114 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the influences that have modified national char- 

 acter, the relations of the mother-country to its 

 dependencies, and the causes that have acceler- 

 ated or retarded the advancement of the latter, 

 form the main subjects of this book." 



Natural Law : An Essay in Ethics. By 

 Edith Simcox. Boston : Osgood & Co. 

 Pp. 361. Price, $3.50. 

 This is a profound disquisition on the 

 deep things of metaphysical and moral phi- 

 losophy. The treatment is very didactic, 

 and not altogether inviting ; but the author 

 is a radical thinker, and tries hard to get 

 down to first principles. The subject is 

 dealt with under the heads of: I., Natural 

 Law ; II., Customary and Positive Law ; III., 

 Morality; IV., Religion; V., The Natural 

 History of Altruism ; VI., The Natural Sanc- 

 tions of Morality; VII., Social and Individ- 

 ual Perfection. The best thing in the book 

 is an extract from Jeremy Taylor, stating 

 the difficulties that people have in getting 

 along in this world. The passage will bear 

 reproducing: 



"Whoever was to be born at all, was to be 

 born a child, and to do before he could under- 

 stand and be bred under laws to which he was al- 

 ways bound, but which could not always be ex- 

 acted ; and he was to choose when he could not 

 reason, and had passions most strong when he 

 had his understanding most weak, and was to 

 ride a wild horse without a bridle, and, the more 

 need he had of a curb, the less strength he had to 

 use it ; and, this heine the case of all the world, 

 what was every man's evil became all men s 

 greater evil, and though alone it was very bad 

 yet when they came together it was made much 

 worse ; like ships in a storm, every one alone 

 hath enough to do to outride it ; but when they 

 meet, besides the evils of the storm, they find 

 the intolerable calamity of their mutual concus. 

 sion, and every ship that is ready to be oppressed 

 with the tempest is a worse tempest to every 

 vessel against which it is violently dashed. So 

 it is in mankind ; every man hath evil enough of 

 his own, and it is hard for a man to live soberly, 

 temperately, and religiously ; but when he hath 

 parents and children, brothers and sisters, 

 friends and enemies, buyers and sellers, lawyers 

 and physicians, a family and a neighborhood, a 

 king over him or tenants under him, a bishop to 

 rule in matters of government spiritual, and a 

 people to be ruled by him in the affairs of their 

 souls, then it is that every man dashes against 

 another, and one relation requires what another 

 denies ; and when one speaks, another will con- 

 tradict him ; and that which is well spoken 

 is sometimes innocently mistaken, and that upon 

 a good cause produces an evil effect. And by 

 these, and ten thousand other concurrent causes, 

 man is made more than most miserable." 



A Dictionary of Music and Musicians- 

 a. D. 1450-1878. By Eminent Writers, 

 English and Foreign. With Illustra- 

 tions and Woodcuts. Edited by George 

 Grove, D. C. L. In Two Volumes. Num- 

 ber of pages in Part I., 128. A to Ballad. 

 New York: Macmillan & Co. Price, 

 $1.25. 



Musical dictionaries have hitherto been 

 chiefly occupied in explaining the numerous 

 terms and technicalities which have become 

 so prominent in the art. The present work 

 promises to be of a much more comprehen- 

 sive character, indeed to be a kind of cyclo- 

 paedia of music, giving "full and accurate 

 information in regard to the lives of emi- 

 nent composers, the history of musical in- 

 struments, the origin and gradual develop- 

 ment of musical forms (such as the sym- 

 phony and the sonata), the career of great 

 singers, and so on." Such is the object of 

 the work of which the first installment is 

 before us, and which is to contain twelve 

 quarterly parts. It is an enterprise of great 

 labor, but the execution thus far shows that 

 it will be thoroughly done. Its main arti- 

 cles are contributed by eminent authorities 

 on musical subjects, and its minor parts 

 have evidently been prepared with assiduous 

 care, under the editorship of Mr. Grove. 

 The work will of course be best appreciated 

 by those most interested in music, but it 

 will be of value to general readers, both for 

 reference and for study, as furnishing the 

 materials of the history of a great and grow- 

 ing popular art. We might object that the 

 type is rather too small to give most attrac- 

 tiveness to the page, but from the copious- 

 ness of the information to be presented this 

 became a necessity, in order to keep the 

 volumes within a reasonable magnitude. 

 The work is, however, printed with great 

 clearness; and the musical passages that 

 are freely interspersed in the text, to illus- 

 trate the various topics, come out with ad- 

 mirable distinctness. When the enterprise 

 is completed, we shall have another impor- 

 tant reference-book in this age of cyclo- 

 pedic specialties. 



Proteus, or Unity in Nature. By Charles 

 Bland Radcliff, M. D. New York : Mac- 

 millan & Co. Pp. 214. Price, $2.50. 

 The object of this work is to illustrate, 

 in a somewhat full and methodical way, the 

 great principle of oneness in Nature the law 



