846 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



when ofPered to us at the most advan- 

 tageous prices, is on the face of it an 

 absurdity. The fundamental idea of 

 trade, whether domestic or foreign, 

 is that you get an article that is of 

 more value to you than the thing 

 you part with ; and how a nation can 

 benefit itself by greatly restricting 

 the number of its profitable ex- 

 changes is something that no unso- 

 phisticated mind can understand. 

 Add to this the bitterness of feel- 

 ing toward foreign nations and the 

 consequent littleness of mind which 

 the protective system breeds ; add to 

 it also the political demoralization 

 which tarifi' arrangements always 

 involve, the corrupt relations they 

 tend to create between the party in 



power and the privileged interests, 

 and the coDclusion will be inevita- 

 ble that the system in question can 

 not be a permanent policy for a self- 

 I'especting nation. 



There are other questions press- 

 ing forward in our national affairs 

 which need to be treated with sole 

 regard to the welfare of the nation 

 as a whole, and with views looking 

 to the future rather than being con- 

 fined to selfish interests and the 

 emergencies of the present. What- 

 ever may be said of the validity of 

 Mr. Wells's arguments, his breadth 

 of view and his method of presenting 

 them may well be commended to all 

 whose work it may be to deal with 

 these subjects. 



^tltutxtit Titcvatixvje. 



SPECIAL BOOKS. 



The object of the Ancient Ideals ol Mr. Henry Osborn Taylor* is to 

 present a new historical survey of the mental and spiritual growth of man- 

 kind in the light of the recent progress of historical research and the modi- 

 fications of opinion that have been occasioned thereby. The attempt is 

 made to treat human development from the point of view of the ideals of 

 the different races as these ideals disclose themselves in the art and litera- 

 ture, in the philosophy and religion, and in the conduct and political for- 

 tunes of each race. The author has endeavored to preserve a unity of plan 

 in setting forth the i^art taken by each race in the histoi-y, to make clear 

 the nature of the contribution made by each to the stages of growth at- 

 tained before the Christian era, and to indicate in what respects their con- 

 tributions became permanent elements of humanity and thus elements of 

 its further possibilities possibilities which he believes find in Christianity 

 the perfect conditions for their final realization. The life of the peoples, if 

 we comprehend the author's thought correctly, is a striving after ideals, 

 which are never quite reached directly by the strivers ; and " the complete 

 story of human progress is the story of ideal conception and of endeavor, 

 and the unfailing realization of ideals in the growth of human beings with 

 ideals uplifted and enlarged." This makes the narrative of the enlarge- 

 ment and upraising of human life ; it is a history of the growth of hu- 

 man personality; of the age-long development of the characters of men 

 and women. Accordingly, we have in this book the story of the life and 



* Ancient Ideals : A Stndy of Intellectual and Spiritual Growth from Early Timeg to the Estab- 

 lishment of Christianity. By Henry Osborn Taylor. New Tork : G. P. Putnam's Sons. In two vol- 

 umes, 8vo. Price, $5.50. 



