Friday, December 7.-Junior Compositions due at No. 2 Treasury Building, before 12 M. Berkeley Association (Evening Prayer)—Room 89, Dwight Hall, 6.45 P. M. Political Science Club-Paper by Mr. John Bennetto, on the Rise of the English Towns. 195 Old Chapel, 7.30 P. M. University Chamber Concert-Beethoven String Quartette. North Sheffield Hall, 8.15 P. M.

Saturday, December 8.-College Recitations of First Term close, 1 P. M. University Receptions.-President and Mrs. Dwight will hold informal Receptions for the University, at Dwight Hall, on Monday evenings, December 3, February 4, March 4, April 1, May 6, and June 3, from 8 to 11 o'clock, to which all members of the University are invited. University Chamber Concerts.-A series of six (and possibly seven, should the subscriptions warrant it) University Chamber Concerts will be given in North Sheffield Hall, beginning on Friday evening, December 7th. The series will include the Beethoven String Quartette of New York, the Kneisel Quartette of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, an evening of Trios (pianos, violin, and cello) and Sonatas, and a Song Recital by Max Heinrich of New York. Admission only by subscription tickets, $2.00 for the series, which can be obtained at the Treasury.

No. 71.-WEEK ENDING DECEMBER 15, 1888.

Sunday, December 9.-Public Worship-Battell Chapel 10.30 A. M. Rev. George Alexander, D. D., of New York City. General Religious Meeting-Dwight Hall, 6.30 P. M. Address by the Rev. Dr. Alexander.

Monday, December 10.-Dwight Hall Lecture Course-Rev. A. F. Schauffler, D. D., of New York City, on Ruin through Neglect. Dwight Hall, 6.45 P. M.

Wednesday, December 12.-Psychology (University Lecture)-Professor Ladd. 194 Old Chapel, 4 P. M. History of Old Testament Prophecy University Lecture)-Professor Harper. Room B, Cabinet, 5 P. M. Semitic Club-Paper by Mr. G. W. Davis, on Old Babylonia; its History and Civilization. Professor Harper's residence, 135 College st., 7. P. M. Yale Assembly-Debate on the Policy of the Government in reference to Immigration. Linonia Hall, 7.80 A. M.

Friday, December 14.-Berkeley Association (Evening Prayer)-Room 89, Dwight Hall, 6.45 P. M.

Saturday, December 8.-Last Day for returning books to Linonian and Brothers Library, 10 A. M. to 12 M., and 1.30 to 4 P. M.

Annual Catalogue.-The Annual Catalogue of the University for 1888-89 will be on sale at the Treasurer's Office on Tuesday, December 11. Price, 25 cents, or by mail 30 cents. (Circulars of the various departments are furnished separately without charge.)

Library Notice.-All books belonging to the Linonian and Brothers Library must be returned on or before Saturday, December 15.

CURRENT LITERATURE.

SILL'S POEMS.*-This little white book, spiritual in its very leaf and cover, stands among the volumes of contemporary verse like Una among the Naiades: there we may see prettiness, beauty perhaps, amid the enchantments of wood and field, but here is celestial truth and purity. For all our love for Shelley or Chatterton, we treat their books as books, but one cannot yet have the heart to crowd Sill's poems into the dusty shelves. If now and then a poet sent us his gift from

"the mild and serene air

Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot
Which men call earth,"

it might be something like this. There is a divine strength in its high thought and manliness. We read through the poems to "review" them; thinking backward, they rise like spirits before us, still in unsullied white; if any commonplace criticisms could have been once whispered they are silenced. The book is a collection of short pieces, perhaps with no intentional connection between them, but one closes it feeling that he has read a tragedy. How much of

"Fresh hope upon me every amber dawn,

New peace when evening's violet veil is drawn,"

in its opening vision:

"There fell a vision to Praxiteles :

Watching thro' drowsy lids the loitering seas
That lay caressing with white arms of foam
The sleeping marge of his Ionian home,
He saw great Aphrodite standing near,

Knew her, at last, the Beautiful he had sought
With life-long passion, and in love and fear
Into unsullied stone the vision wrought."

* Poems by EDWARD ROWLAND SILL [Class Poet of Yale, '61]. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1888.

But a premonition like the haunting motive of the composer, running through page after page, brings us to these poems:

"TRUTH AT LAST.

"Does a man ever give up hope, I wonder,-
Face the grim fact, seeing it clear as day?

When Bennen saw the snow-slip, heard its thunder
Low, louder, roaring round him, felt the speed
Grow swifter as the avalanche hurled downward,
Did he for just one heart-throb-did he indeed
Know with all certainty, as they swept onward,
There was the end, where the crag dropped away?
Or did he think, even till they plunged and fell,
Some miracle would stop them? Nay, they tell
That he turned round, face forward, calm and pale,
Stretching his arms out toward his native vale
As if in mute, unspeakable farewell,

And so went down.-'Tis something, if at last,
Though only for a flash, a man may see
Clear-eyed the future, as he sees the past,
From doubt, or fear, or hope's illusion free."

"QUEM METUI MORITURA?

"What need have I to fear-so soon to die?
Let me work on, not watch and wait in dread :
What will it matter, when that I am dead,
That they bore hate or love who near me lie?
'Tis but a life-time, and the end is nigh
At best or worst. Let me lift up my head
And firmly, as with inner courage, tread
Mine own appointed way, on mandates high.
Pain could but bring, from all its evil store,
The close of pain: hate's venom could not kill;
Repulse, defeat, desertion, could no more.
Let me have lived my life, not cowered until
The unhindered and unhastened hour was here.
So soon-what is there in the world to fear?"

"A MORNING THOUGHT.

"What if some morning, when the stars were paling,
And the dawn whitened, and the east was clear,
Strange peace and rest fell on me from the presence
Of a benignant spirit standing near :

And I should tell him, as he stood beside me,
'This is our Earth-most friendly Earth and fair;
Daily its sea and shore through sun and shadow
Faithful it turns, robed in its azure air :

'There is blest living here, loving and serving,
And quest of truth, and serene friendship dear ;
But stay not, Spirit! Earth has one destroyer-
His name is Death: flee, lest he find thee here!'

And what if then, while the still morning brightened,
And freshened in the elm the summer's breath,
Should gravely smile on me the gentle angel

And take my hand and say, 'My name is Death.'"

ERNEST WHITNEY.

THE GERMANIC CONSTITUTION.*-The author of this sketch of the Germanic Constitution is favorably known by his scholarly version of Eginhard's Life of Charlemagne, published some eight years ago in Harper's Half-Hour Series. The present work is a valuable contribution to the sources of information about the old Empire. Outside of the manual histories of Germany, there is very little of first-rate value in English on the subject. Mr. Bryce's interesting and stimulating "Holy Roman Empire” leaves little to be desired on the theoretical and philosophic side of the imperial history, but as it is not a constitutional history the details of the constitutional organization are rather meager. Our grandfathers had Pütter's "Historical Development of the Present Political Constitution of the Germanic Empire" (translated by Dornford, 3 vols. London, 1790), which is still useful for later imperial history, but of course antiquated in many points. Mr. Turner has supplied at once a very concise and convenient summary of German Constitutional history and a useful introduction to the more elaborate German works. He has relied upon the most recent and trustworthy investigators. Not simply that, but his references to the best documentary sources give one the assurance that his conclusions are based in some measure on first-hand study. To some the extreme conciseness of the book will appear one of its chief merits, but we wish it had been at least twice as long. Probably a larger work would have cost the author no more trouble.

On page 42, in reference to the growth of the feudal system, through the increasing power of the Seniors, Mr. Turner says: "They consulted their dignity as well as their safety by having nu

* A Sketch of the Germanic Constitution. From the Earliest Times to the Dissolution of the Empire. By SAMUEL Epes Turner, Ph.D. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. pp. x., 185.

merous vassals, and granted their lands as benefices in consideration of military service. They had no difficulty in finding men to serve after the revolution wrought in the methods of warfare by the general use of cavalry, for so much money was required to purchase a horse and other equipments, and such long training was needed to become an efficient cavalryman that cavalry service was soon reckoned an honorable profession." There is another side to this social change toward feudalism which deserves attention. The obligation of military service in response to the royal summons became so burdensome to the small freemen, both on account of the loss of time and of the expense for horses and swords that it greatly promoted the growth of the feudal system and the extinction of the class of small freemen by commendation to the lords. By this means they escaped the royal service at the cost of their freedom, and into a position where they reënforced the lords. Mr. Turner makes of necessity such frequent use of the word "assessor" that it would have been well to explain briefly the functions of the assessor. They can hardly be familiar to those who will use his book as an introduction to the German Constitution. A full list of kings and emperors with their exact style, the dates of coronation as kings and as emperors, with the dates of birth and death, would form a valuable appendix, and we hope it may be added in a second edition. The use of the word "Grave" for count as a translation of "Graf" will perhaps be questioned. It is certainly very unfamiliar in spite of the obvious analogy to Palsgrave and Margrave. We have found the word only in Skinner's "Etymologicon Linguæ Anglicana" (London, 1670), and in Wright's "Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English," where it is given as a Yorkshire word for bailiff and also as Dutch, meaning a nobleman of the Low Countries. So that it is not a coinage but a revival of an old word which would appear to have been well dead and buried. Such revivals are worth while when the language is enriched or strengthened, but whether Grave can be restored to use in competition with the familiar and equivalent "Count," against which it once utterly failed to hold its own, is open to much doubt.

We noticed one or two misprints, p. 21, Deutche for Deutsche, p. 68, Lehurecht for Lehnrecht, and p. 179, note 2, 1806 for 1804 as the date when the title Emperor of Austria was assumed. It