel, left an elaborate work behind him upon the religions of the world, which has just been republished here.9 Apart from its teachings, or rather its tendencies, which would be stamped as "infidel" by all orthodox Christians, the book is valuable. For it is the result of very profound, painstaking research. It contains nothing particularly new, but it presents, in a tolerably compact form, a critical view of the whole subject of religious beliefs and ceremonies, in all time and in all countries. Its author evidently means to be fair; and from his point of view he is so. The book is full of information upon a subject which is now attracting unusual attention from a class of minds which, twenty-five or thirty years ago, would have shrunk in horror from any such examination; and its value in this respect is enhanced by an index, which makes it a useful book of reference.

—Mr. Frothingham, who has rapidly taken the place of leader in a new school of morals and religion, but whose followers are yet few, has added another book to those which have been recently noticed in our pages.10 It is composed of some of those discourses—for they cannot be called sermons, in the ordinary sense of the word—which he delivers to his disciples on Sunday; delivering them on that day because it is convenient for the purpose. It must be admitted that they teach a very high and pure morality. But we confess that the title of the book, "The Spirit of the New Faith," seems to us a misnomer; for we seek in it in vain for the evidences of any faith. Indeed, its principal object seems to be the inculcation of morality without faith; the teaching that, to an upright life—truly Christian, that is, in spirit—(for Mr. Frothingham would probably spurn the name) no faith of any sort is necessary. In the sermon—not the first in order—which gives the volume its name, we remark a strange perversion or misconception of the chiefest Christian virtue. Mr. Frothingham writes in a kindly, generous spirit which excludes scorn; but he approaches scorn in his remarks upon charity, at which he almost scoffs. He says of it: "Charity is not equivalent to brotherhood; it is not synonymous with brotherhood, or even with appreciation. Charity can be unjust: it is unjust in its pity. Pity, indeed, is its essence." Were this a true definition of charity, Mr. Frothingham might be justified in the tone he takes toward it. But the very spirit of charity is at war not only with injustice, but with arrogance, and with phariseeism of all kinds. Its very essence is the assumption of good motives, even on the part of those who differ radically from us in conduct and belief. It is the great moral equalizer of the world. We are surprised that a thinker of Mr. Frothingham's clearness and subtlety of mind should have so failed in appreciating a quality which does not inculcate, but which is love and respect for others.

Few persons are aware of the vast and varied range of duties which are connected with what is called, "for short," a geological and geographical survey of the Territories.11 The second edition of the catalogue of publications made in connection with the survey, of which Dr. F. V. Hayden is director, enumerates forty-one publications issued within ten years, among which are annual reports of the work done since 1867, bulletins, the issue of which began in 1874, and important monographs on ancient and modern fauna and flora of the region examined. Dr. Hayden's own geological work is necessarily limited by his heavy duties as director of the whole survey, but his long study of the West gives him unusual qualifications for assembling and discussing the work of others. He has a minute description with map of the Upper Arkansas valley and its glaciation, and of the old lake system of the West. During the early portion of the Tertiary the whole country, "from the Arctic circle to the Isthmus of Darien," was occupied with lakes, some of which were immense in size. In after times thousands of small lakes took their place, and these have finally disappeared. Many of these were expansions of the rivers, like most modern lakes. The old valleys are now occupied by a diluvial deposit, the counterpart of the Loess of the Rhine, and almost the same in composition. The agricultural future of all that valley region is very promising, for from some mysterious cause, the rainfall seems to be increasing over the whole area. Buried trees of great size prove that Nebraska has not always been the grassy waste it now is, and the revolutions of nature may restore its forests. Mr. Aughey figures some arrow-heads which he found in this deposit fifteen and twenty feet from the top, and in such a position as to assure him of their true age. Leaving the admirable geological study of Dr. Peale, we come to Mr. Eudlich's examination of the San Juan mines. This is a kind of work which government explorers should do more of, though until the mines are worked deeper, the information obtained is not very full. The veins are reported to be probably of Cretaceous age, or they may date from the beginning of the Tertiary. Dr. Hayden reports that when the coming season's work is finished "the most rugged and mountainous portion of our continent" will have been surveyed. It is his intention to map it in an atlas of six sheets, each covering about 11,500 square miles. The cartographical work of the survey is excellent. This volume contains eighty-eight maps and views, executed in a most creditable manner.

—We have also received two of the "Miscellaneous Publications"12 of the survey, one being the last and crowning work of America's great invertebrate palæontologist, Dr. F. B. Meek.13 The names "Meek and Hayden" have an association in American scientific work that is historic, and in the "Report on Invertebrate, Cretaceous, and Tertiary Fossils of the Upper Missouri Country" are assembled the results of painstaking labors extending through many years. The volume is worthy to stand as a monument to such an author. The introduction contains a description, in the author's characteristically concise style, of the formations in which the fossils were found. The fossils described include all the invertebrates from the prescribed region, and it is indicative of the author's position in regard to palæontological work in America, that nearly all the species were originally described by him. This profound knowledge of the subject and the painstaking attention to the discussion of types, and of their synonomy, make the work, as Dr. Hayden truly says, "one of the most important contributions ever made to the science of palæontology in any portion of the world." Forty-five lithographic plates, by Meek and Swinton, and numerous woodcuts, illustrate the book.

—Dr. Packard's "Monograph of the Geometrid Moths"14 is the next important publication of this survey. It is the first complete treatise on the American species of these moths. The author describes between three and four hundred species, and thinks it not unlikely that nearly a thousand will be ultimately found on the continent. The collections have been made by many travellers, and at points extending from Polaris bay to Texas. Great attention is paid to generic and specific description, and to synonomy, besides which a complete bibliography of the subject is added. Dr. Packard's work is therefore well suited to serve for immediate instruction, as well as a standard for reference. The admirably executed plates increase its value for both uses.

—Captain Ludlow's report of his visit to the Yellowstone Park in 1875 is one of the most interesting books the Government has published.15 He found that the army of American vandals has turned its footsteps toward this national museum of wonders, and every year they go to it in hundreds and thousands to admire and destroy the delicate lace work which nature has spent centuries in weaving. The Park contains the most remarkable glaciers on this continent, and the constantly flowing and splashing water has built up a basin of opal around each fountain. These basins are curiously convoluted and fretted, and are composed almost entirely of quartz deposited from the water, their light gray color contrasting beautifully with the deeply tinted water. Wherever they are solid the idiotic visitor writes his name, and thousands of these unimprisoned lunatics have been there. Wherever the basins are most delicate and wonderful, the savage white man strikes them with an axe and carries home "a specimen." Captain Ludlow found two women climbing around one geyser called the Castle, from the numerous little pinnacles and towers it has built up, "with tucked up skirts and rubber shoes, armed one with an axe, the other with a spade." When he first saw the Beehive, the most remarkable of the geysers in point of height, throwing its stream two hundred feet high from a small aperture, he had a pang in anticipation of the destruction that he felt sure would come upon it. And with good reason. The next day he returned to camp just in time to run in and save the Beehive, the pride of the Park, from the uplifted axe of a woman! He urges the Government to spend $10,000 or thereabouts in protecting this beautiful place from the assaults of these iconoclasts, who break down ten times as much as they carry off. We regret to see that his recommendation is unheeded. A governor is appointed for the Park, but he has no salary, and probably does not remain on the ground. Captain Ludlow very truly says that the presence of a small party there to open roads, preserve the Park, and keep a careful record of the geysers would well repay its cost in the increase of knowledge and pleasurable travel it would bring to our people.

Mr. David A. Wells has made a good choice in presenting Bastiat's writings on political economy,16 for his essays are as sound in principle as they are homely in method. He tried to make people see the true meaning of the phrases and theories which are the common staple of conversation among the industrial classes. For instance, he meets the assertion that a country gains wealth when the government employs a great number of people by pointing out that the personal expenditures of the people are reduced by just the amount of the taxes. When the government takes a dollar from a citizen to pay a laborer, the citizen has just one dollar less to hire the laborer for his own use. The country gains no wealth by such a transaction, but merely makes an exchange of employers. This proposition, which M. Bastiat insists upon through many arguments, is of more vital interest to France than to us. It refers to a form of folly that is chronic there, but sporadic here, and its most threatening outbreak (during the "ring rule" in New York) was violently cured by the panic of 1873. But the importance of inculcating sound views on this subject is just as necessary here as there. Probably the larger part of Tweed's stealings ultimately found their way to laboring men, but who shall say that New York has gained wealth by his career? M. Bastiat's views on interest, capital, taxes, encouragement of fine arts by the State, public works, the spendthrift, government, etc., are excellent, and expressed in an ingenious and taking way. It is hard to give to dissertations on such subjects that "blood-curdling interest" which Mark Twain promised in his agricultural memoranda; but M. Bastiat certainly unites an unusual interest of style to sensible and simple views. Mr. Wells may count the reproduction of these essays as one of the many valuable public services he has done his countrymen.

A hundred and four years have passed since John Howard paid that visit to Bedford jail which first directed his attention to the improvement of the prisoners' condition. The work began with the study of prisons; a hundred years has turned it into the study of the prisoner. Mr. Dugdale17 discovered in 1874 the criminal family which has become notorious as containing Margaret, "the mother of criminals." She was one of six sisters, of whom one is not traceable; four gave rise to mixed criminal and pauper lines, and Margaret to a distinctively criminal line. To these sisters Mr. Dugdale gives the name Jukes, and he has followed up seven generations, containing 540 known persons of Juke blood, and 169 known persons of other blood who became allied to the Jukes in one way or another. All told, this criminal family contains 709 known persons, and probably 500 undiscovered members, forming the most numerous criminal lineage ever studied. Mr. Dugdale's pamphlet is a profoundly interesting analysis of the history of this family, and the tendencies that have governed it. The remarkable fact is developed that the strongest criminal tendencies are on the female side, and pauper tendencies on the male side. Crime and pauperism are psychologically one and the same, one or the other being manifested as the individual's character is strong or weak. A life may exhibit an innocent childhood, a criminal maturity, and a pauper old age. The same phases may be developed more slowly, and appear in successive generations, or even in alternate generations. Intemperance is no doubt frequently the immediate cause of crime, as seen in so many murders. But Mr. Dugdale shows that the common belief that criminal tendencies are the result of intemperance is not true, while the reverse is true, that these tendencies produce physical degeneration, which craves the stimulus of drink. These investigations show that the pauper is almost irreclaimable. His mental weakness neutralizes every effort made for his welfare, but the active criminal has strength enough to do better if he will. As to women, it is shown that their immorality is the precise counterpart of crime in the man, and it is to this fact that we owe the steady development of our criminal population. Illegitimacy is not in itself a cause of crime, but the environment of neglect in which the illegitimate live is a fruitful cause. We cannot detail all the conclusions of this close and exhaustive study of criminal character. They are as numerous as they are disagreeable to read and contemplate.

—Dr. Bowen's pamphlet on "Dyspepsia," published by Loring, is so good, so comforting, and so plain to persons who do not know any more of medicine than is necessary to have the various diseases, that we are glad to point it out to our readers. He says there is no case of dyspepsia that cannot be cured, except such as are complicated with other troubles that are necessarily fatal. He opposes the starvation treatment, but does not give general directions for cure, saying that each case must be studied and treated for itself.

Dr. Stillman's "Seeking the Golden Fleece"18 is worth reading for its faithful picture of a long sea voyage in the olden time. Nearly a hundred passengers left New York in the Pacific, the captain and owner being obliged to slink on board, to avoid attachments sued out against them by other passengers who were dissatisfied and left behind. The voyage consumed 194 days, and the narrative of its incidents is much the most interesting part of the book. As to the author's experience in California, we can sum it up in the common phrase, "The old story." He was one of the first argonauts. He saw Sacramento when it had half-a-dozen shanties, San Francisco when millions of dollars worth of goods lay on the hillsides, for lack of sufficient warehouses, when the mines were yielding well, and cooks were cheap at $300 a month. Dr. Stillman's narrative is one of the best that has appeared of California in the days of the pioneers.

Mr. Habberton shows how fit he is to be the editor of selections from standard authors by publishing the Roger de Coverly papers19 without a note or emendation. We have these celebrated numbers of the "Spectator" in all the grace and humor of the originals, and with the quaint flavor which age has necessarily added to them unimpaired. The editor informs us that after a careful hunt through the book market, he finds the previous editions of Sir Roger out of print, and for that reason he publishes this one, though his first plan for the "Select British Essayists" did not include it. He thinks the publication peculiarly timely now, when "the standard of letters threatens to become vastly different from that under which English literature has gained whatever it possesses of real value." We do not agree with him in anticipating the complete shelving of Sir Roger in case this threatened change really takes place. In all times the really great authors will be read by the few, and talked about by the many. But however that may be, Mr. Habberton's handsome and convenient collection of these papers will be welcomed by the many who are glad to learn how famous authors wrote, and yet have not taste enough for classical reading to attack the whole "Spectator" itself.

The disciples of Swedenborg will read with interest a little book of a mildly controversial character by B. F. Barrett, which endeavors to show what the New Church really is.20 The controversy is not with the unbelievers in Swedenborg, but with some prominent persons among his disciples. Its object is to show that the New Jerusalem, or New Church, is not an organized and visible body of people united by a creed and a form of worship more or less uniform. This view, although, as the writer says, it has prevailed among the students of Swedenborg for nearly a hundred years and is probably held by a large majority of them at the present day, he regards as an utterly mistaken conception. He, on the contrary, regards the theory of separation as false and vicious. The function of Swedenborgianism, if so it must be called, he believes to be to uproot and destroy the mischievous spirit of sect, to exalt charity above faith, life above doctrine, both inside and outside of all the churches. This he regards as that second coming of the Lord which Swedenborg taught; and this he sees in the signs of the times. Few of us know really what Swedenborgianism is; and some of us have tried in vain to discover what there is in it which captivates some clear-headed as well as true-hearted men. But if this be Swedenborgianism, who of us is there that will not bid it God speed?

—"The Library of Swedenborg,"21 edited by Mr. Barrett, is to consist of twelve handy volumes, giving a complete summary of Swedenborg's system in a series of extracts from his writings, grouped together under appropriate headings, indicating the special doctrine they illustrate. These volumes are of the most convenient size and neatly printed and bound. They are, in short, in every respect in contrast with the bulky tomes in which Swedenborg's system is usually and so repulsively presented. Three volumes of the series have thus far been published.

A book the author of which publishes his own portrait as a frontispiece is opened with prejudice by most sensible men, we believe, and phrenology is not regarded with great favor by the majority of such readers. But here is a book which is able to stand up against both these prejudices.22 Whatever we may think of phrenology, we cannot withhold our hearty approval of the methods of teaching which are recommended by Mr. Sizer. He would have the teacher study his pupil, watch the action of his mind, detect his propensities, and then direct his efforts accordingly. The author does not content himself with generalities; he goes into particulars; he indicates temperaments, describes mental traits and modes of action, and gives good counsel as to their direction. His views of training include the moral as well as the mental side of the pupil, and also his physical nature. Children trained according to the system here recommended and set forth would have the most made of them that their organizations permit. We commend the book to all teachers and parents. It will interest them, and if they study it and follow its counsels, it will profit their children. As to the phrenology of it, they may let that go. Like the allegory of "The Faerie Queene," it won't bite them.

In poetry we have before us this month only a sacred tragedy, the writer of which we fear has been misled into verse-writing by an ambition to justify his parents' choice of a name.23 The incidents of his tragedy are of course derived from the Old Testament, and in every case in which they are in any way modified it is for the worse. His poetry reminds us of that dreary stuff that was written before the appearance of Marlowe and the other Elizabethan dramatists. We wonder that the writer undertook a subject which had been so ably handled by others before him, and particularly by Charles Heavysege, to whose vigorous and highly picturesque dramatic poem24 we direct the attention of our poetry-loving readers.

NEBULÆ.

—The result of months of agitation and negotiation is that to Russia is left the task of driving the Turks out of Europe single-handed. Well, Russia is content, and not only content, but pleased. She does not object to being left to seek her own ends by her own means, and would like nothing better than to have all the other powers take the position of disinterested bystanders while she whops poor little Johnny Turk, and takes as much as she likes of his territory by way of indemnity. She meant this all along, and it has been amusing to see how she has with a combination of tact and persistency attained her end. Of course as to her motives there can be no doubt; they are purely philanthropic and religious. It is for the Christians in the Turkish provinces, about whom England began the disturbance, the result of which promises to be Russia's success and her own discomfiture. The attitude of Turkey wins respect and sympathy. It has been manly in tone, and in diplomacy not unskilful. The Turks have always shown a combination of stubbornness and craft which have made them, except in the field, more than a match for their Christian enemies. Without approving Turkish faith or life, we may yet admire the firmness and dignity with which they have refused to submit to a dictation which would exclude them from the rank of independent nations. They made the mistake of not putting the Czar palpably in the wrong, which they would have done by sending the embassy to St. Petersburg to treat of disarmament. But he would have probably wriggled but of this position in some way; and of this they may have felt sure. Plainly the Turks feel that they are in a crisis of their national existence, and they are desperate. They know of course that between Great Britain and Russia there is a determination to drive them out of Europe, and that their only safety thus far has been in the rivalry and jealousy of those two powers. Since the effort is to be made, they feel that they are in as good a condition to resist it now as they ever will be; and with the desperation of their character they have gone into the unequal fight. What will be the end, no one can foresee; but of one thing we may be sure, that the British Government will not fight for the Turks, and as certainly they will not fight with Russia against them. Neither Germany nor Austria is likely to spend blood and treasure for the aggrandizement of Russia. Therefore, although some publicists look for a great change in the map of Europe, it seems rather that the result of the war, even if it be unfavorable to Turkey, will be little more than the liberation and autonomy of one or two of the provinces.

—The personal nature of our politics was never more apparent than it is at present. On all sides, and in regard to all questions, we meet with evidence of it. Whether it be in regard to great questions of national importance, the formation of parties, or some little State or county matter, the point generally first raised is how Mr. —— or Mr. —— will be likely to feel about it. The subject is not discussed upon broad grounds of right, of law, or of policy, but with regard to the effect that it will have upon such or such an "interest," which is represented by Mr. ——, the said interest being sometimes that of a railway, or a "ring," but generally that of a knot of professional politicians. This seems strange in a country where the government is "of the people, by the people, and for the people." Our democracy has subjected us to the condition of the old Roman clients. We do not have leaders in politics, but users; men who use us for their own advantage.

—China and Japan are turning the tables upon us bravely. We have been sending missionaries to them for two hundred years and more, and now a young disciple of Buddha comes among us to criticise our religion and to tell us that the moral principles and the conduct of Christians are of a lower standard than those taught by Confucius; and a Japanese publicist criticises our politics in our leading review, and tells us that we are the slowest people on the face of the earth, and are tied hand and foot by our paper constitutions. There will probably not be many converts to Buddhism; and as probably the Constitution of the United States will not be set aside as a worthless piece of paper in this generation. None the less, however, are these return-missionary efforts of our extremely Oriental friends very significant signs of the times. They show two things: first, the little real effect which, after all, the West has produced upon the East; and last, the freedom of thought and discussion which is now pervading the world. It is safe to say that our Chinese and Japanese critics will be listened to with respect; and that not in a mere spirit of tolerance and politeness. The world has changed its position greatly in such respects within the last thirty or fifty years. The petition in the English prayer-book in favor of "Jews, Turks, heretics, and infidels," which found its counterpart in the extemporaneous prayers of other orthodox religious sects, is beginning to sound rather antiquated. The idea of holding up Dr. Gottheil, for instance, as a proper subject for especial prayer, is to most sensible people rather ridiculous, however good Christians they may be. Investigation has found the principles of a high morality in other religious creeds than those of Western Europe and America; and charity, that chiefest of Christian virtues, has taught us to judge others, if we judge them at all, by standards of general application with allowance for peculiar conditions. We have discovered that political sagacity was not confined to the founders of the political systems of modern Europe. It is found that the human mind is much the same under like conditions in all countries and in all times; and we are approaching gradually to Tennyson's "parliament of man" and "federation of the world."

—A sadder story has not been told for a long while than that of the mother and daughter who were excluded from the Shaker settlement at Whitewater, where they had been for fourteen years, and after leaving which, and seeking in vain the means of livelihood, they, in despair, took poison, and died in each other's arms. The sadness is not so much in their death; for to that they were at any time liable; and loving each other fondly, as they manifestly did, in their voluntary death they were not divided. But the mother was at first driven to the Shaker community fourteen years ago, with her little girl, because she had been deserted by the father of her child, to whom she had not been married. She had weakly yielded to the impulse of nature without fortifying herself by a legal claim upon the father of her child, and the world, instead of treating her tenderly and helping her, turned its back upon her and told her that she and the child that she had borne were fit only to starve or to live in a county poor house. After fourteen years of the cold, colorless, and unnatural life of the Shakers, the daughter showed that she was not an abstraction or a forked radish, and behaved like a woman, perhaps not a prudent one, to the young men of the community. She was told that such behavior was only fit for the world's people, and that she and her daughter must go. But the world's people had driven out the mother herself upon something such grounds years before; and now when she came back she was met by the same stony front. Let us not be misunderstood; we are not justifying or even palliating the mother's conduct. We pass that point by without consideration. But the point remains that for an error, which, however great, was in the course of nature, the mother became an outcast, and that for indiscretion, also in the course of nature, on the daughter's part, both afterward were turned away from the Shaker community; and then they found the world so hard, and life in it so bitter, that, although one was still in the prime of life and the other in its early morning, they chose rather death together. They might have been base and unnatural, hard-hearted, malicious, slanderous, revengeful, covetous, grasping, utterly regardless of the happiness and, within the law, of the rights of others, the mother might not have loved her child, the child might not have loved her mother, and yet the world would not have driven them to the Shakers and the Shakers would not have driven them out again into the world to die. It is an old story, we do not hesitate to say an old wrong, of which every man and woman with an unperverted heart admits the cruelty in the abstract, but of which the collective world is always ready to be guilty. A woman who "gets a husband," no matter by what base arts or design, is "received"; a woman who gives the world a child otherwise than according to law is cast out, often by those who are not worthy to touch the hem of her garment. It is not necessary to justify women who err in this way before condemning the pharisaic righteousness which stones them into despair. "Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more."

—Compare the wrong done in such a case with the conduct of a "respectable" young woman whose sudden disappearance from her home near Waterford, New York, caused much excitement. She reappeared after a week's absence, and accused three young men of the place of abducting her. They were rather wild fellows, and they were arrested. But upon investigation the story was found to be a pure fabrication. The girl had gone suddenly off to visit some of her relatives; and to gratify some feeling, whatever it might have been, she trumped up this accusation. It is impossible to conceive a fouler, baser act. And yet she will not be an outcast; she is "respectable"; no one will venture to call her a "bad girl." But suppose that He who said "neither do I condemn thee" were to decide between the relative fitness of the two for a place in His kingdom—is there any doubt in whose favor He would speak? The law cannot decide as He would decide; and the world is right in insisting upon the chastity of woman; but is the world right in regarding chastity as the only female virtue, or at least in regarding a lapse from continence as the only wrong which should exclude woman from the pale of decent society, and deprive her of a right to earn her living among other women? Is it right in asking only one question in regard to a woman's conduct and in "receiving" a married woman, merely because she is married, although she may make her home a little hell for her husband and her children? We are not advocating looseness upon the former point, but only comparing the world's treatment of natural error with its treatment of essential and malicious wrong-doing. If the one should be condemned—and it should be—what should be done in case of the other? Motive gives every act its true character; and if we teach women that a life filled with acts the motives of which are mean and malicious may be "respectable," are we not subjecting them to a daily discipline of moral degradation?

—And with it all there is such a foolish, deplorable, ruinous neglect of the proper instruction of young women. They are taught heaps of things that are of no possible use to them, and they are not taught those which concern them most nearly. Here is this miserable "Throop-Price" affair, as it is called, in which a young lady belonging to a family of some culture and social position is actually taken before a clergyman and half married before she knows it; but suspecting that something is wrong, and being assured by the clergyman that the ceremony he is performing solemnizes a real, binding marriage, she flies off, but is immediately induced to go before the Mayor, and is there married out of hand when she meant to do no such thing. It seems incredible; but it is actually true. We make, as we should do, an awful fuss about marriage, and a good marriage is, as it should be, the desire of a young woman's heart, and yet in regard to all the essentials of marriage as well as the duties and personal relations of married life, we leave them in ignorance. There would seem to be but two ways about this matter: one, the French way of keeping young girls in seclusion and absolute ignorance, and then marrying them off as a sort of business transaction—an arrangement that does not suit our social life, and which, it must be confessed, does not tend to produce the best state of morals in France; the other to give young girls reasonable liberty, under the general supervision of their parents and family, but in this case to arm them with knowledge, to let them know what marriage is legally, ceremonially, socially, and physiologically. This is a safe way, and the only safe one. Let this be done, and then if a girl "goes wrong" in any way, it is merely one of those unavoidable misfortunes which some of us have to encounter.

—Was there ever anything so amazing as this blue-glass craze that has taken possession of about two-thirds of those who are included in the term "everybody"? It would seem as if there were no limit to man's credulity, particularly upon those subjects which concern him most nearly, religion and the preservation of bodily health. In both he is ready to listen to any plausible person who will tell him to "do some great thing." Tell him that he must live a life morally pure and physically clean and sober, that he must not sin against his own consciousness of right, and that he must wash himself and eat simple, wholesome food, conform himself to the indications of his physical structure, and he will assent in a careless way, and immediately violate every rule of sound morals and physiology. But tell him that he must make a pilgrimage to Rome, or that he must lift six or seven hundred pounds daily, swallow pills and bitters, or live in a blue conservatory, and he will prick up his long ears, and do it if he can. What wonder that quacks all make money, and that the "patent medicine interest" should have a representative in Congress! But quacks and patent medicines usually must have the benefit of a few years of copious advertising before they effect their purpose; whereas blue glass was written into popular favor with the dash of a pen. It trebled in price in less than so many weeks. The notion that light should be filtered of every ray but the blue one to produce the best effect upon the human body and brain is certainly one of the most fantastic that has been broached since the days of the medical mountebanks. The best use to which this glass can be put is to the making of hot-beds. Let our early lettuce and pease by all means be brought forward under sashes glazed in blue. What cauliflowers we shall have, and what cabbages! At present the crop of cabbage heads, to be sure, promises to be very large through the intervention of blue glass; but much the greater number of them appear to be growing upon human shoulders.

—Science, or self-styled science, however, insists on playing its tricks with colors as with other matter—if color be matter. There is now a budding theory that the eye is and always has been in a state of development, and that we are yet to discover new colors of which we have at present no idea. In support of this it is urged that in early literature we find only the strong primary colors mentioned—red, blue, black; black, however, being the absence of true color. It is supposed that the other colors were not seen; and in support of this it is urged that Aristotle assigns only four colors to the rainbow. But surely this is scientific trifling. It is natural that early writers upon any subject should notice only the strongest and most salient points connected with it. Its finer gradations become the subject of subsequent discussion. Particularly might this be expected to be the case in the ruder states of society. It is not that the senses cannot perceive; for the savage senses are very keen, as is well known, but that language, perhaps even the mind, does not discriminate. It is content with broad and marked distinctions. So with regard to the eye and color. We may be very sure that a perfect eye sees, and has always seen, all possible color. But unless led thereto by science or art, or love of beauty in dress or ornamentation, the observer is content with noticing the strong tints, red, blue, yellow, black, white—and green also, which is so widely spread over nature. But as to a new color, that is quite impossible, unless some new gradation or combination of color may have a new name given to it. For in the spectrum we have a perfect gradation of colors, all that are in the ray; and after we pass the primaries, the others are but combinations and gradations. To get a new color we must wait for a new eye and a new sun.

—Where will the desire for championship not lead some one of us, and where will it end? We have champion walkers and skaters, champion boot-blacks and bill-posters; and out at the West the other day a lad employed in a newspaper office to wrap papers for the mails announced himself as the champion paper-wrapper, and challenged anybody to wrap with him—the most in so many hours. The last champion performance is that of a "professor of dancing" (Anglèce, a dancing master), who waltzed for five consecutive hours. It was an occasion. We are told how, after waltzing some half-a-dozen persons, male and female, out of breath, the "intrepid professor" kept on; how he changed partners without stopping his regular steps; how he drank a glass of wine now and then, while stepping in time to the music; and how, when after waltzing steadily for four hours and a half, he showed some signs of faltering, slices of lemon were put into his mouth, ten minutes after swallowing which "the professor revived." Then he became dizzy, and peppermint lozenges were given him. On he went, and in the last five minutes of his stint showed his pluck by "putting in fancy steps"; and his wife, who was now his partner—a sort of nursing partner, it would seem—occasionally whispered "nods of encouragement," a performance which beats the professor's all hollow. "Nods and becks and wreathed smiles" are very natural and very charming on appropriate occasions; but whispered nods are something quite inconceivable. The professor held out, and at half-past twelve "a grand huzza rang out." Is not this rather a pitiful spectacle? If a man dances, let him dance well. If to teach dancing is his vocation, let him get, and let him prize, a reputation for teaching it well. That is reasonable and respectable. But that a man should spend five whole consecutive hours, nearly a quarter of a day, in dancing for the mere sake of showing that he could keep it up and dance ever so many people down, is rather a sad exhibition of smallness. All these exhibitions spring, not from the desire to do well, which is always and in all things honorable, but from that of doing something that other people cannot do, which is not very admirable. Some other "professor," not to be bluffed, will now challenge this professor; and we shall have a dance for the championship. Then some other professor in Europe will be fired with ambition, and we shall have a grand International Dancing Contest for the Championship of the World. Well, it will be a little better, but not much, than the eating and drinking matches which sometimes take place in England, in which two half-beastly creatures gorge and guzzle in a contest wherein the victor would probably be beaten by almost any four-legged swine. Emulation is a spur to exertion the moral excellence of which is at least questionable; and when it leads to dancing five hours on a stretch or eating five pounds of bacon at a sitting, we see a little what its essence is.

—The curiosities of advertising come out strongly at the far West. Here is the "Denver Rocky Mountain News" all ablaze with displayed announcements, some of which are of an extraordinary and whimsical character. One man cries out in enormous type, "Deadwood on getting rich if you only save your money; no need of going to the Black Hills if you can buy Groceries at these figures"; another exclaims in very big black letters, "Store your Stoves! and avoid trouble, dirt, rust, hard work, and profanity"—the latter a piece of advice very pertinent, it would seem, to the region; another insinuates in a sort of colossal pica that although "Bragg and Stick'em may have a larger stock of men's furnishing goods than all the other houses in the United States put together," the right place to get things cheap and elegant is his establishment (who are the loudly advertising rivals that he pillories as Bragg and Stick'em does not appear); another firm of traders announce themselves as the "Chicago Square-Dealing House"; another, a jeweller, informs the Western world that in consequence of the "great failure of the Milton Gold jewelry company in London, their entire stock has been consigned to us to raise money as soon as possible"—the idea of a consignment from London to Denver does not seem to strike the Western mind as it does us who are somewhat nearer London; two undertakers announce their business by enormous prints of black-plumed hearses; and the paper itself publishes a "black list" of debts for sale, ingeniously adding that a dollar a week will be credited to the debtors during the publication; one advertisement is headed, "Drunkard, Stop!" an appeal which seems quite in place; for the most important and interesting announcement of all, headed, "Don't you forget it!" is that a certain man has "the best stock of Straight Kentucky Sour-mash Bourbon and Rye Whiskey in the Far West." He may be sure that the Denver people will not forget that.

Footnotes