colonies as the culmination of her misfortunes. We can not but regard
it as the beginning of better days. Although Spain has not been engaged
in war on an extensive scale for a long time, her efforts to retain
the control of a people anxious to be delivered from her incapacity
and despotism have tended to keep alive the barbarous feelings and
traditions of the past. The Cubans and Porto Ricans were not governed
for their own benefit like the colonists of Great Britain, but for
the benefit of rapacious politicians and traders and manufacturers in
Spain. In the colonial administration the former sought easy employment
and speedy fortune. In the colonial commercial regulations the latter
found an artificial support for trade and manufactures that could not
have survived without them. By discriminations, Spanish millers, for
instance, were able to import wheat, turn it into flour, and sell it
to the colonists at a price scandalously in excess of that charged
for the American product. Sometimes the trouble to grind the wheat
was not taken. After it had been imported into Spain it was shipped
to the colonies, and upon them was thrown the expense of needless
transportation and the profits of superfluous middlemen.
With the complete extinction of the colonial empire of Spain will come
to an end these opportunities for the pillage of industrious peoples.
The parasites, commercial and bureaucratic, that have depended upon
them for a livelihood will be obliged to turn their attention to more
legitimate employment. There will be brought to an end also the immense
sacrifice of life and treasure required to suppress the ever-recurring
insurrections. Both will be left in Spain to develop her resources
and to add to her wealth and prosperity; but, best of all, will cease
the encouragement to the militant and bureaucratic spirit that the
possession of the colonies fostered. The sentiments as well as the
employments appropriate to peace will receive an impulse that ought to
enable Spain to fill an honorable if not a glorious place in the future
history of Europe. But this bright outlook is based upon the assumption
that she will not join in the mad competition of her neighbors in
armaments and thus fall a prey with them to the economic and moral
ravages of "an armed peace."
_DREAM AND REALITY._
An ingenious article by M. Camille Mélinand, which appeared a few
months ago in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ under the title of Le Rêve et
la Réalité (Dream and Reality), is reproduced, in its more important
points, in translation, in the present number of the Monthly, and will
repay perusal for the novel views it presents. The object of the writer
is to show that there is not so much difference as is commonly supposed
between the waking and sleeping states, that our dreams are not so
illusory nor our waking experiences so absolutely real as we are in the
habit of assuming, and that, as we wake from dreams, so we may expect
to wake from what we call life into a condition of existence that will
give us a new standpoint, and reduce all the experiences which we now
take so seriously and tragically to the level of a dream. The only
substantial differences he recognizes between our waking state and the
dream state are (1) that in our waking moments we know that there is
another condition which we call dreaming, while in our dreams we do not
recognize a separate waking state; and (2) that, while we wake from our
dreams, we do not wake from what we call reality.
M. Mélinand writes in a candid spirit, and yet we think his article is
calculated to encourage a somewhat unhealthy type of mysticism. We do
not see how it is possible to take too serious a view of the life we
live in the present. Whether we view it tragically or not must depend in
large measure upon our individual experiences; and happy are they into
whose lives tragedy does not enter. The very fact that M. Mélinand would
dissuade us from taking life tragically shows that he recognizes that
life--our waking life--can be brought under the rule of right reason.
He does not advise us not to take our dreams tragically, for he knows
that the dream state is one not susceptible of rational regulation, and
this, we think, might very properly be accounted a third very important
difference between dream and reality. The true advice to give to those
whose happiness we have at heart is, not to look upon life as a kind
of dream, but to take it seriously, to study its laws, and to accept
the burdens and duties it imposes. It may be remarked that dreams give
very little trouble, as a rule, to those whose waking hours are well
spent, and whose minds and bodies are kept in a condition of healthful
balance. We can indeed in the waking state take measures to reduce our
dreams to a minimum, and to provide that at least they shall not be of
a distressing character. Such being the case, it seems idle, to say
the least, to speculate, as many besides M. Mélinand have done, on the
possible reality of dreams. What Bottom said of his dream, "Man is but
an ass if he go about to expound this dream," might be applied without
much risk of error to dreams generally; unless the exposition takes the
direction of endeavoring to explain what antecedent mental or physical
condition, or what circumstances acting upon the sleeper, may have given
rise to the dream in a given case.
M. Mélinand makes a remark which the experience of many will confirm,
that dreams sometimes throw a light of extraordinary intensity on
characters and situations, giving us, perhaps, truer views of certain
things than we had ever attained in our waking hours. This, however,
would only imply the withdrawal at such moments of influences or
conditions which, in our waking life, may have the effect of rendering
insight less keen and uncompromising. If, for example, we could in
our dreams revert to the standpoint of childhood, we should see many
things with a directness which is more or less lacking to our mature
cogitations, and pronounce judgments in a correspondingly down-right
manner, with perhaps a closer approximation to absolute truth. This,
however, would manifestly not imply any extension of our mental
range, nor afford any guarantee of the "reality" of the dream life.
The intuitions of the novelist or dramatist, when they are true and
profound, give a wonderful air of reality to the scenes which the author
portrays, but do not make them real. There are various waking states in
which our perceptions are more than normally acute; and, as we know,
the loss of one physical organ leads frequently to an increase of power
in others; but these facts throw little light on the main problem of
life, which is how to develop and use our normal powers to the best
purpose and with the best results. At the same time it is well not to
despise any knowledge that may come to us from dreams in the way of
self-revelation or otherwise, but to use it for the strengthening of
what is weak and the rectifying of what is wrong. In that way dreams may
be made subsidiary to the better government of our higher waking life.
As to the conclusion the writer draws, that, as we wake from dreams, so
we may some day wake from this life, which is so like a dream, we leave
it to the judgment of our readers, merely remarking that it would be
very unfortunate if the thought of such an awakening should lead any one
to think little of this life, or abate any effort which he can make to
render it, if a dream, a happy dream to himself and others.
Scientific Literature.
SPECIAL BOOKS.
The period since the Congress of Vienna has been immensely fruitful
of great and far-reaching events--of events that have essentially
modified the fortunes of the world, its theories of government, and the
condition of its peoples; and of that period the nearly fifty years
covered by the second volume of Professor Andrews's history[13] have
been most eventful and marked by momentous changes. At the opening
of this history the continental sovereigns had established despotism
throughout their domains on what they thought were firm foundations,
and surrounded it with guards which they considered unassailable. The
close of it finds the conditions reversed; government in the interests
of the people recognized, and yielded to, even if grudgingly, by
those backward monarchs who would prefer to contend against it. The
first volume of Professor Andrews's history brings the story down to
the close of the revolutionary movements of 1848, when the princes,
again set upon their thrones, were studying and plotting as to how
they might resume their old authority. In France, Louis Napoleon
had become a central figure, and the tendencies were taking shape
under which the republic was destroyed and imperialism established.
Taking up the record again at this point, Mr. Andrews tells us he has
treated only those phases of the history that concern the development
of Europe in the larger sense, rather than that of each particular
state or country. On the ground that no event can be understood in
isolation, and that history is something more than a series of events
chronologically considered, he has endeavored to give logical form to
the treatment of the subject, to carry each movement forward to its
conclusion before turning to the others; and has introduced nothing
that did not seem to him to be absolutely essential to an understanding
of the subject. He has not deemed it necessary to describe battles and
military movements at length, and has omitted, with a few exceptions,
biographical discussions. He has been successful in adhering to his
plan, and, writing always dispassionately, yet without sacrificing
interest, and with his mind fixed on the main object, has given a clear
and complete view of what each event recorded signified and of what
Europe has accomplished in the past half century. The first chapter
concerns France, the failure of the second republic, and the rise
of Napoleon III to imperial power. This was extremely unwelcome to
the other sovereigns, who were disposed to resent the entrance of an
intruder into their ranks, and led to diplomatic skirmishing, ending
in the Crimean War--a war that "did not create the forces that led to
the national unity of Italy and Germany, ... but gave to Cavour and
Bismarck the opportunity that each was seeking." It requires but a few
uncolored words at the beginning of the story of the achievement of the
unity of Italy--the mightiest event of the whole series--to picture
Victor Emanuel the hero that he was. With similar success are presented
the masterly statesmanship of D'Azeglio and Cavour and the high-souled
patriotism of the people of Italy. This achievement, a victory over
opposing Europe, compelled the recognition of an international principle
based on the affinities of peoples, and inaugurated, "not only a new
_régime_ for Italy, but also a new public law for Europe." The empire of
Napoleon, which rose to its culmination while these things were going
on, was "nothing but an adventure out of accord with modern highly
developed civilization," exhausted France and checked the education of
the people in matters of government and habits of self-reliance. The
rise of Prussia and the establishment, under Bismarck, of the unity of
Germany, are regarded as an instance of the accomplishment of a noble
end by the use of force. The struggle culminated in the war of 1870,
the ultimate consequence of which was that "scarcely a vestige remained
of those conditions of the Congress of Vienna which for so many years
had been the anxious care of the European concert." The arrangement
between Austria and Hungary, creating a dual monarchy, "established a
government which was the result, not merely of political ingenuity, but
of experience, and one that on the whole was successful"; and Austria
has taken its place among the enlightened governments of Europe. The
"Eastern question" is presented as one in which the attitude of the
powers is no longer determined in Europe, but in China, India, and
Africa, the settlement of which seems to be indefinitely postponed. The
concluding chapters relate to present conditions.
* * * * *
Mr. _Seward_ excuses himself in rather an apologetic way for undertaking
to write a book on _Fossil Plants_[14] for the Cambridge Natural
Science Manuals--a task which Professor Williamson, a founder of
modern palæobotany, had considered too serious; but students of botany
and geology have cause to thank him for having consented to attempt
the writing of a book intended to render more accessible some of the
important facts of the science, and to suggest lines of investigation in
it. The botanist and geologist, not being always acquainted with each
other's subjects in a sufficient degree to appreciate the significance
of palæobotany in its several points of contact with geology and recent
botany, the subject does not readily lend itself to adequate treatment
in a work intended for students of both classes, and the author has
accordingly tried to shape his treatment with this point in view, and
so as to adapt it to both non-geological and non-botanical students.
As a possible aid to those undertaking research in this field he has
given more references than usually seem appropriate in an introductory
treatise--often to specimens of coal-measure plants in the Williamson
cabinet of microscopic sections, now in the British Museum--and has
dealt with certain questions in greater detail than an elementary
treatment of the subject requires. His plan has been to treat certain
selected types with some detail, and to refer briefly to such others
as should be studied by any one desiring to pursue the subject more
thoroughly, rather than to cover a wide range or to attempt to make the
list of types complete. The book opens with a sketch of the history
of palæobotany, which is followed by a discussion of the relation of
palæobotany to botany and geology. A succinct review of geological
history is then given, in which the several principal formations are
briefly described. The theory of the process of the preservation of
plants as fossils is explained, the difficulties and sources of error
in the determination of fossil plants are pointed out, and the rules
for nomenclature and of priority in it are explained. The systematic
part follows these introductory chapters, giving as full descriptions
as the condition of the fossils admit, with illustrations--one hundred
and eleven in all--of those belonging to the orders _Thallophyta_,
_Bryophyta_, and _Pterodophyta_, carrying the subject as far as the
_Sphenophyllales_. Technical as the subject necessarily is, the
treatment is clear and, where the matter admits, fluent, so that no
student need complain of difficulties in that line.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] The Historical Development of Modern Europe from the Congress of
Vienna to the Present Time. By Charles M. Andrews. Vol. II, 1850-1897.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 467. Price, $2.50.
[14] Fossil Plants. For Students of Botany and Geology. By A. C. Seward.
With Illustrations. Cambridge, England: The University Press. New York:
The Macmillan Company. Pp. 452. Pries, $3.
GENERAL NOTICES.
DR. _W. Detmer's Practical Plant Physiology_[15] is a book of experiments
for the use of teachers as well as of students in higher-grade schools,
and supplies an aid to the study of the whole of that branch of the
science by experimental processes. While the arrangement of the material
in the second German edition is essentially the same as in the first,
nearly every section has been enlarged or remodeled, and the book is
essentially a new one; new experiments have been included for lecture
demonstration or private work, and pains have been taken to render
the book increasingly useful to serious students of plant physiology,
especially to those who desire to familiarize themselves with methods
of research. Great care has been taken in the selection of research
material recommended for the experiments; and material suitable for
winter work has received attention as well as summer material. This
second German edition is presented by the publishers in the translation
in its entirety, without addition or alteration. The two great divisions
of the book are into the Physiology of Nutrition and the Physiology of
Growth and Movements resulting from Irritability. In the first division
the experiments bear upon the food of plants (assimilation, production
of proteids, constituents of the ash, and organic compounds as food
for plants); the molecular forces and processes (including movements
of gases, absorption and movements of water, and absorption of mineral
substances in plants); and metabolic processes in the plant. In the
second division the characteristics of growing plant structures, the
conditions necessary for growth, the influence of internal causes and
external conditions; geotropic, heliotropic, and hydrotropic mutations,
and other phenomena of irritability; the winding of tendrils and twining
plants; dorsicentrality, polarity, and anisotropy and phenomena of
correlation; and movements of variation, are presented.
* * * * *
The primary objects of Mr. _Hoffman's The Sphere of Science_[16] are to
point out what constitutes a science, and set forth the ground upon
which every science rests and the principles and rules that must be
followed in order to construct one. The author maintains throughout
that every department of knowledge is capable of scientific treatment,
and must be so treated before any great advance can be made toward a
consistent and rational conception of the universe. The subjects are
considered in succession of the true conception and aims of science,
what it takes for granted, the scientific method, certainty and
probability in science, the use of the imagination, analogy as an aid,
the limitations of science, recent advances in the physical sciences,
the old and new psychology, modern scientific ethics, philosophy as the
science of the sciences, and the harmony of the sciences. The author
holds that the chief need in all departments of thought is not so much
mere facts as a new arrangement and classification of facts already at
hand; that we can be certain of no doctrine, but the most we can do to
establish it is to show that the balance of probabilities is in favor of
it; that philosophy is the life of science and science the vital breath
of philosophy, and if one is severed from the other both pine away and
die; and that those scientific researches are successful which are not
exclusively special, but are illuminated by an ample idea of science.
The book is the outcome of a series of lectures given to classes in
Union College to supplement their work in formal logic.
* * * * *
The _Text-Book of Geodetic Astronomy_[17] was prepared by Mr. _John F.
Hayford_ to meet the conditions of the course at Cornell University, the
terms of which the standard works now in use could not be made to fit.
The purpose of the book is to furnish a text short and easy enough to be
mastered by the student of civil engineering in a single college term
which shall give him a sufficiently exact and extensive knowledge of
geodetic astronomy to serve as a basis for practice in that line after
graduation. While it is primarily a manual for students, the author
has endeavored to insert such matter, tables, and convenient formulas
as would make it of value also to the engineer making astronomical
observations. Mathematical processes have been omitted, except those
that are actually necessary for developing the working formulas, and
simple and special means for deriving the formulas have been chosen in
every case admitting choice. Considerable attention has been devoted
to a discussion of the various sources of error in each kind of
observations. Those formulas have been selected, so far as possible,
that lead to accurate and rapid computation.
* * * * *
_L'Année Psychologique_[18] of M. _Alfred Binet_ and his colaborers in
the Laboratory of Physiological Psychology of the Sorbonne, Paris, is
now in its fourth year, and the four volumes present a compendium of
the psychological studies and literature of the period they cover,
the value of which will be appreciated by any one who has occasion to
examine the work. The first volume was a book of 619 pages, with 33
figures; the second, of 1010 pages, 141 figures, and several plates; the
third, of 825 pages, 103 figures, and numerous plates; and the present
volume has 849 pages and 117 figures. The plan of all the volumes is
the same; it is to present in full the labors of the laboratory, with
original memoirs, and to give a condensed but adequate and classified
summary of the world's literature of the year relating to the subject.
The present volume contains twenty-seven original memoirs, mostly by
Professor Binet and M. N. Vaschide, with others by M. B. Bourdon and Mr.
A. Le Clère; about ninety reviews of books and papers, classified under
sixteen heads, according as they relate to the physiology of the nervous
system, the several senses, mental faculties and operations, movements,
individual psychology and character, sleep, dreams, and pathological
cases, and animal psychology; a bibliography, also classified, of 123
pages; and an index of authors, occupying 17 double-columned pages.
* * * * *
_Prof. Cyrus Thomas_ has given, in his _Introduction to the Study of
North American Archæology_,[19] a brief summary of the progress in the
investigation and study of the subject which has been made up to the
present time. The increased activity among students, the numerous
explorations made, the accumulation of data and the flood of light
thrown on questions relating to prehistoric North America since the
publication of the last general work on it seemed to call for such a
summary. While the author's chief object is to present and arrange the
data so as to afford the student some means of bringing into harmony
and utilizing the facts and materials at hand, yet, in view of the
impossibility of presenting a full account of the archæological remains
of the continent, and discussing all the questions connected with them
in a single small volume, only those considered the best representatives
of the leading types and those which best illustrate the arts, customs,
and culture status of the former inhabitants are referred to. The
movements and remains are treated under the three heads of the Arctic,
Atlantic, and Pacific divisions; the first including the works of the
Eskimos, the second those of the mound builders, and the third the
curious variety of works scattered along the Pacific coast, and in
Mexico and Central America, rising to great elaboration in the latter
countries. Theories have to be considered, though they are all still
uncertain, and Professor Thomas notices the various views which have
been expressed as to the origin of the works and the people who executed
them. He himself believes that they are all the work of the peoples
who lived here when America was discovered, and are represented by the
present Indians; that they are not of a very extreme antiquity; and that
the continent was peopled by tribes who came down from the northwest
through the region between Hudson Bay and the Rocky Mountains.
* * * * *
Of Nature books encouraging the study of the life around us we have
an abundance--of some sorts, perhaps, a superfluity--and they have
their uses, one of the chief of which is drawing people, who might
otherwise never think of it, to the observation of natural facts, and
to inquiry into their character and causes. Such books are fittingly
complemented by the _Handbook of Nature Study_,[20] of _D. Lange_, of St.
Paul, Minnesota, which teaches how system may be introduced into this
occupation. In it, the author has undertaken to point out some of the
material which may be made the basis of profitable lessons in Nature
study, and to show how this material may be made available, and what the
pupils may be taught about it. The author has arranged the matter of
the subject of his teachings according to seasons and life communities.
He begins at home in the spring, and directs the wanderings of the
pupils to the waters, fields, and prairies, the roadsides and neglected
corners, studying besides the plants and animals, the geological action
of water, the flowers of the fields and the needs of neglected places,
window flowers, and domestic animals. Then he goes to the woods--in
spring, in summer, and in autumn--and their plant and animal life, the
effect of all these upon the earth, and their relations to one another.
Some practical precepts are given to teachers concerning the method of
conducting the study of Nature.