ceptions of their authors." The particular photograph in question was a portrait of Mr. Oscar Wilde. A GROLIER CLUB has been founded at New York for "the literary study and promotion of the arts pertaining to the production of books." Among other things, it is intended to publish limited editions of works treating of bookmaking, &c., got up in such a style as to be themselves models for the trade. THE Life of Margaret Fuller, which has already been written in the "Eminent Women series by Mrs. Howe, is now to be undertaken afresh by Col. T. W. Higginson for the "American Men of Letters." No woman has yet had a place among the "English Men of Letters." WITHIN three days after the arrival in America of the first copy of More Leaves from the Journal of a Life in the Highlands, Messrs. Harpers had ready a reprint for fifteen cents (74d.). The authorised edition, with the illustrations, is published by Messrs. Scribner at four dollars (16s.). The price in England is only 10s. 6d. THE Critic of March 15 gives an account of a large collection of rare books and early editions -both English and French-which Mr. George J. Coombes has brought back with him from Europe. Among them is a copy of the first edition of Hartley Coleridge's Poems (1833), once the property of his sister Sara, which contains on the fly-leaf the following sonnet addressed by Hartley to Henry Nelson Coleridge, said to be hitherto unpublished : Kinsman-yea, more than kinsman, brother, friend O more than kinsman, more than friend or brother, My sister's spouse, son to my widowed mother, How shall I praise thee right and not offend? For thou wert sent a sore heart-ill to mend : Twin stars were ye, thou and thy wedded love, Benign of aspect as those twins of Love [?Jove], In antique faith commissioned to portend To sad sea-wand'rers peace,--or like the tree By Moses cast into the bitter pool, Which made the tear-salt water fresh and cool, Or even as Spring which set [? sets] the boon carth free, Free to be good, exempt from Winter's ruleSuch thou hast been to our poor family." IN the Literary World for March 8 Mr. C. R. Corson answers-and very rationally-— some difficulties propounded in Mr. Browning's poems. But surely it is in the nature of an anachronism to say that "Karshish reasons from a Mahometan standpoint." M. SALOMON REINACH contributes to the Nation of March 13 an interesting account of his archaeological exploration of Jerba, the island of the lotos-eaters. THE Journal des Débats for April 1 contains the second of M. James Darmesteter's papers on George Eliot, to the first of which we reThe letters here quoted deal ferred last week. to a great extent with her religious opinions. We must be content to give one passage in the original English. It comes from a letter dated February 15, 1862. "But I have faith in the working out of higher possibilities than the Catholic or any other Church has presented; and those who have strength to wait and endure are bound to accept no formula which their whole souls their intellect as well as their emotions-do not embrace with entire reverence. The highest calling and election' is to do without opium and live through all our pain with conscious, clear-eyed endurance." As a retranslation from the French of some of these letters has appeared in a daily contemporary, it may be as well to state that many excusable mistakes have occurred in the process. AN association has been founded at Paris under official patronage, to be called the “Alliance française," with the special object of promoting the knowledge of the French language abroad and in the colonies. A beginning will be made along the shores of the Mediterranean, where French books of educa tion are to be distributed and French schools to be subsidised. A normal school for the instruction of Mahommedan teachers has already been founded at Tunis. The president members include MM. Renan, Pasteur, Taine, Léon Say, Duruy, Paul Meyer, Gaston Paris, Paul Bert, &c. of the association is M. Tissot; and the active THE Paris Municipal Council has decided that the statues of Voltaire and Rousseau-the one already finished, the other not yet fully subscribed for-shall both be placed on the Quai Malaquais, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Institut. THE new volume announced in the "Bibliothèque orientale elzévirienne" (Leroux) is entitled Les Fraudes archéologiques en Palestine, by M. Clerinont Ganneau. MR. JOHN WARD DEAN, editor of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, IN the second instalment of the military has reprinted from that publication a memoir of correspondence preserved in the archives of the late Col. J. L. Chester for distribution Bayonne appears a letter from Paris dated among his friends. To most of us Col. Chester November 5, 1651, giving an account of the was known only from his life in England-battle of Worcester, of the King's adventures from his passionate devotion to genealogical (somewhat apocryphal), and of his reception in research, and from his no less extraordinary France. On March 29, 1666, the Intendant of generosity in placing his results at the disposal of others. Here will be found an account of his early life in America, of his New England ancestry, of a volume of poems that he published at the age of twenty-one, of his lecturing, of his experiences as a musical and political editor, and of his appointment to the military rank of colonel. He arrived in England in September 1858, and never returned to his native country. When he thought of doing so on the outbreak of the Rebellion, he "received a commission from the United States Government for a service which he could render in Gascony demands a list of all the Irish Catholics residing at Bayonne. On June 15, 1653, is a complaint from St-Jean-de-Luz of the capture of two whale-ships by the English; from other notices the Basques were then catching whales on the coast of Norway. The same Bulletin of the Société des Sciences et des Arts de Bayonne describes, with a good lithograph, Le coraii Barbotat, a gunboat, with a circular loop-holed turret formed of thick beams, and musket proof, constructed and used at Bayonne for river defence in the sixteenth century, ORIGINAL VERSE. IN MEMORIAM THE DUKE OF ALBANY. The age must lose him; there hath fled WILLIAM WATSON. THE SOUDAN. ENGLAND, the voice of weeping breaks thy rest,- MAGAZINES AND REVIEWS. THE letterpress of the English Illustrated Magazine does not differ so much from its rivals as to call for special notice, though it does manage to hit a happy mean between the ordinary run of monthlies and those which deal specially with art. Just as we think that successful with architectural subjects, so have the English school of wood-cutting is most articles which favour this excellence. In the we been best pleased with those descriptive current number there happen to be two of these Changes at Charing Cross," by Mr. Austin Dobson, and "The Belfry at Bruges," by Miss Kingsley. Both are agreeable reading, though slight; and in both the text and the pictures 66 assist one another. As usual, Mr. J. D. Cooper -or perhaps we should rather say the atelier of Mr. J. D. Cooper-has been entrusted with the larger share of the engraving; and his work is uniformly maintained at a high level. In this number there is nothing from Messrs. W. and J. R. Cheshire, who have given us some fine bits in previous issues. Among the engravers who have been selected to reproduce Mr. Napier Hemy's series of illustrations to the "Unsentimental Journey through Cornwall," we must express our preference for Mr. Balecs István. The present writer happens to know the Lizard well, and can bear witness to the truthfulness of Mr. Hemy's pencil. It is good news that the May number will have a story by Mr. Thomas Hardy, but we greatly fear it will be no longer "Julia." One word than Mr. Walter Besant's " more, and that is to express the difficulty felt in reading the glazed paper by gas-light. THE Theologisch Tijdschrift for March contains an addition to Dr. Kuenen's series of Bijdragen to the criticism of the Hexateuch, suggested by and partly concerned with Budde's able though lengthy treatise on Gen. i.-xii. 5, carrying the literary analysis to almost its farthest point. The usual exegetical article is on Rom. viii. 12 and Rev. xiii. 13-16, by Dr. Blom. The Apocalypse of Barnabas is once more studied historically by Dr. Loman, who places it in the closing years of the Emperor Hadrian. Prof. J. Wordsworth's Old-Latin Biblical Texts, Part I., is reviewed appreciatively by Dr. van Manen; and among the minor contents of the number we notice a summary of Dr. Weidemann's article in the Muséon on Queen Candace and her treasurer, from which it results that the name was a title of the Queen-mother of Ethiopia, and that the King, who was socially inferior to his mother, was either Ark-Amen or his successor. OBITUARY. H.R.H. THE DUKE OF ALBANY, By the death of the Duke of Albany England has lost much more than a Royal Prince. She has lost one whose influence was steadily directed towards raising the level of English culture. The ill-health which pursued him from early years developed the thoughtfulness of a mind that was naturally observant. He was endowed with quick perceptions, and possessed great delicacy and refinement. Partly from these mental characteristics, partly from the oppressive feeling of the need of constant care of his health, he was shy and reserved. But he struggled against this shyness, as a duty, and, to a great extent, succeeded in overcoming it, though he has been taken away before he had the opportunity of showing how sterling were the qualities of his head and heart. He had a large knowledge of literature and great taste for the fine arts. He was full of interest and curiosity, and was singularly receptive of new ideas. But he always thought out questions seriously for himself, and was anxious to be useful in any way to promote social progress, especially in matters which were less obvious to the public mind and were in danger of neglect. His speeches bore the impress of independent thought and delicate perception. He avoided the temptation, which besets those who are sure of a hearing, of simply expressing forcibly the commonplace thoughts which were uppermost in the minds of his audience. He always strove to carry a little farther the question with which he dealt. He delicately suggested to the prevalent enthusiasm a new departure which might be fruitful in the future. His interest in the unobtrusive work of the Kyrle Society is characteristic of his mind. Had his health and strength improved, as seemed probable, he would have used his position to bring into public notice the finer sides of philanthropic activity, in which his interest was most keen. As it is, England has lost one who was steadily preparing himself for the useful work of acting as an interpreter to the general public of the results of cultivated thought. M. CREIGHTON. NICHOLAS TRÜBNER. ALL friends of Oriental study will have heard with startled concern of the sudden death of Mr. Nicholas Trübner, the well-known Oriental publisher, which took place at his residence in London last Sunday. Only the evening before he had been entertaining a party of friends, who little thought that the kindly face and genial conversation of their host would be seen and heard for the last time. Oriental research, and more especially Indian studies, owe a debt of profound gratitude to him. His enterprise and enthusiasm for learning made the publication of many works possible which might otherwise have been lost to science. The scholar who had something new to communicate about the East was sure of finding in him a sympathetic friend. His Record, of which about twelve hundred copies were distributed among scholars and libraries, was a welcome and invaluable visitor to all those who were interested in Oriental pursuits. The assistance it has rendered to Oriental learning cannot be over-estimated. But Mr. Trübner's interests and sympathies were not confined to Oriental research, large as was the place it occupied in his mind. The history of religions, the study of languages, the development of political life in the East, even the art of the Persian illuminator, all claimed a share of his time and thoughts. The Westminster Review is a sufficient proof of the interest he took in what are termed the questions of the day. Nor was he content to publish other men's opinions only. He had himself studied Sanskrit; and, though it might have been thought that the duties of a large business would have fully occupied all his time, he found leisure to read widely, to attend Oriental congresses, and to gather round himself scholars, explorers, and statesmen. A dinner at his ever hospitable table was an event not to be forgotten. The brilliant company, the perfect freedom from restraint, above all, the winning manners of the host, made it one of the pleasantest experiences of life. For those who knew Mr. Trübner intimately his loss is one which cannot be repaired. Since I first had literary dealings with him, many years ago, I have found him a constant friend, ever ready, when need was, with sympathy and help. The kindliness of his heart is best known by those many struggling scholars who have lost in him the best friend they had. A. H. SAYCE. [The funeral is announced to take place to-day, Saturday, April 5, at 12.30 p.m., at Highgate Cemetery.] FRANÇOIS MIGNET. Mignet's reputation had now become so thoroughly established that he was engaged by Armand Carrel on the foundation of the National, and with Thiers he signed the famous protest of the journalists on July 26, 1830. With the Revolution of 1830 Mignet's political life came to an end, though that of Thiers was only just beginning; and, when his party were rewarded, he chose for his sole recompense the office of director of the archives at the Foreign Office. He was, indeed, sent in 1833 on a secret mission to the Spanish Queen, but the most important result of the journey was historical rather than political, for the archives at Simancas were thrown open to him. The first result of his labours appeared in his magnificent four volumes on the Négociations relatives à la Succession d'Espagne, published in the series known as the "Collection des Documents inédits sur l'Histoire de France," which includes the great works of Pelet, Avenel, and Chéruel. This was followed by Antonio Perez et Philippe II. (1845), Vie de Franklin (1848), Histoire de Marie Stuart (1851), Charles Quint, de St-Juste (1854), and finally the Rivalité de son Abdication, son Séjour et sa Mort au Monastère François Ier et Charles Quint (1875), all of which showed his wonderful mastery of documents and his power of recovering the truth out of dusty masses of inedited sources. Another side of Mignet's life must also be noticed. In 1832 he had been elected a member of the Institut in the section of Sciences morales et politiques, in 1836 a member of the Académie française, and in 1837 secretary to his section of the Institut in succession to François Comte, the pamphleteer and jurist. In this latter capacity it was his duty to pronounce the éloges on the deceased members, and he published two volumes of them in 1843 and 1864. THREE months ago historical students heard François-Auguste-Marie Mignet was born at 66 A passage in the éloge on Hallam most clearly expresses Mignet's opinion of the historian's duty, and the ideal which he kept before himself. L'histoire," he says, "accroît et étend l'expérience du genre humain. Elle le fait moins encore par des récits qui plaisent ou des peintures qui meuvent, que par des recherches approfondies qui pénétrent les causes cachées des événements, au moyen de considérations qui en font saisir l'enchaînement et la portée, à l'aide de jugements honnêtes, d'où sortent des lueurs qui servent à guider les peuples." leçons propres à élever les hommes et ces grandes This is what Mignet succeeded in doing; in all his works he laid bare the intricacies of statecraft, and taught great political lessons which should help to guide nations." H. MORSE STEPHENS. ELIAS LÖNNROT. ON March 19 Elias Lönnrot died, full of years and honours, at Sammatti, where he was born, and to which he had retired in his old age. Although his ever-increasing weakness warned all that his long life was drawing to a close, still the news of his death has fallen as a heavy blow upon Finland. The only sur- reverence and love by his fellow-countrymen. The orthography of the original letter, which vivor of the group which included the honoured By indomitable perseverance and determina- has no signature, is preserved. JAMES DARMESTETER, names of Runeberg, Snellman, and Cygnaeus-tion, he won his way to fame; and to-day men who laid the foundation of that patriotic Finland joins his only daughter, and mourns "M. Fauriel se resouviendrait-il de Mme Shelley? spirit which has shot up since the severance the death of a true father. Shall not we, who-Ce sont douze années (mon dieu que la vie est from Sweden-his death makes a void that can reap the fruits of his labour, lay our wreath of longue et courte en même temps)-qu'elle eut le never be filled. gratitude on his tomb, and mourn with those bonheur de faire sa connaissance.-Elle est à préwho mourn by the grave that true scholar and sent à Paris pour quelques semaines; et un des plaisirs qu'elle s'est promise en venant était de noble man, Elias Lönnrot ? revoir M. Fauriel. Serait-il bien aimable et vienW. HENRY JONES. drait-il la voir? Le meilleur temps de la trouver est entre midi et deux heures-ou cinq heuresCe dimanche. 8 novbre Rue de la Paix N° 15. " Lönnrot was born on April 9, 1802. Being one of a family of seven, who depended for all upon the labours of their father, the village tailor, his early days, as may be imagined, were one unceasing struggle against adverse circumstances. His school-time was broken off ever and anon, when the scanty funds failed, only to be renewed when he had earned enough, by helping his father, to enable him to return to the more congenial sphere. Later on he found a kind friend in the vicar of the parish, who prepared him for the gymnasium at Borga. While there, as he could not expect any help from home, he employed his holidays in going round the neighbourhood singing, by which means he managed to collect a large quantity of rye, and so supported himself during his studies. From thence he went as an apothecary's apprentice to Tavastehus, and finally entered as a student in the university (then at Abo) when he was twenty. Here he supported himself by private tuition, and took his degree with Runeberg, Snellman, and Nervander in 1827. He then began to study medicine, and took his M.D. in 1832. But his favourite subject from his earliest years had been the poetry and lore of the people. This we see in the theme he chose when he took his degree: "De Wäinämöine priscorum Fennorum numine." Soon followed four volumes of Finnish folk poetry, which he had collected while travelling through the north and cast parts of the country. He next turned his attention to the Russian Karelian border parishes, where he not only gathered the songs which still lived on the lips of the people, but also began to arrange them; for, being struck by the way in which Wäinämoinen, Ilmarinen, &c., constantly recurred, he surmised that all the various songs he had heard were not perfect in themselves, but parts of one grand whole. Out of that thought grew the renowned Kalevala. Thus Lönnrot succeeded in a wonderful and unexpected manner in drawing Finland's great epic poem out of the forest depths, where it had lived for so long unknown to the world at large. For this, if for nothing else, his name deserves a high place in the literary world, and is worthy of all the gratitude that the folk-lore student can give. This strange poem was printed for the first time in 1835, and received with great enthusiasm by the patriotic Finns. In 1849 a new edition was issued, enlarged by the results of fifteen more years of hard and self-denying labours. 1840 he published his Kanteletar, a collection of short songs which show that in lyric poetry the Finns are quite abreast of other nations. In 1842 came his collection of Finnish proverbs, followed in 1844 by a collection of folk riddles. In SELECTED FOREIGN BOOKS. GENERAL LITERATURE. BODE, W. Adriaen Brouwer. Ein Bild seines Lebens u. seines Schaffens. Wien: Gesellsch. f. verviel- CASSEL, P. Aus Literatur u. Symbolik. Abhandlungen. Rothschild. 7 fr. HISTORY. Paris: À POET'S COMPASSION FOR THE DEVİL. "But fare you weel, auld Nickie Ben; I'm wae to think upo' you den, Did Carlyle not know that the authors of "The Witch of Edmonton were beforehand with Sterne? The witch sells herself Faustlike to the devil in the shape of a black dog. In the fifth act the dog becomes white, and is thus addressed : "Cuddy Banks.-Certainly, Tom, I begin to pity thee. "Dog.-Pity me! For what? Cuddy Banks.-Were it not possible for thee to become an honest dog yet? 'Tis a base life that you lead, Tom," &c. The list of Byron's plagiarisms may be in- Once past "Who falls from all he knows of bliss Cares little into what abyss." In "The Witch of Edmonton" the same thought is rendered thus (act III., sc. ii.): "Frank, 'Tis done, and I am in! our height, we scorn the deepest abyss." It is years since I read Byron's poem. I find it interesting now to know that he probably stole from another the idea of the only couplet which my mind retains. ERNEST RADFORD. THE BIRD ORIGINALLY DENOTED BY THE for the same. In 1852, upon the death of Castren, Lönnrot was elected to the professorship 2 M. CORRESPONDENCE. A LETTER FROM MRS. SHELLEY TO FAURIEL. As everything that concerns Shelley even Preston Rectory, Wellington, Salop. I have received some interesting letters from correspondents who have kindly responded to my request for information on the subject of the pelican, and I beg to thank them I think, on further examination of the question, that there is clear evidence to show that our word "pelican," like the Greek TEλEKâv, did not always stand for the waterbird of that name, but that at first it denoted some kind of vulture, that subsequently came to be restricted in use to the web-footed water-bird. It appears to me that the pellicanus of Ps. cii. was understood by Jerome as well as by Early-Christian writers to signify, not a pelican, but a vulture, and that in consequence there has not been in their case any transference from the vulture of the Egyptian story to the pelican, but that the same bird-viz., the vulture-is intended in both instances. The Hebrew word (ka'ath), which almost certainly denotes a pelican, from Ni, "to vomit" (in reference to this bird's habit of storing fish food in its pouch and disgorging it to feed its young), occurs five times in the Bible. The LXX. variously renders the word by Teλeкav, Õруεov, Kатаррáктηs, and xauaiλéwv; the Vulgate, with one exception (Ps. cii. 6), explains it by onocrotalus, which from Pliny's description is a pelican. The reason why the Vulgate in Ps. (1. c.) breaks this uniformity, and gives pellicanus instead of onocrotalus, may possibly be owing to the expression in the LXX. of reλekâvi puikų, "pelican of the wilderness "*. —an idea which did not seem to suit the habits of a water-bird; therefore the Vulgate left the Greek word in its Latin dress, untranslated. One of the earliest Greek writers who mentions the story of the pelican feeding its young with its blood is Epiphanius, Bishop of Constantia, in the Island of Cyprus (circ. A.D. 320); although in his description (Physiol., cap. viii.) there is nothing sufficiently precise to enable us to say positively that his pelican is a vulture, it would seem to denote this latter bird, because, in the edition of the Physiologus printed by Plantin in 1588, the Bishop's account, Пep Tηs Пeλekavos, is accompanied by a picture which is, as usual, that of a veritable hook-beaked, sharp-clawed 66 votre faveur, je le confirmerai de mon autorité. Par la bouche de son Vicaire ici bas, de celui qui a déclaré le saint Patriarche, Patron de l'Eglise, Dieu dit au peuple chrétien tout entier: Hororez saint Joseph; invoquez saint Joseph; placez-vous sous sa protection benie. Il est le depositaire de courir dans vos besoins, dans vos misères, dans mes pouvoirs; je les lui ai donnés pour vous se• les calamités au milieu desquelles vous vivez et souffrez." F. E. WARREN. ture (Vultur percnopterus) in its white adult plumage. He does not say which of these two kinds of bird kills its young and brings them to life again with its own blood; probably he includes both kinds. Crocodile's milk" is a new idea to me, and awaits explanation; it is probably as fanciful as that of this saurian's tears. It would seem, however, from the above extract that the Latin name pellicanus was definitely used for the water-bird early in the thirteenth century. Did Shakspere use the word "pelican" to denote the vulture, as the numerous emblem books of his time show, or THE PARCHMENT LIBRARY PSALMS. the water-bird which the name in his time also Tendring Rectory: March 30, 1881. signified? Sir T. Browne, who expatiates on For the benefit of the "unlearned reader" to the incongruities between name and picture, whom Prof. Driver alludes in his very graceful was born about eleven years before Shakspere's review of the "Parchment Library" Psalms, death. This incongruity is rarely mentioned by may I state that the question how best to acmediaeval writers. It did not, however, escape quaint the reader with the nature of the readthe notice of the learned Bochart-a cotempo-ings on which the translation was based was rary of Sir T. Browne-who briefly alludes to well considered, but that the plan of the series it, and ridicules the whole myth (see Hiero- seemed to preclude a thorough justification (and zoicon, iii., p. 53, ed. Rosenmüller). "The nothing less would have sufficed) of the changes bird of the painters, with whom, as with the introduced into the text? I sincerely stated poets, my critical point of view in the Introduction, and, besides that "minute sign' spoken of, I 'Quidlibet audendi semper fuit aequa potestas,' vulture or eagle piercing its breast, the blood shows us a pelican with a sharp beak, while that gave, at p. xviii., a list of references. I would A from which four little ones in a nest are much like to issue a student's edition to some of perfect accord with my reviewer. But I can the more striking changes. I am the last person to wish for superficiality; and therefore in hardly agree that the probability of the important change in the translation of Ps. xlv. 6 the soundness of Bickell's metrical theory (see depends in great measure for its probability on Introd., p. vii.). True, words have been supplied in both the first and the second member of the verse as given in the new Psalms, plumage, and that it dwells in Egypt near the Greeks. That this is the vulture to which the but the second supplement had been already The curions Nile. He adds: “duo dicuntur esse pellicanorum genera: unum aquaticum quod piscibus: alterum terrestre quod serpentibus et vermibus vivit : et dicitur delectari lacte cocodrillorum quod cocodrillus spargit super lutum paludum, unde pellicanus sequitur cocodrillum." derivation which Albertus gives of the word pellicanus shows that he was unacquainted with the Greek name. His aquatic bird which feeds on fish, though no mention is made of a pouch,† almost certainly refers to the pelican; his terrestrial bird, which feeds on serpents and worms, I think refers to the Egyptian vul * The Hebrew midbār is not to be restricted to barren tracts of dry desert land, but, as the late Dean Stanley said, conveys the idea of " open space with or without actual pasture." a wide † It is seldom that we find the names of this bird to contain etymologically within itself allusion to its characteristic mandibular pouch. Most European languages give us some form of the Greek pelican. The Swedish, besides pelikan, has skedgas, " spoon-bill," which reminds one of Cicero's platea; the Russian has pelican and babat.e., "the grandmother bird; the German Kropfgans and the Hindustani hawasil," stomachs," "a pelican" (from hausila, "the crop "), are admirably expressive. One of this bird's Arabic names means camel of the water or sea." The Greek ovoкpóraxos has reference to the voice of the pelican, which reminds some people of the bray of an ass. The Assyrians have a similar name-viz., atân na'ari―i.e.," she ass of the rivers," as Delitzsch has well shown. The Accadian name occurs in the lists, but it awaits explanation (see my paper on the "Birds of the Assyrian Monuments and Records" in vol.viii., part i., of the Biblical Archaeological Society's Transactions). The pelican is well figured on the Egyptian monuments, and has the phonetic value of Us. Its name is khemi according to Brugsch: can this name have any reference to the word khem or khemi, "ignorant," 66 'foolish," and so help to corroborate Horapollo's statement (i. 54) that when the Egyptians would represent a fool they depicted a pelican, because when this bird's nest was set on fire the parents flew about with fluttering wings to put out the fire, which was, on the contrary, fanned into a stronger flame? Egyptian myth definitely attaches itself derives from the vulture to the water-bird. ST. JOSEPH. W. HOUGHTON. an Frenchay Rectory, Bristol: March 31, 1884. tion of this Saint, though omitted in all the That his culte is of modern date is, neverthe- man knows of the Koran. Have you room for one characteristic ex- "Pharaon disait a ses sujets, si vous êtes dans le THE ETHNOLOGY OF DEVON. Settrington: March 31, 1881. suggestive anomalies, asks me for an opinion as Mr. Kerslake, with his genius for discovering to the nationality of the Devonshire names in -hoe. He doubtless has in view his own ingenious location of the Synod of Cloveshoe at Cliffe, at Hoo, in the Jutish portion of Kent. Five years ago, in Greeks and Goths, I put forward the hypothesis that there must have been an early Jutish settlement, unrecorded by the chroniclers, on the coasts of Devon and South Wales. Briefly stated, the argument is as follows:-The Saxons were unacquainted with the Runes. East Kent, peopled by the Jutes, is the only region in Southern England where Runic inscriptions have been discovered. At Sandwich there are Runic records assigned by Prof. Stephens to the fifth century. Prof. Rhys and Mr. Stokes agree that the Ogham writing must have been invented as early as the fifth century; and I have proved in my book that the Oghams were evolved out of an early type of the Runic Futhorc, probably Ogham inscriptions have been found. The in Devon or South Wales, where numerous Jutes, who conquered East Kent, the Isle of Wight, and part of Hampshire in the fifth century, were the only people acquainted with the Runes who are known to have reached the southern shores of England before the ninth century; and hence the only possible explanation of the origin of the Oghams seems to be the hypothesis that the Jutish settlers may have continued their progress westward, creeping along the coast from Southampton Water as far as the harbours of Devon, Pembroke, and Glamorgan. An early king of Glamorgan bore the name Tudric (Dietrich or Theodoric), which seems to be Jutish or Gothic. Beside the hoes of Kent and Devon there are other curious correspondences between the local nomenclature of East Kent and the Ogham region in the West. I am obliged to Mr. Kerslake for correcting my oversight as to the name of Combe Martin. ISAAC TAYLOR. CURRENT SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. Excursions of an Evolutionist. By John Fiske. (Macmillan.) Prof. Fiske does not keep up the promise of his first beginnings. His present volume is nothing more than a collection of mostly disconnected odds and ends from magazines, good enough in their original form, no doubt, but scarcely worthy of enshrinement in solid boards. Many of his papers are popularisations of already popular works. Europe before the Arrival of Man" and "The Arrival of Man in Europe consist mainly of a light réchauffé, dressing up the views held by Croll, Geikie, and especially Boyd Dawkins, on the tertiary and quaternary history of our little continent. They are lucid and pleasantly written, but hardly contain anything of original interest or more than mere literary handling. "Our Aryan Forefathers and "What we learn from Old Aryan Words," though equally indebted for subject-matter to Schleicher, Huxley, and Whitney, will prove far more novel in many parts to English readers. But a writer who is actually dealing with philological subjects ought not to speak of "Dolly Dentreath," or to divide the word as "Dent-reath," which argues culpable carelessness as to the etymology of transparent proper "Was there a Primaeval Mother Tongue?" discusses a deeper problem with greater originality: and here Prof. Fiske (like some English philologists) is inclined to believe that the derivation of the numerous Aryan and Semitic languages from two common originals is a comparatively isolated phenomenon; that in all probability there never was a primitive Mongolian mother-tongue, in at all the same sense; that roving, disconnected groups have always more or less variable fragmentary tongues; and that we rather find, at the beginning, a number of feeble, mutually hostile tribes, incapable of much combined action, with hundreds of half-formed dialects, each intelligible to a few score of people; at the end, an organised system of mighty nations . . . with very few languages, rich and precise in structure and vocabulary, and understood by all men." This theory, although already familiar in its main outlines, gains in Prof. Fiske's hands by the way in which it is brought into relation with the general stream of evolutionary history. "A Universe of Mind-Stuff" deals pleasantly with that remarkable essay of Clifford's on names. "The Nature of Things-in-Themselves," which probably has attracted more attention, and produced a deeper effect upon the world of thought, than anything else that ever came from that fervent, subtle, and penetrating intellect. The rest of the book is filled up with extremely fugitive pieces-an obituary notice of Charles Darwin; a brief restatement of Prof. Fiske's well-known views on the meaning of infancy; an after-dinner speech at the New York banquet to Mr. Herbert Spencer; a reprinted Preface to an illustrated volume; and so forth. We are duly grateful to Prof. Fiske for the good work he has done in the past for the evolutionary cause; but this does seem a very meagre account for a couple of years' thinking on the part of an able and broadly cultivated philosopher and man of letters. essays Flowers and their Pedigrees. By Grant Allen. (Longmans.) We have few pleasanter gossipers about natural history than Mr. Grant Allen. And by a gossiper we do not mean one who talks on a subject about which he knows little. In the present volume, at least, the botanist will seldom find him tripping. The eight "of which it is composed give the appearance of having been delivered as lectures, or written to be delivered as lectures. In each of them he takes as his text some English wild flower, and weaves out of it a pleasant and instructive discourse on a variety of topics. Thus "The Romance of a Way-side Weed" is an acount of Euphorbia pilosa, a South European plant found in a few spots in our South-western counties, which leads to an admirable sketch of the geological history of our island, and of the varied origin of our flora. Under the head "The Origin of Wheat" he traces the genealogy of all our grasses and sedges from the lilies through the rushes, a history of the gradual decadence of a great family. "A Family History" is a description of a variety of useful and interesting plants belonging to the great rose family. And the remaining chapters are of equal quality. It is some time since we have seen a book better calculated to awake or to stimulate an interest in natural history. A Season among the Wild Flowers. By the Rev. H. Wood. (Sonnenschein.) The Rev. H. Wood (not, of course, to be confused with the Rev. J. G. Wood) has written a pleasant, gossipy little book about the English flora. It will, no doubt, do something to spread the love of flowers; but, though the volume is systematic in a way, it does not give any systematic instructions for identifying them, and so we doubt whether it will do much towards making botanists. Perfectly free from misplaced raptures, the book is also attractive from its correctness. The plates are unusually and, indeed, remarkably good for a cheap and popular treatise. The primrose and the blackberry have their blossoms drawn rather disproportionately small; the former is made to look more like Primula farinosa; but, as everyone knows the two plants, none will be misled. It might be well to say that Lathyrus aphaca does sometimes produce leaves, for we have known great difficulty felt about a leaf-bearing specimen. The Spanish chestnut, the poet's narcissus, Hypericum calycinum, and H. hirsutum are not wild in these islands; but Mr. Wood, without positively saying so, writes as if they were wild. It is curious that he does not mention any wild gentian-facilis quaerentibus herba, on the chalk -nor Bupleurum aristatum, one of the treasures of his own neighbourhood, Eastbourne. Life History Album. Prepared by Direction of the Collective Investigation Committee of the British Medical Association. Edited by Francis Galton. Record of Family Faculties. By Francis Galton. (Macmillan.) Mr. Galton's objects are carefully explained in the Prefaces to Our these two books. In the first place, those who use them will be laying up a store of information which will be valuable to future enquirers into heredity. "We do not yet know whether any given group of different faculties which may converge by inheritance upon the same family will blend, neutralise, or intensify one another, nor whether they will be metamorphosed and issue in some new form." ignorance is very great also about hereditary maladies. Then, again, a man is "a prolongation of his ancestry in no metaphorical sense; and, if the ancestors be properly chronicled, a far more accurate forecast can be made of the future of a child, of his character, his abilities, his probable illnesses, than would otherwise be possible. Mr. Galton has already called public attention to the value of such records (Fortnightly Review, January 1882), and we hope that his present attempt may be well taken up and supported. Perhaps in a remote future these family records may do something towards securing such a careful breeding of human beings as Socrates introduces into the Republic; but with our present ignorance it is no doubt likely that a despot trying, with the best intentions, to match human beings together would do the race more harm than good. It must be hoped that those who fill up these registers will take pains; and greater care will probably come, along with greater intelligence, after a few entries have been made. We can hardly hope that people will be quite candid-in recording, 'insufficiency of for instance, that they had " means during early married life," and that the children consequently "suffered from want of nourishment." Still, filling the register is voluntary, and candour is a duty. Transit Tables for 1884. By Latimer Clark. (Spon.) These tables give the Greenwich mean time of the transit of the sun, and of certain stars, for every day in the year, and will enable anyone to obtain accurate time by means of the transit instrument, without any calculation' whatever. They are computed from the "Nautical Almanac" by the conversion of sidereal into mean time, and the times are given to hundredths of a second for the convenience of astronomers who may desire to spare themselves the trouble of computation. By their use observers may obtain the mean time of transit of more than twenty stars for every evening in the year, and a few high southern stars are included for the benefit of residents in the Southern hemisphere. It is a very handy little book, and, though primarily intended for use in England, will be found equally serviceable to persons living in remote or isolated stations in any part of the world. Memorials of John Flint South. By C. L. Feltoe. (John Murray.) Mr. South was a distinguished surgeon who more than thirty years ago reached the highest honours of his profession. The interest of his life, as recorded here, was strictly and even narrowly professional; and he earns remembrance mainly for the good example he set, by his translation of Chelius, of enlarging the horizon of English surgery. The editor of these modest memorials, while he does full justice to his subject as a good man and scientific surgeon, wisely allots most of his space to a fragment of autobiography which gives a vivid picture of student life in the first quarter of this century, with lively reminiscences of many of Mr. South's teachers and contemporaries, Abernethy, Astley Cooper, and others whose names are still reverenced in the wards and museums of our hospitals. This Germs, Dust, and Disease. By Andrew Smart. (Edinburgh Macniven & Wallace.) : handsome little volume contains two lectures delivered before a popular audience. The first deals with preventible diseases of the zymotic |