SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



711 



ganizing to the family, demoralizing to the 

 workman, and making his future uncertain ; 

 and by the institution of rents and the sys- 

 tem of day's work, the peasant is made as 

 proletary, as separate from his family, and 

 as destitute of a morrow as the workman in 

 the shop. Thus puahed out of society, such 

 individuals demand a new social order. So- 

 ciety dismayed contrives laws to meet the 

 demands of the workmen for relief, and thus 

 assists in establishing the collectivism which 

 the socialists invoke. Socialism is conse- 

 quently an evolution or degeneration of capi- 

 talism. This evolution is right if it con- 

 forms itself to the laws of being, wrong if it 

 does not take account of them. The au- 

 thor's purpose is to sho(v how the necessary, 

 evident, and near evolution of capitalism 

 may take just forms, which, not depriving 

 any, will give their rights to all, particularly 

 to the disinherited ; creating a new judicial 

 and social order upon the existing physical 

 order, but unknown to it. 



The New York State Library has just 

 issued its seventh annual Comparative Sum- 

 mary and Index of State Legislation, cover- 

 ing the laws passed in 1896. Each act is 

 briefly described or summarized and classi- 

 fied under its proper subject head, with a 

 full alphabetic index to the entries. Perhaps 

 the most important legislation of the year 

 was that enacted by the people directly 

 through their votes upon the numerous con- 

 stitutional amendments submitted to them. 

 The bulletiu records the amendments de- 

 feated as well as those adopted, a special 

 table arranged by States being inserted for 

 convenient reference. It is of interest to 

 note that of fifty-seven separate constitu- 

 tional amendments voted on only twenty- four 

 were adopted. It is proposed that the 

 eighth bulletin shall consoUdate into a single 

 series with the legislation of 1897 the sum- 

 maries for the preceding seven years. 



A History of Ancient Greek Literature, 

 by Gilbert Murray (New York : D. Apple- 

 ton & Co., 1897, $1.50), forms the initial 

 volume of the Literatures of the World Se- 

 ries. Edited by Edmund Gosse, who writes 

 the general introduction, the aim of the 

 series is to present " a succession of attract- 

 ive volumes, dealing with the history of 

 literature in a single country," not from the 



point of view of the specialist treating cer- 

 tain epochs, but giving a survey of the 

 general evolution of thought expressed in 

 artistic form. The object being primarily to 

 give a biography of the intellectual life of a 

 race, " an effort will be made to recall the 

 history of Literature from the company of 

 sciences which have somewhat unduly borne 

 her down from philology in particular, 

 and from political history. . . . Literature 

 will be interpreted as the most perfect utter- 

 ance of the ripest thought by the finest 

 minds, and to the classics of each country 

 rather than to its oddities, and rather than 

 to its obsolete features, will particular atten- 

 tion be directed." Homer stands, then, at 

 the head of Greek literature, as being the 

 oldest classic extant in the language. Much 

 attention is given to the historians, and the 

 drama, of course, is extensively treated, as 

 are also the song-writers, whereas less space 

 is accorded to philosophic and political writ- 

 ings. The author has in every case endeav- 

 ored to get at the personality of the Greek 

 writers and to set down their work as the 

 result of the strenuous life of the people. 

 The chapter on the later literature, Alexan- 

 drian and Roman, showing the rich fruitage 

 of its declining years, in poetry up to the 

 sixth century a. d., and in prose to the fall 

 of Byzantium, proves that Greek literature 

 by no means died with the loss of Greek in- 

 dependence, as is commonly assumed. 



Dr. George A, Williams has prepared a 

 revised and enlarged edition of his Topics 

 and References in American History. The 

 topics begin with the prehistoric period and 

 come down to the election of 1896. Each 

 has one or more references to standard works 

 or to leading magazines, and lists of ques- 

 tions are inserted from time to time. In 

 choosing his references the author has rec- 

 ognized the recent demand that students of 

 history shall go " back to the sources." (Bar- 

 deen, $1.) 



In a pamphlet on The Energy of Living 

 Protoplasm, Prof. Oscar Loew, of the Im- 

 perial University, Japan, seeks to define that 

 elusive mystery, the source of vital activity. 

 Starting from the observation that the 

 chemical properties of dead and living cells 

 are totally different, and that certain sub- 

 stances, toxic to living protoplasm, have no 



