LITERARY NOTICES. 



395 



upon the subject, brought up to the present 

 time. The book aims to be a sort of " en- 

 cyclopedia of all that i3 known on the 

 subject that is permanently important and 

 valuable." Government has done a good 

 deal to explore this subject in the several 

 States, but the ponderous volumes of re- 

 ports they have published are expensive, 

 inaccessible, and require to be digested in 

 the cheap and popular form of a convenient 

 hand-book. For the benefit of those who 

 have but little knowledge in geology, some 

 general information is given on the origin 

 of coal-beds, and their place among the 

 rocky strata, which is applicable to all the 

 coal-regions. Besides the special descrip- 

 tions of the coal-resources of each State, 

 there is a chapter on the iron-ores of the 

 coal-measures, one on the combustion of 

 coal, and one giving the latest statistics of 

 coal-mines in the United States and in for- 

 eign countries. There is also a very valu- 

 able chapter on the conditions of success in 

 the coal-trade. The volume is enriched by 

 a contribution from Prof. Newberry on the 

 coal-strata of Ohio, and the author acknowl- 

 edges important assistance from Profs. Cox, 

 Worthen, White, and Foster. Mr. Mac far- 

 lane's work is altogether of a very practi- 

 cal character, and will form an instructive 

 contribution to the literature of the subject. 



Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. By James 

 Fitzjames Stephen, Q. 0. Holt & Wil- 

 liams. 



This is a refreshing book, and is bound 

 to set a good many people thinking. Its 

 contents appeared as a series of anonymous 

 essays in the Pall Mall Gazette, and attract- 

 ed much attention by the forcible manner 

 in which they were written, and the boldness 

 and ability with which they challenged the 

 " liberal tendencies " of English thought. 

 The author takes Mr. Mill as the represent- 

 ative and authoritative expositor of these 

 tendencies, and subjects several of his works 

 to a merciless dissection. Acknowledging 

 his indebtedness to Mr. Mill as the author 

 of the "Logic" and the " Political Econo- 

 my," he utterly repudiates the doctrines 

 advocated in the " Liberty " and the " Sub- 

 jection of Woman." The readers of The 

 Popular Science Monthly have had a sam- 

 ple of his method in the article on tho 



" Equality of the Sexes," in the March 

 number, in which he criticised Mr. Mill's 

 main positions upon this subject. In the 

 other essays he takes up the prevailing 

 democratic tendencies as embodied in the 

 phrase "liberty, equality, and fraternity," 

 and deals with them in the same unsparing 

 manner. His book is a plea for social re- 

 straints, and a protest against those in- 

 terpretations of liberty which would make 

 it consist in exemption from restraining 

 agencies. Mr. Stephen exercises the largest 

 liberty of criticism, and writes with the fire 

 of a partisan ; but his book abounds with 

 fresh and pregnant suggestions, and its 

 wide circulation will exert a wholesome in- 

 fluence in this country 



Caliban : The Missing Link. By Daniel 

 Wilson, LL. D. New York : Macmil- 

 lan & Co. 



Tins volume i3 another added to the 

 very considerable list of recent books de- 

 signed to illustrate the omniscience of 

 Shakespeare. Prof. Wilson thinks that he 

 anticipated the modern doctrine of evolu- 

 tion, and in his character of Caliban has 

 delineated the characteristics of the crea- 

 ture Mr. Darwin is in search of, namely, 

 " the missing link between man and beast." 

 The book abounds in extracts from Shake- 

 speare's works, and ingenious interpreta- 

 tions of them, but is vague in its argu- 

 ment, and any thing but satisfactory in its 

 conclusions. 



The American Chemist : A Monthly Jour- 

 nal of Theoretical, Analytical, and Tech- 

 nical Chemistry. Edited by Charles F. 

 Chandler, Ph. D., Professor of Ana- 

 lytical and Applied Chemistry in the 

 School of Mines, Columbia College, New 

 York, and Wm. H. Chandler, F. C. S., 

 Professor of Chemistry in the Lehigh 

 University, Bethlehem, Pa. Philadel- 

 phia : H. C. Lea. 



We have before us vols. i. and ii. (new 

 series) of this valuable monthly, and a care- 

 ful examination of their contents leads us 

 to recommend it very strongly to public at- 

 tention. It is edited with skill and judg- 

 mentj contains a large amount of important 

 information nowhere else so accessible, and 

 deserves a liberal and remunerative patron- 

 age. The great science of chemistry, we 

 might almost say, is at the bottom of every 



