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SCIENCE. 



catechism. Though greatly extended in scope, it is still 

 animated by the same cardinal principle. Each sect 

 must defend itself by teaching its own dogmas to the 

 youth, and, though every State college were to be abol- 

 ished, there would be still as great a reason for maintain- 

 ing all the denominational colleges. How long it would 

 be before they would degenerate to the condition of mere 

 sectarian propaganda, as before the revival, no one can 

 say, but there would be a strong tendency in that direc- 

 tion. Freed from the competition of State colleges, their 

 zeal in the teaching of science would soon lag. Not hav- 

 ing ready access to the public means and resources of 

 instruction, such as the State archives, maps, authorities, 

 explorations, surveys, statistics, and to the avenues by 

 which the State knows and readily regulates the great 

 industries of the people, the church colleges would very 

 soon see that there is an actual incongruity in their as- 

 suming to direct the scientific and industrial education of 

 the people. It is the chief business of the church to 

 look after the spiritual well-being of the people and not 

 to fit them to carry forward the complicated machinery 

 of modern civilization. Religion is the lubricator of this 

 vast system, and the church is the agent by which it is 

 applied. When the church departs from this sphere, 

 she forsakes the true idea of the primitive church. When 

 she leaves her spiritual kingdom and assumes to direct 

 in the construction of steam engines, in the handling of 

 theodolites and compasses, in the management of cotton- 

 gins, in the measurement of the angles of crystals, and 

 the distances to the stars, she may very reasonably be 

 held to be out of her sphere. She has the privilege, of 

 course, of doing all these things, and there was a time 

 when she had good reason to do them, and was urged to 

 do them, as the only capable agent ; but that time has 

 passed, and it can hardly be considered to be her duty to 

 do them in the nineteenth century, when other agents 

 equally capable have arisen, endowed with that special 

 duty and function. 



One of the boasted advanced steps of the nineteenth 

 century is the separation of the church and State. In 

 the mere manipulation of the governmental machine this 

 is fully realized in the United States, and in much of 

 continental Europe. But the administration of the laws 

 is not the State, nor, indeed, is the making up of the 

 laws, nor both of these united. True statesmanship 

 surveys the whole body politic. It foresees and often in- 

 stitutes national enterprises. It watches the external and 

 also the internal influences that move the masses ; it 

 takes advantage of the shifting markets for the domes- 

 tic products. It notes the rise and decline of the various 

 industries. It applies stimulants when needed and re- 

 pression when necessary. In short, the State is an all- 

 prevading, energizing, regulating, far-seeing organiza- 

 tion of the people ; the culminating expression of the 

 modern democracy. It is this machinery, which in our 

 day is very closely connected with the appliances of 

 modern science, which is not free from the church, but 

 which the church assumes still to direct. Instead, we 

 claim that it is the right and duty of the State itself to 

 look after its own interests, and especially its highest in- 

 terests, and to take measures to qualify citizens not only 

 to read their ballots, but to discharge all the duties of 

 high citizenship. There is no limit to this duty short of 

 the necessity of the State, as has already been admitted. 

 That which'constitutes a State— " high-minded men " — 

 is its necessity, and that it is the duty of the State to 

 provide, to the end that its multifarious industry may be 

 under the guide of the highest statesmanship. 



The French Government has appointed a committee, 

 presided over by Rear Admiral Bourgeois, to study the 

 different applications of electricity to navigation. 



THE Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians 

 will hold a meeting in Paris on September 21. 



MAGIC MIRRORS*. 

 By M. Bertin. 

 [Translated from the French by Marchioness Clara Lanza.] 



Ladies and Gentlemen :— The term Magic was 

 formerly applied to those metallic mirrors employed by 

 sorcerers, necromancers, astrologers and charlatans, and 

 by means of which spirits were invoked and the future 

 predicted. These mirrors, transmitted from antiquity to 

 the middle ages, were used to a very great extent about 

 the sixteenth century, and up to two hundred years ago 

 they were constantly seen in Europe. Now they are 

 found nowhere except in the far East. We are able to 

 furnish any amount of information about this strange 

 superstition, but it is not of these mirrors that I intend to 

 speak. 



There is another kind of magic mirror, so-called be- 

 cause it produces effects apparently marvelous but real. 

 History will tell you nothing, however, about these mir- 

 rors, and they are not even mentioned in any book of 

 physics. Their appearance in Europe is quite recent, and 

 as they are exceedingly rare, there is not often an oppor- 

 tunity presented for observing them. It is of this scien- 

 tific curiosity that I shall talk to you this evening. 



These mirrors are an uncommon variety of metallic 

 ones. The latter you know were the first invented by 

 man. The Greeks and Romans had no other kind, except 

 a few specimens of glass mirrors made at the factory in 

 Sidon. But glass when not quicksilvered does not make 

 a good mirror, and it was not until the thirteenth century 

 that quicksilver was employed for the purpose. Up to 

 that date metallic mirrors alone were used, and even now 

 some uncivilized nations employ and mannfacture no 

 other kind. 



The Chinese and Japanese, for instance, are an exam- 

 ple!. Since they have been in constant communication 

 with European nations, however, they have partially 

 adopted our glass mirrors and send us their metal ones 

 as objects of curiosity. Chinese mirrors are exceedingly 

 rare, so rare, in fact, that there is not one to be had in 

 Paris. This leads me to think that they are no longer 

 manufactured. Japanese mirrors, on the contrary, are 

 very common. This is perhaps owing to the fact that in 

 Japan the mirror is not only a necessary article for the 

 toilet, but also an object of national worship. The 

 primitive religion of the country, which is still embraced 

 by the aristocracy and called Sy?ithism, worships the 

 goddess ot the sun as its principal divinity, and the 

 Emperors of the nation are supposed to be her descend- 

 ants. This goddess invented the metallic mirror, and 

 presenting it to her son bade him preserve it religiously. 

 In the palace of Mikado, therefore, the mirror chamber 

 is as carefully attended to as that of the Emperor him- 

 self, and often receives greater attention. In the temples 

 of Synthism the only object of worship is a mirror, kept 

 in a box covered with several wrappings of silk. Although 

 this religion has been abandoned by the greater portion 

 of the people, who have since become Buddhists, the 

 mirror, nevertheless, has always remained a precious 

 article. The ladies keep it raised upon a tall easel, which 

 brings the glass upon a level with their eyes when they 

 stand upon tip-toe. When they wish to remove it they 

 hold it carefully by the handle, sometimes thrusting the 

 latter into a piece of split bamboo. 



These mirrors are of bronze of various sizes and shapes, 

 but always portable. One side is polished and amal- 

 gamated. It is also generally convex, so that the images 

 reflected look somewhat distorted. The other side is flat 

 or slightly concave and is always ornamented by figures 



* Alecture delivered before the Association Scientijiquc dc France. 



tThis statement is not altogether correct. The Chinese manufacture 

 glass mirrors, and very seldom, if ever, use metallic ones any more, 



