850 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



final quotation, which shows at once the power 

 and the weakness of the writer, his clear visiou 

 and his depressing tone : 



" For Art and Science are not of the world, 

 though the world may corrupt them ; they have 

 the nature of religion. When, therefore, we see 

 them shaking off the fetters of the reigning re- 

 ligion, we may he anxious, but we are not to 

 call this an outbreak of secularity ; it is the ap- 

 pearance of new forms of religion, which, if they 

 threaten orthodoxy, threaten secularity quite as 

 niucu. Now, secularity is the English vice, and 

 we may rejoice to see it attacked. It ought to 

 be the beginning of a new life for England 

 that the heavy materialism which has so long 

 weighed upon her is shaken at last. We have 

 been, perhaps, little aware of it, as one is usual- 

 ly liltle aware of the atmosphere one has long 

 breathed. We have been aware only of an ener- 

 getic industrialism. We have been proud of our 

 national k self-help,' of our industry, and solv- 

 ency, and have taken as but the due reward of 

 these virtues our good fortune in politics- and 

 colonization. We have even framed for our- 

 selves a sort of Deuteronomic religion which is 

 a great comfort to us ; it teaches that because 

 we are honest and peaceable and industrious, 

 therefore our Jehovah gives us wealth in abun- 

 dance, and our exports and imports swell, and 

 our debt diminishes, and our emigrants people 

 half the globe." 



Ernestine. A Novel. By Wilhelmine von 

 Hillern, author of " The Hour will 

 Come," etc. From the German by S. 

 Caring-Gould. In two vols. New 

 York : William S. Gottsberger. Pp. 711. 

 Price, $1.50. 



Ernestine first appears before the reader 

 as a little, much-abused, ill-tempered girl, 

 about ten years old, who was neglected in 

 everything except her schooling. When 

 grown up, she thus describes herself : " From 

 earliest childhood at a time when most are 

 rocked in the arms of love are laid to sleep 

 in the lap of love I was trampled on, 

 kicked about, almost tortured to death, be- 

 cause I was a girl. Every anguish-cry of 

 my breast, every thought of my soul, every 

 feeling of my young heart, was gathered 

 into this one question, ' Why, why must I 

 expiate what is no fault of mine that I am 

 not a boy ? ' And, in every wound that was 

 dealt me, the seed of revenge was strewn 

 the seed of revenge for my own wrongs and 

 those of my sex the seed of ambition to do 

 all that can be achieved by that sex whose 

 superiority was so insultingly, so brutally 

 paraded before me. It ripened quickly in 

 the glow of indignation I felt at the injustice 

 my sex is forced to endure, the difficulties 



which were opposed to its endeavors to rise 

 above vulgar routine. It grew with me ; it 

 became mighty; it ramified through my 

 whole mental life, like the veins and nerves 

 of my body." When her application to at- 

 tend the lectures and to be admitted to the 

 dissecting-tables of the university was re- 

 jected, she declared to the committee that 

 " the great struggle for the emancipation of 

 woman can only be fought out to a definite 

 conclusion on the comparative anatomy of 

 the brain. ... If, in some less scrupulous 

 universitv, I be admitted to the dissecting"- 

 tables, and allowed the necessary anatom- 

 ical and physiological studies, my time and 

 energies will be given up to the solution of 

 this question." But unceasing study under- 

 mined her health, and after a painful and 

 involved experience the anti-social feelings 

 that had been fostered by her abnormal 

 childhood and youth gave way, and she be- 

 came an affectionate wife and mother. 



As a novel the book is engrossing and 

 satisfactory, and, as a German contribution 

 to the discussion of " The woman ques- 

 tion," it is very interesting. The implica- 

 tion would seem to be that the usual course 

 of domestic and social life in Germany 

 does not favor the discontent of woman with 

 her woman's destiny. It is under most ex- 

 ceptional circumstances that Ernestine is 

 developed, and whenever she comes in con- 

 tact with German society she is rebuked on 

 all sides. It is the impression produced 

 upon a very high-minded and accomplished 

 young savant by her wonderful spiritual 

 beauty, her purity of purpose, and earnest- 

 ness of character that leads to her disen- 

 chantment. She is, however, allowed a little 

 more time for a radical change of character 

 than is accorded in most novels. But, as 

 the author is dealing with people who are 

 deeply versed in medical science and all 

 modern research, this much was not unrea- 

 sonably to be expected. 



If Miss Yon Hillern had been writing of 

 woman's position in a novel of American 

 life, her problem would have been different. 

 She would find her discontented, ambitious, 

 over-intellectual girls everywhere ; which, of 

 course, implies a state of society that fos- 

 ters their production. She would find them 

 both welcomed and influential in society, 

 and, if not considered the most eligible can- 



