239 
1883 .] Analyses of Books. 
social and intellectual intercourse. This society, now known as 
the “ Mason College Union,” seems to have led to the little 
magazine before us, in which its future proceedings will be duly 
reported. From the number before us we learn that “ Professor 
Haycraft is completing a test for uric acid by which a quantita- 
tive analysis can be made in about fifteen minutes.” 
We were not aware that the plan of the Mason College in- 
cluded the study of classical literature. Such, however, it 
appears is the fadf. We further learn that Prof. Bodington, who 
has filled the classical chair, has resigned it for the post of 
Principal and Professor of Classics at the Yorkshire College. 
This is an interesting faCt. The Yorkshire College was origin- 
ally founded for the study of Science alone. Then literature 
was added, and now already the office of Principal is committed 
to a Professor in that department ! We fear that the emancipa- 
tion of Science is not so near as the “ poor humanist ” seems to 
apprehend. 
In the editorial introduction we note the just remark that — 
“ The science of the philosopher is a very different thing from 
the science of the vulgar, which is nothing more or less than 
some form or other of art.” Against this confusion, which is 
more rife in England than elsewhere, and in which public 
speakers and eminent writers freely indulge, we have protested 
all our life, but in vain. 
One point in the proceedings of the College Union which we 
notice with scant satisfaction is the tendency to political debates. 
Thus we find among the proceedings of the year past a dis- 
cussion on the abolition of an hereditary House of Lords; and 
in the course of last month (February, 1883) the subject for 
debate was that the prohibition of religious subjects from debate 
ought to be abolished. It is to be feared that political discussion 
will, in the Mason College as elsewhere, prove not favourable to 
the growth of profound and original thought. 
Among the causes of that racial degeneracy against which 
Mr. Herbert Spencer has so earnestly cautioned the American 
people, Dr. G. Beard some time ago pointed out the “ expe- 
riment of making every man, woman, and child a politician and 
a theologian.” 
We in this country have, for the last seven or eight years, 
especially suffered from an excess of political writing, speech- 
making, and discussion, and if we aim at an honourable place 
in the intellectual world we must turn our attention elsewhere. 
