December 4, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



487 



that it does not secure the men whom it is most 

 desirable to honor." We read also, " During 

 the school-boY period the distinction between dif- 

 ferent individuals is a distinction of learning, and 

 an examination is not unfitted to discover the boy 

 who deserves reward. But learning is not the 

 quahty which a state needs to make it great. 

 Casaubons are not the kind of men who have 

 built up Enghsh science. The qualities which 

 ought to be encouraged, and which it should be 

 a nation's delight to honor, are qualities too subtle 

 to be detected by a competitive examination." 



For the benefit of our transatlantic brethren, 

 we may as well state the facts as we know them. 

 For reasons into which we need not enter here, as 

 they do not affect the question at issue, nearly 

 foi-ty years ago the Royal society determined to 

 limit the yearly admissions to fifteen ; and to 

 throw upon the council the responsibility of se- 

 lecting the fifteen who are to be nominated for 

 election, a general meeting of the society reserving 

 to itself the right of confirming or rejecting such 

 nomination. It may be instructive to remark that 

 for tMrty years that right has not been exercised. 



The way in which the matter is worked is as 

 follows : The friends of a man, who are already 

 in the society, and who think he is entitled to the 

 coveted distinction, prepare a statement of his 

 services to science, in many cases without consult- 

 ing him in any way. This paper, thus prepared, is 

 sent round to other fellows of the society, who are 

 acquainted with the work of the candidate, and 

 who sign it as a testimony that they think he is 

 worthy of election. In this way, when the proper 

 time arrives, some fifty or sixty papers are sent 

 in to the council for their consideration. In the 

 council itself we may assume that the selection of 

 the fifteen is made as carefuUy as possible, in view 

 not merely of individual claims, but of the due rep- 

 resentation of the different branches of science. It 

 is not for us to state the safeguards or mode of 

 procedure adopted, but we think we may say that 

 the shghtest action or appeal to any member by 

 the candidate himself would be absolutely fatal to 

 his election. Finally, we may say that, years 

 back, when a heavy entrance-fee had to be paid, 

 there were cases in which the question had to be 

 put to one whose friends were anxious to see him 

 elected, whether he would accept election. The 

 small yearly subscription of £3, now the only sum 

 payable, makes even this question unnecessary at 

 the present time. 



[How does it happen that our English contem- 

 porary makes no allusion whatever to Professor 

 Chrystal's address to the British association, which, 

 as printed in Nature, gave rise to all our animad- 

 versions? — Ed.] 



HISTORY OF ANGLO-SAXON, 



Professor Wuelker, although literary executor 

 of Grein, and editor of the new ' Bibliothek,' has 

 nevertheless found time to prepare a most useful 

 book for all students of English literature and 

 English philology. Ten Brink's excellent history 

 was purely literary ; something of the same kind, 

 though less able, was Earle's 'Anglo-Saxon lit- 

 erature,' published last year. Quite otherwise 

 with Wiilker : he furnishes a supplement, not a 

 rival, to Ten Brink's book, paying little attention 

 to actual contents, but giving the fullest account 

 of the new literature which has grown up by way 

 of comment on the old. Ten Brink gave us a 

 description : Wiilker gives us a guide-book, — a 

 much-needed help for the student, and a basis for 

 all new w-ork. Wtilker's tone is judicial and dig- 

 nified ; his decisions are as impartial as one could 

 expect ; while the enormous labor involved in 

 sifting so many dust-heaps — dissertations, pro- 

 grammes, etc. — cannot be praised too highly : for, 

 though it is true that for one man who is able to 

 write literature there are a thousand who can 

 judge and classify facts, it is equally true that the 

 thousand are sure to scorn facts, and rush into 

 original work. 



The first section of the book contains an account 

 of Anglo-Saxon philology in different countries. 

 From the first steps under Elizabeth and Arch- 

 bishop Parker, from the worthies who thought 

 that Anglo-Saxon was the speech of Adam in Par- 

 adise, the growth of this study, at first under legal 

 and theological shelter, is carefully traced to our 

 own time. Wtilker's criticism of the earliest ef- 

 forts is properly indulgent ; otherwise with modern 

 failures, as where Loth's ' Grammar ' (1870) is 

 neatly despatched with the remark, "What is 

 right in the book is old, and what is new is wrong." 

 We have pleasant glimpses of a woman, Elizabeth 

 Elstob, editing and translating Aelfric's 'Hom- 

 ihes,' having audience of Queen Anne in the inter- 

 ests of Anglo-Saxon, and afterwards (1745) pubhsh- 

 ing the first Anglo-Saxon grammar written in Eng- 

 lish. A century later Miss Gurney makes the first 

 English translation of the ' Chronicle. ' For Ameri- 

 can scholarship Wiilker has encouraging words, and 

 remarks that Anglo-Saxon is much more studied 

 here than in England. 



The second section gives a list of all books 

 which aid in the study of Anglo-Saxon philology 

 and literature ; and here one feels afresh the enor- 

 mous preponderance of German scholarship. Aside 

 from living scholars, what would our philology be 



Grundriss zur geschichte der angelsdchsischen Utteratur^ 

 mit einer iibersicht der,angelsdchsischen sprachicissenschaft. 

 Von Dr.RiCHARD Wuklker, ord. professor an derUniversitat 

 Leipzig. Leipzig, Veit c& Co., 1885. 



