Evidences are apparent in many quarters of a reaction against the headlong rush toward aggression and territorial aggrandizement in which the American people have allowed themselves to be carried away. For a time the lovers of the Constitution of the United States as the fathers of the republic left it and Lincoln glorified it were bewildered, stunned by the revolution suddenly precipitated upon us from Washington, while the people at large seemed to be wild with enthusiasm for they knew not what, and men suffered themselves to be led—they knew not whither. Very slowly the true patriots recovered their voices, and signs appear that the people are at last getting into a mood to listen to reason. President David Starr Jordan's Imperial Democracy[49] comes very opportunely, therefore, to call to the minds of those who can be induced to think some of the forgotten principles of American policy, and to depict, in the terse, incisive style of which the author is master, the true nature and bearing of those iniquitous proceedings to which the American people, betrayed by treacherous leaders, have allowed themselves to become a party. President Jordan was one of the first who dared, in this matter, to make a public protest against this scheme of aggression. His first address on the subject—Lest we Forget—delivered to the graduating class of Leland Stanford University, May 25, 1898, was separated only a few days in time from Prof. Charles Eliot Norton's exposure of the reversal of all our most cherished traditions and habits which the precipitation of the war with Spain had brought about. The two men must share the honor of leadership in the awakening movement. In this address President Jordan gives a true definition of patriotism as "the will to serve one's country; to make one's country better worth saving"—not the shrilling of the mob, or trampling on the Spanish flag, or twisting the lion's tail. Even so early he foresaw the darkness of the future we were bringing upon ourselves, and said: "The crisis comes when the war is over. What then? Our question is not what we shall do with Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. It is what these prizes will do to us." This, with the wickedness of the whole business, is the burden of most of the other papers in the volume. In the paper on Imperial Expansion we are told of three "world crises" in our history when we were confronted with momentous questions. The first was after the Revolution. The second came through the growth of slavery. The third is upon us now. "It is not the conquest of Spain, not the disposition of the spoils of victory which first concerns us. It is the spirit that lies behind it. Shall our armies go where our institutions can not? Shall territorial expansion take the place of democratic freedom? Shall our invasion of the Orient be merely an incident, an accident of a war of knight-errantry, temporary and exceptional? Or is it to mark a new policy—the reversion from America to Europe, from democracy to imperialism?" President Jordan has an answer to the question, What are we to do in the shape affairs have assumed? The right thing would be "to recognize the independence of the Philippines, under American protection, and to lend them our army and navy and our wisest counselors; not our politicians, but our jurists, our teachers, with foresters, electricians, manufacturers, mining engineers, and experts in the various industries.... The only sensible thing to do would be to pull out some dark night and escape from the great problem of the Orient as suddenly and as dramatically as we got into it." Yet President Jordan recognizes that some great changes in our system are inevitable, and belong to the course of natural progress. They must not be shirked, but should be met manfully, soberly, with open eyes. A paper on Colonial Lessons of Alaska presents as an object lesson the muss we have made with colonial government in that Territory.

Mr. A. H. Keane's Man Past and Present[50] is a part fulfillment of a promise held out in his Ethnology, the first volume of the Cambridge Geographical Series, that it might be followed by another dealing more systematically with the primary divisions of mankind. In it the "four varietal divisions" of man over the globe are treated more in detail, with the primary view of establishing their independent specialization in their several geographical zones, and of elucidating the difficult questions associated with the origins and interrelations of the chief subgroups. The work consequently deals to a large extent with the prehistoric period, when the peoples had already been fully constituted in their primeval homes and had begun their subsequent developments and migratory movements. The author has further sought to elucidate those general principles which are concerned with the psychic unity, the social institutions, and religious ideas of primitive and later peoples. The two principles, already insisted upon in the Ethnology, of the specific unity of all existing varieties of the human family and the dispersion of their generalized precursors over the whole world in Pleistocene times are borne in view throughout. Subsequent to this dispersion, the four primary divisions of man have each had its Pleistocene ancestor, from whom each has sprung independently and divergently by continuous adaptation to their several environments. Great light is believed to have been thrown on the character of the earliest men by the discovery of the Pithecanthropus erectus, and this is supplemented as to the earliest acquirements by Dr. Noetling's discovery, in 1894, of the works of Pliocene man in upper Burmah. The deductions made from these discoveries strengthen the view Mr. Keane has always advocated, that man began to spread over the globe after he had acquired the erect posture, but while in other physical and in mental respects he still did not greatly differ from his nearest of kin. As to the age when this development was taking place, agreement is expressed with Major Powell's remark that the natural history of early man becomes more and more a geological and not merely an anthropological problem. The human varieties are shown to be, like other species, the outcome of their environments, and all sudden changes of those environments are disastrous. In both hemispheres the isocultural bands follow the isothermal lines in all their deflections—temperate regions being favorable, and tropical and severe ones unfavorable, to development. Of the metal ages, the existence of a true copper age has been placed beyond reasonable doubt. The passage from one metal to another was slow and progressive. In art the earliest drawings were natural and vital. The apparent inferiority of the drawings of the metal period to those of the cave dwellers and of the present Bushmen is due to the later art having been reduced to conventions. The development of alphabetical writing from pictographs is briefly sketched. Thus light is sought from all quarters in dealing with the questions of the book, and due weight is given to all available data—physical and mental characters, usages, religion, speech, cultural features, history, and geographical range. The general discussion of these leading principles is brief but clear and comprehensive. The bulk of the volume, following them, is occupied with the detailed and minute studies of the four main groups of mankind—the Negro, Mongol, American Indian, and Caucasic—and their subgroups, the discussion of each being preceded by a conspectus showing its Primeval Home, Present Range, Physical Characters, Mental Characters (Temperament, Speech, Religion, and Culture), and Main Divisions. The text is full, clear, good reading, instructive and suggestive, and in it the author has sought to make the volume a trustworthy book of reference on the multifarious subjects dealt with.

GENERAL NOTICES.

The fact that Mr. Charles A. Dana stood in close personal relations with Secretary Stanton and was officially associated with him during a considerable period of the war for the Union, and was also incidentally brought near Mr. Lincoln, gives whatever he may relate concerning the events of that period somewhat the air of a revelation from the inside. Accordingly, we naturally expect to find things narrated in his Recollections of the Civil War[51] that could not be told as well by any one else. The account given in the book relates to events in which the author was personally concerned. Mr. Dana had been associated with Horace Greeley in the editorial management of the New York Tribune for fifteen years, when, in April, 1862, Mr. Greeley invited him to resign. No reason was given or asked for the separation, and no explicit statement of a reason was needed. Mr. Greeley, having expressed in the beginning his willingness to let the secessionist "wayward-sister" States go in peace, was in favor of peace; Mr. Dana was for vigorous war. A correspondence was opened between him and Mr. Stanton in reference to public matters shortly after Mr. Stanton went into the War Department. Then Mr. Dana was intrusted with special commissions that carried him to the front and brought him in contact with the leaders of the army; and finally, in 1863, was appointed Assistant Secretary of War, an office he filled till the end of the contest. His narrative deals as the story of one having knowledge with questions of policy, with the critical phases of the hard conflict, with the perplexities and anxieties of the men charged with responsibilities, with stirring scenes in the councils at the Capitol and in battle at the front, and with personal incidents of the men whose names the nation loves and delights to honor. All is related in the straightforward, fluent style, touching only the facts, of a writer who has a story to tell and makes it his business to tell it. The result of the reading of the book is to arouse a new appreciation of the abilities and virtues of those great men in their various walks of civil, political, and military life, who took our country through its supreme trial.

Mrs. Arabella B. Buckley's Fairy-Land of Science has stood the test of about thirty years' publication as one of the simplest, clearest, and best popular introductions to physical science. Originating in a course of lectures delivered to children and their friends, the thought of publishing the book was suggested by the interest taken in the lectures by all the hearers. It was a happy thought, and the carrying of it out is fully justified by the result. But thirty years is a long time in so rapidly advancing a pursuit as the study of science, and makes changes necessary in all books treating of it. The publishers of this work,[52] therefore, with the assistance of the author, have considerably extended the original volume, adding to it notices of the latest scientific discoveries in the departments treated, and amplifying with fuller detail such parts as have grown in importance and interest. A few changes have been made in the interest of American readers, such as the substitution, where it seemed proper, of words familiar here for terms almost exclusively used in England, and the introduction of American instead of English examples to illustrate great scientific truths. The book has also been largely reillustrated.

Some of the essays in Miss Badenoch's True Tales of the Insects[53] have already appeared in serials—two of them in the Popular Science Monthly. The essays are not intended to present a view of entomology or of any department of it, but to describe, in an attractive and at the same time an accurate manner, a few special features of insect life and some of what we might call its remarkable curiosities. The author is well qualified for her undertaking, for, while being an entomologist of recognized position, she has those qualities of enthusiasm in her pursuit and literary training that enable her to present her subject in its most attractive aspect. From the great variety of insect forms she has selected only a few for this special presentation, including some of eccentric shape and some of genuine universal interest. She begins with the strange-looking creatures of the family of the MantidÆ, or praying insects, or, as the Brazilians call the Mantis, more fitly, the author thinks, the devil's riding horse, which is characterized as "the tiger, not the saint, of the insect world." The walking-stick and walking-leaf insects, of equally strange appearance, but peaceful, naturally follow these. Then come the locusts, and grasshoppers, which are more familiar, and the butterflies and moths, which attract the most attention and present such remarkable forms as the case-moths and the hawk and death's-head moths. The insects made subjects of treatment are described with fullness of detail, and the record of their life histories. The book is published in an attractive outer style, on thick paper, with thirty-four illustrations by Margaret J. D. Badenoch.

Prof. Charles C. James, now Deputy Minister of Agriculture for Ontario, defines the purpose of his book, Practical Agriculture[54] to be to aid the reader and student in acquiring a knowledge of the science as distinguished from the art of agriculture—"that is, a knowledge of the 'why,' rather than a knowledge of the 'how.'" The author believes, from his experience of several years' teaching at the Ontario Agricultural College, that the rational teaching of agriculture in public and high schools is possible and would be exceedingly profitable, and that an intelligent knowledge of the science underlying the art would add much interest to the work and greatly increase the pleasure in it. The science of agriculture is understood by him to consist of a mingling of chemistry, geology, botany, entomology, physiology, bacteriology, and other sciences in so far as they have any bearing upon agriculture. He has aimed in this book to include only the first principles of these various sciences, and to show their application to the art of agriculture. The subject is treated as it relates, consecutively, to the plant, the soil, the crops of the field; the garden, orchard, and vineyard; live stock and dairying; and, under the heading of "other subjects," bees and birds, forestry, roads, and the rural home. The appendix contains lists of trees and of weeds, and an article on spraying mixtures. Questions to be answered by the reader are attached to most of the chapters. The illustrations are well chosen and good.

Considerable information about the Philippine Islands and their inhabitants is given by Dr. D. G. Brinton in a pamphlet entitled The Peoples of the Philippines. Dr. Brinton's point of view is the anthropologist's, and accordingly, after a few paragraphs about the geography, geology, and history of the islands, he takes up their ethnology and describes their various peoples as they have been studied by the masters of the science and by travelers. Much valuable as well as interesting information is given respecting their manners and customs, languages, and literature, for the Tagals have had a written language from the earliest known times, and though their old literature does not amount to much they are to-day exceedingly facile versifiers.

The Open Court Publishing Company (Chicago) publishes The Lectures on Elementary Mathematics (LeÇons ÉlÉmentaires sur les mathÉmatiques) of Joseph Louis Lagrange, "the greatest of modern analysts," in a translation from the new edition of the author's collected works by Thomas J. McCormack. These lectures, which were delivered in 1765 at the École Normale, have never before been published in separate form, except in the first printing in the Journal of the Polytechnic School and in the German. "The originality, elegance, and symmetrical character of these lectures have been pointed out by De Morgan, and notably by DÜhring, who places them in the front rank of elementary expositions as an example of their kind. They possess, we might say, a unique character as a reading book in mathematics, and are interwoven with helpful historical and philosophical remarks." They present with great clearness the subjects of arithmetic and its operations, algebra, equations of the third and fourth degrees, the evolution of numerical equations, and the employment of curves in the solution of problems. The translator has prefixed a short biographical sketch of Lapouge, and an excellent portrait is given.

A book of Observation Blanks for Beginners in Mineralogy has been prepared by Herbert E. Austin, as an aid to the laboratory course, and is published by D. C. Heath & Co. (Boston, 30 cents). The laboratory course is intended to make the pupil familiar with the characteristics of minerals and the terms used in describing them by directing him to observe typical specimens and describe what he sees, and to develop his faculties of observation, conception, reasoning, judgment, comparison, and memory. A description is given of apparatus that may be home-made. The blanks follow, containing spaces for the insertion of notes under the heads of Experiment, Observation, Statement, and Conclusion.

In Volume No. XXX of the International Education Series—Pedagogics of the Kindergarten—a number of Froebel's essays relating more especially to the plays and games were printed from the collection made by Wichard Lange. A new volume of the series, Friedrich Froebel's Education by Development, includes another selection from Lange's publication, in which the gifts are more thoroughly discussed. "Again and again, in the various essays," the editor of the series says, "Froebel goes over his theory of the meaning of the ball, the sphere, the cube, and its various subdivisions. The student of Froebel has great advantage, therefore, in reading this volume, inasmuch as Froebel has cast new light on his thought in each separate exposition that he has made.... The essays on the training school for kindergartners and the method of introducing children's gardens into the kindergarten are very suggestive and useful. In fact, there is no other kindergarten literature that is quite equal in value to the contents of this volume." The few essays in Lange's volume that still remain untranslated are characterized as being mostly of an ephemeral character. With the publication of the present volume, of which, as of the Pedagogics, Miss Josephine Jarvis is the translator, a complete list of the original works of Froebel in English translations has been provided in the International Education Series of Messrs. D. Appleton and Company.

A useful manual for students in chemistry is the Chemical Experiments of Prof. John F. Woodhull and M. B. Van Arsdale (Henry Holt & Co., New York). It embraces directions for making seventy-five experiments with different substances and chemical properties, including oxygen and the air, hydrogen and water, chlorine and the chlorine family, acids, bases, salts, sulphur, nitrogen, carbon, carbon dioxide and the carbonates, fermentation, potash, and problems to illustrate the law of definite proportions. A title is given to each experiment, suggesting what is to be proved by it; the details of the process are given, and the pupil is left to do the rest, entering his particular observations and conclusions on the blank page opposite the text. Questions are appended, of a nature further to develop the thinking powers of the pupils, and tables or lists are added of the elements concerned in the experiments, weights and measures, apparatus, and chemicals.

The book Defective Eyesight: the Principles of its Relief by Glasses, of Dr. D. B. St. John Roosa, is the result of an attempt to revise The Determination of the Necessity for Wearing Glasses, published by the same author in 1888. It was found, on undertaking the work of revision, that the advance in our knowledge of the proper prescription of glasses, especially in the matter of simplicity in method, had been so great as to require a complete rewriting. In doing this the book has been very much enlarged, and illustrations have been introduced. The author hopes his manual may prove a reliable guide to the student and practitioner in ophthalmology, and may also be of interest to persons who wish to know the principles on which the prescription of glasses is based. The special subjects treated of are the measurement of visual power, presbyopia, myopia or short-sightedness, hypermetropia, corneal astigmatism, asthenopia, and the qualities of lenses. (Published by the Macmillan Company. Price, $1.)

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Agricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins and Reports. North Carolina State Agricultural Society: Second Annual Report (1896) of the Experimental Farm at Southern Pines. Pp. 90.—Ohio: Press Bulletin No. 195. Stomach Worms in Sheep. Pp. 2; No. 196. Comparison of Varieties of Wheat. Pp. 2; No. 197. Successful Treatment of Stomach Worms in Sheep. Pp. 2; No. 198. Varieties of Wheat and Home-mixed Fertilizers. Pp. 2.—United States Department of Agriculture: Monthly List of Publications (July, 1899). Pp. 4; Report on North American Fauna. No. 14. Natural History of the Tres Marias Islands, Mexico. Pp. 96; No. 15. Revision of the Jumping Mice of the Genus Zaphus. By Edward A. Preble. Pp. 34, with one plate; Report of the Puerto Rico Section of the Weather and Crop Service of the Weather Bureau, for May, 1899. Pp. 8.

Baker, M. N. Potable Water and Methods of Detecting Impurities. New York: The Van Nostrand Company. (Van Nostrand Science Series.) Pp. 97. 50 cents.

Beman, W. W., and Smith, D. E. New Plane and Solid Geometry. Boston: Ginn & Co. Pp. 382.

Bulletins, Proceedings, Reports, etc. Boston Society of Natural History: Vol. XXIX. No. 2. Variation and Sexual Selection in Man. By E. T. Brewster. Pp. 16; No. 3. Notes on the Reptiles and Amphibians of Intervale, New Hampshire. By Glover M. Allen. Pp. 16; No. 4. Studies in Diptera Cyclorhapha. By G. & N. Hough. Pp. 8; No. 5. Contributions from the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University. New Series: No. 17. By B. L. Robinson and J. M. Greenman. Pp. 12.—Dominion of Canada: Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture and Colonization. Improvements In Crop Growing. By Prof. James W. Robertson. Pp. 39.—International Correspondence Schools, Scranton, Pa.: General Circular. Pp. 32.—Liberal University, Silverton, Oregon: Announcements. Pp. 18.—Society of American Authors: Bulletin for July, 1899. Pp. 22.—University of Michigan, Department of Medicine and Surgery: Annual Announcement for 1899-1900. Pp. 91.—United States Artillery Journal: Index to Vol. X, 1898. Pp. 12.

Carpenter, George H. Insects, their Structure and Life. A Primer of Entomology. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 404. $1.75.

Daniels, Winthrop Moore. The Elements of Public Finance, including the Monetary System of the United States. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 383. $1.50.

Grotius, Hugo. Proceedings at the Laying of a wreath on the Tomb of, July 4, 1899, by the Commission of the United States to the International Peace Conference. Pp. 48.

Howard, John R., editor. Educational Nuggets. New York: Ford, Howard & Hulbert. Pp. 215. 50 cents.

McIlvaine, Charles, and Macadam, R. K. Toadstools, Mushrooms, and Fungi, Edible and Poisonous. (Specimen pages.) Indianapolis. Ind.: The Bowen-Merrill Company. (Author's Edition.) $10.

Massee, George. A Text-Book of Plant Diseases caused by Cryptogamic Parasites. New York. The Macmillan Company. Pp. 458. $1.60.

Mellen, George E. New Pointers for Amateurs (Photography). Published by the author. Times Building, Chicago. Pp. 46, with blanks. 15 cents.

Miller, Prof. Kelly. The Primary Needs of the Negro Race. Washington: Howard University. Pp. 18.

Oregon Short Line Railroad. Where Gush the Geysers. (Guide to Yellowstone National Park.)

Pelley, W. H., Knoxville, Ill. Christian Government. Pp. 44. 10 cents.

Pfungst, Dr. Arthur. Ein Deutscher Buddhist. (A German Buddhist.) Theodor Schultze. Stuttgart. Pp. 51.

Rector, L. E., Translator and Editor. Montaigne on the Education of Children. New York: D. Appleton and Company. (International Education Series.) Pp. 191.

Reprints: Billings, S. A., and Englehardt, H. A. Observations on a New Coal-Tar Product. Pp. 7.—Goldmann, J. A. Prophylactic Treatment of the Uric-acid Diathesis. Pp. 8.—Kingsley, Carl. Methods of Determining the Frequency of Alternating Currents. Pp. 11.—Kunz, George F. The Production of Precious Stones in 1897. Pp. 22.—Shimer, P. W. Carbon Combustions in a Platinum Crucible. Pp. 12.

Sumner, William G. The Conquest of the United States by Spain. Boston: Dana, Estes & Co.

Smithsonian Institution: Doan, Martha. Index to the Literature of Thallium. Pp. 26; Proceedings of the United States National Museum. Index to Vol. XXI.

United States Commission of Labor: Thirteenth Annual Report. Hand and Machine Labor. Two volumes. Pp. 1604.

United States Geological Survey: Nineteenth Annual Report. Part I. Director's Report, including Triangulations and Spirit Levelings. Pp. 422, with map; Part IV. Hydrography. Pp. 814; Part VI. Mineral Resources of the United States. By David T. Day. Two volumes. Pp. 651 and 706.—Monographs: Vol. XXIX. Geology of Old Hampshire County, Massachusetts. By B. K. Emerson. Pp. 790, with maps; Vol. XXXI. Geology of the Aspen Mining District, Colorado. By J. E. Spurr. Pp. 260, with an Atlas of thirty sheets; Vol. XXXV. The Later Extinct Floras of North America. By J. S. Newberry. A posthumous work, edited by Arthur Hollick. Pp. 295, with 68 plates.—Maps and Descriptions of Routes of Exploration in Alaska in 1898. Pp. 138, with envelope containing ten maps.

Young Men's Christian Association, Educational Department: Annual Report for 1899. Pp. 70; Prospectus for 1899 (July 1, 1899 to July 1, 1900). Pp. 112; Fourth International and other Exhibits. Awards of Merit. Pp. 24; The Present Status of Our Educational Work. By Frederic B. Pratt. Pp. 5.