LITERARY NOTICES. 



413 



tlie world ; but, however the compari- 

 son may hold between ourselves and 

 other nations in this respect, it is evi- 

 dent that we want more intelligence, 

 more of true culture, and that such in- 

 telligence, such culture, is the only in- 

 fluence on which we can depend to 

 moderate the passions which our civic 

 contests are so prone to generate. It 

 is to science we must look for help — to 

 science in its widest and noblest sense. 

 A man may possess ranch technical 

 knowledge, and his practical judgment 

 may remain narrow, and his moral na- 

 ture commonplace, if not absolutely 

 inferior. The science that elevates is 

 not the science which is taught or 

 learned merely as a means of gaining 

 a living; it is not the science that 

 sharpens greed and gives a more cun- 

 ning acquisitiveness; it is the science 

 that enables a man to live in an atmos- 

 phere of general ideas, and that makes 

 the whole world interesting to him apart 

 from all purely personal concerns. It is 

 science in this sense that should be 

 brought to bear upon the minds of the 

 young in our schools and colleges. It 

 is science in this sense that we contend 

 for as an integral part of all education. 

 It is for the lack of general scientific 

 conceptions, supported by a basis of 

 solid knowledge in some particular 

 branch or branches of science, that men 

 are to-day so largely the prey of politi- 

 cal demagogues, and come so near los- 

 ing control of their actions in times of 

 excitement. The lesson of the election 

 is, that our national culture is but a 

 shallow culture, considering the vast 

 and even dangerous responsibilities de- 

 volving upon the individual citizen. 

 Granting even that other nations can 

 manage to do with no higher a develop- 

 ment of intelligence, with a distribu- 

 tion of knowledge no more liberal than 

 that which exists in this republic, it 

 does not follow that we can safely be 

 content with our present attainments 

 in these respects. It is well for us that 

 the next presidential election is four 



years ahead. Let the intervening four 

 years be years of earnest struggle for 

 the advancement of science, for the 

 spi'ead of a true culture, that in our 

 next crisis the influence of ideas may 

 be a little, if ever so little, greater, and 

 that that of personal passions a little, 

 if ever so little, less. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



A CoMPEND or Geology. By Joseph Le 

 CoNTE, Professor of Geology and Natu- 

 ral Uistory in the University of Califor- 

 nia ; author of " Elements of Geology," 

 etc. New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 

 399. Price, $1.50. 



This is the third volume that has ap- 

 peared of the new and attractive series of 

 "Appletons' Science Text-Books." The great 

 popularity and success of the author's larger 

 work for colleges led to the belief, expressed 

 by many, that he would be the best man 

 to prepare a shorter work suited to general 

 school use. Such works should certainly not 

 be left to compilers, on the pretext that 

 general introductory books are of less im- 

 portance than advanced treatises. It is de- 

 sirable, first of all, in preparing a good text- 

 book, small or large, that the author should 

 know his subject, directly and thoroughly, 

 and then that he should be capable of pre- 

 senting it in a form adapted to the grade of 

 students for whom it is written. Profess- 

 or Le Conte is a high authority in geology, 

 a life-long student of American geology, 

 and an examination of the present work 

 convinces us that he has remarkable tact 

 and judgment in adapting his exposition to 

 the grade of mind for which this volume is 

 intended. It is not a primer of geology, 

 and makes no attempt to reduce the order 

 of ideas, with which this science is conver- 

 sant, to the capacities of children. It implies 

 the usual mental maturity of scholars in 

 our schools fifteen or sixteen years of age, 

 and to these the book is made thoroughly 

 intelligible by the effort required in class- 

 room study. It is properly a book for be- 

 ginners, and at the same time presents a 

 view of the subject sufficiently full and com- 

 plete for the general purposes of education. 

 It is written in a simple, clear, and popular 

 style, and is so abundantly illustrated as to 



