LITERARY NOTICES. 



129 



lected articles, more particularly those of 

 especial interest to the Dominion. In the 

 present number we find a history of the 

 journal of which this is a continuation ; an 

 account of " The Royal Society of Canada " ; 

 a paper by Professor Dawson on " Rhizo- 

 carps in the Palaeozoic Period ; " a descrip- 

 tion by the Rev. Emile Petitot of " the Atha- 

 basca District of the Canadian Northwest 

 Territory " ; and shorter papers. 



"Shadows " : Being a Familiar Presentation 

 of Thoughts and Experiences in Spirit- 

 ual Matters, with Illustrative Narratives. 

 By John Wetiierbee. Boston : Colby & 

 Rich. Pp. 2S8. 



The author's endeavor has been to give, 

 in a series of chapters, each of which shall 

 be a finished one of itself, the reasons, with- 

 out particularly saying 60, why he is a 

 spiritualist ; or to make a familiar presenta- 

 tion of the subject of modern spiritualism 

 to those whom it may concern, both among 

 its exponents, and among that wider world 

 who feel interested in the subject, "and 

 wish it were true," and want the " bottom 

 facts." 



Maryland's Influence upon Land Cessions 

 to the United States. With Minor 

 Papers. By Herbert B. Adams, Ph. D. 

 Baltimore : N. Murray. Pp. 102. Price, 



75 cents. 



This essay constitutes the first number 

 of the third series of " Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity Studies in Historical and Political 

 Science " a series which is to be devoted 

 to American institutions and economics. 

 Among the purposes the author endeavors 

 to serve in publishing it is to " call atten- 

 tion to the territorial foundations of the 

 American Union, and point out the fact that 

 our public lands stand in the same funda- 

 mental relation to our national common- 

 wealth as did common lands to the village 

 republics of New England. The great West 

 was the Folkland of the United States ; it 

 bound them together by economic interests 

 when they would otherwise have fallen 

 apart after the Revolution. To trace out 

 the further constitutional influence of our 

 public lands upon the development of these 

 States, which have increased and multiplied 

 within the national domain, as did New 

 England parishes within the original limits 

 vol. xxvii. 9 



of one town, this would be a contribution 

 indeed to American institutional history." 

 As bearing upon this point, the author out- 

 lines a wide and varied field of research, on 

 which it is hoped laborers will soon be en- 

 gaged, and parts of which are to be exploit- 

 ed in future numbers of this series. The 

 " Minor Papers " include articles on " George 

 Washington's Interest in Western Lands,'' 

 the " Potomac Company," and a "National 

 University." 



Egypt and Babylon, from Sacred and Pro- 

 fane Sources. By George Ravvlinson. 

 New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 

 329. Price, $1.50. 



The Bible abounds in references to Egypt 

 and the Mesopotamian empires and their af- 

 fairs. So long as we had to depend for our 

 knowledge of those countries in ancient 

 times from the statements, generally half 

 informed and often erroneous, of the Greek 

 historians, these references were obscure 

 and difficult to verify. The progress of 

 archaeological discovery has put a different 

 face upon matters. Under its light the life 

 and history of these extremely ancient em- 

 pires have been revealed at many points 

 with remarkable vividness and a precision 

 which we have hardly yet attained concern- 

 ing some contemporary people, and the ref- 

 erences in the Bible have been, to a very 

 large extent, endowed with an exact signifi- 

 cance. It is hardly necessary to say that 

 further elucidations on points that are still 

 dark may be anticipated from continued re- 

 searches. It has been Mr. Rawlinson's task 

 to collect the references, separately for 

 Egypt and for Babylon, in the Bible, taking 

 them nearly in chronological order, and to 

 compare them with the facts, as related in 

 other histories, and as inscribed in contem- 

 porary records, on the monuments executed 

 by the rulers and peoples of the empires to 

 which the references are made. 



Van Nostrand's Engineering Magazine. 

 Vol. XXXI, July-December, 1S84. New 

 York : D. Van Nostrand. Pp. 524. 

 This publication has a place of its own. 

 It appeals especially to engineers, and to 

 persons who are interested in the construc- 

 tion of works beyond the sphere of ordinary 

 builders, and in extensive applications of 

 machinery; and its papers on subjects of 



