1882.] Analyses of Books . 35 
should not be in every possible way discouraged by all who look 
beyond and above the region of party turmoils. 
The following few lines contain a terrible admission : — “ Not 
How shall we live ? but Can we live at all ? is the problem that 
almost every American is all his life compelled to face.” Is this 
the result of all our boasted “ progress ” ? 
In connection with climate Dr. Beard mentions that Spiritualism 
in the Southern States is unknown, at least in comparison with 
the North and the East. He seems here to forget that it finds 
numerous and very zealous cultivators still farther South, — to 
wit, in Mexico and in the Spanish republics of South America. 
We are also puzzled with his statements concerning the use of 
narcotics. We find it maintained that increasing nervousness 
renders a people less able to bear the use of tobacco and opium. 
Yet according to statistical evidence the consumption of tobacco, 
both for smoking and chewing, is greater than in England. 
With us, too, smoking is, or has been till within the last few 
years, decidedly on the increase, pari passu , with nervousness. 
We are somewhat surprised to learn that “ through all the 
Northern States the brain-working classes find coffee more poi- 
sonous than whisky or tobacco, and thousands are made wakeful 
by even a gentle cup of tea.” 
As a means of combatting the decrease of nerve force he 
recommends a re-modelling of our educational systems. He 
enjoins rest, and, like every other man who has escaped infatua- 
tion, he condemns cram and its necessary cause — competitive 
examination. He advises the student in every science to start 
with the examination of things. He does not consider the 
acquisition of ancient languages a necessary part of general 
culture. Under the same head might rank history, which is little 
better than fossil scandal. Its study was formerly recommended 
on the plea that it made men patriotic ; but our professors of 
history have quite outgrown patriotism. The load of lumber 
which the American student is required to bear upon his shoulders 
is even greater than in this country. The following passage is 
truly painful : — “ The newspapers and novels that he (the Ame- 
rican youth) is and must be prepared to criticise, the sermons 
and ledtures which he is compelled to listen to and analyse ! ” 
Such tasks may be very well for the man of words, but why 
demand them from those whose future career is to lie among 
things ? 
The author’s teachings on the comparative longevity of brain- 
workers cannot be accepted in their entirety. The boundary line 
between the two classes cannot be drawn with the sharpness which 
he attempts. “ Nearly all the money of the world,” he says, <s is 
in the hands of brain-workers.” Yet that class includes multi- 
tudes of the poorest of all. Many other of the distinctions which 
he makes seem to us too arbitrary. But this is a subjeCt into 
which we have at present no room to enter, though we may 
return to it on some future occasion. 
D 2 
