LITERARY NOTICES. 



417 



the subject in a speecli which was lis- 

 tened to with close attention, and, as 

 we are informed by Mr. Nathan Apple- 

 ton, who was a critical observer of the 

 proceedings, his statement of the rela- 

 tive advantages and disadvantages of 

 the different contemplated lines was 

 undoubtedly influential in determining 

 the vote of the Congress in favor of the 

 Panama route. 



We have had engraved, to accom- 

 pany the article, two very instructive 

 maps, one representing the location of 

 the different routes under considera- 

 tion, and the other showing the relation 

 wliich this project bears to the oceanic 

 commerce of the world. 



Without venturing to decide which 

 is the best route — a question that be- 

 longs to the engineers — we are clear as 

 to certain of the considerations which 

 should have weight in determining it. 

 That the canal jnust come is inevitable. 

 The Isthmus barrier is a hindrance to 

 commerce — a kind of natural tariff that 

 must be removed in the interest of ad- 

 vancing free trade. It must disappear 

 with other old restrictions on the world's 

 exchanges. It will be a step forward 

 in civilization, and is in the strictest 

 and largest sense an international affair. 

 Commerce is pacific ; war and the mili- 

 tary spirit are its deadly foes. It is, 

 therefore, of the first necessity that the 

 enterprise should be " hedged about 

 with ample international guarantees of 

 perpetual neutrality." The opening of 

 a water-way across the narrow strip of 

 hind that separates two oceans is a 

 world's measure, and ought not to be 

 complicated with any local political 

 considerations. The talk about " pa- 

 triotism " and the "Monroe doctrine" 

 in connection with this great project is 

 therefore impertinent. It springs from 

 the same narrowness of national feel- 

 ing that has killed our foreign com- 

 merce by prohibiting American citizens 

 from buying ships where they please, 

 and it is a policy which will be con- 

 demned by all liberal-minded people. 



VOL. XVI. — 27 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Is Life worth Living? By William 

 HcRRELL Mallock. Ncw York : G. P. 

 Putiiam'a Sons. Pp. 323. Price, $1.50. 



This work, which has recently attracted 

 considerable attention, is a sort of theologi- 

 cal manifesto directed against the tenden- 

 cies of modern science. Those who have 

 arrived at what may be called the conun- 

 drum-stage of mental development, and do 

 not object to irreverent impudence, may be 

 pleased with it. Its author is a young Eng- 

 lish writer, who made a hit with his imper- 

 tinent satire, "The New Republic," and, 

 having sustained his reputation by various 

 sensational contributions to the periodicals, 

 he now comes jauntily forward with his 

 grand question as to the worth of life, to 

 which his book is an answer. He antici- 

 pates the work of the day of judgment by 

 summing up the experiment of universe- 

 making and estimating the net value of the 

 result. 



Mr. Mallock is well skilled in rhetorical 

 and dialectic art, and writes in a lively and 

 spirited way. To the amusement-seeking, 

 novel-reading mind, ever on the lookout for 

 a new sensation, and with a frivolous side- 

 interest in religious matters, we should say 

 that the book may be entertaining; but, 

 viewed as a deliverance of sober thought 

 addressed to sensible people, it is a book of 

 nonsense. 



The pert effrontery of Mr. Mallock's 

 question, and the unutterable stupidity of 

 the conclusion to which his logic brings him, 

 are apparent at a glance. The question 

 whether life is worth living, of course in- 

 volves the question of the value of exis- 

 tence and the universe, for life is the grand 

 outcome of the order of Nature. It is 

 something that has arisen by slow degrees 

 and through innumerable forms and grades, 

 during immeasurable time, and is the agen- 

 cy by which the human mind has come into 

 being and reached its present perfection. 

 Life is therefore the thing that has been 

 aimed at, in the onworiiing of universal 

 law, for more millions of years than we are 

 at hberty to talk about. Life is not a for- 

 eign and mysterious something that has 

 been thrust into the system of nature, but 



