CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE.

MR. CLEVELAND'S DIPLOMACY.

THE CENTURY for July contains, apropos of the conclusion in the same number of Mr. Cleveland's statement of the Venezuela boundary dispute and its settlement, the following editorial:

President Cleveland's famous Venezuelan message, sent to Congress December 17, 1895, came as a surprise, not to say as a shock, even to many who might be thought to be conversant with the situation as it had at that time developed. In two interesting papers (originally prepared as lectures) Mr. Cleveland has now set forth the whole matter with much clearness, as explicitly as it could be done in the given space, and with calm conviction.

These papers will, we believe, also come as a surprise to the general public, both of this country and of Europe-the surprise, in the present instance, being of a somewhat different kind. That' there should have been such a long, and, we may add, such a troubling and exasperating, diplomatic background to the apparently sudden action on the part of our own Executive, will be in the nature of news to the popular mind.

There are those, doubtless, who will still criticise the action of our Executive in some of its details; but we think that after having read the whole of Mr. Cleveland's presentation of the case even the critics will be fain to acknowledge two things: First, that there was greatly more ground for the action than the general public has ever acquainted itself with; and, second, that aside from any question as to the Monroe Doctrine (which is a matter affecting our own "safety and welfare"), the interference of the Government of the United States in this instance not only compelled the speedy and just conclusion of an embittered controversy, and furnished a new and conspicuous object-lesson in international arbitration, but also placed a weak country on the same plane as a powerful one in the field of international dispute, and was in the high interests of justice and fair dealing among all the nations of the earth.

The stand that the United States took in its interference in behalf of a weak country as against a strong one, both in the case of Venezuela against Great Britain and in the case of Cuba against Spain, places us under peculiar obligation ourselves to respect

with the utmost scrupulousness, and throughout all time, the rights of weaker nations and unprotected peoples in their relations with our own powerful commonwealth.

It should be remembered that as a sequel to this diplomatic incident came the negotiation of a general treaty of arbitration between the United States and Great Britain-a noble measure, the blood of which is on the hands of the Senate of the United States!

OURS A SOVEREIGN NATION.

The confusion of mind that has prevailed in many quarters from the beginning seems to be due largely to the failure to grasp the nature of a written constitution and its relation to the exercise of general powers of sovereignty by a government. There is no nation in the world, and probably has never been one, in which any generation supposed that it could devise a written instrument. of organic law which would effectively prevent its successors from availing themselves of opportunities that might arise to extend their territorial jurisdiction. The primary object of the American Constitution was to arrange an effective and permanent scheme of partnership and union for a group of associated States which were not suitably organized under the old Articles of Confederation. It was taken as a matter of course from the very beginning that this partnership should constitute an authority capable of acquiring and governing outside territory. If, indeed, the great expanses of territory that were acquired one after another were for the most part somewhat rapidly formed into States which in quick order were accepted as members of the partnership, this course of proceeding was not in the least due to any constitutional obligations, but solely to the fact that it accorded with the interests and inclination of the American people to follow just that line of action. In other words, the United States, quite apart from any obligations incurred by treaty, or agreements of any other sort, rested under no temptation whatever to hold the great Northwestern Territory or the lands of the Louisiana Purchase in political subjection and bondage. The gentlemen who have been using the word empire so freely as a term of reproach to the present Administration, and to the Supreme Court on account of its recent decisions, do not seem to have kept in mind the essential nature of governmental and political institutions. From "The Progress of the World," in the "American Monthly Review of Reviews" for July.

The July number of the NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW is remarkable for the general excellence and high quality of its contents, and there are few intelligent American readers who will not find in it something to their taste. Alfred Austin, the poet-laureate of England, contributes a long poem entitled "Polyphemus," based upon the mythical tale of the tragic love of the giant Cyclops for the fair nymph, Galatea. A posthumous paper by Sir Walter Besant, entitled "The Burden of the Twentieth Century," describes the work which is likely to be done, in England especially, during the next hundred years, in perfecting social, religious and political reforms already begun. Dr. J. M. Buckley employs his pungent, polemical pen in exposing

"THE ABSURD PARADOX OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE."

Dr. Buckley lays emphasis upon the practical absurdity in which the application of Christian Science principles involves its votaries, and he finds a conclusive argument against the Christian Science idea that medicines cure only through the patient's belief in them in the fact that the curative properties of many substances were discovered by pure accident. He thus describes the functions and office of a physician worthy of the name, as distinguished from the so-called "healers" of Christian Science:

"An intelligent, educated, experienced and candid physician studies both the mind and the body, relieves the sick man of the responsibility of treating himself, strengthens him by hope and encourages him by his personal presence and manner. He understands the mineral, plant and animal substances included in . Materia Medica; he knows that not medicine, but inherited vital force, is the primary cause of health and healing, and of the repair of injuries. He knows also, by observation and experiment, that nature can be assisted, but he interferes only when it is necessary and safe. Such a physician is too learned and too honest ever to do he knows not what because he knows not what to do. He can relieve the pains of incurable diseases, smooth the pathway of sufferers to the inevitable end, and to convalescents he can give such hygienic hints as may prevent a recurrence of the malady or save them from something worse. Certain that all men must die and that all die of old age, disease, accident, or intentional violence, he claims by hygiene, medicine and surgery to assist nature to delay the inevitable, and to render the journey to it more endurable."

Frederic Harrison's "Impressions of America" are reprinted in

THE LIVING AGE for July 13, from "The Nineteenth Century." Mr. Harrison, as was to have been expected, is an amiable critic, and he is also more discriminating than many Englishmen who have discoursed upon America.

The serial in THE LIVING AGE, beginning in the number for July 13th, is Mathilde Serao's "Sister Giovanna of the Cross," translated from the Italian. It is a pathetic and exquisitely written story of a nun, forced out into the world by the closing of the establishments of the religious orders. It has a peculiar timeliness, in view of the discussion of the Associations Law in France.

THE EVOLUTION OF A THIRD EYE.

The proper angle of vision and the true perspective depend upon the point from which we look at an object. A city sky line cannot be seen from a basement window. We get a very poor picture of an avenue from an alley-corner. A masterpiece of painting may look like a mere daub if seen from an unfavorable spot. Visitors to art galleries are constantly saying, "How different the canvas appears here and there."

Life is like that. The world is something fairer after dinner. The skies are never so blue, the grass is never so green, the air never so balmy as on one's wedding day, whatever the weather may be.

A friend was bitterly complaining to the soul that loved him best. He said: "Everything is dark before me. Nothing but disaster and defeat seems likely to come." "Wait till to-morrow and see how things look," was the wise advice. And on the morrow the sun was undimmed and the future full of hope. The day brought a new viewpoint.

An optimistic Confederate officer who had been wounded, and who lay in a temporary hospital with a leg amputated, heard his black body-servant wailing, and said: "Pomp, why are you crying so?" The servant answered: "I'se cryin' case you'se only got one laig, Massa." "Then stop your foolishness," the officer replied, "and be glad you'll have but one boot to clean hereafter." A spirit such as that sees everything from the viewpoint of a practical philosophy capable of ridding life of half its sorrow.

Montaigne once said; "If I had the power of creating and endowing myself, I should make myself three-eyed." "Why a third eye?" some one inquired. He answered: "To enable me to see the cheerful side of everything." Some men have that extra vision. But it is not a separate organ, not a concrete faculty, but

merely a mental attitude, a habit of seeing things from the best. possible point of view.-"The Saturday Evening Post."

HUNGER AND MENTAL ACTIVITY.

The influence of hunger on mental activity has recently been investigated by M. Lassignardie. Deprivation of nourishment may include voluntary deprivation, as in the case of professional fasters, and compulsory deprivation, as in diseases, such as violent fevers, hysteria, and acute mental derangement, or where hunger is a consequence of poverty, shipwreck, imprisonment, or accident, where hunger is continued for the commission of suicide, and finally in religious fasts. The author makes a special study of the transitory delirium that follows long deprivation, as after shipwreck. He concludes that if deprivation do not last too long, and if, especially, it is voluntary and habitual, the result is manifest activity of the mind, and particularly of the imagination. If the deprivation be protracted, a change in the character and deportment of the person takes place, which is expressed by a peculiar excitability, by extraordinary selfishness, and even by cruelty At the same time unequivocal signs of mental derangement appear, such as partial loss of memory, of volition, of self-control, and an inclination to sudden and irresistible impulses which seem to be wholly instinctive. In serious cases the mental derangement becomes particularly acute during the night; it shows itself in sleeplessness, in horrid dreams, nightmares, illusions, maniacal visions, and dangerous impulses. If mental derangement occur during the day, also, it indicates a very serious condition that can become extremely dangerous. If deprivation last indefinitely, the victim, under the influence of continued hallucinations and irresistible impulses, can therefore be hastened to deeds such as have occasionally filled the world with horror. Lassignardie draws a parallel be-tween the mental condition resulting from hunger and that resulting from drunkenness; in both he finds the same disturbance of the intelligence, or morale, and of deportment. Clinical as well as experimental facts have shown that many of the signs of disease correspond precisely with those of the effect of deprivation of nourishment. "Literary Digest."

COUNT TOLSTOY AND THE RUSSIANS.

If Tolstoy has never made a Russian sect, the Russian sects have made Tolstoy. He is a pupil, not a teacher, in his own country. It is only abroad that Tolstoy stands as a revolutionary