LITERARY XOTICES. 



3 6 9 



nial collection is a mere godless, sor- 

 did, anti-religious affair. But the peo- 

 ple do not go to the appointed places 

 of religious assembly. Tliey crowd 

 around the grounds by thousands, and 

 occupy themselves in drinking at the 

 saloons, and in cursing the bigotry of 

 the management which forbids them to 

 look upon the objects within, on the day 

 that the State forbids them to work. 



We fear, however, that any consid- 

 erations of principle will be wasted 

 upon the commissioners. The reasons 

 they avow for forbidding entrance to 

 the grounds on Sunday are not of a 

 very elevated kind. In the report of 

 the majority, after referring to the 

 legislation of the country to prevent 

 " secular business operations " on the 

 "Christian Sabbath," they say: "Any 

 action of this commission which is 

 in conflict with the public sentiment 

 expressed in these laws and in their 

 practical observance will, in the judg- 

 ment of your committee, so shock the 

 moral sense of the country that it will 

 jeopardize the success of the Centen- 

 nial Exhibition, and turn the most pow- 

 erful agencies throughout the land from 

 active support to decided opposition. 

 Your committee, therefore, recommend 

 that the commission adhere to the pol- 

 icy which has heretofore governed its 

 actions on this subject." It is not the 

 " moral sense " of the community that 

 would be shocked by opening the ex- 

 hibition on Sunday. The "powerful 

 agencies throughout the land " that 

 would oppose it by deterring people 

 from attendance on week-days, because 

 those who wish it were admitted on 

 Sunday, are not impelled by "moral 

 sense," but by a narrow spirit of intol- 

 erance which is as immoral as the spirit 

 of any other tyranny. The commis- 

 sioners are of course bound to do every 

 proper thing to insure the success of 

 the exhibition ; but they are not bound 

 to eliminate all higher considerations 

 from their conception of " success." 

 We could wish them a little more ele- 



vation of view on this great national 

 occasion ; and in regard to their Sun- 

 day policy a little more of the spirit of 

 Christ and Paul, Tyndale and Luther ; 

 a little more, indeed, of the genuine 

 " spirit of Seventy-six." 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The Ancient Regime. By Hippolyte 

 Adolphe Taine, author of " A History 

 of English Literature," " Italy," etc. 

 Translated by John Dcrand. New York : 

 Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 421. Price, 

 $2.50. 



Although M. Taine has made his repu- 

 tation as a literary man, he must be credited 

 with a genuine feeling for philosophical in- 

 quiry, and if not a scientist in the thorough 

 sense, he nevertheless aspires to carry on 

 his inquiries by scientific method. The 

 present work is written from this point of 

 view. Its author takes the modern stand- 

 poiut in the study of history, and recog- 

 nizes the futility of polities, when not guided 

 by the principles of national development. 

 His attitude of mind, and the spirit which 

 he has brought to his task, are so admira- 

 bly presented in the following passage from 

 his preface, that we transcribe his own 

 words. After stating that in 1849 he was 

 twenty-one years old, and was called upon 

 to vote, he remarks : 



"It was optional with me to be royalist or 

 republican, democrat or conservative, socialist 

 or Bonapartist ; I was neither, nor even any- 

 thing at all, and, at times, I envied so many peo- 

 ple of faith who had the good fortune to be 

 something. After hearing the various doctrines 

 I felt that there was undoubtedly some void in 

 my mind. Motives valid for others were not so 

 for me ; I could not understand how in politics 

 one could make up his mind according to his 

 predilections. Peremptory advisers constructed 

 a constitution as if it were a house, according 

 to the most attractive, the newest, and the sim- 

 plest plan, holding up for consideration the 

 mansion of a marquis, the domicile of a bour- 

 geois, a tenement for workmen, barracks for 

 soldiers, the communist phalanstery, and even 

 a camp for savages. Each one asserted of his 

 model, ' This is the true abode of man, the only 

 one a man of sense can dwell in.' In my opin- 

 ion, the argument was weak ; personal fancies 

 are not authorities. It appears to me that a 

 house miaht not be built for the architect, nor 

 for itself, but for the owner and occupant. To 

 ask the opinion of the owner, to submit plans 



VOL. ix. 24 



