polygamy might follow. Migration over the seas, or into new territory, would give groups with an excess of males, and polyandry might follow. But on the whole, the equilibrium is preserved. Exogamy is found to some degree among all nations. There is everywhere a circle of relationship, wider or narrower, within which marriage is prohibited. It is to be noticed that hitherto little account has been made, by the advocates of either theory, of ancestor worship. This wide-spread custom seems to afford additional confirmation of the Patriarchal theory. At present it must be concluded that the most probable theory of the structure of early society is that, in a more or less developed form, the family was the original unit. Sexual and parental affection point to it, and early law and custom confirm it. STRANGE CASE of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. HYDE. George Harris. BY ROBERT LOUIS STE1886. Pp. 138. 25 cts. THIS is a psychological study after the manner of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Indeed, we wonder as we read the weird allegory, or parable, that it should have escaped the fruitful imagination of Hawthorne. The "Case" will be read with more interest, as well as with better understanding, if the last chapter of the book is read first. One does not hesitate, therefore, to give the motif of the story. Dr. Henry Jekyll, a man of fortune and of good parts, with the promise of a fine professional future, finds himself, upon reaching maturity, committed, as he believes, to a profound duplicity of life. His youthful irregularities, which do not seem to have been grossly wanton, he has concealed that he might enjoy the full respect and honor of society. And yet, as he says, he was in no sense a hypocrite: "Both sides of me were in dead earnest. I was no more myself when I laid aside restraint and plunged into shame, than when I labored in the eye of day at the furtherance of knowledge or the relief of sorrow and suffering." Under the irritating consciousness of this dual moral nature he is haunted by the idea of a possible separation between its contending parts, each to be "housed in separate identities.” His scientific studies lend their aid to the accomplishment of this strange fancy. He proceeds to compound a drug strong enough to "shake the fortress of personal identity;" and, under the action of this drug, the body, in which he knew himself and was known to others, is dissolved and he is transformed into another presence fitting the baser part of his nature, to which he gives the name of Edward Hyde. This other self is less robust, smaller, and younger than the original, because as yet the main course of the life has been one of virtue and control. The transformation, thus made possible, from Jekyll to Hyde and back again, gives the situation of the story. The various chapters of the book detail the doings of this double man and the complications of his dual life with the life of others. Memory preserves identity between Jekyll and Hyde, but one of the two is lost to society and ceases to exist in outward form as often as the transformation takes place. At first the transformation is quickly and readily made, though attended with severe bodily pains, but after a time it becomes more difficult to recover the original self. "It had seemed to me of late "— this is as the story nears its close- "as though the body of Edward Hyde - had grown in stature, as though when I wore that form I were conscious of a more generous tide of blood; and I began to spy a danger that if this were much prolonged, the balance of my nature might be permanently overthrown, the power of voluntary change be forfeited, and the character of Edward Hyde become irrevocably mine." The manner in which this fear is realized is told with startling realistic power, from the time when the change takes place in sleep without the use of the drug to the time when the drug fails to act in recovery; and in general it may be said of the style of the author that it is powerful in its action and in its restraint. This brief allegory is the most effective sermon which has been written in the guise of fiction within the present decade, if not within the present generation. Read once, it will be read again; and it will be remembered. Every man will recognize enough of himself in this "Strange Case to put him upon serious thought as to the possibilities of his own nature if not guarded, controlled, and redeemed in its higher powers. The last chapter of the book, entitled, "Dr. Jekyll's full Statement of the Case," is a despairing echo of the seventh chapter of Romans. Wm. J. Tucker. THE TOBACCO PROBLEM. BY META LANDER [Mrs. Margaret Woods Lawrence]. Pp. viii., 279. Boston: Cupples, Upham & Co. 1886. A BOOK which sets forth with any considerable degree of fullness the argument against the use of tobacco, in the very nature of the case, must seem at first glance, except to those somewhat familiar with the facts, extravagant and intemperate. It would be strange if this book should escape the hasty charge. Argument always outruns reform. Tobacco is entrenched behind centuries of habit, and, like wine, has been made attractive in literature and by all the arts of elegant life. The tolerance of the tobacco habit by the community is even more surprising than the tolerance of tobacco itself by the human system. A thing so common cannot seem so bad. As if by some agreement, abundant room has been given of late to the arguments against the habit, not in the grotesque form of certain tracts, addresses, and wood-cuts of thirty years or so ago, but in sober statements based upon the very highest medical authority. The subject has been discussed not empirically, and by fanatics, but with the thoroughness and carefulness of scientific observation. The result has been an accumulation of facts and opinions on the one hand, and on the other a public interest, almost a public alarm, which calls for such a book as this, a treasury of information ready to the hand of the student of social problems, particularly of those which concern the young. This book will serve the double purpose of informing those who have not given its subject attention, and of equipping those who, being convinced, desire to help forward an urgent reform. The pulpit has been for two generations the steadfast friend of the temperance movement; for a glorious generation it stood in battle against human slavery; it keeps no prudent silence on the questions which concern the sacredness of the family; more and more, in fact, the whole second table of the law is expounded and inculcated in its widest applications. The pulpit will be doing a worthy and sacred service to our youth, and through them to the church and the state, when it takes such material as this book abundantly supplies and brings it to bear persuasively and convincingly on the judgment and the conscience of our people. The world cannot be scared, or ridiculed, or bribed into virtue. Bad habit is best assailed by the dispassionate array of valid arguments, supported by the highest sanctions, and urged with patient, affectionate zeal. The States are recognizing this truth, and are beginning not only to protect our youth by restraining the sale of tobacco to persons within a prescribed limit of age, but also to require that instruction be given in the public schools on the nature and physiological effects of narcotics. Next to the physicians the teachers are most outspoken, emphatic, and unanimous in their condemnation of the tobacco habit; in many cases they may be even more influential than physicians and preachers in that prevention which is far better than cure. For teachers and all others who love the youth of our land, and for all students of social science, this modest, earnest book will be a source of argument and appeal. Parents will debate it with their sons, and sons in some cases might doubtless make good use of it with their fathers. C. F. P. Bancroft. THE STORY OF CHALDEA, from the earliest times to the rise of Assyria; treated as a general introduction to the study of ancient history. By ZÉNAÏDE A. RAGOZIN. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons. THIS is in every way an admirable book for its purpose. It appears as one of a series projected by G. P. Putnam's Sons, the object of which is to present to intelligent youth the most recent discoveries concerning the history of the race, in a sufficiently attractive manner to awaken interest and command attention. In securing this object only legitimate means are employed, both as respects style and matter. The result is that a narrative has been produced suited to every intelligent reader, whether young or old. Of its accuracy in details, of course only a specialist in Assyriology can judge. But the style is beautifully clear, and the grouping of events is artistic and at times dramatic. The tone of narration has the reserve and moderation characteristic of the scientific spirit. Its attitude towards the Hebrew Scriptures betrays none of that nervousness, now so common, which indicates a suspiciousness of their divine origin, and the apprehension that skeptical objections may not receive the full consideration to which they are entitled. In one or two instances, perhaps, there is the tendency to hypercriticism in dealing with the free and colloquial style of the Bible, which suggests a somewhat feeble grasp upon the hermeneutical principles that should govern the interpretation of such a book. But this tendency is not by any means marked, while, on the whole, the Biblicist will feel that the inspired Word is treated with a reverent, as well as a critical, discrimination. The range of the story, as it is developed under the guidance of the recent discoveries in Assyria, is immense. The recorded history of Chaldea is shown to excel in its antiquity the annals of Egypt, stretching back in fact to a point at least 4,000 years before Christ. The author conducts the reader to this wonderful conclusion, by first presenting a graphic account of the recent discoveries among the ruins of the Chaldean cities, giving deserved prominence to the library collected by Asshurbanipal, the grandson of Sennacherib, 650 years before Christ. A portion of this library, if the inscriptions are to be credited, dates back to Sargon, 3,800 years B. C. The account of the discovery of this library of earthen cylinders by Layard, in a confused mass of broken pieces, and of its reconstruction and translation by George Smith of the British Museum, has all the interest of a romance. The number of tablets it contains is more than ten thousand. The suggestion is then made and cautiously supported, that the race found dwelling in Chaldea at the beginning of these records was the Turanian, and that the Turanian nations may all, with a fair probability, be referred to the family of Cain. This theory assumes of course the limited area of the Noachian deluge. a In support of this theory of the Turanian and Cainite origin of the aborigines of Chaldea, an ingenious argument is woven of Scripture references, with the facts found in the ceramic library of Nineveh (Koyunjik). The leading fact in the case is the presence, among the Assyrian tablets of this collection, of a large number in a still older language, monosyllabic, "agglutinative" language, - such as is in use among the yellow races to this day, totally unlike the Shemitic tongues. Not only are these two totally distinct languages found side by side in the library of Asshurbanipal, but they are found rendered into each other, by a complete machinery of grammars, dictionaries, and school-books. To the testimony thus obtained is added that of Berosus, a historian of Chaldea about the time of its conquest by Alexander the Great, and the conclusion is reached that the original Turanian settlement was followed, after long ages, by an immigration of Cushites, of the family of Ham, or of Shemites, or perhaps of both. The latter, in a perfectly peaceful way, so far as appears, took control both of Chaldea and Assyria, and built up the succession of splendid monarchies that followed, till now in the mysterious revolution of events the Turanian, in the person of "the unspeakable Turk," has again spread the darkness of barbarism over the land. In the course of the examination of these documents in stone some literary results have appeared hardly less remarkable than their historical revelations. Among them are poems of marked beauty, psalms of penitence, myths and astrologies, and finally a Chaldean epic, somewhat imperfect, but needing only a tablet or two more to complete a cosmogony worthy to rank with the De Rerum Natura of Lucretius. All this is, of course, familiar to the special students of Assyriology in the writings of Layard, Lenormant, Rawlinson, Sayce, George Smith and many others. In this volume the wonderful story is arranged, condensed, and set in the light of the contemporaneous Hebrew history, in which the world has a special and absorbing interest. Maps conveniently covering the fly-leaves at the beginning and end of the volume, and the seventy-nine illustrations scattered through it, as well as the ample indexes and constant inter-references, render the mechanical setting of this picture of the past especially attractive. John Putnam Gulliver. PROFESSOR G. DROYSEN'S ALLGEMEINER HISTORISCHER HAND-ATLAS, in sechs-und-neunzig Karten, mit erläuterndem Text. Ausgeführt von der Geographischen Anstalt von Velhagen und Klasing in Leipzig, unter Leitung von Dr. RICHARD ANDREE. Folio, pp. 182. Bielefeld und Leipzig: Verlag von Velhagen und Klasing. 1886. BESIDES the names of Droysen and Andree, those of thirty-two other German specialists in historical and geographical studies are given as co laborers in the preparation either of the maps or the text of this Atlas. It is a work of the highest authority, and deserves a place in the library of every college and academy, and in town or city libraries where it will be accessible to teachers of the more advanced classes in the public schools. The maps begin with The World as known to the Ancients. Some twenty-eight, including side or smaller maps, are devoted to classical and sacred history; the remainder - more than a hundred-to the history of the Christian era. The development of the leading nations, especially the European, is given with clearness and fullness. We have never examined an atlas so beautifully colored, or which exhibits so definitely and suggestively the progress and relations of the countries which are represented. Besides changes in boundaries, those in religion and commercial relations, the course of geographical discovery, and the distribution of races, are also treated. As a mere work of art the Atlas is a delight to the eye, and shows how great is the advance in cartography as respects the execution as well as the designing of maps. This Atlas will not supersede for Biblical and classical geography the excellent Atlas of Smith and Grove, which is more copious than the corresponding portion in Droysen's. Nor is it equal to the Spruner-Menke Atlas of the medieval and modern eras in the number of places which are given and in other minute details. Its peculiar excellence lies in the remarkable distinctness which is gained in respect to boundaries, the quick suggestiveness of the movement of history, the ready helps to tracing its successive steps, the compactness combined with great variety and abundance of information. One cause of the success of the maps is the unusually skillful use of color. Not only is there a remarkable brightness, a sort of metallic lustre, but also a very helpful identity or distinction of colors as may be most serviceable. As an example we may refer to the map of France in the twelfth century. The opposite shore of England is given in a pink line, and then the Angevin Dominion in France is depicted by a surface of the same color, which impresses at once the great extent of the possessions in France of the English king, and this effect is heightened by the contrasted tints selected for the French territory. One of the most noticeable pieces of coloring is the map of Germany in the eighteenth century. The numerous political divisions which are almost unintelligible in the pages of history start out into light and life. The map of Germany at the time of the Reformation, and another of the same country at the time of the Thirty Years' War, are no less admirable. Egbert C. Smyth. A SIMPLIFIED GRAMMAR OF THE PALI LANGUAGE. By E. MÜLLER, Ph. D. London: Trübner & Co., Ludgate Hill. 1884. THE progress of Pali studies is hopefully indicated by the appearance of this book, which, while bearing a modest title, contains a full and scholarly summary of the subjects treated, but with notable defects of omission. In a grammar claiming to be "simplified" we may reasonably expect a brief and comprehensive treatment of those topics usually considered strictly grammatical; yet this book fails to meet our expectation. A |