age, the planet Mars, the fixed point in the universe, and the journey to truth by way of science.

In the first of these chapters, M. Flammarion records a series of astonishing but strictly authentic previsions, which it would be well for all mankind to read and ponder. In the second chapter he journeys again through the planetary spaces and discourses not so much of the worlds themselves as of the citizens of the heavenly spheres and their manner of celestial life.

The third chapter is devoted to the planet Mars. In it the author applies the best recent erudition, both astronomical and speculative, to the probable vital phenomena of our neighboring world. The fourth chapter is to us a rather original discussion about a fixed point in the universe; that is, a point which is at absolute rest, around and about which all the remaining universe is in process and revolution.

That there may be and probably is such a point, we neither assert nor deny. I will, however, offer the suggestion that if there be a central point in the universe, though it be in a state of rest as it respects all the residue of suns and systems, its fixedness or process could not be known; for all motion is relative, and though the hypothetical fixed point should be dropping through the depths of space at the rate of ten billions of metres a second, the motion could not be measured or detected, any more than the insects around the lamp in a Pullman car at night can detect or measure the flight of the train.

In the last chapter of his work, M. Flammarion makes his general deductions relative to the order of affairs in the universe, and particularly of the correlative phenomena of mind and matter. These he embodies in twenty-five short propositions, of which the last and supreme deduction is as follows:

The soul's destiny is to free itself more and more from the material world, and to belong to the lofty Uranian life, whence it can look down upon matter and suffer no more. It then enters upon the spiritual life, eternally pure. The supreme aim of all beings is the perpetual approach to absolute perfection and divine happiness.

I will only add the expression of a deliberate estimate which I have formed most favorable to the genius of M. Flammarion, whom I believe to be a great thinker destined to enlarge by a considerable space the present boundaries of the intellectual and moral world.

TH

BY HON. GEORGE W. JULIAN.

HE reconstruction of our financial policy involves no intrinsic difficulties. A select body of experienced business men, representing every section of the union, and entering upon their work in a thoroughly non-partisan spirit, can undoubtedly devise a working theory of reform. Our politicians have signally failed to do this, and have given us instead a bewildering patchwork of political makeshifts and clumsy expedients. Congress has been wrestling with our finances and keeping the country in hot water for the third of a century, and the outcome of its labors has been attested by great and prolonged financial disorders, which at last threaten the bankruptcy of the government. The men who have taken the lead in this legislation have made the interests of party paramount to the general welfare, while the settlement of our finances has thus been turned into a mere fencingmatch of politicians. There is every reason to believe that the same game will be played in the future. The love of consistency, the pride of opinion, and the traditional habit of party subserviency will continue to block the way of reform. The absolute necessity for some new and radical methods, and the folly of further looking to old party machinery for relief, will clearly appear in a brief statement of facts bearing upon the past action and present attitude of our two leading parties.

During the civil war, the Democrats in Congress generally, with George H. Pendleton as their leader, opposed our legal