[The Lecturer here read an extract from Sir Francis Walsingham, Minister in Queen Elizabeth's time. He characterized it as plain, sober language, but distinguished by talent; void of affectation, and of clear meaning. It bore evidence that the writer had thought before he had attempted to communicate. The subject was Honesty.]

Jeremy Taylor reconciles the architectural and the classic styles. His sentences are of great length, yet do not require review in order to understand them; the words are judiciously chosen, and the sentence grows with the importance of the subject.

[Two admirable extracts were read in illustration-the first on Original Sin, the other on the Progress of Disputes.]*

The style next in succession was of a very different nature. The new stylists resembled a person who tries to recollect all the good things he has heard during the last three months, that he may give utterance to them all together. They strung together sparkling points, unrelieved by intermediate plainness. Their writings bear marks of recollection, not of reflection. In the writings of Taylor, &c., uncommon and foreign words are not unfrequently used, but they are used only when no others could be found so expressive of the author's meaning. Sir Thomas Browne appears to be the first who used uncommon words for their own sake. Mr. C. confessed that Sir Thomas, with all his imperfections, was a favourite of his. He described him as a sublime and quiet enthusiast, as bearing some resemblance to Montaigne, but enter ing into his speculations with more intenseness of purpose than the French writer. His writings bear the stamp of an original and amiable mind. The only imitable quality of them is their entireness, or plenitude of illustration.

[A passage from Sir T. B.'s 'Treatise on Urn Burial' was read.]

Barrow and his contemporaries next come under consideration. Their predecessors offended by pedantry. It now became a mark of loyalty to pass into the other extreme, and everything must appear free and unlaboured.+

Hence proceeded occasional quaintness and sometimes even ludicrousness. For instance, in Barrow's 'Sermon on Spiritual Monarchy, the action of St. Peter in cutting off the ear of the High Priest's servant, is thus stated"Up rose his blood, and out popped his sword." Sir Roger L'Estrange and Jeremy Collier carried this plainness to excess. The style of the period was infected with a sort of slang or blackguardism. Notwithstanding these defects, there is much to approve in the writers in question. Their style is purely English, full of idioms, and partakes of the passions of man in general.

[An extract from Roger North's Life of his brother, the Lord Keeper, followed in illustration.]

The liveliness of the thoughts was well conveyed by the words.

It was the opinion of some that the first perfect models of good writing were produced after the Revolution. We had, however, perfect models before, of the architectural style in Hooker, of the impetuous in Taylor, of elegant simplicity in Cowley; with some abatement, Algernon Sydney and Dryden were also good models.‡

[Here Cowley's account of Oliver Cromwell's funeral was in part extracted.]

The

style of Cowley is most fitted for imitation; it is distinguished by variety of excellence.

Our great poets, Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, Dryden, &c., were all good prose-writers; they seemed to have kept their thoughts on separate shelves, so as to avoid that injudicious mixture

* In the 'Remains' Coleridge is represented as here reading (only) a passage on Faith, Hope, and Charity from Hooker's 'Ecclesiastical Polity,' I. s. 11.

↑ Compare Table Talk'for July 3rd, 1833, and for July 5th, 1834; also the 'Friend,' ii. 307.

I Compare Table Talk' for May 8th, 824, and for July 12th, 1827.

of poetry with prose which disgusts us in less skilful writers. The style of Swift may be considered perfect; by no defects it reminds us of itself.

After the Revolution, we became commercial, and our style suffered considerably. It was not learned, nor plain, nor popular; the thoughts were commonplace, but the manner was strange. The first object seemed to be,-not to speak naturally.

[Mr. C. illustrated this part of his subject by extracts from Mr. Phillips's speech in the case of Guthrie v. Sterne, and exposed the absurdities and false eloquence contained in it. The instances he selected were of false antithesis, confusion of metaphor, bathos, and sheer nonsense.] Mr. Coleridge then gave a few instructions which he conceived might be usefully adopted in order to write and talk respectably.

We should not express ourselves till we feel that we know clearly what we mean to express. The want of previous reflection is the cause of much incoherent and unconnected writing and talking.

Adverting * to the opinion of a Greek writer (Strabo, I believe) that none but a good man could be a great poet, the Lecturer concurred with him, and thought, moreover, that moral excellence was necessary to the perfection of the understanding and the taste. The good writer should be a lover of what is common to all his fellow creatures, rather than of what makes them unequal; he should desire the esteem of good men; he should look to fame rather than to reputation.+ Fame is the approbation of the wise of successive generations; reputation is often no more than the echo of hastilyformed opinions. Many contemptible works have had great reputation; few works greatly reputed at first, have afterwards ripened into

fame.

We should use no words nor sentences which can be translated into simpler words with the same meaning.

Shakespeare and Milton are distinguished by their appropriate use of words. You cannot change a word without injury to the effect.

The first two lines of Dryden's translation of Juvenal's Tenth Satire were contrasted with Johnson's imitation of the same passage. Johnson takes up six lines, and does not well express his meaning after all. Dryden's two lines are,

Look round the habitable globe; how few
Know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.
Johnson's six are, -

Let observation, with extensive view,
Survey mankind, from China to Peru;
Remark each anxious toil, each eager strife,
And watch the busy scenes of crowded life;
Then say how hope and fear, desire and hate,
O'erspread with snares the clouded maze of fate,
Where wavering man, &c.

The great source of bad writing is a desire in the writers to be thought something more than men of sense. Language is made a sort of leap-frog. Our Poetry runs after something more than human; our Prose runs after our Poetry; and even our conversation follows in the pursuit.

At a dinner of twenty persons, when your health is proposed, you are expected to return thanks in a set speech. Metaphors are used, not to illustrate, but as substitutes, for plain speaking.

The frequent rendering of abstractions into persons is also a growing evil, as in the following line :

which is the same as saying that Mrs. A sheds Mrs. B's tear.*

Sound sense and sound feeling are necessary to a good writer. Accuracy is akin to Veracity. They who are accustomed to weigh the meaning of words before they utter them are much less likely to disregard truth in greater matters, than those who, from neglecting accuracy, lose the sense of its importance. We should habituate ourselves to see the relation of our thoughts to each other; we should consider pleasure derived without any effort vating, and therefore undesirable. That only is permanent which appeals to something permanent in our natures.

as ener

[A few brief observations concluded the Lecture.] From a Correspondent.

THE SPRING PUBLISHING SEASON.

MR. NUTT will issue the text volume of Dr. H. O. Sommer's edition of the 'Morte Darthur' to subscribers, - Mr. Justin Huntly McCarthy's prose translation of the 'Rubaiyat' of Omar Khayyam, Dr. Karl Buelbring's transcript of Defoe's 'Compleat English Gentleman,'-Mr. Jacobs's edition of Howell's 'Familiar Letters,' and his reprint of Caxton's 'Fables of Æsop, Avianus, and Poggio' (the fourth volume of the "Bibliothèque de Carabas"), - Mr. Hutton's 'Thomas a Becket,' Mr. Taylor's 'Charles II.,' and Mr. Jacobs's 'Jews of Mediæval England' (these three in Mr. York-Powell's "English History from Contemporary Writers" series), Alphonse Daudet's 'Tartarin sur les Alpes,' with introduction and notes by M. G. Petilleau, French master at the Charterhouse, the English edition of Mr. Brownell's 'French Traits,'and a second edition of Mr. Henley's 'Book of

Verses.'

A new volume by Theo. Gift, entitled 'Not for the Night-Time,' will be issued by Messrs. Roper & Drowley.

AN UNDESCRIBED ADAPTATION FROM SPINOZA. 48, Great Cumberland Place, March 11, 1889.

I HAVE lately fallen in with a fragment of Spinozistic literature of which I never heard before, and of which I have not now found or heard of any other copy, or been able to learn anything more in our public libraries or otherwise. It is a little tract of forty-eight pages, entitled "Tractatus de Miraculis. Authore Spectatissimo. Londini: MDCCLXIII." No imprint. There is a dedication : "Ornatissimo viro Davidi Hume armigero, hac ætate nobilissimo et acutissimo philosopho."

The text is a reprint of the sixth chapter of the 'Tractatus Theologico-Politicus,' with omissions and minute variations which appear to be designed in part to make the chapter look like an essay complete in itself, in part to avoid the quotations of Hebrew not infrequent in Spinoza's text. In one place the suppression of a reference to chap. iv. of the 'Tractatus' is concealed by interpolating the whole of the passage referred to. Elsewhere, however, there are trifling omissions which look purely accidental.

Mr. R. Garnett has suggested to me that this may be a hitherto undescribed production of Wilkes's private press. The typography seems consistent with this conjecture, for it is very like that of the North Briton; but there is not, at least to my unskilled eye, any decisive peculiarity about it.

An English translation of the same chapter, entitled 'Miracles no Violations of the Laws of Nature,' and cooked in much the same fashion as the reprint of 1763, was published as early as 1683; the author of a reply which appeared in the same year ('Miracles Work's [sic] above and contrary to Nature') had no difficulty in assign

In the forthcoming volume of the 'Dictionary of National Biography,' to be published on the 26th inst., which extends from Esdaile to Finan, the Rev. William Hunt writes on Ethelred the Unready; Mr. Leslie Stephen on John Evelyn, the late Henry Fawcett, and Fielding the novelist; Mr. H. G. Keene on Sir Vincent Eyre; Mr. A. H. Bullen on Edward Fairfax, translator of Tasso; Mr. C. H. Firth on the great Lord Fairfax; Mr. Sidney L. Lee on Sir Richard Fanshawe, Guy Fawkes, and Sir John Fastolf; Prof. Tyndall, F.R.S., on Michael Faraday; Mr. Charles Kent on F. J. Fargus ("Hugh Conway"); Mr. Thompson Cooper on Richard Farmer, D.D., Master of Emmanuel; Mr. Joseph Knight on Henry, Elizabeth, and William Farren; Mr. Richard Garnett on Elijah Felton; Mr. T. F. Henderson on Robert Ferguson "the Plotter"; Dr. Norman Moore on Sir Samuel Ferguson; the Rev. Prof. Creighton on Nicholas Ferrar of Little Gidding; Dr. W. A. Greenhill on Frederick Field, editor of Origen; Mr. J. A. Fuller-Maitland on John Field, musical composer; and Mr. Cosmo Monkhouse on A. V. Copley Fielding the painter.

THE improvement in M. Taine's health, which we were glad to announce recently, has become so marked as to enable him to resume his literary labours. A gratifying proof will soon be supplied in the shape of a series of three articles which he has arranged to contribute to the Revue des Deux Mondes on the 'Reconstruction of France in 1800,' the first appearing in the number for the 15th of this month.

A MEETING was held two or three days ago in the lecture hall of the Incorporated Law Society, Mr. Lake, the president, in the chair, to consider the best means for ensuring the safe custody and preservation of provincial records. Letters from several well-known antiquaries and others, expressing regret at their inability to attend, were read. Mr. W. P. W. Phillimore then pro

posed the formation of a Central Record

Board, presided over by the Master of the Rolls, which should report upon the condition and custody of provincial records. It was suggested also that county record offices should be formed, under the auspices of the

County Councils, in which might ultimately

positories for local records." A committee was then appointed to ascertain how such a scheme could best be carried out.

THE annual report of the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language states that the study of Irish is advancing steadily in national schools, and that the study of Celtic is making highly satisfactory progress at the Intermediate Examinations. At the last examination the number of passes amounted to 210, 151 of whom were pupils of the Christian Brothers. The Senate of the Royal University, although it has obtained full power to establish a Celtic chair, has not yet appointed a professor. The Rev. P. B. MacCarthy has just concluded his first course as Todd Lecturer at the Royal Irish Academy. There is for the year ending the 31st of December, 1888, a balance in favour of the Society of 96l., after paying all liabilities, and the demand for the Society's publications still continues. The number of books sold during the year amounted to nearly 5,000.

THE Lord Mayor has consented to preside at the anniversary festival of the Printers' Pension, &c., Corporation.

A NEW series of the Spenser Society at a reduced subscription of one guinea is to be at once established. The first publication will be the 'Polyolbion' of Drayton, with the engraved title-page, the portrait of Prince Henry, and the thirty-one maps of counties. In deference to the views of some members, more than once expressed in the Athenaum, the usual ribbed paper hitherto used in the publications of the Society will be discontinued.

We learn that Mr. A. B. McGlashen has been made a partner in the firm of Adam & Charles Black, Edinburgh. Mr. McGlashen has for many years acted as representative of the firm, and in that capacity is well known in publishing circles, both in this country and abroad.

STEPNIAK has undertaken to write a volume for Mr. Walter Scott's "Great Writers" series.

MR. W. H. BERNARD SAUNDERS, of Peterborough, is about to edit a new local antiquarian quarterly, to be termed Fenland Notes and Queries. The towns and villages of the Fen country ought to be able to supply a large store of unrecorded folk-lore and legend and general antiquities to make the venture interesting. The fault of many of these provincial magazines is that they

are not sufficiently provincial, and become generally diffuse. Another enterprise of the same kind is announced by Messrs. Spencer, of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutlandshire Notes and Queries.

THE author of 'Rabbi Jeshua' is about

to publish through Mr. Redway another

volume on the same lines. The title explains the subject. It is 'Paul of Tarsus,' and is, in fact, a rationalistic life of the

apostle.

dale.' The section devoted to family history will, it is said, be unusually complete. The book will be illustrated.

A FREE library, which has been built from funds subscribed by the public, was opened at Middleton on Saturday last, the opening ceremony being performed by Prof. Boyd Dawkins. The Lancashire towns seem generally to declare in favour of the free library movement.

THIS winter has been unparalleled in the ravages it has made in the ranks of distinguished Scandinavian men of letters. We have to-day to chronicle the death of the Swedish historian Wilhelm Erik Svedelius, which occurred on February 26th. He was born at Köping, May 5th, 1816; became a professor in Lund in 1856, and was elected Skytteansk Professor of History at Upsala-one of the best literary appointments in the north of Europe-in 1862. In 1864 he was made one of the Eighteen of the Swedish Academy, in succession to Hagberg. He was especially eminent as a lecturer and an orator.

A LETTER has been addressed to President Harrison from the best-known men in the three Scandinavian nations, begging him not to withdraw Prof. Rasmus Anderson from the post of U.S. Minister at Copenhagen. Among the signatures to this letter are those of Björnson, Georg Brandes, Holger Drachmann, Mrs. Edgren-Leffler, Niels Gade, Edvard Grieg, Henrik Ibsen, Viktor Rydberg, Carl Snoilsky, and indeed almost every name prominent in literature, painting, and music. Prof. Rasmus Anderson, during the four years he has been the United States representative, seems to have given great satisfaction to Scandinavian feeling.

MR. D. G. RITCHIE, Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, is preparing for publication some hitherto unpublished letters of Mrs. Carlyle, written to a relative of his who was an intimate friend of her girlhood, some of them before her marriage and some during the Craigenputtock period, a very few belonging to the years after 1834, at which date the letters in Mr. Froude's 'Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh

Carlyle' begin. The earlier letters are said to throw new light on her mind and character, the growing influence of Carlyle being distinctly perceptible in them. A letters of Carlyle's never before published are included in the collection; one of these gives an account of the setling in Chelsea, the others relate to his projected History of German Literature,' and to

Baillie's letters and other books which he used while preparing for Cromwell. Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein & Co. will be the publishers.

MESSRS. CHATTO & WINDUS have in the press a one-volume novel by Mr. William Sharp, which will be published under the title Children of To-morrow.' Although in part a romance of contemporary artistic life, it deals mainly with a tragic theme. The title is derived from the following passage from one of the younger Dutch writers: "We, who live more intensely and suffer more acutely than others, are the Children of To-morrow, for in us the no forces of the future are already astir or

We regret to hear of the death of Miss Mary Whately, daughter of the late Archbishop of Dublin. She was the author of 'Ragged Life in Egypt' and other works. Miss Whately died in Egypt in the sixtyfifth year of her age.

COL. FISHWICK is going to publish by sub

DR. JAMES WARD, of Trinity College, Cambridge, has undertaken to write for Sonnenschein's "Library of Philosophy" a work on metaphysics, to be entitled Epistemology; or, the Theory of Knowledge.'

A WORK on the 'Evolution of Hebrew' by Dr. Edkins, of Pekin, will be published immediately by Messrs. Trübner. He represents the current Hebrew syntax as modern, and the syntax revealed in many parts of the paradigms of verbs as ancient. He thinks that in the oldest forms of the language there is proof that the nominative preceded the verb, and the adjective the substantive; and if Semitic languages can be reduced to a form where Semitic peculiarities disappear, it becomes possible, he believes, to derive Semitic speech from an old type, which has further east given origin to the Tartar (Ural Altaic) and Chinese families. Dr. Edkins aims at proving that Semitic speech was originally monosyllabic and had a natural syntax like the Chinese.

THE forthcoming volume in Mr. Fisher Unwin's "Novel Series" will be the second edition of 'Miss Bayle's Romance: an American Heiress in Europe,' being the fourth in this series. The new edition will be thoroughly revised.

A WORK which has long been awaited by American historians with interest has at length drawn sufficiently near completion for the invitation of subscriptions by Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. This is 'The

Genesis of the United States,' by Mr. Alex

ander Brown. Mr. Brown's narrative is of the movement in England (1605-16) which resulted in the plantation of America, and the contest between England and Spain for the possession of the New World. The two volumes will include bibliographical memoranda, maps and portraits, and a comprehensive biographical index.

A NEW work relating to the early history of Peru and the foundation of Lima will shortly be published under the auspices of the municipal authorities of that city. It consists of the text of Book I. of the Minutes of the Municipality of Lima from November 29th, 1534-when it was decided that a convenient site should be chosen for the capital of Peru-to November 17th, 1539. The orthography and grammatical construction of the original text have been scrupulously adhered to in the transcription. The editor is Don Enrique Torres Saldamando, who is already favourably known as the author of

a work on the labours of the Jesuits in Peru. Señor Saldamando has supplied an introduction and numerous notes. The appendices contain notices of the founders and first citizens of Lima and of their descendants; and dissertations on the subsequent history of the city, on the important question of the encomiendas, or grants to the conquerors of Peru, on the original plan of the city and the division into streets, with notices of the earliest and later proprietors. The work was referred to a committee consisting of three of the most eminent men of letters in Peru, Don J. A. de Lavalle, Don Ricardo Palme, and Don E. Larrabure y Unanue. Their report, dated January, 1889, is most gourable, and they advise that the publivind should be undertaken by the ProCouncil of Lima in a style that will be work of the subject. The book will, it

seems, be printed in Europe under the superintendence of Señor Saldamando.

THE Syrian Patriarch Michael I. (who died 1199 A.D.) is the author of a Syriac chronicle from the Creation to the year 1196. This is clear from his minor writings

as well as from an Armenian translation of this chronicle, which, however, seems to be an epitome only. The original text of Michael's chronicle, which is important for Syriac literature as well as for the general and ecclesiastical history of the East, was considered lost. We are, therefore, glad to announce that the Catholic Bishop of Edessa has lately discovered the original text of this lost chronicle in a MS. of which he now possesses an accurate copy. The learned bishop intends, we are informed, to publish shortly a Latin or a French translation of this chronicle, which will be followed soon after by the edition of the original text.

IT was decided last week by the ratepayers of the city of Limerick to adopt the Free Libraries Act there.

MESSRS. SWAN SONNENSCHEIN have in the press a volume of Irish lyrics by Mr. A. P. Graves.

THE Duke of Nassau will shortly issue, for private circulation only, a small volume of poems, chiefly containing Rhine legends and descriptions of Rhine scenery.

On the occasion of Field-Marshal Moltke's recent "military jubilee" a collection of his speeches was issued by Dr. Gustav Karpeles,

the title of 'Graf Moltke als

Hitherto the field-marshal has been generally known as "Graf Moltke als Schweiger." NEXT Monday evening the Dean of Westminster is going to give an account, at the Ladies' Department of King's College in to the Mediterranean. Kensington Square, of his trip last autumn

We regret to announce the death of Dr. Bromby, the most noted schoolmaster in Victoria, and formerly a Fellow of St. John's

College, Cambridge, at the advanced age of eighty.

THE most interesting Parliamentary Papers of the week are Government Stock, Return (ld.); Civil Service Revenue Departments, Supplementary Estimates for 1888-89 (4d.); Railway and Canal Acts, Rules, Forms, Fees, &c. (3d.); Navy Estimates for 1889-90 (18.); Navy, Designs for First Class Battle Ships (18. 1d.); Army Estimates for 1889-90 (2s. 6d.); Trade and Navigation, Accounts for February (8d.); and Post Office Telegraphs, Account 18871888 (1d.).

SCIENCE

of Wild

Bird-Life of the Borders: Records Sports and Natural History on Moorland and Sea. By Abel Chapman. (Gurney & Jackson.)

At last we have a book on birds in their haunts by a writer who is thoroughly master of his subject-one who has plenty to say, and who also knows how to place his experiences vividly before the reader. The portions devoted to the Cheviots and the moorlands recall the scent of the heather, while the narrative of adventures by day

"slakes" off Holy Island is pervaded by the keen salt breezes from the North Sea.

In addition to his powers of description Mr. Chapman is possessed of considerable abilities as a draughtsman, and although, through modesty, the fact is not mentioned on the title-page, this work contains numerous illustrations from his own penand-ink sketches, some of them being really admirable for breadth and boldness of execution. Especially happy as regards the rendering of the plumage are the cuts of the young blackcock, "1st September," full of motion, and "end of September," the bird lying dead in the somewhat ungraceful attitude in which it often falls. Quite as successful is the scaup drake, which, in spite of his conspicuous black and grey plumage, is hardly visible at the first glance, owing to his similarity to the rocks which form the background of the creek in which he is concealed. However, the letterpress is the thing, so, as a specimen of the author's style, we select the following :

"At the head of the glen lies Langlee-ford, a lonely farmstead and the last house in England, beautifully ensconced among pine woods - a protection from the snow-blasts that in winter sweep down from Cheviot. To-day, however, the heat is tropical, but for the light breeze that comes laden with the delicious fragrance of the pines and the hawthorn, of the rowan and woodbine, and a score of nature's exquisite perfumes. From Langlee-ford we 'take the hill,' and the climb commences in earnest. At first the ascent is over ordinary moorland, with bracken-beds, now in their beautiful emerald green stage. From the heather close by spring three or four cheeping half-grown fledgelings. They are young grouse; and the same moment there is a flutter and scuffle a few yards away, as their anxious mother flaps along the ground as though winged and disabled. How admirably she diverts one's attention at the very instant her brood need an opportunity to escape unseen! Not till they are all in safety do the old grouse take wingthe old cock all the time crouching within a few yards. Grouse are noble parents-very different

to their cousin the Blackcock, who after the

vernal courting, never again looks near his numerous wives and families. Leaving the

gaunt cone of Hedgehope on the left, the flat summit of Cheviot presently comes in view, still far above. Gradually, as we ascend, the heather grows less and less luxuriantly, becoming scant and dwarfed, and mixed with the golden leaves of the bleaberry-ling, the whortle-berry, and the creeping heath. The actual summit is a broad flat plateau, perhaps half a mile in extent. Bleak and wild-looking, the plateau is only halfclothed with coarse bent and cotton grass, interspersed with barren mosshags, oozy peat-flats, and ravines. The small white flowers of the cloud-berry (Rubus camimorus), a plant which only flourishes at altitudes of some 2,000 feet, were a relief to the monotony of barrenness, together with tufts of Lycopodium and the trailing shoots of the crowberry. The Alpine Cornus Suecica also grows at one spot here- a very rare British plant, only found on Cheviot and on one other of the northern fells. The only birds seen on the summit (2,676 feet) were a Grouse or two-none nest so high, a few Golden Plovers, and a charming sight-quite a small colony of Dunlins. There were five or six pairs of this graceful little wader, all breeding together among some moory tussocks, and extremely tame, perching within a dozen yards. We sat and watched them for some time with the binocular-pretty little chestnut-striped birds, with a black patch on the breast."

It has been the fashion of late to indulge life, as well as the influence of glacial epochs on migration and the gradual differentiation of species-theories that Mr. Chapman seems a little inclined to accept at the valuation of their propounders. His remarks upon this subject are less interesting than his practical observations respecting the spawning of salmon in the Rede Water, which divides into two branches near its source on the Border. The main stream, flowing westward through warm moor and moss, is the only one frequented by salmon, for none ascend the eastern branch, which traverses a bare, cold, plutonic rock, similar in character to that of Upper Coquetdale, where labour and expense have been wasted -through ignorance-in the vain attempt to convert the Coquet into salmon river.

a

Equally important is the author's experience of the injuries inflicted upon grouse and other moor-birds by the serried line of nineteen telegraph wires which skirts the old coach-road from Newcastle to Edinburgh, covering a great deal of space with a simple death-trap; for owing to its elevation being exactly that of the usual flight of gamebirds, especially in the morning, when the wires are invisible owing to the indistinct light, the destruction caused is enormous, and goes on at all seasons of the year. Extracts from his diary show the lingering tortures suffered by these victims to the requirements of civilization; but although telegraphic communication must be kept up, even at the price of animal suffering, we should imagine that a little more thought might lead to a less cruel arrangement of the wires. As regards grouse disease, our sympathies are with those who, like Mr. Chapman, attribute it mainly to the overincrease of birds through the extermination of their natural enemies; but it should be remembered that there was a violent outbreak in Sutherlandshire as long ago as 1815, when "vermin" - both winged and four-footed-were a hundredfold more numerous than at present.

As regards the second part, which treats of wildfowling with the stanchion-gun, we can only say that nothing like it has appeared since the publication of Col. Hawker's classic work; while the haunts and habits of the various species by day and by night, the difference in the times of feeding, &c., have never been so clearly pointed out before in any work with which we are acquainted. Though "a sportsman first," Mr. Chapman is an excellent ornithologist, whose experiences range beyond our own shores to Spitsbergen in the north and Spain in the south; it was he who solved the long-disputed question of the manner in which the flamingo incubates, and it is to his series of sketches-made while up to the knees in mud and water-that we owe one of the most beautiful plates produced in the Ibis during its career of thirty years. He induces his readers to hope that he will give them his foreign experiences in another volume, should his first venture meet with a favourable reception; and, while mindful of the adage respecting success, we can honestly say that he has deserved it.

CHEMICAL NOTES.

AT the last meeting of the Chemical Society, Prof. Thorpe communicated some most interest

ing results he had obtained as to the decomposition of carbon bisulphide by shock. His attention was first called to this phenomenon by an explosion that occurred in the course of some experiments on the reducing action of an alloy of potassium and sodium on carbon bisulphide. In this reaction a small quantity of a yellow powder is formed which far exceeds iodide of nitrogen in the readiness with which it is exploded by friction. There is no doubt that the formation and decomposition of this substance initiated the explosion above referred to, but the amount of carbon and sulphur deposited was so much in excess of that derivable from the very small amount of the yellow substance formed, that it seemed most probable that some of the carbon bisulphide must have been resolved into its elements by the shock of the explosion of the yellow substance. Further experiments fully confirmed the correctness of the supposition. It was found that if a small quantity of the yellow substance or of mercuric fulminate was detonated in a tube filled with carbon bisulphide vapour, a sharp explosion occurred, and the walls of the tube were covered

with a deposit of carbon and sulphur from the decomposition of the carbon bisulphide. Although carbon bisulphide is decomposed by the shock caused by the explosion of either of the substances mentioned above, it was found that its decomposition could not be brought about by the explosion of any other of the numerous detonating agents whose action on it was investigated. Its decomposibility by shock is in keeping with the fact that heat is absorbed in its formation from carbon and sulphur.

Messrs. Dixon and Smith have noticed the extremely curious fact that when mixtures of hydrogen and oxygen are exploded in a very long, narrow tube, an explosive residue always remains unburnt even when the oxygen is employed in excess. Similar results were ob

tained in experiments with mixtures of carbon monoxide and oxygen.

Some time back reference was made to the

SOCIETIES.

ROYAL.-March 7.-The President in the chair.

The Secretary read the list of candidates for the Fellowship, seventy-one in number. The following papers were read: 'On the Composition of Water,' by Lord Rayleigh, -'On the Wave-Length of the Principal Line in the Spectrum of the Aurora,' by

Dr. Huggins, -and 'On the Cranial Nerves of Elasmobranch Fishes, Preliminary Communication,' by Prof. Ewart.

GEOGRAPHICAL. - March 11.-General R. Strachey, President, in the chair. -The following gentlemen were elected Fellows: Major T. Barland, Rev. R. P. Ashe, Messrs. P. Goiffon, A. Huxtable, T. C. Kerry, S. C. King-Farlow, Iani Mukund Lalji, and P. Moore. The paper read was 'The Trans-Caspian Railway,' by Hon. G. Curzon.

ASTRONOMICAL, March 8.-Mr. W. H. M. Christie,

President, in the chair. Rev. C. D. P. Davies was elected a Fellow. -Mr. A. M. W. Downing, the new Secretary of the Society, read a paper On the Greenwich Standard Star Places for 1888,' from

which it appeared that, on comparing the Greenwich places with the fundamental places which Prof. Auwers has lately deduced from a discussion of observations since the time of Bradley, there was hardly any practical difference in the declinations,

and that the right ascensions only differed by very small quantities. Capt. Abney read a paper

'On the Value of a Scale of Density on a Photograph.' He showed an apparatus which he had devised for comparing the density of two photographs, or two parts of the same photographic plate, by transmitting light from the same source through the two parts of the photograph to be compared, and cutting down the intensity of one of the transmitted rays by means of a revolving screen. The two transmitted beams are then received on a photometer screen and compared. With this instrument he has compared the density of photographic plates exposed for various periods of time to the same source of light and for the same time to sources of light of different intensity, and he finds that the length of exposure necessary to give a certain density is inversely proportional to the brightness of the light. He proposed to apply his method to the examination and comparison of photographs of the corona taken at different total eclipses.-Mr. Knobel read a paper by Mr. I. Roberts, entitled 'Photographic Analysis of the Great Nebula in Orion.' The paper was accompanied by a series of photographs

showing the extension of the nebula as exhibited on photographic plates with exposures of from five seconds up to three and a half hours. The longest exposures showed an immense nebulous area three or four times greater than that photographed by Mr. Common with his large reflector. Mr. Turner read a 'Note on the Law of Increase in Diameter of Star Discs on Stellar Photographs with Duration of Exposure.' The law for the Greenwich stellar photo

discovery of the highly interesting substance hydrazine by Curtius (Atheneum, July 9th, 1887, p. 57). A detailed account of many of its compounds has now been published. The most interesting of these, hydrate, N2H1, H2O, is prepared by heating hydrazine hydrochloride with quicklime in a silver retort, and passing heated quicklime. It is a fuming, highly rethe vapour through a silver tube containing fractive, nearly odourless liquid, which boils at 119°, has an alkaline taste, burns the tongue, and has most powerful reducing properties; when hot it corrodes glass and attacks cork and india-rubber. The water is so firmly combined in this hydrate that it cannot be removed Binary Star, by Prof. H. Glasenapp,-' Discovery

by treatment with quicklime or barium oxide; it would therefore seem that the substance previously described as free hydrazine must have bee

been the vapour of the hydrate.

Artificial crystals of copper pyrites are obtained by shaking a faintly ammoniacal solution of cuprous chloride with potassium iron sulphide until all the copper has been removed from the solution. Although the crystals so obtained are somewhat less dense, and rather more readily attacked by nitric acid, than the natural compound, there can be little doubt of the identity of the two compounds.

graphs taken with a Dalmeyer lens was inter

mediate between that found by Prof. Bond in 1858 and by Prof. Pritchard in 1886. Rev. A. Freeman described a new form of equatoreal coudé, in which the observer is intended to look up a telescope fixed in a position directed to the pole of the heavens.The following papers were taken as read: 'On a Graphical Method for determining the Orbit of a

of Comet Brooks, a, 1889,' by Mr. W. R. Brooks, 'Observations of Phenomena of Jupiter's Satellites, made at Windsor, New South Wales, in the Year 1888,' by Mr. J. Tebbutt, - Observations of the Variable Star S (10) Sagittæ,' by Mr. J. E. Gore,Observations of the Planet Iris and Comparison Stars, made with the Meridian Circle at Dunsink,' by Mr. A. A. Rambaut, -Preuves de la Nutation Diurne: Mode d'Observation propre à la mettre en évidence en une seule Soirée,' by M. F. Folie, 'Observations of Comet f, 1888 (Barnard), made at Stonyhurst College Observatory,' by Rev. W. J. Crofton, On the Orbit of Comet I. (Sawerthal), 1888,' and 'On the Determination of Normal Places,' by Lieut.-General J. F. Tennant, -'Observations of Comet Barnard, Sept. 2nd, 1888, and Comet Barnard, Oct. 30th, 1888,' communicated by Mr. Stone, Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, Notes on a Red Star,' by Mr. E. J. Stone, and Spectroscopic Observations of Sundry Stars and Comets, made at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, chiefty in the Years 1887 and 1888,' and 'Note on the Spectrum of the

M. Spring has observed that when a mixture of iron rust and iron is submitted to great pressure, the magnetic oxide of iron is formed. This fact he regards as giving an explanation of the well-known fact that rails rust less quickly when in use than when not, a super- Great Nebula in Orion,' by Mr. E. W. Maunder.

ficial coating of magnetic oxide being formed by the compression of the rust on the metal by the passage of trains. The resistance to rusting of iron covered by a thin coat of magnetic oxide was first noticed by the late Prof. Barff, and forms the subject of his well-known patent process.

GEOLOGICAL. - March 6. - Dr. W. T. Blanford, President, in the chair. Messrs. D. Y. Cliff, E. A. Ridsdale, and B. H. Woodward were elected Fellows. The following communications were read: On the Subdivisions of the Speeton Clay,' by Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, communicated by Mr. C. Reid, -'Notes on the Geology of Madagascar,' by the Rev. R. Baron, communicated by the Director

General of the Geological Survey, with an appendix on some fossils from Madagascar by Mr. R. B. Newton, and Notes on the Petrographical Characters of some Rocks collected in Madagascar by the Rev R. Baron,' by Dr. F. H. Hatch.

SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES.-March 7.-Dr. J Evans, President, in the chair.-Mr. H. S. Cowper exhibited an early rapier and other weapons.-Mr. Money exhibited a number of swords and other weapons found on the field of the battle of Newbury. -The following gentlemen were elected Fellows: the Dean of Winchester, Rev. T. S. Frampton, Messrs. A. S. Murray, E. E. Baker, W. D. Fane, L. Lindsay, W. Wroth, F. D. Mocatta, G. Troyte-Bullock, E. Bell, R. A. Hoblyn, and A. G. Browning.

BRITISH ARCHEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION. - March 6.-Mr. R. Allen in the chair.-Canon Routledge reported the results of some antiquarian researches which have recently been made in Canterbury Cathedral by permission of the Dean. The west wall of the crypt is found to be of earlier date than the Norman portions, which are partially built upon it. The hardness of its mortar and other indications lead to the supposition that the wall is of Roman date, and part of the ancient church which Augustine found on the spot on his arrival at Canterbury, -The Chairman exhibited one of the sacramental cakes of the ancient Coptic Church. It has a curious pattern of twelve squares, the four central ones being reserved for the clergy. A fine series of drawings and rubbings of crosses in Cornwall were exhibited by Mr. Langdon. Mr. R. Forbes, of Rome, contributed particulars of the excavations on the site of the ancient basilica of St. Valentine, two miles beyond the Flaminian Gate, Rome. The east ends of the original church have now been laid bare, and also portions of the nave. The north aisle is the primitive structure erected in the middle of the fourth century, to which a wide nave and a south aisle were added on the south side in later times. An old Christian graveyard was then built over, some of the tombs being discovered in the recent excavations. There is a recess in the central apse for the priest, and the altar here is detached from the walls. The tomb of St. Valentine was below the main altar, and the corridor of approach still remains.-Mr. Loftus Brock in read ing the paper in the author's absence pointed out that this was one of the few churches in Rome that were orientated after the manner usual in England, the axis being very nearly, but not quite east and west. A paper was then read by Mr. Langdon 'On the Ornamentation of the Cornish Crosses.' The material is mainly hard granite, and the patterns resemble as nearly as may be those on examples in Ireland, Wales, and the north of England. The examples at St. Teath, Lanherne, Cardynham, and St. Clear were minutely described.

LINNEAN.-March 7.-Mr. Carruthers, President, in the chair. - Messrs. H. Stone and M. Laurie were admitted Fellows of the Society, and Messrs. J. Bidgood and C. Mudd were elected. -Mr. J. E. Harting exhibited specimens of a South American bat (Noctilio leporinus) alleged to be of piscivorous habits, which had been forwarded from Trinidad by Prof. McCarthy, together with a report on the subject. From this report it appeared that the stomach of one specimen, opened within half an hour after it had been shot on the evening of December 29th, "contained much fish in a finely divided and partially digested state." In three others, procured at 6 A.M. the following morning, the stomachs were empty. On the morning of December 31st, at 3 A.M., numbers of these bats were observed returning to their caves; two were shot, and "both contained considerable quantities of fish." Prof. McCarthy added that in the stomachs of other specimens examined by him fish scales were undoubtedly present. Of the specimens forwarded in spirits to this country two had been skinned, and the stomachs and intestines examined by Mr. Harting. The sac-like stomach was much less muscular than might be expected in a fish-eating mammal, but in one of them (the other being empty) fragments of a finely striated and iridescent substance resembling fish-scales were found. -A discussion followed, in which Prof. Howes and Mr. W. P. Sladen took part, the conclusion being that, although there was no à priori improbability in the alleged piscivorous habits of this bat, it could hardly be accepted as a fact until the fragments supposed to be of fish were really proved to be so by careful microscopical and chemical examination. A paper was read by the Rev. Prof. Henslow 'On the Vascular Systems of Floral Organs and their Importance in the Interpretation of the Morphology of Flowers.' The author drew attention to the importance of this class of observations as supplementing development and teratology, for by referring all organs back to their "axial traces," their real origin could generally be discovered. Taking the cords metaphorically as

"floral units," he explained how they can, as it were, give rise to axes as well as to all kinds of floral appendages. Van Tieghem's definitions of axial and foliar characters were quoted, and the former were shown to be subject to exceptions. After describing the arrangements of the cords in peduncles and pedicels, in which endogens often have the cords as regularly placed as in exogens, the author explained the different ways by which pedicels of umbels are formed in each class respectively. The "chorism" and union of cords were illustrated and the effects produced. Considerable light was thrown upon the cohesion and adhesion of organs, and the interpretation of the "receptacular tube" and "inferior ovary was shown to depend upon the undifferentiated state of the organs when in congenital union. The true nature of axile and free central placentas was revealed, so that in the case of the former, with scarcely any exception, the axis takes no part in the structure, all "carpophores," "stylopods," &c., being simply the coherent and hypertrophied margins of carpels. Similarly the free central placenta of Primula received its interpretation as consisting of the coherent and ovuliferous bases of fine carpels, which have the upper parts of their margins coherent in a parietal manner. Illustrative diagrams were exhibited of nearly seventy genera typical of about thirty orders. The paper was favourably criticized by Dr. D. H. Scott, Mr. A. W. Bennett, and Prof. Marshall Ward.

ZOOLOGICAL.-March 5.- Prof. Flower, President, in the chair. -The Secretary read a report on the additions to the menagerie during February, and called attention to four marbled polecats (Putorius sarmaticus), and to a fine specimen of Owen's apteryx (Apteryx oweni), from the South Island of New Zealand. -Mr. O. Thomas exhibited a specimen of a new muntjac from Tenasserim, lately discovered by M. Fea, and proposed to be called Cervulus feæ. -Mr. A. Thomson exhibited and made remarks on a series of insects reared in the insect house in the Society's gardens during the past year; Prof. G. B. Howes some specimens of the embryo of Myrmecobius fasciatus. Letters and communications were read: from Mr. J. S. Baly, on some new South American Coleoptera of the genus Diabrotica, from the Rev. H. S. Gorham, on some new species and a new genus of the coleopterous family Telephoridæ from Eastern Asia: thirty-nine new species and one new genus (for which the name Lycocerus was proposed) were described; of these new forms the greater part were from India and China,-by Col. R. H. Beddome, on new land-shells from the island of Koror (Pelew group), based on specimens collected for Dr. Hungerford by a resident in that island, the series comprising examples of eight new species of the genus Diplommatina, of two new and very curious species of Endodonta (a section of Helix), and of a remarkable new genus, allied to Diplommatina, proposed to be called Hungerfordia, and by Mr. W. E. Hoyle, on the anatomy of a rare cephalopod (Gonatus fabricii), originally discovered by Fabricius in the last century. The author gave a general description of the anatomy of the species. and recorded the existence of several tracts of cartilage hitherto unobserved in the Cephalopoda. Some details were given regarding the structure of the pen-sac and the development of the pen, as well as some new facts regarding the structure of the funnel-organ, and a suggestion regarding its function. The genus was regarded as being somewhat more nearly related to Onychoteuthis than to Enoploteuthis, but as much further removed from them both than they are from each other. The creation of the sub-family Gonatidæ was thus held to be justified.

ENTOMOLOGICAL.-March 6.-Lord Walsingham, President, in the chair. - The Rev. W. F. Johnson, the Rev. C. F. Thornewill, and Dr. C. R. Straton were elected Fellows. Mr. F. P. Pascoe exhibited specimens of the Saüba ant, Ecodoma cephalotes, from Parà, with portions of dried leaves attached to their bodies. It seemed questionable whether the leaves were collected by the ants for the purpose of making their nests or for the sake of some fungus which might be growing on them. -Mr. Jenner-Weir exhibited, and read notes on, specimens of a butterfly, Tirumala petiverana, from Mombaza, Eastern Africa. Mr. J. H. Durrant exhibited a living larva of Cossus ligniperda, which had entirely lost its ordinary colour and become white. He attributed the loss of colour to the fact that it had been deprived of its natural food and fed for eighteen months on pink paper, and subsequently on white cardboard.-Mr. M'Lachlan, Lord Walsingham, Prof. Meldola, and Mr. W. White took part in the discussion. Mr. B. A. Bower exhibited a specimen of Parasia neuropterella, bred from heads of Centaurea scabiosa, and said he believed the species had not been previously bred; also a series of Coleophora olivaccella, C. solitariella,

a series of male and female specimens of Orgyia thyalina, obtained by the late Mr. H. J. Pryer in Japan. Some of the females had their wings fully developed, and some of them were semi-apterous, as is usual with the females of this genus. Mr. White remarked that he knew of no other species of the genus in which the females had fully developed wings.--Lord Walsingham, Prof. Meldola, and Mr. R. South took part in the discussion.-Lord Walsingham exhibited specimens of preserved larvæ of Eupithecia extensaria, from King's Lynn; also a preserved larva of Smerinthus ocellatus and one of Sphinx ligustri. The larva of the last-named species was a variety, and the President remarked that it was the only one of this species he had ever seen. -Capt. Elwes said that it appeared that certain remarks of his, made at the previous meeting, on the Zeller collection in the British Museum, had been misunderstood. He had no intention of accusing any one of removing labels from this collection, and he regretted that he had not expressed himself more clearly. The Secretary read a communication from the Rev. Dr. Walker, announcing his intention of making an expedition to Iceland from the 23rd of June to the 29th of July, and asking that any entomologists who might wish to accompany him would send him their names.-Mr. G. F. Mathew communicated a paper entitled 'Descriptions and Life-Histories of New Species of Rhopalocera from the Western Pacific.'

INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS.-March 12. -Sir G. B. Bruce, President, in the chair.-The paper read was 'On Indian Railways: the Broad and the Narrow Gauge Systems Contrasted,' by Mr. F. J. Waring.

SOCIETY OF ARTS. - March 8.-General Michael in the chair. A paper On Indian Agriculture' was read by Prof. Wallace before the Indian Section of the Society. In the discussion which followed Sir H. Cunningham, Sir J. Danvers, Mr. W. R. Robertson, and others took part.

March 11.-Sir H. Rawlinson in the chair. -Mr. W. Crane delivered the second of his course of Cantor Lectures 'On the Decoration and Illustration of Books.' The lecture was illustrated with a large number of photographs of books and manuscripts thrown on the screen by the electric light.

March 13.-Sir H. Roscoe in the chair.-A paper 'On Aluminium and its Manufacture on the DevilleCastner Process' was read by Mr. W. Anderson.-A discussion followed.

NEW SHAKSPERE, - March 8.-Mr. S. L. Lee in the chair.-Miss B. Lamb read a paper on Lady Macbeth. She had read no commentators, but took anew the old view that Lady Macbeth was a nobly unselfish woman who sank herself in her husband, and acted as she did solely that he might be king. Though he was superstitious, she had no fear save of her own womanliness. As she wished him to be heroic, we can imagine her feelings at his hesitating speech. She roused him by the satire, sarcasm, and ridicule which never fail to stira weak nature. Her realization of the effects of the murder was wonderfully quick, her self-control great. But after the murder she no longer leads; she takes no interest in Banquo's death; her scorn and ridicule of her husband's superstitions have none of their intensity against his former hesitancy. At last she breaks down through the agony of herremorse. The difficulty is how to reconcile her crime with the unselfishness and generosity of her nature. Miss Lamb's view was partly supported by two or three of the speakers in the prolonged discussion, but was vehemently opposed by Dr. Furnivall, Mr. G. B. Shaw, Mr. Revell, and others.

PHYSICAL.-March 9.-Prof. Reinold, President, in the chair. - Prof. R. Threlfall and Prof. A. S. Herschel were elected Members.-Prof. O. J. Lodge read a paper 'On the Magneto-Optic Rotation by Transient Currents, with Reference to the Time required for the Production of the Effect.'

ARISTOTELIAN.-March 11. Mr. S. H. Hodgson, President, in the chair.-Miss M. C. Sturge, Mr. R. E. Mitcheson, and the Rev. P. N. Waggett were elected Members. - A discussion of the subject 'What takes place in Voluntary Action?' was opened by a paper by Mr. J. S. Mann, followed by papers from Mr. P. Daphne and Mr. B. Bosanquet.

SHORTHAND.-March 6.-Mr. J. G. Petrie, President, in the chair. The following were elected as Associates: Messrs. A. G. Peckham, H. H. Coldridge, and E. R. Helps. Mr. F. H. Valpy, of Brighton, was appointed Hon. Local Secretary for the SouthEastern Counties; and Mr. Coldridge, of Exeter, for Devon and Cornwall.-A memorial was ordered to be sent to Her Majesty's Civil Service Commissioners in reference to rumoured changes in their