1 8 8 2 .] Recent Literature. 5 7 7 



imported for breeding purposes being free. The tax on natural 

 history collections from foreign countries is without exception, 

 because the animals being in bottles, cannot breed. 



We are not opposed to a protective tariff under certain circum- 

 stances, but we are opposed to a tax on the intellectual develop- 

 ment of our people. It is worse than blood-money, it is soul- 

 money. It is a discrimination against the cultivators of thought 

 and mind, and intelligent members of our National Legislature 

 must surely, ere long, see it in this light. 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Knowledge. 1 — We hail with pleasure the advent of a new sci- 

 entific periodical, devoted not to any one branch of scientific in- 

 quiry, but to all, and giving promise, from the character of the 

 issues of the first four months of this year, to prove not only a 

 valuable but also a highly interesting addition to the periodical 

 literature of the English language. 



This weekly magazine, ably edited by the well-known astrono- 

 mer and lecturer, Richard A. Proctor, seconded by numerous 

 scientific men whose names are guarantees of an excellent quality 

 of work, is conceived upon a somewhat different plan to the now 

 well established Nature, to which it bids fair to prove a formidable 

 rival. While Nature is principally a scientific newspaper, giving 



Kuozi'/aixe is chiefly occupied with lively short articles upon the 

 topics which at the moment possess most interest. Among these 

 we notice a series of papers in which the editor gives a common- 

 sense explanation of the purposes of the Great Pyramid, refuting 

 utterly the wild fancies indulged in by Piazzi Smith and others, 

 and showing that the passages in the vast pile were most prob- 

 ably formed for the orientation of the pyramid, and used after- 

 wards for astronomical or rather astrological observations during 

 and in connection with the life of Cheops, the king whose sepul- 

 chre it finally became. Among other contributors we notice the 

 names of Professor Grant Allen, who in his usual happy style gives 

 us a " Beetle's view of life," and also a series of papers upon " Our 

 Ancestors," the Euskarian or Silure, the Celt, the Teuton ; of 

 I>- Hall, astronomer royal for Ireland ; of Dr. W. B. Carpenter, Dr. 

 Andrew Wilson and II. J. Slack, all of them writers whose power 

 of description is equal to their acknowledged acquaintance with 

 ^j ; ■ubjects they treat upon. The old prejudice against the pop- 

 ularization of science is rapidlv passing away ; the leaders in sci- 

 ent.fic thought, the Huxleys, the Dai wins, and their friendly 

 rivals, find time to tell the people some of what they know, with 



Scr ', A ""l 1 "' ''•/,'■'. an illu.'rated Magazine of Science, plainly worded— -xactly de- 

 W 7- . ( , ,' n ' i,u:U '' 1 ] 'V Riciiarm A. Pkoci-ok. Wvra.m ,V Son*, Gt. Queen St., 

 "•«- London, England. 



