LITERARY NOTICES. 



707 



subjunctive mood as to how they might, 

 could, would, or should do. It is time that the 

 economists of every country had ceased to 

 be a sect antagonizing the statesmen; es- 

 pecially is it time that the economists of 

 America, France, and Germany had ceased, 

 in antagonizing the statesmen of their own 

 country, to fall into a species of disloyal 

 alliance with the statesmen of countries 

 whose economic interests may not be in 

 harmony, in certain important and vital as- 

 pects, with their own" — the familiar cry of 

 the practical politicians against the " Utcrary 

 fellers." In spite of this one-sidedness, 

 there is a great deal that is valuable in the 

 book, in the fullness of the historical pres- 

 entations of the various questions, the 

 ample citations of facts, the author's own 

 lucid comments where his bias does not over- 

 rule him, and the notes giving views of 

 nearly all economists, all going to justify his 

 belief that it may prove " convenient as a 

 book of reference to the very large number of 

 persons who, if amply supplied with facts, 

 find it not difficult to arrive at their own 

 conclusions." One feature that we can 

 commend in the highest degree is the excel- 

 lence and fullness of the table of contents 

 and the two indexes. Among the subjects 

 specifically treated are "Wealth," "Value 

 and Prices," " Title and Use," " Profit and 

 Loss," " Capital," " Land," " Labor," " Mon- 

 ey," " Crises," " The State " as a factor in 

 various ways, and the different aspects of 

 taxation, protection, and free trade. 



Physical Development ; or, the Laws gov- 

 erning THE UuMAN System. By Nathan 

 Allen, M. D. Boston : Lee & Shepard. 

 New York : Charles T. Dillingham. Pp. 

 348. 



Dr. Allen has been known for twenty- 

 five years as a writer on the various subjects 

 that fall under the heading of the title of this 

 book. While some of the papers have ap- 

 peared in special journals and the transac- 

 tions of societies, many of them have been 

 published in channels through which they 

 went at once to general readers. In all his 

 work he has sought to improve the stand- 

 ard of American manhood and womanhood. 

 Two of the papers in this volume — " Changes 

 in New England Population " and " The Law 

 of Human Increase " — appeared first in " The 

 Popular Science Monthly " ; and the former 



paper, with the one on " The New England 

 Family," attracted very general attention, 

 and were extensively copied and commented 

 upon. They exposed a sore spot in the do- 

 mestic economy of Americans, and pointed 

 out an evil concerning which there was more 

 sorrowing in silence than brave remarking. 

 There is no doubt that their influence was 

 wholesome, and that in publishing them Dr. 

 Allen did a service to his -country. The 

 other papers — there are twenty-four in all 

 — if of less pronounced importance, are val- 

 uable as teaching truths bearing upon the 

 health and longevity of the race, and pre- 

 senting them in such a literary form as to 

 commend them to general reading. We ob- 

 serve that they have been edited in such a 

 manner as to constitute the volume, instead 

 of a mere collection of scattered essays, a 

 compact and harmonious book. The papers 

 are preceded by a biographical sketch of the 

 author, which is accompanied with an excel- 

 lent steel-engraved portrait. 



System of Economical Contradictions ; or, 

 THE Philosophy of Misery. By P. J. 

 Proudhon. Vol. I. Boston : Benjamin 

 R. Tucker. Pp. 469, Price, $3.50. 



Mr. Tucker is engaged in publishing, 

 by subscription, the complete works of the 

 French socialistic philosopher, in fifty vol- 

 umes, of which this is in order the fourth, 

 although the second and third volumes have 

 not yet been published in English. As im- 

 plied in the title, the book is in reality a 

 budget of contradictions, beginning with the 

 question of the existence of God, in respect 

 to which positive and negative statements 

 are hypothecated. Social economy is dis- 

 tinguished by an opposition between fact and 

 right ; the science is real, but it is " an im- 

 mense plain, strewn with materials prepared 

 for an edifice. The laborers await the sig- 

 nal, full of ardor and burning to commence 

 the work ; but the architect has disappeared 

 without leaving the plan." The principle of 

 value is discussed in the light of the opposi- 

 tion of value in use and value in exchange. 

 Division of labor is studied as the economic 

 fact which influences most perceptibly prof- 

 its and wages. The machine and the work- 

 shop having given the laborer a master and 

 reduced him from the rank of artisan to that 

 of common workman, the problem is in place 



