its editions, Josiah Strong addresses his audience in the same spirit: "There are certain great focal points of history toward which the lines of past progress have converged, and from which have radiated the moulding influences of the future. Such was the Incarnation; such was the German Reformation of the sixteenth century; and such are the closing years of the nineteenth century." Indeed, Turks and Bramins, Jews and Christians, all unite in watching for some one, and a golden age; and all are agreed, at least in one thing, that an Advent is at hand.

Theosophists, too, and Kabbalists join in this common watch, and confidently announce that there is a mystic presence in the very air; and even infidels are convinced of the nearness of an era which they designate as that of "the Coming Man," whom they, however, only hope to find in evolution and the like.

This hope is everywhere, and not only among deeper thinkers, but, ever and anon, it also stalks like a spectre through the common intellect, quickens the universal heart, and formulates an ill-defined unrest.

It will be agreed that all men are now ready not to be surprised at anything, and are always on the qui vive for some newer and more startling tidings out of rumorland. Look, for instance, politically at Greece. All reports agree that the Greek populace is simply delirious with joy over the late royal marriage, and that no such excited public welcome has been seen in a European capital before our times. Why? Simply because the heir apparent has made a brilliant match with a Prussian princess? Not at all. The secret of the popular fervor lies in the old familiar tradition that the glories of the ancient Greek empire would be revived when a ruler named Constantine should wed a bride named Sophia. It is said that the young prince was avowedly named in

deference to this tradition, and to the exuberant Athenian imagination there is nothing less than the hand of destiny in the fact that his German bride bears the name of Sophia.*

In Constantinople the Mohammedans have looked with growing dread, of late years, upon the face of the Saviour reappearing through the paint which centuries ago was put upon the dome of Saint Sophia to conceal it. This was when it was changed from a Christian temple to a mosque. There is a common belief that the edifice is now unsafe, will soon fall, and tradition states that with its fall "the Sick Man's " rule will pass forever out of Europe.

In Italy there is a parallel tradition with reference to the Church of Rome. But a single niche now remains to receive the bust of a pope apotheosized. When the present Leo XIII. dies, his own will occupy this last remaining niche, and there will be no room for that of his successor in the Papal Gallery. Does this portend a pedestal elsewhere-or what?

What indeed does this consensus of tradition mean, this concert of human superstition? Something, surely; and latent though it be, in shadowy vestments still, he reads but crudely through the lines of current human thought who does not feel impressed by the proportions of the intense expectancy that wraps a waiting world.

In the mean time it is with our own race that we are most concerned, and, as it now occupies the central place among the throngs upon the stage, let us draw nearer to the footlights and read its score upon the programme.

*Christian Herald.

II.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF FACTS.

HONOR to whom honor is due. It was Frederick III. of Austria who invented, for the fictitious empire of the Hapsburgs, the formula A. E. I. O. U.; but events have shown the true cipher and its reading to be

A. E. I. O. U. Y.

ANGLIE EST IMPERARE ORBI UNIVERSO YISRAELÆIt is for the Anglo-Israelites to dominate the Universe. With this correction we adopt the formula, and rewrite it in the vowels of a tongue which has already established itself as the human voice of coming generations.

This is the day of "false Christs," "false prophets," "false creeds," "false weights," and "false science. It was foreseen of old, and none of these tares, which are to grow up with the wheat, until the harvest-time, is so ambitious, now, as the "false language"-Volapükwhose votaries aspire to make it universal, in the very face of facts which give the field already to the Saxon tongue. "The pure language" in which God's people "shall serve him with one consent" has not been left for modern genius to construct, and while "in the last ten years there have been no less than ten different attempts to produce a language which should be still simpler and more perfect than Volapük," the English language has prosecuted its conquests none the less effectively because without ostentation, and those who use it do not hesitate to translate the word of God into all other languages-except Volapük-pending, in faith,

the day when all men shall be glad to read it in their

own.

As the present century draws near its close,—a century whose annals have cut themselves too indelibly into the tablets of history ever to be lost hereafter,—it is meet that we review our past a moment, so we may with more philosophy look on towards what future years have probably in store.

There is no fact so prominently before the human race to-day as that which records the unprecedented growth of the Anglo-Saxon race. It is a theme that has already focussed the attention of all other races, and has filled their wisest statesmen with concern. And it may well enlist attention; for if there be a prophecy in facts, it is a subject calculated to exercise the self-preserving sentiment of all surrounding peoples.

If the "survival of the fittest" be indeed a sound principle of progress, then it legitimately sweeps into the "struggle for existence" not only the individuals within a class, but, far more broadly, it must ultimately involve the very destiny of the class itself, and hence in its relentless working the fate of nations is wound up. Nor is this fate to be considered a remote contingency from modern stand points.

Though it is sometimes true that statistics are misleading, those which stand as the exponents of present Anglo-Saxon greatness are far too powerful to be slightingly dismissed, if we are intelligently to discuss the equation of earthly human destiny. Prolific beyond all former precedent, this race is doubling at a ratio that has already grievously alarmed all the other and enlightened denizens upon our narrow sphere.

In the decade from 1870 to 1880 the world increased about 9 per cent in population. In the mean time,

Great Britain increased 10, the United States 31, Australia 56, Canada 141, and South Africa (AngloSaxon) 73 per cent. No other nation, save Belgium, has increased over 11 per cent, and France but 1.67 per

cent.

At such a rate of increase all other nations must in time be smothered out: and this is just what rival statesmen fear and yet are impotent to check. M. PrévostParadol, commenting upon this topic, strikes its keynote as follows: "Two rival powers, but only one as to race, language, customs, and laws-England and Americaare, with the exception of Europe, dominating the world. How is it possible not to recollect we could once have hoped that our race and language would be chosen by European civilization to invade the remainder of the world? We had every chance on our side. It was France which, through Canada and Louisiana, began to embrace North America; India seemed to belong to us; and were it not for the mistakes political liberty could have spared to our forefathers, the language and blood of France would, in all likelihood, occupy in the world the place the language and blood of England have irrevocably conquered; for destiny has spoken, and at least two portions of the globe, America and Oceanica, henceforth and forever belong to the Anglo-Saxon race. Moreover, nowadays, a book written in English is much more widely read than if it had been written in French; and it is with English words that the navigator is hailed on almost all the accessible coasts of the earth.

"However," he continues, "this actual predominance of the Anglo-Saxon race everywhere out of Europe is but a feeble image of what an approaching future has in store for us. According to the most moderate calculation, founded on the increase of population during the last de