748 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



him to reverse his own plans, and aban- 

 don that method of governing the 

 world through the operation of inflex- 

 ible laws which all truly religious peo- 

 ple must regard as the Divine method. 

 Ohio wisdom suggests to Divine Wis- 

 dom such a change of policy as, if car- 

 ried out, would simply turn order into 

 chaos. There may be many things 

 about the providential government of 

 the world that we cannot explain, but 

 it is not difficult to see the large benig- 

 nity of severe and inexorable punish- 

 ment for violated laws. In nothing is 

 the sacredness of these ordinances so 

 attested as in the death-penalties that 

 follow their transgression. 



Governor Bishop arraigns human 

 science and human effort as having 

 failed to stop the progress of this 

 scourge, and says that now the only 

 hope is God's promise to answer prayer. 

 But has not prayer fervent, agonizing, 

 soul-rending prayer been already re- 

 sorted to day and night in the private 

 closet, and at the family altar, as well 

 as in the places of public devotion, and 

 that, too, all over the land? Yet the 

 epidemic has not been stayed. "Why did 

 the governor not rank all this impas- 

 sioned supplication with the other fail- 

 ures which he offers as reasons for his 

 oini intervention. And, if he has faith in 

 the efficacy of a State-appointed appeal 

 to Heaven, why did he postpone the 

 demonstration for a week, when hun- 

 dreds are dying daily ? 



"We are far, as has been already 

 said, from condemning the appeal to 

 religious considerations and influences 

 in an extremity like this, but it should 

 be put on enlightened grounds, and be- 

 come a means of incitement to nobler 

 action. Prayer is efficacious just in 

 proportion as it reacts upon the suppli- 

 cant to inspire a higher activity, and 

 in this way it may become a potent 

 agency for moving men in great emer- 

 gencies. This being the true point of 

 view, in place of the proclamation is- 

 sued by Governor Bishop, we should 

 have preferred to see something like 



the following : " Whereas, a plague is 

 desolating various Southern cities, 

 wliich all means hitherto adopted have 

 failed to arrest, let the devout people 

 of Ohio gather in their several places 

 of worship Avithout delay, and, rever- 

 ently recognizing the Divine wisdom in 

 this fearful dispensation of suffering, 

 humbly confess their sins of neglect 

 and omission, their ignorance, careless- 

 ness, and culpable apathy in regard to 

 all sanitary matters, and their want of 

 quickened sympathy with the afflicted 

 communities, and register solemn vows 

 to Heaven that they will at once en- 

 large their measures of help to the dev- 

 astated towns, and will in future be 

 more vigilant and faithful in discharg- 

 ing the religious duty of guarding and 

 promoting private and public health." 



COOKERY AND EDUCATION. 



"We are getting familiar with the 

 closer collocation of these hitherto wide- 

 ly-separated ideas, and their permanent 

 unification in our common thought will 

 constitute an important step of prog- 

 ress in domestic improvement and so- 

 cial amelioration. It will be slow work 

 to connect cookery and education in 

 this country, and attempts to bring 

 about its practical accomplishment will 

 meet with many impediments. Mean- 

 time we hail with satisfaction every 

 indication that this desirable result is 

 being attained anywhere. If our Eng- 

 lish friends are to be the pioneers in 

 this most useful movement, let them 

 have the honor of it. "We notice that 

 the following paragraph is going the 

 rounds of the papers : 



" Regular instruction in practical cook- 

 ery is a part of the new system in the public 

 schools of London. In every girls' school 

 in which domestic economy forms part of 

 the school course, one of the teachers is re- 

 quired to give lessons on food and its prep- 

 aration ; and for advanced classes twenty- 

 one kitchens are to be established in differ- 

 ent parts of London, each of them fitted 

 with suitable appliances, and to be presided 



