THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION,
AND OTHER POLITICAL ESSAYS. By WALTER BAGEHOT,
author of “Physics and Politics.” Latest revised edition. 1 vol.,
12mo. Cloth. Price, $2.00.
“With the author’s inclination and capacity to regard public questions
in their scientific aspects, many readers are already familiar through
his suggestive volume entitled ‘Physics and Politics.’ ‘The English
Constitution’ is a work of the same quality, and treats its subjects
very much with reference to the principles of human nature and the
natural laws of human society. It is a free disquisition on English
political experience; an acute, critical, and dispassionate discussion
of English institutions designed to show how they operate, and to
point out their defects and advantages. The writer is not so much a
partisan or an advocate, as a cool, philosophical inquirer, with large
knowledge, clear insight, independent opinions, and great freedom from
the bias of what he terms that ‘territorial sectarianism called
patriotism.’ His criticism of the faults of the English system is
searching and trenchant, and his appreciation of its benefits and
usefulness is cordial, discriminating, and wise. The book, indeed, is
full of instructive episodes, and sagacious reflections on the springs
of action in human nature, the exercise of power by individuals or
political bodies, the adaptation of institutions to the qualities and
circumstances of the different classes who live under them, and
numerous points of political philosophy, which are applicable
everywhere and have an interest for all students of political and
social affairs.”--_Extract from preface._
THE VARIOUS CONTRIVANCES
BY WHICH
ORCHIDS ARE FERTILIZED BY INSECTS.
By CHARLES DARWIN, M. A. Second edition, revised. With
Illustrations. 1 vol., 12mo. Cloth. Price, $1.75.
“Mr. Darwin has prepared a new edition of his work on the
fertilization of orchids by insects, which was published in 1862, and
has been for some time out of print. He has, during the interval,
received a great deal of information on the subject from various
correspondents, and has also continued his own researches; and he has
used the materials thus obtained in remodeling the original work. The
object which the writer has in view is, as he explains, not only to
show how wonderfully complex and perfect are the contrivances by which
orchids are fertilized with pollen brought by insects from a distinct
plant, but also to support his theory that ‘it is an almost universal
law of Nature that the higher organic beings require an occasional
cross with another individual; or, which is the same thing,
that no hermaphrodite fertilizes itself for a perpetuity
of generations.’”--_Saturday Review._