together with a bibliography which will keep WE have received A Treatise on Arithmetic, by the reader of the Revue informed of the historical J. Hamblin Smith, M.A., third edition (Rivingmovement throughout the literary world. MM. tons); Life in Nature, by James Hinton, second L. Renier, Duruy, Fustel de Coulanges, Taine, edition (Smith, Elder & Co.); Von Cotta's DeThurot, G. Paris, R. Reuss, and other distin-velopment-Law of the Earth trans. R. R. Noel guished writers, have already promised their co- (Williams & Norgate); The Decline of Turkey, operation. The annual subscription will be 30 fr., financially and politically, by J. Lewis Farley, and intending subscribers may send their names second edition (the author); Lecture on the Tento the Editor, 76 rue d'Assas, Paris. We have dency of Trades Unionism, by Peter Graham, great pleasure in calling the attention of our Esq. (Stanford); A Few Words on Vivisection readers to this new review, which promises to (Williams & Norgate); Am Sarge und Grabe des be of great value to all who are interested in D. th. Constantin von Tischendorf (Leipzig: historical research. Hinrichs); The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare, ed. S. W. Singer, Vol. V. (Bell); Events to be Remembered in the History of England, by Charles Selby (Lockwood); Results of the "Expostulation" of the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone (King); A Letter addressed to the Duke of Norfolk, by J. H. Newman, D.D. (Pickering); Twenty-First Annual Report of the Brighton and Sussex Natural History Society (Brighton: Fleet & Bishop); Mackeson's Guide to the Churches of London for 1875 (Metzler); A Few Words about Bearing-Reins, by E. F. Flower (Ridgway).

Det nittende Aarhundrede for April contains a very able and interesting monograph on Giordano Bruno, by Professor H. Bröchner. Viktor Rydberg continues his "Roman Emperors in Marble," and Paul Heyse contributes a pretty little novelette called the "Empress of Spinetta.' Eduard Brandes gives a minute account of "A Turning Point in the History of the Danish Theatre," the confusions and bitternesses that led to the resignation of the great actor Höedt in December, 1857, and from which dates, in the writer's opinion, the period of absolute decay of the Danish stage. The article is clever, but takes altogether too pessimist a view of the present position.

THE Norwegian poet, Jörgen Moe, author of some of the most delicate and perfect lyrics in the language, and fellow-worker with P. C. Asbjörnsen in the labour of collecting the "Norse Folk Tales," is spoken of as likely to be the next Bishop of Christianssand, a diocese just vacant by the death of the last prelate. The see has been held by a poet before, namely, by Johan Storm Munch, who died in 1823.

On April 2 last was Hans Christian Andersen's seventieth birthday. We understand that preparations had been made for extensive festivities both at Copenhagen and at Odense, the poet's birth-place, of which we hope to be able to give full particulars next week. Andersen's health appears to be in great measure restored.

THE so-called "William's Tower," at Dillenburg, intended as a memorial in honour of William the Silent of Orange, who was born in the town, is to be opened with great state on June 29. THE Empress Augusta has headed the list of subscriptions for the establishment of a hall for students attending the University of Berlin with a donation of 3,000 mark (1507.).

THE German Imperial Admiralty has brought out, under the editorship of one of its hydrographers, Dr. G. Neumayer, a "Guide," or "Code

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THE following Parliamentary Papers have lately been published: - Correspondence with British Agents abroad, and Reports from Naval Officers, relative to the East African Slave Trade (price 18. 7d.); Appendix to the Second and Final Report of the Commissioners appointed to enquire into the working of the Master and Servant Act, 1867, and Criminal Law Amendment Act, &c. (price 18. 4d.); Return of the Number, Names, and present Residences of Clergymen in the Irish Church, who have commuted under the Irish Church Act (price 4d.); Correspondence relative to the Kirwee Booty (price 8d.); Return of Fee Simple Land exposed for sale in the Landed Estates Court, Ireland; Return of the Cost of the several Colonies of the British Empire from 1869 to 1873; Army (Manufacturing Establishments) Return (price 28. 2d.); Army Estimates of Effective and Non-effective Services for 1875 to 1876 (price 28.); Memoranda by Colonel Pasley, R.E., explanatory of vote No. 11 (relating to dockyard and breakwater extensions) of the Navy Estimates, with plans (price 28. 4d.); Papers relating to the Emancipation of the Negroes of Puerto Rico (price 4d.); Thirty-sixth Report on Colony of Assunguy (price 10d.). Prisons in Scotland (price 10d.); Report on the

the substructions discovered in the Coliseum: he tells us that the Goths turned the amphitheatre at Spoleto into a fortress, "not by making subterranean walls, but by blocking up its arches," which is rather an odd rendering of εισόδους.

Principal Shairp defends Keble's estimate of Milton against Mr. Pattison, by pointing out reserves which Keble would certainly have made; and Mr. Hullah informs us that Macchiavelli was the author whom Sir Arthur Helps quoted most often, and with most sympathy.

FROM an article on the Gilded Age in the Revue des Deux Mondes for March 15 we learn that Mr. Hepworth Dixon's talent is distinguished by elevation of view, exquisite penetration, a charm full of finesse; from an article on the last revolution in Buenos Ayres, that most of the respectable natives were on Mitre's side, but that the foreign majority in Buenos Ayres itself compelled them to abandon the capital, after which the insurrection was hopeless. In the number for April there is an article on the abortive attempts which have been made since 1872 to bring back the trade of the Sahara to its old route through Algiers; since the conquest it has diverged to Tunis and Morocco, both of which markets are occupied by English or Spanish goods, to the exclusion of French.

IN the Fortnightly Review Professor Clifford's article on the First and the Last Catastrophe is less exciting than its title. Most of it is taken up with explanations of the gaseous and fluid states of matter, and of what we know of molecules, which are sufficiently clear to enable an audience to share his civil contempt for anybody of less scientific eminence than Dr. Clerk Maxwell, who presumes to draw theistic inferences from the presumable uniformity of the molecules of oxygen or the limits of geological time. J. C. Morison complains that Mr. Pattison fails to enable us to understand Casaubon's rank and services as a scholar; but is otherwise eulogistical.

IN the Contemporary Review E. H. Baverstock gives a précis of Maimbourg's forgotten and someProfessor Whitney's article" Are Languages Inwhat obsolete arguments against Papal Infallibility. stitutions?" is rather at cross-purposes with his opponents; he is a clever man, has a plausible though perhaps a premature theory of how human language began when sign-making by instinct became sign-making by intention; from the vantage ground of this theory he criticises the speculations which European philologists pursue, for the most condemnation of American common sense. Naturally this method raises him rather disproportionpart rather iv apipyy, and holds them up to the

scientific observations in foreign regions." The work is divided into twenty-eight separate parts, and while it undertakes to teach ordinary travellers how to use their senses to the best advantage, it points out how they may make their observations conducive to the benefit of science generally, and of the scientific requirements of the German Marine in particular. The work, under the unostentatious title of a manual, is in fact a complete encyclopaedia of human knowledge, for the compilation of which some of the very highest authorities in Germany have supplied the materials.

Ir is now currently reported that Professor Waitz has accepted the invitation of the Imperial Government to migrate from Göttingen to Berlin, in order that he may assume the chief direction of the Monumenta Germaniae, which has been offered to him at a salary of 6,000 Thl. He will have as

his associates in the labour of completing this important national work, Dr. Pertz of Berlin, Dr. Euler of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, Herr Tickel of Vienna, Herr Stumpf-Brentano of Innsbruck, Dr. Hegel of Erlangen, Professor Mommsen of Berlin, and Herr von Giesebrecht of Munich. The ninth place at the board of management, which became vacant by the death of Dr. Blume, of Bonn, has not yet been filled.

IN Blackwood the gracious and fantastic history of Alice Lorraine ends happily with the discovery that Agasicles, the Carian astrologer, had discoof all difficulties. lection are sold for 65,000l., and the family gets out "In a Studio" contains a great about the prices of ancient works of art, and an many unsifted anecdotes from Pliny and elsewhere ingenious suggestion that the Clytie is a portrait of Poppaea, who is known to have been modest in manner, and was slain by her beloved as Clytie was slain by Apollo, whom Nero claimed as his father.

In the Cornhill Magazine there is an interesting and tantalising article on the cost of living. The writer shows that the things which have got cheaper, like travelling and grocery, represent as large a proportion of expenditure as those which, like meat and house rent, have got dearer; but he does not allow for the rapid growth of wants which are conventional, not optional. The editor's most interesting article on William Hazlitt is a little disfigured by an assumption which runs all through it, that he ought to have done more, which means that he could have done more. In mortifying his eccentricities he would have mortified his talent, though he might have improved his character and his chance of happiness.

IN Macmillan's Magazine Mr. Freeman discusses Mr. Parker's theories about the ancient fortification on the Palatine, &c., and the questions raised by

opponents rather disproportionately angry. Mr. St. George Mivart's paper on Instinct and Reason is an ingenious series of appeals from Mr. Herbert Spencer to Messrs. Tylor and G. H. Lewes, othercurious paradox that the gulf between rational wise chiefly remarkable for the reiteration of the and irrational is harder to pass than that between organic and inorganic.

In Fraser's Magazine Mr. Carlyle discusses the The Torphichen portrait is clearly akin to that in portraits of Knox with the following results:the first edition of Beza's Icones in 1580; so probably is that by Hondius published by Van Heiden in 1602; while the portrait in Goulart's translation of Beza in 1581 is clearly Tyndall in

serted by mistake. He decides in favour of what is called the Somerville portrait, which he thinks is a copy of Kneller's time, or later, of a valuable original which may have been by Porbus, who is known to have painted Buchanan about 1565. Between the discussion of the portraits which he fragmentary life of Knox. rejects, and of that which he accepts, there is a

"A German" writes to explain that the hideous shabbiness of German home life, as described in Fraser, is due to the fact that the literary, professional, and official class in Germany is much larger and poorer than the analogous class in

THE chapters in the book, containing reprints of geographical and ethnological papers, which the Geographical Society is printing, at its own expense, for the use of the Arctic Expedition, will be as follows:-The first chapter, by Dr. Robert Brown, on the physical structure of Greenland, contains nine sections on the Greenland coast-line, on the interior of Greenland, on Greenland glaciers and sea ice, on the action of sea ice, on the rise and fall of the Greenland coast, on the application of facts regarding Arctic ice-action as explanatory of glaciation and other ice-remains in Britain, on the formation of fiords, on the northern termination of Greenland, and on the debateable points regarding the physical structure of Greenland. Then follow papers on the best means of reaching the North Pole, by Admiral Wrangell; on the discoveries of Dr. Kane, by Dr. Rink; and on the Arctic current around Greenland, by the Danish Admiral Tominger. Admiral Collinson contributes four valuable papers on the Russian explorations west of the river Kolyma, on the exploration of the Polar Sea between Point Barrow and the river Mackenzie, on the state of the ice along the coasts of Siberia and Arctic America, and on Behring's Strait. The ethnological portion of the book comprises four papers on the Greenland Eskimos, by Mr. Clements Markham; namely, on the origin and migrations of the Greenland Eskimo, on the Arctic Highlanders, the Eskimo language with classified vocabularies, and a list of names of places with meanings on the coasts of Greenland. There are also papers by Dr. Rink on the descent of the Eskimo, and by Dr. Simpson on the Western Eskimo, the Report of the Anthropological Institute, and a series of questions drawn up by

members of its Council.

place has generally been identified with Bethnimrah, but Lieutenant Conder shows that this site is too far south, one condition being that Bethabara should be within a two days' journey of Cana in Galilee. Upwards of fifty fords of the Jordan have been found in the progress of the survey, only eight of which appear in the latest map. Among them, at a distance of twenty-five miles from Nazareth, is one called Makhadet Abára, the "Ford of the Crossing-over." It is described by Lieutenant Conder as one of the ing Wady Jalúd on its northern side, and leading principal northern fords; the great road descendto Gilead and the south of the Hauran passes over it; the river bed is more open than at other places, and the steep banks of the upper valley further retired, leaving a broad space for the collection of the great crowd which followed John the Baptist. There are no traces of the ancient village on the spot, but then there are hardly any ruins, except of Christian times, in the Jordan valley. If the identification is accepted, another difficulty in Biblical topography will be removed. Lieutenant Conder thinks that the Bethabara of the Book of Judges must not be confounded with the Bethabara of the New Testament. The new number of the Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Fund, now in the press, contains his paper on this site. Among the other papers are an account of the German excavations in the Muristan, those of Mr. Henry Maudslay on Zion, showing the old scarp of the rock and the course of the first wall; the complete survey of Tell Jezer, where M. Clermont Ganneau discovered the boundary stones of Gezer; and a paper on a subject rarely touched upon, the mediaeval topography of Palestine.

THE Russian Golos says that Government proposes to despatch during this spring four expeditions composed of civil engineers and naval officers, with the necessary complement of workmen, to survey the lakes, canals, and rivers which form the system of interior navigation in Russia. The first expedition will explore the Svir, Vytegra, and Kovgha rivers, the White Lake, the Szeksna, and the course of the Volga between examine the Kama and the Tchusovaya; while Rybinsk and Nijni-Novgorod. The second will

the other two will occupy themselves with the Don and Dnieper and their affluents.

export trade. from the most recent consular report) trade is paralysed by irregular and excessive taxation and by the want of cheap and speedy means of transit. How much more would this not prove to be the case in a province so far removed from the central seat of government as Yunnan?

Even at Shanghai (as appears

OTHER articles in the same periodical are an interesting paper on Beccari's travels in the East Indies; a practical series of hints respecting the obituary notice of the late Sir Henry Kellett, noting of unknown rocks and new dangers at sea, from the pen of an old Indian Navy officer; an K.C.B.; and the usual allowance of reviews of books and maps, among which will be found a paragraph devoted to a critical dissection of the

now notorious Cabinet Atlas of Messrs. Johnston.

AT the meeting of the Royal Colonial Institute, held on the 16th ult., a paper was read by Mr. Michie, Agent-General of Victoria, recommending the occupation of New Guinea by the British Government. His argument was supported by Captain Moresby, who had just returned from the exploration of the Eastern Coast, and who spoke favourably of the climate and of the natives, whom he described as an amiable race disposed to trade with Europeans. Gold had been discovered in the island by some of his party.

A VERY rich bed of iron ore has been discovered in Nordland, in the Arctic part of Norway. The ore, which is what is called blood-stone, gives from 60 to 67 per cent. of iron, and is free from phosphorus and sulphur. It is expected that this new bed will produce quite as much and as good metal as the famous mines of Dannemora, in Sweden; and the fact that it lies only a Norse mile from the little sea-port of Bodo, a haven which is never frozen over, makes it of great commercial importance. A Swedish speculator has already bought the right of working the

mines.

from the fort of Petro-Alexandrovsk on the Oxus COLONEL IVANOF has made a successful march to Kunia-Urgenj and back, with the object of pressing the aggressive movements of the nomad making a display of force, and, if necessary, re

race.

Petro-Alexandrovsk, after a satisfactory tour. The health of the troops had been good, though forty degrees of frost had been experienced.

A TELEGRAM has been received at Berlin by the Germano-African Society announcing the safe arrival at Loanda of Captain von Homeyer, who is reported to have started for the interior on February 11, and to have been well received at every station which he had visited. Captain Homeyer, who is chief director of the Second German Expedition to the Congo, and who is specially distinguished as an ornithologist, has obtained from the German Emperor a three years furlough from his regiment (one of the Silesian Fusilier Guards), in order that he might devete himself thoroughly to the duties which he undertook last year, on behalf of the Germano-African Society, to make a scientific examination of the districts on the Congo which they were desirous of colonising.

Another German officer, Lieutenant Stumm-who, as has been already noticed in our own papers, was the only foreigner allowed to take an active part in the Khiva Expedition of

General von Kauffmann, on whose staff he served through the whole campaign-has just brought out at Berlin a narrative of his personal experiences of life in Central Asia. The book is in the form of a journal, but Lieutenant Stumm is at present engaged in writing a larger work, in which he proposes to give the natural history of the interesting districts which he had the singular good fortune of being able to examine with much care.

BOSTON LETTER.

Boston: March 18, 1875. The second volume of Mr. Hubert H. Bancroft's work, The Native Races of the Pacific States, is to appear shortly. It treats of the civilised nations, namely the Nahuas, representing the Aztec civilisation of Mexico, and the Mayas, representing the Maya-Quiché civilisation of Central America. Of these two branches the latter is the more recent and the wider-spread. This classification is one made more for convenience than as a strict definition; under both heads may be found included races which bear no real affinity to either the Mayas or the Nahuas. The Aztec empire proper is defined as having extended from the valley of Mexico and its immediate neighbourhood, through the existing Mexican States, Puebla, southern Vera Cruz, and Guerrero, but the title of Aztec belongs also, less definitely, to the whole country north of the isthmus of Tehuantepec. The Mayas were confined to the district south of this isthmus.

It is to the sixth century of the Christian era that trustworthy information about the Nahua civilisation goes back. At this period the Toltecs are found in possession of Anáhuac and the neighbouring country. Their sway lasted until the middle of the eleventh century, when it was succeeded by the Chichimec empire, which endured, with various changes, until the coming of Cortés, just as the Aztecs were becoming powerful. After a brief synopsis of the scattered threads of this early history, Mr. Bancroft devotes the rest of the volume to an account of the manners and customs of the Nahuas and Mayas respectively. This subject he has treated with the greatest fulness, dividing it into five parts. First, the systems of government; the laws of succession; the ceremonies of election, coronation, and anointment; and finally, the details of the life of the kings. Secondly, the social system; the divisions of society; the taxation, tenure, and distributions of land; vassalage and feudal service; the domestic life of the people; the laws and customs with regard to marriage, divorce, and education; their amusements, dress, food, medicine and mode of burial. Thirdly, what concerns war. Fourthly, their commerce, trade, sciences, arts, and manufactures. Fifthly, their legal affairs.

It has been no easy matter for the historian to unravel the truth from the vast amount of conflicting evidence about the Aztec civilisation. Mr. Bancroft acknowledges this difficulty, and makes no statements without definite reference to his authorities. He says in summing up:

66

The character of the Nahuas, although the statements of the best authors are nearly unanimous concerning it, is in itself strangely contradictory. We are told that they were extremely frugal in their habits, that wealth had no attractions for them, yet we find them trafficking in the most shrewd and careful manner, delighting in splendid pageants, gorgeous dresses, and rich armour, and wasting their substance in costly feasts; they were tender and kind to their children, and solicitous for their welfare, yet the punishments they inflicted upon their offspring were cruel in the extreme; they were mild with their slaves, and ferocious with their captives; they were a joyous race, fond of feasting, dancing, jesting, and innocent amusements, yet they delighted in human sacrifices, and were cannibals; they possessed a welladvanced civilisation, yet every action of their lives was influenced by gross superstition, by a religion inconceivably dark and bloody, and utterly without one

redeeming feature; they were brave warriors, and terrible in war, yet servile and submissive to their superiors; they had a strong imagination and, in some instances, good taste, yet they represented their gods as monsters, and their religious myths and historical legends are absurd, disgusting, and puerile."

While it would be hard to find a people which could not be charged with similar apparent inconsistencies, the particulars of some of the Aztec customs are very remarkable. This people seems to have added a sort of ornamental civilisation to a savage nature, which was not, on the whole, an excessively brutal one. The pomp of their sacrificial rites indicates this. The altar of the temple at Mexico was a green stone, probably jasper, convex above, about three feet high, as many broad, and more than five feet long. The robes of the officiating priests were brilliant; the chief priest had his ears adorned with golden ornaments, his under lip with a pendant of turquoise, and the heart of the human victim was laid bare by an obsidian knife, and sometimes placed in the mouth of an idol in a golden spoon. This is one of the extreme examples of the frequent combination of savageness and a gilding of civilisation. The people, however, had one strong claim to be counted among civilised races, namely, the weight of the taxes. These amounted to nearly one-third of everything made and produced. One authority states that in addition each taxpayer had to give one out of every three of his children, or in its place, a slave, for the sacrifice. His life was forfeited if he failed to do this.

It would be impossible by fragmentary extracts to give a satisfactory impression of the book, which is a well-arranged collection of curious and interesting facts. Mr. Bancroft is certainly doing his work well.

Mr. Nordhoff's Politics for Young Americans is a concise statement of such views as truly deserve to be spread among those on whom the future of this country rests. If it were the custom among human beings to profit by the wisdom of their ancestors more than by the pernicious results of their own folly, there would be good reason to hope that this book would have a beneficial influence. With those who agree with it it doubtless will, but those who believe that our papermoney is the "best currency the world ever saw," and that gold " is no more essential to our financial prosperity than the fly on the driving-wheel is essential to the speed of the train" (to quote from the records of the Congressional debate on the currency in 1873-74), will consider Mr. Nordhoff's little volume as a very dangerous publication. On such important matters as property, money, labour, and capital, usury, banks, &c., &c., it will be found to express clearly wise opinions. The author has taken care, and he has generally succeeded in his intention, "to explain in simple language and by familiar illustrations fitted for the comprehension of boys and girls, the meaning and limits of liberty, law, and government, and human rights, and thus make intelligible to them the political principles on which our system of government is founded." Consequently he has written a book which would be an admirable and intelligible manual not much above the comprehension of a member of Congress. Naturally enough-for the book grew out of an attempt on the part of the author to give the rudiments of political instruction to his own sonthere is a good deal of unsupported assertion, such as is well enough in families which are not debating societies, and some prejudices are to be found rather absolutely expressed; but on the whole a father need have no shame for a son with as good principles as this book teaches.

It

Professor J. R. Lowell, Mr. C. E. Norton, Dr. O. W. Holmes, Mr. R. H. Dana, jun., Professor Asa Gray, as well as many others less known to fame. It will also contain heliotypes of the generally graceless buildings of the college, and very many engravings.

Another publication with which the college is concerned is to appear soon under the auspices of the Harvard College Observatory. This is a report of the recent investigations of Mr. Charles S. Peirce, who has measured photometrically the magnitude of all the stars between 40° and 50° declination, visible to the naked eye, about 500 in number, by means of Turner's astrophotometer. He has also reduced the magnitudes of Ptolemy, Ulu Begh, Tycho Brahe, Hevelius, Sir William Herschel, Argelander, Heis, the Durchmusterung, Sir John Herschel, Seidel, Zöllner, and his own to a uniform scale, and has made a comparative catalogue of the different measurements of the same. The numerous observations of Sir William Herschel had, I believe, never hitherto been made available. Mr. Peirce has also investigated the probable errors of all these observers, and made some inferences with regard to the general variability of stars, and with regard to the form of the galactic cluster.

The alleged Raphael, of which I spoke in my last letter, has been on exhibition in this city. A little circular, which was given to those who gazed at it by an attendant, spoke more warmly in defence of the origin claimed for it than did anything in the picture itself. It has now gone back to its original obscurity.

This device of instructing the public has also been followed by the composer of the programme of a concert given in this city a week or two ago. The orchestra was that of Theodore Thomas, and the music consisted entirely of Wagner, "the reformer and most prominent musician of the day," according to the programme. The following testimonial of an unknown but ardent J. H. C. tends to put the docile listener into the proper mood for the enjoyment of music :—

"If Music has a higher and nobler mission than to simply tickle the ear-if it is a language supplementary to speech, and of almost unlimited powers of expression, so that there is hardly anything within the range of human experience which it may not in its own way illustrate-then may Richard Wagner be said, pre-eminently among modern composers, to have fully apprehended the nobility of his art, and to have been initiated into the secrets of its wonderful powers. This explains why it is that, as a general rule, his music is not at first liked-it is so full of meaning which is not understood except perhaps to a very few. But when we know what the poet-musician means, we must, unless we are miserably prejudiced, recognise," &c.

and Wagnerism is going on. Here, as elsewhere, the contest between music At present the front to the alleged reformers, and "grand Wag"miserably prejudiced " present a tolerably solid ner Concerts" are few. The fight, however, has not yet fairly opened, although preparations of all sorts have been going on for some time. The unmusical nature of the American people, and their fondness for what is new and noisy, tend to free them from prejudices.

THOMAS SERGEANT PERRY.

SELECTED BOOKS.

PITRE, G. Fiabe, Novelle e Raconti popolari Siciliani. Palermo: Pedone Lauriel. L. 20. RUSKIN, J. Proserpina. Studies of Wayside Flowers, while the Air was yet pure among the Alps, and in the Scotland and England which my Father knew. Part I. Orpington: George Allen, 2s. 6d.

History.

BUSOLT, G. Der 2. athenische Bund u. die auf der Autonomie beruhende hellenische Politik. Leipzig: Teubner. 5 M. 60 Pf.

DIGBY, K. E. An Introduction to the History of the Law of
Real Property. Clarendon Press.
PERISSAT, A. de C. de. L'Armée de la Révolution: ses géné-
raux et ses soldats. Paris: Plon. 6 fr.

Physical Science and Philosophy. SPICKER, G. Kant, Hume u. Berkeley. Eine Kritik der Erkenntnisstheorie, Berlin: Duncker. 4 M. 50 Pf. VOGEL, H. The Chemical Effects of Light and Photography in their application to Art, Science, and Industry. ("International Scientific Series.") King. 5s.

Philology.

ALBERTI STADIENSIS Troilus primum ed. a Th. Merzdorf. Leipzig: Teubner. 3 M.

BLACKIE, C. Etymological Geography. Daldy, Isbister & Co. FEER, L. Etudes bouddhiques. Deuxième série. Paris:

Maisonneuve. 5 fr.

KELLER, O. Die Entdeckung Ilions zu Hissarlik. Freiburg in Baden Bader. 2 M.

LEFÉBURE, E. Etudes égyptologiques. 4 livr. Le Mythe osirien. 2e partie. Osiris. Paris: Franck. LENORMANT, F. Sabazius (un des principaux dieux de la religion phrygienne). Paris: Maisonneuve. 2 fr. 50 c. WRIGHT, W. A Grammar of the Arabic Language. Second edition. F. Norgate.

CORRESPONDENCE.

common

ARYAN ORIGIN OF THE FINNISH NAME FOR IRON. St. Petersburg: March 25, 1875. Allow me to correct an inaccuracy into which Mr. Sayce, following M. Lenormant, has fallen in his article in the ACADEMY for March 20. He says there: "Indeed, as M. Lenormant has pointed out, the word for bronze (urud) is identical with the Finnic term for 'iron,' showing that the Turanians had already begun to work the metals before their separation." The word for iron, to which M. Lenormant refers, now prevalent in the West-Finnish languages, is in Finnish and Votian rauta, Esthonian and Vepsian raud, Livian raud, raod or rōda, and Lapp ruovdde. It is not, however, an original word to all the Finnic languages-the connexion of which with the so-called Accadian does not yet seem clearly established-but comes from what appears in Russian as ruda, the usual word for ore, especially iron ore. The same word is found in all the Aryan languages which surround the Baltic Finns. In Lithuanian we find: rúda ore, metal, rudis rust, iron rust, rúdas reddish brown, raudà red, raudus a mass of ore; and in Lettish ruds reddish, brown. The Russian ruda also means blood. It is certainly an Aryan word, and is connected with the Gothic rauds red, Old Norse raute red, rauti iron ore, English red, ruddy and rud, ruddle red ochre, red iron ore. The idea of redness is at the bottom of all the words, which have been applied to the most common iron ore on account of its characteristic red colour. The opinion which I have just given as to the Aryan origin of the Finnish name for iron is that of Professor Ahlqvist of Helsingfors, the greatest authority on the Finnic languages, and I would refer Mr. Sayce to his interesting book, De Vest finska Språkens Kulturord (Helsingfors, 1871), a German translation of which is soon to appear. It is an exceedingly valuable contribution to the history of

Finnish civilisation.

As the supposed origin of the word rauta was used by M. Lenormant, if my memory of the passage is correct, as a sort of crucial test of the degree of early civilisation of the Accadians, it shows that great caution should be used in studying the affinities of the erroneously so-called Turanian languages. EUGENE SCHUYLER.

ANCIENT MOSQUITO-NETS.

Bottesford Manor, near Brigg.

It may, perhaps, be worth while to point out that nets to protect the persons of sleepers from the attacks of noxious insects, though perhaps at

no time very common in this country, were known in former days to others beside Richard Bishop of London (ACADEMY, p. 314). There was a "bedstead with a net for knatts" in the new chamber at Sawtre Abbey, when an inventory of the goods of that establishment was made at the time of the dissolution of the monastic corporations. (See Archaeologia, xliii. 1. 240.)

I have met with one or two other notices proving that these nets were in use in old days, but I cannot now call to mind where they are. Bartholomew Glanvil, in his De Proprietatibus Rerum (Trevisa's version) has a chapter in which he tells with the deep feeling of one who had evidently suffered much how

A gnatte is a lyttell flye" that "soucketh bloudde, & hath in his mouthe a pype like a prick, and there with he percethe the flesche for to soucke the bloudde. And is gendred of rotted or corrupt vapours of caraynes and corrupt place of marreys. By continualle flappynge of wynges he maketh noyse in the ayre as thoughe he hurred.. and greueth slepynge men with noyse and with bytynge, and waketh theym of theyr reste, and fleeth aboute mooste by nyghte, and perceth and byteth membres vpon whiche he sitteth."-Edit. 1535, p. 169.

EDWARD PEACOCK.

HANDEL AND BACH.

3 Wetherby Road, South Kensington: April 5. Your musical critic, in his notice, in the current number of the ACADEMY, of the Crystal Palace Concert on the previous Saturday, draws attention to the "most singular resemblance between the theme of the opening chorus of Bach's cantata My spirit was in heaviness' and that of the trio 'The flocks shall leave the mountains' in Handel's Acis and Galatea"-remarking especially on the extension of this resemblance to "the treatment of the subject by imitation in the seventh at half a bar's interval." Mr. Prout does not suppose Handel's notorious habit of appropriating the thoughts of others notwithstanding that the great composer had borrowed the subject from Bach; regarding it as improbable that he had ever had the opportunity of hearing the work of the latter; but points to the circumstance as a simple but most remarkable coincidence, rarely to be paralleled in the range of music.

The object of these few lines is to direct the attention of such of your readers as may be interested in the point to an old Italian melody"Col freddo suo velen," of apparently unknown authorship, in which the same theme appears, with a suggestion, in the bass, of the particular treatment noticed by Mr. Prout, and with further points of correspondence, which make it difficult to suppose Handel could have been ignorant of this air when he penned the exquisite trio in question.

The air will be found in the second volume of Crotch's Specimens, having been taken from the collection bequeathed by Dean Aldrich to the library of Christ Church, Oxford-its priority to either Bach or Handel being thus pretty well established. Does it not seem probable that this old Italian song was familiar to both the great composers, who, if so, have used it in the same noble way as Shakspere his borrowed material, and with kindred amplitude of development, moulding it by the force of their own genius and shaping it into a new and consummate work of art. That the correspondence between the Italian air and Handel's trio struck Dr. Crotch may be safely inferred from the small notes added by him. G. DOWNING FRIPP.

MR. PARISH'S GLOSSARY OF THE SUSSEX DIALECT. 1 Cintra Terrace, Cambridge: April 6, 1875.

May I be allowed to say that I am extremely sorry that your reviewer should have been led to ascribe to Mr. Parish several mistakes that were really due to myself, if indeed they are mistakes?

I have received so many letters from correspondents, expressing their satisfaction with Mr. Parish's book, and it is, for the purposes of the English Dialect Society, so extremely useful a work, that it is a little hard to find that, in the pages of the ACADEMY alone, the imperfections of it have been rather severely insisted upon. I think it will bear comparison with such works as those of Forby, Moor, and others, which have been for some time well known and of acknowledged utility.

But what I am most concerned about is, to obtain further information upon some of the supposed errors. I want to know wherein consists the absurdity of connecting the word kell (a kiln) with the Welsh cylen, or the word dole with the A.S. doel? It was not intended to be implied that the words are absolutely derived from the forms given, only that there is a connexion between them. This has long been the practice in English etymology; any one who looks out kin in Wedgwood or Webster will find the Welsh cylen duly cited. I am not defending the practice, and I think it high time that phonetic considerations should begin to find a place in our etymology; I only submit that it is hardly fair to single out this particular book for attack, because old habits have been complied with; and I extremely regret it because, partly through my desire to help forward the work, the weaker points of it have invited comment, and Mr. Parish has come in for but small thanks.

In particular, I wish to know if any further information is to be had. Your reviewer says, "to those who can detect the blunders, the etymologies which happen to be correct are familiar;" in reply to which I have to say that I shall be obliged by being made acquainted with such etymologies, that the English Dialect Society may print a list of them. We are extremely anxious to print all corrections and emendations, that the accumulation of information may at last become valuable. The work of collecting is humble, and errors will creep in, but it is a very important duty; and we hope, by continual corrections and additions, to perfect the work at last. For this reason, a list of corrections, duly for warded to me, will be very thankfully received. After some experience, I may say that the endeavour to correct etymologies is much harder work than it appears to be, and the certainty that it will be found fault with, after all, is not very encouraging.

Another remark is, that "where there is any real difficulty, no assistance is given." How could it be? How can I tell the etymology of a word which the reviewer does not even know himself? Surely, it is better to be silent in such a case, and to say nothing instead of indulging in guesswork. It is just this guesswork which is the curse of English etymology. WALTER W. SKEAT.

MRS. KINGSFORD'S " ROSAMUNDA THE PRINCESS,

AND OTHER TALES." Savile Club: April 6, 1875. I am a little surprised that Mrs. Kingsford should think that a reviewer in the ACADEMY

could attack her with anything like personal animosity; but after reading her letter I am not sur prised that she should feel herself aggrieved by a review which, having to deal with a large number of volumes in a very limited space, laboured to be brief and became obscure. If, therefore, any reader of the review was led by it to form an opinion hostile to Mrs. Kingsford's character as an upright and pure-minded woman, or to believe that she wilfully advocated a pernicious system of morals, I beg to say that I meant nothing of the