of Europe had jesters and buffoons. The country of the Pigmies is called in the text of the inscriptions on the recently discovered tomb, "The land of happy spirits." This, according to the learned observations of Schiaparelli, may be placed beyond the tenth degree of latitude, to the west of Galla and Kaffa, precisely where have been found the Pigmy tribe of the upper Juba.

TASTE

THE SENSE OF SMELL IN ANIMALS. Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (3 pp.) iu Chambers's Journal, London, December. ASTE and smell are closely allied in man, while in the lower forms of life, especially the aquatic, the organs cannot be differentiated, though there is no doubt of the existence of the sense of smell. The organs of smell in the higher animals protect the respiratory tract. The current of air needed for respiration also conveys odoriferous particles to the nose. The nasal membrane contains the olfactory cells, from which a delicate filament passes to the surface, ending, in birds, reptiles, and other lower vertebrates, in a fine hair or group of hairs. In insects the organ of smell has not been certainly located, but it is now almost certain that it is in the feelers or antennæ. Carrier-flies deprived of these organs cannot find putrid flesh.

These slender, hair-like antennæ are organs of wonderful structure, they contain thousands of minute pits and conesoften filled with liquid-each of which forms a termination to a different nerve with its special sensory rod or hair. Wasps and bees have about twenty thousand of these pits or cones in their antennæ, so that it is possible for these organs, small as they are, to contain the nerve-terminations, not only of the organ of smell, but of hearing, and touch also. It is probably by the sense of smell that bees and ants distinguish between friends and strangers. Ants have doubtless other means of testing identity. With four hundred thousand in a nest, a stranger is at once recognized. Even when pupæ have been taken from the nest, and the ants restored, they have been recognized as belonging to the hive.

Animals sometimes show a curious fondness for scents that must be quite foreign to them in their wild state. Leopards, too, are extremely fond of perfume. The keenness of the sense of smell in animals is one of their chief means of protection. With many it gives warning of the approach of danger, while some, like the skunk emit an offensive odor as a means of defense. Smell also forms one of the chief means by which animals recognize their friends. The organ is very large in all carnivorous animals. In seals it is so large and protuberant that it almost blocks up the entry of the respiratory organs.

The vulture's olfactory nerve is five times as large as a turkey's but it is doubtful` if its sense of smell is as strong as has been supposed. Mr. A. R. Wallace's experiments on this point with South American vultures showed that they could not find carrion if wrapped in paper or concealed by the grass. The sense however appears to be very highly developed in the apteryx which has the largest olfactory nerve of any bird, probably even finding worms underground by means of smell. Birds cannot dilate their nostrils which are in fact only minute apertures. Pelicans have no external nostrils. Scents reach their organ of smell by the palate.

The cetaceans, excepting the whalebone varieties, have no olfactory organ, and therefore no sense of smell. The external orifices in seals, water-snakes, crocodiles, etc., can be closed by means of a valve. Fish, molluscs, and crustaceans are all supposed to possess the sense of smell in greater or less degree.

The actual cause of smell is still in dispute. Prof. Ramsey has lately propounded the theory that smells are caused by molecular vibrations lower than those which give rise to heat or light. The olfactory surface to be sensitive must be moist ; a moist atmosphere renders scent more perceptible.

RELIGIOUS.

HAPPINESS IN HELL.

ST. GEORGE MIVART.

Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (21 pp.) in Nineteenth Century, London, December.

OT only the sentiment of our day, but what we take to be its more highly evolved moral perceptions, are shocked beyond expression at the doctrine that countless multitudes of mankind will burn forever in Hell-fire, out of which there is no possible redemption.

Is the doctrine against which so strong a repugnance is felt, really one essential to Christianity; and, if so, can it be a belief reconcilable with right reason, the highest morality, and the greatest benevolence?

These suggestions offered in reply to this important question are addressed to Theists-to those who believe in the existence of a God infinitely wise, powerful, and good; and we assume that our readers agree with us in accepting the doctrine of the soul's immortality and moral responsibility.

We take the teaching of the Catholic Church as our standard, because no other test could be so useful to Christians of all denominations.

It is most certain that the Catholic Church is definitely committed to the doctrine that souls condemned to Hell remain there for all eternity, and that all of them suffer the loss of the Beatific Vision of God (the pœna damni), while a portion of them further suffer what is technically denominated the pœna sensus the equivalent of Hell-fire." Universalism, or, the final restitution of all men, is utterly irreconcilable with Catholic doctrine.

To show that the teaching of the Catholic Church is, at least, in harmony with that of Scripture, we need only refer to Matthew xxv. 41, 46, Mark iii. 29, and ix. 47, and 48, Rev. xiv. 11, and xxi. 8. That the damned do not acquire better dispositions is implied in Rev. xvi. 10, 11.

The various Protestant sects generally followed the teaching of the Church, and it is notorious that, until recently, the almost universal teaching of the Protestant clergy was everlasting condemnation for the reprobate.

Underlying the whole conception of man's existence here and hereafter, there is, according to Catholic theology, a most profound and fundamental distinction-that between (a) the natural and (6) the supernatural. By what is" natural," Catholic thologians mean all the creatures that God has created, with all the powers and capacities of such creatures.

By what is "supernatural," is meant an entirely different order of creation, consisting of special and intellectual relations between God and creatures on whom He has, by His direct and immediate act, bestowed qualities and powers of an absolutely different kind from those inherent or arising from their nature. This is known as the order of "grace," which is conferred on certain intellectual beings with a view to their future intuitive vision of God, which is the very essence of the supernatural order.

Man in a state of nature is man as we see him apart from Christianity. But even Christians, in this life, can neither imagine nor fully understand their own supernatural state." The same applies to a supernatural existence hereafter.

The Church allows its theologians to teach that man was created in a state of “nature," but was thereafter raised to the higher or supernatural order of "grace," whereby he was enabled to desire and ultimately to enjoy the Beatific Vision. If those who have been reborn into the higher state forfeit Heaven on account of unrepented mortal sin, they will not only be excluded from it, but lose that which otherwise would have constituted their highest possible bliss; while those who

have remained in a state of mere nature only fail to attain what they could never understand, aspire to, or enjoy.

According to the Christian Church there are but two final eternal states; yet a vast difference exists in Hell between those who have forfeited Heaven and those who never rose above a state of nature. The excluded from Heaven are composed of two species: (1) those who have not, and (2) those who have forfeited, a supernatural beatitude.

Amongst the excluded who have never forfeited grace are, of course, unbaptized infants, who are represented as enjoying an eternity of natural happiness and union with God beyond anything we can imagine or conceive. This principle may be extended to adults, especially in heathen nations, who die with their moral and intellectual faculties so imperfectly developed as to be like children.

As to either category of those in Hell, it is universally admitted that there are vast differences of condition, and it is even maintained that they may be unconscious of what their state really is. No suffering from such knowledge can possibly exist in the case of children or of childlike adults.

One important matter in which theologians concur is that there is no suffering which has not been earned by the deliberate commission of grave sin, known to be such, and voluntarily persisted in without repentance.

An interesting fact is the tenability of a belief that a process of evolution takes place in Hell, and that the existence of the damned is one of progress and gradual amelioration-though never to the extent of raising the lost to supernatural beatitude.

There is yet another lesson which requires notice. This is the doctrine that for every being, including all the damned, existence is better than annihilation.

To think that God could punish men, however slightly, and could even damn them for all eternity, for anything which they had not full power to avoid, or for any act the nature or consequences of which they did not fully understand, is a doctrine so monstrous and revolting that ștark Atheism is plainly a preferable belief. God, as just, owes to each man sufficient information as to his duty in every trial he encounters. When conscience does not point the way, blame cannot be incurred. He owes to each man sufficient aid to enable him to fulfill what he sees to be his duty; and He owes to everyone a just recompense in exact accordance with his merit or demerit.

We have seen how benevolent Christian teaching is with respect to those who die in a state of mere nature without deliberately committing grave sins the gravity of which they fully recognize. According to Catholic teaching, the immense multitude of mankind who have died unbaptized and free from mortal sin are subjects indeed of the pœna damni; but not having been raised to the order of grace they have no aptitude or faculty for the supernatural.

nature is capable, and which includes a natural knowledge and love of God. Another multitude undergo a certain probation on earth and attain to a future state exactly proportioned to their merits or demerits. God has further endowed a certain number of mankind with faculties whereby they are rendered capable of supernatural union with Him. This privilege carries with it a dread risk of failure. Yet for the very worst they are left to themselves in those various inferior conditions which they have made theirs by their own choice, and which they prefer. Thus the Hell even of the positively damned may yet be regarded as a place which God has from all eternity prepared for those who will not accept the higher goods offered by Him.

Nothing has been defined by the Church on the subject of Hell which does not accord with right reason, the highest morality, and the greatest benevolence. According to it, no one in the next life suffers the deprivation of any happiness which he can imagine or desire, or which is congruous with his nature and faculties, save by his conscious and deliberate choice. Hell in its widest sense-namely as including all those blameless souls who do not enjoy the Beatific Vision-must be considered as, for them, an abode of happiness transcending all our most vivid anticipations.

RELIGION: ITS FUTURE.

THE REVEREND DR. MOMERIE.

Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (17 pp.) in

Fortnightly Review, London, December.

N most ages and countries there have arisen prophets like

maiah, Confucius, Zoroaster, Gautama,

med, who opposed the popular religion, protested against the teaching of the priests, maintained the worthlessness of ceremonialism, and declared that personal conduct should be the supreme object of human attentions. The names of some of them became associated with new religions, of which they are said to have been the Founders. In many cases this term is a misnomer. The religions called after them are not theirs, while the religion they sought to establish can scarcely be said to have been founded at all.

The teaching of the prophets has always been fundamentally the same; and if they could come back to-day, they would be as much opposed to the religions which now bear their names as they were to the old superstitions which they are supposed to have destroyed.

As to the non-baptized who live abandoned lives knowingly and willingly, their lot must be light indeed, compared with those who having been called to the higher state have voluntarily outraged its privileges. And thus we come to the one great difficulty, the real crux of the whole matter: what are we to say of the state of baptized Christians who lead bad lives and depart from the world in their sins?

In the first place, we must never forget the mitigating circumstances as regards heredity and environment; and, we must also remember the need of deliberate volition, in order that any sin should be a mortal one.

Christian teaching, as we understand it, may be summed up as follows: God has, with infinite benevolence, but with inscrutable purposes, created human beings, the overwhelming majority of whom, being incapable of grave sin, attain to an eternity of unimaginable natural happiness-the utmost of which their

it. Jesus invented no formulæ, He made no definitions; but now we are taught that "whosoever will be saved must hold the Catholic Faith." That is bad enough; but the revival of the pagan doctrine of sacrifice is worse; and we find it taught most explicitly in all the Churches of Western Christendom. Our own Articles say "that Christ died to reconcile the Father." Luther put it thus: "God's anger against the sinner was so fierce, that it could only be appeased by the blood of His Son." The Westminster Confession speaks of Christ's death as a "bargain." The Council of Trent maintained that "Christ appeased the wrath of God." In its simple form of propitiation by blood, the orthodox Atonement is as vile as anything to be found in heathendom; but the addition of the doctrine of predestination makes it infinitely viler still. The two together constitute the most savage superstition which has ever existed in the world. The god of Orthodoxy is the very wickedest being which it is possible for the human mind to conceive.

The religions of the world ultimately resolve themselves into

two kinds. The priests, as a rule, and the great majority of mankind, have embraced the one; the prophets and a very small minority the other. The one is the religion of savages and of a low state of evolution; we may, therefore, call it the religion of the past. The other is the religion of the noblest of our race, it belongs to the highest stage of evolution, and we may, therefore, call it the religion of the future.

It is frequently said that religion is dying. But we should be more correct in saying that it is yet to come. In the good sense of the word, religion has but barely existed in the past. The undying religion of the future is taking the place of the religion of the past. Will the religion of the future involve a Deity? It is sometimes said that an atheistic religion is “nothing but morality." Well, if this were true, morality without a God would be better than a God without morality. But it is a mistake to say that á religion of conduct is only morality. Morality is the beginning of true religion; it is religion not yet come to full consciousness of itself. The man who has done the will of God is not to be called irreligious because he has made a mistake in metaphysics.

But Atheism is a mistake in metaphysics none the less. There are three arguments for the existence of God which together amount almost to demonstration: (1) The uniformity of nature, (2) the rationality of nature, and (3) the progressiveness of nature; and these seem to afford overwhelming evidence of the fact that her phenomena are controlled by a Being of transcendent wisdom and benevolence, that is to say by God. And if this be so, the religion of the future will be explicitly Theistic.

I think that the religion of the future will involve immortality. While there is no evidence against the theory of immortality, there is a great deal of evidence in favor of it. (a) It is a hypothesis which is in harmony with experience. (6) It is the hypothes is which explains experience. (c) It is the only hypothesis which affords a logical basis for religion.

Will the religion of the future be called Christianity? No, if by Christianity be meant the Christianity of Christendom. Yes, if by Christianity be meant the Christianity of Christ. And in thus associating the name of the Nazarene with the religion of the future, we do not ignore, muoh less condemn, the religious performers who preceded and followed Him. We only mean that their work is comprehended and completed in His. He was greater than some of the prophets by reason of His Theism; greater than any—Gautama alone excepted—in the charm of his personality; greater than all on account of His plan of salvation, the attainment of righteousness through love. He was the creator par excellence of the religion that will never die. Alas! He has lain buried for centuries in the tomb of theology; but His resurrection is at hand.

And what of the Church? Well, she will live if she become in reality what now she is but nominally-the Church of Christ. At present she represents the religions of the past, and she is essentially anti-Christian in the importance she attaches to "belief." The fact is, "the world" has become more Christian than the Church. The Church must get rid of what she now regards as fundamental. She must take a fresh start from Christ. She must be born again. To go back to the simple Christianity of Christ would be to get rid at once of all her corruption. Then true worship would begin—the worship of a Deity who is only good; while in every worshipper would be enkindled an enthusiasm for righteousness, a passionate resolve to "work together with God" for the elevation and amelioration of the race,

It is we clergy who are the great obstacles in the way of such a change. The great majority of the clergy are so saturated with the spirit of ecclesiasticism, so wedded to the religion of the past, that their conversion seems almost hopeless. The Church will never be reformed until her clergy have learned the lesson-which any "infidel" could teach-that righteousness is man's first and only duty.

THE NEWLY-DISCOVERED GOSPEL OF ST. PETER. DOCTOR ED. BRADKE.

SING

Translated and Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from

Theol. Literaturblatt, Leipzig, No. 48.

INCE the Greek Bishop Bryennios found the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, few, if any, discoveries in the department of Biblical literature equal in worth that of the fragments of a Gospel attributed to the Apostle St. Peter, unearthed some time ago in the City of the Dead, Akhmim, the old Panopolis. The manuscript is written on parchment, and has been published by U. Bouriant, the Director of the French Archæological Institute in Cairo. This document, which is now in the Museum at Gizeh, is of thirty-three pages, in old leather binding. It is not dated, but the orthography and writing show that it is not older than the eighth, and not younger than the twelfth, century. It was found in an old Christian cemetery.

On the first page is a sign, doubtless representing the Coptic cross; to the right and left are the letters Alpha and Omega, On the back, the text itself begins at what turns out to be parts of an old Gospel attributed to St. Peter.

The fragment of the Gospel happens to begin with the words, "But of the Jews no one washed his hands, neither Herod, nor any of the Judges, nor of the Senate washed their hands. Pilate arose, and Herod the King commanded that the Lord should be brought." The fragment covers nine pages of the manuscript, and breaks off in the middle of a sentence; and after stating that the women had come to the grave and found it empty, concludes with these words: 'But I, Simon Peter, and Andrew, my brother, taking with us our nets, returned to the sea, and there was with us Levi, the son of Alpheus, whom the Lord This sentence is of the greatest value, showing that the author claims to be Peter himself.

"

The leading variants between the statements of this pseudoGospel fragment and the canonical Gospel are briefly the following: At the request of Joseph, here declared to be a friend of Pilate and of the Lord, the former asks Herod for the body of the Christ. The request is granted with the statement that if no one had asked for the body, then Herod and the Jews would have buried the Lord, because the Sabbath was approaching, and it was a mandate of the Law that the body of one who had been killed should not remain unburied at the setting of the Sun before the Feast of Unleavened Bread; then follows a description of the sufferings of Christ, but in a more vivid manner than that found in the Gospels. Then we are told: “And they led two malefactors and crucified the Lord between them. He Himself, however, said nothing and had no suffering." According to these words the real Lord was not nailed to the Cross. When the one malefactor petitioned Christ for His help, he is threatened by the multitude with still greater tortures. When at the hour of noon it becomes so dark that many lamps were lighted, the Jews began to be afraid. The Lord, however, cries out: "My Strength, my Strength, thou hast deserted me; and when He had said this He was taken away." The nails are drawn out of the hands of the Lord, and He is laid upon the ground, which violently trembles. The Elders and Priests are filled with sorrow, and they cry out: Woe over our sins; near unto us have come the judgments and the end of Jerusalem. I, Peter, however, lamented together with my friends and were cast down in our minds, and we hid ourselves, and were hunted as malefactors, and as those who would set fire to the Temple. But over all this we fasted and sat sad and fasted and lamented day and night unto the Sabbath." The petition of the Elders addressed to Pilate to have the grave guarded is based on the excited feeling of the populace, who, in view of the signs and wonders that took place in connection with the Crucifixion, are beginning to incline toward the Messiah. The name of the Centurian to whom the watch was entrusted is Petronius. All those present assist in rolling the stone before the tomb,

which is sealed with seven seals. Beside the grave a tent is erected for the watchers. On the day before Easter the people flock to the grave to see and inspect the seven seals. In the following night, however, while the soldiers are watching, a mighty voice sounds from Heaven, which is opened, and two men descend from it in a great light. The stone rolls away of itself, and the men enter the opened grave. The Centurion and the Elders, who are present, are awakened. While the watchers are still engaged in telling the story they see three men come out of the grave. The two are supporting the third, and a cross follows them; the heads of the two reach to the heavens, but the hand in [here follow words that cannot be made out] it transcends the heavens, and they hear a voice [words that are dark, but are translated by Bouriant Tu as proclamé aux gens unis et somis]. A voice is also heard from the Cross. While those present deliberate whether they should send word to Pilate, the heavens again open, and a man descends and enters the grave. Thereupon the watchers flee in dismay, and, in the presence of Pilate, confess their faith in Christ as the Son of God. The leaders of the Jews, indeed, see their great wrong, but because of this fear of the wrath of the Jews, ask that this fact of the Resurrection be kept a secret. The youth sitting at the grave says: “Whom have ye come to seek save the One who was crucified? He has arisen, and has gone away. But if this is not believed bend down and see the place where He had been laid, for He is no longer here. For He is risen, and departed whence He Here the fragments end.

was sent.

THE

MISCELLANEOUS.

OCCULTISM IN PARIS.*
NAPOLEON NEY.

Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (8 pp.) in
Arena, Boston, December.

III.

HE Independent Group for Esoteric Study, formed by adherent societies, either affiliated or represented, is the centre of the most important occult movement in Paris.

The following are some of the names of societies which are inscribed at headquarters: The Spiritualist Society of Paris, the Magnetic Society of France, the Psycomagnetic Society, the Sphnix, the Occult Fraternity, the True Cross, the Martinist Initiation Groups, the Masonic Groups for Initiatory Studies, etc. All these have their headquarters in Paris.

The Independent Group for Esoteric Study has a fourfold object: It makes known the principal data of occult science in all its branches. It instructs members, who are thus made ready to become Martinists, Masons, Theosophs, etc. It establishes lectures upon all branches of occultism, and finally it investigates the phenomena of spiritism, of magnetism, and of magic, lighted only by the torch of pure science,

Since the beginning of the present year the meetings of the groups have been held in the Rue de Trévise. in private quarters. Here are both open and closed meetings. The latter are reserved for the initiated alone, and are accompanied by psychic and spiritistic experiments, with ecstatic and mediumistic phenomena. On some days, I have seen more than one hundred and fifty auditors, composed principally of literary people and students from the schools of higher learning.

Many cultured women from the upper world of Paris, elegantly attired, attend without any eccentricity of dress or person. The members of an embassy from the north of Europe attend the closed lectures regularly. The late Lord Lytton, when living in Paris as English Ambassador, came frequently.

The open sessions, accessible upon the presentation of a personal card, are devoted to lectures of a general character, sometimes accompanied by experiments in materialization and hypnotics. On these days the hall is too small to contain the * This paper was begun in THE LITERARY DIGEST last week.

auditors. At the last séance more than four hundred persons

were unable to gain admittance.

The study of occult science is spreading step by step. It penetrates into all quarters, without any noise, but with slow certainty, by continuous absorption.

The multiplicity of investigations in our age of extreme criticism have given new and original solutions to questions of history, science, religion, and the origin of things. They are not yet accepted by science; tomorrow they will constitute official instruction-when we shall have lifted the sombre veil which hides our origin.

Having thus followed, with truthfulness and impartiality, the occult movement, putting aside completely the instruction received in the schools, I am ready to say with the great philosopher, Montaigne," What do I know?"

IV.

I have a story to relate concerning the undefined forces of nature of which I have spoken:

A consul of France, starting for India, was presented in London to one of the principal dignitaries of the Theosophical Society of Adyar, India. After a long and interesting interview, our compatriot was invited to join the society. The consul, though greatly interested, declared his unbelief in occult power. The representative of the society promised that he should have satisfactory proof before the day was over.

Two hours later, the consul, who is my personal friend, was alone in his room with closed doors, writing letters preparatory to his departure on the morrow. Suddenly there appeared before him a Hindoo, dressed as a Brahmin. Saluting my friend by name, the unknown informed him, in English with a foreign acccent, that he had come from an Indian city to convince the consul of the occult powers possessed by members of his order.

and have come to

"Just now," continued he, "I am at you in my astral body materialized to salute a brother of tomorrow. You are neither the victim of hallucination, nor of outside suggestion. My presence is real; here is the proof." He took from his throat a necklace of sandal-wood beads, which he laid on the table. "I will be waiting for you when you debark," he said, "and you can then return my necklace." The visitor was gone, but the necklace lay upon the table, exhaling its pungent perfume. My friend was obliged to yield to the evidence. Some one had brought him the trinket. He noted in his diary the story of this mysterious visit, and showed it to me later as written in its place. The next day he embarked with the necklace in his valise.

As he approached his destination he directed his glass towards the shore. Among those waiting he saw the Brahmin who had visited him, dressed as before, and who, as soon as he had landed, approached and humbly requested the return of his necklace. Since that time the consul has been one of the most fervent adepts of the Theosophical Society.

As to the authenticity of this incident, I would say that it was related to me and supported by proofs, during one of my friend's leaves of absence in France.

HOW A MAN FEELS UNDER FIRE.
JUNIUS HENRI BROWNE.

Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (7% pp.) in

Worthington's Illustrated Magazine, Hartford, January. OW does a man feel under fire?" is a question of

HOW

interest to men who have had the experience, as well as to those who have not had it. We are all anxious to know what may be the mental impressions of any one of our fellows in circumstances generally supposed to be a test of bravery or courage, especially since most of us have had no such test. We Anglo-Saxons, as we call ourselves for want of a better term, attach extraordinary consequence to our readiness to undergo exposure, in case of need, to danger and death.

During the Civil War, as war correspondent of the New

York Tribune, I learned to the full what it is to be in range of balls and bullets of every calibre and variety.

During the first eight or nine months of the war, I heard, in divers reconnaissances and skirmishes in Missouri and Kentucky, and on the Mississippi, a great deal of martial music performed by musket, rifle, and cannon, and even learned to distinguish the sound of different balls as they whizzed by, But I did not know what it was to be in a regular battle until we were at Fort Donelson (February, 1862) where I received, I may say, my baptism of fire.

The morning of the second day of the siege, I was wandering on foot through a wood, trying to see how the battle was going. There was continuous firing to the left, and the frequent whizzing of bullets over our heads. Abruptly the Confederates opened on us from an adjacent battery with grape and canister. The shot rattled all round us, cutting down the bare twigs and boughs above, and ploughing up the ground in our immediate vicinity. It was so abrupt, and the source was so invisible, that I was fairly startled at first, but I was exhilarated also. It seemed like real war. The sensation was genuine and not unpleasurable, because, perhaps, I saw nobody struck.

It makes a deal of difference with one's feelings, under fire, when one is an eye-witness of casualties in the immediate neighborhood. The sense of danger is greatly increased as well as the likelihood of death, if men are falling around oneif somebody at one's side receives a ghastly or a mortal wound. Wounds and death in the concrete appear very different from what they do in the abstract. Time and experience are needed not to be deeply moved by the inevitable horrors of war. Usage makes us to a certain extent callous to our surroundings, however painful.

In battle, every soldier is under obligation to be firm, to obey orders, to be faithful to his cause. If he falters or flies, he is disgraced, punished, irrevocably ruined. On the other hand, if he does what he should do, he is esteemed, honored, promoted. As a matter of policy, of self-interest, therefore, is it not strange that any soldier should shirk or flinch under any circumstances?

A soldier in his first engagement is inclined to a presentiment of death, and is often surprised when it is over to find that he is still alive. In his twentieth or tenth engagement his presentiments have disappeared with his nervousness, and he is cool in the presence of peril.

What is known as courage is, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, a matter of discipline. A man is alarmed at danger in the beginning, not so much because he is timid as because danger is new to him. The trite proverb that familiarity breeds contempt is measurably true of war. The coward of to-day may be the hero of to-morrow. The nerves that tremble at the outset may be strong as steel at the termination. Everything comes by education, intrepidity included. Raw troops are always untrustworthy, simply because of their rawness. The same troops as veterans do not blanch in the face of death.

It may be hard to count on a man's courage, but it would be madness to count on his cowardice. Almost any human being will be fearless with certain provocations, from certain motives. Much depends on the cause and his attachment to it. He may be craven in one thing and dauntless in another. Men feel very differently under fire at first, but much alike at last. They can all be made to endure it becomingly, creditably, after repeated trials. The incurable coward is almost as exceptional as the congenital idiot.

In speaking of prowess we must distinguish between bravery and courage., Bravery is, in a strict sense, constitutional absence of fear: courage may fear greatly and still be capable, by strength of will and determination, of overcoming or at least resisting, fear. Bravery if it sees the danger does not feel it; advances in its teeth without pause or tremor: it is

superior to place or pressure. Courage is quite consistent with physical timidity, being mainly mental, and susceptible of improvement and expansion. It is strongest where morality is on its side, where conscience approves. Bravery may be material, brutal; courage belongs to the highest organizations. Bravery is inborn and necessarily rare. Courage is evolved, and may, with a given environment, reach the loftiest heroism.

THE

KANGAROOS AND RABBITS.

P. L. SIMMONDS, F.L.S.

Condensed for THE LITERARY DIGEST from a Paper (3 pp.) in Hardwicke's Science-Gossip, London, December. kangaroo has always been a great nuisance to the Australian squatters, for, on an average, these animals consume as much grass as a sheep. It is said that on a sheeprun of 60,000 to 80,000 acres, 10,000 kangaroos were killed annually for six consecutive years, and yet their number remained very formidable in the locality. In the colony of South Australia hundreds of thousands of kangaroos are slaughtered annually for their skins and the bonus offered by the authorities. The number of these marsupials in New South Wales, in 1889, was estimated to be over 4,000,000, and yet about half a million kangaroos, and 650,000 wallabies were destroyed in the colony in that year.

The number of kangaroo skins shipped from Melbourne im the last fourteen years exceeded 1,000,000; besides the large number used up in the local tanneries, where they realize about 35. a skin. At the public leather-sales in London, on one day

in May last year, nearly 3,000 kangaroo skins were sold. The wallabies are a smaller species of marsupial than the kangaroo, and belong to two distinct genera, Halmaturus and Petrogale. Some 60,000 or 70,000 of these are annually shipped from Australia as furs. The skins of the Australian opossum are very handsome, and their thick, soft fur affords a valuable article of commerce, being employed, like hare skins, for chest protectors, and lately for making gloves. About 2,000,000 opossum skins are exported annually from Australia.

When rabbits were first introduced into Australia no one seems to have thought of the nuisance they might eventually become, and of the large expenditure which would be necessary in order to keep down their numbers. There are now few parts of the settled districts which are not infested with them, and it is found that if the exterminating efforts are relaxed they soon become as numerous as ever. After placing over 75,000 miles of telegraph-wire across the length and breadth of Australia for the benefit of commerce, the different governments little contemplated having to furnish hundreds of miles of wire-netting to keep out the rabbit plague, besides large sums for supervision and destruction. A fence of wire-netting, extending a distance of 150 geographical miles, has been erected by the Victorian Government, with the view of keeping the rabbits and wild dogs on the border from crossing, and the South Australian Government is doing the same. In the last ten years the Victorian Government has paid out £177,ooo sterling for rabbit-extermination.

In three years, under favorable circumstances, two pairs of rabbits, if undisturbed in any way and sufficient food abounded, would increase to the enormous number of 5,000,000. This statement fully shows the necessity for continuous and vigorous action to destroy them. The extent of the evil may be imagined from the fact that 15,000,000 rabbit skins have been exported from New South Wales in one year; and that in the thirteen years ending with 1889, 39,000,000 rabbit skins were exported from Victoria, to say nothing of the other Australian colonies. Twenty years ago there was not a single rabbit throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand. then more than 106,000,000 rabbit skins have been exported from those islands. The property destroyed by the rabbits is estimated by millions. On the average 12,000,000 skins are exported from New Zealand yearly. They increase so rapidly and the destruction wrought by them is of such a character, that in some districts it has become a question whether the colonists with their flocks and herds should vacate the country, or whether systematic efforts should be made to extirpate the pest.

Since