shows called executions, which attracted thousands, even as the gladiatorial combats in Rome attracted the plebeian mob, whose twin watch-cry with panem was circences. Everybody in those days smuggled or winked at smuggling, and the parson even did not hesitate to get his port and brandy in this fashion. Everybody was open to bribery, and the corruption of Parliament had reached a stage which would bring a blush of righteous shame to the cheeks of a New York alderman. Places and preferments were openly bought and sold, from bishoprics down to toll-gates, and there was a delightful frankness in the acknowledgment of easy morals, in strong contrast with the hypocrisy of the present age. According to law in those days men might still be drawn and quartered for certain offences, though the punishment was never inflicted. An atrocious murderer, indeed, cheated the gallows for more than a year early in the century by appealing to the law of the cartel, the challenge to fight as a test of innocence, which statute still remained intact, and had to be repealed by Parliament before the wretch could be sus per coll. Such an age, so full of picturesque contradiction and inconsistencies, is curious to review. England, in the agony of the Napoleonic wars, had to steal her army recruits by getting them drunk and slipping a shilling in their pockets, and to crib her sailors by the press. gang, using the cat freely to flog both into submission. Yet soldiers and sailors fought with a splendid heroism never surpassed in England's splendid record. Of these and many other things Mr. Ashton gossips in an agreeable strain, and makes of his gossip a most readable volume.

HALF HOURS WITH AMERICAN HISTORY. Selected and Arranged by CHARLES MORRIS, author of "A Manual of Classical Literature," etc. In Two Volumes. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company.

The plan of Mr. Morris's book is in many respects a peculiar one. He groups the brilliant episodes in American history, as described in our leading historians, without much logical order, but preserving, as far as possible, chronological succession. His aim has been not only to select the most striking episodes, but those most vivid in their literary presentation. For example, we have Irving's "Discovery of America by Columbus," Prescott's "Retreat of Cortes," Palfrey's "Landing of the Pilgrims," Parkman's "Champlain and the Iroquois," Bancroft's "Salem Witch

craft,' Cooper's "Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis,' McMaster's "Purchase of Louisiana," Comte de Paris's Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg," etc. Mr. Morris pre

faces each extract with a concise sketch of the events leading up to it, and, when necessary, with explanatory notes. In this way something like a connected though "jerky" history of the country is presented. It has the merit of avoiding all the tedious portions of history (and some of the most instructive and valuable parts of history are tedious to the average reader), and giving us the plums in the pudding. To those who primarily read history for amusement such a method will highly commend itself. Young readers, too, will find in such a work an excellent appetizer for the more serious forms of history. The first volume treats of colonial history, and the second is devoted to our history since the Declaration of Independence. The selections appear to be all that could be desired both in subject and literary taste, and prove how well Mr. Morris has accomplished his appointed task. To use the author's own words, "A work thus arranged may be compared to a landscape over whose dead levels the eye ranges with a rapid glance, while constrained to rest with attention upon its elevations or features of special attractiveness."

THE FIRE OF GOD'S ANGER; OR LIGHT FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT UPON THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING CONCERNING FUTURE PUNISHMENT. By L. C. BAKER, author of "Mystery of Creation and of Man; " editor of Words of Reconciliation. New York: Words of Reconciliation Office.

The burning question of future punishment (we do not mean to repeat a now ancient pun) has provoked religious controversy for many centuries. Like Banquo's ghost, it will not down at any Macbeth's bidding. Its most recent appearance in Congregationalism as a factor of dispute threatens to work some rupture unless the question can be settled by concession instead of debate. This new birth of an old issue gives some special interest to Mr. Baker's book. For many years a minister of the Presbyterian Church, he tries to find in the reasoning of his little work some basis for the cessation of controversy. The view he takes is prefigured in these words of his preface: "She [the Church] has interpreted the Scripture teaching concerning final judgment as relating to a remote assize to be held after a general resurrection of the dead; whereas Jesus was

careful to teach His disciples that He would enter on His office as judge of the world before that generation passed away." Again: "That which was meant to be a boon, the purchase of the ransom given for all, has been perverted into an untold curse to all who have died unsaved in this life-the prelude to an aggravated retribution and endless despair. This monstrous mistake concerning the purpose of God in raising the dead has vitiated the eschatology of the Church for fifteen centuries." Mr. Baker proceeds to search the Holy Scriptures, both Old and New, to find texts and author to sustain the conclusion which he sets up. He makes the true Scripture teaching about the punishment of sin to be that the death-state or sheol is essentially penal, deepened and prolonged according to the intensity of evil character, and that it makes resurrection a process of sorting and judgment as well as of deliverance. It presents a doctrine of retribution which, while raising a barrier against that crude universalism which came as a reaction against the old-time doctrine of hell, is consistent with the instincts of human nature, the laws of life, and, it is claimed, with the teaching of Scripture. It makes room, as Mr. Baker says, for the larger hope, which has made for itself a lasting place in the convictions of enlightened Christians. It provides that sinful men must serve out their death sentence and be restored to the life and state of manhood through resurrection before they can be amenable to the discipline of the Gospel, and capable of winning the prize of eternal life. Mr. Baker's views and arguments should arouse attention just at this juncture. He puts his logic with much force, and writes in a clear and convincing

fashion.

SONGS OF NEW SWEDEN AND OTHER POEMS.

By ARTHUR PETERSEN, U.S.N. Philadelphia: E. Stanley Hart & Co.

marked by any notable blunders of execution. In several of the Norse ballads which he sings, Mr. Petersen rises to something like poetic fire. This is specially shown in "Eric the Archer." The love poems which find a place in the collection are, we think, not of much value, though several of them are graceful and well turned.

FOREIGN LITERARY NOTES.

THE only English journal published in Austria-the Vienna Weekly News-has just celebrated the first anniversary of its birth.

THE Schiller-Stiftung received last year, from a private gentleman named Goldberk, a bequest in the shape of landed property. This has recently been sold, and, after deducting all the incidental expenses, there remains a balance of 90,000 marks (£4500).

MR. TH. MICHELL, British Consul at Christiania, who has lived long and travelled far in Russia, has just completed a fourth edition of his handbook for that country. He has almost rewritten the book in order to keep pace with the rapid changes in railroads and other means of communication, by which many more towns and places of interest have been brought within the reach of travellers.

IT has been decided to create in Paris, at the cost of the city, an “école d'apprentissage des industries du livre." The building destined to this service will be erected on the Boulevard d'Italie. The industry in question has always been one of the most flourishing crafts of the French capital, renowned of yore and in our own time for the illuminations, bindings, typography, and engravings it has produced.

SCHLEIERMACHER'S "Letters to the Counts of Dobra" will shortly appear under the editorship of Professor Jacobi, of Halle.

THE Russo-Austrian alliance of 1746 against Frederick the Great has been made the subject of a monograph by Dr. Karge, of the State Archives of Breslau. The book, which is

World. Himself of Swedish origin, as one gathers, his poetic rehearsal of some of the dramatic episodes which happened on the banks of the Delaware at an early day is creditable to his ancestral pride and, in a modest degree, to his poetic taste. The flow of the rhythm in most of these lucubrations is pleasant, and the author seems to have an ear for the music of verse. If the verses are not in any way brilliant and startling, they are not

and Russian documents.

sion to the two principal pieces in the work"In an Indian Temple" and "A Casket of Gems." The former of these two discourses upon the mysterious philosophy enshrined in the sacred Hindu word OM. The latter brings together, under a fanciful heading of eighteen letters, and in lyrical form, much recondite lore and many legends connected with precious stones. The volume also contains several minor poems, with translations from the Sanskrit of Kâlidâsa and of the Mahabharata. Messrs. Trübner & Co. will also publish at about the same time a reprint, with supplementary comments, of Mr. Edwin Arnold's "Death-and Afterward," a paper contributed to the Fortnightly Review in August, 1885.

AN International Literary Congress will be opened at Madrid on the 9th of October by the Queen of Spain. Literary men from all parts are expected to be present.

PRINCE NICOLAUS of Montenegro has bestowed upon the Servian poet Iovanovic the grand cross of the "Danilo Order," presenting him at the same time with a house and grounds. Iovanovic is a pronounced Panslavist.

THE foundation of a Hutten-Sickingen monument is to be laid at the Ebernburg am

Stein on April 21st of next year, being the

four hundredth anniversary of the birth of the former. The Ebernburg was the property of Sickingen, and Hutten, together with other Reformers, found there a refuge.

THE Historical Society of French Switzerland has held its fiftieth annual meeting. The Castle of Chillon was chosen as the place of assembly, with the view of forwarding the project long under discussion of furnishing the castle as a national historical museum.

MR. P. G. HAMERTON'S book for the coming winter season will be "The Saône a Summer Voyage," with 148 illustrations by Mr. Joseph Pennell. It was while boating and sketching on the Saône that the author and artist suffered arrest at the hands of gendarmes early in the present year.

IT has been arranged that the Ste. Geneviève, the Arsenal, and the Mazarine libraries at Paris shall be open to students all the year, with the exception of fifteen consecutive days. M. HALEVY the Orientalist member of the French Institute, has arrived at Constantinople for the purpose of inspecting the lately found Sidon inscriptions, which have been transferred to the Imperial Museum. The Sultan has

given £2000 from his privy purse for a new kiosk to house these antiquities. The Sultan, learning that the fine library of 4000 volumes presented by his father, the Sultan Abdul Mejid, to the city of Mecca, was in a neglected condition, has sent a large sum for binding and repairs.

GOETHE'S correspondence with the novelist and musical critic Friedrich Rochlitz, and Herder's correspondence with Nicolai, will be published shortly.

THE letters of Schiller to Dalberg have been presented to the University Library at Munich by Freiherr von Veningen-Ulster, a greatgrandson of the manager of the Mannheim Theatre.

It seems that the reports about Professor Mommsen's journeys abroad during the coming winter are unfounded. The professor will continue his work at Charlottenburg. Preparations are already being made for the celebration of his seventieth birthday on the 30th of November next.

CAVOUR'S diaries during the years 18351837 will be issued in the autumn at Rome by Signor Domenico Berti. The diaries relate to the author's travels in England, France, and Belgium, and are principally written in French.

M. PAUL MEYER has just completed his treatise on the fragments of a life of St. Thomas of Canterbury from an illustrated MS. of the middle of the thirteenth century, in the collection of the late M. Goethals Vercruysse at Courtray. The work will be shortly in Paris.

THE COLLEGE HALL, for the residence of Women Students of University College and of the London School of Medicine for Women, is once more extending its bounds. The Hall was first opened in 1, Byng Place, in October, 1882. In the following year the adjoining house was taken, and opened in January, 1884; and in March, 1886, the Hall was incorporated. Finding that there is still a constant demand for residence beyond what these two houses can supply, the Council have taken the third house, which completes the entire block known as Byng Place, and hope to be ready by October with rooms for additional students, an enlarged dining-hall, a library, and other im

provements.

THE Benedictines of Solesmes are about to publish an important contribution to the ecclesiastical and monastic history of the eleventh

66

MISCELLANY.

A TERRIBLE MOMENT WITH A TIGER.—Ân incident in the career of Sir Edward Bradford, the newly appointed Political Secretary at the India Office, deserves to be recorded as show

THE Canadian papers make an appeal for the restoration of the grave of Major Thomas Scott (brother of the great novelist) in St. Matthew's Churchyard, Quebec. It was to Major Scott that Edinburgh society attributed the earlier Waverley Novels, an idea which Sir Walter himself was not unwilling to foster. He suggested to his brother that he should write a novel dealing with the incidents of Quebec society and the vicissitudes of Canadian life; nothing, however, came of the suggestion.

THE current number of the Deutsche Rundschau contains an interesting contribution to Heine literature. In 1846 the false rumor of Heine's death had spread, and his friend Heinrich Laube at once sent a highly appreciative obituary notice of the poet to the, then Augsburger, Allgemeine Zeitung. Fortunately a letter from Heine himself arrived at the same time with that notice, which was, of course, not printed. Dr. Gustav Karpeles, having discovered the extremely well-written notice, now gives it in extenso in the above-mentioned periodical.

but most modest of soldiers who ever drew sword. As a young officer, doing duty with a Madras cavalry regiment, Sir Edward was a keen sportsman. One day when tiger-shooting he "missed his mark" and soon found himself in a tiger's clutches. It was an anxious moment, few of his friends being at hand. As a sportsman of experience, Sir Edward knew well that his best course was to lie quietly and sham death. The tiger surveyed his prey, looked around, and, thinking all was safe, set steadily to work to make its meal. Taking the young officer's hand in his mouth it was steadily disposed of and the arm eaten to the elbow before Sir Edward's companions came up and released him. The cool resolution of the man in feigning death had been the means of saving what has since proved to be a most valuable life, for, as Sir Edward says when telling the story, had he moved, or uttered even a groan, the tiger would have put an end to his existence before going on with his repast. Of course the shattered arm had to be removed from the shoulder. It may be imagined what the suffering was which the victim endured while lying, quite conscious, in the power of a voracious man-eater.”—St. Stephens's Re

view.

THE VISCOSITY OF STEEL.-The influence of temperature on the viscosity of steel has recently been studied by Mr. C. Barns in America, with very interesting results. The apparatus employed by him enabled him to compare the twist given to two identical wires, one of which was kept hot and the other cold. The angular deviations were read off by Gauss' method, and special precautions were observed for deadening lateral vibrations, the wires being kept tense by a weight fixed in such a way as to leave the system free to expand. The heated wire was enclosed in a vapor bath containing steam, aniline, or mercury vapor, according to the temperature required. The wires employed were made of what is known as Stubbs' best steel, and were specially hardened and tempered electrically before being experimented with. The first experiment included an examination of the residual twist produced in glass hand rods, and from the results obtained the viscous detorsion produced

on a twisted system of such wires by increase of temperature is seen to increase gradually at a continuously diminishing rate, which is rapid at low temperatures, but gets slower as the temperature reaches points above 200°, and is completely annulled at 350°. These results are very analogous to the thermo-electrical phenomena observed in wires similarly treated. Torsional viscosity varies with the character and the amount of twist which the wire has re

ceived, and decreases with temperature, other things being equal, at much greater rates in hard than in soft steel. In fact, there is a very marked tendency observed in a steel wire annealed from hardness at any given temperature to undergo viscous deformation when exposed to the same temperature. Glass loses viscosity much more slowly than hard steel with increase of temperature. The results obtained by Mr. Barns are in accord with those which were obtained by Schroeder for temperatures below 100° with other metals, such as silver, platinum, iron, and German silver. Industries.

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF PLEASURE. - Our knowledge of the physiology of pleasure is limited, and this notwithstanding a very able and interesting treatise on the subject by Professor Mantegazza. The physiological conditions underlying that peculiar condition which we call pleasure are so variable, partaking sometimes of the purely physical, sometimes of the physical and cerebral, and at others so purely cerebral in its nature, that no real sensation can be said to exist. Our ignorance of the subject can cause no surprise, given the fact that pleasure is rather psychological than physiological, especially in its higher forms. Pleasures may be summarily divided into three groups of the senses, of sentiment, and of intelligence, and it is easier to analyze and classify than to discuss the functional-that is, the physiological aspect. The question has often been asked as to what constitutes the greatest pleasure, and who is the happiest man, but it is obviously one that does not admit of solution. The intensity of the pleasurable sensation is a matter of temperament and surroundings, but cæteris paribus, the happiest man is he who possesses the greatest sensibility, the most powerful imagination, the strongest will, and the least number of prejudices. The men are rare who can, by an effort of the will, arrest the oscillations of sorrow and allow only the cords of pleasure to vibrate. Pleasure is the mode of sensation, never the sensation itself, and it is not a paradox but an incontes

table physiological truth to say that no pleasure exists which is essentially or necessarily a pleasure. The ideal of perfection in humanity would be to efface pain from the list of sensations, and to give all men the maximum number of pleasures. All the rest, as the philosopher said, is but dream and vapor.-Medical Press.

FASHION V. SCIENCE AND HUMANITY.-From a very remote, we may even say a pre-historic, period, it has been the custom of human beings to provide themselves with garments at the expense of the lower creation. From a time almost if not quite as early, animals have been slain to furnish food for man. In our own day, also, both practices exist in operation side by side. While, however, the necessity for flesh as an article of diet is generally admitted, provided that it be used in moderation and combined with vegetable food, the need for taking the life of animals in order to clothe the body, it must be allowed, has been to a great extent obviated by the progress of textile industry, which gives us as woollen fabrics most of what we require for daily wear without depriving a living creature of one drop of blood. Fancy, taste, luxury, utility-one or all of these-it is true, still order the destruction of countless fur-bearing and feathered beings of a lower grade than ourselves; and we are not prepared to say that, in obeying the mandate, at all events, of the last-named authority, man exceeds the privilege of his lordly position. When, however, we find him, at the bidding of a mere fashion, persecuting the life of some harmless and to him otherwise useless race of animals, and this even to the extent of extermination, we blush for the cruel heart of our so-called civilization. When, for instance, little birds, whose only fault is their beauty, are sacrificed by thousands in a year, in order that their feathers or their bodies should adorn the "softer sex" of our species in hours of enjoyment, we are bound in creature kindness to those helpless members of the world's great family to condemn the barbaric fancy which is so heedless in its self-esteem. Artificial substitutes can be found for ornaments of this kind, and the counterfeit is not by any means a despicable imitation. The desire for their more general adoption is not, we are sure, limited to ourselves, nor is the hope that other Governments will copy the recent practice of our own by restricting the indiscriminate slaughter which has already lost to the world not a few interesting and beautiful forms of animal life.-Lancet.