270 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



there is a chapter on the durability of stone 

 and the causes of its decay. One reason 

 given for the rapid decay of sandstone in 

 recent years is, that lately much of the stone 

 has been set on edge. A folded map of the 

 State on which the towns where there are 

 quarries are marked accompanies the volume. 



Church and State. By Count Leo Tolstoi. 

 Boston: Benjamin K. Tucker. Pp. 169. 



This collection of essays, better than any 

 other, shows in strong light the peculiar 

 logic of the Russian novelist. The subjects 

 discussed are Church and State ; Money ; 

 Man and Woman, and the Mother. 



A remarkable dissertation on the origin 

 and use of money takes up the greater part 

 of the book, and is worth reading only as an 

 abnormal subject is valuable for dissection. 

 At the outset it is unequivocally declared 

 that money is the cause of slavery, but this 

 proposition is so obscured in the conclusion 

 that many paragraphs are devoted to prov- 

 ing that slavery results from the compulsion 

 of the unarmed by the armed ! These are 

 some of his inimitable ideas : " To say to-day 

 that money does not produce slavery is as 

 correct as it was correct fifty years since to 

 say that serfdom did not produce slavery. 

 ... To plain people it appears beyond doubt 

 that the immediate cause of the enslavement 

 of some men by others is money. But science, 

 denying this, says that money is only a me. 

 dium of exchange, which has no connection 

 with the enslavement of men. . . . Doubt- 

 less money has those harmless properties 

 which science enumerates ; but it has them 

 in reality only ... in an ideal society, but in 

 such a society money would not exist at all > 

 ... its main function is not the serving as 

 a medium of exchange, but the serving as a 

 means of compulsion." The proof of this 

 assertion Tolstoi' proceeds to find in the his- 

 tory of the Fiji Islands. The Fijians were 

 unacquainted with any means of exchange 

 other than barter until American colonists 

 came among them. Some of the American 

 intruders were injured by Fijians, and the 

 United States Government demanded forty- 

 five thousand dollars indemnity for the out- 

 rages. The Fijians appealed to England for 

 protection, borrowed money, and finally be- 

 came enslaved ergo, money is the cause of 

 slavery ! 



The scientific method of investigation is 

 somewhat slower than this electric Russian 

 would have it, so he compares it to " a lazy, 

 restive horse," and states at length : " Science 

 has a definite purpose, which it accomplishes- 

 The purpose is, to maintain the superstitions 

 and delusions of the people, and thereby 

 hinder humanity in its advance toward truth 

 and welfare" It is hardly worth while to 

 pursue such folly much further, yet Tolstoi 

 carries this agility of conclusion into his ex- 

 amination of all social questions. In another 

 essay he enunciates the following theorem : 

 ' The service of mankind resolves itself into 

 two parts: 1. The improvement of living 

 men and women. 2. The perpetuation of 

 mankind itself. To the former men are 

 chiefly called, since the possibility of the lat- 

 ter service is denied them. To the second 

 women are called, as they are exclusively 

 capacitated therefor." At one time he 

 would make the world a vast nursery where 

 the ideal woman rears the greatest possible 

 number of children ; at another he declares, 

 " The continuation of the human race will no 

 longer be necessary for those who are living 

 a true life." 



The celebrity of this author makes any 

 utterance from him noticeable ; but, however 

 highly his imaginative power may rank him 

 as a novelist, there is no continuity or se- 

 quence to his arguments, and as a thinker he 

 is wholly out of joint. 



Household Hygiene. By Mary Taylor 

 Bissell, M. D. Fact and Theory Papers, 

 No. 7. New York : N. D. C. Hodges. Pp. 

 83. Price, 75 cents. 

 We rarely see a book that hits its aim 

 so pat as this one does. It covers an im- 

 portant subject with a serviceable degree of 

 completeness, it contains nothing that is su- 

 perfluous or unavailable to those for whom 

 it is written, and it is everywhere clear, 

 forcible, and direct. The author's statement 

 of what she has attempted is no less apt 

 than the body of the book. "This little 

 volume," she says, " has been compiled with 

 the hope that the housekeeper of to-day may 

 find in its pages a few definite and simple 

 suggestions regarding sanitary house-build, 

 ing and housekeeping which will aid her to 

 maintain in her own domain that high degree 

 of intelligent hygiene in whose enforcement 

 lies the physical promise of family life." 



