LITERARY NOTICES. 



117 



convenient. Van Nostrand's little pocket- 

 book gives all the information necessary to 

 make the best use of the aneroid barometer, 

 and it contains copious tables to facilitate 

 calculations. 



The Princeton Review, March. Pp. 398. 

 37 Park Row, New York. Price, 35 cts. 



Hating floated down the tranquil stream 

 of time for fifty-four years, this stanch 

 old orthodox review begins to find that the 

 waters are growing rough, and that the navi- 

 gation must be closely attended to. So the 

 first thing is to move out of Jersey, and 

 plant itself down in the metropolis, and re- 

 spectfully announce that it "is not the or- 

 gan of any theological seminary." It has 

 altered its backing, and it is now understood 

 that instead of a theological establishment 

 it has a big heap of money behind it. This 

 is made probable by such a swelling out of 

 its proportions as would not be justified by 

 any considerations of legitimate business. 

 It will be issued six times a year, at a sub- 

 scription of two dollars, and, if each number 

 is to contain as much reading-matter as the 

 one before us, it will be dirt cheap, though 

 we are afraid the proprietors will have to 

 draw on their pile to hire their subscribers 

 to read it. This we say entirely with ref- 

 erence to the unconceivable bulk of matter 

 furnished. It seems to be forgotten life is 

 short, and that people generally have much 

 else to do besides reading. However, the 

 scope of the review is broad, as it is to consist 

 entirely of original articles on theology, phi- 

 losophy, politics, science, literature, and art, 

 and, if it had a good serial novel in it, we 

 do not see why it might not claim to answer 

 all the wants of the reading public. A glance 

 at the articles of the present number shows 

 that they are solid, if not brilliant, while the 

 names Chadbourne, Hodge, Hopkins, Hall, 

 Spear, Atwater, Bowen, West, Alexander, 

 Bishop Cox, Hickok, and McCosh, all of 

 whom have articles in this March issue, are 

 a guarantee that the periodical will maintain 

 its character for theological conservatism. 



Creep and Deed. A Series of Discourses. 

 By Felix Adler, Ph. D. New York : G. 

 P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 243. Price, $1.50. 



The author of this work combines the 

 erudition of the scholar with the indepen- 



dence of the radical thinker. The topics 

 he deals with in this volume are religious 

 and ethical in their character, and the essays 

 are keen in criticism and of marked literary 

 merit. Our readers have had an illustration 

 of these qualities, as the essay in the volume 

 on "The Evolution of Hebrew Religion" 

 first appeared in the pages of The Popular 

 Science Monthly. The papers were deliv- 

 ered as lectures before the Society for Ethi- 

 cal Culture and are published by request of 

 those who listened to them. 



Tables for the Determination of Miner- 

 als. By Persifor Frazer, Jr. Phila- 

 delphia: Lippincott. Pp.119. Price, $2. 



Prof. Frazer adopts, as the basis of his 

 work, the tables prepared by Weisbach, 

 which he has enlarged and completed. The 

 work provides for the student a method of 

 determining minerals from an examination 

 of those physical properties which may be 

 ascertained by the aid of the simplest in- 

 struments. In the author's plan, all min- 

 erals are divided into three classes: those 

 having a metallic lustre ; those of non-me- 

 tallic lustre, but giving a colored streak ; 

 and those of non-metallic lustre, with col- 

 orless streak. The tables correspond to 

 this threefold classification, and by a refer- 

 ence to them most minerals can be deter- 

 mined without difficulty. In short, the 

 student has only first to ascertain to which 

 of the three great classes a specimen be- 

 longs. He then ascertains first the charac- 

 ter of the lustre if any it has then its 

 color, the color of the streak, the relative 

 hardness and tenacity, the crystal system, 

 and the cleavage. A glance at the tables 

 will give him the name of the mineral in 

 which all these characters exist in the pro- 

 portions found in his specimen. 



Mound-Making Ants of the Alleghanies. 

 By the Rev. Henry C. McCook. With 

 Piates. Philadelphia : J. A. Black, 

 1334 Chestnut Street. Pp. 43. Price, 

 75 cents. 



We have had frequent occasion to re- 

 count the ingenious researches of Mr. Mc- 

 Cook into the life-histories of insects. The 

 present essay is the most voluminous one 

 we have ever seen from his pen, and perhaps 

 also the most interesting. The subject is 

 the wood or fallow ant {Formica rufa), whose 



