there are other than Roman Ultramontanes in Western Catholicism, and with these others the Russian Church may, I hope, with God's help, establish a hearty and deep sympathy and understanding. Mons. Vanutelli's mission will at least have done some service by reminding us that our moral support, which Rome craves in vain, may be an invaluable reinforcement to the Old Catholics. IN THE WORSHIP OF VISHNU IN INDIA. Sunday at Home, London, April. 'N order to understand modern Hindoo worship we have to go back to the origin of Indian religion, and to consult the earliest records which are still extant. Comparing the various documents which state at successive periods the beliefs of the people, we can trace the course in which the faith in a certain deity took shape and grew into a set tradition, in which it seemed to crumble away for ages, but reappeared again outwardly transformed, yet essentially the same it had been in the beginning. We behold the face of a god in boyhood and in old age. The one has the complexion of the morning, the other is gray and wan. The features are different, but the eyes are the same. They have the same expression and light in them. Such is the history of Vishnu. Through all the transformations which Vishnu undergoes, through all the new attributes and functions with which he has been invested, there remains the recollection of his having been originally “the lord of the sun." The name of the god is characteristic of his activity; for Vishnu comes from the root vish, and vish means to pervade. Whether in the clouds, where vapors fill the air, or in the sun, where rays pierce the atmosphere, this divine power permeates all, is diffused in all things. In the law-book of Manu, which in its present form was drawn up about five centuries B. C., attributes of the supreme god are ascribed to Vishnu. The century in which the great law-book received its final shape, saw also the rise of the Buddhist religion. This became the religion of the State, under the patronage of princes. It flourished for a thousand years, when, about the middle of the Seventh Century of our era, a reaction took place. Buddhism fell from its high estate as an established Church, and the full revival of the ancient worship of the Gods set in. It was from the beginning of the Eighth Century that Hindooism received the mould and cast in which it subsists to this day. No better emblem exists of its central doctrines than the mighty bust of one head with three faces, which we find in the caves of Elephanta. In this Tri-murti, Brahma is in the middle, to his left is Shiva, to his right Vishnu. The three are revelations of the infinite spirit; each can take the place of the two others, and each can be raised to the place of the supreme god. In former days there have been wranglings between the rival theological factions. To this day, walking through a bazaar, we could say which side a man has taken in this division, from the mark which we see on his forehead. The Shaiva has three horizontal lines, made with gray ashes; the Vaishnava has perpendicular lines made with red or yellow pigments, meeting in a curve above the ridge of the nose. The temples of the two creeds are invariably built in close neighborhood; the images of the two gods appear sometimes in the same sanctuary. Orthodox Brahmans are, in a certain sense, simultaneously Shaivas and Vaishnavas. Yet, there is a marked difference in the hold which the two deities have on the imagination of the people. The worship of Shiva prevails throughout India; but amongst a hundred Hindoos there is barely one who is initiated into the service and hopes to obtain salvation through his help. It is not on Shiva, the most ancient and eternal one, but on Vishnu, who from age to age has become incarnate, that the Hindoo mind dwells with fondness. Every time that religion is in danger and that iniquity triumphs, the god issues forth, and he will come again in the last days as an avenger to put an end to the domination of the Mlecchas, the barbarians. Nine times, according to the most reasonable accounts, he has appeared already. The ninth and last incarnation that has taken place is Buddha. It is certainly wonderful that Hindoo priests should have condescended to recognize as divine, the man who had been their greatest foe, and had led the reforming movement against them. It seems the same thing as if Roman pontiffs were to canonize St. Luther" or to erect altars in memory of "holy Calvin." Buddhism, however, on one hand, was far more imbued with Hindoo ideas than Calvinism is with Roman; and, on the other, Brahman astuteness knew no bounds when it was a question of compromise. No doubt Brahmans would accommodate themselves to accept, if necessary, Christ as an incarnation of Vishnu; although the teaching of Christ denounces every act Vishnu has performed and condemns the very belief in his existence. Last of all, at the end of the Kali, or Iron Age, when the world is covered with darkness and cruelty, Vishnu will appear again, to destroy the wicked, to restore purity and to renew all creation. It is remarkable that the religions of India entertain the belief of a future Saviour, who, at the winding up of the age, will appear from heaven to judge the earth. ARE WE CHRISTIANS? Translated and Condensed for THE LITerary Digest from a Paper in DAY AVID FRIEDRICH STRAUSS asked: "Are we still Christians?” M. von Egidy asks: "Have we come to be Christians?" Both answer the question in the negative. As Christianity to Strauss was merely a confession, a doctrine, while to Egidy it is will and action, they are both right in their answers. We are no longer Christians, in so far as we no more bow down to the authority of Christian dogma. On the other side, we are not yet Christians, for we have not yet realized the ethical ideal of Christianity. Christianity means liberation from the beast in us. We fight one another, we rob one another, and covet our neighbor's goods; we lust after women. We do not give our raiment to our brother in need, nor do we speak the truth by Yea, yea; nay, nay. But to keep these commandments is Christianity, and the keeping of them is independent of dogmatic belief. A few individuals may follow the Master, but human society does not even profess the teachings of the Christ. Few attempts have been made to realize them. Charles Kingsley was the first in our century to make an earnest effort in the right direction. He did not try to convert the people to the Church, but to place the Church at the service of the people. In his opinion, the Church has used the Bible as a guide for policemen, a dosis opium for beasts of burden, a book intended for the control of the poor. "The clergy have told the people that the Book preaches patience, but they have not told them that it preaches freedom, too; they have told them that the Bible preaches privileges for the rich and duties for the worker, but they have neglected to say that it speaks ten times as often about the duties of the rich and the privileges of the poor and the workers." Well done, Charles Kingsley! but you were an Englishman of the Manchester school and expected too much of individual efforts and too little from society as a community. Thus speaks Egidy. He does not deny that Christianity aims at the conversion and transformation of the individual, but he thinks that no one individual can be transformed without the coöperation and partaking of his neighbor. He emphasizes the solidarity of human society. No doubt, here is a circulus vitiosus, but we will pass by that slip in Egidy's reasoning. Egidy is not a man of much talk. He is a man of action. Not a man of meditation, but of will. His word has borne fruit. When his "Ernste Gedanken" appeared, the learned laughed. They found no theological dissertation, no quotations, no barrenness of life hidden behind Aramaic and SyroChaldaic Terms. They found that a man had ascended their cathedra who set his own personality into his work as a proof of the truth he preached ; who had not cast dogma overboard on technical grounds, but because it conflicted with his living faith. To Egidy the dogmas of the Church prevent the realization of the Christian virtues, and theology and confessional belief destroy the power to do. In his reasoning he resembles much Sóren Kierkegaard, who also sees in the Church an Enemy to Christianity. Egidy believes in the future for man. To him sin is not a condition that God has set in the world. God gives salvation only. It was not gottgemeint, as he expressed it. He conceives Christianity a pure humanity," reines Menschenthum. He, therefore, has room for the Jews in his religion and he approaches very near to the Socialistic ideal. But Egidy is no mere talker. What would all of Cato's orations have amounted to without the “ceterum censeo." Egidy always ends his talking by calling for action. In this lies his power in the work he is called to do. MISCELLANEOUS. AN EGYPTIAN IN EUROPE. Translated and Condensed for The Literary Digest from a Paper in ONE NE Sunday afternoon, in August, 1889, there came to me a message from the proprietor of the hotel Lion d'Or" that four travelers, just arrived in Leyden, wished to see me. It appeared that these gentlemen were Egyptians sent by the Khedive to take part in the Orientalist Congress at Stockholm and Christiania. They were MM. Fikrî, father and son, both high officials, and with them were two professors of theology. The two gentlemen first-named were very refined and cultured, and, especially the elder, very learned. M. Fikrî, the elder, purposed to write a book descriptive of his European experiences. Unfortunately, he died when only two chapters of the book had been written, but his son continued the work, and the book now lies before me.* While preparing for their trip two weighty questions had to be considered-how to guard against the cold, which they expected to be very severe in the north, and how to perform their religious duties and to guard against profanation from meat and drink; but young Fikrî, who belongs to the more liberal Mussulmans, says: Even the Prophet himself and Ali have eaten and drunk of the food prepared by Christians, and have also sometimes worn their garb. Besides, I find that the rules are very simple and easily kept. The Vee-Sûra says (6th Chapter, v. 146): Say to the sons of men: I find in what has been revealed to me nothing prohibited for men to eat but carrion, blood, the meat of the pig-for it is an unclean animal-and the meat sacrificed to the Heathen gods.' The compass and the map will point out for us the true direction of Mecca, the watch and some time-tables the proper hour for prayer.' His In their comparison of the condition of things in the East and West, the East does not always come out best. Young Fikri relates a conversation between his party and a Christian fellow traveler about the freedom of women in the West. defense of the Eastern custom of seclusion is very tame, and proves that he does not defend it from conviction. On a later occasion, while describing a visit to the Théâtre Français, he speaks of the respectful manner of the men, and he wishes that * "Irshad al-alibba ila mahdsin Europa" (To instruct those who have understanding in the beauties of Europe). By Emin Fikri Bey. Cairo, 1892. a like freedom were possible in his country. He would like to see a good theatre in Egypt, also, but acknowledges that this is impossible without actresses. Mr. Fikri thinks that the hope of Egypt for the Egyptians will never be realized, until his countrymen have learned the value of coöperation. "It is only by acting together that Europeans have been enabled to raise the grand and beautiful institutions which they possess. And we should do the same thing." Mr. Fikrî's description of student life in Paris is very amusing, and may perhaps be applied to other than French students. "These young men spend their time in the acquisition of priceless knowledge, but they do not neglect their pleasures. They walk daily in the beautiful parks of the Luxembourg, they gather at the cafés to exchange views and read the papers, exercising their spirit in wit and repartee, having all possible liberty. But not all know properly how to measure off the time for work and play. There are to be found some who care about nothing but pleasure. Study? Oh yes; but they study only pretty girls and athletic games. The main object of the travelers in visiting Leyden was to inspect the celebrated library, to see the rare old Eastern manuscripts, and to visit the big printing-offices of Brill & Co., where they bought some books printed in the Arabian language. Fikrî here takes occasion to say: Egyptian and Arabic cannot he compared with Italian and Latin. There is no real Egyptian dialect, since not only each particular province has a different pronunciation, but even the people' of different villages speak a dialect of their own. But everyone understands good Arabic-the language of the educated,—and the common people endeavor to use it in conversation with their superiors, and each Moslem hears and reads pure Arabic from earliest youth in the schools and in the daily religious services." The writer gives a good deal of space to the Hollanders. He praises their cleanliness and energy. They have forced the sea to retire, and with wisdom defend the ground thus won. Their cities are among the cleanest in the world. And though they have so much to do at home, yet they manage to gain large colonies, ruling over countries the inhabitants of which number ten times as many as the men of Holland. If only our people possessed a small part of the energy of these men!" Characteristic is the Moslem objection to the church-bells in Holland, which strike every quarter of an hour. It reminds us of the old times when Mohammedans only spoke of those abominable Christians, with their crosses, pigs, and bells." THE HEMP-SMOKERS. JULIUS STINDE. Translated and condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper in Daheim, Leipzig, No. 23. A LCOHOL, opium, and cocaine are the cause of endless woe to humanity. What if something could be found which could be substituted for these poisons and at the same time have a pleasing and beneficial influence on man, and instead of making him wild, would quiet him as did the lyre of Orpheus? The African traveler, Wiesmann, describes in detail the cultivation and use of the "Riambo" among the former cannibal inhabitants of Lubuku, by which their customs and manners were made so mild that it was even forbidden by them to shed the blood of animals. This people, who before had been aggressive leaders in wars, are now living in peace. Villages, which heretofore had been engaged in bitter feuds, became friendly. Laws and customs of the most peaceful kind were introduced, with the result that the country into which strangers had never before ventured, was open to all. This peaceful disposition, as also this antagonism to the shedding of the blood of animals point to a characteristic feature of an old Oriental people. These are the Indians. The same herb which made the cannibals of Lubuku the friends of men, and which they call "bashilange," has been known to the Indians for centuries as an intoxicant. It is the Indian hemp. 44 In the East, the intoxicant extract is made out of the blossoms and out of the whole plant. Generally it is called hashish," which signifies merely hemp. It is chewed like tobacco, or smoked as such, or the juice, called "damamesk is used with sugar and almonds or whiskey. In moderate amounts the Indian hemp and its preparations has a mild effect on the nervous system and produces a pleasant state of feeling, at any rate among the Orientals. Larger quantities produce intoxication. In the East, the number of those who use the hashish is computed at between two and three hundred millions. Physicians are not all agreed as to the effect of the drug, some claiming that it produces nausea, heart-beating, dryness in the throat. When fully efficient it produces the feeling of pleased intoxication and the most agreeable and pleasurable thoughts. Thereupon follows sleep, deep and dreamless, and on the following morning the pleasant visions are still real and present. That opium or alcohol eventually destroys those who use it to excess goes without saying. On the other hand, the effect of the hemp-chewing on the negro is wonderfully quieting. Wissmann mentions several African peoples among whom hemp-smoking has been firmly introduced as a habit, especially the Waniamesi. He says that he is convinced that the effect of this hemp on the negro is to make him milder and more gentle, and makes him more accessible to the influences of civilization, although it does have to a certain extent an evil influence on the body, which influence, however, is generally exaggerated. Most remarkable is the manner in which a "judgment of God" is secured by the hemp-smokers. Those that are accused continue the smoking of hemp until the guilty one is compelled to make a confession. On the other hand, the thieves of India use this hemp for the purpose of pursuing their work. They secretly make a hole in the house and fill it with fumes of hemp smoke. This has its effect on the people of the house and when the thieves enter they find them in the most agreeable humor, incapable of understanding what is going on, and even welcoming the marauders with the most pleasant words and gestures. These statements are from the travels of von Bibra. Then the hashish-smokers frequently get into a state much resembling hypnotism, in which it is possible to place the members of the body in any position, and to treat the body as though it were all made of joints. The similarity between hypnotism and the effects of hashish-smoking is so great that Dr. von Schrenk-Notzing, of Munich, made special investigation of this subject. It is well known that when a person is hynotized, a single word or threatening action suffices to throw the subject into spasms of rage. The authority just mentioned has discovered that in a similar way a person under the influence of hashish can be affected. He even discovered that persons who do not submit to ordinary hypnotism can be put into this state through the chewing or smoking of hashish. The faculty most influenced by this narcotic is the imagination. The immediate present is idealized into the most beautiful and fantastic forms; hearing is made finer, and the finest strains of music affect as they never did before. The body also feels the corresponding effect; the pulse increases its beats, the muscular system is agitated, and the nerves are actively aroused. The old Egyptians knew of a drink which they called nephenthe, or forgetfulness. While this was probably not hemp, this herb having never been found in graves, nor is it mentioned on old monuments. The famous Papyrus Ebers speaks of a seter-seref drink, or the warm, sleep-giving drink, probably opium, or an opium mixture. It is difficult or impossible to discover how long the Indians have used this hemp. It is probably the old sona" drink of the gods, mentioned in the oldest Sanskrit literature. THE VINLAND VOYAGES. PROFESSOR CHARLES SPRAGUE SMITH. Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper in Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, New York. No. 4, Part I. THE HE earliest Northern record touching on the alleged Western voyages of discovery is Ari's Islendinga Bók, in the sixth chapter of which we read: "That land which is called Greenland was found and colonized from Iceland. Erik the Red is the name of a Broad Forth man, who went out thither from here, and took their land, where it is since called Eriksforth. He gave name to the land and called it Greenland, and said that it would make men eager to go thither if the land had a good name. They found there the dwellings of men both east and west in the land, and fragments of boats (cobles) and stone implements; wherefrom it may be concluded that kind of people had been there who occupied Vinland and the Greenlanders called Skraelings." This work is believed to have been composed about 1134Ari's information concerning Vinland (to judge from the context) was derived through his uncle Thorkel from a companion of Erik the Red. The point, however, which Thorkel's authority supports, is the date of Greenland's discovery. Vinland is only mentioned in passing, and in order to exhibit more clearly the character of the probable aborigines of Greenland. The plain inference is that Ari regarded the tradition of the Vinland voyages as too well known and credited to demand here explanation or confirmation. The Landnama Saga, the story of the settlement of Iceland, and the Kristni Saga, the story of the introduction of Christianity, contain similar though fuller statements. The historical value of these works is unquestioned. They are the sources of our knowledge of early Icelandic history. The most complete statement is that of the Kristni Saga (eleventh chapter) "That summer King Olaf Tryggvason went South out of the land to Wendland (Land of the Wends). He sent also at that time Leif Erikson to Greenland to proclaim the faith there. Then Leif found Vinland the Good; he found also men on a wreck at sea; on that account he was called Leif the Lucky." The Landnáma Bók mentions also Karlsefni as one who found Vinland the Good. Similar, though more extended, notices of the Vinland voyages are contained in the lives of the Kings of Norway. There are many codices wherein the records of early Norse history are inscribed. The statements of Ari and of the King's Sagas exhibit the general character of the briefer records. The evidence deriving therefrom is this: A series of many manuscripts, dating back at least to 1300, accord in representing the tradition of western voyages as unquestionably accepted in Iceland. Either, then, Bishop Brynjólf and his scribe forged the Islendinga Bók, and have successfully deceived all Icelandic scholars for two centuries; either all Icelandic scribes of the age of writing (beginning with about 1130) in whose works allusions are found to the Vinland voyages, were clever charlatans, or themselves befooled; or the Islendinga Bók and its substantiation of the Vinland record are genuine, and, from Ari's time downward (about 1100) that tradition was accepted without a dissenting voice. The story had, even before Ari's time, reached the Court of Denmark. Master Adam, of Bremen, in his Descriptio Insularum Aquilonis, written about 1070, says: "Moreover, he (the King) spoke of an island in that ocean discovered by many which is called Wineland, for the reason that vines grow wild there which make the best of wine. Moreover, that grain unsown grows there abundantly is not a fabulous fancy but, from the accounts of the Danes, we know to be a fact." This work was written about the time of Ari's birth. Two versions of the Vinland voyages exist. They differ in detail, but not in such a degree as to invalidate at all the historical value of the tradition. The second version serves to correct and supplement the first, and the two combined and harmonized, give a description of portions of the West Atlantic coast, which will be found to correspond with surprising exactitude to then existing conditions. Naturally, in the absence of compass, or any accurate means of measuring distance, with the imagination excited by new scenes and experiences, the initial record would be far from accurate. The oral tradition ruling for 150 to 200 years would naturally expand the Saga. We must not demand inerrancy of the Vinland Saga. Nor, on the other hand, must we be surprised if, as is claimed, no authentic traces of the Norseman's visit have as yet been discovered. The tradition we accept as genuine claims only a residence of three winters, divided between two places, Stream-firth and Hop. Either some Greenlanders possessed marvelous powers of imagination, portraying as real that which actually existed in the West Atlantic, though they knew it not; and persuading all their fellow Norsemen of their veracity, and Iceland's analyists have conspired with them, inserting false entries about Vinland and Markland against the years 1127 and 1347, or the record is genuine, and Hellaland, Markland, and Vinland are not myths, but parts of a discovered Western continent. ENGLISH WHIST AND ENGLISH WHIST-PLAYERS. EVERY VERY one knows the perfect picture of a whist-player which Lamb has given us in Sarah Battle, but for how many women nowadays has Sarah Battle lived in vain! They play whist, yes, not for their own pleasure but only to "exalt that mean thing, man," and thus keep the game within reasonable bounds, and restrain man, that wicked man, from heavy stakes. Such reasons were not always given. There were both learned and attractive women amid the arid wastes of the last century, and there never was a time when women rejoiced more in the pastime of cards. What picture of Bath or of Tunbridge Wells under the second or third George would be complete without the representation of a drawing-room crowded with card-tables at which women, both old and young, would be sitting. Mrs. Macaulay, the historian, was an enthusiast for whist, and her brother, Alderman Sawbridge, ranked, in the opinion of many experts, as the leading whist-player of his time; but Mrs. Macaulay displayed more enthusiasm than excellence at the game, and was not very patient under reproof. But there is a story of the whist-table which sets the Imperial Catherine of Russia in a very favorable light. She frequently gave "little whist-parties" at which she sometimes played, sometimes not. On one occasion when she was passing from table to table, and taking a survey of the different hands, she rang the bell to summon a page from the antechamber. No page appeared. She rang the bell again. Again without effect. The Empress left the room "looking daggers." The page was found, like his betters, busy at whist, and in the possession of so interesting a hand, that he could not tear himself away even to answer the summons of his august mistress. The touch of nature which makes us all kin seized on the Empress. With kindly feeling without a parallel in the record of her life, "she despatched the page on her errand and then gently sat down to hold his cards until his return." This genial act of the tyrannical Empress may be set down as the crowning testimony to the softening influence which the pursuit of whist can exercise over the human mind. Another lady, one of the most ardent card-players of the last century, was Mrs. Abington, the "Prue" of Reynolds. She had her card-partics "of which she was very fond, and which were attended by many ladies of the highest rank." If doubts exist in this age on the propriety of card-playing by ladies, the stricter theologians of the last century were divided into two opposing camps on the momentous question whether clergymen should indulge in such a pastime. Still there was whist in the bishop's palace, it dominated the society of the country rectory every evening, and though the game had not yet been cast in a scientific mould, the university dons practised it in their combination room. If the college statutes restrained its exercise in public, fellows and undergraduates alike joined in it in private. At Lambeth Palace, when Archbishop Cornwallis ruled over its customs, whist was practised with unparalleled zeal. His wife was openly taxed in one of the papers" with routs on a Sunday," and Majesty, represented by the conventional person of George III., remonstrated with His Grace. The example of another Archbishop was quoted in a still more exalted position by a more illustrious personage. In the House of Lords, as far back as 1832, the mighty LordChancellor Brougham, during a debate on the Sunday closing of public-houses, quoted the late Dr. Parr as authority for the statement that Archbishop Cornwallis, who knew the regulations of the Church well, never suffered a Christmas day to pass without playing a game at whist. And this, although he had lost the use of his right hand through a stroke of the palsy. Among distinguished clerical whist-players were Bishop Buller, of Exeter, and Home, the well-known President of Magdalen College, Oxford, afterwards Bishop of Norwich. This pious man, one of the most exemplary divines of the last century, is distinguished as "never manifesting the least ill-humour himself, and repressing it, but with gentleness, in others." This last trait of character was especially needed for his partners, as the venerable doctor is described in rather eccentric language as "playing indifferently ill." Although he had with marked freedom forewarned his partner of his deficiency in skill, the angry question was blustered out, "What reason could you possibly have, Mr. President, for playing that card?" To which the President with imperturbable good humour answered sedately: "None upon earth, I assure you." These were good men, but in zeal for the game they must all give way to dear old Bishop Bathurst. Sometimes, it must be confessed, the good old man displayed some irritation at the game, but once and once only did he break out into deeper rage in this connection. In one supreme moment of agony his feelings could not restrain themselves. On hearing the news of a new appointment in the chapter, there was wrung from him the passionate exclamation, “I have served the Whigs all my life, and now they send me down a Canon who doesn't know clubs from 'spades." Paley, too, was a great whist-player, and so was Dr. Ogden, a famous Cambridge divine in the last century: so, too, was Dr. Vincent the excellent Dean of Westminster. Whist-players seem to have been among the pet aversions of the sober, but dull monarch, George III. To Paley and Vincent he was particularly inimical, and he never could be prevailed upon to advance either of them to a bishopric. North of the Tweed the common people regarded card-playing as a sin, and everybody thought it an indecorum in a clergyman, but Dr. Alexander Carlyle determined to break the bonds, and was the first to play at cards at home with unlocked doors, and two other doctors, Robertson and Blair, followed suit. It was a Judge-Sir Francis Buller-who said, "My idea of heaven is to sit at nisi prius all day, and play whist all night"; and among soldiers, the great Marlborough was a keen whistplayer; and if a mighty gamester was lost to gay Paris in the downfall of Napoleon, a not unworthy substitute was found, for a time, in Blücher. The other great German warrior, Moltke, was always a great whist-player, and on Friday, April 24, 1891, after his dinner at five o'clock, he had his accustomed cup of tea, and played his final game of whist in which he and his party won the "slam" (all thirteen tricks). I' BOOKS AND BOOK-WRITERS. VICTORIAN LITERATURE. the importance of a book be estimated by the attention given to it by the reviewers, then Mrs. Oliphant's new work* will rank among the most important contributions to the literature of the day. In The Sun, New York, "M. W.H." devotes over three columns to a criticism of that part of Mrs. Oliphant's work in which she undertakes to appraise the relative values of the many contributions to English prose fiction during the Victorian age, to graduate the merits of Victorian poets, and to define the comparative position of Victorian historians and writers on political economy. The general trend of his criticism is indicated by the following extracts: "Of course, the only name which at once rises in themind as worthy to be set not much below Carlyle's is that of Macaulay. Carlyle, Macaulay, Ruskin, Froude, and, perhaps, we should add Matthew Arnold, are the greatest masters of prose writing on didactic subjects in the Victorian age. From a chronological point of view, the names of Carlyle and Macaulay should be followed by those of five English writers-Arnold, Milman, Thirlwall, Grote, and Finlay-who have devoted themselves to ancient history. W. E. H. Lecky also is excluded from the list of historians and relegated to the chapter on philosophical writers. Mrs. Oliphant seems never to have heard of his History of England during the Eighteenth Century, and simply registers as valuable his History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe,' and his European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne.' Such, Lecky may well say, is fame. The most amazing and inexplicable defect of the book, however, is the absence of the name of Mr. Goldwin Smith. Although Mrs. Oliphant can find time to tell us something about innumerable obscure essayists and magazine writers, of most of whom we never heard, and in none of whom do we take an interest, she does not mention the man who has occupied the same chair of history at Oxford which has been tenanted by Stubbs, Freeman, and Froude, and who has long been recognized on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the most accomplished and trustworthy historical scholars of our times. Is it possible that one assuming to survey the literature of the Victorian era has never heard of Professor Smith's lectures on 'Pym, Cromwell, and Pitt,' afterward republished in book form, of his books on The Study of History' and The Political History of England,' his essays on the Experience of the American Commonwealth,' his 'Conduct of England to Ireland,' and Short History of England Down to the Reformation'? We advise the publishers of Mrs. Oliphant's book, should it ever see a second edition, to see to it that the grotesque omission. to which we have here referred, is rectified." The Tribune, New York, in its lengthy review points out one special feature of the Victorian age of literature: It says: "If the attempt were made to discover a principle of unity in the pleasant historico-critical annals gathered in these volumes by Mrs. Oliphant, it would probably rest upon the two most important facts of literary history in the Nineteenth Century-the evolution of the periodical, and the formation of societies, learned and otherwise, for which the age has been distinguished. These were not new inventions of the century, but the gradual emancipation of letters from the old-fashioned patronage led to their almost infinite development. Most of the great literary lights of the Victorian past belong to the reviews and the magazines, and it is the history of these which explains much of what is common to the writers of the period. Yet the influence of societies must not be ignored. An impulse of the utmost importance, one whose influence has widened from that day to the present, and is likely to widen more and more in coming years, was given to the minds of men when Brougham started his Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. It was not what that organization accomplished, nor what any one of those which followed it accomplished; it was the thought that underlay them all which was the essential factor in the progress of the age. Not a little of the inspiration of other modern literature-for example, that relating directly or indirectly to ancient Northern life and poetry-came through such societies. "Mrs. Oliphant's estimate of the thousand and one writers great and small whom she has occasion to mention is in general kindly. The reader will perhaps be astonished at the number of pages devoted to Lockhart, Sir Walter Scott's son-in-law and biographer, but the discussion is deeply interesting nevertheless, and its length will not *The Victorian Age of English Literature. By Mrs. Oliphant. Two volumes. New York: Tait, Sons, & Co. 12mo. seem extravagant to those who agree with the author that the three greatest biographies ever written are Lockhart's Scott, Boswell's Johnson, and the Agricola of Tacitus. There are a few very feminine, very polite, and very sharp thrusts at one or two authors, but they are not without justification. Of living authors as a rule she says little." The Times, New York, praises Mrs. Oliphant's work and defends her against the critics who judge her by the rubric of high scholarship: "Mrs. Oliphant does not write as scholars write, and doubtless would not pretend to scholarship. The facts which she records, the judgments which she makes, and the distinctions she draws are those which are familiar to all students of the period, and such as all, except the very critical, will complaisantly pass without comment. What strikes one most forcibly is the wide range of literary topics over which she extends her survey. It is not alone the writers of pure literature, such as Tennyson and Arnold, Dickens and Thackeray, George Eliot, Newman, and Carlyle, but those other strong minds of the Victorian age whose intellectual energies were devoted to minor novel writing, the production of encyclopedias, the study of science, or the editing of periodicals and daily newspapers. Brougham and both the Chambers brothers have ple space accorded them, and so do David Brewster and Charles Darwin. A minor poet like Alexander Smith has his half page, and others like William Watson have their three-line sentences, while minor novelists like Rhoda Broughton and Mrs. Henry Wood receive their due meed of space. "Mrs. Oliphant's catholicity of judgment is clearly apparent in the disinterested spirit with which she writes of novelists who have flourished in her own time. Doubtless, there are some who may complain that they have been overlooked, but those whom she includes are judged as most competent critics would judge them." MR PRISONERS AND PAUPERS. R. HENRY M. BOIES, a member of the Board of Public Charities of the Committee on Lunacy of the State of Pennsylvania, and of the National Prison Association, has written a book* of noteworthy interest and value, as the testimony of an expert relating to the abnormal increase of criminals and pauperism in the United States. The Philadelphia Press, in an extended notice of the book, calls especial attention to " practical" remedies which Mr. Boies suggests: "Mr. Boies recommends that the insane be employed at useful labor, and that local charities should not receive State aid, and he asserts that by careful administration the support of the insane, of The jails, and of almshouses could be reduced fifty per cent. professional criminal is a beast of prey constantly endangering society, and it necessarily follows that the control of the criminal for general security as a preventive and economical measure is the chief province of criminal legislation.' The author rightly says that the criminal must be confined at self-sustaining labor until he ceases to be a criminal'; and that separate confinement is necessary to prevent contamination. First offenders should suffer such infliction as will discourage repetition of the offense without being criminalized by confinement. "In regard to paupers he asks that they shall contribute to their own support by being furnished with work and proposes model farms' for experimental purposes. The color question is one in which Mr. Boies seems particularly interested, and if the evidence he deduces is trustworthy-and nothing seems to gainsay it-Americans should blush for their vaunted civilization. If, indeed, ' negroes are made convicts in this age, to nullify their right of suffrage,' some active legislation certainly seems necessary. The negro is, indeed, more criminal than the white; even in this State, where he is given, if not an equal chance, at least an almost equal one, he contributes but 2.09 per cent. to the population and 16 per cent. to the penitentiary. However, marked improvements are required in Southern prisons, and reformatories should be supplied for first offenders. The negro, moreover, furnishes but 8 per cent. of the paupers. Intemperance Mr. Boies believes to be the cause of 75 per cent. of all crimes committed, and of 50 per cent. of poverty. We think this somewhat overestimated. The tendency to crime very often comes first. Many professional criminals are total abstainers. There is wisdom, however, in the proposed treatment of the evil, viz.: In the taxing of liquor according to the alcohol it contains to such an extent as to defray all expenses necessary to maintain the penal and reformatory and other institutions for the defective. Mr. Boies is opposed to prohibition as being un-American, and says that the license system 'tends to increase the evil it desires to diminish.' Yet a little further on he asks that severe restrictions be placed on the sellers of intoxicating drinks, a thing which would be obviously impossible if they were not licensed. That the habitual drunkard should be imprisoned until cured seems to be the only way to deal with him; but one does not feel so sanguine of cure as Mr. Boies. Insane asylums can restrain drunkards so long as they are under observation; but the only plan for permanent cure is the colony with * Prisoners and Paupers. A Study of the Abnormal Increase of Criminals and the Public Burden of Pauperism in the United States: The Causes and Remedies. By Henry M. Boies, M. A. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. |