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to "do good to others;" and in death as in life she furnished the world with one of its most touching illustrations of what is meant by the realization of the Christian ideal

Mrs. Lonsdale's account of this life and death is brief, and barely touches upon many points over which the reader would gladly linger; but it is admirably adapted in its straightforward simplicity and candor to the theme with which it deals. The character and works of Sister Dora were no subject for rhetoric or "fine writing," and it is truly fortunate that the noble Sister left behind her a friend so competent to do justice to and embalm her memory. The biography is one of the most touching and inspiring books that have been published in our time, and it deserves a convenient place upon the shelf beside the exquisite "Memorials of a Quiet

Life."

RECOLLECTIONS AND OPINIONS OF AN OLD PIONEER. By Peter H. Burnett, first Governor of the State of California. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

The author of this entertaining work is entitled to call himself a pioneer in the most comprehensive sense of the term. Born in Nashville, when that now flourishing city was a small frontier village, and when Tennessee was a thinly-populated border State, he went in early manhood to Missouri, and as that region began to fill up, determined to set out for "the most western West," and accompanied one of the earliest bands of settlers to the then almost unknown territory of Oregon. Hardly had his life in Oregon ceased to be that of a "pioneer' when the discovery of gold in California attracted him to the latter State, with the organization and history of which he has been identified from the very beginning. Probably one who has once tasted the full flavor of so adventurous a life never settles down quite contentedly to the routine occupations of more advanced civilization; and it is easy to believe Mr. Burnett, when he says in his preface that, "if the theory of Symmes had been proven by time to be true, and had a fine and accessible country been discovered at the north or south pole before I attained the age of sixty, I should have been strongly tempted to organize a party of emigrants for that distant region."

The "Recollections" make small pretensions to literary art, and are very unsystematic in arrangement; but they have the freshness and picturesqueness of pioneer life, and are not without value for the side-light which they throw upon the history of a movement and period as interesting as they were momentous. Genuine records of personal experience are always entertaining; and the

interest is very much enhanced when the experiences recorded are so far removed from the commonplace as those of Mr. Peter H. Burnett.

FOREIGN LITERARY NOTES.

IT is said that Victor Hugo has completed a new drama entitled Les Jumeaux, of which Louis XIV. and the Man with the Iron Mask are the heroes.

THE King of Portugal, who has successfully translated several of Shakespeare's plays, will shortly issue a Portuguese version of The Merchant of Venice.

PROFESSOR MINAYEFF, a distinguished Russian scholar, is at present staying at Bombay with a view of collecting Sanskrit MSS. bearing on the Buddhist religion.

THE Japanese edition of the " Book of Common Prayer" is stated to be nearly completed. It is being prepared under the supervision of a mixed committee of English and American missionary societies.

A POSTHUMOUS volume of the late Prof. S. M. Solovieff's" History of Russia," forming the twenty-ninth volume of this elaborate work, and bringing the history down to the reign of Catharine II., will shortly be published.

MR. LONGFELLOW's "Evangeline" has been translated into Portuguese by a native of Lisbon, who is a great admirer of the poet. The translation is prefaced by a short dissertation on the rise and growth of American literature.

THE British Museum has received some stone fragments with Hamathite inscriptions from Djerabis, and a slab with bas-reliefs, a draped man, and three lines of Palmyrene characters, from Palmyra.

THE University of Buda-Pesth, which was founded in 1635, proposes to celebrate, on May 13th, the hundredth anniversary of its revival

by Maria Theresa. The Hungarian Minister of Justice will publish for this occasion a during the last century. book describing the work of the university

THE widow of the late Mr. MacGahan, the well-known special war correspondent, is engaged upon a Russian translation of the poems and stories of Edgar Allan Poe. The work, which will fill three volumes, will apappear in the course of a few months. MacGahan is a Russian lady.

Mrs.

IT will be good news to many that Mr. Ruskin has resumed the publication of " Fors Clavigera." He proposes to carry it forward, as he finds leisure, to the close of the eighth volume; and the complete summary and in

dices of the whole will form a ninth volume, to be issued with the closing letter.

It is proposed to form in St. Petersburg a society to be called the Society of Lovers of Poetry. Its comprehensive scope will be the study of Russian and foreign poets, both ancient and modern, including also attention to the arts of music and the drama. The society will undertake the publication of selections and translations from the more remarkable productions of foreign poetical literature, and of essays on the genius of their authors.

A WORDSWORTH Club is in progress of formation in London. Its object, of course,

is the investigation of the text and chronology

of the poems, and of the localities with which they are associated. It is proposed, too, that an annual meeting shall be held, in order to study and explore the scenery described in the poems. The annual subscription will

be limited to the moderate sum of two and sixpence.

ACCORDING to the Molva, the Russian Geographical Society contemplates issuing, in concert with the other scientific societies of Russia, a descriptive work on Siberia, in view of the approaching tercentenary of the occupation of that country by the Russians. The society proposes to undertake the geographical department of the work, as also the publication of an index of books and articles relating to Siberia, which exist in the Russian language.

MESSRS. CASSELL, PETTER, GALPIN & Co. have been entrusted with the publication of an important political work by Louis Kossuth, the chief interest of which centres in the fact that it gives the secret treaties and details of the understanding between England, the Emperor Napoleon, and Count Cavour, during the important period when the Italian kingdom was being established. The work will, we understand, be shortly ready for publication.

IT has always been asserted that Capell, in 1760, was the first man to attribute the play of Edward the Third to Shakespeare; but nearly a hundred years earlier Mr. Furnivall finds, in "An exact and perfect Catalogue of all Playes that are Printed," at the end of T[homas] G[off]'s Careless Shepherdess, 1656, the entry

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known. Neither Goff, nor Kirkman, the better cataloguer, who soon followed him, attributes Arden of Feversham to Shakespeare.

THE Duc de St. Simon, the famous author of the Memoirs relating to the reign of Louis XIV. and Louis XV., was not only a writer of genius, but likewise an amateur and a politician. As an amateur, he was the owner of a collection of MSS. containing some very rare documents, and particularly some appendices to his Memoirs; as a politician he played an important part, more especially as ambassador to Spain, in 1721. In the latter capacity he kept in his own hands a number personal history as well as that of the foreign of curious documents concerning his own

relations of France. M. de Boilisle, the new editor of the Memoirs (the MS. of which is now the property of the firm of Hachette), has hitherto sought in vain for permission to consult the MSS. belonging to St. Simon which are preserved in the Depôt des Affaires Etrangères. One of the first acts of the new Administration, the establishment of which we have recently announced, was to allow access to the papers of this illustrious writer. M. de Boilisle will henceforward be able to work undisturbed at a complete edition of the Memoirs, the appendices included; and M. Drumont will be enabled to study the Spanish embassy, which is his special subject. It is said that this liberality, which contrasts so favorably with the former proceedings with regard to the archives, is due to the personal intervention of M. de Freycinet, Minister for Foreign Affairs. He has earned thereby the gratitude of the literary world.-The Athe

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SCIENCE AND ART.

THE NEBULA IN THE PLEIADES.-Some twenty years ago, Temple, whilst at Venice, discovered, with a four-inch telescope, a fine, bright nebula close to the bright star Merope in the Pleiades. It was elliptical in form, and covered an area of nearly a fifth of a square degree. Temple showed it to Valz and other astronomers, and it was seen by Peters with the eight-inch equatorial of the Altona Observatory. Subsequently it was looked for by other observers either without success, or else seen as a very faint, indistinct object. Even Temple, though, it is true, with another instrument and in another locality, describes it as being far less distinct than when first seen. Subsequently, when observing near Florence with larger instruments, Temple saw the nebula as large and as bright as ever. Prof. Schiaparelli of Milan also observed it with the fine refractor at Milan, and describes it as bright

and distinct, and completely surrounding the star Merope, whilst outlying portions seemed to extend as far as Electra. Schiaparelli remarks: " 'It is singular that so many persons should have examined the Pleiades without paying attention to this great nebula, which nevertheless is so evident an object on a clear sky." Maxwell Hall, in Jamaica, also found the nebula very bright with a four-inch telescope, and shows it as nearly half a square degree in area. Several astronomers came to the conclusion that the nebula was variable. Others even doubted its real existence, and were inclined to ascribe its supposed observation to the effects of atmospheric action. Of late it has been drawn by several observers, so that its real existence cannot now be questioned. During this year it has been looked for by Mr. Common with the great thirty-seven-inch reflector at Ealing. The nebula was seen as a distinct object of con

siderable extent, but beyond it, and right

within the Pleiades, were discovered two oth

ers, both long elliptical nebula of tolerably well-defined form. There seems reason to believe, therefore, that the entire background of the Pleiades is nebulous.

A GLYCERINE BAROMETER.-Mr. James Jordan communicates to the Royal Society the details of this instrument. Many attempts, as he states, have been made from time to time to construct barometers with fluids of lower density than mercury, with the view of increasing the range of oscillation. He expresses the belief that such instruments may show the character of more minute vibrations of atmospheric pressure at storm stations. Many have been made with water, notably one in 1830, at the Royal Society, by Prof. Daniell. These, however, are vitiated by the effects of change of temperature on the water vapor in the vacuum, which marks changes of pressure. Glycerine, from its high boilingpoint, has a very low tension of vapor at ordinary temperatures, and a very small coefficient of absolute expansion. The specific gravity of the purest glycerine is 1.26, less than one-tenth that of mercury. The mean height of the column is twenty-seven feet at the sea level; a variation of one-tenth inch in the height of the mercurial column is equal to more than an inch in glycerine. As it is very hygrometric its surface is covered by a shallow layer of heavy petroleum oil.

The tube is formed of ordinary composition metal pipe of five-eighth inch internal diameter, To this is cemented at the top a glass tube four feet long, with inside diameter of one inch. The upper end is formed into an open cap fitted with an India rubber stopper. Two scales, one on either side, read off the

height, one being divided into inches and tenths of absolute measure, the other into equivalent values of mercury.

The cistern is cylindrical, of copper tinned inside, five inches deep and ten inch diameter, with a cover and small orifice covered with cotton wool to keep out dust. Glycerine, colored red by aniline, was heated to 100° Fahr. and placed in the cistern; by means of an airpump connected with the top of the tube the level was raised 323.571 inches, or within 3 of the Kew standard. A plug was then screwed in below to support the column, the tube was filled at the top with glycerine, and the stopper inserted. Some precautions were adopted to allow air to escape, and the column was finally allowed to take its own position. It will be regularly observed by the Superintendent of the Observatory.

A SYNTHETIC STARFISH.-Under the name has described (Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist. of Astrophiura permira, Mr. W. Percy Sladen

Echinoderm from the coast of Madagascar. December, 1879) a most remarkable form of While the ordinary starfishes present usually the well-known star-like form, with five or more rays springing from a central body with which they are perfectly continuous, the body in the Ophiurids is a rounded or more or less pentagonal disc, from which issue five jointed arms, quite distinct in structure from the disc, and from the much stouter rays of the ordinary starfishes. Mr. Sladen's new form combines the characters of the two groups in a very singular manner; and, curiously enough, it is toward the somewhat aberrant forms of starfishes (such as Goniodiscus) in which the enlargement of the disc and shortening of the rays converts the whole body into a pentagonal disc, that the new type seems most to approximate in outward appearance. In fact, the arms are for the greater part of their length enclosed in a disc formed of calcareous plates both above and below, but a small portion of jointed arm projects from each angle of the pentagon thus formed, and with the structure displayed along the lines of the arm on the lower surface sufficiently demon"strates the Ophiuridan affinities of the organ

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THE PLANTS USED IN MAKING CURARE.M. G. Planchon finds that four different species of Strychnos constitute the true basis of the poison known under the name of curare or urari, as made and used in four different regions of South America. In British Guiana, as Schomburgk ascertained, the principal ingredient of the curare made by the Macusis Indians is the species described by him under the name of Strychnos toxifera, which, however, is associated with two other species, S. Schomburgkii and S. cogens. In the UpperAmazons region the Pebas Indians prepare their arrow-poison from a species described by Weddell as S. Castelnaana, in honor of M. de Castelnau, who obtained it during his South American travels. It is usually associated with a species of Cocculus (C. toxicoferus, Wedd.). From the region of the Rio Negro, the roots, stems, and leaves of the plant used were sent to Paris at the time of the Exposition of 1878; it proved to be an unknown species, and was described by M. Planchon under the name of Strychnos Gubleri. Lastly, the Roucouyenne and Trios Indians of Upper French Guiana employ a species described by M. Planchon as Strychnos Crévauxii, in honor of M. Crévaux, who lately brought specimens to Europe. states that on the banks of the Parou, an affluent of the Lower Amazons, this plant bears the name of ourari or urari, although it is quite distinct from the species so named elsewhere.

He

CLIMATE AND CONSUMPTION.-A writer in The Medical Journal makes some definite assertions concerning the influence of climate on pulmonary diseases. No zone, he declares, enjoys entire immunity from pulmonary consumption; moreover, the popular belief that phthisis is common in cold climates is fallacious; and the idea, now so prevalent, that phthisis is rare in warm climates is as untrue as it is dangerous; the disease causes a large proportion of deaths on the sea shore, the mortality diminishing with elevation up to a certain point; altitude is inimical to the development of consumption, owing chiefly to the greater purity of the atmosphere in elevated situations, its freedom from organic matter and its richness in ozone; moisture arising from a clay soil, or due to evaporation, is one of the most influential factors in its production; dampness of atmosphere predisposes to the development of the disease, but dryness is of decided value.

VARIETIES.

EDUCATION OF THE SENSES.-Another important branch of physical or manual educa-. tion is the discipline and cultivation of each of the senses; a branch of education which is scarcely attended to at all, except in the case of persons who are brought up to particular occupations, in the pursuit of which the highest perfection of certain of the senses is indispensable. The extent to which each of the senses are improvable by education, both natural and artificial, affords absolute proof of their capacity for cultivation, and how much we lose by our neglect in this respect. In the case of animals generally, their senses attain a very high degree of perfection, which is the case with savages also. The reason is because in both instances the senses are both disciplined and cultivated to the full--by natural, not by artificial, education, and which is the only kind of education of which such beings are capablethat is, by constantly exercising them, and depending mainly on them for guidance; instead of, as in the case of civilized man, being guided mainly and primarily by the reason, and only depending collaterally and occasionally on the senses. Another branch of physical or manual education which is much neglected, and indeed hardly attended to at all, except in the case of persons whose professional occupation compels them to pay some regard to the subject, is the cultivation of the voice, whether in public speaking, conversation, reading, or singing; a branch of education to the utility of which attention has been of late years more directed in the study that has been devoted to elocution at some of our universities and public schools. Not only, however, are the senses, and also the voice, in common with the intellectual faculties, fully capable of education, but also the memory, the emotions, the appetites, the passions, and the affections, are adapted for receiving both discipline and cultivation, and for being to a great extent ameliorated by this means. So, also, of disposition and character in each person, and the desires by which he is actuated, and more especially so as regards the conscience, which requires both cultivation and discipline for its complete development.-Modern Thought.

CHARLOTTE BRONTË AND HAWORTH CHURCH.-The name of Charlotte Brontë has been invoked in vain, for Haworth Church is to be pulled down to oblige the present incumbent, who will be pleased if an end can be put to those pilgrimages of enthusiastic strangers by which the dismal calm of the old place is daily broken. A correspondent of the Standard (London), who has recently revisited the church, finds that the gallery over the altar

has been swept away, and although the old "three-decker" pulpit still stands, the quaint square pew where the Brontë girls used to sit has vanished. In one corner, not a foot.from the spot where her grave now is, Charlotte Brontë had her own seat, and there, Sunday after Sunday, with undeviating regularity, she was to be seen, alike in the days of her obscurity and her fame, with her eyes fixed upon the book held within a few inches of her face, or upon the pulpit which father or husband occupied. One can still stand at the altar where Charlotte stood on that early summer morning when she gave her hand to the man who had loved her and served for her as long and faithfully as Jacob for Rachel. In the vestry, where some vast pewter tankards are shown as the communion plate formerly used in the church, the marriage register, with the record of Charlotte Brontë's wedding, may be seen. The witnesses to the wedding are Miss Wooler, the schoolmistress, and Miss Ellen Nussey, the schoolfellow and bosom friend of the author. Both of these ladies were made use of as models for characters appearing in "Shirley," and they both still live to furnish all who are attracted by the wondrous tale of the Brontës with reminiscences of priceless value. Haworth parsonage, where Charlotte and her sisters used to work together, is now forbidden ground to the traveller, and among those who have been refused admission to the house is the daughter of the man who was Charlotte Brontë's literary idol, and to whom "Jane Eyre" was dedicated-Mr. Thackeray. Little is changed in "The Bull" since the days when Charlotte and Emily went daily past its doors on their way to the village, and when their brother was to be found nightly in the chimney-corner of the quaint old-fashioned bar parlor. It is with the wretched ill-fated brother, not with any of the sisters, that "The Bull' is identified. The old oak chair in which he sat and talked gayly and brilliantly in his better moments to the chance visitors at the inn is there still. In the little parlor, with its old pictures and rickety furniture, he spent an hour with an old friend on the occasion of his last visit to The Bull," a few days before his death. Whiskey and opium, and his own sense of degradation and despair, had then brought him to the very verge of the grave, and a terrible tale is told of some murderous scheme which he contemplated (if he did not actually attempt it) in this very room upon that last appearance.

TAINE'S BEGINNING IN AUTHORSHIP.-M. About and M. Taine were schoolboys together, both prodigies, rivals, and fast friends, and both as poor as rats, dependent for support on whatever might turn up. It was given

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to M. About to start young Taine upon his career of authorship. The latter was sick, and, too poor to consult a physician, applied to a clever medical student near by for advice. He prescribed to the penniless writer a tour of the Pyrenees, who replied, You might as well tell me to go to the moon." At this juncture About had just made a contract with the great publisher, Hachette, who was so well pleased with the young writer that he increased his pay for his first book from eight hundred to fifteen hundred francs, with the copyright still in About's hands. The coming literary magnate now proposed to turn his acquaintance with the publisher to account in aid of his friend Taine, and induced him to send the aspiring writer to the Pyrenees. 'He is a genius," said About; "he will be famous one day, and he will make your fortune." In a few days Taine was invited to dine with the publisher at his country-seat just outside of Paris. It took all the money both of the young men could scrape together to buy Taine's railroad ticket. The publisher was politeness itself, says Mr. Arthur Venner in the September Lippincott's. He received the young student with great cordiality, and after dinner was over took him aside and said, "M. Taine, we want a book written on the Pyrenees, and we think you are the best man we can get to do it. If you accept our offer you will start at once for that region, you will deliver us the manuscript in six months, and we will pay you for it six thousand francs, of which I have the pleasure of offering you half to-day." This was the first of Taine's books, and its literary and commercial success at once decided his future career. His models in writing are said to be Macaulay and Froude. The third and last volume of his work upon the French Revolution is now nearly finished. It is thought that when it is off his hands he will visit the United States.

THE EBB OF LOVE.

A LOVE that wanes is as an ebbing tide,
Which slowly, inch by inch, and scarce perceived,
With many a wave that makes brave show to rise,
Fails from the shore. No sudden treason turns
The long-accustomed loyalty to hate,
But years bring weariness for sweet content,
And fondness, daily sustenance of love,
Which use should make a tribute easier paid,
First grudged, and then withholden, starves the heart;
And though compassion, or remorseful thoughts
Of happy days departed, bring again
The ancient tenderness in seeming flood,
Not less it ebbs and ebbs till all is bare.
O happy shore, the flowing tide shall brim
Thy empty pools, and spread dull tangled weeds
In streamers many-colored as the lights
Which flash in northern heavens, and revive
The fainting blossoms of the rocks; but thou,
O heart, whence love hath ebbed, art ever bare!
A. J. C.

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