The Book of Health, edited by Mr. Malcolm Morris (Cassells), is likely to be useful, not only to the general public for whom it is primarily intended, but also to the medical profession, which will recognise among its contributors names of well-known authority. The articles are generally sensible and clear, the advice sound and detailed; the Index is full. Dr. Hermann Weber's essay upon "Climate and Health Resorts" is a model of conciseness and thoroughness. DR. B. W. RICHARDSON has written The Field of Disease (Macmillan) for "the intelligent reading public," whose tastes he has long studied, and educated, we hope, up to the point of reading this pretentious essay, which is most certainly neither scientific nor, in the ordinary sense, popular. Wark Rectory, Northumberland: March 28, 1884. AS'VAGHOSHA'S SERMONS, K. 10, P. 17 (TEXT). "I heard some time ago the following story :- Fourth Report on the Migration of Birds. The committee appointed by the British You must be diligent in cultivating the ground, Association for the Advancement of Science and working for the good of the house, so that no have issued another Report, but do not seem want be felt!' Then, taking his brother to the to draw any nearer to the mystery of bird- field, he said, 'In this place you are to sow .migration. Perhaps it is too soon to ask millet, in this place rice, here you must sow them to generalise. The collection of statistics corn, and here pulse!' Having thus made arrangeon the different birds which passed our light-ments, he went to offer up his sacrifices; he houses and lightships is full of interest to the offered up flowers and incense in profusion, and, naturalist. Mr. Cordeaux and Mr. J. A. H. morning and evening, bowed down prostrate before Brown, to whom the greater portion of this the gods he adored], and humbly craved some Report is due, are to be congratulated on having present advantage and increase of his worldly substance. At this time the divine spirit (whom made, out of what might easily degenerate into a long list of dry figures, a useful document for previous history of this poor man to see whether, he adored) thought thus:--'I must look into the the ornithologist. The committee appear to have in his previous career, he has acquired merit by espoused Mr. Darwin's theory that birds origin- almsgiving, and so I may be enabled to grant ally travelled north or east merely for food, his prayer for increase of wealth.' Having and have continued to do so from habit during looked into the man's previous history, he a long course of ages, even when valleys have found that he had never exercised the gift become watercourses and wide plains vast of charity, and so had no antecedent claim to seas. Mr. A. R. Wallace's views, however, the gratification of his wishes, and so he thought, 'This man, without any claim, still asks and prays are just as reasonable, though neither succeeds in grappling with the prime difficulty-what that his wishes may be gratified, and that his cares instinct is--which is implied in both theories. may be lightened. I will now change myself and The latter considers that migration is one of the 50 to him, as he is engaged in sacrifice, under the form of his brother, and hold converse with him.' means of getting rid of the enormous surplus On this, changing himself into his brother's form, of bird population, as only a small number, he he went to the temple and stood beside him. Then thinks, survive out of the vast crowds which his brother said, 'What are you doing here, instead seek to pass from one region to another. In of sowing the land?' On which the brother (in East Scotland we find, from this Report, that his assumed form) answered, I wished also to during the spring of 1882 swallows were come to beg the gods to be propitious to me, and arriving until after the middle of May, while from grant me food and raiment! and although I have June onwards till autumn there were various, not sown the seed, yet I doubt not the power of the god will produce fruit and increase!' Then probably local, migrations. Herons, it seems, the brother, upbraiding the other, said, 'How can are at all times engaged in local migrations. you expect the ground, without being sown, to At the Isle of May, on September 22, a single produce fruit? Such a thing is impossible!' and heron was seen 66 screaming as if lost in the so he repeated the gathahaze of a calm day. It is easy to fancy what would have been said of this lonely bird in the days when witchcraft was a firm belief in Scotland. Year after year it is found that birds follow the same lines of migration when approaching or leaving our shores. Mr. Gatke, from Heligoland, calls attention to a vast swarm of the silver gamma moth (Plusia gamma), which drifted across that island from August 13 to 19, 1882, all travelling from east to west, and in number "millions like a snowstorm." Those who remember Mr. Darwin's observations upon the destruction which a severe winter works among small birds will be interested in hearing that previous to the terrible winter of 1878 the chaffinch was the most common of small birds in Islay, but after that very rare indeed until on October 22, 1880, a flock of some thousands appeared, and since then they have again been abundant. 'Within the great sea-encompassed earth, Where no seed is sown? At this time the brother addressed the other (in 'Now, according to your own words, Though now you endure self-affliction, What is this but to trouble me with your services ! If you want to get wealth and treasure, To expect to reap advantage [religious profit] Is as if we expected the sun, and moon, and stars [To shine] without illuminating the earth; We know it is the result of works done before!* We may draw this distinction in all cases, Moral conduct results in birth in heaven; These three [charity, wisdom, and meditation] The "ten-powered lord" [Buddha] speaks thus: Then you will reap beneficent fruit!'" SCIENCE NOTES. and 66 AT the meeting held last Monday in the BABU ASHTERTOSH MUJHARJI, who stood first in mathematics at the last B.A. examination of the Calcutta University, has been elected a fellow of the London Mathematical Society in consideration of his papers contributed to its Journal. IN view of the recent discussion in the ACADEMY about "the sea-blue bird of March," it is not unworthy of record that two swallows were seen on Thursday of last week (March 27) as far north as Kelso, in Roxburghshire. A TRANSLATION of Rochet's work on the natural proportions of both sexes, by Dr. Carter Blake, will be published immediately by Messrs. Baillière, Tindall, & Cox. THE last number of the Proceedings of the Geologists' Association is notable for containing an elaborate paper, by Mr. H. M. Klaassen, descriptive of the section which was recently exposed at the Park Hill railway cutting at Croydon. This cutting displayed a far finer exposure of the Woolwich and Reading beds than had ever been seen before, and yielded to Mr. Klaassen's indefatigable labours some remarkable fossils, including bones of a gigantic bird and an ulna of the rare Eocene mammal called Coryphodon, the latter of which has been described by Mr. E. T. Newton under the name of C. Croydonensis. The great engineering difficulties attending the Park Hill cutting render it probable that no similar work will again be undertaken. MR. LUCIEN CARR, assistant curator of the Peabody Museum, in the Mounds of the Mississippi Valley historically considered (Cincinnati), contends (as we think, successfully) that there is no need of the hypothesis of an unknown race as builders of these mounds; that the con * Probably regarding the sun, moon, and stars as devas; shining thus, in proof of their former good deeds. struction of the mounds themselves, and of all the remains found therein, are within the capabilities of the Red Indians of historic times, or of their immediate predecessors. One of the more elaborate the mound of Circleville-was certainly built after contact with the whites. PHILOLOGY NOTES. As readers of the ACADEMY know, Prof. Sayce ! has brought back with him from Egypt careful copies of a large number of Greek, Cypriote, and Phoenician inscriptions. The Greek inscriptions (one of which is at least as old as the famous inscription at Abu Simbel) will probably be published in the Journal of the Hellenic Society; the Cypriote ones in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology; while the Phoenician ones will be sent to Paris to appear in the next volume of M. Renan's Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum. MR. E. A. SONNENSCHEIN, Professor of Classics in the Mason College, Birmingham, is engaged upon an edition of the Mostellaria of Plautus. THE first part of the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology for 1884 contains a paper by the Rev. W. Houghton on "The Birds of the Assyrian Monuments," which has also been issued independently by Messrs. Harrison & Sons as a pamphlet of one hundred pages. Readers of the ACADEMY do not require to be told that Mr. Houghton combines, in a degree that has no parallel, the qualifications of philologer and naturalist. Even those to whom the cuneiform characters are naught cannot fail to be interested by the numerous illustrations which the society always lavishes upon its publications. Such a work is a credit to English scholarship, especially when it is borne in mind that the author is a country clergyman, without ready access to libraries. AT a recent meeting of the Académie des Inscriptions, M. Sénart read a paper upon the oldest of the religious edicts of Asoka, which is preserved in three rock inscriptions-at Sasseram, Rupnath, and Bairat. The text of it was first published in 1877, and has given rise to much controversy. M. Sénart agrees with Prof. Bahler that it is a genuine edict of Asoka, and that it embodies Buddhist ideas; but he also agrees with Prof. Oldenberg, in opposition to Prof. Bühler, that the numbers "256" represent, not a date reckoned from the death of Sakhya Muni, but the number of missionaries sent forth. The following is M. Sénart's version of the entire text: "Thus says the [king] dear to the devas. For two years and a half I was upasaka (lay Buddhist) and did not show great zeal; it is now a year since I have entered the saingha (monastic brotherhood). In that time the men who were the true gods of the Jambudvipa (i.e., the Brahmans) have been proved to be not true gods. Such has been the effect of my zeal, an effect that cannot be gained by power alone. The most lowly by showing zeal can win heaven, however high. That is the end which this teaching aims at-that all, lowly and great, should show zeal, that the heathen themselves should be taught [by my proclamations], and that this zeal should be lasting. So will be wrought a [religious] advance, a great advance, an Infinite advance. It is by missionaries that this teaching is done. Two hundred and fifty-six have gone forth as missionaries. Engrave these things apon the rocks; and where there are pillars of stone engrave them there also." THERE are at least two articles of interest in the April number of the Indian Antiquary, which has already reached us. One is by Mr. K. T. Telang on the date of Sankaracharya, the reformer of Southern India. The writer argues, in reply to Prof. Max Müller (who has adopted A.D. 788 in his India: What can it Teach us?), that a great body of evidence combines to give the latter half of the sixth century. In the burning of the Alexandrian library, and gives reasons for accepting the traditional theory THE Litterarisches Centralblatt of March 29 has a review of Mr. Wharton's Etyma Graeca. THE Philologische Rundschau of March 29 MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. In part vi. the Caryatid of the Erechtheum and the sculptured drum of a column from Ephesus rival each other in the beauty with which they are reproduced, not that as examples of sculpture they can compare for a moment. It so happens, however, that the artificial process of reproduction has lent ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY. (Thursday, March 20.) itself with more advantage to the inferior of DR. ZERFFI in the Chair.-Mr. C. J. Stone read a the two works-that is, to the Ephesian drum. paper on "Historical Suggestions in the Maha- For who can agree with M. Rayet that in bharata," in which he contended that the internal presence of it "one might forget that a cenevidence of the poem showed that it had beentury separates it from the frieze of the Parwritten before the development of Buddhism in thenon"? The difficulty is to understand India, under King Asoka, in the third century B.C., but that there were suggestions of archaic how a century could have sufficed to produce Buddhism in it. He asserted that, upon its testi- so marked a degradation. On the other hand, mony, we must recognise a very high and we do not share the difficulty he finds with elaborate civilisation to have been in existence regard to the plinths which supported the on the plains of the Upper Ganges and Jumna, in about the epoch of Pericles in Athens. He pro- sculptured columns in the temple of Diana duced quotations to show that, in architecture, (several large pieces of which may be seen in arts, arms, sciences, and in love of the beauties of the British Museum); they are sculptured nature as well as of art, a refined civilisation was like the lowest drums of the columns. If M. indicated. He also quoted passages in illustration Rayet had been acquainted with the Memoirs of philosophical and religious culture. He adduced the frequent mention of treatises on various in which Mr. Fergusson has proved this, he topics as testifying to a literary age; while even in would hardly have been so unfair as to ascribe theatricals, elaborate cookery, and potent drinks to his influence an objectionable notion of Mr. a civilisation akin to our own was suggested. Wood's. As to the subject sculptured on the drum here in question-the story of Alkestishe is right so far in giving to Prof. Robert the tion of it; at the same time, he will find in praise of having published an ample explanaRobert's notes an acknowledgment of the fact that this particular explanation had long been published and accepted in this country. But we turn gladly to the more genial atmosphere that surrounds the Caryatid of the Erechtheum, beautiful in the original marble, excellent as a reproduction, and treated of with a literary skill in which critical judgment and fine enthusiasm are evenly balanced, not altogether without a touch of that hostility to things as they are which M. Rayet has shown before on occasion. He does well to be warmed by his recollection of the porch of the Caryatides; and for the glowing language in which he recalls his impressions he may reckon on the delight of many, it is to be hoped, besides those who know the acropolis of Athens. ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE.-(Wednesday, SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES.—(Thursday, March 27.) A. W. FRANKS, ESQ., V.-P., in the Chair.-Mr. St. John Hope read a paper on the plan of the cathedral built at Rochester by Bishop Gundulf after he pulled down Ethelbert's church, which was too small and, besides, ruinous. The discovery of the foundations of walls in the undercroft has proved that the choir, which was of considerable length, had a square end, from which a rectangular chapel projected. A box of bones was found in the undercroft, perhaps the relics from some shrine.-There was also exhibited a bronze arm of Irish work, with an Irish inscription, dedicated to St. Lachtin. It has been engraved in Vetusta Monumenta. FINE ART. 19TH CENTURY ART SOCIETY, CONDUIT STREET GALLERIES.— The SPRING EXHIBITION NOW OPEN from 10 to 6 Dilly.-LAST WEEK FREEMAN and MARRIOTT, Sc.. GREAT SALE of PICTURES, at reduced prices (Engravings, Chromos, and Oleographs), handsomely framed. Everyone about to purchase pictures Part v. is perhaps the richest of the whole. series. That key-stone of archaic art, the Harpy tomb in the British Museum, is allowed four separate plates, and receives a very ample commentary from M. Rayet, his manner, usually trenchant enough when he sees cause, being here mitigated by a sense of admiration, which everyone will approve, for the author of a theory which he finds it necessary to combat. We refer to the theory of Prof. E. Curtius. So also in the commentary on the Demeter of Knidos it is pleasant to find a very genial acknowledgment of the position and authority of Prof. Brunn. We mention these things specially because sometimes it would seem as if M. Rayet were urged by national antipathy in his remarks. One of the most successful of M. Rayet's reproductions from the British Museum is that of the large bronze head of Aphrodite, as he quite rightly, we think, insists on calling her. That it is a work of the school of Praxiteles may be accepted for the present. In his undertaking M. Rayet has obtained valuable assistance from MM. Collignon and Martha. In part v. M. Collignon states fairly and clearly the whole case as regards the bronze satyr from Patras now in the British Museum, with its claim to be copied from a work of Myron; while, again, in part vi. he describes with just appreciation the marble head of Zeus from Milo. M. Martha, in part vi., deals with the archaic stele in Naples and the statue of Augustus in the Vatican, treating both as satisfactorily as it is possible to treat them when detached, as they are here, from the general context of the history of sculpture. In M. Rayet's plan the various subjects reproduced and discussed follow each other in no historical order. Each stands alone and complete in itself. The whole work is, therefore, a large book of reference where students may find a considerable number of the principal ancient sculptures presented to him with so much artistic and literary skill that he may regard it as an invaluable possession. A. S. MURRAY. MEMLING'S ALTAR-PIECE AT LUEBECK. Hans Memlinc und dessen Altarschrein im Dom zu Lübeck. Von Dr. Theodor Gaedertz. (Leipzig: Engelmann.) THE polyptych or altar-piece with double wings which forms the subject of the present notice is preserved in the old cathedral of Lübeck, and is fairly well known in this country owing to the chromo-lithographic reproductions of it published by the Arundel Society. The chapel for which it was painted was formerly the chantry of the Greverade family, and was founded in 1493 by Adolphus and Henry Greverade, sons of a burgher and merchant of Lübeck. Adolphus was a priest, who, it appears, became a canon of the cathedral in 1497, but continued as before to reside chiefly at the University of Louvain. His brother Henry was a merchant, and lived partly at Bruges, partly at Lübeck. No document has as yet been found to prove the origin of the picture, which, when mentioned, is designated as de schone tafele, but it was probably a joint gift of the two brothers. Henry died suddenly in 1500 at Viterbo, and was buried at Rome; Adolphus at Louvain in 1501. The latter by his will endowed a chaplaincy which he had instituted at the altar of the family chantry under the title of the Holy Cross, Saints John the Baptist, Jerome, Blaise, and Giles. The altar-piece when open displays the entire history of the Passion of our Lord, the central panel being devoted to the dread scene enacted on Calvary, while the carriage of the cross and the entombment occupy the foreground on the inside of the inner wings, the other scenes being depicted in miniature in the landscape background. Full-length figures of the four saints above mentioned occupy the outer sides of these wings and the inside of the shutters, on the exterior of which is the Annunciation in monochrome. In size this is Memline's most important work; it is also his latest known production. Waagen said that it shows him in his great perfection," while Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle pronounce it to be a work "of marked inferiority." Having very carefully examined this altar-piece last June, I must say that the inner panels exhibit a marked decadence in feeling which at first made me doubt their being by Memlinc. His other works had led me to believe that he had escaped the pernicious influence of the Renaissance; but here, alas! it is only too apparent, for in close proximity to the most sacred scenes are introduced vulgar trivialities, such as the boy teasing a monkey seated behind a soldier on horseback on Calvary, or the dog and the frog in front of our Lord as he is carrying his cross thither. A detailed study of the whole has convinced me that there can be no doubt that the entire work is his composition, and I altogether disagree with Crowe and Cavalcaselle's strange remark reminiscences of Van der Weyden than any other that this double-winged triptych suggests more that Memlinc ever composed: the exact reverse would, I think, be nearer the truth. The execution, however, of the three principal panels is so unequal that I am inclined to think it was in part carried out by his pupils. Dr. Gaedertz' monograph-the only one, I believe, upon this altar-piece-will be most welcome to all lovers of the early Netherlandish pictures is accompanied by a plan showing the school. His carefully written description of the general arrangement of the subjects, and is preceded by a notice of the Greverade family. W. H. JAMES WEALE. THE SOCIETY OF BRITISH ARTISTS. THIS year the Society of British Artists gives us a better exhibition than it has sometimes done. Nobody expects the walls of five rooms to be covered with works of genius, but the proportion of fair things to bad is greater than it has often been. If the poetry of Mr. Woolmer is as sensational as heretofore, that of Mr. Edwin Ellis, in his painting, is somewhat less violent. Mr. Ellis's "In Fold" is, in short, an impressive picture. Mr. Leslie Thomson is a contributor of refined and artistic, if somewhat tentative, landscape work, and Mr. G. S. Walters realises more, but in ways that many may account less modern. Mr. Wyke Bayliss sends at least one drawing in his freer and better manner. This is an interior in the cathedral of Rouen, and is a beautiful study of the richest Gothic architecture under an effect of potent light. Mr. Bayliss is an artist in whom we have not hesitated to remark certain faults or deficiencies that mar the triumph of his labour; but it is desirable to recognise that as a pictorial student of Gothic architecture he stands somewhat alone as the successor of Roberts and Prout, and he has indeed, both in his aims and in his achievements, characteristics which we can discover in the works of neither of these earlier masters. At the Society of British Artists he is, however, represented less liberally than is usual, much of his most recent work having gone with his earlier to the show that is only just closing at the Messrs. Dowdeswells'. It recalls a little too closely the methods of M. Bastien Lepage, not to speak of those of that extremely promising young English painter, Mr. Clausen. The simplicity of the peasantwho has likewise a measure of sturdiness-is, of course, a relief after the too numerous idealisations of rustic and pastoral life with which the galleries were flooded when these things were in the taste of a past generation. But in the country-outside the art of M. Bastien Lepage it is not true that "a common grayness silvers everything; so that about the scheme of colour and tone which Mr. Brown has adopted there is a measure of conventionality. Now Mr. John Burr's "Politician" is a study of a single figure of unquestioned reality. As has fr quently been the case with a Scotchman's work, from the days of Wilkie to those of Erskine Nicol, it aims at the presentation of a shrewd humour; but the humour is well removed from the region of caricature, and the study of character is as true as it is entertaining. Mr. Ludovici's pictures are generally among the Valse" is a bold enough grappling with the features of the gallery. His "Invitation to the prosaic incident of an evening party at a house where most people would seem to be pretentious, and few would seem to be attractive; but, in his "Fantasia in White," the note of refinement is no longer lacking. Some elegance of form and some grace of design conferinterest upon a canvas from which the fascination of glowing hues has been avowedly withheld. THE DENT PRINT SALE. THE sale of the large and, in some respects, very important cabinet of prints amassed by the late Mr. St. John Dent began at Sotheby's on Friday last, and has continued all the week. It has been attended throughout its course by a fair number of connoisseurs-both private collectors and English and foreign dealers. More than eleven hundred lots have been comprised in the sale. The interest of the occasion has greatly varied with the different days. Saturday has been the great day. Then were sold some of the rarest of the Italian prints for which the collection has been renowned. Chief of these was Botticelli's original engraving, “The Assumption of the Virgin," which is not only of extraordinary scarcity, but which was, in the present instance of it, of excellent condition. The great print was, indeed, intact, and rich and brilliant in impression. Very few impressions are known of it, though it does fortunately happen to be possessed by the greater public museums. That is to say, it is not absent from the cabinets of the British Museum, of the Paris Bibliothèque nationale, and of the Berlin Museum. An impression, also, that was in the Durazzo Collection was sold from that cabinet at Stuttgart into that of one of the Rothschilds of Paris eight years ago. The price was then about £420. But, last week, that price has been-as was, indeed, anticipated-much surpassed. The best pictures in Suffolk Street are generally to be found among the figure pieces. M. Thibaudeau and M. Clément Of these perhaps only Mr. Arthur Hill's were on Saturday the competing bidders, and subtly wrought "Shell" combines a reasonable it is now hardly concealed that they were share of idealisation with a large measure of acting respectively for two of the most eminent realistic study. It is beautiful, and even of European collectors-Mr. Malcolm of Poldistinguished, in colour and in line. Mr. talloch and M. Dutuit. The prize fell to M. Gordon's "Lauretta and "Fair Florist are Thibaudeau's bid of £860. As a composition it less refined, though it may be-to a large is remarked that the work differs extremely public-more immediately impressive work. from that painted picture by the same master The "Haymaker," by Mr. Fred Brown, is the -Sandro Botticelli-which passed from the contribution of an artist whose picture of Hamilton Collection into our own National girls dancing at a London street corner to the Gallery. A print which had been a good deal tunes of an American organ was much and counted on by those who placed implicit reliance justly commended by unprejudiced observers on the Catalogue or on the judgment of Mr. at the last Royal Academy. It was an un- Dent was received as a disappointment. It had wonted exhibition of healthy and vigorous been announced as an early impression of a art. Now, we do not say that his maker" is less healthy, but we say that it is only £1 12s. Doubtless fifty times as much Hay- work by Gian Antonio da Brescia. It fetched more derived, if not precisely more imitative. had been expected for it. Among the other duration. and more notable Italian prints was the beau-founders seem to have erected for an endless tiful "Music Party " by Domenico Campagnola, which owes much to the master with whom its Mariette covered up again several of the name is associated, and something probably to monuments which he had found, in order to the genius of Giorgione. The impression in preserve them from the destructive effect of Mr. St. John Dent's cabinet was bought for rain. Mr. Petrie has already come across one of £42 by M. Danlos, the Parisian dealer. them-the inscription of Tirhakah; he will no On Monday the Dürers-a very fine collec- doubt find the famous tablet of the year 400, tion indeed were parted with, but, though they of which we know only the upper half. It comprised many things of intellectual interest, would be most desirable to have the end of this celli we have mentioned above. Since then the observes, Sân is remarkable for the great there was no rarity of the nature of the Botti- important inscription. As Mr. Petrie rightly Rembrandts have been sold. The mention of amount of substitution, appropriation, and them brings us to one of the weak points in the regal thieving that went on in its temple. collection, which has indeed elsewhere been de- There are some statues where four kings have scribed, not unjustly, as of a somewhat old- inscribed their names without taking the trouble fashioned though of a rich kind. For in his to erase those of their predecessors. It is Rembrandts, for example, Mr. St. John Dent very likely that the first in date of the usurpers was notably deficient. He appears to have were the Hyksos. After having been at Sân, and revelled in those sacred subjects which-with a looked at the monuments on the spot, it is hardly few exceptions-can hardly be deemed worthy possible to doubt that the so-called Hyksos to be the prime favourites of the collector of monuments are much older than the foreign to-day. He had almost no Rembrandt por-invaders, and must be attributed to the XIIIth traits except a short series of Rembrandt's por- or even to the XIIth Dynasty. On the other traits of himself from youth to mature age. Of hand, the inscription of Pepi of the VIth course these are interesting. They include one or Dynasty is certainly a restoration of later date. two of the master's finer works; but not to have It is possible that there was a small sanctuary at the elder Haaring, the Lutma in the first state, Tanis at this early epoch, but the real founders and the Clément de Jonghe in the first state is of Tanis must have been the Amenemhas and indeed to abandon the pretension of possessing Userteseus, whom Manetho calls Diospolites, a Rembrandt collection of extraordinary interest Thebans (XIIth Dynasty). We do not know from the point of view of its completeness. the end of the XIIIth Dynasty, which followed. Moreover, Rembrandt's landscape art was It disappears in the great gap of the Hyksos represented only by one great print, The period, which the excavations at Sân may - Three Trees." Where, one may ask, was the possibly help to fill up. "Cottage with White Palings," the "Cottage and Dutch Hay-Barn," and " Rembrandt's Mill," not to speak of yet greater rarities? A weak point in the St. John Dent Collection-we speak always with reference to its admitted fame-was the absence of governing taste in the selection of the examples of some of the greatest masters. Though the curious choice among the etchings of Rembrandt affords the most conspicuous instance of this, the same thing is noticeable with the Hollars, and even with the Lukas van Leydens to some extent. Again, of the earlier English masters of line-engraving there was a most inadequate representation, and no attempt was made to represent at all the later masters. This last omission, however, one can understand. It is difficult for the largest collection to be all-comprehensive. But the singular deficiencies in the representation of the masters of old standing have at least to be borne in mind if we would think of this collection with impartiality. It is true that Mr. St. John Dent appears to have moved upon somewhat old-fashioned lines. Still, there are points in which his collection will remain memorable. EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND. THE EXCAVATIONS AT SAN. MR. FLINDERS PETRIE is now actively engaged in excavating the immense field of ruins at Sân. Owing to his energy and to the practice in managing Arabs which he got at the Pyramids, he has overcome in a remarkably short time the great material difficulties of settling in the most dreary and desolate place in Egypt, and of gathering a sufficient number of workmen in a marshy desert far away from any place of importance. We may now hope for a rich harvest of inscriptions. The monuents will very likely be in a bad condition. There is no place in Egypt where destruction has been so complete and so unmerciful as at Sân. It is difficult to conceive the amount of time and labour that has been spent on breaking to pieces an edifice made of enormous blocks of red granite which its The monuments referring to those dynasties will be specially interesting. A small fragment with a name is sometimes of greater value than a fine statue. In this respect Mr. Petrie has already made an interesting discovery. It is a fragment of a statue belonging to the XIIIth Dynasty, the inscription of which records that the royal son Nehsi (the Negro) erected a monument to Set, the lord of Roahu. Set or Baal is well known as the god of the AegyptoSemitic population of the Delta. Roahu is the name of a region; it means the opening, the entrance, of the cultivated fields. It seems to indicate that at that time Tanis was a borderland, and that the cultivation did not extend farther. As for the royal son, the Negro, we must consider the words "royal son as a mere title. The name Nehsi has the determinative of foreigners, and it is curious that a Negro should so early have attained such a high dignity. EDOUARD NAVILLE. NOTES ON ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY. WE are glad to hear that a memorial is being signed, addressed to Mr. Gladstone, praying that, if the Blenheim collection of pictures be sold, money may not be wanting to secure at least the masterpieces for the National Gallery. THE article on "The State of Art in France," to which the place of honour is given in Blackwood's this month, and which has at least as much to do with politics as with art, is written by Mr. J. Beavington Atkinson. THE Council of the Hellenic Society voted £50 last week towards the expenses of Mr. W. M. Ramsay's archaeological exploration in Asia Minor. The Geographical Society had previously granted £100, and another £100 has been raised by private subscription. MR. AUSTIN DOBSON has in preparation a volume on Thomas Bewick and his Pupils, which will be abundantly illustrated. MR. JOHN ASHTON, coming down in his history of English satire to more recent times, has nearly ready a work on English Caricatures on Napoleon I. It will be in two volumes, with more than one hundred illustrations from the originals. WE understand that the valuable series of royal amulets catalogued in Mr. Loftie's Essay of Scarabs will be put up to auction en bloc during the coming season. It would be deplorable if this fine collection (as important to students of Egyptian archaeology as is a collection of coins and medals to students of into the hands of a foreign buyer. Is it quite classical history and art) should be allowed, like so much else that is old and precious, to pass idle to hope that it may be purchased by one of the universities ? A COLLECTION of choice prints, consisting principally of examples lent by Mr. Tuer to the recent Bartolozzi Exhibition, will be sold shortly by Messrs. Christie. ACCORDING to the last issue of the Chronique des Arts, the Maspero Fund in Paris amounts to 20,000 frs. (£800). Oddly enough, the French are enquiring to what purposes the money thus subscribed will be applied-a question they might answer for themselves by carefully reading Prof. Maspero's own letter, and by comparing it with his interesting statement read before the Académie des Inscriptions on September 7 of last year, and afterwards published in the October number of the Revue archéologique. OUR Paris correspondent writes: "Last week a dinner was given to M. Th. Ribot by a group of critics, painters, and amateurs of good painting. M. Bardoux, a former Minister, sketched the modest life of the artist; M. Kaempfen, Director of Fine Arts, spoke of his originality and talent; and M. Fourcaud, the distinguished critic, congratulated him on his independence and on his fidelity to the principles he has made his own. M. Th. Ribot replied: Je bois à l'art, puis à l'art que j'aime, à l'art de nos maîtres-Millet, Corot, Daubigny, Courbet et Manet.' A medal is to be struck in commemoration of the banquet, in which all the painters and critics attached to the new school took part." THE Société internationale de Peintres et Sculpteurs opened its second exhibition at Paris on Tuesday, April 1. THE Société de l'Art ancien en Belgique has been established for the purpose of reproducing, by chromo-lithography and the different phototypic processes, works of art either of Belgian origin or actually in Belgian museums or collections. The first issue for the year 1883-84 consists of seven plates of folio size, accompanied by a brief descriptive text. The phototypes executed at Dresden are excellent of their kind. The objects reproduced are the wellknown ivory plaque of the end of the ninth century on the Book of Gospels at Tongres; another, almost as fine, belonging to the cathedral of Liége, which represents the three miraculous restorations to life wrought by our Saviour and summed up by St. Augustine as "mors in domo, mors in porta et mors in sepulchro; a fine silver statuette of St. Blaise at the cathedral of Namur; and a ewer and basin of the sixteenth century. Two of the chromo-lithographs reproduce two very remarkable embroidered girdle-purses of the fourteenth and fifteenth century, preserved in the church of Tongres; another, a selection of nineteen specimens of jewellery, brooches, rings, and pins of the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries found in the Frankish tombs in the province of Namur, and now forming part of the admirably arranged collection in the museum of Namur. If this new society continues as it has begun-and the names of those who form its council are as good a guarantee as one could wish for—it will be of great service to archaeologists. We see that the number of copies printed will be strictly limited to 300. THE STAGE. WE regret very much to record the death of the distinguished actress known as Miss Marie Litton. It occurred this week at her house at 66 Brompton. Miss Litton was hardly yet middleaged. She was almost a young woman, and had been known on the stage for only about fifteen years. Miss Litton played modern comedy with brightness and distinction. Her sense of humour and satire was keen; the delicacy of her perceptions found its reflection in the refinement of her method. In many of the creations of modern comedy at the Court, in Sloane Square, her utility and charm were recognised, and at length-during a brief management of the Imperial Theatre, by the Westminster Aquarium-it not only pleased, but caused a delighted surprise. That was by her performance of Rosalind, which was repeated very many nights. The whole revival was undoubtedly done with intelligence, but it was the Rosalind that drew. Little support was afforded by scenery which had been arranged on the supposition that the performance could not endure for a fortnight. There were some other good players, but no stars." But the Rosalind was a distinct and legitimate success. That was about four or five years ago. It is lamentable that somehow or other, Miss Litton did not do very much afterwards. She went, of course, into the provinces-whither an actor goes when as yet he has not succeeded, and whither he goes again when he has succeeded very much. From time to time, however, Miss Litton was seen in London, the most favourable occasions being those revivals of old comedy which were undertaken at the Gaiety to display her art. We saw her there with great pleasure as Peggy in "The Country Girl"-that is, in Garrick's very harmless adaptation of a piece which co uld not be suffered in the condition in which it left the hands of the elder dramatist. Miss Litton played then with equal spirit and discretion. Her Peggy was really simple and really piquante. Later, the lady fell into illhealth, and it seemed that her chance was over. In private life she was greatly liked, nor can there be any question that we have lost an actress of very penetrating intelligence and of some personal charm. MUSIC. RECENT CONCERTS. THE Henry Leslie Choir gave their first concert this season at St. James's Hall last Thursday week. The chief feature of the programme was Spohr's Mass in C (for two five-part choirs and five solo voices). It was written about sixty years ago, and performed under the composer's direction at Cassel in 1827. There is no record of any subsequent performance of the work. Spohr speaks about the difficulties of the music, which form no obstacle to choirs of the present day; the rehearsals, indeed, he says, 66 taught me to avoid too great abundance of modulations," but the lesson learnt must have been soon forgotten, for the composer never departed from the "chromatic" way. The music is melodious and interesting, and the part and fugal writing smooth and skilful; while the two choirs alternate and blend in a very effective manner. If not a composition of marked originality, it is, at any rate, free from dryness, and we find throughout it a spirit of great earnestness. The Mass was admirably sung under Mr. Randegger's direction; it had evidently been carefully rehearsed, and the few bass notes struck on the pianoforte to sustain the choir had a disagreeable effect, and might, we think, easily have been dispensed with. The solo vocalists were Miss W. Payne, Mrs. I. Ware, Miss J. Russell, and Messrs. Guy and Lucas Williams. The programme included madrigals, part-songs (including a new one MACMILLAN Now ready, with Two Portraits, 2 vols., Demy 8vo, & Edited by his Son, FREDERICK MAURICE "The book is quite a unique piece of biography. DR. MORITZ BUSCH'S NEW WORK ON Monday at the Popular Concerts. On Saturday of exceptional interest. First came Beethoven's Sonata. In the first movement the pianist did not seem quite at her ease; but the rest of CHANCELLOR. SKETCHES FOR A HISTORICAL PICTURE Kingston has most admirably clothed the Doctor's book A NEW AMERICAN NOVEL." BETHESDA. By BARBARA ELBON. 3 vols., Crown 8vo, 31s. 6d. Now ready, Part II., SPECIAL PATHOLOGICAL TEXT-BOOKS FOR STUDENTS.-New Volumes. ANATOMY, Secs. I.-VIII., 12s. 6d. TEXT-BOOK of PATHOLOGICAL -ANATOMY and PATHOGENESIS. By Professor ERNST ZIEGLER, of Tübingen. Trans lated and Edited for English Students by DONALD MACALISTER, M.A., M.B., B.Sc. F.R.C.P., Fellow and Medical Lecturer of 8. John's College, Cambridge. With numeroa Illustrations. 8vo. Part I. GENERAL PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY. 12.6L Now ready, Vol. III., Part II., Profs. ROSCOE > SCHORLEMMER'S TREATISE on CHEMISTRY. A TREATISE on CHEMISTRY. By H. E. ROSCOE, F.R.S., and C. SCHORLEMMER Non-Metallic Elements. 21s.-VoI. II., Part I. Metals Vols. I. and II. INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. Vol. I. The Vol. III. ÓRGANIC CHEMISTRY. 2 parts, 21s. each. MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. BOOK IV. of the MEDITATIONS. A Revisel APRIL. Price 18. CONTENTS OF THE NUMBER. HISTORIC LONDON. By FREDERIC HARRISON. A VOYAGE to AUSTRALIA for HEALTH. BRITISH BUTTERCUPS. one of the musical lights of the age; and this A SOCIAL STUDY of OUR OLDEST COLONY.-II CHARLES I. REVIEW of the MONTH. Price SIXPENCE; by post, EIGHTPENCE. THE ENGLISH CONTENTS FOR APRIL. 1. THE LIZARD LIGHTS by NIGHT. From a 2. 3. CHA N UNSENTIMENTAL JOURNEY through A CORNWALLEN be continued. By the AUTHOR of "JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN.' With Illus Beethoven's "Missa Solennis "in D was given last Wednesday evening by the Royal Albert Hall Choral Society. For a long time Mr. Barnby has been preparing for this perform-ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE. ance, and the choir certainly did justice to themselves and to their excellent conductor. Beethoven's colossal work has been given several times in London within the last two or three years, but never before with such an imposing chorus. They attacked the tremendous difficulties bravely; and, if they did not completely conquer them, the composer is alone to blame for writing with such total disregard of the capabilities of the human voice. The solo singers were Miss Anna Williams, Mdme. Patey, and Messrs. Lloyd and F. King; and Dr. Stainer presided at the organ. A. Sullivan's "In Memoriam " and the Dead March in "Saul" were performed as an ex- HOW I BECAME a WAR CORRESPONDENT. pression of sympathy with the recent great 9. THE ARMO be continued.) By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. loss sustained by the Queen. There was a large audience. HE BELFRY of BRUGES. BY ROSE G. KINGS- TH A HERALD of SPRING: a Poem. By WALTER PAUL VARGAS: a Mystery. By HUGH CONWAY. YGONES: a Poem. By H. A. H. BY |