July 30, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



109 



in architecture and manufactures, of American 

 progress. He writes with enthusiasm and sympa- 

 thy, aiming to encourage what is good rather than 

 to contemn what is bad. He has apparently in 

 view as his readers the managers of public educa- 

 tion, and he strives to incite them by the descrip- 

 tion of what has been accomplished, and by gently 

 persuasive illustrations, to ' lend a hand ' in the 

 new educational movement. His purpose is de- 

 serving of the highest commendation ; and the 

 facts and figures which he has brought together, 

 with a vast amount of painstaking, wUl prove to 

 be a store of arguments and examples to be drawn 

 upon by innumerable commissioners, superintend- 

 ents, and directors of education in schools of every 

 grade, fi'om the kindergarten to the university. 



TRIUMPHANT DEMOCRACY. 



Mr. Andrew Carnegie is well known as a 

 shrewd and successful business man, a capitalist 

 of great wealth, a traveller of experience, and an 

 American citizen of public spirit. He is an excel- 

 lent type of a class more numerous and more in- 

 fluential in America than in any other country of 

 the world : he is eminently a practical man. There 

 is a wide-spread impression that the practical man 

 is not only more competent to carry on affairs, 

 but that he has a great advantage over the theo- 

 rist, buried in his books and unacquainted with 

 human nature, in the theorist's own walks in life ; 

 that he can, if he tries, run a better newspaper, 

 secure better legislation, and write a better book. 

 When the practical man, therefore, enters the 

 field of literature, and discusses important public 

 questions, much is expected of him : his knowl- 

 edge of affairs should give him a broader point of 

 view ; his observation should be keener ; his in- 

 formation should be more exact and more com- 

 plete ; he should have a better grasp of the prin- 

 ciples which have grown to be axiomatic, a 

 gi'eater power of combining facts and principles 

 into general statements ; his views should be more 

 vigorous and more lucid than those of the ordinary 

 writer. 



Judged by this high standard, it must be frank- 

 ly confessed that ' Triumphant democracy ' is not 

 successful. The author's point of view is suffi- 

 ciently set forth in the dedication, the keynote of 

 the whole work : "To the beloved republic 

 under whose equal laws I am made the peer of 

 any man, although denied political equality by 

 my native land, I dedicate this book with an in- 

 tensity of gratitude and admiration which the 

 native-born citizen can neither feel nor under- 



Triumphant democracy ; or. Fifty years'' march of the 

 republic. By Andrew Carnegie. New York, Scribner, 

 1886. 8'. 



stand." To make the native-bom citizen appre- 

 ciate the full measure of his birthright, and to 

 teach the foreigner the blessings of the American 

 system, the first requisite is accuracy of state- 

 ment. If grave errors of observation and of state- 

 ment of fact are found, the effect of the book is 

 marred, if not wholly taken away. What will 

 the native prohibitionist think of the statement 

 that ' drunkenness is quite rare ' among American 

 workmen (p. 125)? What will the Norwegian say 

 to the assertion that ' the lumber-trade is an in- 

 dustry peculiarly American' (p. 219)? How will 

 the man who remembers the Mexican war accept 

 the glorification of " the American people [who] 

 have never taken up the sword except in self-de- 

 fence or in defence of their institutions " (p. 265) ? 

 Can the author ever have been in Germany with- 

 out knowing that the United States is not "the 

 country containing the smallest proportion of 

 illiterates " (p. 489) ? Does any man who thought- 

 fully considers the present state of public feeling 

 in France believe that ' the reign of the masses is 

 the road to universal peace ' (p. 102) ? Is the prac- 

 tical man satisfied that "the theatres and opera- 

 houses of the principal cities in America are, of 

 course, much superior to those in Europe because 

 they were built more recently " (p. 336) ? The 

 passages just quoted are fair examples of recur- 

 ring errors, mistakes, incomplete statements, and 

 hasty generalizations. 



The idea of the book — to put into readable, 

 entertaining form the causes of the marvellous 

 growth of America — the idea is not a bad one : 

 the execution is totally inadequate, and inade- 

 quate for a very simple reason. Mr. Carnegie has 

 been too busy in doing other things to give the 

 necessary time for reading and reflection : his 

 knowledge is insufficient. That the United States 

 is triumphant we all know : that the triumph is 

 wholly or largely due to democracy may or may 

 not be true ; but Mr. Carnegie has not proved it : 

 if it is ever to be proved, it must be by the despised 

 theorists, who are willing to spend a lifetime in 

 grovelling after the dry details of the history of 

 many nations. A. B. Hart. 



PRESTWICH'S GEOLOGY. 



The reputation of Professor Prestwich as a 

 geologist lends an especial interest to the appear- 

 ance of a general treatise from his hands, embody- 

 ing the facts and theories that his long experience 

 has led him to regard of the greatest value to the 

 student. The first volume of the work, lately 

 issued by the Clarendon press, treats of subjects 

 chemical and physical. The second volume, not 



Geology, chemical, physical, and stratigraphical. By 

 Joseph Prestwich. Vol. i. Oxford, Clarendon pr. ,18S6. 8°. 



