LITERARY NOTICES. 



553 



available. Much of the substance of the 

 book is derived from the experience of the 

 author, or has been placed at his disposal by 

 friends who have been engaged in the study 

 of questions connected with life insurance. 

 The special topics of " The Normal Man," 

 " The Duties of the Medical Officer," " Hered- 

 itary Influences," " The History of the In- 

 dividual," " The Insuree's Liability to Dis- 

 ease," and "The Medico-Legal Aspects of 

 Life Insurance," arc considered. 



Geological Survey of New Jersey. An- 

 nual Report of the State Geologist for 

 the Year 1881. Trenton, New Jersey : 

 John L. Murphy. Pp. 303, with Map 

 and Table of Temperatures. 



The topographical survey has been 

 pushed, during the year, westward across 

 Morris County and the central part of War- 

 ren County, to the Delaware River at Belvi- 

 dere, the work covering an area of 360 

 square miles, and making, with what had 

 been previously done, a total area of about 

 1,260 square miles completed. In the sev- 

 eral chapters of the report are considered the 

 encroachments of the sea upon the low-lying 

 lands of the shore, the ores of iron and other 

 metals, and quarries of stone in the State, 

 with statistics ; and more than half of the 

 volume is occupied with the consideration of 

 " the climate of New Jersey." An excellent 

 geological map of the State accompanies the 

 report. 



From River to Sea. A Tourists' and 

 Miners' Guide from the Missouri River 

 to the Pacific Ocean, via Kansas, Colo- 

 rado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Califor- 

 nia. Charles S. Gleed, Editor. Chicago: 

 Rand, McNally & Co. Pp. 240. Price, 

 $1. 



This work is designed to supply a want. 

 Its purpose is to give people a good general 

 idea of the vast territory which is tributary 

 to the new line of railway communication 

 (Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway) 

 between the Missouri River and the Pacific 

 Ocean. It embodies a great deal of infor- 

 mation of a kind which the traveler looks 

 for, and will be generally useful to him. 

 The illustrations, which are fairly well but 

 not finely executed, lose a large part of their 

 value by being inserted without reference to 

 the text, and in a not regular order. 



Political Institutions : Being Part V of 

 the Principles of Sociology. The 

 Concluding Portion of Volume II. By 

 Herbert Spencer. Pp. 457. Price, 

 $1.50. 



The second volume of Spencer's " Prin- 

 ciples of Sociology " is devoted to the evo- 

 lution of I, Ceremonial Institutions, and II, 

 Political Institutions ; and, as the first part 

 was issued separately about two years ago, 

 the second part is now also issued separately, 

 for the convenience of those who have pro- 

 cured the other. 



Although this work is in its nature his- 

 torical, yet it is necessary to discriminate 

 between the method of ordinary history and 

 that here adopted. Common history only 

 applies to the later stages of progress, and 

 it would deal with political institutions only 

 in their higher modifications. But the idea 

 of " development " implies that of origin, 

 and carries us back to prehistoric times 

 and primitive conditions. The question is, 

 in what way the earlier or rudimentary 

 forms of political institutions grew up. 

 This problem lies back of that of the ordi- 

 nary historian, is of a deeper nature, and 

 can only be successfully pursued under the 

 | guidance of some general theory of social 

 genesis which will throw a common light on 

 the development of ceremonial, political, 

 ecclesiastical, and industrial institutions. 

 Such a theory is that of evolution, and ac- 

 cordingly it is here made a part of the ex- 

 position of that theory. Of the difficulties 

 of the exposition growing out of the nature 

 of the subject, and the imperfections due 

 to its subordination to a larger scheme of 

 thought, the author says : 



The division of the "Principles of Sociology" 

 herewith issued, deals with phenomena of Evo- 

 lution which are, above all others, obscure and 

 entangled. To discover what truths may be 

 affirmed of political organizations at large is a 

 task beset by difficulties that are at once many 

 and great difficulties arising from unlikeness 

 of the various human races, from differences 

 among the modes of life entailed by circum- 

 stances on the societies formed of them, from 

 the numerous contrasts of sizes aud decrees of 

 culture exhibited by such societies, from their 

 perpetual interferences with one another's proc- 

 esses of evolution by means of wars, and from 

 accompanying breakings-up and aggregations in 

 ever-changing ways. 



Satisfactory achievement of this task would 

 require the labors of a life. Having been able 

 to devote to it but two years, I feel that the re- 



