432 



LEWIS, TAYLER. 



LITEKATUEE, ETC., IN 1877. 



labor in the field was provided for many of 

 them. The coal-heavers at Bergen Point, 

 whose average wages were 58 cents a day, 

 after standing out quietly for several days, 

 gained the desired increase. Some of the coal 

 companies compromised early with the strik- 

 ers ; in other mines the men soon gave in ; but 

 the mass of the miners held out for many 

 weeks. On August 14th, Mr. Dinning, presi- 

 dent of the Pittston Company, announced an 

 advance of 10 per cent, in the wages. His 

 example was followed by the other coal com- 

 panies in that district. On the 19th, the mines 

 in the Kanawha Valley, Md., resumed opera- 

 tion, the companies acceding to the miners' 

 terms. 



Many of the rioters and chief strikers were 

 taken into custody by the police and militia. 

 Most of the prisoners were speedily dis- 

 charged, or sentenced to a few days' impris- 

 onment. The law is different in the different 

 States regarding such disturbances. In Erie, 

 Pa., where several conductors struck work on 

 the 14th of August, because another conductor, 

 who had taken considerable part in the great 

 strike, had been discharged for alleged neglect 

 of duty, four of them were committed to jail 

 upon the charge of attempting to incite a riot. 

 Barney J. Donohue, the head committeeman 

 of the Erie Railroad strikers, was arrested and 

 taken to New York, where he was tried before 

 Judge Donohue, on the charge of contempt of 

 court in interfering with the property of the 

 Erie Railroad, which was in the hands of a re- 

 ceiver. He was sentenced to a brief imprison- 

 ment oil that charge, and on his release was 

 rearrested upon another indictment. (See 

 UNITED STATES.) 



LEWIS, TAYLER, an American scholar, died 

 at Schenectady, N. Y., May llth. He was born 

 in Northumberland, Saratoga County, N. Y., in 

 1802, and graduated at Union College in 1820, 

 studied law in Albany, and began to practise 

 at Fort Miller. Occupying his leisure in the 

 study of the Hebrew Bible, he was led to give 

 to Biblical and classical studies a large part of 

 his time for nearly ten years. At length he 

 abandoned the practice of law altogether, and 

 in 1833 opened a classical school in Waterford, 

 whence he removed, in 1835, to a school in Og- 

 densburg. In 1838 he became Professor of 

 Greek in the University of New York, in which 

 post he continued 11 years. He acquired an 

 unusually wide acquaintance with the Greek 

 and Latin classics, and a knowledge of the Ara- 

 bic and Syriac, and read the Koran and other 

 Arabic writings, and the writings of the He- 

 brew rabbis. His special interest in the system 

 of Plato led him to publish a translation of the 

 " These tetus," with notes ; and in 1845 he 

 published the Greek text of the tenth book of 

 Plato's dialogue, " The Laws^" under the title 

 "Platonic Theology; or, Plato against the Athe- 

 ists," with critical and explanatory notes, and 

 illustrative dissertations, showing profound 

 learning. In 1838 he became Professor of 



Greek in the University of New York, and in 

 1849 he was chosen Professor of Greek in Un- 

 ion College, where he remained until his death. 

 He lectured there on ancient philosophy and 

 poetry, and gave instruction in the Oriental 

 tongues. The degree of LL. D. was conferred 

 on him by Union College in 1844. In 1855 

 he published the "Six Days of Creation," his 

 best-known work, maintaining, on philological 

 grounds, the harmony of the Scriptures and 

 geology. In reply to criticisms upon this work 

 he published "The Bible and Science" (1856). 

 " The Divine Human in the Scriptures " (1860) 

 applies the same ideas to the whole Bible, main- 

 taining that the language is phenomenal, that 

 it may be intelligible, while the thought is di- 

 vine. Dr. Lewis wrote many of the articles 

 in Harper's Magazine under the title of " The 

 Editor's Table," for nearly five years (1851-'56), 

 and contributed largely to other periodicals, 

 discussing topics of theology, philology, and 

 present social and political interest. He also 

 published "State Rights, a Photograph from the 

 Ruins of Ancient Greece " (1864), and " Heroic 

 Periods in a Nation's History" (1866) ; with G. 

 B. Cheever, " Defense of Capital Punishment " 

 (1845) ; and with E. W. Blyden and Theodore 

 D wight, "The People of Africa: their Charac- 

 ter, Condition, and Future Prospects" (18T1). 

 He translated Lange's Commentary on Ecclesi- 

 astes, and, with Dr. Gosman, that on Genesis. 



LITERATURE AND LITERARY PROG- 

 RESS IN 1877. The causes which have limit- 

 ed the market for books for two or three years 

 past have continued to restrict literary pro- 

 duction. In the struggle for existence, no 

 doubt, the fittest survive. But the " fittest," in 

 the relation here contemplated, means fittest 

 for selling, which includes, at one extreme, 

 works that are an honor to American letters, 

 and, at the other, productions scarcely entitled 

 to be called literature, but which find purchas- 

 ers and readers in incalculable numbers. The 

 literary product of the past year is, therefore, 

 small in quantity as compared with some pre- 

 vious years, and in average quality it, perhaps, 

 affords no compensation. Of "literary prog- 

 ress," in the meaning naturally suggested by 

 the words, the evidence is not obvious. But if 

 giving to the world works in different depart- 

 ments of learning and literature that are worthy 

 of the world's attention some of them the in- 

 troduction to the public of writers new to 

 authorship, or those before unknown or little* 

 known be a mark of progress, the past year 

 is not without its title to honor in this respect. 



HISTORY. The third and last volume of " The 

 Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America " 

 (Osgood), left unfinished by the late Vice-Pres- 

 ident Wilson, and completed from his manu- 

 scripts by his private secretary, concludes a 

 work of permanent value, for the historical 

 facts embodied in it, a value not impaired by 

 the point of view from which it is written. 

 For one who was a personal observer of much 

 that he records, and a prominent actor in the 



