LITERARY NOTICES. 



821 



between antiquateJ and recent — ^the liv- 

 ing and the dead. He says, "I claim 

 for the Greek tongue its place on the 

 exactly opposite ground — because it is 

 not dead but living, because if it is an- 

 cient, it is mediEBval and modern no 

 less." This is a new argument for the 

 so-called ancient and dead languages 

 that they are not as ordinarily charac- 

 terized, but are in reality living and 

 modern. And what else is it but the 

 nonsensical makeshift of a hard-pushed 

 advocate? If the Greek and Latin 

 tongues are still living, why not the 

 Greek and Latin nations ? If these lan- 

 guages are not ancient, is there any- 

 thing ancient? The course of nature 

 goes on, and materials of all kinds are 

 used over and over again in unbroken 

 continuity, but because the present is 

 thus born of the past, are we to forget 

 the distinction between the living and 

 the dead. If the ancient languages are 

 modern, then of course ancient history, 

 and ancient philosophy, and ancient art, 

 are modern history, modern philosophy, 

 and modern art, and there is no end to 

 the stupid confusion. We can hardly 

 congratulate Mr. Freeman on his de- 

 fense of the cause he has espoused, and 

 have referred to it merely as illustrating 

 the best that can be said by a distin- 

 guished historical writer in defense of 

 old academical superstitions. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Journal of a Tour in Marocco and the 

 Great Atlas. By Joseph Dalton 

 Hooker, K. C. S. I., C. B., Pres. R. S., 

 Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, 

 etc.; and John Ball, F. R. S., 51. R. I. A., 

 etc., with an Appendix including a Sketch 

 of the Geology of Mavoeco, by George 

 Maw, F. L. S., F. G. S. Macraillan & Co. 

 18Y8. Pp. 489. Price, $6.50. Illus- 

 trated. 



The territory of Marocco, which is larger 

 than Spain, and is within six days' sail of 

 England, extends along the Mediterranean 

 from Algeria through the straits of Gibral- 

 tar to the Atlantic Ocean, and southward to 



nearly opposite the Canary Islands, having a 

 coast-line of fully nine hundred miles. Al- 

 though so near to Europe, this country, be- 

 yond its coast, is among the least known 

 regions of the earth ; but it is supposed to 

 reach far into the Great Desert on the south- 

 ern side of the Great Atlas range. It has 

 been called the China of the West, but it is 

 even more isolated and impenetrable than 

 China itself. This scientific expedition to 

 Marocco was undertaken at the beginning of 

 April, 1871, and lasted till the middle of 

 June, but for various reasons the account 

 of it was not published till 1878. Delay of 

 publication, however, can make no difference 

 in the case of Marocco, where it seems there 

 has been little change during the last two 

 centuries. For a long time Sir Joseph D. 

 Hooker had wished to explore the range of 

 the Great Atlas, to learn whether its vegeta- 

 tion furnished connecting links between that 

 of the Mediterranean and the peculiar flora of 

 the Canary Islands. Maw bad already made 

 collections of living plants along the coast 

 of Marocco, and had pushed farther into the 

 interior than any but one preceding traveler, 

 and Ball had visited the country in 1851, 

 but its disturbed state made all exploration 

 impossible. Now, however, through the in- 

 tervention of the Foreign Office, the Sultan 

 of Marocco gave permission for the visit of 

 these distinguished travelers, and on the 

 7th of April they reached Tangier, one of 

 the most important towns of Marocco, thirty- 

 five miles from Gibraltar, on the coast of 

 the Mediterranean. It is the residence of 

 the diplomatic agents sent from other coun- 

 tries, and consequently the Moorish author- 

 ities are somewhat under the control of civ- 

 ilized opinion, and life and property are 

 tolerably secure. Its neighborhood is the 

 only part of all Marocco where a naturalist 

 can wander without an escort of soldiers, 

 and hence little was known of the flora of 

 the empire, except collections from the Dje- 

 bel Kebir or Great Mountain just west of 

 Tangier. Before goinj^ to south Marocco, 

 it was needful for their safety and success 

 that the travelers should have an auto- 

 graph letter from the Sultan, to prevent the 

 local authorities from defeating their pur- 

 pose. They had to wait several days for 

 this document, and spent the interval in ex- 

 ploring the Lesser Atlas, with results of ex- 



