DISTRIBUTION OF GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS. 459 



habitual and remarkable condescension of the unbeliever to the 

 fervent multitudes in which he is immersed. We must also, I 

 believe, assume that at the moment when a wave of mystic enthu- 

 siasm passes over them he takes his little part of it and finds his 

 heart traversed by a fugitive faith. This being admitted and 

 explained for pious crowds, we have a right to explain in the 

 same way what passes in criminal mobs, where a current of mo- 

 mentary ferocity sometimes crosses and denaturalizes a normal 

 heart. 



It is a trite piece of exaggeration to glorify civil courage at 

 the expense of military courage, which passes for something less 

 rare ; but the truth there is in this trite idea is explained by what 

 has just been said. Civil courage consists in resisting a popular 

 enthusiasm, in going against a current, in uttering before an 

 assembly or a council a dissenting, isolated opinion, opposed to 

 that of the majority ; while military courage consists, generally, 

 in distinguishing one's self in battle, in yielding most completely 

 to the environing impulse, and in going further than the others 

 in the direction that one is urged by them. When, in an excep- 

 tional case, military courage requires one to resist an impulse, 

 when a colonel has to oppose a panic, or to restrain the incon- 

 siderate eagerness of troops, bravery of that kind is still more 

 rare, and, let us acknowledge, is more admirable than an opposi- 

 tion speech in the legislative chamber. Translated for Tlie Popu- 

 lar Science Monthly from the Revue des Deux Mondes. 



THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOVERNMENT PUBLICA- 

 TIONS. 



BY PROF. EDWAKD S. MOESE. 



IF there is any one portion of government machinery that 

 would seem to demand a readjustment it is that portion 

 which has to do with the distribution of public documents. I 

 am not aware that there is any central bureau for the judicious 

 distribution of the various publications of Government as there 

 is, for example, for the issuing of patents or the payment of 

 pensions. There is no government in the world more generous in 

 the distribution of its multifarious publications than ours. The 

 niggardly way in which Great Britain doles out her public docu- 

 ments has repeatedly excited the most adverse criticism from her 

 own people. Knowing, as every one does, the slightly increased 

 expense of printing extra copies after the first expense of compo- 

 sition, engraving, etc., has been provided for, it is most exasper- 

 ating to see a rich country like Great Britain publishing the 



