EDITOR'S TABLE. 



555 



ulties have been imparted for the in- 

 terpretation of truth and the beautify- 

 ing of life. The ancient German?, Taci- 

 tus tells us, used to recognize a certain 

 divine power of intuition in their wom- 

 en, and if they did it was probably not 

 without cause. The phenomenon is not 

 an extinct one in our own day, and we 

 venture to say that its frequency will 

 wax or wane according to the respect 

 paid not by man only, but by woman 

 herself, to all in her nature that is most 

 distinctive of womanhood. It is far 

 from certain that woman always recog- 

 nizes what her own best gifts are ; and 

 there is, in our opinion, a specific danger 

 lest, in her new-born zeal for a mascu- 

 line equipment of knowledge, she rele- 

 gate to an inferior place that native 

 truth of perception which is of more 

 importance, we may almost say, than all 

 formal knowledge. 



The new times call for new virtues ; 

 and not too soon has man been awak- 

 ened or rather is he being awakened, 

 for the process is far from complete 

 from what, with acknowledgments to 

 Kant, we may call his " dogmatic slum- 

 bers." The Sphinx is at our gate again 

 with its everlasting riddles, and woe be- 

 tide us if we do not solve them ! For 

 this will be needed the combined wit 

 and wisdom of the best men and women 

 of the time, and by the best we mean 

 not those who pride themselves on 

 the most encyclopedic knowledge, but 

 those rather who with sufficient knowl- 

 edge to understand the world around 

 them can, by the exercise of the deepest 

 human feeling, place themselves at the 

 heart of the social situation, and so give 

 us a clew to " the master knot of human 

 fate." The great remedy for vain rival- 

 ry and stupid competition of wits is to 

 join hands and hearts in useful work 

 in work for that universal humanity 

 which, though not a fit object of wor- 

 ship, is at least an inspiring object of 

 devotion. 



THE MEANING OF DYNAMITE. 



ME. ArBERoif HERBERT, in the May 

 number of the Contemporary Eeview, 

 discusses in a very philosophical spirit 

 the dynamite outrages that have been 

 occurring of late in Europe, and partic- 

 ularly in France. The dynamiter, he 

 says in effect, is simply a man who, 

 finding that governments are founded 

 on force, and that in many cases they 

 have no higher warrant than their ir- 

 resistible power for the actions they 

 perform, determines to get even with 

 them by the only means within his 

 reach. He has not learned "the trick 

 of the majority," and so can not proceed 

 openly to impose his will upon others. 

 He can not uniform a policeman and 

 arm him with club and pistol, so he 

 arms himself with a dangerous and easily 

 secreted explosive, and places it with 

 lighted fuse where, from his point of 

 view, it will do most good. At first 

 sight it might seem that Mr. Herbert is 

 maintaining an outrageous paradox ; but 

 it is not so : he is entirely serious, and, 

 in our opinion, he fully establishes his 

 thesis that over-government leads to 

 dynamite. He cites France as a con- 

 spicuous example of an over-governed 

 country, and cites a multitude of facts 

 which show how little respect, in spite 

 of the republican form of its institutions, 

 is paid to individual liberty, how horri- 

 bly the omnipresent power of govern- 

 ment intrudes into the daily life of the 

 citizens. Mr. Herbert goes on to say : 



" What I have said of France might 

 be said, with the necessary difference, 

 of other European countries each coun- 

 try being vexed and harassed by its 

 bureaucrats, and each being affected in 

 its own way according to the genius of 

 the people. But in each country the 

 general effect is the same. Almost every 

 European government is a legalized man- 

 ufactory of dynamiters. Vexation piled 

 upon vexation, restriction upon restric- 

 tion, burden upon burden the dyna- 

 miter is slowly hammered out every- 



