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THE BALANCED LIFE, by Clarence Lathbury.

Thoughtful people have perhaps been equally impressed by recent expositions of the simple and strenuous life, but this presentation of "the happy mean" is far more impressive. The writer finds symmetry and harmony in all life. The material, mental moral and spiritual are all co-related parts of a universe whose center and motive force is the Infinite God. Religion, to him, is not a matter of creeds and forms, but of conformity to the higest ideal in every phase of conscious life. The possibilities of each life are infinite and eternal, not as a matter of idealism or theory, but in the most concrete and practical way. The writer's prose is full of poetic ideas, but he never wanders beyond the plain possibilities of universal acceptance and achievement. His book is stimulating and encouraging in a normal, healthful way, and deserves a wide and thoughtful reading. (The Nunc Licet Press, Philadelphia. $1.00; postage 9 cents.)

BROKE OF COVENDEN, by J. C. Snaith.

In America, the land of the new democracy, of no traditions to speak of, and no hereditary families of what may seriously be called "ancient lineage," the extreme instances of class distinction are not known. The oppressive and unyielding "class feeling" that dominates the English noblesse, and paralyses the legitimate aspirations of the English bourgeoise forms the basis of "Broke of Covenden," a novel that must be regarded as an important contribution to contemporary literature, if only because it is founded on a sentiment that has its roots so deeply sunk in the national life.

But in the writing of his novel, the author has shown qualities akin to genius. Its human interest is supreme and compelling from cover to cover, none the less so because its style is so strongly tinged with a grim satire.

Broke is not the conventional hero of romance. He is a middle-aged, commonplace, phlegmatic, beef-eating, fox-hunting descendant of an ancient county family of reduced fortunes, the father of six daughters and a son. His creed briefly stated is that only the "upper classes" of English people can be considered seriously as human beings. The "lower classes," that is, all persons, without exception, who were not born to hereditary traditions of wealth and family.

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a peculiar species of animal, well enough in their way-for they have their uses-but designed by God and Nature to serve and be despised by the elect. For them to acquire wealth, education, or ideas above their station, is most revolting to healthy-minded persons, and a crime against morality.

This sentiment, of course, is a well-es

tablished tradition in the Broke family, yet the only son, and the youngest daughterthey have somehow become inoculated with a deadly foreign poison-defy_it, one to marry a sales-girl out of a Bond street shop, the other, the son of a Cuttisham bookseller.

Realistically, and with a convincing logic, the author shows what dire misfortune and unhappiness follows in the wake of an indomitable class pride like Broke's, how it de-humanizes and brutalizes, and in the end how miserably futile it all is.

As a picture of certain phases of contemporaneous English life, the book is admirable. The present is undoubtedly a transition stage of society-the new and vigorous democracy encroaching on the old and bitterly resisting aristocracywealth and power, lands and revenues changing hands-truly has it been called a "shuffling of the classes."

The characters in the novel are so welldifferentiated, so vital, so human, that they impart to it an interest quite apart from the story itself. Broke himself, his extraordinarily able wife, Delia, Porter, Lord Salmon, Mr. Breffit, that ill-matched pair, Lord and Lady Bosket, the Duke of Wimbledon, these form a gallery of portraits one does not often meet with in the average novel. If sometimes they are somewhat broadly drawn, the defect should be laid to the sheer exuberance of the author's gifts. If fault may be found with the author's style in general, it is that of too great an amplitude. One wonders too if English people ever really do talk with such bookish fluency and precision of language as some of the speeches in the novel would indicate.

A word as to that diverting English peer of ancient lineage, Lord Bosket. He will prove a revelation-and a shocking oneto many good Americans, whose vague notions of English aristocracy are inextricably mingled with the equally vague idea, "culture." (Herbert B. Turner & Company, Boston, 1905. $1.50.)

THE BEST ARTISTS ILLUSTRATE MISS ALCOTT'S BOOKS

The publication of new editions of two of Miss Alcott's famous stories, "Under the Lilacs" and "Jack and Jill," complete the set of the "Little Women Series" illustrated. Alice Barber Stephens has drawn eight full pictures for "Under the Lilacs," while Harriet Roosevelt Richards has provided a similar number for "Jack and Jill."

The set of the eight illustrated volumes in the series, all in holiday garb, are now supplied in a handsome box, making a valuable addition to any boy's or girl's library.

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THE BARONET RAG PICKER, by Charles S. Coom.

A Cornwall village with its population of ignorant fishermen, a manor-house, an entailed estate, the larceny of a marriage certificate, the death of the thief, and the disappearance of the heir, make an interesting plot, and a false claim to the estate, the return of the heir and his trial for the murder of the thief give added sensation, but all ends well and the young lawyer who unravels the mysteries and tells the story wins the hand of the daughter of the heir. (The C. M. Clark Publishing Company, Boston. $1.50.)

THE SCARLET PATCH, by Mary E. Q. Brush.

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The Mohawk Valley during the Revolution was the scene of much thrilling adventure, in which tories, patriots and good and bad Indians had active parts. "Scarlet Patch" was a tory badge, and its wearer finds himself thwarted from time to time in his attempts to aid the enemy, by the cleverness of a boy patriot and his Indian friend. All the boys will admire the book, and their sisters will not willingly let it alone. (Lee & Shepard, Boston. $1.25.)

THE GREGORY GUARDS, by Emma Lee Benedict, illustrated by Frank T. Merrill.

Half a dozen New York city boys are taken to a country home for a summer's out ng, by a philanthropic young man. The lads, various in character, appreciate their good fortune and form a club to further the interests of their employer as

occasion may offer. There are occasions, exciting and startling, in which the lads accomplish much that is of value. Mr. Merrill's pictures are of high grade and add to the interest of the book. (Lee & Shepard, Boston. $1.25.)

CORDELIA'S PATHWAY OUT, by Edna A. Foster.

Miss Foster is no stranger to the young people. Her former book "Hortense" won their admiration and its characters are not forgotten. They appear again in this new book, in which Cordelia's homely and commonplace virtues-earnestness and tenacity of purpose-win for her the good will of her elders and the confidence and admiration of her companions. (Lee & Shepard, Boston. $1.00.)

AMERICAN HEROES AND HEROINES, by Pauline Carrington Bouvé.

Mrs. Bouvé's name is well known to the readers of the NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE, to which she is a frequent contributor, and this book will interest all the younger element of our circle. She gives instructive and picturesque sketches of a score of American celebrities, in a manner to fix the attention and the memory on the historical facts involved. (Lothrop Publishing Company, Boston. $1.25.)

UNDER THE LILACS, by Louisa M. Alcott.

Every generation of young people falls in love with Miss Alcott's stories. They are all fresh, clean and helpful, and she bids fair to hold a permanent place among the New England classics. This story, the seventh in the new series just coming from the publishers, is handsomely printed, with excellent illustrations and a very attractive illuminated cover. (Little, Brown & Co., Boston. $2.00.

ROSE OF Wiggin.

THE RIVER, by Kate Douglas

This a charming New England love story of very common but very interesting people, set in the scenery and conditions along the Saco river, "down in Maine." Log-driving, ice-jams, and the commonplaces of rural life are cleverly described, and the "course of true love" in the tale is quite like the erractic current of the river stream. (Houghton, Mifflin & Company, Boston. $1.50.)

AMY IN ACADIA, by Helen Leah Reed.

The Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia, with its French and English historic associations and its poetic interest through Longfellow's "Evangeline," is a delightful background for a story, and the author of the "Brenda Books" has made a pleasant choice in the location for the setting of a new series. Amy and her friends start on

a vacation trip which they propose shall be "improving" but which does not entirely fulfil their plans. It is a pretty story, and prettily illustrated by Katherine Pyle. (Little, Brown & Company, Boston. $1.50.)

HELEN GRANT AT ALDRED HOUSE, by Amanda M. Douglas.

The thousands of girls who have read Miss Douglas's earlier books will need only to be told that "here is another" to induce them to look for it. "Helen Grant's School-days" won her hosts of friends, and in her boarding-school life at Aldred House she is the same lovable and loving girl who overcomes jealousy and spite by her winsome character and conduct. (Lee & Shepard, Boston. $1.25.)

THE CHILDREN OF BEDFORD COURT, by Grace Le Baron.

This is number three of "The Janet Series," and Jerry and Jessica of the earlier books have here a boy companion, Roy Fitzpatrick, who makes things interesting as a boy who aspires to be a soldier, as a newsboy, and as a real soldier in the Spanish-American war. There is no lack of stirrring incident, and the trio of friends will attract many juvenile readers. & Shepard, Boston. 75 cents.)

DOLLY'S DOUBLE, by Ethel Wood.

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This child's story is sweet and refreshing with a simple plot which will hold the interest of all the little ones. Two girls so much alike as to confuse their friends have lots of adventures at home and at the seashore, and when they are found to be sisters both are delighted at the reason of their resemblance and of an assured future companionship. Lothrop Publishing Company, Boston. $1.00

REAL BOYS, by Henry A. Shute.

Mr. Shute's "Real Diary of a Real Boy" gave him an assured place in the hearts of "all the boys," which was broadened by "The Squire." Now he expands his list of admirers again by introducing a group of Exeter boys who are real, and who illustrate many phases of boy character in a healthful and elevating style. Mr. F. R. Gruger supplies some interesting illustrations. (G. W. Dillingham Company, New York. $1.50.)

MY LITTLE LADY IN WAITING, by Louise E. Catlin.

This is a possible but hardly probable girl's story, of a New York waif who begins her upward career in a vacation school where she attracts friends and learns cookery and housekeeping. These accomplishments open a good home to her, and going abroad with her friends she is

more fortunate in saving the life of a little German princess, whose parents "take up" the plucky little American, and she finds a place at court. (Lee & Shepard, Boston. $1.25.)

LAURA IN

THE MOUNTAINS, by Henrietta

E. Eliot. Mrs. Eliot understands children, and her "Laura" appears here again, a little older but still a child. A vacation with her brothers and sisters in the mountains of Oregon gives opportunity for history, geography and scenery, which cannot fail to win the attention and interest of hosts of

children of all ages. (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company, Boston. 50 cents.) THE PRUDENTIAL SECURES SOME BRITISH TERRITORY

ROCK OF GIBRALTAR ARRIVES AT THE INSURANCE COMPANY'S HOME OFFICE

The Prudential Insurance Company of America, well known for its world-famed trade-mark, "The Prudential Has the Strength of Gibraltar," has just received, at its Home Office, in Newark, N. J., a great slice of the rock from the famous English fortress on the Mediterranean.

By arrangement with the American consul at Gibraltar, R. L. Sprague, this rock was quarried from the parent rock and forwarded to America on the North German Lloyd steamer "Koenig Albert," with certificate from the Admiralty Contractor at Gibraltar to prove its authenticity. Photographs showing the place from which the rock was cut out from Gibraltar have also been received by The Prudential.

The employees of The Prudential have a feeling of sentiment for the Rock of Gibraltar, the use of which as a trade-mark they feel has been largely instrumental in bringing about, through good advertising, increased popularity for The Prudential, and a public appreciation of the Scope and Strength of the Company, resulting from its Progressive and, at the same time, Conservative administration.

The Prudential selected Gibraltar as its trade-mark because of the great and renowned strength of that famous fortress. The rock which came to America is of grayish-white limestone of such an Inusually dense and compact mass, and offering such difficulties to the stone-cutter, that the judgment of the Prudential officials in selecting Gibraltar as a trade-mark is well verified.

The English authorities at Gibraltar readily gave their consent to sending the Rock to the Prudential, and the only cost involved was that covering the shipment. Small portions of the Rock will, be sent out as souvenirs to certain of the Company's employees.

In a dearth of more important topics some churchmen in New York have been discussing the sex of angels, and some forty angel figures in and about the Belmont Memorial Chapel, or the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, on Morningside Heights, which the sculptor made all female have been transformed into the other sex. Aside from the mechanical, or artistic? difficulty of such an attempt, it seems hardly worth while to so radically contest the artistic conceptions of almost all preceding painting and sculpture. The discussion has gone abroad, and men high in the counsels of the English Established Church have taken it up. They find no warrant for the popular idea of the femininity of angels, but incline to the idea that these celestial beings are sexless. In a general way both the Old and the New Testament speak of angels as masculine, but this doubtless comes from the ancient idea of the inferiority of womankind. That "in the kingdom of heaven they neither marry nor are given in marriage," is the declaration of Christ, lends color to the idea of sexlessness. While the Christian church has had female angels almost exclusively, it may have been due to the line of heathen goddesses who were the precursors of Christian art. The New York idea will find full acceptance among stage beauties, for their "angels" are of the stronger sex, without exception.

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One of the constant annoyances of the In small householder is the milk supply. the country it is irregular and in the city its quality is worse than uncertain, unless what seems an exorbitant price is paid. Even in early Bible times goat's milk was a common article of food, and in many places in Europe, notably Italy and Switzerland and the Mediterranean Islands, it has always been the mainstay of the common people. The modern cow has so broadly usurped the field that the goat, in this country, at least, has passed into "a state of innocuous desuetude." But a renaissance

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seems to be coming. Medical men are advocating goat's milk for children and invalids, and practical agriculturists are recognizing the dairy value of the animal. vate enterprise has made considerable progress in advocating the goat as a source of milk supply for small families, and the government Department of Agriculture has begun its introduction. It has recently imported from Malta about seventy animals which are to be bred and tested at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment station, under scientific conditions, a work which has thus far been neglected. The goat of the past in this country has averaged probably less than three pints of milk a day. The Malta importation averaged three quarts a day during the voyage, while some of the private herds in this country credited with five or more quarts per animal. The milk is richer and more assimilable than cow's milk, and with decent sanitary conditions there is no need for any offensive odor. The food of one dairy cow will maintain seven or eight goats, and in the open season they will forage and

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thrive where a cow would almost starve. Suburbanites and country people might easily care for two or three goats and secure the best of milk, butter and cheese at a minimum cost, and an added convenience over present bovine conditions. Under the stimulus of private enterprise and government assistance it seems quite probable that Capricornus is soon again be in the ascendant.

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The discovery and universal adoption of modern anææsthetics-ether, chloroform and cocaine, all within the memory of the present generation, was a wonderful advance in human knowledge, and an inexpressible benefit to the whole human race, But under modern conditions and research nothing seems to be a finality; there is still a beyond and above awaiting inquiry and discovery. Another step in this advance is recorded by a French discovery of a new anæsthetic, whose use is unaccompanied with any of the perils or discomforts of the present surgical practice. The treatment has been under observation for five years, but its publicity dates only from the present year. The new agent is an alkaloid, from the scopolia japonica--a Japanese belladonna. It has long been known to medical men as a sedative, but its new use is much more important. As now administered it is mixed with morphine. Under ordinary conditions three hypodermic injections are required. This alone relieves the patient from the troubles incident to the inhalation of ether or chloroform. The patient is gradually rendered unconscious,

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as in profound slumber. He can be waked at any moment by shaking or a moderately loud noise, but shows no sensation under surgical instruments. There is a complete physical unconsciousness, while the intellectual faculties are not involved in the abnormal condition. The patient wakes, after an operation, refreshed and in a normal condition, but without recollection of the treament he has undergone. Usually the suppression of pain continues for some hours, while the patient is otherwise in a normal condition, but manifesting a disposition to fall into natural and refreshing slumber. If present indications are justified by more general experience and observation of the new agent, its discovery will surpass in value that which for over half a century has been considered the superlative of chemical and surgical triumph.

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In recent address to public school teachers, President Eliot of Harvard University said: "In the Harvard Medical School there is one teacher to every two students, and we should aim toward that arrangement in our public schools." Is it a dream? Fifty or sixty pupils to one teacher is not an uncommon proportion, and to introduce his system would seem to involve a revolution. Certainly his medical students should be well taught, and with one teacher to every two pupils it ought not to require three years to turn out a full-fledged M. D. Whether time. can be saved in the public school course by the same quota of teachers may be doubtful, for the child mind has a limit to its power of assimilation. With the modern tendency to increase the number of branches taught in the public schools, there seems to be a grave defect in the product. Children have so much poured into them that they leave school with less practical knowledge of the essentials-the three R's and grammar, than they gained in the oldtime, ungraded country district school. We agree that an increase in the teaching force of the public schools is desirable, but President Eliot's proportion of teachers to pupils seems excessive. What is equally needed is the elimination of much unnecessary teaching on topics which should be taught at home. The tendency to do everything for the child through the public schools is lessening the sense of parental responsibility, and tends to weaken the ties which should bind the child to the home.

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There is a reaction against the elective system in American colleges, based upon the fact that its tendency is against the best in higher education. Pupi's are

forced through the high schools and academies in such a way that they enter college without the knowledge of life and of the real purpose of a liberal education. Athletics and the social side of college life appeal to them, and to secure time for these they too often elect the easy courses, their only purpose being to have a good time and secure a degree. A large majority of young men nowadays leave college with almost no comprehension of the purpose which should have guided their studies. They have a smattering of real knowledge and this is largely confined to matters which will not be of value in the real work of life. They lack the fundamental feature of life equipment-responsibility. They have been taught to choose the easy things, and imagine that a degree will cover all deficiencies. Later they will learn that life is not elective, that it brings duties, responsibilities and burdens which cannot be avoided by election. The college training has enervated them in the line in which they should be strong-in the consciousness of obligation of duty and of ability to meet and overcome the hard things of life. When they leave college they find that the work of life must be done, even if it is distasteful and burdensome. If they could have learned this earlier, it would be the best part of their education.

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The result of the November election puts Massachusetts very near a place in the column of "doubtful States," and forces the leaders of both the leading parties to more strenuosity in preparation for the next campaign. Numerous factors affected the result in greater or less degree, but without discussing them in detail it is safe to say that there is a spirit of independent voting abroad which will compel the recognition of live issues and the selection of impeccable candidates by both parties in the future. The most spectacular result of the election was a "local issue," where a selfnominated candidate for district attorney in Suffolk county defeated the incumbent of the office, who had the support of both the leading parties. There is personal disappointment over details in both parties, but the result as an indication of the independence and judgment of the great mass of the voters cannot be questioned.

The Massachusetts Legislature last winter authorized a series of hearings on the question of industrial instruction at public expense. The aim was to give young people a better start in life by teaching them the rudiments of various industrial tra 'es. partly as a preparation for their work, and partly to give them some practical ideas

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