He was

affections from the old love to the new. rather old, it is true, for a lover, but only in a figurative sense, for his mesmeric sleep had kept his faculties just as they were when he lay down in his own vaulted chamber one hundred years before to refresh himself with a slight nap before dinner. So his new love affair runs smoothly. The author of the book having by this sort of cumbrous and unreal machinery got his hero into the new world, very easily and naturally makes him the historian of its social condition. Julian West is very anxious to know all about it, and Dr. Leete and his charming daughter are very willing to tell. In the most kind and comprehensive manner Dr. Leete explains to his listener how and when society heavily loaded with dynamite finally exploded, and reorganized socially and politically in such a way as to convert a very bad earth into a most wonderful counterpart of a real heaven,

Mr.

It is in this regard that we have read the book, searching for something new, something that might seem reasonable or hopeful in suggestion to those who are earnestly seeking to ameliorate the condition of mankind. From the advertisements of the publishers, from a private note of the author printed in the book, and from approving recommendations from numerous leaders of so-called reform movements, the book does contain of this desirable matter a great abundance.

Its originality of scope and purpose, of plot and plan, and of suggestion of remedy for social evils are, if they may be believed, of a very wonderful and remark

able nature. Something to think about, cries one! Meat for the hungry soul, cry others! A true prophetic conception of the divine shaping of human destiny, cry more! While others, more numerous still, raise up their voices in eulogy of what they proudly hail as the new evangel! A new evangel! Let us see just how new it is and upon what lines. Four hundred and twenty-eight years before the birth of Christ lived Plato, the real originator of this new evangel. In his republic may be found Bellamy's "dream of social and political perfection.' An artificial being he sets up in the body politic, and from his philosophic visions he builds the framework of a perfect state. As Collins has well said, he (Plato) "first cleanses the moral canvas of his visionary state, then sketches the outlines of its constitution, fills it with ideal forms of virtue and then gives it human complexion in the godlike coloring of Homer."

In Plato's republic there was to be a just division of labor among all, as in Bellamy's, and at the age of fifty (Bellamy's age of retirement is forty-five) the workers shall be examined for their final work and the balance of their years shall be spent in pleasant recreations. "On muster day those who have reached the age of twenty-one are then rustered into the industrial service, and at the same time those who have reached the age of forty-five are honorably mustered out."-"Looking Backward," page 64. Examinations were to test, as in "Looking Backward," the ability of those selected for responsible posts, and the education given by

the state to all should teach the incompetent not to repine because there were others more fit than they to hold the offices. So much for Plato. Advancing in literary history a few more years, or just 2,270 years ago, Aristophanes, the great Athenian comedian, appears upon the scene. This wonderful and original evangel of Bellamy's, this new evangel "Looking Backward" is satirized by Aristophanes in his comedy of "Ecclesiazusæ."

The argument of the comedy is that the women of Athens, in the dress of men, steal into the public assembly where laws are made, and decree by a majority of voices a new social dispensation in which there is to be a community of goods, etc.

While Bellamy has plagiarized in his story of "Looking Backward" almost word for word the ideas of Aristophanes in the matter of the common eating house for the people, and the holding all things in common and for the public use by the state, he has neglected to illustrate many of the beneficent details on other lines of such an arrangement as was done by Aristophanes in his comedy.

The comedy is old, and what is more, is so near to the nastiness of Saltus, Chanler-Rives & Co., that perhaps the time is not distant when it will be reprinted by some enterprising publisher for general circulation.

Of course Bellamy could not, as yet, in the present state of American culture, have plagiarized the nastiness of the comedy, and has shown good sense in following only the lines of decency. But that he has

taken bodily the idea of his book from Aristophanes, can be readily shown by a few extracts from both authors.

From Aristophanes' "Ecclesiazusa" we clip this: Chorus. It is time, for our state has need of some clever contrivance.

Praxagora. Well, I am confident that I shall teach what is useful. Now I will declare that all ought to enjoy all things in common and live upon the same property, and not for one to be rich and another miserably poor; not one to cultivate much land and another to have not even enough to be buried in. But I will make one common subsistence for all, and that, too, equal.

Blepyrus. How, then, will it be common to all?

Praxagora. I will, first of all, make the land common to all, and the silver and the other things as many as each has. Then we will maintain you out of these, being common, husbanding and sparing, and giving

our attention to it.

Blepyrus. How, then, if any of us do not possess land, but personal property?

Praxagora. We will pay it in for the public use. No one shall do any wickedness through poverty, for all will be possessed of all things-loaves, salt fish, barley cakes, cloaks, wine, etc.

Blep. Will there be no thief?

Prax. Why, how shall he steal when he has a share in all things?

Blep. What will you make our mode of life?

Prax.

Common to all.

For I say I will make the city one house, having broken up all into one.

Blep. But where will you serve up dinner?

Prax. I will have the urns for lots deposited in the market place, and then I will place all the people beside the statue of Hermodius and choose them by lot until he who has drawn the lot departs joyfully, knowing in what letter he is to dine. The crier shall command those of Kappa to the flour market; those of Beta to the royal portico; those of Theta to the next portico, etc., etc. We will supply all things to all in abundance.

Now for a moment let us return to "Looking Backward." On page 212 Edith conducts West to the grand common public dining room. Dr. Leete, the father of Edith, explains things. He says: "This is in fact a part of our house slightly detached from the rest. If we expect to dine here we put in orders the night before selecting anything in the market." "Not only," said Edith, "is our cooking done at the public kitchens, but the quality and service is much more satisfactory if taken there."

At great length, occupying many pages, Dr. Leete explains how all the land and personal effects of all have been put into the common hopper for the general benefit. Precisely as did the old comedian so does Bellamy, and the dinner taken by West, Edith and her father only lacks the crier of the comedy at the door of the dining room to be a verbati.n report of it.