12: 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the seven greatest living educationists 

 classed in the order of importance. A 

 great number of lists were sent in, and 

 the prize was awarded to "X. Y. Z." 

 for the following list : 1, Spencer ; 2, 

 Huxley; 3, Wilson; 4, Thriug; 5, Miss 

 Buss ; 6, Laurie ; 7, Quick. Besides 

 this premium list, in which the name 

 of Spencer was first in importance, his 

 name also appeared in seventy -two 

 other lists, while Bain appeared in 

 fifty; Huxley, thirty - eight ; Thring, 

 thirty-six ; Miss Beale, thirty-four ; Miss 

 Buss, thirty-three ; B. H. Quick, thirty- 

 two ; E. A. Ahbott, tliirty-one ; A. 

 J. Mundella and J. G. Fitch, twenty- 

 nine ; J. Buskin and M. Arnold, twenty- 

 eight. 



It has been said in deprecation of 

 Spencer that " only the Seven Sages 

 can understand him " ; but it seems 

 that practical teachers can sufficiently 

 understand him to be able to form a 

 very appreciative estimate of his posi- 

 tion in the field where they are the 

 most competent judges. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



American Political Ideas : Viewed from 

 the Stand-point of Universal History. 

 Three Lectures delivered at the Royal 

 Institution of Great Britain, in May, 1880. 

 By John Fiske. New York : Harper & 

 Brothers. Pp. 158. Price, $1.00. 



As many will be gratified to learn, Mr. 

 Fiske has at length published the brief 

 course of lectures upon " American Political 

 Ideas " which attracted so much attention 

 at the time of their delivery in England, and 

 subsequently in this country. They afford 

 an excellent popular illustration of the sci- 

 entific method in politics, and as an original 

 statement of the place of American politi- 

 cal institutions in the progress of civilization 

 they will be read with deep interest and pa- 

 triotic pride by multitudes of our thought- 

 ful citizens. Under the three titles of " The 

 Town-Meeting," "The Federal Union," 

 and "Manifest Destiny," the author gives 

 us a pregnant discussion of the ideas that 

 are at the foundation of true political devel- 

 opment, of their historic growth, and the 



vast consequences to the world of their pres- 

 ent success and their future ascendency. 



Mr. Fiske takes the "town-meeting," the 

 idea of which is so thoroughly familiar in 

 this country, as the elemental basis of our 

 political system. He devotes his first lect- 

 ure to the consideration of it as involving 

 the principle of local self-government. The 

 present or absence, in various degrees, of 

 institutions corresponding to this, in differ- 

 ent countries, is shown to be intimately 

 connected with the progress of free govern- 

 ment, and to have exerted a powerful con- 

 trol over the character and destiny of na- 

 tions. 



Having treated of the corporate units of 

 society, the township, the village, the parish, 

 or whatever grouping becomes the seat and 

 center of local self-control, Mr. Fiske passes 

 in his second lecture to the important prob- 

 lem of their combination or aggregation 

 into coherent extended political organiza- 

 tions. In communities of despotic type this 

 is done by conquest and centralized military 

 power. But wherever and to the degree in 

 which civilization or civil agencies have re- 

 placed militancy, the principle of represen- 

 tation arises, and the freer mode of gov- 

 ernment takes the form of federal union. 

 Mr. Fiske illustrates the progress and vicis- 

 situdes of the federal principle very im- 

 pressively from Greek, Roman, and modern 

 history, and in the United States, where 

 representation and federal unity have re- 

 ceived their largest application. 



The third lecture, on " Manifest Destiny," 

 is a brilliant and powerful exposition of the 

 vast scale and comprehensive interaction of 

 the political forces that are now so po- 

 tent in civilization, and that are destined to 

 work out grand results in the future. He 

 shows that civilization is to conquer through 

 peace ; that the militant countries will have 

 to disband their armies under the irresistible 

 influence of the industrial competition of 

 nations ; and that the pacific federation of 

 great communities is as certain to replace 

 brute force in the politics of the civilized 

 world as civil processes have replaced arbi- 

 trary violence in the private relations of 

 men. The real significance of the Ameri- 

 can civil war is shown to consist in the vin- 

 dicated strength and supremacy of the great 

 pacific and constructive federative principle 

 which is to dominate in the political future 



