light order assumed by him. His is no commonplace routine of work. Experience is requisite. The processes of rigid, searching examination and investigation, of analysis, classification and comparison of details, of generalizing and summarizing, are incident to his calling, which requires close application and persistent research, and in the more complicated cases is exacting in the extreme."

CURRENT ETHICAL PROBLEMS.

HE Ethics of Religious Conformity," as set first place in a very good number of the International Journal of Ethics. He concedes broadly the legitimacy of a man clinging to a religious community whose influence he values, but whose beliefs he no longer holds. A member of the Church of England, though formally pledged to believe the Apostle's Creed, is not, though not believing it, bound to withdraw. The verbal pledge is relaxed by the common understanding. Where it is a condition of holding office, the non-believer ought to state the way he interprets the pledge.

With the officiating minister the case is different. The obligations of veracity and good faith inexorably rule out non-believers accepting Anglican orders: "No gain in enlightenment and intelligence which the Anglican ministry may receive from the presence of such men can compensate for the damage done to moral habits and the offense given to moral sentiments by their example."

Prof. Harald Höffding describes the conflict between the old and the new, and proceeding from the rival tendencies of Positivism and Romanticism, he forecasts the spirit of the coming era as one likely to do full justice to the idea of mechanical order which Positivism insists on as fundamental and to the idea of personality which Romanticism glorifies: "By confidence in the power of each personality to discover its own laws and to work itself out of each crisis of negation and doubt into a new organic stage, and by keeping our eyes fixed on the great ideals, shall we succeed through the ordeal of criticism and apparent dissolution, in preserving the real values of life."

INCREASING INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH.

TE

HE frequent assertions that the influence of the Church, especially with workingmen, is declining, are answered in the Catholic World by the Rev. Francis Howard, who applies the census test as follows:

"For the Protestant denominations of the country the census of 1880 gives 9,263,234 communicants, and the census of 1890 gives 13,158,363; an increase of 42 per cent. The increase of population for this decennial period is estimated at 24.86 per cent., showing a net increase over population of 17.19 per cent. The census estimates the increase of Catholic

population at not less than 30 per cent. Leaving aside the question as to the accuracy of the above estimates and the various circumstances that must be taken into account in judging them, they are adduced here simply for the purpose of showing that statements to the effect that the influence of the Christian Church is declining in this country are not supported by the only figures obtainable on the subject. Nor is there any good reason to believe that the church is losing its influence over the laboring classes. There are no reliable figures available on this point, and the statement is supported only by individual experience of those who make it.

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Estimates are sometimes given of the numbers of church members in a given locality. These may show a defection or an increase. In large cities there are many lines of work in which men are compelled to labor every day in the week. There is always a large amount of labor that must be performed on Sunday, and this must prevent many from attending divine worship. But there is no evidence of general or growing antipathy or indifference to religion on the part of laboring men. There is no evidence that the families of workingmen are less interested in religious affairs than formerly. Sentiments of hostility to religion would not be tolerated in workingmen's assemblies in this country. Finally, there is no reliable evidence to show that laboring men have less interest in religious matters than formerly. The common complaint, however, is that the young people are becoming indifferent and falling away; but this has been a complaint in all ages, and in spite of such defections there has been a great increase in the religious membership in this country, and there is every indication of a continuance of this increase. It is safe to say that very few Catholic priests find these statements about the defection of laboring classes confirmed by their individual experience."

PROTEH

CATHOLIC CANDOR ON THE BORGIAS. ROTESTANTS are too ready to suppose that acceptance of the dogma of papal infallibility involves the rejection or falsification of all history imputing scandalous conduct to any one of the It is well to be reminded, as we are re popes. minded by Father Scannell's paper on Alexander VI., in the Dublin Review, that orthodox Catholics can use language of the severest reprobation concerning occupants of St. Peter's Chair. The reverend writer refuses to allow that the character of the Borgias can be rehabilitated. He recalls Rodrigo Borgia's earlier immoralities and the liaison with Vanozza, by whom he-priest and bishop and cardinal-had four children. Two elder children of his were probably born of another mother." The conclave which elected this profligate pope will, says Father Scannell, ever be infamous in the annals of the Church."

"Here we may well pause and ask how it came

about that a man who was utterly unfit for the very lowest of the Church's offices should now have attained to the highest. No words can be too severe to apply to the conduct of the cardinals. If they believed him to be unworthy they basely sacrificed the welfare of God's Church in return for his bribes. But the case would seem to be far worse. Some of them, at least, actually thought him a good man for the post! His scandalous life was well known to them but what of that? . . . The cardinals hardly seem to have given a thought to the fact that they were choosing the Vicar of Christ."

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The vices of the new pope and of his sons are not hidden or extenuated. A good word is put in for Lucrezia, who, the writer urges, has been too hardly dealt with. After Alexander had been eight years in the papacy "a certain Roman woman bore him a son whom he acknowledged as his own. Thus Alexander and his family were desecrating the Vatican by their scandalous lives." The reverend reviewer declares "it is no wonder that the pilgrims who came flocking to Rome in this year of the great jubilee (1500) were profoundly shocked." 'The successor of St. Peter, whom they came to venerate, was an old man still living in sin with his children around him. His son, a brilliant young libertine, was openly selling nominations to the Sacred College." Nine new cardinals bought their promotion at the price of 20,000 ducats each. The story of Alexander's end leads Father Scannell to exclaim, "At last God had delivered His Church from the foul clutches of this Judas of the Papacy." Could a Protestant have used stronger language? The reviewer observes in conclusion that "the after history of the Borgia family gives us the most striking ex amples of the happy change which came over the Papacy and the Church."

THE LESSON OF OUR SCIENTIFIC CONQUESTS.

PROFES

ROFESSOR JOHN FISKE contributes to the July Atlantic an essay which he entitles "A Century's Progress in Science." Beginning with Dr. Priestly's discovery in 1774 of oxygen, Professor Fiske outlines the revolutionary developments in chemistry, in astronomy, in geology and biology, which have so vastly enlarged the mental horizon of the world within four generations. In the course of this survey, which it would be unprofitable to dissect, Professor Fiske says that one fact stands out with especial pre-eminence :

"It appears that about half a century ago the foremost minds of the world, with whatever group of phenomena they were occupied, had fallen, and were more and more falling, into a habit of regarding things, not as having originated in the shape in which we now find them, but as having been slowly metamorphosed from some other shape through the agency of forces similar in nature to forces now at work. Whether planets, or mountains, or mollusks, or subjunctive moods, or tribal confederacies

were the things studied, the scholars who studied them most deeply and most fruitfully were those who studied them as phases in a process of development. The work of such scholars has formed the strong current of thought in our time, while the work of those who did not catch these new methods has been dropped by the way and forgotten; and as we look back to Newton's time we can see that ever since then the drift of scientific thought has been setting in this direction, and with increasing steadiness and force."

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THE ONE INDISPUTABLE GAIN.

'It means that the world is in process of development, and that gradually, as advancing knowledge has enabled us to take a sufficiently wide view of the world, we have come to see that it is so. The old statistical conception of a world created all at once in its present shape was the result of very narrow experience; it was entertained when we knew only an extremely small segment of the world. Now that our experience has widened, it is outgrown and set aside forever; it is replaced by the dynamical conception of the world in a perpetual process of evolution from one state into another state. This dynamical conception has come to stay with us. Our theories as to what the process of evolution is may be more or less wrong and are confessedly tentative, as scientific theories should be. But the dynamical conception, which is not the work of any one man, he be Darwin, or Spencer, or any one else, but the result of the cumulative experience of the last two centuries, is a permanent acquisition. We can no more revert to the statical conception than we can turn back the sun in its course. Whatever else the philosophy of future generations may be, it must be some kind of a philosophy of evolution.”

THE LESSON OF EMANCIPATION.

Professor Fiske calls the scientific conquests of the past century "a marvelous story, without any parallel in the history of human achievement." He attributes the swiftness of the advance partly to freedom from the old legal and social trammels that beset free thinking, and partly to the use of correct methods of research. In former ages most of the intellectual effort had been mere waste, and we owe Galileo, Keppler, Descartes and Newton no greater debt than the introduction they gave to a sound scientific method which must be a slow acquisition for the human mind.

The one great lesson to be derived from a retrospect of the century's scientific evolution is, Professor Fiske says, the dignity of man, whose persistent seeking after truth is rewarded by such fruits. "We may be sure that the creatures whose intelligence measures the pulsations of molecules and unravels the secret of the whirling nebula is no creature of a day, but the child of the universe, the heir of all the ages, in whose making and perfecting is to be found the consummation of God's creative work."

THE

DR. NANSEN'S "THROWING STICK." •

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HE Alaskan "throwing stick," picked up on the southwest coast of Greenland, which is said to have been an important factor in determining Dr. Nansen's belief in a steady westward current across the pole, is described by John Murdoch in Appleton's Popular Science Monthly. This writer has correctly assumed that most people are in doubt as to just what a throwing stick" is, and how the finding of one on the Greenland coast could have been thought to give such conclusive evidence of a drift from western America to Greenland. Mr. Murdoch proceeds to answer these suggested ques tionings as follows: "In the first place, a' throwing stick,''throwing board,' or 'spear thrower,' as it is sometimes called, is a contrivance for casting a javelin or harpoon, which is employed by various savage races, such as the Australians, some South American tribes, and especially by the Eskimos, among whom its use is almost universal. Roughly speaking, it is a narrow grooved board a foot or so long, with one end cut into a handle and the other provided with a stud or spur for the butt of the spear to rest against. It is used thus: Grasping the handle as he would a sword, the man fits the shaft of the spear into the groove, with the butt resting against the stud, steadying the spear with the finger. Then, extending his arm and bending back his hand till the spear lies horizontal, he aims at the mark and propels the weapon by a quick forward jerk of the stick. In this way I have seen the Eskimo boys casting their forked javelins at wounded waterfowl."

FINDING OF THE STICK.

"I had spent two years among the Alaskan Eskimos when I was one of the naturalists of the Point Barrow Expedition in 1881-83, and was especially interested in anything concerning them, particularly about their implements and weapons, as I had made a thorough study of these while preparing the report on the ethnological results of the expedition. Consequently, my curiosity was immediately aroused by a little notice that I accidentally ran across in the Norwegian scientific paper Naturen. Speaking of the meeting of the Videnskabs-selskab (Scientific Society) of Christiania, on June 11, 1886, the paper said that the curator of the museum exhibited a throwing stick found among driftwood at Godthaab, Greenland, different from those used in Greenland, but just like those used in Alaska. was suggested that it had made the same journey as the Jeannette relics' found at Julianehaab." Mr. Murdoch says that he had been skeptical about the Jeannette relics," but the "throwing stick" story he thought might be corroborated. He accordingly sent to Dr. Rink, of Christiania, who had found the stick, and obtained a drawing of the specimen. Consultation of the extensive collection of Alaskan" throwing sticks" in the National Museum at Washington, confirmed by his own re

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It

searches in Alaska, convinced Mr. Murdoch of the identity of Dr. Rink's find with the Alaskan implements. It could even be identified with specimens from a particular region near Bering Strait.

FROM ALASKA TO GREENLAND.

So, from all this, two things were pretty certain: First, that the stick was made in Alaska; and, second, that it was picked up on the beach at Godthaab. Now, how could it have got there? It surely could not have drifted round by way of the Northwest Passage, for that way is barred by such a network of islands that the stick would undoubtedly have been stranded long before it reached Greenland.

"Some people have said, 'A sailor on an American whale ship might have brought it home with him from Bering Sea, and taken it to Greenland,' but to anyone who is familiar with the customs of American whalemen knows that the same ships never go to the North Pacific and to Davis Strait, and that very few men in the fleet have been to both regions. Moreover, the American whale ships keep over on the other side of the strait. It is very unlikely that the stick could have reached God thaab in that way. As for the suggestion which has been made that it was dropped somewhere off the Atlantic coast from a ship coming home to New Bedford from Behring Sea, that may be dismissed in a few words. If it were dropped near shore, it would fall into the inshore current and drift south; while if it were dropped farther off, the Gulf Stream would take it to Iceland or Norway.

66 But it is well known that a current sets north through Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean, and that north of the strait the current moves steadily westward, as shown by the drift of the Jeannette. It is very easy to believe that the stick drifted in this way, keeping on till it met the current that sweeps down between Iceland and Greenland, and then turned northward again round Cape Farewell. Indeed, it is hard to see how it could have got there otherwise.

HORSELESS CARRIAGES,—A HISTORY AND A PROPHECY.

TH

HERE is a delightful article on this subject in the Edinburgh Review by a writer who certainly appears to know what he is writing about. The history of the horseless carriage as he tells it is very interesting and suggestive, and would afford many useful texts for Mr. Herbert Spencer, when next he wishes to illustrate the inaptitude of legis lation :

"Road locomotives were pronounced perfectly practicable by a parliamentary committee which sat in 1832. In the year 1834 a road car made by Messrs. Summers & Ogle attained a speed of thirtytwo miles an hour, and ran long distances at an average speed of twenty-four miles an hour. In the same year also, Hancock organized a regular steam coach service at from twelve to fifteen miles an hour."

With this promising start it might have been expected that horseless carriages would have been introduced long ago; but the ease and rapidity of the railway diverted attention from the use of locomotives on main roads :

"But in 1857 fresh interest was aroused in road engines. There were many routes too unimportant to warrant the construction of a railway, and yet sufficiently frequented to require regular coach service. Accordingly, Rickett and others constructed some excellent carriages designed to run at a speed of from twelve to fifteen miles an hour. this date it may be said that the problem of road engine locomotion had been solved. Much remained to be done in points of detail, but a possible speed of over thirty miles an hour had been reached, and regular coach services had been run."

A SUCCESS FORTY YEARS AGO.

At

How was it then that with such a brilliant success achieved in 1857 we are still without horseless carriages in 1896? The reviewer answers this question by telling a pitiful story of popular prejudice and legis lative folly. He says:

"No sooner had the possibility of road engine locomotion been demonstrated than all the opposition which had been fruitlessly exerted to prevent the development of railway engines became concentrated upon their unfortunate rivals. They were hooted at; they were refused admission into inns stones were placed to impede their progress, and holes dug in the roads over which they were to pass. Even the local authorities joined in the attack. Such methods, of course, were insufficient of themselves. The engines were, according to the law as it then stocd, perfectly legal, provided they were so run as not to constitute a nuisance. They had been proved to be safe and cheap. It was necessary, therefore, to devise some more effective measures to suppress them. At last it was discovered that they were not subject to the Turnpike act, which only related to vehicles drawn by horses.

This gave the supporters of horse traffic their opportunity."

BLOCKED BY ACTS OF PARLIAMENT.

The question was brought before the House of Commons, and a committee inquired into the subject, which, however, came to no very definite conclusion. But the advocates of horse traction were victorious in the end, and "in 1861 the blow fell, and the first act for regulating the use of locomotives upon common roads was passed. It placed the making of regulations for these vehicles into the hands of a Secretary of State, but provided in addition that the tires of the wheels were to be three inches wide, that the engines were to consume their own smoke, that they were to have at least two drivers, and were not to exceed ten miles an hour in the country and five miles an hour in towns. The act concluded that no locomotive might be used so as to be a nuisance."

These restrictions were tolerably onerous, but they were nothing compared with those which followed. "In 1865 it seems to have been determined to destroy all prospect of ever driving coaches or carriages by steam. It was this act which to this day blocks the use of autocars in England. No one was allowed to use a horseless carriage unless it was preceded by a man on foot carrying a red flag. Any one in a carriage could stop it by merely raising his hand, and no greater speed than four miles in the country and two in town was permitted. In 1878 local authorities were given the right to levy license fee up to £10, with the result that "as the law now stands, a person with an autocar who desires to go from London to Newcastle must take out nine separate licenses, at a cost of £85. He must take a week at least over the journey. He must procure nine sets of conflicting by-laws, which he must be careful to obey, and his groom must walk in front of him the whole way with a red flag. Thus perished the nascent industry.’

It was hoped that the legislation levied against traction engines would not be used against cycles; but" in 1881 Sir Thomas Parkyn (who died last year) employed Mr. Bateman (a manufacturer of emery wheels now living) to construct a steam tricycle. Sir Thomas Parkyn was at once prosecuted; although his machine emitted no steam and made so little noise that the policeman who gave evidence respecting it was doubtful how it was driven, the magistrate had no option but to enforce the law, and the sentence was ratified by the High Court of Justice."

ADVANTAGES OF THE AUTOCAR.

Mr. Chaplin's bill which is now before the House of Commons repeals most of this legislation, and if it is passed will render it possible for Englishmen to avail themselves of the motors which at present are being used far and wide on the Continent and have been introduced in the United States. It is not difficult to understand why the horseless carriage

beats its competitor out of the field. The reviewer says:

It may be estimated that the price of a good engine carriage will be about the same as that of a corresponding carriage, horse and harness. And it is probable that the repairs, painting and lubrication of the engine will nearly correspond with the repairs and minor expenses attendant upon a carriage and horse. The stabling will be less, but the driver will probably be paid about the same wages as a coachman. There remains, then, only the comparison of the provender and litter of a horse with the consumption of oil of the car. A horse's provender will cost about £1 a week. Suppose we estimate the average day's work of a horse at twenty miles, then the week's work of six days would be one hundred and twenty miles, which would work out at twopence a mile. The corresponding cost of a petroleum motor of two and a half horse-power would however, be only one-half penny a mile-that is to say, one-fourth of the cost of the horse.'

This economy is not the only advantage on the side of the autocar :

"As the length of an engine carriage will be about half that of a horse and carriage, its powers of turning will be much greater. It will not kick nor run away; it can be left to mind itself in the road; and if it breaks a part a new one can be iminediately procured to replace it. Besides, an engine carriage will easily run a hundred miles in seven or eight hours, which no horse could accomplish. Hence we may anticipate that within a measurable interval of time engine carts will re place the huge vans which are now seen everywhere in London, and that our hackney cabs will be replaced by engine cabs. This will probably bring about six penny fares."

THE MERITS OF THE VARIOUS MOTORS.

The writer then enters into a lucid discussion of the merits of the various motors. The most successful horseless carriages at present are operated by petroleum spirits used in an engine closely corresponding to the familiar gas engine. But these petroleum motors have their disadvantages:

"The cylinders by virtue of these explosions become heated and require jackets of water to cool them. This is a great disadvantage, because a heavy tank of water, containing about ten gallons, must be carried in the carriage, and must be replenished with cold water from time to time upon the road. The fuel used is either what is known as petroleum spirit--that is to say, light petroleum, or benzoline '-or else the heavy oil which is burnt in ordinary paraffine lamps, called petroleum oil. The advantage of the former is that it is clean, it does not clog the engine with soot, it contains great working power in a small bulk, and, being volatile, the smell of it soon passes off. Any one who has used a carriage or launch driven by petroleum spirit, and also one driven by heavy oil, will easily

recognize these advantages. Again, the high speed of the motors, say from 200 to 400 revolutions per minute, causes great vibration, and in all the carriages of this type hitherto made the whole frame trembles, and when they are standing still, the wheels being disengaged from the engines, the vibration is most unpleasant."

The steam carriages have also their disadvantages:

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The inventor of a good condenser of small size and little weight is wanted before steam autocars can be made completely successful. In order to reduce the size of the condenser, and at the same time to cause less loss of heat, petroleum spirit has been successfully employed in the boilers, so that the vapor of benzine replaces steam. The furnace may be fed with petroleum oil, and thus be less dangerous. It has also been proposed to drive carriages with a carbonic acid gas engine, in which carbonic acid is used instead of steam."

Some have looked to electricity; but the great weight of the storage batteries renders the use of electricity practically impossible. In order to hold sufficient force to drive a carriage for eight hours it is necessary to carry half a ton of lead:

"In practice a four-wheeled carriage ought not to have less than about a ton of accumulators in addition to the dynamo. This is a considerable weight; and if 600 pounds is put down for the carriage, 600 pounds for the dynamo, and 800 pounds for four passengers and their luggage, we should have a total weight of two tons."

The writer's net conclusion after a survey of the whole subject is: "So far as a forecast can be made, it seems probable that some form of petroleum engine will eventually be the most successful."

Estimate of Cost.

Cassier's for April contains an instructive sketch by Mr. B. F. Spalding of the evolution of the horseless carriage. He starts with its originator Cugnot, a Frenchman, born 1729, died 1804, whose steam carriage was condemned for whirling through the streets at the dangerous rate of three miles an hour, and he brings the story up to date.

'Tests of an electric carriage built in Chicago in 1894, by G. K. Cummings, showed that over a level road, at a normal speed of from ten to twelve miles an hour, the power consumed was from 14 to 2 horse-power, and it was estimated that the cost of board for one horse would be greater than the cost of electricity, the carriage to run fifty miles a day. At the published rates, the expense for power would be $10 a month. Mr. Salom estimates that in Philadelphia, with a population of 1,000,000, the cost of the work done by horses costs not less than $30,000,000 a year, and that the same work could be performed by the use of electricity at one-half of this expense. He believes that ordinary delivery wagons can be constructed in America for from $600 to $800, and other vehicles in proportion, the prices varying