RANDOM READINGS FROM THE REVIEWS. 



The Centre Party. 

 No scientific economist, and certainly no historical 

 economist, can be either an out-and-out Individualist 

 or an out-and-out Socialist nowadays. They must all 

 belong to the Centre ; the only question is whether it 

 shall be the Right or the Left Centre; to stand in the 

 lixact Centre is, perhaps, more than can be hoped for. 

 — Professor ^V, J. Ashley, in the Economic Journal. 



MlSSIOM.\RIES AND THE MAKING OF A New AkrICA. 



The mission schools are creating an educated class 

 of civil servant, of skilled artisan, telegraph operator, 

 and agriculturist, who will be of inestimable advantage 

 in the future development of Negro Africa. Practi- 

 cally nothing nf this kind comes from out of the 

 teaching of Islam. One has to take things as one 

 finds them, and to admit that the theology of the 

 Christian missionaries is at any rate harmless, whereas 

 three-fourths of their work in moral and mental training 

 will prove to have been of supreme advantage to the 

 new peoples that are growing up in Africa under 

 Kuropean sup-rvision. — Sir Harry Johnston, in 

 the Journal of the African Society'. 



What Miss W'li lard Prized .more than Succe.ss. 

 , Frances VVillard seems to me a type of the most 

 admirable and the most successful of public women. 

 She accomplished much, she was honoured, she was 

 loved ; instead of losing her femininity she made it 

 to the last a jirinic clement of her power. When she 

 published her autobiography I wrote a review of it 

 that happened to please her ; she thought I understood 

 her in so many ways that she wanted to correct my 

 misapprehension in some others, so when I wjs intro- 

 duced to her she did me the honour to discuss with 

 me at some length the book and her life. Near '.he 

 end of the convi rsation I remarked: "Yet I have no 

 doubt that all this success, so far as it is personal,'^ 

 you would gladly exchange to be a happy wife and 

 mother." "Without a moment's hesitation," she re- 

 plied, her eyes glistening. — C. W. Bardeen, in 

 January (.Xmerican) Educational Ra>irw. 



The Fill re of English .Farming. 

 The prophet who, in the second decade of the 

 twentieth century, traces in outline the future history 

 of Knglish agriculture, and attempts to mark the main 

 directions along which the land system of this country 

 will develop, may, with more precision than belongs 

 to most cautious horoscopes, venture on two positive 

 assertions. The one is that a noticeable change is 

 likely to occur, or is even now proceeding, in the 

 mutual relations of the ownershi|) and the occupancy 

 of land, and in their separate characters. The second, 

 which has its connection with the first, is that in a 

 fuller degree tlian heretofore scientific study will be 

 given, an<l inventive geniiis applied to cultivation ; 

 and that the various parts of the complex business of 

 raising and .selling produce, which will be more 

 minutely subdivided, arc destined to become method- 



ically organised, and in the process to be improved. 

 In both respects tolerably plain signs can be now dis- 

 covered of a movement, which may reach the bulk, 

 and earn the name, of a ''revolution." — L. L. Price, 

 in the Economic Journal. 



Death not so Dreadful. 



In an article under " The Ministry of Pain " in the 

 Bibliothcca Sacra Mr. E. M. Merrins says : — 



One of the greatest of English surgeons, as the result of his 

 wide experience, was inclined to the opinion that death, as a 

 natural act, is accompained with the sense of ease and satisfac- 

 tion, which generally accompanies all natural acts, such as is 

 felt in falling asleep when tired out after a hanl day's work. 

 This is probably true in the case of those dying naturally of old 

 age. In the course of time we may confidently hope this will 

 be the peaceful ending of nearly all human beings. 



He quotes also from Osier as follows : — 



Careful records of about five hundred deathbeds, studied p.ar- 

 ticularly with reference to the modes of death and the sensation 

 of dying, show that as to the latter, "ninety suffered bodily pain 

 or distress of one sort or another, eleven showed mental appre- 

 hension, two positive terror, one expressed spiritual exaltation, 

 one hitter remorse. The great majority gave no sign one \^'ay 

 or the other ; like their birth, their death was a sleep and a 

 forgetting." 



" Boiled-Curatey Hymns." 

 Principal_Peterson, of McGill University at Quebec, 

 says : — " Perhaps you don't know it, but I am quite a 

 specialist in hymns, and when I have time I am going 

 to compile a hymn-book which will contain nothing 

 but good English and pure verse. At present, in the 

 words of a friend, we have only hymns of the namby- 

 pamby boiled-curatey kind. The symbols of civilisa- 

 tion in Canada are said to be the railroad, the news- 

 paper, and the schools. The railways are successful, 

 and make all the money. As regards the newspajxirs, 

 we never cease praying for their improvement. The 

 .school is at the other extreme. It makes no money, 

 and the profession is poorly paid. The school should 

 be regarded as one part of the social problem, and 

 the first object is to get to the masses and give them 

 the broadest and most liberal education, to make the 

 most of the brains of our people, not only by learning, 

 but also by doing things. .\ nation at school is the 

 counterpart j^of a_ nation in arms." — T/n Biisyman's 

 Canada. 



TiiF. Mewing of " Mark Twain." 



In Jlarf'trs for February Mr. ,V. B. Paine con- 

 tinues his chapters from the extraordinary life of 

 Samuel Clemens, and thus explains how in 1863 the 

 great humorist assumed his world-renowned noni 

 de guerre : — 



"Joe," he said to Goodman, "I want to sign my articles. 

 I want to be identified to a wider audience." 



".Ml right, Sam. What name do you want to us«— Josh?" 



" .\o. I want to sign them ' .Mark Twain.' It is an old 

 river term, a leadsman's call, signifying two fathoms — twelve 

 feet. It has a richness almut it ; it was always a pleasant 

 sound for a pilot to hear on a dark night ; it meant safe water." 



It was \\x-\. signed to a Carson letter bearing date of 

 February 2, 1863, and from that time was attached to all 

 Samuel Clcmens's work. 



