That the "specific relations of the noun are usually represented by case-endings" is by no means an accurate statement, for a number of extensive linguistic families, such as the Tinné, have no case-endings at all; and in the Algonquin and Iroquois dialects the formation of nominal cases is almost wholly limited to the locatives. As a general fact, it may be stated that, in the tongues spoken on the plains of eastern North and eastern South America, case-declension is deficient or fragmentary, but in the higher regions of the Sierra Nevada, Rocky Mountains, and the Andes, languages are well provided with case-forms. What our author says about conjunctions being generally syllables of indefinite meaning, has to be supplemented by the fact that many of our conjunctions are rendered in American languages by temporal, causal, local, and other suffixes to the verb, and form what is called verbals. For many of these verbals new terms have to be invented, for oldworld grammatic terminology by no means suffices to express all the grammatical forms in use by the red man of America.

The interesting fact that many alphabetic sounds of English and other European languages are non-existent in more primitive tongues, is discussed in a lengthy chapter by Payne, and explained by the circumstance that such sounds are not easily acquired, or that their origin is an artificial one. The labials f and v are scarcely known in America, but all the dentals are generally well represented here. In Australia and parts of Africa and Asia the sibilants 8, sh, z, zh are rejected; the Nahuatl has 2, but rejects 8 and sh, and the various sounds of are more acceptable to the American than those of r. In the majority of the American languages 8 and 2 occur simultaneously with the assibilated sh and zh, and alternate in the same words; 8 and z being evidently more archaic than sh and zh. Payne supposes that the vibratiles, or, as we call them, liquids (1, r), being the easiest and most natural consonantic sounds, may be regarded as the earliest group among the "adjustments" (p. 151), and in the lowest stage of speech were probably indistinguishable. The Dakota, Totonac, and Mixtec have rejected both, probably substituting n in their place; but, generally speaking, is more frequent upon this continent than r.

The question, "Did the American man originate here or did he migrate here from another continent?" Mr. Payne touches upon in his preface (p. 6), in these terms:

the start, took different lines. This appears, for example, from the difference between the Mexican calendar in Cortez's time and the Asiatic (say Chinese) system of time reckoning. China had known the Metonic cycle of nineteen years, which is built upon a lunisolar basis, even before Meton of Athens invented or promulgated it in 432 B. C.; but the Mexican cycle is solar only, and belongs to the Western World originally, though some have regarded it as borrowed. This, however, is but one of the points in which early American civilization differed entirely from that of the Eastern world. Since our knowledge of ancient America centres upon a few tribes only, whose culture placed them far

above common savages, Payne took special pains to investigate the civil and mental development of the Nahua (he prefers to call them Nahuatlacâ, Nahua = 'Men') and the Kechhua people, without forgetting the Maya of Yucatan and the Chibcha of Bogotá. Before the Spanish conquest of Anahuac, most Mexican tribes described themselves as Chichimecs, and the people of Tlaxcallan especially called themselves Teochichimecă, or 'Chichimecs of the Sun' (teotl). These had advanced, like the other Aculhua tribes, from the "Seven Caves" and Jalisco by way of the Tollan district and the lakes; their peculiar tribal name was derived from the fact that they proposed to discover and occupy Teotlixco Anahuac, or the 'Land of the water where the sun rises' (teotl, or sun, being 'the god,' or 'the god by excellence'), an imaginary land. Some years were passed at Texcuco, and, coming in conflict with the pueblos surrounding them, they crossed the sierra of Tlalocan. In a similar way the author sketches the early history of the other tribes and pueblos of the Mexican plateaus, Tollan, Huexohzinco, Tecpanec, Tezcuco, until the settling of Tenochtitlan gives him a resting-point from which to expatiate further upon the system of Mexican attributes, education, law and justice, and land-distribution.

As to the consolidation of American populations into tribes and compact national bodies, and their formation into distinct settlements, Payne admits that some are much older than others and can still be distinguished as such; these he calls autochthonic, while others are later arrivals. In regard to the lands now known as Mexico, a line may be drawn from the mouth of the Rio Grande to Guadalajara in Jalisco, to the north of which is a congeries of peoples distinct from one another in physical character and language, whereas south of it begin the pueblos of the old, genuine, and relatively unmixed nationalities of the Nahua, Otomi, Tarasco, Totonac, and others. A mixture of ethnic elements was, however, produced here also by the numerous colonies established from Anahuac in later times among the allophylic peoples, and therefore only the tribes settled east of the isthmus of Tehuantepec, such as Mayas, Guatemaltecs, Costa Ricans, etc., can be called aboriginal when compared with those west of this "limit." Mr. Payne is unwilling to admit that the Maya people possessed an indigenous civilization independent of that of the Nahuatlacâ. But this view will meet with considerable opposition among students. If his conclusions are well founded, he says, the Maya monuments and "pinturas" are From the time when America became due to the Toltecs, a branch of the Nahua, separated from the old-world continents, who are regarded "by general consent" as the cultural development, weak as it was at the founders of the higher advancement in

"A race distinguished from the inferior animals only by some painful and strenuous form of articulate speech, the possession of rude stone weapons and implements and of the art of fire-kindling, may have lived in the Old and New World in the palæo-ethnic age, and during long ages man roamed over both, as a single œcumenic area. When a geological change had separated them, an intercourse between them became less and less until the American branch of humanity became practically an isolated race, as America itself had become an isolated continent."

this region. These left Tollan for causes no longer distinctly traceable, and, long before Columbus's discovery, spread into Yucatan and Central America. Beyond maize cultivation and some peculiar theological traditions, the Mayas "borrowed everything in their advancement" from the Nahuatlacâ.

The calendar systems of Mexico, Yucatan, and Central America were substantially identical. One of the day-counts, the noctidiurnal birth-cycle, as Payne calls it, was in use at the time of the conquest, and consister of 13X20 days. The number thirteen was based on the fact that, from an infinite number of higher and lower spirits, in the earliest stage of religion, thirteen greater male and female spirits were recognized in Mexico as gods of superior rank, powers ruling the universe and the sequence of days. Each noctidiurnal cycle consisted of thirteen days, and twenty sequences of this cycle made a calendar period; each day in this cycle once bore a name borrowed from a very old seasonal enumeration of lunations, in use at some previous time. The day-names in this cycle seem to be seasonal names of lunations, as is common among savage nations; their succession seems to point to Anahuac, and the birth-day cycle was known in MexiCO as "moon-reckoning," metzlapohualli. Another day reckoning that was in use comes pretty close to our year reckoning. It is the cempoualli, or twenty-day period repeated eighteen times, and, with the five fatal days (nemontemi), reaches a total of 365 days. Payne believes that here the number twenty was suggested by the fingers and toes of the human body. The ordinary civil and religious calendar consisted of four cycles of thirteen, making a great cycle of fifty-two years, called ahau by the Maya people. It represents the greatest number of full and new moons occurring in the year. There is nothing to prove that the IncaPeruvian people possessed a true calendar in which the days and months were numerically adjusted to the solar year. In the chief pueblos the four cardinal points in the sun's course were ascertained by means of the Intihuatana, and at Cuzco the phenomena of the solstice were familiarized by two groups of pillars placed conspicuously on heights to the east and westward, and marking the extreme points of the sun's rising and setting. They had a year of 360 days, understood to be distributed into twelve natural moons of thirty days each, with a name assigned to each moon; they reckoned by the succession of lunations, but had no means to coördinate this reckoning summarily with the succession of years. The names of the sections of the year were taken from agricultural operations in the field, among the Aimará people. As to the calendar of the Chibcha people in Bogotá, Payne considers it a counterfeit dating from a late period, but composed of ancient elements derived from sundry South American nations.

A large number of topics, particularly the formation of the tribe, the clan, early marriage, etc., deserve equally to be mentioned with those we have selected. We must, however, conclude by saying that the two volumes as yet published of Payne's 'History' are a noteworthy instance of what may be accomplished by an Americanist who has never visited this western hemisphere in person, nor seen any of its tribes or ancient monuments, but with marvellous instinct and historic tact has resolved so many of

Mr. Churchill's experience as a war correspondent had an episode which added much to the romantic character of his army life in South Africa. He was taken prisoner with the detachment on an armored railway train that was derailed and captured by the Boers on November 15. They were reconEstcourt noitring from headquarters at northward towards the Tugela River, and the enterprising correspondent naturally wished to see what was at the front. He saw more than he bargained for, and had a 'Boer escort to Pretoria, where he made the acquaintance of Krüger's Secretary of War and other distinguished Afrikanders. He made a daring escape from the military prison, and had an adventurous journey to Delagoa Bay which would make any boy green with envy. Back by sea to Durban, he hastened again to his post at the front, and on the day before Christmas his tent was at the very spot where he had been captured. Meanwhile, Gen. Buller had concentrated there his army corps, had been repulsed at the Tugela River, and was deliberately preparing for another advance. Churchill had not lost much by his excursion to Pretoria. He now got a commission in the volunteer cavalry to save question as to his status if he was captured again in some less absurd reconnoissance than one by rail.

The operations to try a second crossing of the Tugela began on January 11. The plan was to threaten with the right, but to force the crossing at the left, some twenty miles in a bee-line west of Colenso and the railway crossing. Venter's Creek there comes in from the north, and its valley offered a way to turn the Boers' right by taking Spy Knob (Spion Kop), where they were supposed to have an outpost. This was going a long way round, for the crossing at Trichardt's Drift, near the creek's mouth, was nearly twice as far from Ladysmith as Colenso was. The promise to reach the commanding position at the Knob could be made good only by speed, yet a week was spent watching the enemy extending the trenches on the north of the river. On the 18th the column began a leisurely crossing at Trichardt's, with very little opposition, and pontoon bridges were laid. The infantry advanced about two miles and waited till next day. Immense wagon trains also crossed. Nothing at all was done on the 19th. On the 20th an attack was made, but the Knob was no longer an outpost, for the Boers had been given plenty of time to move to their right. The English gained a foothold on the plateau. For two days more the firing was kept up between the lines with no material change. In the night of the 23d Gen. Woodgate's brigade made an assault on the Knob and got a lodgment on it. In the early morning of the 24th the Boers concentrated their fire upon it. Woodgate was wounded and disabled.

It becomes evident at this point that there was no competent direction of the division. Churchill says that he visited in person the scene of action, and went back to Gen. Warren, the division commander, and described the situation. Warren, instead of going himself, sent him back to learn the

views of Col. Thorneycroft, who, though a Junior officer, had been placed by Buller's order in command on the Knob when it became evident that his senior in the brigade was unequal to it. Thorneycroft, who had received no messages from Warren before, now, in the night of the 24th, thought it too late to make the position tenable, and it was abandoned. If Churchill's description of events is accurate, it is no wonder that Lord Roberts condemned the generalship of the battle. On the 24th Mr. Pearse at Ladysmith had seen the Boer wagons trekking away towards the pass in the northwest, and believed their retreat had begun. It is hard to believe that proper energy by Gen. Warren on that day would not have made success complete; and Buller, in the crisis, should have applied the energy himself if Warren failed. Spion Kop should have been made impregnable before daybreak after its capture. Thorneycroft held it all through the following day, and still he was not reinforced, nor connection made with his flanks. When the Knob was abandoned, Buller went over the river in person to manage the retreat, but it would have been better if he had been there to give system and energy to the attack.

The action at Vaal Krantz on February 5 is described as being similar in its leisurely beginning, its partial success, and the failure to follow it up. The final turning of the Boer position at the end of February was by the English right, after their capture of the commanding ridge of Monte Christo; but we cannot ignore the fact that this was after Lord Roberts's advance into the Orange Free State had drawn away a considerable part of the Boer army about Ladysmith, and made the raising of the siege a foregone conclusion.

The campaign under Buller, judged from Mr. Churchill's narrative (which tries to be friendly), was marked by a deliberation in planning and a sluggishness in execution so extreme as to take away from it all energetic aggressiveness, and to give to the mobile army of Boers abundant time and opportunity to plant themselves in strong positions and intrench in front of each new movement of the British. The forces under Buller, with those in Gen. White's garrison, were at all times far superior to the enemy in numbers. Cipher communication by heliograph and search-light telegraphy was constant be. tween the two English commanders, yet they seem never to have coöperated in a common effort, although the distance between them was less than the length of the lines of either army, and those of the Boers extended with practical continuity from White to Buller. As commander-in-chief, Buller does not appear to have attempted any well-conceived simultaneous operation by his two wings upon the weaker force of the Boers which lay between. It is not so strange that the Boers contented themselves with defensive tactics after their offensive strategy had carried the war beyond their own borders into Natal. The necessity of economy in the use of their smaller numbers, with the unfitness of their irregular organizations for battle tactics on a large scale, combined to dictate the policy which they pursued.

It is pleasant to note that Mr. Churchill, while he was prisoner, found even the least cultivated of the Veldt Boers free from personal hate, and considerately kind in their treatment of him. They seemed to him good honest farmers, anxious to end the war and

get back to their families and their fields if they might do so in the national independence on which they had set their hearts. It was human nature that they should underrate the rights of Uitlanders and of black Africans, and stick for the complete dominance of the Dutch settlers in what they consider their own country.

North American Forests and Forestry. Their Relations to the National Life of the American People. By Ernest Bruncken, Secretary of the late Wisconsin State Forestry Commission. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1900.

When we observe the prodigal and wholly unwise use of our forest heritage, it seems sometimes as if almost nothing were being done in any way to inculcate successfully the principles of sound management. One turns away, sick at heart, as he sees the treasures of our forests squandered recklessly, and feels that he cannot unaided exert any influence in favor of a true economy. Nevertheless, in spite of the discouraging outlook, it is possible to detect, here and there, some signs of better times and of a judicious policy. The constant, although sometimes tactless, exhortations of the early Commissioners of Agriculture, and the more skilful presentations of the matter by their successors, are beginning to yield tangible results. These results are as yet scanty, but they convey a little hope that the subject will soon receive the attention which it deserves, and be taken from the category of impracticable reforms, to be placed securely among the accepted factors of national prosperity.

The establishment of Government forest reserves, although not very graciously welcomed by some of those who will thereby most benefit in the long run, is a step in the right direction. If the reserves are tactfully managed, as it seems likely they will be, a great deal of good must follow in an educational way. People who now look upon forestry as on a par with gentleman-gardening and gentleman-agriculture, useful chiefly as affording a basis for the activity of humorists, will see that true forestry means a small but certain profit calculable in per cents. The establishment of forest schools connected with our larger institutions of learning, and the deepening interest in courses on forestry, where the name of Forest School has not yet been assumed, point in the same direction. The experiment of one of the largest forestowning corporations in our country, looking towards scientific management of the crop of available wood, is perhaps even more hopeful than either of the other encouraging signs mentioned. Forest-wasters, greedily seeking to skin their forest-covered lands, have to pause when they hear of experiments in thrift on lands close to their own. It is also to the well-informed agricultural journals throughout the land that we must attribute much influence in helping to lift the weight of despair which has so long discouraged concerted effort to save our forests. Through evil report and ridicule, they have kept up the fight against the universal spendthrift policy which has hitherto characterized all lumbering here. Το them and to the special forest journals must be given high praise, if lumbering in our country ever yields to wise forest man

agement. And, further still, to certain Judicious publications by the general Government and by the States, must be assigned part of the credit, when our forests come to be properly cared for.

The book before us is another indication that the times are ripe for reform. We are sorry to note that the author, on his titlepage, writes "late" Forestry Commission of Wisconsin. It seems a pity to have efficient work stop where it is so much needed as in our northern tier of wooded States. Mr. Bruncken's book, of about 250 pages, is readable, and, for the most part, trustworthy. Exception may be taken to some of his suggestions relative to the treatment of forest trees, but such matters of detail do not impair the value of the work to the general reader. General readers are not likely to take up forest management, and specialists will of course bé guided by the text-books rather than by general works like the present. Therefore we commend Mr. Bruncken's book as useful in all essential particulars.

This is a stout little octavo, illustrated by some seventy-five pictures, of which a dozen are separate plates in photogravure, half-tone, or collotype. These are from such photographs as are rather easily obtainable. Of the text illustrations, some are taken from Viollet-le-Duc's 'Dictionary of Architecture,' some from Corroyer's 'Architecture Romane'; those of decorative glass taken are from Merson's 'Les Vitraux'; while two or three are credited to other books, and some very humble, oldfashioned woodcuts, like those which used to decorate our school geographies, are inserted without credit being given-as is natural enough, their original provenience being, perhaps, lost. Three drawings by Herbert Railton are given; but these are views of the author's own special dominion, the Cathedral of Gloucester, and whether they have appeared in another book or not is not stated. No great success attends the use of these illustrations of such varied source and character. Even where there are no mistakes made in the legend or title and where the single elucidation may pass, the lack of true relation between different pictures is regrettable; and, perhaps, for utility's sake, the book would be better without the pictures than with them. There are blunders, however; thus, on page 161, the ground plans of the two great cathedrals of Paris and of Bourges are displayed, but on such widely different scales as to mislead the beginner into the conviction that one was vastly larger in total dimensions and in detail than the other; while at the same time Paris is called Bourges, and Bourges is called Paris. Thus much needs to be said of the illustrations, which, with a little more minute care, might have aided greatly the study of the work.

Part of the prejudice against forestry in America has doubtless arisen from the silly attempts made here and there to introduce without modification European methods. In many countries in Europe, every severed twig and bit of bark must go to form the faggot, and eager hands clutch all fallen branches. Everything is turned to account. In our lumber camps the largest branches go to waste, and place, when dry, all the woods in peril from fire. The conditions of planting trees are wholly different, and the height of absurdity would seem to be reached when the owner of a small wood-lot is advised to keep a forester. In the book before us there are no such childish councils. The advice which the author gives is suited to our needs and our conditions. Until one stops to think how vast the normal forest area is in the United States, and how diversified are the constituents of our forests, he cannot realize the impracticability of laying down a set of rules to be applied throughout, World-wide differences exist between the forests of our Northeast, sometimes parched the heavy by protracted droughts, and growths in the moist Northwest. Each must have its own set of rules. The recognition of these differences is a part of the duty of the Division of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture at Washington, and advice concerning the different kinds of management is now being sought by practical men. It is to be sincerely hoped that the book we have here noticed may excite a still wider interest in the whole subject, and indicate to many forest owners the advantage they could gain from expert advice at their command in the Division of Forestry and in some of the State commissions.

It is pleasant to notice that many young men in America are seriously adopting foroccupation. estry as an To such as can bring to their work sound training in the elementary subjects which are concerned with the distribution, healthy growth, and diseases of forest trees, and supplement that training by practical studies in commonsense forestry, positions of usefulness must At the outset, the number of positions will be small, and the pay never can be large; but to each well-equipped man, clear in his head and ready to work with strong hands, a career of honorable activity will be surely within reach. To all young men of courage who have such outdoor work

be open.

Illustrations of Logic. By Paul T. Lafleur. Boston: Ginn & Co. 1899. 8vo, pp. 97. Prof. Lafleur has taken the trouble to ransack more than a hundred good writers and cull from them three hundred specimens of arguments, of which the greater part are valid or invalid according as they are free or not from any confusion between the ideas of some and all. That is to say, they are arguments that can be tested by Aristotelian syllogistics. The preface supplies unintentionally a three hundred and first example, for Mr. Lafleur there remarks that an instructor "finds difficulty in convincing his hearers that the logic of the class-room bears any relation to thought as met with in ordinary discussion and books"-implying that these illustrations ought to convince them that that logic supplies all that is requisite to judge of the validity of ordinary reasoning. Now, it is certainly true that most students, confusedly perceiving that any argument which requires close attention to apprehend its force depends upon something more than the some and all of traditional syllogistic, jump to the conclusion that there is no important element of right inference of which that doctrine takes account. This confuses some illative principles with all, and the conclusion is not true, since training in ordinary logic will almost insure a man against confusions of that kind. But, on the other hand, those who teach the old logic, finding that a great many important arguments can be thrown into syllogistic form, which really only proves that they involve a syllogistic element, jump to the conclusion that no important principle of reasoning has been overlooked, thereby falling into the very same fallacy that ensnares their pupils. The conclusion is not true, since, upon the examination of the syllogistic statement, it will often be found (not to say always, if the argument is at all difficult) that the whole gist of the reasoning has been thrown into the premises, so that the question of its validity is untouched by any criticism of the forms of the syllogisms. Hence, the need for a logic of relatives. The following three hundred and second "illustration" will show, if it be syllogistically treated, the truth of the above; ordinary syllogistic being incompetent to decide whether it is a sound argument or not:

ed, either our consumers would buy their If our duties on Cuban sugar were abolish

sugar much cheaper, or else Cuban planters would get a far better price for their sugar. But the latter event would create a powerful stimulus to the production of sugar in Cuba, and since what now limits the production there is not so much a lack of suitable land or of anything of which the possible supply is already near exhaustion, but only the cost of machinery, etc., which can be had in almost any quantity at present prices, or lower, it follows that the production would be immensely increased if much better prices could be got. Then, since this country must remain the principal market for Cuban sugar, either much more sugar must be sold here, or else the supply from other quarters (which is not now nearly so great as that from Cuba) must be very greatly curtailed. But, on the one hand, our people already use extravagant amounts of sugar, almost as much as they would if it cost nothing. Hence, a very considerable reduction of price would be necessary in order to increase the consumption in any large proportion. Nor, on the other hand, could the production of cane-sugar elsewhere than in Cuba be greatly curtailed unless there were a motive for partially abandoning its production, in the shape of a considerable diminution of the profits of that production. In either case, therefore, the price of sugar to consumers in the United States would be very considerably reduced.

Let anybody who thinks that, even granting the facts alleged, the above is not a sound argument (as most of our readers will probably agree it is not), endeavor to detect the flaw in it by any ordinary syllogistic rules, or let anybody show it is sound reasoning by those rules (without throwing the gist of the argument into the premises), and in either event we will admit that something has been done to rehabilitate the logic of the schools.

Mr. Lafleur may remonstrate that he puts forth no argument in his preface, but merely states a fact. John Dryden might on the same ground protest against Mr. Lafleur's Illustration No. 1, which is Dryden's couplet

"All human things are subject to decay,

And when fate summons, monarchs must obey." But the compiler would rightly reply, "Mr. Dryden, you perhaps had no definite intention of arguing, but in fact you did argue essentially as in the stock example, 'All men are mortal; Sortes is a man; hence, Sortes is mortal.' In like manner, Mr. Lafleur's statement of fact does convey to the reader's mind an argument, and, if insidiously, so much the more dangerously.

"

After all this tirade, we desire to say that Mr. Lafleur's little book will certainly be an enlivening and useful agent in the classroom. We wish that somebody would supplement it with a collection of real illustrations of relative reasonings, of striking problems in the doctrine of chances, of moot cases in inductive reasoning, and of examples in hypothetic investigations.

La Rénovation de l'Asie. Par Pierre LeroyBeaulieu. Paris: Armand Colin & Cie. This well-known French author, who writes briskly and with notable literary skill, made a journey of two years through the northern parts of Asia, studying the people and their official documents, and contributing the results of his observations from time to time to the Revue des Deux

Mondes.

He considers the renovation of Asia as the striking phenomenon of the second half of the century not yet finished. The main factors of this renovation are the evolution of Japan from a hermit nation to a world Power, the astonishing developments of Russia in Siberia, and the changes in China which suggest a problem of the first order of complexity. The revelation, since the war of 1894-5, of China's political weakness enables the author to picture in graphic phrase the amazing contrast between "the sick man in Peking" and the as yet untouched resources of both the soil and the sub-soil of China. Visiting the capital, which he describes in lively French phrase, the author sees, in the attitude of the population towards foreigners and their indifference to the outward world, a type of decadence of the entire empire. The chief cause of China's political marasmus lies in her learned men, whose minds are as impervious to new light and ideas as are the stone images on the Ming tombs.

In treating of the people, the author pays many a compliment to their abilities and character. They are not in decadence, but their spirit has lost all elasticity. Their whole look is backward. Their golden age was long ago, and the future has no hope. While Japanese think that if Confucius and Mencius were living to-day, they would be in the forefront of progress, the Chinese picture them as mighty teachers always standing with their backs to the present. The author treats intelligently of the foreigners in China and of the concessions made to them in the years 1842, 1858, 1860, 1895, and 1898. The Chinese, even when they bow before the foreigners' force and profit by their material advantages, hold them in supreme contempt. This hostility among the learned directors of opinion is the greatest obstacle to progress.

M. Leroy-Beaulieu is surprised at the new relations between China and the Powers discernible since the war of 1895. These have resulted wholly to Russia's advantage. Japan had a dream of conquest; but Russia, drawing in France and Germany, not only drove Japan away from her prey, but substituted at Peking her own all-powerful influence in place of the British, which had been paramount before. The author gives a very readable résumé of Russia in Asia. His whole discussion is fresh, suggestive, and clear. He shows that Russian expansion in Asia was contemporaneous with that of western Europe in the New World. There are many analogies between the north of Asia and the north of America, in which are three zones, the author describing their extent and production. The native population is insignificant, and the immense majority of the inhabitants are Russians. The Polar tribes are decreasing, while the Mongol population is increasing more slowly than the Russians, who, having large families, lead all races. In this population of Russian emigrants, there are many hetereogeneous elements, including the Jews and the Raskolniks, or dissenters from the Russian church. The author is enthusiastic about the mineral riches and commercial possibilities, including the transit of tea from China and Japan, of southern Siberia. The cities are of little importance, the rural population being by far the most promising. The iron road is in competition with the sea path, and the wheel with the keel, but it is evident that by the overland road, and not by the ocean, the ci

vilizations of the East and the West are to merge. Two million emigrants yearly rush over the rails to Siberia.

In treating of Japan, after glancing at its origins and past history, the author calls attention to the diversity of opinion about the Japanese and the reality of the reforms which they have undertaken. He is perfectly right in insisting that, to obtain a correct judgment, one must know Japan's history. Thus only can he appreciate the nature and the consequences of the modern transformation and gauge the chances of the future civilization of Japan. M. LeroyBeaulieu shows that the evolution of Japan's early civilization was arrested under the Tokugawa shoguns, who excluded foreigners and so included the people that growth was impossible. When, however, the long-repressed energy broke forth, it was embraced by the European civilization without resistance. To-day Japan is a land of contrasts. The old and the new jostle. Landing at Nagasaki, our traveller voyaged through the Inland Sea, finding Yokohama, though only forty years old, with a population of 170,000 souls. Tokio is a city of telephones and electric lights. Amazing is the development of Japanese industry, which in its activities has been redoubled since the war with China, for Japan means to capture the Chinese market, the greatest single market in the world. She will not hesitate to fight Russia on the sea, should that be necessary. Yokohama is the commercial, Osaka is the manufacturing centre. Agricultural life is as yet predominant, though with a tendency to lessen in relative importance, the rural population being very dense on the plains and in the low valleys. The author was pleased with the good humor and politeness of the peasantry, notes the diffusion of Western civilization and instruction among them, shows the cost of living, and reveals the very modest budget of a little Japanese home. Statistical details Illustrate the enormous development of commerce both at home and abroad.

Japan's remarkable financial prosperity on the eve of the war with China is another topic. The wonderful faculty of organization displayed during the campaigns, on land and sea, is praised. In consequence of this war, however, a military and naval programme of startling proportions has been formulated. Now, the problem of Japan is how to get the two hundred and forty million of yen to carry it out. Treating of politics and social life, M. Leroy-Beaulieu remarks the preponderance of the Samurai, that class of men who have enjoyed intellectual culture for a thousand years, while to the people at large even schools are a novelty. The clan spirit still survives. Though the "ring" of Choshiu and Satsuma men that surrounded the Emperor for thirty years is broken, and the combat of Parliament against the Ministry, made up of southern clansmen, is over, yet real party government has hardly been attained, for Japanese parties are chaotic. Signs of amelioration are nevertheless recognized.

The growth of a warmer sentiment between Japan and Great Britain has created a sort of championship for the integrity of the Chinese Empire, while hostility to Russia increases. Yet there are ways in which Russia and Japan may walk as friends and even allies. In the final chapter the author discusses, with ability and many a fertile suggestion, as well as with precedent and

analogy, the question whether a people can assimilate the civilization of a different race. How far does Japan desire similarity to Europe? He gives a correct picture of the country since the revision of the treaties, and believes that it will be necessary, for the Japanese to enter into communication as intimately as possible, so that Western civilization may strengthen and not emaciate them. Altogether, this is a very timely and very able book by an author who gathers without prejudice his facts at first hand.

Textbook of Palæontology. By. K. A. von Zittel. Translated and edited by Chas. R. Eastman. Revised and enlarged edition. Macmillan & Co. 1900. Vol. I., pp. x, 706. 8vo. With 1,476 woodcuts.

Invertebrate palæontology long remained quiescent after the Darwinian ripples had thoroughly broken up the placid surface of zoology. This came about from the prevalence of the ancient notion that fossils were the "Medals of Creation," related to one another and to the existing fauna only as medals are to other medals. Thus there grew up a body of students who empirically correlated particular fossils with particular horizons, as one fastens price-tags to bolts of cloth in a shop. These men in the main studied fossils as fossils, with the least possible reference to existing animals, and many of them became wonderfully expert in their chosen field, and produced invaluable iconographic volumes illustrating fossil remains. A few, who studied vertebrate remains, were forced to use the bones of existing animals in comparisons, and it has been chiefly from this small company that palæontologic philosophers have arisen.

A gradual illumination slowly penetrated the cloisters of invertebrate palæontology, but no real change of method took place until very recently, long after the zoölogists had been rioting in the stimulating rays of the evolutionary sun. As usual, the textbooks have lagged behind the workers. That palæontology is not a distinct science, but a particularly hampered section of biology, where students struggle against enormous difficulties to win fragmentary but essential testimony as to the history of living organisms, was academically admitted in the spirit of the politician who was in favor of the Maine Law but opposed to its enforcement. To the efforts of Huxley, Cope, Hyatt, Ryder, and similar heresiarchs is due a change which is nothing less than fundamental in the way of looking at and interpreting the testimony of fossils.

The composite nature of the present work, some portions of which were only received by the editor after earlier parts were stereotyped, has naturally resulted in some incongruities, the most notable of which is the appearance in two places of certain families formerly regarded as corals, but now plausibly claimed by the students of Polyzoa. The recent advances in our knowledge of Conularia, its sessile habit and probable relegation to the hydroid polyps, have not found a place in the shuffling of old and new. However, criticisms of detail are relatively unimportant in view of the steps forward into the realm of modernity made by many chapters of this volume. The footing may not always be secure nor the trail clean-hewn of obstacles, but it leads in the right direction. The most notable advances are made in the groups of Polyzoa, Mollusca, and Trilobites, in which nothing but part of the bibliography and all the illustrations remain of the old work, the text being entirely original. Any book summing up the latest work on Crinoids, Polyzoa, Brachiopods, Cephalopods, and Trilobites by such authorities as Wachsmuth, Ulrich, Schuchert, Hyatt, and Beecher, must remain a classic, whether all matters of detail are finally accepted or not.

It is only fair to point out that the work done by Dr. Eastman's dozen collaborators, involving much time, drudgery, and sacrifice, has been wholly a labor of love; their services having been given at the appeal of the editor to make for the coming generation of students a manual which would join to lavish and elegant illustrations a text stimulated by the spirit of modern research, and in this way make the path easier for those who will, in some future decade, prepare a new Manual of Palæontology free from current incongruities and with all the advance of science recorded.

Bach. By C. F. Abdy Williams. E. P. Dutton & Co. Pp. 223.

Mr. Williams, whose readable little volume is based on the best German authorities, makes it clear that Bach was not so poor as has been assumed. His income from various sources was, it is true, only about $500 a year, but, as the author computes (p. 80), the purchasing power of this sum was equal to $3,150 in our day. However, Bach had nineteen children to bring up, and he sent two of them to the university, so that it is not surprising that his widow died in an almshouse and was buried in a pauper's grave. Bach's own grave was forgotten and lost. Its discovery, a few years ago, makes a detective story of great interest, which Mr. Williams might have advantageously incorporated in his pages. He should also have given some space to Mendelssohn and Franz for their labors in restoring Bach's works to the world. Apart from such omissions he has done his work well, and we have noted no errors except a few misprints (sätzes and gülden for satzes and gulden). The story of Bach's life is kept separate from the consideration of his works, which takes up about half the volume. The difference between Handel and Bach is thus summed up: "Handel, domiciled in England, knew his public, and knew them so well that he wrote works which not only became popular at once, but have never ceased to be popular. Bach either did not know or did not care to please his public, and wrote far above their heads, so that for a time after his death he was forgotten entirely. Burney devotes nearly a whole volume to Handel and only one paragraph to Bach."

A Short History of Free Thought, Ancient and Modern. By John M. Robertson. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co.; New York: Macmillan Co. 1899. 8vo, pp. 477. Free thought about religion has, far more than science or philosophy, been broken up into a hundred separate movements; and this circumstance compels, in any singlevolume review of them, so succinct a treatment of each movement that, though this volume is not small and a good deal of it is in fine print, the history is rightly named a short one. Had sufficient references been given to other works to make this a guide to the literature of the special topics, it would have been a valuable manual; but, that not having been done, it remains a short history and nothing more.

Some general theories regarding the course of free thought that the author seeks constantly to illustrate, serve to connect the different morsels and to maintain the read.