and, as for art, why bless you, dear young reader, read his book while you still are young, read it in the country, where you can have leisure and can be undisturbed; shut out the outer world, and modern life, forego the morning paper, and give yourself up wholly to master this tale of love, of passion, of sin and treachery, and their fatal, harrowing fruit, and as, drop by drop, this patient master of the human heart distils his magic draught, as your heart beats faster, and your cheek glows, and your tears start, and time is forgotten, and Clarissa and her fate become the only things that can interest you-let us hear how you answer, then, the slurs that are thrown upon Richardson's art! Richardson's method appeals to the love of detail that is an element of our human nature, particularly in its unsophisticated state. What need of illustration? Children, old folks, farmers, sailors, love to tell the same story, over and over-love to hear every incident; they don't like "skipping," but praise the story-teller, who, like Dante,

can well devise

From point to point; not one word will he fail."

Of course there will always be catering for those who are in a hurry; and people who want to talk about Clarissa Harlowe, and to get credit with their uncultivated neighbors, will buy Mr. Holt's edition, and will thank him for it. As the crop of such people not only never fails but is always abundant, our plain-speaking can't hurt the publisher's market, so we advise all young people who want to know and not to seem to know, to take Richardson by the horns, and master him. But they must make haste and do it while they still tarry in the sweet Jericho of youth; if they wait till their beards be grown, we fear 'twill be too late.

We won't say much-perhaps we might say nothing, about the nice point of expurgation. But, how to understand all that Richardson's novels are, if all the inunendoed nastiness, the too free descriptions, the dwelling upon lascivious details, be wiped out with an unsparing hand? Who that reads this little book, can appreciate the difference that makes "Tom Jones" clean, while "Pamela and "Clarissa" are unclean? The enthusiasm of the French for "Clarissa Harlowe " is well known and easily understood. For long it stood, with Byron, for all that most cultivated Frenchmen knew of English Literature. Of Shakespeare, of Scott, of Fielding, they knew less than nothing, but Richardson they admired to that extent that they declared he should have been a Frenchman. And, indeed, he is the father of the French novel from the "Nouvelle Héloïse " down to "Fanny." Yet, not all of them put together have created two characters so sure of immortality as Clarissa and Lovelace. They are a part of the intellectual possession of the world. Of a man who has exerted such an influence it were well to know something. But who reads this edition of his greatest work, with

that desire, will not only know but little here below, but will know that little wrong.

"Phantasmion." *

COLERIDGE was more fortunate in his children than most English poets, for two of them certainly possessed genius, though not in the same measure as himself. Hartley Coleridge was a poet, and if he had not inherited some of his father's infirmities he might have done noble work; as it is he has left two volumes of fugitive pieces as a memorial of his possibilities. Sara Coleridge had less genius, perhaps, but a greater turn for theology and metaphysics. She wrote but one book which can be considered original. It is the fairy tale before us, which is described by Lord Coleridge as the product of the enforced labor of a sick bed, and which was published in 1837. It was not successful, partly, as he would have us believe, because it was brought out by Pickering in an expensive form, and without the writer's name; but more, we are inclined to think, because it shot over the heads of its readers. It is neither a book for the young, nor the old, but one of those works of genius run riot which fails to interest either. It is too long, and it means too little, if, indeed, it have any meaning at all. The laws by which the creation of the Fantastic and the Grotesque are governed are vague, perhaps, and difficult of detection; but they are laws, nevertheless, and they cannot be violated with impunity. The elder fairy-writers obeyed them unconsciously, and Hans Christian Andersen, the Shakespeare of Fairy Land, never by any possibility misses them-his instinct is so sure, and his workmanship so perfect. It is otherwise with Sara Coleridge, who invents, and invents to no purpose. Her work when finished has scarcely the coherence of a child's dream. Her supernatural beings, as Lord Coleridge informs us, have no English originals, though he fancies that he perceives a German character in them. Legends of Number Nip, he says, and the exquisite fancy of Undine are their nearest prototypes. He also perceives, what we cannot, the influence of Greek and Latin imagination in them. Of this, however, the reader of "Phantasmion," learned and unlearned, must judge for themselves. Many have long since done so, for the book was reprinted in this country upwards of thirty years ago—a fact of which Lord Coleridge does not appear to be aware.

"Scottish Chap Books."+

The

WE wish we could praise Mr. Fraser's subjects as highly as his workmanship. The historian who seeks for the traces of a people's every-day-life and manners in their street-ballads, as Macaulay did, will than himk for his industry. If his own countrymen are diverted, as they seem to be, with this very

*Phantasmion. A Fairy Tale. By Sara Coleridge. With an Introductory Preface by Lord Coleridge. Roberts Brothers, Boston.

+ Scottish Chap Books. By John Fraser. Part 2. New York: Henry L. Hinton.

For this very reason they are, if anything, the more valuable. It is in regard to such matters of practical detail that young ministers, and some who are not young also,-need wise and helpful counsel, and counsel which is born of large and various ex

Still, facts, whether savory or unsavory, are worth preserving, not for the sake of their own value so much as for that of the inferences they suggest. The graffiti of Pompeian walls and pavements betray in their rude scrawls the very realities that stately literature only hints at. The songs of these chap books are just as real, and far less desperately gross. If it has taken some centuries for human nature to reach that higher plane of sentiment, perhaps a few more may quite eradicate the coarseness and unconscious indelicacy with which the national character, according to our author, is still to some extent imbued. Modern times have, at least, this advantage over ancient ones, that in the characters of most civilized nations there is that rude healthiness which our author attributes to that of the Scotch, preserving it even in its impurity from putrefaction.

Something of that rude healthiness is necessary for the enjoyment of this book, which squeamish persons will certainly not like. But it is heartier in its fun, and safer in its frankness than the mincing pruriencies of the yellow-covered school. The direct narrative of these low life sketches is, of course, commonplace and narrow enough, but they abound in side-lights thrown on political and religious conditions, and their shrewd sense, homely wit, and free, living touch are irresistible. When all originality is fast becoming reduced to a level of commonplace, as modern improvement hurries ever faster with its work of making every people and every custom like every other, we may thank such explorers as our author, whose labors rescue from seldom visited nooks things worth preserving, even if trifles, because they are quaint and genuine relics of a life once real.

"Yale Lectures on Preaching."

THE endowment with which Mr. Sage, of Brooklyn, established the Lyman Beecher Lectureship of Preaching, in the Yale Divinity School, has already given to the world the two most useful volumes of homiletics to be found in any language. The terms of the endowment provided that, for three years in succession, the lectureship should be filled by the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, and the third series of his lectures has already been given, and will, no doubt, be soon published; meanwhile we have not yet noticed the second series, which has been for some months before the public from the press of J. B. Ford & Co.

These lectures of the second year cover a wide variety of topics, and, indeed, deal less with preaching, properly so called, than with the accessories of preaching in the general conduct of church affairs.

been larger and wider than Mr. Beecher's; and few men are better fitted to give counsel in regard to them in a spirit of generous sympathy, and with a sagacious knowledge of the necessities of his less experienced brethren. So far from showing any signs of weariness or exhaustion, this second series of lectures is as fresh and vivid, and as full of earnest hope and courage as was the series published in the first volume, and already widely circulated in more languages than one. 1

Lange on Revelation.

THE important work of translating and re-editing the commentary of Lange, now for some years in progress by Scribner, Armstrong & Co., is completed, so far as the New Testament is concerned, by the appearance of the volume on the Apocalypse. To say that this volume is wholly satisfactory is to say far more than has ever yet been said of any commentary on that most difficult and obscure part of the Sacred Scriptures. But, just because it is so difficult and obscure, it is all the more necessary to study it with all the help that one can gain from the learning and skill of other students. Of the learning and skill with which the work has been in this instance conducted, especially by the American Editor, the Rev. Dr. Craven of Newark, N. J., there is abundant evidence. It would be too much to expect from the students of this volume complete agreement with the interpretations to which Dr. Craven's views have led him. But it is not too much to say that there will be a genuine respect for the laborious and conscientious fidelity with which his work has been performed.

A copious and convenient index to the Commentary on the New Testament, is included in this volume.

Stanley's "Coomassie and Magdala."

MR. HENRY M. STANLEY, whose audacious and successful enterprise in the search for Livingstone made him at once and everywhere famous, had been an African traveler before, and has been one since. He accompanied the army of Sir Robert Napier in that Abyssinian Campaign which ended in the capture of the fortress of Magdala and the death of the Emperor Theodore. And, still in the capacity of correspondent for the "New York Herald," he entered the Ashantee capital with the army of Sir Garnet Wolesley and described the progress and result of that campaign. Out of his newspaper | letters he has compiled this most readable volume, abundantly furnished with maps and illustrations, and forming a valuable record of two military

achievements of permanent interest and importance. Of the two expeditions he has described the last first-as being most timely. But the most interesting story,-in itself and in the carefulness and skill with which it is related,—is the story of the campaign against Magdala.

The impression which the volume will make as to Mr. Stanley's literary gifts and acquirements will not be far different from that produced by his volume on the search for Livingstone. Often slovenly and even illiterate in his style, plainly deficient in such general information and culture as were needed to fit him to appreciate what he saw and to describe it accurately, he yet is always readable and entertaining, and succeeds, by some short method of his own, in letting his readers understand what he did see and how he came to see it. Courageous, audacious even, sparing no expense and no pains to be on hand wherever the most notable news was likely to be found, determined to be before his fellow correspondents with his bulletins of news, even if he

was not always as accurate and as full as they were. he fitly represents, in these respects, the spirit of the newspaper to which he is attached. We may smile at his patronizing criticism of the generals whose armies he accompanied, and grow weary of the fine writing in which he indulges himself, but we can not help admiring and even respecting the energy and persistence of the man, and even admitting, after all, that he was not so far wrong in his estimates of men and measures as he might have been.

The description of the fight at Magdala and the capture of that stronghold, and the story of the correspondent's plucky ride through a chasm of the mountains, chased by a furious torrent from which, as by the skin of his teeth, he was saved, give to the concluding chapters of the book an intense and captivating interest. And the public will wait with avidity for other stories of achievement in the world of “special correspondence" from the distinguished author.

College Examinations.

IN a recent address before the Graduates of the University of Edinburgh, Professor Tait observes: It is a mere commonplace to say that examination, or, as I have elsewhere called it, artificial selection is, as too often conducted, about the most imperfect of human institutions; and that in too many cases it is not only misleading, but directly destructive, especially when proper precautions are not taken to annihilate absolutely the chances of a candidate who is merely crammed, not in any sense educated. Not long ago I saw an advertisement to the effect"History in an hour by a Cambridge Coach." How much must this author have thought of the ability of the examiners before whom his readers were to appear? There is one, but so far as I can see, only one way of entirely extirpating cram as a system. It may be costly-well, let the candidates bear the expense, if the country (which will be ultimately the gainer) should refuse. Take your candidates, when fully primed for examination, and send them off to sea-without books, without even pen and ink; attend assiduously to their physical health, but let their minds lie fallow. Continue this treatment for a few months, and then turn them suddenly into the Examination Hall. Even six months would not be wasted in such a process if it really enabled us to cure the grand defect of all modern examinations. It is amusing to think

what an outcry would be everywhere raised if there were a possibility of such a scheme being actually tried-say in Civil Service Examinations. But the certainty of such an outcry, under the conditions supposed, is of itself a complete proof of the utter abomination of the cramming system. I shall probably be told, by upholders of the present methods, that I know nothing about them, that I am prejudiced, bigoted, and what not. That, of course, is the natural cry of those whose "craft is in danger." I venture now to state, without the least fear of contradiction, a proposition which (whether new or not) I consider to be of inestimable value to the country at large. Wherever the examiners are not in great part the teachers also, there will cram to a great extent supersede education.

Antidote for Hydrophobia.

IN an article on skunk madness or Rabies Mephitica, the Rev. Horace C. Hovey says: A peculiar poison is sometimes contained in the saliva of animals belonging to the canine and feline families, the production of which, it has been generally supposed, is limited to them. Other animals, of the same or of different species, may be inoculated with this virus; the result being a mysterious malady, which men have observed from the days of Homer and Aristotle, but which has never been either cured or understood. This frightful disease has been called, from its origin, Rabies canina, and from one of its

symptoms, hydrophobia. Probably it is not communicable by any species but those with which it originates. A few instances have been recorded to the contrary; but they were so imperfectly observed as merely to stimulate us to further investigation. It is stated by the best medical writers (e.g., Watson, Gross, and Aitken), as an undeniable fact, that no instance is known of hydrophobia having been communicated from one human being to another, although many patients, in their spasms, have bitten their attendants.

The facts now collated will show, it is thought, one of two things, either that the hydrophobia virus is both generated and communicated by some of the Mustelidae as well as the Felida and Canida; or else, that a new disease has been discovered, which generically resembles Rabies canina, while differing from it specifically. My judgment favors the latter opinion, decidedly, for reasons to be adduced; and accordingly I may name this new malady, from the animal in whose saliva it is generated, Rabies mephitica.

The varieties of Mephitis are notorious for the singular battery with which they are provided by nature. It consists of two glands from which, by the contraction of muscles, an offensive fluid can be discharged in thread-like streams, with such accuracy of aim as to strike any object within fifteen feet. This secretion is either colorless, or of a pale yellow hue. It is phosphorescent. Viewed from a safe distance, its discharge looks like a puff of steam or white smoke. Its odor is far more persistent than that of musk. If too freely inhaled, it causes intense nausea, followed by distressing gastric cramps. In minute doses it is said to be a valuable anti-spasmodic. If so, why not experiment with it as a cure for hydrophobic convulsions? It is not known what the effect would be of injecting this fluid beneath the skin. Interesting results might be attained by any one who was willing in behalf of science, to investigate further in this inviting path! There certainly seems to be some connection between it and the disease under consideration; for, in every instance, the rabid skunk has either exhausted his mephitic battery, or else has lost the projectile force by which it is discharged. Perhaps the secretion is only checked by the feverish state of the system. Possibly there may be a connection between this inactivity of the anal glands and the generation of malignant virus in the glands of the mouth.

An adventure, while on a summer tour amid the Rocky Mountains, first called my attention to the novel class of facts about to be presented. Our camp was invaded by a nocturnal prowler, which proved to be a large coal-black skunk. Anxious to secure his fine silky fur uninjured, I attempted to kill him with small shot, and failed. He made characteristic retaliation; and then, rushing at me with ferocity, he seized the muzzle of my gun between his teeth! Of course the penalty was instant

death. An experienced hunter then startled us by saying that the bite of this animal is invariably fatal, and that when in perfect apparent health it is always rabid. He resented our incredulity and confirmed his statement by several instances of dogs and men dying in convulsions shortly after being thus bitten.

Since returning to Kansas City, I have had extensive correspondence with hunters, taxidermists, surgeons and others, by which means the particulars have been obtained of forty-one cases of Rabies mephitica, occurring in Virginia, Michigan, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, and Texas. All were fatal except one; that was the case of a farmer, named Fletcher, living near Gainsville, Texas, who was twice bitten by M. macroura, yet recovered and is living still. On further inquiry it was found that he was aware of his danger, and used prompt preventive treatment. Another case was alleged to be an exception; that of a dog which was severely bitten in a long fight with a skunk, but whose wounds healed readily and without subsequent disease. It seems, however, that this dog afterward died with mysterious symptoms like those of hydrophobia in some of its less aggravated forms.

The writer then gives a number of cases reported by Dr. J. H. Janeway, an army surgeon stationed at Fort Hayes, in which persons who were bitten by rabid skunks died in from ten days to twelve months thereafter, with symptoms resembling those of hydrophobia; and he adds:-It is evidently the opinion of Dr. Janeway that the malady produced by mephitic virus is simply hydrophobia. Should he be correct, then all that is established by these facts would be this, viz: that henceforth the varieties of Mephitis must be classed with those animals that spontaneously generate poison in the glands of the mouth and communicate it by salivary inoculation. From this, as a starting point, we might go further and seek a solution of the whole mystery of hydrophobia in the theory that this dread malady primarily originates with the allied genera of Mephitis, Putorius and Mustela, widely scattered over the earth; being from them transferred to the Felida and Canida and other families of animals. And then, if it could be proved experimentally that the characteristic mephitic secretions contained an antidote for the virus of the saliva, we should have the whole subject arranged very beautifully!

Fighting the Phylloxera.

PROF. CHARLES V. RILEY, one of our ablest entomologists, gives the following suggestions regarding the best means of dealing with this pest. If, he says, it shall once be demonstrated that varieties which now fail may be grown when grafted on to those which resist, I see no reason why it should not become as much a custom and a maxim among grape-growers to use some other vine as stock for such varieties as the Catawba, for instance, as it already is among pear-growers to use the Quince, or

among cherry-growers to use the Mazard or Morello as stocks.

In the course of a year or two we shall be able to fairly judge of the efficacy of the plan, for, aside from the trials that I am making in this country, others are being made on an extensive scale in France. Quite a number of plants, for the purpose of experiment, were sent over there from this country in the spring of 1872; and the demand has now become so great that a single firm, Gidor, Bush & Co., of St. Louis, has this winter received orders for about four hundred thousand cuttings to be consigned to one place, Montpellier, and consisting of such varieties as have been recommended by myself and Prof. Planchon, as best resisting the disease. There is every reason to hope for the best results from these exportations, as those vines, such as Herbemont, Cunningham, Concord, Clinton, &c., which best resist here, and which were planted there in 1870 and 1872 in Phylloxera-infested districts, have, thus far, done surprisingly well, as many will testify.

The Southern Fox is the only species that is totally exempt from both leaf and root lice. This species is of no value whatever in the latitude of St. Louis, and does not flourish above latitude 35°. It cannot, therefore, be made of any avail here, and it is doubtful whether in the blighted French vineyards they will be able to profit much by its immunity.

Of preventive measures perhaps the best is to sprinkle the ground with lime, ashes, sulphur, salt, soot, or other substances destructive to insect life. This should be done during July, August and September, when the lice are moving over the surface of the ground.

The New Cable Ship.

THE "Faraday," of five thousand tons register, has been built especially for the purpose of laying and recovering ocean telegraph cables. She is 360 feet long, 52 feet beam, and 36 feet depth of hold. There are three large, water-tight tanks in which the cable is coiled and preserved from injury by the admission of water.

The stem and stern of the vessel are alike, and each is supplied with a rudder which may be immovably fixed at pleasure. The propelling power is supplied by two compound engines, which drive two screws of twelve feet in diameter. These converge slightly, and thus enable the vessel to turn in her own length when the engines are worked in opposite directions. So perfectly is this accomplished, that on one occasion the vessel was turned around a cask in a little over eight minutes, touching the cask three times during the operation. Το prevent rolling, there are two bilge keels set on at an angle of 45°.

The grappling rope is made of steel wire and hemp, and bears a strain of sixteen tons. Among the singular causes which render the use of this ar

rangement necessary, we may mention that which happened to the India-European line, in which a whale becoming entangled in a portion of cable overhanging a ledge of rock, broke it, and in striving to get free so wound one end around its flukes that escape became hopeless, and it fell an easy prey to sharks, which had half-devoured it when the grappling-iron brought its remains to the surface.

The Cause of Ocean Currents.

MR. J. CROLL having advanced certain opinions regarding these movements, Dr. Carpenter discusses them as follows: According to Mr. Croll's doc trine, the whole of that vast mass of water in the North Atlantic, averaging, say, 1,500 fathoms in thickness and 3,600 miles in breadth, the temperature of which (from 40° downwards), as ascertained by the Challenger soundings, clearly shows it to be mainly derived from a polar source, is nothing else than the reflux of the Gulf Stream. Now, even if we suppose that the whole of this stream, as it passes Sandy Hook, were to go on into the closed Arctic basin, it would only force out an equivalent body of water. And as, on comparing the sectional areas of the two, I find that of the Gulf Stream to be about one-900th that of the North Atlantic underflow, the extreme improbability that so vast a mass of water can be put in motion by what is, by comparison, a mere rivulet, is obvious.

To this Mr. Croll answers: The objection seems to me to be based upon a series of misapprehensions. 1. That the mass of cold water, 1,500 fathoms deep and 3,600 miles in breath, is in a state of motion towards the equator. 2. That it cannot be the reflux of the Gulf Stream, because its sectional area is 900 times as great as that of the Gulf Stream. 3. That the immense mass of water is, according to my views, set in motion by the Gulf Stream.

I shall consider these in their order: 1. That this immense mass of cold water came originally from the polar regions, I, of course, admit; but that the whole is in a state of motion, I certainly do not admit. There is no warrant whatever for any such assumption. According to Dr. Carpenter himself, the heating power of the sun does not extend to any great depth below the surface, consequently there is nothing whatever to heat this mass but the heat coming through the earth's crust. But the amount of heat derived from this source is so trifling, that an under-current from the Arctic regions, far less in volume than that of the Gulf Stream, would be quite sufficient to keep the mass at ice cold temperature.

2. But suppose that this immense mass of cold water occupying the great depths of the ocean were, as Dr. Carpenter assumes it to be, in a state of constant motion towards the equator, and that its sectional area were nine hundred times that of the Gulf Stream, it would not, therefore, follow that the quantity of water passing through this large sectional area must be greater than that flowing through