Although the story of Edward Coote Pinkney is no new theme, the fashion of printing hear-say romances and terming them histories at this day is so common that even Pinkney, a man who lived in our midst but a few years back, has the subjects of his poems turned awry to suit the reporter's whim. The well-known toast, beginning "I fill this cup to one made up of loveliness alone," was a tribute of inspirition to the gifted and beautiful Mary Hawkins, of Maryland. It has lately been said that this poem was dedicated to the famous Peggy O'Neil, better known as Mrs. Eaton, who, having been rendered conspicuous by her beauty in the Presidential administration of General Andrew Jackson, has passed into history; yet she moved on a different plane from that over which glided the bright-eyed "paragon" of the poet's love, to whom his best garlands of poesy were offered. Esmeralda Boyle. BOOK REVIEWS. Johns Hopkins University Studies1. THE January and February numbers of these studes-the first series of which we have from time to ime noticed in these pages-are united into one numer, containing two essays by Professor Adams, upon le subject of Methods of Historical Study. The rst of these is chiefly with regard to topical reading, hich involves the principle of proceeding from the pecial to the general; this is illustrated by the exeriments of the teachers at Johns Hopkins Univerty and at Smith College with their classes. The ethod is familiar enough to all who have followed the least the course either of teaching or of higher udy in the last decade or two; but for the benefit those readers who have not, we will add an explanaon. In history classes conducted by the topical meth1, the teacher gives to the student, instead of so any pages in a text book, a subject-such as" Gods Egypt,” “ 'Assyrian Discoveries," or so forth, with list of books, or chapters in various books, to be ad on the subject. Some report in class, oral or ritten, complete enough to show that the subject is been mastered, is required. It is obvious that for e willing student there is infinitely more interest id more acquisition of knowledge in this method; each subject is learned, not merely one compiler's itement of it, but his and many more (for the text ok is used as a basis for the systematic reading); ne is saved to the student by the omission of the ily examinations to find whether the text-book lesn has been committed-a process of only minor enefit to the willing student, and primarily intended r the unwilling; and, what is, perhaps, the most portant of all, he is learning the method of study at every student, when thrown upon his own reurces, must follow. If in the majority of cases it the allurements of money-making or society, or the nerent lack of studious tastes, that prevent our young ople's choosing the student's life after leaving colge, it is also, in a very considerable minority of Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and litical Science. Second series. I., II.: Methods of storical Study. By Herbert B. Adams, Ph. D. : The Past and the Present of Political Economy, · Richard T. Ely, Ph.D. cases, because they have never learned to study without a teacher. The principle of proceeding from the special to the general is one that has now become a very familiar shibboleth among teachers, and one that, rightly understood, is unquestionably sound. A neat illustration is given at the beginning of the second paper, in the anecdote of the "introduction of biology to a class in an American college by a young professor, who, when asked by the college president if he did not intend to begin his class work with a study of great principles, replied, 'No, we shall begin with a bushel of clams.' Multitudes of young people, desiring to improve their minds, have gone ashore on the rock of long outline courses of reading or study-undertaking to plod through some six-volume history without turning to the right or left; and failing in perseverance, have not only left the six-volume history unread, but have had ever after a dread of processes of self-improvement. Whereas, if the reader had chanced to be interested in ceramics, and had started on the trail of that subject in history, following it through any book of good authority where it led, it would have left him in the end with much knowledge, not merely of Egyptian, Assyrian, Etruscan, Medieval, Chinese, and Central American pottery, but also with interest awakened in dozens of other historical trails that he had crossed in following his own. The second paper treats more in detail of this topical method, and of the special systems by which it is pursued in various institutions-becoming in the "Seminaries" of Universities actual research instead of the acquisition by research methods of the products of others' original work, as in college classes; also of the application of such advanced research to coöperative work, and the influence of the comparative method of historical study upon it. With reference to the use of topical study for young classes, some most excellent and practical paragraphs are quoted from a treatise by Professor William F. Allen, of the University of Wisconsin. "For college classes," says Professor Allen, "nothing seems to me a greater waste of force than to spend the hour with a text book in my hand, hearing the students repeat what is in the book." "I would not be understood as claiming that this [topical work] is original investigation in any true sense of the term. Laboratory work in chemistry and physics is not original investigation, neither is the study of topics in history. The object, it must be remembered, is education-not historical investigation; and the object of the educational process is not merely to ascertain facts, but even more : to learn how to ascertain facts. For the student, as a piece of training, historians like Prescott and Bancroft may stand in the place of authorities. To gather facts from them, really at second hand, has for the student much of the educational value of firsthand work." In the practical machinery of carrying out such a course, the most fruitful device is that of segregating from the library, as needed, the books on each topic; whether by merely asking the librarian to lay a certain list of books on certain tables for the time required-all that is necessary for young classes -or by creating special libraries, as is advantageously done where there are groups of advanced students. Such methods as these can be and should be used in the lower schools by teachers who really understand them; but, like all methods that involve the comprehension of a principle, they should by no means be promiscuously urged upon teachers, for advanced methods in the hands of incompetent teachers are very apt to work more harm than good; the path of a respectable text book is far safer. We have not left ourself space enough to speak at any length of the paragraphs on coöperative work (into which topical study naturally passes, one member of a class taking one subject, another, another subject, till the whole ground is covered; while anong mature students the same partitioning up of a subject serves the same purpose of combining breadth and thoroughness in matters of original investigation); nor of those on the "seminaries" for such work existing ones. in many European universities and a few American These are merely small organized groups of students to pursue topical research under the intimate guidance of the professor. According to Dr. Emerton, of Harvard (quoted by Dr. Adams), they must be picked men-"The recitation in elementary, and the lecture in advanced teaching, must still remain as the chief means of reaching great masses of students"; the number must be "no more than can be comfort ably seated about a table, so that the relation of pupil and teacher shall be as informal as may be "; the students must be encouraged to feel "that they are investigators, whose results may find a place in the world's record of learning, as well as those of any other men. The actual modus operandi of this research may be partly seen from another quotation: "One summer the president of the university found tant village community upon the extreme eastern point of Long Island, . . . where he studied the history of the common lands at Montauk, with the queen of the Montauk Indians for his sovereign protectress and chief cook." Study Number III., by Dr. Ely-"The Past and the Present of Political Economy ❞—is to some extent based on his paper of that title in the OVERLAND MONTHLY of September, 1883, and many paragraphs from that paper are incorporated into it; it is, however, essentially a different monograph. The main thesis is, of course, the same: the decline of the or thodox school of political economy, and the succes sion of that German school, which Dr. Ely prefers to call the "historical," and whose superiority he shows, in its more scientific basis of investigation of facts— "inductive method," technically speaking-and its consequent rejection of extreme "laissez faire,” and "universal self-interest" doctrines, and therefore its kindlier and more practical spirit. The Unity of Nature.1 The Unity of Nature, by the Duke of Argyle, is a volume of 585 pages-very thick and solid as to paper, and somewhat solid as to matter. Many of the chapters, if not all of them, were originally published in the Contemporary Review, and reprinted in the Eclectic Magazine of New York. This treatise is a sequel to "The Reign of Law," published some years ago. But even this demands another vol. ume before the point can be reached at which the writer aims, and is preliminary to one on "Law in Christian Theology.' The author first defines what he means and does not mean by the Unity of Nature; then inquires concerning "Man's place in the Unity of Nature"; then considers “Animal Instinct in Relation to the Mind of Man"; the "Limits of Knowledge"; the "Elementary Constitution of Mat Human Knowledge"; the "Truthfulness of Human ter in Relation to the Inorganic," and also to the "Organic "; and then treats of "Man, as the Representation of the Supernatural," "The Moral Character of Man," ""The Degradation of Man,” “The Nature and Origin of Religion," and "The Corraptions of Religion." It would be impossible in a few words to give the course of the argument. It is essentially a work on natural theology by a scientific method, dealing with others have arrived at different results-some at bald the same facts or phenomena from a survey of which materialism, and some at agnosticism. Most of the volume is pleasant reading, partly from the fact that Iwith the feeling that the writer is at home, knows confesses his dres a Johns Hopkins student in Quebec studying French culties, is perfectly honest, frank, and sincere, does not wish to mislead anybody, and is earnestly seeking to find the truth, and all of it. Whether one ac . parishes and Canadian feudalism. The next summer 1 The Unity of Nature. By the Duke of Argyle. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1884 For sale by Billings, Harbourne & Co. cepts all the writer's positions and results or not, he will be entertained and informed by such a work as by no other similar work in existence; because the For, just as there are truths related to the reason which only the intellect can appreciate, so there are others related to the spirit, which, in strict analogy, survey of nature, and man as in nature, is so broad principle of the unity of nature, our spiritual sense can only be spiritually discerned. And as, on the and full. We cannot do better than to quote the author's own summing-up of his labors. "If the conclusions to which these chapters point are true, then we have in them some foundationstones strong enough to bear the weight of an immense superstructure. If the unity of nature is not a unity which consists in sameness of material, or in mere identity of composition, or in mere uniformity of structure, but a unity which the mind recognizes as the result of operations similar to its own; if man, not in his body only, but in the highest as well as the lowest attributes of his spirit, is inside this unity and part of it; if all his mental powers are, like the instincts of the beasts, founded on an organic harmony between his faculties and the realities of creation; if the limits of his knowledge do not affect its certainty; if its accepted truthfulness in the lower fields of thought arises out of correspondences and adjustments which are applicable to all the energies of his intellect, and all the aspirations of his spirit; if the moral character of man, as it exists now, is the one great anomaly in nature-the one great exception to its order and to the perfect harmony of its laws; if the corruption of this moral character stands in immediate and necessary connection with, and indeed essentially consists in, rebellion against the authority on which that order rests; if all ignorance and error and misconception respecting the nature of that authority and of its commands has been and must be the cause of increasing deviation, disturbance, and perversion if it is a great natural law that every tendency of thought, and every habit of mind, whether in a right or in a wrong direction, is prone to become inherited or organized in the race-then, indeed, we have a view of things which is full of light. "Dark as the difficulties that remain may be, they are not of a kind to undermine all certitude, or to discomfit all conviction. On the contrary, it is impressed upon us that the system under which we live is not only a system accessible to our intelligence, but so united to it that all the mysteries of the universe, visible and invisible, are epitomised and enfolded in ourselves. And so we come to feel that our knowledge and our understanding of that system must 'grow from more to more' in proportion as the whole of our own nature is laid open to the whole of its intimations, and the highest of our faculties are kept in conscious and wakeful recognition of the work, and of the power to which they stand related. Then, also, it will become plain to us that we may expect in that system, and that we may trust to it for teaching of the highest kind, insomuch that inspiration and revelation are to be regarded, not as incredible, or even as rare phenomena, but as operations which, in various measures and degrees, are altogether according to the natural constitution and course of things. "For of this kind, essentially, are all the wonderful instincts of the lower animals and all the primary intuitions of the human mind. Of this kind especially are all those gifts and powers by which alone we can gain the very earliest lessons of experience, or mount the very first steps of reason. And as these primary intuitions of the mind give us our first entrance into some of the realities which lie behind phenomena, so, among these realities, there is a still higher region into which our entrance may well be gained only by processes which are analogous. VOL. III.--43. must be the organic expression and result of a relation with real things, it is to be confidently expected that it can and will be fed with its appropriate food --that it can and will be strengthened and enlightened by communications from a kindred source. 39 66 Briefer Notice. THIS1 is one of the daintiest volumes that ever came from a printing press, and is enveloped in covers of a fashionable delicate brown that befit the interior. It is a brief paper upon Balzac, divided into five chapters, respectively upon "The Vagaries of Genius,' 'The Comédie Humaine," 99 66 'The Buskin and the Sock," ""The Chase for Gold," "The Thinker and Bibliography." The volume is large typed and broad margined, and all that the author has to tell of his subject is contained within the limits of about a hundred and fifteen pages. We cannot but regard it as aggravatingly meager telling a little of his youth, some characteristics of his genius, his struggles with poverty, his methods of authorship, his disappointments, and his varying successes until the end. That came too soon for the consummation of all his brilliant hopes and expectations. It does not in any way satisfy the reasonable curiosity which is natural to one who is an admirer of the author of the Comédie Humaine, but what there is is so pleasantly told that one the more readily reproaches the author for not fulfilling the reader's expectations-a word or two of narrative, a bit of analysis and characterization, and the reader is at the end. The fifth chapter is a selection of sentences from the works of Balzac, such as will give a slight taste of his quality as a thinker -his conclusions in little upon many subjects that are nearest every one's experiences in life-woman, love, society, religion, genius, beauty, solitude, and the moral sentiments that are woven into the thoughts of every man of thought and observation; in many of which one will recognize a good deal of wisdom, while in others another may see quite as much doubtful worth. French morality is not always the morality of the Puritan, but types of character are universal, and the eyes of the mind recognize quickest those things to which custom has oftenest turned their gaze. The bibliography composing the last chapter is of especial interest, and will be esteemed by most as cism of the whole volume is, that being as good as it the most valuable portion of the book. Our critiis, it is much too brief.-Lyrics of the Law forms the eighth of the "Legal Recreations" series, by Sumner Whitney & Co. It is a collection of the lighter poems-mostly, but not all, humorous—that have been called out by the legal profession. As 1 Balzac. By Edgar Evertson Saltus. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1884. For sale by Billings, Harbourne & Co. 2 Lyrics of the Law. Selected by J. Greenbag Croke. San Francisco: Sumner Whitney & Co. 1884. would be expected, "Punch" contributes largely to the contents, some eighteen or nineteen out of the hundred-odd lyrics being credited to that jour nal. Several other journals, American and English-chiefly, but not exclusively, legal ones have contributed a large number of the rest; Cowper, Moore, Dr. Franklin, Lockhart, Dr. Holmes, Saxe, Gilbert, Blackstone, and Tom Taylor are wellknown signatures to still others; and a few bear internal evidence of home production, though it is not confessed by the signatures. The non-legal reader will find the majority of these lyrics somewhat bewildering, but still, many are within his comprehension; among them a few that are already familiar, such as Tom Taylor's "On the Approach of Spring," Saxe's "The Briefless Barrister," Cowper's "Report of an Adjudged Case," etc. The legal reader, for whom the collection is designed, will probably enjoy them all greatly. The two poems attributed to Blackstone—which, if somewhat heavy, are nevertheless very fair poetry, even from a purely literary point of view are specially interesting from their spirit, and their exposition of the author's view of his profession. We must not neglect to speak specially of the clever and kindly verses in which "The San Francisco Bar" takes farewell of "an esteemed lady member" -significant as the closing manifestation of the pleasant relations that marked the brief connection between this member (the first woman to graduate from the law school) and the rest of the bar of this city.-G. P. Putnam's Sons have recently issued in a single neat little volume the two selections from Carolino's English as She is Spoke, previously issued in two separate parts.- -An orthodox clergyman, an acquaintance of Mr. Emerson's at the time of his withdrawal from the Unitarian ministry, and to some extent thereafter, prints a papers of personal recollections and critical comment, read by him before the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. It is not of great critical value, but it is interesting to see Mr. Emerson from the stand-point of a clerical friend. The fourth circular of information for 1883 of the United States Bureau of Education contains a summary of all the recent decisions in the Courts of the various States affecting points of school law. The important position which Prussia has taken in the recent movement toward the political unity of Germany has stimulated inquiry into her early history; and Professor Tuttle's book may be 1 English as She is Spoke, or A Jest in Sober Earnest. With an introduction by James Millington. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1884. 2 Ralph Waldo Emerson. By William Hayne, D.D. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1884. Circular of Information of the Bureau of Education. No. 4-1883. Washington: Government Printing Office. 1883. 4 History of Prussia, to the Accession of Frederick the Great, 1134-1740. By Herbert Tuttle, Professor in Cornell University. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1884. For sale by Billings, Harbourne & Co. regarded as one of the noteworthy results of this inquiry. He has undertaken "to describe the political development of Prussia from the earliest times down to the death of the second king." He has made, as he says, "somewhat minute researches into the early institutions of Brandenburg," given considerable attention to the development of the constitution, and awarded to wars, treaties, and dynastic intrigues a position of only secondary importance. He has assumed "that even readers who are not Prussians have an interest in knowing what was the origin and what the early history of the political system which first came into universal notice through the victories of Frederick, and after a period of eclipse again astonished the world in the second half of the present century." Doubtless there are grounds for this assumption; still, in spite of the brilliancy of her later achievements, the early events of Prussia's history will always remain comparatively uninteresting. This subject of the early history of Prussia, however. whether specially interesting or not, is one on which cultivated people wish to be informed; and they have reason to be fairly well satisfied with the manner in which Professor Tuttle has performed his task. In the first place, it should be set down to his credit that he has looked at his subject from the modern point of view, and has endeavored to keep the internal organization and development of the nation conspicuously before the mind. In the second place, he has fortunately not attempted to present a picturesque account of early Prussia, but has dealt with the matter in hand in a plain and straightfor ward manner. His style throughout is sober and dignified, and errs rather on the side of severity than in the direction of over-ornamentation. If we were disposed to urge points of criticism with respect to this work, which, in the main, is well done, we should suggest that in its composition as a whole due attention has not been paid to what we may call historical perspective. It lacks that almost indescribable some thing which makes the difference between the work of a literary artist and that of a laborious and painstaking scholar. It is excellent in its several parts, but now and then the author grows weary in his researches, and his intellectual digestion becomes, thereby, somewhat impaired; so that the parts are not always subjected to an adequate assimilating force. In certain cases the parts remain fragments, instead of being fused, and, as it were, cast into an artistic whole.- -A brief History of the United States in Rhymes is a helpful mnemonic tesuch children as are fond of committing to memory and repeating jingles; and almost any child, though not disposed to commit the whole, might find some specially troublesome date or period tided over by the help of the few lines bearing on the difficult point. 5 History of the United States in Rhyme. By Robert C. Adams. Boston D. Lathrop & Co. 1884. L. NEW BOOKS. The Life of Thurlow Weed. With his Autobiography. Edited by his daughter, The Voyage of the Jeannette. From the Journals of Lieut. Comd'r GEORGE W. The Imperial Dictionary. The Great Encyclopaedic Lexicon, containing 130,000 words and more than 3,000 pictures. SAMUEL CARSON, Publisher and Wholesale Bookseller, 120 Sutter Street, San Francisco. NOW READY. A NEW EDITION OF COLTON'S GENERAL ATLAS OF THE WORLD. Revised and diligently compared with all the best authorities, English and American, to date of publication, and including Census of 1880. The rapid progress of Government explorations and surveys, together with the immense immigration and onsequent railroad building in our Western States and Territories, make many changes and additions imperavely necessary in any Atlas where completeness and reliability are aimed at. Nor is the Old World without 8 changes, all of which must be noted in a work of this kind, or it becomes of little value as a work of ference. We have been to great expense, both in money and labor, to obtain and compile the new informaon transferred to this edition, being determined that COLTON'S ATLAS shall continue to be, as it always has een, superior in point of completeness, accuracy, and mechanical execution to every Atlas in the country. otwithstanding the expense incurred in issuing this edition, the price will be, as heretofore, TWENTY DOLLARS. Will be sent by express (not miilable) on receipt of the above amount. Address SAMUEL CARSON, 120 Sutter Street, San Francisco, 'r the Publishers, G. W. & C. B. COLTON & CO., 172 William Street, N. Y. For Sale by all Booksellers. The Trade Supplied by SAMUEL CARSON, Agent for the Publishers. COMMERCIAL INSURANCE CO. OF CALIFORNIA. FIRE AND MARINE. Capital, paid in full.. Assets, January 1, 1883.... $200,000 00. Losses Paid since Company was Organized...$867,528 70. OHN H. WISE, President. OFFICE, 405 CALIFORNIA STREET, CHAS. A. LATON, Secretary. SAN FRANCISCO. |