pied him from 1861 to 1864. Meanwhile he wrote a critical essay on Ari (1861), which still remains unpublished; and he began to make a collection of the court poetry of Iceland down to the fourteenth century, with a view to publishing a 'Corpus Poetarum Aulicorum,' such as has since been incorporated in his vaster miscellany. Thus engaged, and full of energy and activity, the young stipendiary was unconscious of the fame which his modest, but extraordinary labours were winning for him throughout Europe. Germany began to wish for the aid of so ardent a scholar, and more than one continental university was ready to adopt adopt him. His latest work before coming to England was the edition of 'Eyrbyggjasaga,' published at

means.

Gudbrandr Vigfusson had nearly completed his fifty-ninth year. He was born of Vigfus Gislason and his wife Halldora Gisladottir, in the Broadfirth district of Iceland, in March, 1830. Of his early life I know nothing, except that he used to speak of his passion for the ancient literature of his country having been awakened in him, when he was about fourteen years of age, by hearing old MSS. read aloud as evening entertainment round the fire. In this way he became acquainted with what still remains unprinted, the the 'Biscopa Evi' of Jon Halldorsson. Gudbrandr went to school at Bessastad, and afterwards to the High School at Reykjavik, whence he proceeded, in 1850, to the University of Copenhagen. How the next few years were spent I know not, nor whether, as I think, there was an interval between his university life and his settling at Copenhagen. At all events, in 1855 he made his first literary venture, 'Timatal.' This I have never seen, but it is described as "an essay on the chronology of the Icelandic Sagas, written in Icelandic." In consequence of this publication he was appointed, in 1856, one of the stipendiaries of the Arna Magnæan Commission in Copenhagen, and was thus placed in immediate contact with the precious vellums which Arni collected.

For the next eight years Vigfusson was incessantly transcribing undeciphered MSS., and presently he found time for editing also. In 1858 he brought out the Icelandic text of 'Biskupa Sögur,' lives of the bishops of Iceland from 1056 to 1331, of which another collection followed in 1861. This task was undertaken at the cost of the Icelandic Literary Society. In 1860 he appealed to a wider public by editing 'Vatnsdælasaga,' 'Hallfredarsaga,' and 'Flóamannasaga,' in company with Theodor Möbius, for a firm in Leipzig. From this time forth he was extremely active. Between 1858 and 1864 he copied the enormous 'Flatey Book.' In 1861 he printed as much as could be deciphered of the stained and mutilated 'Vapnfirdingasaga,' which no one before his time had been able to read. In the same year he performed the task of checking Arni's catalogue of vellums, and succeeded in disproving the myth that the most valuable part of the collection had disappeared in the great fire of 1728. He next approached one of the most colossal of his later labours, and went through and deciphered all the MSS. and fragments of Sturlunga' in Copenhagen. This partly occu- |

Certain events were now ripening at Oxord. Richard Cleasby, the friend of Rask and Grimm, had projected as early as 1840 an IcelandicEnglish dictionary. He had commenced it in company with Konrad Gislason, and the work had very slowly progressed to the point of the printing being begun, when, rather suddenly, in 1847 Cleasby died. His energy and his resources once removed, the scheme languished; the MS. was left in Copenhagen, and was presently forgotten. In 1854 transcripts were asked for in Oxford, and were forwarded in due time from Copenhagen. Sir G. W. Dasent took them up, but they needed an editor who could give his whole attention to them. It was Sir George Dasent who, in 1864, found Vigfusson poring over brown strips of vellum in the Arna Magnæan Library, and annexed him forthwith to the British Empire. At first in London, and then, from 1866, at Oxford, the Cleasby-Gislason transcripts were put into Vigfusson's hands. In June, 1869, the first part of the great dictionary was issued from the Clarendon Press, and 1874 saw its conclusion in a noble quarto volume. Meanwhile, in 1868, in co-editorship with Unger, Vigfusson brought out at Christiania the three volumes of the huge 'Flatey Book, the most important of all Arni Magnusson's MSS., a monster from the fourteenth century. Already, in 1873, before the first of his three great masterpieces was completed, he had proposed to the Delegates of the Clarendon Press the second of these, the editing of 'Sturlunga.'

of something and look. It was the famous little unique vellum of the poetic Edda, a sacred volume, blackened with age. "Now," said Vigfusson, "you may boast that you have had Codex Regius in your hands"; and he took it from me as reverently as a priest might take a relic.

I must not multiply idle reminiscences, but I cannot forbear to record the preference which Vigfusson expressed for Oxford over Copenhagen throughout this time we spent together. He was always sighing after Oxford, and the Danes he held in great suspicion. One night I met him at a large dinner-party at the house of a poet, whose wife was an Icelander. The principal guest was Warsaae, who, in honour of the hostess no doubt, said several handsome patronizing things about Iceland, and finished by informing us that he intended to persuade the king, on the occasion of Icelandic Home Rule, to give a marble statue of Thorwaldsen to the town of Reykjavik. This proposal was vehemently opposed by Vigfusson-so vehemently that Warsaae presently wrapped himself, metaphorically, in his toga and became very chilly. As we left the house together, I asked Vigfusson why he opposed an intended compliment to his native island. "Iceland," he answered, "asks for bread, and these Danes offer her a stone." Presently we parted, I for Norway, he to decipher 'Heidarviga' in Stockholm; nor did I ever again see so much of him. I shall always remember with lively gratitude and pleasure the long talks and practical instruction which I then received from him. He was the best of peripatetic teachers.

His subsequent labours are known to all whose attention is given to Scandinavian scholarship. In 1877 the second edition of Möbius's 'Analecta Norræna' appeared, almost rewritten under Vigfusson's guidance. In 1878 the Clarendon Press issued, in two noble volumes, 'Sturlunga Saga,' with prolegomena which simply revolutionized our knowledge of Icelandic historical literature. In earlier days Möbius had been Vigfusson's helper, supporting him with his sympathy, translating his notes and prefaces into German. In the 1878 volumes of 'Sturlunga' Vigfusson appeared for the first time in conjunction with an English disciple, the most patient, the most accomplished, the most competent of assistants, Mr. F. York Powell, upon whom his mantle has fallen, and to whom we have now to look for a continuation of the master's labour.

It was in 1871 that I had the inestimable privilege of making Vigfusson's acquaintance, under, if I make no mistake, the roof of one of the kindest and most influential of his Oxford friends, Prof. Max Müller. But it was when the 'Dictionary' was concluded that I came to know him well. Early in 1874 he went back to Scandinavia to examine and transcribe MSS. for Oxford and for the Rolls Office, and we met in Copenhagen in May. For some time in that spring I saw him almost every day. He had a lodging high up in a house in Dannebrogsgade, with a bright sea view over Kallebo Strand. There have I often found him sitting at a table in the window, immersed in some charred and yellow vellum, and have wantonly and successfully disturbed him. In those days at least, whatever he may have been lately, he was full of childlike fun, with a soft and frequent laugh not much louder than the purr of a cat, very pleasant to listen to. His only exercise was walking, and in his company I have explored every nook and corner of Copenhagen. "Walking in step" he never attempted to attain to; his mode of progression was a rapid little uniform trot, like that of a child. His mornings were mostly spent among the MSS. in the Royal Library. One day a little incident occurred which was very characteristic of Vigfusson, and not perhaps too slight to be recorded. I was reading downstairs in the Royal Library while Vigfusson was working above me in a gallery. He came down to me, laughing, and told me to shut my eyes and come with him. Upstairs I went in faith, led by the hand, and was presently told to take hold | all the colour? Who will forget the enthusiasm,

The names of Vigfusson and of Mr. Powell were united on the title-page of the third and perhaps the most valuable of the great works of the former, the 'Corpus Poeticum Boreale' of 1883, a classified text, with a translation, of the whole body of existing ancient Icelandic poetry from the earliest times down to the thirteenth century-a piece of work stupendous in extent, and executed with a laborious genius and a spirit of imagination truly extraordinary. It had been preceded by the 'Icelandic Reader' of 1879, and was followed by two massive volumes of Icelandic text, without translation, the 'Orkneyinga Saga' and 'Hakonar Saga' of 1888, to which Vigfusson's name only is attached. Vigfusson received from Oxford in due course the honorary degree of M.A., and the appointment of Reader in Icelandic Literature. It is stated that his latest work, the 'Origines Islandiæ,' is nearly ready for publication. What of final revision this and other writings of their lamented author may require will be given by no one in Europe with so much authority as by Mr. York Powell, from whose pen too, I hope, we may receive in due time a memoir of Vigfusson. His memory, however, is not one which his friends are ever likely to lose. Who that has seen it will forget that pale and fretted countenance, or those strange lack-lustre eyes, from which the snows in youth and the vellums in age had combined to extract

the fidelity, the sweet and indulgent unworldliness? In the closely packed arena of our modern literary life there was not any figure of an individuality more marked than his.

EDMUND GOSSE,

DOUAI COLLEGE AND THE BRIGHTON PAVILION. The Observatory, Crowborough, Feb. 4, 1889.

WITH reference to the statement that the money paid by France in 1815 respecting the College of Douai was spent by the British Government in paying off the debts incurred by the Prince of Wales in building the Brighton Pavilion, I beg to inform you that I have lying before me an autograph letter written by King George IV. to the Earl of Liverpool bearing upon this subject, and dated Brighton, March 16th, 1823, from which the following is an extract: "I see by the papers of last night that Mr. Bennett has made an assertion relative to the Pavilion, entirely without foundation, that I had once intended to present it to the Public. This has never enter'd into my Head nor never will. Everything relative to the Pavilion has been paid out of my private purse, and nearly all the expences attendant upon the Furniture of that part which has been already paid for."

The king appears to have been so much annoyed at this report that he thought it necessary to have it denied in the House of Commons, for after some further remarks his Majesty says: "I hope, therefore, you will make a point to see Mr. Peel before he goes to the House to-morrow that he may be prepared to do what is necessary against this contemptible Individual who seems only anxious to traduce his Sovereign." The italics are in his Majesty's letter.

C. LEESON PRINCE.

'PICTURESQUE KENSINGTON.'

36, High Street, Kensington, Feb. 5, 1889. LIKE "A Correspondent" we awaited Messrs. Field & Tuer's explanation with some curiosity, and are still curious to know why they did not adhere to the terms of their own prospectus. We happen to know that after the book had

been published they sold copies at 11. 8s. 6d., although they had previously announced that

the price after publication would be 2l. 5s. We note also that the chief, if not the only offender in cutting" the price was a "linendraper

bold," who obtained his supply direct from the publishers. May we also say, as subscribers for the largest number, that not one of our hundred copies has been sold under the quoted price? FARMER & SONS.

CANTERBURY PARISH REGISTERS.

Canterbury, Feb. 2, 1889.

JNO. PEARSON.

"Although Mr. Slater's letter on the book sales of last year is interesting, it is liable to be misleading, because the prices only are given in most cases withit may be dear at 51., according to its state. It is out the condition. A book may be cheap at 20l., or frequently the writing in a book, the coats of arms on the binding, and the historic associations which are sold rather than the book. Such was the case with many lots last year. The Second Folio Shakhave been very dear at 40l. without these. And the speare, which made 140l. at the Aylesford sale, would Bishops' Bible, 1572, stained and in damaged binding as it was, would have been very dear at 30l., although

it made 90l. because it was from the library

Earl of Leicester. So with many others. The libraries which were dispersed last year were most of them collections of antiquities and curiosities rather than of literature. It is many years since so

few books such as are collected by readers and lovers

of literature were sold."

Literary Gossip.

Murray is bringing out contains several THE Motley correspondence which Mr. letters of Prince Bismarck's to Motley, and also an account by Motley of a visit he paid to Varzin. Motley made the future Chancellor's acquaintance when they were both students, and they formed a close friendship, which was renewed on the return of the American historian to Europe.

SIR WILLIAM FRASER, it is said, is writing a monograph on the subject of the famous ball given at Brussels on the eve of Quatre Bras by the Duchess of

To prevent any misconception which may Richmond. It may be remembered that

arise in reference to these registers, I ask to be allowed to say a few words. I have already issued St. Dunstan's, 1559 to 1800, and St. Peter's, 1560 to 1800. The St. Alphage register, 1558 to 1800, is all printed, but a little unavoidable delay has arisen with the index, which contains between 30,000 and 40,000 references. The next register which I propose to issue is that of St. Mary Magdalene, 1559 to 1800. The christenings down to 1651 are printed, and the whole of the "copy" is ready.

The volumes are privately printed, and each issue consists of 106 copies. If I can obtain eighty subscribers I shall probably continue the series. The price varies according to the size of the volumes, and is only intended to cover

cost.

BOOK SALES.

J. M. COWPER.

there has lately been a controversy as to the exact room in which the ball was held.

volume of the new edition of Chambers's AMONG the articles to appear in the third Encyclopædia' are: Celts, by Prof. Rhys; China, by Prof. Legge; Christianity, by M. E. de Pressensé; Clan, by the Duke of Argyll; Climate, by Dr. A. Buchan; by Sir F. de Winton; Convocation, by Dr. Coaling Stations, by Lord Brassey; Congo, Littledale; Deer Forests, by Mr. Watson Lyall; and Dialect, by Mr. A. J. Ellis. Prof. J. Geikie writes most of the geological articles, and Sir E. W. Watkin on the Channel Tunnel. Cervantes will be treated of by that excellent Spanish scholar Mr. Ormsby,

and 80 will the Cid.

Chapman and

Dekker are assigned to Mr. A. H. Bullen; the Earl of Chatham to Mr. R. B. HalChaucer to Prof. Hales; Cicero to the Rev. dane, M.P.; Chatterton to Mr. Groome; W. J. Brodribb; Congreve to Mr. Theodore!

Watts; Cowper to Mrs. Oliphant; Cromwell to Prof. Goldwin Smith; Darwin to Mr. Grant Allen; and Dickens to Mr. Walter Besant. Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole writes on Constantinople; Lord Napier and Ettrick on the Crofters; Prof. Nicholson on Currency; and Dr. Cox on Derbyshire.

THE next number of the Universal Reviero will contain a poem by Mr. Lewis Morris, entitled 'David Gwyn,' on a patriotic subject (hitherto overlooked) from Mr. Motley's History of the United Provinces.'

selling firm of Messrs. Suttaby & Co. has THE well-known publishing and bookbeen turned into a limited company. The shares have not been offered to the public, all of them having been taken up privately.

MESSRS. LONGMAN are going to publish a novel intended to expose the evil consequences, both in the teaching and training of the young, of payment by results. It is called The Land of my Fathers,' and is by Mr. Marchant Williams. A good part of the book is devoted to depicting the present condition, social, religious, and political, of Wales.

THE delay in the publication of Sir Monier Williams's book on Buddhism has been caused by difficulties which have arisen in connexion with the illustrations. A certain number of copies will be in Mr. Murray's hands at the end of next week. The work will be published simultaneously by the

American firm of Macmillan & Co.

THE subject of the address to be delivered by Prof. Max Müller on February 23rd at the Mansion House meeting of the London Society for the Extension of University Teaching will be 'Some Lessons of Antiquity.' The Lord Mayor will preside.

THE appendix to Mr. W. A. Clouston's and Stories, from the Persian, the Tamil, forthcoming Group of Eastern Romances and the Urdū (privately printed for subscribers), will include, besides numerous analogues and variants, an epitome of the celebrated Persian romance of Hatim Taï, whose seven adventures, undertaken on behalf of a love-struck prince, were probably suggested by the heft-khan (or seven labours) of Rustam, the Persian Hercules, as described in the 'Shah Nama' of Firdausí. This work is designed to further illustrate to form an entertaining story-book. the migrations of popular fictions as well as

We are sorry to receive the following news from a lady who has been making & sketch of Shelley's villa near Spezia :

"You never saw such a mess as they are making of the beautiful ilex wood above Shelley's

house, cutting down all the trees and making

tidy prim walks with urns stuck at the corners, racter with the place, planted over it. Shelley's and all sorts of garden shrubs, quite out of chabefore long, I believe, so I was just in time, and house is itself to be tidied up and plastered have copied every old weather stain on it with

great care."

MESSRS. GRIFFITH, FARRAN, OKEDEN & WELSH-to give them their full title-have determined to abandon St. Paul's Churchyard, in spite of all its associations, and build themselves a large pile in Charing Cross Road, which they are going to call Newbery House, in the hope of appeasing the shade of the premises of the firm in the Churchyard their predecessor. It is not many years since were rebuilt.

:

consist of about thirty pieces, several of which have already seen the light in the Sectator, Globe, and other papers. Mr. Inley Sambourne has undertaken to illustrate the volume.

،

Ar the meetings of the Folk-lore Society during the ensuing session the following papers will be read: 'On the Philosophy of Rumpelstilchen,' by Mr. E. Clodd; On Death's Messengers and its Variants, by Dr. R. Morris; Folk-lore of Middlesex,' by Mr. J. P. Emslie; 'The Survival of Totemism in Britain,' by Mr. Gomme; Dorsetshire Children's Games,' &c., by Mr. Udal; and 'The Legend of the Buddha's Alms Dish and its Affinities to the Legend of the Holy Grail,' by Mr. Alfred Nutt.

IMMEDIATELY on the passing of the Local Government (Scotland) Bill, Messrs. Blackwood & Sons will publish a handbook on the subject by Mr. J. Badenach Nicholson, advocate, counsel for the Scotch Education Department, and Mr. W. J. Muir, advocate, secretary to the Lord Advocate for Scotland. ADOLF WILBRANDT, after his long silence, is about to appear again as an author. "Tired of the theatre, even to exhaustion," as he says, he is not going to offer the German public another drama, but a novel, the title of which is to be 'Adam's Söhne," upon which he has been engaged since he resigned the managership of the Burgtheater at Vienna, and withdrew to his Rostock soli

tude. The scene of the tale is laid in the Salzkammergut.

EARLY in March M. Perrin (Didier's successor) will publish a second series of essays by M. Gabriel Sarrazin, on the 'Poètes Anglais de ce Siècle.' The poets dealt with in the present volume comprise Shelley, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Tennyson, Browning, and Walt Whitman.

THE Swedish historian Prof. Sven Fromhold Hammarstand, who died at Upsala on January 25th, had been the author, since 1854, of a great number of successive volumes on the history of his native country. He was born at Stockholm in 1821, and succeeded Malmström as Professor of History in the University of Upsala in 1882. His best work as a writer was done in connexion with the Thirty Years' War.

THE Smithsonian Institution has undertaken to publish a complete collection of Dr. Hincks's papers on the decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions. This collection will also contain a number of letters from and to Dr. Hincks, which will throw light on the successive discoveries made by Dr. Hincks, Sir H. Rawlinson, Dr. Norris, and others.

H. W. writes from Naples :

"Under the title of a 'precious gift' we are informed that a valuable donation has been made to the National Library of Naples. The Count Edward Lucchesi Palli, of the family of

the Princes of Campofranco, has given to the state, and specially to the National Library of this city, the whole of his rich and select collection of books splendidly bound and his musical 'archivio. The count has also left a legacy of 2,600 lire annually for the payment of a special librarian, and for the purchase of other books.

The Government has granted him two rooms in the National Library, which are to be decorated by the best artists at the expense of the count." PROF. HENRY NETTLESHIP has undertaken the editing for Messrs. Sonnenschein & Co. of Seyffert's 'Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. The same publishers will have ready shortly a translation of Viktor Rydberg's 'Teutonic Mythology,' edited from the Swedish, with notes, &c., by Mr. Rasmus B. Anderson, U.S. Minister at Copenhagen. MESSRS. W. H. ALLEN & Co. will publish in a few days a new book entitled 'Four Famous Soldiers,' by Mr. T. R. E. Holmes, author of a History of the Indian Mutiny. The volume will consist of biographies of Sir Charles Napier, Hodson of Hodson's Horse, Sir William Napier, and Sir Herbert Edwardes. It will contain a map and two plans.

THE trustees of the Sir J. Jejeebhoy Translation Fund of Bombay have voted 925 rupees towards the expenses of Dr. Mills's forthcoming work on the Gathas which we mentioned some time ago.

On the 15th of last month Lord Reay for

the first time delivered the Convocation address of the Bombay University, of which he is Chancellor. He dwelt much on the necessity of improving the law school, and advocated the establishment of a special degree in agriculture. The University appears to increase in popularity among the public generally. Last year the donations to it amounted to over a lakh of rupees.

MESSRS. SAMPSON Low & Co. are going to issue Six Years in Uganda,' by the Rev. Robert P. Ashe, late of the Church Missionary Society's Nyanza mission. Mr. Ashe was in Uganda when Mwanga murdered Bishop Hannington and slaughtered the Christian natives in 1886.

MESSRS. SAMPSON Low & Co. have in the

،

press a novel called 'The Vasty Deep,' by Mr. Stuart Cumberland, author of The Queen's Highway from Ocean to Ocean.' THE death is announced of Dr. von Holtzendorff, the well-known law professor of

Berlin.

THE chief Parliamentary Papers of the week are Pauperism, England and Wales, Paupers relieved on July 1st, 1888, Return (8d.); Army Estimates Committee, Index to Reports (18. 2d.); and Public Accounts Committee, Third and Fourth Reports, Evidence, and Appendices (18.).

SCIENCE

Nature and Man: Essays Scientific and Philosophical. By William B. Carpenter. With an Introductory Memoir by J. Estlin Carpenter. (Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.)

THIS volume may be regarded as a memorial to the late Dr. Carpenter, for it consists of a biographical sketch and reprints of various essays on somewhat different subjects, first published between the years 1838 and 1884. With the remark that they have no doubt been selected with the view of giving some idea of the scope and development of Dr. Carpenter's intellect, we put them aside for the purpose of devoting our space to the more novel portion of the volume.

The biographical sketch might well be taken for a model in these latter days. The author's position and intellectual grasp forbid us to compare it even for a moment with the catchpenny reminiscences the publication of which has added a new terror to life; but it will compare, and compare favourably, with more ambitious works. Mr. Estlin Carpenter's sketch of his father tells the story of that father's life in a way which will commend itself to real lovers of biography.

As we remarked at the time of his decease, Dr. Carpenter's life was one of hard work. It was no doubt that, together with the professorial office and the business of textbook writing, which gave to his manner a dogmatism which was far more superficial than most people imagined it to be. He had, he felt himself, too little time in his earlier years to soften down "his rough and somewhat prickly exterior"; and his favourite recreation, that of music, charming though it is, is one that rather purifies the mind than practises the manner in habits of genial courtesy. Like his favourite instrument, the organ, he found it more easy to be grand and impressive than to suit himself to the varying moods of human society. Just as when one hears an organ one wants no other instrument, so was Dr. Carpenter apt to fill the stage alone; but for the work which he had to do the greatest and best work of

his life this character was the most valuable he could have had. That work is thus admirably defined by Prof. Huxley :

"Dr. Carpenter undertook the important office of intermediary between the rapidly accumulating masses of new knowledge and the student of physiology. Sifting, condensing, and methodically arranging the material, and embodying the results in an admirably lucid style, he produced a compendium of great excellence."

Carpenter was only five-and-twenty when the first edition of his 'Principles of General and Comparative Physiology' was published in 1838, and under thirty when his 'Human Physiology' first appeared. No biologist fails to appreciate the services which these text-books have rendered to science; the critic sees how much the personality of the writer had to do with their effect. It is so difficult to induce even an intelligent Chancellor of the Exchequer to spend a large sum of money, that we are inclined to rate as the next achievement due to Carpenter's personal character the equipment of the Challenger for its memorable voyage of exploration; while those who are content with the narrow view of a university which at present finds expression in London know, or ought to know, that the institution in Burlington Gardens owes much of its repute to Dr. Carpenter's services as registrar. A smaller man would have been overwhelmed with the work and responsibilities which fell to him there for nearly a quarter of a century. The vigour of his intellect and the breadth of his learning may, when the history of the University of London comes to be written, be found to be the reason of its continued existence. Whether or no that is a matter for congratulation is not the question here. Carpenter had his work to do, and he did it well.

Never, perhaps, was his strength of character better shown than in 1864, when he lay dangerously ill :

"Music ceased to charm; his scientific investigations were laid aside; his Foraminifera and his Comatulæ remained undisturbed. It seemed as though he had become prematurely old; torpor crept over him and numbed his activities; the weeks passed by listlessly and mounted into months, and he gained no strength. The fears of his friends appeared on their way to verification, when one day Sir William Logan, the head of the Geological Survey of Canada, called upon him, bringing with him some specimens from the great beds of the Canadian limestones, on which he asked his opinion. Dr. Carpenter's quick eye at once detected in them a remarkable affinity to the foraminiferal structure with which he was so familiar. His interest was again powerfully awakened; the 'will to live' revived; he began to make microscopic preparations, and entered with much of his former zest on a new path of inquiry, with the result that he regained some of his old vigour." Truly Eozoon was to Carpenter the dawn of

a new life!

Though great strength of character is often associated with coldness and reserve in public, it by no means follows that it is not also often combined with great powers of sympathy. This was exhibited very early in Carpenter's life, for he was only eighteen when he wrote from the West Indies: "What I have hitherto seen does not in the least diminish,

but rather increases, my aversion to slavery; but the causes of it are certainly altered, and I am led to make more allowance for the planters when I see more plainly the difficulties by which they are surrounded." It would have been strange indeed if the brother of Mary Carpenter had not had some of her "large-hearted and self-sacrificing love of her fellow creatures." In his case strength was not stubbornness, for, as Prof. Huxley says, "More than once I had

the misfortune to come into scientific conflict with him; and on one occasion, certainly I was in the right. Yet not even that provocation disturbed his unvarying goodness." Considerations of space have compelled us to look at Dr. Carpenter's character from one point of view, and one which is that best adapted for treatment in a journal such

as this; but it is not to be forgotten that he was very generous of his time and unsparing of his strength in a number of excellent social movements, and that he was generous of both to the religious sect with which he was all his life connected. His theological views, modified as they were in the course of his long life, distinctly tinged his actions and his writings; and had he been able to sum up his life he might well have chosen part of the concluding paragraph of Berkeley's 'Human Knowledge':

"For, after all, what deserves the first place in our studies is the consideration of God and our Duty; which to promote, as it was the main drift and design of my labours, so shall I esteem them altogether useless and ineffectual if, by what I have said, I cannot inspire my readers with a pious sense of the presence of God!"

ASTRONOMICAL NOTES.

ANOTHER new planet, probably to be reckoned as No. 283, was discovered by M. Charlois at Nice on the 28th ult.

The Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society for this year has been awarded to M. Loewy, of the Paris Observatory and of the Bureau des Longitudes.

The comet discovered last month by Mr. Brooks at Geneva, N.Y., has not since been It was only visible in the early morning,

and for some days after the discovery the bright moonlight would have made the observation of a faint object very difficult.

The small planets, Nos. 279 and 280, which were discovered by Dr. J. Palisa at Vienna on the 25th and 29th of October, 1888, have been named by him Thule and Philia respectively.

Mr. Peek has sent us an account of the work performed by himself and his assistant, Mr. C. Grover, at the Rousdon Observatory, Lyme Regis, during the year 1888. Transit observations were regularly taken, and a considerable number of periodically variable stars observed.

No. 2875 of the Astronomische Nachrichten contains an account (communicated by Prof. Holden) of a number of double-star observations obtained by Mr. Burnham at the Lick Observatory, several of the small companion stars being new discoveries made with the 36-inch telescope.

The third volume of that important work, Dr. Auwers's New Reduction of Bradley's Observations made in the Years from 1750 to 1762, has recently been published by the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg. It is of especial value as containing the Star-Catalogue (for the epoch 1755), with the precessions for the three epochs 1755, 1810, and 1865, a comparison with the places in Bessel's 'Fundamenta,' and references to observations in other catalogues, including those of all the double stars which occur. It will be remembered that the second volume of this noble work (of which the

have the manliness to affix his signature to hi expression of regret.

It would not be our inclination to take notic of anonymous remarks, and we should hav made no exception in the present case had the not appeared in a paper of the reputation the Athenœum. RICHARD BENTLEY & SON

*** Messrs. Bentley have misunderstoodu if they imagine we doubted their entire goo faith. We merely remarked that they mus surely be mistaken in supposing that an orde for the use of a plate in the Ibis could ema nate officially, of course - from the Zoo logical Society. The secretary of that society is also editor of the Ibis, the organ of the British Ornithologists' Union; but the Union is perfectly distinct from the Zoological Society, as we were careful to point out on the 26th ult. As, however, the order was written on the paper of the Zoological Societya fact unknown to us last week-we quite see that Messrs. Bentley had reasonable grounds for believing the order to be an official act of the secretary of that society, and we apologize for anything in our note that may have in any way wounded their feelings.

BOCIETIES.

ROYAL.-Jan. 31. -The President in the chairThe following papers were read: 'On Isoëtes lacus tris, Linn.,' by Mr. J. B. Farmer, and 'On Auto Infection in Cardiac Disease,' by Dr. L. C. Wooldridge.

Royal Astronomical Society of London marked its appreciation by the bestowal of the Gold Medal last year) appeared in 1882, and contained President, in the chair. The following gentlemen

the results of the separate observations of right ascension and zenith distance. The preparation for the press of the third volume, now published, was delayed by the absence of Dr. Auwers in South America to observe the transit of Venus in December, 1882. The volume denominated the first has not yet appeared. It is to contain the reduction of the solar and planetary observations, together with several instrumental investigations some of which are already completed. The observations themselves, unreduced, were published by the University of Oxford in two volumes which appeared in 1798 and 1805 respectively. Bessel's 'Fundamenta,' in which is contained his star-catalogue founded Bradley's star-observations, appeared in 1819. Valuable as that great work was, the recent progress of astronomy and the improvements

on

effected in its practical processes have made it desirable to re-reduce the observations by the aid of modern methods and refinements; and Dr. Auwers has, in order to obtain the greatest possible accuracy whilst going through the enormous labour involved in this, not trusted to the printed volumes of observations, but consulted throughout Bradley's original manuscripts, which were transferred from Oxford to

the Greenwich Observatory in 1861.

We have received the number of the Memorie

della Società degli Spettroscopisti Italiani for November, containing the results of Prof. Tacchini's observations of the solar protuberances during the third quarter of 1888, and a continuation of the diagrams of the spectroscopical images of the sun's limb to the end of 1885. Prof. Tacchini also has a note on the meteors observed last August by himself and by Prof.

Millosevich.

'OUR RARER BIRDS.'

8, New Burlington Street, Feb. 5, 1889. THE official authorization for the use of the St. Kilda wren plate is open to inspection by any person entitled to see it upon the presentation of his card in New Burlington Street, on any weekday during office hours.

The charge of your correspondent should either be substantiated or withdrawn, and though he has made his assertions under cover of the anonymous, we hope that when he has seen "the almost incredible" document he will

GEOGRAPHICAL.-Jan. 7.-General R. Strachey,

were elected Fellows: Earl of Scarborough, Col. C. F. Call, Capt. E. W. Dun, Dr. J. M. Moore, Messrs. W. C. Alexander, A. C. S. Barkly, F. Johnson, G. Lishman, A. H. Marshall, S. V. Morgan, and J. Stokes. The paper read was 'Journey to Bihé and Benguella, and thence across the Central Plateau of

to the Sources of the Zambesi and the Congo,

by Mr. F. S. Arnot.

elected

Jan. 28.-General R. Strachey, President, in the chair. The following gentlemen were Fellows: Hon. P. King, Commander H. Davidson, Commander C. E. Reade, Capt. R. A. Marriott, Rev. P. Read, Dr. E. J. Schuster, Messrs. F. F. Begg, F. S. N. Bingley, H. D. Bishop, W. Blanchard, G. W. Brangwin, J. D. Cobbold, F. Hare, and J. S. Martin.The paper read wasThe Gran Chaco (Argentine Republic) and its Rivers,' by Capt. J. Page.

SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES. - Jan. 31. - Dr. J. Evans, President, in the chair. Before proceeding with the business of the evening, the President had sustained

alluded to the great loss the society. Per ceval. After some remarks from the Director and Dr. Freshfield, the following resolution was unanimously adopted: "That the Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries desire to place on record their grateful appreciation of the valuable and long-continued services of Mr. Charles Spencer Perceval in the offices of Director and Treasurer, and of the benefits which the Society has derived from his great and varied knowledge and experience. They deeply grieve at his untimely loss, and wish to convey to the sorrowing members of his family the assurance of their warmest so sudden and irreparable rmest sympathy, under w. H. St. John Hope, by permission of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Dean and Chapter of Rochester, ex hibited the original deeds of exchange of the manors of Lambeth and Darent in 1197, upon which he contributed some descriptive remarks.-H.M. ConsulGeneral at Salonika communicated particulars of a supposed Byzantine church recently discovered in Salonika. In illustration of this paper Dr. Freshfield contributed some interesting notes on the churches of Salonika. - Mr. W. H. St. John Hope read a paper on the sculptured doorways of the Lady Chapel of Glastonbury Abbey. The subjects of the carvings on these doorways have hitherto re mained unexplained, on account of their supposed reference to legends in the history of St. Joseph of Arimathea. Mr. Hope has, however, ascertained that they represent simply scenes of New Testament history, from the Annunciation to the Massacre of the Innocents and flight into Egypt.Dr. Freshfield reported the discovery, during the demolition of the church of St. Olave Jewry, of parts of the old church destroyed in the Great Fire.

SOCIETY OF ENGINEERS. - Feb. 4. - Mr. А. Т. Walmisley, President for 1888 first occupied the