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seen that this volume will be all the surer to do good for the reason that its aim is so modest and unpretending, and above all things practical.

Bible Revision.

To those who wish to know precisely what has been undertaken by that illustrious company of scholars in England and America, in whose hands the revision of our English New Testament is already making progress, a volume just now issued from the press of Harper & Bros. will give all necessary information. (The Revision of the English Version of the New Testament, with an Introduction by Philip Schaff, D. D. Harper & Bros.) The book consists of three distinct treatises, each of which might make a good-sized volume, and any one of which would be of uncommon value.

The first is by Dr. Lightfoot, whose learned labors as a commentator on the Scriptures entitle him to speak with authority on such a subject. The second is by Dr. Trench, the Archbishop of Dublin, whose name at once suggests the most finished and elegant criticism in regard to the use of the English language. The third is by Dr. Ellicott, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, of whom it is enough to say that he is worthy of the scholarly companionship. in which this volume places him.

We have thus, in the compass of a few hundred pages, not only the suggestions of these scholars as to what the work of revision ought to be, but also examples of revision so numerous and so detailed that, until the work is finished, this volume is worthy to take rank among the books indispensable to a complete critical and exegetical apparatus. The indices are so many and so full, that the use of it for purposes of exegetical study will be very easy. Students in seminaries, pastors in their studies, will be glad to have it at hand, and to accept it as an earnest of the good work which is being accomplished by the company of judicious and devout revisers who are already busy. That their work is a good one (which some have doubted) this volume is by far the most satisfactory evidence that has yet been furnished.

Mrs. Oliphant's "At His Gates."* MONEY, besides working so many other wonders in England, furnishes the pivot on which the construction of a whole class of novels turns. Conceive a man of enormous wealth, not inherited, but accumulated, which presupposes a brain large enough to control and distribute it well; provide him with luxurious tastes, a selfish heart, and easy principles, and all the elements of a romance of modern life gather about him of themselves. Such a man is a sort of omnipotence, essential to every class, and affecting a thousand individuals. And if he sets his will to living splendidly at their cost, risking their ruin, it must be a very poor novelist that cannot construct a respectable story out of the mere play and

*At his Gates: by Mrs. Oliphant. Scribner, Armstrong & Co. Being the first vol. in S., A. & Co.'s "Library of Choice Ficion."

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crossing of his business connections. An ordinary writer, of course, runs the risk of shaping such a plot so as to produce only commonplace situations, from the crude contrasts of wealth and poverty, vulgarized by their auriferous atmosphere. Mrs. Oliphant's true and delicate perception of character raises this contribution to the romance of bankruptcy far above that dull level.

It is a triumph won out of difficulties. The threads she worked into her former admirable fictions were so fine, yet various, like an elaborate embroidery upon the plain canvas of Miss Mitford, that there was danger lest the device of attaching the fortunes of all her personages to those of a fraudulent banker might lower and narrow the influences traced in their development. But within the range so chosen she employs all the nice discrimination and consistent sequence that always make her sketches of men and women individual ̧ and coherent. She deals with moral positions more than material ones; the springs of the lives she depicts are more studied than their framework. mere circumstances fall naturally into the background, and the alternations of fortune appear as the results, not the creators, of character. This is particularly the effect with the women, of whom there are two very well defined types in this novel, standing out so independent of their surroundings that we feel each might pass into the worldly condition of the other, yet remain essentially unchanged.

Their

The heroine, Helen Drummond, a bourgeoise chikl of Trade, and the wife of a painter whose want of genius disappoints her, consents to his becoming a director in a banking business for which he is ludicrously unfit, under the control of her cousin, Burton. The conflict in her feelings between gratitude for her husband's affection, and half-romantic contempt for his mere talent, is skillfully traced. The cousin, her rejected lover, is the millionaire of the story, lavish, ostentatious, taking credit for the good his money cannot help doing, partly the dupe and partly the accomplice of his associate Golden. His patronage of Helen in her good and evil fortunes betrays by subtle suggestion the coarse satisfaction of a common nature taking its revenge for her early rejection of him. Less is made of Golden than might have been, though quite enough of him is hinted. Mrs. Oliphant is so good in many better things that she wants sympathy for being good at villains. The banker's wife, Mrs. Burton, is passionless, feelingless, a mere mental machine, a Rochefoucauld in petticoats. Though quite aware of the dangerous schemes undermining her husband's hollow show, she does nothing to check them, busy with pitiless analysis of every one and everything, and content if her formulas applied to life work out the result in each case that everything is natural, because everything is bad. Burton, of course, makes a timely escape with his millions from the crash of the bank, of which Golden contrives to shift the blame upon the inexperienced Drummond; and he, in turn, sinking under disgrace, attempts a suicide in which he

is supposed to succeed. His wife devotes herself to subtle feminine revenge, by disturbing the Burtons' plans of family aggrandizement, a course which Mrs. Burton calmly inspects, accepts as quite natural, and coolly promotes in part, out of dislike to her own daughter. Meantime Burton's reckless frauds involve his fortunes, and though Helen's generous nature is filled with remorse for her attempted revenge, and she withdraws from her schemes, it is too late to prevent his dishonorable ruin. Its occurrence reveals Drummond's innocence, and restores him to Helen after his seven years' absence from England. In those years Golden has contrived to save a good deal of money by successive misfortunes in business, has escaped expulsion from his clubs, and, having run away with Burton's daughter, takes up his tranquil abode in Italy.

As Helen, the creature of impulse and feeling, is contrasted with the cold, calculating banker's wife, so Golden finds his nobler opposite in the carefully drawn figure of Stephen Haldane. A dissenting preacher of great power and promise, he becomes one of Burton's victims, and suffers a severer blow from sudden disease, which paralyzes his useful activity, and confines him helplessly for the rest of his life to his couch. The patience and serenity with which he maintains his difficult position in poverty among his less intelligent brethren and his commonplace exacting flock, never cherishing a revengeful or rebellious impulse, is pathetically portrayed with slight but masterly touches.

Quite as nice discrimination is shown in the management of the minor characters that help the action

of the story, too many and too distinct to be separately noticed as they deserve within our limits. This novel, like others founded upon the fluctuations of fortune in its narrow sense, gives a complete answer to those who reproach Taine with laying so much stress on the enormous power of wealth in England, and designating it as the spring of that incessant desperate struggle throughout the social scale, which impartially decrees all good things in life to those who can keep up, and utter hopelessness to those who go down. But it does far more, with a higher object. Admitting for the purposes of her art the inexorable control of money in our day, and accepting it as almost the modern embodiment of the Fate that was believed of old to rule mortal actions, the author finds in resistance to its dominion occasions for celebrating the endurance and courage and aspiration that dignify human nature.

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"Absence."

WE print below a stanza from Miss Bushnell's poem, 'Absence," wherein the words are arranged correctly; which, owing to an infirmity of the types, was not the case in the original publication in our March number:

Gone is the nameless charm that binds

The outer world in kinship blest,

The interchange, the light refrain ;

And 'twixt our souls, that once were near,

Lie leagues of stirless atmosphere,

Asleep upon a silent main :

Nothing to-day its heart-mate finds,
Nor any answer to its quest.

Night-Work,

NATURE AND SCIENCE.

IN reply to the question, How long a time should be regarded as the minimum to be spent in bed in each twenty-four hours? the Lancet says: We are of course speaking only of adults; and we think we may place the minimum at six hours for men and seven for women, with an additional hour, or even two, being taken whenever it is practicable.

Then as regards night-work; how far is that specially prejudicial? We believe that for the young it is really injurious, by the mere fact of its being nightwork; but for those whose organisms are consolidated we greatly doubt if it be at all injurious, per se. But there are sundry conditions inexorably requiring to be observed, if night-work is to do no harm. First of all, there must be no curtailment of the allowance of bed above mentioned, and this allowance of repose must be taken in a continuous manner. A man who works up to 4 A. M. should after that lie in bed til 10, and, if possible, should get an additional hour's deep and a

meal after it. Secondly, the light by which he works at night should be very white, powerful and steady, and should be carefully concentrated, by a green shade, on his books or papers: insufficient, flickering, or too diffused light is one of the most serious causes of the brain-irritation which afflicts night-workers.

Experiment on the Beginnings of Life.

J. BURDON SANDERSON has repeated Bastian's experiments on this subject, and says, "I am content to have established, at all events to my own satisfaction, that by following Dr. Bastian's directions infusions can be prepared which are not deprived, by an ebullition of from five to ten minutes, of the faculty of undergoing those chemical changes which are characterized by the presence of swarms of Bacteria, and that the development of these organisms can proceed with the greatest activity in hermetically-sealed glass vessels, from which almost the whole of the air has been expelled by boiling."

The Surface of the Moon.

MR. MERLIN, of the British Consulate at Athens, asks, May not the white telescopic appearance of the moon's surface, resembling snow in many parts, be explained by the fact that the extinct volcanoes of our satellite are covered with crystals of salt?

Any person who is accustomed to view the moon through a telescope must, I think, have been struck with the dazzling snow-like appearance of the mountains. May not an explanation of this be deduced from the experiences gained by the last eruption of Vesuvius? The burning lava in that instance retained an enormous quantity of salt, which did not escape until the mass became cool, when the whole stretch of lava emitted in 1872 was covered with a crust of this substance.

American Antiquities.

IN the remote parts of Arizona it is said that wellpreserved and extensive ruins have been found which indicate the former existence of populous cities. From an account of these by Colonel Roberts in the Builder we quote the following description: "It is surrounded by a wall of sand-stone neatly quarried and dressed, 10 ft. or 12 ft. thick, and originally, judging from the detritus, 15 ft. or 20 ft. high. Within are the walls of houses, temples, and markets, all of solid stone and showing excellent masonry. These walls are covered with hieroglyphics, cut deeply into the stone. The whole of the ruins, like most of those of the Orient, and more especially those of Arabia and Assyria, are more or less buried in sand. According to the account, this city is some 90 miles from the boundary between Utah and Arizona, and an equal distance from the Western Colorado line. It is close to the desert, and is surrounded by extensive sandy plains.

The Hoosac Tunnel.

THE Journal of the Franklin Institute says: To the record which we have presented from time to time of the progress of this interesting engineering project, we can now add a piece of information which carries with it the intimation that the beginning of the end is at hand. On the 12th of December, after some unusually heavy blasting, a union was effected between the workings on the eastern end of the tunnel and the central shaft.

The great hindrance caused by water in the central shaft, and which has repeatedly caused serious stoppages in the work on this part of the tunnel, besides the expense attendant upon the erection and constant operation of pumping machinery, is at an end, the waters now having a free outlet into the Deerfield river.

From present indications the remaining portion of the boring, viz., four thousand feet between the west and the central shaft, will be completed and the tunnel ready for use by October, 1873, or three months within the period agreed upon by the contracting parties.

Extremes of Temperature.

THE Scientific American gives the following statistics regarding this subject: Probably the hottest country is Thibet; though its most southern part is 30° from the Equator, its extreme summer temperature reaches to a height of 150°. The fact that the nighttemperature, even in summer, sometimes sinks to the freezing-point, only serves to aggravate the discomfort of this extreme heat. Next come Senegal and Guadaloupe, with a maximum temperature of 130°, that of Persia being 125°, while the maximum of Calcutta and the Delta of the Ganges is 5° less. In Cape Colony and the Africa diamond-diggings the midsummer heat is 105°, that of Greece being only one degree less, while that of the comparatively far north city of Montreal is one degree less than Greece and one more than New York. In Great Britain, Siam and Peru, the extreme heat does not exceed 85°, while that of Siberia is as high as 77°, two degrees higher than in Scotland, and four above that of Italy. In Patagonia and the Falkland Islands the highest is 55°, ten degrees above that of Southern Iceland. In Nova Zembla the maximum temperature is only 34°, two degrees above the freezing-point of water.

The Spectroscope.

IN a lecture on the Spectroscope, Norman Lockyer thus sums up the history of its invention :-You see therefore that our Spectroscope depends first of all on Newton's work with the prism in 1675, and on the fact which Newton found out incidentally, that it is impor tant that the prism should be used at the angle of minimum deviation. We then get the slit added by Wollaston in 1812; then the collimating lens added by Simms in 1830. In this way we have arrived at the Spectroscope improved and modified as an instrument, until at last we get Spectroscopes so arranged that the glass is of the finest possible material, the angle being the largest possible, the glass the densest possible, and the number of prisms as great as possible.

Planting Trees.

THE success of national legislation in behalf of general tree-planting has never been so well illustrated as in Egypt and Algiers.

Egypt, well known for its dry climate after the destruction of its forests, olive and other plantations, had about six rainy days every year on an average; but so many millions of useful trees have again been planted, that there are now about twenty-four rainy days per year recorded.

Napoleon III., whatever his faults, has given the world an example which, at least in France, will render his name memorable in this regard. Convinced of the great benefit the barren and swampy districts would derive if planted with trees, by his command many millions have been planted in vast districts of the coun try. Thousands of acres of the desert in Algiers have

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CONCERNING the huge fossil animals found in the tertiary deposits of Wyoming, Professor O. C. Marsh remarks: They nearly equaled the elephant in size, and their limbs were also similar to those of the great Proboscidians. The skull, however, presents a most remarkable combination of characters. It is long and narrow, and supported three separate pairs of horns. Its top was very concave, and along the back there was an enormous crest. Anteriorly it was armed with enormous tusks like those in the walrus. He adds: several species of these remarkable creatures have already been named, but at present they cannot all be distinguished with certainty.

Liquid Carbonic Acid.

M. L. CAILLETET, as the result of a series of experiments on the properties of liquid Carbonic Acid, finds that it does not conduct electricity, that it does not dissolve sulphur nor phosphorus, though it takes up a small quantity of iodine. It cannot dissolve common salt, sulphate of soda, nor chloride of calcium; it only Petroleum acts very slowly on carbonate of lime. dissolves 5 or 6 volumes of the liquid acid: sulphuric ether absorbs it in large quantity. Stearine and paraffine are insoluble. Sodium has no satisfactory action, except on the trace of moisture that may be present.

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In studying the bones of whales, Dr. Struthers has . discovered that these leviathans of the deep are subject to rheumatism. It has been said that animals are not subject to disease until they are brought into connection with man; but this fact contradicts the theory. It is the more remarkable, seeing that whales are less subject than man to variations of temperature; and it is also evident that the cold-water treatment cannot be very efficacious in the cure of the disease.

Under the influence of light and air petroleum absorbs a certain proportion of oxygen, and gives the

reactions of ozone. In this state it is yellow and burns poorly. The proper way to avoid the change is to preserve the oil in metallic vessels.

M. Jamin calls attention to the fact announced by Treve, that the poles of a magnet remove farther from the extremities when an armature is applied.

M. A. Boillot describes a new method for preparing ozone, by bringing oxygen in the vicinity of electricity passing through broken or pulverized gas-carbon contained in a tube.

M. L. de Sinety states, in a note to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, that he finds that the liver of female animals becomes fatty during lactation.

Dr. H. C. Bolton suggests the use of the magnesium light for observing the true colors of precipitates by night.

M. Jamin states that when the current of electricity used to magnetize a horse-shoe bar attains a certain strength, the bar appears to return to its normal state, while either weaker or stronger currents produced magnetism. This state he terms that of concealed magnetism, and supposes it is produced by a peculiar distribution of the magnetic force.

The currents of air induced by the Boston fire were so strong that flakes of granite were carried across the water to South Boston, and fell in quantities on the side-walks and roofs, and papers were borne in some cases to a distance of more than twenty miles.

Professor Joseph Le Conte, in a paper in Silliman's Journal, upholds the opinion that the whole theory of geology must be reconstructed on the basis of a solid earth.

The first case of death in England by inhalation of nitrous oxide gas is reported in the Lancet. The patient was a lady, thirty-eight years of age.

The disappearance of the fallen leaves is explained by Dr. Eugene Robert by the hypothesis that earthworms drag them into their subterranean habitations by means of the curved appendages by which their anterior rings are armed.

Mr. Garner, in a paper read before the Linnæan Society, abandons the idea that the secretion of nacreous matter, which forms pearls in oysters and mussels, is owing to the irritation caused by grains of sand. From observations made on common marine mussels, he concludes that the exciting cause of the deposit is not sand, but a minute parasite; while in the freshwater mussel or anodon, it is a minute mite or true itch insect.

A banker of Constantinople has secured a contract for lighting the streets of Athens by gas.

NEXT MORNING.

TEN o'clock! Well, I'm sure I can't help it!
I'm up-go away from the door!
Now, children, I'll speak to your mother

If you pound there like that any more.

How tired I do feel !-Where's that cushion ?-
I don't want to move from this chair;
I wish Marie'd make her appearance!
I really can't do my own hair.
I wish I'd not danced quite so often-
I knew I'd feel tired! but it's hard
To refuse a magnificent dancer

If you have a place left on your card.
I was silly to wear that green satin.

It's a shame that I've spotted it soAll down the front breadth-it's just ruinedNo trimming will hide that, I know. That's me! Have a costume imported, And spoil it the very first night!— I might make an overskirt of it,

That shade looks so lovely with white.
How horrid my eyes look! Good gracious!
I hope that I didn't catch cold
Sitting out on the stairs with Will Stacy;

If Ma knew that, wouldn't she scold!
She says he's so fast-well, who isn't?-
Dear! where is Marie ?-how it rains!-
I don't care; he's real nice and handsome,
And his talk sounds as if he'd some brains.
I do wonder what is the reason,

That good men are all like Joe Price,

So poky, and stiff, and conceited,
And fast ones are always so nice.-
Just see how Joe acted last evening!
He didn't come near me at all,

Because I danced twice with Will Stacy
That night at the Charity ball.

I didn't care two pins to do it ;

But Joe said I mustn't,-and so

I just did he isn't my master,

Nor shan't be, I'd like him to know. I don't think he looked at me even,

Though just to please him I wore green,And I'd saved him three elegant dances,I wouldn't have acted so mean. The way he went on with Nell Hadley; Dear me! just as if I would care! I'd like to see those two get married, They'd make a congenial pair! I'm getting disgusted with parties;I think I shall stop going out; What's the use of this fussing for people

I don't care the least bit about.

I did think that Joe had some sense once;
But, my, he's just like all the men !
And the way that I've gone on about him,-
Just see if I do it again!

Only wait till the next time I see him,

I'll pay him back; won't I be cool! I've a good mind to drop him completelyI'll-yes I will-go back to school. The bell!--who can that be, I wonder !Let's see-I declare! why, it's Joe!

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