is not now so different as it was from that current in
England. But he sees there is yet a margin and,
indeed, until all our vast domain is fairly settled,
there must always be; and he gives statements of the
relative advantages as to wages and cost of living of
many of the American fields for labour, the Plate, the
Argentine Republic, as well as the United States and
Canada. Nor does he omit mention of the influence
of emigration on the home countries. He shews
that, so great has been the exodus of railway labour-
ers from Ireland, that it is, at the present time, diffi-
cult to procure the necessary supply to complete the
Fermoy and Lismore Railway; but he does not re-
gret Irish emigration, on the contrary, he admits
that the labourer in Ireland is still comparatively poor,
and, surely, he adds, a destitute, and "because des-
titute, a disaffected population is a discredit and a
weakness, and not an honour or a strength to a
nation." "Is it not immeasurably better," he adds,
“that a man should prosper in a foreign country,
than struggle miserably for existence in his native
land ?" Here speaks the man of large heart and
broad principles, and we cannot but contrast his
language with that of Lord Lisgar, but yesterday
our Governor-General, now living on his Irish farms,
where long may he remain, who, at a recent meeting
of Irish landlords, tried, by false representations,
and for selfish purposes, to prevent emigration to
this country, to which, for his peerage and his
savings, he should be for ever grateful.
Brassey beautifully proves, in several chapters,
that where the labourer is poorly paid,, he is hardly
worked, and destitute of the comforts of life. He
gives a sorrowful picture of the condition of the pea-
santry of Russia, where the women give birth to
children in barns and stables, and, in three days at
the utmost, are again employed in hard field labour
-where, in some Provinces, the average limit of life
is but 15 years, and rarely exceeds 27, so that there
are, in the whole Empire, but 265 persons alive be-
tween 15 and 60 years of age, out of 1,000 born,
while in Great Britain there are 548. He traces up
the relations between low wages and physical degra-
dation and misery in many countries, under many
suns, and the conclusion is irresistible, that it is well
for the labouring man to live where wages are high
There were people like Lord Lisgar in the Hebrides,
in the time of Johnson's tour, who wished to dis-
suade the inhabitants from taking ship for America;
but, if we compare the present position of the Heb-
ridians with what Johnson describes, we find that even
they are better off, while the sons of those who left
are now among the rulers of the States and Pro-
vinces on this side of the Atlantic. Has the wealth
of the landlords of the Hebrides decreased? Far
from it. Emigration has raised to the average of

prosperity all classes of an overcrowded population, and so it has done and is still doing in Ireland; bat Irish landlords of Lisgar's stamp, accustomed to look closely to present needs, cannot see beyond them. Mr. Brassey does. Throughout his book, indeed, there runs a delightful vein of real human sympathy with his fellow-men of every nation, creed and class. He recommends courts of conciliation, to re-unite the temporarily widened gap between employer and employed; piece work, as a means of raising the earnings of the men without detriment to the master: the eventual shortening of hours to prevent the overtasking of the energies, in these days when the close attendance upon machinery taxes brain and muscle alike, and makes labour more severe than formerly, co-operative societies, in shapes shewn to work advantageously, as means for the settlement of disputes as to wages. He is a man of progress, not in the sense of feverish, restless excitement; but in the broad philanthropic sense, which looks to the eleva tion of the conditions of all classes, physically and morally; not a man whose piety begins and ends in his own money bags. And to Lord Lisgar and to the public generally, we commend the extract with which we close :

"The importance of social reforms, and of secur ing the material well-being of the masses of or population, is now universally recognised. I con fess my doubts as to the efficacy of legislation in such Mr. matters. It must be remembered that all national expenditure for the benefit of the working classes which is not reproductive must be defrayed by additional taxes. Let the transfer of land be by al means facilitated, let railway communication be tween the centre of a great city and its suburbs be made as cheap as possible, let emigration be assisted by loans, if security can be taken for the repayment of such advances; but, granted that something may be done by these various means, I hesitate to adm that the State can be the chief instrument for eleva ting still higher the moral condition of the people The work is too vast for any Government to under take. It can only be accomplished by the self-hel; and self-sacrifice of the whole nation. And wher all shall have done their duty in their several stations. the pressure of unforeseen calamity upon some unhappy individuals and the incapacity of others wil leave a mass of suffering to our compassionate care, which it will task our best energies to relieve. The poor we shall always have with us; and the great peers, the landowners, and the men who have be come rich in commerce, must show themselves active in their sympathies for all just demands, benevolen and kindly in the presence of distress. The exercise of these excellent virtues, while it is in the first place a paramount duty, will undoubtedly bring with it to

the State and the society in which we live, the immediate and priceless blessing of social union and contentment."

FIRST BOOK OF BOTANY : being an Introduction to the Study of the Anatomy and Physiology of Plants, by John Hutton Balfour, F.R. S., Professor of Botany in the University of Edinburgh. London: William Collins & Sons.

Now that the Natural Sciences are rapidly taking their true place in the education of the young, it has become a well recognised necessity that schools should be able to obtain accurate elementary textbooks. Publishers are beginning to manifest a keen appreciation of the revolution in educational matters which is quietly but surely taking place; and from all, sides we have announcements of forthcoming manuals and text-books of Science.

Professor Balfour's little

book is one of a series of elementary Science-text- |
books in course of issue by Messrs. Collins, and its
appearance is creditable to its publishers. No de-
partment of Natural Science is better fitted to be
taught in schools than Botany, and there is no lack
of excellent hand-books on the subject. In point
of size, Dr. Balfour's work is everything that could
be desired, not extending to one hundred and twenty
pages, duodecimo. It is, also, in our opinion, a
very wise, if somewhat novel, arrangement, that the
work is made to treat exclusively of Vegetable Ana-
tomy and Physiology-the department of classifica-
tion being reserved for a second companion volume.
The style is plain and clear, and the illustrations are
all good. The chief defect in the book, intended as
it is, exclusively, for beginners, is that the subject
is treated with an excess of dry detail. Too
much space in proportion is devoted to a descrip-
tion of the structure of the organs of plants; whilst
far too little is said about the functions dis-
charged by these organs. In other words, there
are too many dry anatomical details and not
enough of the equally important and much more
interesting information as to the life of plants.
In spite of this defect, however, the work will
answer its purpose admirably in the hands of a
good and thoroughly qualified teacher. It cannot
be too strongly insisted, however, that the teacher
constitutes as important an element in the teaching
as the text-book. In the hands of one not suffici-
ently acquainted with the subject, and relying for his
knowledge entirely upon books, Dr. Balfour's work
would be likely to fall short of its object. In the
hands of a really good practical botanist, on the
other hand, the dry bones of this little book would
be clothed with flesh, and might be presented to the
learner as a living body and not as a dead skeleton.
It cannot, also, be too strongly insisted upon that

Botany, to at least as great an extent as any other of the Natural Sciences, requires to be taught practically, if it is to be taught with any real profit to the learner. If the pupil is to be taught Botany in the dead of winter, solely by means of text-books and diagrams, he may acquire a parrot-like knowledge of a number of technical terms, but he will assuredly acquire nothing else—-except, perhaps, a disgust at science in general. If, on the other hand, the leading facts of Botany are demonstrated to the beginner in the open fields, or by an appeal to actual specimens, he will be likely to gain some genuine acquaintance with the subject, along with some still more valuable knowledge of the scientific method of research, and some permanent and abiding love of nature-studies.

So long as the teacher does not
make his text-book the sole agent in his teaching,
we can cordially recommend Dr. Balfour's little
Its information is not imparted in the most
book.
attractive manner, but it is, at any rate, perfectly clear
and entirely accurate-qualities which cannot be too
highly estimated in judging of a work of this nature.
As before remarked, also, it has the recommendation
of great brevity, and it thus obtains a most decided
advantage over the excellent text-books of Professor
Asa Gray.

THE LAND OF DESOLATION : being a personal nar-
rative of observation and adventure in Greenland.
By Isaac J. Hayes, M. D., Gold Medallist of the
Royal Geographical Society, London, and of the
Société de Geographie, Paris; honorary member of
the Geographical Societies of Berlin and of Italy;
author of "The Open Polar Sea," "An Arctic
Boat Journey,"
""Cast away in the Cold," etc. Il-
lustrated. New York: Harper and Brothers.

If Dr. Hayes, arriving by night at a Greenland inn,
and asking for a bed, had given all his titles, the an-
swer to him would probably have been as it was
to the Spanish Hidalgo, who gave all his names :
"We haven't room for half of you." Nevertheless,
his book is a pleasant, unaffected, lively little book,
and gives us, very vividly, the sensations and impres-
sions of the Land of Desolation. It is the record of
a summer voyage with a party of friends in the steam
yacht of Mr. William Bradford, an eminent painter
of Arctic scenery. The party sought out all that was
most picturesque and striking in every way-photo-
graphed the northernmost human dwelling on the
globe by the light of the midnight sun, explored gla-
ciers, saw the birth of icebergs, chased bears on the
ice-did Greenland, in short, to their own and our
The plum of the book-at once the
satisfaction.
most impressive scene and the most exciting adven-
ture, is the birth of an iceberg in the fiord of Scrimt-
sialik. An iceberg is the extremity of a glacier

terrupted. It was like the wind which moaning
through the trees before a storm, elevates its voice
with its multiplying strength, and lays the forest low
in the crash of the tempest. The whole glacier
about the place, where these disturbances were occar-
ring, was enveloped in a cloud, which rose up over
the glacier as one sees the mist rising from the
abyss below Niagara, and, receiving the rays
of the sun, hold a rainbow fluttering above the vortex.
While the fearful sound was pealing forth, I sawa
blue mass rising through the cloud, at first slowly,
then with a bound; and now from out the foam and
mist, a wave of vast proportions rolled away in a
widening semicircle. I could watch the glacier ao
more. The instinct of self-preservation drove me te
seize the first firm object I could lay my hands upon,
and grasp it with all my strength. The wave came
down upon us with the speed of the wind. The
swell occasioned by the earthquake can alone com-
pare with it in magnitude. It rolled beneath the
Panther, lifted her upon its crest, and swept her to-
wards the rocks. An instant more, and I was fat
upon the deck, borne down by the stroke of falling
water. The wave had broken on the abrupt shore,
and, after touching the rocks with its crest a hundred
feet above our heads, had curled backward, and,
striking the ship with terrific force, had deluged the
decks. A second wave followed before the shock of
the first had fairly ceased, and broke over us in like

which protrudes into the sea, and in course of time becomes detached. The Panther was lying by the glacier, the artists were on shore, photographing; the sun was hot and, under its influence, cracklings and splittings had been going on in the glacier for some time. "Then without a moment's warning, there was a report louder than any we had yet heard. It was evident that some unusual event was about to happen, and a feeling of alarm was generally experienced." On the glacier was a forest of ice spires, and one which stood out quite detached, nearly two hundred feet high. "The last and loudest report came from this wonderful spire which was sinking down. It seemed, indeed, as if the foundation of the earth was giving way, and that the spire was descending into the yawning depths below. The effect was magnificent. It did not topple over and fall headlong, but went down bodily, and in doing so, crumbled into numberless pieces. The process was not instantaneous, but lasted for a space of at least a quarter of a minute. It broke up as if it were composed of scales, the fastenings of which had given way, layer after layer, until the very core was reached, and there was nothing left of it. But we could not witness this process of disintegration in detail after the first few moments, for the whole glacier, almost to its summit, became enveloped in spray-a semi-transparent cloud through which the crumbling of the ice could be faintly seen. Shouts of admiration and astonishment burst from the ship's company. Another and another came after in quick The greatest danger would scarcely have been suffi- succession, but each was smaller than the one precient to withdraw the eye from the fascinating spec- ceding it. The Panther was driven within two tacle. But when the summit of the spire began to fathoms of the shore, but she did not strike. Thank sink away amid the great white mass of foam and heaven our anchor held, or our ship would have been mist into which it finally disappeared, the enthu- knocked to pieces, or landed high and dry with the siasm was unbounded. By this time, however, other first great wave that rolled under us." The agitation portions of the glacier were undergoing a similar of the sea continued for half an hour. "The iceberg transformation-influenced, no doubt, by the shock had been born amidst the great confusion; and as which had been communicated by this first disruption. it was the rolling up of the vast mass that sent that Other spires, less perfect in their form, disappeared first wave away in a widening semicircle, so it was in the same manner, and great scales, peeling off from the rocking to and fro of the monster that continued the glacier in various places fell into the sea with a the agitation of the sea; for this new-born child of prolonged crash, and followed by a general hissing the Arctic frosts seemed loath to come to rest in its and crackling sound. Then in the general confusion watery cradle. And what an azure gem it was! all particular reports were swallowed up in one uni- glittering while it moved there in the bright sunversal roar which woke the echoes of the hills and shine like a mammoth lapis lazuli set in a sea of spread consternation to the people on the Panther's chased silver, for the waters round were but one mass deck. This consternation increased with every mo- of foam." The iceberg when measured was found ment, for the roar of the falling and crumbling ice to be a hundred and forty feet high above the water, was drowned in a peal, compared to which, the loud-giving a total depth of eleven hundred and twenty est thunder of the heavens would be but a feeble feet, since the proportion of ice below is to that above sound. It seemed as if the foundations of the earth as seven to one. Its circumference was almost a which had given way to admit the sinking ice, were mile. now rent asunder, and the world seemed to tremble. From the commencement of the crumbling till this moment the increase of sound was steady and unin

manner.

The visit to the ruins of old Norse settlements, long since abandoned either because the climate has changed, or because the circulation of the blood in

man has become less heroic, are an interesting part of the book. The part which we could best have spared, is that which relates to the pranks of an American youth, nicknamed "The Prince," with a Greenland beauty, called Concordia. The book is Yankee, not in a disagreeable sense, but as having a strong tinge of Yankee adventurousness and audacity, which come out conspicuously-breaking through ice with the Panther. We are not told where the Panther was built, but she seems to have done credit to her builders.

THE CHRISTIAN'S MANUAL: being a book of Directions and Devotions to be used daily, and especially in preparing for the Holy Communion. Toronto: Adam, Stevenson & Co. 1872.

This little work, written, we believe, by an Anglican clergyman of the diocese of Toronto, and dedicated to the Bishop of the diocese, is extremely creditable to the earnest piety of the author. He evidently belongs to what is commonly called the "High Church," and his views on the Eucharist will, perhaps, prove unacceptable to some sections of his own communion; yet, controversy apart-and we do not think it is obnoxiously prominent-the "Manual" ought to be of essential service to all English Churchmen. It provides, within a brief space, a complete scheme of personal and family devotion, self-examination and preparation for the reception of the Communion. The prayers are, for the most part, taken from the Liturgy of the Church of England; the hymns, selected with admirable taste; and the admonitions to the reader, are well calculated to stimulate worshippers "to be spirituallyminded which," as St. Paul informs us, "is life and peace."

We may add that the manual is, in point of price, within the reach of all, and that, typographically, it is all that can be desired.

ORIENTAL AND LINGUISTIC STUDIES. The Veda,

the Avesta; the Science of Language. By Wm. Dwight Whitney, Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in Yale College. New York Scribner, Armstrong & Co,

This work is made up of a number of papers which originally appeared in American periodicals or were embalmed in the transactions of learned societies. The endowment of a Professorship of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology is, of itself, a creditable proof of intellectual life; and the republication of these essays seems to indicate that Prof. Whitney hopes to interest and instruct a wide circle of readers. As collected in the volume before us, they treat of

two subjects more or less connected by the author: the sacred literature of the Hindu and Iranian nations, and the origin and development of articulate speech the former pertaining to Comparative Mythology, the latter to Philology.

So far as the primitive religions of the Aryan race are concerned, the mass of educated men are still in gross darkness; but this is not to be wondered at, when dignitaries of the church are hopelessly at sea regarding the existing beliefs of the people they propose to convert. It was only the other day that the Archbishop of Canterbury pulled a hornet's nest youths, now studying English law at one or other of about his ears by stigmatizing a number of Hindu the Inns of Court, as "heathens" and "idolaters.” Dr. Tait went so far as to express the whimsical apprehension that London was in imminent danger of being converted to Brahminism. The imputation was resented with what appears to us unnecessary warmth; but the Hindu is extremely sensitive, disputatious, and fond of self-assertion. The truth is, the gulf between the creed of the intelligent Hindu and that of the lower castes and the pariahs is practically immeasurable. It is wider than that which divides the ethereal mysticism of Fenelon and Pascal from the simple devotion of the Italian contadino, or that which served to distinguish the mad capers of an Athenian slave at the Dionysia from the philosophic contemplations of the Porch or of the Grove.

As far back as we can trace them in the Veda and the Avesta for both are of kindred origin—the Oriental beliefs were pure forms of nature-religion. Before the Hindu had set foot within the fertile peninsula-in a remote past when he still gazed wistfully across the Indus upon the promised land-his faith had found a permanent record in writings which are with us to this day. The gods of Greece are con jecturally resolved into human embodiments of the powers of nature; in India we find the spiritual religion itself, out of which sprang the Titans and their somewhat degenerate successors, the deities of Olympus. Anthropomorphism had not yet been de

veloped when the hymns of the Rig-Veda were

chanted by dusky worshippers. There was a god in the fire and a god in the breeze—in the rosy dawn and in the sober depths of the clear, blue sky. We are thus brought closer to the momentous question :— What is the origin of the world's religions? Did they uniformly begin with the impersonation, in a spiritual form, of the beauty and the power displayed in earthly phenomena ? Or was there an anterior faith,-purer than these which taught that there were not "gods many and lords many"-numerous as the manifestations of nature-but one God alone, whom men saw in clouds and heard upon the wind? A collection of writings which confronts the student