{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_10649/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_10649","id":"gutenberg_10649","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10649","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Art","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Music","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Science - Physics","Children's History","History"],"text":"LORD'S LECTURES\n\nBEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY, VOLUME XIV\n\nTHE NEW ERA\n\nA Supplementary Volume, by Recent Writers,\nas Set Forth in the Preface and Table of Contents.\n\nBY JOHN LORD, LL.D.,\n\nAUTHOR OF \"THE OLD ROMAN WORLD,\" \"MODERN EUROPE,\"\nETC., ETC.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPUBLISHERS' PREFACE.\n\nIn preparing the new edition of Dr. Lord's great work, it has been\nthought desirable to do what the venerable author's death in 1894 did\nnot permit him to accomplish, and add a volume summarizing certain broad\naspects of achievement in the last fifty years. It were manifestly\nimpossible to cover in any single volume--except in the dry, cyclopaedic\nstyle of chronicling multitudinous facts, so different from the vivid,\npersonal method of Dr. Lord--all the growths of the wonderful period\njust closed. The only practicable way has been to follow our author's\nprinciple of portraying _selected historic forces_,--to take, as\nrepresentative or typical of the various departments, certain great\ncharacters whose services have signalized them as \"Beacon Lights\" along\nthe path of progress, and to secure adequate portrayal of these by men\nknown to be competent for interesting exposition of the several themes.\n\nThus the volume opens with a paper on \"Richard Wagner: Modern Music,\" by\nHenry T. Finck, the musical critic of the _New York Evening Post_, and\nauthor of various works on music, travel, etc.; and then follow in order\nthese: \"John Ruskin: Modern Art,\" by G. Mercer Adam, author of \"A Pr\u00e9cis\nof English History,\" recently editor of the _Self-Culture Magazine_ and\nof the Werner Supplements to the Encyclopaedia Britannica; \"Herbert\nSpencer: The Evolutionary Philosophy,\" and \"Charles Darwin: His Place in\nModern Science,\" both by Mayo W. Hazeltine, literary editor of the _New\nYork Sun_, whose book reviews over the signature \"M.W.H.\" have for years\nmade the _Sun's_ book-page notable; \"John Ericsson: Navies of War and\nCommerce,\" by Prof. W.F. Durand, of the School of Marine Engineering and\nthe Mechanic Arts in Cornell University; \"Li Hung Chang: The Far East,\"\nby Dr. William A. P. Martin, the distinguished missionary, diplomat, and\nauthor, recently president of the Imperial University, Peking, China;\n\"David Livingstone: African Exploration,\" by Cyrus C. Adams,\ngeographical and historical expert, and a member of the editorial staff\nof the _New York Sun_; \"Sir Austen H. Layard: Modern Archaeology,\" by\nRev. William Hayes Ward, D.D., editor of _The Independent_, New York,\nhimself eminent in Oriental exploration and decipherment; \"Michael\nFaraday: Electricity and Magnetism,\" by Prof. Edwin J. Houston of\nPhiladelphia, an accepted authority in electrical engineering; and,\n\"Rudolf Virchow: Modern Medicine and Surgery,\" by Dr. Frank P. Foster,\nphysician, author, and editor of the _New York Medical Journal_.\n\nThe selection of themes must be arbitrary, amid the numberless lines of\ndevelopment during the \"New Era\" of the Nineteenth Century, in which\nevery mental, moral, and physical science and art has grown and\ndiversified and fructified with a rapidity seen in no other five\ncenturies. It is hoped, however, that the choice will be justified by\nthe interest of the separate papers, and that their result will be such\na view of the main features as to leave a distinct impression of the\ngeneral life and advancement, especially of the last half of\nthe century.\n\nIt is proper to say that the preparation and issuance of Dr. Lord's\n\"Beacon Lights of History\" were under the editorial care of Mr. John E.\nHoward of Messrs. Fords, Howard, and Hulbert, the original publishers of\nthe work, while the proof-sheets also received the critical attention of\nMr. Abram W. Stevens, one of the accomplished readers of the University\nPress in Cambridge, Mass. Mr. Howard has also supervised the new\nedition, including this final volume, which issues from the same choice\ntypographical source.\n\nNEW YORK, September, 1902.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\nRICHARD WAGNER.\n\nMODERN Music.\n\nBY HENRY T. FINCK.\n\nYouth-time; early ambitions as a composer.\n\nWeber, his fascinator and first inspirer.\n\n\"Der Freisch\u00fctz\" and \"Euryanthe\" prototypes of his operas.\n\nTheir supernatural, mythical, and romantic elements.\n\nWhat he owed to his predecessors acknowledged in his essay on \"The Music\nof the Future\" (1860).\n\nMarriage and early vicissitudes.\n\n\"Rienzi,\" \"The Novice of Palermo,\" and \"The Flying Dutchman\".\n\nWrites stories and essays for musical publications.\n\nAfter many disappointments wins success at Dresden.\n\n\"Tannh\u00e4user\" and \"Lohengrin\".\n\nCompromises himself in Revolution of 1849 and has to seek safety in\nSwitzerland.\n\nHere he conceives and partly writes the \"Nibelung Tetralogy\".\n\nDiscouragements at London and at Paris.\n\n\"Siegfried\" and \"Tristan and Isolde\".\n\nFinds a patron in Ludwig II. of Bavaria.\n\nNibelung Festival at Bayreuth.\n\n\"Parsifal\" appears; death of Wagner at Vienna (1882).\n\nBeethoven, Schubert, and Chopin.\n\nOther eminent composers and pianists.\n\nLiszt as a contributor to current of modern music.\n\nBerlioz, Saint-Sa\u00ebns, Tchaikovsky, Dvor\u00e1k, Strauss, and Weber.\n\n\"The Music of the Future\" the music of the present.\n\n\n\nJOHN RUSKIN.\n\nMODERN ART.\n\nBY G. MERCER ADAM.\n\nPassionate and luminous exponent of Nature's beauties.\n\nHis high if somewhat quixotic ideal of life.\n\nStimulating writings in ethics, education, and political economy.\n\nFrederic Harrison on Ruskin's stirring thoughts and melodious speech.\n\nBirth and youth-time; Collingwood's \"Life\" and his own \"Praeterita\".\n\nDefence of Turner and what it grew into.\n\nArchitectural writings, lectures, and early publications.\n\nInterest in Pre-Raphaelitism and its disciples.\n\nGrowing fame; with admiring friends and correspondents.\n\nOn the public platform; personal appearance of the man.\n\nEconomic and socialistic vagaries.\n\nF. Harrison on \"Ruskin as Prophet\" and teacher.\n\nInspiring lay sermons and minor writings.\n\nReformer and would-be regenerator of modern society.\n\nAttitude towards industrial problems of his time.\n\nFounds the communal \"Guild of St. George\".\n\nPhilanthropies, and lecturings in \"Working Men's College\".\n\nDeath and epoch-making influence, in modern art.\n\n\n\nHERBERT SPENCER.\n\nTHE EVOLUTIONARY PHILOSOPHY.\n\nBY MAYO W. HAZELTINE.\n\nConstructs a philosophical system in harmony with the theory of\nevolution.\n\nBirth, parentage, and early career.\n\nScheme of his system of Synthetic Philosophy.\n\nHis \"Facts and Comments;\" views on party government, patriotism, and\nstyle.\n\nHis religious attitude that of an agnostic.\n\nThe doctrine of the Unknowable and the knowable.\n\n\"First Principles;\" progress of evolution in life, mind, society, and\nmorality.\n\nThe relations of matter, motion, and force.\n\n\"Principles of Biology;\" the data of; the development hypothesis.\n\nThe evolutionary hypothesis _versus_ the special creation hypothesis;\narguments.\n\nCauses and interpretation of the evolution phenomena.\n\nDevelopment as displayed in the structures and functions of individual\norganisms.\n\n\"Principles of Psychology;\" the evolution of mind and analysis of mental\nstates.\n\n\"Principles of Sociology;\" the adaptation of human nature to the social\nstate.\n\nEvolution of governments, political and ecclesiastical; industrial\norganizations.\n\nQualifications; Nature's plan an advance, and again a retrogression.\n\nSocial evolution; equilibriums between constitution and conditions.\n\nAssisted by others in the collection, but not the systemization, of his\nillustrative material.\n\n\"Principles of Ethics;\" natural basis for; secularization of morals.\n\nGeneral inductions; his \"Social Statics\".\n\nRelations of Mr. Spencer and Mr. Darwin to the thought of the Nineteenth\nCentury.\n\n\n\nCHARLES DARWIN.\n\nHIS PLACE IN MODERN SCIENCE.\n\nBY MAYO W. HAZELTINE.\n\nThe Darwinian hypothesis a rational and widely accepted explanation of\nthe genesis of organic life on the earth.\n\nDarwin; birth, parentage, and education.\n\nNaturalist on the voyage of the \"Beagle\".\n\nHis work on \"Coral Reefs\" and the \"Geology of South America\".\n\nObservations and experiments on the transmutation of species.\n\nContemporaneous work on the same lines by Alfred R. Wallace.\n\n\"The Origin of Species\" (1859).\n\nHis \"Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication\" (1868).\n\n\"The Descent of Man\" (1871).\n\nOn the \"Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals\" (1872).\n\n\"Fertilization of Orchids\" (1862), \"The Effects of Cross and\nSelf-Fertilization\" (1876), and \"The Formation of Vegetable Mould\nthrough the Action of Worms\" (1881).\n\nIll-health, death, and burial.\n\nPersonality, tastes, and mental characteristics.\n\nHis beliefs and agnostic attitude toward religion.\n\nHis prime postulate, that species have been modified during a long\ncourse of descent.\n\nAntagonistic views on the immutability of species.\n\nHis theory of natural selection: that all animal and plant life has a\ncommon progenitor, difference in their forms arising primarily from\nbeneficial variations.\n\nEnunciates in the \"Descent of Man\" the great principle of Evolution, and\nthe common kinship of man and the lower animals.\n\nBiological evidence to sustain this view.\n\nMan's moral qualities, and the social instinct of animals.\n\nReligious beliefs not innate, nor instinctive.\n\nBearing of this on belief in the immortality of the soul.\n\nAs a scientist Darwin concerned only with truth; general acceptance of\nhis theory of the origin of species.\n\n\n\nJOHN ERICSSON.\n\nNAVIES OF WAR AND COMMERCE.\n\nBY PROF. W. F. DUKAND.\n\nEricsson's life-work little foreseen in his youth and early\nsurroundings.\n\nHis impress on the engineering practice of his time.\n\nDependence, in our modern civilization, on the utilization of the great\nnatural forces and energies of the world.\n\nLife-periods in Sweden, England, and the United States.\n\nBirth, parentage, and early engineering career.\n\nAn officer in the Swedish army, and topographical surveyor for his\nnative government.\n\nAstonishing insight into mechanical and scientific questions.\n\nHis work, 1827 to 1839, when he came to the United States.\n\n\"A spendthrift in invention;\" versatility and daring.\n\nThe screw-propeller _vs_. the paddle-wheel for marine propulsion.\n\nDesigns and constructs the steam-frigate \"Princeton\" and the hot-air\nship \"Ericsson\".\n\nThe Civil War and his services in the art of naval construction.\n\nHis new model of a floating battery and warship, \"The Monitor\".\n\nThe battle between it and the \"Merrimac\" a turning-point in naval aspect\nof the war.\n\n\"The Destroyer,\" built in connection with Mr. Delamater.\n\nImproves the character and reduces friction in the use of heavy\nordnance.\n\nWork on the improvement of steam-engines for warships.\n\nDeath, and international honors paid at his funeral.\n\nHis work in improving the motive-power of ships.\n\nSpecial contributions to the art of naval war.\n\nShips of low freeboard equipped with revolving turrets.\n\nInfluence of his work lives in the modern battleship.\n\nOther features of work which he did for his age.\n\nPersonality and professional traits.\n\nEssentially a designer rather than a constructing engineer.\n\n\n\nLI HUNG CHANG.\n\nTHE FAR EAST.\n\nBY W.A.P. MARTIN, D.D., LL.D.\n\nIntroductory; Earl Li's foreign fame; his rising star.\n\nIntercourse with China by land.\n\nThe Great Wall; China first known to the western world through its\nconquest by the Mongols.\n\nThe houses of Han, Tang, and Sang.\n\nThe diplomat Su Wu on an embassy to Turkey.\n\nIntercourse by sea.\n\nExpulsion of the Mongols; the magnetic needle.\n\nArt of printing; birth of alchemy.\n\nManchu conquest; Macao and Canton opened to foreign trade.\n\nThe Opium War.\n\nLi Hung Chang appears on the scene.\n\nHis contests for academical honors and preferment.\n\nThe Taiping rebellion.\n\nLi a soldier; General Ward and \"Chinese Gordon\".\n\nThe Arrow War; the treaties.\n\nLord Elgin's mistake leads to renewal of the war.\n\nFall of the Peiho forts and flight of the Court.\n\nThe war with France.\n\nMr. Seward and Anson Burlingame.\n\nWar ended through the agency of Sir Robert Hart.\n\nWar with Japan.\n\nPerry at Tokio (Yeddo); overturn of the Shogans.\n\nFormosa ceded to Japan.\n\nChina follows Japan and throws off trammels of antiquated usage.\n\nWar with the world.\n\nThe Boxer rising; menace to the Peking legations.\n\nPrince Ching and Viceroy Li arrange terms of peace.\n\nLi's death; patriot, and patron of educational reform.\n\n\n\nDAVID LIVINGSTONE.\n\nAFRICAN DEVELOPMENT.\n\nBY CYRUS C. ADAMS.\n\nDifficulties of exploration in the \"Dark Continent\"\n\nLivingstone's belief that \"there was good in Africa,\" and that it was\nworth reclaiming.\n\nHis early journeyings kindled the great African movement.\n\nYouthful career and studies, marriage, etc.\n\nContact with the natives; wins his way by kindness.\n\nSublime faith in the future of Africa.\n\nProgress in the heart of the continent since his day.\n\nInterest of his second and third journeyings (1853-56).\n\nVisits to Britain, reception, and personal characteristics.\n\nLater discoveries and journeyings (1858-1864, 1866-1873).\n\nDeath at Chitambo (Ilala) Lake Bangweolo, May 1, 1873.\n\nGeneral accuracy of his geographical records; his work, as a whole,\nstands the test of time.\n\nDownfall of the African slave-trade, the \"open sore of the world\".\n\nRemarkable achievements of later explorers and surveyors.\n\nThe work of Burton, Junker, Speke, and Stanley.\n\nFather Schynse's chart.\n\nSurveys of Commander Whitehouse.\n\nMissionary maps of the Congo Free State and basin.\n\nOther areas besides tropical Africa made known and opened up.\n\nPygmy tribes and cannibalism in the Congo basin.\n\nHuman sacrifices now prohibited and punishable with death.\n\nRailway and steamboat development, and partition of the continent.\n\nSouth Africa: the gold and diamond mines and natural resources.\n\nFuture philanthropic work.\n\n\n\nSIR AUSTEN HENRY LAYARD.\n\nMODERN ARCHAEOLOGY.\n\nBY WILLIAM HAYES WARD, D.D., LL/D.\n\nOverthrow of Nineveh and destruction of the Assyrian Empire.\n\nKingdoms and empires extant and buried before the era of Hebrew and\nGreek history.\n\nBonaparte in Egypt, and the impulse he gave to French archaeology.\n\nChampollion and his deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions.\n\nPaul \u00c9mile Botta and his discoveries in Assyria.\n\nHis excavations of King Sargon's palace at Khorsabad.\n\nLayard begins his excavations and discoveries at Nineveh.\n\nSir Stratford Canning's (Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe) gift to the\nBritish Museum of the marbles of Halicarnassus.\n\nLayard's published researches, \"Nineveh and its Remains,\" and \"Babylon\nand Nineveh\".\n\nHis work, \"The Monuments of Nineveh\" (1849-53).\n\nObelisk and monoliths of Shalmaneser II., King of Assyria, discovered by\nLayard at Nimroud.\n\nGeorge Smith and his discovery of the Babylonian account of the Deluge.\n\nLight thrown by these discoveries on the Pharaoh of the Bible, and on\nMelchizedek, who reigned in Abraham's day.\n\nOther archaeologists of note, Glaser, De Morgan, De Sarzec, and Botta.\n\nRelics of Buddha, and the Hittite inscriptions.\n\nThe Moabite Stone, and work of the English Palestine Exploration Fund at\nJerusalem.\n\nDr. Schliemann's labors among the ruins of Troy.\n\nResearches and discoveries at Crete.\n\nThe mounds, pyramids, and temples of the American aborigines.\n\nThe cliff-dwellers and the Mayas, Incas, and Toltecs.\n\nThe Calendar Stone and statue of the gods of war and death found in\nMexico.\n\nWhat treasure yet remains to be recovered of a past civilization.\n\n\n\nMICHAEL FARADAY.\n\nELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM.\n\nBY EDWIN J. HOUSTON, PH.D.\n\n\"The Prince of Experimental Philosophers\".\n\nUnprecocious as a child; environment of his early years.\n\nHis early study of Mrs. Marcet's \"Conversations on Chemistry,\" and the\narticles on electricity in the \"Encyclopaedia Britannica\".\n\nAppointed laboratory assistant at the London Royal Institution.\n\nInspiration received from his teacher, Sir Humphry Davy.\n\nInvestigations in chemistry, electricity, and magnetism.\n\nHis discovery (1831) of the means for developing electricity direct from\nmagnetism.\n\nSubstitutes magnets for active circuits.\n\nSimplicity of the apparatus used in his successful experiments.\n\nSome of the results obtained by him in his experimental researches.\n\nWhat is to-day owing to him for his discovery and investigation of all\nforms of magneto-electric induction.\n\nHis discovery of the relations between light and magnetism.\n\nAction of glass and other solid substances on a beam of polarized light.\n\nHis paper on \"Magnetization of Light and the Illumination of the Lines\nof Magnetic Force\".\n\nHis contribution (1845) on the \"Magnetic Condition of All Matter\".\n\nInvestigation of the phenomena which he calls \"the Magne-crystallic\nforce\".\n\nExtent of his work in the electro-chemical field.\n\nHis invention of the first dynamo.\n\nHis alternating-current transformer.\n\nInduction coils and their use in producing the R\u00f6ntgen rays.\n\nEdison's invention of the fluoroscope.\n\nFaraday's gift to commercial science of the electric motor.\n\nHis dynamo-electric machine.\n\nModern electric transmissions of power.\n\nTesla's multiphase alternating-current motor.\n\nFaraday's electric generator and motor.\n\nThe telephone, aid given by Faraday's discoveries in the invention and\nuse of the transmitter.\n\nModern power-generating and transmission plants a magnificent\ntestimonial to the genius of Faraday.\n\nDeath and honors.\n\n\n\nRUDOLF VIRCHOW.\n\nMEDICINE AND SURGERY.\n\nBY FRANK P. FOSTER, M.D.\n\nJenner demonstrates efficacy of vaccination against small-pox.\n\nDebt to the physicists, chemists, and botanists of the new era.\n\nAppendicitis (peritonitis), its present frequency.\n\nExperimental methods of study in physiology.\n\nHahnemann, founder of homoeopathy, and physical diagnosis of the sick.\n\nThe clinical thermometer and other instruments of precision.\n\nAnimal parasites the direct cause of many diseases.\n\nBacteria and the germ theory of disease.\n\nPasteur, viruses, and aseptic surgery.\n\nConsumption and its germ; the corpuscles and their resistance to\nbacterial invasion.\n\nAntitoxines as a cure in diphtheria.\n\nTheir use in surgery; asepticism and Lord Lister.\n\nListerism and midwifery.\n\nAmerican aid in the treatment of fractures.\n\nUse of artificial serum in disease treatment.\n\nKoch's tuberculin and its use in consumption.\n\nChemistry as a handmaid of medicine.\n\nBrown-S\u00e9quard and \"internal secretions\".\n\nFebrile ailment and cold-water applications.\n\nSurgical anaesthetics; Long, Morton, and Simpson.\n\nOvariotomy operations by McDowell and Bell.\n\nProfessional nursing.\n\nVirchow and the literature of medicine, anatomy, and physiology; his\ndeath; his \"Archiv,\" \"Cellular-Pathology,\" etc.\n\n\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\n\nVOLUME XIV.\n\nDr. Jenner Vaccinates a Child\n  _After the painting by George Gaston Melingue_\n\nRichard Wagner\n  _After the painting by Franz von Lenbach_\n\nJohn Ruskin\n  _After a photograph from life_\n\nHerbert Spencer\n  _After a photograph from life_\n\nCharles Robert Darwin\n  _After the painting by G. F. Watts, R.A._\n\nJohn Ericsson\n  _From a contemporaneous engraving_\n\nLi Hung Chang\n  _After a photograph from life_\n\nDavid Livingstone\n  _After a photograph from life_\n\nSir Austen Henry Layard\n  _After the painting by H. W. Phillips_\n\nMichael Faraday\n  _After a photograph from life_\n\nRudolf Virchow\n  _After a photograph from life_\n\n\n\n\nBEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY.\n\n\nRICHARD WAGNER: MODERN MUSIC.\n\n\nBY HENRY T. FINCK.\n\n\nIf the Dresden schoolboys who attended the _Kreuzschule_ in the years\n1823-1827 could have been told that one of them was destined to be the\ngreatest opera composer of all times, and to influence the musicians of\nall countries throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, they\nwould, no doubt, have been very much surprised. Nor is it likely that\nthey could have guessed which of them was the chosen one. For Richard\nWagner--or Richard Geyer, as he was then called, after his\nstepfather--was by no means a youthful prodigy, like Mozart or Liszt. It\nis related that Beethoven shed tears of displeasure over his first music\nlessons; nevertheless, it was obvious from the beginning that he had a\nspecial gift for music. Richard Wagner, on the other hand, apparently\nhad none. When he was eight years old his stepfather, shortly before his\ndeath, heard him play on the piano two pieces from one of Weber's\noperas, which made him wonder if Richard might \"perhaps\" have talent for\nmusic. His piano teacher did not believe even in that \"perhaps,\" but\ntold him bluntly he would \"never amount to anything\" as a musician.\n\nFor poetry, however, young Richard had a decided inclination in his\nschool years; and this was significant, inasmuch as it afterwards became\nhis cardinal maxim that in an opera \"the play's the thing,\" and the\nmusic merely a means of intensifying the emotional expression. Before\nhis time the music, or rather the singing of florid tunes, had been \"the\nthing,\" and the libretto merely a peg to hang these tunes on. In this\nrespect, therefore, the child was father to the man. At the age of\neleven he received a prize for the best poem on the death of a\nschoolmate. At thirteen he translated the first twelve books of Homer's\nOdyssey. He studied English for the sole purpose of being able to read\nShakspeare. Then he projected a stupendous tragedy, in the course of\nwhich he killed off forty-two persons, many of whom had to be brought\nback as ghosts to enable him to finish the play.\n\nThis extravagance also characterized his first efforts as a composer,\nwhen he at last turned to music, at the age of sixteen. One of his first\ntasks, when he had barely mastered the rudiments of composition, was to\nwrite an overture which he intended to be more complicated than\nBeethoven's Ninth Symphony. Heinrich Dorn, who recognized his talent\namid all the bombast, conducted this piece at a concert. At the\nrehearsal the musicians were convulsed with laughter, and at the\nperformance the audience was at first surprised and then disgusted at\nthe persistence of the drum-player, who made himself heard loudly every\nfourth bar. Finally there was a general outburst of hilarity which\ntaught the young man a needed lesson.\n\nUndoubtedly the germs of his musical genius had been in Wagner's brain\nin his childhood,--for genius is not a thing that can be acquired. They\nhad simply lain dormant, and it required a special influence to develop\nthem. This influence was supplied by Weber and his operas. In 1815, two\nyears after Wagner's birth, the King of Saxony founded a German opera in\nDresden, where theretofore Italian opera had ruled alone. Weber was\nchosen as conductor, and thus it happened that Wagner's earliest and\ndeepest impressions came from the composer of the \"Freisch\u00fctz.\" In his\nautobiographic sketch Wagner writes: \"Nothing gave me so much pleasure\nas the 'Freisch\u00fctz.' I often saw Weber pass by our house when he came\nfrom rehearsals. I always looked upon him with a holy awe.\" It was lucky\nfor young Richard that his stepfather, Geyer, besides being a\nportrait-painter, an actor, and a playwright, was also one of Weber's\ntenors at the opera. This enabled the boy, in spite of the family's\npoverty, to hear many of the performances. In fact, Wagner, like Weber,\nowes a considerable part of his success as a writer for the stage to the\nfact that he belonged to a theatrical family, and thus gradually learned\n\"how the wheels go round.\" Such practical experience is worth more than\nyears of academic study.\n\nWhile Wagner cordially acknowledged the fascination which Weber's music\nexerted on him in his boyhood, he was hardly fair to Weber in his later\nwritings. In these he tries to prove that his own music-dramas are an\noutgrowth of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. When Beethoven wrote that work,\nWagner argues, he had come to the conclusion that purely instrumental\nmusic had reached a point beyond which it could not go alone, wherefore\nhe called in the aid of poetry (sung by soloists and chorus), and thus\nintimated that the art-work of the future was the musical drama,--a\ncombination of poetry and music.\n\nThis is a purely fantastic notion on Wagner's part. There is no evidence\nthat Beethoven had any such purpose; he merely called in the aid of the\nhuman voice to secure variety of sound and expression. Poetry and music\nhad been combined centuries before Beethoven in the opera and in\nlyric song.\n\nNo, the roots of Wagner's music-dramas are not to be found in Beethoven,\nbut in Weber. His \"Freisch\u00fctz\" and \"Euryanthe\" are the prototypes of\nWagner's operas. The \"Freisch\u00fctz\" is the first masterwork, as Wagner's\noperas are the last, up to date, of the romantic school; and it embodies\nadmirably two of the principal characteristics of that school: one, a\ndelight in the demoniac, the supernatural--what the Germans call\n_gruseln_; the other, the use of certain instruments, alone or in\ncombination, for the sake of securing peculiar emotional effects. In\nboth these respects Wagner followed in Weber's footsteps. With the\nexception of \"Rienzi\" and \"Die Meistersinger,\" all of his operas, from\nthe \"Flying Dutchman\" to \"Parsifal,\" embody supernatural, mythical,\nromantic elements; and in the use of novel tone colors for special\nemotional effects he opened a new wonder-world of sound, to which Weber,\nhowever, had given him the key.\n\n\"Lohengrin,\" the last one of what are usually called Wagner's \"operas,\"\nas distinguished from his \"music-dramas\" (comprising the last seven of\nhis works), betrays very strongly the influence of Weber's other\nmasterwork, \"Euryanthe.\" This opera, indeed, may also be called the\ndirect precursor of Wagner's music-dramas. It contains eight \"leading\nmotives,\" which recur thirty times in course of the opera; and the\ndramatic recitatives are sometimes quite in the \"Wagnerian\" manner. But\nthe most remarkable thing is that Weber uses language which practically\nsums up Wagner's idea of the music-drama. \"'Euryanthe,'\" he says, \"is a\npurely dramatic work, which depends for its success solely on the\nco-operation of the united sister-arts, and is certain to lose its\neffect if deprived of their assistance.\"\n\nWhen Wagner wrote his essay on \"The Music of the Future\" for the\nParisians (1860) he remembered his obligations to the Dresden idol of\nhis boyhood by calling attention to \"the still very noticeable\nconnection\" of his early work, \"Tannh\u00e4user,\" with \"the operas of my\npredecessors, among whom I name especially Weber,\" He might have\nmentioned others,--Gluck, for instance, who curbed the vanity of the\nsingers, and taught them that they were not \"the whole show;\" Marschner,\nwhose grewsome \"Hans Heiling\" Wagner had in mind when he wrote his\n\"Flying Dutchman;\" Auber, whose \"Masaniello,\" with its dumb heroine,\ntaught Wagner the importance and expressiveness of pantomimic music, of\nwhich there are such eloquent examples in all his operas. During his\nthree and a half years' sojourn in Paris, just at the opening of his\ncareer as an opera composer (1839-1842), he learned many things\nregarding operatic scenery, machinery, processions, and details, which\nhe subsequently turned to good account. Even Meyerbeer, the ruler of the\nmusical world in Paris at that time, was not without influence on him,\nthough he had cause to disapprove of him because of his submission to\nthe demands of the fashionable taste of the day, which contrasted so\nstrongly with Wagner's own courageous defiance of everything\ninconsistent with his ideals of art. The result to-day--Meyerbeer's fall\nand Wagner's triumph--shows that courage, like honesty, is, in the long\nrun, the best policy, and, like virtue, its own reward.\n\nIt is important to bear in mind all these lessons that Wagner learned\nfrom his predecessors, as it helps to explain the enormous influence he\nexerted on his contemporaries. Wonderful as was the power and\noriginality of his genius, even he could not have achieved such results\nhad he not had truth on his side,--truth, as hinted at, in moments of\ninspiration, by many of his predecessors.\n\nWagner was most shamefully misrepresented by his enemies during his\nlifetime. A thousand times they wrote unblushingly that he despised and\nabused the great masters, whereas in truth no one ever spoke of them\nmore enthusiastically than he, or was more eager to learn of them,\nthough, to be sure, he was honest and courageous enough also to call\nattention to their shortcomings. In all his autobiographic writings\nthere is not a more luminous passage than the following, in which he\nrelates his experiences as conductor at the Riga Opera in 1838, when he\nwas at work on \"Rienzi\":--\n\n\"The peculiar gnawing melancholy which habitually overpowered me when I\nconducted one of our ordinary operas was interrupted by an\ninexpressible, enthusiastic delight, when, here and there, during the\nperformance of nobler works, I became conscious of the incomparable\neffects that can be produced by musico-dramatic combinations on the\nstage,--effects of a depth, sincerity, and direct realistic vivacity,\nsuch as no other art can produce. I felt quite elated and ennobled\nduring the time that I was rehearsing M\u00e9hul's enchanting 'Joseph' with\nmy little opera company.\" \"Such impressions,\" he continues, \"like\nflashes of lightning\" revealed to him \"unsuspected possibilities.\" It\nwas by utilizing these \"possibilities\" and hints, and at the same time\navoiding the errors and blemishes of his predecessors, that his\nsuperlative genius was enabled to create such unapproachable masterworks\nas \"Siegfried\" and \"Tristan and Isolde.\"\n\nThe way up to those peaks was, however, slow and toilsome. For years he\ngroped in darkness, and light came but gradually. It has already been\nintimated that his genius was slow in developing. A brief review of his\nromantic career will bring out this and other interesting points.\n\nAt the time when Richard Wagner was born (May 22, 1813), Leipzig was in\nsuch a state of commotion on account of the war to liberate Germany from\nthe Napoleonic yoke that the child's baptism was deferred several\nmonths. To his schooldays reference has been made already, and we may\ntherefore pass on to the time when he tried to make his living as an\noperatic conductor. Although he was then only twenty-one years old, he\nshowed remarkable aptitude for this kind of work from the beginning, and\nit was through no fault of his that misfortune overtook every opera\ncompany with which he had anything to do. The bankruptcy, in 1836, of\nthe manager of the Magdeburg Opera, affected him most disastrously, for\nit came at the moment when he had arranged for the first performance of\nan opera he had written, entitled, \"Das Liebesverbot,\" or \"The Novice of\nPalermo,\" and which therefore was given only once. Many years later an\nattempt was made to revive this juvenile work at Munich, but the project\nwas abandoned because, as the famous Wagnerian tenor, Heinrich Vogl,\ninformed the writer of this article, \"Its arias and other numbers were\nsuch ludicrous and undisguised imitations of Donizetti and other popular\ncomposers of that time that we all burst out laughing, and kept up the\nmerriment throughout the rehearsal.\" This is of interest because it\nshows that Wagner, like that other great reformer, Gluck, began his\ncareer by writing fashionable operas in the Italian style. A still\nearlier opera of his, \"The Fairies,\"--the first one he completed,--was\nnot produced till 1888, fifty-five years after it had been written, and\nfive years after Wagner's death. This has been performed a number of\ntimes in Munich, but it is so weak and uninteresting in itself that it\nrequired a splendid stage setting, and the \"historic\" curiosity of\nWagner's admirers to make it palatable. It is significant that already\nin these early works, Wagner wrote his own librettos,--a policy which he\npursued to the end.\n\nK\u00f6nigsberg was the next city where the opera company with which he was\nconnected, failed. This was the more embarrassing to him, as he had in\nthe meantime been so unwise as to marry a pretty actress, Minna Planer,\nwho was destined, for a quarter of a century, to faithfully share his\nexperiences,--chiefly disappointments. The pittance he got as conductor\nof these small German opera companies did not pay his expenses, all the\nless as he was fond of luxurious living, and, like most artists, the\nworld over, foolishly squandered his money when he happened to have any.\n\nAt Riga, where Wagner next attempted to establish himself, the opera\ncompany again got into trouble, and his financial straits became such\nthat, relying on his future ability to meet his obligations, he resolved\nto leave that part of the world altogether and seek his fortune in\nParis. He knew that the Prussian Meyerbeer had won fame and fortune\nthere,--why should not he have the same good luck? He had unbounded\nconfidence in his own ability, and what increased his hopes of a\nParisian success, was that he had already completed two acts of a grand\nhistoric opera, \"Rienzi,\" based on Bulwer's novel, and written in the\nsensational and spectacular style of Meyerbeer. He supposed that all he\nhad to do was to go to Paris, finish this opera, get it accepted through\nthe influence of his countryman and colleague, Meyerbeer, and--wake up\nsome morning famous and wealthy. He was not the first man who built\ncastles in Spain.\n\nTo-day a trip from Riga to Paris is a very simple affair. You get into a\ntrain, and in about twenty-four hours are at your goal. In 1839 there\nwere no such conveniences. Wagner had to go to the Prussian seaport of\nPillau, and there board a sailing vessel which took him to London in\nthree weeks and a half. His journey, however, was a much more romantic\naffair than a railway trip would have been. In the first place, it was a\nreal flight--from his creditors whom he had to evade. Next he had to\ndodge the Russian sentries, whose boxes were placed on the boundary line\nonly a thousand yards apart. A friend discovered a way of accomplishing\nthis feat, and Wagner presently found himself on the ship, with his\nwife and his enormous Newfoundland dog. In his trunk he had what he\nhoped would help him to begin a brilliant career in Paris: one opera\ncompleted,--\"The Novice of Palermo;\" two acts of another,--\"Rienzi;\" and\nin his head he had the plot and some of the musical themes for a\nthird,--\"The Flying Dutchman.\"\n\nThe sea voyage came just in time to give him local color for this weird\nnautical opera. Three times the vessel was tossed by violent storms, and\nonce the captain was obliged to seek safety in a Norwegian harbor. The\nsailors told Wagner their version of the \"Flying Dutchman\" legend, and\naltogether these adventures were the very thing he wanted at the time,\nand aided him in making his opera realistic, both in its text and its\nmusic, which imitates the howling of the storm winds and \"smells of the\nsalt breezes.\"\n\nSo for once our young musician had a streak of luck. But it did not last\nlong. He found Paris a very large city, and with very little use for\nhim. He made the most diverse efforts to support himself, nearly always\nwithout success. Once it seemed as if his hopes were to be fulfilled.\nThe Th\u00e9\u00e2tre de la Renaissance accepted his \"Novice of Palermo;\" but at\nthe last moment there was the usual bankruptcy of the management,--the\nfourth that affected him! Then he wrote a Parisian Vaudeville, but it\nhad to be given up because the actors declared it could not be executed.\nThe Grand Opera, on which he had fixed his eye, was absolutely out of\nthe question. He was brought to such straits that he offered to sing in\nthe chorus of a small Boulevard theatre, but was rejected. His wife\npawned her jewels; on several occasions it is said that she even went\ninto the street to beg a few pennies for their supper. It was doubtless\nduring these years of starvation that Wagner acquired those gastric\ntroubles which in later years often prevented him from working more than\nan hour or two a day.\n\nA few German friends occasionally gave a little pecuniary aid, but the\nonly regular source of income was musical hackwork for the publisher\nSchlesinger, who gladly availed himself of Wagner's skill in having him\nmake vocal scores of operas, or arrange popular melodies for the piano\nand other instruments. Wagner also wrote stories and essays for musical\nperiodicals, for which he received fair remuneration; but his attempt to\ncompose romances and become a parlor favorite failed. Nobody wanted his\nsongs, and he finally offered them to the editor of a periodical in\nGermany for two dollars and a half to four dollars apiece. This may seem\nludicrously pathetic; but then had not poor Schubert, a little more than\na decade before this, sold much better songs for twenty cents each!\n\nMeyerbeer no doubt aided Wagner, but considering his very great\ninfluence in Paris, he achieved surprisingly little for him. The score\nof \"Rienzi\" had been completed in 1840, and in the spring of the next\nyear, Wagner went to Meudon, near Paris, and there composed the music of\n\"The Flying Dutchman,\" in seven weeks, but neither of these operas\nseemed to have the least chance to appear on the boards of the Grand\nOpera. The best their author could do was to sell the libretto of \"The\nFlying Dutchman\" for one hundred dollars, reserving the right to set it\nto music himself.\n\nThe outcome of all these disappointments was that he finally lost hope\nso far as Paris was concerned, and sent his \"Rienzi\" to Dresden and his\n\"Flying Dutchman\" to Berlin. The \"Novice of Palermo\" he had given up\nentirely after the bankruptcy of the Renaissance Th\u00e9\u00e2tre, because, as he\nwrote, \"I felt that I could no longer respect myself as its composer.\"\nMeyerbeer had, at his request, kindly sent a note to the intendant of\nthe Dresden Opera, in which he said, among other things, that he had\nfound the selections from \"Rienzi,\" which Wagner had played for him,\n\"highly imaginative and of great dramatic effect.\" Tichatschek, the\nfamous Dresden tenor, examined the score, and liked the title role; the\nchorus director, Fischer, also pleaded for the acceptance of the opera;\nand so at last Wagner got word in Paris that it would be produced in\nDresden. As Berlin, too, retained the manuscript of his other opera,\nthere was reason enough for him to end his Parisian sojourn and return\nto his native country. He went overland this time, and, to cite his own\nwords, \"For the first time I saw the Rhine; with tears in my eyes I, the\npoor artist, swore eternal allegiance to my German fatherland.\"\n\nIt was fortunate in every way that he went to Dresden. His opera\nrequired many alterations and improvements, which he alone could make.\nHe was permitted to superintend the rehearsals, which was, of course, a\ngreat advantage to the opera. The singers grew more and more\nenthusiastic over the music, and when the first public performance was\ngiven, on October 20, 1842, the audience also was delighted and remained\nto the very end, although the performance lasted six hours. The composer\nimmediately applied the pruning-knife and reduced the duration to four\nhours and a half (from 6 to 10.30,--opera hours were early in those\ndays); but the tenor, Tichatschek, declared with tears in his eyes, \"I\nshall not permit any cuts in my part! It is too heavenly.\"\n\nThose were proud and happy days for Wagner. \"I, who had hitherto been\nlonely, deserted, homeless,\" he wrote, \"suddenly found myself loved,\nadmired, by many even regarded with wonderment.\" \"Rienzi\" was repeated a\nnumber of times to overcrowded houses, though the prices had been put\nup. It was regarded as \"a fabulous success,\" and the management was\neager to follow it up with another. So the score of \"The Flying\nDutchman\" was demanded of Berlin (where they seemed in no hurry to use\nit), and at once put into rehearsal. It was produced in Dresden on\nJanuary 2, 1843, only about ten weeks after \"Rienzi,\"--an almost\nunprecedented event in the life of an opera composer. Wagner conducted\nthe second opera himself (also \"Rienzi,\" after the first few\nperformances), and gave so much satisfaction that he was shortly\nafterwards appointed to the position of royal conductor (which he held\nabout six years).\n\nSo far, all seemed well. But disappointments soon began to overshadow\nhis seeming good luck. The first production of the \"Flying Dutchman\" can\nhardly be called a success. Wagner himself characterized the performance\nas being, in its main features, \"a complete failure,\" and the stage\nsetting \"incredibly awkward and wooden\" (very different from what it is\nin Dresden to-day). Mme. Schroeder-Devrient was an admirable \"Senta,\"\nand received enthusiastic applause; but the opera itself puzzled the\naudience rather than pleased it.\n\nThe music-lovers of Dresden had expected another opera _\u00e0 la_ Meyerbeer,\nlike \"Rienzi,\" with its arias and duos, its din and its dances, its\npomps and processions, its scenic and musical splendors. Instead of\nthat, they heard a work utterly unlike any opera ever before written; an\nopera without arias, duets, and dances, without any of the glitter that\nhad theretofore entertained the public; an opera that simply related a\nlegend in one breath, as it were,--like a dramatic ballad; an opera that\nindulged in weird chromatic scales, and harsh but expressive harmonies,\nwith an unprecedented license. Here was the real Wagner, but even in\nthis early and comparatively crude and simple phase, Wagner was too\nnovel and revolutionary to be appreciated by his contemporaries; hence\nit is not to be wondered at that the \"Flying Dutchman,\" after four\nperformances in Dresden, and a few in Cassel and Berlin, disappeared\nfrom the stage for ten years.\n\nAlthough Wagner was now royal conductor, he did not succeed in securing\na revival of this opera at Dresden. His next work, \"Tannh\u00e4user,\" was\nnevertheless promptly accepted. The score was completed on April 13,\n1845, and six, months later (October 19), the first performance was\ngiven. Wagner had thrown himself with all his soul into the composition\nof this score. To a friend in Berlin he wrote: \"This opera must be good,\nor else I never shall be able to do anything worth while.\" The public at\nfirst seemed to agree with him. Seven performances were given before the\nend of the season, and it was resumed the following year; yet Wagner\ncame to the conclusion that he had written the opera \"for a few intimate\nfriends, but not for the public,\" to cite his own words. What the public\nhad expected and desired was shown by its enthusiastic reception of\n\"Rienzi,\" and its colder treatment of the \"Dutchman.\" But \"Tannh\u00e4user\"\nwas like the second opera; in fact, even \"more so.\" Wagner had outlived\nthe time when he was willing to make concessions to current taste and\nfashion; thenceforth he went his own way, eager, indeed, for approval,\nbut stubbornly refusing to win it by sacrificing his high art ideals.\n\nHere was true heroism, genuine manliness! Had he been willing to write\nmore operas like \"Rienzi,\" he might have revelled in wealth (he loved\nwealth!) and basked in the sunshine of popularity, like Meyerbeer. But\nnot one inch of concession did he make for the sake of the much-coveted\nriches and popular favor.\n\nYet was not his next work, \"Lohengrin,\" of a popular character? Popular\nto-day, yes; but in the days of his Dresden conductorship he could not\neven get it accepted for performance at his own opera-house! It was\ncompleted in August, 1847 (the last act having been written first and\nthe second last), but although he remained in Dresden two years longer,\nall his efforts to get it staged failed, for various reasons. And when,\nat last, Liszt gave it for the first time, on August 28, 1850, at\nWeimar, whence it gradually made its way to other opera-houses, its\nreception everywhere showed that it was very far from being considered a\n\"popular\" work. The critics, especially, vied with one another in\nabusing this same \"Lohengrin,\" which at present is sung more frequently\nthan any other opera; and they continued to abuse it until about twenty\nyears ago. \"An abyss of ennui,\" \"void of all melody,\" \"an insult to the\nvery essence of music,\" \"a caricature of music,\" \"algebraic harmonies,\"\n\"no tangible ideas,\" \"not a dozen bars of melody,\" \"an opera without\nmusic,\" \"an incoherent mass of rubbish,\"--are a few of the \"critical\"\nopinions passed on this opera, which is now regarded in all countries as\na very wonderland of beautiful melodies and expressive harmonies.\n\nThe non-acceptance in Dresden of this glorious opera, concerning which\nWagner wrote, \"It is the best thing I have done so far,\" was only one of\nmany trials and disappointments which daily harassed him. He was over\nhead and ears in debt, because, in his confidence in the immediate\nsuccess of his operas, he had had them printed at once, at his own\nexpense. The opera-houses were very slow in accepting them, and this\nleft him in a sad predicament. There were, moreover, enemies\neverywhere,--ignorant, old-fashioned professionals, who objected to his\nway of interpreting the masters (though it was afterwards admitted that\nhe was epoch-making as an interpreter of their deepest thoughts). All\nthis galled him; and, furthermore, no attention whatever was paid to his\npet plans for reforming the Dresden Opera, and theatrical matters\nin general.\n\nIn the state of mind brought about by this condition of affairs, it\nneeded but a firebrand to start an explosion. This firebrand was\nsupplied by the revolutionary uprising of 1849. Now, although Wagner had\nnever really cared much for politics (to his friend Fischer he once\nwrote: \"I do not consider true art possible until politics cease to\nexist\"), he was foolish enough to believe that a general overturning of\naffairs would benefit art-matters, too, and facilitate his operatic\nreforms; so he became, as he himself admits, \"a revolutionist in behalf\nof the theatre.\" He actively assisted the insurgents, and the\nconsequence was that, when the rebellion failed, he had to leave Dresden\nand seek safety in flight.\n\nThree of the leaders of the insurrection--Roeckel, Bakunin, and Heubner;\npersonal friends of Wagner--were captured and imprisoned; he himself was\nso lucky as to escape to Weimar, where Franz Liszt took care of him. It\nso happened that Liszt, who had given up his career as concert pianist\n(though all the world was clamoring to hear him), and was conducting the\nWeimar Opera, had been preparing a performance of \"Tannh\u00e4user,\" to which\nWagner would, under normal conditions, have been invited as a matter of\ncourse. He was now there, but as a political fugitive, wherefore it was\nnot deemed advisable to have him attend the public performance; but he\ndid secretly witness a rehearsal, and was delighted to find that Liszt's\ngenius had enabled him to penetrate into the innermost recesses of this\nmusic. It was impossible, however, for him to stay any longer. The\nDresden police had issued a warrant for the arrest of \"the royal\nKapellmeister Richard Wagner,\" who was to be \"placed on trial for active\nparticipation in the riots which have taken place here.\" No time was,\ntherefore, to be lost. Late in the evening of May 18, Liszt's noble\npatroness, the Princess Wittgenstein, received this note from him: \"Can\nyou give the bearer sixty thalers? Wagner is obliged to fly, and I\ncannot help him at this moment.\"\n\nEarly the next morning Wagner, provided with a false pass, left Weimar\nand headed for Switzerland, which was to be his home for the greater\npart of the following twelve years of his exile from Germany. Had he\nbeen caught, like his friends, and, like them, imprisoned during these\nyears, it is not likely that the world would now possess those seven\nmonuments of his ripest genius, \"Rheingold,\" \"Die Walk\u00fcre,\" \"Siegfried,\"\n\"G\u00f6tterd\u00e4mmerung,\" \"Tristan and Isolde,\" \"Die Meistersinger,\" and\n\"Parsifal.\" Even as it was, the world has undoubtedly lost an immortal\nopera or two through his unfortunate participation in the rebellion. For\nduring the first four years of his exile, he did not compose any music.\nHe reasoned that he had written four good operas and nobody seemed to\nwant them; why, therefore, should he compose any more?\n\nAt the same time, he realized that there were natural reasons why his\noperas were not understood. They were written in such a novel style,\nboth vocal and instrumental, that the singers, players, and conductors\nfound it difficult to perform them correctly, the consequence being that\nthey did not specially impress the audiences, which, moreover, were\nbewildered by finding themselves listening to works so radically\ndifferent from what they had been accustomed to in the opera-houses. In\nthe hope of remedying this state of affairs Wagner devoted several years\nto writing essays, in which he explained his aims and ideals for the\nbenefit both of performers and listeners. Little attention was, however,\npaid to these essays, and although they are valuable aesthetic\ntreatises, most lovers of Wagner would gladly give them for the operas\nhe might have written in the same time,--operas uniting the\ncharacteristics of \"Lohengrin\" and \"The Valkyrie.\"\n\nWagner's letters to Liszt and other friends show that he suffered\ntortures, and was often brought to the verge of suicide by the thought\nthat, as a political refugee, he was unable to go to Germany to\nsuperintend the production of his works. His one consolation was that,\nas he put it, through the friendship of Liszt his art had found a home\nat Weimar at the moment when he himself became homeless. Weimar became,\nas it were, a sort of preliminary Bayreuth, to which pilgrimages were\nmade to hear Wagner's operas. Liszt not only produced the \"Flying\nDutchman,\" \"Tannh\u00e4user,\" and \"Lohengrin,\" but wrote eloquent essays on\nthem, and in every possible way advanced the good cause. It has been\njustly said that by his efforts he accelerated the vogue of Wagner's\noperas fully ten years. He also helped him pecuniarily, and induced\nothers to do the same. Never in the world's history has one artist done\nso much for another as Liszt did for Wagner during all the years of his\nexile in Switzerland.\n\nFew persons would consider residence in Switzerland (the usual home in\nthose days of political refugees) a special hardship; nor would Wagner\nhave considered it in that light except for the solicitude he felt for\nthe children of his brain. Otherwise he greatly enjoyed life in that\nglorious country, and the Alpine ozone nourished and stimulated his\nbrain. Moreover, from the creative point of view, it was an actual\nadvantage for him to be away from the opera-houses of the great\ncapitals. In Switzerland, except for a short time when he was connected\nwith the Zurich opera, he heard no operatic music except such as his own\nbrain created. Undoubtedly this helps to account for the astounding\noriginality of the music-dramas he wrote in Switzerland.\n\nThese music-dramas go as far beyond \"Lohengrin\" in certain directions as\n\"Lohengrin\" goes beyond the operas of Wagner's predecessors. It was a\nreckless thing to do, to make another such giant stride before the world\nhad caught up with his first, and he had to suffer the consequences;\nbut genius disregards prudence, and looks to the future alone. What he\nwas now writing was what his enemies tauntingly called \"the music of the\nfuture,\" because, as they said, nobody liked it at present; but what he\nhimself called the \"art work of the future,\" in which all the fine arts\nare inseparably united.\n\nThe biggest of his works, the \"Nibelung Tetralogy,\" was conceived and\nfor the most part written in Switzerland. Before leaving Dresden he had\nalready written the poem of an opera which he called \"Siegfried's\nDeath.\" Returning to this in his exile he came to the conclusion,\ngradually, that the legend on which it is based, and which he had\nsketched out in prose at the beginning, contained the material for two,\nthree, nay, four operas. Accordingly, he wrote the poems of these:\nfirst, \"G\u00f6tterd\u00e4mmerung,\" then \"Siegfried,\" \"Die Walk\u00fcre,\" and\n\"Rheingold.\" The music to these four dramas was, however, composed in\nthe reverse order, in which they were to be performed.\n\nWagner indulged in no illusions regarding these music-dramas. He knew\nthat they were beyond the capacity of even the best royal opera-houses\nof that time, and that they could be performed only under exceptional\nconditions, such as he finally succeeded, after herculean efforts and\nmany disappointments, in securing at Bayreuth in 1876. It is of great\ninterest to note that the germs of a sort of \"Bayreuth festival plan\"\ncan be found in his letters as early as 1850,--the year when \"Lohengrin\"\nhad its first hearing. Thus a full quarter of a century elapsed between\nthe conception of this festival plan and its execution. But Wagner had\nthe patience of Job, as well as his capacity for suffering.\n\nAmid privations of all sorts, he wrote the sublime music of these\ndramas, beginning with \"Rheingold,\" on Nov. 1, 1853,--the first time he\nhad put new operatic melodies on paper since the completion of\n\"Lohengrin,\" in August, 1847. In his head, to be sure, he had been\ncarrying much of the Nibelung music for some time, for he habitually\ncreated his leading melodies at the same time as the verse; and the four\nNibelung poems were in print in 1853. On May 28, 1854, the score of\n\"Rheingold\" was completed, and four weeks later he began the sketches of\n\"The Valkyrie,\" the completed score of which was in his desk by the end\nof March, 1856.\n\nIn the meantime his poverty had compelled him, much against his wishes,\nto accept an offer from the London Philharmonic Society to conduct their\nconcerts for a season (March to June, 1855). He had reason to bitterly\nregret this action. With the limited number of rehearsals at his command\nit was impossible for him to make the orchestra follow his intentions\nand reveal his greatness as a conductor. He was not allowed to make the\nprogrammes, and the directors, ignorant of the fact that they had\nengaged the greatest musical genius of the century, gave no Wagner\nconcert, and put only a few short selections from his early operas on\nthe programs. Thus his hopes of creating a desire for the hearing of his\ncomplete operas, which had been one of his motives in going to London,\nwere frustrated. He was, moreover, constantly abused for doing things\ndifferently from Mendelssohn, and the leading critics referred to his\nbest music as \"senseless discord,\" \"inflated display of extravagance and\nnoise,\" and so on. Almost the only pleasant episode was the sympathy and\ninterest of Queen Victoria, who had a long talk with him, and informed\nhim that his music had enraptured her.\n\nFor all this trouble and loss of time (he found himself unable in London\nto do any satisfactory work on the uncompleted \"Valkyrie\" score), he\nreceived the munificent sum of $1,000,--considerably less than many\nWagner singers to-day get for one evening's work. Shortly before leaving\nLondon he wrote to a friend that he would bring home about 200\nfrancs,--$40! For this he had wasted four months of precious time and\nendured endless \"contrarieties and vulgar animosities,\" to use his\nown words.\n\nEqually unsuccessful were his efforts, a few years later, to better\nhimself financially by a series of concerts in Paris (1860). They\nresulted in a large deficit. Nor was he benefited by the performances of\nhis \"Tannh\u00e4user,\" which were given at the grand opera in March, 1861, by\norder of Napoleon, at the request of the influential Princess\nMetternich. He had refused to interpolate a vulgar ballet in the second\nact for the benefit of the members of the aristocratic Jockey Club, who\ndined late and insisted on having a ballet on entering the opera-house.\nThey took their revenge by creating such a disturbance every evening\nthat after the third performance Wagner refused to allow any further\nrepetitions, although the house on the third night had been completely\nsold out. He was to receive $50 for each performance. The result was\n$150, or less than 50 cents a day, for a year's hard work and no end of\nworry in connection with the rehearsals.\n\nHow many men are there in the annals of art who would have refused,\nafter all these disappointments and bitter lessons, to make _some_\nconcessions? Wagner was writing a gigantic work, the Nibelung Tetralogy,\nwhich, he was convinced, would never yield a penny's profit during his\nlifetime. Sometimes despair seized him. In one of his letters he\nexclaims: \"Why should I, poor devil, burden and torture myself with such\nterrible tasks, if the present generation refuses to let me have even a\nworkshop?\" Yet the only deviation he made from his plan was that when\nhe had reached the second act of the third of the Nibelung dramas, the\npoetic \"Siegfried,\" in June, 1857, he made up his mind to abandon the\nTetralogy for the time being, and compose an opera which might be\nperformed separately and once more bring him into contact with\nthe stage.\n\nThis opera was \"Tristan and Isolde;\" but instead of being a concession,\nit turned out to be the most difficult and Wagnerian of all his\nworks,--an opera with much emotion but little action, no processions or\nchoruses such as \"Lohengrin\" still had, and, of course, no arias or\ntunes whatever. \"Tristan and Isolde\" was completed in 1859, and Wagner\nwould have much preferred to have its performance in Paris commanded by\nNapoleon in place of \"Tannh\u00e4user.\" What the Jockey Club would have done\nin that case is inconceivable, for, compared with \"Tristan,\"\n\"Tannh\u00e4user\" is almost Meyerbeerian, if not Donizettian. No singers,\nmoreover, could have been found in Paris able to interpret this work,\nwith its new vocal style,--\"speech-song,\" as the Germans call it. Even\nGermany could do nothing, at first, with this opera. In Vienna, after\nfifty-four rehearsals, it was abandoned, in 1863, as \"impossible,\" and\nthat city did not produce it till after Wagner's death. Instead of\nbringing him into immediate contact with the stage, it was not heard\n_anywhere_ till seven years after its completion.\n\nThere was one more card for him to play. All his operas, so far, had\nbeen tragedies. What if he were to write a comic opera? Would not that\nbe likely to get him access to the stage again, and help him\nfinancially? He had the plan for a comic opera; indeed, he had sketched\nit as early as 1845, at the same time as the plot of \"Lohengrin.\"\nSixteen years it lay dormant in his brain. At last he wrote out the poem\nin Paris, immediately after the \"Tannh\u00e4user\" disaster there. Perhaps it\nwould be more accurate to call \"Die Meistersinger\" a humorous opera; for\nwhile the story of the mediaeval knight who wins the goldsmith's\ndaughter has comic features, its chief characteristic is humor, with\nthat undercurrent of seriousness that belongs to all masterpieces of\nhumor. To a certain extent, it is a musical and poetic autobiography,\nthe victorious young Knight Walter, who sings as he pleases, without\nregard to pedantic rules, representing Wagner himself and the \"music of\nthe future,\" while the vain and malicious Beckmesser stands for the\ncritics, and Hans Sachs for enlightened public opinion.\n\nIt was during the time that he wrote the gloriously melodious and\nspontaneous music to this poem that the most important event of his life\nhappened. Work on the score was repeatedly interrupted by the necessity\nof making some money. Most of his concerts in German cities, undertaken\nfor this purpose, did not yield him any profits. In Russia, however, he\nwas very successful, and as he had the promise of a repetition of his\nsuccess, he rented a fine villa at Penzing, near Vienna, and proceeded\nto enjoy life for a change. Who can blame him for this? As he said to a\nfriend not long after this, \"I am differently organized from others,\nhave sensitive nerves, must have beauty, splendor, and light. Is it\nreally such an outrageous thing if I lay claim to the little bit of\nluxury which I like,--I, who am preparing enjoyment for the world and\nfor thousands?\"\n\nUnfortunately the second Russian project failed, through no fault of his\nown, and as he had borrowed money at usurious rates on his expected\nprofits, he found himself compelled to fly once more from his creditors.\nAfter spending a short time in Switzerland, he went to Stuttgart, where\nhe persuaded his friend Weissheimer to go with him into the Suabian\nAlps, where he intended to hide for half a year, until he could finish\nhis \"Meistersinger,\" and with the score raise money for his creditors.\nThe wagon had already been ordered for the next morning, May 3, 1864,\nand Wagner was packing his trunk, when a card was brought up to him with\nthe inscription: \"von Pfistenmeister, Secr\u00e9taire aulique de S.M. le roi\nde Bavi\u00e8re,\" and the message that the Baron came by order of the King of\nBavaria, and was very anxious to see him.\n\nKing Ludwig II. of Bavaria had declared, while he was still crown\nprince, that as soon as he became king he would show the world how\nhighly he held the genius of Wagner in honor. He kept his word. One of\nhis first acts was to despatch Baron von Pfistenmeister to search for\nWagner, and not to return without him. He was to tell him that the king\nwas his most ardent admirer; that he wanted him to come at once to\nMunich, to live there in comfort, at the king's expense, to complete his\nNibelung operas, and produce them forthwith. Was it a wonder that when\nthe Baron had left, Wagner, who was thus suddenly raised from the depth\nof despair (he had even meditated suicide) to the height of happiness,\nfell on Weissheimer's neck, and wept for joy.\n\nSurely the brain of a Dumas could not have conceived a more romantic\nevent than this sudden transformation of one who was a fugitive from\ndebtor's prison into the favorite of a young and enthusiastic king. At\nlast Wagner had an opportunity to bring forward his music-dramas.\n\"Tristan and Isolde\" was sung at the Munich Opera on June 10, 1865, with\nan excellent cast, and Hans von B\u00fclow as conductor. \"Die Meistersinger\"\nfollowed on June 21,1868. Both these works were received with enthusiasm\nby the ever-growing band of Wagner-lovers. His plan of building a\nspecial theatre in Munich for the performance of his Nibelung operas\ncould not be carried out, however, even with the king's aid; for his\ngreat influence with the king (he was rumored to be even his political\nand religious adviser, though this was not true), aroused so much\nhostile feeling that Wagner finally decided to have his Nibelung\nfestival at the old secluded town of Bayreuth.\n\nAt the suggestion of the eminent pianist, Carl Taussig, Wagner societies\nwere formed in the cities of Europe and America to raise funds for this\nfestival and give Wagner a chance to establish a tradition by showing\nthe world how his operas should be performed. With the aid of these and\nliberal contributions by his ever-devoted king, Wagner was able, after\nmany trials, tribulations, and postponements, to bring out, at last, his\ngreat Tetralogy, on August 13, 14,16, and 17, of the year 1876. It was\nbeyond comparison the most interesting and important event in the whole\nhistory of music. Wagner had personally visited the opera-houses\nthroughout the land and selected the best singers. The audience included\nthe Emperors of Germany and Brazil, King Ludwig, the Grand Dukes of\nWeimar and Baden, eminent composers like Liszt, Grieg, Saint-Sa\u00ebns, and\nmany other notable persons. The impression made by the great work was\nthe deeper because of the unusual circumstances: the theatre specially\nconstructed after Wagner's novel plan; the amphitheatric seats; the\nconcealed orchestra; the stereoscopic clearness and nearness of the\nstage scenes, etc.\n\nThe necessity of charging very high rates ($225 for the four dramas)\nnaturally prevented the audiences from being large, and the result was\nthat Wagner had a deficit of $37,000 on his hands as the reward for his\ngenius and years of business worries. When, however, his last work, the\nsublime, semi-religious \"Parsifal,\" was produced in 1882, there was a\nbalance in his favor. He was then in his sixty-ninth year, and the\nexertion of producing this final masterpiece was too great for him. To\nrecuperate, he went to Venice, where he died on Feb. 13, 1882. King\nLudwig sent a special train to convey his body to Bayreuth, where it was\nburied in the garden behind his villa Wahnfried.\n\nSince Wagner's death the Bayreuth festivals have been kept up with\never-increasing success, under the guidance of his widow Cosima, the\ndaughter of Liszt (whom he married in 1870, four years after the death\nof his first wife), and their son, Siegfried, who has in recent years\nalso won some success as an opera composer. The performances at Bayreuth\nare no longer what they were during Wagner's lifetime,--models for all\nthe world; but they are still of unique interest. In truth, headquarters\nlike Bayreuth are no longer needed, for all the German cities now vie\nwith one another in their efforts to interpret the Wagner operas\naccording to the composer's intentions; and his influence on other\nmusicians, which began with the performance of \"Lohengrin\" under Liszt,\nin 1850, is to-day greater than ever,--more powerful, perhaps, than that\never exerted by any other master.\n\nBut while an eminent German critic wrote not long ago that \"the\nmusic-drama of Wagner constitutes modern opera,\" it would be a huge\nmistake to make Wagnerism synonymous with modern music in general. Apart\nfrom the opera, there are several other very powerful currents, and\nwhile most of them can be traced to the first half of the nineteenth\ncentury, they are none the less modern. Their principal sources are\nBeethoven, Schubert, and Chopin, to whom we must add, in the second half\nof the century, Liszt.\n\nThe symphonies of Haydn and Mozart are like toy-houses compared with the\nmassive architecture of Beethoven's. He not only elaborated the forms,\nbut varied the rhythms, broadened the melody, and deepened the\nexpression of orchestral music. In his works, too, are to be found the\ngerms of romanticism, which others, notably Mendelssohn and Schumann,\ndeveloped so fascinatingly in their best works. Most of Mendelssohn's\ncompositions have had their day; but Schumann is still a force in modern\nmusic and will long remain so.\n\nBrahms, the musical Browning, is, musically speaking, a son of Schumann\nand a grandson of Beethoven. While even Brahms did not escape the\ninfluence of Wagner, nor that of the romanticists Schubert and Chopin,\nstill, in his essence, he represents reaction against modern romanticism\nand an atavistic return to the spirit of Beethoven. He has been, for\ndecades, the idol of Wagner's enemies; yet, in truth, there was no\noccasion for opposing these two men, since they worked in entirely\ndifferent fields. Brahms wrote no operas, while Wagner wrote little but\noperas. The real antagonist of Brahms is Liszt, who also worked only for\nthe concert hall and who represents poetic or pictorial music (programme\nmusic), while Brahms stands for absolute music, or music _per se_,\nwithout any poetic affiliations.\n\nWhile Schubert in his youth also came under the influence of his great\ncontemporary, Beethoven, he soon emancipated himself completely from\nhim, even in the symphony, in which, as Schumann pointed out, he opened\nup \"an entirely new world\" of melody, color, and emotion. His\norchestration is more varied, euphonious, and enchanting than\nBeethoven's, and in this direction he did for the symphony what Weber\ndid for the opera. By using the brass instruments pianissimo, for color\ninstead of for loudness, he opened a path in which later masters,\nincluding Wagner, eagerly followed him. Schubert was also the first\ncomposer who revealed the exquisite beauty and the great emotional power\nof the freest modulation from key to key. His poetic impromptus for\npiano became the model for Mendelssohn's \"Songs without Words,\" and the\nmultitudinous forms of modern short pieces, while his melodious, dainty,\ngraceful valses were the forerunners of the exquisite dance-music which\nsubsequently made Vienna famous, and which reached its climax in Johann\nStrauss the younger, universally known as \"the waltz king.\"\n\nIn all these respects, Schubert was epoch-making; and if the beautiful\ndetails he suggested to his successors up to the present day could be\ntaken out of their works there would be some surprising blanks.\nEspecially also is this true in the realm of lyric song, for, as\neverybody knows, he practically created the art song as we know and love\nit. The greatest of his immediate successors, Schumann and Franz,\ncheerfully admitted that they could never have written such songs as\nthey gave the world but for Schubert, and the same confession might be\nmade by the latest of the great songwriters, Grieg, Richard Strauss, and\nour American MacDowell. Schubert's best songs have never been equalled.\nThey belong in the realm of modern music quite as much as Wagner's\nmusic-dramas and Liszt's symphonic poems.\n\nChopin is another composer who, although he died in 1849 (Schubert died\nin 1828), is as modern as the masters just named. He was as boldly\noriginal as Schubert, and as great a magician in the art of arousing\ndeep emotion by means of novel, unexpected modulations. As an originator\nof new harmonic progressions he has had only three equals,--Bach,\nSchubert, and Wagner. Harmonies as ultra-modern as those of Wagner's\n\"Parsifal\" may be found in some of the mazurkas of Chopin. He was, as\nRubinstein called him, \"the soul of the pianoforte.\" No one before or\nafter him knew how to make that instrument speak so eloquently. By\ningeniously scattering the notes of a chord over the keyboard while\nholding down the pedal, he practically gave the player three or four\nhands, and greatly enlarged the harmonic and coloristic possibilities of\nthe pianoforte. Liszt, Rubinstein, Paderewski, and others have gone\nfarther still in the same direction, but he showed the way, and most of\nhis pieces are as delightful and as modern now as they were on the day\nwhen they were written. He wrote a few sonatas, but the majority of his\nworks are short pieces such as are characteristic of the modern\nromantic school.\n\nBefore Chopin modernized pianoforte music the world's greatest composers\nhad been Italians, Germans, and Frenchmen. Chopin's father was a\nFrenchman, but his mother was a native of Poland, and he was born in\nthat country. While his music has the French qualities of elegance and\nclearness (which every one admires in the works of Gounod, Bizet,\nMassenet, and other Parisian masters), in its essence it is Polish--a\nfact of special significance, for from this time on other nations than\nthe three mentioned--especially the Slavic and Scandinavian--begin to\nplay a prominent role in music. In this brief sketch only the greatest\nnames can be considered,--such names as Rubinstein, Tschaikowsky,\nDvor\u00e1k, Grieg.\n\nRubinstein was not only one of the greatest pianists, but one of the\nmost spontaneous and fertile melodists of all times. His frequently\ncareless workmanship and his foolish, savage hostility to the dominant\nWagner movement prevented him from enjoying the fruits of his rare\ngenius. He felt that, had it not been for the all-absorbing Wagner, he\nhimself might have been as popular as Mendelssohn. Although a Russian,\nthere is little local color in his music, for the enchanting exotic\nmelodic intervals in his \"Persian\" songs are Oriental in general, rather\nthan Russian in particular. Similar exotic intervals may be found in the\n\"A\u00efda\" of Verdi, a pure Italian. Rubinstein, like Mendelssohn and\nMeyerbeer, was a Hebrew. His day will yet come, for his Dramatic and\nOcean symphonies are among the grandest orchestral works in existence.\n\nHis countryman, Tschaikowsky, also was neglected during his lifetime;\nbut since his death he has become, especially in London, almost as\npopular as Wagner; and deservedly so, for he was a genius of the\nhighest type, less in his songs and pianoforte works than in his\nsymphonies and symphonic poems, which include some of the most inspired\npages in modern music. In some of his compositions there is a barbaric\nsplendor which proclaims the Russian and delights those who like exotic\nnovelty in music. Like all the Russians, Tschaikowsky was strongly\ninfluenced by Liszt; indeed, it may be said that in Russia Liszt was\nmore potent in shaping the course of modern music than even Wagner.\n\nAnother Slavic composer, the Bohemian Dvor\u00e1k, is of special interest to\nAmericans not only because he is one of the greatest of modern\norchestral writers (a colorist of rare charm), but because he presided\nfor several years over Mrs. Thurber's National Conservatory of Music in\nNew York, and there wrote that truly melodious and deeply emotional\nwork, \"From the New World,\" which has become almost as popular as\nTschaikowsky's \"Path\u00e9tique.\" His Bohemian rhythms have a unique charm.\n\nAmong the Scandinavian composers the greatest, by far, is Grieg, one of\nthe most original melodists and harmonists of all times. His songs, in\nparticular, are destined to immortality; they are among the very best\nwritten since Schubert. Of his pianoforte and chamber music, too, it can\nbe said that everything is new, free from commonplace, and ultra-modern.\nHe has written mostly short pieces, and for that reason has had to wait\n(like Chopin in his day) a long time for full recognition of his genius,\nthe critics not having yet got over the foolish habit of measuring\nart-works with a yardstick. Like Chopin, moreover, Grieg has had the\nill-fortune of having his most original and individual traits accredited\nto his nation and described as \"national peculiarities.\" His music does\ncontain such peculiarities; but it is necessary to distinguish between\nwhat is Norwegian and what is Griegian. Grieg's little pieces and songs\nare big with genius.\n\nThe Hungarian Liszt is another immortal master who, beside the fruits of\nhis individual genius, contributed to the current of modern music some\nof those exotic national traits which distinguish it from that of\nearlier epochs when it was almost exclusively Italian, French, and\nGerman. His fifteen Hungarian rhapsodies constitute, however, only a\nsmall part of the invaluable legacy he has left the world. He was the\nmost many-sided of all musicians,--the greatest of all pianists, and one\nof the best composers of oratorios, songs, orchestral, and pianoforte\nworks,--everything, in short, except operas and chamber music. He was\nalso the greatest of teachers and (with the exception of Wagner) the\ngreatest of conductors; as such, he carried out both his own and\nWagner's new and revolutionary principles of interpretation, which have\ngradually made the orchestral conductor a personage of even greater\nimportance, in concert hall and opera-house, than the prima donna,\ntravelling, like her, from city to city, to delight lovers of music.\n\nOne might have expected that the prince of pianists, being at the same\ntime a composer, would do for the pianoforte what Bach had done for\nchoral and organ music, Beethoven for the symphony, Schubert for the art\nsong, and Wagner for the opera. But he could not, for Chopin had\nanticipated him. In only one direction was it possible to go beyond\nChopin,--in that of making the piano capable of reproducing orchestral\neffects. This, Liszt achieved in his own works and his transcriptions.\nBut, after all, the grandest pianoforte, while delightful as such, is\nbut a poor substitute for an orchestra. Hence it was natural that Liszt\nshould give up the pianoforte as his specialty and devote himself\nparticularly to the orchestra.\n\nIn this domain he was destined to achieve reforms similar to those of\nWagner in the opera. The \"classical\" symphony, like the old-fashioned\nopera, consists of detached numbers, or movements, that have no organic\nconnection with one another. For the detached numbers of the opera\nWagner substituted his \"continuous melody;\" and he provided an organic\nconnection of all the parts by means of the \"leading motives\" or\ncharacteristic melodies and chords which recur whenever the situation\ncalls for them. In the same spirit Liszt transformed the symphony into\nthe symphonic poem, which is continuous and has a leading motive uniting\nall its parts.\n\nThere is another aspect to the symphonic poem, in which Liszt deviated\nfrom Wagner. In Wagner's operas there is plenty of descriptive or\npictorial music, but no program music, properly speaking; for even in\nsuch things as the Ride of the Valkyries, or the Magic Fire Scene, the\nmusic does not depend on a programme, but is explained by the scenery.\nIn programme music, on the other hand, the scene or the poetic idea is\nsimply explained in the programme, or else merely hinted at in the title\nof the piece. Crude attempts in this direction were made centuries ago,\nbut programme music as an important branch of music is a modern\nphenomenon. Beethoven encouraged it by his \"Pastoral Symphony,\" and the\nFrench Berlioz did some very remarkable things in this line in his\ndramatic symphonies; but it remained for Liszt to hit the nail on the\nhead in his symphonic poems. The French Saint-Sa\u00ebns followed him, rather\nthan his countryman Berlioz; so did Tschaikowsky, Dvor\u00e1k, and most\nmodern composers, up to Richard Strauss, whose symphonic poems are the\nmost widely discussed, praised, and abused compositions of our time.\n\nTo the great names contained in the preceding paragraphs another must\nbe added,--that of an Italian. By an odd coincidence, Verdi was born in\nthe same year as Wagner, 1813. But what is far more remarkable is that\nat the close of their careers, so different otherwise, these two great\ncomposers met again--in their music, Verdi as a Wagnerian convert. Up to\nhis fifty-eighth year Verdi had written two dozen operas, all made up of\nstrings of arias in the old-fashioned way,--superb arias, many of them,\nespecially in \"Il Trovatore\" and \"A\u00efda,\" but still arias. Then he rested\nfrom his labors sixteen years; and when he appeared on the stage again,\nwith his \"Otello\" and \"Falstaff,\" he had adopted Wagner's maxims that\narias are out of place in a music-drama; that \"the play's the thing,\"\nand that the music should follow the text word for word.\n\nSurely, this was the most remarkable of Wagner's triumphs and conquests.\nHe who had been denounced for decades as being unable to write properly\nfor the voice was actually taken up as a model by the greatest composer\nof Italy, the land of song. Moreover, all the young composers of Italy\nhave turned their backs on the traditions of Italian opera. The chief\nambition of Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Puccini, and all the others has been\nto be called \"the Italian Wagner;\" and their operas are much more like\nWagner's than like Rossini's and Donizetti's, being free from arias and\nthe vocal embroideries that formerly were the essence of Italian opera.\nThe same is true of the operas written in recent decades in France,\nGermany, and other countries. Massenet, Saint-Sa\u00ebns, Humperdinck,\nGoldmark, Richard Strauss, Paderewski, and all the others have followed\nin Wagner's footsteps.\n\nSuch, briefly told, is the story of Richard Wagner and Modern Music. The\n\"music of the future\" has become the music of the present. What the\nfuture will bring no one can tell. Croakers say, as they have always\nsaid, that the race of giants has died out. But who knew, fifty years\nago, that Wagner and Liszt, or even their predecessors, Chopin and\nSchumann, and the song specialist, Robert Franz, were giants? We know it\nnow, and future generations will know whether we have giants among us.\nThings of beauty that will be a joy forever have been created by men of\ngenius now living in Europe; such men as the Norwegian Grieg, the\nBohemian Dvor\u00e1k, the French Saint-Sa\u00ebns and Massenet, the Hungarian\nGoldmark, the German Humperdinck and Richard Strauss, the Polish\nPaderewski. England has more good composers and listeners than it ever\nhad before; and the same is true of America. We have no school of opera\nyet, but the best operettas of Victor Herbert and De Koven deserve\nmention by the side of those of the French. Offenbach, Lecocq, and\nAudran, the Viennese Strauss, Supp\u00e9, and Milloecker, the English\nSullivan. The orchestral compositions of our John K. Paine are\nmasterworks, and the songs and pianoforte pieces of MacDowell are equal\nto anything produced in Europe since Chopin and Franz. We have several\nother men of great promise, and altogether the outlook for America, as\nwell as for Europe, is bright.\n\nAUTHORITIES.\n\nThe books, pamphlets, and newspaper articles on Wagner would fill a\nlibrary. He has been more written about than any writers except\nShakspere, Goethe, and Dante. He was also fond of writing about himself.\nHis autobiography (extending only to 1865) has not yet been given to the\npublic; but there are many autobiographic pages in the ten volumes of\nhis literary works, which have been Englished by Ellis. Of great value\nare Wagner's letters to Liszt and to other friends. These were utilized\nfor the first time in \"Wagner and His Works,\" the most elaborate\nbiography in the English language, by the author of the foregoing\narticle. Shorter American and English books on Wagner have been written\nby Kobb\u00e9, Krehbiel, Henderson, Hueffer, Newman, &c. Of French writers\nLavignac, Jullien, Mend\u00e8s, Servi\u00e8res, Schur\u00e9, may be mentioned. Of great\nvalue are Kufferath's monographs on the Wagner operas and Liszt's\nanalyses. In Germany the standard work of reference is the third edition\nof Glasenopp, in six volumes, four of which are now (1902) in print.\nOther German writers are Porges, Wolzogen, Pohl, Nohl, Tappert,\nChamberlain, &c. The best histories of Modern Music in general are\nLanghaus's larger work and Riemann's \"Geschichte der Musik seit\nBeethoven.\" The best general work for reference is \"Great Composers and\nTheir Works,\" edited by Professor Paine of Harvard. References to about\n10,000 articles on Wagner may be found in Oesterlein's \"Katalog Einer\nRichard Wagner Bibliothek,\" 3 vols.\n\n\n\n\nJOHN RUSKIN.\n\n\n1819-1900.\n\nMODERN ART.\n\nBY G. MERCER ADAM.\n\n\nWhat John Ruskin has done in a prosaic, commercial, and Philistine age,\nin teaching the world to love and study the Beautiful, in opening to it\nthe hidden mysteries and delights of art, and in inciting the passion\nfor taking pleasure in and even possessing embodiments of it, that age\nowes to the great prose-poet and enthusiastic author of \"Modern\nPainters.\" Neither before nor since his day has literature known such a\npassionate and luminous exponent of Nature's beauties, such an\ninculcator in men's minds of the art of observing her ways and methods,\nor one who has given the world such deep insight into what constitutes\nthe true and the beautiful in art. For these things, and for opening new\nworlds of instruction and delight to his age in the realm of art,\nheightened by the charm of his marvellous prose, we can readily pardon\nRuskin for his weaknesses and perverseness,--for his dogmatisms, his\nfervors, and ecstasies, his exaggerations of praise and blame, and even\nfor the missionary propagation of his often unsound economic gospel,\nvaluable though it may be in illustrating and enforcing morality in its\naesthetic aspect. Despite his enemies, and all that the critics have\nsaid contradicting his theories, Ruskin was a surprise and a revelation\nto his time. In not a little of all that he said and did, it is true, we\ncannot concur; nor can we fail to see the errors he fell into through\nhis want of reserve and his headlong haste to say and do the things he\nsaid and did; nevertheless, he was a great and inspiring teacher in\nthings that appeal to our sense of the beautiful, and earnest in his\nzeal to raise men's intellectual and moral standard of life. Like most\nenthusiasts and geniuses, he had, now and then, his hours of reaction,\nwaywardness, and gloom; but there was much that was noble and ennobling\nin the man, as well as rich and fructifying in his thought. Even in his\nsocial and moral exhortations, tinctured as they are with medievalism,\nand however much we may here again disagree with him, he had much that\nwas uplifting and inspiring to say to his time,--a time that had great\nneed of his apostolic counsellings and his fervent inculcations of\nmorality, industry, religion, and humanity.\n\nThroughout Mr. Ruskin's works--and they are amazingly manifold--a strong\nand intense purpose runs, given to the highest and noblest ends; and\nthough their author at times wearies his reader by his diffuseness and\nhis digressions, and to some is almost fanatical in his reverence for\nart, he is ever imaginative and eloquent, and has created for us a new,\ninstructive, and uniquely fresh and thoughtful body of art-literature.\nThe truth of infinite value he teaches is \"realism,\"--the doctrine that\nall truth and beauty are to be attained by a reverent and faithful study\nof nature, and not, as a reviewer expresses it, \"by substituting vague\nforms, bred by imagination on the mists of feeling, in place of\ndefinite, substantial reality. The thorough acceptance of this doctrine\nwould remould our life; and he who teaches its application, even to any\nsingle department of human activity, and with such power as Mr.\nRuskin's, is a prophet for his generation.\" In all his various labors\nand aims, Mr. Ruskin set before himself a high, if somewhat quixotic,\nideal of life, and with great earnestness did much, not only for the\nelevation of his fellow-men, but for the development of sound artistic\ntaste and the enriching and spiritualizing of life by seeking to\nsurround it at all times with the true and the beautiful, and with the\nold-time virtues of purity, manliness, and courage.\n\nAmong the \"Beacon Lights\" of the age there can be no question that\nRuskin is worthy of an exalted place, since few men of our modern time,\nrich as it is in eminent thinkers and writers, has done more than he to\nillumine the many subjects with which he has so fascinatingly\ndealt,--and that not only in art and its cult of the Beautiful, but in\nethics, education, and political economy. The energies, activities, and\nimpulses he constantly put forth, as well as the high principles that\never guided him in his earnest endeavor to improve the intellectual and\nmoral condition of his kind, mark his era as a great artistic epoch in\nthe onward and upward progress of the race. By stimulus, suggestion, and\ninspiration he has powerfully influenced his time, though manifestly not\na little of the seed he abundantly and hopefully scattered has fallen\nupon barren ground. Nevertheless, where the seed has fallen and\ngerminated, the yield has been large: \"his spirit has passed far wider\nthan he ever knew or conceived; and his words, flung to the winds, have\nborne fruit a hundredfold in lands that he never thought of or designed\nto reach.\" With what pride and gratitude should not the age regard him\nand his memory,--one who has quickened the sensibilities of men in\nlooking upon nature; opened our dull eyes to its manifold beauties; made\nplain to the average intelligence what Art is and stands for; implanted\nin our souls worship of the beautiful; shown working-men how to use their\ntools in the highest interests of their craft, and taught maidens what\nand how to read as well as how and in what spirit to sew and cook. The\nworld too often acknowledges its true teachers and prophets only when it\nbegins to build them some belated tomb. \"This, at any rate,\" gratefully\nexclaims Frederic Harrison,[1] \"we will not suffer to be done to\nJohn Ruskin.\"\n\n[Footnote 1: Written by Mr. F.H. on Professor Ruskin's eightieth\nbirthday (February 8, 1899).]\n\n\"We may all of us recall to-day with love and gratitude the enormous\nmass of stirring thoughts and melodious speech about a thousand things,\ndivine and human, beautiful and good, which for a whole half-century the\nauthor of 'Modern Painters' has given to the world. They cover every\nphase of nature, every type of art, of history, society, economics,\nreligion; the past and the future; all rules of human duty, whether\npersonal or social, domestic or national.... He spake to us of trees,\nfrom the cedar of Lebanon unto the hyssop on the wall; he spake also of\nbeasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. He has put\nnew beauty for us into the sky and the clouds and the rainbow, into the\nseas at rest or in storm, into the mountains and into the lakes, into\nthe flowers and the grass, into crystals and gems, into the mightiest\nruins of past ages, and into the humblest rose upon a cottage wall. He\nhas done for the Alps and the cathedrals of Italy and France, for Venice\nand Florence, what Byron did for Greece. We look upon them all now with\nnew and more searching eyes. Whole schools of art, entire ages of old\nworkmanship, the very soul of the Middle Age, have been revealed with a\nnew inspiration and transfigured in a more mysterious light. Poetry,\nGreek sculpture, mediaeval worship, commercial morality, the training of\nthe young, the nobility of industry, the purity of the home,--a thousand\nthings that make up the joy and soundness of human life have been\nirradiated by the flashing searchlight of one ardent soul: irradiated,\nlet us say, as this dazzling ray shot round the horizon, glancing from\nheaven to earth, and touching the gloom with fire. We need not, even\nto-day, be tempted from truth, or pretend that the light is permanent or\ncomplete. It has long ceased to flash round the welkin, and its very\nscintillations have disturbed our true vision. But we remember still its\ndazzling power and its revelation of things that our eyes had not seen.\n\n\"What we especially love to dwell on to-day is this: that in all this\nunrivalled volume of printed thoughts, in this encyclopaedic range of\ntopic by this most voluminous and most versatile of modern writers [may\nwe not say of all English writers?] there is not one line that is base,\nor coarse, or frivolous; not a sentence that was framed in envy, malice,\nwantonness, or cruelty; not one piece that was written to win money, or\npopularity, or promotion; not a line composed for any selfish end or in\nany trivial mood. Think what we may of this enormous library of print,\nwe know that every word of it was put forth of set purpose without any\nhidden aim, utterly without fear, and wholly without guile; to make the\nworld a little better, to guide, inspire, and teach men, come what\nmight, scoff as they would, turn from him as they chose, though they\nleft him alone, a broken old man crying in the wilderness, with none to\nhear or to care. They might think it all utterly vain; we may think much\nof it was in vain: but it was always the very heart's blood of a rare\ngenius and a noble soul.\"\n\nBefore entering, somewhat in detail, into Ruskin's vast and varied\nlabors, let us briefly outline the scope and character of the work which\ngave the art critic and prophet of his time his chief fame. The\npersonal incidents in his life need not detain us at the outset, as they\nare not specially eventful, and may be more fully gathered from the\nexcellent \"Life\" of Ruskin, by his friend and some-time secretary, W.G.\nCollingwood, or from the delightfully interesting reminiscences by the\nmaster himself in his autobiographic \"Praeterita,\" published near the\nclose of his long, arduous, and fruitful career. John Ruskin was born in\nLondon on the 8th of February, 1819. He was of Scotch ancestry, his\nfather being a prosperous wine merchant in London, who acquired\nconsiderable wealth in trade, which the son in time inherited, and nobly\nused in his many private benevolences and philanthropic enterprises. The\ncomfortable circumstances in which he was born, coupled with his\nfather's own love of pictures and books, were helpful in giving\nencouragement and direction to the young student's studies and tastes.\nHis mother, a deeply religious woman, was, moreover, influential in\nimplanting the serious element in Ruskin's character and life, and in\nfamiliarizing him with the Bible, whose noble English, in King James'\nversion, manifestly entered early into the youth's ardent, prophetic\nsoul, and, as a writer, had much to do in forming his magnificent prose\nstyle. Ruskin was in early years--indeed, far on in his manhood--in\ndelicate health, and consequently he was educated privately till he\npassed to Christ Church College, Oxford, where, at the age of twenty, he\nwon the Newdigate prize for verse, and graduated in 1842. His taste for\nart was manifested at an early age, and after passing from the\nuniversity he studied painting under J.D. Harding and Copley Fielding;\nbut his masters, as he tells us in \"Praeterita,\" were Rubens and\nRembrandt.\n\nAt the outset of his career Ruskin, as is well known, was led to take up\na defence of J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) and the contemporary school of\nEnglish landscape-painting against the foreign trammels, which had\nfastened themselves upon modern art, and especially to prove the\nsuperiority of modern landscape-painters over the old masters. This\nrevolutionary opinion, though at first it was hotly contested,\nestablished the new critic's position as a writer on art, and the\ndefence, or exposition rather, grew into the famous work called \"Modern\nPainters\" (5 vols., 1843-60). This elaborate work deals with general\naesthetic principles, and, notwithstanding its occasional extravagances,\nalike of praise and censure, its charm is irresistible, presenting us\nwith its brilliant and original author's ideas of beauty, to which he\nfreshly and powerfully awakened the world, while enshrining throughout\nthe work the most enchanting word-poems on mountain, leaf, cloud, and\nsea, which, it is not too much to say, will live forever in English\nliterature. In the second volume Mr. Ruskin takes up the Italian\npainters, and discusses at length the merits of their respective\nschools; in the others, as well as in the work as a whole, we have a\nbody of principles which should govern high art-work, as well as new\nideas as to what should constitute the equipment of the painter, and\nthat not only as regards the technique of his art, but in the effect to\nbe produced on the onlooker in viewing the skilled work of one who,\nabove all accomplishments, should be lovingly and intimately in contact\nwith nature.\n\nFrom the study of painting Mr. Ruskin passed for a time to that of\narchitecture. In this department we have from his pen \"The Seven Lamps\nof Architecture\" (1849) and \"The Stones of Venice\" (1851-53). In these\ntwo complementary works their author sets forth as in an impressive\nsermon the new and admonitory lesson that architecture is the exponent\nof the national characteristics of a people,--the higher and nobler sort\nexemplifying the religious life and moral virtue in a nation, the\ndebased variety, on the other hand, expressing the ignoble qualities of\nnational vice and shame. The text of \"The Stones\" is Venice, and the\ndesign of the volumes, in the author's words, is to show that the Gothic\narchitecture of Venice \"had arisen out of, and indicated, a state of\npure domestic faith and national virtue;\" while its renaissance\narchitecture \"had arisen out of and indicated a state of concealed\nnational infidelity and domestic corruption.\" The earlier work, \"The\nSeven Lamps,\"--the Lamp of Sacrifice, of Truth, Power, Beauty, Life,\nMemory, Obedience,--looks upon architecture \"as the revealing medium or\nlamp through which flame a people's passions,--the embodiment of their\npolity, life, history, and religious faith in temple and palace, mart\nand home.\" Akin to these two eloquent works, in which their author\nthoughtfully sets forth the civic virtues and moral tone, as well as the\ndebased characteristics, by which architecture is produced at certain\neras in a people's life, is the earlier volume on \"The Poetry of\nArchitecture\" (1837), which discusses the relation between architecture\nand its setting of landscape or other environment, illustrated by\nexamples drawn from regions he had visited,--the English Lakeland,\nFrance, Switzerland, Spain, and northern Italy.\n\nAfter these works followed lectures on drawing, perspective, decoration,\nand manufacture, with later theories (crotchets, some have impiously\ncalled them) on political economy, Pre-Raphaelitism, _et cetera_, with a\nflood of opinions on social, ethical, and art subjects, enriched by rare\nintellectual gifts and much religious fervor. Ruskin's whole writings\nform a body of literature unique of its kind, pervaded with great charm\nof literary style, and inspired by a high moral purpose. Ruskin's\nexcursions into non-aesthetic fields, and the strange jumble of\nChristian communism to which, late in life, he gave vehement expression,\nit must be honestly admitted, have detracted much from his early fame.\nIn everything he wrote the Ruskinian spirit comes strongly out, colored\nwith an amiable egotism and enforced by great assurance of conviction.\nThe moral purpose he had in view, and the charm and elevated tone of his\nwritings, lead us to forget the wholly ideal state of society he sought\nto introduce, while we are won to the man by the passion of his noble\nenthusiasms.\n\nLike Carlyle and Emerson, Ruskin was by his parents intended for the\nministry; but for the ministry he had himself no inclination. The\nbroadening out early of his mind and the freeing of his thought on\ndoctrinal subjects, which took him far from the narrow evangelicalism of\nhis youth, made the ministry of the church repugnant to him, though he\nwas always a deeply religious man and a force ever making for\nrighteousness. At the same time, he numbered many divines among his most\ncherished friends, and he frequently, and with admitted edification, was\nto be found in chapel and church. Meanwhile he continued busily to\neducate himself for whatever profession he might choose or drift into,\nsupplemented by such fitful periods of schooling as his delicate health\npermitted, as well as by many jaunts with his parents to the English\nlakes and other parts of the kingdom, and by frequent tours on the\nContinent, especially in Italy and Switzerland. Before he arrived at his\nteens, young Ruskin had composed much, both in prose and verse, and he\nearly manifested an aptitude for drawing, as well as a decided taste for\nart, which, it is said, was in some measure incited by the gift, from a\npartner of his father, of a copy of the poet Rogers' \"Italy,\" with\nengravings by Turner. Nor, early in manhood, did he escape a youth's\nfond dream of love, for as a worshipper of beauty, and an enthusiast of\nthe \"Wizard of the North,\" we find him drawn tenderly to a daughter of\nLockhart, editor of the \"Quarterly Review,\" a grandchild of his famous\ncountryman, Sir Walter Scott. The affair, however, though encouraged by\nhis parents, who longed to see their son settled in life, came to\nnought, chiefly owing to the young lover's weak physical frame and\nuncertain health. Later on, unhappily, he was caught in the toils of\nanother Scottish lass, for whom, it is related, he had written \"The King\nof the Golden River\" (1841), and whose rare beauty had readily attracted\nhim. With her, in 1848, he made an ill-assorted marriage, only to find,\nsome years afterwards, his heart riven and a bitter ingredient dropped\ninto his life's chalice by a fatal defection on the wife's part, she\nhaving become enamoured of the then rising young painter, Millais, whom\nRuskin had trustingly invited to his house to paint her portrait. The\nsequel of the affair is a pitiful one, which Ruskin ever afterward hid\ndeep in his heart, though at the time, finding that the woman was unable\nto live at the intellectual and spiritual altitude of her loyal husband,\nthe latter, with a magnanimity beyond parallel, pardoned both Millais\nand the erring one, consented to a divorce, and actually stood by her at\nthe altar as the faithless one took upon herself new vows unto a new\nhusband. The estrangement and loss of a wife gave Ruskin afresh to\nArt,--his true and fondly cherished bride.\n\nAt this period, as we know, English painting was at a low ebb, mediocre\nand conventional, though with a show of artificial brilliance. Ruskin,\nwith his scorn of the artificial and scholastic, threw himself into the\nwork of overturning the established, complacent school of the time, and\nwith splendid enthusiasm and an unfailing belief in himself and his\nideas he undertook to reform what had been, and to raise current\nconceptions of art to a more exalted and lofty plane. We have seen what\nhe had already achieved in his first dashing period of literary\nactivity, in the production of the early volumes of \"Modern Painters,\"\nand in his \"Seven Lamps\" and \"Stones of Venice.\" While he was at work on\nthe concluding volumes of the first and last of these great books there\narose in England the somewhat fantastic movement in art, launched by the\nPre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which included such Ruskinites and other\ndevotees of early Christian and mediaeval painting as Rossetti, Millais,\nMorris, Burne-Jones, and Holman Hunt. Towards this new school of\nsymbolists and affectationists Ruskin was not at first drawn, since it\nseemed to him unduly idealistic, if not mystic, and smacked not a\nlittle, as he thought, of popery. Later, however, he saw good in it, as\na breaking away from academic trammels; while he recognized the earnest\nenthusiasm of the little band of artists and artist-poets, as well as\ntheir technical dexterity and brilliance. With ready decision as well as\nwith his accustomed zeal for art, Ruskin ended by defending and\napplauding the new innovators, particularly as their chief motive was\nthe one the master had always strenuously pled for,--adherence to the\nsimplicity of nature. Their scrupulous attention to detail,\ncharacteristic of the Pre-Raphaelites, later on bore good results, even\nafter the Brotherhood fell apart, especially in William Morris's\napplication of their art-principles to household decoration and\nfurnishings. But for the time the movement was loudly mocked and\ndecried, and perhaps all the more because of Ruskin's espousal of the\nfervid band, his letters of defence in the London \"Times,\" and his\ndiscussion in his booklet on \"Pre-Raphaelitism.\" Heedless of the outcry,\nRuskin pursued his own self-confident course, and by the year 1860 he\nhad completed his \"Modern Painters,\" and, in spite of objurgation and\ndetraction, had won a great name for himself as a critic and expounder,\nwhile expanding himself over almost the whole world of art.\n\nWe have said that Pre-Raphaelitism, as a movement in art, was\ncontemporaneously jeered at; while to-day, among superficial or\ninappreciative students of the period, seriously to mention it or any of\nits cultured brotherhood is to provoke a smile. Nevertheless, there was\nnot a little high merit in the movement, which Ruskin was keen-eyed and\nfriendly enough to recognize, while much that is worthy afterwards came\nout of it in the later work of the more notable of its members as well\nas in that of their unenrolled associates and the admirers of the\nPre-Raphaelite method. What the movement owed to Ruskin is now frankly\nconceded, in the lesson the brotherhood took to heart from his\ncounsellings,--to divest art of conventionality, and to work with\nscrupulous fidelity and sincerity of purpose. Nor was contemporary art\nalone the gainer by the movement; it also had its influence on poetry,\nthough this has been obscured--so far as any beneficial influence can be\ntraced at all--by the tendency manifested in some of the more amorous\npoetic swains of the period, who professed to derive their inspiration\nfrom the Brotherhood, to identify themselves with what has been styled\nthe \"Fleshly School\" of verse. Of the latter number, Swinburne, in his\nearly \"Poems and Ballads,\" was perhaps the greatest sinner, though\natoned for in part by the lyrical art and ardor of his verse, and much\nmore by the higher qualities and scholarly characteristics of his later\ndramatic Work. Nor is Dante Rossetti himself, in some of his poems, free\nfrom the same taint, despite the fact of his interesting individuality\nas the chief inspirer and laborer among the Brotherhood. Yet the\nmovement owed much to both his brush and his pen of other and nobler,\nbecause reverential, work, as those will admit who know \"The Blessed\nDamozel,\" \"Sister Helen,\" and his fine collection of sonnets, \"The House\nof Life,\" as well as his famous paintings, \"The Girlhood of Mary\nVirgin,\" and his Annunciation picture, \"Ecce Ancilla Domini.\" Of the\nproduct of other Pre-Raphaelites of note,--such as Ford Madox Brown,\nMillais, Morris, Woolner the sculptor, Coventry Patmore, and Holman\nHunt,--much that is commendable as well as finely imaginative came from\ntheir hands, and justified Ruskin in his gallant advocacy of the\nmovement, its founders, and their work.\n\nBy this time, of which we have been writing, Ruskin had reached the\nearly meridian of his powers, and, as we have hinted, had wrested from\nthe unwilling many a juster recognition of his amazing industry and\ngenius. To his fond and indulgent parents this was a great source of\npride and satisfaction, and the practical evidence of it was the throng\nof visitors to the family seats of Herne Hill and Denmark Hill, in the\nthen London suburbs, where Ruskin long had his home, and by the\nattentions and honor paid to their son by universities, academies, and\npublic bodies, as well as by many eminent personages and the\nintellectual _\u00e9lite_ of the nation. Among those with whom the young\ncelebrity was then ultimate and reckoned among his admiring\ncorrespondents were, besides Turner (who died in 1851) and the chief\nartists of the time, the Carlyles and the Brownings, Mary Russell\nMitford, Charlotte Bront\u00e9, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Monckton Milnes (Lord\nHoughton), Charles Eliot Norton, Lady Trevelyan (Macaulay's sister),\nWhewell, Maurice, Kingsley, Dr. John Brown (author of \"Rab and his\nFriends\"), Tennyson, and Dean Milman. To these might be added many\nnotable foreigners whom he either met with in his continental travels or\nwho were attracted to him by a lively interest in his writings. In his\nhome, thanks to a wealthy and indulgent father, he was surrounded with\nevery comfort, short of luxury, if we except under the latter the large\nsums expended on the purchase of \"Turners\" and many famous foreign\npictures, and a vast and increasing collection of favorite books and\nother treasures and curios.\n\nOf the author's home-life we get many delightful reminiscences in\n\"Praeterita,\" with entertaining talks of his childhood days, his\nyouthful companions, his toys and animate pets, his early playful\nadventures in authorship, and other garrulities with which, late in life\nwhen the work, as it remains, was incompletely put together, he beguiled\nthe weariness and feebleness of old age. But we are anticipating, for we\nare writing of Ruskin when his hand was yet on the plough, and the\nplough was still in the furrow, and half a long life's arduous work was\nyet before him. At this era, no brain could well have been more active\nor fuller of philanthropies than his, for we approach the second period\nof his life's grand activities,--the era of a new departure in the\ninterests that occupied him and the herculean tasks he set himself\nto do.\n\nBefore recording some of the achievements of this time and glancing at\nthe inciting causes of the transition which marks the era we have now\nreached, let us note the demands made upon Mr. Ruskin's thought and\nlabor by universities and public institutions, whose audiences desired\nto have him appear before them in person and address them upon topics in\nwhich he and they were interested. These appearances on the lecture\nplatform were now numerous, since many throughout the kingdom were eager\nto see and know the man whose art criticisms, principles that govern the\nbeautiful, and stimulating thought on all subjects, had made so deep an\nimpression on the reflecting minds of the age. His earliest appearance\non the rostrum was at Edinburgh, where he delivered four lectures\nbefore the Philosophical Institution, chiefly on landscape-painters and\non Christian art, with a plea for the use of Gothic in domestic\narchitecture. Subsequent appearances were at Manchester, where he spoke\non the Political Economy of Art and the relation of art to manufactures;\nat the South Kensington Museum, London, which had just been opened; and\nlater at Oxford, where further on in his career he became Slade\nProfessor of Art in his own University. From the accounts of these\npublic lectures we get opinions as to the personal appearance of Ruskin\nat the period which add to our knowledge of him from paintings,\ndrawings, and photographs, though not a few of these accounts vary from\nthose given us in books, chiefly sketched by his lady friends and\ncorrespondents. The more trusty of the contemporary pictures speak of\nhim as having \"light, sand-colored hair; his face more red than pale;\nthe mouth well cut, with a good deal of decision in its curve, though\nsomewhat wanting in sustained dignity and strength; an aquiline nose;\nhis forehead by no means broad or massive, but the brows full and well\nbound together; the eye [says the observer from whom we are quoting] we\ncould not see, in consequence of the shadows that fell upon his\n[Ruskin's] countenance from the lights overhead, but we are sure that\nthe poetry and passion we looked for almost in vain in other features\nmust be concentrated here.\" Miss Mitford speaks of him at this time as\n\"eloquent and distinguished-looking, fair and slender, with a gentle\nplayfulness, and a sort of pretty waywardness that was quite charming.\"\nAnother, a visitor at his London home, characterizes him as \"emotional\nand nervous, with a soft, genial eye, a mouth thin and severe, and a\nvoice that, though rich and sweet, yet had a tendency to sink into a\nplaintive and hopeless tone.\" Later on in years we have this verbal\nportrait from a disciple of the great art-teacher, occurring in an\ninaugural address delivered before the Ruskin Society of Glasgow: \"That\nspare, stooping figure, the rough-hewn, kindly face, with its mobile,\nsensitive mouth, and clear deep eyes, so sweet and honest in repose, so\nkeen and earnest and eloquent in debate!\"\n\nWhen the fifth and last volume of \"Modern Painters\" was finally off his\nhands, Mr. Ruskin not only engaged, as we have seen, in occasional\nlecturing, but began (1861) to add a prolific series of\n_brochures_--many of them with quaint but significant titles--to his\nalready stupendous mass of writing. Their subjects were not alone\naesthetics, but now treated of ethical, social, and political questions,\nthe prophetic declarations and earnest appeals of a man of wide and\nvaried culture, deep thought, and large experience. The attempted\nalliance of political economy with art was a novel undertaking in that\nsixth lustrum of the past century, even by a man of Mr. Ruskin's\neminence and fame in the world of letters. But Mr. Ruskin was a bold and\nearnest man, as well as a genius; and he had too much to tell his\nheedless, _laissez-faire_ age to keep silent on themes, remote as they\nwere from those he had hitherto taught, and of which he desired to\ndeliver his soul, whatever ridicule it might provoke and however adverse\nthe criticism levelled against him. His humanity and moral sense were\noutraged by the manner in which the mass of his countrymen lived, and\ntrenchant was his castigation of this and eager as well as righteous his\ndesire to amend their condition and elevate and inspire their minds. As\nan economist, it is true, there was not a little that was false as well\nas eccentric in what he preached; moreover, much of his counsel was\ndirectly socialistic in its trend, repugnant in large degree to his\nEnglish readers and hearers; but all this was atoned for by the honesty\nand philanthropy of his motives, by his phenomenal fervor and eloquence,\nand by the literary beauty and charm of every page he wrote.\nNevertheless, as in Carlyle--for in these depreciations the style of the\nseer of Chelsea was deeply upon him--the note of calamity and the wail\nof despair are too much in evidence in Ruskin's writings at this period,\nwhile, like Carlyle also, he was equally precipitate and impulsive in\nhis attacks on things as they were. Yet in the economic condition just\nthen of England, and in the circumstances environing the labor world,\nthere was, possibly, justification for the rebukes and objurgations of\nonlookers of the type of both of these men, and very humanitarian as\nwell as practically helpful were Ruskin's counsel and aid to labor and\nto all who sought to raise and expand their outlook and better their\ncondition in life. Towards politics Ruskin was never drawn, but had he\nbeen more prosaic and less given to anathematizing, most valuable would\nhave been his aid in legislation at this era of political and moral\nreform. But if political science, or science in any other of its\nbranches or departments, did not come within his purview, great was the\nrevolution he wrought in the working-man's surroundings, and immense the\nillumination he shed upon industry and on the spirit in which the\nlaborer should think and work.\n\nReferring to Ruskin at this period of his career, and to his influence\nas a social and moral exhorter, Frederic Harrison, from whom we have\nalready quoted, has an admirable passage on \"Ruskin as Prophet,\" [2]\nwhich, as it is presumably too little known, we take pleasure in\nembodying in these pages.\n\n[Footnote 2: \"Tennyson, Ruskin, Mill, and other Literary Estimates,\" by\nFrederic Harrison; London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1900.]\n\n\"The influence of Ruskin,\" says Mr. Harrison, \"has been part of the\ngreat romantic, historical, catholic, and poetic revival of which\nScott, Carlyle, Coleridge, Freeman, Newman, and Tennyson in our own\ncountry have been leading spirits within the last two generations in\nEngland. There is no need to compare him with any one of these as a\nsource of original intellectual force. He owns Scott and Carlyle as his\nmasters, and he might vehemently repudiate certain of the others\naltogether. His work has been to put this romantic, historical, and\ngenuine sympathy inspired by Scott, Wordsworth, and Carlyle into a new\nunderstanding of the arts of form. The philosophic impulse assuredly was\nnot his own. It is a compound of Scott, Carlyle, Dante, and the Bible.\nThe compound is strange, for it makes him talk sometimes like a Puritan\nfather, and sometimes like a Cistercian monk. At times he talks as Flora\nMacIvor talked to young Waverley; at other times like Thomas Carlyle\ninditing a Latter-day Pamphlet. But to transfuse into this modern\ngeneration of Englishmen this romantic, catholic, historical, and social\nsympathy as applied to the arts of form, needed gifts that neither\nScott, nor Carlyle, nor Newman, nor Tennyson possessed--the eye, if not\nthe hand, of a consummate landscape painter, a torrent of ready\neloquence on every imaginable topic, a fierce and desperate courage that\nfeared neither man nor devil, neither failure nor ridicule, and above\nall things an exquisite tenderness that is akin to St. Francis or St.\nVincent de Paul....\n\n\"Here is a man who, laboring for fifty years, has scattered broadcast a\nthousand fine ideas to all who practise the arts, and all who care for\nart. He has roused in the cultured world an interest in things of art\nsuch as a legion of painters and ten royal academies could never have\ndone. He has poured out a torrent of words, some right, some wrong, but\nsuch as have raised the level of art into a new world, which have\nadorned English literature for centuries, and have inspired the English\nrace for generations; he has cast his bread upon the waste and muddy\nwaters with a lavish hand, and has not waited to find it again, though\nit has been the seed of abundant harvest to others.\"\n\nAgain, speaking of what Ruskin sought to accomplish in the regeneration\nof modern society, and the reformation of our social ideals, and of that\n\"heroic piece of Quixotism\" he founded, \"the Guild of St. George,\" Mr.\nHarrison remarks:--\n\n\"The first life of John Ruskin was the life of a consummate teacher of\nart and master of style; the second life was the life of priest and\nevangelist.... Here is the greatest living master [the passage was\nwritten while Mr. Ruskin was yet alive] of the English tongue, one of\nthe most splendid lights of our noble literature, one to whom a dozen\npaths of ambition and power lay open, who had everything that could be\noffered by genius, fame, wealth, social popularity, and intense\nsensitiveness to all lovely things--and this man, after thirty years of\nuntiring labor, devotes himself to train, teach, delight, and inspire a\nband of young men, girls, workmen, children,--all who choose to come\naround him. He lavishes the whole of his fortune on them; he brings to\ntheir door his treasures of art, science, literature, and poetry; he\nfounds and endows museums; he offers these costly and precious\ncollections to the people; he wears out his life in teaching them the\nelements of art, the elements of manufacture, the elements of science;\nhe shows workmen how to work, girls how to draw, to sing, to play; he\ngives up to them his wealth, his genius, his peace, his whole life. He\nis not content with writing books in his study, with enjoying art at\nhome or abroad; he must carry his message into the streets. He gives\nhimself up--not to write beautiful thoughts: he seeks to build up a\nbeautiful world.... When I see this author of 'Modern Painters' and the\n'Stones of Venice,' the man who has exhausted almost all that Europe\ncontains of the beautiful, who has thought and spoken of almost every\nphase of human life, and has entered so deeply into the highest\nmysteries of the greatest poets--when I see him surrounding himself in\nhis old age with lads and lasses, schoolgirls and workmen, teaching them\nthe elements of science and art, reading to them poems and tales,\narranging for them games and holidays, ornaments and dresses, lavishing\non these young people his genius and his wealth, his fame and his\nfuture--I confess my memory goes back instinctively to a fresco I saw in\nItaly years ago--was it Luini's?--wherein the Master sat in a crowd of\nchildren and forbade them to be removed, saying that 'of such is the\nkingdom of heaven.'\"\n\nWith this generous tribute to and appreciation of Ruskin, despite the\neconomic vagaries into which the great critic and teacher of his time\nfell, we may more confidently approach the busy era of his later and\nself-sacrificing labors, and with less apology take space to deal--as\ncompactly and intelligently as we can--with some of the more notable of\nthe many books and _brochures_ of the period. Difficult as would be the\ntask, fortunately there is little need to epitomize these works, as many\nof them are better known, and perhaps more attentively read, than his\nearlier, bulkier, and more ambitious writings. A few of them lie outside\nthe economic gospel of their apostolic author, and these we will first\nand briefly deal with. A number of them are instructive and inspiring\nlay sermons on the mystical union between nature and art, beauty and\nutility, and their reflex in the reverential homage for the beautiful\nand the worthy in the mind and character of the English-speaking race.\nThe whole form a great body of fine and thoughtful work, which is as\nenchaining as its meaning is often profound. The best-known of these lay\nsermons is: \"The Queen of the Air\" (1869), a splendid blending of his\nfancy with the Greek nature-myths of cloud and storm, represented by\nAthena, goddess of the heavens, of the earth, and of the heart. The\nparable drawn is that \"the air is given us for our life, the rain for\nour thirst and baptism, the fire for our warmth, the sun for our light,\nand the earth for our meat and rest.\" Related to the work is \"Ethics of\nthe Dust\" (1865), lectures to little housewives on mineralogy and\ncrystallography, nature's work in crystallization being the text for a\ndiatribe against sordid living. \"Sesame and Lilies,\" which belongs also\nto this period of the writer's work, consists of three addresses,\ndelivered at Manchester and at Dublin, designed specially for young\ngirls, and treating in the main of good and improving literature. The\nfirst of them, \"Of Kings' Treasuries,\" deals with the treasures hidden\nin books, the writings of the world's great men; its sequel, \"Of Queens'\nGardens,\" deals with the function and sphere of woman, and, by way of\napplication, with the how and the what to read; the third lecture, on\n\"The Mystery of Life and its Arts,\" is a discursive but inspiring\nconsideration of what life is and how most successfully to battle with\nit in the way of our work and of our appointed duty. All three lectures,\nobserves a commentator, \"tell men and women of the ideals they should\nset before them; how to read and to build character under the\ninspiration of the nobility of the past, fitting one's self for such\ngreat society; how to develop noble womanhood; how to bear one's self\ntoward the wonder of life, toward one's work in the world, and toward\none's duty to others.\"\n\nOther lectures and _brochures_ of or about this period are \"Hortus\nInclusus\" (The Enclosed Garden), being \"Messages from the Wood to the\nGarden sent in happy days to two sister ladies,\" residing at Coniston,\nand collected in 1887; \"Arrows of the Chace,\" letters on various\nsubjects to newspapers, gathered and edited in 1880; \"The Two Paths,\"\nlectures on art and its application to Decoration and Manufacture\n(1859); \"Ariadne Florentina\" (1873), a monograph on Italian wood and\nmetal engraving; \"Aratra Pentelici\" (1872), on the elements and\nprinciples of sculpture; and \"The Eagle's Nest\" (1872), on the relation\nof natural science to art. Still pursuing his delightful methods of\ninterpreting nature and teaching the world instructive lessons, even\nfrom the common things of mother earth, we have a series of three\neloquent discourses, entitled (1) \"Proserpina,\" studies of Alpine and\nother wayside flowers, dwelling on the mystery of growth in plants and\nthe tender beauty of their form; (2) \"Deucalion,\" a sort of glorified\ngeological text-book, treating of stones and their life-history, and\nshowing the wearing effect upon them of waves and the action of water;\nand (3) \"Love's Meinie\" (1873), a rapture about birds and their\nfeathered plumage, delivered at Eton and at Oxford. This trilogy,\ndealing with botany, geology, and ornithology, was presented to his\naudiences with illustrative drawings, representing the flora met with in\nhis travels or found in the neighborhood of his new home in the\nLancashire lakes, with sketches of regions, including the\ncharacteristics of the soil, in which he had been reared, and talks of\nthe note and habit of all birds that were wont to warble over him their\nmorning song. \"The Pleasures of England,\" the \"Harbours of England,\" and\nthe \"Art of England\" further treat of his loved native land, the first\nof these being talks on the pleasures of learning, of faith, and of\ndeed, illustrated by examples drawn from early English history, and the\nlast treating of representative modern English artists, chiefly of the\nPre-Raphaelite school. \"The Laws of F\u00e9sole\" (1878) deals with the\nprinciples of Florentine draughtsmanship; \"St. Mark's Rest,\" with the\nart and architecture of Venice; and \"Val d'Arno,\" with early Tuscan art,\ninterspersed with the author's accustomed ethical reflections. \"Mornings\nin Florence,\" intended for the use of visitors to the art galleries of\nthe beautiful city on the Arno, deals in the true artist-spirit with its\nfamous examples of Christian art, giving prominence here also to the\nethical side of the city's history. \"In Montibus Sanctis,\" and \"Coeli\nEnarrant,\" the one comprising studies of mountain form, and the other of\ncloud form and their visible causes, though separately published, are\nonly reprints of the author's larger and nobler embodiment of his views\non art, in \"Modern Painters.\" \"The King of the Golden River,\" of which\nwe have previously spoken, is a fairy tale of much beauty, which he\nwrote for the \"Fair Maid of Perth\" whom he married, and who separated\nherself from him on the plea of \"incompatibility.\" Playful as is the\nstyle of the story, it is not without a moral, on what constitutes true\nwealth and happiness. \"The Crown of Wild Olive\" (1866) consists of\nlectures on work, traffic, and war; the latter lecture, delivered at the\nRoyal Artillery Institution at Woolwich, was also separately published\nunder the title of \"The Future of England.\" The two former, being\naddressed to working-men, laborers, and traders, discuss economic\nproblems, and set forth tentatively their author's antagonized political\nethics, with which, in drawing this essay to a close, we now venture\nto deal.\n\nAfter the magnificent work done by Ruskin in art up to his fortieth\nyear, that he should turn, for practically the remainder of his life, to\nthe seemingly vain and profitless task of a social reformer and\nregenerator of modern society, has to most men been a riddle too elusive\nand enigmatic to solve. And yet, in his earlier career, had he not\nhimself prepared us for just such a departure as he took in the sixties,\nfor in art was he not equally revolutionary and iconoclastic, as well as\npersonally self-willed, passionate, and impulsive? Moreover, had not\nMother Nature endowed him with the gifts of a seer and made him\nchivalrous as well as intensely sympathetic, while his early training\ninclined him to be serious, and even ascetic? Nor were the rebuffs he\nmet with throughout his career calculated at this stage to make him\ncourt the applause of his fellow-men or be mindful of the world's\ncensure or approval. Nor can one well quarrel with what he had now to\nsay on many a subject, visionary and enthusiast as he always was, and\ngiven over to mediaeval views and preachments, and to abounding moral\nand ethical exhortation. Like Carlyle's, his voice was that of one\ncrying in the wilderness, and yet in the industrial and social condition\nof Britain at the era there was need of just such appeals for\nregeneration and reform as Ruskin strenuously uttered, accompanied by\nindignant rebukes of grossness, vulgarity, and meanness, as manifested\nin masses of the people. If in his strivings after amelioration he was\ntoo denunciatory as well as too radical, we must remember the temper and\nmanner of the man, and recognize how difficult it was in him, or in any\niconoclast who scorned modern science as Ruskin scorned it, to reconcile\nthe age of steam and industrial machinery, which he spurned and would\nhave none of, with the views he held of Christianity, morals, and faith.\nHis views on political economy, which he treated neither as an art nor a\nscience, might be perverse and wrong-headed, and his method of adapting\nprophetic and apostolic principles to the practice of every-day life\nutterly impracticable; but the virtues he counselled the nation to\nmanifest, and the graces he enjoined of truthfulness, justice,\ntemperance, bravery, and obedience, were qualities needed to be\ncultivated in his time, with a fuller recognition of and firmer trust in\nGod and His right of sway in the world He had created.\n\nWhat Ruskin's economic views were, and what his relations to the\nindustrial and social problems of his time, most readers of our author\nknow, are mainly to be found in \"Fors Clavigera,\" a series of letters to\nworking-men, covering the years 1871-84, and in his early essays on\npolitical economy, \"Unto this Last\" (1860), and \"Munera Pulveris\"\n(1863). \"Unto this Last\" appeared in its original form in the pages of\nthe \"Cornhill Magazine,\" then edited by Thackeray, and our author speaks\nconfidently of it as embodying his maturest and worthiest thoughts on\nsocial science. The work, which will be found the key to Ruskin's\neconomic gospel, embraces four essays, treating successively of the\nresponsibilities and duties of those called to fill all offices of\nnational trust and service; of the true sources of a nation's riches; of\nthe right distribution of such riches; and of what is meant by the\neconomic terms,--value, wealth, price, and produce. Under these several\nheads, Ruskin expresses his conviction that co-operation and government\nare in all things the law of life, while the deadly things are\ncompetition and anarchy. Whatever errors the book[3] contains--and the\nauthor's unconscious arrogance and dogmatism made him blind to them--his\nviews were set forth with his accustomed vigor and eloquence, and in\nthe honest belief that he was more than fundamentally right. It was for\nsuch helpful work as this, and what he accomplished in the kindred\nvolume, \"Munera Pulveris,\" which first appeared in \"Fraser's Magazine,\"\nthat Ruskin for the time dropped his revelations in art to let a new\nworld of thought into the \"dismal science\" of political economy,\nconfound its old-time instructors, and gird at the evils of the\nage,--the greed, selfishness, and petty bargaining spirit of industrial\nand commercial life. Nor in conducting such a crusade as this was Ruskin\nabandoning his old and less controverted gospel of art. He was but\ncarrying into new and barren fields the high ideals he had hitherto\ncounselled his age to emulate and heed, and in his sympathy with labor\nseeking to bring into its world the comeliness of beauty and the cheer\nof prosperity, comfort, and happiness. In \"Time and Tide\" (1867), and\nmore at length in \"Fors Clavigera,\" Ruskin reiterates his message to\nlabor, to get rid of ever-environing misery by realizing what are the\ntrue sources of happiness,--pleasure in sincere and honest work,\ninspired by intelligence, culture, religion, and right living. What he\ndesires for the working-man he desires also for his family, and\nconsequently he urges parents to train their sons and daughters to see\nand love the beautiful, to cultivate their higher instincts, and call\nforth and feed their souls. In all this there is much helpful, tonic\nthought, which the church or the nation, roused to zeal and earnest\nactivity, might fittingly teach, and so advance the material weal of the\npeople, extend the area of public enlightenment and morality, and herald\nthe dawn of a new and higher civilization.\n\n[Footnote 3: Alluding to the quaint title under which these \"Cornhill\"\nessays afterwards appeared,--a title that hints at the gist of the\nwork,--Mr. Ruskin's biographer tells us that the motto was taken from\nChrist's parable of the husbandman and the laborers: \"Friend, I do thee\nno wrong. Didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is,\nand go thy way. I will give UNTO THIS LAST even as unto\nthee.\"--Matt. xx. 14.]\n\nOther aspects of Mr. Ruskin's economic gospel are, unfortunately, not so\nsane and beneficent. His altruism knows no bounds, as his philanthropy\nand zeal have but few restraints. After the fashion of his mentor,\nCarlyle, he is carried away by his humanitarianism and his unreserved\nacceptance of the doctrine of the equality and brotherhood of man. Hence\ncome his economic heresies in regard to rent and interest, and capital\nand usury, his denunciations of the division of labor, his Tolstoian\nimpoverishment of himself for the benefit of his fellow-man, and his\ndictum that the wealth of the nation should be its own, and not accrue\nto the individual. Hence, also, the wholly ideal state of society he\nattempted to realize in his communal Guild of St. George, with its rigid\ngovernment and restraints upon the personal liberty of its members.\nIdeally beautiful, admittedly, was the plan and scheme of the little\nstate, with its disciplinings, exactions, and devout selective creed.\nBut the age is a practical, unimaginative one, and whatever compacts men\nmake, even for their highest welfare, there are, it is to be feared,\nfew so loyal, tractable, and docile as to place themselves for long\nunder such tutoring and one-patterned, fashioning forms of co-operative\nliving. Into whatever millennial state Ruskin sought to usher his little\nband of English followers and disciples, one must speak appreciatively\nof his motives in projecting the scheme, and of the money and labor he\npersonally lavished upon the Utopian project. Reverently also must one\nspeak of the catholic creed to which its members were asked to\nsubscribe: namely, to trust in God, recognize the nobleness of human\nnature, labor faithfully with one's might, be loyal to one's common\ncountry, its laws, and its monarch's or ruler's orders, so far as they\nare consistent with the higher law of God; while exacting obedience, and\na pledge that one will not deceive, either for gain or other motive;\nwill not rob; will not hurt any living creature nor destroy any\nbeautiful thing; and will honor one's own body by proper care for it,\nfor the joy and peace of life. All this is very exemplary and beautiful,\nand not over-hard to live up to, though the working-men of Sheffield in\ntime wearied of the organization, and the Guild and its noble ideals is\nnow, we believe, but a memory, if we except the art museum and library\nof the Order taken over and still maintained by the town.\n\nMore practical, may we not say, than this imitation of the Florentine\n_arti_ of the Middle Ages was the Working Men's College, founded in\nLondon in the fifties by that other earnest Christian Socialist, F.D.\nMaurice, in which Ruskin lectured gratuitously, took charge of the\ndrawing classes, and hied off to the country with its members to sketch\nfrom nature and otherwise instruct and entertain them. Yet good in many\nrespects came of the Guild of St. George, in the impulse it gave to the\nrevival of the then dormant industries, such as the hand-spinning of\nlinen, hand-weaving of carpets and woollen fabrics, lace-making,\nwood-carving, and metal-working, besides the stimulus it gave, with the\ninfusion of higher ideals of workmanship, to the decorative arts, and\nthe improvement in the sightliness of factories, and in the homes and\nsurroundings of labor. Here Ruskin's philanthropy and reform zeal showed\nthemselves most worthily in the financial aid he gave in the pulling\ndown, in crowded districts of the British metropolis, of poor tenements,\nand the building up in their place of clean, attractive, and wholesome\nhabitations. In such benevolences and well-doings, and in this life of\nrenunciation and self-sacrifice, Ruskin spent himself, and made serious\ninroads into his bodily health and strength, as well as scattered the\nfortune--about a million dollars--left him by his now deceased father.\nBut this was the manner and character of Ruskin, and this the mode of\nexpressing his love for his fellow-man, which in myriad ways showed\nitself throughout a long and strenuous career of devotion to high\nideals, and of practical, tender help in all good works. In all his\nphilanthropies he was true to his own preachings and counsellings,\nspending and being spent in the spirit of his Divine Master, his whole\nsoul aglow with reverence and adoration and tender with a profound moral\nemotion. Besides his rare endowments as a lover of the beautiful, he had\nthat other precious gift, of golden speech, which threw a mantle of\nloveliness over every book he wrote and perpetual lustre over the domain\nof letters.\n\nRuskin's declining years, while hallowed by suffering, were cheered by\nmany tender attentions and unexpected kindnesses, and by the\nrecognition, by many notable public bodies and eminent contemporaries,\nof his long life of great service and devotion to his kind. In our\nmodern age, from which, in his loved Coniston home, he passed from life\nJan. 20, 1900, no one more reverently than he has looked deeper into the\nmystery of life, thought more concernedly of its problems, shed more\npassionately and eloquently about him love for the beautiful, or\npractically and helpfully done more--layman only though he was--for\nreligion and humanity. At his death the nation paid honor to his memory\nby offering his remains a resting-place in the great fane of England's\nillustrious dead, Westminster Abbey; but Ruskin had himself otherwise\nordered the disposal of his body. \"Bury me,\" he said, \"at Coniston.\"\nAnd there, on the fifth day after his falling softly asleep, amid a\nconcourse of loving friends, the earthly tenement of the great art\ncritic and lover of righteousness was laid to rest, his grave strewn\nwith myriad wreaths, garlands, and crosses of beautiful, bright flowers.\n\nHere, after his long, strenuous, militant career, do we leave this\ninspiring teacher and \"consecrated priest of the Ideal,\" his gentle soul\nfinding rest and peace after the myriad troubles and tumults of life.\nStill now is the once active, fertile, stimulating mind of the man who\nso effectively roused his generation from its complacent smugness and\nindifference in its appreciation of the beautiful, and with ardent\nboldness challenged established beliefs in art and defied the\nconventionality and authority of his time. His has been a powerful force\nin innumerable departments of human thought, and epoch-making the\ninfluence he has exerted in giving to the world new ideals of the\nbeautiful and in shaping modern opinion and taste in art. How great is\nthe work he has done, and what a library of stimulating, inspiring books\nhe has left us, comparatively few realize, as they little realize what\nthe age owes to him for his noble activities in well-doing and his many\nand impressive lessons and influence. In a commonplace, commercial time,\nhow stimulating as well as ardent have been his appeals for\nsensitiveness of perception in regard to art, and of the tone and\nspirit in which it ought to be viewed and valued! And with what tender,\nreverent feeling has he not opened our hearts to compassion and to\nconsideration for the welfare of our fellow-man, and how potent have\nbeen his counsellings pointing to the true and abiding sources of\npleasure in life! Long must his formative opinions and influence extend,\nand in the minds of all who think and reflect abiding must be the charm\nas well as the power of his imaginative, glowing thought. That he met\nwith opposition and hostility in his day was but the price to be paid\nfor the disturbing, correcting, disciplining, yet inspiring part he\nplayed in the work he so impulsively set himself to do. One smiles now\nat the epithets of scorn and contumely once hurled at him, at the man\nwho, little understood as he has been, has done so much to uplift and\npurify the thought of his time and do battle with the forces opposed to\nreform and arrayed against those of light and truth. And how great were\nthe weapons with which he was armed, and how varied as well as\nmarvellous the talents he brought into play in the onslaught upon\nshallowness, convention, and ignorance! Truly, he has done much for his\ntime, and great has been the gain Modern Art has won from his inspiring\nlessons and thought. The coming of such a man, and at the time that was\nhis, one cannot help reflecting, was one of the providences of an\noverruling Power, and adequately to estimate his influence and work,\nand the tone and temper in which he wrought, we have but to consider\nwhat the age would have been, in countless departments of thought and\nactivity, had the century now passed possessed no John Ruskin.\n\nAUTHORITIES.\n\nCollingwood, W. G. Life of Ruskin.\n\nHarrison, Frederic. Tennyson, Ruskin, Mill, and other Estimates.\n\nMather, Marshall. John Ruskin, his Life and Teaching.\n\nBayne, Peter. Lessons from my Masters--Carlyle, Tennyson, and Ruskin.\n\nJapp, Alex. H. Carlyle, Tennyson, and Ruskin.\n\nSpielmann, M.H. John Ruskin.\n\nWaldstein, Charles. Work of John Ruskin.\n\nWard, May Alden. Prophets of the Nineteenth Century: Carlyle, Ruskin,\nand Tolstoi.\n\nBates, Herbert. Annotated edition, with Introduction, of Ruskin's\n\"Sesame and Lilies\" and \"The King of the Golden River.\"\n\nRuskin's \"Praeterita\": An Autobiography.\n\n\n\n\nHERBERT SPENCER.\n\n\n1820-\n\nTHE EVOLUTIONARY PHILOSOPHY.\n\nBY MAYO W. HAZELTINE.\n\n\nHerbert Spencer occupies a unique place in the history of human thought,\nbecause he has been the first to attempt the construction of a\nphilosophical system in harmony with the theory of Evolution and with\nthe results of modern science. To his contemporaries he is known almost\nexclusively as the author of the colossal work which he has chosen to\ncall the \"Synthetic Philosophy.\" Concerning his personality very little\ninformation has been published, and it is doubtful whether he will deem\nit worth while to leave behind him the materials for a detailed\nbiography. About his private life we know even less than we know about\nthat of Kant. The very few facts obtainable may be summed up in a score\nof sentences.\n\n\n\nI.\n\nHerbert Spencer was born on April 27, 1820, at Derby, in England, and\nwas an only surviving child. His father was a schoolmaster in the town\nnamed, and secretary of a philosophical society. From him the son seems\nto have imbibed the love of natural science and the faculty of\nobservation conspicuous in his work. The father was particularly\ninterested in entomology, and Spencer himself used to collect, describe,\nand draw insects when a boy. At the age of thirteen he was sent to study\nwith an uncle, Rev. Thomas Spencer, a liberal clergyman and a scholar,\nwith whom he remained three years, carrying on the study of natural\nhistory, which he had begun in childhood. He now devoted himself to\nmathematics, evincing a singular capacity for working out original\nproblems. At this time, too, he became familiar with physical and\nchemical investigations, and already exhibited a strong tendency to\nexperimental inquiry and original research. His aversion to linguistic\nstudies put a university career out of the question. At the age of\nseventeen he entered the office of Sir Charles Fox and began work as a\ncivil engineer, but about eight years afterward he gave up this\nprofession, and devoted the whole of his time to scientific experiments\nand studies, and to contributions on philosophical questions to various\nperiodicals. As early as 1842, in a series of letters to the\nNonconformist newspaper on \"The Proper Sphere of Government,\" he\npropounded a belief in human progress based on the modifiability of\nhuman nature through adaptation to its social surroundings, and he\nasserted the tendency of these social arrangements to assume of\nthemselves a condition of stable equilibrium. From 1848 to 1853 he was\nsub-editor of the Economist newspaper, and in his first important work,\n\"Social Statics,\" published in 1850, he developed the ethical and\nsociological ideas which had been set forth in his published letters.\nThe truth that all organic development is a change from a state of\nhomogeneity to a state of heterogeneity is regarded by Spencer as the\norganizing principle of his subsequent beliefs. It was gradually\nexpounded and applied by him in a series of articles contributed to the\n\"North British,\" the \"British Quarterly,\" the \"Westminster,\" and other\nreviews. In these essays, and especially in the volume of \"Principles of\nPsychology,\" published in 1855, the doctrine of Evolution began to take\ndefinite form, and to be applied to various departments of inquiry. It\nwas not until four years later--a fact to be carefully borne in mind by\nthose who would estimate correctly the relation of Spencer to\nDarwin--that the publication of the latter's \"Origin of Species\"\nafforded a wide basis of scientific truth for what had hitherto been\nmatter of speculation, and demonstrated the important part played by\nnatural selection in the development of organisms. As early as March,\n1860, Spencer issued a prospectus, in which he set forth the general aim\nand scope of a series of works which were to be issued in periodical\nparts, and would, collectively, constitute a system of philosophy. In\n1862 appeared the \"First Principles,\" and in 1867 the \"Principles of\nBiology.\" In 1872 the \"Principles of Psychology\" was published; the\nfirst part of the \"Principles of Ethics\" in 1879; and his \"Principles of\nSociology\" in three volumes, begun in 1876, was completed in 1896. In\nthe preface to the third volume of the last-named work the author\nexplains that the fourth volume originally contemplated, which was to\ndeal with the linguistic, intellectual, moral, and aesthetic phenomena,\nwould have to remain unwritten by reason of the author's age and\ninfirmities. The astounding extent of Herbert Spencer's labors becomes,\nindeed, the more marvellous when one considers that impaired health has\nfor many years incapacitated him for persistent application. Owing\npartly to his ill health, and partly to the absorbing nature of his\noccupation, his life has been a retired one, and in the ordinary sense\nof the term, uneventful. He has never married, and, although the high\nopinion of his writings formed by contemporaries has led to many\nacademic honors being pressed upon him at home and abroad, these have\nall been declined. It only remains to mention that in 1882 he visited\nthe United States, where the importance of his speculations had been\nearly recognized, and that his home is now in Brighton, England.\n\n\n\nII.\n\nIn Mr. Spencer's latest book, \"Facts and Comments,\" a little light is\nthrown on the author's habits, opinions, and predilections. Referring to\nthe athleticism to which so much attention is paid just now in English\nand American universities, he points out how erroneous it is to identify\nmuscular strength with constitutional strength. Not only is there error\nin assuming that increase of muscular power and increase of general\nvigor necessarily go together, but there is error in assuming that the\nreverse connection cannot hold. As a matter of fact, the abnormal powers\nacquired by gymnasts may be at the cost of constitutional deterioration.\nIn a paper on \"Party Government\" the author maintains that what we boast\nof as political freedom consists in the ability to choose a despot, or a\ngroup of oligarchs, and, after long misbehavior has produced\ndissatisfaction, to choose another despot or group of oligarchs: having\nmeanwhile been made subject to laws, some of which are repugnant.\nAbolish the existing conventional usages, with respect to party\nfealty,--let each member of parliament feel that he may express by his\nvote his adverse belief respecting a government measure, without\nendangering the government's stability,--and the whole vicious system of\nparty government would disappear. In a paper on \"Patriotism,\" Mr.\nSpencer says that to him the cry \"Our country, right or wrong,\" seems\ndetestable. The love of country, he adds, is not fostered in him by\nremembering that when, after England's Prime Minister had declared that\nEnglishmen were bound in honor to the Khedive to reconquer the Soudan,\nthey, after the reconquest, forthwith began to administer it in the name\nof the Queen and the Khedive, thereby practically annexing it; and when,\nafter promising through the mouths of two colonial Ministers not to\ninterfere in the internal affairs of the Transvaal, the British\nGovernment proceeded to insist on certain electoral arrangements, and\nmade resistance the excuse for a desolating war. As to the transparent\npretence that the Boers commenced the war, Mr. Spencer reminds us that\nin the far West of the United States, where every man carries his life\nin his hands and the usages of fighting are well understood, it is held\nthat he is the real aggressor who first moves his hand toward his\nweapon. The application to the South African contest is obvious. In an\nessay on \"Style,\" Mr. Spencer tells us that his own diction has been,\nfrom the beginning, unpremeditated. It has never occurred to him to take\nany author as a model. Neither has he at any time examined the writing\nof this or that author with a view of observing its peculiarities. The\nthought of style, considered as an end in itself, has rarely, if ever,\nbeen present with him, his sole purpose being to express ideas as\nclearly as possible, and, when the occasion called for it, with as much\nforce as might be. He has observed, however, he says, that some\ndifference has been made in his style by the practice of dictation. Up\nto 1860 his books and review articles were written with his own hand.\nSince then they have all been dictated. He thinks that there is\nfoundation for the prevailing belief that dictation is apt to cause\ndiffuseness. The remark was once made to him, it seems, by two good\njudges--George Henry Lewes and George Eliot--that the style of \"Social\nStatics\" is better than the style of his later volumes; Mr. Spencer\nwould ascribe the contrast to the deteriorating effect of dictation. A\nrecent experience has strengthened him in this conclusion. When lately\nrevising \"First Principles,\" which originally was dictated, the cutting\nout of superfluous words, clauses, sentences, and sometimes paragraphs,\nhad the effect of abridging the work by about one-tenth. Touching the\nstyle of other writers, Mr. Spencer points out the defects in some\npassages quoted from Matthew Arnold and Froude. He says that he is\nrepelled by the ponderous, involved structure of Milton's prose, and he\ndissents from the applause of Ruskin's style on the ground that it is\ntoo self-conscious, and implies too much thought of effect. On the other\nhand, he has always been attracted by the finished naturalness of\nThackeray.\n\nA word should here be said about the misconception of Mr. Spencer's\nposition with reference to the fundamental postulate of religions,--a\nmisconception which used to be more current than it is now. He cannot\nfairly be described as a materialist. He is no more a materialist than\nhe is a theist. He is, in the strictest sense of the word, an agnostic.\nHe was the most conspicuous example of the _thing_ before Huxley\ninvented the _word_. The misconception was shared by no less a man than\nthe late Benjamin Jowett, the well-known master of Balliol College,\nOxford, who, in one of his published \"Letters,\" says: \"I sometimes think\nthat we platonists and idealists are not half so industrious as those\nrepulsive people who only 'believe what they can hold in their hand,'\nBain, H. Spencer, etc., who are the very Tuppers of philosophy.\" It is\nhard to see how the law of evolution and other generalizations of an\nabstract kind with which Mr. Spencer's name is associated can be held in\nanybody's hands. Letting that pass, however, Mr. Spencer has himself\nsuggested that, since the system of synthetic philosophy begins with a\ndivision entitled the \"Unknowable,\" having for its purpose to show that\nall material phenomena are manifestations of a Power which transcends\nour knowledge,--that \"force as we know it can be regarded only as a\nConditioned effect of the Unconditioned Cause\"--there has been thereby\nafforded sufficiently decided proof of belief in something which cannot\nbe held in the hands. It is, indeed, absurd to apply the epithet\n\"materialist\" to a man who has written in \"The Principles of\nPsychology\": \"Hence, though of the two it seems easier to translate\nso-called matter into so-called spirit than to translate so-called\nspirit into so-called matter (which latter is, indeed, wholly\nimpossible), yet no translation can carry us beyond our symbols.\"\n\n\n\nIII.\n\nAny exposition of the \"Synthetic Philosophy\" must, of course, begin with\nthe volume entitled \"First Principles.\" In the first part of this\npreliminary work the author carries a step further the doctrine of the\nUnknowable put into shape by Hamilton and Mansel. He points out the\nvarious directions in which science leads to the same conclusion, and\nshows that in their united belief in an Absolute that transcends not\nonly human knowledge but human conception lies the only possible\nreconciliation of science and religion. In the second part of the same\nbook Mr. Spencer undertakes to formulate the laws of the Knowable. That\nis to say, he essays to state the ultimate principles discernible\nthroughout all manifestations of the Absolute,--those highest\ngeneralizations now being disclosed by science, such, for example, as\n\"the Conservation of Force,\" which are severally true, not of one class\nof phenomena, but of _all_ classes of phenomena, and which are thus the\nkeys to all classes of phenomena.\n\nThe conclusions reached in \"First Principles\" may be thus summed up:\nover and over again in the five hundred pages devoted to their\nformulation, it is shown in various ways that the deepest truths we can\nreach are simply statements of the widest uniformities in our\nexperiences of the relations of Matter, Motion, and Force; and that\nMatter, Motion, and Force are but symbols of the Unknown reality. A\nPower of which the nature remains forever inconceivable, and to which no\nlimits in Time and Space can be imagined, works in us certain effects.\nThese effects have certain likenesses of kind, the most general of which\nwe class together under the names of Matter, Motion, and Force; and\nbetween these effects there are likenesses of connection, the most\nconstant of which we class as laws of the highest certainty. Analysis\nreduces these several kinds of effects to one kind of effect; and these\nseveral kinds of uniformity to one kind of uniformity. The highest\nachievement of Science is the interpretation of all orders of phenomena\nas differently conditioned manifestations of this one kind of effect,\nunder differently conditioned modes of this one kind of uniformity. When\nscience has done this, however, it has done nothing more than\nsystematize our experiences, and has in no degree extended the limits of\nour experiences. We can say no more than before whether the\nuniformities are as absolutely necessary as they have become to our\nthought relatively necessary. The utmost possibility for us is an\ninterpretation of the process of things, as it presents itself to our\nlimited consciousness; but how this process is related to the actual\nprocess we are unable to conceive, much less to know.\n\nSimilarly we are admonished to remember that, while the connection\nbetween the phenomenal order and the ontological order is forever\ninscrutable, so is the connection between the conditioned forms of being\nand the unconditioned form of being forever inscrutable. The\ninterpretation of all phenomena in terms of Matter, Motion, and Force is\nnothing more than the reduction of our complex symbols of thought to the\nsimplest symbols; and when the equation has been brought to its lowest\nterms, the symbols remain symbols still. Hence the reasonings contained\nin \"First Principles\" afford no support to either of the antagonist\nhypotheses respecting the ultimate nature of things. Their implications\nare no more materialistic than they are spiritualistic, and no more\nspiritualistic than they are materialistic. The establishment of\ncorrelation and equivalence between the forces of the outer and the\ninner worlds serves to assimilate either to the other, according as we\nset out with one or the other. He who rightly interprets the doctrine\npropounded in \"First Principles\" will see that neither the forces of\nthe outer, nor the forces of the inner, world can be taken as ultimate.\nHe will see that, though the relation of subject and object renders\nnecessary to us the antithetical conceptions of Spirit and Matter, the\none is no less than the other to be regarded as but a sign of the\nUnknown Reality which underlies both.\n\nIn logical order the formulation of \"First Principles\" should have been\nfollowed by the application of them to Inorganic Nature. This great\ndivision of Mr. Spencer's subject is passed over, however; partly\nbecause, even without it, the scheme is too extensive to be carried out\nin the lifetime of one man; and partly because the interpretation of\nOrganic Nature, after the proposed method, is of more immediate\nimportance. Before noting how Mr. Spencer applies his fundamental\nprinciples to the interpretation of the phenomena of life, it may be\nwell to put before the reader's eye the \"formula of evolution\" in the\nauthor's own language: \"Evolution is an integration of matter and\nconcomitant dissipation of motion; during which the matter passes from\nan indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent\nheterogeneity; and during which the retained motion undergoes a parallel\ntransformation.\" This law of evolution is equally applicable to all\norders of phenomena,--\"astronomic, geologic, biologic, psychologic,\nsociologic, etc.,\"--since these are all component parts of one cosmos,\nthough disguised from one another by conventional groupings. It is\nobvious that, so long as evolution is merely established by induction,\nit belongs, not to philosophy, but to science. To belong to philosophy\nit must be deduced from the persistence of force. Mr. Spencer holds that\nthis can be done. For any finite aggregate, being unequally exposed to\nsurrounding forces, will become more diverse in structure, every\ndifferentiated part will become the parent of further differences; at\nthe same time, dissimilar units in the aggregate tend to separate, and\nthose which are similar, to cluster together (\"segregation\"); and this\nsubdivision and dissipation of forces, so long as there are any forces\nunbalanced by opposite forces, must end at last in rest; the penultimate\nstage of this process \"in which the extremest multiformity and most\ncomplex moving equilibrium are established,\" being the highest\nconceivable state. The various derivative laws of phenomenal changes are\nthus deducible from the persistence of force. It remains to apply them\nto inorganic, organic, and superorganic existences. The detailed\ntreatment of inorganic evolution is omitted, as we have said, from\nSpencer's plan, and he proceeds to interpret \"the phenomena of life,\nmind, and society in terms of Matter, Motion, and Force.\"\n\n\n\nIV.\n\nThe first volume of the \"Principles of Biology\" consists of three parts,\nthe first of which sets forth the data of biology, including those\ngeneral truths of physics and chemistry with which rational biology must\nstart. The second part is allotted to the inductions of biology, or, in\nother words, to a statement of the leading generalizations which\nnaturalists, physiologists, and comparative anatomists have established.\nThe third and final part of the first volume of the \"Principles of\nBiology\" deals with the speculation commonly known as \"the development\nhypothesis,\" and considers its _a priori_ and _a posteriori_ evidences.\n\nThe inductive evidences for the evolutionary hypothesis, as\ncontra-distinguished from the special-creation hypothesis, are dealt\nwith in four chapters. The \"Arguments from Classification\" are these:\nOrganisms fall into groups within groups; and this is the arrangement\nwhich we see results from evolution where it is known to take place. Of\nthese groups within groups, the great or primary ones are the most\nunlike, the sub-groups are less unlike, the sub-sub-group still less\nunlike, and so on; and this, too, is a characteristic of groups\ndemonstrably produced by evolution. Moreover, indefiniteness of\nequivalence among the groups is common to those which we know have been\nevolved, and to those supposed in the volume before us to have been\nevolved. There is the further significant fact that divergent groups are\nallied through their lowest rather than their highest members. Of the\n\"Arguments from Embryology,\" the first is that, when developing embryos\nare traced from their common starting-point, and their divergencies and\nre-divergencies are symbolized by a genealogical tree, there is manifest\na general parallelism between the arrangement of its primary, secondary,\nand tertiary branches, and the arrangement of the divisions and\nsubdivisions of Mr. Spencer's classifications. Nor do the minor\ndeviations from this general parallelism, which look like difficulties,\nfail on closer observation to furnish additional evidence; since those\ntraits of a common ancestry which embryology reveals are, if\nmodifications have resulted from changed conditions, liable to be\ndisguised in different ways and degrees, in different lines of\ndescendants. Mr. Spencer next considers the \"Arguments from Morphology.\"\nApart from those kinships among organisms disclosed by their\ndevelopmental changes, the kinships which their adult forms show are\nprofoundly significant. The unities of type found under such different\nexternals are inexplicable, except as results of community of descent,\nwith non-community of modification. Again, each organism analyzed apart\nshows, in the likenesses obscured by unlikenesses of its component\nparts, a peculiarity which can be ascribed only to the formation of a\nmore heterogeneous organism out of a more homogeneous one. And, once\nmore, the existence of rudimentary organs, homologous with organs that\nare developed in allied animals or plants, while it admits of no other\nrational interpretation, is satisfactorily interpreted by the hypothesis\nof evolution. Last of the inductive evidences are the \"Arguments from\nDistribution.\" While the facts of distribution in space are\nunaccountable as results of designed adaptation of organisms to their\nhabitats, they are accountable as results of the competition of species,\nand the spread of the more fit into the habitats of the less fit,\nfollowed by the changes which new conditions induce. Though the facts of\ndistribution in time are so fragmentary that no positive conclusion can\nbe drawn, yet all of them are reconcilable with the hypothesis of\nevolution, and some of them yield strong support,--especially the near\nrelationship existing between the living and extinct types in each great\ngeographical area. Thus of these four categories of evidence, each\nfurnishes several arguments which point to the same conclusion. This\ncoincidence would give to the induction a very high degree of\nprobability, even were it not enforced by deduction. As a matter of\nfact, the conclusion deductively reached is in harmony with the\ninductive conclusion. Mr. Spencer has deductively shown that, by its\nlineage and its kindred, the evolution-hypothesis is as closely allied\nwith the proved truths of modern science as is the antagonist\nhypothesis, that of special creation, with the proved errors of ancient\nignorance. He has shown that, instead of being a mere pseud-idea, it\nadmits of elaboration into a definite conception, so showing its\nlegitimacy as an hypothesis. Instead of positing a purely fictitious\nprocess, the process which it alleges proves to be one actually going on\naround us. To which may be added that the evolution-hypothesis presents\nno radical incongruities from a moral point of view. On the other hand,\nthe special-creation hypothesis is shown to be not even a thinkable\nhypothesis, and, while thus intellectually illusive, to have moral\nimplications irreconcilable with the professed beliefs of those who\nhold it.\n\nPassing from the evidence that Evolution has taken place to the\nquestion--How has it taken place?--Mr. Spencer finds in known agencies\nand known processes adequate causes of its phenomena. In astronomic,\ngeologic, and meteorologic changes, ever in progress, ever combining in\nnew and more involved ways, we have a set of inorganic factors to which\nall organisms are exposed; and in the varying and complicated actions of\norganisms on one another we have a set of organic factors that alter\nwith increasing rapidity. Thus, speaking generally, all members of the\nEarth's flora and fauna experience perpetual rearrangements of external\nforces. Each organic aggregate, whether considered individually or as a\ncontinuously existing species, is modified afresh by each fresh\ndistribution of external forces. To its pre-existing differentiations\nnew differentiations are added; and thus that lapse to a more\nheterogeneous state, which would have a fixed limit were the\ncircumstances fixed, has its limits perpetually removed by the perpetual\nchange of the circumstances. These modifications upon modifications,\nwhich result in evolution, structurally considered, are the\naccompaniments of those functional alterations continually required to\nre-equilibrate inner with outer actions. That moving equilibrium of\ninner actions corresponding with outer actions, which constitutes the\nlife of an organism, must either be overthrown by a change in the outer\nactions or must undergo perturbations that cannot end until there is a\nreadjusted balance of functions and correlative adaptation of\nstructures. But where the external changes are either such as are fatal\nwhen experienced by the individuals, or such as act on the individuals\nin ways that do not affect the equilibrium of their functions, then the\nreadjustment results through the effects produced on the species as a\nwhole: there is indirect equilibration. By the preservation in\nsuccessive generations of those whose moving equilibria are less at\nvariance with the requirements, there is produced a changed equilibrium\ncompletely in harmony with the requirements.\n\nEven were this the whole of the evidence assignable for the belief that\norganisms have been gradually evolved, Mr. Spencer holds that the belief\nwould have a warrant higher than is possessed by many beliefs which are\nregarded as established. As a matter of fact, however, the evidence is\nfar from exhausted. At the outset of the first volume of \"Principles of\nBiology,\" it was remarked by the author that the phenomena presented by\nthe organic world as a whole cannot be properly dealt with apart from\nthe phenomena presented by each organism in the course of its growth,\ndevelopment, and decay. The interpretation of either class of phenomena\nimplies interpretation of the other, since the two are in reality parts\nof one process. Hence the validity of any hypothesis respecting the one\nclass of phenomena may be tested by its congruity with phenomena of the\nother class. In the second volume of \"The Principles of Biology,\" Mr.\nSpencer passes to the more special phenomena of development, as\ndisplayed in the structures and functions of individual organisms. If\nthe hypothesis that plants and animals have been progressively evolved\nbe true, it must furnish us with keys to these special phenomena. Mr.\nSpencer finds that the hypothesis does this, and by doing it gives\nnumberless additional vouchers for its truth. It is impossible for us\nhere to review, even in outline, the extensive field traversed in the\nsecond volume of \"Principles of Biology.\" We would not omit, however,\nto direct attention to the interesting conclusion reached by Mr. Spencer\ntoward the close of the volume with regard to the future of the human\nrace considered from the viewpoint of the possible pressure of\npopulation upon subsistence. He points out that in man all the\nequilibrations between constitution and conditions, between the\nstructure of society and the nature of its members, between fertility\nand mortality, advance simultaneously towards a common climax. In\napproaching an equilibrium between his nature and the ever-varying\ncircumstances of his inorganic environment, and in approaching an\nequilibrium between his nature and all the requirements of the social\nstate, man is at the same time approaching that lowest limit of\nfertility at which the equilibrium of population is maintained by the\naddition of as many infants as there are subtractions by death.\n\n\n\nV.\n\nNext in logical order and in order of publication come the two volumes\ncollectively entitled \"The Principles of Psychology.\" In these volumes\nan attempt is made to trace objectively the evolution of mind from\nreflex action through instinct to reason, memory, feeling, and will,\nfrom the interaction of the nervous system with its environment.\nSubjectively, mental states are analyzed, and it is contended that all\nof them--including those primary scientific ideas, the perceptions of\nmatter, motion, space, and time, assumed in the \"First Principles\"--can\nbe analyzed into a primitive element of consciousness, something which\ncan be defined only as analogous to a nervous shock. These perceptions\nhave now become innate in the individual. They may be called--as Kant\ncalled space and time--forms of intuition; but they have been acquired\nempirically by the race, through the persistence of the corresponding\nphenomena in the environment, and from the accumulated experiences of\neach individual being transmitted in the form of modified structure to\nhis descendants. This principle of heredity is one of the laws by which\nindividuals are connected with one another into an organic whole; and we\nthus pass to what Spencer calls superorganic evolution, implying the\nco-ordinated actions of many individuals, and giving rise to the science\nof sociology.\n\nIt is this science which Mr. Spencer undertakes to expound in the three\nvolumes entitled the \"Principles of Sociology.\" The first of these\nvolumes presents a statement of the several sets of factors entering\ninto social phenomena. These factors are, first, human ideas and\nfeelings considered in their necessary order of evolution; secondly,\nsurrounding natural conditions; and, thirdly, those ever-complicating\nconditions to which society itself gives origin. Under the caption \"The\nInductions of Sociology,\" are set forth the general facts, structural\nand functional, gathered from a survey of societies and their changes;\nin other words, the empirical generalizations that are arrived at by\ncomparing different societies, or successive stages of the same\nsocieties. The author then examines the evolution of governments,\ngeneral and local, as this is determined by natural causes; their\nseveral types and metamorphosis; their increasing complexity and\nspecialization, and the progressive limitation of their functions. From\npolitical the author turns to ecclesiastical organization. He traces the\ndifferentiation of religious government from secular; its successive\ncomplications and the multiplication of sects; the growth and continued\nmodification of religious ideas, as caused by advancing knowledge and\nchanging moral character; and the gradual reconciliation of these ideas\nwith the truths of abstract science. A good deal of space is devoted to\nwhat the author calls ceremonial organization, by which he means that\nthird kind of government which, having a common root with the others,\nand slowly becoming separate from and supplementary to them, serves to\nregulate the minor actions of life. Finally, Mr. Spencer discusses\nindustrial organization; that is to say, the development of productive\nand distributive agencies, considered in its necessary causes,\ncomprehending not only the progressive division of labor and the\nincreasing complexity of each industrial agency, but also the\nsuccessive forms of industrial government as passing through like phases\nwith political government.\n\nMany pages would be requisite adequately to describe the result of the\ninquiries prosecuted by Mr. Spencer during some twenty years, and\nembodied in the three volumes entitled \"Principles of Sociology.\" The\nultimate conclusions reached, however, may be summed up in a few\nparagraphs. It is the author's final conviction that, if the process of\nevolution, which, unceasing throughout past time, has brought life to\nits present height, continues throughout the future, as we cannot but\nanticipate, then, amid all the rhythmical changes in each society, amid\nall the lives and deaths of nations, amid all the supplantings of race\nby race, there will go on that adaptation of human nature to the social\nstate which began when savages first gathered together into hordes for\nmutual defence,--an adaptation finally complete. Mr. Spencer foresees\nthat many will think this a wild imagination. Though everywhere around\nthem are creatures with structures and instincts which have been\ngradually so moulded as to subserve their own welfares and the welfares\nof their species, yet the immense majority ignore the implication that\nhuman beings, too, have been undergoing in the past, and will undergo in\nthe future, progressive adjustments to the lives imposed on them by\ncircumstances. There are a few, nevertheless, who think it rational to\nconclude that what has happened with all lower forms must happen with\nthe highest forms,--a few who infer that among types of men those most\nfitted for making a well-working society will hereafter, as heretofore,\nfrom time to time, emerge and spread at the expense of types less\nfitted, until a fully fitted type has arisen.\n\nIt is, at the same time, conceded that the view thus suggested cannot be\naccepted without qualification. If we carry our thoughts as far forward\nas palaeolithic implements carry them back, we are introduced, not to an\nabsolute optimism, but to a relative optimism. The cosmic process brings\nabout retrogression, as well as progression, where the conditions favor\nit. Only amid an infinity of modifications, adjusted to an infinity of\nchanges of circumstances, do there now and then occur some which\nconstitute an advance: other changes, meanwhile, caused in other\norganisms, usually not constituting forward steps in organization, and\noften constituting steps backward. Evolution does not imply a latent\ntendency to improve everywhere in operation. There is no uniform ascent\nfrom lower to higher, but only an occasional production of a form,\nwhich, in virtue of greater fitness for more complex conditions, becomes\ncapable of a longer life of a more varied kind. And, while such higher\ntype begins to dominate over lower types, and to spread at their\nexpense, the lower types survive in habitats or modes of life that are\nnot usurped, or are thrust into inferior habitats or modes of life in\nwhich they retrogress.\n\nMr. Spencer's examination of \"The Principles of Sociology\" has led him\nto the belief that what holds with organic types must hold also with\ntypes of society. Social evolution throughout the future, like social\nevolution throughout the past, must, while producing, step after step,\nhigher societies, leave outstanding many lower. Varieties of men adapted\nhere to inclement regions, there to regions that are barren, and\nelsewhere to regions unfitted, by ruggedness of surface or insalubrity,\nfor supporting large populations, will, in all probability, continue to\nform small communities of simple structures. Moreover, during future\ncompetitions among the higher races, there will probably be left, in the\nless desirable regions, minor nations formed of men inferior to the\nhighest; at the same time that the highest overspread all the great\nareas which are desirable in climate and fertility. But while the entire\nassemblage of societies thus fulfils the law of evolution by increase of\nheterogeneity,--while within each of them contrasts of structure, caused\nby differences of environments and entailed occupations, cause\nunlikenesses implying further heterogeneity, we may infer that the\nprimary process of evolution--integration--which, up to the present\ntime, has been displayed in the formation of larger and larger nations,\nwill eventually reach a still higher stage, and bring yet greater\nbenefits. As when small tribes were welded into great tribes, the head\nchief stopped inter-tribal warfare; as, when small feudal governments\nbecame subject to a king, feudal wars were prevented by him,--so, in\ntime to come, a federation of the highest nations, exercising supreme\nauthority (already foreshadowed by occasional agreements among \"the\nPowers\"), may, by forbidding wars between any of its constituent\nnations, put an end to the re-barbarization which is continually undoing\ncivilization.\n\nWhen, eventually, this peace-maintaining federation has been formed, Mr.\nSpencer looks for effectual progress towards that equilibrium between\nconstitution and conditions,--between inner faculties and outer\nrequirements,--implied by the final stage of human evolution. Adaptation\nto the social state, now perpetually hindered by anti-social conflict,\nmay then go on unhindered; and all the great societies, in other\nrespects differing, may become similar in those cardinal traits which\nresult from complete self-ownership of the unit, and from exercise over\nhim of nothing more than passive influence by the aggregate. On the one\nhand, by continual repression of aggressive instincts and by continual\nexercise of feelings which prompt ministration to public welfare, and,\non the other hand, by the lapse of restraints gradually becoming less\nnecessary, there will be produced, in Mr. Spencer's forecast, a kind of\nman so constituted that, while fulfilling his own desires, he will\nfulfil also the social needs. Already, small groups of men, shielded by\ncircumstances from external antagonisms, have been moulded into forms of\nmoral nature so superior to our own that the account of their goodness\nalmost savors of romance; and it is reasonable to infer that what has\neven now happened on a small scale may, under kindred conditions,\nultimately happen on a large scale. Prolonged studies, showing among\nother things the need for certain qualifications above indicated, but\nalso revealing facts like that just named, have not caused our author to\nrecede from the belief expressed nearly fifty years ago that \"the\nultimate man will be one whose private requirements coincide with public\nones. He will be that manner of man who, in spontaneously fulfilling his\nown nature, incidentally performs the functions of a social unit; and\nyet is only enabled so to fulfil his own nature by all others doing\nthe like.\"\n\nBefore taking leave of the \"Principles of Sociology,\" we should caution\nthe reader against a misconception that might seem, at first sight, to\nfind some warrant in the following remark of a sympathetic reviewer:\n\"Like Aristotle, he [Mr. Spencer] has had to delegate large portions of\nhis work to be done for him by others.\" As our author has himself\npointed out in \"Facts and Comments,\" the reviewer's reference will be\nrightly interpreted by those who know that the work delegated by\nAristotle to others was simply the _collection_ of materials for his\nNatural History, not the classification of those materials, much less\nthe drawing of inductions from them. As not one reader in ten knows\nthis, however, wrong impressions are likely to be made by the reviewer's\nremark. Mr. Spencer's name being especially associated with the\n\"Synthetic Philosophy,\" the sentence quoted will suggest to many the\nthought that large portions of that work were written by deputy. This,\nof course, the reviewer did not mean to say. The work to which he\nreferred is entitled \"Descriptive Sociology, or groups of sociological\nfacts, classified and arranged by Herbert Spencer, compiled and\nabstracted by David Duncan, Richard Scheppig and James Collier,\" eight\nparts of which have thus far appeared. Knowing that he should be unable\nto read all the works of travel and history containing the facts he\nshould need when dealing with the science of society, Mr. Spencer\nengaged these gentlemen--first one, then two, then three--to read up for\nhim and arrange the extracts they made in a manner prescribed. With much\nmaterial he had himself accumulated in the course of many years, our\nauthor incorporated a much larger amount of material derived from the\ncompilations just mentioned when writing the \"Principles of Sociology.\"\n\n\n\nVI.\n\nIt is the two volumes entitled the \"Principles of Ethics\" to which we\nshall lastly invite attention. The six parts of which this work is\ncomposed were published in an irregular manner. Part I., presenting the\ndata of ethics, was issued in 1879; Part IV., a treatise on \"Justice,\"\nin 1891; Parts II. and III., which set forth respectively the inductions\nof ethics and the ethics of individual life, and which, along with Part\nI., form the first volume, were issued in 1892; Parts V. and VI., which\ntreat respectively of negative beneficence and positive beneficence,\nwere issued in 1893, and, along with Part IV., constitute the second\nvolume. With regard to the \"Principles of Ethics,\" considered as a\nwhole, it should be noted that the author was prompted to prepare the\nwork, notwithstanding the ill health by which he was incessantly\ninterrupted, by the conviction that the establishment of rules of\nconduct on a scientific basis is a pressing need. Now that moral\ninjunctions are losing the authority given by their supposed sacred\norigin, the secularization of morals is becoming imperative. Those who\nreject the current creed appear to assume that the controlling agency\nconferred by it may safely be thrown aside. On the other hand, those\nwho defend the current creed allege that, in the absence of the guidance\nit yields, no guidance can exist, divine commandments being, in their\nopinion, the only possible guides. Dissenting from both of these\nbeliefs, Mr. Spencer has had for his primary purpose in the two volumes\nunder review to show that, apart from any supposed supernatural basis,\nthe principles of ethics have a natural basis. In these two volumes this\nnatural basis is set forth, and its corollaries are elaborated. If the\nconclusions to which the general law of evolution introduces us are not\nin all cases as definite as might be wished, yet our author submits that\nthey are more definite than those to which we are introduced by the\ncurrent creed. Complete definiteness is not, of course, to be expected.\nRight regulation of the actions of so complex a being as man, living\nunder conditions so complex as those presented by a society, evidently\nforms a subject-matter unlikely to admit of specific statements\nthroughout its entire range.\n\nThe principal inductions drawn from the data collected in the first of\nthese volumes may be set forth in a few sentences. Multitudinous proofs\nare brought forward of the fact that the ethical sentiment prevailing in\ndifferent societies, and in the same society under different conditions,\nare sometimes diametrically opposed. In Europe and in the United States\nto have committed a murder disgraces for all time a man's memory, and\ndisgraces for generations all who are related to him. By the Pathans,\nhowever, a contrary sentiment is displayed. One who had killed a Mellah\n(priest) and failed to find refuge from the avengers, said at length: \"I\ncan but be a martyr; I will go and kill a Sahib.\" He was hanged after\nshooting a sergeant, perfectly satisfied \"at having expiated his\noffence.\" The prevailing ethical sentiment in England is such that a man\nwho should allow himself to be taken possession of and made an\nunresisting slave would be regarded with scorn; but the people of\nDrekete, a slave-district of Fiji, \"said it was their duty to become\nfood and sacrifices for the chiefs,\" and that \"they were honored by\nbeing considered adequate to such a noble task.\" Less extreme, though\nakin in nature, is the contrast between the feelings which the history\nof Englishmen has recorded within a few centuries. In Elizabeth's time,\nSir John Hawkins initiated the slave-trade, and, in commemoration of the\nachievement, was allowed to put in his coat-of-arms: \"a demi-moor\nproper, bound with a cord,\"--the honorableness of his action being thus\nassumed by himself, and recognized by Queen and public. At the present\nday, on the other hand, the making slaves of men, called by Wesley \"the\nsum of all villanies,\" is regarded in England with detestation; and for\nmany years the British government maintained a fleet to suppress the\nslave-trade. Again, peoples who have emerged from the primitive\nfamily-and-clan organization, hold that one who is guilty of a crime\nmust himself bear the punishment, and it is thought extreme injustice\nthat the punishment should fall upon any one else. The remote ancestors\nof the English people thought and felt differently, as do still the\nAustralians, whose \"first great principle with regard to punishment is\nthat all the relatives of a culprit, in the event of his not being\nfound, are implicated in his guilt: the brothers of the criminal\nconceive themselves to be quite as guilty as he is.\" Then, too, among\ncivilized peoples the individualities of women are so far recognized\nthat the life and liberty of a wife are not supposed to be bound up with\nthose of her husband; and she now, having obtained a right to exclusive\npossession of property, contends for complete independence, domestic and\npolitical. It is, or was, otherwise in Fiji. The wives of the Fijian\nchiefs consider it a sacred duty to suffer strangulation on the deaths\nof their husbands. A woman who had been rescued by an Englishman\n\"escaped during the night, and, swimming across the river, and\npresenting herself to her own people, insisted upon the completion of\nthe sacrifice which she had in a moment of weakness reluctantly\nconsented to forego.\" Another foreign observer tells of a Fijian woman\nwho loaded her rescuer \"with abuse, and ever afterwards manifested the\nmost deadly hatred towards him.\" In England and on the Continent the\nreligious prohibition of theft and the legal punishment of it are joined\nwith a strong social reprobation, so that the offence of a thief is\nnever condoned. In Beloochistan, on the other hand, quite contrary ideas\nand feelings are current. There \"a favorite couplet is to the effect\nthat the Biloch who steals and murders, secures Heaven to seven\ngenerations of ancestors.\" In England and the United States reprobation\nof untruthfulness is strongly expressed, alike by the gentleman and the\nlaborer. In many parts of the world it is not so. In Blantyre, for\nexample, according to MacDonald, \"to be called a liar is rather a\ncompliment.\" Once more: English sentiment is such that the mere\nsuspicion of incontinence on the part of a woman is enough to blight her\nlife; but there are peoples whose sentiments entail no such effect, and,\nin some cases, a reverse effect is produced: \"Unchastity is, with the\nWetyaks, a virtue.\" It seems, then, that in respect of all the leading\ndivisions of human conduct, different races of men, and the same races\nat different stages, entertain opposite beliefs, and display\nopposite feelings.\n\nIn Mr. Spencer's opinion, the evidence here brought to a focus ought to\ndissipate once for all the belief in a moral sense, as commonly\nentertained. A long experience of mankind, however, prevents him from\nindulging in such an expectation. Among men at large, lifelong\nconvictions are not to be destroyed either by conclusive arguments or\nmultitudinous facts. Only to those who are not by creed or cherished\ntheory committed to the hypothesis of a supernaturally created human\nspecies will the evidence above summed up prove that the human mind has\nno originally implanted conscience. Mr. Spencer himself at one time\nespoused the doctrine of the intuitive moralists, but it has gradually\nbecome clear to him that the qualifications required practically\nobliterate the doctrine as enunciated by them. It has become clear to\nhim, in other words, that if among civilized folk the current belief is\nthat a man who robs and does not repent will be eternally damned, while\nan accepted proverb among the Bilochs is, that \"God will not favor a man\nwho does not steal and rob,\" it is impossible to hold that men have in\ncommon an innate perception of right and wrong.\n\nAt the same time, while the inductions drawn by Mr. Spencer from the\ndata of ethics show that the moral-sense doctrine in its original form\nis not true, they also show that it adumbrates a truth, and a much\nhigher truth. For the facts cited, chapter after chapter, unite in\nproving that the sentiments and ideas current in each society become\nadjusted to the kinds of activity predominating in it. A life of\nconstant external enmity generates a code in which aggression, conquest,\nrevenge, are inculcated, while peaceful occupations are reprobated.\nConversely, a life of settled internal amity generates a code\ninculcating the virtues conducing to harmonious co-operation,--justice,\nhonesty, veracity, regard for others' claims. The implication is that,\nif the life of internal amity continues unbroken from generation to\ngeneration, there must result not only the appropriate code, but the\nappropriate emotional nature,--a moral sense adapted to the moral\nrequirements. Men so conditioned will acquire to the degree needful for\ncomplete guidance that innate conscience which the intuitive moralists\nerroneously supposed to be possessed by mankind at large. There needs\nbut a continuance of absolute peace externally and a rigorous insistence\non non-aggression internally, to insure the moulding of men into a form\nnaturally characterized by all the virtues. This general induction is\nre-enforced by especial induction. Now as displaying this high trait of\nnature, now as displaying that, Mr. Spencer has instanced various\nuncivilized peoples who, inferior to us in other respects, are morally\nsuperior to us. He has also pointed out that such peoples are, one and\nall, free from inter-tribal antagonisms. The peoples showing this\nconnection between external and internal peacefulness on the one hand,\nand superior morality on the other, are of various races. In the Indian\nHills are found some who are by origin Mongolian, Kelarian, Dravidian;\nin the forests of Malacca, Burma, and in secluded parts of China exist\nsuch tribes of yet other bloods; in the East Indian archipelago are\nsome belonging to the Papuan stock; in Japan there are the amiable\nAinos, who have no traditions of internecine strife; and in North Mexico\nexists yet another such people unrelated to the rest, the Pueblos. Our\nauthor holds that no more conclusive proof could be wished than that\nsupplied by these isolated groups of men, who, widely remote in locality\nand differing in race, are alike in the two respects that circumstances\nhave long exempted them from war, and that they are now organically\ngood. May we not reasonably infer, asks Mr. Spencer, in conclusion, that\nthe state reached by these small, uncultured tribes may be reached by\nthe great cultured nations, when the life of internal amity shall be\nunqualified by the life of external enmity?\n\nWe bring to an end our review of the \"Synthetic Philosophy\" by pointing\nout that the ethical doctrine constituting the culmination of the system\nwhich is set forth in the \"Principles of Ethics\" is fundamentally a\ncorrected and elaborated version of the doctrine propounded in \"Social\nStatics\" issued as long ago as 1850. The correspondence between the two\nworks is shown not only by the coincidence of their constructive\ndivisions, but also by the agreement of their cardinal ideas. As in the\none, so in the other, Man, in common with lower creatures, is held to be\ncapable of indefinite change by adaptation to conditions. In both he is\nregarded as undergoing transformation from a nature appropriate to his\naboriginal wild life, to a nature appropriate to a settled civilized\nlife; and in both this transformation is described as a moulding into a\nform fitted for harmonious co-operation. In both works, too, this\nmoulding is said to be effected by the repression of certain primitive\ntraits no longer needed, and the development of needful traits. As in\nthe first work, so in this last, the great factor in the progressive\nmodification is shown to be sympathy. It was contended in \"Social\nStatics,\" as it is contended in the \"Principles of Ethics,\" that\nharmonious social co-operation implies that limitation of individual\nfreedom which results from sympathetic regard for the freedoms of\nothers; and that the law of equal freedom is the law in conformity to\nwhich equitable individual conduct and equitable social arrangements\nco-exist. Mr. Spencer's theory in 1850 was, as his theory still is, that\nthe mental products of Sympathy which constitute what is called \"the\nmoral sense,\" arise as fast as men are disciplined into social life; and\nthat along with them arise intellectual perceptions of right human\nrelations, which become clearer as the form of social life becomes\nbetter. Further, in the earlier work it was inferred, as it is inferred\nin the latest, that there is being effected a conciliation of individual\nnatures with social requirements; so that there will eventually be\nachieved the greatest individuation, along with the greatest mutual\ndependence,--an equilibrium of such kind that each, in fulfilling the\nwants of his own life, will aid in fulfilling the wants of all other\nlives. We observe, finally, that, in the first work, there were drawn\nessentially the same corollaries respecting the rights of individuals\nand their relations to the State that are drawn in the \"Principles\nof Ethics.\"\n\nA word may be said in conclusion about the difference between the\nrelation of Mr. Spencer on the one hand and Darwin on the other to the\nthought of the Nineteenth Century. The fact is not to be lost sight of\nthat the principles of the Evolutionary, or, as Mr. Spencer prefers to\nterm it, the Synthetic, philosophy were formulated before the\npublication of the \"Origin of Species.\" What the ultimately general\nacceptance of the theory propounded in Darwin's work did for Mr. Spencer\nwas precisely this: it greatly strengthened the biological evidence for\nthe evolutionary hypothesis. That hypothesis was upheld, however, by\nevidence drawn not merely from biology, but from many other sources.\nMoreover, while the Darwinian theory of natural selection, supplemented\nas it was by the adoption of the Lamarkian factors,--the effect of use\nand disuse and the assumed transmissibility of acquired\ncharacter,--merely attempted to explain the mode in which the changes in\norganic life have taken place upon the earth, the evolutionary\nhypothesis put forth by Mr. Spencer professed to be applicable to the\nwhole sphere of the knowable. It is further to be borne in mind that Mr.\nSpencer has devoted a large part of his life to tracing in detail the\napplications of his fundamental principles to social, political,\nreligious, and ethical phenomena. Darwin, on the other hand, strictly\nconfined himself to the biological field, and left to disciples the task\nof indicating the bearing of the Darwinian theory upon sociology,\ntheology, and morals.\n\n\nAUTHORITIES.\n\nThe Complete Works of Herbert Spencer (The Synthetic Philosophy).\n\nAlso, \"Facts and Comments,\" by Herbert Spencer (Appleton's).\n\nJohn Fiske's \"Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy.\"\n\nF.H. Collins's \"Epitome of the Synthetic Philosophy.\"\n\nA.D. White's \"Herbert Spencer: The Completion of the Synthetic\nPhilosophy.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHARLES ROBERT DARWIN.\n\n\n1809-1882;\n\nHIS PLACE IN MODERN SCIENCE.\n\nBY MAYO W. HAZELTINE.\n\n\nThere is no doubt that, by the judgment of a large majority of\nscientists, the place of pre-eminence in the history of science during\nthe nineteenth century should be assigned to Charles Robert Darwin. The\ntheory associated with his name deserves to be called epoch-making. The\nDarwinian hypothesis, indeed, should not be confounded with the cosmic\ntheory of Evolution which was formulated earlier and independently by\nHerbert Spencer, and supported by many arguments drawn from sources\noutside the field of natural history. The specific merit of the\nDarwinian hypothesis is that it furnishes a rational and almost\nuniversally accepted explanation of the mode in which changes have taken\nplace in the development of organic life upon the earth. With the\npossible cosmical applications of his theory Darwin did not concern\nhimself, though the bearing of his hypothesis upon wider problems was at\nonce discerned, and has been set forth by Spencer and others. Before\nstating, however, the conclusions at which Darwin arrived in his \"Origin\nof Species,\" the \"Descent of Man,\" and other writings, and before\nindicating the extent to which these conclusions have been adopted, we\nshould say a word about his interesting, amiable, and exemplary\npersonality. Concerning his private life, there is no lack of\ninformation. He himself wrote an autobiographical sketch which has been\namplified by his son Francis Darwin, and supplemented with numerous\nextracts from his correspondence.\n\n\n\nI.\n\nCharles Robert Darwin was born at Shrewsbury, Feb. 12, 1809. His mother\nwas a daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, the well-known Staffordshire potter,\nand his father, Dr. Robert Waring Darwin, was a son of Erasmus Darwin,\ncelebrated in the eighteenth century as a physician, a naturalist, and a\npoet. It is a curious fact that in some of his speculations Erasmus\nDarwin anticipated the views touching the evolution of organic life\nsubsequently announced by Lamarck, and ultimately incorporated by\nCharles Darwin in the theory that bears his name. The only taste kindred\nto natural history which Dr. Darwin possessed in common with his father\nand his son was a love of plants. The garden of his house in Shrewsbury,\nwhere Charles Darwin spent his boyhood, was filled with ornamental\ntrees and shrubs, as well as fruit-trees.\n\nWhen Charles Darwin was about eight years old, he was sent to a\nday-school, and it seems that even at this time his taste for natural\nhistory, and especially for collecting shells and minerals, was well\ndeveloped. In the summer of 1818 he entered Dr. Butler's great school in\nShrewsbury, well known to the amateur makers of Latin verse by the\nvolume entitled \"Sabrinae Corolla.\" He expressed the opinion in later\nlife that nothing could have been worse for the development of his mind\nthan this school, as it was strictly classical, nothing else being\ntaught except a little ancient biography and history. During his whole\nlife he was singularly incapable of mastering any language. With respect\nto science, he continued collecting minerals with much zeal, and after\nreading White's \"Selborne\" he took much pleasure in watching the habits\nof birds. Towards the close of his school life he became deeply\ninterested in chemistry, and was allowed to assist his elder brother in\nsome laboratory experiments. In October, 1825, he proceeded to Edinburgh\nUniversity, where he stayed for two years. He found the lectures\nintolerably dull, with the exception of those on chemistry. Curiously\nenough, while walking one day with a fellow-undergraduate, the latter\nburst forth in high admiration of Lamarck and his views on evolution. So\nfar as Darwin could afterwards judge, no impression was made upon his\nown mind. He had previously read his grandfather's \"Zo\u00f6nomia,\" in which\nsimilar views had been propounded, but no discernible effect had been\nproduced upon him. Nevertheless, it is probable enough that the hearing\nrather early in life such views maintained and praised may have favored\nhis upholding them under a different form in the \"Origin of Species.\"\n\nWhile at Edinburgh, Darwin was a member of the Plinian Society, and read\na couple of papers on some observations in natural history. After two\nsessions had been spent at Edinburgh, Darwin's father perceived that the\nyoung man did not like the thought of being a physician, and proposed\nthat he should become a clergyman. In pursuance of this proposal, he\nwent to the University of Cambridge in 1828, and three years later took\na B.A. degree. In his autobiography the opinion is expressed that at\nCambridge his time was wasted. It was there, however, that he became\nintimately acquainted with Professor Henslow, a man of remarkable\nacquirements in botany, entomology, chemistry, mineralogy, and geology.\nDuring his last year at Cambridge Darwin read with care and interest\nHumboldt's \"Personal Narrative,\" and Sir John Herschel's \"Introduction\nto the Study of Natural Philosophy.\" These books influenced him\nprofoundly, arousing in him a burning desire to make even the most\nhumble contribution to the structure of natural science. At Henslow's\nsuggestion he began the study of biology, and in 1831 accompanied\nProfessor Sedgwick in the latter's investigations amongst the older\nrocks in North Wales.\n\nIt was Professor Henslow who secured for young Darwin the appointment of\nnaturalist to the voyage of the \"Beagle.\" This voyage lasted from Dec.\n27, 1831, to Oct. 2, 1836. The incidents of this voyage will be found\nset forth in Darwin's \"Public Journeys.\" The observations made by him in\ngeology, natural history, and botany gave him a place of considerable\ndistinction among scientific men. In 1844 he published a series of\nobservations on the volcanic islands visited during the voyage of the\n\"Beagle,\" and two years later \"Geological Observations on South\nAmerica.\" These two books, together with a volume entitled \"Coral\nReefs,\" required four and a half years' steady work. In October, 1846,\nhe began the studies embodied in \"Cirripedia\" (barnacles). The outcome\nof these studies was published in two thick volumes. The time came when\nDarwin doubted whether the work was worth the consumption of the time\nemployed, but probably it proved of use to him when he had to discuss in\nthe \"Origin of Species\" the principles of a natural classification. From\nSeptember, 1854, and during the four ensuing years, Darwin devoted\nhimself to observing and experimenting in relation to the transmutation\nof species, and in arranging a huge pile of notes upon the subject. As\nearly as October, 1838, it had occurred to him as probable, or at least\npossible, that amid the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on\nin the animal world, favorable variations would tend to be preserved,\nand unfavorable ones to be destroyed. The result would be the formation\nof new species.\n\nIt was not until June, 1842, however, that Darwin allowed himself the\nsatisfaction of writing a very brief abstract of his theory in\nthirty-five pages. This was enlarged two years later into one of 230\npages. Early in 1856, Sir Charles Lyell, the well-known geologist,\nadvised him to write out his views upon the subject fully, and Darwin\nbegan to do so on a scale three or four times as extensive as that which\nwas afterwards followed in his \"Origin of Species.\" He got through about\nhalf the work on this scale. His plans were overthrown, owing to the\ncurious circumstance that, in the summer of 1858, Mr. Alfred E. Wallace,\nwho was then in the Malay archipelago, sent him an essay \"On the\nTendency of Varieties to depart indefinitely from the Original Type.\" It\nturned out upon perusal that this essay contained exactly the same\ntheory as that which Darwin was engaged in elaborating. Mr. Wallace\nexpressed the wish that, if Darwin thought well of the essay, he should\nsend it to Lyell. It was Sir Charles Lyell and Sir Joseph Hooker who\ninsisted that Darwin should allow an abstract from his manuscript,\ntogether with a letter to Prof. Asa Gray, dated Sept. 5, 1857, to be\npublished at the same time with Wallace's essay. Darwin was unwilling to\ntake this course, being then unacquainted with Mr. Wallace's generous\ndisposition. As a matter of fact, the joint productions excited very\nlittle attention, and the only published notice of them asserted that\nwhat was new in them was false, and that what was true was old. From the\nindifference evinced to the papers which first propounded the theory of\nnatural selection, Darwin drew the inference that it is necessary for\nany new view to be explained at considerable length in order to obtain\nthe public ear.\n\nIn September, 1858, Darwin, at the earnest advice of Lyell and Hooker,\nset to work to prepare a volume on the transmutation of species. The\nbook cost him more than thirteen months' hard labor. It was published in\nNovember, 1859, under the title of \"Origin of Species.\" This, which\nDarwin justly regarded as the chief work of his life, was from the first\nhighly successful. The first edition was sold on the day of publication,\nand the book was presently translated into almost every European tongue.\nDarwin himself attributed the success of the \"Origin\" in large part to\nhis having previously written two condensed sketches, and to his having\nfinally made an abstract of a much larger manuscript, which itself was\nan abstract. By this winnowing process he had been enabled to select the\nmore striking facts and conclusions. As to the current assertion that\nthe \"Origin\" succeeded because the subject was in the air, or because\nmen's minds were prepared for it, Darwin was disposed to doubt whether\nthis was strictly true. In previous years he had occasionally sounded\nnot a few naturalists, and had never come across a single one who seemed\nto doubt about the permanence of species. Probably men's minds were\nprepared in this sense, that innumerable well-verified facts were stored\naway in the memories of naturalists, ready to take their proper places\nas soon as any theory which would account for them should be strongly\nsupported. Darwin himself thought that he gained much by a delay in\npublishing, from about 1839, when the \"Darwinian\" theory was clearly\nconceived, to 1859; and that he lost nothing, because he cared very\nlittle whether men attributed most originality to him or to Wallace.\n\nDarwin's \"Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication\" was begun\nin 1860, but was not published till 1868. The book was a big one, and\ncost him four years and two months' hard labor. It gives in the first\nvolume all his personal observations, and an immense number of facts,\ncollected from various sources, about domestic productions, animal and\nvegetable. In the second volume the causes and laws of variation,\ninheritance, etc., are discussed. Towards the end of the work is\npropounded the hypothesis of Pangenesis, which has been generally\nrejected, and which the author himself looked upon as unverified,\nalthough by it a remarkable number of isolated facts could be connected\ntogether and rendered intelligible.\n\nThe \"Descent of Man\" was published in February, 1871. Touching this\nwork, Darwin has told us that, as soon as he had become (in 1837 or\n1838) convinced that species were mutable productions, he could not\navoid the belief that man must come under the same law. Accordingly, he\ncollected notes on the subject for his own satisfaction, and not for a\nlong time with any intention of publishing. In the \"Origin of Species,\"\nthe derivation of any particular species is never discussed; but in\norder that no honorable man should accuse him of concealing his views,\nDarwin had thought it best to add that by that work, \"light would be\nthrown on the origin of man and his history.\" It would have impeded the\nacceptance of the theory of natural selection if Darwin had paraded,\nwithout giving any evidence, his conviction with respect to man's\norigin. When he found, however, that many naturalists accepted his\ndoctrine of the evolution of species, it seemed to him advisable to work\nup such notes as he possessed, and to publish a special treatise on the\norigin of man. He was the more glad to do so, as it gave him an\nopportunity of discussing at length sexual selection, a subject which\nhad always interested him.\n\nDarwin's book on the \"Expression of Emotion in Men and Animals\" was\npublished in the autumn of 1872. This had been intended to form a\nchapter on the subject in the \"Descent of Man,\" but as soon as Darwin\nbegan to put his notes together he saw that it would require a separate\ntreatise. In July, 1875, appeared the book on \"Insectivorous Plants.\"\nThe fact that a plant should secrete, when properly excited, a fluid\ncontaining an acid and ferment closely analogous to the digestive fluid\nof an animal, was certainly a remarkable discovery. In the autumn of\n1876 appeared \"The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilization,\" a work in\nwhich are described the endless and wonderful contrivances for the\ntransportation of pollen from one plant to another of the same species.\nAbout the same time was brought out an enlarged edition of the\n\"Fertilization of Orchids,\" originally published in 1862. Among the\nminor works issued during the later years of Darwin's life may be\nmentioned particularly the little book on \"The Formation of Vegetable\nMould through the Action of Worms.\" This was the outgrowth of a short\npaper read before the Geological Society more than fourteen\nyears before.\n\nIn order to appreciate the enormous amount of research accomplished by\nCharles Darwin, it is needful to keep in mind the conditions of\nill-health under which almost continually he worked. For nearly forty\nyears he never knew one day of the health of ordinary men. His life was\none long struggle against the weariness and drain of sickness. During\nhis last ten years there were signs of amendment in several particulars,\nbut a loss of physical vigor was apparent. Writing to a friend in 1881,\nhe complained that he no longer had the heart or strength to begin any\nprolonged investigations. In February and March, 1882, he frequently\nexperienced attacks of pain in the region of the heart, attended with\nirregularity of the pulse. On April 18 he fainted, and was brought back\nto consciousness with great difficulty. He seemed to recognize the\napproach of death, and said, \"I am not the least afraid to die.\" On the\nafternoon of Wednesday, April 19, he passed away. On April 26 he was\ninterred in Westminster Abbey. The funeral was attended by\nrepresentatives of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Russia, and by\ndelegates of the universities and learned societies of which he had been\na member. Among the pall-bearers were Sir John Lubbock, Sir Joseph\nHooker, Professor Huxley, Mr. A.R. Wallace, Mr. James Russell Lowell,\nthe Duke of Argyll, and the Duke of Devonshire. The grave is\nappropriately placed in the north aisle of the nave, only a few feet\nfrom the last resting-place of Sir Isaac Newton.\n\n\n\nII.\n\nAn outline of Darwin's personality would not be complete without a\nglance at some of his mental characteristics, and at his attitude toward\nreligion. Of his intellectual powers, he himself speaks with\nextraordinary modesty in his autobiography. He points out that he always\nexperienced much difficulty in expressing himself clearly and concisely,\nbut he opines that this very difficulty may have had the compensating\nadvantage of forcing him to think long and intently about every\nsentence, and thus enabling him to detect errors in reasoning and in his\nown observations, or in those of others. He disclaimed the possession of\nany great quickness of apprehension or wit, such as distinguished\nHuxley. He protested, also, that his power to follow a long and purely\nabstract train of thought was very limited, for which reason he felt\ncertain that he never could have succeeded with metaphysics or\nmathematics. His memory, too, he described as extensive, but hazy. So\npoor in one sense was it that he never could remember for more than a\nfew days a single date or a line of poetry. On the other hand, he did\nnot accept as well founded the charge made by some of his critics that,\nwhile he was a good observer, he had no power of reasoning. This, he\nthought, could not be true, because the \"Origin of Species\" is one long\nargument from the beginning to the end, and has convinced many able\nmen. No one, he submits, could have written it without possessing some\npower of reasoning. He was willing to assert that \"I have a fair share\nof invention, and of common sense or judgment, such as every fairly\nsuccessful lawyer or doctor must have, but not, I believe, in any higher\ndegree.\" He adds humbly that perhaps he was \"superior to the common run\nof men in noticing things which easily escape attention, and in\nobserving them carefully.\"\n\nWriting in the last year of his life, he expressed the opinion that in\ntwo or three respects his mind had changed during the preceding twenty\nor thirty years. Up to the age of thirty or beyond it poetry of many\nkinds gave him great pleasure. Formerly, too, pictures had given him\nconsiderable, and music very great, delight. In 1881, however, he said:\n\"Now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry; I have\ntried lately to read Shakspeare, and found it so intolerably dull that\nit nauseated me. I have also almost lost my taste for pictures or music.\nMusic generally sets me thinking too energetically of what I have been\nat work on, instead of giving me pleasure. I retain some taste for fine\nscenery, but it does not cause me the exquisite delight which it\nformerly did.\" Darwin was convinced that the loss of these tastes was\nnot only a loss of happiness, but might possibly be injurious to the\nintellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the\nemotional side of one's nature. So far as he could judge, his mind had\nbecome in his later years a kind of machine for grinding general laws\nout of large collections of facts, and that atrophy had taken place in\nthat part of the brain on which the higher aesthetic tastes depend.\nCuriously enough, however, he retained his relish for novels, and for\nbooks on history, biography, and travels.\n\nIt is well known that Darwin was extremely reticent with regard to his\nreligious views. He believed that a man's religion was essentially a\nprivate matter. Repeated attempts were made to draw him out upon the\nsubject, and some of these were partially successful. Writing to a Dutch\nstudent in 1873, he said: \"I may say that the impossibility of\nconceiving that this grand and wondrous universe, with our conscious\nselves, arose through chance seems to me the chief argument for the\nexistence of God; but whether this is an argument of real value I have\nnever been able to decide. I am aware that if we admit a First Cause,\nthe mind still craves to know whence it came and how it arose. Nor can I\noverlook the difficulty from the immense amount of suffering through the\nworld. I am also induced to defer to a certain extent to the judgment of\nthe many able men who have fully believed in God; but here again I see\nhow poor an argument this is. The safest conclusion seems to me that\nthe whole subject is beyond the scope of man's intellect; but man can do\nhis duty.\" To questions put by a German student in 1879, he replied:\n\"Science has nothing to do with Christ, except in so far as the habit of\nscientific research makes a man cautious in admitting evidence. For\nmyself I do not believe that there ever has been any revelation. As for\na future life, every man must judge for himself between conflicting\nvague probabilities.\" In the same year he told another correspondent:\n\"In my most extreme fluctuations I have never been an atheist in the\nsense of denying the existence of a God. I think that generally (and\nmore and more as I grow older), but not always, that an Agnostic would\nbe the more correct description of my state of mind.\" His latest view is\nindicated in a letter dated July 3, 1881. Here he expressed the \"inward\nconviction that the universe is not the result of chance.\" He adds,\nhowever: \"But, then, with me the horrid doubt always arises whether the\nconvictions of man's mind, which has been developed from the mind of the\nlower animals, are of any value, or at all trustworthy. Would any one\ntrust the convictions in a monkey's mind, if there are any convictions\nin such a mind?\" The Duke of Argyll has recorded the few words on the\nsubject spoken by Darwin in the last year of his life. The Duke said\nthat it was impossible to look at the wonderful contrivances for\ncertain purposes in nature, and fail to recognize that they were the\neffect and the expression of mind. Darwin looked at the Duke very hard,\nand said, \"Well, that often comes over me with overwhelming force; but\nat other times\"--here he shook his head vaguely--\"it seems to go away.\"\n\n\n\nIII.\n\nWe pass to a consideration of Darwin's masterworks, the \"Origin of\nSpecies,\" the \"Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,\" and\nthe \"Descent of Man.\" Before indicating the conclusions reached in the\nfirst of these works, we should point out to what extent Darwin had been\npreceded by dissenters from the belief once almost universally\nentertained by biologists that species were independently created, and,\nonce created, were immutable. Lamarck was the first naturalist whose\ndivergent views upon the subject excited much attention. In writings\npublished at various dates from 1801 to 1815, he upheld the doctrine\nthat all species, including man, are descended from other species. He\npronounced it probable that all changes in the organic, as well as in\nthe inorganic world, were the result of law, and not of miraculous\ninterposition. He seems to have been led to his opinion that the change\nof species had been gradual by the difficulty experienced in\ndistinguishing species from varieties by the almost perfect gradation of\nforms in certain groups, and by the analogy of domestic productions.\nWith respect to the means of modification, he attributed something to\nthe direct action of the physical conditions of life, something to the\ncrossing of already existing forms, and much to use and disuse, or, in\nother words, to the effect of habit. Finally, he held that characters\nacquired by an existing individual might be transmitted to its\noffspring.\n\nIn 1813 Dr. W.C. Wells read before the Royal Society \"An Account of a\nWhite Female, Part of whose Skin resembles that of a Negro.\" In this\npaper the author distinctly recognized the principle of natural\nselection, but applied it only to the races of man, and in man only to\ncertain characters. After remarking that negroes and mulattoes enjoy an\nimmunity from certain tropical diseases, he observed, first, that all\nanimals tend to vary in some degree, and, secondly, that\nagriculturalists improve their domesticated animals by selection. He\nadded that what is done in the latter case by art seems to be done with\nequal efficacy, though more slowly, by nature in the formation of\nvarieties of mankind fitted for the countries which they inhabit. Again\nin 1831 Mr. Patrick Matthew published a work on \"Naval Timber and\nArboriculture,\" in which he put forth precisely the same view\nconcerning the origin of species as that propounded by Mr. Wallace and\nby Darwin. Unfortunately for himself, the view was cursorily suggested\nin scattered passages of an appendix to a work on a different subject,\nso that it remained unnoticed until Mr. Matthew himself drew attention\nto it in 1860, after the publication of the \"Origin of Species.\" We\nobserve finally that Mr. Herbert Spencer, in an essay published in 1852,\nand republished six years later, contrasted the theories of the creation\nand the development of organic beings. He argued from the analogy of\ndomestic productions, from the changes which the embryos of many species\nundergo, from the difficulty of distinguishing species and varieties,\nand from the principle of general gradation, that species have been\nmodified; and he attributed the modification to the change of\ncircumstances.\n\nThe two volumes comprising the \"Origin of Species\" constitute, as the\nauthor said, one long argument. It is, of course, impossible in the\nspace at our command to recapitulate in detail even the leading facts\nand inferences which are brought forward to prove that species have been\nmodified during a long course of descent. We must confine ourselves to a\nsuccinct statement of the author's general conclusions. What he\nundertakes to prove is that the modification of species during a long\ncourse of descent has been effected chiefly through the natural\nselection of numerous successive slight favorable variations, aided in\nan important manner by the inherited effects of the use and disuse of\nparts; and in an unimportant manner,--that is, in relation to adaptive\nstructures, whether past or present, by the direct action of external\nconditions, and by variations which seem to us, in our ignorance, to\narise spontaneously. It should be observed that Darwin does not\nattribute the modification exclusively to natural selection. What he\nasserts is: \"I am convinced that natural selection has been the main,\nbut not the exclusive, means of modification.\" He submits that a false\ntheory would hardly explain in so satisfactory a manner as does the\ntheory of natural selection the several large classes of facts\nmarshalled in the two volumes now under review. If it be objected that\nthis is an unsafe method of arguing, Darwin rejoins that it is a method\nusual in judging of the common events of life, and has often been used\nby the greatest natural philosophers. The undulatory theory of light,\nfor instance, has thus been arrived at; and the belief in the revolution\nof the earth on its own axis was, until lately, supported by scarcely\nany direct evidence. It is no valid objection to the Darwinian theory of\nthe origin of species that science as yet throws no light on the far\nhigher problem of the essence or origin of life. Neither has any one\nexplained what is the essence of the attraction of gravity, though\nnobody now objects to following out the results consequent on this\nunknown element of attraction.\n\nWhy, it may be asked, did nearly all the most eminent naturalists and\ngeologists until recently decline to believe in the mutability of\nspecies? Darwin replies that the belief that species were immutable\nproductions was almost unavoidable as long as the history of the world\nwas thought to be of short duration. Even now that we have acquired some\nidea of the lapse of time, men are too apt to assume without proof that\nthe geological record is so perfect that it would have afforded plain\nevidence of the mutation of species if they had really undergone\nmutation. The chief cause, however, of the once-prevalent unwillingness\nto admit that one species has given birth to other and distinct species\nis the fact that men are slow to admit great changes of which they do\nnot see the steps. The difficulty is the same which was experienced by\nmany geologists when Lyell first insisted that long lines of inland\ncliffs had been formed and great valleys excavated, not by catastrophes,\nbut by the slow-moving agencies which we see still at work. The human\nmind cannot grasp the full meaning of the term of even a million years;\ncannot add up and perceive the full effects of many slight variations\naccumulated during an almost infinite number of generations.\n\nWhen the first edition of the \"Origin of Species\" was published in 1859,\nDarwin wrote that he by no means expected to convince experienced\nnaturalists whose minds were stocked with a multitude of facts, all\nregarded during a long course of years from a point of view directly\nopposite to his. He looked forward with confidence, however, to the\nfuture, to young and rising naturalists, who would be able to view both\nsides of the question with impartiality. He predicted that, when the\nconclusions reached by him and by Mr. Wallace concerning the origin of\nspecies should be generally accepted, there would be a considerable\nrevolution in natural history. Naturalists, for instance, would be\nforced to acknowledge that the only distinction between species and\nwell-marked varieties is that the latter are known or believed to be\nconnected at the present day by intermediate gradations, whereas species\nwere formerly, though they are not now, thus connected. It might thus\ncome to pass that forms generally acknowledged in 1859 to be merely\nvarieties, would thereafter be thought worthy of specific names; in\nwhich case scientific and common language would come into accordance. In\nshort, Darwin looked forward to the time when species would have to be\ntreated in the same manner as genera are treated by those naturalists\nwho admit that genera are merely artificial combinations made for\nconvenience.\n\nDarwin also foresaw that when his theory of the origin of species should\nbe adopted, other and more general departments of natural history would\nrise greatly in interest. The terms used by naturalists--such terms as\naffinity, relationship, community of type, paternity, morphology,\nadaptive characters, rudimentary and abortive organs, etc.--would cease\nto be metaphorical, and would have a plain signification. \"When,\" he\nwrote, \"we no longer look at an organic being as a savage looks at a\nship, as something wholly beyond his comprehension; when we regard every\nproduction of nature as one which has had a long history; when we\ncontemplate every complex structure and instinct as the summing up of\nmany contrivances, each useful to the possessor, in the same way as any\ngreat mechanical invention is the summing up of the labor, the\nexperience, the reason, and even the blunders of numerous workmen; when\nwe thus view each organic being, how far more interesting--I speak from\nexperience--does the study of natural history become.\" Once more: \"When\nwe can feel assured that all the individuals of the same species, and\nall the closely allied species of most genera, have within a not very\nremote period descended from one parent, and have migrated from some one\nbirthplace; and when we better know the many means of migration, then,\nby the light which geology now throws, and will continue to throw, on\nformer changes of climate and of the level of the land, we shall surely\nbe enabled to trace in an admirable manner the former migrations of the\ninhabitants of the whole world.\"\n\nWhen Darwin published the \"Origin of Species,\" he was aware that\ntheologians and philosophers seemed to be fully satisfied with the view\nthat each species had been independently created, and was immutable. To\nhis own mind, however, it accorded better with what was known of the\nlaws impressed on matter by the Creator that the production and\nextinction of the past and present inhabitants of the world should have\nbeen due to secondary causes like those determining the birth and death\nof the individual. \"When I view,\" he said, \"all beings not as special\ncreations, but as the lineal descendants of some few beings which lived\nlong before the first bed of the Cambrian system was deposited, they\nseem to me to become ennobled.\" And again: \"As all the living forms of\nlife are the lineal descendants of those which lived long before the\nCambrian epoch, we may feel certain that the ordinary succession by\ngeneration has never once been broken, and that no cataclysm has\ndesolated the whole world. Hence we may look with some confidence to a\nsecure future of great length. And as natural selection works slowly by\nand for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will\ntend to progress towards perfection.\"\n\nFor his own part, Darwin could see no good reason why the views\npropounded in the two volumes comprising the \"Origin of Species\" should\nshock the religious feelings of any one. Touching the likelihood of\nsuch a result, he reassured himself by recalling the fact that the\ngreatest discovery ever made by man--namely, the law of the attraction\nof gravitation--was attacked by Leibnitz \"as subversive of natural, and\ninferentially, of revealed, religion.\" Darwin was confident that, if any\nsuch impressions were made by his theory, they would prove but\ntransient, and that ultimately men would come to see that it is just as\nnoble a conception of the Deity to believe that He created a few\noriginal forms capable of self-development into other and needful forms\nas to believe that it required the fresh act of creation to supply the\nvoids caused by the action of His laws.\n\n\n\nIV.\n\nIt was, as we have said, in 1868 that Darwin published the two volumes\ncollectively entitled \"Variation of Animals and Plants under\nDomestication.\" It is the second and largely corrected edition brought\nout in 1875 which we have under our eye. It is the outcome of the views\nmaintained by the author in this work and elsewhere that not only the\nvarious domestic races but the most distinct genera and orders within\nthe same great class--for instance, mammals, birds, reptiles, and\nfishes--are all the descendants of one common progenitor, and the whole\nvast amount of difference between these forms has primarily arisen from\nsimple variability. Darwin recognized that he who for the first time\nshould consider the subject under this point of view would be struck\ndumb with amazement. He submits, however, that the amazement ought to be\nlessened when we reflect that beings almost infinite in number during an\nalmost infinite lapse of time have often had their whole organization\nrendered in some degree plastic, and that each slight modification of\nstructure which was in any way beneficial under excessively complex\nconditions of life has been preserved, whilst each which was in any way\ninjurious has been rigorously destroyed. The long-continued accumulation\nof beneficial variations will infallibly have led to structures as\ndiversified, as beautifully adapted for various purposes, and as\nexcellently co-ordinated as we see in the animals and plants around us.\nHence Darwin regards selection as the paramount power, whether applied\nby man to the formation of domestic beings or by nature to the\nproduction of species. Employing a favorite metaphor, he said: \"If an\narchitect were to rear a noble and commodious edifice without the use of\ncut stone, by selecting from the fragments at the base of a precipice\nwedge-form stones for his arches, elongated stones for his lintels, and\nflat stones for his roof, we should admire his skill and regard him as\nthe paramount power. Now, the fragments of stone, though indispensable\nto the architect, bear to the edifice built by him the same relation\nwhich the fluctuating variations of organic beings bear to the varied\nand admirable structures ultimately acquired by their modified\ndescendants.\"\n\nSome critics of the Darwinian theory of the origin of species have\ndeclared that natural selection explains nothing, unless the precise\ncause of each slight individual difference be made clear. Darwin rejoins\nthat if it were explained to a savage utterly ignorant of the art of\nbuilding how the edifice had been raised, stone upon stone, and why\nwedge-formed fragments were used for the arches, flat stones for the\nroof, etc.; and if the use of each part and of the whole building were\npointed out,--it would be unreasonable if he declared that nothing had\nbeen made clear to him, because the precise cause of the shape of each\nfragment could not be told. This, in Darwin's opinion, is a nearly\nparallel case, with the objection that selection explains nothing\nbecause we know not the cause of each individual difference in the\nstructure of each being. The shape of the fragments of stone at the base\nof the hypothetical precipice may be called accidental, but the term is\nnot strictly applicable; for the shape of each depends on a long\nsequence of events, all obeying natural laws; on the nature of the rock,\non the lines of deposition or cleavage, on the form of the mountain,\nwhich depends on its upheaval and subsequent denudation, and, lastly,\non the storm or earthquake which throws down the fragments.\n\nIn regard to the use, however, to which the fragments may be put, their\nshape may be strictly said to be accidental. Here Darwin acknowledged\nthat we are brought face to face with a great difficulty in alluding to\nwhich he felt that he was travelling beyond his proper province. \"An\nomniscient Creator must have foreseen every consequence which results\nfrom the laws imposed by Him. But can it be reasonably maintained that\nthe Creator intentionally ordered, if we use the words in any ordinary\nsense, that certain fragments of rock should assume certain shapes, so\nthat the builder might erect his edifice? If the various laws which have\ndetermined the shape of each fragment were not predetermined for the\nbuilder's sake, can it be maintained with any greater probability that\nHe specially ordained for the sake of the breeder each of the\ninnumerable variations in our domestic animals and plants,--many of\nthese variations being of no service to man, and not beneficial, far\nmore often injurious, to the creatures themselves? Did He ordain that\nthe crop and tail-feathers of the pigeon should vary in order that the\nfancier might make his grotesque pouter and fan-tail breeds? Did He\ncause the frame and mental qualities of the dog to vary in order that a\nbreed might be formed of indomitable ferocity with jaws fitted to pin\ndown the bull for man's brutal sport?\"\n\nIt is obvious, however, that if we give up the principle in one\ncase,--if we do not admit that the variations of the primeval dog were\nintentionally guided in order that the greyhound, for instance, that\nperfect image of symmetry and vigor, might be formed,--no shadow of\nreason can be assigned for the belief that variations similar in nature\nand the result of the same general laws which have been the groundwork\nthrough natural selection of the formation of the most perfectly adapted\nanimals in the world, man included, were intentionally and specially\nguided. Darwin, therefore, was unable to follow the distinguished\nbotanist, Prof. Asa Gray, in his belief that \"variation has been led\nalong certain beneficial lines,\" like a stream \"along definite and\nuseful lines of irrigation.\" Darwin's conclusion was that, if we assume\nthat each particular variation was from the beginning of all time\npreordained, then that plasticity of organization which leads to many\ninjurious deviations of structure, as well as the redundant power of\nreproduction which inevitably leads to a struggle for existence, and, as\na consequence, to a natural selection or survival of the fittest, must\nappear to us superfluous laws of nature.\n\n\n\nV.\n\nNext to the \"Origin of Species,\" the volume which sets forth Darwin's\ntheory of the \"Descent of Man\" naturally excited the most widespread\nattention. This book, which took the author three years to write, was\npublished in 1871, a second and carefully revised edition appearing\nthree years later. The data brought together occupy more than six\nhundred pages. The conclusions reached may be summed up in a few\nparagraphs. The principal induction from the evidence is that man is\ndescended from some less highly organized form. It was Darwin's\nconviction that the grounds upon which this conclusion rests will never\nbe shaken, for the close similarity between man and the lower animals in\nembryonic development, as well as in innumerable points of structure and\nconstitution, both of high and of the most trifling importance,--the\nrudiments which he retains and the abnormal reversions to which he is\noccasionally liable,--are facts which cannot be disputed. Viewed in the\nlight of our knowledge of the whole organic world, their meaning is\nunmistakable. The great principle of evolution stands out clear and firm\nwhen these groups of facts are considered in connection with others,\nsuch as the mutual affinities of the members of the same group, their\ngeographical distribution in past and present times, and their\ngeological succession. It is pronounced incredible that all these facts\nshould speak falsely. He who is not content to look like a savage at the\nphenomena of nature as disconnected cannot any longer believe that man\nis the product of a separate act of creation. He will be forced to admit\nthat the close resemblance of the embryo of man to that, for instance,\nof a dog,--the construction of his skull, limbs, and whole frame on the\nsame plan with that of other mammals, independently of the uses to which\nthe parts may be put; the occasional reappearance of various structures,\nfor instance, of several muscles which man does not normally possess,\nbut which are common to the Quadrumana, and a crowd of analogous\nfacts,--all point in the plainest manner to the conclusion that man is\nthe co-descendant with other mammals of a common progenitor.\n\nDarwin recognized that the high standard of our intellectual powers and\nmoral disposition constitutes the greatest difficulty which presents\nitself after we have been driven by the mass of biological evidence to\naccept his conclusion as to the origin of man. Touching this point, he\nobserves: \"Every one who admits the principle of evolution must see that\nthe mental powers of the higher animals, which are the same in kind with\nthose of man, though so different in degree, are capable of advancement.\nThus the interval between the mental powers of one of the higher apes\nand of a fish, or between those of an ant and scale-insect, is immense;\nyet their development does not offer any special difficulty, for with\nour domesticated animals the mental faculties are certainly variable,\nand the variations are inherited. No one doubts that their mental\nfaculties are of the utmost importance to animals in a state of nature.\nTherefore the conditions are favorable for their development through\nnatural selection. The same conclusion may be extended to man; the\nintellect must have been all-important to him, even at a very remote\nperiod, as enabling him to invent and use language, to make weapons,\ntools, traps, etc., whereby, with the aid of his social habits, he long\nago became the most dominant of all living creatures.\"\n\nIt is further pointed out that a great stride in the development of\nman's intellect must have followed as soon as the half-art and\nhalf-instinct of language came into use; for the continued use of\nlanguage must have reacted on the brain, and produced an inherited\neffect, and this again will have reacted on the improvement of language.\nThe largeness of the brain in man relatively to his body, compared with\nthe size of that organ in the lower animals, is attributable in chief\npart to the early use of some simple form of language, that engine which\naffixes signs to all sorts of objects and qualities, and excites trains\nof thought which would never arise from the mere impression of the\nsenses, or, if they did arise, could not be followed out. The higher\nintellectual powers of man, such as those of ratiocination, abstraction,\nself-consciousness, etc., probably follow from the continued improvement\nand exercise of the other mental faculties.\n\nHow man's moral qualities came to be developed is an interesting problem\nwhich is considered by Darwin at some length. He holds that their\nfoundation lies in the social instincts under which term are included\nfamily ties. These instincts are highly complex, and, in the case of the\nlower animals, give special tendencies toward certain definite actions.\nBut the more important elements are love and the distinct emotion of\nsympathy. Animals endowed with the social instincts take pleasure in one\nanother's company, warn one another of danger, defend and aid one\nanother in many ways. These instincts do not extend to all the\nindividuals of the species, but only to those of the same community. As,\nhowever, they are highly beneficial to the species, they have in all\nprobability been acquired through natural selection. In Darwin's\njudgment the moral nature of man has reached its present standard partly\nthrough the advancement of his reasoning powers, and consequently, of a\njust public opinion, but especially from his sympathies having been\nrendered more tender and widely diffused through the effects of habit,\nexample, instruction, and reflection. It is pronounced not improbable\nthat, after long practice, virtuous tendencies may be inherited.\n\nLet us look a little more closely at the matter, for the difficulty of\nexplaining morality forms one of the greatest obstacles to the\nacceptance of the Darwinian account of the descent of man. What do we\nmean by a moral being? Manifestly, a moral being is one who is capable\nof reflecting on his past actions and their motives, and of approving of\nsome while he disapproves of others. Man is the one being who certainly\ndeserves this designation, though attempts have recently been made to\nshow that a rudimentary morality may be traced in some of the lower\nanimals. In the fourth chapter of the book before us, Darwin undertakes\nto demonstrate that the moral sense follows,--first, from the enduring\nand ever-present nature of the social instincts; secondly, from man's\nappreciation of the approbation and disapprobation of his fellows; and,\nthirdly, from the high activity of his mental faculties, with past\nimpressions extremely vivid; in these latter respects he differs from\nthe lower animals. Owing to this condition of mind, man cannot avoid\nlooking both backwards and forwards, and comparing past impressions.\nHence, after some temporary desire or passion has mastered his social\ninstincts, he reflects and compares the now weakened impression of such\npast impulses with the ever-present social instincts; and he then feels\nthat sense of dissatisfaction which all unsatisfied instincts leave\nbehind them, and resolves to act differently for the future. This\ndissatisfaction Darwin would identify with conscience. Any instinct\npermanently stronger or more enduring than another gives rise to a\nfeeling which we express by saying that it _ought_ to be obeyed. Darwin\nsuggests that a pointer dog, if able to reflect on his past conduct,\nwould say to himself I _ought_ (as indeed we say of him) to have pointed\nat that hare, and not have yielded to the passing temptation of\nhunting it.\n\nThe belief in God has often been advanced as not only the greatest, but\nthe most decisive, of all the distinctions between man and the lower\nanimals. Darwin brings forward in the book before us a quantity of\nreasons for holding it to be impossible that this belief is innate or\ninstinctive in man. In some races of men, for instance, we encounter a\ntotal want of the idea of God. On the other hand, a belief in\nall-pervading spiritual agencies seems to be universal, and apparently\nfollows from a considerable advance in man's reason, and from a still\ngreater advance in the faculties of imagination, curiosity, and wonder.\n\"I am aware,\" says Darwin, \"that the assumed instinctive belief in God\nhas been used by many persons as an argument for His existence. But this\nis a rash argument, as we should thus be compelled to believe in the\nexistence of many cruel and malignant spirits only a little more\npowerful than man; for the belief in them is far more general than in a\nbeneficent deity. The idea of a universal and beneficent Creator does\nnot seem to arise in the mind of man until he has been elevated by\nlong-continued culture.\"\n\nHow does the belief in the advancement of man from some low organized\nform bear on the belief in the immortality of the soul? Sir John Lubbock\nhas proved that the barbarous races of man possess no clear belief of\nthe kind; but, as Darwin continually reminds us, arguments derived from\nthe primeval beliefs of savages are of little or no avail on either side\nof a question. Attention is directed by Darwin to the more relevant fact\nthat few persons feel any anxiety from the impossibility of determining\nat what precise period in the development of the individual, from the\nfirst trace of a minute germinal vesicle, man becomes an immortal being.\nHe submits that there should be no greater cause for anxiety because the\nperiod cannot possibly be determined in the gradually ascending\norganic scale.\n\nDarwin was well aware that the conclusions arrived at in the work before\nus--namely, that man is descended from some lowly organized form--would\nbe highly distasteful to many. The very persons, however, who regard the\nconclusions with distaste admit without hesitation that they are\ndescended from barbarians. Darwin recalls the astonishment which he\nhimself felt on first seeing a party of Fuegians on a wild and broken\nshore, when the reflection rushed upon his mind that such men had been\nhis ancestors. These men were absolutely naked and bedaubed with paint,\ntheir long hair was tangled, their mouths frothed with excitement, and\ntheir expression was wild, startled, and distrustful. They possessed\nhardly any arts, and, like wild animals, lived on what they could catch;\nthey had no government, and were merciless to every one not of their own\nsmall tribe. Remembering the impression made on him by the Fuegians,\nDarwin suggests that he who has seen a savage in his native land will\nnot feel much shame if forced to acknowledge that the blood of some more\nhumble creature flows in his veins. \"For my own part,\" he says, \"I would\nas soon be descended from that heroic little monkey who braved his\ndreaded enemy in order to save the life of his keeper,--or from that old\nbaboon, who, descending from the mountains, carried away in triumph his\nyoung comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs,--as from a savage who\ndelights to torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, practises\ninfanticide without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, knows no\ndecency, and is haunted by the grossest superstitions.\" Darwin holds, in\nfine, that man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen,\nthough not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic\nscale; it is further submitted that the fact of his having thus risen,\ninstead of having been aboriginally placed there, may give him hope for\na still higher destiny in the distant future.\n\nAs a scientist, however, Darwin is not concerned with hopes or fears,\nbut simply with the truth, as man's reason enables him to discern it. We\nmust recognize, he thinks, as the truth, established by an overwhelming\narray of inductive evidence, that man, with all his noble qualities,\nwith sympathy which he feels for the most debased, with benevolence\nwhich extends not only to other men, but to the humblest living\ncreature, with his godlike intellect, which has penetrated into the\nmovements and constitution of the solar system--with all these exalted\npowers--man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his\nlowly origin.\n\n\n\nVI.\n\nWe have said that Darwin's theory of the origin of species, together\nwith its corollary, the descent of man, has met with almost universal\nacceptance by scientists. We have to use the qualifying adverb, because\nsome of Darwin's contemporaries, including Virchow and Owen, not to\nmention St. George Mivart and the Duke of Argyll, have withheld their\nadhesion. Since his death, moreover, his disciples have tended to split\ninto two schools. On the one hand, Weismann has rejected the Lamarckian\nfactors,--the effect of use and disuse upon organs, and the\ntransmissibility of acquired characters. The importance of these factors\nhas been emphatically re-asserted, on the other hand, by Lankester and\nothers. Whether biologists, however, range themselves in the\nNeo-Darwinian or in the Neo-Lamarckian camp, the value of the principle\nof natural selection is acknowledged by all, and nobody now asserts the\nindependent creation and permanence of species.\n\n\nAUTHORITIES.\n\nThe Complete Works of Darwin, published by D. Appleton and Company.\n\nThe Works of Alfred Russel Wallace.\n\nFrancis Darwin's \"Life of Charles Darwin.\"\n\nHuxley's Writings, _passim_.\n\nHaeckel's \"Natural History of Creation.\"\n\nWeismann's \"Studies in the Theory of Descent\" and subsequent papers.\n\nRomanes's \"Scientific Evidences of Organic Evolution.\"\n\nLankester's \"Degeneration.\"\n\nFiske's \"Darwinism and Other Essays.\"\n\nFor adverse criticism of Darwin, read Mivart's \"Genesis of Species,\" and\nthe Duke of Argyll's \"Unity of Nature.\"\n\n\n\n\nJOHN ERICSSON.\n\n\n1803-1889.\n\nNAVIES OF WAR AND COMMERCE.\n\nBY W.F. DURAND, PH.D.\n\n\nThe exact combination of inspiration, heredity, and environment which\nserves to produce genius will perhaps ever be a problem beyond the skill\nof human intelligence. When the rare elements do combine, however, the\nresult is always worthy of most careful study, both because great\nachievements furnish a healthy stimulus to emulation, and because some\nglimpse may be gained of Nature's working in the formation of her\nrarest products.\n\nFew lives better illustrate these remarks than that of John Ericsson.\nBorn of middle-class parentage and with no apparent source of heredity\nfrom which to draw the stores of genius which he displayed throughout\nhis life, and with surroundings in boyhood but little calculated to\nawaken and inspire the life-work which later made him famous, from this\nbeginning and with these early surroundings John Ericsson became\nunquestionably the greatest of the engineers of the age in which he\nlived and of the century which witnessed such mighty advances along all\nengineering lines. The imprint left by Ericsson's life on the\nengineering practice of his age was deep and lasting, and if one may\ndare look into the future, the day is far removed when engineers will\nhave passed beyond their dependence on his life and labors.\n\nIt is perhaps not amiss that, before looking more closely at the\nachievements of Ericsson's life and activity, note should be taken of\nthe large dependence of our present civilization and mode of life on the\nengineer and his work.\n\nIn different ages of the world's history each has received its name,\nappropriate or fanciful as the case may have been. For the modern age no\nname is perhaps more adequately descriptive than the \"Age of Energy,\"\nthe age in which our entire fabric of civilization rests upon the\nutilization of the energies of nature for the needs of humanity, and to\nan extent little appreciated by those who have not considered the matter\nfrom this point of view. If we consider the various elements which enter\ninto our modern civilization,--the items which enter into the daily life\nof the average man or woman; the items which we have come to consider as\nnecessities and those which we may consider as luxuries; the items which\ngo to make up our needs as expressed in terms of shelter, food,\nintercommunication between man and his fellow, and pleasure,--the most\ncasual consideration of such will serve to show distributed throughout\nalmost the entire fabric of our civilization dependence at some point on\nthe power of the steam-engine, the water-wheel, or windmill, the subtle\nelectric current, or the heat-energy of coal, petroleum oil, or natural\ngas. The harnessing and efficient utilization of these great natural\nenergies is the direct function of the engineer, or more especially of\nthe dynamic engineer, and in this noble guild of workers, Ericsson\ncarved for himself an enduring place and left behind a record which\nshould serve as an inspiration to all who are following the same pathway\nin later years.\n\nNo one feature perhaps better differentiates our modern civilization\nfrom that of earlier times, four hundred years ago, or even one hundred,\nthan that of intercommunication between man and his fellow. Compare the\nopportunities for such intercommunication in the present with those in\nthe time of Queen Elizabeth, Sir Isaac Newton, George Washington, or\nNapoleon I. We now have our steamships, steam and electric railroads,\ncable, telegraph, and telephone. A few years ago not a single one was\nknown. The modern age is one which demands the utmost in the possibility\nof communication between man and his kind, and in this respect the wide\nworld is now smaller than the confines of an English county a\ncentury ago.\n\nIn this field, as we shall see, Ericsson did some of his greatest work,\nand left perhaps his most permanent record for the future.\n\nEricsson's life falls most naturally into three periods chronologically\nor geographically, and likewise into three periods professionally,\nthough the latter mode of subdivision has by no means the same\nboundaries as the former. The first mode of subdivision gives us the\nlife in Sweden, the life in England, and the life in the United States.\nThe second mode gives us the life of struggle and obscurity, the life of\nstruggle, achievement, and recognition, and the calmer and easier life\nof declining years with recognition, reward, and the assurance of a\nlife's work well done.\n\nJohn Ericsson was born in the province of Vermland, Sweden, in 1803. His\nfather was Olof Ericsson, a mine owner and inspector who was well\neducated after the standard of his times, having graduated at the\ncollege in Karlstad, the principal town of the province. His mother was\nBritta Sophia Yngstrom, a woman of Flemish-Scotch descent, and to whom\nEricsson seems to have owed many of his stronger characteristics. Three\nchildren were born: Caroline in 1800, Nils in 1802, and John in 1803. Of\nJohn's earliest boyhood we have but slight record, but there seems to\nhave been a clear foreshadowing of his future genius. He was considered\nthe wonder of the neighborhood, and busied himself day after day with\nthe machinery of the mines, drawing the form on paper with his rude\ntools or making models with bits of wood and cord, and endeavoring thus\nto trace the mystery of its operation.\n\nIn 1811 the Ericsson family fell upon evil times. Due to a war with\nRussia, business became disturbed and in the end Olof Ericsson became\nfinancially ruined. This brought the little family face to face with the\nrealities of life, and we soon after find the father occupying a\nposition as inspector on the G\u00f6ta Canal, a project which was just then\noccupying serious attention after having been neglected for nearly one\nhundred years, and nearly three hundred years after it was first\nproposed in 1526. Through this connection, in 1815, John and Nils\nEricsson were appointed as cadets in a corps of Mechanical Engineers to\nbe employed in carrying out the Government's plans with reference to the\ncanal. During the winter of 1816-17 and at the age of thirteen, John\nEricsson received regular instruction from some of his officers in\nAlgebra, Chemistry, Field Drawing, and Geometry, and the English\nlanguage. Ericsson's education previous to this seems to have consisted\nchiefly in lessons at home or from tutors, after the manner of the time.\nHe had thus received instruction in the ordinary branches and in\ndrawing and some chemistry. His training in drawing seems to have been\nunusually thorough and comprehensive, and with a natural genius for such\nwork, his later remarkable skill at the drawing board is doubtless in no\nsmall measure due to the excellent instruction which he received in his\nearly years. His progress in his duties as a young engineer was rapid,\nand he was soon given employment in connection with the canal-work,\ninvolving much responsibility and calling for experience and skill.\n\nAt length on reaching the age of seventeen he became stirred with\nmilitary ambition, and, dissatisfied with his present prospects, he left\nhis position with its opportunities for the future, and entered the\nSwedish army as ensign of a regiment of Field Chasseurs. This regiment\nwas famous for its rifle practice, and Ericsson was soon one of its most\nexpert marksmen. The routine of army life was, however, far from being\nsufficient to satisfy the uneasy genius of John Ericsson, and we soon\nfind him engaged in topographical surveying for the Government, and so\nrapid and industrious in his work that as the surveyors were paid in\naccordance with the amount accomplished, he was carried on the pay rolls\nas two men, and paid as such, in order that the amount which he received\nmight not seem too excessive for one individual. Even this was not\nsufficient to exhaust his energy, and about this time he conceived the\nidea of publishing a book of plates descriptive of the machinery\ncommonly employed in the mining operations of his day. To this end he\ncollected a large number of sketches which he had prepared in his\nearlier years, and made arrangements to take up the work of preparation\nfor publication. The drawings selected were to be engraved for the book,\nand, nothing daunted by the undertaking, Ericsson proposed to do this\nwork himself. After some discouragement the engraving was undertaken,\nand eighteen copper plates of the sixty-five selected, averaging in size\nfifteen by twenty inches, were completed within a year. In various ways\nthe project met with delays, and it soon became apparent that the rapid\nadvance in the applications of machinery to mining would render the work\nout of date, and it was at length abandoned.\n\nAt about this time Ericsson seems to have taken up seriously his work on\nhis so-called \"flame-engine,\" certain experiments made by his father\nhaving suggested to him the hope that a source of power might in this\nway be developed which would be more economical than the steam-engine.\nAt this point we see entering into Ericsson's life an idea which never\nleft him, which controlled much of his work in mid-life, and which\nattracted no small part of his attention throughout his closing years.\nThis idea was the discovery of some form of heat-engine which should be\nmore economical than the steam-engine, especially as it was in his day.\nThe flame-engine idea grew rapidly, and soon absorbed his chief\nattention. Military life now lost its attraction, and in 1826 obtaining\nleave of absence he left his native land and turned his face toward\nLondon, doubtless with the hope strong within him that a substitute for\nthe steam-engine had been found, and that his future lay secure and easy\nbefore him.\n\nThe characteristic features of Ericsson's life up to this time, when he\nhad reached his twenty-third year, are energy, industry, independence,\nall in most pronounced degree, and combined with a most astonishing\ninsight into mechanical and scientific questions. It was not a period of\nachievement, but one of formation and of development in those qualities\nwhich were soon to make him famous in both worlds. Of his work during\nthis period of life little or nothing outside the idea embodied in the\nflame-engine can be said to belong to the permanent record of his life's\nachievement. This appeared in the \"Caloric\" engine, and still later in\nthe well-known Ericsson \"Air\" engine of the present day.\n\nThis era was one of development and promise, and richly were the\npromises fulfilled in the achievements of his later years. A careful\nstudy of his life to this point is sufficient to show that, with health\nand time, such a nature would certainly leave a mark wide and deep on\nthe world in which it was placed. His characteristics were such that\nachievement was the very essence of life, and, with the promise and\npotency as revealed in this first twenty-three years of his life, we may\nbe well prepared for the brilliant record of the remaining sixty-three.\n\nWith Ericsson's arrival in London began the second important period of\nhis life. His first efforts were directed toward the introduction of the\nflame-engine, but he soon found unexpected difficulties in the use of\ncoal as fuel instead of wood, and it became clear that in order to live\nhe must turn his attention to other matters for a time. Then followed a\nseries of remarkable pieces of work in which Ericsson's genius showed\nitself, either in original invention or in the adaptation and\nimprovement of the existing facts and material of engineering practice.\nWhile thus occupied, his leave from his regiment expired, and he seems\nto have overlooked taking proper steps to have it renewed. He was thus\nplaced technically in the attitude of a deserter. Through the\nintervention of a friend, however, he was soon afterward restored, and\npromoted to the rank of Captain in the Swedish Army. This commission he\nimmediately resigned, and thus his record became technically cleared of\nall reproach.\n\nTo give a mere list of the work with which Ericsson was occupied during\nthe years from 1827 to 1839, when he removed to the United States, would\nbe no small task, and reference to the more important only can be here\nmade. Compressed air for transmitting power, forced draft for boilers by\nmeans of centrifugal blowers, steam boilers of new and improved types,\nthe surface condenser for marine engines, the location of the engines of\na ship for war purposes below the water line, the steam fire-engine, the\ndesign and construction of the \"Novelty\" (a locomotive for the Rainhill\ncontest in 1829, when Stephenson's \"Rocket\" was awarded the prize,\nthough Ericsson, heavily handicapped in time and by lack of a track on\nwhich to adjust and perfect the \"Novelty,\" achieved a result apparently\nin many ways superior to Stephenson's with the \"Rocket\"), various\ndesigns for rotary engines, an apparatus for making salt from brine,\nfurther experimental work with various forms of heat, or so-called\n\"caloric\" engines, and the final development, in 1833, of a type from\nwhich great results were for a time expected, superheated steam and\nengines for its use, a deep-sea-sounding apparatus embodying the same\nprinciple as that later developed by Lord Kelvin in the well-known\napparatus of the present day, a machine for cutting files automatically,\nvarious types of steam-engines, and finally his work in connection with\nthe introduction of the screw-propeller as a means of propulsion for\nsteam vessels. These are some of the important lines of work on which\nEricsson was engaged during the twelve years of his life in London. In\nconnection with some he was undoubtedly a pioneer, and deserves credit\nas an original inventor; in connection with others, his work was that of\nimprovement or adaptation; but in all his influence was profound, and\nthe legacy which we have received from this period of engineering\nprogress is due in no small degree to Ericsson, and to his work in\nLondon during these years. At a later point we shall refer in some\nfurther detail to these questions, but desire for the moment, rather, to\ngain a broad and comprehensive view of his life as a whole.\n\nEricsson has been by some called a spendthrift in invention, and the\nterm is not without some justice in its application. His genius was\nuneasy, and his mind was oppressed by the wealth of his ideas. It was\nthis very wealth which led him from one idea to another, without always\ntaking sufficient time in which to develop and perfect his plans. Rich\nin invention, he cared but little for exploitation, and when the truth\nof his predictions was demonstrated, or the ground of his expectation\njustified, he was eager for new achievements and new combinations of the\nmaterials of engineering progress. In this spirit of struggle and\nunrest, he passed the years in London, rapidly becoming known for his\nversatility in invention, and for his daring and originality in the\ndetails of his engineering work. From 1833 to 1839, or during the second\nhalf of this term of residence in London, he became in increasing\nmeasure absorbed in his work connected with the screw-propeller as a\nmeans of marine propulsion.\n\nEricsson's name in the popular mind has been most commonly associated\nwith the \"Monitor\" and her fight with the \"Merrimac\" in the Civil War,\nand next, probably, with the screw-propeller as a means of marine\npropulsion. It will, therefore, be proper at the present point to refer\nin some further detail to the circumstances connected with his relation\nto the introduction of the screw-propeller.\n\nRegarding this question an entire volume might be written without doing\nmore than justice to the subject, but only a brief statement of the\nchief facts can be here attempted.\n\nAs early as the Seventeenth Century the possibility of developing a\npropulsive thrust by the use of a submerged helicoidal, or screw,\npropeller, had been vaguely recognized, and during the following, or\nEighteenth Century, the same idea had been brought forward. It had been\nviewed in this connection, however, merely as a curiosity, and led to no\nimmediate results. Later, in 1804, Francis B. Stevens, of New Jersey, in\nan experimental boat on the Hudson, operated twin screws, and\ndemonstrated their applicability to the requirements of marine practice.\nThese propellers, in fact, had a form far more nearly approaching the\nmodern screw-propeller than did those which came somewhat later, and\nwhich marked the real entry of the screw-propeller into actual and\npractical service.\n\nAgain, in 1812, Ressel, a student in the University of Vienna, began to\nstudy the screw-propeller, and his first drawing dates from this time.\nIn 1826 he carried on experiments in a barge driven by hand, and in 1827\nan Austrian patent was granted him. Two years later he applied his screw\nto a boat with an engine of six horse-power, and a speed of six miles\nper hour was said to have been attained. Then came a bursting\nsteam-pipe, and the police put a stop to the experiments, which seem to\nhave had no further results.\n\nLikewise in 1823 Captain Delisle, of the French Engineers, presented a\nmemorial to his Government in which he urged the use of the submerged\npropeller for the propulsion of steam vessels. No especial attention was\ngiven to the suggestion, however, and it was apparently forgotten until\nlater, when the propeller had become a demonstrated success. Then this\nmemorial was remembered, and its author brought forward to receive his\nshare of credit in connection with the adaptation of the propeller to\nmarine propulsion.\n\nThese various attempts to introduce the screw-propeller seem curiously\nenough to have had no lasting result. They were not followed up, and in\nthe mean time had to some extent passed out of memory, or, if\nremembered, the absence of result can hardly have acted as an incentive\nto fresh effort. At the same time it must be admitted that the\nscrew-propeller as a possibility for marine propulsion was known in a\nvague way to the engineering practice of the day, and it is at this time\nof course quite impossible to say how much may have been known by\nEricsson, Smith, or others concerned in later developments, or to what\nextent they may have been dependent for suggestion on what had preceded\nthem. The question of who invented the screw-propeller in the absolute\nsense is entirely futile and without answer. No one could ever have\nreasonably advanced any such unique claim. At the best it is simply a\nquestion of the relative influence in the introduction, improvement, and\npractical application of what was the common property of the engineering\npractice of the day.\n\nIn 1833, or at the period now under consideration, however, the\npaddle-wheel was the recognized instrument of marine propulsion. Since\nthe beginning of the century it had been growing in use with the gradual\ngrowth in the application of steam, and at this time it held the field\nalone. Some years earlier it appears that some of the objections to the\npaddle-wheel had become plainly apparent to Ericsson, although,\noccupied with other matters as he was, there was no immediate result. He\napparently recognized that the slow revolutions possible with the\npaddle-wheel did not favor the improvement of the steam-engine along the\nlines which have since been followed, and he saw clearly that for\nwarship purposes the engines employed, exposed above the water-line to\ndestruction from the shell of an enemy, were entirely out of the\nquestion. Finally in 1833 and 1834 we find him employed by a carrying\ncompany in London to conduct numerous trials with submerged propellers\nin the London and Birmingham canal. In an affidavit made in March, 1845,\nhe states that in 1833 his attention was particularly called to the\nsubject of oblique propulsion, and that under his direction propellers\nof various patterns and embodying these principles were fitted on a\ncanal-boat named the \"Francis,\" and later in 1834 to another called the\n\"Annatorius.\" Shortly after this, or in 1835, his ideas took more\ndefinite form, and he refers to his work in a letter to his friend John\nBourne in the following terms:--\n\n\"1835. Designed a rotary propeller to be actuated by steam-power\nconsisting of a series of segments of a screw attached to a thin broad\nhoop supported by arms so twisted as also to form part of a screw. The\npropeller subsequently applied to the steamship 'Princeton' was\nidentical with my said design of 1835. Even the mode adopted to\ndetermine, by geometrical construction, the twist of the blades and arms\nof the 'Princeton's' and other propellers was identical with my design\nof the year last mentioned.\"\n\nAt about this same time, or in 1835, the attention of Mr. F.P. Smith\nseems to have been drawn to the subject of the screw-propeller, and we\nfind him taking out a patent for his form, consisting of an elongated\nhelix or spiral of several turns, under date of May 31, 1836. Ericsson's\npatent followed some six weeks later, or on July 13, 1836. While it thus\nappears that Ericsson had been studying the problem since 1833 or\nearlier, according to his own statements, there is no evidence that\nSmith's attention was drawn to the matter earlier than 1835. Delay on\nEricsson's part in the matter of patent gives the earlier date to Smith.\nThe mere date of a patent, however, is of small moment for our present\npurposes. It must be admitted that the modern form of screw-propeller is\nquite unlike either of these original forms, although they all involve\nof course the same fundamental principles. Ericsson's propeller may\nproperly be called an engineering success, built on sound principles,\nbut improved and largely modified by the results of later experience and\nresearch. Smith's propeller, while capable of propelling a boat, was the\ndesign of an amateur rather than of an engineer, and in comparison with\nEricsson's seemed to show a somewhat less accurate appreciation of the\nunderlying principles upon which the propeller operates.\n\nIn the present case, as we have noted above, the question is not so much\none of invention as of influence in introduction, adaptation, and\nimprovement. The screw-propeller was already known, but had not been\nintroduced into and made a part of actual engineering practice. Services\nin this direction are all that can be claimed for any of those concerned\nwith the question during the third decade of the Nineteenth Century.\nFrom this point of view we must give to Ericsson large credit. He had\nthe courage of his convictions, and did not allow his work in this\ndirection to lapse for lack of effort on his part to secure its\nintroduction into the practice of the day.\n\nThus, in 1837, the \"Francis B. Ogden\" was built for the special purpose\nof testing the power of the screw-propeller, and was operated on the\nThames for the benefit of the British Admiralty and many others. Shortly\nafter this, and largely through the influence of Capt. Robert F.\nStockton of the American Navy and Francis B. Ogden, the American Consul\nat Liverpool, Ericsson began to consider a visit to the United States\nfor the purpose of building, under Stockton's auspices, a vessel for the\nUnited States Navy. While these negotiations were under way, in 1838, he\nbuilt for Captain Stockton a screw-steamer named the \"Robert F.\nStockton,\" the trials of which attracted much attention from the public\nat large and from engineers of the time. At about the same period\nEricsson's propeller was fitted to a canal-boat called the \"Novelty,\"\nplying between Manchester and London. This was presumably the first\ninstance of a screw-propeller employed on a vessel actually used for\ncommercial purposes.\n\nFinally, in pursuance of Ericsson's plans with Captain Stockton, he left\nEngland Nov. 1, 1839, and started for New York in the steamer \"Great\nWestern,\" where he arrived November 23, after a long and stormy passage.\n\nWe now reach the final scene of Ericsson's life and professional\nactivities. His visit was at first intended only as temporary, and he\nseems to have anticipated an early return after carrying out his plans\nwith reference to a ship for the United States Navy. To quote from a\nletter to his friend, Mr. John O. Sargent, he says: \"I visited this\ncountry at Mr. Ogden's most earnest solicitations to introduce my\npropeller on the canals and inland waters of the United States. I had at\nthe same time strong reasons for supposing that Stockton would be able\nto start the 'big frigate' for which I had prepared such laborious plans\nin England.\" The event was otherwise determined, however, and during the\nremaining fifty years of his life he lived and wrought in the New World,\nand as a citizen of his adopted country.\n\nIf the record of his twelve years of work in London was long, that for\nthe remaining and maturer years of his life may well be imagined as\nvastly greater. During the earlier part of this period, or until the\nCivil War, when all his energies were concentrated upon his work in\nconnection with the \"Monitor\" type of warship, we find the same wealth\nof invention and human energy, but for the most part directed along\nlines related to marine and naval construction. It was a period of\ntraining for the fuller fruitage of his genius during the Civil War.\n\nShortly after his arrival, or in 1840, a prize was offered by the\nMechanics' Institute of New York for the best plan of a steam\nfire-engine. With his previous experience in London, Ericsson easily\ncarried off the palm and was awarded the prize. He further occupied\nhimself with the introduction of propellers on boats engaged in the\ninland navigation of the United States, with the design and construction\nof the United States steam frigate \"Princeton,\" with the development of\nthe compound principle in the steam-engine, then in 1851 with his\nhot-air ship \"Ericsson,\" or ship propelled by hot-air or caloric\nengines, as they were then termed, and later with caloric engines in\nsmaller sizes for stationary purposes, of which several thousand were\nsold during the next succeeding years.\n\nIn the work of introducing his propellers good progress was made,\nespecially in boats built for use on the Great Lakes, so that by 1844,\nwhen the U.S.S. \"Princeton\" went into commission, there were in use some\ntwenty-five vessels with the screw-propeller as a means of propulsion.\n\nThe project of building a vessel for the American Navy, the purpose\nwhich had most strongly attracted Ericsson to the United States,\nsuffered long delay in connection with the arrangements between Captain\nStockton and the naval authorities at Washington. At length, in 1841,\nCaptain Stockton was authorized to proceed with the construction of a\nscrew steam frigate of about one thousand tons. This was the U.S.S.\n\"Princeton,\" which marks an epoch as the first screw vessel-of-war. She\nwas followed by the French \"Pomone\" in 1843, and the English \"Amphion\"\nin 1844, for the equipment of which Ericsson's agent in England, Count\nVon Rosen, received commissions from the French and English governments\nrespectively.\n\nThe \"Princeton\" was completed in due time and was equipped with two\n12-inch wrought-iron guns, one brought by Ericsson from England and one\ndesigned and built under the direction of Captain Stockton. At the\ntrials of the ship in 1844 the latter gun exploded, killing the\nSecretaries of State and of the Navy, besides other prominent visitors\non board, and wounding several others. This terrible disaster threw an\nentirely undeserved stigma upon the ship herself and upon Ericsson's\nwork, and it was not until many years after that his name was entirely\nfree from some kind of reproach in connection with the \"Princeton\" and\nthe deplorable results of the accident on board.\n\nThese are some of the principal lines of work with which Ericsson\noccupied himself during the twenty-two years between 1839 and 1861. At\nthe latter date came the supreme opportunity of his life, and his\nservices in the art of naval construction during the remainder of the\nCivil War, which was then in progress, are a part of the history of that\ngreat struggle. Here, as with the propeller, volumes might be written in\nthe attempt to give a full account of the inception, growth, and final\nvindication of Ericsson's ideas regarding naval offence and defence, as\nexpressed by the means available in the engineering practice of the day.\nThe leading points only can be summarized.\n\nThe question of armored ships was in the air. The advantages of armor\nhad been already demonstrated on the French ship \"Gloire\" and others in\nconnection with the naval part of the Crimean War, and there was a\nfeeling that ironclads of some kind were a necessity of the situation.\nThese facts were perhaps more clearly realized at the South than at the\nNorth; and early in 1861 we find Mr. Stephen R. Mallory, the Confederate\nSecretary of the Navy, taking active steps to raise the \"Merrimac,\"\nwhich had been sunken at the Norfolk Navy Yard, and convert her into an\narmor-clad. Information regarding this project naturally became known to\nthe Federal authorities, and occasioned President Lincoln and the entire\nCabinet the most serious anxiety. At length on August 3, 1861, the\nappointment of a Board was authorized, the duty of which it should be to\nexamine into the question fully, obtain plans, and recommend the\nconstruction of such armor-clads as they should judge best suited to the\ndemands of the situation.\n\nShortly after this, Ericsson forwarded to President Lincoln a\ncommunication in which he offered to construct a vessel \"for the\ndestruction of the Rebel fleet at Norfolk and for scouring the Southern\nrivers and inlets of all craft protected by Rebel batteries.\" For one\nreason or another this communication does not seem to have produced any\nimmediate result. Later, however, when the Board made its report dated\nSeptember 16, they registered the opinion that the present demand called\nfor \"vessels invulnerable to shot, of light draft of water, before going\ninto a more perfect system of large iron-clad seagoing vessels of war.\"\nIn pursuance of this idea they recommended the construction of three\nvessels,--Ericsson's floating battery, a broadside vessel later known as\nthe \"Ironsides,\" and the \"Galena.\" Mr. C.S. Bushnell, who was\ninstrumental in bringing Ericsson's plans actually before the Board,\nlater associated with himself and Ericsson in the project two gentlemen\nof means, and large manufacturers of iron plate, Mr. John A. Griswold\nand Mr. John F. Winslow, who advanced most of the money needed, Mr.\nBushnell supplying the remainder. The keel was laid Oct. 25, 1861, and\nthe \"Monitor,\" as she was named by Ericsson, was launched Jan. 30, 1862,\nand was turned over to the Government Feb. 19, 1862. This brief record\nof construction leaves untold all history of the ceaseless struggle\nagainst time and of the superb organization and distribution of the work\nwhich made possible the completion of such a piece of work in the period\nof one hundred working days.\n\nOne important fact which goes far to explain this astonishing speed in\ndesign and construction is found in the fact that Ericsson was not\ndealing with an entirely new and freshly developed proposition. He has\nstated that the thought of a floating battery, which should be small in\nsize, but impregnable to the heaviest guns known and yet heavily armed\nherself, had long occupied his thoughts in connection with the problem\nof the defence of Sweden. Ericsson never forgot his native land, and\ngave to her political troubles and to the question of her defence\nagainst her more powerful neighbors much serious thought. As a result of\nthis study, he had produced as early as 1854 a design embodying all the\nessential features of the \"Monitor,\" and this design, shown by a model,\nwas in that year sent to Napoleon III., who was then at war with Russia.\nThis was in the hope that he might in this way contribute to the\noverthrow of the latter, the hereditary enemy of his native land.\n\nThe design, however, was not adopted, and after it was returned was laid\naside to collect the dust of his office, until the experiences of the\nCivil War brought it again to the light. The plan in all its main\nfeatures had therefore long been matured, and it only remained to\nproceed rapidly with the details and with the realization of the idea in\nthe most suitable materials to be obtained.\n\nThe result of the battle between the \"Monitor\" and the \"Merrimac\" in\nHampton Roads is a part of history. The relentless devastation which the\nlatter had begun on the old wooden ships of the American Navy at Hampton\nRoads was stayed, and the wild fears at the North concerning the\ndestruction which she might cause to the shipping and to the seaboard\ncities was calmed. The \"Merrimac\" met her master, and retired from the\nconflict crippled and shorn of power for further evil. A short time\nlater she sank beneath the waters of the Chesapeake, and is now\nremembered only as the antagonist of the \"Monitor.\"\n\nIf the result of this battle between the \"Monitor\" and the \"Merrimac\"\nmarked a turning-point in the naval aspect of the Civil War, it wrought\na no less marked change in the standing and fortunes of her designer.\nSome of his engineering efforts had not met with the success for which\nhe or his friends had hoped. The engines of the air-ship, while a\nsuccess as a piece of mechanism, were so enormous and heavy that she had\nto be considered as a commercial failure, and the venture was not\nrepeated; the deplorable accident on the \"Princeton\" was by some held to\nbe in part chargeable to Ericsson, though a later and full knowledge of\nthe circumstances shows that such was in no wise the case. Again,\nEricsson, as an experimenter and pioneer, was by some considered as a\ndreamer, and before the \"Monitor\" was completed there was no lack of\ncroakers who prophesied failure or who openly ridiculed the idea. This\ncondition was of course natural. In many ways Ericsson was ahead of his\nage; and, again, it must not be supposed that he avoided mistakes or\nthat all of his work fully realized the expectations which were based\nupon it. Furthermore, Ericsson's spirit was proud, and he was little\ndisposed to accept criticism from those whom he felt to be unqualified\nto pass adequate judgment on his work, while he was especially impatient\nunder the system by which government work was done. He was therefore but\nlittle disposed to pleasantly submit to the exasperating delays and\ninterferences with his work which arose from the methods of doing\npublic business, and it is no more than the simple truth to say that\nduring the preceding years the relations between Ericsson and the\nofficials of the Navy Department had often become seriously strained,\nand they were seldom in cordial accord regarding the various questions\nwhich arose in connection with his public work.\n\nWith the demonstration made by the \"Monitor,\" however, the attitude of\nthe public changed in a moment, and Ericsson was hailed on every hand as\na public benefactor. He received the thanks of Congress on March 28,\n1862, and of the Legislature of the State of New York a little later.\nBesides these, he was the recipient of numbers of memorials and\nmementoes, and of such praise in every form as might well have disturbed\nthe equilibrium of a mind less well balanced. In all this change of\npublic opinion, the one thing which must have given him the deepest\nsatisfaction was the change in the attitude of the naval authorities at\nWashington. He was now considered as one whose ideas had demonstrated\ntheir right to serious and respectful attention, and a large fleet of\nvessels of the monitor type was ordered, similar to but larger than the\nprototype, and containing such minor changes as experience had\nsuggested. Yet even this was not accomplished without objection. The\nofficers of the navy were accustomed to the old type of wooden ship,\nand were slow to realize that naval war was, after all, an engineering\nproblem, and that the ideas of the engineer must now be substituted for\nthose which had been sanctified by long ages of past experience. Still,\nthe demonstration was too convincing to admit of serious question, and\nEricsson and his associates in business were busily occupied during the\nremainder of the war in the design and construction of a numerous fleet\nof vessels of the monitor type.\n\nEricsson's work during this period was enormous. One design followed\nanother in quick succession, while work of supervision and inspection\nand cares of a business nature all combined to make a burden which would\nhave broken down a nature less determined and self-centred, and a body\nless inured to physical endurance and sustained nervous tension.\n\nThis prodigious load was not so much but that he found time to devote to\nthe needs of other nations, and in 1862 he offered to construct for the\nChilian government a monitor similar to those under construction for the\nUnited States, while later a similar offer was made to the Peruvian\nGovernment. With the close of the Civil War Ericsson found still further\ntime to devote to the introduction of this type of vessel into foreign\nnavies, and a considerable part of his time seems to have been occupied\nwith projects of this character, and more particularly with the question\nof the naval defence of his native land. As regards the introduction of\nwarships of the monitor type, the results were not so pronounced as\nmight have been expected, and while the influence of the idea is seen in\nthe practice of every maritime nation in regard to the construction of\nits warships, still, for the most part, the leading nations preferred to\nmake application of the idea in their own way rather than order such\nvessels direct from their original designer. Yet in not a few cases the\noriginal type was faithfully copied, though it is not always clear to\nwhat extent Ericsson himself may have had direct contact with their\ndesigns. In 1866 the Swedes were able to test the first of a small fleet\nof monitors built after Ericsson's plans. This was called the \"John\nEricsson,\" and was armed with two 15-inch guns presented to Sweden by\nEricsson himself. Later, in 1868, he designed for Spain and\nsuperintended the construction of thirty small gunboats for use in\nCuban waters.\n\nFor nearly ten years now Ericsson had devoted most of his energies to\nthe art of war. It was a time of change and unrest. Heavy guns and armor\nhad brought about a complete break with the past. The torpedo, which had\nmade its appearance in crude form during the Civil War, was attracting\nmore and more attention, and questions of naval offence and defence and\nof the best governmental policy were attracting the serious attention of\nall whose duty led them into relation with such matters. Into this\nproblem in its broadest aspects Ericsson threw himself in the early\n'seventies with all the ardor of his younger days.\n\nIt is proper to explain here that there was one feature of the earlier\nplans which were submitted to Napoleon III. in 1854, which he did not\nembody in the \"Monitor,\" and which, indeed, was omitted from all\npublished plans and descriptions of the system given out in former\nyears. This was a system of submarine or subaqueous attack, which, he\nstates in a letter to John Bourne, had attracted his attention since\n1826. The time now seemed ripe for the presentation and development of\nthis idea, and he accordingly developed his designs for a torpedo, and\nfor a method of firing it under water from a gun carried in the bow of a\nboat, and suitably opening to allow the discharge of the torpedo\nprojectile. This was Ericsson's so-called \"Destroyer\" system, and was\nembodied finally in a boat called the \"Destroyer,\" which he built in\ncompany with his friend, Mr. C.H. Delamater, and with which he carried\non numerous experiments. In the end, however, the system did not commend\nitself to the naval authorities, and the \"Destroyer\" was left on her\ndesigner's hands, an instance of difference of opinion between Ericsson\nand those charged with the duty of naval administration, and with no\nsupreme test of war to provide opportunity for the determination as to\nwhich were the more correct in their judgment. With the \"Destroyer,\"\nand his work in connection with her, closes the record of Ericsson's\nconnection with the advance in naval construction.\n\nDuring these later years of his life it must not be supposed that he was\nless busily occupied than in earlier life. His was a nature which knew\nno rest, and to the last day of his life he was literally in the\nharness. Only brief mention however can be made of some of the more\nimportant lines of work which interested the closing years of\nEricsson's life.\n\nIn connection with his naval designs, he devoted much study to the\nimprovement of heavy ordnance, both as to the gun and its mounting. In\nparticular, his mounting of the guns in the \"Monitor\" was quite\noriginal, and the friction arrangement for absorbing the recoil was a\ngreat improvement over methods then in use, and served as a model for\nmany copies and adaptations of the same principles in later years by\nother designers. In 1863 he also designed and built for the acceptance\nof the Government a forged 13-inch wrought-iron gun. While his design\nwas an advance on those of the day, the demands on the makers of iron\nforgings were more than could be successfully met, and the gun developed\nsome slight cracks in the test, which prevented further developments on\nthis line. Ericsson always maintained that the tests to which this gun\nwas submitted were unfairly severe, and he showed how the defects could\nbe remedied by a steel lining. But the Naval Bureau of Ordnance insisted\nthat this should be done at his own expense, and as he had already lost\nsome $20,000 on the gun, he was unwilling to proceed farther, and the\nmatter was allowed to lapse.\n\nThroughout his entire career the improvement of the steam-engine\noccupied a large share of Ericsson's attention, and in particular was\nthis the case in connection with his naval designs. From the\n\"Princeton,\" in 1841, to the \"Destroyer,\" in 1878, there succeeded one\nlong series of types and forms of steam-engine, each in his opinion the\nbest adapted to the circumstances of the case. Naturally, opinions\ndiffer, and he was brought into competition with other able engineers,\nand his designs were often called into question or subjected to\ncriticism. In 1863, in competition with Chief Engineer Isherwood of the\nnavy, engines were designed for twin ships, the \"Madawaska,\" afterward\nknown as the \"Tennessee,\" and the \"Wampanoag,\" afterward called the\n\"Florida.\" This was a battle royal of types and modes of application of\nthe power of the steam-engine to the propulsion of ships. The result was\na victory for Isherwood, although the \"Madawaska,\" which was first\nsubjected to trial, made a speed higher than any warship at that time\nafloat. This was exceeded by the \"Wampanoag\" a short time later; but\nneither engine was of an enduring type, and after a time the machinery\nof the \"Madawaska\" was removed, and she was repowered with a later type\nof machinery, and long did service as the \"Tennessee\" in the list of\nwooden frigates of the navy. The \"Florida\" was too expensive to maintain\nin commission, and the special circumstances which had called her into\nexistence having passed by, she was laid up at New London, and never\nagain saw active service.\n\nKeenly as Ericsson was interested in the steam-engine, it must be\nadmitted that he always showed a more profound interest in some form of\nengine which should be able to displace it with a superior efficiency;\nand hence his long series of efforts relating to the flame-engine, the\ncaloric engine, the gas-engine, and finally the solar engine,--with\neither steam or heated air as the medium for carrying the heat. During\nthe last years of his life some of his most patient and careful study\nwas given to the perfection of a solar engine, or engine for utilizing\ndirectly the heat of the sun instead of that of coal or other carbon\ncompounds. Besides this direct line of study and experimentation, he\ngave during these years much thought to various scientific problems\nconnected with solar energy, the tides, gravitation, the nature of heat,\netc., etc. A plan for deriving power direct from the tides, improvements\nin high-speed engines for electric-lighting purposes, further\nimprovements in his hot-air engine in small sizes for commercial\npurposes,--these are some of the further lines of work which occupied\nthe attention of his closing years.\n\nBut the most cunningly devised of all mechanisms, the heart and brain,\nmust sooner or later tire and cease from their labors. The motive energy\nbecomes exhausted, and the mechanism must cease its work. So it was with\nJohn Ericsson. In the first hour of the morning of March 8, 1889,\nEricsson died. This was within one day of the twenty-seventh anniversary\nof the battle at Hampton Roads, the event with which the name of\nEricsson will always be associated, and which has given to it a\nsignificance that will never be forgotten. His remains were first\ninterred in New York, and then, in 1890, in accordance with the request\nof the Swedish Government, they were returned with impressive services\nto his native land, where they now rest. In his death he received his\nhighest honors, for his remains were conveyed across the Atlantic by the\nU.S.S. \"Baltimore,\" one of the new ships of the navy specially detailed\nfor that service, and on both sides, in the United States and in Sweden,\nthe event was marked with every honor and ceremony which could indicate\nthe significance of his life and services for his adopted land and for\nthe world at large.\n\nThe two pieces of work which perhaps will be most permanently linked\nwith the name of Ericsson are the screw-propeller as a means of marine\npropulsion, and the \"Monitor\" as a type of warship. In addition to\nthese, however, his life-work was rich in results which bore direct\nrelation to many other improvements in the broad field of marine\nengineering and naval architecture. Of these a few of the more important\nmay be mentioned, such as the surface condenser, distiller, and\nevaporator, forced draft for combustion, placing machinery of warships\nbelow the water-line, and their protection by coal, ventilation by\nfan-blowers, together with a vast variety of items involved in the\nconception and design of the \"Monitor\" as a whole, and in his other\nnaval designs.\n\nIn order to appreciate the influence of Ericsson's life and work on the\nfield of marine construction, a brief glance may profitably be taken at\nthis branch of engineering work as it was before Ericsson's time, and as\nit is now.\n\nThe material employed for shipbuilding was almost entirely wood. This\nwas displaced in the 'sixties and 'seventies by iron, which in turn was\ndisplaced by steel, so that at the present time, except for special\nreason, no material other than steel is thought of for this purpose.\nWith the gradual displacement of wood by iron in the mercantile marine,\nEricsson's relation was only indirect. Some of the earlier mercantile\nvessels in which he was interested were of wood and some of iron. In the\nfield of warship construction, however, his influence through the\n\"Monitor\" was more direct, especially as to the value of metal armor as\na protection against great gun-fire. Still, it is no more than justice\nto say that with the change from wood to iron which took place during\nthe active part of his life, Ericsson had only an indirect relation, and\nthe change would doubtless have come about at the same time, and in much\nthe same general way as it did, independent of any influence which his\nwork may have had upon the question. Turning to the means of propulsion,\nwe find sails as the main, or almost only, reliance during the early\nyears of the century. The steam-engine operating paddle-wheels had come\nto be recognized as a possibility, and under certain conditions as a\ncommercial success. The screw-propeller as a means of propulsion was\nknown only as a freak idea, and was without status or recognition as a\ncommercial or practical means for propelling ships. So far as the\nscrew-propeller was thought of as a means of propulsion, it lay under a\nsuspicion of loss of efficiency due to the oblique nature of its action,\nand this was supposed to be such as to render it necessarily and\nessentially less efficient than the paddle-wheel.\n\nEricsson lived to see the use of sails almost entirely discarded for war\npurposes, and for mercantile purposes relegated to ships for special\nservice and of continually decreasing importance. He lived to see the\nsteam-engine take its place as the only means for supplying the power\nrequired to propel warships, and attain a position of almost equal\nrelative importance in the mercantile marine. He lived to see the\npaddle-wheel grow in importance and estimation as a means of propulsion\nonly in turn to be supplanted by the screw-propeller, which gradually\nincreased in engineering favor from the days of its obscure infancy\nuntil it became the only means employed for the propulsion of ships\nnavigating the high seas, while it had become a most serious rival to\nthe paddle-wheel even for the purposes of interior and shallow-water\nnavigation,--long a field considered as peculiarly suited to the\npaddle-wheel and to the engines adapted to its operation.\n\nRegarding the change from wind to steam for the motive-power of ships,\nEricsson did his full share among the engineers of his day, but it would\nbe unfair to many others to claim for him any exclusive or\npreponderating influence in this movement, and in such matters it is\ndifficult to clearly define the services of any one man. The lines of\nprogress, however, have been in accord with his studies, and his work\nhas certainly had a most direct and powerful influence upon the\nmovement. The most important points of contact between Ericsson's work\nand these advances were in connection with his introduction of the\nsurface condenser, the use of artificial draft, devices for heating feed\nwater, his studies in superheated steam and its use, and his work in\nconnection with the development of the compound principle in\nsteam-engines, his relation to the introduction of the screw-propeller,\nand to the use of twin screws at a later time. He also devised and\nadapted many new types of engines for marine purposes, having respect to\nthe geometrical character of the connections by means of which a\nreciprocating motion of the piston may be transformed into a rotary\nmotion of the shaft. In particular, he was the first to introduce and\nshow the advantages of engines directly connected to the\npropeller-shaft, instead of through the more indirect and clumsy modes\nwhich others had previously thought necessary.\n\nAside from his relation to the screw-propeller, perhaps no item of his\nwork in connection with the steam-engine is of more importance than the\nsurface condenser, with its variant forms in the distiller and\nevaporator. If Ericsson had done nothing else, his claims to recognition\nand remembrance as an engineer and benefactor might have been well\nfounded on his work in this connection. As it is, the fact that he was\nso largely instrumental in their perfection and adaptation to marine\nuses is wellnigh forgotten in the brighter light of his other\nachievements.\n\nRegarding Ericsson's relation to the successful introduction of the\nscrew-propeller, little need be added to what has already been said.\nWhatever may be urged regarding dates and patents or earlier years in\nwhich the screw-propeller was used, it is a fact that in 1833-35 it was\nnot recognized as an accepted mode of propulsion. While known as a\npossibility, it had no standing in the engineering practice of the day.\nA few years later it was recognized as an accepted mode of propulsion\nand had gained a permanent and definite place in the practice of the\nday,--a place which has continued to grow in importance until its\nearlier rival, the paddle-wheel, is almost on the brink of relegation to\nmuseums of antiquities, except possibly for rare and special\nshallow-water uses. A careful and dispassionate study of the facts, so\nfar as they can be known at the present time, seems to indicate clearly\nthat of those who were concerned in successfully adapting the\nscrew-propeller to the needs of marine propulsion and in laying the\nfoundation for these changed conditions, especially in the United\nStates, none was so prominent as Ericsson, or so fairly deserving of the\nchief credit; and with this judgment the mature thought of the present\nday seems to agree with little dissent.\n\nTurning to a consideration from a similar point of view of Ericsson's\nservices in connection with warship design and construction, note may be\nfirst taken of the condition of the art of naval warfare in the years\n1840-50, or when Ericsson first began his labors in this field.\n\nThe material used was wood, the means of propulsion sails, with some\nthought of steam-engines and paddle-wheels; the means of offence were\ncast-iron guns large in number but small in size, the largest being 9 or\n11 inches in diameter and throwing a shell of some 75 or 130 pounds\nweight, while the means of defence consisted solely in the \"wooden\nwalls,\" and modern ideas regarding armor had not even appeared above\nthe horizon.\n\nEricsson's contributions to the art of naval warfare are embodied in the\n\"Princeton,\" the \"Monitor\" and its class, and the \"Destroyer.\" In the\n\"Princeton\" the material used was wood, and in the \"Monitor\" and\n\"Destroyer\" iron, following simply the developments of the age. In the\nthree the means of propulsion was by screw-propeller. In the \"Princeton\"\nthe means of offence were two 12-inch wrought-iron guns, as already\nnoted. In the \"Monitor\" and its type the means of offence were two\n11-inch smooth-bore cast-iron guns, followed later by larger guns of 13\nand 15 inches of similar type. In the double-turreted monitors four such\nguns were of course installed. In the \"Destroyer\" the means of offence\nwas a single gun for discharging a torpedo under water at the bow. On\nthe \"Princeton\" the means of defence consisted still in wooden walls,\nwhile in the \"Monitor\" and its class the change was profound and\ncomplete. The essential idea of the \"Monitor\" was low freeboard and\nthus small exposed surface to the ship herself, combined with the\nmounting of guns in circular revolving turrets, thus giving an\nall-around fire and on the whole making possible an adequate protection\nof the exposed parts of the ship and providing for the combination in\nmaximum proportions of armored protection and heavy guns for offence. On\nthe \"Destroyer\" the means of defence consisted simply in a light\ndeflecting deck armor forward, the vessel being intended to fight bows\non and depending on her means of offence rather than defence, which were\nmade quite secondary in character.\n\nThe \"Monitor,\" however, was Ericsson's great contribution to the art of\nnaval war, and with it his name will always be associated. It broke with\nthe past in every way. It reduced the number of guns from many to few,\ntwo or at most four; it reduced the freeboard from the lofty topsides of\nthe old ship-of-the-line to an insignificant two or three feet, and thus\nmade of the target a circular fort and a low-lying strip of armor. It\nplaced the guns in this circular fort and covered it with armor thick\nenough to insure safety against any guns then afloat, and thus, as\nperfectly as the engineering means of the day would permit, insured the\ncombination of offensive and defensive features in maximum degree. It\ncleared away at one stroke masts, sails, and all the lofty top-hamper\nwhich since time immemorial had seemed as much an essential feature of\nthe fighting ship as the guns themselves. It transformed the design of\nthe fighting ship from the older ideals expressed in the American\nfrigate \"Constitution,\" or the English \"Victory,\" to the simplest terms\nof offence, defence, and steam motive-power. It made of the man-of-war a\nmachine rather than a ship, an engine of destruction to be operated by\nengineers rather than by officers of the ancient and traditional type.\nThere is small wonder that in all quarters the idea of ships of this\ntype was not received with enthusiasm. The break with the past was too\ndefinite and complete. The monitor type represented simply the solution\nof the problem of naval warfare worked out by a man untrammelled by the\ntraditions of the past and determined only on reducing such a ship to\nthe simplest terms of offence and defence as expressed by the\nengineering materials and possibilities of the day. Judged from this\nstandpoint, the vessel seems beyond criticism. She filled perfectly the\nideal set before himself by her designer, and represents as a complete\nand harmonious whole what must still be recognized as the most perfect\nsolution of the problem in terms of the possibilities of those days.\n\nIt is proper here that due reference should be made to the claims in\nbehalf of Mr. Theodore R. Timby as an inventor of the turret and of the\nmonitor idea as expressed thereby. These claims and the main facts in\nthe case have long been known, and there should certainly be no attempt\nto take from any one his due share in the developments which gave to our\nnation a \"Monitor\" in her hour of need. It is well known that Mr. Timby\nbetween 1840 and 1850 conceived the idea of a revolving fort of iron\nmounted with numerous guns and intended to take the place of the masonry\nor earth-structures in common use for such purposes. He seems also to\nhave conceived of a similar structure for use on a ship of low\nfreeboard, and a model showing such a design was constructed. In 1843 he\nfiled a caveat for the invention of the revolving turret. Here the\nmatter apparently rested until 1862, and after the battle between the\n\"Monitor\" and \"Merrimac,\" when he took out a patent which was dated July\n8, 1862, covering \"a revolving tower for defensive and offensive\nwarfare, whether on land or water.\" Ericsson's associates in the\nbusiness of building monitors for the Government acquired these patents\nof Timby, presumably as shrewd business men, in order to quiet any claim\non his part, and to have the plan available for land forts, should the\nopportunity arise to push the business in this direction. There is no\nquestion but that Ericsson was antedated by Timby in the suggestion of a\nrevolving turret, at least in so far as public notice is concerned.\nEricsson frankly admitted this, and stated that he made no claim to\nabsolute originality in this respect. He further stated what is\nundoubtedly true, that the main idea in the turret, that of a circular\nrevolving fort, antedates the Nineteenth Century as a whole, and its\norigin is lost in the uncertainties of early tradition. It is simply one\nof those early ideas which naturally must have been known in essence\nsince time immemorial, and as such it was the common property of the\nengineering practice of the century. It belongs neither to Timby nor to\nEricsson, and no claims regarding priority in this respect are worthy of\nserious consideration. The question is not who first conceived the idea\nof a revolving fort, but who designed and built the \"Monitor\" as she\nwas, and as she met the \"Merrimac\" on the 9th of March, 1862. The answer\nto the latter is too well known a part of the history of the times to\nadmit of question or to call for further notice. Ericsson's claim for\nrecognition in this respect rests not on any priority of idea regarding\nthe use of a circular fort, but rather upon the actual \"Monitor\" as she\nwas built and as she crushed at one blow the sea-power of the South, and\nrepresenting as it did a completely and carefully designed whole, dating\nback to the earlier dealings with Napoleon III. in 1854. This is an age\nwhich judges men by what they do, and judged by this standard Ericsson's\nclaims in connection with the monitor type of warship are never likely\nto be seriously questioned.\n\nTaking Ericsson's life and work, what portion remains as a permanent\nacquisition or as a part of the practice of the present age? This is a\nquestion which merits at least a moment's notice.\n\nWe should not make the mistake of thinking that permanency is\nnecessarily a test of merit, or that the value of his services to the\nworld should be judged by such parts of his work as are plainly apparent\nin the practice of the present day. A piece of work must be judged by\nthe circumstances which brought it forth, and by the completeness and\nperfection of its adaptation to the needs and possibilities of its age.\n\nWe have then the steam fire-engine; compressed air which he early\nemployed in England, and which has become an instrument of enormous\nimportance in connection with the industrial progress of the age,\nalthough this is in no especial degree due to his efforts; the surface\ncondenser, distiller, and evaporator are a permanently and absolutely\nessential part of modern marine practice; the screw-propeller has almost\nsole possession of the field of marine propulsion; modern marine engines\nand boilers in naval practice are always placed below the water-line and\nare protected by deflective deck armor and frequently by coal as well;\nthe turret has become a permanent and accepted part of the practice of\nthe age, while the monitor type in its essential feature seems to be\nevanescent.\n\nThe modern battleship is a vastly more complex structure, and\nrepresents more complex ideas and combinations than did Ericsson's\n\"Monitor.\" It contains a battery of guns of the heaviest type known to\nnaval ordnance. At present such guns are usually of 12-inch bore and\nthrow a shell of about 800 pounds weight, with an initial velocity of\nnearly 3,000 feet per second. Then there is a supporting battery of\nguns, 6, 7, or 8 inches in diameter of bore, and finally a secondary\nbattery of smaller quick-firing guns, throwing shells of from 1 pound to\n20 or 30 pounds weight, and added to these there may be a torpedo outfit\nas well. The exigencies of fighting ships at sea and in all weathers\nseems to have pronounced against the monitor type with its low freeboard\nas unsuitable for use on the open sea, while the enormous advances in\nmodern guns and armor have made a totally different problem of the\ndistribution of means offensive and defensive. Again, the monitor type\nwas never intended for long cruising, or indeed for other service than\nthe defence of coasts and harbors. The policy of building a vessel thus\nadapted only to an inner line of defence, and not adapted to an outer\nline of defence and offence as well, has been further called in\nquestion, and the judgment of the present day has decided against such\npolicy. It is true that in the so-called \"new navy,\" begun in 1883, one\nmonitor, the \"Monterey,\" has been built, while four others of older\ntype have been somewhat modernized, and there are three monitors\nbuilding at the present time. It may be doubted, however, if they will\nbe followed by others, at least so long as the conditions of naval\nwarfare and the spirit of public policy remain as they now are.\n\nThe monitor type was a perfect solution of the problem of its day, and\nnobly it answered the calls made on it. The problem has now changed, the\nconditions affecting its solution have also changed, and it is no\ndiscredit to the original type that it now seems to have had its day,\nand that it must give way to other forms more perfectly expressing the\nspirit of the present age, and the means available for the solution of\npresent-day problems in the art of naval war.\n\nIn many ways, however, the influence of Ericsson's work still lives in\nthe modern battleship, and while in our modern designs we have gotten\nfar away from the essential features of the monitor type, yet it is not\ntoo much to say that the germ of the modern battleship is in many ways\nfound in the \"Monitor,\" especially as expressed in terms of\nconcentration of heavy gun-fire and localized protection of gun\npositions; and in more ways than may be suspected, the influence of\nEricsson and of his work had its part in the developments which have led\nto the splendid designs of the present day.\n\nReturning again to our note of the dependence of the present age on\nEricsson, mention may be made of the blower for forcing the combustion\nin steam-boilers as a well-established feature of standard marine\npractice, and one absolutely essential to the development of the highest\nattainable speeds, such as are required in warships, and especially in\nthose of the torpedo and modern \"Destroyer\" types. Likewise the use of\nthe fan for ventilation, as used by him in his early practice, has\nbecome a necessity of modern conditions both on naval and passenger\nships, for the health and comfort of both passengers and crew. His long\nseries of experiments and his years of labor on air and other forms of\n\"caloric\" engine are only represented by the \"Ericsson air-engine\" now\non the market, and having its fair share of service in locations where\nsimplicity of operation and scarcity of water may naturally suggest\nits use.\n\nOf his labors in connection with a solar engine, and with other\nquestions which occupied much of the time of his closing years, we have\nbut little direct result. Others are at work on the idea of the solar\nengine, and it may be that a practicable solution of the problem will\nbe found.\n\nEricsson's lasting imprint on engineering practice, curious as it may\nseem, was made in his earlier and middle life, rather than in his later\nyears, and we have even more in the way of permanent acquisition from\nhis earlier than from his middle years. This results from the fact that\nin middle life he was largely engaged on warship designs, admirably\nadapted to the needs of the time and to the possibilities of the age,\nbut no longer suited to either, while in later life he no longer found\nit necessary to work at problems which would produce a direct financial\nreturn, and therefore interested himself in a variety of questions\nsomewhat farther removed from the walks of every-day engineering\npractice than those with which he was occupied in earlier life.\n\nIn personality Ericsson possessed the most pronounced and self-centred\ncharacteristics. Professionally he felt that to him had been granted a\nlarger measure of insight than to others into the mysteries of nature as\nexpressed in the laws of mechanics, and he was therefore little disposed\nto listen to the advice or criticism of those about him. This was\nundoubtedly one of Ericsson's most pronounced professional faults. He\ndid not realize that with all his insight into the laws of mechanics and\nall his capacity for applying these laws to the solution of the problems\nunder consideration, he might well make some use of the work of his\nfellow-laborers in the same field. So little disposed was he to thus use\nthe work of others that a given device or idea which had been in\nprevious use was often rejected and search made for another, different\nand original, even though it might involve only some relatively trivial\npart of the work. He was simply unwilling to follow in the lead of\nothers. He must lead or have none of it, and thus the fact that a device\nor expedient was in common use would furnish an argument against rather\nthan for its adoption. His natural mode of work was utterly to disregard\nprecedent and to seek for fundamental solutions of his problems, having\nonly in view the conditions to be fulfilled, the laws of mechanics, and\nthe engineering materials of construction. This habit of independence\nand of seclusion within the narrow circle of his own work so grew upon\nhim in later years that mechanical science made many advances of which\nhe took little or no note, and of which he refused to avail himself,\neven though he might have done so greatly to his own advantage.\n\nIn his later years, in a letter to his friend Captain Adlersparre, he\nsays: \"Do not laugh at me now, Captain, when I say that nobody can\nmislead me. Do not condemn me if I at the same time confess that I am\ndirected by nobody's judgment but my own, and that I never consult\nanybody and take nobody's advice.\" In all matters connected with his\nwork his will was imperious, and he would brook no interference or\ncriticism. His temper was high, his organization sensitive, and many\ntimes throughout his life, relations with his best friends became\nstrained by his instability of temper or impatience with what he might\nconstrue as a criticism regarding his work. With this instability of\ntemper, however, was combined a deep-seated tenderness and kindness of\nheart, and he was as quick to forget the cause of offence as he was to\nmanifest displeasure upon occasion.\n\nNotwithstanding the asperities of Ericsson's character in regard to his\nprofessional work, and his entire lack of effort to make friends among\nthe learned of his day, recognition and unsought honors came in upon\nhim. He was elected to honorary membership in the societies of note in\nthe United States and Sweden, and in addition to the thanks of Congress\nand of the Legislature of the State of New York, he received a\nresolution of thanks from the Swedish Riksdag, or Parliament, in 1865.\nIn 1862 he was granted the rarely bestowed Rumford medal, and received\nat other times during his life medals, honors, and decorations such as\nhave perhaps fallen to no other who has wrought in the same field of\nhuman effort. While recognition of this character pleased him greatly\nwhen it came spontaneously and willingly, he placed but little value on\nthat which he thought grudgingly or tardily tendered, and in one or two\ninstances refused membership in societies which he thought granted in\nthat manner.\n\nA large measure of this independence of character is necessary to the\nperformance of the work which Ericsson did. Had he been ever ready to\nlisten to the views of others, and to modify his ideas in accordance\nwith them, his greatest achievements would never have been accomplished.\nIn Ericsson, however, this characteristic was carried to an undue\nextreme, and he might unquestionably have accomplished more had he been\nable to co-operate with others and to accept and use freely the best\nwork of contemporaries in his own field.\n\nEricsson was essentially a designing rather than a constructing\nengineer. His genius lay in new adaptations of the principles of\nmechanics or in new combinations of the elements of engineering practice\nin such way as to further the purposes in view. His mode of expression\nwas the drawing-board. While he wrote vigorously and well, and while he\nwas a frequent contributor in later years to scientific literature,\nespecially on the subject of solar physics, yet his best and natural\nmode of expression was the graphical representation of his designs on\nthe drawing-board. Forms and combinations took shape in his brain and\nwere transferred to the drawing with marvellous speed and skill. Those\nwho have been associated with him bear testimony that the amount of his\nwork was simply astounding, and that only by a combination of the most\nremarkable celerity and industry could they have been accomplished.\n\nThese drawings were furthermore so minute in detail and so accurate in\ndimension that as a rule he did not find it necessary to give further\nattention to the matter after it had left his hands. Of the many parts\nof a complicated mechanism, one could be sent for construction to one\nshop and another elsewhere, all ultimately coming together and making a\nharmonious and perfectly fitting whole. In no other way could such\nastonishing speed in the detailed construction of the \"Monitor\" and\nother vessels of her type possibly have been made; and the fact that\nsuch speed in construction was obtained, and largely in this manner, is\nby no means the least impressive of the many evidences of Ericsson's\ngenius as a designer.\n\nThe designs once completed on the drawing-board, however, Ericsson's\ninterest in the work ceased in great measure, and as a rule he paid but\nlittle attention to constructive details, and took but slight interest\nin the completed whole. Thus he is said to have visited his \"Destroyer\"\nbut once after she was built, and then simply in search of his\nassistant. He also declined an invitation from the Assistant Secretary\nof the Navy to visit Hampton Roads and inspect the \"Monitor\" immediately\nafter her fight with the \"Merrimac.\" He seemed to have no curiosity to\ninspect his work after it had left his hands, or to receive a report as\nto the practical working of his designs. This shows a peculiar lack of\nappreciation of the value of intimate contact with constructive and\noperative engineering work. No one could hope to avoid errors, or to\nrealize by drawing-board alone the best possible solution of engineering\nproblems. Ericsson wilfully handicapped himself in this manner, and\nmight unquestionably have more effectively improved and perfected his\nideas had he been disposed to combine with his designs at the\ndrawing-board practical contact with his work as constructed.\n\nHis work was all done in his office at his house. For the last\ntwenty-five years of his life he lived at 36 Beach Street, New York,\nwhere he wrought every day in the year, and often until far into the\nnight. His office contained, beside his drawing-table and other\nfurniture, a long table, on which at times, when overcome by fatigue, he\nwould stretch himself and take a short nap, using a dictionary or low\nwooden box for a pillow.\n\nHis relations with his native land were always close, and, as already\nhinted, he gave much of his best effort to the study of means for her\ndefence. Toward his friends and relatives he was the embodiment of\nwatchful care and generosity. His private benefactions were for his\nmeans large, and were given with a whole-hearted generosity which must\nhave added much to the love and esteem in which the recipients regarded\nhim. His public benefactions were also notable, and during the later\nyears of his life he gave away regularly no inconsiderable share of his\nincome. Though gifted with reasonable prudence, he had no conception of\nthe \"business sense,\" and no capacity as a money-getter. After acquiring\nby his inventions and enterprise a modest competence, he devoted himself\nalmost entirely to work less directly related to a financial return, and\nlived comfortably upon the principal which his earlier efforts\nhad provided.\n\nEricsson had absolute faith in himself and in his mission to render\navailable the energies of nature for the uses of humanity and\ncivilization. His character was framed about the central idea of\nfidelity to this mission. He was dogmatic and optimistic as regards his\nown work; he had a contemptuous indifference to the work of others, and\na disregard of the help which he might derive from a closer study of\nsuch work. He trained himself, body, mind, and affections, solely with\nreference to his mission, and allowed no interference with it. He was\nthe embodiment of physical and mental vigor, prodigious industry,\ncontinuity of purpose, indomitable courage, capacity for great\nconcentration of mind, and oblivion to all distracting surroundings.\nWith such characteristics, combined with the rare endowment of mental\ncapacity and insight regarding the principles of engineering science,\nsmall wonder is it that his life was one so rich in results. It could\nnot have been otherwise, and the results simply came as a consequence\nof the combination of the characteristics of the man and the\nsurroundings in which he was placed.\n\nThe question as to how much more or how much better he might have done\nhad he possessed more faith in the work of others and a willingness to\nbe guided in some measure by their experience is of course idle.\nEricsson was a combination of certain capacities and characteristics; a\ncombination of other capacities and characteristics would not have been\nEricsson, and any discussion of such a supposition is therefore aside\nfrom the purpose of this sketch.\n\nJohn Ericsson lived in a period of rapid engineering development and\nchange. Old ideals were passing away, and the heritage which the\nNineteenth Century was able to pass on to the Twentieth was in\npreparation. In this preparation Ericsson bore a large and most\nimportant part. So long as ships traverse the seas, Ericsson's name will\nbe remembered for his work in connection with the introduction of the\nscrew-propeller. So long as the memory of naval warfare endures,\nEricsson's name will be remembered for the part which he bore in the\ntransition from wood to iron, from unarmored ships to turrets and armor,\nfrom scattered to concentrated energy of gun-fire, and for his general\nshare in the developments which have led to the ideal of a battleship\nprevailing at the opening of the Twentieth century. For these and for\nmany other achievements he will be remembered, and his life and works\nshould serve as a constant stimulus to those upon whom the engineering\nwork of the present age has fallen, to see that with equal fidelity they\nlive up to the possibilities of their endowments and opportunities, and\nserve with like fervency and zeal the needs of the age in which they\nare placed.\n\n\nAUTHORITIES.\n\nContributions to the Centennial Exhibition: Ericsson, John.\n\nThe Life of John Ericsson: Church, W.C.\n\nHistory of the Steam Engine: Thurston, R.H.\n\nSteam Navy of the United States: Bennett, Frank M.\n\nWho invented the Screw Propeller?: Nicol, James.\n\nThe Naval and Mail Steamers of the United States: Stuart, Charles B.\n\nA Chronological History of the Origin and Development of Steam\nNavigation: Preble, Rear Admiral G.H.\n\nA Treatise on the Screw Propeller, Screw Vessels, and Screw Engine as\nadapted for Purposes of Peace and War: Bourne, John.\n\n\n\n\nLI HUNG CHANG.\n\n\n1823-1901.\n\nTHE FAR EAST.\n\nBY W.A.P. MARTIN, D.D., LL.D\n\n\nINTRODUCTORY.\n\n\nFive years ago Earl Li was at the head of the \"Tsungli Yamen,\" or\nForeign Office in Peking. The present writer, having known him long and\nintimately, called one morning to request a letter of recommendation to\naid in raising money for an International Institute projected by the\nRev. Dr. Reid. \"He's got one letter; why does he want another?\" asked\nLi, in a tone of mingled surprise and irritation. \"True,\" said I, \"but\nthat is from the Tsungli Yamen. Nobody in America knows anything about\nthe Yamen. What he wants is a personal letter from you; because the only\nChinese name besides Confucius that is known outside of China is Li\nHung Chang.\"\n\n\"I'll give it! I'll give it!\" he exclaimed, smiling from ear to ear at the\nthought of his world-wide reputation.\n\nThis was taking him on his weak side; but it was fact, not flattery.\n\nOver forty years ago Li's rising star first came to view in connection\nwith operations against the rebels in the vicinity of Shanghai, and from\nthat day to this, every war, domestic or foreign, has served to raise it\nhigher and make it shine the brighter. It reached its zenith in 1901,\nwhen after settling terms of peace with several foreign powers he passed\noff the stage at the ripe age of fourscore. What better type to set\nforth his age and nation than the man who, through a long career of\nunexampled activity, won for himself a triple crown of literary,\nmilitary, and civil honors? In physique he was a noble specimen of his\nrace, over six feet in height, and in his earlier years uncommonly\nhandsome. The first half of his existence was passed in comparative\nobscurity at Hofei in Anhui, a region remote from contact with\nforeign nations.\n\nIt was there his character was formed, on native models; there he\ncarried off the higher prizes of the literary arena; and there he became\nfitted for the role of China's typical statesman.\n\nHis career in outline may be stated in a few words. His native province\nbeing overrun by rebels, he passed from the school-room to the camp, and\ngot his earliest lessons in the military art under the leadership of the\neminent viceroy Tseng Ko Fan. The neighboring province of Kiangsu\nfalling into the hands of rebel hordes a few years later, he won renown\nby recapturing its principal cities, by the aid of such men as the\nAmerican Ward and the English Gordon. His success as a general made him\ngovernor of Kiangsu, and his success as governor raised him to the rank\nof viceroy, holding for many years a post at one or other of the foci of\nforeign trade north or south.\n\nBeyond the borders of China he was twice sent on special embassies, and\nonce he made the tour of the globe; but his most brilliant achievement\nwas in twice making peace on honorable terms, when his country was lying\nprostrate before a victorious enemy.\n\nIt remains to expand this incomparable catalogue; but to make\nintelligible that remarkable series of events in which he bore such a\nconspicuous part, we must first invite our readers to accompany us in a\nhistorical retrospect in which we shall point out the opening and growth\nof foreign intercourse.\n\n\n\nI.\n\nINTERCOURSE WITH CHINA BY LAND.\n\nOf the nature of that intercourse in its earlier period, there exists a\nmonument that speaks volumes. That is no other than the Great Wall;\nwhich, hugest of the works of man, stretches along the northern frontier\nof China proper for one thousand five hundred miles from the sea to the\ndesert of Gobi. Erected 255 B.C. it shows that even at that early date\nthe enemies most dreaded by the Chinese were on the north. Yet how\nsignally it failed to effect its purpose! For since that epoch the\nprovinces of Northern China have passed no fewer than seven centuries\nunder Tartar sway. Two Tartar dynasties have succeeded in subjugating\nthe whole empire, and they have transmitted beyond the seas a reputation\nwhich quite eclipses the fame of China's ancient sovereigns.\n\nIn fact, that which first made China known to the western world was its\nconquest by the Mongols in the thirteenth century. Barbarous nomads,\nwith longing eyes forever directed to the sunny plains of the south,\nthey also conquered India, bringing under their sceptre the two richest\nregions of the globe. Of Genghis and Kubla, it may be asserted that they\nrealized a more extended dominion than Alexander, Caesar, or Napoleon\never dreamed of. But\n\n     \"Extended empire, like expanded gold,\n      Exchanges solid strength for feeble splendor.\"\n\nTheir tenure of China was of short duration,--less than a century. In\nIndia, however, their successors, the great Moguls, continued to\nmaintain a semblance of sovereignty even down to our own times, when\nthey were wiped from the blackboard for having taken part in the\nSepoy mutiny.\n\nLiberal beyond precedent, Kubla Khan encouraged the establishment of a\nChristian bishopric, in which John de Monte Corvino was the first\nrepresentative of the Holy See. He also welcomed those adventurous\nItalians, the Polos, and sought to make use of them to open\ncommunication with Europe. Yet we cannot forbear to express a doubt,\nwhether, aside from the Christian religion, Europe in that age had much\nin the way of civilization to impart to China.\n\nThree of the native dynasties, which preceded the Mongol conquest, made\nthemselves famous by advancing the interests of civilization. The house\nof Han (B.C. 202-A.D. 221) restored the sacred books, which the builder\nof the Great Wall had destroyed in order to obliterate all traces of\nfeudalism and make the people submit to a centralized government. Even\ndown to the present day, the Chinese are proud to describe themselves as\n\"sons of Han.\" The house of Tang, A.D. 618-908, is noted above all for\nthe literary style of its prose-writers and the genius of its poets. In\nSouth China the people are fond of calling themselves \"sons of Tang.\"\nThe house of Sung, A.D. 970-1127, shows a galaxy of philosophers and\nscholars, whose expositions and speculations are accepted as the\nstandard of orthodoxy. More acute reasoners it would be difficult to\nfind in any country; and in the line of erudition they have never been\nsurpassed.\n\nIt is reported that in 643 the Emperor Theodosius sent an envoy to\nChina with presents of rubies and emeralds. Nestorian missionaries also\npresented themselves at court. The Emperor received them with respect,\nheard them recite the articles of their creed, and ordered a temple to\nbe erected for them at his capital. This was in the palmy period of the\nTangs, when the frontiers of the Empire had been pushed to the borders\nof the Caspian Sea.\n\nIf China in part or in whole was sometimes conquered by Tartars, it is\nonly fair to state that the greatest of the native sovereigns more than\nonce reduced the extramural Tartars to subjection. Between the two races\nthere existed an almost unceasing conflict, which had the effect of\ncivilizing the one and of preventing the other from lapsing\ninto lethargy.\n\nAbout B.C. 100, Su Wu, one of China's famous diplomatists, was sent on\nan embassy to the Grand Khan of Tartary. An ode, which he addressed to\nhis wife on the eve of his perilous expedition, speaks alike for the\ndomestic affections of the Chinese and for their ancient\nliterary culture.\n\n     \"Twin trees whose boughs together twine,\n        Two birds that guard one nest,\n      We'll soon be far asunder torn\n        As sunrise from the west.\n\n     \"Hearts knit in childhood's innocence,\n        Long bound in Hymen's ties,\n      One goes to distant battlefields,\n        One sits at home and sighs.\n\n     \"Like carrier dove, though seas divide,\n        I'll seek my lonely mate;\n      But if afar I find a grave,\n        You'll mourn my hapless fate.\n\n     \"To us the future's all unknown;\n        In memory seek relief.\n      Come, touch the chords you know so well,\n        And let them soothe our grief.\"\n\n\n\nII.\n\nINTERCOURSE BY SEA.\n\nIn 1388 the Mongols were expelled. The Christian bishopric was swept\naway, and left no trace; but a book of the younger Polo, describing the\nwealth of China, gave rise to marvellous results. Together with the\nmagnetic needle, which originated in China, it led to centuries of\neffort to open a way by sea to that far-off fairyland. It was from Marco\nPolo that Columbus derived his inspiration to seek a short road to the\nfar East by steering to the West,--finding a new world athwart his\npathway. It was the same needle, if not the same book, that impelled\nVasco da Gama to push his way across the Indian Ocean, after the Cape of\nGood Hope had been doubled by Bartholomew Diaz. A century later the same\nbook led Henry Hudson to search for some inlet or strait that might\nopen a way to China, when, instead of it, he discovered the port of\nNew York.\n\nThe mariner's compass, which wrought this revolution on the map of the\nworld, is only one of many discoveries made by the ancient Chinese,\nwhich, unfruitful in their native land, have, after a change of climate,\ntransformed the face of the globe.\n\nThe polarity of the loadstone was observed in China over a thousand\nyears before the Christian era. One of their emperors, it is said,\nprovided certain foreign ambassadors with \"south-pointing chariots,\" so\nthat they might not go astray on their way home. To this day the\nmagnetic needle in China continues to be called by a name which means\nthat it points to the south. It heads a long list of contraries in the\nnotions of the Chinese as compared with our own, such, for example, as\nbeginning to read at the back of a book; placing the seat of honor on\nthe left hand; keeping to the left in passing on the street, with many\nothers, so numerous as to suggest that the same law that placed their\nfeet opposite to ours must have turned their heads the other way. To the\nChinese the \"south-pointing needle\" continued to be a mere plaything to\nbe seen every day in the sedan chair of a mandarin, or in wheeled\nvehicles. If employed on the water, it was only used in\ncoasting voyages.\n\nSo with gunpowder, of which the Arabs were transmitters, not inventors.\nIn other lands it revolutionized the art of war, clothing their people\nwith irresistible might, while in its native home it remained\nundeveloped and served chiefly for fireworks. Have we not seen, even in\nthis our day, the rank and file of the Chinese army equipped with bows\nand arrows? The few who were provided with firearms, for want of\ngunlocks, had to set them off by a slow-match of burning tow; and\ncannon, meant to guard the mouth of the Peiho, were trained on the\nchannel and fixed on immovable frames.\n\nThe art of printing was known in China five centuries before it made its\nway to Europe. The Confucian classics having been engraved on stone to\nsecure them from being again burned up, as they had been by the builder\nof the great wall, the rubbings taken from those stones were printing.\nIt required nothing but the substitution of wood for stone and of\n_relievo_ for _intaglio_ to give that art the form it now has. The\nsmallest scrap of printed paper in the lining of a tea chest, or wrapped\nabout a roll of silk, would suffice to suggest the whole art to a mind\nlike that of Gutenberg. In China it never emerged from the state of wood\nengraving. The \"Peking Gazette,\" the oldest newspaper in the world, is\nprinted on divisible types, but they are of wood, not metal, more than\none attempt to introduce metallic types having proved unsuccessful, for\nthe want of that happy alloy known as type-metal. It is from us that\nthey have learned the art of casting type, especially that splendid\nachievement, the making of stereotype plates, and, later, electrotype\nplates, by the aid of electricity and acid solutions. Chemistry, from\nwhich this beautiful art takes its rise, carries us back to China, for\nit was there that alchemy had its birth, as I have elsewhere shown.[4]\n\n[Footnote 4: \"The Lore of Cathay.\" New York: Fleming R. Revell Co., p.\n41.]\n\nMan's first desire is long life; his second, to be rich. The Taoist\nphilosophy commenced with the former before the Christian era, but it\nwas not long in finding its way to the latter. A powerful impulse was\nthus given to research in the three departments of science,--chemistry,\nbotany, and geography. As in the case of gunpowder, the Arabs\ntransmitted these discoveries to the West, and along with them the\nChinese doctrine as to the twofold objects of alchemic studies,--the\nelixir of life and the philosopher's stone.\n\nFrom this double root sprang the chemistry of the West, which in no mean\nsense has fulfilled its promise by prolonging life and enriching\nmankind. In all these the West has performed the part of a nursing\nmother, but she has brought the nursling back full grown, and prepared\nto repay its obligation to its true parent by effective service.\n\nPortuguese merchants made their way to Canton early in the sixteenth\ncentury, but it was not till the latter part of the century that\nCatholic missionaries entered on their grand crusade. In 1601 the Jesuit\npioneer Matteo Ricci and his associates, impelled by religion and armed\nwith science, presented themselves at the court of Peking. The Chinese\nhad been able to reckon the length of the year with remarkable accuracy\ntwo thousand years before the time of Christ, but their science had made\nno headway. The missionaries found their calendar in a state of\nconfusion, vanquished the native astronomers in fair competition, and\nwere formally installed as keepers of the Imperial Observatory; and\nthese missionaries supervised the casting of the bronze instruments\nwhich have since been taken to Berlin.\n\nThis honor they retained even after the fall of the native dynasty that\npatronized them. When the Manchus effected their conquest in 1644, not\nonly were the Jesuit missionaries left in charge of the observatory, but\nthe heir apparent was placed under their instruction. Coming to the\nthrone in 1662, under the now illustrious title of _Kanghi_, the young\nprince showed himself a generous patron as he had previously been a\nrespectful pupil. He was apparently not averse to the idea of his\npeople's adopting Christianity as their national religion, and allowed\nthe missionaries a free hand to plant churches throughout the vast\ninterior. Rarely if ever has so fine an opportunity offered for making\nan easy conquest of a pagan empire. It was lost through the jealousy of\ncontending societies, and especially through the blunder of an\ninfallible Pope. The Dominicans denounced the Jesuits for tolerating the\npractice of pagan rites, such as the worship of ancestors, and for\nemploying for God the name of a pagan deity. The name which they then\nobjected to was Shang-ti, Supreme Ruler, a venerable designation for the\nSupreme Power found in the earliest of the Chinese canonical books, and\nat this day accepted by a large proportion of Protestant missionaries.\n\nThe question as to its fitness was referred to the Emperor, who decided\nin favor of the Jesuits. It was then brought before the Papal See,\ncondemned as idolatrous, and Tien Chu, the Lord of Heaven, adopted in\nits stead. That Shang-ti, however pure in origin, had come to be applied\nto a whole class of deities was perfectly true, but the name proposed in\nits stead was not free from a taint of idolatry,--Tien Chu, Lord of\nHeaven, being one of eight divinities, and worshipped along with Ti Chu,\nLord of Earth, Hai Chu, Lord of the Sea, etc.\n\nThe manner in which his opinions had been set aside by the Pope had no\ndoubt a repelling influence on the mind of the Emperor, so that if he\nhad ever felt inclined to embrace Christianity, he drew back in his\nlater years. Not only so, but he left behind him a series of Maxims in\nwhich he censures the foreign creed and warns his people against it.\nThese Maxims were ordered to be read in public by mandarins, and they\ncontinue to be recited and expounded as a sort of religious ritual. Is\nit surprising that this lost opportunity was followed by a century and a\nhalf of open persecution? That most of the churches survived, not only\nattests the zeal with which the Faith had been propagated, it throws a\npleasing light on the force of the Chinese character. At the dawn of our\nnew epoch, there were still some half a million converts,--with here and\nthere a foreign Father hiding in their midst.\n\nIn bringing about this change of policy there was indeed another\ninfluence at work. Had not the Emperor of China heard some rumors of\nwhat was going on in the dominion of his cousin, the Great Mogul--how\nthe French were dispossessing the Portuguese; and how the English later\non succeeded in expelling the French? How could they doubt that a large\ncommunity of native Christians would act as an auxiliary to any foreign\ninvader? A suspicion of this kind had in fact sprung up under the\npreceding dynasty. In consequence of it not a single seaport except\nMacao was opened to foreign trade; and when foreigners went to Canton,\nthey were lodged in a suburb and not allowed to penetrate within the\nwalls of the provincial capital. Such misgivings as to the designs of\nforeigners we find strikingly expressed in a book of that period called\n\"Strange Stories of an Idle Student.\"\n\nOne story is as follows: When Red-Haired Barbarians first appeared on\nour coast they were not allowed to come ashore. They begged, however, to\nbe permitted to spread a carpet on which to dry their goods, and this\nbeing granted, they took the carpet by its corners and stretched it so\nthat it covered several acres. On this, they debarked in great force\nand, drawing their swords, took possession of the surrounding country.\n\n\n\nIII.\n\nTHE OPIUM WAR.\n\nThe first great event that woke China from her dream of solitary\ngrandeur was the war with England, which broke out in 1839 and was\nclosed three years later by the Treaty of Nanking. It was not, however,\nall that was needed to effect that object. It made the giant rub her\neyes and give a reluctant assent to terms imposed by superior force. But\nmany a rude lesson was still required before she came to perceive her\ntrue position, as on the lower side of an inclined plane. To bring her\nto this discovery four more foreign wars were to follow before the end\nof the century, culminating in a siege in Peking and massacres\nthroughout the northern provinces which may be looked on as the fifth\nact in a long and bloody tragedy.\n\nIn the last three wars Li Hung Chang was a prominent actor. In the\nfirst two he took no part. Yet was it the shock which they gave to the\nempire that drove him from a life of literary seclusion to do battle in\na more public arena.\n\nThe Opium War of 1839 is not improperly so designated, but nothing is\nmore erroneous than to infer that it was waged by England for the\npurpose of forcing the product of her Indian poppy fields on the markets\nof China. Opium was the occasion, not the cause. The cause, if we are to\nput it in a single word, was the overbearing arrogance of an Oriental\ndespotism, which refused to recognize any equal in the family\nof nations.\n\nIn the Straits settlements and in the seaports of India, Chinese\nmerchants had been brought under sway of the bewitching narcotic. It\nfound its way to their southern seaports, and without being recognized\nas an article of commerce, the trade expanded with startling rapidity.\nThe Emperor, Tao Kwang, one of the most humane of rulers, resolved to\ntake measures for the suppression of the vice. He had come to the throne\nin 1820; and there is a story that he was moved to action by the\nuntimely fate of his eldest son, who had fallen a victim to the\nseductive poison.\n\nCommissioner Lin, whom he selected to carry out his prohibitory policy,\nwas a fit instrument for such a master, equally virtuous in his aims\nand equally tyrannical in his mode of proceeding. Arriving at Canton,\nhis first object was to get possession of the forbidden drug, which was\nstored on ships outside the harbor. This he thought to accomplish by\nsurrounding the whole foreign community by soldiers and threatening them\nwith death if the opium was not promptly surrendered. While its owners\nor their agents hesitated, Captain Elliot, the British Superintendent of\nTrade, came up from Macao, and demanded to share the duress of his\nnationals. He then called on them to deliver up the drug to him to be\nused in the service of the Queen for the ransom of the lives of her\nsubjects, assuring them that they would be reimbursed from the public\ntreasury. No fewer than twenty-one thousand chests, valued at nine\nmillion dollars, were brought in from the opium ships and formally\nhanded over to Commissioner Lin. The foreign community was set free, and\nthe drug destroyed by being mixed with quicklime.\n\nWar was made to punish this outrage on the rights of the foreign\ncommunity, and to exact indemnity for the seizure of their property.\nCanton was not captured, but held to ransom, and the haughty Viceroy\nsent into exile. Other cities were taken and held; and, in 1842, a\ntreaty of peace was signed at Nanking by which five ports were opened to\nforeign trade. The embargo on opium was not withdrawn; but the defeat of\nthe Chinese resulted in a virtual immunity from seizure together with a\ngrowth of the traffic, such as to justify the ill-odored name which that\nwar still bears in history.\n\nTreaties with other powers followed in quick succession. On demand of\nthe French Minister, the Emperor recalled his prohibitory decrees\nagainst Christianity and issued an Edict of Toleration. If the opening\nof the ports gave a stimulus to trade, the decree of toleration opened a\ndoor for missionary enterprise. As yet, however, neither merchant nor\nmissionary was allowed to penetrate into the interior; while the capital\nand the whole of the northern seacoast remained inaccessible. This was\nobviously a state of things that could not be permanent; yet fifteen\nyears were to pass before another war came to settle the terms of\nintercourse on a broader basis.\n\nWhen the war broke out, Li Hung Chang was seventeen years of age, living\nat Hofei in Anhui. As there were then no newspapers in China it may be\ndoubted whether he heard of it until a British squadron sailed up to\nNanking and extorted a treaty at the cannon's mouth. Li was rudely\nstartled by the appearance of a new force, to which there was no\nallusion in any of his ancient books. Along with the sailing-ships there\nwere two or three small steamers. It struck the Chinese with\nastonishment to see them make head against wind and tide. _Shin Chuan_,\n\"ships of the gods,\" is the name they gave those mysterious vessels.\nLittle could Li foresee the part he was destined to take in creating a\nsteam navy for China.\n\nDescended from a long line of scholars, he was supposed to be born to\nthe pursuit of letters. He did, in fact, devote himself to study with\nunflagging zeal, because he had as yet no temptation to turn aside. Was\nthere not, moreover, an open door before his face inviting him to win\nfor himself the honors of a mandarinate? In his native town he placed\nhis foot on the first step of the ladder by gaining the degree of A.B.,\nor, in Chinese, \"Budding Genius.\" At the provincial capital he next\ncarried off the laurel of the second degree, which is worth more than\nour A.M., not merely because it is not conferred in course, but because\nit falls to the lot of only one in a hundred among some thousands of\ncompetitors. These provincial tournaments occur but once in three years;\nand the successful candidates proceed to Peking to compete for the third\ndegree, or D.C.L.,--_Tsin-shi_, or, \"Fit for Office.\" Here the chances\namount to three per cent.\n\nLi's fortunes were again propitious, and in company with two or three\nhundred new-made doctors, he was summoned to the palace to contend in\npresence of the emperor for the honor of a seat in the Imperial\nAcademy,--the Hanlin, or \"Forest of Pencils.\" Here also he met with\nsuccess, but he was not among the first three whose names are marked by\nthe vermilion pen of majesty, each of whom sheds lustre on his native\nprovince. The highest of the three is called Chuang Yuen, \"Head of the\nList\" or \"Prince of Letters.\" In the 'fifties it fell to a native of\nNingpo, where I then lived. His good luck was announced to his wife by\nthe magistrate in person, who conducted her to the six gates, at each of\nwhich she scattered a handful of rice, as an omen of good fortune. In\nthe 'sixties, when I had removed to Peking, this honor was for the first\ntime conferred on a Manchu, a son of the General Saishanga. His daughter\nwas deemed a fit consort for the heir to the throne, wearing for a short\ntime the tiara of empress, and committing suicide on the death of\nher lord.\n\nIn the two previous contests, handwriting goes for nothing, but in this\nit is not without weight, as the avowed object is to select scribes for\nthe service of the throne. On those occasions extent of erudition and\noriginality of thought are the qualities most esteemed; but this time\nthe order of merit is decided by superficial elegance of style, and by\nfacility in the composition of verse.\n\nHowever defective the standard of learning, this long course of\ncompetition, extending over ten or fifteen years, has the effect of\nbringing before the throne a body of men each of whom is the survivor of\na hundred contests. No country can boast a better system for the\nselection of talent, and the government guards it with jealous care. I\nhave known more than one examiner put to death for tampering with this\nballot-box of the Empire. For ages it has provided the state with able\nofficers; nor is its least merit that of converting a dangerous\ndemagogue into a quiet student.\n\nWhile waiting for an appointment, Li heard with dismay that Nanking had\nbeen taken by a body of rebels, and that his native province was in\ndanger of being overrun by them. A new career opened before him,--one\nthat led more directly to the highest offices within the gift of the\nsovereign. Asking a commission in the army, he was assigned to a\nposition on the staff of Tsengkofan, father of the Marquis Tseng, who\nwas afterwards Minister to England.\n\nThis rebellion, among the strangest of strange things, now claims our\nattention.\n\n\n\nIV.\n\nTHE TAIPING REBELLION.\n\nIn April, 1853, the news reached us that Nanking had fallen into the\nhands of a body of rebels who, by a curious irony, called themselves\nTaipings, \"Soldiers of Peace.\"\n\nThey were Chinese, not Manchus, and their leaders were all from the\nextreme south. Starting near Canton, they had proclaimed as their\nobject the expulsion of the Tartars. Overrunning Kwangsi and Hunan, they\nhad got possession of Hankow and the two adjacent cities,--a centre of\nwealth which may be compared to the three cities that form our Greater\nNew York. Everywhere they put to flight the government forces; but they\ndid not choose to stop anywhere short of the ancient capital of the\nMings. Seizing some thousands of junks, they filled them with the\nplunder of that rich mart, and sweeping down the river, carried by\nassault every city on its banks until they reached Nanking. Its\nresistance was quickly overcome; and putting to death the entire\ngarrison of twenty-five thousand Manchus, they announced their intention\nto make it the capital of their empire, as Hung Wu had done when he\ndrove out the Mongols and restored freedom to the Chinese race.\n\nIn a few months they despatched an expedition to expel the Manchus from\nPeking. But that proved a more difficult task than they expected. Before\nthe detachment had arrived at Tientsin, it was met on the Grand Canal by\na strong force under Sengkolinsin, the Mongol prince. Obliged to winter\non the way, it was divided and cut off in detail; this defeat making it\nevident to all the world that the Manchu domination might still hope for\na considerable lease of life. The blood and rapine which everywhere\nmarked their pathway alienated the sympathy of foreigners from the\nSoldiers of Peace. Nor did the new power at Nanking manifest the least\nanxiety to obtain foreign aid, feeling assured of ultimate triumph. Yet,\nindifferent as they were to the co-operation of foreigners, the Taipings\nproclaimed themselves Christians, and appeared to aim their blows no\nless at lifeless idols than at living enemies. Shangti, the Supreme\nRuler, the God of the ancient sages, was the object of their worship.\nThey found his name in the Christian Bibles, and they published the\nBible as the source of their new faith. Their faith amounted to a\nfrenzy, giving them courage in battle, but not imparting the\nself-control essential to Christian morality. Filling their coffers with\nspoil, they stocked their harems with the wives and daughters of their\nenemies. If their lives had been more decent, they might have had a\nbetter chance to secure the favor of those powerful nations which had\nnow become the arbiters of destiny in China.\n\nThe leader of the movement was a Cantonese by the name of Hung Siu\nChuen. A copy of the Bible having fallen into his hands, he applied to a\nBaptist missionary for instruction. How much he learned may be inferred\nfrom the fact that he gave his followers a new form of baptism,\nrequiring them to wash the bosom as a sign for cleansing the heart. He\nhad ecstatic visions, and preached a crusade against idolatry and the\nManchus. The ease with which the Manchus had been beaten by the British\nin 1842 had revealed their weakness, and the new faith supplied the\nrebels with a fresh source of power. They mixed the teachings of the\nGospel with new revelations as freely as Mohammed did in propagating the\nreligion of the Koran. The chief called himself the younger brother of\nJesus Christ. His prime minister assumed the title of the Holy Ghost;\nand his counsels were given out as decrees from Heaven. All this had an\nair of blasphemy that shocked the sensibilities of foreigners, and\ncompelled them to stand aloof or to support the Manchus.\n\nThe native authorities were permitted to engage foreign ships and seamen\nto operate against the rebels, who sustained a siege in Nanking almost\nas long as the siege of Troy. From Shanghai, Suchau, and other cities\nthe Taipings were driven out by the aid of foreigners, chiefly led by\nWard and Gordon, the former an American, the latter a Briton. General\nWard was never under the command of Li Hung Chang; but to him more than\nto any other foreigner belongs the honor of turning the tide of the\nTaiping Rebellion. A soldier of fortune, he offered to throw his sword\ninto the government scale if it were paid for with many times its weight\nin gold. Gathering a nondescript force of various nationalities, he\nrecaptured the city of Sungkiang, and followed this up by such a series\nof successes that his little troop came to be known as the\n\"Ever-victorious Army.\" Falling before the walls of Tseki, he was\ninterred with pomp at the scene of his first victory, where a temple was\nerected to his memory, and he is now reckoned among the \"Joss\" of the\nChinese Empire. His force was taken into Li's pay.\n\nGeneral Gordon (the same who fell at Khartoum) acted under the direction\nof Li Hung Chang; and his chief exploit was the recovery of Suchau.\nUnable to resist his artillery, the rebel chiefs offered to capitulate.\nThey were assured by him that their lives would be spared. To this Li\nHung Chang consented, and the stronghold was at once surrendered.\nRegardless of his plighted faith, Li caused the five leaders to be\nbeheaded, an act of treachery which filled Gordon with such fury that he\nwent from camp to camp, looking for Li, determined to put a bullet in\nhis head. Li, however, avoided a meeting until Gordon's wrath had time\nto subside, and that treacherous act laid the foundation of his future\nfortunes. He was made governor of the province, and for forty years he\nrose in power and influence.\n\nNot only was this terrible rebellion which laid waste the fairest\nprovinces a sequel to the first war with England, it was prolonged and\naggravated by a second war which broke out in 1857. In 1863, the last\nstronghold of the rebels was recaptured, and the rebellion finally\nsuppressed, after twelve years of dismal carnage. In bringing about this\nresult, no names are more conspicuous than those of Li Hung Chang and\nGeneral Gordon, whose sobriquet of \"Chinese Gordon\" ever afterwards\ncharacterized him. Li's good fortune served him well in this war. Having\nwon the favor of the Court, he was in command of the forces of eastern\nKiangsu, and all the brilliant successes of Ward and Gordon were\ncredited to him. He was not only made governor of the province, but also\ncreated an Earl in perpetuity.\n\n\n\nV.\n\nTHE \"ARROW\" WAR; THE TREATIES.\n\nNever did a smaller spark ignite a greater conflagration. In 1856 a\nnative junk named the \"Arrow,\" sailing under a British flag, was seized\nfor piracy, her flag hauled down and her crew thrown into prison at\nCanton. On demand of Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong, they were\nhanded over to Consul Parkes (later Sir Harry); but he refused to\nreceive them because they were not accompanied by a suitable apology.\nThe haughty Viceroy Yeh put them all to death, provoking reprisals on\nthe part of the British, resulting in the occupation of Canton and the\ncapture of Peking after three campaigns to the north.\n\nIn this war England had France for ally; as the two powers had been\nassociated in that hugest of blunders, the Crimean War. Nor was the\nalliance a less blunder on this occasion. Napoleon's excuse for\nparticipation was the murder of a missionary in Kwangsi; but his real\nmotive was a desire to checkmate Great Britain, and prevent the conquest\nof new territory. In the Opium War she had stopped at Nanking, leaving\nthe pride of China unhumbled, and the state of relations so unstable\nthat another war was required to place them on a better footing.\nEngland, with unselfish generosity, invited the co-operation of Russia\nand the United States. Either power might have found as good a pretext\nfor hostile action as that of France; but they chose to maintain an\nattitude of neutrality, offering only such moral support as might enable\nthem to gather up the apples after the others had shaken the tree. In\n1857 Canton was taken and held by the allies. The next spring the envoys\nof the four powers, each with a considerable naval force, proceeded to\nthe mouth of the Peiho, the gateway to a capital as secluded and\nexclusive as that of the Grand Lama. The forts made a show of\nresistance, but they were put to silence in less than half an hour; and\nnegotiations which had been opened by the neutrals were resumed\nat Tientsin.\n\nDr. S. Wells Williams was Chinese secretary to the United States\nminister, Mr. William B. Reed; and I acted as interpreter for the spoken\nlanguage. An article in favor of Christian missions occasioned some\ndelay; and Mr. Reed, who was vain and shallow, said to us, \"Now,\ngentlemen, hurry up with your missionary article for I intend to sign my\ntreaty on the 18th of June [Waterloo day] with or without that clause.\"\nFancy a mind that could think of a treaty obtained by British guns as\nentitling him to be associated with Wellington! Yet Mr. Reed had the\neffrontery to say that he \"expected us to make the missionary societies\nduly sensible of their obligations\" to him. That twenty-ninth article\nwas the gem of the treaty; and it had the honor of being copied into\nthat of Lord Elgin, which was signed eight days later.\n\nHigh-minded, philanthropic, and upright, Lord Elgin made a mistake which\nled to a renewal of the war. He refused to place Tientsin on the list of\nopen ports, because, as he said, \"Foreign powers would make use of it to\noverawe the Chinese capital,\"--just as if overawing was not a matter of\nprime necessity. He hastened away to India to aid in suppressing the\nSepoy mutiny, eventually becoming viceroy after another campaign in\nChina. His brother, Sir F. Bruce, succeeded him as minister in China;\nand twelve months later (July, 1859) the ministers of the four powers\nwere again at the mouth of the Peiho on their way to Peking for the\nexchange of ratified copies of the several treaties. The United States\nminister was John E. Ward, a noble-hearted son of Georgia, and the chief\nof our little squadron was the gallant old Commodore Tatnall.\n\nWe were not a little surprised to see the demolished forts completely\nrebuilt, and frowning defiance. We were told by officers who came down\nto the shore that no vessel would be allowed to pass; but that the way\nto Peking was open to us _via_ Peitang, a small port to the north.\n\nTo this Mr. Ward made no objection, but the British, who had so recently\nheld the keys of the capital, were indignant to be met by such a rebuff.\nThey steamed ahead between the forts, leaving the Chinese to take the\nconsequences. All at once the long line of batteries opened fire. One or\ntwo gunboats were sunk; two or three were stranded. A storming party was\nrepulsed, and Admiral Hope, who was dangerously wounded, begged our\nAmerican commodore to give him a lift by towing up a flotilla of barges\nfilled with a reserve force. \"Blood is thicker than water,\" exclaimed\nTatnall, in tones that have echoed round the globe, and Ward making no\nobjection, he threw neutrality to the winds, and proceeded to tow up the\nbarges. Our little steamer was commanded by Lieutenant Barker, now\nAdmiral Barker of the New York Navy Yard.\n\nEven this failed to retrieve the day, the tide having fallen too low for\na successful landing. For the British admiral nothing remained but to\nwithdraw his shattered forces, and prepare for another campaign. For the\nUnited States minister a dazzling prospect now presented itself,--that\nof intervening to prevent the renewal of war. From Peitang we proceeded\nby land two days. Then we continued our voyage for five days by boat on\nthe Upper Peiho.\n\nAt Peking, calling on the genial old Kweiliang, who had signed the\ntreaty in 1858, Mr. Ward was astonished at his change of tone. \"You wish\nto see the Emperor. That goes as a matter of course; but his Majesty\nknows you helped the British, and he requires that you go on your knees\nbefore the throne in token of repentance.\" \"Tell him,\" said Mr. Ward to\nme, \"that I go on my knees only to God and woman.\" \"Is not the Emperor\nthe same as God?\" replied the old courtier, taking no notice of a\ntribute to woman that was unintelligible to an Oriental mind. \"You need\nnot really touch the ground with your knees,\" he continued; \"but merely\nmake a show of kneeling. There will be eunuchs at hand to lift you up,\nsaying 'Don't kneel! Don't kneel!'\" The eunuchs, as Mr. Ward well knew,\nwould be more likely to push us to our knees than to lift us up; and he\nwisely decided to decline the honor of an audience on such terms.\n\nDispleased by his obstinacy, the Emperor ordered him to quit the capital\nwithout delay, and exchange ratifications at the sea-coast. A report was\nlong current in Peking that foreigners have no joints in their knees;\nhence their reluctance to kneel. Thus vanished for Mr. Ward the\nalluring prospect of winning for himself and his country the beatitude\nof the peacemaker.\n\nThe summer of 1860 saw the Peiho forts taken, and an allied force of\nthirty thousand men advancing on Peking. The court fled to Tartary, and\nthe summer palace was laid in ashes to punish the violation of a flag of\ntruce, the bearers of which were bound hand and foot, and left to perish\nwithin its walls. For three days the smoke of its burning, carried by a\nnorthwest wind, hung like a pall over the devoted city, whose\ninhabitants were so terrified that they opened the gates half an hour\nbefore the time set for bombardment. No soldiers were admitted, but the\ndemands of the Allies were all acceded to, and supplementary treaties\nsigned within the walls by Lord Elgin and Baron Gros. Peking was opened\nto foreign residence. The French succeeded in opening the whole country\nto the labors of missionaries. Legations were established at the\ncapital, and a new era of peace and prosperity dawned on the\ndistracted empire.\n\n\n\nVI.\n\nTHE WAR WITH FRANCE.\n\nIf the opening of Peking required a prolonged struggle, it was followed\nby a quarter-century of pacific intercourse. China had at her helm a\nnumber of wise statesmen,--such as Prince Kung and Wensiang. The\nInspectorate of Customs begun under Mr. Lay took shape under the skilful\nmanagement of Sir Robert Hart, and from that day to this it has proved\nto be a fruitful nursery of reforms, political and social.\n\nNot only were students sent abroad for education at the instance and\nunder the leadership of Yung Wing, but a school for interpreters was\nopened in the capital, which, through the influence of Sir Robert Hart,\nwas expanded into the well-known Imperial College. On his nomination the\npresent writer was called to the head of it, and Wensiang proposed to\nconvert it into a great national university by making it obligatory on\nthe members of the Hanlin Academy, the Emperor's \"Forest of Pencils,\" to\ncome there for a course of instruction in science and international law.\nAgainst this daring innovation, Wojin, a Manchu tutor of the Emperor,\nprotested, declaring that it would be humiliating to China to have her\nchoicest scholars sit at the feet of foreign professors. The scheme fell\nthrough, but before many years the Emperor himself had taken up the\nstudy of the English language, and two of our students were selected to\nbe his instructors. One of them is at this present time (1902) Chinese\nminister at the Court of St. James. Several of our students have had\ndiplomatic missions, and one, after serving as minister abroad, is now a\nleading member of the Board of Foreign Affairs in Peking. A press\nopened in connection with the college printed numerous text-books on\ninternational law, political economy, physics, and mathematics,\ntranslated by the president, professors, and students.\n\nAmerica was fortunate in the choice of the first minister whom she sent\nto reside at Peking. This was Anson Burlingame, who, after doing much to\nencourage the Chinese in the direction of progress, was by them made the\nhead of the first embassy which they sent to foreign nations. His\nsuccess in other countries was largely due to the sympathy with which he\nhad been received in the United States by Secretary Seward, and to the\nadvice and recommendations with which he was provided by that great\nstatesman. So deep an interest did Mr. Seward take in China that he went\nin person to study its condition before the close of his career. In his\nvisit to Peking he was accompanied by his nephew, George F. Seward, who\nwas United States Consul at Shanghai. The latter has since that date\nworthily represented our country as minister at Peking; but it may be\ndoubted whether in that high position he ever performed an international\nservice equal in importance to one performed during his consulship, for\nwhich he has recently received the cross of the Legion of Honor. In\nlaying out their new concession at Shanghai, the French had excited the\nhostility of the people by digging up and levelling down many of those\ngraves that occupied so much space outside of the city walls, and where\nthe Chinese who worshipped their ancestors were to be seen every day\nburning paper and heaping up the earth. A furious mob fell on the French\npolice, chased them from the field, and menaced the French settlement\nwith knife and firebrand. The consuls were appealed to for aid, but no\none responded except Mr. Seward, who headed a strong force from one of\nour men-of-war, dispersed the mob, and secured the safety of the foreign\nsettlement. But for his timely intervention who knows that the French\nconsulate would not have been reduced to ashes? If the consulate had\nbeen burned down, a war would have been inevitable, with a chain of\nconsequences that baffles the imagination.\n\nIn 1871 a horrid atrocity was perpetrated by Chinese at Tientsin which\ncertainly would have led to war with France if Napoleon III. had not at\nthat very time been engaged in mortal combat with Germany. The populace\nwere made to believe that the sisters at the French hospital had been\nseen extracting the eyeballs from their patients to use in the\nmanufacture of magical drugs. They were set upon by a maddened\nmultitude, a score or more of them slaughtered, and the buildings where\nthey had cared for the sick and suffering turned to a heap of ruins.\nCount Rocheschouart, instead of reserving the case to be settled at a\nlater day, thought best to accept from the Chinese government an\napology, with an ample sum in the way of pecuniary compensation. That\ngrewsome superstition has led to bloodshed in more than one part\nof China.\n\nIn the summer of 1885 I was called one day from the Western Hills to the\nTsungli-Yamen, or Foreign Office, on business of great urgency. On\narriving, I was informed that the Chinese gunboats in the river Min had\nbeen sunk by the French the day before; that they had also destroyed the\nArsenal at the mouth of the river. \"This,\" said the Secretary, \"means\nwar, and we desire to know how non-combatants belonging to the enemy and\nresident in our country are to be treated according to the rules of\nInternational Law.\" While I was copying out the principles and\nprecedents bearing on the subject, the same Secretary begged me to\nhasten my report, \"because,\" said he, \"the Grand Council is waiting for\nit to embody in an Imperial Decree.\" True enough, the next day a decree\nfrom the throne announced the outbreak of war; but it added that\nnon-combatants belonging to the enemy would not be molested. Two of our\nprofessors were Frenchmen, and they were both permitted to continue in\ncharge of their classes without molestation.\n\nHostilities were brought to a happy conclusion by the agency of Sir\nRobert Hart. One of his customs cruisers employed in the light-house\nservice having been seized by the French, Mr. Campbell was sent to Paris\nto see the French President and petition for its release. Learning that\nPresident Gr\u00e9vy would welcome the restoration of peace, and ascertaining\nwhat conditions would be acceptable, Sir Robert laid them before the\nChinese government, putting an end to a conflict which, if suffered to\ngo on, might have ruined the interests of more than one country. In this\nwar and in those peace negotiations the conduct of the Chinese was\nworthy of a civilized nation. Yet the result of their experience was to\nmake them more ready to appeal to arms in cases of difficulty.\n\nLi's connection with this war was very real, though not conspicuous.\nChangpeilun, director of the arsenal at Foochow, was his son-in-law. Not\nonly was Li disposed to aid him in taking revenge, he was himself\nbuilding a great arsenal in the north; and it was, no doubt, owing to\nefficient succor from this quarter that Formosa was able to hold out\nagainst the forces of the French.\n\n\n\nVII.\n\nWAR WITH JAPAN.\n\nBoth in its inception and in its tragic ending the notable conflict with\nJapan connects itself with the name of Li Hung Chang. The Island Empire\non the East had long been known to the Chinese, though until our times\nno regular intercourse subsisted between the two countries. It is\nrecorded that a fleet freighted with youth and maidens was despatched\nthither by the builder of the Great Wall to seek in those islands of the\nblest for the herb of immortality; but none of them returned. It was to\nbe a colony, and the flowery robe by which its object is veiled is not\nsufficient to hide the real aim of that ambitious potentate. Yet,\nthrough that expedition and subsequent emigrations, a pacific conquest\nwas effected which does honor to both nations, planting in those islands\nthe learning of China, and blending with their native traditions the\nessential teachings of her ancient sages.\n\nFor centuries prior to our age of treaties, non-intercourse had been\nenforced on both sides,--the Japanese confining their Chinese neighbors,\nas they did the Dutch, to a little islet in the port of Nagasaki; and\nChina seeing nothing of Japan except an occasional descent of Japanese\npirates on her exposed sea-coast.\n\nTo America belongs the honor of opening that opulent archipelago to the\ncommerce of the world. Our shipwrecked sailors having been harshly\ntreated by those islanders, a squadron was sent under Commodore Perry to\nYeddo (now Tokio) in 1855, to punish them if necessary and to provide\nagainst future outrages. With rare moderation he merely handed in a\nstatement of his terms and sailed away to Loochoo to give them time for\nreflection. Returning six months later, instead of the glove of combat\nhe was received with the hand of friendship, and a treaty was signed\nwhich provided for the opening of three ports and the residence of an\nAmerican charg\u00e9 d'affaires. In the autumn of 1859 it was my privilege to\nvisit Yeddo in company with Mr. Ward and Commodore Tatnall. We were\nentertained by Townsend Harris and shown the sights of the city of the\nShoguns when it was still clothed in its mediaeval costume. The long\nswaddling-garb of the natives had a semi-savage aspect, and the abject\nservility with which their todzies (interpreters) prostrated themselves\nbefore their officers excited a feeling of contempt.\n\nLike the mayors of the palace in mediaeval France, the Shoguns or\ngenerals had relegated the Mikado to a single city of the interior;\nwhile for six hundred years they had usurped the power of the Empire,\npractically presenting the spectacle of two Emperors, one \"spiritual\"\n(or nominal), one \"temporal\" (or real). Little did we imagine that\nwithin five years the Shoguns would be swept away, and the Mikado\nrestored to more than his ancient power. The conflagration was kindled\nby a spark from our engines. The feudal nobles, of whom there were four\nhundred and fifty, each a prince within his own narrow limits, were\nindignant that the Shogun had opened his ports to those aggressive\nforeigners of the West. Raising a cry of \"Kill the foreigners!\" they\noverturned the Shoguns and restored the Mikado. Their fury, however,\nsubsided when they found that the foreigner was too strong to be\nexpelled. A few more years saw them patriotically surrendering their\nfeudal powers in order to make the central government strong enough to\nface the world. About the same time our Western costume was adopted, and\nalong with it the parliamentary system of Great Britain and the school\nsystem of America. Some foreigners were shallow enough to laugh at them\nwhen they saw those little soldiers in Western uniform; and the Chinese\ndespised them more than ever for abandoning the dress of their\nforefathers.\n\nTo protect themselves at once against China and Russia, the Japanese\nfelt that the independence of Corea was to them indispensable. The King\nhad been a feudal subject to China since the days of King Solomon; and\nwhen at the instance of Japan he assumed the title of Emperor, the\nChinese resolved to punish him for such insolence. This was in 1894. The\nJapanese took up arms in his defence; and though they had some hard\nfighting, they soon made it evident that nothing but a treaty of peace\ncould keep them out of Peking.\n\nLi Hung Chang, who had long been Viceroy at Tientsin and who had built\na northern arsenal and remodelled the Chinese army, had to confess\nhimself beaten. For him it was a bitter pill to be sent as a suppliant\nto the Court of the Mikado. That China was beaten was not his fault. Yet\nhe was held responsible by his own government and departed on that\nhumiliating mission as if with a rope about his neck. Fortunately for\nhim, during his mission in Japan an assassin lodged a bullet in his\nhead, and the desire of Japan to undo the effect of that shameful act\nmade negotiation an easy task, converting his defeat into a sort of\ntriumph. Happily, too, he enjoyed the counsel and assistance of J.W.\nFoster, formerly United States Secretary of State. Formosa, one of the\nbrightest jewels in the Chinese crown, had to be handed over to Japan,\nand lower Manchuria would have gone with it, had not Russia, supported\nby Austria and Germany, compelled the Japanese to withdraw their claims.\n\nThe next turn of the kaleidoscope shows us China seeking to follow the\nexample of Japan in throwing off the trammels of antiquated usage. In\n1898, when the tide of reform was in full swing, the Marquis Ito of\nJapan paid a visit to Peking, and as president of the University, I had\nthe honor of being asked to meet him along with Li Hung Chang at a\ndinner given by Huyufen, mayor of the city, and the grand secretary,\nSunkianai. It was a lesson intended for them when he told us how, on\nhis returning from England in the old feudal days, his prince asked him\nif anything needed to be reformed in Japan. \"Everything,\" he replied.\nThe lesson was lost on the three Chinese statesmen, progressive though\nthey were, for China was then on the eve of a violent reaction which\nthreatened ruin instead of progress.\n\n\n\nVIII.\n\nWAR WITH THE WORLD.\n\nThe last summer of the century saw the forts at the mouth of the Peiho\ncaptured for the third time since the beginning of 1858. It was the\nopening scene in the last act of a long drama, and more imposing than\nany that had gone before, not in the number of assailants nor in the\nobstinacy of resistance, but in the fact that instead of one or two\nnations as hitherto, all the powers of the modern world were now\ncombined to batter down the barriers of Chinese conservatism. Getting\npossession of Tientsin, not without hard fighting, they advanced on\nPeking under eight national flags, against the \"eight banners\" of the\nManchu tribes.\n\nWhat was the mainspring of this tragic movement? What unforeseen\noccurrence had effected a union of powers whose usual attitude is mutual\njealousy or secret hostility? In a word, it was _humanity_. Spurning\npetty questions of policy, they combined their forces to extinguish a\nconflagration kindled by pride and superstition, which menaced the lives\nof all foreigners in North China.\n\nIn 1898, when the Emperor had entered on a career of progress, the\nEmpress Dowager was appealed to by a number of her old servants to save\nthe Empire from a young Phaeton, who was driving so fast as to be in\ndanger of setting the world on fire. Coming out of her luxurious\nretreat, ten miles from the city, where she had never ceased to keep an\neye on the course of affairs, she again took possession of the throne\nand compelled her adopted son to ask her to \"teach him how to govern.\"\nThis was the _coup d'\u00e9tat_. In her earlier years she had not been\nopposed to progress, but now that she had returned to power at the\ninstance of a conservative party, she entered upon a course of reaction\nwhich made a collision with foreign powers all but inevitable. She had\nbeen justly provoked by their repeated aggressions. Germany had seized a\nport in Shantung in consequence of the murder of two missionaries.\nRussia at once clapped her bear's paw on Port Arthur. Great Britain set\nthe lion's foot on Weihaiwei; and France demanded Kwang Chan Bay, all\n\"to maintain the balance of power.\" Exasperated beyond endurance, the\nEmpress gave notice that any further demands of the sort would be met by\nforce of arms.\n\nThe governor of Shantung appointed by her was a Manchu by the name of\nYuhien, who more than any other man is to be held responsible for the\noutbreak of hostilities. He it was who called the Boxers from their\nhiding-places and supplied them with arms, convinced apparently of the\nreality of their claim to be invulnerable. For a hundred years they had\nexisted as a secret society under a ban of prohibition. Now, however,\nthey had made amends by killing German missionaries, and he hoped by\ntheir aid to expel the Germans from Shantung. On complaint of the German\nMinister he was recalled; but, decorated by the hands of the Empress\nDowager, he was transferred to Shansi, where later on he slaughtered all\nthe missionaries in that province.\n\nIn Shantung he was succeeded by Yuen Shikai, a statesmanlike official,\nwho soon compelled the Boxers to seek another arena for their\noperations. Instead of creeping back to their original hiding-place they\ncrossed the boundary and directed their march toward Peking,--on the way\nnot merely laying waste the villages of native Christians, but tearing\nup the railway and killing foreigners indiscriminately. They had made a\nconvert of Prince Tuan, father of the heir apparent. He it was who\nencouraged their advance, believing that he might make use of them to\nhelp his son to the throne. Their numbers were swelled by multitudes who\nfancied that they would suffer irreparable personal loss through the\nintroduction of railways and modern labor-saving machinery; and China\ncan charge the losses of the last war to those misguided crowds.\n\nFortunately several companies of marines, amounting to four hundred and\nfifty men, arrived in Peking the day before the destruction of the\ntrack. The legations were threatened, churches were burnt down, native\nChristians put to death, and fires set to numerous shops simply because\nthey contained foreign goods. Then it was that the foreign admirals\ncaptured the forts, in order to bring relief to our foreign community.\nThat step the Chinese Foreign Office pronounced an act of war, and\nordered the legations and all other foreigners to quit the capital. The\nministers remonstrated, knowing that on the way we could not escape\nbeing butchered by Boxers. On the 20th of June, the German Minister was\nkilled on his way to the Foreign Office. The legations and other\nforeigners at once took refuge in the British legation, previously\nagreed on as the best place to make a defence. Professor James was\nkilled while crossing a bridge near the legation. That night we were\nfired on from all sides, and for eight weeks we were exposed to a daily\nfusillade from an enemy that counted more on reducing us by starvation\nthan on carrying our defences by storm.\n\nAbout midnight on August 13, we heard firing at the gates of the city,\nand knew that our deliverers were near. The next day, scaling the walls\nor battering down the gates, they forced their way into the city and\neffected our rescue. The day following, the Roman Catholic Cathedral was\nrelieved,--the defence of which forms the brightest page in the history\nof the siege, and in the afternoon we held a solemn service of\nthanksgiving. The palaces were found vacant, the Empress Dowager having\nfled with her entire court. She was the same Empress who had fled from\nthe British and French forty years before.\n\nShe was not pursued, because Prince Ching came forward to meet the\nforeign ministers, and he and Li Hung Chang were appointed to arrange\nterms of peace. Li was Viceroy at Canton. Had he been in his old\nviceroyalty at Tientsin, this Boxer war could not have occurred. That\nits fury was limited to the northern belt of provinces was owing to the\nwisdom of Chang[5] and Liu, the great satraps of Central China who\nengaged to keep their provinces in order, if not attacked by foreigners.\n\n[Footnote 5: Chang is regarded as the ablest of China's viceroys. He\npublished, prior to the _coup d'\u00e9tat_, a notable book, in which he\nargues that China's only hope is in the adoption of the sciences and\narts of the West.]\n\nI called on the old statesman in the summer of 1901, after the last of\nthe treaties was signed. He seemed to feel that his work was finished,\nbut he still had energy enough to write a preface for my translation of\nHall's \"International Law,\" and before the end of another month his\nlong life of restless activity had come to a close at the age of\nseventy-nine. By posthumous decree, he was made a Marquis.\n\nIn the autumn the court returned to Peking, the way having been opened\nby Li's negotiations. Thanks to the lessons of adversity, the Dowager\nhas been led to favor the cause of progress. Not only has she re-enacted\nthe educational reforms proposed by the Emperor, but she has gone a step\nfarther, and ordered that instead of mere literary finish, a knowledge\nof arts and sciences shall be required in examinations for the\nCivil Service.\n\nThe following words I wrote in an obituary notice, a few days after Li's\ndeath:--\n\n\"For over twenty years Earl Li has been a conspicuous patron of\neducational reform. The University and other schools at Tientsin were\nfounded by him; and he had a large share in founding the Imperial\nUniversity in Peking. During the last twenty years I have had the honor\nof being on intimate terms with him. Five years ago he wrote a preface\nfor a book of mine on Christian Psychology,--showing a freedom from\nprejudice very rare among Chinese officials.\n\n\"Another preface which he wrote for me is noteworthy from the fact that\nit is one of the last papers that came from his prolific pencil. Having\nfinished a translation of 'Hall's International Law' (begun before the\nsiege), I showed it to Li Hung Chang not two weeks ago. The old man took\na deep interest in it, and returned it with a preface in which he says\n'I am now near eighty; Dr. Martin is over seventy. We are old and soon\nto pass away; but we both hope that coming generations will be guided by\nthe principles of this book.'\n\n\"With all his faults--those of his time and country--Li Hung Chang was a\ntrue patriot. For him it was a fitting task to place the keystone in the\narch that commemorates China's peace with the world.\"\n\n\n\n\nDAVID LIVINGSTONE.\n\n\n1813-1873.\n\nAFRICAN DEVELOPMENT.\n\nBY CYRUS C. ADAMS.\n\n\nAfrica is the most ancient and the most recent conquest of the human\nrace. As far as the light of history can be projected into the past, we\nsee Egypt among the first and foremost on the threshold of civilization.\nThe continent discovered last and opened last to the enterprises of the\nworld is still Africa. Why is it that we see there both the dawn of\ncivilization and the tardiest development of human progress?\n\nThe reasons are not far to seek. The physical conformation of no other\ncontinent is so unfavorable for exploration and development. Africa's\nstraight coast-lines, affording little shelter to the primitive ships of\nearly mariners, repelled the enterprising Phoenicians and other\nseafarers in their eager search for new lands worth colonizing. Nor was\nit easy for explorers to penetrate into the interior. In its surface\nAfrica has been compared to an inverted saucer,--the high plateaus\noccupying most of the interior descending to the sea by short, abrupt,\nand steep slopes, so that the wide and peaceful rivers of the plateaus\nare lashed into foam as they approach the ocean by many series of rapids\nand cataracts.\n\nIn all the other continents rivers have been the lines of least\nresistance to the advance of man. Civilization has developed first along\nthe great rivers. The valleys were first settled, and up these valleys\nman carried his industries and commerce far inland. Thus the Euphrates\nand Tigris of Mesopotamia, the Ganges and Indus of India, and the Hoang\nand Yangtse of China, were the creators of history; but this is true in\nAfrica only of the Nile. All the other rivers have been impediments\ninstead of helpful factors in the formidable task of exploration and\ndevelopment.\n\nThe trying climate, also, gave Africa odious repute and delayed for\ncenturies the study and utilization of the continent. When the British\nexpedition under Captain Tuckey attempted to ascend the Congo, in 1816,\nto see if it were really the lower part of the Niger River, as had been\nconjectured, nearly all of its members perished miserably among the\nrapids less than two hundred miles from the sea. Such tragedies as this\nparalyzed enterprise in Africa until white men learned that the climate\nwas not so deadly, after all, if they adhered to the manner of life, the\nhygienic rules, that should be observed in that tropical expanse.\n\nIn all the other continents, also, explorers have had the advantage of\ndomestic animals to carry their food and camp equipment; but in large\nparts of tropical Africa the horse, ox, and mule cannot live. The bite\nof the little tsetse fly kills them. Its sting is hardly so annoying as\nthat of the mosquito, but near the base of its proboscis is a little bag\ncontaining the fatal poison. Camels have been loaded near Zanzibar for\nthe journey to Tanganyika, but they did not live to reach the great\nlake. The \"ship of the desert\" can never be utilized in the humid\nregions of tropical Africa.\n\nThe elephant is found from sea to sea, but he has not proved to be so\namenable to domestication as his Asian brother. He may yet be reduced to\nuseful servitude. The efforts in this direction in the German and French\ncolonies are somewhat encouraging, though in 1901 only six elephants had\nthus far been broken to work and were daily used as beasts of burden.\nExplorers of tropical Africa have always been compelled to rely upon\nhuman porterage, the most expensive and unsatisfactory form of\ntransportation, with the result that nearly all the great lines of\nexploration have been extended through the continent at enormous cost.\n\nSo most other parts of the world were occupied, colonized, civilized,\nbefore Africa was explored. A continent one-fourth larger than our own\nwas for centuries neglected and despised. \"Nothing good can come out of\nAfrica\" became proverbial. Seventy years ago Africa, away from the\ncoasts and the Nile, was almost a blank upon our maps, save for fanciful\ndetails that are ludicrously grotesque in the light of our present\nknowledge (1902).\n\nThen dawned the era of David Livingstone. Sixty-two years ago this\nhumble Scotchman went to South Africa as a missionary. It was not long\nbefore he became imbued with the idea that missionary service could not\nbe projected on broad, economic, and effective lines till the field was\nknown. The explorer, he said, must precede the teacher and the merchant.\nWe can work best for Christianity and civilization after we learn what\nthe people are and know the nature of their environment. This was the\nthought that took him into the unknown; that inspired him with\nunflagging courage and zeal throughout twenty years of weary plodding in\nthe African wilderness among hundreds of tribes who never before had\nseen a white man. And all the years he was studying the country and\nwinning the love of its people, his faith in Africa, in its abounding\nresources worth the world's seeking, in the capacity of its people for\ndevelopment, steadily grew till it became the all-pervading impulse of\nhis life. Livingstone's faith converted the world to the belief that,\nafter all, there was good in Africa.\n\n\"I shall never forget,\" said Stanley, one day in New York, \"the time\nwhen I stood with Livingstone on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, and he\nraised his trembling hand above his head, leaned towards me as he looked\nme in the eye, and said in a voice broken with emotion: 'The day is\ncoming when the whole world will know that Africa is worth reclaiming,\nand that its people may be brought out of barbarism. The world needs\nAfrica; and teachers, merchants, railroads, and every influence of\ncivilization will be spread through this continent to fit it for the\nplace in human interests that belongs to it.' I thought then that\nLivingstone was an enthusiast and a visionary; but long ago I learned to\nbelieve that every word he said was true.\"\n\nEurope and America were thrilled by the simple narrative of those\ntwenty-two thousand miles of wanderings that brought into the light of\nday millions of human beings who had been as much unknown to us as\nthough they inhabited Mars. Livingstone did not live to know it, but it\nwas he who kindled the great African Movement,--an outburst of zeal for\ngeographic discovery and economic development such as was never\nseen before.\n\nThirteen years ago (1889) a Frenchman named De Bissy completed the\nlargest map yet made of Africa. In the preparation of this great work,\nwhich occupied much of his time for eight years, he used as his sources\nof information nearly eighteen hundred route and other maps, nearly all\nof which were the result of the work of explorers in the preceding\nquarter of a century. All that we know of the geography of over\nthree-fourths of Africa is the work of the past half-century since\nLivingstone made his first journey in 1849; and we know far more of\ninner Africa to-day than was known of inner North America three hundred\nyears after Columbus discovered the western world. A little over a\ncentury ago, our great-grandfathers were reading in their school\ngeographies that North America had no conspicuous mountains except the\nAlleghanies; and these mountains and the Andes of South America were\nbelieved to be one and the same chain, interrupted by the Gulf of\nMexico. Many men not yet bent with years can remember when the interior\nof Africa was a white space on the maps; but it is not possible to-day\nto make such a geographical blunder as we have mentioned, about any part\nof Africa.\n\nIt is because of the work he did in those twenty years, sowing all the\nwhile the seeds from which sprang the great African Movement, that \"the\ngentle master of African exploration\" is acclaimed to-day as one of the\nworld's great men, and that his body rests in Westminster Abbey among\nthe illustrious dead of Britain.\n\nThe son of a worthy weaver in Blantyre, Scotland, Livingstone's early\nlife was that of a poor boy, working in a spinning-mill, quiet, sober,\naffectionate, and faithful in every relation of life. Moved at last by\nthe thirst for knowledge that has distinguished many a humble Scotch\nboy, he entered the University at Glasgow, studying during the winter\nmonths and spending the summers at his trade in the factory, fitting\nhimself all the while for the conquests he little dreamed he was to\nachieve over difficulties almost insurmountable. A classmate spoke of\nhim as a pale, thin, retiring young man, but frank and most\nkind-hearted, ready for any good and useful work, even for chopping the\nUniversity fuel and grinding wheat for the bread. In 1838, when he was\ntwenty-five years old, he went to London to be examined as a candidate\nfor the African missionary service. Two years later he was sent to South\nAfrica, where for eight or nine years he labored among the natives\nearnestly and unostentatiously north of the place now famous as the site\nof the Kimberley diamond mines. It was here that he became intimately\nacquainted with the celebrated missionary, Robert Moffatt, whose\ndaughter he married. His devoted wife accompanied him in some of his\nlater travels, but long before he finished his work her body was laid to\nrest under the shade of a tree that for years was pointed out to all\nvisitors to the Lower Zambesi.\n\nIn 1849, began the series of explorations that continued till his\ndeath. \"The end of geographical discovery is the beginning of missionary\nenterprise,\" he wrote. Burning with zeal to reveal Africa to the world,\nLivingstone never forgot the main aim of his life,--to open ways for the\nplanting of mission stations among all the scores of tribes he visited.\n\"I hope God will in mercy permit me to establish the Gospel somewhere in\nthis region,\" he wrote from the land of the Barotse, on the Upper\nZambesi. Does he now look down from his eternal home upon that very land\nwhose churches and schools are the fruition of the labors of French\nProtestants; whose king, in London to attend the coronation of Edward\nVII., said he wanted more teachers and more men to train his people to\nbuild houses and work iron? He prayed that he might live to see \"the\ndouble influence of the spirit of commerce and Christianity employed to\nstay the bitter fountain of African misery.\" The glowing zeal of the\nChristian philanthropist and the untiring ardor of the born explorer\nwere perfectly blended in the spirit of the great pioneer of modern\nAfrican discovery.\n\nLivingstone's routes through Africa would extend about seven times\nbetween New York City and San Francisco; and in his almost endless\nmarches over plain, through jungle, across mountains and wide rivers,\nthe natives met him almost without exception in a generous and\nhospitable spirit. Love was the secret of his success. He won his way by\nkindness. Give the barbarous African time to see that you wish him well,\nthat you would do him good in ways he knows are helpful, and his\naffection is evoked.\n\nIt was said that the British could never establish their rule over the\ngreat Wabemba tribe, southwest of Tanganyika, without a military\ncampaign. In 1894, two humble Catholic fathers entered Lobemba, walked\nstraight to the chief town, and were told that if they did not leave the\ncountry in one day they would be killed. As the stern message was\ndelivered, they saw an old woman on the ground in great pain from a\nsevere wound. The news soon spread that these unwelcome strangers had\nwashed and dressed the wound, and made the old woman comfortable. \"These\npeople love men,\" was the word that passed from lip to lip, as the sick\nand suffering came out from the town to be treated, while thousands of\nnatives looked on. At nightfall the white men were told they might\nremain another day; they ministered for eleven days to those who needed\nhelp, and were then invited to remain the rest of their lives. The\nmission stations of the White Fathers are to-day scattered all over\nLobemba; the country is open in every corner to the whites, and in 1899\nBritish rule was established. The victory was won, not with guns, but\nby gentle, helpful kindness.\n\nLivingstone never believed that the sympathies of our common humanity\nare extinct even in the bosom of a savage. Enfolded in the panoply of\nChristian kindness, he passed unscathed among the most warlike tribes.\nNo memory of wrong or pain rankled in the heart of any man, woman, or\nchild he ever met. He is known to-day as \"the good old man\" wherever his\npath led him in those twenty years.\n\nWhen explorers began to study the healthful highlands of the Akikuyu\ntribe in East Africa a few years ago, the natives rushed to arms. \"Keep\naway from us,\" they said. \"One of your white men came through the land,\nstealing food from our gardens, and killing all who said he ought to pay\nus for our vegetables. We want nothing to do with thieves and murderers\nlike you.\"\n\nBut no vengeance fell on the head of any white traveller who ever\nfollowed in the footsteps of Livingstone. Those explorers have achieved\nmost who adhered to his example of unfailing kindness, mercy, and\njustice. The brutal German, whose crimes made the Akikuyu hostile to all\nwhites, marked his path with blood from the Indian Ocean to Victoria\nNyanza. Serpa Pinto, renowned for the scientific value of his work,\naroused condemnation and disgust because he fought his way through many\ntribes, among whom Livingstone and Arnot had wandered almost alone and\nin perfect safety. Fortunately, there have not been many explorers\nmilitant. The brilliant discoveries of Grenfell, Delcommune, Lemaire,\nand others, who are in the first rank of African pioneers, were made\nwithout harming a native.\n\nLet us glance at a few of Livingstone's discoveries and form our own\nconclusions as to whether his sublime faith in the future of Africa has\nthus far been justified by events. In the depths of the wilderness he\ndiscovered the large lake, Mweru, through which the Upper Congo flows.\nThough white influences have reached that remote region only within the\npast two or three years, a little steamboat now plies those waters. A\nphotograph of Mpweto, one of the white settlements on the lake, shows\nthe commodious quarters of the Europeans, two long lines of cabins in\nwhich the native workmen live, and well-tilled gardens extending for a\nhalf-mile along the shore. Livingstone brought to light the coal fields\nof the Zambesi, the only coal yet known in tropical Africa. While these\nlines are being written, the British of Rhodesia are preparing to open\nmines along these deposits. He told the world of the Victoria Falls of\nthe Zambesi, the largest known, a mile wide and twice as high as\nNiagara. The installation of an electrical plant at this great source of\npower is now in progress, and it is hoped within three years to\ntransmit electrically all the power required to work the large copper\nmines in the north, the coal fields in the east, and to move trains on\nthe Cape to Cairo Railroad for a distance of three hundred miles. The\nrecent improvements in long-distance transmission of power encourages\nthe belief that the Victoria Falls may some day possess large industrial\nutility for a wide region around them. Coffee plantations on the hills\noverlooking the long expanse of Nyassa, the splendid freshwater sea\nwhich Livingstone revealed in its setting of mountains, are selling\ntheir superior product in London at a high price. The town of Blantyre,\namong the Nyassa highlands which Livingstone first described, has a\nnewspaper, telegraphic and cable communication with all the world, and\nindustrial schools in which the manual arts are taught to hundreds of\nnatives. Here is the large brick church, now famous, built by native\ncraftsmen, who before Livingstone's time had never seen a white man, and\nlived in a state of barbarism; an edifice that would adorn the suburbs\nof any American city, and of which the explorer, Joseph Thomson, said:\n\"It is the most wonderful sight I have seen in Africa.\" The natives made\nthe brick, burned the lime, sawed and hewed the timbers, and erected the\nbuilding to the driving of the last nail. They had the capacity, and it\nwas evoked by the genius of one of the most remarkable men in Africa,\nMissionary Scott of Blantyre. Steamboats are afloat on five of the six\nimportant seas of the great lake region of Central Africa; on two of the\nthree which Livingstone discovered. Only a beginning has been made, for\nthe field stretches from ocean to ocean; but the man who, in 1873--the\nyear of Livingstone's death,--should have predicted one-half of the\nachievement of the present generation would have been laughed at as a\ncrack-brained visionary.\n\nEven the surface of Africa is changing, and the truth of Livingstone is\nnot always the truth of to-day. In his first journey, in which he braved\nthe perils of the South African thirst lands, he reached the broad and\nplacid expanse of Lake Ngami, covering an area of three hundred square\nmiles. In the gradual desiccation of that region, the lake has now\nentirely disappeared. Its place is wholly occupied by a partly marshy\nplain covered with reeds, and no vestige of water surface is to be seen.\nHe found the little Lake Dilolo so exactly balanced on a flat plain\nbetween two great river systems that one stream from the lake flowed\nnorth to the Congo and another south to the Zambesi; but for years past\nthere has been no connection between the lake and the Congo. He sought\nin vain, like many explorers after him, for the outlet to Lake\nTanganyika. The mystery was not solved till, more than twenty years\nafter, Burton discovered the lake; the solution came when the explorer\nThomson and Missionary Hore found the waters of Tanganyika pouring in a\nperfect torrent down the valley of the Lukuga to the Congo. The\nexplanation of the strange phenomenon is that for a series of years the\nevaporation exceeds the water receipts, the level of the lake steadily\nfalls, and the valley of the Lukuga becomes choked with grass; then a\nperiod follows when the water receipts exceed the evaporation, and the\nwaters rise, burst through the barriers of vegetation in the Lukuga, and\nare carried to the Congo once more.\n\nIt was his second and third journeys that established Livingstone's fame\nas a great explorer. In those journeys (1853-56) his routes were from\nthe Upper Zambesi to Loanda in Portuguese West Africa, and then from\nLoanda to the mouth of the Zambesi, nearly twelve thousand miles of\ntravel. The third journey was the first crossing of the continent; and\nwhile traversing the wide savannas of the uplands and revealing the\nZambesi, the fourth largest river of Africa, from source to delta, he\nwas able to verify one of the most brilliant generalizations ever made\nby a geologist. Sir Roderick Murchison, President of the Royal\nGeographical Society, in 1852, deducing his conclusions from the very\nfragmentary and imperfect knowledge of Africa then extant, evolved his\nstriking hypothesis as to the physical conformation of the continent,\nwhich has been briefly mentioned above and is the accepted fact of\nto-day. Livingstone was able to prove the accuracy of this hypothesis,\nand he dedicated his \"Missionary Travels\" to its distinguished author.\n\nThe Makalolo chief, Sekeletu, on the Zambesi River, supplied Livingstone\nwith men, ivory, and trading commissions, that helped the humble and\nunknown white man, lacking all financial resources except his slender\nsalary, to make the two great journeys which kindled the world's\ninterest and led to the wonderful achievements of our generation. In\nthis noteworthy incident we see the human agencies through which Africa\nwill attain the full stature allotted to her. The Caucasian and the\nNegro each has his onerous part in the work of bringing the civilized\nworld and Africa into touch and accord.\n\nWhen Livingstone went home, after his third journey, his\nfellow-countrymen crowded to see and hear the explorer, who had added\nmore facts to geographical knowledge than any other man of his time.\nThey saw a person of middle age, plainly and rather carelessly dressed,\nwhose deep-furrowed and well-tanned face indicated a man of quick and\nkeen discernment, strong impulses, inflexible resolution, and habitual\nself-command. They heard a speaker whose command of his mother tongue\nwas imperfect, and who apologized for his broken, hesitating speech by\nsaying that he had not spoken the English language for nearly sixteen\nyears. In no public place did he ever allude to his personal sufferings,\nthough fever had brought him to death's door and the years had been\ncrowded with the most harrowing cares. The work he had done and would\ncarry on to the end, the new Africa he alone could describe, the faith\nthat had grown and strengthened in every week of his long pilgrimage\nthat the world needed Africa, its resources and peoples, were the burden\nof every utterance. The great London meeting where he first appeared\ntook practical measures to support him in the work he had begun unaided;\nand one of the resolutions adopted, declaring that \"the important\ndiscoveries of Dr. Livingstone will tend hereafter greatly to advance\nthe interest of civilization, commerce, and freedom among the numerous\ntribes and nations of that vast continent,\" was prophetic of all the\nbest fruits of the colossal work that has been done to the present time.\n\nDuring his two years at home, Livingstone wrote his \"Missionary\nTravels.\" He returned to England once more (1864-65), when he published\n\"A Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi,\" and in 1866 went back to\nAfrica to resume the explorations which ended only with his death.\nBetween 1849 and 1873 he was four years in Europe and twenty years in\nthe field, eating native food, sleeping in straw huts (in one of which\nhe died), lost to view for many years at a time because he had no means\nof communication with the coasts. It was this fact that led to Stanley's\nsuccessful search for Livingstone in 1871. Perhaps no other explorer\never gave so many years to continuous field-work. In this respect he far\nsurpassed the record of any other of the African pioneers.\n\nThe discoveries in his last journeys, covering the periods from 1858 to\n1864, and from 1866 to 1873, were as brilliant and fruitful as his\nearlier work, but not so astonishing, because his first years were given\nto revealing the broader aspects of Africa and its tribes, while his\nlater labors were devoted to more detailed research in a smaller field.\nThis region, about as large as Mexico and Central America, extends north\nand south, from Tanganyika to the Zambesi, and covers the wide region of\nthe Congo sources between Nyassa and Lake Bangweolo. The greatest\nresults were the discovery of Lake Nyassa and the Shire River, now the\nwater route into East Central Africa; Lakes Bangweolo and Mwero; and the\nmapping of the eastern part of the sources of the Upper Congo, which\nLivingstone believed to the day of his death were the ultimate fountains\nof the Nile. Livingstone's \"Last Journeys\" was published from the\nmanuscript which his faithful servants brought to the seacoast with the\nmortal remains of their gentle master.\n\nNot far from the south coast of Bangweolo stands a wooden construction\nto which is affixed a bronze tablet bearing the simple inscription,\n\"Livingstone died here. Ilala, May 1, 1873.\" It has taken the place of\nthe tree under which he died, and where his heart, which had been so\ntrue to Africa, was buried. As the tree was nearly dead, the section\nbearing the rude inscription cut by one of his servants was carefully\nremoved and is now in London.\n\nLivingstone's geographical delineations were remarkably accurate,\nconsidering the inadequate surveying instruments with which he worked.\nDr. Ravenstein, one of the greatest authorities on African cartography,\nhas said: \"I should be loath to reject Livingstone's work simply because\nthe ground which he was the first to explore has since his death been\ngone over by another explorer.\" It would be marvellous, however, if in\nthe course of twenty years of exploration he had not made some blunders.\nHis map of Lake Bangweolo, for example, was very inaccurate. The Lokinga\nMountains, which he mapped to the south of the lake, have not been found\nby later explorers. These imperfections resulted from the fact that his\nmap of Bangweolo and its neighborhood was largely based upon native\ninformation. He knew that his map was inadequate, and as soon as he was\nable to travel he returned to Bangweolo to complete his survey. He was\nmaking straight for the true outlet of the lake, and was within\nthirty-five miles of it when one morning his servants found him in his\nlowly straw hut, dead on his knees. If Livingstone had lived a few weeks\nlonger and been able to travel, he and not Giraud would have given us\nthe true map of Bangweolo.\n\nAs a whole, Livingstone's work in geography, anthropology, and natural\nhistory, stands the test of time. No river in Africa has yet been laid\ndown with greater accuracy than the Zambesi as delineated by\nthis explorer.\n\nThe success of Livingstone was both brilliant and unsullied. The apostle\nand the pioneer of Africa, he went on his way without fear, without\negotism, without desire of reward. He proved that the white man may\ntravel safely through many years in Africa. He observed richness of soil\nand abundance of natural products, the guarantees of commerce. He\nforetold the truth that the African tribes would be brought into the\ncommunity of nations. The logical result of the work he began and\ncarried so far was the downfall of the African slave-trade, which he\ndenounced as \"the open sore of the world.\" What eulogy is too great for\nsuch a work and such a man?\n\nIn 1898, twenty-one journeys had been made by explorers from sea to sea.\nLivingstone completed the first journey, from Loanda to the mouth of the\nZambesi, in one year, seven months, and twenty-two days. Nineteen years\nelapsed before Central Africa was crossed again, when Cameron gave two\nyears and nearly eight months to the journey. It took Stanley two years\nand eight months to cross Africa, when he solved the great mystery, the\ncourse of the Congo; and when he went to the relief of Emin Pasha, in\n1887, he was almost exactly the same time on the road. When Trivier\ncrossed from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, in 1888-89, in nine days\nless than a year, the event was held as a remarkably rapid performance.\nA little later the journey was made by several travellers in from twelve\nto fifteen months. In 1898, the Englishman, Mr. Lloyd, crossed from Lake\nVictoria to the mouth of the Congo in three months, about thirteen\nhundred miles of the journey being by Congo steamboat and railroad. In\n1902, the journey from the Indian Ocean to Lake Victoria is made by rail\nin two and one-half days,--a journey that occupied Speke for nine, and\nStanley for eight months. With the present facilities, the continent may\nbe crossed by way of the lake region and the Congo in about three\nmonths. The era of long and weary foot-marches has nearly ended; now\nsucceeds travel by steam.\n\nNo influence has been so potent in improving the art of the explorer, or\nin raising the standard of the work required of him, as the enormous\ninterest that for thirty years past has centred in African exploration.\nThe larger part of the best achievements of the explorers of the present\ngeneration in scientific investigation, and in an approach to scientific\nmap-making, are found in tropical Africa. Many of the hundreds of the\nroute surveys are not unworthy to be compared with those of Pogge and\nWissmann, when they laid down on their map every cultural and\ntopographic feature for two miles on both sides of their route, from\nAngola to the Upper Congo. The extreme care with which some of the best\nexplorers have performed their tasks is illustrated by the remarkable\nachievement of the late Dr. Junker along the Mobangi River. After years\nof service, his scientific equipment had become practically worthless.\nHe started on his four-hundred-mile journey down the river through the\njungle, with absolutely no instrument except a compass to aid him in\ndetermining his positions. Endeavoring, by the most scrupulous care, to\nmake up as far as possible for his lack of scientific outfit, he trudged\nthrough the grass, compass in hand, counting every step. Every fifteen\nminutes he jotted in his notebook the distance and the mean direction\ntravelled. At night he used these accumulated data to lay down on his\nroute map the journey of the day. For many weeks he kept up this trying\nroutine till he reached his furthest west, and again till he had\nreturned to his starting-point, whose latitude and longitude he had\npreviously determined. When he returned to Europe, Dr. Hassenstein and\nhe made a map from the data Junker had collected, and fixed the position\nof his furthest west. This position was found later by the astronomical\nobservations of Lieutenant Le Marinel to be less than two miles out\nof the way.\n\nOne of the latest to win a large prize in African discovery is Dr. A.\nDonaldson Smith, a young physician of Philadelphia, in the northeastern\nregion known as Somaliland and Gallaland. His method may be mentioned\nhere as an illustration of the kind of work that geographers now\nrequire. Before he began his explorations, he took a thorough course in\nthe use of surveying instruments and the methods of accurately laying\ndown his positions and making a route map. Many a cartographer, burning\nwith desire to draw a good map of a newly explored region, has been\ndriven to despair by the inadequacy of the route surveys in his hands.\nNot a few of these surveys have been unworthy of reproduction in the\nbooks of the explorers who made them, and the best that could be done\nwas to generalize their information on maps of comparatively small\nscale. But Donaldson Smith's route-maps appear in his book on the\ncomparatively large scale of 1:1,000,000 (about sixteen statute miles to\nthe inch), and they are worthy of that treatment, for his surveys and\nobservations for geographical positions were recorded in such a way\nthat their value might be easily ascertained by any one familiar with\nsuch computations. His route-maps have been found to be admirable\nmap-making material; thus, he has not only traversed a new region of\ngreat extent, but has given in his map ample materials which may be\nemployed by any atlas-maker in the production of good maps of all the\nterritory that came under his observation. When Sir Clements Markham\npresented to Dr. Smith the Patrons' Medal of the Royal Geographical\nSociety, he said: \"You have not, like an ordinary explorer, made a\ncommon route survey, but you have made a scientific survey, a\ntriangulation frequently checked by astronomical observations with\ntheodolite and chronometer.\"\n\nMost African explorers have been painstaking, conscientious workers,\neager in their quest for the truth, desirous to report nothing but the\ntruth, and treating the lowly and ignorant they have met as men, with\nsensibilities like their own, capable of gratitude for a kindness and\nkeenly sensitive to an outrage. The world has recognized and applauded\nsuch heroes of discovery,--the men who faced hardship and peril,\nenduring and sacrificing much that knowledge might grow; who had to\nconquer not only unkind Nature, but to overcome the ignorant violence of\nman. And not a few of the leaders in this work have carried it out with\na degree of tactfulness, humanity, gentleness, and kindliness of spirit\namounting to genius. Some of them spent months in disguise, collecting\nfacts of the highest scientific value among fanatical Mohammedans who\nwould have killed them if they had known their secret. Such men were\nBurton in Harrar, Dr. Lenz in Timbuctoo, and De Foucauld and Harris in\nMorocco, who, in stained skins and borrowed costumes, personated\nmerchants and devotees and doctors and Jews; and most of whom have\nenriched the literature of discovery with valuable books. Men also such\nas Dr. Junker, who, rich as he was, left his home to spend eight years\nalone among the savages of the Welle Makua basin in Central Africa,\nliving on their food and in their huts that he might minutely study the\npeople in their country; or Grenfell, who has travelled far more widely\nin the Congo basin than Stanley or any of his followers except\nDelcommune, and revealed to the world more river systems and unknown\npeoples than they, and who, in his long career as an explorer, never\nfired a shot upon a native, though his life was often threatened. These\nmen, and others like them, have exemplified the manysidedness of human\nresources against a great variety of peril and obstacle, as no other\nexplorers in any other part of the world have had an opportunity to do\nin equal measure. Their work, with its environment of almost\noverwhelming difficulty, should be known to our youth as most forceful\nillustrations of what good men may dare and do in good causes and in a\nworthy manner.\n\nThere have been some exceptions to this rule. A few men have been less\nanxious to perform useful service than to figure in the newspapers and\npose before their public. One day a man stood on the north shore of\nVictoria Nyanza, and looking south he saw land. When he returned to\nLondon he published a sensational book, in which he said it was\nridiculous for Speke to assert that he had discovered a lake as large as\nScotland, one of the greatest lakes in the world. \"Why,\" said the\nwriter, \"I have stood on the north shore of the Victoria Nyanza and\nlooked south and seen the southern shore. Lake Victoria is only an\ninsignificant sheet of water, after all the talk of its being second\nonly to Lake Superior.\"\n\nWhat he really saw was the chain of the Sesse Islands extending far out\ninto the lake. His book was scarcely off the press when the letters\ndescribing Stanley's boat journeys around the shores of Victoria Nyanza\nbegan to be published in London and New York; and the foolish fellow was\ncompelled to recall all the copies of his book that had not passed\nbeyond his reach, and eliminate the statements that made him so\nridiculous. Fortunately, there are not many explorers of this stripe.\n\nAll who watched the progress of African discovery were constantly\nreminded that geographical progress is usually made only by slow and\npainful steps. They saw an explorer emerge from the unknown with his\nnotebooks and route maps replete with most interesting facts for the\nstudent and the cartographer. Then another explorer would enter the same\nregion, discover facts that had escaped the notice of the pioneer,\ncorrect blunders his predecessor had made and perpetrate blunders of his\nown; so explorer followed explorer, each adding something to\ngeographical knowledge, each correcting earlier misconceptions, till the\ntotal product, well sifted by critical geographers, gave the world a\nfair idea of the region explored; but not the best attainable idea, for\nscientific knowledge of a region comes only with its detailed\nexploration by trained observers, equipped with the best appliances for\nuse in their special fields of research. This is the advanced stage of\ngeographical study, which is now being reached in many parts of Africa.\nIt was Livingstone's task, in 1859, to inform us that there was a great\nLake Nyassa. It was Rhoades's task, in 1897-1901, to make a careful and\naccurate survey of its coast-lines, and to sound its depths, so that we\nnow have an excellent idea of the conformation of the lake bottom.\nBetween Livingstone and Rhoades came many explorers, each adding\nimportant facts to our knowledge of this great sheet of water nearly\ntwice as large as New Jersey.\n\nAs each explorer came from the wilds, our maps were corrected to conform\nwith the new information he supplied; and if we should examine the maps\nof Africa in school geographies, atlases, and wall maps, from the time\nof Livingstone to the present day, we should see that, as relates to\nnearly every part of Africa, they have been in a continual state of\ntransition.\n\nFor years our only map of Victoria Nyanza was that which Speke made on\nhis second journey to the lake, in 1860-62; but Speke saw the great lake\nonly at one point on its south shore, and along its northwest and north\ncentral coasts. His map, being based very largely upon native\ninformation, was in many respects most incomplete and erroneous.\n\nThen came Stanley's survey of the lake, made in a boat journey around\nits coasts, and for years his map supplanted that of Speke. But he was\nnot able to follow the shore-line in all its intricate details. His\nmapping was a great advance upon that of Speke, but it was necessarily\nrough and imperfect. He missed entirely the deep indentation of Baumann\nGulf and the southwestern prolongation of the lake, surveyed by Father\nSchynse, in 1891. Stanley's map, modified by the partial surveys of\nvarious explorers, is still our mapping of the lake; but if the reader\nwill watch the maps for the next year or so, he will doubtless observe\nimportant changes in the contours of Victoria Nyanza; for all the maps,\nfrom Speke to those of 1902, will be placed on the shelf to serve only\nas the historical record of the good, honest work which a number of\nexplorers have done. Commander Whitehouse has recently spent thirteen\nmonths surveying with infinite pains these coasts and islands. \"I seem\nto see,\" writes Stanley of this important service, \"the sailor, with his\nsmall crew and his little steel boat, wandering from point to point,\ncrossing and recrossing, going from some island to some headland, taking\nhis bearings from that headland back again to the island, and to some\npoint far away.\"\n\nCommander Whitehouse has made a new delineation of the entire 2,200\nmiles of coasts, and the results of his survey will be used in making\nall the maps of the lake. His map in turn will undoubtedly be replaced\nsome day by detailed topographic surveys of the best quality, such as\nthe British already contemplate making of that entire region.\n\nA wall map recently in use in one of the public schools of New York City\nwas a curious example of ignorant compilation. It exhibited the Victoria\nNyanza of Speke, the Bangweolo of Livingstone, and the Upper Congo of\nStanley, all obsolete for practical purposes years before this map was\nprinted. Most of our home map-makers were very slow in availing\nthemselves of the rich materials constantly supplied for the maps by the\narmy of explorers in Africa. But the most alert cartographers,\nparticularly between 1880 and 1895, could not keep their maps abreast\nof the news of discovery as it came to Europe. More men and energy and\nmoney were utilized in those fifteen years of African discovery than in\nthe first century and a half of American exploration. The route or\nmother-maps, some covering a wide extent of country, others devoted to a\nsmall area, or a short line of travel, were going to Europe for the\nimprovement of atlas sheets by nearly every steamer. Father Schynse's\nchart of the southwest extension of Victoria Nyanza had hardly been\nutilized in European map-houses before it was replaced by Dr. Baumann's\nmore accurate survey. Mr. Wauters of Belgium withdrew his large map of\nthe Congo Basin from the printer four times, in order to include fresh\ninformation before it was finally issued to the public.\n\nThis process is still going on, though more slowly. The mapping we see\nof Lake Tanganyika, one of the longest lakes in the world, has been in\nuse for seventeen years since missionary Hore made his boat journey of\none thousand miles around its coasts, but the new map of the Moore\nexpedition now being introduced gives the main axis of the lake a more\nnortheast and southwest direction. The Hore map has met the fate that\nusually overtakes the early surveys of every region. It rendered good\nservice as long as it was the best map; but the Moore expedition had\nfirst-rate appliances for computing longitudes, and as Captain Hore\nlacked these, it is not strange that his map has been found to be\ndefective.\n\nThe world has been treated to many geographical surprises in the course\nof this incessant transformation of the map of the continent. Many of us\nmay remember in our school geographies, the particular blackness and\nprominence of the Kong Mountains, extending for two hundred miles\nparallel with the Gulf of Guinea. They were accepted on the authority of\nMungo Park, Cailli\u00e9, and Bowditch, all reputable explorers who had not\nseen the mountains, but believed from native information that they\nexisted. The French explorer, Binger, in 1887 sought in vain for them.\nLater explorers have been unable to find them. They are, in fact, a\nmyth, and will be remembered chiefly as a conspicuous instance of\ngeographic delusion. It had long been supposed that the navigation of\nthe Niger River, the third largest river in Africa, was permanently\nimpaired by the Bussa Rapids, about one hundred miles in length, where\nMungo Park was wrecked and drowned. But Major Tout\u00e9e, a few years ago,\nwhen assailed by hostile natives, made a safe journey with his boats\nthrough the rapids; and Captain Lenfant, in 1901, carried 500,000 pounds\nof supplies up the river and through the rapids to the French stations\nbetween Bussa and Timbuktu. He had a small, flat-bottomed steamboat and\na number of little boats propelled by fifty black paddlers. He says\nthat by the land route he would have required 12,000 porters, and they\nwould have been one hundred and thirty days on the road.\n\nIt was believed that a land portage would always be necessary between\nthe sea and the Zambesi, above the delta, till 1889, when Mr. Rankin\ndiscovered the Chinde branch of the delta, so broad and so deep that\nocean vessels may ascend it and exchange freight with the river craft.\n\nIt has been found that more water pours into the ocean through the\nCongo's mouth, which is six miles wide, than from all the other rivers\nin Africa together. It is second among the world's rivers, and the dark\ndetritus it carries to the Atlantic has been distinctly traced on the\nocean bed for six hundred miles from the land. Some geographers still\nbelieved thirty years ago that all the waters of its upper basin might\nbe tributary to the Nile. Map-makers have been kept very busy recording\ndiscoveries on the Congo. About one hundred explorers, some of them\nmissionaries and many employees of the Congo Free State, have mapped the\nwhole basin along its water-courses, and discovered the ultimate source\nof its main stream. Our ideas of the hydrography of this great basin\nhave been revolutionized since Stanley, second only to Livingstone among\nthe great African explorers, in 1877 revealed the course of the\nmain river.\n\nOn his map, for example, he showed the southern tributaries as probably\nflowing nearly due north; but all except one of these rivers rise in the\neast and flow far to the west. When Wissmann was sent to the Upper\nKassai to follow it to the Congo, he was greatly surprised to find\nhimself floating westward week after week. When he reached the Congo a\nsteamboat was waiting for him at Equatorville, two hundred miles further\nup the river, where he was expected to emerge. Schweinfurth believed the\nWelle Makua flowed north to Lake Chad on the edge of the Sahara;\nseventeen years later, after six or seven explorers had tried to solve\nthe problem, the river was found to be the upper part of the Mobangi\ntributary of the Congo, larger than any rivers of Europe, excepting the\nVolga and Danube. While Stanley was for five years planting his stations\non the Congo, he knew nothing of this great tributary, 1,500 miles long,\nwhose mouth was hidden by a cluster of islands which his steamers\nrepeatedly passed. Missionary Grenfell, on his little steamer, was\nascending the Congo one day, when accidentally he got into the mouth of\nthe Mobangi and went on for one hundred miles before he discovered that\nhe had left the main river. Few explorers have unwittingly stumbled upon\nso rich a geographical prize.\n\nWhile exploratory enterprises have been centred largely in tropical\nAfrica, no part of the continent has been neglected. We now know that\nlarge areas of the Sahara are underlaid by waters which need only be\nbrought to the surface to cover the desert around them with verdure;\nthat most of the rain falling on the south slopes of the Atlas Mountains\nsinks into the earth to impermeable strata of rock, along which it makes\nits way far out into the desert; that where the surface is depressed so\nthat these waters come near to it, there are wells for the refreshment\nof the camel caravans, and oases, blooming islands of green, in the\nsterile wastes; and that artesian wells bring inexhaustible supplies of\nwater within reach, so that millions of date palms have been planted\nalong the northern edge of the desert in southern Algiers and Tunis,\nmaking these regions the largest sources of the world's supply of dates.\n\nIt has also been discovered why there are very large areas of dry or\ndesert lands in Africa. The Sahara and the southwest of Africa are\ndeserts because the prevailing winds, the carriers of moisture, blow\ntowards the sea instead of away from it, and consequently are always\ndry. The winds from the Indian Ocean crossing the highlands of Abyssinia\nare wrung nearly dry while passing the mountains, and so Somaliland and\nthe lowlands to the south of Abyssinia are parched.\n\nIt has been found that the most of South Africa stands so high above the\nsea that the influences of a temperate climate are projected far\ntowards the Equator; so that many white men, women, and children are\nliving and thriving on farms in Mashonaland, seven degrees of latitude\nnearer the equator than the south end of Florida. This fact will\nprofoundly influence the development of South Africa. It is to be the\nhome of millions of the white race, the seat of a highly civilized\nempire, whose business relations with the rest of the world will be to\nthe advantage of every trading nation. The presence of these millions of\ntoilers will vitally affect the work of developing tropical Africa which\nis now absorbing such enormous treasure and energy; for South Africa is\nto be brought by railroads to the very doors of the tropical zone.\n\nIt is hoped that such facts as these, even though very briefly stated,\nmay convey broadly a correct impression of the magnitude of African\nexploration, since its revival about the time that Livingstone died. It\nis impossible in brief space to signalize the good work that many of the\nmost conspicuous pioneers have done. The world rendered tardy tribute to\nthe notable achievements of some of them. When Rebmann discovered\nKilimanjaro, not far from the equator, and told of the snows that crown\nthe loftiest of African summits, it was decided by British geographers\nthat Rebmann's snow was probably an imaginary aspect. The snow was\nthere, and plenty of it, but Rebmann died before justice was done to\nhis faithful labors. When Paul du Chaillu described the Obongo dwarfs of\nWest Africa, his narrative was discredited; but four or five groups of\ndwarfs, probably numbering many thousands, are now known to be scattered\nfrom the lower border of Abyssinia to the Kalahara desert in the far\nsouth. The ancients had heard of the dwarfs, but the geographers of the\neighteenth century expunged from the maps of Africa about all that the\ngeographers of Greece and Rome, as well as those of later times, placed\non them; and the nineteenth century was slow in crediting the early\ninvestigators even with statements that were wholly or approximately\naccurate.\n\nA curious history is connected with the discovery of the northeastern\ngroup of pygmies, a little south of Abyssinia. No white man had ever\nseen them, but about fifteen years ago Dr. Henry Schlichter, of the\nBritish Museum, collected all the information which natives had given to\nmissionaries, traders, and explorers of the existence of these little\npeople some hundreds of miles from the sea. Sifting all this evidence,\nhe concluded that these dwarfs really existed, and that they lived in a\nregion which he marked on the map north of Lake Stefanie. Donaldson\nSmith had not heard of Schlichter's paper, and knew nothing of these\ndwarfs, but he found them in 1895 in the region which Schlichter had\nindicated as their probable habitat.\n\nThe broadest generalization with regard to the African tribes is that\nwhich separates most of the peoples south of the Sahara Desert into two\ngreat groups,--the Negro tribes, whose habitat may be roughly indicated\nas extending between the Atlantic and Gallaland in East Africa, with the\nSahara as their northern, and the latitude of the Cameroons as their\nsouthern, boundaries; and the Bantu tribes, occupying nearly all of\nAfrica south of the Negroes. The distinction between these two great\ngroups is not based upon special differences as to physical structure,\nmental characteristics, habits, or development, but depends solely upon\nphilological considerations, the languages of the Negroes and the Bantus\nforming two distinct groups. Most of the slaves who were brought to our\ncountry were Negroes, while most of those transported to Latin America\nwere from the Bantu tribes.\n\nOne fact that stood out above all others in the study of the African\nnatives, was the remarkable prevalence of cannibalism in the Congo\nbasin. In all his wanderings, Livingstone met only one cannibal\ntribe,--the Manyema living between Tanganyika and the Upper Congo; but\nthough they are not found near the sources of the river, nor near its\nmouth, they occupy about one-half of the Congo basin. They are regarded\nwith fear and abhorrence by all tribes not addicted to the practice.\nThey number several millions. Instead of being the most debased of\nhuman creatures, many of them, in physical strength and courage, in\ntheir iron work, carving, weaving, and other arts, are among the most\nadvanced of African tribes. The larger part of the natives in the\nservice of the Congo Free State are from the cannibal tribes. The laws\nnow impose severe penalties for acts of cannibalism, and the evil is\ndecreasing as the influence of the state is extended over wider areas. A\nfew isolated tribes along the Gulf of Guinea are also cannibals.\n\nThere is no doubt that the helpful influences of the Caucasian in every\npart of Africa so far outweigh his harmful influences that the latter\nare but a drop in the bucket in comparison. It is most unfortunate that\na certain admixture of blundering, severity, brutality, and wickedness\nseems inseparable from the development of all the newer parts of the\nworld. The demoralizing drink traffic, the scandalous injustice and\ncruelty of some of the agents of civilized governments, are not to be\nbelittled or condoned. But there is also a very bright side to the story\nof the white occupancy of Africa.\n\nThe family of a deceased chief in Central Africa recently preserved his\nbody unburied for fourteen months, in the hope that they might prevail\nupon the British Government to permit the sacrifice of women and slaves\non his grave, that he might have companions of his own household in the\nother world. He was buried at last, without shedding a drop of blood.\nHuman sacrifices are now punishable with death throughout a large part\nof barbarous Africa, and the terrible evil is being abated as fast as\nthe influence of the European governments is extended over new regions.\nThe practice of the arts of fetichism, a kind of chicanery, most\ninjurious in its effects upon the superstitious natives, is now\npunishable throughout the Congo Free State and British Rhodesia. Arab\nslave-dealers no longer raid the Congo plains and forests for slaves,\nkilling seven persons for every one they lead into captivity.\nSlave-raiding has been utterly wiped out in all parts of Africa, except\nin portions of the Sudan and other districts over which white rule has\nnot yet been asserted. The Arabs of the Congo, who went there from East\nAfrica solely that they might grow rich in the slave trade, are now\nsettled quietly on their rice and banana plantations. The sale of strong\ndrink has been restricted by international agreement to the coast\nregions, where the traffic has long existed, and its evils are somewhat\nmitigated there by the regulations now enforced. Fifty thousand Congo\nnatives who would not carry a pound of freight for Stanley in 1880, are\nnow in the service of the white enterprises, many of them working, not\nfor barter goods, but for coin. Many of the missionary fields are\nthriving, and wonderful results have been achieved in some of them. In\nUganda, where Stanley in 1875 saw King Mtesa impaling his victims, there\nare now ninety thousand natives professing Christianity, three hundred\nand twenty churches, and many thousands of children in the schools.\nFifty thousand of the people can read. Between 1880 and 1882 Stanley\ncarried three little steamboats around 235 miles of rapids to the Upper\nCongo. Eighty steamers are now afloat there, plying on nearly 8,000\nmiles of rivers, and connected with the sea by a railroad that has paid\ndividends from the day it was opened. At the end of 1890 there were only\n5,813 miles of railroad in Africa. About 15,000 miles are now in\noperation, and the end of this decade is certain to see 25,000 miles of\nrailroads. Trains are running from Cairo to Khartum, the seat of the\nMahdist tyranny, in the centre of a vast region which, until recently,\nhad been closed for many years to all the world.\n\nThese wonderful results are the fruits of the partition of Africa among\nthe European states. With the exception of some waste regions in the\nLibyan desert, which no one has claimed, Morocco, Abyssinia, and\nLiberia, every square mile of African territory has been divided among\nEuropean powers, either as colonies or as spheres of influence. The\nscramble of twenty years for African lands is at an end, there now being\nno valuable areas that are not covered by the existing agreements. It\nis no mere love of humanity that has impelled the European countries to\ndivide these regions among themselves. We can scarcely realize the\nintensity of the struggle for existence in many of the overcrowded parts\nof Europe. Their factories are enormously productive, but their people\nwill suffer for food unless they can export manufactures. The crying\nneed for new markets, for new sources of raw material, drove these\nstates into Africa. And we should be glad, for Africa's sake, that they\nhave gone there, even though the desire to make money is one of the most\npowerful incentives.\n\nIt is under the protective aegis of these governments that explorers are\nsettling down in smaller areas to see what may be found between the\nexplored water-courses, to study the continent in detail, to give to our\nknowledge of Africa the scientific quality now required. The greatest\ngeographical work there in recent years is the extension of a line of\nstations across tropical Africa by Commander Lemaire, each position\nastronomically fixed by the most careful methods, constituting a\nbase-line east and west through Africa to which the scientific mapping\nof a very large area will be referred.\n\nThe day of the minuter study of the whole continent has now dawned, and\nwe are witnessing a most notable work. All the colonial powers, and the\nGermans most conspicuously, are studying the economic questions relating\nto their African possessions. The suitability of climates for\ncolonists, the essential rules of hygiene, the development of\nagriculture, labor supplies, transportation and commercial facilities,\nand many other problems are receiving the most careful attention.\nExperiment stations are maintained in the colonies and colonial schools\nat home, to fit young men for service in the field. The Germans have\nalready proved that cotton and tobacco are certain to become profitable\nexport crops.\n\nThe mine-owners of the Witwatersrand, on which Johannesburg stands, have\nbegun a movement which they hope will result in the immigration of\n100,000 white laborers to the mining field. We may look for remarkable\ndevelopment in South Africa, whose promise is larger than that of any\nother part of the continent. Whatever may be said of some of the methods\nby which the British have enlarged their empire, their rule has blessed\nthe barbarous peoples whose countries they have absorbed. The task of\nimproving the few millions of blacks in South Africa, and of developing\nthe large and in some respects wonderful resources of that region, will\nbe greatly assisted by the incoming of hundreds of thousands of\nEuropeans, bringing with them the arts and other blessings of\ncivilization. The future of none of the newer parts of the world is\nbrighter with the hope of great development than the region between the\nZambesi and the Cape of Good Hope.\n\nIn order to observe intelligently the progress of South Africa in\ncoming years, the limitations as well as the advantages of the country\nmust be kept in view. More than half of it, including the entire western\nhalf, is deficient in rainfall and can never be the home of a dense\nwhite population. Some mining will develop on those broad, dry plains\nand sandy wastes; some agriculture where irrigation is possible; and\ngreat wool-growing wherever thrive the nutritious grasses on which\n13,000,000 sheep, scattered over the Karroo of Cape Colony, and\n4,000,000 in the little Orange Free State, were grazing before the\nrecent war. Wool-growing will always be the greatest grazing industry,\nthough cattle and horses are raised in large numbers, and the fine, soft\nhair of the Angora goat is second only to wool in export importance.\n\nA narrow strip of fine farm lands across the south end of Africa,\nanother along the southern border of the former Boer republics, and a\nlarge area among the highlands of Mashonaland, far towards the equator,\nproduce nearly all the crops of the temperate zones. It is not yet\ncertain, however, that South Africa will ever raise enough wheat for a\ngreat white population. On the northern slopes of the hills, east and\nnortheast of Cape Town, are thousands of acres of grapes. Cape Colony is\nbecoming one of the important wine countries; and in February and March,\nlarge quantities of grapes, peaches, nectarines, and plums are placed\nin cool rooms on steamships and sent fresh to British markets almost\nbefore English fruit trees are in bloom.\n\nEast of the grape region is an area peculiarly adapted for the\ncultivation of tobacco; and east of the tobacco district, north of the\ncoastal belt of wheat in a region of sandy scrub, the bush country, are\nthe ostrich farms, in the hands mainly of men of considerable capital,\nwho supply nearly all the feathers derived from the domesticated\nostrich. The plumes are sometimes worth as much as $200 a pound, the\nordinary feathers bringing from $5 to $7 a pound. Natal is unique in two\nof its agricultural industries, being the only colony that is producing\ntea and important quantities of cane sugar.\n\nBut gold, widely scattered over the country on the interior plateau,\nexceeds in value all the other exports together. The world never saw\nsuch a development of gold mining in a small area as has occurred on the\nWitwatersrand, where Johannesburg stands. The Witwatersrand (White River\nSlope) is a slight elevation, the water parting between rivers, about\none and a half miles wide and 125 miles long. On twenty-five miles of\nthe rand, at and near Johannesburg, more gold was produced in the year\nbefore the Boer war than was yielded by any other country in the world,\nThe other rich mining regions of the Transvaal and other parts of South\nAfrica have been completely dwarfed by the wonderful product of the\nrand. The surveys in Matabeleland and Mashonaland show gold-bearing\nareas 5,000 square miles in extent, which as yet have practically no\ndevelopment. The mining companies on the rand and elsewhere are now\npreparing for far larger operations than ever before.\n\nThe Kimberley diamond mines, turning out more than $20,000,000 worth of\nrough stones a year, supply nearly all the diamonds of commerce. Two\nother diamond centres in the Orange River Colony have scarcely been\ntouched, and diamonds are found on the Limpopo River and in other\nregions where no mining has been undertaken. The minerals of South\nAfrica, including iron and coal, bid fair to be for many years the\nlargest sources of wealth; and in wool, hides, mohair, fresh fruits, and\nsome other products, South Africa may rival other parts of the world.\n\nThere are no good natural harbors except Delagoa Bay in Portuguese East\nAfrica, but by great expenditure the harbors of Cape Town, Port\nElizabeth, East London, and Durban have been adapted for great commerce.\nMany persons mistakenly regard Cape Town as the chief commercial centre\nof South Africa. It is so only in respect of the export of gold and\ndiamonds. As it is not centrally situated for business with the\ninterior, more of the things that South Africa sells to and buys from\nthe rest of the world, excepting gold and diamonds, pass through Port\nElizabeth than through any other port. Here is centred the largest\nwholesale trade.\n\nWhat South Africa needs is more railroads and more white labor.\nManufacturing industries on an important scale are yet to come, for as\nyet the white population is too sparse to develop anything but the\nnatural products of the country.\n\nThe broad summing up of the future work in Africa is that the native\nwill be taught to help himself. The destiny of the continent depends\nlargely upon his development, for great parts of Africa may never be\nadapted to become the home of many white men. The most powerful motives,\nphilanthropic and selfish, incite and will sustain the work of helping\nthese millions to rise to a higher plane of humanity. This work, now\nwell begun, is the great task which in the present century will call for\nall the knowledge, patience, humanity, and justice that may be brought\nto bear upon the problem of reclaiming Africa.\n\n\nAUTHORITIES.\n\nLivingstone's \"Missionary Travels,\" \"A Narrative of an Expedition to the\nZambesi,\" and \"Last Journeys;\" Blaikie's \"Livingstone's Personal Life;\"\nStanley's \"How I found Livingstone.\"\n\nStanley's \"Through the Dark Continent,\" \"The Congo and the Founding of\nits Free State,\" \"In Darkest Africa;\" Schweinfurth's \"The Heart of\nAfrica;\" Burton's \"The Lake Regions of Central Africa;\" Speke's \"Journal\nof the Discovery of the Source of the Nile;\" Thomson's \"To the Central\nAfrican Lakes and Back;\" Barth's \"Travels and Discoveries in Central\nAfrica;\" Theal's \"Compendium of South African History;\" Greswell's\n\"Geography of Africa South of the Zambesi\"; Noble's \"The Redemption of\nAfrica\" (A History of African Missions).\n\nNo comprehensive compendium of the history of African exploration has\nyet been written. Our knowledge of the geography, peoples and resources\nof Africa is treated with considerable detail in a number of works such\nas Reclus's \"Africa\" (in \"The Earth and Its Inhabitants\") and Sievers's\n\"Afrika\" (German). A very large part of the exploratory enterprises in\nAfrica have not been described in books, but only in the reports of the\nexplorers, printed with their original maps in the publications of many\ngeographical and missionary societies.\n\n\n\n\nSIR AUSTEN HENRY LAYARD.\n\n\n1817-1894.\n\nMODERN ARCHAEOLOGY.\n\nBY WILLIAM HAYES WARD, D.D., LL.D.\n\n\nIt was twenty-three long centuries ago that a Greek soldier of fortune,\nwho had the honor to be also a disciple of Socrates, was leading ten\nthousand mercenaries back to their native land after their famous\nfailure to set the Younger Cyrus on the throne of Persia. Clearchus and\nthe other generals had been treacherously murdered. Dispirited, almost\nhopeless, on their way to the longed-for Black Sea, in anticipation of\nthe perilous and tedious journey, past wild mountains and wilder Kurds,\nthey toiled up the valley of the Tigris River. Of one incident of their\njourney their historian and leader makes no record. They reached the\nspot where now stands the city of Mosul. On the bank of the river their\neyes fell on a bare and lofty hill. They did not know, they never\nsuspected,--Xenophon wrote no word of it,--that under that hill lay\nburied the ruins of one of the mightiest conquering cities that had ever\nruled the world. From the palaces of that hill, Ninus and Semiramis and\nSardanapalus had led their conquering armies, all now covered\nwith silence.\n\nTwo centuries earlier, in 606 B.C., there had occurred one of the most\ntremendous catastrophes recorded in all the grim annals of war. After a\nthousand years of primacy in the East, but twenty years after the death\nof Sardanapalus (the Greek name of Asshurbanapal), who had carried his\narmies to Egypt and had made his capital the centre of the world's\nculture and magnificence, as it was of its cruel and hated power,\nNineveh was captured, buried, and utterly desolated by a horde of savage\nScythians from the mountains of the north and east, such people as we\nnow call the Kurds. Its palaces had no lofty Greek columns to stand for\nmemorials, as at Palmyra or Persepolis; and when the outer casings of\nbrick and alabaster were cracked away, and the ashes of the upper\nstories and the clay of the inner constructions, soaked by the rains,\ncovered the ruins of temple and palace, nothing was left to mark the\nsite but the grass-covered hill. No wonder that the learned scholar of\nSocrates saw nothing, knew nothing of the city, most glorious and most\ndetested of all the cities of the earth. But in its day the overthrow of\nNineveh and the destruction of the Assyrian Empire had been the most\nterrible event in the world's history. How the Hebrew prophets gloated\nover it! \"Where now is the den of the lions, and the feeding-place of\nthe young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, the lion's\nwhelp, and none made them afraid? Wo to the bloody city; it is all full\nof lies and rapine; the prey departeth not. The noise of the whip, and\nthe noise of the rattling of wheels, and prancing horses, and bounding\nchariots, the horsemen mounting, and the flashing sword, and the\nglittering spear, and a multitude of slain, and a great heap of corpses,\nand there is no end of the bodies. There is no assuaging of the hurt;\nthy wound is grievous; all that hear the report of thee clap their hands\nover thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?\"\nAnd another prophet had uttered the curse: \"The pelican and the\nporcupine shall lodge in the capitals thereof; their voice shall sound\nin the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds; for he hath laid\nbare the cedar-work. This is the joyous city that dwelt carelessly, that\nsaid in her heart, 'I am, and there is none besides me!' How is she\nbecome a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! Every one that\npasseth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand.\"\n\nThus fell Nineveh, amid the universal rejoicing of the nations, and\nthus, seventy years later, fell Babylon also, which, in the short\ninterval, Nebuchadnezzar had made more magnificent than even Nineveh had\nbeen, beautified for its capture by Cyrus. But before Babylon was the\ncapital of Chaldea, or Nineveh the capital of Assyria, the city of Calah\nhad been the seat of its kings, and a mighty mound--they call it Nimroud\nnow--\"as high as St. Paul's steeple,\" old travellers loved to say--marks\nthe place on the east bank of the Tigris, twenty miles south of Nineveh;\nand, before Calah, Assyria had an earlier capital forty miles still\nnearer the Babylonian border, at Asshur, now Kalah-Shergat, on the west\nof the Tigris; and each capital had its palaces and records, and all are\nnow equally buried in clay and utter oblivion. And before the Babylon of\nNebuchadnezzar, and long centuries before Nineveh or Calah or Asshur,\nthere had been mighty kingdoms in Babylonia, of which the world had\nquite forgot the names, only vague rumors remaining in song or legend of\nNimrod and Chedorlaomer and Ur of the Chaldees,--only what was preserved\nin the dimmest records of the Hebrew Scriptures. Empires were lost,\nburied in chiliads of forgetfulness; would they ever be recovered?\n\nAnd how much else was lost, what kingdoms, what empires buried before\nHebrew or Greek history began to take notice of the world outside and\nput them in books, no one knew, no one knows even yet, although so much\nhas been found. The fame of Egypt was never quite forgotten, nor all its\nhistory, for Egypt was the world's granary, and closely accessible to\nthe ships of Corinth and Rome; and Egypt never lost her civilization in\nall her long succession of enslavement. But what memory had been kept of\nthe Ionia and Greece of the days before Homer? What of the early\ncivilization of Cyprus and Crete? Only the name of Minos, a judge in\nHell. What of Persia and Elam? Were they uninhabited before the times of\nXerxes and Cyrus? And who were these kings, Cyrus and Xerxes, whose\nnames burst upon us with dim light out of a black antiquity? Even they\nwere but shadows on a screen, just seen and disappearing. What kings and\nkingdoms came before them and passed away? Has history no record? Not a\nword. Only black vacuity has been left behind them. And there was that\nother empire of the East, that of the Hittites, which we now know ruled\nAsia Minor and Syria and contested the rule of the world with Assyria\nand Egypt centuries before Agamemnon and Achilles, but so utterly buried\nand forgotten that not a line of its history was left, not even enough\nto let the sharpest scholar ask a question or suspect that it ever built\ncapitals and fought victories and produced a civilization the harvest of\nwhich we still enjoy. Nothing was left of them but their names in a\nHebrew list of tribes,--\"Amorites and Jebusites and Hivites and\nHittites.\"\n\nYet all these lost tribes, nay, lost nations, had left their records\nbehind them, only they were buried under ground and out of sight. What\na travesty it is on history and civilization, what an impeachment of the\nglory of these later Christian centuries, that the lands which these old\nempires crowded with a busy population should now be among the most\ndesolate and inaccessible on the face of the earth! There we see the\ncurse of the Moslem religion, and still more of the Turkish government.\nWherever the Turk has carried the sword and the Koran, there is blight\nand death. Only as soldiers and scholars of Europe have forced their way\ninto these seats of ancient empires has it been possible to ask and\nlearn what is buried beneath their gray desolation.\n\nThe man who did more than any other to awaken the interest of the world\nin the search for forgotten empires was Sir Henry Layard, the excavator\nof Nineveh. But before his day another man had startled the world with\nwhat we may call the discovery of Egypt. That man was Napoleon\nBonaparte, the man whose sword was a ploughshare turning up the fallow\nfields of Europe, and sowing strange crops of tyranny and liberty, and\nwhose ambition it was to set up a new throne in the land of the Pharaohs\nand Ptolemies. The mighty ruins of Karnak and the imperishable pyramids\nfilled him with amazement, and he set the scholars of France at work to\npublish in massive folios the wonders of that most ancient land. Then\nwas found the Rosetta Stone, with its inscription in two\nlanguages,--Greek, which any scholar could read, and the Egyptian\nhieroglyphics, which no living man could read. But here was the key. The\nwords _Ptolemy_ and _Cleopatra_ were in the Greek text, and it was not\nhard to find what were the combinations of characters that stood for\nthese words in the Egyptian. The letters _p, t_, and _l_ were in both\nnames. The hieroglyphic signs found in both names must be these three\nletters. That beginning gave all the other signs in both words, and the\nrest of the alphabet soon followed. Justly great is the fame of the\nFrenchman Champollion, who has the honor of having first deciphered and\nread this lost language, and opened to us the secret treasures of its\nhistory and religion.\n\nBut with the exploration of Egypt the scholarship of the world was\nsatisfied for fifty years. No one seemed to think to ask what might be\nhid under the soil of nearer Palestine and Syria and Asia Minor; much\nless did they seek to uncover the buried capitals of Assyria and\nBabylonia. Scholarship was devoted to books, to old manuscripts in\nconvent libraries, to recovering what the wise men of Greece and Rome\nhad written, and trying to wrest new facts out of their blundering old\ncompilations of ancient history. It did not occur to them that a hundred\nkings and ten thousand merchants and priests might have left the stories\nof their conquests or contracts or liturgies, unrotted in the wet soil,\nimperishably preserved to be the record of commerce and empires as old\nand as great as those of Egypt, but far deeper covered with oblivion.\nBut there they were, kept safe for twenty, thirty, fifty centuries,\nuntil the man should come whose mission it was to find them.\n\nMore than one such man came in the middle of the last century, but one\nman is pre-eminent, and typical of all the rest, Sir Austen Henry\nLayard. Before him one Frenchman, M. Paul \u00c9mile Botta, had made a fine\ndash on a palace city a dozen miles north of Nineveh, and had opened\nwonders such as the world had never seen before. But the man whose\nenergy was fullest of impulse, whose enthusiasm compelled British\nAmbassadors and Ministers and Parliaments to do his bidding, who aroused\nthe world to the importance of the exploration and disinterment of the\nmonuments of Babylonia and Assyria, was the Englishman Layard.\n\nHe had a youthful passion for adventure, and slender means to gratify\nit. I wish you could see him as he is pictured in the volume which gives\nthe story of his early adventures, before he had settled on his life-work\nof exploration. There he stands clad in his Bakhtiyari costume, the\ndress of a mountain tribe in Persia which asserted its independence of\nTeheran. It is a well-knit frame, fit to endure hardships. He stands\nholding the tall matchlock, the curved scimetar by his side, and the\nlong pistol and the dagger in his belt. Above the yellow shoes and\nparti-woven stockings a red silk robe falls to his ankles, and over that\na green silk garment reaches to his knees, and yet over that a shorter\nand richly embroidered coat, with open sleeves, is held close about the\nbody by a wide silken sash woven in the brightest of red and gold, and\nholding the weapons attached to his waist. On his head is a low flat\ncap, visorless in front, but with a broad bow in place of a feather, all\nstriped with the richest embroidery, and with a wide tassel of the same\nmaterial falling far down his back. But the face, with its short beard\ndyed dark with henna, and its blue eyes, is not that of a warrior, but\nof a serious scholar or diplomatist. And he needed all the force of\ncourage and all the arts of diplomacy for the work he had to do.\n\nLayard's early training was in the line of preparation for his life's\nwork. Much of his boyhood was spent in Italy, where he acquired a taste\nfor the fine arts, and as much knowledge of them as a child could obtain\nwho was constantly in the society of artists and connoisseurs. At about\nthe age of sixteen he was sent to England to study the law, for which he\nwas destined by his parents. After six years in the office of a\nsolicitor, and in the chambers of an eminent conveyancer,--for that is\nthe way that lawyers were educated then,--he determined to leave\nEngland and seek a career elsewhere. He had a relative in Ceylon, who\ngave him hopes of securing a position there, and for Ceylon he started.\nA friend of his, ten years older, was bound for the same destination,\nboth fond of adventure, and they agreed to go together, and to go as far\nas they could by land instead of taking the long sea journey around the\nCape of Good Hope. Across Europe they passed to Constantinople, through\nAustria, Dalmatia, Montenegro, Albania, and Bulgaria; thence across Asia\nMinor to Syria and Palestine; thence to Aleppo and down the Tigris to\nBaghdad. It was an extraordinary and adventurous journey, often\ndangerous; but greater danger was to follow. Layard had learned some\nTurkish, and now he spent the long weeks in Baghdad in the study of\nPersian; his companion was quite familiar with Arabic. Before they left\nEngland they had received good advice from Sir John MacNeill, the\nBritish representative at the court of the Shah: \"You must either travel\nas important personages, with a retinue of servants and an adequate\nescort, or alone, as poor men, with nothing to excite the cupidity of\nthe people amongst whom you will have to mix. If you cannot afford to\nadopt the first course, you must take the latter.\" The latter they were\nforced to take.\n\nMany a young man has the gift to acquire languages--almost any Oriental\ncan talk three or four--and the ability to rough it and live on the fare\nof the people, though barbarous; and many a man has the spirit of\nadventure; but this young man had one peculiar and unusual qualification\nthat directed him to his future career. As a child, he had read the\n\"Arabian Nights\" with intense delight, with their stories centred about\nBaghdad. Then every book of Eastern adventure, every bit of travel in\nSyria, Arabia, or Persia that he could find he had eagerly devoured. It\nwas his day and night's longing that he might visit strange lands of\nhistory and make explorations and discoveries. So wherever he was, he\nvisited every ruin and tried to copy every inscription. If his companion\nwould not turn aside to visit some region of renown and danger, he would\ngo alone and join him later. As they came down the river Tigris in their\nboat, they passed the immense mound of Nimroud, and so impressed was\nLayard by it that he then, scarce twenty-three years old, resolved that\nsome day he would search and learn what was hidden under it; but little\ndid he imagine what wonderful monuments he was to find there only a few\nyears later.\n\nWithout a servant, as poor men, in a caravan of fanatical and hostile\nPersian pilgrims returning from the shrines, just travellers trying to\ngo by land through Persia and Afghanistan to India and Ceylon, they\nleft Baghdad. It was a time of unusual danger, for the British Minister\nhad been recalled from the Persian Court, and war with England was\nthreatened. They were taken for spies, and sent to the presence of the\nShah, and forbidden to follow the route they had chosen and which had\nbeen marked out for them by the Council of the Royal Geographical\nSociety, to report on rivers and mountains and ruins not yet explored.\nThey were insulted and robbed, and their lives were often in danger; but\nat last they received from the Shah their firmans. Now they separated.\nHis companion felt that he must go by the quickest route to his\ndestination; but Layard had no definite date before him, and he was\nanxious to perform the commissions of the Geographical Society, and so\nhe plunged alone into fresh dangers.\n\nBut there is no space to tell the rest of the story of his adventures\namong the Bakhtiyari, of his copying of inscriptions, of his return to\nBaghdad and his decision to give up the plans of life in Ceylon, and of\nhis return from Baghdad again to Shuster and Persepolis and other\nancient cities of Persia, and his exploration of the Karun River and his\ngeographical paper on the subject, his opening of British trade, and his\nreturn to Constantinople. At Mosul he found that M. Botta was planning\nto explore the mounds across the Tigris that covered ancient Nineveh,\nand he warmly encouraged his plans. At Constantinople he visited Sir\nStratford Canning and delivered to him despatches that had been confided\nto his care, in view of a threatened war between Persia and Turkey. Here\nhe was kept in the service of the British Embassy, and intrusted with\nimportant and delicate negotiations and investigations which were so\nhighly appreciated by Sir Stratford that he kept him as his attach\u00e9.\n\nMeanwhile M. Botta had begun his excavations of a palace of King Sargon\nat Khorsabad and was sending his reports and drawings to Paris. They\nwere all sent by way of Constantinople, and, by M. Botta's generosity,\nwere all seen by Mr. Layard. So deeply was he interested in them, and so\nintense was his desire to carry on excavations himself, that he secured\nhis release from the Embassy, and also a grant of three hundred dollars\nfrom Sir Stratford's own purse, which, with what he could spare from his\nown money, would, he hoped, suffice to begin the work, when, if anything\nof value appeared, it was trusted that funds would be secured from\nEnglish friends of Oriental learning. Thus, six years after leaving\nEngland, Mr. Layard, well equipped in knowledge of the people and in\ndiplomatic experience, was ready to launch on his great career, which\nbrought him fame and earned him the post in later years of British\nAmbassador at the Porte, which Sir Stratford had held, and--what is far\ngreater--gave to the world the larger part of its knowledge of the lost\nempires of Assyria and Babylonia.\n\nWith these few hundred dollars, and contributing every penny of his own\nincome, in October of 1845, he left Constantinople without companion or\nservant, went by steamer to Samsoun, and then as fast as post-horses\ncould climb or gallop over mountains and plains, he reached Mosul in\ntwelve days.\n\nHere at last he was fitted for his task, supplied for the accomplishment\nof his passion. The Arabs say: \"I had a horse, but no desert; I had a\ndesert, but no horse; now I have a desert and a horse, and shall I not\nride?\" His boyhood, with the artists of Italy, and learning the\nlanguages of the continent, had fitted him for his task; then his study\nof all the books of Eastern travel, then half a year wandering with a\ntrained companion through Asia Minor and Syria, scarcely leaving untrod\none spot hallowed by tradition, or unvisited one ruin consecrated by\nhistory, with no protection but his arms, living with the people and\nlearning their prejudices and customs. Then an irresistible desire had\nbrought him to the regions beyond the Euphrates, and the mystery of\nAssyria, Babylonia, and Chaldea had fascinated him, so that he had\nvisited the land of Nimrod, seen the site of their old buried capitals,\nhad been the guest in the tents of Shammar and Aneyzah Arabs, and even\npassed on to see the famous forty columns of Chilminar, old Persian\nPersepolis, and to penetrate the mountain fastnesses where the\nBakhtiyari maintained a perilous freedom. Never was man better trained\nby enthusiasm and experience for his task, and the late discoveries of\nM. Botta had inflamed his desire to surpass what his French friend\nhad done.\n\nHis plan was not to begin excavations at Nineveh, opposite Mosul, but\ntwenty miles south, at the great mound of Nimroud, which bore the name\nof the mighty hunter Nimrod. Xenophon and his Ten Thousand had seen and\nwondered at its pyramid. There he would be free from the army of\nmischievous spectators that would swarm from Mosul, had he selected the\nsite of Nineveh, and from the constant interference of the Turkish\ngovernor. The Pasha at Mosul was a cruel scoundrel, who was robbing and\nkilling the people as his whim or greed prompted, and had reduced the\ntribes of the neighborhood to a state of terror. Accordingly, Mr.\nLayard, who was armed with protecting letters from the British\nAmbassador and the Porte, thought it wise to conceal his purpose, let it\nbe reported that he was going on a hunting expedition; and with a few\ntools and a supply of guns and spears, on the 8th of November, 1845,\naccompanied only by his cawass, the soldier attendant detailed for the\nprotection of travellers, a servant, and one laborer, he floated down\nthe Tigris, and in four hours reached the bourne of his long hopes. He\nhad the mound, he had the money, and now he would dig.\n\nThe Arabs have strange stories of this ruin. The palace, they say, was\nbuilt by Athur, the vizier of Nimrod. There Abraham brake in pieces the\nidols worshipped by the unbelievers. Nimrod was angry and waged war on\nthe holy patriarch. Abraham prayed to God: \"Deliver me, O God, from this\nman who worships stones, and boasts himself to be lord of all kings;\"\nand God said to him, \"How shall I punish him?\" and the prophet answered,\n\"To thee armies are as nothing, and the strength and power of men\nlikewise. Before the smallest of thy creatures will they perish.\" And\nGod was pleased at the faith of his servant, and he sent a gnat that\nvexed Nimrod day and night, so that he built himself a room of glass in\nthat palace that he might dwell therein and shut out the insect. But the\ngnat entered also, and passed by his ear into his brain, upon which it\nfed, and increased day by day, so that the servants of Nimrod beat his\nhead continually with a mallet that he might have some ease from his\npain; but he died after suffering these torments four hundred years. And\nafter him the mound was named Nimroud.\n\nIt was dark when Layard and his little company reached the place. They\nfound near by a few huts occupied by poor Arabs, who had been harried by\nthe Turkish Pasha. There they slept, or tried to sleep. But the\nexplorer could not sleep. Hear him:--\n\n\"Hopes, long cherished, were now to be realized, or were to end in\ndisappointment. Visions of palaces under ground, of gigantic monsters,\nof sculptured figures, and endless inscriptions, floated before me.\nAfter forming plan after plan for removing the earth and extricating\nthese treasures, I fancied myself wandering in a maze of chambers from\nwhich I could find no outlet. Then, again, all was reburied, and I was\nstanding on the grass-covered mound. Exhausted, I was at length sinking\ninto sleep, when, hearing the voice of Awad, I rose from my carpet and\njoined him outside the tent. The day already dawned. The lofty cone and\nbroad mound of Nimroud broke like a distant mountain on the\nmorning sky.\"\n\nAwad, his host, was a little chief among the Arabs, and was engaged to\ntake charge of the diggers. The first morning he had six Arabs at work,\nand found alabaster slabs with cuneiform inscriptions. He was now sure\nhe would succeed.\n\nIt is not necessary to give the diary of his work. To be sure, the\nvillanous Pasha forbade him to continue, and recalled him to Mosul, but\na new governor was sent from Constantinople, under whom he had no\ndifficulty. A great palace had been found, and chamber after chamber was\nexcavated, the walls covered with bas-reliefs and inscriptions. Then\ncame strange, gigantic lions with human heads, that had been placed by\nthe old Assyrian king to guard the entrances to his court. What was the\namazement of the Arabs and Turks cannot be told. First, the head was\nuncovered. It stood out from the earth, placid and vast. Hear Layard\ntell the story. He had been away to visit a neighboring chief:--\n\n\"I was returning to the mound, when I saw two Arabs urging their mares\nto the top of their speed. 'Hasten, O Bey,' exclaimed one of them,\n'hasten to the diggers, for they have found Nimrod himself. By Allah! it\nis wonderful, but it is true! We have seen him with our eyes! There is\nno God but God!' And both joining in this pious exclamation, they\ngalloped back to the tent.\"\n\nLayard hastened to the trench, and there saw what he knew to be the head\nof a gigantic lion or bull, such as Botta had uncovered at Khorsabad. It\nwas in admirable preservation. The expression was calm, yet majestic,\nand the outline of the features showed a freedom and knowledge of art\nthat was scarcely to be looked for at so early a period. Says the\nexplorer:--\n\n\"I was not surprised that the Arabs had been amazed and terrified at\nthis apparition. It required no stretch of imagination to conjure up the\nmost strange fancies. This gigantic head, blanched with age, thus rising\nfrom the bowels of the earth, might well have belonged to one of those\nfearful beings which are pictured in the traditions of the country as\nappearing to mortals, slowly ascending from the regions below. 'This is\nnot the work of men's hands,' exclaimed Sheikh Abdurrahman, who had\ngalloped to the mound on the first news, 'but of those infidel giants of\nwhom the Prophet, peace be with him! has said that they were higher than\nthe tallest date-tree; this is one of the idols which Noah, peace be\nwith him! cursed before the flood!' In this opinion all the bystanders\nconcurred.\"\n\nThe Arabs have a ready explanation for every fresh discovery. When some\nyears later Mr. Layard's assistant and successor in the work of\nexcavation, Mr. Rassam, uncovered, at Abu-habba, a remarkable bas-relief\nwith the figure of the seated Sun-god and three approaching worshippers,\nthe Arab diggers rushed to him, declaring that they had found Noah and\nhis three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, and demanded a sheep to make\na feast.\n\nThe report of the wonderful discovery of a royal palace, evidently older\nthan those of Nineveh, with magnificent decorations in alabaster and\ncuneiform inscriptions, reached beyond Mosul to Constantinople. Sir\nStratford Canning was delighted with the result of his expedition. He\nhad a passion for discovery as well as diplomacy, and it is to him that\nthe British Museum is indebted for the priceless marbles of\nHalicarnassus. He now obtained for Mr. Layard a firman, permitting him\nto make what excavations he wished. Then the news reached London, and\nthe British Museum made a grant to support the work. All difficulties\nwere now removed. Conditions were even more favorable for him than they\nare now. There was then no Imperial Museum in Constantinople to which\nall objects found must be taken, but those that dug had the right to\ncarry off their prizes to London or Paris.\n\nTo tell the story of the further excavations is unnecessary. It is all\ngiven in Layard's two splendid volumes, \"Nineveh and its Remains,\" and\n\"Babylon and Nineveh;\" and the bas-reliefs, statues, bronzes, ivories,\nand inscriptions are magnificently reproduced in great folio volumes.\nFrom Nimroud he went back to Mosul, and there opened the two mounds\nopposite of Kuyunjik and Neby-Yunus, the site of old Nineveh. There more\npalaces and friezes were found of other kings. Then he went back to\nLondon, closing his successful campaign, more profitable if not more\nglorious than those of war, and published the story of his work. Its\neffect was marvellous. No such popular book of travels had ever\nappeared; for it was a story of adventure, and also of strange\ndiscovery. Mr. Layard had not suspected that he had the literary gift,\nbut he had it in rare measure. He had gained an inner view of the heart\nof tribes, Moslem and Christian and semi-pagan, by his sympathy with\nthem and his knowledge of their tongues. He had lived in their tents and\nhuts. He had saved them from persecution by Turkish governors. Their\ngratitude to him was beyond words, and he told their story with\naffection and enthusiasm. Then his discoveries were in the lands made\nhistoric not only by the campaigns of Xenophon and Alexander, but made\nalmost sacred by the Bible history. These were the lands whence came the\narmies that fought with Israel. These were the kings whose wars are told\nin the Jewish records; and the annals of these kings were found in their\npalaces, and they gave full accounts of wars of which the Bible had\ngiven the outline. Piety and learning joined to give extraordinary\ninterest to these discoveries and to this report of them. Mr. Layard\nfound himself famous, and the monuments he was bringing to the British\nMuseum were, and still are, the most extraordinary and fascinating in\nall its corridors.\n\nOf course, a new grant was made in behalf of the British Museum, and of\ncourse he went back to continue and extend his researches. Now he wished\nto go further south, beyond Nimroud to Kalah Shergat, the yet earlier\ncapital of Assyria; and yet further to Babylon, that he might see and\ntest the multitude of mounds of ancient Chaldea, the real land of\nNimrod, the seat of Eden, and the Tower of Babel, far more ancient than\nany one of the three capitals of Assyria. While he did scarce more than\nto visit and report on the Babylonian mounds, his diggings in Nineveh\nitself were of vast importance, for there he found the library of\nAsshurbanabal, on clay tablets, which has given us our chief knowledge\nof the literature and learning of the ancient East. In 1852 he returned\nto England to publish his \"Monuments of Nineveh,\" and left the further\nexploration to his able lieutenant, Mr. Rassam, and to a noble\nsuccession of explorers who should follow, and to a no less noble line\nof scholars who should interpret the inscriptions and recover the\nhistory of the nations; so that we now know more exactly the history of\nBabylonian and Assyrian kings, and from more authentic records, and more\ncompletely the social condition and business life of the countries, than\nwe do the history of Greece, or the life of the Greeks even of the time\nof Pericles, and that, too, for a period of three thousand years.\n\nTo illustrate this fact, let us take the black obelisk of Shalmaneser\nII., found by Layard at Nimroud. It is a column of basalt seven feet\nhigh and about two feet wide at the base, from which it narrows\nslightly, until near the top it is reduced by three steps. On the four\nsides is engraved in five rows of bas-reliefs, twenty in all, the\npictured history of the royal conquests, the submission of kings, and\nthe presentation of tribute. Above and below, and between, in two\nhundred and ten lines, was cut an inscription which explained the\nfigures, and gave a full historical and, of course, contemporary and\nofficial account of the glorious events of the royal reign. Not a line\nwas defaced; at the British Museum it can be seen to-day as perfect as\nwhen engraved twenty-seven centuries ago. Other monuments of Shalmaneser\nhave been found. One is a great monolith with a portrait of the king in\nall his fine array, and with one hundred and fifty-six lines of text.\nAnother is a series of splendid bronze plates that covered great wooden\ngates, on which, in repouss\u00e9 work, were pictures of the royal victories,\nand inscriptions explaining them. The Bible tells us of the rivalries\nand jealousies of Ahab and Jehu, kings of Israel, and Benhadad and\nHazael, kings of Damascus. How surprising it is to find here not only\nthe story of the successive campaigns of Shalmaneser against these same\nkings, the number of their chariots and soldiers, but to see pictured\nbefore us the tribute sent by Jehu. We learn that Shalmaneser reigned\nfrom 859 to 825 B.C., and we have the record of all his successive\ncampaigns, the first twenty-six of which he led in person. There is not\nanother country of which, before the invention of printing, we have so\nminute a history; and all had been lost, except the mention of a name or\ntwo, whether historical or legendary we hardly knew, until Layard and\nhis fellow-explorers opened the mounds of Assyria.\n\nBut enough for Layard. He is only one, though the principal one, of all\nthe explorers of the buried records of the empires of the Tigris and\nEuphrates. And Babylonia and Assyria are not the only countries that\nhistory required us to explore. Greece and its neighboring states and\nislands have not even yet been fairly investigated. Much of Asia Minor\nis still a virgin field. Syria and Palestine have hardly been scratched\nwith the spade. More has been done in Egypt, but more yet is to be done.\nAnd when we go into the further east of Persia and Old Elam, not to\nspeak of the yet farther east of Central Asia, now just beginning to\nyield strange treasures to daring travellers, and ancient India and\nChina,--how ancient we know not at all,--there is field for centuries of\nfurther research. For we must go back past empires and kingdoms and\ntribal conditions to the very beginning of the human race on the earth,\neven if so it be, to the first _Pithecanthropus_ which men of science\ntell us was the link which connected _Homo sapiens_ with the race of\nprimitive simians. And all this, it may well be, is preserved in\nundecaying records just a few feet under the ground, if one only knew\nwhere to dig for it; nay, we now know where to dig for the most and best\nof it, and we only await the Stratford Cannings, who will give the\nmoney, and the Austen Layards, who have the enthusiasm for the work.\n\nAfter Layard and Rassam, after Rawlinson and Botta, George Smith took\nflying trips to the site of Nineveh twice that he might gather the\nremaining fragments of the great library of Asshurbanabal, and he died\nin the field far from home. It was he that found among Layard's tablets\nthe Babylonian account of the Deluge, so much like that in the Bible. He\nwas the first of a second generation who, following Rawlinson and\nOppert, decipherers as well as explorers, were able to read as they\nfound. I can only mention the names of the Englishmen Taylor and Loftus;\nof the Frenchmen, Place and De Sarzec; and, later, the Americans,\nPeters, Hilprecht, and Haynes, who have so faithfully explored the\nextremely archaic mound of Niffer, which I had the honor to recommend\nfor excavation after I had visited the mounds of Southern Babylonia in\nthe winter of 1884-85. And now the Germans, with scientific as well as\ncommercial and political purpose, with their railroad to pass down the\nvalley through Baghdad to the Persian Gulf, which gives them predominant\ninfluence, have sent expeditions well equipped with scholars and\nengineers to the choicest sites in Babylonia, to Warka, the ancient\nErech, and to Babylon itself; and with Teuton thoroughness they are\nexcavating the most famous of ancient ruins and gathering fresh\ntreasures of archaeological research. Nor have they left the land of the\nHittites unexplored, for Germany claims the first rights, politically,\nin all Anatolia, the right of succession and possession when the Turk is\nexpelled, and German archaeological science is bound to be first on\nthat field.\n\nAnd now what have we found as the fruit of all this labor of\nexploration? Is it worth the labor and the expense?\n\nLet us look first--it can be only a glance--at Egypt, for Egypt was the\nland first and most persistently explored. The French Government for\nscores of years has been at work there. Germans and Italians have\nexplored the ruins; two English societies have for years kept\nexpeditions in the field; and just now a Californian university sends an\nAmerican Egyptologist to uncover the tombs and read the hieroglyphs of\nthe kings. Not only are the figured monuments of Egypt published in\nprincely folios, but its records have been translated and its lost\nhistory recovered to the world's knowledge. Instead of the bare\n\"Pharaoh\" of the Bible, a common designation for all the kings, and in\nplace of a bare list of names and dynasties copied from Manetho, and so\naltered and corrupted in the copying as to be neither Greek nor\nEgyptian, we have, on scarab, or gravestone, or pyramid, or\nrock-sepulchre wall, in his own spelling, the name of almost every king\nfrom the latest time of the Ptolemies back to the first king of the\nfirst dynasty, five thousand--or was it six thousand?--years before\nChrist. And not their names only, but the very pictures of their wars.\nWe see how they went up the Nile and fought the blacks of Abyssinia, and\nbrought back the spoils of Punt We see them sending their squadrons\ninto Syrian Asia, and waging a dubious battle with the Hittites before\nthe walls of Hamath, where Rameses in his lion-guarded chariot performs\nprodigies of valor, and from which he returns not only to paint on\nsacred walls the picture of his victory, but also to inscribe a copy of\nthe treaty of peace with the Hittite king, the earliest treaty in the\npreserved annals of diplomacy. Well wrought that Rameses the Great for\neternal fame in the sixty years of his reign, fifteen centuries before\nthe birth of our Lord. But what fame had been his, had not explorers and\nexcavators and scholars dug and found and copied and translated what the\nsands had covered for centuries? And to-day the curious traveller stops\nin sight of the pyramids on the banks of the Nile, and enters the Bulaq\nMuseum, and there he sees set up before him the very mummy of Rameses\nhimself and of a dozen other royal personages, rifled from their tombs\nand displayed for your amazement and mine. There is the very\nPharaoh--you can see his features, you can touch his coffin--who chased\nthe Children of Israel out of Egypt. There are the household implements,\nthe furniture of their homes, the jewelry their queens wore,--queens who\nwere also sisters of the kings, as Sarah was the sister of Abraham.\n\nOr would you know of some great revolution in Egypt? These decipherers\nof the inscriptions will tell you how the Shepherd Kings overthrew the\nnative dynasty, coming with their armies from Asia long before Rameses,\nand changed religion and customs; under whom Jacob and his sons found\nhospitable welcome, until their hated race was expelled by a stronger\nnative dynasty that knew not Joseph. Or they will tell you of the royal\nreformer Khuenaten, son of a famous Eastern mother, a queen from the\nbanks of the Euphrates. Taught by her, perhaps, a purer religion, he\nattempted to replace the worship of Egypt's bestial gods by the worship\nof the one only great God, whose symbol was the sun. But the priestly\nclan was too strong for him, and the succeeding Pharaohs destroyed his\nrecords and chiselled out his name where it had been cut in stone that\nno memory of his sacrilege might be preserved. A royal Moses there could\nnot be. The worshipper of one God, whether king or son of Pharaoh's\ndaughter, could bring no reformation to Egypt.\n\nOr would you learn how Egypt ruled its subject territory? You can read\nthe correspondence of a dozen local Egyptian governors in Palestine and\nSyria in the century before Moses led the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt.\nThere is the letter of the King of Jerusalem, where Melchizedek reigned\nin the times of Abraham; and they tell of rebellions against the fading\npower of Egypt, and of the fear of the advancing Hittites. The earliest\nkings, those that built the pyramids, appear before us real in their\npersonality, emerging out of misty legend or myth, and, earlier still,\neven the prehistoric races that antedated the very beginning of\ncivilization. Whence came that first dynasty? Who invented writing? Were\nthey autochthons? Hardly. These are questions left for further explorers\nto answer. Probably those first messengers of civilization came from the\nEast, perhaps from Arabia, perhaps from Babylonia, or perhaps the first\nBabylonians and Egyptians formed a common stock somewhere near the mouth\nof the Euphrates. Perhaps the Bible is right in saying that the first\nseat of civilized man was in Eden, and that the Euphrates was the chief\nriver of Paradise. Or was it from Arabia, the immemorial home of the\nSemitic tribes, that land of sand and mountain and fertile valley, land\nof changeless culture and tradition, so near the centres of\ncivilization, and yet still the most inaccessible, the least known\nportion of the inhabited earth,--was it from Arabia that the wiser,\nstronger multitude came that first overran the valleys of both the Nile\nand the Euphrates, bringing to Egypt and Chaldea arts and letters? We do\nnot know. Some future explorer must teach us. But the German Glaser has\nwithin these few years brought back from hazardous journeys a multitude\nof inscriptions that tell of kingdoms that fringed its southern coast\nand extended we know not how far into the interior in those early days\nwhen one of the queens of Sheba brought presents to Solomon, and when,\nearlier still, we are told there were dukes of Edom before there was any\nking in Israel. They say that a railroad is to be built to Mecca; Arabia\nis not to be always a closed land, neighbor as it is to Egypt. We shall\nknow one of these days whether, as scholars suspect, out of Arabia and\nacross the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, where, at the southern end of the\nRed Sea, Africa almost touches Asia, there came that mighty flood of\nmore forceful men, bred in the deserts and hills, who, passing down the\nNile, first brought history to Egypt; and whether it was this same\nSemitic people, as scholars suspect again, that spread resistlessly\neastward to the Euphrates valley, and did an equal service in conquering\nand assimilating the black aborigines of these swamps and lagoons. The\nspade will tell us.\n\nOr was it still further east, in the highlands of Persia, that men first\nlearned how to write and record history? We cannot go back so far in the\nhistory of Babylonia--Professor Hilprecht dares to carry us seven\nthousand years before Christ--that we do not find its kings fighting\nagainst Elam. And only in the last decade of the Nineteenth century the\nFrenchman De Morgan has made marvellous discoveries in the Elamite\nlands. What a noble passion those Frenchmen have for discovery! For\nEgypt did not Napoleon provide the most elephantine books of monuments\nand records that printing-presses have yet issued? And from that time to\nthis have not Frenchmen held the primacy in excavations until, even\nwhile England holds and rules Egypt, she leaves, by special convention,\nthe care of its monuments and their exploration to French savants? And\nbefore Layard removed a basketful of the earth that covered the palace\nof Shalmaneser at Nimroud, had not the Frenchman Botta disclosed the\nfriezes and sphinxes of Sargon at Khorsabad; and in these late years is\nit not the Frenchman De Sarzec who has brought from Telloh to the Louvre\nthe statues of Chaldean kings that lived almost five thousand years ago?\nAnd so to France was given the right, for the honor and enrichment of\nthe Louvre, to explore Persia; and De Morgan went to Susa, to Shushan,\nthe palace of Xerxes and Darius, of Ahasuerus and Esther, in search of\nwhat was far earlier than they, for another Frenchman and his wife, M.\nand Mme. Dieulafoy, had already excavated the noble palace of these\nPersian kings. Far below the palace of Xerxes he has found vastly\nearlier remains. There is the column set up, if we can believe the\nAssyriologists who trust the chronology of Nabonidus, the last king of\nBabylon,--and it is not incredible,--three thousand eight hundred years\nbefore Christ, by Naram-Sin, a Babylonian king, to commemorate one of\nhis raids into the land of what were perhaps his stronger enemies. It\nis a noble composition, with archaic writing, and a stately figure of\nthe king climbing the mountains and slaying his enemies; it shows an art\nthat might well have developed into the best that Greece has produced.\nBut De Morgan has only begun to scratch the surface of the mounds of\nElam, and a multitude of scholars believe that out of Elam came the\nfirst civilization of Chaldea. We shall find out yet; for the record is\nin the earth, and only waits the man who will dig it out, and then the\nman who will read it.\n\nWe are tempted to go further east and recall that in India, the land\nwhere Alexander made his most distant conquests, a multitude of English\nscholars have been searching the ruins of old temples for the earliest\nmemorials of the worship of Buddha. Just now they have found his\nbirthplace and precious relics. But that takes us too far afield, and\nwould tempt us to further excursions in Burmah and China. We must come\nback to Western Asia and the shores of Europe.\n\nAs has been indicated, the greatest puzzle of ancient history is that of\nthe Hittite empire, which seems to have ruled all Asia Minor at some\nuncertain time, and to have extended over Syria and Palestine. No sooner\nhad the greatest Egyptian kings, Thothmes and Rameses, ventured their\narmies into Asia, perhaps in vengeance on the incursions of Ionian\npirates, perhaps in requital of the tyrannies of the hated Shepherd\nKings, than they learned of the Hittites on the shores of the Euphrates.\nThen, a century or two later, a mass of official correspondence sent by\nthe Kings of Palestine and Syria, dug up in Egypt, reports that the\nHittites had appeared as invaders from the north and beseeches military\naid. But the power of Egypt had waned, and the Hittites were supreme\nuntil the Assyrians began and carried on for five centuries the\nuncertain war which ended in the utter overthrow of the Hittites and all\ntheir allies in a great battle at Carchemish. That great mound of\nCarchemish needs to be thoroughly explored. Already an English\nexpedition has very carelessly just opened the hill and exposed, but not\nfairly published, some few as fine friezes as are to be found in the\nAssyrian capitals, with unread Hittite inscriptions, and a fine statue\nof the Hittite Venus; but much remains to reward the student of Oriental\nhistory and art. At Senjirli a German expedition under Von Luschan has\ndone more and better work, handsomely published, but this was a smaller\nSyrian town, and less was to be expected; and yet here, and near by,\nwere found what was not expected, steles (upright slabs or pillars) with\nthe portraits of kings in high relief, covered over with long\ninscriptions in Aramaic, the oldest and longest as yet discovered\nanywhere in that language. It was a magnificent result of very moderate\nlabor,--Hittite friezes, Assyrian and Aramean inscriptions all in one\nlittle mound. But for the most part we know the art and writing of the\nHittites from what we have found above ground, in their towns and\nfortresses in the hills, for little digging has been done. At Pterium\nwas a principal sacred capital, and there, on a natural corridor of\nrock, they carved a procession of gods and kings and soldiers that\nexcites the wonder of scholars. As I write, the announcement comes that\nProfessor Sayce has at last discovered the secret of the Hittite\nhieroglyphs, and we may hope that very soon it will be possible to read\nthem. But there is vastly more of their records yet to be disinterred.\n\nAnd there remain the two lands most sacred and beloved in poetry and\nhistory,--the land of Israel and the land of Homer. It is amazing that\nso little search has been made to find out what is hidden under the soil\nof Palestine. Scholars in plenty have walked over the top of it, and\nhave told all that is on the surface, but almost nothing has been done\nunderground, no such excavations as in Egypt or Assyria. I do not forget\nthat the English Palestine Exploration Fund has followed out, with\ntrenches and tunnels, the walls of Jerusalem, nor that one or two old\nmounds have been partly explored. But what is this to the great work\nthat needs to be done? There has been found on the surface the Moabite\nStone, at the old capital of Dibon, a wonderful record of early kings\nmentioned in the Bible. And there is the short account in the rock-cut\nconduit of Siloam, of the success of the workmen in the time of\nHezekiah, who, beginning at the two ends, did the fine engineering feat\nof having their tunnels meet correctly in the solid rock. But when\nJerusalem is fully explored, and the northern capitals of Bethel and\nTirzah and Samaria, and a hundred other mounds that mark the site of\nJewish, Israelite, Philistine, and Amorite cities, we may expect\nmarvellous discoveries that will illumine our Holy Scriptures.\n\nAnd one region yet remains to be considered, the scattered coasts and\nislands that owned the Greek speech, and that created the Greek\ncivilization. It is not the Greece of the Parthenon and Pericles that we\nwish to discover, for that we fairly know; but the arts and the history\nof those earlier Greeks and Trojans that Homer tells of, the age of\nAgamemnon and Ulysses, of Helen and Hector and Priam, and of the yet\nearlier tribes that sailed the Aegean, and settled the Mediterranean\nislands, and sent their ships to the Egyptian coasts, and sought golden\nfleeces on the Euxine Sea. All about the coast of Asia Minor they lived,\nwhile that Hittite power was ruling the interior; and, intermixed with\nPhoenician trading-posts, they held the great islands of Crete and\nCyprus and the shores of Sicily and Italy. What shall we call them? Were\nthey Dorians, or Heraclidae, Achaeans or Pelasgi? Were they of the same\nrace as the mysterious Etruscans, or shall we name them simply\nMycenaeans, as we call the art Mycenaean that ruled the islands and\ncoasts down to the Homeric age, and we know not how many centuries\nearlier, but certainly as far back as the conquering period of the\nEighteenth Egyptian Dynasty of Thothmes? Their soldiers and merchants\nand their fine vases are pictured on the walls of Egypt, and their\npottery has long been studied; but we knew little of them until Dr.\nSchliemann, the Greek merchant who achieved wealth in the United States,\nbravely opened the great ruins of Troy, in the full patriotism of his\nassurance that Homer's story of the Trojan war was history as well as\npoetry. As he found one burnt and buried city under another,--for many\ntimes was Troy destroyed,--and extended his investigations to Tiryns and\nother ancient cities, one volume of splendid research followed another,\nuntil the trader had compelled the unwilling scholar to confess that he\nmust dig for both history and art. To be sure, his interpretations were\nquite too literal at first, but the whole world of classical scholarship\nhas learned from him the new method of research. Splendid have been the\nresults. If we are not sure which stratum represents the city of Priam,\nwe do learn how the people lived, and how fine was their work in silver\nand gold, and how slight their knowledge of letters. Dr. Schliemann has\nnow a multitude of imitators. France and Germany and England and the\nUnited States each maintain a school of archaeology in Athens, and each\nconducts careful explorations. Our American School lost to the French,\nfor lack of money at the right time, the chance to explore Delphi, but\nit has carried on careful explorations at Corinth and other places. How\nwonderful was the discovery, not long ago, of a shipload of bronze and\nmarble statues wrecked while being transported as spoil of war from\nCorinth to Rome!\n\nBut the most surprising discoveries in the realm of old Greek history\nand art are those that have been made in these last two or three years\nin Crete. Crete was a famous centre of ancient Greek legend. Jupiter was\nborn and reared on Mount Ida. From another mountain summit in Crete the\ngods watched the battle on the plains of Troy. There ruled Minos, who\nfirst gave laws to men, and who at his death was sent by the gods to\njudge the shades as they entered the lower world. There was the famous\nLabyrinth, and there the Minotaur devoured his annual tale of maidens\nuntil he was slain by Theseus. Was there such a real palace of Minos as\nthe Greek poets sung? The magnificent palace of the Cretan kings at\nCnossus has been found, by Mr. Evans, with its friezes, its spiral\nornaments, its flounce-petticoated women, its treasuries, and its\ntablets written in a script so old that it cannot yet be read, but which\nwill be read as surely as scholarship leaves none of its riddles\nunsolved. The childhood of Greece, its mighty infancy, out of which it\ngrew to be the creator and the example of all the world's culture, is\neven now being exposed to our view, safely kept to be recovered by the\nscholars of our generation.\n\nOf interest rather to the student of the curiosities of history are the\nmounds and pyramids and temples built by the aborigines of America; for\nthese tribes have had absolutely no part in creating our dominant\ncivilization or developing its art. China and Japan are, at this late\nday, giving something to the world's store of beauty and utility; but\nthe mound-builders and cliff-dwellers, the Mayas and Toltecs and Incas,\nhave given absolutely nothing which the world cared to accept. But this\ndoes not argue that it is not worth while to learn what we can of the\nrude civilization of the races whom we have displaced. Their arrowheads\nand hatchets are in every little museum. Their mounds, sometimes shaped\nlike serpents or tortoises or lizards, are scattered over all the\ncentral States, and many of them have been carefully explored with\nscanty results. The cliff-dwellers have left somewhat richer remains,\nmore baskets and parched corn, yet nothing of artistic value. We have to\ngo to Mexico and Yucatan and further south to Peru, to find the\nmajestic capitals of the Mayas and Incas, who had really reached a fair\ndegree of such civilization as stone and copper, without iron, and the\nbeginnings of picture symbols, without letters, could provide. Humboldt\nand Stephens, and Lord Kingsborough, and Squier, and Tchudi, and Charnay\nhave made explorations and found vast and wonderful cities, some of them\ndeserted and overgrown before Cortez and Pizarro took possession of the\nlands for Spain and enslaved the people. Where the city of Mexico now\nstands was a famous capital, from whose ruins were taken the great\nCalendar stone and the double statue of the god of war and the god of\ndeath. In Palenque and Uxmal, capitals of Yucatan, were immense palaces\nand temples, with the weird ornamentation of Mayan imagination; and\nequal wonders exist in the high uplands where the Incas ruled Peru. Even\ntheir barbaric art and their unrecorded history must be recovered, to\nsatisfy the curiosity of the more fortunate races whose boasted\nChristianity visited on them nothing better than cruel slaughter. At\nleast we can give them museums and publish magnificent pictures of\ntheir ruins.\n\nSo we may bless the ashes and sand that seemed to destroy and bury the\nmonuments of the mighty empires of the ancient world, but which have\nkindly covered and preserved them, just as we put our treasures away in\nsome safety-vault while absent on a long journey. The fire burned the\nupper wooden walls of the city, and it fell in ruins, but under those\nruins, covered by that ashes, were preserved for two thousand, three\nthousand, five thousand years uninjured, the choicest sculpture and the\nmost precious records of ancient nations,--retained beyond the reach of\nvandal hands, until scholarship had grown wise enough to ask questions\nof forgotten history, and had sent Layard and Schliemann and De Sarzec\nand Evans and a hundred other men to dig with their competitive spades.\nBut in all the long list of enthusiasts not one deserves a higher honor\nor has reaped a richer harvest than Sir Henry Layard.\n\n\nAUTHORITIES.\n\nLayard: \"Early Adventures;\" \"Nineveh and its Remains;\" \"Nineveh and\nBabylon;\" \"Monuments of Nineveh.\" Botta: \"Monument de Ninive.\" Loftus:\n\"Chaldea and Susiana.\" Y. Place: \"Ninive et Assyrie.\" Hilprecht:\n\"Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania;\" \"Recent\nResearch in Bible Lands.\" Perrot and Chipiez: \"History of Art in\nAntiquity.\" J.P. Peters: \"Nippur.\" R.W. Rogers: \"History of Babylonia\nand Assyria.\" F. Lenormant: \"Students' Manual of the Ancient History of\nthe East;\" \"The Beginnings of History.\" Maspero: \"Dawn of Civilization;\"\n\"Struggle of the Nations;\" \"Passing of the Empires;\" \"Egyptian\nArchaeology;\" \"Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria.\" C.J. Ball: \"Light\nfrom the East.\" Egypt Exploration Fund's Publications. F.J. Bliss:\n\"Exploration in Jerusalem;\" \"A Mound of Many Cities.\" Schliemann: \"Troy\nand its Remains;\" \"Ilios;\" \"Mycenae;\" \"Tiryns;\" \"Troja.\" A.J. Evans:\n\"Cnossus;\" \"Cretan Pictographs.\" Tsountas and Manatt: \"The\nMycenaean Age.\"\n\n\n\n\nMICHAEL FARADAY.\n\n\n1791-1867.\n\nELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM.\n\nBY EDWIN J. HOUSTON, PH.D.\n\n\n     \"No man is born into the world whose work\n      Is not born with him. There is always work,\n      And tools to work withal, for those who will.\"\n\n      LOWELL\n\nA man was born into the world, on the 22d of September, 1791, whose work\nwas born with him, and who did this work so well that he became one of\nits greatest benefactors. Indeed, much of the marvellous advance made in\nthe electric arts and sciences, during the last half-century, can be\ndirectly traced to this work.\n\nIt was in Newington Butts, in London, England, that the man-child first\nopened his eyes on the wonders of the physical world around him. To\nthose eyes, in after years, were given a far deeper insight into the\nmysteries of nature than often falls to the lot of man. This man-child\nwas Michael Faraday, who has been justly styled, by those best capable\nof judging him, \"The Prince of Experimental Philosophers.\"\n\nThe precocity so common in the childhood of men of genius was\napparently absent in the case of young Faraday. The growing boy played\nmarbles, and worried through a scant education in reading, writing, and\narithmetic, unnoticed, and most probably, for the greater part, severely\nleft alone, as commonly falls to the lot of nearly all boys, whether\nordinary or extraordinary. At the early age of thirteen, he was taken\nfrom school and placed on trial as errand-boy in the book-shop of George\nRibeau, in London. After a year at this work, he was taken as an\napprentice to the book-binding trade, by the same employer, who, on\naccount of his faithful services, remitted the customary premium. At\nthis work he spent some eight years of his life.\n\nBut far be it from us even to hint at the absence of genius in the young\nchild. Genius is not an acquired gift. It is born in the individual.\nApart from the marvellous achievements of the man, a mere glance at the\nmagnificent head, with its high intellectual forehead, the firm lips,\nthe intelligent inquiring eyes, and the bright face, as seen in existing\npictures, assures us that they portray an unusual individuality,\nincompatible with even a suspicion of belonging to an ordinary man.\nDoubtless the growing child did give early promise of his future\ngreatness. Doubtless he was a formidable member of that terrible class\nof inquiring youngsters who demand the why and the wherefore of all\naround them, and refuse to accept the unsatisfactory belief of their\nfathers that things \"are because they are.\" In its self-complacency, the\nbusy world is too apt to fail to notice unusual abilities in\nchildren,--abilities that perhaps too often remain undeveloped from lack\nof opportunities. But whether young Faraday did or did not, at an early\nage, display any unusual promise of his life-work, all his biographers\nappear to agree that he could not be regarded as a precocious child.\n\nFaraday disclaimed the idea that his childhood was distinguished by any\nprecocity. \"Do not suppose that I was a very deep thinker, or was marked\nas a precocious person,\" says Faraday, when alluding to his early life.\n\"I was a very lively, imaginative person, and could believe in the\n'Arabian Nights' as easily as the 'Encyclopaedia,' but facts were\nimportant to me, and saved me. I could trust a fact and always\ncross-examined an assertion. So when I questioned Mrs. Marcet's book [he\nis alluding to her 'Conversations on Chemistry'], by such little\nexperiments as I could find means to perform, and found it true to the\nfacts as I could understand them, I felt that I had got hold of an\nanchor in chemical knowledge, and clung fast to it.\"\n\nBut while there may be a question as to the existence of precocity in\nthe young lad, there does not appear to be any reason for believing that\nhis unusual abilities were the result of direct heredity. His father, an\nordinary journeyman blacksmith, never exhibited any special intellectual\nability, though possibly poverty and poor health may have been\nresponsible for this failure. His mother, too, it appears, was of but\nordinary mentality.\n\nThe environment of those early years--that is, from 1804 to 1813, while\nin the book-binding business--was far from calculated to develop any\nmarked abilities inherent in our young philosopher. What would seem less\ncalculated to inspire a wish to obtain a deeper insight into the\nmysteries of the physical world than the trade of book-binding,\nespecially in the case of a boy whose scholastic education ceased at\nfourteen years and was limited to the mere rudiments of learning? But,\nfortunately for the world, the inquiring spirit of the lad led him to\nexamine the inside of the books he bound, and thus, by familiarizing\nhimself with their contents, he received the inspiration that good\nwriting is always ready to bestow on those who properly read it. Two\nbooks, he afterwards informs us, proved of especial benefit; namely,\n\"Marcet's Conversations on Chemistry,\" already referred to, and the\n\"Encyclopaedia Britannica.\" To the former he attributes his grounding in\nchemistry, and to the latter his first ideas in electricity, in both of\nwhich studies he excelled in after years. As we have seen, even at this\nearly age he followed the true plan for the physical investigator,\ncross-questioned all statements, only admitting those to the dignity of\nfacts whose truth he had established by careful experimentation.\n\nBut our future experimental philosopher has not as yet fairly started on\nthe beginnings of his life-work. The possibilities of the book-binding\ntrade were too limited to permit much real progress. A circumstance\noccurred in the spring of 1812 that shaped his entire after-life. This\nwas the opportunity then afforded him to attend four of the last\nlectures delivered at the Royal Institution, by the great Sir Humphry\nDavy. Faraday took copious notes of these lectures, carefully wrote them\nout, and bound them in a small quarto volume. It was this volume, which\nhe afterwards sent to Davy, that resulted in his receiving, on March 1,\n1813, the appointment of laboratory assistant in the Royal Institution.\nHis pay for this work was twenty-five shillings a week, with a lodging\non the top floor of the Institute, a very fair compensation for\nthe times.\n\nVery congenial were the duties of the young assistant. They were to keep\nclean the beloved apparatus of the lecturers, and to assist them in\ntheir demonstrations. The new world thus opened was full of bright\npromise. He keenly felt the deficiencies of his early education, and\ndid his best to extend his learning, so that he might be able to make\nthe most of his opportunities. But what he perhaps appreciated the most\nwas the inspiration he received from the great teacher Davy, who was\nthen Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Laboratory of the Royal\nInstitution; for Faraday assisted at Davy's lectures, and in an humble\nway even aided his investigations, sharing the dangers arising from the\nexplosion of the unstable substance, chloride of nitrogen, that Davy was\nthen investigating. Faraday has repeatedly acknowledged the debt owed to\nthe inspiration of this teacher. Davy also, in later life generously\nrecognized, in his former assistant, a philosopher greater than himself.\nAs the renowned astronomer, Tycho Brahe, discovered in one of his\npupils, John Kepler, an astronomer greater than the master, and as\nBergman, the Swedish chemist, in a similar manner, discovered the\ngreater chemist Scheele, so when Davy, in after years, was asked what he\nregarded as his greatest discovery, he briefly replied,\n\"Michael Faraday.\"\n\nThe task of the scientific historian, who endeavors honestly to record\nthe progress of research, and to trace the influence of the work of some\nindividual on the times in which he lived, is by no means an easy one;\nfor, in scientific work one discovery frequently passes so insensibly\ninto another that it is often difficult to know just where one stops\nand the other begins, and much difficulty constantly arises as to whom\nthe credit should be given, when, as is too often the case, these\ndiscoveries are made by different individuals. It is only when some\ngreat discovery stands alone, like a giant mountain peak against the\nclear sky, that it is comparatively easy to determine the extent and\ncharacter of its influence on other discoveries, and justly to give the\ncredit to whom the credit is due. Such discoveries form ready points of\nreference in the intellectual horizon, and mark distinct eras in the\nworld's progress. This is true of all work in the domain of physical\nscience, but it is especially true in that of electricity and magnetism,\nin which Faraday was pre-eminent. The scope of each of these sciences is\nso extended, the number of workers so great, and the applications to the\npractical arts so nearly innumerable, that it is often by no means an\neasy task correctly to trace their proper growth and development.\n\nFaraday's investigations covered vast fields in the domain of chemistry,\nelectricity, and magnetism. It is to the last two only that reference\nwill here be made. Faraday's life-work in electricity and magnetism\nbegan practically in 1831, when he made his immortal discovery of the\ndirect production of electricity from magnetism. His best work in\nelectricity and magnetism was accomplished between 1831 and 1856,\nextending, therefore, over a period of some twenty-five years, although\nit is not denied that good work was done since 1856. Consequently, it\nwas at so comparatively recent a date that most of Faraday's work was\ndone that some of the world's distinguished electricians yet live who\nbegan their studies during the latter years of Faraday's life. The\ndifficulties of tracing, at least to some extent, the influence that\nFaraday's masterly investigations have had on the present condition of\nthe electrical arts and sciences will, therefore, be considerably\nlessened.\n\nThe extent of Faraday's researches and discoveries in magnetism and\nelectricity was so great that it will be impossible, in the necessarily\nlimited space of a brief biographical sketch, to notice any but the more\nprominent. Nor will any attempt be made, except where the nature of the\nresearch or discovery appears to render it advisable, to follow any\nstrict chronological order; for, our inquiry here is not so much\ndirected to a mere matter of history as to the influence which the\ninvestigation or discovery exerted on the life and civilization of the\nage in which we live.\n\nThere is a single discovery of Faraday that stands out sharply amidst\nall his other discoveries, great as they were, and is so important in\nits far-reaching results that it alone would have stamped him as a\nphilosophical investigator of the highest merits, had he never done\nanything else. This was his discovery of the means for developing\nelectricity directly from magnetism. It was made on the 29th of August,\n1831, and should be regarded as inspired by the great discovery made by\nOersted in 1820, of the relations existing between the voltaic pile and\nelectro-magnetism. It was in the same year that Ampere had conducted\nthat memorable investigation as to the mutual attractions and repulsions\nbetween circuits through which electric currents are flowing, which\nresulted in a theory of electro-magnetism, and finally led to the\nproduction of the electro-magnet itself. Ampere had shown that a coil of\nwire, or helix, through which an electric current is passing, acted\npractically as a magnet, and Arago had magnetized an iron bar by placing\nit within such a helix.\n\nIn common with the other scientific men of his time, Faraday believed\nthat since the flow of an electric current invariably produced\nmagnetism, so magnetism should, in its turn, be capable of producing\nelectricity. Many investigators before Faraday's time had endeavored to\nsolve this problem, but it was reserved to Faraday alone to be\nsuccessful. Since success in this investigation resulted from some\nexperiments he made while endeavoring to obtain inductive action on a\nquiescent circuit from a neighboring circuit through which an electric\ncurrent was flowing, we will first briefly examine this experiment. All\nhis experiments in this direction were at first unsuccessful. He passed\nan electric current through a circuit, which was located close to\nanother circuit containing a galvanometer,--a device for showing the\npresence of an electric current and measuring its strength,--but failed\nto obtain any result. He looked for such results only when the current\nhad been fully established in the active circuit. Undismayed by failure,\nhe reasoned that probably effects were present, but that they were too\nsmall to be observed owing to the feeble inducing current employed. He\ntherefore increased the strength of the current in the active wire; but\nstill with no results.\n\nAgain and again he interrogates nature, but unsuccessfully. At last he\nnotices that there is a slight movement of the galvanometer needle at\nthe moment of making and breaking the circuit. Carefully repeating his\nexperiments in the light of this observation, he discovers the important\nfact that it is only at the moment a current is increasing or decreasing\nin strength--at the moment of making or breaking a circuit--that the\nactive circuit is capable of producing a current in a neighboring\ninactive circuit by induction. This was an important discovery, and in\nthe light of his after-knowledge was correctly regarded as a solution of\nthe production of electricity from magnetism.\n\nObserving that the galvanometer needle momentarily swings in one\ndirection on making the circuit, and in the opposite direction on\nbreaking it, he establishes the fact that the current induced on making\nflows in the opposite direction to the inducing current, and that\ninduced on breaking flows in the same direction as the inducing current.\n\nHaving thus established the fact of current induction, he makes the step\nof substituting magnets for active circuits; a simple step in the light\nof our present knowledge, but a giant stride at that time. Remembering\nthat current induction, or, as he called it, voltaic current induction,\ntakes place only while some effect produced by the current is either\nincreasing or decreasing, he moves coils of insulated wire towards or\nfrom magnet poles, or magnet poles towards or from coils of wire, and\nshows that electric currents are generated in the coils while either the\ncoils or the magnets are in motion, but cease to be produced as soon as\nthe motion ceases. Moreover, these magnetically induced currents differ\nin no respects from other currents,--for example, those produced by the\nvoltaic pile,--since, like the latter, they produce sparks, magnetize\nbars of steel, or deflect the needle of a galvanometer. In this manner\nFaraday solved the great problem. He had produced electricity directly\nfrom magnetism!\n\nWith, perhaps, the single exception of the discovery by Oersted, in\n1820, of the invariable relation existing between an electric current\nand magnetism, this discovery of Faraday may be justly regarded as the\ngreatest in this domain of physical science. These two master minds in\nscientific research wonderfully complemented each other. Oersted showed\nthat an electric current is invariably attended by magnetic effects;\nFaraday showed that magnetic changes are invariably attended by electric\ncurrents. Before these discoveries, electricity and magnetism were\nnecessarily regarded as separate branches of physical science, and were\nstudied apart as separate phenomena. Now, however, they must be regarded\nas co-existing phenomena. The ignorance of the scientific world had\nunwittingly divorced what nature had joined together.\n\nIn view of the great importance of Faraday's discovery, we shall be\njustified in inquiring, though somewhat briefly, into some of the\napparatus employed in this historic research. Note its extreme\nsimplicity. In one of his first successful experiments he wraps a coil\nof insulated wire around the soft iron bar that forms the armature or\nkeeper of a permanent magnet of the horse-shoe type, and connects the\nends of this coil to a galvanometer. He discovers that whenever the\narmature is placed against the magnet poles, and is therefore being\nrendered magnetic by contact therewith, the deflection of the needle of\nthe galvanometer shows that the coiled wire on the armature is traversed\nby a current of electricity; that whenever the armature is removed from\nthe magnet poles, and is therefore losing its magnetism, the needle of\nthe galvanometer is again deflected, but now in the opposite direction,\nshowing that an electric current is again flowing through the coiled\nwire on the armature, but reversed in direction. He notices, too, that\nthese effects take place only while changes are going on in the strength\nof the magnetism in the armature, or when magnetic flux is passing\nthrough the coils; for, the galvanometer needle comes to rest, and\nremains at rest as long as the contact between the armature and the\npoles remains unbroken.\n\nIn another experiment he employs a simple hollow coil, or helix, of\ninsulated wire whose ends are connected with a galvanometer. On suddenly\nthrusting one end of a straight cylindrical magnet into the axis of the\nhelix, the deflection of the galvanometer needle showed the presence of\nan electric current in the helix. The magnet being left in the helix,\nthe galvanometer needle came to rest, thus showing the absence of\ncurrent. When the bar magnet was suddenly withdrawn from the helix, the\ngalvanometer needle was again deflected, but now in the opposite\ndirection, showing that the direction of the current in the helix had\nbeen reversed.\n\nThe preceding are but some of the results that Faraday obtained by\nmeans of his experimental researches in the direct production of\nelectricity from magnetism. Let us now briefly examine just what he was\ndoing, and the means whereby he obtained electric currents from\nmagnetism. We will consider this question from the views of the present\ntime, rather than from those of Faraday, although the difference between\nthe two are in most respects immaterial.\n\nFaraday knew that the space or region around a magnet is permeated or\ntraversed by what he called magnetic curves, or lines of magnetic force.\nThese lines are still called \"lines of magnetic force,\" or by some\n\"magnetic streamings\" \"magnetic flux,\" or simply \"magnetism.\" They are\ninvisible, though their presence is readily manifested by means of iron\nfilings. They are present in every magnet, and although we do not know\nin what direction they move, yet in order to speak definitely about\nthem, it is agreed to assume that they pass out of every magnet at its\nnorth-seeking pole (or the pole which would point to the magnetic north,\nwere the magnet free to move as a needle), and, after having traversed\nthe space surrounding the magnet, reenter at its south-seeking pole,\nthus completing what is called the magnetic circuit. Any space traversed\nby lines of magnetic force is called a magnetic field.\n\nBut it is not only a magnet that is thus surrounded by lines of\nmagnetic force, or by ether streamings. The same is true of any\nconductor through which an electric current is flowing, and their\npresence may be shown by means of iron filings. If an active\nconductor--a conductor conveying an electric current, as, for example, a\ncopper wire--be passed vertically through a piece of card-board, or a\nglass plate, iron filings dusted on the card or plate will arrange\nthemselves in concentric circles around the axis of the wire. It\nrequires an expenditure of energy both to set up and to maintain these\nlines of force. It is the interaction of their lines of force that\ncauses the attractions and repulsions in active movable conductors.\nThese lines of magnetic force act on magnetic needles like other lines\nof magnetic force and tend to set movable magnetic needles at right\nangles to the conducting wire.\n\nThe setting up of an electric current in a conducting wire is,\ntherefore, equivalent to the setting up of concentric magnetic whirls\naround the axis of the wire, and anything that can do this will produce\nan electric current. For example, if an inactive conducting wire is\nmoved through a magnetic field; it will have concentric circular whirls\nset up around it; or, in other words, it will have a current generated\nin it as a result of such motion. But to set up these whirls it is not\nenough that the conducting wire be moved along the lines of force in the\nfield. In such a case no whirls are produced around the conductor. The\nconductor must be moved so as to cut or pass through the lines of\nmagnetic force. Just what the mechanism is by means of which the cutting\nof the lines of force by the conductor produces the circular magnetic\nwhirls around it, no man knows any more than he knows just what\nelectricity is; but this much we do know,--that to produce the circular\nwhirls or currents in a previously inactive conductor, the lines of\nforce of some already existing magnetic field must be caused to pass\nthrough the conductor, and that the strength of the current so produced\nis proportional to the number of lines of magnetic force cut in a given\ntime, say, per second; or, in other words, is directly proportional to\nthe strength of the magnetic field, and to the velocity and length of\nthe moving conductor.\n\nOr, briefly recapitulating: Oersted showed that an electric current,\npassed through a conducting circuit, sets up concentric circular whirls\naround its axis; that is, an electric current invariably produces\nmagnetism; Faraday showed, that if the lines of magnetic force, or\nmagnetism, be caused to cut or pass through an inactive conductor,\nconcentric circular whirls will be set up around the conductor; that is,\nlines of magnetic force passed across a conductor invariably set up an\nelectric current in that conductor.\n\nThe wonderful completeness of Faraday's researches into the production\nof electricity from magnetism may be inferred from the fact that all\nthe forms of magneto-electric induction known to-day--namely,\nself-induction, or the induction of an active circuit on itself; mutual\ninduction, or the induction of an active circuit on a neighboring\ncircuit; and electro-magnetic induction, and magneto-electric induction,\nor the induction produced in conductors through which the magnetic flux\nfrom electro and permanent magnets respectively is caused to pass--were\ndiscovered and investigated by him. Nor were these investigations\ncarried on in the haphazard, blundering, groping manner that\nunfortunately too often characterizes the explorer in a strange country;\non the contrary, they were singularly clear and direct, showing how\ncomplete the mastery the great investigator had over the subject he was\nstudying. It is true that repeated failures frequently met him, but\ndespite discouragements and disappointments he continued until he had\nentirely traversed the length and breadth of the unknown region he was\nthe first to explore.\n\nLet us now briefly examine Faraday's many remaining discoveries and\ninventions. Though none of these were equal to his great discovery, yet\nmany were exceedingly valuable. Some were almost immediately utilized;\nsome waited many years for utilization; and some have never yet been\nutilized. We must avoid, however, falling into the common mistake of\nholding in little esteem those parts of Faraday's work that did not\nimmediately result either in the production of practical apparatus, or\nin valuable applications in the arts and sciences, or those which have\nnot even yet proved fruitful. Some discoveries and devices are so far\nahead of the times in which they are produced that several lifetimes\noften pass before the world is ready to utilize them. Like immature or\nunripe fruit, they are apt to die an untimely death, and it sometimes\ncuriously happens that, several generations after their birth, a\nsubsequent inventor or discoverer, in honest ignorance of their prior\nexistence, offers them to the world as absolutely new. The times being\nripe, they pass into immediate and extended public use, so that the\nlater inventor is given all the credit of an original discovery, and the\ntrue first and original inventor remains unrecognized.\n\nWe will first examine Faraday's discovery of the relations existing\nbetween light and magnetism. Though the discovery has not as yet borne\nfruit in any direct practical application, yet it has proved of immense\nvalue from a theoretical standpoint. In this investigation Faraday\nproved that light-vibrations are rotated by the action of a magnetic\nfield. He employed the light of an ordinary Argand lamp, and polarized\nit by reflection from a glass surface. He caused this polarized light to\npass through a plate of heavy glass made from a boro-silicate of lead.\nUnder ordinary circumstances this substance exerted no unusual action on\nlight, but when it was placed between the poles of a powerful\nelectro-magnet, and the light was passed through it in the same\ndirection as the magnetic flux, the plane of polarization of the light\nwas rotated in a certain direction.\n\nFaraday discovered that other solid substances besides glass exert a\nsimilar action on a beam of polarized light. Even opaque solids like\niron possess this property. Kerr has proved that a beam of light passed\nthrough an extremely thin plate of highly magnetic iron has its plane of\npolarization slightly rotated. Faraday showed that the power of rotating\na beam of polarized light is also possessed by some liquids. But what is\nmost interesting, in both solids and liquids, is that the direction of\nthe rotation of the light depends on the direction in which the\nmagnetism is passing, and can, therefore, be changed by changing the\npolarity of the electro-magnet.\n\nFaraday did not seem to thoroughly understand this phenomenon. He spoke\nas if he thought the lines of magnetic force had been rendered luminous\nby the light rays; for, he announced his discovery in a paper entitled,\n\"Magnetization of Light and the Illumination of the Lines of Magnetic\nForce.\" Indeed, this discovery was so far ahead of the times that it was\nnot until a later date that the results were more fully developed,\nfirst by Kelvin, and subsequently by Clerk Maxwell. In 1865, two years\nbefore Faraday's death, Maxwell proposed the electro-magnetic theory of\nlight, showing that light is an electro-magnetic disturbance. He pointed\nout that optical as well as electro-magnetic phenomena required a medium\nfor their propagation, and that the properties of this medium appeared\nto be the same for both. Moreover, the rate at which light travels is\nknown by actual measurement; the rate at which electro-magnetic waves\nare propagated can be calculated from electrical measurements, and these\ntwo velocities exactly agree. Faraday's original experiment as to the\nrelation between light and magnetism is thus again experimentally\ndemonstrated; and, Maxwell's electro-magnetic theory of light now\nresting on experimental fact, optics becomes a branch of electricity. A\ncurious consequence was pointed out by Maxwell as a result of his\ntheory; namely, that a necessary relation exists between opacity and\nconductivity, since, as he showed, electro-magnetic disturbances could\nnot be propagated in substances which are conductors of electricity. In\nother words, if light is an electro-magnetic disturbance, all conducting\nsubstances must be opaque, and all good insulators transparent. This we\nknow to be the fact: metallic substances, the best of conductors, are\nopaque, while glass and crystals are transparent. Even such apparent\nexceptions as vulcanite, an excellent insulator, fall into the law,\nsince, as Graham Bell has recently shown, this substance is remarkably\ntransparent to certain kinds of radiant energy.\n\nIn 1778, Brugmans of Leyden noticed that if a piece of bismuth was held\nnear either pole of a strong magnet, repulsion occurred. Other observers\nnoticed the same effect in the case of antimony. These facts appear to\nhave been unknown to Faraday, who, in 1845, by employing powerful\nelectro-magnets rediscovered them, and in addition showed that\npractically all substances possess the power of being attracted or\nrepelled, when placed between the poles of sufficiently powerful\nmagnets. By placing slender needles of the substances experimented on\nbetween the poles of powerful horse-shoe magnets, he found that they were\nall either attracted like iron, coming to rest with their greatest\nlength extending between the poles; or, like bismuth, were apparently\nrepelled by the poles, coming to rest at right angles to the position\nassumed by iron. He regarded the first class of substances as attracted,\nand the second class as repelled, and called them respectively\nparamagnetic and diamagnetic substances. In other words, paramagnetic\nsubstances, like iron, came to rest axially (extending from pole to\npole), and diamagnetic substances, like bismuth, equatorially (extending\ntransversely between the poles). He reserved the term magnetic\nsubstances to cover the phenomena of both para and dia-magnetism. He\ncommunicated the results of this investigation to the Royal Society in a\npaper on the \"Magnetic Condition of All Matter,\" on Dec. 18, 1845.\n\nThe properties of paramagnetism and diamagnetism are not possessed by\nsolids only, but exist also in liquids and gases. When experimenting\nwith liquids, they were placed in suitable glass vessels, such as watch\ncrystals, supported on pole pieces properly shaped to receive them.\nUnder these circumstances paramagnetic liquids, such as salts of iron or\ncobalt dissolved in water, underwent curious contortions in shape, the\ntendency being to arrange the greater part of their mass in the\ndirection in which the flux passed; namely, directly between the poles.\nDiamagnetic liquids, such as solutions of salts of bismuth and antimony,\nin a similar manner, arranged the greater part of their mass in\npositions at right angles to this direction, or equatorially.\n\nAt first Faraday attributed the repulsion of diamagnetic substances to a\npolarity, separate and distinct from ordinary magnetic polarity, for\nwhich he proposed the name, diamagnetic polarity. He believed that when\na diamagnetic substance is brought near to the north pole of a magnet, a\nnorth pole was developed in its approached end, and that therefore\nrepulsion occurred. He afterwards rejected this view, though it has\nbeen subsequently adopted by Weber and Tyndall, the latter of whom\nconducted an extended series of experiments on the subject. The majority\nof physicists, however, at the present time, do not believe in the\nexistence of a diamagnetic polarity. They point out that the apparent\nrepulsion of diamagnetic substances is due to the fact that they are\nless paramagnetic than the oxygen of the air in which they are\nsuspended.\n\nDuring this investigation Faraday observed some phenomena that led him\nto a belief in the existence of another form of force, distinct from\neither paramagnetic or diamagnetic force, which he called the\nmagne-crystallic force. He had been experimenting with some slender\nneedles of bismuth, suspending them horizontally between the poles of an\nelectro-magnet. Taking a few of these cylinders at random from a greater\nnumber, he was much perplexed to find that they did not all come to rest\nequatorially, as well-behaved bars of diamagnetic bismuth should do,\nthough, if subjected to the action of a single magnetic pole, they did\nshow this diamagnetic character by their marked repulsion. After much\nexperimentation, he ascribed this phenomenon to the crystalline\ncondition of the cylinder. By experimenting with carefully selected\ngroups of crystals of bismuth, he believed he could trace the cause of\nthe phenomenon to the action of a force which he called the\nmagne-crystallic force.\n\nExtended experiments carried on by Pl\u00fccker on the influence of\nmagnetism on crystalline substances led him to believe that a close\nrelation exists between the ultimate forms of the particles of matter\nand their magnetic behavior. This subject is as yet far from being fully\nunderstood.\n\nThere was another series of investigations made by Faraday between the\nyears 1831 and 1840, that has been wonderfully utilized, and may\nproperly be ranked among his great discoveries. We allude to his\nresearches on the laws which govern the chemical decomposition of\ncompound substances by electricity. The fact that the electric current\npossesses the power of decomposing compound substances was known as\nearly as 1800, when Carlisle and Nicholson separated water into its\nconstituent elements, by the passage of a voltaic current. Davy, too, in\n1806, had delivered his celebrated discourse \"On Some Chemical Agencies\nof Electricity,\" and in 1807, had announced his great discovery of the\ndecomposition of the fixed alkalies.\n\nFaraday showed that the amount of chemical action produced by\nelectricity is fixed and definite. In order to be able to measure the\namount of this action, he invented an instrument which he called a\nvoltameter, or a volta-electrometer. It consisted of a simple device for\nmeasuring the amount of hydrogen and oxygen gases liberated by the\npassage of an electric current through water acidulated with sulphuric\nacid. He showed, by numerous experiments, that the decomposition\neffected is invariably proportional to the amount of electricity\npassing; that variations in the size of the electrodes, in the pressure,\nor in the degree of dilution of the electrolyte, had nothing to do with\nthe result, and that therefore a voltameter could be employed to\ndetermine the amount of electricity passing in a given circuit. He also\ndemonstrated that when a current is passed through different\nelectrolytes (compound substances decomposed by the passage of\nelectricity), the amount of the decompositions are chemically equivalent\nto each other.\n\nThe extent of Faraday's work in the electro-chemical field may be judged\nby considering some of the terms he proposed for its phenomena, most of\nwhich, with some trifling exceptions, are still in use. It was he who\ngave the name electrolysis to decomposition by the electric current; he\nalso proposed to call the wires, or conductors connected with the\nbattery, or other electric source, the electrodes, naming that one which\nwas connected with the positive terminal, the anode, and that one\nconnected with the negative terminal, the cathode. He called the\nseparate atoms or groups of atoms into which bodies undergoing\nelectrolysis are separated, the radicals, or ions, and named the\nelectro-positive ions, which appear at the cathode, the kathions, and\nthe electro-negative radicals which appear at the anode, the anions.\n\nThere were many other researches made by Faraday, such as his\nexperiments on disruptive electric discharges, his investigations on the\nelectric eel, his many researches on the phenomena both of frictional\nelectricity and of the voltaic pile, his investigations on the contact\nand chemical theories of the voltaic pile, and those on chemical\ndecomposition by frictional electricity; these are but some of the mere\nimportant of them. Those we have already discussed will, however, amply\nsuffice to show the value of his work. Rather than take up any others,\nlet us inquire what influence, if any, the various groups of discoveries\nwe have already discussed have exerted on the electric arts and sciences\nin our present time. What practical results have attended these\ndiscoveries? What actual, useful, commercial machines have been based on\nthem? What useful processes or industries have grown out of them?\n\nAnd, first, as to actual commercial machines. These researches not only\nled to the production of dynamo-electric machines, but, in point of\nfact, Faraday actually produced the first dynamo. A dynamo-electric\nmachine, as is well known, is a machine by means of which mechanical\nenergy is converted into electrical energy, by causing conductors to cut\nthrough, or be cut through by, lines of magnetic force; or, briefly, it\nis a machine by means of which electricity is readily obtained from\nmagnetism.\n\nFaraday's invention of the first dynamo is interesting because at the\nsame time he made the invention he solved a problem which up to his time\nhad been the despair of the ablest physicists and mathematicians. This\nwas the phenomenon of Arago's rotating disc. It was briefly as follows:\nIf a copper disc be rotated above a magnet, the needle tends to follow\nthe plate in its rotation; or, if a copper plate be placed at rest above\nor below an oscillating magnet, it tends to check its oscillations and\nbring the needle quickly to rest. Faraday investigated these phenomena\nand soon discovered that a copper disc rotated below two magnet poles\nhad electric currents generated in it, which flowed radially through the\ndisc between its circumference and centre. By placing one end of a\nconducting circuit on the axis of the disc, and the other end on its\ncircumference, he succeeded in drawing off a continuous electric current\ngenerated from magnetism, and thus produced the first dynamo. This was\nin 1831. Faraday produced many other dynamos besides this simple\ndisc machine.\n\nAlthough the disc dynamo in its original form was impracticable as a\ncommercial machine, yet it was not only the forerunner of the dynamo,\nbut was, in point of fact, the first machine ever produced that is\nentitled to be called a dynamo. He generously left to those who might\ncome after him the opportunity to avail themselves of his wonderful\ndiscovery. \"I have rather, however,\" he says, \"been desirous of\ndiscovering new facts and new relations dependent on magneto-electric\ninduction than of exalting the force of those already obtained, being\nassured that the latter would find their development hereafter.\" How\nprofoundly prophetic! Could the illustrious investigator see the\nhundreds of thousands of dynamos that are to-day in all parts of the\nworld engaged in converting millions of horse-power of mechanical energy\ninto electric energy, he would appreciate how marvellously his\nsuccessors have \"exalted the force\" of some of the effects he had so\nably shown the world how to obtain.\n\nFaraday lived to see his infant dynamo, the first of its kind, developed\ninto a machine not only sufficiently powerful to maintain electric arc\nlights, but also into a form sufficiently practicable to be continuously\nengaged in producing such light, in one of the lighthouses on the\nEnglish coast. Holmes produced such a machine in 1862, or some years\nbefore Faraday's death. It was installed under the care of the Trinity\nHouse, at the Dungeness Lighthouse, in June, 1862, and continued in use\nfor about ten years. When this machine was shown to Faraday by its\ninventor, the veteran philosopher remarked, \"I gave you a baby, and you\nbring me a giant.\"\n\nThe alternating-current transformer is another gift of Faraday to the\ncommercial world. As is well known, this instrument is a device for\nraising or lowering electric pressure. The name is derived from the fact\nthat the instrument is capable of taking in at one pressure the electric\nenergy supplied to it, and giving it out at another pressure, thus\ntransforming it. Faraday produced the first transformer during his\ninvestigations on voltaic-current induction. The modern\nalternating-current transformer, though differing markedly in minor\ndetails from Faraday's primitive instrument, yet in general details is\nessentially identical with it. The enormous use of both step-up and\nstep-down transformers--transformers which respectively induce currents\nof higher and of lower electromotive forces in their secondary coils\nthan are passed through their primaries--shows the great practical value\nof this invention. The wonderful growth of the commercial applications\nof alternating currents during the past few decades would have been\nimpossible without the use of the alternating-current transformer.\n\nIt is an interesting fact that it was not in the form of the step-down\nalternating-current transformer that Faraday's discovery of\nvoltaic-current induction was first utilized, but in the form of a\nstep-up transformer, or what was then ordinarily called an induction\ncoil. As early as 1842, Masson and Br\u00e9guet constructed an induction\ncoil by means of which minute sparks could be obtained from the\nsecondary, in vacuo. In 1851, Ruhmkorff constructed an induction coil so\ngreatly improved, by the careful insulation of its secondary circuit,\nthat he could obtain from it torrents of long sparks in ordinary air.\nThe Ruhmkorff induction coil has in late years been greatly improved\nboth by Tesla and Elihu Thomson, who, separately and independently of\neach other, have produced excellent forms of high-frequency\ninduction coils.\n\nInduction coils have long been in use for purposes of research, and in\nlater years have been employed in the production both of the R\u00f6ntgen\nrays used in the photography of the invisible, and the electro-magnetic\nwaves used in wireless telegraphy.\n\nR\u00f6ntgen's discovery was published in 1895. It was rendered possible by\nthe prior work of Geissler and Crookes on the luminous phenomena\nproduced by the passage of electric discharges through high vacua in\nglass tubes. R\u00f6ntgen discovered that the invisible rays, or radiation,\nemitted from certain parts of a high-vacuum tube, when high-tension\ndischarges from induction coils were passing, possessed the curious\nproperty of traversing certain opaque substances as readily as light\ndoes glass or water. He also discovered that these rays were capable of\nexciting fluorescence in some substances,--that is, of causing them to\nemit light and become luminous,--and that these rays, like the rays of\nlight, were capable of affecting a photographic plate. From these\nproperties two curious possibilities arose; namely, to see through\nopaque bodies, and to photograph the invisible. R\u00f6ntgen called these\nrays X, or unknown rays. They are now almost invariably called by the\nname of their distinguished discoverer.\n\nLet us briefly investigate how it is possible both to see and to\nphotograph the invisible. Shortly after R\u00f6ntgen's discovery, Edison,\nwith that wonderful power of finding practical applications for nearly\nall discoveries, had invented the fluoroscope,--a screen covered with a\npeculiar chemical substance that becomes luminous when exposed to the\nR\u00f6ntgen rays. Suppose, now, between the rays and such a screen be\ninterposed a substance opaque to ordinary light, as, for example, the\nhuman hand. The tissues of the hand, such as the flesh and the blood,\npermit the rays to readily pass through them, but the bones are opaque\nto the rays, and, therefore, oppose their passage; consequently, the\nscreen; instead of being uniformly illumined, will show shadows of the\nbones, so that, to an eye examining the screen, it will seem as though\nit were looking through the flesh and blood directly at the bones. In a\nsimilar manner, if a photographic plate be employed instead of the\nscreen, a distinct photographic picture will be obtained.\n\nBoth the fluoroscope and the photographic camera have proved an\ninvaluable aid to the surgeon, who can now look directly through the\nhuman body and examine its internal organs, and so be able to locate\nsuch foreign bodies as bullets and needles in its various parts, or make\ncorrect diagnoses of fractures or dislocations of the bones, or even\nexamine the action of such organs as the liver and heart.\n\nAbout 1886, Hertz discovered that if a small Leyden jar is discharged\nthrough a short and simple circuit, provided with a spark-gap of\nsuitable length, a series of electro-magnetic waves are set up, which,\nmoving through space in all directions, are capable of exciting in a\nsimilar circuit effects that can be readily recognized, although the two\ncircuits are at fairly considerable distances apart. Here we have a\nsimple basic experiment in wireless telegraphy, which, briefly\nconsidered, consists of means whereby oscillations or waves, set up in\nfree space by means of disruptive discharges, are caused to traverse\nspace and produce various effects in suitably constructed receptive\ndevices that are operated by the waves as they impinge on them.\n\nAt first a doubt was expressed by eminent scientific men as to the\npracticability of successfully transmitting wireless messages through\nlong distances, since these waves, travelling in all directions, would\nsoon become too attenuated to produce intelligible signals; but when it\nwas shown, from theoretical considerations, that these waves when\ntraversing great distances are practically confined to the space between\nthe earth's surface and the upper rarified strata of the atmosphere, the\npossibility of long-distance wireless telegraphic transmission was\nrecognized. To increase the distance, it was only necessary either to\nincrease the energy of the waves at the transmitting station, or to\nincrease the delicacy of the receiving instruments, or both.\n\nIt has been but a short time since both the scientific and the financial\nworlds were astounded by the actual transmission of intelligible\nwireless signals across the Atlantic, and the name of Marconi will go\ndown to posterity as the one who first accomplished this great feat.\n\nThe principal limit to the distance of transmission lies in the delicacy\nof the receiving instruments. The most sensitive are those in which a\ntelephone receiver forms a part of the receiving apparatus. The almost\nincredibly small amount of electric energy required to produce\nintelligible speech in an ordinary Bell telephone receiver nearly passes\nbelief. The work done in lifting such an instrument from its hook to the\near of the listener, would, if converted into electric energy, be\nsufficient to maintain an audible sound in a telephone for 240,000\nyears! Even extremely attenuated waves may therefore produce audible\nsignals in such a receiver.\n\nThe electric motor was another gift of Faraday to commercial science,\nalthough in this case there are others who can, perhaps, justly claim to\nshare the honor with him. Faraday's early electric motor consisted\nessentially in a device whereby a movable conductor, suspended so as to\nbe capable of rotation around a magnet pole, was caused to rotate by the\nmutual interaction of the magnetic fields of the active conductor and\nthe magnet. The magnet, which consisted of a bar of hardened steel, was\nfixed in a cork stopper, which completely closed the end of an upright\nglass tube. A small quantity of mercury was placed in the lower end of\nthe tube, so as to form a liquid contact for the lower end of a movable\nwire, suspended so as to be capable of rotating at its lower extremity\nabout the axis of the tube. On the passage of an electric current\nthrough the wire, a continuous rotary motion was produced in it, the\ndirection of which depends both on the direction of the current, and on\nthe polarity of the end of the magnet around which the rotation occurs.\n\nThe great value of the electric motor to the world is too evident to\nneed any proof. The number of purposes for which electric motors are now\nemployed is so great that the actual number of motors in daily use is\nalmost incredible, and every year sees this number rapidly increasing.\n\nThe above are the more important machines or devices that have been\ndirectly derived from Faraday's great investigation as to the production\nof electricity from magnetism. Let us now inquire briefly as to what\nuseful processes or industries have been rendered possible by the\nexistence of these machines.\n\nApparently one of the most marked requirements of our twentieth-century\ncivilization is that man shall be readily able to extend the day far\ninto the night. He can no longer go to sleep when the sun sets, and keep\nabreast with his competitors. Of all artificial illuminants yet\nemployed, the arc and the incandescent electric lights are\nunquestionably the best, whether from a sanitary, aesthetic, or truest\neconomical standpoint. Now, while it is a well-known matter of record\nthat both arc and incandescent lights were invented long before\nFaraday's time, yet it was not until a source of electricity was\ninvented, superior both in economy and convenience to the voltaic\nbattery, that either of these lights became commercial possibilities.\nSuch an electric source was given to the world by Faraday through his\ninvention of the dynamo-electric machine, and it was not until this\nmachine was sufficiently developed and improved that commercial electric\nlighting became possible. The energy of burning coal, through the\nsteam-engine, working the dynamo, is far cheaper and more efficient for\nproducing electricity than the consumption of metals through the\nvoltaic pile.\n\nIt is characteristic of the modesty of Faraday that when, in\nafter-life, he heard inventors speaking of their electric lights, he\nrefrained from claiming the electric light as his own, although, without\nthe machine he taught the world how to construct, commercial lighting\nwould have been an impossibility.\n\nThe marvellous activity in the electric arts and sciences, which\nfollowed as a natural result of Faraday giving to the world in the\ndynamo-electric machine a cheap electric source, naturally leads to the\ninquiry as to whether at a somewhat later day a yet greater revolution\nmay not follow the production of a still cheaper electric source. In\npoint of fact such a discovery is by no means an impossibility. When a\ndynamo-electric machine is caused to produce an electric current by the\nintervention of a steam-engine, the transformation of energy which takes\nplace from the energy of the coal to electric energy is an extremely\nwasteful one. Could some practical method be discovered by means of\nwhich the burning of coal liberates electric energy, instead of heat\nenergy, an electric source would be discovered that would far exceed in\neconomy the best dynamo in existence. With such a discovery what the\nresults would be no one can say; this much is certain, that it would,\namong other things, relegate the steam-engine to the scrap-heap, and\nsolve the problem of aerial navigation.\n\nWhat is justly regarded as one of the greatest achievements of modern\ntimes is the electrical transmission of power over comparatively great\ndistances. At some cheap source of energy, say, at a waterfall, a\nwater-wheel is employed to drive a dynamo or generator, thus converting\nmechanical energy into electrical energy. This electricity is passed\nover a conducting line to a distant station, where it is either directly\nutilized for the purpose of lighting, heating, chemical decomposition,\netc., or indirectly utilized for the purpose of obtaining mechanical\npower for driving machinery, by passing it through an electric motor.\nThe electric transmission of power has been successfully made in\nCalifornia over a distance of some 220 miles, at a pressure on\ntransmission lines of 50,000 volts.\n\nThe high pressures required for the economical use of transmission lines\nnecessitates the employment of transformers at each end of the line;\nnamely, step-up transformers at the transmitting end, to raise the\nvoltage delivered by the generators, and step-down transformers, at the\nreceiving end, to lower it for use in the various translating devices.\nThese transformers are employed in connection with alternating-current\ndynamos. Faraday not only gave to the world the first electric\ngenerator, but also the first transformer, and one of the first electric\nmotors, and without these gifts the electric transmission of power over\nlong distances, which has justly been regarded as one of the most\nmarvellous achievements of our age, would have been an impossibility.\n\nIn high-tension circuits over which such pressures as 50,000 volts is\ntransmitted, no little difficulty is experienced from leakage and\nconsequent loss of energy. This leakage occurs both between the line\nconductors and at the insulators placed on the pole lines forming the\nline circuit. The insulators are made either of glass or porcelain, and\nare of a peculiar form known as triple petticoat pattern. The loss on\nsuch lines, due to leakage between wires, is greater than that which\ntakes place at the pole insulators, and is diminished by keeping the\ncircuit wires as far apart as possible.\n\nIn the early history of the art, electric transmission of power was\neffected by means of direct-current generators and motors,--generators\nand motors through which the current always passed in the same\ndirection. Such generators and motors, however, possessed inconveniences\nthat prevented extensive commercial transmission of power, since, as we\nhave seen, high pressure was necessary for efficiency in such\ntransmission, and the collecting-brushes and commutators employed in all\ndirect-current generators and motors to carry the current from the\nmachine or to the motor, were a constant source of trouble and danger.\n\nWhen the alternating-current motor first same into general use, it was\nemployed, in connection with the alternating-current generator, in\nelectric transmission systems; but such motors also possess the\ninconvenience of not readily starting from a state of rest, with their\nfull turning power, or torque, and of therefore being unsuitable where\nthe motor requires to be frequently stopped or started. Had these\ndifficulties remained unsolved, long-distance electric transmission of\npower, so successful in operation to-day, and which bids fair to be\nstill more successful in the near future, would have been impossible.\nFortunately, these difficulties were overcome by the genius of Nikola\nTesla, in the invention of the multiphase alternating-current motor, or\nthe induction motor, as it is now generally called. Although Baily,\nDeprez, and Ferraris had accomplished much before Tesla's time, yet it\nwas practically to the investigations and discoveries made by Tesla,\nbetween 1887 and 1891, that the induction motor of to-day is due.\n\nAnother requirement of our twentieth-century civilization is rapid\ntransit, either urban or inter-urban, and this is afforded by various\nsystems of electric street railways or electric traction generally,\nincluding electric locomotives and electric automobiles. The wonderful\ngrowth in this direction which has been witnessed in the last few\ndecades would have been impossible without the electric generator and\nmotor, both gifts of Faraday to the world. Their application in this\ndirection must, therefore, go to swell the debt our civilization owes to\nthe labors of this great investigator.\n\nIn the system of electric street-car propulsion very generally employed\nto-day, a single trolley wheel is employed for taking the driving\ncurrent from an overhead conductor, suspended above the street. The\ntrolley wheel is supported by a trolley pole, and is maintained in good\nelectric contact with the trolley wire, or overhead conductor. By this\nmeans the current passes from the wire down the conductor connected with\nthe trolley pole, thence through the motors placed below the body of the\ncar, and from them, through the track or ground-return, back to the\npower station. A small portion of the current is employed for lighting\nthe electric lamps in the car. In some systems an underground trolley\nis employed.\n\nAn important device, called the series-parallel controller, is employed\nin all systems of electric street-car propulsion. It consists of means\nby which the starting and stopping of the car, and changes, both in its\nspeed and direction, are placed under the control of the motorman. A\nseparate controller is placed on both platforms of the car. The\nseries-parallel controller consists essentially of a switch by means of\nwhich the several motors, that are employed in all street cars, can\nbe variously connected with each other, or with different electric\nresistances, or can be successively cut out or introduced into the\ncircuit, so that the speed of the car can be regulated at will, as the\nhandle of the controller is moved by the motorman to the various notches\non the top of the controller box. As generally arranged, the speed\nincreases from the first notch or starting position to the last notch,\nmovements in the opposite direction changing connections in the opposite\norder of succession, and, therefore, slowing the car. There is, however,\nno definite speed corresponding to each notch, for this will vary with\nthe load on each car, and with the gradient upon which it may\nbe running.\n\nBut there is another valuable gift received by the world as a result of\nthis great discovery of Faraday; namely, that most marvellous instrument\nof modern times, the speaking telephone. This instrument was invented in\n1861, by Philip Ries, and subsequently independently reinvented in 1876,\nby Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell.\n\nAs is well known, it is electric currents and not sound-waves that are\ntransmitted over a telephone circuit. The magneto-electric telephone in\nits simplest form consists of a pair of instruments called respectively\nthe transmitter and the receiver. We talk into the transmitter and\nlisten at the receiver. Both transmitter and receiver consist of a\npermanent magnet of hardened steel around one end of which is placed a\ncoil of insulated wire. In front of this coil a diaphragm, or thin\nplate, of soft iron, is so supported as to be capable of freely\nvibrating towards and from the magnet pole.\n\nThe operation of the transmitting instrument is readily understood in\nthe light of Faraday's discovery. It is simply a dynamo-electric machine\ndriven by the voice of the speaker. As the sound-waves from the\nspeaker's voice strike against the diaphragm, which has become magnetic\nfrom its nearness to the magnet pole, electric currents are generated in\nthe coil of wire surrounding such pole, since the to-and-fro motions\ncause the lines of electro-magnetic force to pass through the wire on\nthe moving coil. The operation of the receiving instrument is also\nreadily understood. It acts as an electric motor driven by the\nto-and-fro currents generated by the transmitter. As these currents are\ntransmitted over the wire, they pass through the coil of wire on the\nreceiving instrument, and reproduce therein the exact movements of the\ntransmitting diaphragm, since, as they strengthen or weaken the\nmagnetism of the pole, they cause similar motions in the diaphragm\nplaced before it. Consequently, one listening at the receiving diaphragm\nwill hear all that is uttered into the transmitting diaphragm. It was\nthus, by the combination of the dynamo and motor, both of which were\ngiven by Faraday to the world, that we have received this priceless\ninstrument, which has been so potent in its effects on the civilization\nof the Twentieth century.\n\nThe electric telegraph had its beginnings long before Faraday's time. As\nearly as 1847, Watson had erected a line some two miles in length,\nextending over the housetops in London, and operated it by means of\ndischarges from an ordinary frictional electric machine. In 1774, Lesage\nhad erected in Geneva an electric telegraph consisting of a number of\nmetallic wires, one for each letter of the alphabet. These wires were\ncarefully insulated from each other. When a message was to be sent over\nthis early telegraphic line an electric discharge was passed through the\nparticular wire representing the letter of the alphabet to be sent; this\ndischarge, reaching the other end, caused a pithball to be repelled and\nthus laboriously, letter by letter, the message was transmitted. How\nludicrously cumbersome was such an instrument when contrasted with the\nMorse electro-magnetic telegraph of to-day, which requires but a single\nwire; or with the harmonic telegraph of Gray, which permits the\nsimultaneous transmission of eight or more separate messages over a\nsingle wire; or with the wonderful quadruplex telegraphic system of\nEdison which permits the simultaneous transmission of four separate and\ndistinct messages over a single wire, two in one direction, and two in\nthe opposite direction at the same time; or with the still more\nwonderful multiplex telegraph of Delaney, which is able to\nsimultaneously transmit as many as seventy-two separate messages over a\nsingle wire, thirty-six in one direction and thirty-six in the opposite\ndirection. These achievements have been possible only through the\nresearches and discoveries of Oersted, Faraday, and hosts of other\neminent workers; for, it was the electro-magnet, rendered possible by\nOersted, together with the magnificent discoveries of Faraday, and\nothers since his time, that these marvellous advances in\nelectro-telegraphic transmission of intelligence have become\npossibilities.\n\nBefore completing this brief sketch of some of the effects that\nFaraday's work has had on the practical arts and sciences, let us\nbriefly examine the generating plants that are either in operation or\nconstruction at Niagara Falls.\n\nSome idea of the size of the Niagara Falls generating plant on the\nAmerican side may be gained from the fact that there have already been\ninstalled eleven of the separate 5,000 horse-power generators. The\nremaining capacity of the tunnel will permit of the installation of\n50,000 additional horse-power, or 105,000 horse-power in all.\n\nOn the Canadian side of the Falls another great plant is about to be\nerected with an ultimate capacity of several hundred thousand\nhorse-power. Here, however, the size of the generating unit will be\ndouble that on the American side, or 10,000 horse-power. These\ngenerators will be wound to produce an electric pressure of 12,000\nvolts, raised by means of step-up transformers to 22,000, 40,000, and\n60,000 volts, according to the distance of transmission. Each of the\nrevolving parts of these machines will weigh 141,000 pounds. To what\ngigantic proportions has the little infant dynamo of Faraday grown in\nthis short time since its birth!\n\nThe low rates at which electric power can be sold in the immediate\nneighborhood of the Niagara generating plant have naturally resulted in\nan enormous growth of the electro-chemical industries, for these\nindustries could never otherwise develop into extended commercial\napplications. Of the total output of, say, 55,000 horse-power at the\nNiagara Falls generating plant, no less than 23,200 horse-power is used\nin various electrolytic and electro-thermal processes in the immediate\nneighborhood. Some of the more important consumers of the electric\npower, named in the order of consumption, are for the manufacture of the\nfollowing products: calcium carbide, aluminium, caustic soda and\nbleaching salt, carborundum, and graphite.\n\nCalcium carbide, employed in the production of acetylene gas, either for\nthe purposes of artificial illumination, or for the manufacture of ethyl\nalcohol, is produced by subjecting a mixture of carbon and lime to the\nprolonged action of heat in an electric furnace.\n\nAluminium, the now well-known valuable metal, present in clay, bauxite,\nand a variety of other mineral substances, is electrolytically deposited\nfrom a bath of alumina obtained by dissolving bauxite either in\npotassium fluoride or in cryolite. Aluminium is now coming into extended\nuse in the construction of long-distance electric power\ntransmission lines.\n\nCaustic soda and bleaching salt are produced by the electrolytic\ndecomposition of brine (chloride of sodium). The chlorine liberated at\nthe anode is employed in the manufacture of bleaching-salt, and the\nsodium is liberated at a mercury cathode, with which it at once enters\ninto combination as an alloy. On throwing this alloy into water the\nsodium is liberated as caustic soda.\n\nCarborundum, a silicide of carbon, is a valuable substance produced by\nthe action of the heat of an electric furnace on an intimate mixture of\ncarbon and sand. It has an extensive use as an abrasive for grinding and\npolishing.\n\nArtificial graphite is another product produced by the long-continued\naction of the heat of the electric furnace on carbon under certain\nconditions.\n\nAccording to reports from the United States Geological Survey, the\ngraphite works at Niagara Falls produced in 1901, 2,500,000 lbs. of\nartificial graphite, valued at $119,000. This was an increase from\n860,270 lbs., valued at $69,860 for 1900, and from 162,382 lbs., valued\nat $10,140, in 1897, the first year of its commercial production. In\n1901, more than half of the output was in the form of graphitized\nelectrodes employed in the production of caustic soda and bleaching\nsalt, and in other electrolytic processes.\n\nThe Niagara Falls power transmission system stands to-day as a\nmagnificent testimonial to the genius of Faraday, and as a living\nmonument of the varied and valuable gifts his researches have bestowed\nupon mankind. For here we have not only the dynamo, motors, and\ntransformers that he gave freely to the world, not only the\nalternating-current transformer, and the system of transmission of\npower, but we even find that the principal consumers of the enormous\nelectric power produced are employing it in carrying on some of the many\nprocesses in electro-chemistry, a science that he had done so much\nto advance.\n\nAmong some of the surprises electro-chemistry may have in store for the\nworld in the comparatively near future, may be a nearer approach to a\nmastery of the laws which govern the combination of elementary\nsubstances when under the influence of plant-life. If these laws ever\nbecome so well known that man is able to form hi his laboratory the\nvarious food products that are now formed naturally in plant organisms,\nsuch a revolution would be wrought that the work of the agriculturist\nwould be largely transferred to the electro-chemist. Some little has\nalready been done in the direct formation of some vegetable substances,\nsuch as camphor, the peculiar flavoring substance present in the vanilla\nbean, and in many other substances. Should such discoveries ever reach\nto the direct formation of some food staple, the wide-reaching\nimportance and significance of the discovery would be almost beyond\ncomprehension.\n\nBut, while the direct electro-synthetic formation of food products is\nyet to be accomplished on a practical scale, the problem appears to be\nnearing actual solution in an indirect manner. It has been known since\nthe time of Cavendish, in 1785, that small quantities of nitric acid\ncould be formed directly from the nitrogen and oxygen of the atmosphere\nby the passage of electric sparks; but heretofore, the quantity so found\nhas been too small to be of any commercial value. Quite recently,\nhowever, one of the electro-chemical companies at Niagara Falls has\nsucceeded in commercially solving the important problem of the fixation\nof the nitrogen of the atmosphere; it being claimed that the cost of\nthus producing one ton of commercial nitric acid, of a market value of\nover eighty dollars, does not greatly exceed twenty dollars. Since\nsodium nitrate can readily be produced by the process, and its value as\na fertilizer of wheat-fields is too well known to need comment, there\nwould thus, to a limited extent, be indirectly solved the\nelectro-chemical production of food staples.\n\nFaraday's high rank as an investigator in the domain of natural science\nwas fully recognized by the learned societies of his time, by admission\ninto their fellowships. As early as 1824, he was honored by the Royal\nSociety of London by election as one of its Fellows, and in 1825 he had\nbecome a member of the Royal Institution. It is recorded of the great\nphilosopher that the membership in the Royal Institution was the only\none which he personally sought; all others came unsought, but they came\nso rapidly from all portions of the globe that in 1844 he was a member\nof no less than seventy of the leading learned societies of the world.\nRies, the German electrician, so well known in connection with his\ninvention of the speaking telephone, addressed Faraday as \"Professor\nMichael Faraday, Member of all the Academies.\" Besides his membership in\nthe learned societies, Faraday received numerous degrees from the\ncolleges and universities of his time. Among some of these are the\nfollowing: The University of Prague, the degree of Ph.D.; Oxford, the\ndegree of D.C.L.; and Cambridge, the degree of LL.D. He also received\nnumerous medals of honor, and was offered the Presidency of the Royal\nSociety, which, however, he declined, as he did also a knighthood\nproffered by the government of England. Faraday died on the 25th of\nAugust, 1867, after a long, well-spent, useful life.\n\nWe have thus briefly traced some of the more important discoveries of\nMichael Faraday. Many have necessarily been passed by, but what we have\ngiven are more than sufficient to stamp him as a great philosopher and\ninvestigator. Speaking of Faraday in this connection, Professor Tyndall\nsays: \"Take him for all in all, I think it will be conceded that Michael\nFaraday is the greatest experimental philosopher the world has ever\nseen; and I will add the opinion that the progress of future research\nwill tend not to diminish or decrease, but to enhance and glorify, the\nlabors of this mighty investigator.\"\n\n\n\nAUTHORITIES.\n\nExperimental Researches in Electricity. By Michael Faraday. From the\nPhilosophical Transactions.\n\nAbstracts of the Philosophical Transactions from 1800 to 1837.\n\nFaraday's Experimental Researches in Electricity and Magnetism. 3 vols.\n\nLife and Letters of Faraday. By Dr. Bence Jones.\n\nMichael Faraday. By J.H. Gladstone.\n\nStudents' Text-Book of Electricity. By Henry M. Noad. Revised by W.H.\nPreece.\n\nMichael Faraday. By John Tyndall.\n\nPioneers of Electricity. By J. Munro.\n\nDynamo-Electric Machinery. By Silvanus P. Thompson.\n\nA Dictionary of Electrical Words, Terms, and Phrases. By Edwin J.\nHouston.\n\nElectricity and Magnetism. By Edwin J. Houston.\n\nElectricity One Hundred Years Ago and To-Day. By Edwin J. Houston.\n\nMagnetism; Electro-Technical Series. By Edwin J. Houston and Arthur E.\nKennelly.\n\nElectro-Dynamic Machinery. By Edwin J. Houston and A. E. Kennelly.\n\n\n\n\nRUDOLF VIRCHOW.\n\n\n1821-1902.\n\nMEDICINE AND SURGERY.\n\nBY FRANK P. FOSTER, M.D.\n\n\nStagnation was the state of medicine when the Nineteenth Century opened.\nIt was only three years before that Jenner had announced and\ndemonstrated the protective efficacy of vaccination against small-pox.\nHis teaching, in spite of the vehement cavillings of the \"antis\" of his\nday, gained credence readily, and vaccination speedily became recognized\nand was constantly resorted to, but hardly any attempt at perfecting the\npractice was made until after more than fifty years had elapsed. His\ndiscovery--or, rather, his proof of the truth of a rustic\ntradition--fell like a pebble into the doldrums; the ripple soon\nsubsided, and nobody was encouraged to start another. At the present\ntime such an announcement would be promptly followed by investigations\nleading up to such doctrines as that of the attenuation of viruses and\nthat of antitoxines. But the times were not ripe for anything of that\nsort; medicine reposed on tradition, or at best gave itself only to such\nplausibilities in the way of innovation as were cleverly advocated.\nPhysicians strove not to advance the healing art; as individuals, they\nwere content to rely on their manners, their tact, and their assumption\nof wisdom. In short, the body medical was in a state of suspended\nanimation, possessed of a mere vegetative existence.\n\nThe Humoral pathology, or that doctrine of the nature of disease which\nascribed all ailments to excess, deficiency, or ill \"concoction\" of some\none of the four humors (yellow and black bile, blood, and phlegm), had\nnot yet lost its hold on men's convictions, or at least not further than\nto make them look upon exposure to cold and errors of diet as amply\nexplanatory of all diseases not plainly infectious. The medical writers\nwho were most revered were those who busied themselves with nosology;\nthat is to say, the naming and classifying of diseases. Wonderful were\nthe onomatological feats performed by some of these men, and most\ndiverse and grotesque were the data on which they founded their\nclassifications. To label a disease was high art; to cure it was\nsomething that Providence might or might not allow. In the treatment of\n\"sthenic\" acute diseases (meaning those accompanied by excitement and\nhigh fever), blood-letting, mercury given to the point of salivation,\nantimony, and opium, together with starvation (all included under the\neuphemism of \"lowering measures\"), were the means universally resorted\nto and reputed \"sheet anchors.\" Some advance had been made from the\ntimes when disease had been looked upon as an entity to be exorcised,\nbut it was still so far regarded as a material thing that it was to be\nstarved out.\n\nBut the century was not out of its second decade when signs of an\nawakening from this lethargy began to show themselves. The first steps,\nnaturally, were along preparatory lines, and for those we are largely\nindebted to the physicists, the chemists, and the botanists. Gross\nanatomy became better known, owing for the most part to more enlightened\nlegislation on the subject of the dissection of the human body; minute\nanatomy (histology) sprang into existence as the result of improvements\nof the compound microscope. Physiology took on something of the\nexperimental; and medication was rendered far less gross and repulsive\nby the isolation of the active principles of medicinal plants. But it\nwas long after all this that the telling strides were taken. Up to\nwithin the memory of many men who are now living, \"peritonitis\" tortured\nits victims to death, said \"peritonitis\" being often interpreted as a\nmanifestation of rheumatism, for example, and no well-directed\ninterposition was attempted against it, whereas we now know perfectly\nwell that the vast majority of cases of peritonitis are due to local\nseptic poisoning and for the most part quite readily remediable by the\nremoval (with a minimum of danger) of the organ from which such\npoisoning arises--almost always the vermiform appendix. \"Appendicitis,\"\nof which we hear so much nowadays, is no new disease; it is simply the\n\"peritonitis\" that killed so many people in former times. But while no\nwell-informed person would now maintain that this disease was a new one,\nthere are many, and those, too, among the best instructed, who find it\ndifficult to avoid the conclusion that, if not new, it must at least be\nof far more frequent occurrence than formerly. It must be borne in mind,\nhowever, that in the great majority of instances in past years it ended\nspontaneously in recovery and was forgotten.\n\nTwo features of the progress in medicine in the Nineteenth Century,\nnegative as they may seem to have been, were undoubtedly potent in the\npromotion of advance. They were the recognition of the fact that many\ndangerous diseases are self-limited, and the experiment of the so-called\n\"expectant treatment.\" The result of the first of them was to teach men\nto desist from futile attempts to _cure_ the self-limited diseases, in\nthe sense of cutting them short in their course, and the \"expectant\ntreatment\" followed as a natural consequence. It was a method of\nmanaging disease rather than attempting to cure it. There was no\ninterference save to promote the patient's comfort, to nourish him as\nthoroughly as might be without unduly taxing his powers, and to meet\ncomplications as they arose. It was stooping to conquer, perhaps, but it\nwas a policy that conduced greatly to the well-being of the sick,\nimproved their chances of recovery, and enabled physicians to study\ndisease more accurately by reason of its course not being rendered\nirregular by meddlesome medication. It has never been dropped, and it\nnever will be, save as such directly curative agents as the antitoxines\nare made available.\n\nIn the early part of the century, except for gross anatomy and operative\nsurgery, medicine was taught almost wholly, so far as the schools were\nconcerned, by means of didactic lectures. The \"drawing\" capacity of a\nprofessor was proportionate rather to his rhetorical powers and to the\npersuasiveness with which he inculcated the views peculiar to himself\nthan to the amount of real information that he conveyed to the students.\nAlthough the apprentice system--for that was what the practice of\nstudents' attaching themselves to individual practitioners, whom they\ncalled their preceptors, virtually amounted to--in many instances made\nup more or less completely for the lack of systematic clinical teaching,\nyet in the great majority of cases it amounted to little more than the\npreceptor's allowing the student the use of his library and occasionally\nexamining into the latter's diligence and intelligence, in return for\nwhich he, the preceptor, required an annual fee and exacted from the\nstudent such minor services as his proficiency enabled him to render. It\nis true the students \"walked\" the hospitals, drinking in some great\nman's utterances, but they did it in droves, not a moiety of them being\nable to get a good look at a patient, unless it was such a passing\nglance as might tell them that the patient was jaundiced. By clinical\nteaching we understand teaching, not in glittering generalities, but in\nthe concrete, either at the bedside, as the word _clinical_ originally\nimplied, or at least with the patient actually present to illustrate in\nhis person the professor's descriptions and the success or failure of\nthe treatment employed. The clinic is now firmly established, and has\nbeen for years, but it was long before this grand result was attained.\n\nExperimental methods of study gradually came into vogue, particularly in\nthe domain of physiology. In this sphere Dr. William Beaumont, of the\nUnited States Army, was a pioneer. His historic experiments on Alexis\nSt. Martin, a soldier who had been wounded in the stomach and recovered\nwith a permanent opening into that organ, will ever rank among the most\nimportant of the early experimental studies of digestion. It was not\nlong before Claude Bernard extended similar inquiries to the other\nfunctions of the body, notably those of the nervous system; and since\nhis time there has been a long array of brilliant investigators of\nphysiology and of other branches of science tributary to medicine.\nExperiments on living animals were almost the only means of carrying on\nthese researches. In the early days the animals employed were doubtless\nput to a great deal of pain--perhaps in many instances to unnecessary\nsuffering--and an altogether laudable feeling of humanity has led good\npeople to band themselves together for the purpose of putting a stop to\nvivisection, or at least of greatly restricting the practice and of\nfreeing it from all avoidable infliction of pain. These praiseworthy\nefforts have in some instances been carried so far, unfortunately, as to\nseriously hamper scientific investigation--investigation which has for\nits object the alleviation of human suffering and the saving of human\nlife. We may earnestly deprecate and strive to prevent wanton\nreiteration of painful experiments for purposes of demonstrating anew\nthat which is unquestioned, and we may resort to all possible means to\nrender necessary experiments free from actual pain (from the anguish of\ntrepidation we can seldom relieve the poor animals), but let us not\nblock the wheels of scientific progress.\n\nAt the dawn of the Nineteenth Century, to examine a sick person's\npulse, to inspect his tongue, to observe his breathing, to interrogate\nhis skin by our sense of touch, and to try to make his statements and\nthose of his friends fit in with some tenable theory of the nature of\nhis ailment, were about all we could do. Possibly it was because he\nrealized to an uncommon degree the tremendous impediment of this narrow\nlimitation that Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of Homoeopathy, cut the\nGordian knot in sheer rebelliousness, and proclaimed, as he virtually\ndid, that a diagnosis was not necessary to the successful treatment of\ndisease, but that one only needed to know empirically how to subdue\nsymptoms, meaning mainly, if not solely, what we term \"subjective\"\nsymptoms--those of which the patient complains, as opposed to those that\nwe ourselves discover. But the physical examination of the sick, before\nextremely meagre in its sphere and restricted in its possibilities, was\ndestined to expand before many years into the minute and positive\nphysical diagnosis of the present day.\n\nIn the year 1816 a French physician, R\u00e9n\u00e9 Th\u00e9ophile Hyacinthe Laennec,\nachieved undying fame by publishing to the world an account of his\nlabors in the application of mediate auscultation and of percussion to\nthe diagnosis of the diseases of the chest. It is true that no less a\npersonage than the \"Father of Medicine,\" Hippocrates, is reputed to have\npractised succussion as a means of diagnosis; that is, the shaking of a\npatient, as one would shake a cask, to ascertain by the occurrence or\nnon-occurrence of a splashing sound if the person's pleural cavity was\ndistended partly with water and partly with air. It is probable that\nHippocrates and many others after him carried the physical examination\nof the chest still further, for it is difficult to imagine, for example,\nthat so simple a device as that of thumping a partition to make out the\nsituation of a joist by the sound evoked should not early have been\napplied to the human chest. But, be this as it may, to Laennec belongs\nthe great credit of having laid a substantial foundation for the\nphysical diagnosis of the present time, and, more than for laying a\nfoundation, for constructing a fairly complete edifice. He who should\nnow undertake to practise general medicine without having first made\nhimself proficient in the detection and interpretation of the sounds\nelicited by auscultation and percussion in diseases of the heart and\nlungs would foredoom himself to failure.\n\nIt was not until many years later, early in the second half of the\ncentury, that the clinical thermometer came into general use, but it\nsoon showed most strikingly the superiority of the \"instrument of\nprecision\" to the unaided senses of man. Who would think now of trying\nto estimate the height of a fever by laying his hand on the patient's\nskin, or who, even among the laity, would be satisfied with such a\nprocedure? \"Doubtless,\" said the present writer in a former publication\n(\"New York Medical Journal,\" Dec. 29, 1900), \"the use of the thermometer\nhas occasionally given rise to needless alarm, but almost invariably it\nmay be interpreted with great certainty. Often it dispels unnecessary\nanxiety as in a twinkling by its negative indication, and surely it is\nto be credited with being distinctly diagnostic in those diseases of\nwhich it has itself established the 'curve.'\" By the thermometric\n\"curve\" of a disease is understood the general visual impression made by\nthe graphic chart of a temperature record--the course of a zigzag line\nconnecting the points indicated by the various individual observations.\n\nNumerous other instruments of precision are now in constant use, among\nthe most wonderful of which perhaps is the ophthalmoscope, whereby we\nare enabled to subject the retina and the intervening media of the eye\nto minute visual examination. There is not an organ of the body that is\nnot now interrogated daily in the way of physical diagnosis, and we even\nexamine separately the secretion of each of the two kidneys. In\naddition, there are multitudinous specific signs of which we were not\nlong ago in complete ignorance. To cite only one of these, there is\nWidal's agglutination test, by which the bacteriologist can usually make\na diagnosis of typhoid fever far in advance of the time at which it\ncould otherwise be distinguished. The use of the R\u00f6ntgen rays in\ndiagnosis was one of the crowning achievements of the century, and now\nwe seem about to enter upon a course of their successful employment in\nthe treatment of disease--even some forms of cancer--as well as in its\ndetection.\n\nBeyond the vermin that infest the skin and the hair, tapeworm, and a few\nother intestinal worms, little if anything was known of morbific\nparasites before the Nineteenth Century; but the labors of Van Beneden,\nK\u00fcchenmeister, Cobbold, Manson, Laveran, and others have now established\nthe causal relationship between great numbers of animal parasites--gross\nand microscopic--and certain definite morbid states. This has led to a\ngreat increase in our knowledge of the connection between the parasites\nof the lower animals and grave disease in human beings, and on this\nknowledge rest many of the precautions that we are now able to take\nagainst the spread of such disease. From the consideration of animal\nparasites as the direct causes of disease, we naturally come to the\ncontemplation of the subject of insects as the carriers of disease. The\nlater years of the century have witnessed the demonstration of the fly's\nagency in the transmission of malignant pustule and typhoid fever, and\nthat of certain mosquitoes in the conveyance of yellow fever and\nmalarial disease. We now know that bad air (the original meaning of the\nword _malaria_) has nothing to do with fever and ague, and that swamps\nare not unwholesome if they are free from infected mosquitoes. The\nmosquito does not originate the malarial infection; it simply serves as\nthe temporary host of the micro-organism (_Plasmodium malarioe_) which\nis the cause of the disease, having obtained its transient \"guest\" from\nsome human being. Consequently, marshy districts that are full of\nmosquitoes are not malarious unless the mosquitoes are of the kinds\ncapable of lodging the plasmodium, and unless there is or has recently\nbeen present in the neighborhood some person affected with malarial\ndisease. Moreover, the most virulently malarious region is a safe place\nof residence for human beings, provided they protect themselves\nabsolutely against the bite of the mosquito. This has been strikingly\ndemonstrated in the case of the Roman Campagna.\n\nFrom the disease-producing animal parasites we come now to those that\nare believed to be of vegetable nature. Under the general name of\n_bacteria_, there are multitudes of micro-organisms having pathogenic\npowers, each giving rise to some definite specific disease, and certain\nassociations of different bacteria causing particular morbid conditions.\nGenerations ago physicians had a glimmering of what we now term the germ\ntheory of disease, as was shown by their use of such expressions as\n_materies morbi_ and morbid poisons. Even the definite relationship of\nspecial microscopic organisms to individual diseases was foreshadowed by\nSalisbury nearly fifty years ago. But it was not until years after those\nconceptions, and in no wise descended from or led up to by them, that an\nintelligible and satisfactory germ theory of disease was formulated.\n\nIt is to Pasteur, the immortal chemist, that we owe this theory, as well\nas that of the attenuation of viruses--both of more than theoretical\nimport, since they have given us aseptic surgery, the power of\nfrequently preventing hydrophobia, the antitoxine treatment of\ndiphtheria, and the ability to stay the hand of Death in the form of\nmany a stalking pestilence. Every infectious disease is now held to be\ndue to its own particular micro-organism, and many diseases that were\nnot until recently thought to be infectious are now classed as such\nbecause they have been proved to be caused by living germs. Conspicuous\namong these diseases is pulmonary consumption. In the case of almost\nevery one of these diseases we have discovered the specific germ and are\nable to demonstrate its presence, either by its microscopical\nappearance, by its behavior on contact with certain stains, or by the\nforms that cultures of it assume. The micro-organism of small-pox and\nthat of cancer (the existence of which is assumed) have not yet been\nisolated. Some of these germs, like that of tetanus (lockjaw), gain\nentrance to the system only through a wound; others, like those of\ntyphoid fever and cholera, are swallowed; others, like that of\npneumonia, are inhaled; still others, like that of tuberculous disease,\nare either swallowed or inhaled. Some are believed to be transmissible\nto the unborn child; and a few are ordinarily harmless parasites,\nbecoming pathogenic only when they accidentally gain access to other\nparts of the system than those which constitute their natural habitat.\n\nThese microscopic organisms do not by their mere presence set up\ndisease, unless indeed they are in such overwhelming numbers as to block\nthe capillary blood vessels mechanically. Some of them are carried\nbroadcast in the blood current, while others remain at the point of\nentrance; in either case they elaborate certain products, termed\ntoxines, which act, either locally or through the circulation, to cause\nthe disease. These toxines eventually kill the micro-organisms that\nproduced them, quite as an animal may be smothered in its own\nexhalations; or at least they would do so if the \"host\" survived long\nenough for the completion of the process. Meantime, they have either\nkilled the \"host\" or been defeated by certain very interesting natural\nprocesses. But before either of these occurrences has had time to take\nplace, fortunately, in the great majority of instances, save those of\nexposure to the most deadly of infections, the vital power of the\ninvaded individual has coped successfully with the invaders at the very\npoint of attack--has repulsed the attacking party without appreciable\nimpairment of its own force--and no illness results. For example,\npractically all of us inhale the germ of consumption repeatedly, but\nmost of us suffer no harm from it simply because the fluids which bathe\nthe surface on which the germ effects a lodgment are endowed with\nproperties which either kill the germ or rob it of its power for harm;\nbut these properties suffice only when the general health is unimpaired.\n\nIn case the attack is not successfully repelled at the outset, what\nhappens? There begins a struggle between the invaders and what may be\ncalled the reserves of the organism, consisting of the white blood\ncorpuscles, which undergo a great augmentation in number. These\ncorpuscles are endowed with the faculty of amoeboid movement; that is to\nsay, they may shoot out projections from their substance, and even\nconvert themselves for the time being into traps, seizing upon the\npathogenic bacteria, incarcerating them within their own mass, and\ncarrying them away to be thrust out of the system by organs whose\nfunction it is to eliminate extraneous matter. These corpuscles are,\nindeed, said figuratively to _eat_ the malign micro-organisms, whence\nthey have been termed phagocytes (from [Greek: phagein], to eat, and\n[Greek: kutos], a cell); also because they carry away refuse and\nnoxious material, they have been called \"the scavengers of the system.\"\nBy means of their amoeboid movement they are enabled to worm themselves\nthrough inconceivably minute apertures in the blood vessels, and attack\nand devour peccant matter wherever it may have effected a lodgment.\nThese white corpuscles are also known as leucocytes, and their increase\nin number when they are called upon to resist bacterial invasion is\nspoken of as hyperleucocytosis. The discovery of their protective\nfunction is to be credited to Metchnikoff, a Russian physician now\nteaching in Paris. When they migrate from the blood vessels in great\nnumbers they finally, after having fulfilled their office as phagocytes,\ndegenerate into the corpuscular elements of pus, which is the creamy\nliquid contained in an abscess. Their migratory power was discovered\nby Cohnheim.\n\nBut as a general thing the phagocytes do not succeed in making away with\nall the pathogenic germs, or even with enough of them to prevent the\nillness which they tend to produce. The further combat is between the\npoisonous products, termed toxines, engendered by the bacteria and\ncertain antidotal substances, called antitoxines, newly created in the\nwatery portion of the blood by some wonderful provision of Nature that\nis not yet well understood. Each infective disease has its special\ntoxine, and for the destruction of each the blood prepares its\nparticular antitoxine; possibly, however, some of the antitoxines may be\nefficacious against more than one kind of toxine, for there are\nphysicians who are convinced that vaccination is a temporary preventive\nof whooping-cough. But the elaboration of an antitoxine takes time, and\nthe result in any given case, whether in recovery or in death, seems to\nbe settled by the ability or inability of the vital powers of the\nindividual to hold out until they are relieved by the evolution of the\nnecessary amount of antitoxine.\n\nIn the long run, provided the sick person survives, more antitoxine is\ngenerated than is required to save life. The excess remains in the\nsystem for a greater or lesser length of time, and this fact explains\nthe individual's subsequent immunity to the disease from which he has\nrecovered; any fresh invading force of the microbes of that disease\nfinds that defensive preparations have been made in advance. In the case\nof some diseases this acquired immunity is usually lifelong, as in that\nof small-pox; in others, of which influenza is a notable example, it is\nas a rule very transitory; and there are all gradations between the two.\nIt is thought that this acquired immunity to some diseases may be\ntransmitted to the offspring, for it is quite certain that there are\nmany people who are from birth insusceptible to scarlet fever, no matter\nwhat may be the extent of their exposure to that disease.\n\nThe recognition of Nature's elaboration of protective antitoxines has\nled to their artificial cultivation in the lower animals, and, thus\nproduced, they have been used with brilliant results in the prevention\nand cure of at least one formidable disease, diphtheria. The immense\nreduction of the mortality from this disease that has followed the\nintroduction of the treatment with the artificial antitoxine we owe to\nBehring, of Germany, and Roux, of France. Omitting unnecessary details,\nwe may describe the process of obtaining diphtheria antitoxine as\nfollows: A certain amount of diphtheritic poison (of the bacteriological\nsort, prepared by cultivating the diphtheria microbe) is injected into\nthe circulation of a horse--sufficient to make the horse sick, but not\nenough to endanger his life. The horse's system straightway begins to\nelaborate the protective antitoxine, and there results from this one\ninjection a sufficient amount of it to save the horse, although far too\nlittle to make the serum of his blood potent enough for medicinal use.\nHence, after the lapse of a suitable interval, he is again injected with\ndiphtheritic poison, and for the second time his blood begins to\ngenerate the antitoxine. And the process is repeated again and again,\nthe virulence of the poison being increased each time, until the horse's\nblood is fairly reeking with antitoxine. Then blood is drawn freely from\nthe horse, and it is allowed to separate into clot and serum, the\nlatter alone being the part destined for use. This serum is tested on a\nsmall animal that has been inoculated with a deadly dose of the\ndiphtheritic poison; if it saves the little creature from death, it is\nassumed to be potent enough for use on human beings, and, handled with\nall possible precautions against putrefaction or any contamination with\npathogenic bacteria, it is furnished to physicians, its degree of\npotency being designated in \"units.\"\n\nIf in this brief article, which does not purport to be more than a\nsketch of the tremendous strides made by medicine in the Nineteenth\nCentury, so much space has been given to the germ theory of disease, it\nis because the demonstration of the truth of that theory has been\nabsolute, and has constituted the very marrow of almost all the medical\nprogress of the century that has been the outcome of continuous thought\nand study as opposed to chance discovery.\n\nSuch results as the germ theory has now led to in the treatment of\ndiphtheria it had already accomplished in the field of surgery as a\nconsequence of that strict asepticism which, originating with Joseph\nLister (now Lord Lister), and rapidly carried by him to a condition\nverging on technical completeness, was soon taken up by surgeons all\nover the world and brought wellnigh to perfection, so that the mortality\nof wounds of all sorts has been tremendously reduced, and many surgical\noperations are now practised frequently--indeed, whenever the occasion\nfor them arises--that before the days of Listerism would have been\nlooked upon as almost tantamount to the patient's death-warrant. More\nparticularly is this the case as to operations which involve opening\ninto the abdomen, the chest, or the cranium. So little risk now attaches\nto such operations, properly performed, that the opening of the\nabdominal cavity for the mere purpose of ascertaining the condition of\nits contents--\"exploratory laparotomy,\" as it is called--is a matter of\nconstant occurrence. Curiously enough, in some way not yet\nsatisfactorily explained, that procedure in itself, without anything\nfurther being done, has in many instances resulted in decided\namelioration of a morbid condition, if not in its cure. A striking\nexample of this is seen in the benefit that often results in cases of\none form of \"consumption of the bowels,\" namely, tuberculous disease of\nthe membrane that lines the abdominal wall and invests the abdominal\norgans. This is not the only operation that does good mysteriously; that\nof cutting out a bit of the iris in a form of deep-seated eye disease,\nglaucoma, that tends toward complete blindness, is hardly more\nexplicable; neither is an incision of the capsule of the kidney for\ncertain forms of Bright's disease, each of which stays the progress of\nthe trouble in a goodly proportion of instances.\n\nAnother of the great divisions of the healing art, that of midwifery,\nhas been enhanced quite as much as general surgery by the employment of\nListerism. The process of childbirth, although a perfectly natural one,\nalmost necessarily carries with it a certain amount of laceration, and,\nthrough the wound surfaces thus produced, absorption of poisonous\nmaterial was formerly so frequent that puerperal fever figured\nprominently in mortality reports. It was Oliver Wendell Holmes--a\ngraduate in medicine and a professor in the Harvard Medical School,\nthough we are accustomed to think of him only as a delightful\nwriter--who first declared that puerperal fever was the product of\ninfection from without the body, and Semmelweis demonstrated the truth\nof the proposition. Holmes was a teacher of physiology, and his study of\nthat branch of medical science was in itself enough to convince him of\nthe doctrine which he inculcated.\n\nListerism must be credited, not only with having added immensely to the\nsafety of the major operations of surgery, but also with having led to\ngreat improvement of their technics by reason of the greatly increased\nfrequency with which it has come to be thought justifiable to practise\nthem; what we do again and again we are apt in the end to do well,\nwhereas that which we turn to only in despair and as rarely as possible,\nwe do clumsily and imperfectly. Listerism has been unjustly alleged by\na few to be unworthy of the appreciation in which it is held by the\ngreat majority of medical men of all countries; simple cleanliness, it\nhas been urged, is quite as efficient as the full Listerian precautions.\nThis is begging the question, for simple cleanliness, \"chemical\ncleanliness,\" is all that Listerism purports to accomplish. The use of\nantiseptics has been decried in the interest of asepticism, as if the\nwhole purpose of antisepticism were not to secure asepsis. Lord Lister\nis entitled to the full credit of establishing the aseptic surgery of\nthe present day, in spite of the facts that his doctrine followed rather\nthan preceded his early improvements, that aseptic procedures have been\nbrought nearer perfection elsewhere than in his own country, and that\nthe whole system rests on foundations laid by Pasteur.\n\nWhile it is quite true that to the Listerian theory and practice are\nalmost wholly to be ascribed the favorable results of the major surgery\nof the present day, we must not forget the immeasurable benefits to the\ndiseased, the injured, and the crippled that have arisen from patient\nefforts and occasional brilliant intuition that have had no connection\nwith the germ theory of infection. Take the case of a broken leg, for\nexample, an injury that formerly condemned the victim to weeks and weeks\nof confinement to bed, together with the suffering and danger almost\ninseparable from the old methods of the long straight splint and tight\nbandaging. At the present time he who has met with such a misfortune is\ncommonly able to be about on crutches within a few days, and his broken\nbone mends while he is cultivating his appetite and indulging in\npleasant intercourse with his fellow-men. This great change has been\nmade possible by one device after another, invented by different men.\nJosiah Crosby introduced the use of sticking-plaster for extension,\ninstead of the chafing bands previously employed; Gurdon Buck\nsubstituted elastic extension by means of a weight and pulley for the\nrude and arbitrary traction in vogue before; James L. Little devised the\nplaster-of-Paris splint, whereby broken bones were immobilized with\nhardly appreciable discomfort; and Henry B. Sands established the safety\nand practicability of applying the plaster-of-Paris splint almost\nimmediately after the reduction (\"setting\") of the fracture. In the\nmeantime Nathan R. Smith and John T. Hodgen had demonstrated the\nadvantages of suspending a fractured limb from above. All these men were\nAmericans; surely our country has contributed powerfully to the\nwell-being of the subjects of fracture. Other Americans, notably Lewis\nA. Sayre, have enabled sufferers with joint disease, including the\ndreaded hip disease, to run about and gain health and strength, instead\nof languishing in bed. Sayre, too, by his suspension treatment and the\nplaster-of-Paris jacket, set the hunchback on his feet at a stage in his\ndisease in which before he had been forced to prolonged and painful\nrecumbency.\n\nAlthough men professing special skill in certain operations, and\ndoubtless possessing it, flourished in old times, and left more or less\nof their impress on the surgery of the present day, for that matter, it\nwas not until the second half of the Nineteenth Century that regional\nsurgery (which is what specialism virtually amounts to) was\nsystematically cultivated. Now there is hardly a portion of the body to\nwhich practitioners who make its ailments a specialty do not direct\ntheir searching methods of examination or on which they do not practise\ntheir ingenious devices in the way of treatment. Specialism has always\nbeen decried by a large section of the medical profession. On the other\nhand, it has been and is still overrated by the laity. The true estimate\nlies between the two. The specialists have advanced surgery immensely,\nbut, with many honorable exceptions, they have laid too much stress on\ntheir several specialties, making too wide a range of ailments fall\nwithin them. As for the community at large, their shortcoming lies in\nthe fact that most of them would seek for a specialist in mumps in case\nthat painful but transitory infliction were to come upon them, and in\ntheir underrating of the family physician.\n\nTo change for a moment to a topic akin to the germ theory of disease,\nthe reader may be reminded that the antitoxine treatment of infectious\ndisease involves in almost every instance the use of some product\ncontained in the serum (that is to say, the watery part of the blood).\nThis leads to the subject of the use of natural and artificial serum in\nthe treatment of disease. To quote again from the article entitled, \"The\nNineteenth Century in Medicine\" (\"New York Medical Journal,\" Dec.\n29,1900): \"It has been observed that the normal serum of certain animals\nthat are insusceptible to particular infectious diseases, if injected\ninto the human blood current or even into the subcutaneous tissue,\nconfers more or less of immunity against those diseases.... Artificial\nserum seems to have been first employed by Edmund R. Peaslee as a benign\napplication to the peritonaeum in the operation of ovariotomy. His\nconception of its mode of action is not very clear, but he was a very\nsuccessful ovariotomist, and we can only conjecture that he builded\nbetter than he knew, like many another man. A few years ago much was\nexpected from transfusion of blood, but gradually the conviction has\nforced itself upon us that it is wellnigh useless, and indeed that, on\nthe whole, it is worse than useless. It has virtually been abandoned....\nBut experiments in transfusion have not been fruitless; they have\nculminated in demonstrating the inestimable value of infusions of\n'normal,' or 'physiological,' solutions of sodium chloride, and not only\nof infusions, but also of peritoneal irrigation with such solutions.\nMany a life has been saved by resorting to this measure, even in\napparently desperate cases.\"\n\nWithin about a decade of the close of the century, Robert Koch, whose\ndiscoveries and ingenious studies in bacteriology had brought him\nworld-wide renown, announced that he had produced a derivative of the\ntubercle bacillus, which he termed tuberculin, that he thought might\nprove curative of tuberculous disease. It was to be injected beneath the\nskin. If the subject was really tuberculous, he would \"react\" by\nmanifesting a certain degree of fever, and repeated injections would\nbring about elimination of the tuberculous deposits and thus effect a\ncure. The world was carried away with such an announcement coming from\nsuch a man, and it was thoroughly believed that at last \"the great white\nplague,\" consumption, was to be conquered. Tuberculin did, indeed, cure\ncertain minor forms of tuberculous disease, such as the skin affection\nknown as lupus, but it soon became evident that it was almost impotent\nin the treatment of pulmonary consumption. It has, however, served to\nenable the veterinarian to make out the existence of tuberculous disease\nin cattle at an early stage of its course, and it is probable that by\nthe slaughter of cattle thus found to be tuberculous much infection of\nhuman beings has been prevented.\n\nTuberculin failed of its prime purpose, but it does seem to have marked\nthe initiative of a campaign against consumption which has already\nproved of incalculable benefit, and bids fair to put that omnipresent\ndisease toward the foot of the list of causes of death. We have made\nsubstantial advances in our knowledge of the disease, and we no longer\nregard it as incurable. We have learned that it is communicable from one\nperson to another, but also that its communication can easily be\nprevented, so that there is no reason to shrink from association with\ntuberculous persons. We have learned, too, that consumption in one's\nprogenitors, immediate or remote, hardly makes it even probable that he\nhimself is doomed to suffer with it; the only tuberculous heredity that\nwe now recognize is that of defective ability to withstand the\ninfection, and even this we regard as in most instances readily\nsurmountable. We have learned, furthermore, that pulmonary tuberculous\ndisease is by no means so fatal as it was formerly esteemed, for men\nwhose business it is to make great numbers of post-mortem examinations,\nsuch as coroners' physicians and hospital pathologists, assure us that\nin a very large percentage of cases of death from other causes they find\nindubitable signs of past tuberculous disease of the lungs which had\nceased its activity--been, in fact, cured, either spontaneously or by\nmedical intervention. Such intervention, it has been abundantly proved,\nis altogether likely to be successful if it is of the right sort and\nemployed early. There is, to be sure, no cure-all. Powerful as the\nclimatic treatment is, it must be supplemented by measures accurately\nadapted to the individual case, and failure to comprehend this fact\nstill leads many a phthisical person to his grave. But information is\nrapidly being diffused, sanatoria for such of the tuberculous as can\ntake advantage of them are multiplying, and those who are shut off from\ntheir aid are growing more and more cognizant of how they should live in\norder to give themselves the best chance of recovery and save their\nassociates from infection. The era of consumption-cures--meaning\ndrugs--is past; but the disease is cured in an ever-increasing\nproportion of instances, and that, too, by medical though not\nmedicinal measures.\n\nAt almost every turn medicine has been powerfully assisted by the\nsciences which should rather be termed correlative than subsidiary.\nNotable among them is chemistry. The isolation of the active principles\nof medicinal plants--such as morphine, quinine, strychnine, and\ncocaine--has been a remarkable service rendered by chemistry to\nmedicine. How should we be handicapped if we still had to fight\nmalarial disease with the crude Peruvian bark instead of its chief\nalkaloid, quinine! And how impracticable if not impossible would it be\nto render the eye insensitive to pain with any extract of coca leaves,\nno matter how concentrated--a purpose that we accomplish almost\ninstantly with cocaine! Of minor importance, perhaps, but not to be\ndespised, is the resulting liberation from the old slavery to bulky and\nnauseous drugs. The isolation of active principles long antedated the\nsynthetical preparations, but the latter came at last--the marvellous\narray of hypnotics, anodynes, and fever-quellers that are now at our\ncommand, largely coal-tar products. But it is not to pure chemistry\nalone that we are indebted for the elegant dosing of the present day;\nprogressive pharmacy, with its tablets, its coated pills, and its\ncapsules, has put to shame the old-time purveyor of galenicals. Right\njauntily do we now take our \"soda mint\" in case of slight derangement of\nthe stomach, happily oblivious of its vile prototype, the old rhubarb\nand soda mixture. Even castor oil has been stripped of its repulsiveness\nby the combinations which the soda water fountain affords.\n\nIt was but a step, we can now realize, from the employment of isolated\nvegetable principles to that of preparations of certain glandular organs\nof the animal economy, but the doctrine of \"internal secretions\" had to\nintervene, and its evolution took time; not till toward the close of the\ncentury did the venerable Brown-S\u00e9quard lead up to it. We have not yet\ncome to \"eye of newt and toe of frog,\" but what we have incorporated\ninto modern therapeutics in the way of animal products lends at least\nsome theoretical justification to the ancient use of the dried organs of\nvarious animals. It is but a few years since the \"ductless glands\"--such\norgans, as, for example, the thyreoid gland (an organ situated in the\nfront of the neck, a small affair in its normal state, but prominent and\neven pendulous when by its permanent enlargement it comes to constitute\na go\u00eetre)--were looked upon as puzzles, as structures destitute of any\nknown function. Some observers even affirmed that they had no function,\nthough the constancy of go\u00eetre in cretins ought to have shown the\nfallacy of this allegation in the case of the thyreoid. We do not now\nneed to be told that the thyreoid gland plays a very important part in\nthe economy, for we know that its surgical removal gives rise to a\nspecial disease known as myxoedema, which, in addition to its physical\nmanifestations, is characterized by impairment of the mental powers.\nConsequently, this ductless gland--a gland, that is to say, which has no\nobvious canal by which it throws off any product of its activity--must\nelaborate some material that is necessary to the health of the organism\nand is imparted to the blood. That material, whatever it may be, is\ntermed an \"internal secretion.\" Some of the internal secretions have\nturned out to be of singular value medicinally. It is apparently not the\nductless glands alone that furnish internal secretions; the glands that\nare provided with ducts and yield a definite and observable product\nsecrete also a substance (perhaps more than one) which they give up to\nthe blood.\n\nProminent among the therapeutic advances of the century is the direct\nreduction of the high temperature of sunstroke and certain fevers by the\nuse of cold. Although foreshadowed by Currie early in the century by his\nuse of cold affusion in the treatment of scarlet fever, it did not come\ninto general use until the closing decades. It is employed principally\nin typhoid fever, on the theory that a condition of high fever is in\nitself a source of danger quite distinct from the other injurious\neffects of a febrile disease. On the other hand, the employment of high\ndegrees of heat has of late been shown to be a potent agency in the\ntreatment of certain forms of disease, notably in various affections\nclassed as rheumatic. Applications of very hot air, provided it is\nthoroughly dry, are borne without serious discomfort, and their\nemployment promises to be of greater service in the conditions in which\nit is resorted to than that of any other agent.\n\nA revelation in the treatment of heart disease has been effected by the\nBad Nauheim system of effervescent baths and resisted exercises. It is\nnot only functional disorders of the heart that are relieved, but grave\norganic diseases also. Somewhat elaborate explanations of the way in\nwhich the treatment proves beneficial have been given, but they are not\naltogether satisfactory.\n\nThus far we have dealt chiefly with those developments of medicine that\nseem to have been the outgrowth of much thought and experiment, but\nthere was one that can hardly be viewed as other than a happy discovery,\nyet it was one that was fraught with unspeakable mitigation of human\nsuffering, and that wrought a boundless extension of the field of\nsurgery. It was that of anaesthesia. The first to discover an efficient\nsurgical anaesthetic was Crawford W. Long, of Georgia. It has been\nestablished that he performed several minor operations with the patient\nanaesthetized with sulphuric ether, but he did not proclaim his\ndiscovery, and so it was reserved for William T. G. Morton, of Boston\n(then a dentist, but subsequently a physician), to make the first public\ndemonstration of the efficiency of ether as an anaesthetic, which he did\nin the operating theatre of the Massachusetts General Hospital, in\nBoston, in the year 1846. The news of Morton's achievement spread\nbroadcast, and it was at once realized that it was destined to\nrevolutionize surgery. It certainly has done that, and in no less\ndegree than was afterward accomplished by Listerism. Ether did not long\nremain the only anaesthetic known; Simpson, of Edinburgh, soon\ndiscovered that chloroform was possessed of even more decided\nanaesthetic properties. The inhalation of ether is disagreeable, and it\nis slow in producing the desired effect, whereas that of chloroform is\nnot unpleasant, and it acts more rapidly. Consequently chloroform soon\ncame to be generally preferred; but abundant experience has finally\nshown that ether is much the safer agent of the two, and improved\nmethods of administration have almost entirely done away with the\nobjections to its use, so that now it is looked upon as the preferable\ngeneral anaesthetic. But general anaesthesia--meaning the suspension of\nsensibility in the whole organism, including unconsciousness--is not\nalways necessary, and sometimes it is undesirable. We have now\ntrustworthy local anaesthetics, the chief of which is cocaine, wherewith\nwe are able to anaesthetize the part to be operated on without rendering\nthe patient unconscious, and the co-operation that a conscious patient\nmay be able to render is sometimes valuable. It was not alone in the\ndirect saving of human suffering that anaesthetics proved a boon to the\nworld; they have made possible an amount of experimental work on animals\nin the way of vivisection that humane investigators would otherwise have\nshrunk from, necessary as it has been and still is for the advancement\nof the healing art.\n\nThe operation of ovariotomy, first performed by Ephraim McDowell, of\nKentucky, can hardly be classed with the happy accidents; but so little\nhad been said about it or thought concerning it that when the news of it\nreached Europe \"from the wilds of America\" the editor of a ponderous\nEnglish quarterly journal of medicine recorded his incredulity in the\nwords \"_Credat Judoeus, non ego_\" An ovarian tumor inevitably proves\nfatal in the long run if it is not removed. In a certain percentage of\ncases it is malignant and will kill whether it is removed or not, but\nthe general result of ovariotomy has been the saving of thousands of\nwomen from untimely death. Bell, of Edinburgh, had imagined the\noperation and had mentioned it in his lectures, but none the less to\nMcDowell is due the credit of demonstrating its feasibility.\n\nMedicine bore quite its full share in the mitigation of the horrors and\nhardships of war that marked the Nineteenth Century. Its work was shown\nin the great reduction of pestilential disease incident to camp life, in\nprompt aid to the wounded, in the establishment of salubrious field and\ngeneral hospitals, and in improved methods of transportation of the sick\nand wounded. Certainly the soldier on the sick list never before had\nsuch a fair prospect of rejoining his comrades safe and sound as he\nhas now.\n\nIn the care of the insane, too--care not only in the sense of humane\ntreatment, but in the systematic employment of measures for their\nrestoration to mental soundness--the century has been marked by notable\nprogress. This has been chiefly in the direction of preventing insanity,\nand although mental disease is said to be on the increase, it may\nundoubtedly be said with entire truth that its growing prevalence is not\nin proportion to the heightened frequency of \"the strenuous life.\" We\nmay confidently expect that a more pronounced mastery over diseases of\nthe mind will come when physicians in general are taught psychiatry\nclinically, so that the beginnings of mental alienation may be\nintelligently met by the family practitioner.\n\nThe supreme achievement of the medicine of the Nineteenth Century\nundoubtedly has been the development of its preventive feature. When we\nrecall the fact that but a few years ago an attack of infectious disease\nwas interpreted as a visitation of Providence, by a perversity that even\nthe triumphs of vaccination did not serve to do away with; when we\ncontemplate the well-ordered and well-understood measures that are now\nresorted to in an ever-increasing number of communities (and resorted to\nnot solely on the outbreak of an epidemic, but at all times), to purify\nthe air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink; and when we\nreflect upon the greatly reduced morbidity as well as mortality of most\ninfectious diseases--we must realize the immense service that has been\nrendered by preventive medicine. No doubt we must all die some time, and\nthe day is yet far remote when the only causes of death will be old age\nand injury; but a decided prolongation of the average lifetime, such as\nthe life-insurance companies recognize, is an unquestionable gain to the\nhuman race.\n\nA great blessing that has been brought about in great measure by medical\nmen has been the establishment of the profession of nursing. The work of\ncaring for the sick between the physician's visits is no longer, at\nleast in large communities and in cases of severe illness, left to\nover-sympathetic and uninstructed relatives or to outsiders who traded\non mystery. An intelligent and intelligible record is now kept of all\nimportant happenings in the sick room, remedies are administered as they\nwere ordered, needless alarm at something deemed by the patient to be of\nill omen is quelled, and in case of real emergency, overlooked as it\nmight otherwise have been, the physician is summoned to meet it. The\nadvent of the trained nurse marked an era in medicine.\n\nThe literature of medicine has fully kept pace in volume with the\nprogress of the art itself, and its quality has steadily improved. To\nthis the great tomes of that gigantic work, the \"Index-Catalogue of the\nLibrary of the Surgeon-General's Office, United States Army,\" bear\nsolid testimony. It is a consolidated catalogue, by subjects and by\nauthors' names, of practically every medical book published throughout\nthe world and of every article in the periodical literature of medicine.\nFor its existence the world is indebted to Dr. John S. Billings,\nformerly a surgeon of high rank in the army and now the director of the\nNew York Public Library, and for its continued existence to the United\nStates Government, and it is to be hoped that Congress will never cease\nto provide adequately for its continued publication. Its completeness\nand its accuracy long ago led to its being prized everywhere.\n\nThere are some problems of which medicine has hardly yet entered upon\nthe solution. Prominent among them is that of cancer. Little as we now\nknow of the real nature of that disease, we know quite as much of it as\nwe knew but a few years ago concerning other diseases equally\ndestructive and far more prevalent, which, however, we have now\npractically mastered. Who can say that we shall not triumph over cancer\nwhile the Twentieth Century is still young? Our final triumph is\nindubitable.\n\nThe strongest individuality in the medicine of the Nineteenth Century\nwas without doubt that of Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow (commonly written\nby him simply Rudolf Virchow). Although he took no direct part in any\nof the striking advances in practice that appeal to the laity, yet he\nwas recognized the world over, among all classes of educated and\nwell-informed persons, as the one beacon light of Nineteenth-Century\nmedicine whose glow had been the steadiest and the most enduring. This\nis because of the wide range of his learning in matters not pertaining\nclosely to his profession. His professional brethren hold the same view,\nand this is because he so well controlled himself--checked himself at\nevery turn by the severest application of system--that he continued for\nmore than half a century an anchor to hold medical thought strictly down\nto fact. This was from no natural lack of volatility, for he was an\n_Acht-und-vierziger_ (Forty-eighter). In 1846, as a prosector in the\nUniversity of Berlin, Virchow entered with Reinhardt upon a series of\npathological investigations which at once received wide attention. In\nconjunction with Reinhardt, he founded the _Archiv f\u00fcr pathologische\nAnatomie und Physiologie und f\u00fcr klinische Medicin_[6] (a periodical\nfamiliarly called \"Virchow's _Archiv_\"), the publication of which was\nbegun in the year 1847. Reinhardt died in 1852, leaving the editorship\nin the hands of Virchow alone, and he was still its editor up to the\ntime of his death, on September 5, 1902.\n\n[Footnote 6: Archives of Pathological Anatomy and Physiology and of\nClinical Medicine.]\n\nIn consequence of his having openly proclaimed himself a Democrat in\n1848, Virchow was forced to retire from the University of Berlin in the\nfollowing year. He was at once made a professor in the University of\nW\u00fcrzburg, whence seven years later, in 1856, as the result of the\nstrenuous interposition of various medical organizations, he was\nrecalled to Berlin, where he was made a professor and director of the\nPathological Institute. He was appointed medical privy councillor in\n1874, having several years before that entered upon an active political\ncareer and been one of the founders of the Progressive party, which he\nably represented in the Landtag and the Reichstag. In 1869 he took part\nin founding the German and the Berlin Anthropological Societies, of each\nof which he was several times president.\n\nVirchow investigated the most diverse subjects, as his profound studies\nof Schliemann's discoveries, as well as his other archaeological\nresearches, show, and he was a rather prolific writer. The most\nimportant of his early works was _Die Cellularpathologie_, the first\nedition of which was published in 1858. Chance's English translation\nappeared in 1860, and Picard's French version came out in 1861. It is\nsafe to say that no book of the century exerted a profounder influence\non medical thought than Virchow's exposition of the cellular pathology.\nHis next notable publication was a collection of thirty lectures on\nTumors (_Die krankhaften Geschw\u00fclste_,[7] Berlin, 1863-67). That he was\nnot too absorbed in these lectures to bring his great powers to bear\nupon topics of the day is shown by the fact that before their\npublication was completed he brought out his work on Trichinae\n(_Darstellung der Lehre von den Trichinen_, 1864). Old age found him\nwith industry and versatility unabated, for it was in 1892 that his\n_Crania ethnica americana_ appeared, and after that time he wrote a\nvigorous protest against the new-fangled spelling of the German language\nwhich he accused the schoolmasters of trying to foist on the people.\nThis was published in his _Archiv_. It may well be that his arguments\nhave not been unavailing, since it is observable that several German\npublications that had adopted the new spelling have now dropped it.\n\n[Footnote 7: Morbid Tumors.]\n\nIt must not be supposed that it was by his literary work alone, founded\nthough it was manifestly on his profound study, that Virchow impressed\nhis personality upon medicine; it was in his lectures and in his\nlaboratory teaching, too, that he made himself felt. In all civilized\ncountries there are many devoted workers in medical science who caught\ntheir first real inspiration from Virchow.\n\nThe writer once saw Virchow--only once, but it was a sight never to be\nforgotten. It was at a banquet given as one of the festivities incident\nto the annual meeting of the British Medical Association in London in\n1873. The company was not a large one, but it included such celebrities\nas Professor J. Burdon Sanderson, Sir William Jenner, Professor\nChauveau, and Professor Marey. Virchow was conspicuously the man toward\nwhom the eyes of all others were oftenest directed. Virchow met with the\nlove as well as the admiration of his contemporaries, and both\nsentiments will descend to their successors, for his impress on the\nrecords of medicine is indelible, both as an instructor and as a friend\nof all real truth-seekers.\n\n\nAUTHORITIES.\n\nThere is no full and connected account of the progress of medicine\nduring the Nineteenth Century, but the reader may consult with profit\nthe various medical biographies, also the following works: Silliman's \"A\nCentury of Medicine and Chemistry;\" Jenner's \"The Practical Medicine of\nTo-day;\" Buck's \"Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences;\"\nEulenburg's \"Real-Encyclop\u00e4die der gesammten Heilkunde;\" the \"Annus\nMedicus,\" published in the _Lancet_ at the close of each year; and\nTinker's \"America's Contributions to Surgery\" (Bulletin of the Johns\nHopkins Hospital, Aug.-Sept., 1902).","title":"Beacon Lights of History, Volume 14: The New Era: A Supplementary Volume, by Recent Writers, as Set Forth in the Preface and Table of Contents","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":105633}