LITERARY NOTICES. 



241 



philosophy of human nature, are by no 

 means the real grounds on which he is en- 

 titled to be remembered. Phrenology rep- 

 resented a mere point of view from which 

 humanity was to be studied, and that point 

 of view was the true one, and a great ad- 

 vance on all previous systems. Phrenology 

 was the rude means of first bringing men- 

 tal phenomena into relation with organiza- 

 tion, in the popular thought. It was almost 

 inevitable that the first theories of this re- 

 lation should be deficient and erroneous; 

 but, the attitude taken being correct, valu- - 

 able results flowed from it. It is on ac- I 

 count of his views and reformatory labors ! 

 regarding education, the treatment of the 

 insane, the true principles of prison disci- 

 pline, and the emancipation of the masses 

 from social and religious prejudices, that 

 Mr. Combe deserves to be gratefully and 

 honorably remembered, and in this respect 

 his biography is of living and permanent 

 interest. 



Deterioration and Race Education ; with 

 Practical Applications to the Condi- 

 tion or THE People and Industry. By 

 Samuel Royce. Boston : Lee & Shep- 

 ard. Pp. 685. Price, $2.50. 



We noticed this instructive work upon 

 its first appearance last year, and are glad 

 to see that it has gone to a second edition, 

 as it contains a great deal of information, 

 bearing upon the subject of education, that 

 cannot be found compiled and digested else- 

 where. Mr. Royce views the subject in its 

 broadest aspects, laying great stress upon 

 those forces in society which lead to pau- 

 perism and physical, mental, and moral de- 

 generacy, and it is as a corrective of these 

 evil tendencies that he chiefly regards the 

 subject of education. The fundamental 

 idea of his work, illustrated and enforced 

 by numerous facts and copious discussion, 

 is that the great deficiency in our system 

 of mental cultivation is the non-recognition 

 of the element of industry. In the new 

 edition of the book he has added nearly one 

 hundred pages, designed to give increasing 

 effect to this aspect of his general argument. 

 In the first place he demands that educa- 

 tion shall include learning to work or an 

 actual preparation for industrial occupa- 

 tions. He appreciates and favors the Kin- 

 dergarten as the first step in this direction, 

 VOL. XIV. — 16 



to be followed up by developing schools 

 and technical institutions to teach the prac- 

 tice as well as the elementary principles of 

 various mechanical trades. He gives an 

 interesting account of several industrial 

 schools and manual institutes, chiefly in 

 New England, which have for their object 

 the training of the young in the skillful and 

 intelligent exercise of hand - labor. Mr. 

 Royce points out the vicious and lamenta- 

 ble influence of the existing system of edu- 

 cation, in disqualifying the young for enter- 

 ing upon industrial occupations, by present- 

 ing false ideas of life through the excessive 

 and one-sided influence of literature and 

 books alone. It is not the worst, he thinks, 

 that working-studies are ignored, but that 

 in our existing schools there arises a preju- 

 dice against manual labor, a contempt of it, 

 and an ambition to get a living by head- 

 work in the practice of the professions. 

 Thousands upon thousands who can never 

 enter the professions, and who have not 

 intellectual faculty enough to win success 

 in life by pure intellectual labor, are never- 

 theless set upon this track, and unfitted for 

 the honest and efficient pursuit of industrial 

 avocations. Want of space prevents our 

 giving several important quotations from 

 this part of Mr. Royce's book, which readers 

 specially interested in the subject will find 

 it useful to procure. 



Superstition in All Ages. By John Mes- 

 lier. Translated from the French by 

 Miss Anna Knoop. New York : Liberal 

 Publishing Co., 141 Eighth Street. Pp. 

 339. Price, $1.50. 



The author of this curious book was 

 born in 1678, in the French village of Ma- 

 zerny, and died in 1733, at the age of fifty- 

 five. He has, therefore, been dead nearly 

 one hundred and fifty years ; and, although 

 his name is not to be found in any of our 

 common cyclopasdias, his book, the only 

 one that he ever wrote, is now first trans- 

 lated into English, and is published in the 

 United States. 



Meslier was a Roman Catholic priest, 

 and was for thirty years curate of Entre- 

 pigay in Champagne. There is a brief 

 sketch of his life by Voltaire prefixed to 

 the volume, from which we gather that he 

 was a quiet, studious man, of a philosophic 

 turn of mind, who at the seminary devoted 



