852 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tersely expressed in the final chapter of 

 this work : 



"The end which the statesman should 

 keep in view as higher than all other ends 

 is the formation of character. And if there 

 is entertained a right conception of the char- 

 acter which should be formed, and of the 

 means by which it may be formed, the ex- 

 clusion of multiplied state agencies is neces- 

 sarily implied." 



As we ponder upon the wise counsels of 

 this noble exposition and defense of the 

 principles of justice, we may well congratu- 

 late ourselves, as Americans, that we were 

 early to discover the genius and ability of 

 him whom Mr. Darwin well named " our 

 great philosopher." We may likewise con- 

 gratulate Mr. Spencer on the renewal of 

 health which has enabled him to make this 

 most important contribution to the litera- 

 ture of ethics and philosophy. May we not 

 hail it as a harbinger of hope that his 

 strength will be husbanded and his life pro- 

 longed for the complete accomplishment of 

 that self-imposed task which, even in its 

 present unfinished state, constitutes unques- 

 tionably the greatest literary achievement of 

 the present century ? 



Studies of thk Gods in Greece at Certain 

 Sanctuaries recently excavated. By 

 Louis Dyer. London and New York ; 

 Macmillan & Co. Pp. 457. Price, $2.50. 



These studies were originally given in 

 eight lectures delivered in 1890 at the Low- 

 ell Institute. They were repeated before 

 various universities, colleges, and societies 

 in the United States, and are now published 

 with corrections and notes, the fruit of a 

 year's deliberation. The author seems to 

 be inspired by an enthusiasm for the Greek 

 religion similar to that which Schliemann 

 had for its Homeric associations. To him 

 it was the beautiful and ennobling religion, 

 first of Greece, and then through Greece 

 and Rome of all the ancient world ; and 

 the sanctuaries where it had its growth 

 were places " where that old-time worship 

 of ideals, by some miscalled idolatry, grew 

 pure and yet more pure, broad and broader 

 still, until its inner significance and truth 

 were no longer to be confined within old 

 forms, could be fettered no longer by old 



*ds ; and lo ! Christianity was there to 



gather in a heritage of high-born thoughts 

 from Greece." To the religion of Greece 

 and Rome, the author says in another place, 

 " to the Eleusinian mysteries, to the wor- 

 ship of iEsculapius and Apollo, to the 

 adoration of Aphrodite, is due mote of the 

 fullness and comforting power of the Church 

 to-day than many of her leaders have been 

 willing to allow." In the spirit revealed by 

 these words, of judging Greek religion not by 

 all its moods, but by all its highest and most 

 characteristic ones, are discussed the wor- 

 ship of Demeter and Persephone, and of 

 Dionysus at Eleusis, of ^Esculapius at Ath- 

 ens and Epidaurus, of Aphrodite at Old 

 Paphoe, and of Apollo at Delos, on all of 

 which light has been cast bv recent excava- 

 tions at their particular shrines. Various 

 corollaries of the main subject are consid- 

 ered in appendixes ; and plans are given of 

 three of the temples. 



Electricity : The Science of the Nine- 

 teenth Century. By E. M. Caillard. 

 New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 

 310. Price, $1.25. 



This volume appeals to the large class 

 of educated readers without scientific train- 

 ing who may wish for some comprehension 

 of electrical principles. No mathematical 

 computations or technical processes are 

 given, but the resultant laws are clearly 

 stated, illustrated by interesting experiments 

 and explanations of recent inventions. The 

 author has made four divisions of her work : 

 Static Electricity ; Magnetism ; Current Elec- 

 tricity; and Appliances of Electricity. Under 

 the first head a brief outline of electrical de- 

 velopment and elementary facts is followed 

 by a description of frictional machines and 

 the " electrophorus." A " charge " is pro- 

 duced because " all bodies are not equally 

 good conductors," and the storing of electric- 

 ity is compared to the accumulation of water, 

 the insulator acting similarly to a dam. As the 

 existence of air is shown by the wind-storm, 

 so the presence of electricity is exhibited in 

 discharge. " Potential " is defined as the 

 comparative electrical condition of a body. 

 If the same amount of electricity be con- 

 veyed to two different bodies, the smaller 

 one may be at high potential and the larger 

 at low potential, " potential " bearing the 

 same relation to electricity that level bears 



