LITERARY NOTICES. 



117 



fore done a most valuable service to sci- 

 ence-teaching by preparing this little man- 

 ual, which is admirabij' fitted to lay the 

 foundation of an actual and thorough 

 knowledge of the science. His experiments 

 are ingeniously simple, and at the same 

 time telling each one carrying the pupil 

 along a step further in his progress. The 

 text is clear, pointed, compressed, and at- 

 tractive, as Prof. Tyndall knows so well 

 how to make it. But it is almost super- 

 fluous to call the attention of our readers 

 to the excellences of this little work, as 

 several portions of the earher English edi- 

 tion have been already published in the 

 pages of this Monthly. 



Philosophical Discussions. By Chauncey 

 Wright. With a Biographical Sketch 

 of the Author by Charles Eliot Nor- 

 ton. New York: Henry Holt & Co 

 Pp. 434. Price, $3.50. 



This volume opens with a very pleasant 

 and appreciative sketch of Mr. Wright by 

 his friend Charles Eliot Norton, from which 

 we gather that he was a gentleman of ad- 

 mirable personal traits which strongly at- 

 tracted all who knew him. The book is 

 made up of his literary remains, consisting 

 of nearly a score of articles, contributed 

 chiefly to the pages of the North American 

 Review and to the Nation for the last fifteen 

 years. They evince the strength of an able 

 and independent thinker; but the style in 

 which they are written is somewhat heavy. 

 They are predominantly critical and contro- 

 versial, as the author does not seem to have 

 arrived at any constructive or systematic 

 views of his own. He highly appreciated 

 Mr. Darwin, and championed him against 

 the criticisms of Prof. St. George Mivart, 

 doing the work so well that it was thought 

 important to republish it in London. There 

 are many things in the articles of Mr. 

 Wright that are well worth preserving, and 

 his friends could in no way have better 

 honored his memory than by collecting and 

 publishing them in the elegant and sub- 

 stantial form which Mr. Holt has given to 

 the volume. It should be mentioned that 

 two of the papers, a fragment on " Cause 

 and Effect," and the beginning of the ar- 

 ticle on Lewes's "Problems of Life and 

 Mind," are published in this collection for 

 the first time. 



Russia. By D. Mackenzie Wallace, M A 

 New York: Henry .Holt & Co. Pn' 

 620. Price, $4. ' ' 



As the eyes of observers of international 

 affiiirs are now turned upon Russia, there 

 will be an increasing interest in all that 

 relates to the domestic and social structure 

 of that powerful empire. It is very rare 

 that, at such a crisis of curiosity, there ap- 

 pears a work so eminently suited to satisfy 

 it as in the present issue of Mr. Wallace's 

 volume. It is a book that would make a 

 mark and a sensation at any time, but the 

 circumstances will now make it " the book 

 of the season." Its author for the past six 

 years has occupied himself with studying 

 the people, the resources, and the institu- 

 tions of Russia by personal observation 

 and careful inquiry, residing in various 

 cities and villages in different parts of the 

 country, most favorable to varied and en- 

 larged familiarity with the facts of which 

 he was in pursuit. Mr. Wallace's book is 

 written in good style, with no ambition for 

 mere effect, but in the direct, common-sense 

 way of a writer who has much to say, and 

 goes directly to the point. His descriptions 

 are graphic, without being wearisome, and 

 the treatment of his special topics, though 

 often full, occupies the reader closely to the 

 end. It is full of important information, 

 much of which is fresh and novel, in regard 

 to the condition of the country, its peasant- 

 life, the village communities, the larger 

 towns and mercantile classes, imperial ad- 

 ministration and local self-government, land 

 proprietorship, the nobility, education, reli- 

 gion, church and state, military character- 

 istics, emancipation of the serfs, the law- 

 courts, the railroad system, social classes, 

 industrial resources, the features of the 

 country, and lastly, in the thirty-fourth 

 chapter, the Eastern question, and the 

 problem of territorial expansion. All these 

 important subjects Mr. Wallace has handled 

 with skill, and with constant reference to 

 the great liberalizing tendencies of the age 

 which are displayed in Russia as well as 

 other leading countries, and under remark- 

 able and peculiar conditions. Prefixed to 

 the volume are two colored maps of Rus- 

 sia, one showing the density and distribu- 

 tion of the population, the railway system, 

 and the grade of cities in respect to the 

 number of their inhabitants ; tlie other ex- 



