Review of Re tie us, 2015/00. 



The Reviews Reviewed. 



317 



THE NOUVELLE REVUE. 



Cainille Saint-Saeiis opens the first January part 

 of the Noiirelle Ueinu' with an article on the Evolution 

 of Plants and Animals. 



THE EVOLUTION OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 



M. Saint-Saens endeavours to prove tiiat the pro- 

 totype of tiie evolution of life in animals is evolution 

 in the vegetable kingdom. The only divergence be- 

 tween tlie two, he says, is in tihe head — that is to 

 say, the flower in the plant and the brain in the 

 vertebrate. The plant concentrates its organic life 

 in the function of reproduction, which i6 the principal 

 factor in its conservation, whereas in the animal the 

 future of tlie species depends on the development of 

 the nei-vous system, namely, the intelligence and the 

 will. Zoologists have already compared the skeleton 

 of the vertebrate to a plant, and painters of fan- 

 tastic scenes liave sometimes given to trees something 

 of the appearance of a human being, transforming 

 the branches into aims and the roots into legs, and 

 tliey come neai-er the truth perhaps than they think. 



THE MOON AND THE PENDULUM. 



In another article Camille Flannmarion revives a 

 theory which he advanced some yeai-s ago, comparing 

 the moon to a pendulum. He says that in reality 

 the moon does not revolve round tlie earth, nor does 

 the centre of the moon revolve round the centre of the 

 earth, but the two globes revolve round their common 

 centre of gravity. A comparison of the movement 

 of the moon with that of a pendulum enables one 

 to identify weight with univensal gravitation. As all 

 the movements of the celestial bodies are produced 

 by the same force of gravity — ^and are I'uled by the 

 same laws — what we have obseiTed. of one satellite 

 may be generalised and applied to all the stars. That 

 is to say, in the movement of a small pendulum oscil- 

 lating on the surface of tiie earth, we may perceive the 

 law whioli governs the movements of the celestial 

 bodies' in space. 



ITALY AND HER ALLIANCES. 



Raqueni, in the second January number, writes on 

 Italy and her alliances. Italy, in remaining the ally 

 of Germany, will remain faithful to her traditional 

 friendship with England and to the friendship with 

 France which she has regained. The recent bellicose 

 speeches of the Emperor William have irritated Italian 

 opinion, and this proves that in the peninsula there 

 is a real new spirit wliich those in power cannot 

 neglect. There is no doubt tliat the Marquis of San 

 Giuliano in declaring himself the partisan of the main- 

 tenunc- of the Tri|)l(' Alliance will, under the pres- 

 sure ot public opinion iu Italy, consider Italo-French 

 friendship as the surest guarantee of peace in Europe. 



THE REVUE DES DEUX HONUES. 



In an article on the " Thousand and One Nights," 

 puhlishi'd in the fintst January number of the Revue 

 (li.'i Deux Mnndes, Baron Carra de Vaux, the writer, 

 expresses the opinion that the authors of the tales 

 wore great travelleis. Do people know, he also asks, 

 that the legend of the marching wood in "Macbeth" 

 existed in almost identical form in Arabia in the 

 Middle Ages? 



THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS. 



— It is to the French Orientalist, Antoine Galland 

 (1646-1715), that we owe our knowledge of the " Thou- 

 sand and One Nights.'" They were first published in 

 France in 1704-1708, and though they obtained a 

 great popular success, they were, generally speaking. 



esteemed lightly at the time of their appearance and 

 during the whole of the eighteenth century. Gal- 

 land's work was rather an adaptation than a transla- 

 tion, and it has been asked whether the two most 

 popular of the tales, " Ali Baba and tlie Forty 

 Thieves" and 'Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp," 

 were not of his invention, since for a long time the 

 text of these two was not forthcoming. M. Zoten- 

 berg, however, has discovered the text of '" Aladdin," 

 and as a recent version of "Ali Baba." by Dr. Mard- 

 rus, has been made, it seems certain that a text does 

 still exist somewhere. In the beginning of the nine- 

 teenth century Gallaud's work was continued by many 

 French, English and German scholars, who revised and 

 completed the translation. Dr. Mardrus's new trans- 

 lation appeared in sixteen volumes (1903-4). It has 

 been made chiefly from the Egyptian edition of Boulak 

 and from manuscripts which he posse,sses. 



PRIMARY EDUCATION IN FRANCE. 

 Georges Goyau, in another article, discu.sses the 

 problem of Elementary Education in France. He 

 ob-serves that the children became more assiduous 

 during the first five or six years which followed the 

 passing of the law making education compulsory. 

 Then a progressive decline is noticed and similar 

 vicissitudes of progress and decline are registered in 

 the training schools. From five to six thousand candi- 

 dates for the training schools in 1880, the number was 

 reduced in 1891 to about two thousand. 



MORAL FORCE IN THE ARMY. 

 The second January number opens with the first 

 instalment, in French" translation, of Antonio Fogaz- 

 xaro's "11 Santo." General de Negrier follows with^an 

 article on Military Tactics in the Russo-Japanese War, 

 in which he says it is not the number of men which 

 decides a victory. At Lyao-Yang the Russians had 

 30,000 men more than the Japanese, and at Mukden 

 60.00(> more. A certain numerical inferiority need 

 not. therefore, trouble the French troops. They haye 

 proved more than once — and they will prove it again 

 — that in a similar situation t.liev know how to con- 

 quer. Let them remembei- the words of Marmont : 

 " With a chief in whom they have confidence, and 

 whom they love, the French are worth ten times their 

 number." 



In the old world. ne\v.spaper agencies are very 

 common, but it is only recently that an agency has 

 been established in Australia. The Australian Press 

 Cutting Agency undertakes to supply a subscriber 

 with press cuttings referring either to himself or any 

 subject that he is interested in. The rate of charge 

 is not great, and its field extends over English and 

 foreign fields. Many Federal niembers subscribe 

 to it. It saves laborious .searching through in- 

 termediate files of papers. Particulars are given in 

 another part of "The Review of Reviews." 



The Young Man's Magazine for February com- 

 uK'iuev with a nicre'.y-i!!ustrated ai tide on " Lawn 

 Tennis in New Zealand," and th(>n follows a thought- 

 ful contribution on the ouestion as to the right of 

 tlic> restriction of the wealth of individuals.. Another 

 wiiich deserves careful reading is on " Fights for the 

 Faith." by Rev. A. R. Osborne, and a luminous one 

 on 'How to Become a Journalist," by Mr. A. J. 

 Eraser, of Sydney. The remainder of the magazine 

 is taken up with matter which v/ill well repay read-. 

 in2. 



