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ditto, dated 1544, in contemporary morocco binding, 36l. Horologium Devotionis Bertoldi, with woodcuts (1480), 17l. Sir Thos. More's Works, first collected edition, 1557, 20l. 10s. Salisbury Primer, 1558, 201. Shakspeare's Venus and Adonis, a very scarce edition, 1675, 14l. 10s. Whitbourne's Discoverie of Newfoundland, both parts in original vellum, 1620-22, 511.

THE FIRST PROTESTANT FREE LIBRARY
IN ENGLAND.

IT is stated on so late authority as that of the writers of the article "Libraries" in the new edition of the 'Encyclopædia Britannica' that Humphrey Chetham's Library, Manchester, established in 1653, may be called "the first free library in England." The following transcript of a document hitherto unpublished will show that, about forty years before the fine old library yet existing in Manchester was founded, a similar institution took its rise in Bristol, at the instance of a largeminded citizen, who jointly with the then Archbishop of York may be considered the originator of the earliest Protestant free library :

"Robert Redwood, of Bristol, Gent., by his deed dated March 20th, 1615, in regard to the Reverend Father in God Tobias, Archbishop of York, has freely given and sent to Bristol a great number of books as aforesaid, gave and enffeoffed to the mayor and divers other citizens and burgesses of Bristol a tenement, with certain walks and rooms thereunto belonging, adjoyning on the town wall near Avon Marsh in Bristol, to hold to them and their heirs for ever to the only intent and purpose that they and their heirs shall from time to time for ever convert and employ the said house for a library and place for keeping of books for learned, studious, and welldisposed people to use and resort to at all times convenient, and that the said Robert and his heirs may have free way through and into the same, and that when the said ffeoffs should come to the number of 6, 5, or 4, then they to grant it to 24 such others as the mayor and aldermen of Bristol shall think fitt, and if the house be converted to any other use then

the grant to be void, and further that the Vicar of St. Leonard's for the time being shall have the keeping of the same if he has secured the degree of a graduate in the university and his religion answerable thereunto."

Though the house here spoken of was rebuilt in 1740, the library has had continued existence, and in 1876 came under the operation of the Act. JOHN TAYLOR,

City Librarian, Bristol.

THE DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY.'

THE following is the second part of a list of the names intended to be inserted under the letter H, Section III., in the 'Dictionary of National Biography.' When one date is given, it is the date of death, unless otherwise stated. An asterisk is affixed to a date when it is only approximate. The editor of the 'Dictionary' will be obliged by any notice of omissions addressed to him at Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co.'s, 15, Waterloo Place, S.W. He particularly requests that when new names are suggested, an indication may be given of the source from which they are derived.

Hornby, Sir Phipps, admiral, 1785-1867

Hornby, William, 'Scourge of Drunkenness,' fl. 1618
Horne, George, Bishop of Norwich, 1730-92

Horne, John, Puritan divine, 1614-76

Horne, Richard Hengist, or Henry, poet, 1803-84

Horne, Robert, D.D., Bishop of Winchester, 1519*-80

Horne, Robert, Puritan divine, fl. 1626

Horne, Thomas, M. A., Master of Eton School, 1610-54 Horne, Thomas Hartwell, D.D., Biblical scholar, 1780-1862 Horne, William, Master of Harrow School, 1685

Horne, Sir William, Attorney-General, fl. 1830

Horne-Tooke, John. See Tooke.

Horneband, Gerard, painter, fl. 1529

Horneband, Luke, painter, 1544

Horneby, Henry, D.D., Master of Peterhouse, 1518

Horneck, Anthony, D.D., divine, 1641-96

Horner, Francis, M.P., politician, 1778-1817

Horner, Leonard, F.R.S., scientific writer, 1785-1864

Horninger, John de, historian, fl. 1310

Hornsby, Thomas, D.D., astronomer, 1734-1810

Hornyold, John Joseph, D.D., Catholic prelate, 1706-78
Horrockes, Thomas, M. A., Puritan divine, 1687*

Horrocks, John, M.P., manufacturer, of Preston, 1768-1804
Horrox or Horrocks, Jeremiah, astronomer, 1619*-40
Horsa, brother of Hengest, 455*

Horsburgh, James, F.R.S., hydrographer, 1762-1836
Horsburgh, John, engraver, 1791-1869

Horsefield, Thomas, zoologist and botanist, 1773-1859
Horsey, Sir Edward, military commander, fl. 1550
Horsey, Sir Jerome, traveller to Russia, fl. 1626
Horsfield, Rev. Thomas Walker, F.8.A., topographer, 1837
Horsford, Bir Alfred Hastings, G.C.B., general, 1818-85
Horsley, Charles Edward, musical composer, 1822-76
Horsley, Rev. John, M.A., Britannia Romana, 1685-1732
Horsley, Samuel, Bishop of St. Asaph, 1733-1806
Horsley, William, Mus.B., composer, 1774-1858
Horsman, Right Hon. Edward, M.P., politician, 1807-76
Horsman, Nicholas, B.D., divine, fl. 1689

Horte, Josiah, Archbishop of Tuam, 1751
Horton, Sir Robert John Wilmot, Bart., M.P., political

pamphleteer, 1784-1841

Horton, Thomas, regicide, fil. 1658
Horton, Thomas, D. D., divine, 1673
Hortop, Job, voyager, fl. 1591

Horwitz, Bernard, writer on chess, 1801-85
Hosack, John, police magistrate and author, 1809-87

Hosier, Francis, admiral, 1727

Hosken, James, admiral, 1885

Hosking, William, architect, 1800-61
Hoskins, Anthony, Jesuit, 1569-1615
Hoskins, John, D.C.L., civilian and theologian, 1631
Hoskins, John, Serjeant-at-Law, 1566-1638
Hoskins, John, portrait painter, 1664

Hoskins, John, miniature painter, fl. 1686

Hoskins, Samuel Elliott, M.D., F.R.S., physician, 1799-1888 Hoste, Sir William, Bart, K.C.B., naval commander,

1780-1828

Hotham, Beaumont, 2nd Lord Hotham, 1737-1814
Hotham, Rev. Charles, M.A., Rector of Wigan, 1612-85*
Hotham, Sir Charles, K.C.B., colonial governor, 1806-55
Hotham, Durand, biographer, fl. 1666

Hotham, Sir Henry, K.C.B., admiral, fl. 1828
Hotham, John de, Bishop of Ely, Lord Chancellor, 1337
Hotham, Sir John, Bart., Governor of Hull, ex. 1645
Hotham, John, captain, ex. 1645

Hotham, Sir William, G.C.B., admiral, b. 1772
Hotham, William, 1st Lord Hotham, 1813

Hothby or Otteby, John, writer on music, 15th cent.
Hothum or Odone, William de, Archbishop of Dublin, 1298

Hotten, John Camden, publisher, 1832-73
Houblon, Sir John, Lord Mayor, 1629-1711
Hough, John, D.D., Bishop of Worcester, 1651-1743
Houghton, Major, traveller, 1740-91

Howard, John, philanthropist, 1726-90

Howard, John, mathematician and poet, 1753-99

Howard, John Eliot, F.R S., scientific chemist, 1807-83 Howard, Kenneth Alexander, Earl of Effingham, 1767-1845 Howard, Leonard, D.D., Collection of Letters,' 1699-1767 Howard, Luke, Looking-Glass for the Baptists,' fl. 1672 Howard, Luke, F.R.S., meteorologist, 1864

Howard, Mary of the Holy Cross, abbess, 1653-1735

Howard, Philip, Earl of Arundel, 1557-95

Howard, Philip, of Corby, 1730-1810

Howard, Philip Thomas, cardinal, 1629-94

Howard, Ralph, M.D., Professor of Medicine at Dublin,

1638-1710

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Howard, Thomas, 4th Duke of Norfolk, K. G., 1536, ex. 1572

Howard, Thomas, Earl of Suffolk, K.G., 1626

Howard, Thomas, Earl of Arundel, K.G., 1586-1646

Howard, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, 1677

Howard, Walter, the heir of poverty, 1830*

Howard, William, judge, fl. 1308

Howard, William, Ist Lord Howard of Effingham, 1573
Howard, William, chronicler, fil. 1592

Howard, Lord William, of Naworth, "Bauld Willie," 1563

1640

Howard, William, Viscount Stafford, 1612, ex. 1680
Howard, William, Lord Howard of Escrick, 1694

Howard de Walden, John Whitwell Griffin, Lord, 1797. See
Griffin.

Howarth, Rev. Henry, M.A., Hulsean Lecturer, 1800*-76
Howden, Lord. See Caradoc.

Howe, Charles, 'Devout Meditations,' 1661-1745
Howe, Emanuel Scroop, M.P., diplomatist, 1709

Howe, James, painter, 1780-1836

Howe, John, M. A., Nonconformist divine, 1630-1705
Howe, John, M.P., Paymaster-General, 1721

Howe, John, Lord Chedworth, 1754-1804

Howe, John Grabham, M.P., politician, temp. William III. Howe, Hon. Joseph, Governor of Nova Scotia, 1804-73

Howe, Josiah, divine and poet, 1632-1701

Houghton or Hutton, Adam, LL.D., Bishop of St. Davids, Howe, Obadiah, D.D., divine, 1616-82

Chancellor of England, 1389

Howe, Richard, Viscount Howe, K.G., 1725-99 Howe, Scrope, 1st Viscount Howe, 1712

Howe, Thomas, Dissenting minister, fl. 1805

Houghton, Arthur Boyd, painter, 1836-75
Houghton, John, B.D., Carthusian, 1488, ex. 1535
Houghton, John, F.R.S., writer on agriculture and trade, Howe, William, M.A., Phytologia Britannica,' 1620*-56

fl. 1699

Howe, William, Viscount Howe, 1725-1814 Howell Dda. See Hywel.

Houghton, Pendlebury, Dissenting minister, 1758-1824
Houghton, Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord, 1809-85. See Howell, Francis, Puritan divine, 1679
Milnes.

Houghton, Sir Robert, judge, 1548-1624

Houghton, William Hyacinth, Dominican, 1736-1823
Houlbrook, William, Royalist, fl. 1661
Houling, John, Irish Jesuit, 1539*-99
Houlston, Thomas, M.D., medical writer, 1746-87
Houlton, Robert, M.A., journalist and dramatist, ff. 1816
Houseman or Huysman, James, painter, 1656-96
Houston, John, M.D., physician, 1802-45

Houston, Richard, engraver, 1722-75

Houston, William, M.D., F.R.S., botanist, 1695*-1733
Houstone, Eleanora, Lady, dramatist, 1720-69

Houton, John de, Archdeacon of Northampton, 1246
Hoveden, Robert, M.A., Warden of All Souls', 1544-1614

Hoveden, Roger de, historian, fl. 1204

Hovell, John, alderman of Cork, 1698
How, George, M.D., physician, 1710

How, John, politician, 1722

How, William, botanist, 1619-56

Howell, James, Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ,' 1594*-1666
Howell, John, soldier and Welsh poet, 1774-1830

Howell, John, "the polyartist," 1788-1863

Howell, Laurence, M.A., Nonjuring divine, 1660-1720

Howell, Thomas, D.D., Bishop of Bristol, 1588-1646

Howell, William, D.C.L., historian, 1683

Howell, William, M.A., divine, fl. 1695

Howells, Rev. William, of Long Acre Chapel, 1778-1832
Howes, Edmund, continuer of Stow's Chronicle, fl. 1631

Howes, Edward, mathematician and natural philosopher,

fl. 1645

Howes, Rev. Francis, M.A., poetical translator, 1776-1844

Howes, John, painter, fi. 1793

Howes, Rev. Thomas, divine, 1730-1814

Howgill, William, musical composer, fl. 1794

Howie, John, 'Scots Worthies, 1736-93

Howieson, William, A.R.S.A., engraver, 1798-1850
Howitt, Mrs. Mary, miscellaneous writer, 1799-1888
Howitt, Richard, poet, 1869

Howard, Anne, Lady Howard, daughter of Edward IV., Howitt, Samuel, enamel painter, 1765*-1822

1475-1512

Howard, Bernard Edward, Duke of Norfolk, K.G., 1842
Howard, Catherine. See Catherine.

Howard, Catherine Mary, of Corby, autobiographer, 1771-1849
Howard, Charles, Earl of Nottingham, K.G., 1536-1624
Howard, Charles, 1st Earl of Carlisle, 1629-84
Howard, Charles, 3rd Earl of Carlisle, 1738
Howard, Sir Charles, K.B., general, 1765
Howard, Charles, Duke of Norfolk, 1786
Howard, Charles, Duke of Norfolk, 1745-1815
Howard, Bir Edward, Lord High Admiral, 1513
Howard, Edward, Lord Howard of Escrick, 1675

Howard, Edward, dramatist, fl. 1678

Howard, Hon. Edward, F.R.S., scientific writer, fl. 1705
Howard, Edward, Duke of Norfolk, 1686-1777
Howard, Edward, Ratlin the Reefer,' 1841
Howard, Edward George Fitzalan, Lord Howard of Glossop,

1818-83

Howard, Elizabeth, Duchess of Norfolk, 1494"-1558

Howard, Francis, 1st Earl of Effingham, 1743
Howard, Frank, 'Sketcher's Manual, 1805-66

Howard, Frederick, 5th Earl of Carlisle, K.G., 1748-1825

Howard, George, 6th Earl of Carlisle, 1773-1848

Howard, George William Frederick, 7th Earl of Carlisle,

1802-64

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Howitt, William, miscellaneous writer, 1795-1879

Howland, Richard, D. D., Bishop of Peterborough, 1540-1600 Howlet, John, Jesuit, 1548-89

Howlett, Bartholomew, draughtsman and engraver, 1767-182 Howlett, Rev. John, political economist, 1804

Howlett, Samuel Burt, surveyor in the War Department,

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Hoy, Thomas, M.D., translator and poet, 1659-1718

Hoyland, Rev. Francis, poet, fl. 1769

Hoyland, John, organist and composer, 1783-1827

Hoyle, Rev. Charles, poet, 1848

Hoyle, Edmund, writer on whist, 1672-1769

Hoyle, John, 'Dictionarium Musicæ,' 1797

Hoyle, Joshua, Master of University College, Oxford, 1654

Hoyle, William, writer on temperance, 1886

Hubberthorn, Richard, Quaker, 1662

Hubbock, William, MA., chaplain of the Tower, fl. 1609

Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, d. 1205. Ses

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Huckell, Rev. John, poet, 1729-71

Huddart, Capt. Joseph, F.R.S., navigator and hydrographer, 1741-1816

Howard, Henry, F.S.A., 'Memorials of the Howard Family,' Huddart, Sir Joseph Brynker, biographer, 1841

1757-1842

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Hudson, Henry, Arctic navigator, 1611

Hudson, Henry, engraver, 1762

Hudson, Sir James, G. C.B., diplomatist, 1810-85
Hudson, John, D.D., Principal of St. Mary Hall, 1662-1719
Hudson, Mary, organist, 1801

Hudson, Michael, D.D., Royalist divine, 1606*-48
Hudsor, Robert, Mus. Bac., composer, 1732-1815

Hudson, Samuel, divine, fl. 1663

Hudson, Thomas, poet, fl. 1610

Hudson, Thomas, portrait painter, 1701-79

Hudson, William, lawyer, fl. 1623

Hudson, William, F.R.S., botanist, 1730-93
Hudson, William Eliot, Irish writer, 1854
Hue, Clement, M.D., physician, 1779-1861
Hueffer, Francis, Ph.D., writer on music, 1845-89
Hues, Robert, 'Breviarium Totius Orbis,' 1553-1632
Huett, Thomas, Welsh Biblical scholar, 1591
Hugford, Ignatio, history painter, 1703-78
Huggard, Miles. See Hoggard.

Huggins, John, Warden of the Fleet, fl. 1729
Huggins, William, M.A., translator of Ariosto, 1761
Huggins, William, the "Liverpool Landseer," 1821-84
Huggins, William John, marine painter, 1781-1845
Hugh, St., Bishop of Lincoln, 1140-1200

Hugh of Bangor, Welsh poet, fl. 1600
Hugh of Lincoln, St., 1255

Hugh, William, M.A., divine, 1548

(To be continued.)

THE THIRTEENTH COPY.

New Burlington Street, April 15, 1889.

We think you will find that most publishers give the royalty on the whole thirteen copies, unless the agreement distinctly provides that it shall not be given. The thirteenth copy is as much sold as any other copy, and has its share of the amount received for the whole thirteen. RICHARD BENTLEY & SON.

84, St. George's Avenue, Tufnell Park, April 15, 1889. WITH reference to the letter from "A Puzzled Author" in your last issue, it seems to be a point which has yet to be decided as to whether an author is entitled to royalty on the odd copy when a book is sold thirteen as twelve. There is a rumour that the question is to come before the High Court before long.

In the mean time the position taken by authors seems to be this: that the giving of the odd copy by the publisher is a trade custom with which an author paid by royalty has no more concern than with trade discounts.

But the publisher replies that, although a trade custom, it is one that has important exceptions. Whether thirteen as twelve, or twenty-five as twenty-four copies are charged, or no odd copies at all are given, is a point decided by the publisher, and not open to question by the bookseller.

The giving of the odd copy is, therefore, a concession in the shape of a bonus, by which the publisher receives an advantage, but one which

is shared by the author, viz., the extended sale

of the book, because the odd copy is held out to the bookseller as an inducement to purchase more copies than he otherwise would do. For example, if a bookseller actually requires only nine copies of a book, but in order to secure the

odd copy buys three more, trusting to dispose of the extra copies to casual customers, the author obtains royalty on three more copies than he would do if it were not for the odd copy given by the publisher as an incentive to speculation on the part of the bookseller. Royalty should, therefore, be paid only on copies actually sold.

M. ULBACH.

W. S.

M. ULBACH, who died in Paris on Tuesday last, can scarcely be reckoned among men of light and leading: indeed, it would hardly be unfair to say that he was one of those writers who, having attained notoriety by an

accident, possess just talent enough not to allow themselves wholly to lose it. Towards the latter end of the reign of Louis Philippe

he began as a poet, under the patronage of

no less a person than Hugo, with a volume entitled 'Gloriana' (1844). Then he subsided into journalism, and for some twenty years was a contributor to various periodicals, including such important ones as the Artiste, the Revue de Paris (of which he was for a time editor), the Temps, and the Figaro. His chance came

in the fronde against the Second Empire when πρόσθεν χρόνῳ, τότε δὴ πλεῖστα καὶ μάλιστα its day was waning, and he became famous ᾄδουσι, γεγηθότες ὅτι μέλλουσι παρὰ τὸν θεὸν under the pseudonym of "Ferragus." Under | |ἀπιέναι οὗπερ θεράποντες. And below in this

passage, which should all be read in this connexion, he speaks of the swans as τοῦ ̓Απόλλωνος ὄντες, μαντικοί, and προειδότες τὰ ἐν Αἵδου ἀγαθά, and that for these reasons they sing on their death-day more excellently (διαφερόντως) than ever before. See Cicero's reproduction of these words in the Tusculan Disputations (i. 30, 73): "Cygni qui non sine causa Apollini dicati sunt sed quod ab eo divinationem habere videantur quia providentes quid in morte boni sit cum cantu et voluptate moriantur." Lucretius contrasts the song of the swan with the cry of the crane; see iv. 181-the same couplet is repeated below, 11. 910-1 :

this he published first newspaper letters and "portraits," and then a sort of sequel to the Lanterne called La Cloche, which became a daily newspaper at the end of 1869, and continued so, under stress of much prosecution, till the close of 1872. Among his other experiences of law and lawlessness he had the ill luck to have warrants out against him under the Commune, and to be actually imprisoned by the military tribunals after its suppression. His last sixteen or seventeen years were quiet. He was appointed librarian at the Arsenal in 1878, and he often served as representative abroad of French literary bodies. For fully fiveand-thirty years he was a prolific novelist, the list of his books having nearly touched the half century ten years ago, while several have been And elsewhere with that of the swallow (iii. 6) :

added since. He was also an adept in that peculiar kind of volume, made up of collected newspaper articles, which seems to have an enduring vogue in France, and few years have recently passed without one or more collections of miscellanies from his pen. His books cannot, however, be said to have left much mark, though 'M. et Madame Fernel' (1860), 'La Ronde de Nuit' (1875), and, more recently, 'Le Marteau d'Acier' are fair specimens of their kind. M. Ulbach himself was also a fair specimen of his kindthe kind of skilful handicraftsman of letters who is admitted by international courtesy to do his work somewhat better in France than elsewhere.

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Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that livest unseen
Within thy airy shell,

By slow Meander's margent green,
And in the violet-embroidered vale
Where the love-lorn nightingale

Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well.

No one has satisfactorily explained why the Meander is mentioned here; and no one has considered whether there is or is not any special

local reference in the lines that follow.

1. As to the introduction of the Meander, Keightley of the leading commentators seems to

be the only one who makes any suggestion, and valuable. the suggestion he makes cannot be called very "It is possible," he says, "that he

assigns the bank of the Meander as the abode of Echo because its course goes backwards and forwards, returning on itself like the repercussion of an echo." Surely this is the very type of what are termed far-fetched interpretations. Yet the real reason is obvious enough, if we remember how richly and fully Milton's memory was furnished with the poetry and the lore of the ancient classics. The real reason is that the Meander was a famous haunt of swans, and the swan was a favourite bird with the Greek and Latin writers-one to whose sweet singing they perpetually allude. There are abundant illustrations of these two statements to be found in Æschylus, Plato, Lucretius, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, &c. Here are a few that speak of the swan as a sweet singer: Socrates, when in his last moments, as described in the 'Phædo,' he

remonstrates with his friends for thinking he

regarded his coming fate as a calamity, tells them they seem to give him credit for less divina

tion than swans possess, which, though they

have sung in their former days, yet sing most fully and frequently when they rejoice at the prospect of their departure to be with the god whose servants they are; that is, to be with Apollo. Ὡς ἔοικε, τῶν κύκνων δοκῶ φαυλότερος ὑμῖν εἶναι τὴν μαντικήν, οἱ ἐπειδὰν αἴσθωνται ὅτι δεῖ αὐτοὺς ἀποθανεῖν, ᾄδοντες καὶ ἐν τῷ

Parvus ut est cycni melior canor, ille gruum quam Clamor in ætheriis dispersus nubibus austri,

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argutos inter strepere anser olores.

'Ecl.,' ix. 36 :Compare ib. 29:

Cantantes sublime ferent ad sidera cygni.

In 'Eneid,' i. 398, an augury is drawn from certain swans who at first, scared by an eagle, fly earthwards, but at last wing their way aloft:

Et cætu cinxere polum cantusque dedere. See Mart., i. 54, 8 :

Inter Ledæos ridetur corvus olores.

And such quotations might be endlessly multiplied. And scarcely less abundant are passages of like tenor in the modern poets, especially in those of the Elizabethan age. Thus in Shakspeare's 'King John' (V. vii. 21), when the fever-parched monarch has, we are told, broken out into singing, quoth Prince Henry :'Tis strange that death should sing. I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan, Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death, And from the organ pipe of frailty sings His soul and body to their lasting rest.

So 'Lucrece,' 1611 :—

And now this pale swan in her watery nest
Begins the sad dirge of her certain ending.

And in accordance with the old classical tradi

tion, just as Horace alludes to Pindar as a swan ("Multa Dirceum levat aura cygnum," 'Od.,' iv. 2, 25), and speaks of himself as about to be changed into a swan ('Od.,' ii. 20, 15), so Ben Jonson in his noble memorial lines apostrophizes Shakespeare as the "Sweet Swan of Avon." Assuredly the swan myth deserves the attention of folk-lore students. As a fact, according to Mr. Harting, this bird "has no song properly so called," but it has "a soft and rather plaintive note, monotonous, but not disagreeable."

What concerns us further to notice just now is that one of its chief reputed hausts was the

Meander. Thus Ovid's 'Heroides,' vii. 1 :

Sic ubi fata vocant udis abjectus in herbis
Ad vada Mæandri concinit albus olor.

And that this was a favourite neighbourhood may be illustrated from Homer's 'Iliad,' ii. 462, though the river specially named there is the Cayster, which flowed a little to the north of the Meander, just on the other side of the Messogis mountains, which divided Catia from Lydia:

Τῶν δ' ὥστ ̓ ὀρνίθων πετεηνῶν ἔθνεα πολλὰ

χηνῶν γεράνων κύκνων δουλιχοδείρων

Ασίῳ ἐν λειμώνι Καϊστρίου ἀμφὶ ῥέεθρα ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα ποτώνται ἀγαλλόμενα πτερύ

κλαγγηδὸν προκαθιζόντων, σμαραγεῖ δέ τε λει

μών·

ὡς τῶν ἔθνεα πολλά, κ.τ.λ.
Comp. Virg., 'Æn.,' vii. 699 :-

Ceu quondam nivei liquida inter nubila cyeni
Cum sese e pastu referunt et longa canoros
Dant per colla modos. Bonat amnis et Asia longe
Pulsa palus.

Ovid's 'Trist.,' v. 1, 11:

Utque jacens ripa deflere Caystrius ales
Dicitur ore suam deficiente necem,
Sic ego, Sarmaticas longe projectus in oras
Efficio, tacitum ne mihi funus eat.

Perhaps it is worth noticing that the modern name of the Cayster is the Little Meinder; Meinder being obviously a corruption of Meander. Conceivably, therefore, the Cayster was of old known also by the name of Meander. In any case the rivers are contiguous, and what is said of the swans haunting the one applies also to the other.

Thus in the mention of the Meander by Milton there is no particular reference to the sinuous course of the river, except so far as the epithet "slow" refers to it. What he is think ing of is the swanneries that were to be found on its banks and in its vicinity.

2. As he thought of the Meander as the haunt of the swan, what special haunt of the nightingale was in his mind in the lines that follow? Does he mean no place in particular by "the violet-embroidered vale"? Observe the "the." What, then, is the vale that is present to his imagination?

I think there can scarcely be a doubt he is thinking of the woodlands close by Athens to the north-west, through which the Cephissus flowed, and where stood the birthplace of Sophocles,

Sweet singer of Colonus and its child. He is thinking of the famous passage in the famous "chorus" where Sophocles chants the praises of his native hamlet. See 'Ed. Col.,' 668 :

Εὐίππου, ξένε, τᾶσδε χώρας
ἵκου τὰ κράτιστα γᾶς ἔπαυλα,
τὸν ἀργῆτα Κολωνὸν, ἔνθ ̓
ὁ λίγεια μινύρεται
θαμίζουσα μάλιστ' ἀηδὼν
χλωραῖς ὑπὸ βάσσαις,
τὸν οἰνῶπα νέμουσα κισσὸν
καὶ τὰν ἄβατον θεοῦ

φυλλάδα μυριόκαρπον ἀνήλιον
ἀνήνεμόν τε πάντων

χειμώνων·

Of all the land far famed for goodly steeds
Thou com'st, O stranger, to the noblest spot,
Colonus, glistening bright;

Where evermore in thickets freshly green

The clear-voiced nightingale

Still haunts and peurs her song,

By purpling ivy hid,

And the thick leafage sacred to the god

With all its myriad fruits,

By mortal's foot untouched,

By sun's hot ray unscathed,

Sheltered from every blast.-Plumptre.

Three things point to this identification: the fame of the passage, the verb "mourneth," and the epithet "violet-embroidered." The passage is so famous that it could scarcely be absent from Milton's mind when he looked through his classical stores in search of a nightingale's haunt. The verb "mourneth" seems suggested by Sophocles's μινύρεται. The commentators quote Virgil's

Flet noctem ramoque sedens miserabile carmen
Integrat.

But this is not so close to “mourneth” as μινύρεται, which means to utter plaintively; so μινυρίζειν, to complain in a low tone, Lat. minurire. Lastly, surely that epithet "violet-embroidered" is a translation of the Greek ἰοστέφανος; and ἰοστέφανοι was a current, and, as Aristophanes lets us know ('Acharn.,' 636), a dearly prized epithet of Athens; and Colonus, as we have seen, is a suburb of Athens. This epithet seems first to have been bestowed by

see his 'Frag.,' No. 46 (p. 346 Donaldson's edition) :

αἵ τε λιπαραὶ καὶ ἰοστέφανοι καὶ ἀοίδιμοι

Ἑλλάδος ἔρεισμα, κλειναὶ ̓Αθῆναι, δαιμόνιον

Πτολίεθρον.

It occurs again in Aristophanes, 'Knights,

1322:

ἐν ταῖσιν ἰοστεφάνοις οἰκεῖ ταῖς ἀρχαίαισιν ̓Αθήναις.

the quotation from Murray's 'Greece' given below), or to the colour in certain lights of Hymettus and other mountains that stand around the city (see again the quotation just referred to), or it may have arisen from some poetic fantasy. Mr. Swinburne finely illustrates it in his glowing lines to the glory of Athens in his 'Erechtheus.' A choral ode sings how the gods, arbitrating between certain claimants,

Gave Pallas the strife's fair stake,
The lordship and love of the lovely land,
The grace of the town that hath on it for crown

But a headband to wear

Of violets one-hued with her hair.

The "vale," then, is the valley of the Cephissus. That it is so seems confirmed by certain lines in the description of Athens in 'Paradise Regained,' iv. 244-6:

See there the olive grove of Academe,
Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird

Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long.

The Attic bird is certainly the nightingale (see Mart., 'Epigr.,' i. 46); for Philomela, as Mr. Jerram reminds us in his excellent edition of 'Paradise Regained,' was the legendary daughter of Pandion, king of Athens. And the Academy was situated at no great distance from the hill or knoll of Colonus; it was a little to the south west of it. Plutarch speaks of this district as "the best wooded of all the suburbs" (δενδροφορωτάτην προαστείων); see again Jerram's 'Paradise Regained.'

So very pertinent a quotation is given from "Mr. Hughes" in Murray's 'Greece,' ed. 1872, that a few sentences of it must be here reproduced:

"We arrived at the banks of the Cephissus, the ancient rival of Ilissus and its superior in utility, flowing through the fertile plains which it still adorns with verdure, fruits, and flowers. A scene more delightful can scarcely be conceived than the gardens on its banks which extend from the Academy up to the hills of Colonus...... In the opening of the year the whole grove is vocal with the melody of nightingales and the ground is carpeted with violets, those national flowers of Athens; at its close the purple and yellow clusters, the glory of Bacchus, hang round the trellis work with which the numerous cottages and villas are adorned...... Nor can anything be more charming than the views which present themselves to the eye through vistas of dark foliage: the temple-crowned Acropolis, the empurpled summits of Hymettus, Anchesmus, and Pentelicus; or the waving outlines of Corydalus, Ægaleos, and Parnes...... This paradise owes its chief beauty and fertility to the perennial fountains of the Cephissus ('Ed. Col,' 685), over whose innumerable rills those soft breezes flow which, according to the ancient muse (Eurip., Med., 835), were wafted by the Cytherean queen herself."

JOHN W. HALES.

Literary Gossip.

TUESDAY was Mr. Murray's eightieth birthday, and we congratulate the doyen of English publishers on his having reached that venerable age and preserving an intellect as keen and a heart as warm as in his youth, and a bodily vigour which would do credit to a man fifteen years his junior.

MISS LAWLESS is going to publish through Mr. Murray a volume of sketches, the title story of which will be 'Plain Frances Mowbray.'

made publishing arrangements for a new MR. H. RIDER HAGGARD has, it is said, story, in which Queen Esther will prominently figure. To study local colour for the new volume Mr. Rider Haggard will shortly start for a tour in Asia Minor and Persia, visiting Persepolis, Shiraz, and probably Baghdad.

SIR WILLIAM FRASER'S volume, which we announced some weeks ago, will be published shortly by Mr. John C. Nimmo under the title of 'Words on Wellington.' It

It may have been given with reference to the violets that abound in the neighbourhood (see | will contain several unpublished anecdotes

relating to the great Duke, besides supplying fresh evidence as to the locality of the Waterloo Ball.

MR. HALL CAINE's new work is an Icelandic romance. It will appear as a serial in the newspaper press through Messrs. Tillotson & Son, of Bolton, commencing a few weeks hence. The same firm have also in hand, for publication shortly, original manuscript stories from the pens of Miss Jessie Fothergill, Mr. W. E. Norris, and Mr. Joseph Hatton.

THE May number of Macmillan's Magazine will include a paper by Mr. Freeman on the distinction between city and borough, and a study of 'The Bacchanals' of Euripides by Mr. Pater.

SIR CHARLES RUSSELL's great speech before the Special Commission will be published immediately by Messrs. Macmillan & Co. as an octavo volume.

'MEMORABLE LONDON HOUSES' is the title of a work by Mr. Wilmot Harrison, which will be published shortly by Messrs. Sampson Low & Co. The object of the work is to point out existing London houses which have at some time or other been the homes of celebrities. It will be illustrated.

In the first number of East and West, which, as we have said, is to be published simultaneously in London and Paris on the 1st of May, will appear, among other articles, a short story by Mr. Bret Harte; the first chapters of a serial story by Mrs. Macquoid; a paper by Prof. Church; and No. I. of a series of papers on some Dutch painters, by Mr. Thomas R. Macquoid, - also the beginning of a serial by Jeanne Mairet (Madame Bigot).

SEVERAL friends of the late Dr. F. A. Paley have purchased his classical library and presented it to Cavendish College, Cambridge.

THE calendars of the very important series of wills and administrations, 15101650, preserved at Lichfield, are now being transcribed for the press. They relate mainly to the counties of Stafford, Salop, Derby, and Warwick. The earlier series, however, includes many wills from Cheshire, Flintshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lancashire, and even Cumberland. The first instalment will appear in the May number of the "Index Library" under the editorship of Mr. W. P. W. Phillimore.

MR. J. TUDOR FRERE writes :

"In your account of my cousin's gift, of MSS. collected by Sir John Fenn, to the Norfolk Archæological Society, you speak of that part of Fenn's collection which has been at Roydon Hall as having been dispersed last summer. This is not quite correct. I offered the collection for sale; and the Norris MSS. and several miscellaneous volumes were sold. But I still retain the MSS. of the third and fourth volumes of the Paston Letters; other unpublished Paston

Letters, of which some were arranged by Fenn for a proposed sixth volume; the Yarmouth correspondence of the Paston family after it was ennob ennobled; and the Gawdy correspondence. For I also found at Roydon last winter an additional these there was little or no bidding at the sale. number of Gawdy letters which were not in the sale."

A MEETING was held last week at Rochdale to discuss the subject of erecting a when the erection of a bronze figure was statue to the memory of Mr. John Bright,

decided on. A subscription has been opened to raise the necessary funds. Any surplus there may be is to be appropriated to the foundation of an exhibition for English literature at the Victoria University or some kindred object.

FIVE American writers on jurisprudence -Drs. Cooley, Hitchcock, Biddle, Chamberlain, and Charles A. Kent, A.M.-have prepared a work, which Messrs. Putnam will publish, entitled 'The Constitutional History of the United States, as seen in the Development of American Law.'

ICELAND, which has hitherto possessed five newspapers, has just started a sixth. The new venture is called Lytur, and is edited by the well-known poet and journalist Pastor Jochumsson. It is published at Akureyri. It is to represent liberal and independent ideas, and a new feature is to be a direct appeal to those Icelanders who have emigrated to America, and for whom, at present, the home press of Iceland provides no special points of interest. In politics Lytur will be sympathetic with the mother country, Denmark.

We understand that the American Society of Church History will issue a volume of important papers, among them one on 'Indulgences in Spain,' by Dr. Henry C. Lea, and an essay on 'The Influence of the "Golden Legend," by Prof. E. C. Richard

son.

MR. GEORGE BRADFORD recently delivered at the Harvard Divinity College, by invitation of the faculty, a lecture embodying his recollections of the Brook Farm community, and supplying anecdotes of Hawthorne, Emerson, and Margaret Fuller. It will probably be printed.

'FÜRST BISMARCK UND DIE LITTERATUR' is the title of a forthcoming monograph by a German man of letters, Dr. Adolf Kohut, who has undertaken the task of presenting the Chancellor in his capacity of writer, and of recording his relations to authors and journalists.

THE prolific writer F. A. Strubberg, who wrote, under the pseudonym of "Armand," a large number of American sketches and novels based on American life, has just died

at the ancient town of Gelnhausen.

THE house at Mohrungen, in East Prussia, where Herder was born, is in danger of being demolished. Only a few thousand marks would be required for its purchase and restoration, and the Ost-Preussische Zeitung has recently issued an appeal for subscriptions towards the preservation of the relic.

THE May number of the Library will contain an article On some Curiosities of the Oxford Press,' by Mr. F. Madan, of the

Bodleian.

THE chief Parliamentary Papers of the week are Trade and Navigation Accounts for March, 1889 (8d.); Local Taxation Returns, England, for 1886-7 (8d.); School Board Schools, Religious Teaching, Return (48. 3d.); Statistical Tables relating to Sea Fisheries of the United Kingdom (6d.); Annual Report of the Director of the National Gallery for the Year 1888 (4d.); Army and Navy Guns, Return showing the Number, Description, Place of Manufacture, and Cost, &c., of Guns supplied during

1887-8 (1d.); Correspondence respecting Alterations in the Italian Tariff (1s. 6d.); Charity Commission, England and Wales, Thirty-sixth Report (6d.); and Consular Reports for 1889 - Finances of Portugal (1d.); Egypt, Trade of Port Said (2d.); France, Trade of Havre (3d.); Peru, Trade of Callao (1d.).

SCIENCE

A Monograph of the British Uredineæ and Ustilaginea. By C. B. Plowright, F.L.S. (Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.)

IT is not often that the British public are called upon to read a work of this kind, because in the first place the subject is too "special"-a fact in the highest degree repulsive to the general reader-and in the second place it rarely happens that an Englishman has made himself sufficiently at home in such abstruse matters to be able to put the facts and conclusions into simple and interesting language. Mr. Plowright has gone far towards accomplishing the latter feat, for while he is evidently an excellent authority on the groups of fungi named in the title, he writes simply and to the purpose, and few of his readers are likely to fail in appreciating his volume.

There is another aspect to the book also. Its position with regard to the professional botanist has to be judged by a different standard from that adopted in criticizing it as a popular treatise, and here, again, we may anticipate so far as to say we think it a creditable and able performance.

on

It will give some idea of the scope of the work if we indicate the leading features. The first third or so of the volume is Occupied with the "biology" of the Uredinese and the Ustilagineæ, and the remaining two-thirds with their classification. The Uredinese are the fungi which cause the orange-yellow and red "rusts" wheat and other grasses, and which do so much injury to our conifers, roses, and other trees and flowering plants; they are, in fact, the "rust" fungi found all over the world as parasites on wild and cultivated plants. The Ustilagineæ are the much more deadly parasites which cause the "bunts" and "smuts" of corn and other herbaceous plants, filling the essential parts of the flowers with brown and black powder, or causing unsightly swellings on the leaves and other parts.

Beyond their general physiological resemblance in being minute fungoid parasites, these two groups of organisms have nothing in common; and his critics will feel inclined to ask why the author has not confined his monograph to one of them, especially as a closer examination of the work shows that he is much more at home with the Uredinese and their habits than he is with the tricks played by the Ustilagineæ. However, he has the support of the older systematists in thus grouping together these two series of fungi, and the result proves that their treatment in one volume is feasible and interesting.

given of the methods employed by the biologist in his laboratory when persuading the spores of these subtle organisms to grow; and chapter xiii. treats of the artificial infection of plants-the vivisection experiments of the botanist.

It is neither possible nor desirable to say much more as to the contents, because, while we are sure every British botanist will possess himself of the work, the general reader can only hope to understand these fungi by carefully studying the original.

One example may suffice as an illustration of the wonders in store for the reader who is as yet uninitiated. The juniper bushes in this country and on the Continent, as well as in America, have long been known to be affected with a parasitic disease due to a uredinous fungus, which received the name Gymnosporangium; this fungus causes swellings and distortions of the stems of the junipers, and produces certain curious gelatinous masses of spores in the spring. For very many years no one knew much more about this fungus than the above, and it was duly labelled under the name given. The common hawthorn (as has also been known for many years) is apt to have its leaves spotted with yellow and orange patches, from which certain very characteristic horn-like bodies project in the

summer; these bodies were shown to be the spore-apparatus of a fungus to which the name Ræstelia was appended. The two forms of fungus favoured with these two different names are not at all alike, and if any one had suggested a few years ago that they had anything to do with one another he would probably have been severely "chaffed," or else ignored, and with reason as things went, for at that time there could be no proof of such a suggestion. Nevertheless it was noticeable long ago that in those parts of the country where the hawthorn and the juniper are found in proximity, if the latter are affected with the Gymnosporangium in the spring, the leaves of the former have the Restelia on them in the summer. To cut short a long story, it turns out that the so-called Roostelia on the hawthorn is only a later stage--a summer formof the Gymnosporangium on the juniper. This fact is now well established, not only by Mr. Plowright, but also by other observers; moreover, it is not an isolated example, but only one of many such cases of metecism or heteræcism, as they are called, and we refer the reader to the work itself to see how this phenomenon is typical of many queer tricks of life exhibited by these remarkable fungi.

There are eight full-page plates, with numerous well-selected figures; and the book rejoices in a series of fairly good indices, there being one index of the hostplants attacked by the Uredineæ and Ustilagineæ respectively, one devoted to the biological chapters and notes, and one to the species of fungi themselves.

ASTRONOMICAL NOTES.

THE comet which was discovered by Mr Barnard at the Lick Observatory on the evening of the 31st ult. was observed at several European observatories on the 4th inst. and subse quently. Its orbit has been calculated by Dr J. von Hepperger, of Vienna, with the result

Chapters i. to vii. are concerned with the general life-history, mycelium, modes of reproduction, &c., of the Uredineæ; chapters viii. to xi. are devoted similarly to the Ustilaginese. In chapter xii. some hints are | that the comet is still approaching the sun and

will not arrive at perihelion until July, but that it is receding from the earth, so that its apparent brightness will probably remain about the same for several weeks. Its place being a little to the west of a line drawn from ẞ Tauri to y Orionis (next week it will be very near the fifth-magnitude star 15 Orionis), it sets before 10 o'clock at night, and the later prolongation of twilight each evening is increasing the difficulty of its observation.

In the number of Knowledge for the present month is an interesting article by the editor, Mr. Ranyard, on 'Mountain Observatories,' which is illustrated by some beautiful photographs of the Lick Observatory. They have been sent by Mr. Burnham, and form part of a series of which others are to appear.

We have received the number of the Memorie della Società degli Spettroscopisti Italiani for December, 1888. It contains two articles: the first, by Prof. Riccò and Signor Mascari, on the heliographical latitudes of the solar spots and faculæ observed in 1885; the second, by Prof. Ricco, on the proof afforded of the earth's rotundity by the apparent shape of the sun's image reflected in the sea. We have also received the numbers for January and February, containing a note by Prof. Ricco on the statistics of the solar spots during the year 1888, Prof. Tacchini's account of his observations of the solar spots and faculæ at Rome during the last quarter of that year, and a continuation of the diagrams of the spectroscopical images of the sun's limb as observed at Rome and Palermo from January to June, 1886.

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES.

THE death is announced of M. V. A. MalteBrun, son of the distinguished geographer General Malte-Brun, and himself secretary of the Geographical Society of Paris.

The last report of the Special Commissioner for New Guinea, Mr. John Douglas (who has handed over the territory to the new governor), states that the relations between white men and natives were never on so satisfactory a footing. At Port Moresby the cattle and horses introduced had done well in spite of an extraordinary -and in our experience unprecedented-drought, which has killed half the plants recently introduced. Alluvial gold is still found, and hundreds of miners have gone over, but it is quite uncertain whether gold will be found in paying quantities. Pearl-shelling is not lucrative owing to the great depth of water where the shells are found. Fresh surveys have been made of the delta of the Mai Kassa (Baxter) river, showing the description given by Capt. Strachan to be very inaccurate. It is now thought that there is no communication with the river system of the Fly. Accompanying the report is a map of the Mai Kassa Delta, and another of a portion of South-East New Guinea compiled from the surveys of Mr. H. O. Forbes and the naval and other authorities.

Dr. Zintgraff is reported to have started on December 17th from the Balombi Station, in the interior of the Cameroons district, for Adamawa. The station remains in charge of Dr. Preuss, a botanist. Capt. Kund likewise has gone into the interior. Further west, in TogoLand, extensive explorations are being carried on by Dr. L. Wolf and Capt. von François.

hunters. This exploration proves satisfactorily
that the Lomami is a tributary of the Congo, and
not of the Sankuru or Kasai, as has been sug-
gested by Capt. Kund.

H. W. writes from Naples under the date of
April 4th :-

"From a recent investigation of the Southern
coasts, I extract a part relating to the south of Italy.
As it involves many points which have of late years
interested some of the first scientific men of Eng-
land, the readers of the Atheneum will, perhaps, be
glad to read the following translation of it: The
changes which have taken place at Gaeta are the
work of man. The great absorption of Serapo, where
formerly existed a temple of Jupiter Serapis, is not
due probably to the sea. The action of the Gari-
gliano withdraws the water slowly from Gaeta to
Formia, where the sea reasserts itself. Remains of
Roman buildings are now 100 mètres in the sea, the
water having gained 150 mètres in depth. Near
Mondragone rose the ancient Sinuessa, the ruins of
which, once washed by the waves, are now thirty
mètres inland; the plain between Sinuessa and
Minturno, which measures fifteen kilomètres, is
buried. At Minturno, on the Liris, the Romans had
a port much frequented. The Roman Senate col-
lected men there for the second Punic War. The
port of Minturno has now disappeared. A tower
built in 988 on the shore is 100 mètres at present
distant from it. At Pozzuoli the sea is gaining on
the land. The municipality for the second time
has been obliged to raise the banchino of the
port to prevent the water from entering the square
of Maria delle Grazie. The ground has had a ten-
dency to sink ever since the earthquake of 1538,
which threw up Monte Nuovo. The oldest inhabit-
ants remember the time when they went to the
convent of the Cappucini easily by land; now they
go in a boat, there being water to the depth of
1:30 mètres. At Naples, on the contrary, the sea
has retired. The ancient port, dating from Titus,
reached the university; this is now distant from
it 350 mètres, with an elevation of 9 mètres. In the
time of Frederick II. vessels took shelter in the bay
on which stands Castelnuovo. In 1300 the port
was so full of lapilli and arena as to render this
impossible. From Torre del Greco the lava resists
the sea, but where the sea does not reach the lava it
corrodes or wastes the beach. Before the eruption
of 1579 the sea occupied the level ground between
Vesuvius and the mountains of the valley of the
Sarno, about 12 kilomètres in length and 10 in depth.
The average elevation of the land is now from 10 to
15 mètres. At Vico Equense (half-way between
Castellamare and Sorrento) the tradition is that
between Cape Orlando and Cape Scutolo there once
rose Equa, which an earthquake destroyed, and the
sea swallowed up. At Salerno the sea washed the
walls; at Amalfi in 1343 the sea swallowed a portion
of the shore, but this is now increasing. The
ancient Sapri shows its Roman remains covered by
water, but lower down the shore is gaining gradually
on the sea.' Around the island of Capri there are

Letts's Popular Atlas of the World, a second edition of which has just been published by Messrs. Mason & Payne, consists in the main of maps prepared about half a century ago for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. An attempt has been made to keep these maps up to date, but it naturally failed, for they are, with scarcely an exception, past repair. Thus, on the map of Scotland, the distance from Loch Inver to Loch Assynt is given as a mile and a half, whilst in reality it amounts to five miles. Even the new maps have not been brought up to date. On one of the African sheets, for instance, the Kasai, the true course of which has long since been made known, is shown to enter the Congo at Equatorville! We could easily fill pages with a list of the gross errors perpetuated in this atlas, but we forbear. It must be disheartening to the friends of geographical progress that a production like this should find purchasers. We need hardly add that, in accordance with the "usual practice," the names of the compilers and engravers of these maps, as also the dates of first publication, have been removed, whilst the few additions to the atlas exhibit no indication of their origin. We are, however, pretty safe in concluding that they were done in Germany.

BOCIETIES.

ROYAL.-April 11.-The President in the chair.The Bakerian Lecture, 'On a Magnetic Survey of the British Isles for the Epoch January 1, 1886,' was delivered by Profs. Thorpe and Rücker. The following paper was read: 'Experiments on the Nutritive Value of Wheat-meal,' by Mr. A. W. Blyth.-The Society adjourned over the Easter recess to Thursday, May 2nd.

ASIATIC.- April 15.-Sir T. Wade in the chair.Brynmor Jones, H. T. Lyon, R. H. Pinhey, Dewan Dowlat Ram, and Baron George de Reuter were elected Resident Members. Mr. E. G. Browne read a paper On the Bábís of Persia: Personal Experiences among Them, and Sketch of their History." The appearance in Persia about the year 1814 of a sect cailed the Bábís (so named after their founder, Mirza 'Alí Muhammad of Shiraz, then only about nineteen years old, who was at first entitled the "Báb," or "Gate") is well known to students of Oriental history; while the stubborn resistance of the sect to the measures adopted by the Persian Government for their suppression, the fierce persecutions endured by them, and the attempted assassination of the present Shah by certain votaries of the new creed, served to attract considerable attention to them. Gobineau ('Religions et Philosophies dans l'Asie Centrale'), Kazem Bey (Journal Asia

rich and abundant remains of Roman splendour, tique, 1866), and others have described the history but these are all under water. On the heights,

however, there are remains of magnificent palaces
of the emperors."

Our Earth and its Story, a Popular Treatise
on Physical Geography, edited by Robert Brown
(Cassell), is based upon Kirchhoff's 'Unser
Wissen von der Erde.' The German text, how
ever, has been recast and considerably expanded,
and many illustrations have been added. In its
present shape this work is eminently readable,
and owing to its numerous illustrations, some
of them beautiful chromo-lithographs, singularly
attractive.

Thomas J. Comber, Missionary Pioneer to the Congo, by J. B. Myers (Partridge), is a little book which will be read with pleasure by many even of those who take no interest in the successes or failures of the Baptist Missionary Society, for the subject of this memoir had many friends, and is frequently referred to in the records of African explorers. If Mr. Comber did not meet with the success of a King Mukenge, who not only invented a new religion, but also induced nearly all his subjects to throw aside their fetishes and adhere to it, he, at all events, laboured nobly in a cause which he embraced from deep conviction and for which he died. All who came into contact with this missionary speak highly of his frank and genial disposition; and that he was not a narrow bigot is shown by his studying Dr. Martineau's 'Endeavours after the Christian

Le Mouvement Géographique publishes M. A. Delcommune's preliminary report of an exploration of the Lomami river, which was effected in December and January, in the steamer Roi des Belges. M. Delcommune ascended the river during seventeen days, and for a distance of nearly 500 miles. Its average breadth is said to be 800 ft., its depth varies between 12 ft. and 18 ft., and its current nowhere exceeds three miles an hour. M. Delcommune declares its navigation to be exceedingly easy, notwithstanding its winding course. The lower part of the river has a dense population, but higher up the country has been depopulated by Arab slave- | Life' and quoting from it in his letters.

of the Babis down to the year 1852, but little attention has been paid to their subsequent progress. Mr. Browne gave an account of his researches among the Bábís in Persia between the autumns of the years 1887 and 1888. Having stated the object of his paper, viz., to place some of the results of his inquiries before the public, and, by pointing out the unsatisfactory nature of our present knowledge, to induce others to devote attention to it, the reader of the

paper proceeded to describe the difficulty he had experienced in finding the Bábís and gaining their confidence, until, at Isfahan, he accidentally met one of them, who introduced him to one of their leading men, by whose recommendations he was enabled during the remainder of his stay in Persia to associate on terms of intimacy with the Bábís of Shiraz, Yezd, and Koimár. He spoke at some length of the execution, about ten years ago, of the" Martyrs of Isfahan," two much respected merchants of that town who suffered death for their creed, and described a visit to their graves. In connexion with this event sundry predictions and prophecies of Behá (the present head of the sect, who is now at Acre) were mentioned. A description of a certain sheykh, who acts as courier between Acre and Southern Persia, and some of his adventures, was next given; after which the new writing invented by the sect, their peculiar seals, their method of salutation, and their alteration of the fast from Ramazan to the nineteen days preceding the Persian New Year's Day, or Nawinz, were adverted to, as well as the practical limitations of the reforms intended by the Bab with regard to the abolition of the veil, the seclusion of women and the restriction of polygamy and divorce. The Bábís were then defended from the accusations sometimes brought against them of wine-drinking, immorality, and communism, which were shown to be generally

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