LITERARY NOTICES. 



853 



what he would have considered his most im- 

 portant service was the defense of the New 

 Hampshire Grants. This part of the story 

 reminds us much of some of the scenes of 

 the territorial history of Kansas. There is 

 the same mixture of lawlessness and submis- 

 sion to the law that the Free State men 

 showed there. It was a singular position 

 the New Hampshire grantees were in, of 

 acknowledging the political sovereignty of 

 New York, and opposing with violence its 

 conveyance of the lands they claimed by an- 

 other title. The story is well told, largely 

 in the words of the original documents. 

 Another most curious feature in Allen's ca- 

 reer is revealed in his coquetting with the 

 British for the recognition of Vermont's po- 

 sition, even at the expense of the United 

 States. As it is shown in this book, his con- 

 duct appears to have been controlled by 

 sound reason. Congress had not recognized 

 Vermont, and had refused to admit it to the 

 Union. What claim had the Government on 

 the allegiance of Allen or other Vermonters 

 who were thus denationalized, and forced, as 

 it were, to look out for Vermont alone? 

 Allen was ready to negotiate with Great 

 Britain or any authority that would secure 

 Vermont's independent position and that 

 was all there was of it. The story of Allen's 

 capture at Montreal, his captivity and im- 

 prisonment, is graphically told, wholly in his 

 own words. 



The Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages. A 

 Popular Treatise on Early Archaeology. 

 By John Hunter Duvar. New York : 

 Macmillan & Co. Pp.285. Price, $1.25. 



As this book claims to be no more than 

 a popular treatise, pains have been taken to 

 give it that character. It is a fairly full 

 treatise as to European archaeology, but less 

 so as to American, although most of the 

 more important recent American work is 

 mentioned. The subject is dealt with to 

 1 late, and in a very satisfactory manner. 

 The earlier chapters are occupied with the 

 consideration of the geological periods as 

 they relate to the appearance of man with 

 animals in the Tertiary, and man in the 

 Post-tertiary, the primeval condition of man, 

 the mastodon and other animals contempo- 

 rary with early man, and the presumed do- 

 mestic life of nomadic man (as primitive 



man was supposed to be). The older stone 

 or palaeolithic age is characterized as the age 

 of ponderous flint clubs. Two chapters are 

 given severally to the cave-dwellers in Brit- 

 ain, and the cave-dwellers of other countries 

 than Britain in which notice is taken of 

 American relics. Pursuing the subject, the 

 author finds a gap in the scale of gradation 

 between the close of the cave era and an 

 advanced system of weapons in which light 

 projectiles form the leading feature the 

 newer stone or neolithic age. This is de- 

 scribed with considerable detail, both as to 

 the weapons and the articles of domestic use, 

 and is illustrated by a page of engravings of 

 typical mound-builders' arrow-heads. The 

 mound-builders have a chapter, and are sup- 

 posed to have been of a civilization about 

 equal to that of the Swiss lake-dwellers, 

 and of no higher antiquity. A chapter each 

 is devoted to the several topics of kitchen- 

 middens ; the age of bronze, pronounced the 

 shortest of the three ages, the lake-dwell- 

 ers, pottery, the iron age, sepulture (cairns, 

 cromlechs or dolmens, barrows, etc.), fossil 

 man, myth, and art. The author regards 

 myth as not the invention of early man, but 

 the fruit of a period of growth; and sup- 

 poses that the works of art found among 

 the relics, were the productions of specially 

 gifted persons, of whom there may not 

 have been more than one or two in an age, 

 and that they can not be regarded as indicat- 

 ing any extended art sense. 



Manual Instruction : Wood-work (the Eng- 

 lish Sloyd). By S. Barter. London: 

 Whittaker & Co. New York : Macmillan 

 & Co. Pp. 343. Price, $2. 



In this work, after an exposition of gen- 

 eral principles in the introduction, informa- 

 tion and instruction are given in drawing, 

 the varieties, qualities, etc., of timber and 

 other materials, bench-work, and the arrange- 

 ment and fittings of the workroom furnish- 

 ing, among other things, the items of a com- 

 plete equipment for a class of twenty boys. 

 The chapter on bench-work contains twenty- 

 three exercises in mechanical operations of 

 wood-working, and thirty models of articles 

 that may be made. A preface is supplied 

 by Mr. George Ricks, who defines manual 

 training as " a special training of the senses 

 of sight, touch, and muscular perception by 



