of Seneca, that he was married a thousand times, though he never had but one wife.

And this was the man with whom Horace lived on terms of intimate friendship and social equality. Not only was he the honored guest, but the frequent host of the great man; and he owed this position to no subservience or undue complaisance. We have clear and unmistakable evidence of the spirit of Horace, in the long and clever epistle in which he firmly but courteously denies the right of his patron to abridge his holiday in the country, and order him back to Rome. He had gone to the country in the beginning of August for a week, and when his sojourn there had extended over a month, Mæcenas, impatient of the long absence of his friend, seems to have remonstrated somewhat sharply, and probably to have reminded him of the obligations under which he lay: Horace says he will not return till the spring: “Your poet will return my kind friend with the zephyrs and the first swallow." Even his Sabine farm (the gift of Mæcenas) would be dearly purchased at the price of his independence. Sooner than that he boldly says:

I give up all I've got without a sigh.

He declares that no material comforts compensate for loss of liberty, and boldly exclaims:

He that finds out he's changed his lot for worse
Let him betimes the untoward choice reverse.

Never was there a more outspoken, yet perfectly friendly statement of the limits which should bound the patron's control over the private life and conduct of him to whom he has extended his favor.

SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY.

THE ANTIQUITIES OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. JAMES DEANS.

BEF

American Antiquarian, Avon, Ill., January. EFORE entering on the account of my experiences among the silent records of the past in this little-explored region, I shall quote a few lines from an essay on Vancouver Island, written in 1862 by Charles Forbes, M.D., of the Royal Navy, because, in a few words, he gives all that was known of the cairns of British Columbia, up to that date. After pointing out the remarkable resemblances between these cairns, and the ancient British cairns on Dartmoor, Devonshire, England, he says, speaking of our cairns: "These circles of stone point to a period of ethnological history which has no longer a place in the memory of man." And further he says of them: Scattered in irregular groups of from three or four to fifty or more, these stone circles are found, crowning the rounded promontories, over all the southeastern end of Vancouver Island. Their dimensions vary in diameter from three to thirteen feet; of some, only a simple ring of stones marking the outline now remains, In other instances, the circle is not only complete in outline, but is filled in, built up as it were, to a height of from three to four feet with masses of rock and loose stones, collected from among the erratic boulders, which cover the surface of the country; and from the gravel of the boulder drift which fills up many of the hollows. These structures are of considerable antiquity, and whatever they may have been intended for, they have long been disused, and many of them are now covered with a growth of mature timber. The Indians when questioned can give no further account of the matter than that 'they belonged to the old people.'

Believing them to be burial-places from their resemblance to the cairns of my native Scotland, I resolved to open a few at the first opportunity, which came about in the following

manner:

In 1871, being on the Canadian Geological Survey, the leader of the party, the late Mr. James Richardson, instructed me to take two men and open enough of the cairns to see how they

were built, and for what purpose. After looking around for a suitable one we pitched on the largest of a group, placed on the brink of a terrace, sixty feet above another one of about five hundred yards in width, bounded by a bluff, fifty feet in height. This bluff is the sea-bank of the present day, while the first mentioned was its back in by-gone ages. Thus, the cairn we opened was, when built, sixty feet above the water, but to-day is one hundred and ten feet above it.

The cairn was determined by measurement to be twentyfour yards in circumference. A trench, four feet wide was dug right through its centre. After a hard day's labor, we were rewarded by finding, right in the centre, at the bottom of a circular hole, beneath a pile of large stones, the greater part of the skeleton of a human being. Around it were wood ashes of oak and pine. The body had been cremated, and the parts remaining unburned had been placed on the bottom of the hole, or receptacle, in the following order: first the skull had been placed face downwards, due south. The bones of the legs and arms had been placed in line from the skull northward, while whatever other bones had been left unburnt were placed on top of them. This done, all the ashes had been gathered into the receptacle. Excepting these bones, nothing whatever was found. Over these remains, six inches of fine sand had been thrown. Above all, three large stones had been rolled, filling the receptacle completely. The skull crumbled to dust while we were cleaning it, as did, also, even the teeth. As regards the cairn itself, which was typical of all the others: In the first place, the builders appear to have marked out a circle; next, they appear to have taken out the soil within its bounds, which appears to have been saved in order to put it in the receptacle over the remains. The receptacle we always found in the centre of the circle, and always shaped like a basin. In size they vary according to the dimensions of the cairn. In this one the receptacle was six feet wide, and twenty inches deep; over it the pyre or pile of wood had been built. This pyre, which appears to have been square, was big enough to inclose the receptacle, so that while the body was burning the ashes might drop into it. The inside of the fire had evidently been filled with dry wood in order to help the kindling as well as the burning. The body, with the knees drawn up under the chin, and tied, in some instances (if not in all), had been placed in a cedar-wood box, lying on and covered with cedarbark fibre. In some instances, at least, the box with the body had been placed on the pyre; in other instances I see reason to believe that the body was only wrapped in mats. By digging up the bottom of the receptacle we found that in most cases it had the pink tinge of fire. Besides the large stones above mentioned, a number of smaller ones had been added, until it had the appearance of an inner cairn overlapping the rim of the receptacle fully a foot all around. Between the inner cairn and the outer circle was a space two feet wide. This outer circle was formed by stones three feet long, being set on end in imitation of a circle of standing stones, five feet apart from each other, and all marking the outline of the original circle. These standing stones, fifteen in number, very much resembled the sun circles in Bolivia, and other parts of South America.

I

THE MANUFACTURE OF ICE.
LEICESTER ALLEN A.B., M.E.
Engineering Magazine, New York, March.

HAVE never seen any person of inquiring mind, not acquainted with the principles of refrigeration, who, upon first sight of a modern ice-machine, did not express wonder at its operation and wish that he could explain its apparently paradoxical performance. I once placed a small ice-tank on a steamer, within one foot of the range, in a ship's galley. In the boiler-room, where the ice-machine was delivering air at a temperature of -40° F., the temperature was not infrequently 120° F. Some of the seamen, seeing it deliver the solid ice, expressed their belief that it would make ice in a much hotter place, frequently mentioned in their conversation.

Many modes of making ice are known, and many substances exclusive of fuel and water for supplying mechanical power, and brine (only employed as an extractor and conveyer of heat); have been more or less used. Among these materials may be named ammonia, ordinary atmospheric air, ether, cymogene,

sulphur dioxide, a mixture of ether and sulphur dioxide, etc. In the revolution of the art of artificial refrigeration, the two fittest only of these substances have survived, viz., ammonia and common air, the former is used almost exclusively except for cooling on sea-going vessels, and a few special purposes on land. All refrigerating processes, employing air or ammonia, as stated, may be grouped under three heads-those depending principally upon chemical affinity for the production of a condition in ammonia that will fit it for the generation of cold; those in which the action is wholly mechanical, and those in which ammonia is acted upon both chemically and mechanically.

In this article, intended only as a popular exposition of the subject, I shall content myself with a statement of some of the most easily comprehended principles.

The action of ice-machines and their connected apparatus is, in most particulars, entirely different from that of an icecream freezer. In this common domestic apparatus, ice is consumed to form ice in the cream-vessel, so that, at the end of the process, there can never be more in the freezer than at the beginning; owing to unavoidable waste, there is always somewhat less. Ice-machines, on the contrary, start off with no ice at all, and constantly turn out, in regular succession, large blocks of ice; or, if ice is not desired, they are used to cool a large room, or a mass of material stored in an inclosure, to any temperature above the point of freezing.

Now, many gaseous substances need only be compressed at ordinary temperatures to change them to liquids. In fact nearly all known gases have been liquefied; but there are some, as anhydrous ammonia, sulphur dioxide, etc., that, while liquefying under easily managed pressures, not only set free a quantity of latent heat when liquefied, but which, if the heat thus set free, be taken away, will, when the pressure is removed, again turn to gas, and reabsorb (render latent) as much heat as they gave off in liquefying, from any contiguous body having a higher temperature. If no such body is near, they still vaporize, rendering latent a part of their own sensible heat. The absorption of their sensible heat, of course, lowers their temperature, and they thus become intensely cold. They are thus brought into a condition for extracting heat from any other substance having a higher temperature. To the proper understanding of the subject, another principle now claims attention. It has been completely proved by the experiments of Count Rumford and others that the compression of a gas imparts heat to it, and that the heat so imparted is always the exact measure of the work performed in the act of compression. Further investigation has proved that the converse is also true. The gas, when it expands, again performs work while losing heat, and the work so performed is the exact measure of the heat so lost.

The essential parts of a compression ammonia ice-machine are, a compressing pump, a motor, usually a steam-engine that drives the compressor; a cooling receiver, usually a system of pipes connected with the pump, and placed in a tank of water, kept by constant inflow and overflow at nearly the ordinary temperature; a tank containing strong brine, and also a system of pipes, connected both with the receiver and the inlet valves of the pump, into which pipes the liquefied ammonia is allowed to expand as regulated by a valve, and from which the pump constantly takes out ammonia gas to pass it again into the receiver.

The pump, so inducting the gas, presses it into the receiver, the valve that regulates expansion into the pipes in the brinetank being adjusted to maintain a proper pressure in the receiver, and this pressure being such as will cause the ammonia to liquefy at the temperature of the water surrounding the pipes in the receiver. In liquefying, the vapor yields up its latent heat to the water surrounding the pipes in the receiver. In again vaporizing in the pipes of the ice-tank into which it flows, the gas first absorbs enough of its own sensible heat to bring it slightly below the temperature of the brine in the

tank, and thereafter all the latent heat required to vaporize it is taken from the brine.

In this brine, molds, filled with either filtered or distilled water, are placed, and to this cold brine the latent heat from freezing water passes till the water is frozen. The molds are then lifted out and placed in a tank of warm water till the ice loosens from the molds, when the blocks of ice, clear as plate-glass and much purer than most natural ice, readily slip out and are ready for market.

In modern ice-machines, cooling the expanding gas by performing work with it has been abandoned, because the additional effect gained by this is so small that the gain does not compensate for the necessary additional complication of machinery. On the other hand, in cold-air machines that cool through alternate compression and expansion of air, the air is not liquefied under compression, there is no absorption of latent heat from it, and the entire action of such machines is mechanical. Work is first performed on the air to compress it by a steam-engine. The heat equivalent of this work is then extracted by cooling the air under constant pressure by water at ordinary temperatures; the air so cooled is conducted to a compressed-air engine that assists the steam-engine in the work of compression, and the air exhausted from the engine is thus reduced in temperature by conversion into work of the heat equivalent of the work performed. This cold air, reduced to temperatures from 60° to -80° F., may then be used for making ice, or regulating the temperature of cold storage rooms.

I'

FLUORINE.

HENRI MOISSAN.

Annales de Chimie et de Physique, Paris, October and Fanuary. WAS the first person to obtain the element, fluorine, in a state of purity, and this I did for the first time in the year 1887. Since then I have considerably enlarged and improved my apparatus, which is now capable of turning out one hundred and sixty cubic inches of the gas an hour. I obtained this result by passing a strong current of electricity from twenty-six or twenty-eight Bunsen batteries through hydrofluoric acid, in which was dissolved a metallic compound, to increase the conductivity.

Every part of my apparatus is constructed of platinum* with stoppers of fluor-spar, through which the wires conveying the current pass. The purifying vessels, tubes, and connections are also of the same metal, fastened together by nuts and flanges with lead-washers, which, when acted on by the escaping gas, expand and seal any leak.

The tube in which the generation takes place is kept at a temperature of 9° Fahrenheit by the evaportion of a very volatile organic liquid contained in an outer vessel, and the first member of the purifying series at -58° Fahrenheit by the same means; the greatest care having to be taken that even the vapor of the refrigerating liquid does not enter any part of the apparatus, or else violent explosions occur.

Fluorine gas is of a yellow color, with a smell resembling bleaching-powder. Every precaution has to be used in studying its action on other bodies, both on account of its dangerously irritating action on the eyes and mucous membrane of the operator; and its marvelous energy, far exceeding that of anything hitherto discovered. There is hardly a gas, liquid, or solid that it does not attack, usually, with the greatest violence; in fact, its mere contact with any other substance is nearly always signalized by the sudden evolution of intense heat and light and loud detonations.

As a supporter of combustion, fluorine leaves oxygen far behind. Lampblack bursts immediately into brilliant flame and gets red-hot in a current of fluorine gas; and charcoal is made to give an interesting exhibition of its porosity, by first

* As the price of platinum is two-thirds of that of gold the cost of the researches was not insignificant.

filling its interstices with the gas and then burning spontaneously with sparkling scintillations. The diamond, however, is able to withstand its action, even at high temperatures. Silicon, a crystalline substance closely resembling the diamond, gives a very beautiful reaction, showers of brilliant spangles being scattered in all directions from the white-hot crystals, which are finally melted. As they do not fuse under 2190° Fahrenheit, some idea can be formed of the immense energy set free during the combination.

All the metals, with the exception of gold and platinum, are rapidly attacked by fluorine, and even those in less degree. Iron combines in the cold with splendid energy, becoming white-hot; and rust, when heated, behaves in a similar manner. Zinc, if slightly warmed, bursts into gorgeous luminosity, accompanied by bright white flames so intense as to be almost blinding. Mercury is attacked violently in the cold. I once attempted to pass a quantity of the gas into a tube standing over mercury protected by an inert fluid; but when inclining the tube, the two elements came into contact, there was a violent detonation, and the containing vessels were broken to atoms. Silver requires some persuasion before it will take up fluorine, and very little action occurs until 212° Fahrenheitthe boiling point of water-is reached. At a red-heat, however, incandescence is observed, the product melts, and, on cooling, has a sheen like satin. Gold, on heating, forms a volatile fluoride which, when carried to a slightly higher temperature, splits up again into the metal and the gas.

The behavior of liquids with fluorine is usually very energetic, and experiments have to be conducted with much caution. If the gas be passed into the middle of alcohol, the result is very striking: the whole mass is violently agitated, and each bubble, as it appears, becomes incandescent in the middle of the liquid, finally vanishing in flame. If a few drops of chloroform are shaken up in a tube full of fluorine gas, a violent explosion takes place, and the tube is reduced to frag

ments.

Hydrogen combines fiercely with fluorine, even in the dark, and at -9° Fahrenheit, the issuing stream burning with a blue flame, bordered by red. In every other known case, heat or some form of extraneous energy is required to induce the combination of elementary gases. Oxygen is one of the few bodies that appear to have no affinity for fluorine. Even when they are heated together up to 932° Fahrenheit nothing is observed to take place between them. If a few drops of water are placed on the floor of the experimenting tube and fluorine gas is passed in, a dark fog is seen surrounding each drop, which presently clears and resolves itself into a characteristic blue vapor, apparently more than an inch in thickness, and which is found to be that most interesting condensed form of oxygen-ozone-in a state of great density.

DEMOGRAPHY.

IN A HUNDRED YEARS. IV.*

CHARLES RICHET.

Revue Scientifique, Paris, January 30.

'HAT is likely to be the social and financial condition of

WE
W the people in 1992?

During the past century there has evidently been taken a very long step towards an equality of fortune and condition. This, however, is nothing to what will occur in the century on which we are about to enter. At present, by a sort of admirable instinct, everyone, rich and poor, comprehends the necessity of a better social organization.

The fundamental element of social progress is a more equitable distribution of wealth, something which a tax on incomes aims at. The economists strive in vain to get away from the question; but it forces itself to the front. At the last, it will be necessary to put a tax on incomes, a progressive and pro* For preceding parts see LITERARY DIGEST, Vol. IV., pp. 264, 294, 486.

portional tax, relative, on the one hand, to the number of the.. children, and, on the other hand, to each one's share of fortune. It must be remembered that individuals who are neither proprietors nor live on their income, comprise nearly the half of the population of France, while in other countries the proportion is much larger, so that, out of every three individuals, there are two who possess nothing. The inequality is too great not to be lessened by a tax on incomes. This reform will not be accomplished suddenly, but by a series of successive improvements. It will not amount to a suppression of inheritance. It is clear that the method of laying this tax may vary infinitely. Any supposition as to how the details will be arranged would be premature; but it is none the less probable that this tax will be the base of all future taxes necessary for the State. Wealth will be also completely modified by the progressive diminution of the revenues of capital. Fifty years ago a loan: at seven or eight per cent. interest was normal. Now a loan at eight per cent. is considered usurious. At present the interest of money is tending towards from three to three and a half per cent. In fifty years, if things go on in the same way, you will not be able to get more than from two to two and a half per cent.; and in a century, from one to one and a half will be the rate,

If you remember that all sorts of food, house-rent, clothing, objects of luxury, whatever one buys, has tripled in price, you will see that the value of capital has diminished by just so much. As a result of the increased production of gold and silver, this diminution in value will continue. Gold and silver do not disappear once they are put in circulation. In 1850 the amount of gold and silver in circulation was equal to 36 francs a head for the population of France; in 1891 that amount was equal to 70 francs a head. At the end of the twentieth century it will be equal to 200 francs a head; even if the quantity of gold and silver produced does not increase. To illustrate: an object, which in 1850 was worth 100 francs, will, in 1992, be worth 300 francs; in 1850, 100 francs represented a capital of 1,700 francs, while in 1992 in order to expend 300 francs a year, it will be necessary to have a capital of 30,000 francs. Enormous as this difference appears, it is none the less certain, and it is one of the best solutions of the social question which can be foreseen, In fact, the capitalist will be nearly wiped out, for, in order to have as much as the workman, he will have to possess so large a capital that very few individuals will be capitalists.

We must consider the future of the workmen also. The working-class will become more and more numerous. The emigration of country people to the towns increases constantly, and will go on at a still greater rate. If the great cities of New York, Paris, and London follow the rate of their progress. since the beginning of this century, they will number-these three alone-sixty millions inhabitants by the end of the next century. These three will be town-nations, in which there will not be an agriculturist. They will be peopled by industrials, merchants, tradespeople, and workmen. The workmen will form the largest portion and will be able by their votes to regulate work. The laws they will pass in that respect will assuredly be just and equitable. Hatreds, misunderstandings, quarrels, more or less violent, between masters and workmen, there will be, without doubt. If the workmen, however, which seems probable, understand their own strength, they will be moderate, and respect the rights of others in order to assure their own triumph. It will not be necessary for them to meditate very deeply to comprehend that, with their votes and their strikes, they can become masters of the world.

How about the international question of permanent armies and preparations for war? I am obliged to confess that I believe that the foolish military expenses of the present day will continue yet a long time. In other words, we shall keep on ruining ourselves by an armed peace, instead of ruining ourselves by war. Let us distinguish, however, between arma

ments and armies. The system of armaments will continue. There will be no cessation in building forts and cuirassed ships. in making guns and cannon; but permanent armies will tend to disappear. At present, there is spent on the armies (land and sea) of Europe, four milliards of money. In this way Europe makes America a gift of that sum. If, in 1992, the military question is not solved-and perhaps it will be, in the sense of the suppression of permanent armies and the organization of an international tribunal-in the following century that question will be pretty well disposed of.

Will this materialist and utilitarian society of 1992 have a religion? That it will be essentially laic, is not doubtful. Religious ideas, however, are not destroyed; they offer, like a national language, an almost invincible resistance to efforts to destroy them. In Roman Catholic countries, the people will have preserved a vague religious sentiment, and there will still be religious pomp, attended by the mass of the people without conviction, but with profound belief on the part of a few rare individuals, surviving relics of the faith of past ages. In Protestant countries, religion will be less doctrinal, but more professed, a sort of purified Christianity, disengaged from all liturgical conception and the more difficult to uproot, because it will be less associated with the supernatural and absurd. It will be a reasonable and logical religion, which will have in the Roman United States and in England millions of adherents. Catholicism will undergo an analogous evolution; it will be always very dogmatic, but the rigor of dogmatism will be outweighed, on the one hand, by the incredulity and indifference of the masses; on the other, by the very clear perception of contemporaneous reality, which has never been lacking in the Roman Catholic Church. The Jews will be confounded more and more with the mass of the nation in the midst of which they live, and their religion will be naught but a curious tradition, out of fashion. As to the Arabs, the Hindoos, the Chinese, they will preserve their creeds. The history of the last four centuries demonstrates that Christian proselytism has taken no hold of these Orientals. Their religions are good enough not to make them desire any change.

NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. XV. ASTRONOMY.

THE

ANDREW DIXON WHITE, LL.D., L.H.D.
PART I.

Popular Science Monthly, New York, March.

HE next great series of battles was fought regarding the relations of the earth to the heavenly bodies. The prevailing view in the early Church was based upon Genesis, that a solid vault-a "firmament "-was extended above the earth, and that the heavenly bodies were simply lights hung within it. By the evolution of scientific thought, the geocentric doctrine-that the earth is the centre, and that the sun and planets revolve around it-under its final name, Ptolemaic theory," carried weight; and, having thus come from antiquity into the Christian world, it was finally acquiesced in and universally held to agree with the letter and spirit of Scripture.

This system stood for centuries, and was imbedded in the beliefs and aspirations, in the hopes and fears of Christendom down to the middle of the sixteenth century.

But the processes of mathematics were constantly improved, the heavenly bodies were steadily observed, and at length appeared in Poland a plain, simple-minded scholar, who first fairly uttered to the modern world the truth-now so commonplace, then so astounding-that the sun and planets do not revolve about the earth, but that the earth and planets revolve about the sun; and this man's name was Nicholas Copernicus. He had been a professor at Rome, and even as early as 1500 had announced his doctrine there, but more in the way of a scientific curiosity, as it had been previously held by Cardinal de Cusa, than as the statement of a system representing a great fact in nature. But to Copernicus, steadily studying the subject, it became more and more a reality, and, as the intuition of its truth grew, he seemed to feel that he was no longer safe at Rome. To announce his theory there as

the truth would never do. He returns to his little town in Poland, and for more than thirty years the thought lay slumbering in the mind of Copernicus, and of the friends to whom he had privately intrusted it.

At last he prepares his great work on the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies, and dedicates it to the Pope himself, and seeks a publisher. He dares not send it to Rome, for there are the rulers of the older Church ready to seize it; nor to Wittenberg, for there are the leaders of Protestantism, no less hostile; so he intrusts it to Osiander, of Nuremberg.

But Osiander lacks courage: he dares not launch the new thought boldly. He writes a groveling preface, to excuse Copernicus for his novel idea, and inserts the apologetic lie that Copernicus propounds the doctrine of the earth's movement merely as a hypothesis: he declares that it is lawful for an 'astronomer to indulge his imagination, and that this is what Copernicus has done.

Thus was the greatest and most ennobling, perhaps, of scientific truths-a truth not less ennobling to religion than to science-forced, in coming before the world, to sneak and

ǝrawl.

On the 24th of May, 1513, the newly printed book arrived at the house of Copernicus. It was put into his hands; but he was on his death-bed. A few hours later, he was beyond the

reach of the conscientious men who would have blasted his. reputation, and perhaps destroyed his life.

During nearly seventy years (thanks to the preface of Osiander) the church authorities did not move against the book, but even in some cases allowed the new view to be presented purely as a hypothesis. But in 1616, when the Copernican theory was upheld by Galileo as a truth, and proved so by his. telescope, the book was taken in hand by the Roman curia.. The statements of Copernicans were condemned "until they should be corrected," and the corrections required were to substitute for his conclusions the old Ptolemaic theory. Galileo. was forbidden to teach or discuss the Copernican theory, and henceforth to read the work of Copernicus was to risk damnation, and the world accepted the decree.

Doubtless many will exclaim against the Roman Catholic Church for this; but the simple truth is that Protestantism was no less zealous against the new scientific doctrine. All the branches of the Protestant Church-Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican-vied with each other in denouncing the Copernican theory as contrary to Scripture; and at a later period the Puritans showed the same tendency; even John Wesley declared the new ideas to tend toward "infidelity."

But the new truth would not down. Many minds had Jeceived it, but within the hearing of the papacy only one tongue appears to have dared to utter it clearly. This new warrior was that strange mortal, Giordano Bruno. He was hunted. from land to land, until at last he turned on his pursuers with fearful invectives. For this he was imprisoned during six years, then burned alive, and his ashes scattered to the winds.. Still the new truth lived on. Ten years after the martyrdom of Bruno the truth of the Coperincus doctrine was established by the telescope of Galileo.

Years before, opponents had said to Copernicus, "If your doctrines were true, Venus would show phases like the moon. He answered: "You are right; God is good, and will in time find an answer to this objection." The answer came when, in 1611, the rude telescope of Galileo showed the phases of Venus.

It was

On Galileo the whole war was at last concentrated. long and bitter. He discovered the moons of the planet Jupiter in 1610, thus taking the Copernican theory quite out of the realm of hypothesis, and the battle against him began immediately. But his little telescope still swept the heavens,. and another revelation was announced-the mountains and valleys of the moon. This provoked another attack. Still another followed when the hated telescope revealed spots up-. on the sun, their motion indicating the sun's rotation.

The whole struggle to crush Galileo would be amusing were. it not so fraught with evil. He was finally brought before the Inquisition and threats of the dungeon led him to formally. renounce his views of the movements of the earth.

RELIGIOUS.

THE MARVELS OF THEOSOPHY.*

THE EDITOR.

The Month, London, February.

N applying the principles of ordinary criticism to Theosophy we have to determine first of all whether there are a suffi

cient number of established facts connected with it, inexplicable either by known laws, or by self-delusion, or by clever trickery, to justify us in declaring its members in possession of powers which ordinary men do not possess. We have next to decide whether the facts on the reality of which we can rely, and which are put forward by the advocates of the system as its motives of credibility, are to be traced to supernatural, natural, or preternatural causes. Further, we have to inquire whether the powers which we must perforce ascribe to them are due (1) to a deeper knowledge of the natural laws that govern the universe; if not, (2) are we to ascribe their exceptional powers to the presence of invisible agencies assisting and guiding them? (3) Are these agencies human or superhuman, are they supernatural or preternatural, that is, are they to be traced to the beneficient action of Almighty God, acting through His heavenly messengers, or to the malignant action of the enemies of God, whose object is to dishonor Him, and deceive and ruin those who are made in His image and likeness?

As regards the facts, I have to confess that the combined testimony of intelligent and reliable men compelled me to give a rather grudging assent to the facts narrated as true. To be incredulous is always a cheap way of seeming to be wise, but in the case of Theosophy the witnesses are unimpeachable; and

the spirits in their preternatural courtesy, and in return for this acknowledgment of their reality, a Mahatma well known in Theosophic circles, Koot Hoome, promised to visit Mr. Eglinton on his voyage to Europe, and transmit a letter from him to his friends in Calcutta, delivering it the same day it was written. This promise was duly kept, as is attested by witnesses and documents; and there is no rational escape for anyone who looks into the evidence, from the necessity of admitting that this and similar phenomena have actually been accomplished, impossible as ordinary science will declare them. The summary of what we have yet arrived at is this, that there seem to be well-attested phenomena, connected with Theosophy, which cannot be accounted for by any known laws; that though a certain amount of imposture may be mixed up with the marvels narrated, yet it will not account for them all, and that there is a considerable surplusage that cannot possibly be so explained; that this surplusage consists of phenomena, corresponding almost exactly to those of Spiritualism; that the true interpretation of the older system is equally the true interpretation of the newer. If in the case of Spiritualism it is generally admitted on all sides that there are invisible agents at work, to whom its wonders are due, we must concede the same kind of agency to Theosophy. What we shall have to consider in our next article, is the character of the beings with whom Theosophy surrounds its adepts and disciples. NATIONALISM, THE CONCLAVE, AND THE NEXT POPE.*

THE RIGHT REVEREND MGR. BERNARD O'REILLY, D.D. American Catholic Quarterly Review, Philadelphia, January

March.

OR long time past there have been, on both sides of the

at a loss to explain them, the honest course to be pursued is to profess our ignorance, and suspend our judgment, not to evade the difficulty by arbitrarily denying the facts.

What Theosophy claims, is the possession of a power over nature by which are produced phenomena such as every other system would call miraculous. Miracles are entirely foreign to Theosophy. They attribute the so-called miraculous effects, merely to the moral and intellectual superiority of those "great souls," living for the most part in the mountain fastnesses of Thibet, whom they term Mahatmas, and who are able, by reason of their higher cultivation, and deeper knowledge of nature's secrets, to do what is altogether out of the power of ordinary mortals. Their natures are so spiritualized that they share with spiritual beings the faculty of instantaneous passage from one end of the earth to the other, and of transporting material objects the longest distances in a moment of timę, of communicating with their absent friends, and of making themselves even visible to certain privileged persons, while they are invisible to all around. They profess to be able to give a natural explanation of all Spiritualist marvels, and, if they could establish their system to begin with, I should be inclined to regard their attitude in respect of Spiritualism as a very sensible one.

When Theosophy first came into sight, some of the Indian Spiritualists declared that their spiritual guides informed them that the Theosophists were misled by the fact that Madame Blavatsky was an extraordinary medium who had been Ideceived by her "familiar” into a belief in the illustrious brotherhood of the Mahatmas. This uncomplimentary account of the new system they afterwards withdrew. They, after a time, declared their full belief in the Brotherhood, and said that they were appointed to work in concert with them. This points very strongly to a like agency at work in the two systems.

There was a certain Mr. Eglinton, a devout Spiritualist, to whom this communication was made by the spirits who held converse with him. The Mahatmas were not to be outdone by * See also THE LITERARY DIGEST, January 30th.

outbursts of a feverish and most untimely curiosity regarding the nationality of the immediate successor of Leo XIII., the place where the next conclave would assemble, and the degree of pressure which the Great Powers would bring to bear upon the electors, members of the Sacred College. What is most to be regretted is to see Catholics manifesting more anxiety regarding the nationality of the next Pope than the freedom of the conclave, or the conditions of greater liberty or greater servitude awaiting him.

We shall consult the desire of both the Protestant and Catholic public by giving at once categorical answers to the following questions, which are uppermost in the minds of our readers, and continue to be warmly discussed throughout the Christian world:

Where will the next conclave be held?

Of what nationality will be the Pope there chosen?
Will the Pope continue to reside in Rome?

I

There is not the faintest probability, save in the sole event of a general European war, that the next conclave can or will be held outside of Rome. Every probability, every consideration of political wisdom, point to the moral certainty that the conclave will take place in the Eternal City, protected from all violence and pressure by the Italian Government. The "Law of Guarantees," passed by the Italian Parliament, promises protection to the Sacred College while performing its functions as an electoral body. Just as it is of the greatest possible interest to the Italian Kingdom that none but a native of Italy shall succeed Leo XIII., even so it is the interest of King, Ministers, and Parliament to take every possible measure to induce the cardinals to hold the conclave in Rome, and to surround the deliberations of the Electoral College with even greater guarantees of security and freedom from outside pressure or threats of Radical violence than in February, 1878.

Umberto I. and his Cabinet are heartily tired of the daily *THE LITERARY DIGEST, Vol. IV., No. 3, p. 71, contains a digest of an article on this subject from an Italian review.