Many a mystery is clear, after science has explained it, and often numerous and various phenomena are traced to a common and unexpected cause by patient investigators. In illustration is the recent explanation by Dr. George M. Gould, a famous oculist, of a long list of what are termed "the vagaries of genius." Wagner, Nietzsche, Carlyle, DeQuincy, Turner, Tschaikowski and a host of similar celebrities are quoted as afflicted with a wide range of physical afflictions, but according to Dr. Gould they are all traceable to eye troubles. The peculiarities of Turner's pictures, the pain which drove DeQuincy to opium, Carlyle's indigestion and all the rest came from their visual organs. The Doctor's general theory is that eye-strain taxes the brain in sensitive and emotional natures, while a stronger mental constitution deflects eye-strain consequences to the digestive apparatus. Thus Carlyle and Huxley were dyspeptics, while from the same cause Robert Browning, Wagner and others were afflicted with headaches. A study of the portraits of a long list of eminent men, including those mentioned, gives Dr. Gould warrant for finding in the traces of eye-strain, which the artists have unconsciously preserved, clear evidence

that it was "all in your eye!" and that modern spectacles would have saved all of them much suffering and given the world more harmonious and level-headed results of their life work. Get thee to an oculist then, at once, if you would escape the conjunction of troubles told by the poet who said, "Great wit to madness nearly is allied."

Department statistics from Washington reveal the fact that in the fiscal year ending in June last this country exported to the Canadian Dominion an aggregate of $166,000,000 of goods, this being sixty-two per cent. of the total imports into the Dominion, while it was but eleven per cent. of the total foreign exports of this country. Besides this great export trade the report states that twenty-five thousand settlers went from this country to the Dominion, taking with them $10,000,000 of goods-household stuff, etc. In view of this large contribution of United States manufactures and products, it seems difficult at first glance to understand the prevailing dislike of our Canadian neighbors to the idea of reciprocity with this country. We are giving them eighty-one per cent. of their iron and steel and their products,-machinery, etc., nearly all their cotton and the bulk of the better grades of textile fabrics. Canadian lumber, wood pulp, coal and hides, which are the slogan of Massachusetts advocates of reci

procity, would seem to be hardly an equivalent for our exports. Reciprocity would seem to be desirable for our neighbors, but as yet no statesman and no influential newspaper there has become conspicuous in its advocacy.

The strenuous life in journalism really seems to be over stimulated. The recent revelations of the methods used by reporters for "Town Topics" in securing "society" news in New York are simply scandalous. Other recent revelations of the achievements of "star reporters" in sneaking into unguarded places within earshot of jury rooms, by which the consultations there are spread before the public, are equally discreditable, and unworthy of respectable journalism. These "scoops" and "beats" pernicious examples to set before young reporter. No man is fit to be trusted in journalism who is willing to sacrifice his own honor or self-respect, and a manager who requires or invites this is cultivating in his staff a standard of rank which will sooner or later bring him trouble. A "smart" reporter will soon learn to impose upon his employer, if he is taught that honor and self-respect are out of place in "the office."

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Dr. Osler's dictum on the uselessness of old age has been generally discredited, but its ultimate quietus is heralded in the announcement from Paris that Professor Elie Metchnikoff of the Pasteur Institute has demonstrated that old age is abnormal and consequent only on the pernicious activity of a group of microbes inhabiting the digestive apparatus. really a chronic malady. It only remains Thus old age is for some other professor to introduce a potent anti-toxin, or a combative microbe which will destroy the o. a. m. without injury to the human victim. Then shall

a young man die a thousand years old.

The "advance press agent" of the religious revival which has been so confidently predicted, wires from Chicago that it will carry the whole United States in its enthusiasm, and will result in the conversion of over five million people. The basis for his enumeration does not appear, but it will not seem exaggerated if the movement can reach and "convert" the large class of church members who at best are hardly more than creedal Christians. Dr. Dawson's work is especially in this line, and he is wise in "beginning at the house of God." Another forecaster who has not yet counted up results is confident that the movement is to be a "revival of religion" rather than a "religious revival." The distinction is not without point, and if the forecast is true the work can well be carried forward within the church as well as outside. In fact the best results to the community at large may be expected just in proportion to the awakening and reformation of those already in the church. Such a change would be a most emphatic attraction to the unchurched.

New York City has a Society for Ethical Culture, which is supposed to consider all aspects of human duty. Recently it heard a Mrs. Gilman, who urged that women should not aspire to motherhood-any bird or beast or fish can do that-but should emancipate themselves from their "state of bondage" and become "real human beings, not mere females." She appealed to doctors and school teachers to confirm her idea that "mothers do not take the best care of children." No doubt some women fail of their duty in the care of children, but it is largely the women who follow the speaker's notions of emancipation into society and club life. Old-fashioned motherhood with its duties and its blessings is, however, not to go out of fashion. Nature will have revenge on those who oppose her, and mental and physical sterility will curse those who conspire to thwart her purposes.

Cleveland, Ohio, is a representative American city, and its system of public instruction may be accepted as quite up to the average. Its school authorities have, however, been led to inquire whether the schools are producing the best practical results. Inquiry among the teachers proved that they had too little time for good work in the three basic branches of instruction. Out of 1,312 teachers only three reported satisfactory results in reading in grades five to eight inclusive. Writing was reported as not quite so bad. The committee selected representative eighth

grade classes and gave out a memorandum of purchases of common articles, and the pupils were required to make out a receipted bill. It was thought an easy task for fifth grade pupils, but these eighthgrades averaged to misspell over twentyfive per cent. of the words, thirty-three per cent, failed to use the debtor's name, only eleven per cent. receipted the bill, and only thirty-three per cent. figured the bill correctly. This was so unsatisfactory that a simpler slip was prepared for about two hundred representative eighth grade pupils, covering the four simple rules in arithmetic, and percentage. Over one-half failed in addition, twenty-two failed in subtrac tion, only twenty-two were correct in mul-tiplication and eighty-six failed in division?, while over one-third failed in percentage. In a spelling test of fifty common words one hundred and forty-four pupils turned in papers, and only one was perfect, while in the worst only one-quarter of the words were correct. The errors averaged thirteen to a competitor. The teachers attribute this poor showing to the excessive time spent in drawing and in physical culture, and to undue preparation for holiday exercises and public exhibitions. It would be interesting to review the result of similar examinations in the public schools of New England. It is certainly true that even the average high school graduate is not well fitted for even ordinary clerkship positions.

It was about a century ago that the town and the church were made separate and independent institutions in New England. Later the typical New England church, the Congregational, experienced another segmentation, and its purely secular affairs were delivered over to "the society." Another change has just been inaugurated in a Congregational church in Somerville, Massachusetts, by which the society is eliminated and the church is all, but with

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"limited" membership to which are eligible all persons of good moral character, but who do not profess to have had the personal religious experience requisite to full church membership. These secular members have equal privileges in all secular affairs, but in the election of officers there must be a majority vote of those persons who are in full membership. This plan does away with the dual legal existence of church and society, and it also makes all church members equal in secular administration, whereas heretofore they had no voice unless they were also members of the society. The innovation is attracting no little attention, as it proposes the abandonment of a time-honored New England institution.

It is most creditable to the ability of the financial department of the Japanese government, and to the patriotism of the Japanese people, that an enormous loan called for by expenditures in the recent war has all been taken up at home, "outside barbarians" not being called upon to contribute. The country seems to be able not only to pay its way under the stress of abnormal expenditure, but to indulge in generosity in the shape of a bonus or gift of seventy-five million dollars to the soldiers and sailors who helped to win the victory. That this flattering financial condition appears when three of the northern provinces of Japan are in a state of famine, so that a quarter of a million people, a third of the whole population of the famine district, are in extreme distress and dependent upon outside aid, is even more creditable. The condition is in striking contrast with the finances of Russia, which show a deficit of two hundred and forty millions, and ability to borrow abroad fifty millions only at a six per cent, interest rate.

Another instance of progress toward the enlightenment of Japan is seen in the announcement by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions that forty-five of the Japanese Congregational churches heretofore receiving aid from the Board became self-supporting January Ist. This will make an aggregate of ninety-nine such churches organized by the Board, with about twelve thousand members, which are now self-supporting The additions last and self-governing. year exceeded one thousand. If it is beginnings that count, certainly the outlook for freedom and intelligence in religious matters is promising among the "little brown people."

Governor Guild of Massachusetts has emerged from the modest chrysalis of simple and unostentatious dignity which has heretofore enswathed the chief magistrate of the state into a brilliant butterfly state,

with gorgeous "receptions" and "state dinners" to his admiring fellow citizens. State officials were called to the first of these executive functions, and members of the government boards of all the cities and towns in the state were bidden to the second, while at the third newspaper editors were bidden. Officers of the state militia in full array served as ushers, and the affairs were quite suggestive of a "court" function. As "commander-in-chief of the army and navy, and of all military

forces of the state by sea and land" the Governor has considerable warrant for official display, but his predecessors have not made conspicuous observance of their high privileges in this direction. But "the world do move!"

"There is too much dawdling over books and too little education" is the conclusion of the Lynn, Massachusetts, superintendent of schools, in his recent annual report He believes that a full half of school time is wasted in iteration and non-essentials, and advocates "motor activity" as the basis of a better system. By this he means a return to the hoe, the rake, the axe, etc., for the boys, and crossing, bed making, sewing and general domestic work for the girls, and he emphasizes the fact that these can best be taught at home. He has discovered that in modern schooling booklearning is overdone, and that a return to the old time rural training will be more conducive to all-round development and an improved mental and physical stamina. He points out how city environment need be no bar to this system of education, for every home has in and about it opportunity for the "motor activity" he desires. Even a college education, which leaves its victim without knowledge how to drive a nail properly or to recognize an oak tree at sight, certainly offers opportunity for improvement.

A striking illustration of "race suicide" comes from a recent comparison of European statistics, from which it appears that while in 1850 the populations of Germany and France were practically equal in numbers, about thirty-five millions each, to-day France has gained but three millions while Germany has gained twentyone millions, the gain being 5.7 per cent. and 41.6 per cent respectively. Such a divergent record means inuch in any consideration of the military strength of the two nations, and unless there is an almost impossible change the supremacy of Germany will not be in question.

Theodore Roosevelt with his many busy cares, has lost none of his vigorous powers as a writer, as is evidenced by his new book "Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter," published by Charles Scribner's Sons. This latest book will interest not only the sportsman but the general reader as well. President Roosevelt is an able writer and his stories are always vastly interesting.

LETTERS AND ADDRESSES OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. Edited by William B. Parker and Jonas Viles.

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The compilers of this little volume have selected from the great mass of Jefferson's writings an interesting and illustrative group of sentiments and opinions, which will be read with eagerness by the many who will never see the bulky volumes containing "the whole." A most interesting feature is the misconceptions which the great statesman held on various questions. Thus, in writing on current conditions, 1785, he sees time when agricultural productions will "become too great for the demand, both internal and foreign," and he thinks the people will be forced into either maritime or manufacturing occupations. He prefers the former, for "I consider the class of artificers as the panders of vice, and the instruments by which the liberties of a country are generally overturned." He would hardly write that if living now. Again, in writing of anarchy, and Shays' rebellion, he says the motives were "founded in ignorance, not in wickedness. God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion." His point of view was limited, and such expressions as these are only amusing to-day. (The Unit Book Publishing Co., New York. 56 cents net.)

SCIENCE AND A FUTURE LIFE. By James H. Hyslop.

This book of course ignores biblical revelation in its discussion, and gropes mostly among the records of the Society for Psychical Research for its material. It is very largely an attempt to digest this mass of incongruous material, and to present all that is tangible and conclusive. The result is not reassuring for those who hope for a hereafter. By far the greater part of the experiments recorded and analyzed are either inconclusive or are properly referred to unexplained influences which do not compel belief in a future life. Even this writer, who has made a far more exhaustive stu 'y of his subject than he can expect from his readers, finds no conclusive evidence for or against the theory of personality beyond the grave. The scope of his research

does not include the same field as is covered by Professor Thompson Jay Hudson's "Scientific Demonstration of a Future Life," but we believe that for the ordinary reader who desires helpful proof of his own future existence the latter will prove more satisfactory. (Herbert B. Turner & Co., Boston.)

THE WEIGHT OF THE CROWN. By F. M. White.

Mr. White has already won favor by his preceding books, his "Crimson Blind" having been especially successful. In his

latest venture just ready for issue, he has produced a most interesting story involving a startling episode in European politics, in which plot and counterplot, diplomatic intrigue and amateur detective work, the hazardous expedient of two well-bred English girls, their love affairs and various other thrilling material are cleverly woven into a plot which reads as though it was really true. Almost every page has its own thrilling incident and the plot involves itself in unexpected ways, until the reader wonders whether the good people of the story are really to come out safely at the end, but the expected happens, and three marriages are due in the next but unwritten chapter. (R. F. Fenno & Company, New York. $1.50.)

THE LITTLE KINGDOM OF HOME. By Margaret E. Sangster.

"On the integrity of the family and the conservation of the home depend the stability of our republic," says the author in the foreword of this volume. She argues and illustrates this familiar declaration through all the incidents and experiences of domestic life, with earnestness, interest and emphasis. The beginning of the home, relations-in-law, boarding versus housekeeping, the division of income, the care and rearing of children, the place of the unmarried, broken homes, and how the home is the training ground for all public, social and civic duties and responsibilities, are all analyzed and discussed candidly and wisely. It is a book worth a place on the "handy shelf" of every new home. (Fox, Duffield & Company, New York.)

EFFICIENCY AND RELIEF. By Edward T. Devine, Ph.D., LL.D.

This brief essay, an inaugural address in fact, deals with practical sociology. It recognizes as successive stages of human development the pioneer, the captain of industry and the spiritual leader, and to the latter is confided the highest task of man. His line of work is based on the establishment of an improved heredity, a protected childhood and personal liberty resulting from a growth of power. Each

of these problems assumes fresh aspects with every advance; to-day the practical issue is to increase the industrial efficiency of the individual, and to relieve those who have not the wage-earning capacity for comfortable livelihood. These are the fields in which the social economist is working, but all his organized agencies and departments have as yet but occupied the frontier of the field. To come into vibrant sympathy with human needs, to secure an understanding of fundamental social institutions are the prime present necessities of the social worker. These involve decision and action relative to legislation on health, education and the treatment of crime, and a discovery of the true relation of credit, banking and insurance systems to the well-being of the body politic. The live questions of the day concerning individual rights to privacy, leisure and recreation are all complicated with legislation and organized philanthropy and commercial progress, so that the field of study and effort is most inviting to the most earnest. As an outline of basic principles, the book will command attention. (The Macmillan Company, New York. 75 cents.)

THE DIVINE MAN. By Joseph Ware.

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This volume is announced as "A New Epic" and the writer has made an ambitious if not a fully successful attempt to group the story of man as told in the Bible in a series of a dozen chapters. finds the story to be one of evolution, a progressive creation and development, culminating in the Christ as the ultimate purpose of the Creator,-not the Christ of the creeds but the Christ of a perfected and deified humanity, the type and promise of what is to be when He shall put all the Kingdoms of the world under His feet. The writer has infused the story of the Old and the New Testaments and subsequent world history with his own vivid imagination, and beyond this he reaches out into the future when space and time will be no more, but the human race will, through the Christ spirit, be raised above what now appear to be insuperable earthly limitations, and reach the state contem

plated in its original plan, where life will be untramelled, progress unimpeded, heaven wherever man is, and love the master spirit of all. The visions of the prophets, the miracles of the Christ, and the visions of the Apocalypse are then to be realized in the common life of mannot always literally, for their narrative is only approximate and limited by the imperfect conception of man, but in a grander reality in harmony with the perfected nature of the race, when through the teaching and example of "The Divine Man" it is to emerge from the environment of all human weaknesses and begin its new career in which the spiritual will be the normal state and love shall be the motive of all action. (The True Light Publishing Company, Mechanicsburg, Ohio. $1.50.)

MOZART, THE MAN AND THE ARTIST, as revealed in his own words. BEETHOVEN, similarly treated. Compiled and annotated by Frederick Kerst; edited and translated by Henry Edward Krehbiel.

These two volumes should receive warm welcome from all lovers of classical music, for they present in compact and most interesting form the essential features of the personality of the two great composers. They are made up of detached fragments of letters and diaries, not originally intended for general perusal, but strikingly illustrative of the sentiments, aspirations, motives and convictions of the artists. Each had a unique personality, and peculiarly trying experiences in domestic, social and professional lines, and these volumes condense their inner lives and concentrate attention upon the salient features of the personality of each, in a manner impossible in more diffuse and general biographies. The compiler and editor have conferred a lasting favor not only upon music lovers, but upon all who are interested in the history and the literature of the times portrayed. (B. W. Huebsch, New York. $1.00 each, postage, 10 cents.)

AT THE SIGN OF THE DOLLAR. By Wallace Irwin; pictures by E. W. Kemble.

There is many a laugh here in text and pictures. Faults and foibles, fads and fancies in political, business and social life are "done into verse" with no little ingenuity. Much of the matter has appeared as fragments in the daily and weekly press, where it has attracted no little attention. In permanent form the wit, humor and sarcasm of the two score or more effusions will appeal to the public with fresh emphasis. (Fox, Duffield & Company, New York. $1.00.)