Roman Empire, the Iconoclasts, Monasticism, the Crusades, the Mendicant Orders and the Early Schoolmen and the Waldenses, are especially valuable; and one of the concluding lectures upon "Aspects of Christian Life and Work in the Middle Ages" will help all readers to a more just estimate of this dark time. It is, indeed, one of the chief merits of this history that it is wholly free from the partisanship into which historians of this period are so apt to fall. Both Protestants and Catholics are prone to misrepresent the persons and the events of the Middle Ages in the interest of their respective systems; but the good Archbishop holds an even judgment and wins our assent by his genuine catholicity. dress for going to confession, and as at that time they were particular that the clothing should change with the season, she had to have four toilets entirely set apart for this pious practice." With all these virtues she was extremely harsh to her children, punishing them cruelly for the slightest faults. Finally the little Augustine, the subject of this memoir, was banished from her mother's roof under an accusation of falsehood; and in the convent to which she was consigned her religious nature, under a kindlier discipline than she had ever known at home, took the pietistic impress which it was so well fitted to receive. Here, at the age of twelve, she was strongly inclined to a conventual life; but one INTELLIGENT Protestants would find profit in day as the vows of perpetual virginity were on the reading of the memoirs of Madame de la Rochefoucald. It is true that all intelligent Protestants are aware that character of a noble quality is developed in the Roman Catholic church, and among the strictest devotees of that church; but the lesson is one that is not likely to be learned too well, and such a clear inculcation of it as is afforded by this memoir ought to be welcomed. One is, indeed, quite sure on reading this memoir that the character is idealized. The creation shown us is a little too sweet and good for human nature's daily food; a sub-acid trait or two would have added to the piquancy and the reality of the sketch. Nevertheless, the evidence is not wanting that Madame de la Rochefoucald was a woman of rare gentleness and nobility of soul. Some of the stories told about her childhood remind one of the Gospel of the Infancy: "They had consecrated her to the Blessed Virgin whose white garments she wore. When she was three years old, Madame de Mancini, her grandmother, promising herself a fete in giving her the first colored dress, ordered a superb frock-pink, with silver spangles and fringes. Thinking to delight her, they brought the frock into the room with pomp, to the great admiration of all the women; but the dear child, as if she knew already the bliss of wearing a celestial livery, fixed her great black eyes sadly on the sumptuous apparel and shed abundant tears when they wished to dress her in it. All the day she begged for her white clothes and they had to give them back to her." That the child, with such a mother as she had, grew up to be a saint, may, however, be accounted almost a miracle. As an instance of this mother's conscientiousness, it is related that "she thought, in the light of duty, that the dancing should be over at ten o'clock, but finding it to her taste that it should last until midnight she put back the clock two hours." As a specimen of her piety we learn that "she had an especial 1 Life of Mme de la Rochefoucald, Duchess of Doudeauville, Founder of the Society of Nazareth. Translated from the French. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co. Springfield: Whitney & Adams. her lips she thought she heard distinctly these clination." This determined her choice. "And words: "No-in the world, against all thine init seemed to me," she writes, "as if I were to practice the virtues of the cloister without tasting its sweets, to apply myself to humility in the midst of grandeur, to poverty in the lap of riches, to mortification under the outward appearance of well-being, to the purest modesty amid the vanities and follies of the century. This sacrifice about the will of God, and I prayed to Him to cost me a great deal; but I could not be mistaken aid me in conquering my repugnance." It is not so difficult to believe that this monition may have been divinely spoken, and we cannot but be thankful that the good little Augustine heard it and obeyed it. The world would indeed have been the loser if the sweet sanctity of this life had been shut up in a monastery. The girl was married in her fifteenth year to Ambroise de la Rochefoucald, still a little boy, whose head "hardly reached the shoulder of his fiancee." The story of their betrothal and their bridal is not a pleasant one. The sacrifice of these two children by their parents on the matrimonial altar to the deities of the old regime, shows us that, however it may be nowadays, they did not formerly manage these things very well in France. The young people were separated immediately npon their marriage, and were not permitted for years to see each other. On the eighth day of the honeymoon the bride "was condemned by her mother to dine alone at a table of penitence, in a corner of the dining-room, because she had made her courtesy badly in entering the room." The husband and wife undertook, after a little, to get acquainted with each other by writing letters; but even this correspondence was carefully watched, and finally prevented. Fortunately, however, when at length the period of their pupilage was past, they found that they were well fitted for each other, and lived a happy life together. The life of Madame de la Rochefoucald covers the period of the French Revolution, and the memoir gives us some vivid glimpses of the Reign of Terror. The courage and fortitude of this good woman were conspicuous in these trials. One thing in her religious experience is noteworthy-the absence of Mariolatry. The Virgin is scarcely referred to in her writings or her prayers. Most of her expressions of faith and devotion are such as any devout Protestant could fully appropriate. The trait which distinguishes her piety from that of her Protestant sisters is her unquestioning submission to the authority of the priest. One sees in this subjection an element that is wholesome neither for the conscience that is ruled nor for the character that rules; and one finds also in these pages, as a matter of course, tinges of an unlovely fanaticism; nevertheless the record makes it sufficiently plain that this was a good woman, and that she was good not in spite of her faith but because she was a good Catholic. THE prayer-meeting of the period is a very different institution from that to which most of us were accustomed thirty years ago. It used to be spoken of as among "the means of grace which we enjoy;" but we enjoyed it just as some people "enjoy poor health." The stiff, formal, dreary "deacon's meeting" has now in many places become a thing of the past; and the people go to the prayer-meeting week after week expect ing refreshment and stimulus in the service, and rarely failing to find what they expect. It would not be fair to ascribe all this change to an improvement in the character of the worshipers; though we trust that some improvement has taken place in this direction, and that the piety of this day is a little more vital and wholesome than that of the day that is past. The change is chiefly due, however, to the application of common sense to the methods of conducting prayer meetings. Much has been written on the topic, and a wide comparison of experiences has resulted in throwing much light upon it. Mr. Thompson's little book contains many useful suggestions. It must be used, of course, with discrimination; one man's theories will not fit every other man's experience, and methods that work well in one place may not work at all in another; but almost any pastor might gain a little wisdom from this book. The notion of a uniform list of prayer-meeting topics which Mr. Thompson favors is extremely foolish; we will trust that the churches may be spared this infliction. But this book contains quite a number of good lists of topics for prayer-meetings, and pastors who are sometimes at their wit's end for appropriate subjects may find the book serviceable in this direction if in no other. IF "advice" would make good ministers the pulpits of America would be magnificently filled 1 The Prayer-Meeting and its Improvement. Rev, Lewis O. Thompson. Chicago: W. G. Holmes. By during the next few years; for it has been pouring of late in torrents upon the theologues. Here is another volume1 in which a great many more or less celebrated cooks of various persuasions furnish the young pastor with the secrets of their culinary success. Queer broth he would make, if he followed all their recipes! Many of these counsels are, however, rational and salutary; such men as Drs. Taylor and Hall of New York, and Drs. Scudder and Cuyler of Brooklyn, known to all the world as successful pastors, ought to have something worth telling to the pastoral neophyte. It will be perfectly safe for any sensible young minister to read the words of all these wise guides, and then look straight at the work before him and follow his own nose. As for those that are not sensible, this little book will not hurt any of them, and may even do some of them a little good. THE industry and docility of Professor Perry are well exhibited in his treatise on Political Economy, which has just appeared in a new edition. The original edition, issued in 1865, was immediately adopted as a text book in several of our leading colleges. Its faults of proportion, of treatment and of style, were evident enough to masters of the science; but its ideas were conveyed with a certain lucidity and directness that made it an admirable help to the teacher. The good quality of Professor Perry as a student and teacher of science is shown in the fact that he has been ready to see and correct his own mistakes. The book has passed through several revisions, to the most thorough of which it has just been subjected. By all of these it has gained in symmetry, in accuracy and in literary form; and it must now be regarded as a most valuable contribution to economical science. Professor Perry gives in his preface an interesting sketch of the growth of the work, referring with a laudable pride to some of the improvements in nomenclature which he was the first to suggest and which have clearly advanced the science. From Professor Walker's discussion of the doctrine of the "Wages Fund" he owns that he has gained new light, and he also follows the same authority in dropping the ambiguous word currency, and substituting for it in this last edition the word money. The chapter on money which has been carefully rewritten, opens with words of confidence. Holding it for certain "that whatever men have devised men can comprehend," he not only claims himself to understand this vexed subject but be 1 The Young Pastor and His People: Bits of Practical Advice to Young Clergymen, by Distinguished Ministers. Edited by B. F. Liepsner, A. M. New York: N. Tibbals & Sons. 2 Elements of Political Economy. By Arthur Latham Perry, LL.D. New Edition. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Springfield: Whitney & Adams. lieves that he can unfold it so that others may understand it also. It must be owned that he goes far toward making a complicated subject plain; and that no fairly intelligent person who will carefully read his treatise needs to be wholly destitute of clear ideas concerning this much-befogged question. The subject of "fiat money is not very fully discussed; perhaps the author regarded it as scarcely worth his notice. It is a question, however, that needs discussion; our political future is likely to hinge upon it; and a more full and elementary treatment of it would have been serviceable to the readers and the students into whose hands this book will fall. The historical sketch of the French assignats does indeed bear upon this topic; but it is a matter of which more might have been made. We need a popular tract that shall let the light shine through this foggy delusion of "fiat money;" and Professor Perry is the man to write it. The state could hardly summon him to a more important service, and the work cannot be done too soon. A BULKY Volumel of nearly twelve hundred pages contains General Eaton's Report with the accompanying tables. A vast amount of information, not all of it important, and much of it imperfectly digested, fills these closely-printed pages. Probably the work might be better done with a larger clerical force in the Bureau; if that be the condition of improvement it is to be hoped that Congress will increase the appropriation. Nevertheless the Report as it is contains much extremely valuable matter; and the study of it, though doubtless a weariness to the flesh, will be found profitable for doctrine and reproof. The condition of the schools in the Southern States furnishes food for reflection. The "school age" of the several states differs greatly; in one state all persons between four and fourteen are reckoned as of school age; in others the limits are four and twenty; in others four and twentyone; in others six and twenty-one; so that the ratio of children enrolled in the public schools to the children of "school age" reported, would not afford a fair comparison of the efficiency of education in the several states. But a table has been prepared, giving the estimated number of children in each state between the ages of six and sixteen; and thus we have a just basis of comparison. And while, in many of the Northern states, the number of children enrolled in the public schools is larger than the number of children between six and sixteen, showing that the pupils above sixteen outnumber those between six and sixteen who are not in school,-in most of the Southern states the number enrolled is much less than the number embraced between 1 Report of the Commissioner of Education for the Year 1876. Washington: Government Printing Office. these ages. In Massachusetts, there are 300,834 children between six and sixteen, and 305,776 enrolled in the schools. In New Hampshire, the number between these ages is 55,555, and the number enrolled is 66,599. In Alabama, on the other hand, there are 283,659 children over six and under sixteen, while there enrolled in the schools only 126,893. In Mississippi the figures are a little better, being, respectively, 249,143 and 166,204. In Louisiana, out of 206,016 children between these ages the school enrollment is only 74,307, or but little more than one in three; In Arkansas, out of 141,848, only 15,890, or a little less than one in eight. In several of the Southern states the enrollment for 1876 was considerably reduced from that of the preceding year. It is to be hoped that the era of improved relations which has now begun at the South has turned the tide in the opposite direction. But it is plain that so long as from one-half to seveneights of the children of the Southern states are outside of the schools, the prospect of a permanent peace in that region is rather dim. Among other papers in this compilation is one copied from Macmillan's Magazine and showing the results of the system of compulsory education recently put in operation in England. It appears that during five years the average attendance of day scholars in England increased 60 per cent., and in Scotland 42 per cent. in three years; while in Ireland the increase in five years was only 8 1-2 per cent. In Birmingham, which was the head-quarters of the Education League, the results are notable. The average attendance in that city has increased during four and a half years about 150 per cent. Compulsory education, against which the British mind so long revolted, seems to be justifying itself in the experience of the nation. Special articles upon "The Study of AngloSaxon" by Professor March of Lafayette College, upon "The Pronunciation of Greek in this Country" by Professor Boise of Chicago, and upon "Latin Pronunciation" by Professor W. G. Richardson of Richmond, Ky., are of great value to teachers. FOR their promise, rather than for their performance, the poems1 of Mr. Day are noteworthy. Young men in college do not often exhibit so nice a sense of poetic form as these verses reveal; and there are frequent lines of thoughtfulness and beauty. Yet the thought does not run deep and many of the conceits as well as the phrases are simply reproduced from memory. A very pleasant verse wright this young man certainly was, and if he had lived he might have been a poet. 1 Lines in the Sand. By Richard E. Day. Syracuse: John T. Roberts. SUNDAY AFTERNOON: A MONTHLY MAGAZINE FOR THE HOUSEHOLD. VOL. II. -DECEMBER, 1878.-No. XII. WHAT A RADICAL FOUND IN WATER STREET. It began in the Club of The True Brother- here did seem something better than I had hood. Now the Club of The True Brotherhood is an organization to be named under one's breath; for it is at once the synagogue and the supreme flower of Culture. For years the question had come at intervals: "What! don't you belong to the Club of the True Brotherhood? You must. You shall. You don't know what you lose. Such society! Such delightful people! Such simplicity and such culture! Every one is so anxious to make things pleasant, and every one has such a real genius for drawing out undeveloped talent. Oh, yes, you certainly must be proposed." known. A place where culture had not killed simplicity, and where noble thought could feed and grow: where petty comment and criticism were never heard, and men and women had rubbed down the angles of too aggressive personalities, passed out from the limitations of sets and cliques, and stood ready to share all that life and thought had brought them, with all who sought the gift. Though I have passed the age of "thrills," a sensation very nearly akin to that of my youth went through me, as I read the card of notification : "You are hereby informed that your name having been proposed by and sec "What do you do?" I asked my enthu- onded by siastic friend. "Do? Oh, everything charming. The papers are such delightful papers, and the comments and discussions are certainly finer than anything that ever gets into the magazines-they are so spontaneous you know; and then you see such fascinating people. Do give your name and let me propose you. It is mental suicide to remain outside such a circle." That is the way I began. My bump of veneration is a knob rather than a bump, and had led me into difficulties, even before I could spell Phrenology, or define Veneration. Bitter experience had taught me that my idols were mostly clay, and only a head of gold at rarest intervals kept me in any degree constant to my early faith. But 6 -, you are from henceforth a member of The Club of the True Brotherhood,' annual dues The next meeting will be," etc. A kind of solemn joy filled me as I made ready for this momentous occasion. "At last," I said to myself, "you are to see and know the best there is. Heretofore the best has come at intervals only, and as a whole this great city has seemed a social desert. Conversation is not after all, a lost art. Here you will find it; delicate, airy, graceful, as that of the mythical French salons. You will know how mind acts on mind when excited by this subtle power of flying thought, and the charm of presence will be added to the words you would otherwise know only on the printed page." In such a mood, the sacred circle was Copyright, 1878, by E. F. Merriam. reached; was entered. In such a mood I even wrote my first paper, trembling at the inadequacy of my thought, and eager to add even the smallest contribution to the general treasury of good will and mutual development. In spite of deep but stifled interior questionings, I held to this faith, till suddenly at the end of three months, common sense asserted itself, and prodded me the more sharply that I had deliberately and long forced it to silence. I shall not forget that evening. A poet was there visibly choking in the fuming incense burned before him by a knot of worshipers; a historian quarreling fiercely with another historian on some disputed point; a row of novelists and essayists; another row of critics, the two ranks eying each other with outward calm and inward distrust, and without, a circle of discontented, ambitious, uncomfortable men and women, too eager for individual recognition to see the absurdity of their position, or be aware that here the Literary Snob was king. The sense of humor, roused for a moment, turned to bitterness. Here were threescore men and women, most of them past their first youth; many of them with faces indicating kindliness and understanding, yet each one with this wall of selfassertion shutting out all common offices of intercourse. Each was bent upon saying some sharp, telling thing that might be handed down as a Club aphorism; each was ignoring deeper wants and desires, and rising often on very feeble and fluttering wings into the rarefied and breathless atmosphere of Criticism and Culture. "Charming evening! Most delightful paper, was it not?" said one of the critics pausing before my chair. "No," I said with calmness, determined at last to tell the whole truth. "No; it is not charming at all; and the paper struck me as false and stilted, and not in the least the writer's real thought. But then no one here ever does give his real thought -only the thought that is expected of him." Profoundly amused at this outburst, my critic stood for a moment in silence. "You hardly do us justice," he said at last, as if the thing were dawning upon him. "You would not have our hearts upon our sleeves for daws to peck at?" "Then the True Brotherhood is one of daws, and not of singing birds," I said. "That is what it has long seemed, and I give up one more illusion. I wonder if one is to be left me. Give me a country sewingsociety; give me anything but this hypercritical, sarcastic, cold-blooded Culture! I have yet to hear one word that touches real human need; that indicates the slightest knowledge of even real intellectual needs. Spiritual ones I leave out of the question. Is there a soul here who trusts another soul in the room? Under all this ineffable and high-toned nonsense, is there something better, that would find voice if it could, but dares not? I wish I were a Quaker. Then this sudden moving of the Spirit would be pardoned, and I would speak out here all the disappointment to which these months have given birth. I would show you, and in such words that you could never call it pique or envy, just what you are doing; just what you fail to do. We come for bread and you give us a stone. Culture as you exhibit it, is a keen and merciless blade, cutting into all genuine, hearty life, and you walk about, unconscious that your life-blood is gone and your place among the living vacant. You are ghosts, and your squeaking and gibbering you take for profound speech on life and its work." "This is a cold shower-bath," gasped my hearer. "What have I done that it falls solely upon me? In pity, my friend, raise your voice and douche somebody beside myself." "No," I said. "This is my last word for the Club of the True Brotherhood. I am not strong enough, mentally or morally, to remain in this ice-house, unchilled. If I stay there would simply be one more corpse. I must run while I can. Good-bye." So ended this chapter of experience, and I laid away the record with many another one-going on, a little more silent, and with a dreary wonder if there were any such thing as real human intercourse, and if loneliness must be the heart of all life, as well as its beginning and ending. From one point of view life had broadened and |