LITERARY NOTICES. 



557 



tional in its application. Whenever it 

 was proposed to do this, the enemies of 

 the reform have raised the cry of " ex- 

 pediency," "the needs of the reading 

 public," " the advantages of cheap lit- 

 erature," and other similar catch-words 

 intended to mislead, while the ethical 

 questions involved have been contempt- 

 uously brushed aside as unworthy of 

 serious notice. 



By its refusal to legislate on the sub- 

 ject in accordance with well - known 

 principles in force in other countries, 

 our Government, it is not unfair to say, 

 tacitly maintained that, after all, steal- 

 ing was quite the thing, or at least not to 

 be interfered with, as long as it served 

 the interests of a numerous class, and 

 could be carried on without peril and to 

 the profit of the thief. To plunder the 

 foreign author became an innocent oc- 

 cupation : he was not one of us, and we 

 stilled our consciences with the pretense 

 that moral obligations were limited by 

 geographical boundaries. 



The decisive majority in favor of the 

 new bill sharply discredits this belittling 

 view of our duty as a nation. It also 

 marks a most encouraging advance in 

 public sentiment which is daily growing 

 more and more appreciative of that rare 

 variety of legislation which is founded 

 on right and justice. There is good 

 ground to hope that the bill will meet 

 with equal success in the Senate, while 

 the President, with his well-known de- 

 votion to principle, is already committed 

 in its favor. 



Yet, bright as the prospects for the 

 early triumph of the measure appear to 

 be, its friends and promoters can not 

 afford to relax their efforts until the bill 

 becomes a law Signs are not wanting 

 that its enemies, so far from being dis- 

 couraged by the present attitude of Con- 

 gress, have rather been stimulated by it 

 to renewed exertions in their desperate 

 opposition to the reform. They are try- 

 ing to create dissensions among its sup- 

 porters, hoping by this means to weaken 

 their influence in its behalf. 



In view of this it should be remem- 

 bered that few measures of the kind 

 can be perfected until they have had a 

 practical trial. It would be the height 

 of folly to imperil the essential principle 

 of the bill merely because some of its 

 minor details did not exactly meet 

 the views of all its supporters. The 

 greatest need now is, that those more 

 directly interested in the welfare of the 

 measure should sink their differences, 

 and, uniting with the friends of justice 

 and honest legislation everywhere, 

 should continue to urge the matter upon 

 the attention of Congress until success 

 has been achieved, trusting to time and 

 experience, when need arises, to bring 

 the several features of the law into closer 

 harmony with the public interest. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Outings at Odd Times. By Charles C. 

 Abbott, M. D. New York : D. Appleton 



& Co. Pp. 282. Price, $1.50. 



It is a pleasant task to review one of Dr. 

 Abbott's books. The contrast implied in 

 the title of his preface to this volume 

 "Nature and Books about it" is reduced 

 to the lowest point in his writings. The 

 genial doctor has a happy faculty for trans- 

 ferring the charm of Nature to the printed 

 page, that is the more valuable for its rarity. 

 It might seem a mistake on the part of the 

 author to put as the first of his four groups 

 of essays the one headed " In Winter," for 

 Nature in that season is by many regarded 

 as wholly uncommunicative, if not frigidly 

 forbidding. But Dr. Abbott does not find it 

 so. Coming to an ice-fringed brook, in one 

 of his winter outings, he quickly detects in 

 the water " dainty little frogs the peeping 

 hylodes squatted on dead leaves and yel- 

 low pebbles, and so spotted, splotched, and 

 wrinkled were they that it took sharp eyes 

 to find them. . . . The spirit of exploration 

 seized me now," he says, " and I brushed 

 the shallow waters with a cedar branch. 

 Lazy mud minnows were whipped from their 

 retreats, and a beautiful red salamander 

 that I sent whizzing through the air wriggled 

 among the brown leaves upon the ground. 

 It was only after a hard chase that I capt- 



