WffAT IS JUPITER DOING? 737 



rich and poor must widen as material i^rogress goes on ; the mass of 

 ignorance, of brutality, of recklessness, the number of those who are 

 iu our civilization but not of it, must increase and threaten its ex- 

 istence. The barbarians who will destroy our civilization come not 

 from without but from within, " In the shadow of college and library 

 and museum are gathering the more hideous Huns and fiercer Vandals 

 of whom Macaulay j^rophesied." 



Mr. George closes his book with a theory of progress in which 

 heredity counts but little, and conditions much ; whose law is associa- 

 tion in equality. Men advance as they come in closer contact, and as 

 the conditions of each are more nearly equal ; and fail to do so or de- 

 cline as these requirements are not met. Civilizations rise and fall, 

 stoj) or turn back, or are transformed in obedience to this law. 



I am not here concerned with criticising Mr. George's work, with 

 pointing out the extravagance of his expectations; the fact that human 

 nature is not nearly as easily modified as he assumes ; that poverty is 

 but one of the factors in the production of vice, misery, and crime ; 

 that far-reaching biological and psychological laws are not so readily 

 set aside as he seems to think. These things do not affect the essen- 

 tial doctrine of his book — that, by the law of rent, rent must have a 

 determining influence in the distribution of wealth. My purpose is 

 served if I have succeeded in drawing attention to what seems to me 

 one of the most important contributions yet made to economic litera- 

 ture. 



WHAT IS JUPITER DOING? 



Bt HENEY J. SLACK. 



THE question, so often suggested by changes in the aspect of the 

 planet Jui^iter, " What is he doing ? " is again forcibly put by 

 the appearance of a remarkable spot of enormous dimensions, and of a 

 reddish or orange-brown tint, which has occupied the attention of ob- 

 servers for several months, and which seems to be identified, so far as 

 relates to position and form, though not in color, with what has been 

 seen on former occasions. 



Probably no celestial bodies reach a pennanent condition : con- 

 stant change seems a law of nature ; but there maybe gi'eat variations 

 in the rates at which changes occur. If we assume as probable a modi- 

 fication of the nebular theory, suns and their attendant planets are 

 formed by the condensation of matter in an extreme state of tenuity, 

 and the mass of suns and planets may receive frequent additions in 

 the shape of any smaller or less heavy bodies they are able to attract. 

 Our sun is jirobably a great devourer of meteors ; and, as our earth 



