Volapuk seems to have been a failure after a brief season of interest among teachers and idealists, and it has practically disappeared even as the basis of a "pennya-liner" paragraph. But it has a successor which seems to have the simple and practical qualities which may commend it to permanent attention. Now that the world. is drawn so closely together by steam and electricity, a universal language is greatly to be desired; indeed it is not a far away hope that its necessity will ere long become imperative., A Polish physician, Dr. Zamenhof, has given his life to the work of evolving a new language based upon the classics and their lingual descendants of modern times. It bears the name "Esperanto," and its advocates are "Esperantists." They had a congress at Boulogne recently which was attended by several hundred delegates, representing twentythree nationalities, and the French press reports that "the auxiliary international tongue" has made remarkable progress. The delegates claimed to represent 250,000 "Esperantists," and all the proceedings of the congress were in the new language. Hymns were sung, dramatic and poetic selections were given, both originals and translations, and there was quite a display of books printed in the new tongue. The language rests on sixteen inflexible rules. The roots of existing words are taken and the spelling is strictly phonetic. A root being given, the addition of a certain letter makes it a verb, a different final letter makes it an adjective, and a third similar change makes an adverb. Thus "amo" is love, "ami" is to love, and "amé" is lover. Its advocates claim that the whole language can be acquired by a student of ordinary capacity in a month or six weeks, while more apt pupils can acquire it in two weeks. Contrasted with the time required to secure even a passable familiarity with the classics or with either of the modern languages this seems of great advantage. If the claims of its advocates are just, the new language has a hopeful prospect. They claim that it is not only simple, easy to learn and practical for all ordinary linguistic purposes, but it is also literary and beautiful. It does not obscure finer meanings, shades and subleties of expression, nor sacrifice pregnant and significant idioms. Poetry, tragedy, humor, metaphysics and science are all possible to it. Its creator says of it-"It is easy to acquire in a grammatical sense, while from a linguistic point of view it is a language threefourths of whose vocabulary one knows be

fore he has begun to study it, since most of the words are taken from known models-French, English, German, Latin and Greek." The congress must have had considerable local recognition and advertisement, for during the session many of the Boulogne shops displayed signs-"Ani herolas en Esperanto" (Esperanto spoken here.) The public reports of the Boulogne congress have stimulated interest in the new language this side the water, and Harvard University has an Esperanto Club with some thirty members at the start. These, and later accessions to the club, will give the new idea thorough tests, and some practical results may be expected.

The Rev. Mr. Jernigan gave New England people a costly lesson, a few years ago, in the art of extracting gold from seawater, and since then there has been a general scepticism in regard to any such enterprise. But an eminent scientist of Geneva takes the matter very seriously in a recent number of Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles.. He recognizes the fact that a ton of sea-water carries from two to four cents' worth of gold, but he claims that by certain economical processes this has a practical, commercial value. He favors the utilization of the tides to deposit the water in properly located basins, and then by the use of inexpensive chemicals and a simple process he expects to precipitate the precious metal in quantities that will repay the cost of the process. The Professor is confident that the presence of two cents' worth of gold per ton of water gives a practicable promise of profitable extraction, and under his stimulus a company is already working in England with that eminent scientist, Sir William Ramsay, as consulting chemist.

He does not expect a speedy acceptance of his idea, but says: "It is not to be hoped that a superstition so deeply rooted in tradition as that of the duty of prolonging life at any cost will readily yield to the arguments of reason or the pleadings of compassion, but the discussion of the subject in its various aspects may lead gradually to a more enlightened public opinion and to the consequent relief of much misery."

The Minnesota Supreme Court has cut a Gordian knot which has heretofore enmeshed the lawmakers. Religious freedom is not a simple problem where, as here, there are representatives of all faiths, each adhesive to its own traditions. The question at bar was on the enforcement of the Sunday closing law against a Hebrew defendant who preferred to observe the seventh day as the Sabbath, and to keep open shop on Sunday in opposition to the popular custom. He pleaded his right to religious liberty, but the court ruled that the statute did not interfere with this, as it was not a religious but a sanitary provision, and a legitimate exercise of police power. The distinction is a fine one, but, on the ground of deference to the custom of the great majority of the people, where to please all is not practicable, the judgment of the court will be generally accepted.

Many infant prodigies are recorded, but most of them dropped back into the ranks of the mediocre after adolescence. Not so the late John Fiske, whose remarkable precocity was a lifelong equipment. His biographer says he was reading Latin fluently at seven years of age, and a year later was not only familiar with the Greek classics but had read all the plays of Shakespeare. At nine years of age he could speak Greek with ease, at ten years he wrote a history of the world from the days of Moses, and at twelve he had read all the Latin and Greek classics and was master of the higher mathematics. While in knickerbockers he wrote Spanish, spoke German and read the books of German philosophers. At seventeen years he wrote poetry in Italian, translated Spanish poetry and read Sanskrit readily. Grayhaired Harvard professors and all who knew him recognized in him more than

ing fulfilment of Goldsmith's village 'master:

I still they gazed and still the wonder grew.

one small head could carry all he knew."

Reciprocity with Canada was a practical rather than an academic question at the recent Boston exhibition of the New England Poultry Club, and it had a favorable endorsement. In the one hundred classes, judged the first day, Canadian exhibitors won thirty-three first and twentyseven second premiums. So large a recognition of Dominion merit certainly warrants reciprocity on the part of its people, but they are still very coy.

Quite naturally Governor Higgins of New York is greatly exercised over the laxity disclosed in the management of great life insurance companies. It is but fair to state that the criticism of the state insurance department is hardly just, as the law confines its supervision of the companies quite closely to the maintenance of a proper reserve. If this is assured the department has little legal warrant for dictating the details of management. The governor observes the defects in the law and has outlined desirable legislative action to remedy some of the weak points. It is gratifying to note that the Massachusetts laws already cover the important points in his suggestions, and that its insurance department several years ago made emphatic and successful protest against what is perhaps the most serious evil recently disclosed-the inter-relations of the life companies and the trust companies.

A New England woman has just died whose personality, no less than her service to humanity, deserves greater notice than the press has given her. Josephine Shaw Lowell was a native of Roxbury, Massachusetts. She received a generous education, including five years in the schools of European capitals. Her husband, Charles Russell Lowell, was killed in the Civil War, as was also her brother. Robert Gould Shaw, colonel of a colored regiment at Fort Wagner. These bereavements shadowed all her later life. but she found respite from grief in charitable enterprises in New York City. She founded several organizations and was the first woman on the New York State Board of Charities. She led in numerous societies for the protection and help of friendless girls, the relief of prisoners, and the promotion of industrial thrift among the ignorant and indigent. At a memorial service in New York City one of the speakers voiced the general sentiment in saying: “Had she lived in medieval times she would long since have been canonized as a saint."

WILLIAM R. A. WILSON. William R. A. Wilson, author of "A Knot of Blue," is a native of Central Illinois, a graduate of Williams College, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. After practicing successfully as a physician, he abandoned his profession for literary pursuits and travel. His previous book, "A Rose of Normandy," published two years ago, is now in its fifth edition, and, unlike many novels published at that time, it is still selling.

"A Knot of Blue" (Little, Brown & Co., publishers, Boston) is a story of man's

fickleness and woman's steadfast, conquering love. The knot of blue was the bow the fair Aimée de Marsay gave to Raou de Chatignac, the fickle lover, to wear in war, whither he went to regain his selfrespect after having been duped by an intriguing woman and a cunning villain. The story abounds in intrigue, adventure, the joy of living and achieving, and it throbs with romantic tenderness. Although not an historical romance in any sense, the scene is laid in that quaint spot where the Old World and the New have met for centuries, Old Quebec,-a field in which Mr. Wilson has shown himself a worthy compeer of the best writers of romantic fiction.

THE OAK TREE FAIRY BOOK. Edited by Clifton Johnson and illustrated by Willard Boute.

The gift season is gone, but there can be no more welcome gift to the little people than this beautifully published collection of the old favorites in fairy lore. The

stories have been recast, preserving all their original charm and sweetness, but pruned of the harsh and unpleasant features which made some of the originals repulsive, and ill-fitted for childish interest. Over fifty of the gems of the annals of fairy land are included in the book, and it is one that will be appreciated and treasured in every home into which it finds its way. Little, Brown & Co., Boston, $1.75.

ΜΑΝ AND THE EARTH. By Nathaniel Southgate Shaler.

In this little book Professor Shaler of Harvard has assembled, condensed and presented in popular and easily understood language a vast amount of information. He presents the interesting problems of fuel and mechanical power, the exhaustion of mineral resources, the ut lization of waste lands, irrigation, the maintenance of soil fertility, and numerous other factors which control human existence, with a breadth of present knowledge and a sane and probable outlook upon the future of the race and the planet which convey to the average reader a mass of general but useful information, and can hardly fail to stimulate him to more close research in some of the many departments of natural science. To convey this information would be sufficient excuse for the preparation of the volume, but Professor Shaler emphasizes a higher purpose in insisting that man is not merely the selfish recipient of the bounty of nature, but is directly responsible to coming generations for his use of the things which make his earthly existence possible and pleasant. Moral and political responsibility to posterity has been fully exploited, but this book insists on equal responsibility for the utilization of material things and for the wise and economical application of the fruits of human industry and invention. It shows that present indications point to an increase of population and an exhaustion of the essentials of civilized life, culminating in the end of the human race on this planet, at a date yet far distant but certain if present conditions continue, but he finds ground for confidence that the advance thus far in science justifies expectation that as exigencies arise human invention will supplement present resources from fields as yet unexplored, so that the final cataclysm may be indefinitely averted. (Fox, Duffield & Co., New York.)