LITERARY NOTICES. 



269 



rience in an endeavor to interest untutored 

 minds in physiology. The effort was so suc- 

 cessful in an English school among the poor 

 that children and adults became eager to 

 learn about the mechanism of the body. 



The circulation of the blood, breathing, 

 digestion, and sensation are described as 

 journeys made by the blood, air, food, sound, 

 and light; all technical names are translated 

 into everyday English : the peritoneum is 

 the over-all coat ; the thyroid, the shield- 

 ring. The terms employed are very ingen- 

 ious and readily remembered ; the stories apt 

 and generally well founded. One, however, 

 betrays a hasty generalization an American 

 girl burns her hands on a grate in England 

 because in America they only use closed stoves ! 



Nevertheless, the book is an excellent 

 one, and may be heartily recommended for 

 home reading, as well as to teachers of ele- 

 mentary classes. 



Mr. Herbert Spencer on the Land Ques- 

 tion. A Correction of Current Misrep- 

 resentations of his Views. New York : 

 D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 30. Price, 25 

 cents. 



A profound misconception respecting the 

 difference between Mr. Spencer's original 

 view concerning landownership and that he 

 now holds having been widely diffused, he 

 has thought it desirable to dissipate this 

 misconception by a simple statement of 

 what the original view was and what the 

 present view is. For this purpose, besides a 

 brief general statement in a preface of what 

 his original doctrine" was and what his views 

 are now, and of the extent to which they 

 have been modified, he reprints in parallel 

 columns, Chapter IX of Social Statics, pub- 

 lished in 1851, embodying the first published 

 expression of his views, and pertinent ex- 

 tracts from Justice, published in 1891, em- 

 bodying his latest published expression of 

 them. He originally contended, he says, 

 that the land could not become individual 

 property, but was the property of the com- 

 munity, and that this is in fact the current 

 legal doctrine, as illustrated in the theory of 

 eminent domain. This doctrine he continues 

 to hold, and has emphasized it in Justice, and 

 strengthened it by numerous illustrative facts. 

 With this assertion of the claim of the com- 

 munity to the land is coupled that of the 



private owner for compensation for the addi- 

 tional value he has given it when the state 

 asserts its right. He contemplated, however, 

 that the exercise of its claim by the commu- 

 nity, under the condition stated, would leave 

 a balance of benefit to it. If this were not 

 the case, although he held the doctrine still 

 good in absolute equity, he would in practice 

 forbear the exercise of the right. Of late 

 years he has become satisfied that the bur- 

 den of compensation would outweigh the 

 benefit of possession, if the compensation 

 were anything like equitable in amount ; and 

 has therefore come to the conclusion that 

 the change from private tenure to public 

 would be impolitic. Furthermore, it has 

 become clear to him that the prevailing 

 assumption that the existing landowners 

 hold from those who first seized the land 

 and misappropriated it is untrue, and he has 

 pointed out that among the people who are 

 supposed to be robbed exist in large meas- 

 ure those who are descendants of the rob- 

 bers. Hence the anger fostered against 

 landholders is largely misdirected. These 

 original views, as well as the modifications 

 of them, are not at variance with the opinions 

 held by the landed classes in England, but 

 are views which they have themselves pub- 

 licly enunciated through certain representa- 

 tive members of their class. The selections 

 in parallel columns of the present pamphlet 

 which were first published for the use of the 

 English Land Restoration League are fol- 

 lowed by a postscript, in which Mr. Spencer 

 shows from authentic statistics that land in 

 England is not all held by " dukes, earls, and 

 baronets," but that an immensely larger pro- 

 portion of owners possess but moderate quan- 

 tities, and that those who possess small quan- 

 tities are a hundred times in number those 

 who possess great quantities. If equity re- 

 quires that the large holders shall be expro- 

 priated, the same rule must apply to the 

 small ones in the majority of cases wage- 

 earners who have acquired their estates by 

 hard work and self-denial in poverty. Does 

 any one in his senses advocate this ? Having 

 made this demonstration, Mr. Spencer adds 

 that the beliefs expressed in the essay 1, 

 that a reversion to public landownership 

 could not justly be effected without compen- 

 sation to private owners ; 2, that the making 

 of compensation would bring more loss than 



