prevented us from quoting any stronger example to justify our criticism, although we could easily have done so from the pages before us. The author, after describing a scene in which a married woman, supposed to be a lady, has kissed her unlawful lover, very unnecessarily proceeds to observe, with what is probably intended to be archness, but is simply vulgarity, "We grieve to have to write it, but married women do sometimes, in the absence of their lords, bestow a chaste salute on other men. We don't know why-except it can be a kind of yearning for sympathy." Seeing that the book has these faults, we are quite glad to be able to certify that it is in other respects unreadable. The story is disconnected, and the characters wearisome. One of the chief personages, Lady George Fitzreine, who is supposed to be a fascinating and aristocratic young widow, is the most revoltingly vulgar woman we have ever met with; and the heroine, Madeleine Fenacre, is as tame as the other is gushing. As to the incidents of the tale, they are hardly worth mentioning. There is, certainly, a murder at the beginning of the book, but as the reader was not previously introduced to the victim, and knows at the time who committed the crime, and takes no interest whatever in the murderer, he feels no anxiety as to whether the murder will be discovered or not. In fact, when the culprit is brought to justice at the end of the novel, we had quite forgotten all about the crime at the beginning. The only other noticeable event in the story is an elopement, and the author characteristically renders this as disagreeable as possible, by refusing to allow the couple to marry for some considerable time after. 'Against Time' is a really interesting novel, free from cant, verbiage, or undue sensationthe work of a man endowed with a clear and fortile fancy, who can describe the scenes and people of the present day without depressing the reader with the sense of their vulgarity. He is modern, but not mean, and imaginative without being maudlin. Equally at home in the City and on the Highland hills, he gives a vivid and enthusiastic, yet truthful, description of both. He can make a joint-stock company interesting, and draw fine distinctions of commercial character. He describes the Highlands as they are, with an eye to the glories of Nature and an appreciation of the pleasures of man; yet on neither topic does he dwell ad nauseam. Above all, he avoids tle standing error of the cockney, and does not make his Celtic friends talk Scotch. A brief notice of the plot will suffice. The hero, Hugh Childersleigh, who has waited many years for the demise of a wealthy and capricious aunt, finds his succession to her property hampered by an unusual condition. The wealth of the deceased lady is left in trust for him, on condition that in three years' time he shall have become possessed of an equal sum, as the result of his own exertions. Failing this contingency, the trustees are to deal with it according to the terms of a scaled paper, to be opened at the expiration of the three years. Thus, Hugh's life resolves itself into a match "against time." Very gallantly he plays it; and, by the aid of the "Crédit Foncier and Mobilier of Turkey (Limited)," has very nearly won the up-hill fight, when but we will not anticipate the reader. The characters are all excellent, and many original. Hooker, the staid in-door servant, with something of Littimer about him, but a more human, as well as more ingenious, villain,-Hemprigge, his rascally son, the evil genius of the Crédit Foncier,-and Purkiss Childersleigh, who has the avarice without the talent of the others, make a telling contrast with the hearty, worldly Hugh, the finer-spirited George Childersleigh, the kindly cynic Rushbrook, gentle Lucy Winter, and the piquant, warm-tempered Maude. There is nothing obtrusive in the morality of the story, but there is rare skill displayed in the manner in which the better characters improve under the friction of events. Hugh, insouciant and purposeless at first, grasping and unscrupulous afterwards, ends with a deed of chivalrous honour, and a new life of unworldly happiness. George, honest but commonplace at first, dies a hero-almost a martyr. The women gain after their kind, the one in strength, the other in softness of character; and the fribble Barrington is won to paths of manliness. For this healthy variation from the tone of most works of fiction we cannot feel too grateful; while those who have a sense of humour will find many merits of a minor sort. The inimitable struggle in the breast of old Maclachlan between the welfare of the lady and the setter-puppies, and the speeches at the Board-meetings of the Company, may be specially noticed. On the whole, we are much obliged to Mr. Shand. May we mention our sorrow that he should find church-bells melancholy, and our impression that "rouse" is not a neuter, nor "descend" a transitive verb? A new novel by the author of "The Romance of War' is always welcome. The present work may be taken as a good specimen of Mr. James Grant's romances. There is as usual the mixture of war, love, and adventure that one expects as of right; and when we have said that there is no falling off in the supply in the present instance, and that 'Lady Wedderburn's Wish' is up to the average, we may be said to have practically completed our review; for what novel-reader does not from this at once understand the kind of novel presented for his perusal? The subject chosen, that of the Crimean War, is one adapted for a display of the writer's peculiar power. The description of the battles and the life in the trenches are given with vigour. Mr. Grant clings to the old-fashioned style of letting the reader understand at the beginning of his tale who are to be the villains, and who the heroes; just as in the olden times the list of dramatis personce fairly put playgoers into possession of a rough knowledge of the respective parts that the several characters were to perform in the coming play. Not that Mr. Grant simply labels his important personages with a succinct statement of their natures, but he indirectly, and quite as unmistakably, does this by a little circumlocution. Thus, when we are told of a certain Ralph Rooke Chester, of Chesterhaugh, that "there was a perpetual sinister and watchful expression in his pale grey eyes, and usually a compression about his thin, cruel lips, the secret workings of which his sandy moustache, luckily for himself, concealed," we understand, as clearly as can be, that this same Mr. Chester will turn out to be a most unmitigated scoundrel; and we are not mistaken. There is something to be said both for and against this practice,-perhaps the chief objection being that it is not artistic; but then, as even Mr. Grant's greatest admirers will own, his excellence does not lie in the power of analyzing and depicting the shades and differences of human nature, but in describing deeds of war and love, and a narrative full of incident and "go." If we do not seek in the author's present work qualities which he does not possess, and to which, in fact, he makes no pretence, but only inquire whether the usual good qualities are present, we shall be able to give ourselves an answer in the affirmative. There is no falling off; but we are forced to acknowledge that the chief incidents, well told though they be, are certainly deficient in originality. When we state that the hero is wounded and tended in an hospital in the East by the heroine, who has volunteered to act as a nurse in the war, that the villain obtains a commission in the Turkish Contingent, and that the gentleman who occupies the important post of second hero is taken prisoner by the Russians, with his lady love, we are merely mentioning episodes which have occurred with singular regularity in every novel founded on the Crimean War that we have yet had the pleasure--or pain-of reading. We are disappointed in this; and yet we ought scarcely to have expected anything else. Fertile as the author is in inventing startling occurrences for his stories, still the Crimean War has been already so overdone that it has become absolutely impossible to make any new invention concerning it which will bear even the remotest resemblance to probability. That Mr. Grant should fail conclusively proves this, and that he has failed we think all the readers of the present tale will acknowledge. However, 'Lady Wedderburn's Wish' is a readable novel, and is sure of a large circulation without any recommendation from us. 'Among Strangers' is written in the form of an autobiography, and the editor assures us that the story contained in it is founded on fact. This story is simple and unpretentious, but is told in so fresh and graceful a manner as to render it most acceptable. The facts of the story are these: The heroine, Constance Edwardes, is an orphan, living in Wales, with her uncle, the Rev. Horace Fraser, and his daughter Margaret. A very handsome young man, by name George Richards, makes his appearance suddenly in the quiet village where they reside, and pays so many attentions, and speaks in such endearing terms to Constance when they are alone, as to lead her to believe that he is as much in love with her as she is with him. She is rudely awakened from this happy frame of mind by discovering one day that he has that morning proposed to, and been accepted by her cousin Margaret. The inconstant one then takes an opportunity of disgusting Constance by telling her that it is she whom he really loves, but that circumstances have prevented him from proposing to her. Constance behaves like a heroine in every respect, and a few weeks after her lover's marriage, falls ill with a fever, from which she recovers, but with the loss of her great beauty; and after some time she marries an old admirer, and, as we are led to believe from the author's preface, she finds in that marriage every happiness and comfort. The only other circumstance connected with the story necessary to be recorded is the discovery after the death of the Rev. H. Fraser that he had married, early in life, a Scotch peasant girl, by whom he had a son, and being ashamed of the connexion, had married Margaret's mother during his first wife's lifetime, and that consequently Margaret is illegitimate. As this embarrassing discovery, however, is only known to Constance and to the son, it is of no great consequence. It will thus be seen that the story is of the simplest kind; but the book possesses a charm rarely to be met with. Naturally and pleasingly written, it should find a place in many a home circle. OUR LIBRARY TABLE. Paris in December 1851, or the Coup d'Etat of Napoléon III. By Eugène Ténot. Translated from the Thirteenth French Edition, by S. W. Adams and H. Brandon. (Low & Co.) speare's Comedy of A Midsummer-Night's Dream, by the Rev. J. Hunter, M.A. (Longmans),- The Three Cæsars: a Satire, by Timon (Smart & Allen), Lyrical Poems and Thoughts in Rhyme, by J. T. Chapman (Simpkin),-Centenary Edition of Waverley Novels, Vol. 10, The Monastery (Black),Edward's Wife, by E. Marshall (Seeley), -Christus Consolator, by A. M'Leod, D.D. (Hodder & Stoughton),-Granny's Chapters, by Lady Mary Ross (Bush),-The Prophetic Spirit in its relation to Wisdom and Madness, by the Rev. A. Clissold, Beth and Amy, by L. M. Alcott (Low), and M.A. (Longmans),-Little Women; or, Meg, Jo, Patents for Inventions, Abridgments of Specifications relating to Books, Portfolios, Card-Cases, &c. A.D. 1768-1866 (Eyre & Spottiswoode). LIST OF NEW BOOKS. Theology. Birth and Childhood of Jesus Christ, &c., 12 Photographs, 12/6 Brahmo Somaj (The), Lectures by Keshub Chunder Sen, 5/ cl. Heywood's Common Law and Equity Practice of County Penfold on Rating, by Kershaw and Marshall, 8vo. 10/6 cl. Byron's Poetical Works, by Rossetti, Library Edition, 7/6 cl. Webster's Records of Queen's Own Staffordshire Regiments of Yeomanry, 8vo. 7/6 cl. Geography. Murray's Handbook for Shropshire, Cheshire, &c., 10/ roan. Stanford's Plan of the Fortifications of Paris, 5/ sheet. THE American translators of this book, dating their preface in January 1870, though some of the information they give in the body of the work is carried down to a much later time, remark that the present seems an opportune moment for publishing the true history of the Coup d'Etat. We may reasonably infer that the publication of the book in America has preceded the events which give it its real significance. The throne has fallen which was reared in the night of the 2nd of December, and was cemented with the blood of those slain in the streets of Paris on the 4th. It is true that this sudden collapse ought not to affect our judgment, and we ought to treat the captive of Wilhelmshöhe as we should have treated the master of France. But to the mass, which "sequitur Fortunam ut semper, et odit damnatos," the facts in this book will wear a very different aspect now, from that which they would have presented six months ago. M. Ténot gives us a detailed history of the course of events from November, 1851, to the day of the coup d'état, making use to a great extent of official documents, and carefully abstaining from comment. Readers can hardly fail to be struck with his impartiality, though they may find him rather dry and matter-of-fact for one dealing Myers's Diseases of the Heart among Soldiers, 8vo. 4/ cl. with such a subject. When we come to the massacre, of course M. Ténot cannot satisfy us so completely. The evidence as to the number of killed and wounded, as to the way in which the troops fired on an unoffending crowd, necessarily bears an appearance of partisanship. On the one hand, the adherents of the Government magnify the provocation received by the soldiers, and diminish the losses of the citizens; while on the other, the citizens have fearful stories of systematic butchery. M. Ténot does not seem to us to exaggerate anything, and we think, on the whole, he is a safe guide. The translators accompany the narrative with copious notes, many of which will be indispensable to English as well as American readers; but the language of the translation is sometimes absurdly literal. Die Reform der preussischen Verfassung. (Nutt.) WE have here a series of thoughtful and able chapters which must be of much practical importance to Prussian statesmen, and which also contain some useful suggestions for politicians in general. The author goes carefully through the various branches of public life, from the broad principles of constitutional liberty to the details of government, and applies the test of experience to all former theories. It is evident that he has studied the workings of the English constitution with thoroughness and insight, but he is not a blind adherent of any single system. His work would be more useful to foreigners if it contained more information about the present state of the Prussian constitution, but this is hardly needed by those for whom he writes. WE have on our table A French Course, in Ten Lessons, by J. Noirit, Part I. (Trübner),-Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England (Murray), On the Aymara Indians of Bolivia and Peru, by D. Forbes (Taylor & Francis),-University College, London, Calendar, 1870 (Walton),-Shak Science. Agassiz & Hartt's Scientific Results of a Journey in Brazil, 21/ General Literature. Adams's Men at the Helm, new edit. 12mo. 3/ cl. Amusing The Picture-Book of Rhymes and Stories, 4to. 2/6 Edgar's Boy Crusaders, new edit. 12mo. 3/ cl. Howitt's Treasury of Old Favourite Tales, 12mo. 12 6 cl. Sauer's Spanish Conversation Grammar, cr. 8vo. 5/ cl. Shaw's Rev. G.) Gems and Pearls, Choice Readings, 12mo. 26 THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES. A CORRESPONDENT, signing himself "Another F.S.A.," sends us the following doleful description of the meetings of the Society of Antiquaries :- "I am a Fellow of the Society of old standing, resident in London, and I sometimes, though now only at rare intervals, attend the evening meetings. These gatherings appear to me to be pretentious, yet very dull, and but little edifying. On the last few occasions when I have been present, I think the attendance has ranged from about a dozen to a score members only. Long papers have been read, of a nature admirably fitted to send the listeners to sleep, most of whom have probably just hurriedly dined, in order to attend at the much too early hour fixed for the meeting. Although, as a matter of rule, discussion is invited afterwards, there is practically little or no time left for it, and any unusual liveliness or inclination to prolong debate generally subjects the adventurous "fellow" to snubbing of both active and passive character, in the shape of short and sharp "setting down" from the chair, and unpleasant looks from somnolent habitués, who, the voice of the reader of the paper comes to an having just awoke when the soothing cadence of end, are eager for tea and coffee in the ante-room. As regards black-balling, it is evident that the power of ostracism at the Antiquaries is in the hands of any small "clique" which may be formed amongst the limited circle of habitual attendants. If the indiscriminate black-balling of which your Correspondent complains goes on during the forthcoming session, would it not be wise to transfer the power of election from the Society at large to the Council of the institution?" BUNYAN'S 'PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.' Maidenhead, Sept. 23, 1870. SOME Correspondents of mine have doubted the correctness of my position, that rare books, tracts and broadsides may still be met with in country towns, if people will but take the trouble to look for them. I was walking in Northampton not very long ago, and took notice of some very nice clean, tidy children, who were playing near a cottage-door. I spoke to the woman of the house, who was at needle-work, and observed hanging on the wall, in neat black frames, some very coarse and tawdry coloured engravings, such as pedlars ordinarily carry about, and succeed in persuading the ignorant that they are fine works of art. One, however, was different from the rest, and seemed merely a rather worn impression of a copper-plate, thus headed: "A Complete View of Christian's Travels from the City of Destruction to the Holy Land." Of course, I saw instantly that it was founded upon Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress,' but having never heard of the existence of such a plate, desired to look at it more closely, and the woman very civilly took it down from its nail, and, after dusting it, placed it in my hands. At the bottom of the plate I read these words: "Published as the Act directs, June 24, 1775, for Edward Johnston, J. Rivington, B. Law, W. Strahan, Hawes & Co., H. Woodfall and R. Baldwin." I was allowed to take it out of the black frame, and I found it to be a broadside of about 20 inches long by 12 broad, with nothing printed at the back of it. It may have been very common formerly, but I had never heard of it, and I do not find it mentioned in any list of books or prints to which I have been able to resort. I gave the woman an excellent price for it (it had belonged to her grandfather); so that, if it turned out worth nothing, I misspent my money. Until informed to the contrary, I shall hold it to be a curiosity in its way; and I only mention it here to prove by another instance that matters of the kind are sometimes still to be found in country places. There is a good deal of engraved verse on different parts of the sheet, in explanation of the pictorial representations; the last being a view of Beulah, "beyond the river," with these lines under it : Now, now, look how the holy Pilgrims ride! Clouds are their Chariots, Angels are their guide. Who would not here for him all hazards run, That thus provides for his when this world's done? May I venture to solicit information on this subject (as it is out of my usual course of inquiry), without incurring the penalty of an accusation of ignorance and incompetence, which followed me on the single previous occasion when I asked for information of the kind. My answerer was then entirely wrong, and the woodcut to which I referred turns out to be a most valuable and unique relic of the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century. J. PAYNE COLLIER. GERMANY AND THE WAR. Leipzig, Oct. 3, 1870. I MUST not in your columns dwell on politics, or give expression to my own political sentiments; let me only say that the joy of Germany at coming into her own again is all but universal, to judge from the flags and songs which greeted the news of the capitulation of Strasburg. Lipperheide has issued the fifth instalment of his collection of war songs. There is one among them which will interest your readers for the sake of its author, Berthold Auerbach, if not for the superior quality of the poetry. The song is intended for the German soldiers in Alsace, and dated Lampertheim, before Strasburg, August 20th, 1870: LIED DER DEUTSCHEN SOLDATEN IM ELSASS. Da wohnt ein Bruder mein, Er hat es schier vergessen, Was wir einander sein. Mein armer, guter Bruder, Hast du dich denn verwälscht? Horch auf! Sie ist nun kommen, Wer hat das Lied gesungen? Wer hat das Lied erdacht? In der Schlacht und auf der Wacht. You see the great novelist is not equally great as a poet, though I grant a popular song should be simple: nor is he a solitary instance of such deficiency. The Muses are chary of their gifts; and why should they not be? There must be a division of labour even in the world of imagination. The exceptions are certainly rare. Goethe and Victor Hugo are the only two that occur to my memory at the moment. But what a contrast between them! Fortunately, the terms "classical" and "romantic" are ready to hand, and so I need not be at any pains to define the difference. May we not trace the same difference between the two belligerent nations, at the moment the observed of all observers? Germany, calm, cool, collected; perhaps somewhat dull and heavy, but disciplined; thoroughly schooled, doing everything by rule and measure,-in short, classical; and France, fiery, mercurial, witty and bright, but full of vagaries, and lacking those qualities in which the Germans excel. However, I am loth to "disclose the frailties" of a fallen nation; enough of that has been done lately, exceedingly well, by the way, in the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung, by F. Vischer, the professor of aesthetics; and I cannot help recalling to my mind the wise saying of one of the Hebrew sages in the so-called Ethics of the Fathers, running thus:-"Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth; and let not thy heart be glad when he stumbleth; lest the Lord should see it, and it be evil in his sight, and turn his wrath from him." A pamphlet just issued here by S. Hizzel, 'How we have become a Nation again,' by Herman Baumgarten, is a well-written, clear and fair coposé or outline of the history of Germany since 1806, equal in its merits to Strauss's recent letter, and having the advantage of greater completeness. But the author is an advocate of war on principle; so far, at least, as it is necessary for the realization of ideas, for their being practically carried out; and here it is where I for one cannot side with him. The theory, indeed, crumbles to dust beneath one's touch. One ray of logic brought to bear upon it, and its unsoundness is exposed. For when our author says, "there being no tribunal among the nations to whose sentence they have to submit, they, in the last instance, alone obey the ordeal (Gottesurtheil, Divine judgment) of war," who that is not pre-occupied by a theory or foregone conclusion can fail to see at a glance that this is an argument one. the protection of a number of their comrades specially appointed for that duty by the commander. D. A. THE TESTAMENT OF LOVE. September 20, 1870. THE true reason, I fancy, why no doubt had been publicly expressed, until late years, as to Chaucer being really the writer of 'The Testament of Love,' is, that no person had ever read it fairly through'; for a more laborious task can scarcely be encountered than that of trying to fix attention to it so as to make anything like connected sense out of it. Its disjointed sentences exact such constant weighing and consideration,-its repetitions are so wearying, and the printing and punctuation in the existing editions) so misleading,-that nothing but some powerful motive, such as a desire to test its legitimacy, would induce any one to wade through its seven thousand lines of dreary prose. I am not aware that Mr. Bradshaw has ever publicly stated the particular grounds of his conviction of its not being the production of Chaucer; and as for the difference of grammatical construction, mentioned by Mr. Collier, that is a matter of mere opinion, respecting which the following apt sentence may be quoted from 'The Testament' itself: "Opinion is whyle a thyng is non certayne and hidde from mens very knowledging and by no parfite reason fully declared." A parfite reason, therefore, becomes a desideratum; and I think I And the essential conditions of human ex- can produce one, in the shape of a very decided istence are to this day the same that they were discrepancy as to fact between Chaucer and the 2,000 years ago: we are no more pure spirits now writer of The Testament of Love,' which shall than we were then; and to this day only solid leave nothing to be desired in the way of direct facts directly affecting them impose on the multi-proof that they were different persons. tude." In page 38 the author says, "Perhaps no nation ever had a greater abundance of eminent minds among them engaged in purely intellectual work than we had among us at the time the yoke of Napoleon lay heaviest on us. Our poets, philosophers, philologists and theologians ruled in the intellectual realm to an extent and depth such as the world had never witnessed before. And it was just then that, as a nation, we sank to the lowest depth of humiliation. What availed us Goethe and Schiller, Kant and Wolf, if the German mind was so powerless against the despot?" But at page 74 he says, "When Lessing, Goethe and Schiller wholly confined us within the boundary of purely mental interests, they certainly assisted in preparing our pitiful collapse in 1806. But did not the German spirit cultivated by them manifest itself gloriously in the patriotic activity of Stein and Gneisenau, Fichte and Schleiermacher? It was nothing but the spirit of a living trust in God which had been infused into us by Luther, nought but the bold confidence of the moral man in himself, which Lessing and Kant and Schiller had imparted to us, that rushed onward to victory under the standards of Blucher." But I must refer the reader to the suggestive little volume itself, having already exceeded the limits set me. The Laureate's 'In Memoriam' has found an And one is sad; her note is changed, What a blessing, by the way, the Tauchnitz Col- Next Wednesday, being the Jewish Day of Atonement, 1741, Jewish soldiers before Metz will, as the papers report, meet for divine worship under Planetary hours, which are so fully and so correctly explained by Chaucer in his Treatise on the Astrolabe, are thus described in 'The Testament of Love': "Thou wost well by course of planets all your dayes proceeden, and to everich of singular houres be enterchaunged stoundmele about."-"Of which worchings and possession of hours, ye dayes of ye week have take her names after denomination in these seven planets. Lo, your sunday ginneth at ye first hour after noon on ye saturday, in which hour is then the Sunne in ful might of worching, of whom sunday taketh his name. Next him followeth Venus; and after Mercurius; and then the Moon; so then Saturnus; after whom Jovis; and then Mars; and ayen then the Sonne:-and so forth be xxiiii houres togider: in which hour, ginning in the ii. day, stant the Moone, as maister for the time to rule, of whom Munday taketh his name: and this course followeth of all other days generally in doing." I have stated, at pp. 91-92 of my edition of the Treatise on the Astrolabe, that the true meaning of planetary hours was generally misunderstood or ignored before Chaucer's time, and here is a singular and unexpected corroboration. The writer of The Testament of Love' makes the hours so-called not only to precede Chaucer's correct assignment of them by eighteen hours, but he makes them obviously and necessarily equal hours. It is also a very strange and interesting fact that the commencement of the day here assigned-that is, twelve hours in advance of the civil commencement, and twenty-four in advance of the astrononical--should always have been the time used by sailors in nautical reckoning-wherein, if not still surviving, it is of very recent extinction. And when we consider the strict tradition preserved amongst sailors in every thing relating to their craft, we may well suppose that this special reckoning of time may have been handed down from a very remote period. Whether it will throw any light upon the authorship of 'The Testament of Love? remains to be seen: the one thing clear at present is, that Chaucer could not have written a description so entirely at variance with the better knowledge he undoubtedly possessed. I do not believe the Testament to be a translation; it appears to me thoroughly English; and from a passage in the Prologue I should assign it to the time of Edward the Third, after the battle of Crecy, There are in it several strange and unusual forms of expression that render it worth the investigation of the philologist: the most remarkable perhaps is the invariable substitution of neverthelater or neverthelatter for nevertheless or nathelesse. authorship of the "interesting and instructive" letter from the head-quarters of the Duke of Mecklenburg which appeared in the Times of Thursday morning. The allusion to General Scott shows that the writer is In the Glossary, by Thomas, to Urry's edition of Chaucer's works, "Neverthelater" is ascribed to an American, the style, that he is a man "Bouth." as well as to "Test."-but it is an error: of letters. Were he a well-known diplomatist, I have not been able to discover the word in his passage through the French and German Boethius or in any other of Chaucer's genuine lines might be facilitated; and his acquaintworks. A. E. BRAE. AN INSCRIPTION FROM GERASA. Palestine Exploration Fund, 5, Pall Mall East. THE subjoined inscription may be of interest to the readers of the Athenæum. It was brought to England three months since by Capt. Warren, who copied it from an epistyle at Jerash (Gerasa), east of Jordan. It probably stood over a church door, and would belong to the third or fourth century. A precisely similar inscription is given in De Vogue's 'Syrie Centrale,' from the church of Ezra, plate 21. It was proposed to publish it in the Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund, with the rest of Capt. Warren's work; but I discovered accidentally that a copy of it, taken ten years ago, was in the hands of the Rev. R. B. Girdlestone. He has very kindly allowed me to make use of his copy. There are no discrepancies of importance between his and Capt. Warren's, except that the latter is not so perfect; the stone having suffered from ten years' exposure. The arrangement of the lines, as here printed, is entirely due to Mr. Girdlestone, as well as the conjecture in line 10. Here Capt. Warren's copy reads τιμήεντο, and has no τελοῦντες. Line 11 is an old friend from Homer. The inscription is, it will be seen, Christian. The obliteration of line 10, Mr. Girdlestone suggests, was intentional. In line 9, Capt. Warren has μeróny. Other fragments of inscriptions were found by Capt. Warren at Jerash, of great interest, commemorating a Christian martyr, Osócopos,of which, too, Mr. Girdlestone has a copy.— θάμβος ὁμοῦ καὶ θαῦμα παρερχομένοισιν ἐτύχθην πάντ ̓ ἀρ' ἀκοσμίης λέλυται νέφος· ἀντὶ δὲ λημῆς τῆς προτέρης πάντη με Θεοῦ χάρις ἀμφιβέβηκεν καί ποτε τετραπόδων ἀπὸς ἀμογέοντα δαμείη ἐνθάδε ριπτομένων-ὀδμὴ διεγείρετο λύγρη πολλάκι καὶ παρίων τις ἑῆς ἐδράξατο ρινός, καὶ πνοιῆς πονέησε κακοσμίην άλεείνων. νῦν δὲ δι' ἀμβροσίοιο πεδοῦ περόωντες ἐδεῖται δεξιτέρην παλάμην σφετέρῳ προσάγοντι προσώπῳ σταυροῦ τιμήεντ[ες ὁδὸν, Θεῖ' ἔργ]α τελοῦντες. εἰ δὲ θέλεις καὶ τοῦτο δαήμεναι ὄφρα εὖ εἴδης Αἰνείας τότε κἄλλος ἐμοὶ πόρεν ἀξιέρστον πάνσοφος εὐσεβίην μεμελημένος ἱεροφάντης. W. BESANT. ance with a person of importance at the King's IT is said that Mr. Swinburne wrote his noble Ode on the Proclamation of the French Republic' at a sitting. THE London Ladies' Educational Association, which will be in full work again next month, with courses of English and French Literature and Language, Logic, Experimental Physics and Chemistry, by the Professors of those subjects in University College, begins next Tuesday evening the experiment of a course for ladies 'On the History and Structure of the English Language,' which will be given within the College, will be continued every Tuesday evening throughout the academical session, and will correspond exactly to the course given to the regular College students. The Cambridge Lectures to Ladies begin next month: the courses, however, are not yet fixed. SIGNOR G. CAMPORI has brought out a series of unpublished 'Lettere di Bernardo Tasso, precedute dalle notizie intorno la vita del medesimo' (Bologna, Romagnoli). The work contains forty-one letters taken from a MS., dated A.D. 1600, existing in the Archives of the College of San Carlo of Modena, and six from other sources. Four of these letters have already been published with imperfections. The present series gives much new information on the life and works of Bernardo Tasso, on the studies of Torquato, and on the proposed marriage intended for him by the Duke of Urbino, which no author has hitherto mentioned. There are also interesting notices of literary men of the time-Ruscelli, Dolce, Giraldi, Manuzio and others. WE learn from the local papers that the royal author, the King of Burmah, has had an edition of 300 copies of a Burmese Grammar of Pali printed at his own press, in the palace. To the horror of learned men of the old school, he has determined to discard the making of palm-leaf books. For the future, no leaf will be taken out of such books, and a leaf will cease to have a literal meaning in such case. Thus will be suppressed the painful process of cutting writing with an iron stile, which is hurtful to the eyes. Besides this, as the King has remarked, paper-books can bear handling, and palm-leaf books will stand no rough usage. At the same time, he appreciates the advantage of having a large number of copies, instead of one. His Majesty is considered to be the best-read man in his domiTHE death is announced of Mr. W. Pridham, nions. He never writes; he dictates. His one of the four original projectors and pro-great-uncle was also reputed the most learned prietors of the Plymouth Herald, a weekly journal, started in 1820. The Herald was for many years a flourishing journal, but it was already losing ground when the compulsory newspaper stamp was abolished. The penny daily journals killed the Herald. soon appear. WE hear that Rome and the Campagna,' a work by the Rev. R. Burn, Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge, the publication of which has been promised for some time, will The purpose of the book is to furnish students with a description of the chief topographical and architectural features of the city during the regal, republican and imperial eras, and to point out their connexion with literature and history. The work is illustrated with eighty woodcut illustrations by Jewitt, besides maps and plans. ANOTHER edition of Mr. Paley's well-known Literary Gossip. THE new number of the Quarterly Review will contain, under the title of The Fall of the Second Empire,' a comprehensive survey of Napoleon the Third's foreign policy, and the incidents that, after inflicting a succession of damaging blows on the empire, have resultedEschylus' is nearly ready. in the collapse and utter discredit of the Imperial system. The writer of the paper is Mr. Edward Spender, a gentleman excellently qualified to do justice to so difficult a subject. THE eighth issue of the Roxburghe Library will be a more complete edition than any which has yet appeared of the poems of Thomas Carew, accompanied by a memoir of the poet, containing many biographical points of interest that hitherto have escaped attention. The manuscripts, public and private, that have been examined have yielded not only more accurate texts of poems already in print, but thirty new pieces and various incidental elucidations. The volume is nearly ready, and will be in the hands of subscribers in a week or two. WHEN announcing, some weeks ago, the appearance of the Spenser Society's first collection of John Taylor's minor works, we should have said that this collection was in a WE have been requested by a Correspondent to publish his guess at the handy quarto, the size in which most of these THE Académie des Inscriptions et Belles YALE COLLEGE, U.S., has purchased the library of Prof. Rau, the celebrated political economist. man WE learn from the Canada Bookseller that a Canadian reprint of Prof. Huxley's 'Lay Sermons' has appeared. MR. BAYARD TAYLOR'S translation of 'Faust' will be published in a few days. Both the parts are included in Mr. Taylor's version. A CORRESPONDENT writes: "I observe that Mr. Carlyle's work on 'Frederick the Great' is to occupy ten volumes of the Library Edition, now publishing; and this will, of course, complete the thirty volumes. Now, as I am a subscriber to the present edition of Mr. Carlyle's works, and have gone so far with the full expectation that his 'Translations' would necessarily form part of the thirty volumes, I am not a little disappointed at finding we are thus to get none of his trans lations, it is difficult to see any reason for such a separation, or, one might say, castration, of his works." Some arrangement, he adds, should be made for the publication of Mr. Carlyle's Translations, which, if not forming part of, may at least be uniform with, the present edition of his works. PROF. G. I. ASCOLI has published a new work, entitled Corsi di Glottologia' (E. Loescher, Torino-Firenze), which will doubtless become a standard work. The first part, which treats of The Comparative Phonology of Sanskrit, Greek and Latin,' has just been issued, and the author will shortly issue succeeding lectures, which treat of, 1, a General Introduction to Morphology; 2, Comparative Indo-ItaloGreek Morphology; 3, Iranian Phonology. Some of the author's views are remarkable for their originality, especially his theory of the aspirates, and their continuance in the Italic branch, which has been disputed by Prof. Corssen and other German philologists.. A German translation of Prof. Ascoli's work will shortly be published at Halle, and a favourable review of it has appeared in the Göttinger Gelehrter Anzeigen of the 18th of May, by Prof. Theodore Benfey. PROF. E. SCHWARZ, of Jena, whose death we mentioned in No. 2237, is not the author, we learn, of the 'Sketches of Modern Theology,' which proceed from the pen of Dr. Schwarz, of Gotha. ROYAL POLYTECHNIC.-The accomplished PRAEGER FAMILY (Six in number) have arrived from Copenhagen, and will give their Refined and Elegant CONCERTS Daily at Half-past Three and Eight, commencing Monday, October 3rd.-Professor Pepper is preparing an elaborate Lecture Entertainment ON THE PRESENT WAR, and the Implements of Destruction used thereat.-The GHOST at a Quarter to Three and a Quarter past Seven. SCIENCE DR. W. A. MILLER. By the death of their Treasurer, Dr. William Allen Miller, the Royal Society lose at once a Fellow and an officer whose services they can ill spare, and whose activity in the cause of science will not be easily replaced. Dr. Miller was born at Ipswich in December, 1817. He entered Merchant Taylors' School, and afterwards a school in Yorkshire, where, by listening to chemical lectures, he is said to have first felt an inclination for science. He subsequently studied medicine at the General Hospital, Birmingham; then worked for a while under Liebig at Giessen, and eventually became Demonstrator of Chemistry in King's College, London. There he was held in much esteem by the then Professor of Chemistry, Dr. J. F. Daniell, to whom he succeeded in 1845. Besides this appointment, Dr. Miller was one of the Assayers to the Royal Mint. He was elected to the honourable post of Treasurer to the Royal Society in 1861; and served a term as President of the Chemical Society, of which he was a distinguished member, and was a member of the Senate of the University of London. His scientific writings comprise papers in the Philosophical Transactions and other serial works on electrolysis, on lines in the prismatic spectrum, on electro-chemistry, on the photographic transparency of various bodies, and other chemical subjects; and in conjunction with the late Professor Graham and Dr. Hofmann, he drew up the Chemical Report on the supply of water to the metropolis. But his greatest work was 'Elements of Chemistry,' in three volumes, now in the third edition. Dr. Miller left London to attend the meeting of the British Association at Liverpool, and was observed to be not in his usual health. He died there of apoplexy on September the 30th. He leaves, we believe, a son and two daughters. BRITISH ASSOCIATION. SECTION A.-MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE. SATURDAY. Elliptic and Hyperelliptic Functions,' by Mr. W. Report on recent Progress in the Theory of H. L. RUSSELL.—The author, in proceeding with the subject, called attention to the researches of Solinki in modular equations, and also to a Memoir by Prof. Belti, which embodies many of the recent improvements. He then pointed out some application of elliptic functions to physics, instancing the discoveries of Jacobi, Lottrier and Canon Moseley. He concluded by a short résumé of the history of the application of mathematics to military science, and gave some remarkable instances to prove that in nations generally the periods of greatest military success were, cæteris paribus, the periods of greatest mathematical success. 'On Linear Differential Equations,' by Mr. W. H. L. RUSSELL.-The author gave a résumé of some discoveries in linear differential equations, which has been recently published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. 'On Hills and Dales,' by Mr. J. CLERK-MAXWELL. 'On In- and Circum- scribed Triangles,' by Mr. A. CAYLEY. 'On the Correspondence of Lines and Points in Space,' by Mr. A. CAYLEY. On an unexplained Contradiction in Geometry,' by Mr. W. K. CLIFFORD. K 'On small Oscillations of a Rigid Body,' by Prof. R. S. BALL.--This was a communication of the results of some investigations on the dynamical problem of the "Small Oscillations of a Rigid Body." A rigid body, either perfectly free, or in general having degrees of freedom, being disturbed from a position of stable equilibrium, under the action of any forces, performs small oscillations. The nature of a screw vibration was explained. It was shown that there are screws in space, whose pitch and position are determined by the forces possessing the property of normal screws. A normal screw is defined to be a screw about which the body will perform screw vibrations as if it were constrained to do so. It was shown that, whatever be the small oscillations of the body, the movement is compounded of vibrations about < normal screws. Applications of these general theorems were then made to the special case of a rigid body performing small oscillations about a fixed point; and reference was made to a recent paper by the author in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxiv. SECTION B.-CHEMICAL SCIENCE. The PRESIDENT (Prof. Roscoe) read a letter addressed by the Chemical Society of Berlin to the Chemical Society of London, requesting for the hospitals which, to satisfy the pressing demands, are being established all over Germany, Alsace, and Lorraine, a supply of the under-mentioned disinfectants :-Liquid residues of the manufacture of chlorine, chloride of lime, green vitriol, permanganate of potash, carbolic acid, crude and purified. The Report of the Committee appointed to consider the Treatment and Utilization of Sewage' was read. 'On the Utilization of Sewage, with Special Reference to the Phosphate Process,' by Mr. D. FORBES. It was stated that sewage irrigation was the only novelty which had as yet utilized the entire liquid as well as the solid contents of the sewage. It appears desirable, however, that some chemical process should be sought for, by which the sewage could be so far purified by precipitation that the supernatant water could be allowed to run off directly into rivers without danger to health or animal life, whilst the precipitate should be of so high a value as manure, as to pay for its transport to a distance for the use of the agriculturists. The experiments made already on the London sewage by the phosphate process, and on the present occasion successfully repeated on a small scale before the audience with Liverpool sewage, appear to fulfil in a great measure these conditions. This process, brought forward by the author in conjunc tion with Dr. A. Price, is based upon the fact that certain mineral phosphates, when in a freshly precipitated state, eagerly combine with both organic matter and ammonia in sewage. The process required nothing beyond a reservoir containing the sewage, to which the phosphates (in major part of alumina) are added, preferably in the state of solution in hydrochloric or sulphuric acids, from which by the addition of a little milk of limejust sufficient to neutralize the acid which holds them in solution-they are at once precipitated, along with a large quantity of the organic matter and ammonia in the sewage; the deposit subsides rapidly, and leaves the water clear and colourless, even if tinctorial substances of great power be present in the experiments shown, ink was added to the Liverpool sewage, but the colouring matter was instantly removed along with the precipitate. The affluent water obtained by this process is nothing like so pure as the water ordinarily sup plied for drinking purposes, but the water from the London sewage at Barking Creek, so purified, could, as was shown, be drunk without repugnance, fishes could live in it, and it had remained free from offensive smell for months, during the entire hot summer of last year, without any tendency to putrify or emit any disagreeable odour. With regard to the value of the precipitated manure, it was admitted that no known chemical substances could precipitate from sewage the whole amount of substances valuable for agriculture; and it was only claimed that so much of them had been extracted as to leave the affluent water innoxious, whilst one of the most important features of the process, in which it differs from all the others, is, that all the substances employed in the purification augment the agricultural value of the precipitated manure, and thus render it of such value as to enable it to bear the cost of transport to a distance. Dr. CANFIELD said it was clear that sewage farms need not be a nuisance if the sewage were first filtered. If the sewage farm were not a stagnant marsh there was no chance of intermittent fever being caused, and in some localities where cholera prevailed the farms had been entirely free. From an analysis by Dr. Russell on sewer gases, it ap peared that the air in sewers was purer than might have been expected. The experiments were made with reference to the London sewers in the month of August. He also read a Report as to the propa gation of entozoic disease by sewage irrigation, stating that for this purpose guinea-pigs were fed on food produced by means of sewage manure only, and others on that in the production of which no sewage had been used; and it was hoped that useful conclusions would be obtained. The PRESIDENT congratulated the Section that they had, for the first time, a committee formed of engineers and chemists to work out the subject, and he considered that the Association might look forward to further results from their investigations next year.-Dr. B. H. PAUL, as a member of the committee, desired to disclaim any participation in the Report presented. The PRESIDENT remarked that any addition to knowledge on this subject was most important, because there were many places where irrigation would not be sufficiently remunerative, and there a process of the kind described by Mr. Forbes would be useful. In the investigation of the sewage question the public required every assistance from both engineers and chemists. The discussion was continued by Mr. HOPE, Dr. VOELCKER, Dr. GILBERT, Dr. HOLLAND, Prof. HUXLEY, Mr. RUMNEY, and others. 'On the Separation from Iron Furnace Cinder of Phosphoric Acid for Manurial Purposes,' by Mr. J. HARGRAVES. 'On the Retention of Nitrogen by Charcoal,' by Mr. E. C. C. STANFORD. |