LITERARY NOTICES. 



127 



far in the way of replacing the actual lumi- 

 nous effects. The writer offers the follow- 

 ing prefatory observations in regard to 

 some points of his work : 



In regard to the experiments described, 

 there are two things to be said. It would have 

 been desirable, if possible, to have stated the 

 originator of every experiment ; but it was not 

 possible. Attempt bas been made to indicate, 

 as far as known, the first to employ any striking 

 very recent experiment; but many of great 

 beauty seem now such common property that 

 it is diflieult to asceitain who first made them, 

 or first adapted them for projection. I strongly 

 suspect that we owe to Professor Tyndall many 

 more than it has been possible categorically to 

 ascribe to him; and am the more anxious to 

 state this, because his just claims in higher mat- 

 ters appear to me almost studiously ignored by 

 certain Continental physicists. Some arrange- 

 ments are, to the best of my belief, original ; 

 but none are put forth as such except one or 

 two expressly stated, and it should be perfectly 

 understood that no personal claim is implied 

 regarding any other experiments because no 

 credit is given to some one else ; the absence of 

 such credit is simply due to sheer ignorance 

 and the difficulty of acquiring knowledge con- 

 cerning such matters. 



The other remark is, that the order of the 

 experiments differs considerably in some cases 

 from that usually adopted. All that can be said 

 upon that point is, that such is the result of con- 

 siderable reflection, and in the belief that the 

 order chosen is, upon the whole, best adapted 

 to the primary end of assisting vivid conception 

 of the physical realities considered and the re- 

 lation of the phenomena to one another. Also, 

 while no attempt is made to arrange the experi- 

 ments in set "lectures," the order followed is 

 believed to lend itself best to such a connected 

 course of experimental lectures as a teacher 

 would desire to give to his class, extended or 

 abridged as the case may require. I am not 

 without hope that, in such an extended course of 

 experiments as are here collected for his choice, 

 some hard-worked teacher may find real help in 

 this respect. The same may be said as to the 

 brief references made to the connection between 

 the phenomena of lisrht and the problems of 

 molecular physics. Brief ae they are, it is 

 hoped they may in some minds excite a real in- 

 terest in those problems, and deepen that sense 

 of the reality of the phenomena which is so de- 

 sirable. 



Memoir op Daniel Macmillan. By Thomas 

 Hughes, Q. C. Macmillan & Co. Fp. 

 308. Price, $1.50. 



Mr. Daniel Macmillan, founder and 

 head of the distinguished publishing house 

 of Macmillan k Co., was a man of mark, of 

 strong character, rare business talents, a 

 man of ideas, a deeply religious man, who 



yet got free of the trammels of theology, 

 and a life-long victim of pulmonary disease, 

 which ended his life at the age of forty- 

 four. There is much that is interesting in 

 his biography, which is largely made up of 

 his correspondence, and which has been ad- 

 mirably edited by the accomplished author 

 of " Tom Brown's School-days." The book 

 is interesting chiefly as a personal delinea- 

 tion with no ambitious effort to point a 

 moral, and for this reason it will be chiefly 

 prized by the numerous friends and ac- 

 quaintances of the publisher, many of whom 

 were much attached to him. There are, 

 however, many reminiscences of books and 

 authors in the volume, that will be appreci- 

 ated by the lovers of literature. 



Progressive Religious and Social Poems. 

 By Rev. George Vaughan, of Virginia. 

 Pp. 143. Price, cloth, $1 ; leather, $2. 

 To be had from the author at Ruther- 

 ford Park, New Jersey. 



The author of this book, who had de- 

 voted himself with might and main to the 

 great unselfish work of human progress in 

 Virginia, was burned out there, and, as he 

 alleges, much persecuted by the bigotry of 

 that benighted community. So he has pro- 

 duced this volume of poems, and gets such 

 living as he can by the sale of it. Regard- 

 ing the book, Mr. Whittier wrote to the 

 author (1877): "I have to thank thee for 

 thy note with the inclosed poems. Their 

 humanitarian tone is excellent." Mr. Long- 

 fellow (1880) said : " I have read the poems 

 with interest, and coincide with Mr. Whit- 

 tier in his opinion of their merits." In the 

 presence of such authorities it would be 

 equally presuming and superfluous for us 

 to express an opinion ; but, as far as we are 

 competent to judge, we agree with the illus- 

 trious New England poets in their estimate 

 of this performance. 



Water-Power of the Southern Atlantic 

 Water-Shed of the United States. By 

 George F. Swain, S. B. Washington : 

 Government Printing-Office. Pp. 164. 



This is a part of a series of reports 

 made in connection with the work of the 

 Census Bureau, concerning the water-pow- 

 ers of the whole United States, and relates 

 to the rivers entering the Atlantic Ocean 

 south of James River. Reviewing the ob- 



