LITERARY NOTICES. 



851 



didates for matrimony, it matters very little 

 to them. There is scope enough in this 

 country for independent careers, and many 

 of our "smart" girls fancy that on the 

 whole an independent career is more desira- 

 ble than marriage with its inevitable subor- 

 dination of the woman. Fairly to present 

 this subject to the American mind requires 

 a careful study of the influences at home, 

 at school, and on all sides, that are acting 

 upon the minds of our girls and modifying 

 their tastes and feelings, and, also, of those 

 deeper biological characteristics which must 

 remain essentially the same from age to age. 

 It must be shown that from the beginning 

 woman has been, and to the end she must 

 remain, an emotional rather than an intel- 

 lectual being that much transient mis- 

 chief and no good can come from a disturb- 

 ance of this normal balance of thought and 

 feeling in the mind of woman. It is high 

 time that somebody in this country, be it nov- 

 elist or essayist, should bring forward this 

 view of the subject of " woman's rights." 

 For the assumption of the identity of the 

 minds of men and women is wide-spread. 

 Hence the demand for identical education, 

 and the opening to women of all our halls 

 of learning. The fact that the emotional 

 nature of woman has precedence at the 

 present time is regarded as a principal rea- 

 son for the educational movement. It is no 

 education, or wrong education, we are told, 

 that has deformed her true nature, and that 

 her mind may assume right proportions she 

 is called upon to cultivate intellect as a 

 means of suppressing emotion. 



This is precisely what Hiss Yon Hil- 

 lern's heroine had striven all her life to 

 do, and she fancied at one time that she 

 had gained the victory for intellect. But 

 all her striving comes to nothing. At last 

 we find her exclaiming: " What are learning 

 and fame, what the pride of position, com- 

 pared with the happiness of this moment ? 

 Away with them all ! my choice is made, Jo- 

 hannes," and" she sank upon his breast. And 

 this, too, when the last words said to her 

 by her lover were these : " True humility 

 will teach you to yield your fate unquestion- 

 ingly to the man who gives his life to you. 

 Go from me and you may be great, but you 

 can not be womanly, a*id what is such great- 

 ness attained at the cost of a heart ? Give 



up the false pride that would seek fame be- 

 yond the bounds of a woman's sphere, and 

 confess that there is nothing greater that 

 you can do than to enrich and bless the man 

 who loves you." But, in Germany, where 

 all the forces of society conspired to Ernes- 

 tine's defeat, our authoress had no difificult 

 task in reaching this result. It is not so 

 easy to imagine a discipline that would bring 

 one of our learned girls to this humble 

 pass. 



The subject is one of profound impor- 

 tance, and we commend the work to thought- 

 ful readers, as well as to those who read 

 novels only for entertainment. 



Practical Microscopy. By George E. 

 Davis, F. R. M. S., F. I. C, F. C. S., etc. 

 Illustrated with 258 Woodcuts and a 

 Colored Frontispiece. London : David 

 Bogue. Pp. 335. 



The neatly printed and beautifully illus- 

 trated book before us is somewhat similar 

 to Quekett's " Practical Treatise on the Use 

 of the Microscope," but is a smaller and 

 less costly book, and one that brings the 

 subject down to the present time. The 



! various parts of a microscope are briefly 

 described from a practical stand point, no 

 mathematical calculations being introduced, 



j nor is any attempt made to explain the 

 theory of the microscope, further than it is 

 of practical value. Although intended for 



! students and even beginners, some singular 



1 omissions occur, such as explanations of 

 the oft-used term " air-angle," or of the 

 principle of " immersion lenses." The va- 

 rious accessories of the microscope are 

 fully illustrated and described. There is a 



1 chapter on the collection of objects, another 

 on micro-dissections, also on section-cutting 

 and microscopic measurements. One of the 

 most valuable features of the book is its 

 full and accurate directions for making 

 photo-micrographs, with cuts of apparatus. 

 Recipes are given for the developing and 

 fixing solutions, the printing and toning 

 baths, and other parts of the photographic 

 operations are minutely described. The 

 chapter on the polarizing microscope is 

 more full than we usually meet with in 

 books of this character. The micro-spec- 

 troscope, the most modern of all the adap- 

 tations of the microscope, here receives the 



