EDITOR'S TABLE.

THE

HE London Times, in an article upon Cardinal McCloskey's visit to Rome, the general tenor of which cannot be complained of, takes occasion to repeat an opinion about American culture which is very generally entertained abroad. "In a democratic community," it remarks, "the baldness of life becomes very apparent to the rich and idle, and, as social distinctions are few and uncertain, the attractions of a creed which carefully cultivates the æsthetic side of religion, and which claims the inheritance of a grand historical tradition, are almost irresistible to a large class of minds. In every society there are those 'faint hearts and feeble wings that every sophister can lime,' and in America, where, in spite of the diffusion of elementary education, a high aud thoughtful culture is rare, the same influences which here tempt many to the distractions of ritualistic vanities, or even across the borderland, are very potent with a certain superfine class who would gladly ape the externals of an aristocracy." The italics in this extract are our own. We may as well mention here that the Times article concludes by asserting that the Roman Church can never become a dominant influence in America, inasmuch as the forces that she wields are confronted by something greater, healthier, and more enduring the strength of manly and intelligent individuality, nowhere wanting among men of English blood.

Assenting fully to this utterance, we yet wish to say a word or two as to the nature of American culture, which the Times thinks is so rarely "high and thoughtful," and its power as a check to the spread of Romanism. In a certain sense it is no doubt true that "high and thoughtful culture" is rare in America, over-refined and æsthetic dilettanteism not being so common with us as in England. In the entire domain of æsthetics, we must yield the palm to England; and those "silent Greeks," too fastidious to enjoy or to perform any thing in literature below classic perfection, are indisputably more abundant there than here. But in speculative reasoning, in inquisitive thought, in taste for science and philosophy, in a culture that takes cognizance of all that is purely intellectual, we do not think our people inferior to any other in the world. All the great writers have constituencies in America equal to those elsewhere; it was here, indeed, that Herbert Spencer found a hearing before he did in his native land; and here the foremost thinkers are never without eager and respectful listeners. If æsthetic culture is rare with us, robust intellectual culture is very far from being so. And the kind of

culture prevalent in America is fully calculated to defeat the hopes of the Roman Church. While ignorance may be held and æsthetic refinement seduced by the splendor and pretensions of this Church, we may be sure that a people trained in philosophical thinking will be the last to give their assent to the domination of an arrogant and proscriptive priesthood. The culture that we possess is, as a whole, peculiarly serviceable to our present needs, and well calculated to guard us against seductive arts and dangerous dominations of all kinds.

SOME of our readers may recall one of Punch's society pictures which depicted an English and an American young woman playing billiards, with a legend below which ran, as nearly as we can recollect, as follows: American girl.—Oh, what a horrid scratch! English girl (much shocked). — You should not talk like that; that's slang; say what a beastly fluke." Punch, always so keen, watchful, and truthful, never sent an arrow more directly to the mark than in this instance. The sensitiveness of our English friends in regard to American slang and American manners would entitle them to admiration were they not all the time the most obtuse people in the world to their own errors and shortcomings of the same nature. Wholly satisfied with their own mode of saying and doing things, they seem to have set their hearts upon exposing our social deficiencies and upon trying-we suppose this must be their object-to reform them. The latest showing up we have is in the current number of Temple Bar, where we learn in a story how one Sunith fell in love with "a beautiful Yankee," and how this fascinating young person talked and conducted herself. The hero first sees our country woman at the table d'hôte at Trouville, and is immediately struck with her exquisite beauty and faultless dressing, and watches eagerly for her to speak, to hear the words "ripple out of those coral lips," and is astonished, when she does speak, that, instead of the words "rippling through the little coral lips, they descend unmistakably through her chiseled nostrils." After the accomplishment of this wonderful feat, the "beautiful Yankee" astonishes our hero by sundry strange utterances-talking about her mother being "real sick," asserting that Trouville is a "right elegant place, and the company most refined," declaring she is "passionately fond" of dancing, notwithstanding all of which Mr. Smith, still fascinated, seeks an acquaintance with the queer-speaking lady. Then follows a flirtation, of course. It is true the charming Yankee pronounces Europe "Yrrup," America "Amurrica," and Paris "Parris;" is invited to dance, and talks about the "Boston slow," the "New York slide," the "Saratoga

swoop," and says to her partner, "I reckon if you don't squeeze me tighter, Mr. Smith, I shall slide;" talks about a piggy young | lady"-but here we have made a blunder; a second look shows us that it is not the Yan

kee that talks about "a piggy young lady," but one of the immaculate Englishmen of the story, who, in referring to the fact that our Yankee Venus is the daughter of a porkmerchant, thus characterizes her; and of course English slang, "you know," is quite right and proper, "you know"-orders her partner "to keep his pecker up"-but this again is distinctly English slang, although put in the mouth of a Yankee-and so on. Our smitten Mr. Smith is dazzled by the beauty and strange sayings of his divinity, but doesn't win her. Queer and vulgar as the daughter of the pork - merchant is, Mr. Smith is not alone in his admiration, his making the seventeenth proposal she had received that year alone, the sixty-ninth being the grand total! It is refreshing to know that a pretty American woman can make so many conquests, notwithstanding the drawback of vulgarity and slang. It would not be a bad idea for some of our story-writers to amplify the idea in the Punch anecdote with which we begun this paragraph, and write a story in which the slang and manners of an English young woman shall be set "cheek by jowl" with the slang and manners of an American. It is only in this way that people on both sides of the Atlantic can be brought to see themselves as others see them.

THE Social reformer must have more courage than the political, since society is, after all, a tyrant more severe than what we are pleased to call "political principles." The bravery of Mrs. Crawshay, an English lady with a very revolutionary idea, is, for instance, worthy of our admiration. She is bold enough to make a proposition which runs counter to the tenor of all the traditions and customs of English society. Looking abroad over the country, her philanthropic heart is distressed to see so many "gentlewomen born" in an impecunious and needy condition. The inexorable code of society compels them to sit idle with folded hands, to become objects of polite charity on the part of family friends and distant relations, and thus to pass useless lives, a burden both to themselves and to others. Why not, asks truly chivalrous Mrs. Crawshay, defy social considerations, and become "domestic helps?" Why not "go into service," make up beds and dust drawing-rooms, wash dishes and sweep carpets-nay, why not preside over the concoction and serving up of wellcooked dishes in rich and aristocratic mansions? We can fancy the shock which this

proposition must give the sedate but penni

A re

melancholy, jokeless, funless people. cent account of the Veddas, a tribe inhabiting a region in Central Ceylon, is indeed full of interest. That they never laugh or smile, and cannot be made to laugh or smile, is not the least of their peculiarities. The discov ery and detailed description of the appearance and habits of the Veddas must be a godsend to Mr. Darwin. Perhaps they are the "missing link" which he has so labo

are considered, the plan must be dismissed as hopeless. It must occur to the practical mind that to call a "lady born" to account for a badly-swept room or an over-cooked steak were a task full of stormy probabilities; nor can we imagine any one more to be pitied than that "master of the house" who should be called upon to "give notice" to a pretty, well-bred creature, the daughter of a country rector, who bent her neck too stiffly to the yoke of his spouse. It is ungracious, perhaps, to deprive Mrs. Crawshay of what little encouragement she may have derived from the assurance of a London paper that it is the customary thing for "a Washington or Saratoga belle," on returning to the "old folks at home," to quietly put off her pride with her silks, and don calico, descend to the murky regions of the kitchen, and, in short, to do the "old folks'" cooking; but, unhappily, we are far from so blissful a Utopian state. According to Mrs. Crawshay's cheerful informant, it has been the habit, "from time immemorial," for American young ladies in good society to do the cooking and housework for their families. There are, no doubt, evils in the present condition of domestic service in both countries; but we cannot think that Mrs. Crawshay has found a feasible cure for its imperfections. After all, many employments have become open to "gentlewomen born" within recent years, and proper spheres for their labor and usefulness are coming into view every day. It is still "respectable" to be a governess or a companion; nor does a lady forfeit respectability by keeping books or copying legal documents; whereas, to become a "menial," to find herself, on a par with the butler and the footman, would be a degradation such as most English gentlewomen would rather starve than accept.

Ir was Juvenal, or some other philosophi cal ancient, who distinguished man from the brute creation by describing him as a "laughing animal ;" and a great deal of speculation has been spent, both in remote and in modern times, on the causes of laughter, from Aristotle to Kant. A living student of races, however, tells us that he has found a human community which does not laugh-a most

in the scale of humanity that they nearly resemble the monkeys which share with them their native forests. They mostly roam wild in the woods and jungles. They are dwarfish, with "ape-like thumbs" and long hair. They sleep in caves or roost on the branches of trees; their sustenance consists of honey, lizards, monkeys, and such game as, with exceeding skill, they kill or capture. They neither wash themselves nor can count, and appear to have no memory. Their language is a strange jumble of confused, chattering sounds. They have a religion, but it is of the vaguest and most reasonless kind. It is singular enough that a race so near akin to the brutes should universally practise virtues in which the civilized races are, to speak | mildly, somewhat defective; for we are assured that the Veddas "never steal, never lie, and never quarrel!" Though wives are the subjects of barter and sale, constancy to the marriage relation and mutual affection between the parents and the children are observed as existing among them to an extraor dinary degree. These, then, must be primitive and instinctive virtues. Though the Veddas laugh not, they cry, and that on easy provocation. Were they supposably capable of philosophizing on the conditions of human existence, they would be regarded as cynical and misanthropic; such views as they take of life appear to be sad and dismal. Thus they are really a most interesting study, and well worthy of Mr. Darwin's serious attention.

IN Mrs. Stowe's "We and our Neighbors" occurs the following passage:

"The wail and woe and struggle to undo marriage - bonds in our day come from this dissonance of more developed and more widelyvarying natures, and it shows that a large proportion of marriages have been contracted without any advised and rational effort to ascertain whether there was a reasonable foundation for a close and life-long intimacy. It would seem as if the arrangements and customs of modern society did every thing that could be done to render such a previous knowledge impossible. Good sense would say that if men and women are to single each other out, and bind themselves by a solemn oath, forsaking all others, to cleave to each other as long as life should last, there ought to be, before taking vows of such gravity, the very best opportunity to become minutely acquainted with each other's dispositions and habits and modes of thought and action."

In those countries where marriages are made with little or no regard to the tastes of

the persons most concerned, and where the opportunity to "become acquainted with each other's dispositions, habits, and modes of thought" is never afforded at all, it so happens that "the wail and woe and struggle to undo marriage-bonds" are least known. It is perhaps true that divorce often "comes in our day from the dissonance of more developed and widely-varying natures," but this development is just the thing that it is most difficult to foresee in youth; and we may be sure that young people fascinated with each other are certain to be blind to those seeds of defects and differences that are to ripen into evil and discord. So long as human nature is what it is, men and women really in love, and not making cool calculations as to marriage, will be incapable of studying each other's moods and tempers, at least in their minor manifestations. We doubt, therefore, whether there is much virtue in Mrs. Stowe's panacea. Divorces are sure to be tolerably numerous wherever the means for divorce are easy, inasmuch as a certain proportion of marriages are inevitably unhappy; but the number of divorces is no criterion of the extent of matrimonial infelicity. In one country the dissonance between the parties to the marriage-bond is borne with what patience it can be, inasmuch as there is no relief; in another country the exist ence of a legal remedy brings the "wail and woe" into public observation. We doubt if any just person, with opportunities for wide and close observation, would say that marriages are really more infelicitous in America than elsewhere.

MR. BAYARD TAYLOR having assaulted that pestilence of our railway-cars, the newspaper and lozenge peddler, some one has hastened to the defense of the nuisance

by declaring that " Bayard Taylor himself

would frown and perhaps rave if he could not buy a paper or a book, if he happened to be without reading-matter in a railwaytrain." This champion mistakes the matter wholly. It is not a question as to whether provision for the supply of newspapers, books, or refreshments, is to exist for railway travelers, but whether venders are to be permitted to persecute every person in the car by his rude, unmannerly method of offering his wares. Every station may be furnished with stands for the sale of such articles as may be in demand; or a vender might be permitted to expose his wares in some part of each train; but the present method of a number of noisy boys ceaselessly promenading the cars, shouting out their wares, thrusting their papers and candy-parcels, without so much as "by your leave," into

everybody's lap, is an unmitigated nuisance, which no traveling public but an American one would tolerate. And pray why should Mr. Taylor or any one else "rave" if he could not obtain reading-matter in a car? Why should he want paper or magazine if every two minutes he must be interrupted in its perusal by troublesome peddlers, and live through his journey ever on the alert to keep his lap clear of articles rudely thrust into it? If every traveler who finds articles of merchandise thrust into his lap without his consent would instantly fling the articles out of the window (very few would object if he threw the vender after them), this nuisance would soon cease.

Correspondence.

PHILADELPHIA, PA.,
September 20, 1875.

To the Editor of Appletons' Journal.

DEAR SIR: I have just read, in your issue of the 18th instant, the letter of Professor John Wise, which recalls some incidents of a year ago that might as well be "journalized." It is known to many readers of the JOURNAL that the Franklin Institute, of this city, held one year ago its first exhibition for sixteen years! On this occasion, the Institute had a huge array of managers, embracing many intelligent and thoroughly scientific minds, but, unfortunately, also embracing a few antiquated specimens of the genus "old fossil," who, as is too often the case, held their positions by money power rather than scientific attainments, and these few constantly nullified the well-studied arrangements of the majority, who were compelled to abandon many projects of interest rather than have a quarrel in the board. Among the most interesting of these projects was an arrangement made with Professor Wise for a series of balloon-ascensions in the interest of science-which ascensions were to be from the roof of the large exhibition building. At an early day, arrangements for the first ascension were completed. An elegant, large balloon, constructed expressly for the occasion, was inflated. About twenty persons, invited guests, reporters, etc., were upon the roof, all of whom were required to man the guys preparatory to "letting go." Two gentlemen, who were to make the ascension with Professor Wise, were seated in the basket, and the professor was adjusting the valve-cord, etc., when suddenly a tumult was heard at the window through which access was had with the roof. A glance in that direction revealed the presence of one of the before-described "managers" - who had arrogated to himself the direction of the exhibition-in the act of throwing a man through the window. He now violently approached the balloon, ordering people off the roof, and abruptly informing "Mister" Wise that "this thing" must stop, that there could be no more balloon - ascensions from this building, etc., etc. The professor gave a contemptuous yet pitying glance at this redoubtable manager of a scientific institution, and quietly gave the word to his friends to "let go," and in a moment was floating gracefully to the skies; and this was the last of the series of ascensions in the cause of science.

I will mention one more incident in which this time-honored institution allowed itself

to be compromised by this individual. The State Fish Commissioners proposed to exhibit the process of artificial hatching of fish, together with a fine display of fish so hatched, and of nearly a dozen varieties of various ages up to three years. A fish-culturist, residing several miles from the city, had volunteered to take charge of the matter during the exhibition (six weeks), and without remuneration-wholly in the interest of science, a sacrifice which he could ill afford, being a poor man-and arrangements had been nearly perfected with the institute to furnish the necessary aquaria, when the matter came to the knowledge of the aforesaid manager, who declared that the matter was illegitimate in such an exhibition, being neither scientific nor mechanical; and he actually bullied the managers into a dismissal of this feature. Numerous operations of this kind caused great discontent, particularly among exhibitors, many of whom have objected to the forthcoming "Centennial" being located here, inasmuch as its principal features are to be scientific and industrial. And this, by-the-way, reminds me that only last week I saw a communication in a prominent New York paper from a well-known writer, saying that the forthcoming exposition was in no wise a national affair. It is to be sincerely hoped that the JOURNAL will assure its readers that, whatever local features may find a lodgment there, the management will be purely national, and that all matters, scientific or useful, will have a fair show, whether aquatic, terrestrial, or aĕrial. WACAUTAH.

ONL

Literary.

NLY a teacher, of course, can pass an authoritative verdict upon a text-book designed primarily for use in schools, such a question being practical rather than literary; so we shall make no attempt here to do more than describe the plan and contents of Dr. Edward S. Morse's "First Book of Zoology" (New York: D. Appleton & Co.). The feature in which it differs most from ordinary text-books for beginners is that, instead of aiming to give a more or less complete view of systematic zoology, thus too often weary. ing and confusing the minds of those who take up the study for the first time, it endeavors in method to follow the course one naturally pursues when he is led to the study by predisposition, and in scope to cover only a few of the leading groups in the animal kingdom.

"The main thing at the outset," says Dr. Morse, "is to teach the pupil how to collect the objects of study; this leads him to observe them in Nature, and here the best part of the lesson is learned: methods of protection for the young, curious habits, modes of fabricating nests, and many little features are here observed which can never be studied from an ordinary collection. Hence, collecting in the field is of paramount importance. Next, the forming of a little collection at home prompts the pupil to seek out certain resemblances among his objects, in order to bring those of a kind together. In this way he is prepared to understand and appreciate methods of classification. Finally, having grasped the leading features of a few groups, he is enabled to comprehend the character of the cognate groups with less dif

ficulty. Thus, an inland student, having got the typical idea of an insect from the study of a common grasshopper, for example, is much better prepared to understand the general structure of the crustacea, though he may never have seen the few forms peculiar to fresh water. In the same way, after having studied the common earthworm, he can form a better idea of the complicated structure of many marine worms, though these he may never see."

From the abundance of material, and the comparative ease with which the specimens may be preserved for cabinet use, shells and insects have always formed the favorite collections of children; and with these, accordingly, Dr. Morse commences the study of zoology. Beginning with such familiar types as the snails, he proceeds upward to clams, mussels, and oysters; then to insects; then to the crustaceans; then to worms; and finally to the family of vertebrates. A couple of chapters on "Natural Groups" and "Classes and Sub-kingdoms " furnish as much in the way of generalization as the pupil can comprehend at the start. The illustrations in this volume call for special notice. The drawings were in every case made from the animal, expressly for the present work; they are all American, and, with few exceptions, they are entirely new. Each of them, moreover, is made in outline, in order to facilitate their being copied by the pupil-a practice warmly insisted upon by Dr. Morse.

THOUGH Professor Youmans's "ClassBook of Chemistry" (New York: D. Appleton & Co.) is nominally a new edition of a book published as long ago as 1852, it is in reality a new work-new not merely in the sense of being "revised and enlarged," but as an exposition of the science of chemistry on a basis entirely different from that on which the original work was founded, involving a restatement and readjustment of nearly every proposition. Explaining this point in his preface, Professor Youmans says: "The first edition represented the state of chemistry as it prevailed at the time of publication, and had been long established; but the revised edition (published in 1863), though adhering to the old theories, recognized that they were undergoing important modifications. These modifications have been long in progress, and having at length issued in a new system of chemical doctrine, which has generally been accepted by chemists, it has been adopted in the present volume, and explained and applied as fully as the plan of the work will allow. The present position of the science is, therefore, of special importance in relation to its exposition." At the same time, this position is not the final one of a science which has attained its full development. The new theories mark an important step in the progress of chemistry; they harmonize a wider range of facts, and give us a more consistent philosophy of the subject than the theories they supersede; yet they are far from being complete. And this fact has been kept constantly in mind in the preparation of the "Class-Book." "In this volume," says Professor Youmans, “I have aimed to preserve somewhat the transitional

aspect of the subject, so that 'The New Chemistry' may neither be regarded as an ingenious device of yesterday, nor as a finality to be acquired with no expectation of further improvement."

As regards the plan and special objects of the work, we cannot do better than again to quote the author. "It is not designed," he says, as a manual for special chemical students. It aims to meet the wants of that considerable class, both in and out of school, who like to know something of the science, but who are without the opportunity or the desire to pursue it in a thorough experimental way. Some acquaintance with the subject is now required as a part of every good education; but books designed for laboratory use, and abounding in technical details, are ill-suited to those who do not give special and thorough attention to the subject. I have here attempted to furnish such an outline of the leading principles and more important facts of the science as shall meet the needs of the mass of students in our highschools, seminaries, and academies, who go no further with the subject than to study a brief text-book, with the assistance perhaps of a few lectures, and the observation of some accompanying experiments."

Aside from the revision and restatement of principles, much new matter has been added under various heads, among them

SECULAR criticism must necessarily feel self-distrustful when it comes to deal with the literature of angels, and we hardly know how to record our opinion of "Angels' Messages, through Mrs. Ellen E. Ward, as a Medium" (Nashville, Tennessee: Henry Sheffield, M. D.). Were the messages from men, we should say that they are as stupid, vulgar, and commonplace in thought, and as crude in expression, as any we had ever received, and that they could not deceive any one in whom credulity had not attained the proportions of an intellectual frenzy. We should say, further, that they add a new terror to futurity, and recall irresistibly to the thoughtful mind Hawthorne's wish that he might be permitted to rest two or three thousand years before being thrust into the next stage of existence. One of the most consoling items in our conception of the happiness of angels has been the belief that they are released from the petty cares, thoughts, and occupations of our earthly life; and certainly it is a little, intimidating to find them, as we do in this book, discussing such topics as the "Cause of Crime," 99 66 Dress," Morphine," Philosophy of Government," "Political Economy," "Popular Scandal" (being a broad discussion of the Beecher trial and a revelation of Mr. Beecher's guilt), “Drunkenness," "Yellow Fever," the late Democratic victory in Tennessee, paper-money, and the impor

tance in 1876 of substituting a "civilian" for a "military President." The peculiarly fatuous and jejune way in which these subjects are discussed by the angels is of less consequence, perhaps, than the fact that they are discussed at all. If these were the only subjects, however, we might in time reconcile ourselves to them; but certain others are traversed in a manner which, we grieve to say, if we applied the popular proverb about angels fearing to tread where fools rush in, would render us liable to mistake Mrs. Ward's angels for fools.

Here is a specimen of the style of these messages:

"I have traveled over earth's domain; I have traveled over the cliffs to find the eaglet's nest; have visited the lazar-houses of the earth; I have stood upon the lofty peaks of the snow- clad mountains; I have walked the beach of the rolling ocean; I have picked up pebbles from the shore of time; I have heard the wind as it lashed the angry waves, and saw the snow-cap as it bursted; I have felt the keen lightning as it flashed around me; I have seen the mighty ship, that genius created by the brain of man to waft the merchandise of nations over the bosom of broad oceans; I have penetrated the deepest forest of the home of the savage; I have stood upon the banks and looked across the rivers of the Eastern World; I have visited the sepulchres of past ages; I have beheld the ruins of ancient temples built by man to offer up therein prayers to Deity; I said to myself, What is this? why were all those temples built?' and the answer was, 'They are the home of thought. 'Tis the finger of God pointing to the dome of thought which develops to man a progressive eternity.'"

And here is a specimen of their philosophy:

"Spirits cannot get wet, nor cold, nor burned, nor even suffer pain. We go through cold air without feeling it, and so don't have to bundle up with shawls, cloaks, and overshoes to protect us from the weather. I shall have a double opportunity now to come and see you. I don't want to be selfish, or I should have come oftener. (Do you go horsebackriding?) No, I have not been on horseback since I came here. Oh, would it not be nice for you to go and see so many people as you do without your horse and buggy! All we have to do here is to have the desire, and we go with it."

The only statement in the book which affords any satisfaction is the following, from the preliminary explanation: "Spirits of the nineteenth century attack ignorance, superstition, and falsehood, in all their strongholds." Our faith in the reality of Mrs. Ward's intercourse with the spirits of the nineteenth century will depend largely upon our receiving early and authentic information that said spirits have "attacked" Mrs. Ward's angels for the ignorance and superstition which, through her mediumship, they have precipitated upon the world.

weeks ago, and it is in several respects a better piece of work; still, it is inferior to the initial volume of the series. Without occupying more space than either Mr. Smith or Mr. Vaux, Dr. Birch succeeded in giving not only a fairly complete history of ancient Egypt, but a very satisfactory account of its architecture, its arts, its industries, its political system, and its religion and worship. Mr. Vaux's" History of Persia " is, perhaps, equal to Dr. Birch's "History of Egypt" as a narrative, but in other respects it is very defective. We learn scarcely more of Zoroastrianism, the national religion, than that it involved belief in a good principle and in an evil principle; and, of the Persian architecture, all we are told is that certain buildings are supposed to have been built at such and such places by a certain king. A whole chapter is devoted to a description of the principal ruins which modern investigation has discovered to us, but we gather from it nothing as to the characteristic features of Persian architecture. The want of a map, too, is keenly felt, when we endeavor to follow the alternate expansion and contraction of the Persian Empire.

As is well known, Persian history touches at several points upon the Biblical narrative, and Mr. Vaux gives a special interest to his work by numerous cross-references to the latter.

:

THE incidents which give a local flavor to Mr. Thompson's "Hoosier Mosaics" (New York E. J. Hall & Son) would seem to indicate a state of society ruder by several degrees than that depicted in Eggleston's admirable" Hoosier Schoolmaster;" and the dialect is proportionately broader and more copious. A good deal of this dialect, indeed, shows unmistakable signs of recent manufacture, but it cannot be denied that, on the whole, it is plausible enough and quaint enough to impart a certain raciness to stories which otherwise would have very little interest.

THE Athenæum has no very high opinion of "American humor," so called. It says: "There seems some probability that the wave of comic literature, which a short time ago invaded our shores from America, has finally subsided. For more than half a century we had become accustomed to the funny sayings of Mrs. Partington. Mrs. Partington, however, reached us only in driblets, utilized, as they reached us, in the facetious columns of country papers, and such publications as the London Journal and Family Herald. Nobody supposed a whole volume of Mrs. Partington would find English readers. And yet, within the last decade, we have had a dozen or more volumes of what is called 'dry,' or American, humor, every one of which found admirers fitting and not few. If the man that says he likes dry champagne would pick a pocket, the man that confesses to a taste for 'dry' humor would surely be expected to rob a church. The first to court public favor was, we believe, Artemus Ward. His book is, for the most part, typographical buffoonery, but so funny was it considered to spell two with a numeral, that more than one publisher reproduced the work, and thus stimulated the sale, just as rival costermongers stimulate the sale of their wares in a quiet street by simultaneous howls.

Then there came a flood of 'dry' humor; Orpheus C. Kerr, Petroleum Nasby, Titus A. Brick, Josh Billings, and Shoddy Z. Jones, are some of the brands we recollect. For the most part these productions were dreary, but, since international copyright is not in the most satisfactory state, the publishers got their comic wares for nothing, and could sell them for next to nothing, and thus glutted the market. Like 'crinoline,' dry humor had its day, let us hope never to have another."

REVIEWING" The Early Kings of Norway," the Spectator says: "Mr. Carlyle's rule for writing history, therefore, would be this: 'Look to your facts; remember that nations consist of living men; leave abstractions of all kinds, including systems and constitutions, to pedants. An excellent rule, so far as it goes, but not the whole truth. What if ideas, opinions, entities of the mind and heart, which Mr. Carlyle calls abstractions, are themselves facts and forces in history? What if the devotion of a people to its institutions is just as real a thing as the devotion of an army to its chief? It will inexorably follow that the historian who takes no account of these abstractions will not give the whole truth of history. And on this side Mr. Carlyle has always been defective. His contempt for those who manufacture history with the aid of theories drove him to an opposite extreme. He never fully sympathized with or understood the enthusiasm produced in England by Hampden's refusal to pay ship-money; he scorned and disparaged that ingrained and inextinguishable devotion to constitutional liberty which made the English grumble not only under an incapable and perfidious Stuart, but under a supremely gifted and magnanimous Cromwell. A perfect historian would combine the distinctive excellences of Hallam and of Carlyle, but for this miracle we shall probably have long to look."

THE Convention of German Journalists, to which we referred two weeks ago, passed the following resolution: "The Congress of Journalists declares the anonymity of the press to be a right which its highest duties render it imperative to maintain, and which should only be waived when a strict adherence to it would favor the impunity of crime.". . . . It is stated that some valuable autographs of Galileo have been found at Milan among the state archives. These autographs are not included in the Palatine collection, but refer to his negotiations with the Spanish Government relative to ceding the application of his method for applying longitude to navigation. The letters also relate to Galileo's journey to Rome in 1624 to pay homage to Pope Urban VIII. With a view to the better protection of copyright in dramatic works, a declaration has been signed by Lord Derby, on the part of England, and the Marquis d'Harcourt, on the part of France, canceling the paragraph in the convention of 1851 by which it was understood that the protection stipulated for by the convention was not intended to prohibit fair imitations or adaptations of dramatic works to the stage in England and France respectively, but were only meant to prevent piratical translation. It is reported that the late General Dufour left an important manuscript which will shortly appear in print. It is the history of the Sonderbund War, and will be prefaced by a life of the general, compiled from his own memoirs. . . . Mr. Philip Gilbert Hamerton is preparing a new and thoroughly revised edition of his book on" Etching and Etchers." . . . The

"New Shakespeare Society" announces that the "society wants but an increased list of members, and more workers with good heads, to insure its lasting success." Most other societies would succeed, we imagine, were this want supplied.

THE

The Arts.

HE "Museum of Fine Arts" in Boston is now nearly completed, and the building contains a number of good rooms, favorably situated for an art-school. Several wealthy and intelligent gentlemen of that city, who are widely known for their interest in developing the taste and culture of the people, have associated together to found, in connection with the museum, a school which shall give the highest art-education that experience and wealth can supply. For several years past Massachusetts has had very flourishing schools for teaching industrial drawing, but these do not satisfy the demand in the higher regions of art, and it is hoped that the new school will ultimately cultivate and educate its pupils as thoroughly as modern resources will permit.

The rooms of the Art Museum will accommodate a hundred and fifty pupils. It is intended to drill the pupils at first in drawing from the round, in light and shade as it is now understood and taught in the French schools, and of late years in the National Academy School of New York, and at the Cooper Institute. It is also intended to have the greatest attention paid to drawing outlines of objects. The pupils will have explained to them, as far as they can comprehend it, the meaning of outline, its general character and large direction, as well as its complex character. Study from life will also constitute a portion of the course of instruction. A prominent feature of all the great European schools of art consists of lectures on artistic subjects, and the enforced use of art libraries. It is shown by all experience that the hand and eye alone are not enough to make the perfect artist, but that enlarged artistic thought is the soul of all great execution. To fill this need, lectures on special subjects will instruct the pupils en masse, and a copious art-library will enable them to study for themselves on special subjects.

The main rooms of the Art Museum will be filled by the collection of pictures now in the Boston Athenæum, by the "Way Collection" of Antiquities, and above all by the "Loan Collection." The public spirit of the leaders will perhaps make this last the most valuable of all for the student, with its variety, constant change, and with its pictures by the best modern masters, and such works as the Veronese, of which we have spoken before in the JOURNAL, and its specimens of the bass-reliefs of Luca della Robbia, its cast from one of the faces of the pedestal of Benvenuto Cellini's "Perseus," its admirable tapestries, and its fine collection of the products of the looms of India, Persia, and China. These works will afford a constant opportunity for reference and study-an opportunity which time will continually enlarge.

The gentlemen who have undertaken the founding of this school in Boston are among

its most wealthy, educated, experienced, and traveled citizens. They have studied every art-school, not only in external form, but the Jarge motives that control them, and that have led to their failure or success in the past as well as the present time. They are also personally familiar with the best thinkers of Europe as well as America; and, with such men to undertake it, it seems as if no school could be established on broader or deeper foundations. The committee on the school have for some time been in consultation with the best artists and the most successful artteachers in the country in regard to matters of detail, and within a short time it will, doubtless, be shown whether their plans will take positive form. Our chief cities in all parts of the country are at the present time busy about their art-schools, and it seems desirable that they should be. Each city has its different influences of climate and population, and the variety of these elements, English, German, French, Spanish, and Scandinavian, with their different national characteristics, affects art particularly, and for that reason this period seems the fit one when schools flavored by the English, the Celtic, the German, the Italian, should have their rise and their development side by side. As in Italy, the Roman, Venetian, Florentine, and many other schools, bad each its distinctive character, we see no reason why in time Cincinnati, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, New Orleans, St. Louis, Charleston, and Boston, may not each work well and from different stand-points for the development of art.

THE last works of the deceased American sculptor Rinehart, brought directly to Baltimore from Italy some weeks since, are now being exhibited at the gallery of Messrs. Freyer & Bendann, in that city. They consist of thirteen busts, two bass-reliefs, representing "Spring" and "Aurora," and a marble reclining figure of "Endymion." The busts are not specially interesting, as they are, with one exception, merely copies of well-known classical pieces; and the bassreliefs, though not without merit, suggest an instinctive comparison with Thorwaldsen's Night" " and "Morning," which, of course, must always be to their disadvantage. But Endymion " is in the artist's best style, and will compare favorably with his group of "Latona and her Children," or any of his most celebrated works. The sleeping youth is stretched out upon a sheepskin, spread upon a flowery bank, and the perfect rest of the figure is its main characteristic. The shepherd's pipe dropping from the relaxed fingers, the lips slightly parted, the hair falling negligently downward, all add their part, without being overstrained or too strongly marked, to the idea of complete restfulness conveyed by the whole. And, as is nearly always the case with Rinehart's human forms, the figure is extremely graceful, and the general effect is beautiful and attractive in a high degree. This last production of the dead American sculptor will probably be exhibited, during