In the thirtieth year of the contest Griffith Griffiths had won his election; by the gift of the hearse he put Bryn Tirion under a final obligation. Politics paled before the generations of dead who would be indebted to this benefactor. That a man should be a Conservative or a Radical mattered not to the dead, and the living must discharge for the dead their debt of gratitude. But the outcome of this contest was quickly lost sight of in the uncertainty of a new strife. Would Jane Jones or Jane Wynne be buried first in the new hearse? While Griffiths and Beti were still discussing this question the door-knocker clapped rapidly.

"I do believe it's Olwyn Evans come with news," exclaimed Beti.

"Nos dda," said Olwyn, disposing of her greeting. "She's seen it !" 66 Seen it?"

66

Aye, Gwen Williams. She was walkin' there, by the old bridge over the Glaslyn, this evening, an' first she thought it was a light in the old mill, for it looked large, just like a lamp-flame. Then she saw it was movin' and it was comin' towards her."

It was the Candle of the Dead she saw?" asked Griffiths.

'Aye, it was; the nearer it came the smaller grew the flame, till it was no bigger than a thimble. Gwen was frightened so she couldn't move from the wall; she let it pass close by her, and it was a woman carryin' the light." "A woman!”

Griffiths's eyes sought the cats, and he pulled his side whiskers thoughtfully. "You cannot tell which it'll be, now can you?"

"No, you cannot; but I've my opinion it'll be Jane Jones; she's more gone in the face. I must be goin'. Beti, will you be comin' with me? I promised Gwen I'd stop in for a neighborly look at the Janeses, and perhaps I can help her decide which it'll be."

First they went to Jane Wynne's. They found her propped up in bed surrounded with a circle of interested neighbors. The doctor had just gone, and the minister was on his way in. Old Marslie Powell curtsied gravely to the minister as he entered.

"Dear love, she'll not last the night."

Aye, aye," chorused the circle of neighbors, "her breath's failin' now."

But in Jane Wynne's eye there was a live coal of intelligence; she beckoned imperiously with her scrawny old hand to the young minister.

"If I do, ye'll put it on the stone," she whispered, eagerly.

"Yes, Jane, Hugh will have it done." "She's not long," said Olwyn to Beti; "let us be goin' to Jane Jones's."

They walked across the street.

"Poor dear," said Elen Roberts to them as they entered, "she'll not last till morn. Her heart's beatin' slower a'ready."

Aye, aye, she's failin'," assented the neighbors.

"It would be a credit, somethin' to be proud on," whispered old Annee. Dalben.

"Aye, a credit," agreed the neighbors. Jane beckoned to the doctor.

"If I do, tell Robert Roberts to make mention of it in his sermon," she pleaded, weakly.

"I will," replied the doctor.

"Well," remarked Olwyn Evans as they went out, "it'll be a credit either way to one of the families to be carried in that smart hearse. Jane Wynne's older, an' perhaps she'd ought to get it; but then the Joneses has always meant more to Bryn Tirion, an' it seems as if they'd ought to have the honor. I never saw two families more ambitious for anything. It does look as if Griffiths had

thought of everything a man could think of to benefit the village."

"Aye," assented Beti, proudly; "he's. a wonderful man for thinkin' of other folks."

V-Bryn Tirion Sees Death Triumphant

"I don't know," said Olwyn Evans, in a resigned voice. "I don't know but it was best. The Wynneses always had fewer chances than the Joneses. Hugh Wynne didn't say much, but I could see he was happy; an' the Wynne girls was so pleased. They said as long as their mother had to go, she couldn't have done better; the stone'll look so pretty with it all writ on it. An' then the hearse an' their mournin' did look so nice together."

"There was a good many folks there?" suggested Griffiths.

a

"From Tremadoc and from Rhyd Dhu, too. Some haven't ever seen real hearse before. A cart to draw the coffin in is all the Rhyd Dhu folks know," concluded Olwyn.

"They say the plate on the coffin was more'n filled with money," added Beti.

"Aye, it was," said Olwyn; "there was more'n enough to pay both the doctor an' the minister. It does the town good to have a lot of folks here. They wasn't all interested in Jane Wynne, but they was interested in seein' which'd die first an' in the hearse. I suppose they wanted to come an' make sure she really was dead. Well, you never did better by Bryn Tirion, Griffiths."

Anecdotes Faciles et Poésies. Selected for Class Use by O. B. Super. D. C. Heath & Co., Boston. 4x61⁄2 in. 78 pages.

As the World Goes By. By Elisabeth W. Brooks. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. 5×8 in. 375 pages. $1.50.

This story appeals to the observer of men and things. The situation, suggested by a society actress, separated from her husband after a boy and girl marriage, living in the excitement of success, and attended by her young daughter, in whom is combined the nature of father and mother, might be commonplace in some hands. The author, however, keeps a quiet control over her material, and produces a decidedly interesting and valuable study of character develop ment. Constance, the true descendant of her cultivated father and grandfather, leaves her mother after having given her heart to a Polish singer, and adjusts herself to new surroundings, in her father's old New York home, fighting her battle of life in silence and with courage. There appear several of the modern phases of intellectual disquiet, including that represented by a Swami, but the reader finds himself occupying a position

detachment towards all. The most de

lightful scenes are those enacted in the home of the father and grandfather, when the sweet girl comes to add youth and womanliness to the well-ordered household.

Bank and the Treasury (The). By Frederick A. Cleveland, Ph.D. Longmans, Green & Co., New York. 54×8% in. 326 pages. $1.80, net. Timely and valuable is this critique of the American currency and banking system. The work of an acute observer and careful reasoner, of one who has gone deeply and intelligently into every phase of his subject, it should command wide attention. Holding that the time has come when changes in the National Bank Act are imperative, in the direction both of securing more effective governmental control and of insuring greater currency "elasticity," Dr. Cleveland contends that, whatever financial reforms be undertaken, they should be in the way of adapting, not revolutionizing, the existing system. Whatever its faults, the argument runs, this system is a unique institution admirably designed to meet the requirements of the American people. That it has not altogether done so, and that in it loopholes have been found for practices operating detrimentally, is reason, not for sweeping changes,

papers read at various literary centennial celebrations, and notes of life in Rome in the late sixties.

Charles the Chauffeur. By S. E. Kiser. Illustrated. The Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York. 4×7 in. 189 pages. $1.

power to prevent the overstraining as well as the impairment of capital. He would further clothe the Federal authorities with power to compel the stockholders of a bank to increase its capitalization when it attempts to handle a volume of business disproportionate to its capitalized equipment. Still more important, in view of the conditions arising from competition to build up a "call loan" constituency, is the suggestion that every bank engaged in furnishing funds for speculation be obliged to have special capitalization for that purpose. In regard to the problem of "elasticity" Dr. Cleveland places himself with the school of banking opinion represented by Mr. Dawes, affirming that "the provision of capital

assets' instead of 'commercial-assets' as a basis for bank-credit . is the essential distinction between the 'wildcat banking' of the past and 'sound banking."" He would secure increased "elasticity" through inquiring a minimum "cash" reserve to be provided out of capital, an amendment fixing a minimum of "redemption equipment," also to be provided out of capital and proportionate to the maximum of outstanding creditobligations, and an amendment requiring interest payment on issues, are among the proffered recommendations looking to greater elasticity" on the basis of adherence to the principal of banking on capital resources. We gladly commend the treatise to the consideration of all called upon to deal with the questions it discusses.

creased "soundness." An amendment re

Cambridge Sketches. By Frank Preston Stearns. The J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia. 5x8 in. 374 pages. $1.50, net.

Though Mr. Stearns essays the critical in these brief biographical sketches of impressive personalities in the literary, artistic, scientific, and political life of New England, their significance is rather that of warm tributes of respect and admiration. Agassiz, Lowell, Longfellow, Holmes, Sumner, Andrew, Cranch, Bird, and Howe are but a few of those of whom he writes, and of all he has something interesting to say, quaintly interweaving with his exposition of their life and works delightful passages of anecdote and reminiscence. His little volume also includes Emerson's eulogy of Major George L. Stearns, printed in the Boston "Commonwealth" April 20, 1867, and, so far as we are aware, never before republished; sketches of the Harvard of forty and fifty years ago;

Grace Willard Edick. Illustrated. D. Appleton & Co., New York. 4×71⁄2 in. 81 pages.

Chute (La). By Victor Hugo. Edited by W. E. Kapp. The American Book Co., New York. 5x7 in. 125 pages.

Edited by Edmund C. Stedman and Thomas L.
Stedman. With Maps. William R. Jenkins, New
York. 3x5 in. 505 pages.

Die Prärie am Jacinto. By Charles Sealsfield (Karl Postl). Edited by A. B. Nichols. Henry Holt & Co., New York. 4×63⁄4 in. 131 pages.

Elementary Algebra. By Arthur Schultze, Ph.D. The Macmillan Co., New York. 5×71⁄2 in. 373 pages. $1, net.

Ernest Renan. By William Barry, D.D. Illustrated. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $1, net.

Interesting, well written, appreciatively critical, and with very little sign of the prejudices which one might expect in a life of Renan has prejudices, this writer generally shares written by a Roman Catholic. If Dr. Barry

them. Here is his characterization of the

subject of his biography: "His judgment of Feuerbach is curiously applicable to himself: 'When he resolves to be an atheist, he is one devoutly and with a kind of unction!' That sentence, which reminds us of Montaigne, might be printed as a running epigraph on every one of the forty volumes which amused, readers of a romanticist who protested against or fascinated, or shocked the innumerable romanticism, an idealist who strove in vain to be commonplace, an archangel ruined who could not forget the Heaven whence he had cast himself down." That appears to us a very fair portrait of Renan, except for the last clause. We do not think Renan was ever an archangel, nor was he ruined-his moral character suffered no visible deterioration as a result of his self-excommunication; and St. Sulpice, where he suffered what Mr. Barry calls "an eclipse of faith"-though we doubt whether he ever had what can be called faith-was very far from a Heaven. Experiments with Plants. By W. J. V.

Osterhout, Ph.D. Illustrated. The Macmillan Co., New York. 5% x7%1⁄2 in. 492 pages. $1. Free Opinions Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct. By Marie Corelli. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. 5x7 in. 392 pages. $1.20, net.

While the lady who expresses her mind in this volume sometimes allows her voice to become shrill, yet she overtakes from time to time some common humbugs and impales them rather cleverly. A scarlet token that produces instant inflammation is indicated in the title of two chapters, "Coward Adam" and "Accursed Eve." In the first she returns to the pleasing refrain, "But Mister Adam, he, clum up a tree," and points many morals

through gloom and tribulation, he was still a happy man, because he was humble and had faith.' But don't say too many wise things, Heim. We can't unriddle it, after all." Karl Heinrich. By Wilhelm Meyer-Förster. Edited by Herbert Charles Sanborn, A.M. Newson & Co., New York. 4x63⁄4 in. 391 pages. King in Exile (The): The Wanderings of Charles II. from June 1646 to July 1654. By Eva Scott. Illustrated. E. P. Dutton & Co., New York. 5x9 in. 524 pages. $3.50, net.

An adequate and rather minute account of eight years of vicissitudes, and often of privation and almost despair. The story, as here told, leaves Charles at the very lowest ebb of his misfortunes. Presumably the volume will be followed by one telling of the six years which immediately preceded the Restoration.

Knot of Blue (A). By William R. A. Wilson. Illustrated. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. 5×8 in. 355 pages. $1.50.

A story of love and adventure, full of movement and romance. The hero and heroine

and

appear upon the scene as survivors of a shipwreck. They finally reach their homes in Canada, and, after some fickle wandering on the part of the hero, come together wiser and stronger for their knowledge of the world. Life of Reason (The). By George Santayana. In 6 vols. Vol. I.-Introduction Reason in Common Sense. Vol. II.-Reason in Society. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 5x7% in. 291 and 205 pages. Per vol., $1.25, net. To describe the Life of Reason-the aim of this work-is, in the author's words, "to note what facts and purposes seem to be primary, to show how the conception of nature and life gathers around them, and to point to the ideals of thought and action which are approached by this gradual mastering of experience by reason." This aim is carried through in a remarkable combination of intellectual acumen with literary dexterity, and with a graceful informality that makes one think of Platonic dialogue reduced to monologue by suppressing the interlocutor whose comments or questions keep the current of discourse flowing. Professor Santayana is certainly stimulating, though sometimes provoking by an apparent elusiveness that makes one uncertain whether to agree or dissent. Some points of dissent, however, are more obvious. One can hardly share the calmness with which it is contemplated as possible that "much that is now in bad odor [as affecting the family]" may come to be accepted as normal, in an arrangement that "would make a stable home for the children while leaving marriage dissoluble at the will of either party." Professor Santayana seems to be an idealist; he has much to say of ideals and ideal values; he affirms that "it is not for man's interest to live unless he can live in the spirit." But his idealism seems to be larger in the intellectual than in the moral realm. A suspicion of this is raised by his criticism of Kant's "Critique of the Practical Reason" as a "weak reconstruction." It is not dispelled by his conception of civilization as consisting in material development,

In

instead of in the moralization, the humanization of man, as Matthew Arnold held. the criticism that moralists" attach morals to religion rather than to politics" a positive misconception both of morals and religion is betrayed, with a preference for their divorce, fatal to both, as history shows this to have always been. And when we are told that "reason has no independent method of discovering values," and that "the only possible pleasures is the will that chooses," one can criterion for the relative values of pains and hardly see how an anarchic moral solipsism could be more plainly avowed. Psychologically, as well as ethically, objection must be taken to the theory that our ideals can effect nothing toward their realization; that consciousness is worthless as a cause; that our purposes cannot be our helpers. Nor does Professor Santayana seem to have made, either psychologically or ethically, an adequate study of the greatest figure, the greatest dynamic force in history, when he finds no more in Jesus than the feminine traits

depicted by medieval art-“ tenderness and pathos;" and in Christianity nothing more remedial for evil than "prayer, penance, and patience." Ingenious, keen, and brilliant in a purely intellectual way, as all must confess Professor Santayana's pragmatic treatment of the life of reason to be, those who are intent on a profounder moral pragmatism will, we fear, lay the volume containing it down with disappointment and regret. The remaining volumes of the series will treat of Reason in religion, in art, and in science. Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John. By William Sharp McKechnie, M.A., LL.B., D.Phil. The Macmillan Co., New York. 5% x9 in. 607 pages. $4.50, net. It is only a few months since Mr. Edward Jenks argued plausibly in the columns of the "Independent Review" that the famous Charter of King John, so long extolled as the palladium of English liberties, has been greatly overrated; that it was the product, not of a national movement, but of the selfish action of the barons; and that, instead of materially furthering England's advance to constitutional freedom and national unity, it was rather a bar to progress, being feudal and reactionary in intention and effect. Now comes the first exhaustive commentator on "Magna Carta" since the days of Richard Thomson, to sustain in large measure Mr. Jenks's contentions, and to sustain them by an appeal to that most impartial of tribunals-modern research. Magna Carta, he shows in an original exposition of thirteenthcentury life in England, and a masterly point by point analysis of the Charter itself, was in the main a series of concessions to feudal selfishness, was of the essence of class legislation. But-and herewith is undermined the position of all who would have us lose faith in the venerated agreement-he also shows how, despite its shortcomings, it became, through the reinforcement of tradition, the powerful factor in constitutional progress we have been accustomed to consider it.