THE BRIDGE TO COME FROM THE OTHER SIDE. And again : "The main fact that I gather from conversation with the professor is this, that to expect spiritual revelations from physical science is to look for the impossible. If a bridge is to be thrown from the one world to the other, if a nexus is to link the material plane with the psychical plane, it must come from the other side. Physics and psychics are two parallel lines; the one is a thistle from which no man But shall ever gather the grapes of the other. he seems to hope,-not enthusiastically or with any attempt at prophecy,-that the researches of the Psychical Society will eventually lead to some definite knowledge of the spiritual kingdom. TELEPATHY THE FIRST STEP. "His hope is founded upon telepathy. At the beginning of all occult phenomena we come upon the radiations of thought. To plunge into spiritualism until we have grasped something of the laws governing the transmission,-without the agency of the organs of sense, of thought and images from one mind to another, is to set about constructing the most difficult problem in Euclid without a knowledge of either axiom or postulate. We must prove telepathy before we can proceed, and prove it in the same convincing fashion as we prove the vibrations in solid bodies, in the air, and in ether. When once this is mastered, man will have touched the hem of the garment without seam woven from the top throughout." Again to quote Mr. Begbie's rendering of Sir William Crookes' view: "Is it inconceivable that intense thought concentrated toward a sensitive with whom the thinker is in close sympathy may induce a telepathic chain of brain-waves, along which the message of thought can go straight to its goal without loss of energy due to distance? And is it also inconceivable that our mundane ideas of space and distance may be superseded in these subtle regions of unsubstantial thought where "near" and "far" may lose their usual meaning?' "This speculation he emphatically declares is 'strictly provisional;' adding characteristically, I dare to suggest it.' "That is his present attitude toward psychical research, he is not a seeker, but a suggester. While it is clear,' he says, 'that our knowledge of sub-conscious mentation is still to be developed, we must beware of rashly assuming that all variations from the normal waking condition are necessarily morbid.'" THE LATE HERR KRUPP AS A PATRON OF ZOOLOGY. IT T may not be generally known that Friedrich A. Krupp, the great steelmaster, was much interested in observing the fauna of the sea, and annually betook himself to the shores of the Mediterranean, where his royal fortune enabled him to bring the finest equipment as an aid to his investigations. The last number of the Zoologischer Anzeiger contains an article written by Dr. Otto Zacharias, of the Plön Biological Station, which is of interest not only from the account given of animal life in the Mediterranean Sea, but also from the fact that the article is written as a tribute to the direct services of Herr Krupp to zoological science. Herr Krupp's chief field of labor was the Gulf of Naples, where he cruised about with his yacht, the Maja, and later with the Puritan. There were fifty-eight hauls made during the trip with the Maja, a number of them south of the Gulf of Salerno, at Capri, and the Bocca, usually at a distance of from three to sixteen kilometers from land, and some of this material was dredged from a depth of fifteen hundred meters. Among the specimens collected were thirty-three kinds of free-swimming animal forms from the Gulf of Naples which had never been found in that region before. There were four kinds of fishes, including Scopelus crocodilus and S. Russie, largemouthed deep-sea fishes with phosphorescent spots on the tail, and cyclothone microdon, an extremely delicate blackish-brown deep-sea fish with a row of luminous spots extending along each side to the tail, and another row underneath, extending back from the throat. This fish lives at a depth of from five hundred to two thousand fathoms. There were also twenty-four kinds of crustacea, including the typical northern crab, Nycti. phanes norwegica sars, whose presence in the Mediterranean had never been suspected. This crab was so abundant at Capri that the fishermen used it for bait, and at the Masina Grande, of Capri, Dr. Lo Bianco saw thousands of them swimming about on the surface of the water. Five kinds of marine worms were found that never had been captured before outside of the Atlantic Ocean. One worm of special beauty was found living in the swimming-bell of a jellyfish. There were also twenty-three kinds of the inactive, drifting forms included under the general name of plankton, found common to both the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Before this, Lohmann, while studying the fauna of the Straits of Messina, found twentysix kinds of tunicates, animals which are on the border line between vertebrates and invertebrates, starting out in early life with the foundations of a backbone, then losing it in adult life, and relapsing into a sluggish form entirely dif ferent from any true vertebrate. Besides these, he found twenty-one other kinds of aquatic animals related to those of the Atlantic Ocean, all of which indicates that industrious study of deep sea life would show the presence of many other forms common to both bodies of water, although this is contrary to the theory previously held that the deep-sea animals of the Atlantic would not be found in the Mediterranean because the threshold formed by Gibraltar permits an exchange between only the upper layers of water and hinders the migrations of animals inhabiting the deeper, cooler portions. Carl Chun found specimens of plankton fourteen hundred meters below the surface. He also found three different kinds of jellyfishes, many small, transparent forms related to the cuttlefish, so-called "winged-snails," whose one foot is provided with a pair of muscular frills that facilitate locomotion, actively swimming, transparent worms called Tomoteridæ, and many other forms, thronging there together. Herr Krupp continued all this work, carrying on investigations himself and placing money and equipment at the disposal of the scientists associated with him. He devised improved apparatus valuable to all interested in deep-sea investigations, and obtained important results from his researches, most of which have not yet been published, although a series of monographs printed in German and illustrated with colored lithographs will soon be brought out. PRESIDENT HADLEY ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM. AN N important series of articles on "Academic Freedom, in Theory and in Practice," from President Arthur T. Hadley, of Yale, is begun in the February Atlantic. PROFESSOR VERSUS CORPORATION. President Hadley starts with the fact before us that every year there is a case or two of differences of opinion between teachers in our collegiate institutions and those who hold the appointing power that reaches the phase of public discussion. "Sometimes the difference hangs on the method employed in the creation of the world; sometimes on the proper definition of a dollar in the laws of the United States. One man is called to account for his views about the condition of the wicked after death, another for his opinions concerning the reciprocal duties of rich and poor, a third for his teaching as to the stability of organic species, and a fourth for his judgment upon the physiological effects of alcohol." THE CORPORATION GENERALLY WINS. One party of the public defends the professor and talks of freedom of speech and thought, while others defend the college trustees and emphasize the dangers to good morals resulting from too much freedom. President Hadley points out that the outcome of the conflict is generally in favor of the corporation and against the teacher, probably because of the corporation's material advantage in holding the base of supplies. He thinks, however, that this result is due even more to the corporation's having the practical and tangible side of the argument, as against the theoretical or abstract one. Against the firm belief that the eternal salvation of the pupils is jeopardized, or that the commercial prosperity of the country is endangered, the champions of liberty can only oppose the theory of freedom, "which is somewhat abstract, and, as popularly stated, somewhat incorrect also." President Hadley shows that this question of academic freedom must be studied in connection with other problems of civil liberty, and that these can only be properly analyzed by historical study. So he goes back to primitive communities and traces the slow progress of toleration from the point where the law of the priests punished any departure from unity with death. LAW AND MORALS. President Hadley shows that in the earliest times the conceptions of law and morals are wholly indistinguishable. The world found that it was necessary, for real progress in teaching, to find a legal basis for quiet and sensible propagation of truth, as distinct from irresponsible and revolutionary deliverances. It was also necessary to develop some new system under which the champion of new doctrines could be treated as a sane man without at the same time loosening those bonds of social cohesion which had rested on the general acceptance of the old doctrine. the teacher who would consider his country's safety will not come into conflict? "In the field of politics, we have gone far toward removing the corresponding difficulty which once existed, when all institutional reform carried with it, or at any rate seemed to carry with it, the danger of revolution. We have learned to draw the line between the group of actions which Mill characterized as self-regarding and another group which more immediately concerns the safety or interest of others. By permitting liberty in the former field and restricting it in the latter, we seem to have secured the advantages of freedom without exposing ourselves to the worse dangers. We have combined the maximum of progress with the minimum of revolu tion. But in educational matters we have not yet learned to draw this line. We have not learned to separate the rights of the discoverer from the duties of the teacher, or to secure the advantages of freedom without the dangers." IN THE REVIVAL OF THE RELIGIOUS DRAMA. N connection with Mme. Bernhardt's advocacy of religious plays, it is interesting to note the comments contained in an article by Mr. Wakeling Dry, contributed to the Treasury (London) for January. Mr. Dry pays a just tribute to the Passion Play at Oberammergau, where the place, the players, and the subject all combine to create a profound impression on the spectator. In general, Mr. Dry believes that "the desire on the part of the people for dramatic representation of the Gospel and the Bible narrative, whether by the more obvious form of theatrical representation or by the purely imaginative and emotional art of music, has ever remained; and . . . there is much to be learned from, and a good deal to praise in, the present revival of the religious drama." "EVERYMAN." Passing from the Passion Play to mystery plays, miracle plays, and moralist plays, Mr. Dry comes to the consideration of the morality play "Everyman," recently performed in New York and other cities, and of Mr. Housman's "Nativity Play." Of the former, he gives the following description: "The story is one for all time. Nothing could be more touching and at the same time truly dramatic than the lone figure of a man who leaves everything behind to work out his salvation. The Almighty, represented as one may see in the pictures of old Italian painters, tells Death to convey the message to Everyman,' a youth full of life and vigor, and rich in all this world's goods. Death, pallid of face, with a sable stole, and bearing a drum and trumpet, brings the news to the youth, who turns first to his friends and then to his occupations to help him to avoid the dread catastrophe. But Knowledge' and 'Good Deeds are the only friends who can avail him anything; and after being led to confession' and 'penance,' the last long journey to the grave is taken. Knowledge' remains with him to the last, and Good Deeds' ascends with him to heaven to intercede for his soul. In the representation, the passage of this solitary figure through the audience from the one stage to the other is so pathetic as to be almost painful. The epilogue, spoken by a doctor in order to point the moral, comes almost as a jarring note." MME. SARAH BERNHARDT ON THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF THE THEATER. HE editor of the Cornhill is to be congratuTHE lated upon having achieved well-nigh the impossible in inducing Sarah Bernhardt to write an article for his magazine. In beginning her plea, Mme. Bernhardt says: "I have often heard people deny the moral influence of the theater, but I find it undeniable. This influence has existed from all time, and never, in my opinion, has it been anything but beneficial. Beneficial it must always be to see the evolution of the human soul, and the more intelligently this evolution of the human soul is shown, the more effectual is the lesson drawn by those privileged to witness it. "We all know that a single illustration is worth more than a hundred axioms, and if only from this point of view, the theater is a potent school of morality; and the awakening of sympathy by seeing the drama of the lives of others prevents the stultification arising from a selfcentered life. WHAT IS THE THEATER? "The theater is the temple of all the arts which beautify life, and it is in this that its power lies. For whereas a library, a picture gallery, or a concert hall, each enthroning its respective art, has each its particular admirers, the theater, by the service of literature, the fine arts, and music, has a stronger claim upon human sympathy, and thus obtains a wider hearing. "To me, the theater seems like a kaleidoscope whose moving facets show an attentive public the baseness, the crimes, the vices, the weakness of humanity, the faults of civilization, and the absurdities of society. And it is this same movement, which while showing the evil shows the cause of the evil, that is such a fascinating feature of the theater. Thus the spectator, being brought face to face with his conscience, profits by the lesson given, and such spectators can be numbered by thousands." Mme. Bernhardt quotes Victor Hugo's remark on the theater: "Never should the people leave the theater without taking away with them some profound moral lesson." There are few who will quarrel with this saying, and Mme. Bernhardt cordially indorses it. THE THEATER A NECESSITY. "The theater is a necessity,-it has existed from all time under different aspects. As all souls feel the need of praying to God or to a god, so all minds need an expression of their dreams, legends, and past history. We have to go very far back to find in antiquity the first vestiges of the theater, for even amid savage folk we see the need of expression. "Do not, however, think that I mean that the teaching of the theater is superior to the teaching of classes and books; no,-I simply mean that the dramatic art is the supplement of history and philosophy, and it is a powerful aid to the development of the love of the good and the beautiful to which history and philosophy introduce us. "The theater has been instructive from all time, and it is ever the scene of progress, revolutionary, artistic, and poetic. The theater is the most direct and simple medium of fresh ideas on philosophy, morality, religion, and society. 66 Then it is not to dramatic art that we owe the revelation to the public of characters who would otherwise have remained hidden in the musty archives of history? Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, père, have all resuscitated heroes whose past existence would only have been made known to us by a few hasty lines." SHOULD WE HAVE RELIGIOUS PLAYS? Decidedly, yes! At least, that is the opinion At least, that is the opinion of the writer. She says on this subject: There are people, moreover, who maintain that religious things should not be put upon the stage. Oh, what a mistake! And how fortunate it is that great minds have not been ar rested by the false ideas of the narrow-minded! Nothing is more propagative than the theater. It is the reflection of the ideas of a nation. It marches incessantly to the conquest of the true and the beautiful! Sometimes it goes too quickly. It has hoped too much from the minds and hearts of the public. The time has not arrived, and then retrogression is necessary, and it was thus with the religious question in the theater scarcely twenty years ago." Speaking of the effect of the production of Rostand's La Samaritaine," she writes: 66 The day of its first representation was a day of emotion never to be forgotten. Christian love filled the hall with infinitely pure joy, beneficent tears flowed; I felt myself transported into another world, for I uttered beautiful words, and my heart beat with those of others. I wept tears, real tears, tears that wash away and efface forever the stains on our souls and our livestoo long, alas! for the evil we have done, and too short for the good we would wish to do. "Of course, such a piece could not be represented on the stage without being met with objections. But I remained true to the idea of the moral influence of the stage, and what could be more moral than the lesson seen in the story of the Samaritan and our Lord?" WHICH NATION LOVES THE THEATER MOST? With regard to the way in which the various nations love the theater, Mme. Bernhardt finds that "All young and vigorous races love it. Look at young America-she adores the theater, and the theater loves her." "The English people, this race of strength and reserve, they also love the theater, and they take it very much au sérieuse." "The Spanish, French, and Italians do not take the theater seriously enough. Personally, I like the Spanish, but I cannot say that they take a serious interest in the theater," and the French seem to like going to the theater merely to amuse themselves, if it is not a question of going elsewhere. They go to see each other, to admire the actors, to see the dresses, to chat with their friends, but as to a real passion for the theater, they are destitute of it." PROF THE PERIODICALS REVIEWED. HARPER'S MAGAZINE. ROF. THOMAS H. MORGAN writes on "Darwinism in the Light of Modern Criticism" in the February Harper's, and cites several important instances where observation and investigation have recently led scientists to qualify the principle of natural selection. The most important instance, perhaps, is the work of Hugo De Vries, of Amsterdam, who has been experimenting with the variation and evolution of plants. De Vries found an introduced plant that had begun to vary to an extraordinary degree. The new species among these new forms were transplanted to an experimental garden, where the flowers of each were artificially self-fertilized, and the seeds planted the next year. No less than seven new forms appeared among the plants reared from a single species. The majority of the seeds have produced plants like the parent form, but among these there were a number of individuals of a new species. By rearing plants from the self-fertilized seeds of these new species, it was found that they appeared true to their kind. Thus, the new species have sprung full-armed and complete from the old one, like Minerva from the head of Jove. Professor Morgan cites other instances among animals, such as the peacock, to show that natural selection cannot account for some of the most strikingly useful characteristics possessed by many organisms. In "A Study of a 'Decreed' Town," Dr. Richard T. Ely gives an account of the town of Greeley, the town founded in Weld County, Colorado, in 1870, from the inspiration of Nathan C. Meeker, who was at that time associated with Horace Greeley on the New York Tribune. The aim of the community was to establish a colony in the West which should, through coöperation and carefully thought out plans, afford all who might participate in the movement substantially equal opportunities for improvement of their own individual resources, while at the same time enabling them to provide themselves with the advantages of long-established communities. Horace Greeley gave his sympathy and support to the plan, and at the present time between three thousand and four thousand people live in Greeley. Dr. Ely says a large proportion of them have an adequate supply of wealth for the satisfaction of all rational economic wants, while a considerable number are wealthy. Substantially all of this wealth came into existence since 1870, and it has come directly and indirectly from agriculture. Dr. Ely thinks it a remarkable feature of Greeley that they have prohibition which actually prohibits. This is a part of the original plan. Only temperance people were invited in the beginning to join the community. In all deeds, it is provided that land shall be forfeited if in any way it is connected with the traffic in intoxicating beverages. THE LITERARY AGE OF BOSTON. Prof. George E. Woodberry writes on "The Literary Age of Boston," which he places before the Civil War. To Emerson, of course, he gives the foremost place. He ascribes much of the phenomenal intellectual and spir itual strength of the group which included Emerson, Holmes, Whittier, Lowell, Longfellow, and Hawthorne to Unitarianism; "its direct and indirect obligation to Harvard College, though but partially set forth, is obviously great, and just as clearly was due to the old humanities as there taught. In forty years we have drifted farther, perhaps, than any of us have thought from the conditions and influences that gave our country so large a part of its literary distinction." In this number, Mr. Thomas A. Janvier begins an historical serial, "The Dutch Founding of New York," and another notable feature is the first part of a new story by Maurice Hewlett, "Buondelmonte." M THE CENTURY MAGAZINE. R. HENRY LOOMIS NELSON has a very plainspoken article in the February Century on "The Overshadowing Senate." He calls to our attention that the assertion of power by the Senate to hold up and dictate appointments and bargain for legislation is very recent; that it is only a little more than twenty years since Mr. Conkling and Mr. Platt resigned their seats in the Senate because Mr. Garfield insisted on appointing to federal offices in New York men who were distasteful to these two "ambassadors." But at present the Senatorial claims on patronage make that body indeed overshadowing. Mr. Nelson says that the rule of the "courtesy of the Senate" has permitted the construction of the most perfectly developed trust or trade-union in the country, and that there is hardly any existing combination which is more inimical to the general welfare than the Senate union has sometimes been, and may easily be again. Mr. Nelson proceeds: "The country would be astonished if it could know the extent of this proprietorship. The Senate's power of confirmation places not only the President, but the whole civil service outside of the classified list, under tribute." In the matter of treaty-making, it, the Senate, often courts, according to Mr. Nelson, the anti-foreign sentiment, and usually consults this or that "vote" instead of the general welfare. Over and above this overshadowing quality of the Senate, which Mr. Nelson regards as so ominous, he thinks it is unquestionably an evil that men who have no talent for public life should attain to its highest honors merely because they are rich. CAN WE RESTORE THE BIBLE? Mr. Rollo Ogden, in writing of "The Literary Loss of the Bible," while assuming that we have actually as a people lost the Bible as a literary model through its disuse, and while he does not depreciate the extent of the loss, makes the claim that none of the half-dozen English styles which have stood out in the past halfcentury were derived clearly from the Bible. Examining Ruskin's style, he contends that Hooker, rather than the Bible, is to be credited as the model of the author of "Sesame and Lilies." Mr. Ogden does not believe that the English Bible can be restored to its old place as a nursery of thought and style by making it a part of literary discipline. Later and college studies cannot give what must be drawn in almost with mother's milk. |