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PETERSON'S MAGAZINE,

HE February number of Peterson's Magazine, which has enrolled itself among the low-priced monthlies, is a handsomely printed and well-illustrated journal. This number contains a character sketch of Sibyl Sanderson, who is just making her American début at the Metropolitan Opera House. Like several other great singers, Miss Sanderson is an American girl-born in California-who achieved her artistic success in grand opera in Paris and London, and has returned to present herself to her countrymen as a full-blown and famous prima donna.

There are particularly interesting pictures in the pleasant travel sketch which describes a journey through Holland by a steam tram. The writer says this is the real way to see and enjoy Holland—that is, via steam tram. They are simply old-fashioned large street cars, drawn by steam dummies "The trams travel just fast enough to prevent the ride from becoming wearisome, as it would in a carriage, and is slow enough to allow that intimacy with the country to spring up which can never develop in steam cars."

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LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE.

E have quoted elsewhere from the article called "The Fate of the Farmer," by F. P. Powers, in the February Lippincott's.

David B. Fitzgerald discusses, as is appropriate in the magazine which makes its home in Philadelphia, the diamond back terrapin, and gives some quotable facts about the industry of farming these highly appreciated turtles. The terrapin farms are situated along the shores of the Chesapeake, and are covered with water, from the surface of which tufts of marsh grass and sandy knolls here and there arise. They are one or two acres in extent and are completely inclosed by tight fences, formed by driving boards eighteen feet long into the mud to a depth of five or six feet. The tide keeps the water on the farm constantly renewed. The female makes two nests in the course of a season, and lays a dozen eggs in each. If the weather is favorable, the young terrapin, three-fourths of an inch long, leave their shells in seven or eight days, and plunge immediately into the water. The mature terrapin are divided into three classes, according as length varies between five and seven inches. Unusually large ones bring about $80 a dozen, but $60 is a fair price for good specimens. The gastronomic, expert drops the living terrapin into a pot of boiling water, though people who have less sensitive palates, or more tender consciences, decapitate them first. People who know say that when dished up in the style called "Maryland," there is nothing within the range of gastronomic possibilities that can compare with it.

Mr. William C. Elam, writing on "Lingo in Literature," makes a good deal of fun of the so-called dialect writers,

who have worked the mine of negro talk so thoroughly within the past two decades. He goes Mr. Howard Cabot Lodge one point better in citing Shakespeare to justify many of the most common negro phrases, and while he condemns the rather ignorant handling of the darky speech by the more callow of the story writers, he is enthusiastic in his appreciation of its characteristic American quality. Yet, says he, all its tediousness need not be bestowed upon us, like Dogberry's upon Leonato.

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THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

HE opening article of the February number is a well-illustrated account, by Lance Corporal Seyley, of the daily routine life of "Tommy Atkins." Garrett P. Serviss tells "What We Know About the Planets." Professor Trowbridge, of Harvard, writes on "The World's Debt to Electricity." Professor Moulton, of the University of Chicago, contributes another of his valuable literary studies, his topic this month being Kingsley's "Westward Ho !" Dr. Addison P. Foster furnishes a bright sketch of "Journalism in the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches."

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.

HE February Atlantic contains two articles of more

Asia," by Mr. James M. Hubbard, and "The Present Status of Civil Service Reform," by Theodore Roosevelt, which we have quoted from among the Leading Articles of the Month.

M. V. O'Shea, writing on "Physical Training in Public Schools," assumes the fact of the necessity of some sort of artificial exercises for school children. He discusses the various methods of exercises, German, Swedish, Delsarte, which claim to be the best, and their special applicability to the school needs. The writer inclines to the Delsarte system, which seeks rather to develop freedom, grace and poise, than to strengthen special muscles, believing that health and sufficient strength will necessarily follow a harmonious exercise.

says:

Boris Sidis has an interesting paper called "A Study of the Mob." He finds the secret of mob power and mob organization in hypnotization. The specific mode of mesmerizing is that accomplished by monotony. He "Wherever we find uniformity of life, there we invariably meet with mobs; wherever the environment is montonous, there men are trained, by their very mode of life, to be good subjects for social hypnotization, and not only are they thus prepared for hypnotization, but they are frequently hypnotized by the monotonous environment itself. They require only a hero to obey and thus to become a mob."

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THE NEW SCIENCE REVIEW.

LSEWHERE we have quoted extensively from the article by Charles Morris on Asiatic railroads. The current number of the New Science also contains a posthumous essay by Major-General Sir John Cowell on "The Union of Astronomy and Geology," a discussion of the dangers of examinations by Major-General Drayson, F.R.A.S., "The Amateur in Science," by Grant Allen, "The World's Cables," by Major Moses P. Handy, and several other papers of a popular scientific character, together with interesting notes of progress, book notices, etc.

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THE FORUM.

HE comments of the editor of the Railway Age on the Strike Commission's report, Mr. Schouler's discussion of the dangers in our method of electing Presidents, the answer given by David A. Wells to the question "Is the Income Tax Unconstitutional ?" and Mr. W. R. Eastman's article on traveling libraries are reviewed in another department.

Prof. Albert Bushnell Hart, of Harvard, contributes a thoughtful paper on the apparent shifting of our moral standards, made evident especially in current views as to the impossibility of obtaining good laws and the consequent justification of law-breaking. "The reign of law, the régime of ballots instead of bullets, is the triumph of the organized many over the powerful few; to teach the nation that there is any better way of reaching its ends than by discussion and legislation is to give up, and to go back to the law of might' of the Middle Ages."

In the fifth of his series of "Studies of the Great Victorian Writers," Frederic Harrison makes an effective plea for a more discriminating Dickens cult. "The young and the uncritical make too much of Charles Dickens when they fail to distinguish between his best and his worst. Their fastidious seniors make too little of him when they note his many shortcomings and fail to see that in certain elements of humor he has no equal and no rival. If we mean Charles Dickens to live we must fix our eye on these supreme gifts alone."

Mr. Alvan F. Sanborn presents a careful study in "The Anatomy of a Tenement Street." If the standard of living of the street is to be raised he would not have it lose all the human qualities it now has, along with the low standard. "The stupid, comfortable, self-satisfied, unsocial respectability of the city middle classes is not a result to make large sacrifices for."

Capt. Henry King, of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, gives some interesting information about the pay of American journalists, and concludes that the situation is more hopeful than is commonly supposed. "There are not so many Journalists as there are lawyers and physicians with incomes of $10,000 and more per year; but there is a larger proportion of journalists than of either lawyers or physicians with incomes ranging from $2,000 to $3,000 per year. Only a small percentage of journalists work for salaries as low as $500 per year; but there are thousands of ministers who have to be content with that meagre stipend. The average pay of teachers is only $800 per year, or little more than half as much as that of journalists employed on daily newspapers."

In an article on "Motherhood and Citizenship" Mrs. Spencer Trask takes this position :

"As long as men are unjust to women, carelessly selfish and cruel, as they too often are, woman is sending forth proofs to the world of her own incapacity and failure. And she has no right to ask,-nay, by her revealed lack of a sense of justice, she forfeits her right to ask,to be made ruler over more things until she has been faithful to those already committed to her charge."

President Charles F. Thwing, in considering "The Increasing Cost of Collegiate Education," suggests that if the tuition fee could be increased to $500 it would simply represent what the education costs, and many men in college would be able and willing to pay it, while the college would then be able to educate men who are not able to pay such a fee at a very small cost.

OTHER ARTICLES.

Mr. Louis A. Garnett adduces arguments to show that the value of gold has not appreciated. Mr. John Trevor,

founder of the so-called Labor Church, in England, outlines the purposes of his organization. Prof. Paul Shorey, of the University of Chicago, vigorously attacks the proposition to teach ancient Greek through the modern tongue. Major Powell discusses the problem of Indian education.

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THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

N our department of "Leading Articles of the Month" will be found quotations from "The Young Czar and His Advisers," by the Hon. Charles Emory Smith, "The Future of Gold," by the Director of the Mint, and "Our Trade with China," by Worthington C. Ford.

Albert D.Vandam begins in the January number a series of articles dealing with the personal history of the Second Empire in France; the first paper describes the influence of "the Napoleonic legend," and its method is anecdotal and quite informal. The series promises much as a contribution to our knowledge of nineteenth century French history.

Dr. Cyrus Edson utters a vigorous protest against the practice of "nagging" between husband and wife, the results of which he describes in certain of their scientific aspects. The children, Dr. Edson says, are the greatest sufferers from the nagging evil.

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"What remedy is there? I say regretfully, there is none whatever except public opinion. Those who suffer, if they be adults, shrink from facing their misery, and if they are children, they know of no appeal. There is, however, a duty which should be regarded as sacred. there are children, and if the wife or husband be a nagger, then the other should do something to protect the little ones. He or she who refuses is as guilty toward them as is their torturer. I may say more guilty, because she or he knows from personal experience what the torture is. The little ones can have no other friend; no one else knows; no one else can interfere."

Commenting on "What Paul Bourget thinks of us," our own "Mark Twain" makes a few sage generalizations for the benefit of our foreign visitors:

"The observer of peoples has to be a classifier, a grouper, a deducer, a generalizer, a pyschologizer; and first and last, a thinker. He has to be all these, and when he is at home, observing his own folk, he is often able to prove competency. But history has shown that when he is a. ad observing unfamiliar peoples, the chances are heavily against him. He is then a naturalist observing a bug; with no more than a naturalist's chance of being able to tell the bug anything new about itself, and no more than a naturalist's chance of being able to teach it any new ways which it will prefer to its own."

OTHER ARTICLES.

Ex-Governor Lewelling, of Kansas, writes on "Problems Before the Western Farmer," giving expression to the current Populist explanations of the industrial depression. Lieut.-Col. William Ludlow compares the military systems of Europe and America. Edward Kemble, president of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, replies to an article on our navigation laws by Mr. Charles H. Cramp in a recent number of the Review; Mr. Kemble urges the immediate repeal of the present restrictions, and opposes subsidies. The Earl of Winchelsea and Nottingham discusses the new "death duties," or inheritance taxes, imposed by the British government, treating the subject from the point of view of the Opposition. ExSpeaker Reed discourses on "Historic Political Upheavals."

THE ARENA. LSEWHERE will be found a review of the Rev. F. M. Goodchild's description of the Philadelphia sweat-shops.

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The Rev. W. H. Savage writes appreciatively of the religion in Longfellow's poetry. Virchand R. Gandhi returns to his examination of the claims of Christian missions in India, and makes many severe criticisms on the methods of missionaries in that country. Helen H. Gardener, in "Japan: Our Little Neighbor in the East," points out some of the traits which entitle that nation to be regarded as a civilized power.

In the form of a letter from a professor of political science to a student seeking light on politics as a career, Mr. W. D. McCrackan sets forth certain needed reforms in our political machinery, among which Mr. McCrackan gives first place, of course, to direct legislation and proportional representation. James G. Clark discusses "The Coming Industrial Order "-socialism. The editor of the magazine, Mr. B. O. Flower, contributes a study of "The Century of Sir Thomas More," in which the spirit of the Reformation is analyzed. A valuable bibliographical article on Charity, Old and New," forms the last of the special features of the number, which are supplemented by the regular department, "Books of the Day."

THE UNIVERSITY QUARTERLIES.

'HE current numbers of the Political Science Quar

Journal of Political Economy, issued by the department of economics in the University of Chicago, are typical of the excellence maintained by these periodicals both in the quality of the contributed articles and in the general ability of editorial management. The former review has articles by Professor Taussig, of Harvard, on the new tariff, by Prof. E. R. A. Seligman on the income tax, by Prof. R. Mayo-Smith on the assimilation of nationalities, and by Prof. S. B. Weeks on negro suffrage; Dr. Maurice Vauthier, of the University of Brussels, presents a very elaborate discussion of the new Belgian constitution. The Chicago periodical has discussions of state railways in Australia, the nature of sociology, the customs-revenue system, and state-aided railroads in Missouri; Prof. J. Lawrence Laughlin gives an exposition of the Baltimore plan of bank issues. Of the two quarterlies, the Political Science is the stronger in its department of book reviews, perhaps; the Chicago Journal confines itself strictly to the field of economics, and especially to the treatment of American problems.

The Harvard Quarterly Journal of Economics appears very late in January. Böhm-Bawerk, the Austrian economist, begins a series of articles on "The Positive Theory of Capital and its Critics." Prof. S. M. Macvane writes on the duties which professional economists owe to the general public. W. Warde Fowler contributes an interesting "Study of a Typical Mediæval Village." Some valuable information about Glasgow and its municipal industries is furnished by Prof. William Smart. The minor articles, notes and memoranda are of the usual special character. The Quarterly Journal does not publish formal book reviews.

Annals of the American Academy.

The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science is not strictly a university publication, nor is it a quarterly; still, its character is such that it natu

rally falls in the same group with the periodicals just mentioned. It appears every other month throughout the year, and is published at Philadelphia, the headquarters of the Academy; the editors are all connected with the University of Pennsylvania. In another department we have reviewed Mr. Edward Porritt's account of the break up of the English party system, and "How to Save Bimetallism" by the Duc de Noailles; in the same (January) number Professor Patten discusses "Economics in Elementary Schools;" "Money and Bank Credits in the United States" is the subject of an article, which we also quote among our "Leading Articles," by Mr. Henry W. Williams, of Baltimore. The Annals makes an important feature of its book department.

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THEOLOGICAL REVIEWS.

HE religious quarterlies begin the year with their usual formidable array of solid articles. Subjects in the department of Biblical study and church history seem to take an increasingly prominent place in the tables of contents, while purely speculative theology occupies relatively less space in these periodicals than formerly. The Presbyterian and Reformed Review contains articles on such topics as "The Origin and Composition of Genesis" (Prof. Edwin Cone Bissell), "The History of Clement" (Ernest C. Richardson), "The Earliest Quotation of the New Testament as Scripture" (Dunlop Moore), "Dr. McCosh and Dr. Shedd" (Benjamin B. Warfield), and critical notes on recent theological literature.

The Presbyterian Quarterly, representing the Southern branch of that denomination, has discussions by Dr. Robert L. Dabney, Dr. Warfield, Dr. Hoge, and other eminent Presbyterian authorities.

The Lutheran Quarterly, published at Gettysburg, Pa., is read by the clergy of one of the largest Protestant denominations in the country; it is edited in a thoroughly catholic spirit, and the contributed articles have far more than a sectarian interest.

The Methodist Review (bi-monthly), in its January number, présents a group of especially able articles. Prof. Borden P. Bowne discusses "Natural and Supernatural ;" "John Ruskin: a Study in Love and Religion " is the subject of an interesting paper by the Rev. John Telford, of England; Prof. John Poucher treats of "The Humane Spirit in Hebrew Legislation." The various editorial departments are well sustained.

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THE MAGAZINE OF TRAVEL.

N January 15, 1895, there appeared a new candidate in the field of monthly journals-the Magazine of Travel. Mr. E. H. Talbott, who is responsible for this latest arrival, was the founder and owner of the successful Railway Age, and should, therefore, be looked on as an auspicious father of this tourist periodical. The Magazine of Travel will aim to tell the significant results of the great transportation enterprises all over the world, to picture and describe the natural beauties of the favored resort localities, and to aid people in making the journeys of recreation. The first number contains an article by Chauncey M. Depew, comparing American and foreign travel. Theodore Roosevelt tells about hunting in the West, and Dr. Edwin Fowler, under the title "The New Education," shows the possibilities of historical and geographical study in pilgrimages and jaunts.

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Mr. W. L. Alden, encouraged by the recent articles which have appeared in the press on Crispi, joins in the chorus of eulogy. This is his estimate of the Italian Premier : "If keenness and broadness of intellect, knowledge of men and affairs, fearlessness and incorruptibility, patriotism that is a passion, fidelity to friends that never wavers and disdain of enemies so complete that vengeance offers no temptation-if these things make a great man, there have been few greater men than Francesco Crispi, the conspirator, the soldier, the statesman, the patriot, the last of the heroes who made Italy."

THE PAINTINGS OF POMPEII.

Mr. H. A. Kennedy writes an interesting article upon the paintings of Pompeii, confining himself principally to the recently uncovered frescoes in the room of Queen Margaret at Pompeii: "With the paintings of the room of Queen Margaret before us, there can be no doubt that GræcoRoman decorative painters were colorists of the first order; that, having great personal skill, and an admirably systematized color scheme, they were capable of producing work that was at once brilliant and delicate, and that, in the matter of color, has never been excelled in the whole history of art." He laments that these vivid and beautiful paintings which have survived earthquake and the ashes of the burning mountain, are perishing now almost unnoticed from sheer neglect.

CONFESSION AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Canon Teignmouth Shore has a very elaborate article, full of quotations from authorities, intended to elucidate the question: "Is the inculcation of the practice of auricular confession in harmony with the letter and the spirit of the authorized teaching of the Church of England?" The Canon maintains that no one with an unprejudiced mind can read the Prayer Book, the Homilies, the Articles and the Canons in connection with the statements of those who compiled them, without coming to the conclusion that: "The Church does not enforce in any case what is technically known as auricular confession; she does not even recommend it; indeed the abandonment of all those instructions regarding it which were contained in the earlier Service Books, and the introduction instead of the primitive practice of general public confession and absolution, is a discouragement of it which amounts to practical prohibition.”

THE RESULT OF THE VICTORY OF JAPAN.

Prof. Robert K. Douglas in an article on "The Triumph of Japan," thus sums up his opinion as to the probable results of the Japanese victories: "The Sick Man of the East will be obliged to march on the lines of civilization and improvement, and the present torpid empire, with its industrious population and internal wealth, will begin a new page of Eastern history. Large indemnities will also, doubtless, have to be paid, but above all, the reorganization of Corea must be left in the hands of Japan. Even judged by an Oriental standard, the government of that country cannot escape from the charge of supporting a system which is at once corrupt and oppressive, and in the interests of humanity a strong reforming hand is required to crush out its iniquities. Political considerations preclude the possibility of any European power accepting the office of reformer."

THE POSITION OF MUSSULMAN WOMEN.

Miss Lucy M. J. Garnett writes enthusiastically concerning the liberties and privileges enjoyed by women in Mussulman lands, or at least in Turkey, with which she seems to be most familiar. Her article is intended to refute "three erroneous assumptions: First, that the religious position of Moslem women is not inferior to that of Moslem men; secondly, that not only the legal rights of women in Islamiyeh compare favorably with those of women in Christendom, but that, before the recent enactments in this country with regard to married women's property, the legal position of the Moslem woman was even superior to that of her Christian sisters in the West; thirdly, that the possession of such legal rights is utterly incompatible with the condition of 'degraded slavery' to which every Moslem woman is generally assumed to be condemned; and that, as a natural result of the possession of these rights, women under Islam enjoy, in many respects, an exceptional degree of personal independence. Yet, notwithstanding that Moslem women have so long enjoyed all these advantages, it is impossible to deny that they are, generally speaking, far behind the women of Christendom."

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THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.

HE most notable articles in the Contemporary Review are Mrs. Ireland's "Recollections of Mr. Froude " and Mr. Sidney Webb's article on "The Work of the London County Council," both of which are noticed elsewhere.

SHAKESPEARE AND PURITANISM.

Professor J. W. Hales has an article upon the relations which existed between Shakespeare and his Puritan townsfolk. Stratford-on-Avon, it seems, was the very hotbed of militant Puritanism at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Although the municipality punished! with fines the performance of plays and interludes the great dramatist showed no resentment, at least in his plays, which contain next to no reference to Puritanism. He entertained at least one itinerant Puritan preacher at his house, and regaled him with sack and claret. Professor Hales explains the relations between Shakespeare and Puritanism as follows: " Shakespeare took no part in the Puritan-baiting that became a favorite dramatic pastime. And this forbearance is to be accounted for not only by the general fairness and comprehensive sympathy of his nature-by his splendid incapacity to believe only ill of a large section of his fellow creatures and his fellow Englishmen-by his innate repugnance to mere abuse and vilification, but also by the fact, emphasized in the paper, that at Stratford he was brought into such close and intimate contact and acquaintance with so many specimens, public and private, of the Puritan breed. Shakespeare's own elder daughter was a Puritan, at least after her marriage, probably enough before, as Puritan preachers were rifé in the place."

CANON KNOX LITTLE ON DISESTABLISHMENT.

Canon Knox Little has a paper upon "The Moral Aspect of Disestablishment and Disendowment," the gist of which is that disestablishment does not matter much, but that disendowment would play the mischief with the Church: "Cripple the Church in her resources, you necessarily cripple her power of work. Will the teaching, the consolation, the religious education, the social and moral help she gives-will this be compensated for by a temporary lowering of the rates, or an improvement in the

mending of some roads—say, in Wales? Nothing is to be gained by a measure of such glaring and fatal injustice as disendowment would be, except the satisfaction of some feelings of envy and jealousy among a certain number of opponents. This is scarcely a motive for serious legislation which should move a great people; whilst disestablishment, if resolved upon, would be indeed a misfortune to the people but not an injustice-disendowment would be morally indefensible, as well as an act of wanton waste. It is to be hoped the English people, when once they fully face the question, will never permit so great a wrong."

RUSSIA AND ENGLAND.

Canon Malcolm MacColl rewrites, bringing up to date, a chapter in his book on the Eastern question which was published nearly twenty years ago. He pleads for an Anglo-Russian alliance, even if it should be necessary to purchase it by admitting the Russian fleet into the Mediterranean: "If British supremacy in the Mediterranean be essenti to our defense of India, then France is the foe to be feared, not Russia. If we play our cards well, a Russian fleet in the Mediterranean would be much more likely to be the friend than the antagonist of England. The friendship of Russia would be most valuable to us, for it is on our mutual antagonism that the adversaries of England, in Egypt and elsewhere, rely. And our friendship will be still more valuable to Russia. Let it go forth through the bazaars of the East that there is a friendly understanding between the two countries, and we should have no difficulties in India, nor Russia in Central Asia. Financially, too, such an understanding would be of inestimable value to Russia. While I am writing her statesmen are rejoicing at the ease with which they can borrow money since Lord Rosebery announced the rapprochement with England. We have for years past been so complaisant toward France that she apparently thinks that she may take any liberty with rs with impunity."

GOLDWIN SMITH ON CANADA.

In an article on the recent Colonial Conference Mr. Goldwin Smith repeats once more his reasons for disbelieving in the continuance of the Canadian Dominion, and winds up as follows: "The British public, if it wishes to form a safe judgment on this case, must bring itself to believe that an Englishman, heartily loyal to his country, prizing above all things her interest and her honor, as proud as any of her sons can be of her glories in war as well as in peace, and, above all, of her glories in the field of colonization, may, with all the facts daily before his eyes, be sincerely convinced that it will be a happy day for her when she bestows her blessing upon the reunion of her race in America, renews the bond of affection with the whole of it, and, in emancipating a dependency, shows herself indeed to be the mother of free nations."

THE NEW SECULARISM.

Under the title of "The New Secularism," Mr. Walter Walsh, of Newcastle, takes up his parable against the Labor Churches which are springing up in England under the wing of the Independent Labor party. He says that the new Labor Church is but the old Secularism writ large. Mr. Walsh sums up his indictment in the following extracts: "The three outward and visible signs of the historic continuity of the Churches are the ordinances, the Bible, and the historic Christ. But the Labor Church has no ordinances, not even the shadowy imitation of them practiced by Mrs. Humphry Ward's Elsmere brotherhood. It has no Bible; it culls its public readings from

all literature. It has no Christ; it desires to be distinctly dissociated from all that we connect with that name. Absolutely, it breaks with the past and appeals to men on the simple ground of modern life and modern necessities. Here is one of the chief characteristics of the old Secularism brought to perfection in the higher modern evolution. By its absolute silence the new religion of Socialism declares that the life that now is is sufficient, and that to live for this life is the whole duty of man. Beyond doubt this is to voice the sentiment of the entire new school of Secularism. In its eagerness to insist upon an adequate sustenance for the body it is ready to relinquish the hopes of the spirit and to deprive the bereaved mourner of the consolations of a hereafter."

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THE NEW REVIEW.

R. W. E. HENLEY, late of the National Observer, issues the first number of the New Review for the New Year. It is a very strong number, its weakest point being a very meagre article on the British Navy. The note of the new editor is visible enough throughout the magazine. It opens with a short story dealing with the eternal question of the relations of man and woman, and closes with another story entitled "The Time Machine," an ingenious attempt to describe what would happen if a machine were invented by which we could travel backward and forward in time.

WANTED, A NEW CHARLES II.

Mr. G. S. Street writes an ingenious and paradoxical article which is intended to express and to support the conviction that the third Stuart was the best king England has ever had—an ideal king if rightly apprehended. The chief reason why he longs for another Charles II is because the merry monarch was a kind of seventeenth century Oscar Wilde. He says: Courtesy, gayety and a love of beautiful things-these are virtues as well as chastity. They have been neglected in England, and a figurehead king (the modern English conception of a king) can do no better than enforce them. The effect of the reign of Charles II was to humanize manners, to make art appreciated and artists of all sorts honored; and this was due to the rare combination in himself of a genuine and natural love of art, of a perfect manner (the two are not always found together), and of an understanding and a sympathy which enabled him to win for his objects sympathy and understanding. No king of our days could diminish our political worth, and our morality is safe in the hands of its agreeable protectors. I would like to see in England such a king as Charles II."

THE ANGLO-RUSSIAN ENTENTE.

Mr. Frederick Greenwood once more raises a wail over England's neglect to strike up a fighting alliance with the Central European powers: "Seriously as it has been announced and debated as a new departure, the understanding between Russia and England' was never more perhaps, than an interchange of goodwill-the mutual expression of a desire, sincerely felt, to carry out the inevitable rivalry of the two nations in good faith and good temper. If it was more than that, every wise Englishman will prepare for disappointment."

THE OPENING OF THE DARDANELLES.

"Diplomatist" writing on the Armenian question, diverges from Armenia to discuss the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. He thinks that the present moment is opportune for raising the question which he admits the Sul

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