LITERARY NOTICES. 



559 



as well that we should have, once in a while, 

 as ardent an admirer and as firm a believer 

 in our political faith as Mr. Carnegie, to re- 

 call us to a contemplation of our virtues. 

 Of critics there will always be enough. The 

 following summary of the results achieved 

 by the republic during the first century of 

 its existence well indicates the general tone 

 of the volume : 



" 1. The majority of the English-speak- 

 ing race under one republican flag, at peace. 



" 2. The nation which is pledged by act 

 of both [parties to offer amicable arbi- 

 tration for the settlement of international 

 disputes. 



" 3. The nation which contains the small- 

 est proportion of illiterates, the largest pro- 

 portion of those who read and write. 



"4. The nation which spends least on 

 war and most upon education; which has 

 the smallest army and navy, in proportion 

 to its population and wealth, of any maritime 

 power in the world. 



" 5. The nation which provides most 

 generously during their lives for every sol- 

 dier and sailor injured in its cause, and for 

 their widows and orphans. 



"6. The nation in which the rights of 

 the minority and of property are most se- 

 cure. 



" 7. The nation whose flag, wherever it 

 floats over sea and land, is the symbol and 

 guarantor of the equality of the citizen. 



" 8. The nation in whose Constitution no 

 man suggests improvement ; whose laws as 

 they stand are satisfactory to all citizens. 



" 9. The nation which has the ideal sec- 

 ond chamber, the most august assembly in 

 the world the American Senate. 



" 10. The nation whose Supreme Court 

 is the envy of the ex-prime minister of the 

 parent-land. 



"11. The nation whose Constitution is 

 1 the most perfect piece of work ever struck 

 off at one time by the mind and purpose of 

 man,' according to the present prime minis- 

 ter of the parent-land. 



" 12. The nation most profoundly con- 

 servative of what is good, yet based upon 

 the political equality of the citizen. 



" 13. The wealthiest nation in the world. 



" 14. The nation first in public credit 

 and in payment of debt. 



" 15. The greatest agricultural nation in 

 the world. 



" 16. The greatest manufacturing nation 

 in the world. 



" 17. The greatest mining nation in the 

 world." 



California, from the Conquest in 1846 to 

 the Second Vigilance Committee in 

 San Francisco. By Josiah Royce. 

 Boston and New York : Houghton, Mif- 

 flin, & Co. Pp. 513, with Map. Price, 

 $1.25. 



This history belongs to the " American 

 Commonwealths " series, of which Mr. Hor- 

 ace E. Scudder is the editor, and is present- 

 ed as a study of American character. That 

 character, earnest, practical, and always 

 self-possessed, is strikingly exemplified in 

 the manner in which a prosperous and ad- 

 vancing State has been organized out of the 

 chaos that prevailed during the earlier years 

 of the California settlement. In studying 

 the subject, the social condition has been 

 throughout of more interest to the author 

 " than the individual men, and the men 

 themselves of more interest than their fort- 

 unes, while the purpose to study the na- 

 tional character has never been lost sight 

 of. Through all the complex facts that 

 are here set down in their somewhat con- 

 fused order, I have felt running the one 

 thread of the process whereby a new and 

 great community first came to a true con- 

 sciousness of itself. The story begins with 

 the seemingly accidental doings of detached 

 but in the sequel vastly influential individu- 

 als, and ends just where the individual ceases 

 to have any great historical significance for 

 California life, and where the community 

 begins to be what it ought to be, viz., all- 

 important as against individual doings and 

 interests." 



Food Materials and their Adultera- 

 tions. By Ellen H. Richards, In- 

 structor in Sanitary Chemistry in the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 

 author of " Chemistry of Cooking and 

 Cleaning." Boston: Estes & Lauriat. 

 1886. 



This work is the result of ten years' ex- 

 perience in laboratory examination of food 

 materials, along with careful attention to 

 the literature of the subject, both at home 

 and abroad. It makes no claim to original- 

 ity, but is intended to give useful informa- 

 tion in a form adapted to schools and the 

 home that is, without technicalities or 



