LITERARY NOTICES. 



501 



dispel erroneous impressions, and many un- 

 just prejudices that are entertained in Chris- 

 tian countries, concerning the Turliish peo- 

 ple. Turks are known to the outside world 

 chiefly through their government, which is 

 bad and corrupt, and shamefully misrepre- 

 sents the population which it rules. After 

 sketching some historic features of Turkish 

 character in former times, in Chapter VIII., 

 Colonel Baker goes on to say : 



" There is one point in common with both 

 the past and the present, and that is that the 

 Turkish rank and file, the real pith of the na- 

 tion, were then, as now, distinguished for their 

 patience, discipline, sobriety, bravery, honesty, 

 and modesty, and to these qualities I may also 

 add ttiat of humanity, ahhoui^h I know it will 

 excite an Indignant exclamation from many at 

 the present moment. But look at the Turkish 

 eoldier in private life, and you find him gentle 

 and kind to children and women, and exceed- 

 ingly fond of animals. His first thought after a 

 long and tiring day's march is his horse. As 

 soon as he has made the animal comfortable, 

 then he thinks of the man. When he is exas- 

 perated by what he thinks insults to his creed, 

 he kills and slays as his teaching tells him, and 

 he appears a fanatical madman ; but he is then 

 outside his real nature, and not within it. It is 

 but the other day that I saw thirteen thousand 

 of these brave men arrive fresh from the front 

 and all the hardships of the Servian campaign. 

 They were billeted for ten daysaU over the town 

 of Salonica, and there was not a single com- 

 plaint, or cause for complaint of their conduct, 

 from man, woman, or child. 



"The streets, although filled with soldiers, 

 were as quiet as in ordinary times. What other 

 troops in the world would behave in such an ad- 

 mirable manuer ? Read the greatest authorities 

 on the subject. Von Hammer, Gibbon, Boue, 

 Ubiciui, Creasy, and all agree in praise of both 

 the past and present character of the Turkish 

 rank and file. But it is the rank and file that de- 

 picts the character of the nation, and not the 

 corrupt oligarchy, which from its prominence 

 misrepresents it. We find, then, that the rank 

 and file of the Turkish people is the same now 

 as ever, so that it is not the nation but the rulers 

 which have changed, and this change has been 

 brought about through the corrupt influences 

 which were handed over to them by the Byzan- 

 tine Empire. 



"As soon, therefore, as the head of the Turk- 

 ish nation sliall be purified, we shall find the 

 whole constitution in a healthy state there is 

 no disease of the body. The combination in 

 Turkish government of despotism with the free- 

 dom of the most democratic of republics is 

 unique. In Turkey there is no aristocracy. All 

 men below the sultan are equal, not only in the 

 eyes of the law, but by creed and custom, A 

 shoeblack may be made grand-vizier, and it is 

 by no means uncommon to see some of the high- 

 est oflicials of the state who have been servants 

 to predecessors in office." 



The volume is written in a pleasant, un- 

 ambitious style, the writer's object being 

 evidently to tell the story of the Turks in a 

 plain, direct, and instructive way. 



Elementary Chemistry : A Text-Book for 

 Beginners, designed as an Introduction 

 to Barker's Chemistry. By S. F. Peck- 

 ham, A. M. Pp. 254. Price, $1. Louis- 

 ville, Ky. : John P. Morton h Co. 



This is a neatly-bound, neatly-printed, 

 and neatly-illustrated school-book, designed 

 for beginners ; and the author says that his 

 " object has been to supply a work for ele- 

 mentary schools which should be as nearly 

 as possible equal in quality to the text- 

 books of Barker and Eliot and Storer." He 

 could not have taken better models. A 

 peculiarity of the book is, that the work 

 of learning and instruction is carried on by 

 the artifice of conversation between Harry, 

 George, Lucy, and Uncle Louis, which raises 

 the question whether much of their talk is 

 worth the space given to it. The illustra- 

 tions run into the pictorial, regardless of 

 the publisher's purse, and it is an aim of 

 the writer to make the book introductory 

 to agricultural studies. 



The Forces of Nature : A Popular Intro- 

 duction to the Study of Physical Phe- 

 nomena. By AmedeeGuillemin. Trans- 

 lated from the French by Mrs. Norman 

 Lockyer, and edited, with Additions 

 and Notes, by J. Norman Lockyer, F. 

 R. S. Illustrated by nearly 500 Engrav- 

 ings. Part I. Pp. 40. Price, 40 cents. 

 London : Macmillan & Co. 



The great success of the elaborate vol- 

 ume under the foregoing title, both in 

 France and England, has induced the pub- 

 lishers to enter upon its reissue in parts, 

 with the view of cheapening it, and bring- 

 ing it to the attention of a wider circle of 

 readers. It is hardly necessary to repeat 

 what we said in reviewing it, that the book 

 is superbly illustrated, and is very clear and 

 popular in the style of its text. It will be 

 completed in eighteen parts. 



Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy 

 OF Sciences, Arts, and Letters. Vol. 

 in. 18Y5-'Y6. Pp. 269. 



This volume of 269 pages comprises 

 twenty-four papers read before the Acad- 



