AMID THE CORN. By the Author of " The Evening and the Morning." "He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." HERE was a great deal of noise and bluster in the ample hall,-stamping of feet, blowing of hands, and buffeting of arms,-before the party were prepared to enter the room. When they did so, Mr. Freeheart, following his guests with his round, rubicund face, which acted like a copper reflector on the remotest corner of the apartment, called out in a lusty voice, "Heap on more wood'— What's the rest of it, Hettie ? I can never remember a whole line of verse, and I was more punished for being unable to learn Dr. Watts' hymns at school than for any other fault whatever. What's the rest of it, you little jade?" "Why, uncle, I have told you six times already in two days Heap on more wood; the wind is shrill, We'll keep our Christmas merry still.' "And a very good lay too," said Mr. Freeheart; "and we'll at once put it into operation." Saying this, he proceeded to pile up some enormous logs on the fire, while Willie, drawing up to Hettie's side, began to tell her the tale of their rough ramble, and what glorious work it was to breast the driving snow and the cutting blast. "But I have been for a ramble too," said Hettie. "You? Why, where on earth have you been on such a morning as this? Not out in the snow?" "No; I have had a summer's walk, and that's much more glorious, as you call it, than being knocked about by wind and half-blinded by ice." "A summer walk in mid-winter! Come, expound, expound," cried Harry Thomson, while Mr. Freeheart took up the word and half deafened us with its iteration. "It is Mr. Romaine's riddle," said Hettie, laughing, "and I must leave him to explain it." "Well, then," I said, "the truth of the matter is this, we have been in the corn-fields." "Every square yard in them at this moment is two feet deep in snow," said Mr. Freeheart. "A spiritual ramble," I explained. "We have been taking a mental excursion into the region where Divine Thoughts grow, and we have gathered one of them, and have got some good out of it, and eaten it." "Much good may it do you," said Mr. Freeheart, in a state of the densest perplexity, from which he sought relief by cracking revengefully half a dozen ginger-bread nuts and helping himself to a glass of sherry. 66 But, Mr. Freeheart," I said, "this is Christmas; and while it is a good thing to be able to defy the weather and crack ginger-bread nuts, we should remember that He whose great work we commemorate at this season is not praised merely by fun and feasting." "You seemed to think so yesterday and the day before, anyhow," said the farmer with a boisterous laugh, in which all the others, including Hettie, joined. "True," I replied; "Hettie has told me this morning that I am a funny man, and therefore I suppose I am as light-hearted as any of you; but seeing that all the beauty and all the bounty of earth, all the brightness and all the sweetness of this nineteenth century, we owe to the love and power of the Marvellous Babe who grew to be our Redeemer from darkness and death, I thought we, that is, Hettie and I,-might with propriety indulge in a little serious and reverential conversation." Certainly, certainly," said Mr. Freeheart; "God gives all: God be thanked." "So Hettie and I have been talking about the beautiful story in which Christ is described as walking in the cornfields with His disciples, while they are said to have gathered the ears of corn and to have rubbed off the chaff, and eaten them." "And, Willie," said Hettie, "Mr. Romaine says that the Word of God is one great corn-field, that all the laws and principles in it are the ears of corn, and that we have hands in which to gather them and rub away the husk." "How charming and how poetical!" said Willie satirically. "Have we not "And yet how true!" I exclaimed. all powers and faculties with which we may grasp the truth, and, brushing away the external appearance in which it is clothed, get at the inner substance?" Mr. Freeheart, whose attention had been commanded for a few minutes, here collapsed, but Mr. Morse entered into the thought and took it up immediately. "Ah, I see," he said; "very good and very fine. As I said, it is so charming and poetical that I am not surprised that Hettie is fascinated by it. The Gospels, of course, are good in parts. Their morality is good. Jesus was doubtless a wise and good Man. But even He had too much of the Jew element in Him, and there is too much of the Jew book in the New Testament for my liking." "Indeed!" I replied; "where do you find this Jew element in the New Testament ?" "Why, you know," he answered, "it repeats the old tale about the 'jealous God,' the God who will have vengeance. Thomas Cooper has set it forth in his poem called 'The Purgatory of Suicides,' a book which I suppose he is ashamed of now, and which was much overpraised when it was first published, but which is now too much despised. I remember he says the doctrine of the New Testament is 'Love Him; or He will magnify And then he asks 'O Christ, how can I love what doth outvie This monstrous Thing derived from an old monster Faith?' Now I ask precisely the same question." "And where do you learn that the Gospels teach this?" I asked. "Why, you need not stray from the subject you have already introduced-the Wheat and the Chaff. Is it not said, 'He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire?"" "Certainly," I answered; "that is an ear of corn, and if we rub it in our hands perchance we may find in it something to eat. That is a Divine Truth, and there is something good in it. The good in it is what will nourish us. nourish us. He feedeth the hungry soul with goodness."" Mr. Freeheart looked up at me at this allusion to a "hungry soul" as if he were considering whether it had any connection with a hungry body. "Now Hettie," I continued, "you maiden with the large hand, gather for us what we want, and hold it up before us." Hettie smiled, and so, for the matter of that, did her argumentative lover; for he thought he had now an opportunity for an intellectual victory. She turned at once to the Bible and read, "Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into His garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."* "There it is," exclaimed Mr. Morse; "burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.' There's the character of the Jew God to the life." "Give me your idea of the passage." "Gather the wheat into the garner;' that means that some will be received into heaven. 'Burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire;' that means that the rest will be cast into hell. Is not that 'horribleness of wrath' and vengeance?" "I think," I replied, "that a little rubbing in our hands is required. There's something we want to get rid of. 'Fire.' What is this fire? Is it not God's fire? What kind of an element is that?" Mr. Freeheart was again in a fearful state of perplexity, and, by the association of ideas, rose and vehemently stirred the blazing logs upon the hearth. "Do you think, Mr. Morse, that we are justified in supposing that the fire indicated in this passage is something like a furnace of blazing logs?" "I don't know what other interpretation to put upon it," said Willie, shrugging his shoulders. "Is it not written in the preceding verse, Hettie, that Jesus was to baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire ?" "Certainly," said Hettie, reading the passage aloud. "Is not the Holy Ghost' with which Christ baptizes a spiritual force? And is it not fair to conclude that the fire with which He baptizes is a spiritual force too?" "Well, perhaps you are right," he said, smiling; "in that case I give up the blazing logs." "And if you allow that 'fire' means a spiritual force in verse ten, what have you to advance against its having the same meaning in verse eleven?" "He can have nothing whatever," said Hettie. "Ah, well," I continued, "there's something, then, that we have rubbed off. We have got rid of the idea of natural or material fire. That little bit of chaff is gone." Hettie and Willie laughed at this sally, and Mr. Freeheart joined in the merriment. "But there is a little more to do. I will take your view of this passage, Willie, excluding the idea of the blazing logs. Your notion evidently is that the floor is the spiritual world. The wheat denotes the spirits of good men and the chaff the spirits of evil men. They are all mingled together in that world like wheat and chaff, and the fan separates them." "That is undoubtedly the idea presented to us in the passage," said Mr. Morse. 66 Now, good persons are honest, and evil persons are dishonest. Good men and women are chaste, and evil men and women are adulterous. Good minds delight in moral and spiritual discourse and conversation, evil minds in profane and disgusting babble. Is it well for either that two classes so utterly opposed in their tastes and inclinations should be so mixed as to form one society?" "Perhaps not," said Willie thoughtfully, and with some little reluctance. "Why man," said Mr. Freeheart, "the thing is out of Matt. iii. 12. all character. The kine must be turned into the neathouse and the swine into the sty." "I take it, then," I continued, laughing at the roughand-ready illustration, in spite of the gravity of the subject, "that it is well for them both to be separated." Ah, there's no mistake about that," said Mr. Freeheart emphatically. "It is well for the good that they should be freed from the annoyance of the evil, and well for the evil that they should be freed from the presence and the annoy ance of the good. Profane and disgusting talkers cannot like the society of those whose discourse is clean and wise." "True," muttered Mr. Freeheart, while Mr. Morse suffered the remark to pass unchallenged. "Observe then,” I said, "we have succeeded a little further. We have now rubbed off the idea of a vengeful, jealous God who separates the evil from the good in order to torment them. We now find that the evil are separated from the good that they may not be tormented, as they would be by the sight and influence of goodness." Hettie clapped her hands so excitedly that Willie, although he was in a very pleasant humour and not at all hot, as she said he would be, looked round at her reprovingly. "Never mind," I continued; "it is only her poetical temperament. She wants the coolness and judgment of the philosopher. But now the natural ideas of 'vengeance' and 'fire' are rubbed away,-they are gone, consumed, burnt up!" There was a moment's silence at the announcement of a view so novel and unexpected. At length Hettie said timidly, "Don't you see, Willie, those natural ideas are, as Mr. Romaine would say, the chaff, and they-they" "Well," I continued, taking up her remark, "they have been removed by intellectual friction; separated in our reason by a Divine influence operating there like a fan; and now burned up by the Divine Love flaming in our hearts, which love will not suffer us to entertain any unworthy thoughts of our Heavenly Father." 66 Ah," said Mr. Morse, "that is very rich indeed, to define the fire as Divine Love! Where are your authorities?" "Here is one little one," said Hettie; "but it is only by a poet. Edmund Waller says- 'Love there revealed which never shall have end, Waller says that love is a flame that warms us, and Mr. Romaine says that it is a fire in us which burns up all loose, wrong thoughts about God." "Capital," I exclaimed; "you have hit it exactly." "It is only necessary, Hettie," said Mr. Morse, "to give the reins to your imagination, and a sow's ear will be transformed speedily into a silken purse." "We need not give the reins to our imagination in these investigations," I remarked; "all we need to do is to give scope and exercise to our rational faculty. You have admitted that when it is said that Jesus will baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire' it is only fair to interpret it as having reference to some spiritual force. Now is it not equally fair to conclude that the force signified by the 'Holy Ghost' is Divine Truth, for the Holy Ghost is also called the Spirit of Truth; and that the force signified by 'fire' is Divine Love, which, as Hettie has quoted from Waller, is that flame which first from heaven to make us happy came?'" "I will candidly admit," he observed, "that you have hit upon one happy passage which seems to serve your purpose, and so far I congratulate you on your success.' "But there are many others," I continued. "For instance, Jesus said, 'I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I if it be already kindled.' You will admit that that also means a spiritual force which Christ came to diffuse among mankind?" "I shall neither deny it nor admit it." "Well, and that force is His love which He came to kindle in men's hearts. Again, in the despised Jew Again, in the despised Jew book (Isaiah iv. 4) it is said that God will purge the blood of Jerusalem by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning. That, of course, means the same as baptizing with the Holy Ghost and with fire. In other words, it declares that our Heavenly Father will purify His children with the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Love." "I don't object to your teaching, Mr. Romaine," said Willie, "and I should not object to that of the Bible if I thought it was the same. But it appears to me that you have higher and more human views than the old Biblical scribes, and that you infuse into their writings a spirit. entirely foreign to their own, and which you have caught from this nineteenth century." "Why, Willie," I replied, "I have put no ideas into the passage. We have simply rubbed away the chaff, which consisted of 'Divine vengeance' and 'material fire,' and neither you nor I have found anything beneath but Divine Love-love toward the good and love toward the evil. But there is a higher view I wish to take of this passage. We must take the ear and rub it again." At this moment Lilian Freeheart, our host's daughter, who had been superintending domestic arrangements during the morning, entered and summoned us to dinner. The farmer jumped up, and shaking Harry Thomson, who, oblivious of our conversation, had fallen asleep in the great arm-chair, worn out by his labours in getting through the snow, roared out to him, "Don't you hear? 'The tocsin'- What is it, Hettie? I never could remember a whole line of verse." "Why, uncle, "The tocsin of the soul, the dinner bell."" "WATCH AND PRAY." (Luke xxi. 36.) A New Year's Sermon, preached at Camden Road Church, on January 6th, 1878. UR natural life is a succession of periods of wakefulness and sleep. In a state of wakefulness man is in the enjoyment of his own freewill and rationality; but in sleep these faculties are no longer in an active but in a passive state. In sleep man is in the exclusive charge of the Lord and of the spirits who watch over men's souls while they are in that state; and during it the equilibrium in a man's body, which has been disturbed during his hours of wakefulness, is restored. For when man is awake how unequally he exercises the powers both of his body and spirit! some of his nerves and muscles being strained to their utmost, while others are left in comparative idleness and passivity. As regards man's mind, its lower powers only, which reside in the body, and which correspond to the serpent, are generally exercised to the full, while his higher powers, those powers with which he is able to compass spiritual and Divine things, are left unemployed. Wherefore, when a man is seen in spiritual light, he appears normally developed as to his external and natural part, while as to his spiritual part he appears shrivelled up and deformed. It is a law of natural dietetics that the body, to be in a state of health, must be exercised, and that any part of it which is not exercised and maintained in a proper state of activity remains weak and stunted. Unless a child be taught to walk, and unless its sinews and muscles be maintained in a healthy state of activity, that is, the activity corresponding to the use for which they have been created, its feet will in time lose the power of walking; and if a child grow up in darkness, and be not taught the use of the organs of sense, the use of these organs will become impaired, and it will grow up a second Caspar Hauser. So also it is with man's mind; in order that he may be in the full enjoyment of his higher and lower mental faculties, they must be exercised. That he may see and hear, that is, that impressions from the natural world. may enter his understanding through the senses of sight and hearing, these senses have to be exercised and trained; and according to the training they receive will be man's power of seeing and hearing in the natural world. If his sense of hearing has not been taught to distinguish between dissonance and harmony, his ear will not be able to notice them; and if his eye has not been trained to perceive beauty in nature, in fiction, and in the fine arts, it will remain unaffected by the most beautiful objects. A man's sense of beauty is the result of education and training. Again, it is a further law of natural dietetics that the state of the body is determined by the air it breathes and the food it eats. A man whose lungs have been accustomed to breathe the pure mountain air is oppressed by the dense and sultry air of the plains; and if any one is accustomed to a simple, rustic diet, the rich and highly-seasoned food of townspeople sickens and nauseates him. A similar effect is noticed with plants; they thrive and prosper in a rich and luxurious soil, but they remain small and puny in a poor or exhausted soil. So is it also with a man's mind; its nature is determined by the mental food which you supply to it. Unless, therefore, the mind be fitted by instruction for the reception of a particular branch of human science or knowledge, it is vain for you to present such knowledge; it cannot receive it, because it is unfitted to receive it. That a man, therefore, may be able to appreciate a philosophical argument, he has to be trained by previous philosophical study; and that he may be able to see and appreciate a point in law, he must have studied law; for a man's mental vision, the eye of his understanding, is formed and shaped by his previous course of study. A medical man, therefore, by his previous course of study, and the application he has bestowed upon it, is enabled to understand medical questions; a man of business, questions of business; and a navigator, questions pertaining to navigation. These men also in their particular branches of life and of study, are wide awake, and if you remove them out of their particular sphere of life and of study, into one for which they have not been fitted, and in which they are not interested, they sink at once into a state of comparative drowsiness and sleep. All that has thus far been stated respecting man, considered as an inhabitant of the natural world, applies also to him as an inhabitant of the spiritual world. For natural knowledge, and a life in accordance with natural knowledge, enables man to live in the natural world; but it does not enable him to live in that part of the spiritual world which is in the Lord's presence, and thus in a state of order. In order to be accounted worthy to stand in the presence of the Son of Man," or in other words, in order to dwell in that world where the Divine Truth emanating from the Lord Jesus Christ prevails, our spiritual organization must be prepared for the Lord's presence. The lungs of our spirit, the faculty of our understanding, must, by previous instruction, have been rendered fit to breathe the atmosphere of heaven, and to receive and appropriate spiritual food; and the eye of our spirit must have been taught and trained to see in spiritual, and not merely in natural, light. An eye which has been trained simply to distinguish objects which appear in natural light is not thereby trained and enabled to see spiritual truths, such as are taught in the interior sense of the Word of God. In order to discern spiritual truths, the eye of man's spirit must, by previous study and by a previous corresponding life on man's part, have been trained to see in spiritual light. Man cannot be awake and asleep at the same time; he cannot believe in the omnipotence of God and of nature at the same time. But if a man's mind is trained to see only in natural light, and to believe only such things as appear in it, it is spiritually asleep, and is thereby unfitted to see in spiritual light and to be spiritually awake. As to his body, man is alternately in a state of sleep and in a state of wakefulness; but as to his spirit, he must be constantly in a spirit of wakefulness, if "he would be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass," that is, those things which are described in the chapter from which the words of our text are taken, and which treat of the consummation of the age, or of the consummation of the Church in the hearts of individuals or of mankind at large. The Church is consummated in an individual when he occupies a position hostile to the truth which God has revealed from heaven; and when he confirms himself in favour of the light of nature, such a man also denies God at heart, and the God whom he worships is his own prudence, his own knowledge, and his own intelligence. Such men in the sight of the Lord and the angels are asleep. But the Lord counsels all men to watch, and in our text he further tells them to watch, or to be wakeful, all the time; for only when we are wakeful all the time, when we are never spiritually asleep, shall we be able "to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man." Our minds, however, to be spiritually awake, must be stored with spiritual knowledges, and by reflecting and meditating on them they must be trained to see in spiritual light. A mind which only receives spiritual knowledge passively, and which does not also accustom itself to think and reflect upon it, is unable to see in spiritual light. It is not sufficient to receive spiritual food; it must, like natural food, also be digested, and unless it be digested and introduced into man's spiritual system, it is of no real and permanent use to him. But man is not only taught in our text to keep spiritually awake, but also to pray; and by this a spiritual state of worship of the soul is meant. A soul is in an internal or spiritual state of worship when it humbles itself before the Lord and obeys His commandments. Prayer, therefore, in the internal sense, is a state of man's life, and unless it is a state of man's life, and not merely a formula breathed by his lips, it is of no avail. Yet the prayer of the lips when it is the outward expression of an internal acknowledgment of the Lord; when man, therefore, in prayer, spiritually prostrates himself before the Lord, devoting himself exclusively to the Lord's service-then prayer avails much. For it raises man from natural into spiritual light. It therefore opens man's eyes so that he can see himself as he appears in spiritual light; his secret faults are then brought before him; he sees where he has transgressed, and, conscious of having sinned against his Lord and Master, he prays to be forgiven his debts, even as he forgives his debtors. By such prayers a man is brought into the Lord's presence, and enabled "to stand before the Son of Man" such prayers avail much. Yet man, as we read in our text, should not only watch, but also pray all the time. And by this, in the spiritual sense, is meant that he must be in a state of worship as to his soul; as is the case when in his everyday duties he acts from the love of the Lord and the sincere love of the neighbour. He, therefore, is spiritually in a state of prayer, who quickly and unobtrusively, and without making much ado, does his everyday duties; and who by a cheerful and friendly countenance, and a gentle, comforting tone of voice, relieves others of their burdens and troubles. Men and women who are spiritually in a state of prayer are never ruffled or in a bad temper, neither are they cold, unfriendly, and stiff, and still less impolite and rude towards others. They have for all a friendly word. If they are inwardly oppressed by sorrows and cares, they do not throw their burdens heedlessly on others, and make them feel uncomfortable and unhappy. When they have sorrowful or disagreeable news to impart, they do it in the gentlest and mildest form, so as not to wound the feelings of others. The man or the woman who is inwardly in a state of communion with the Lord looks freely and openly in your face; they have nothing to hide from you; their soul is an open book; and never would they be guilty of a mean or cowardly action. A man who is at peace with his Maker, and who watches and prays in His sight, need not be afraid when the Lord's summons comes to him, and he is called from this world into the Lord's immediate presence; for "he is accounted worthy to escape all those things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man." The removal of such a man or woman from this transitory sphere of existence ought therefore not to be a cause of sorrow and mourning, but rather to be an incentive to us, especially at the opening of a new year, to strive to follow in their footsteps, and "to watch all the time, praying that we also may be accounted worthy to escape all those things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man." R. L. TAFEL. 2 P INDIFFERENCE. ROBABLY there is no common vice more fatal to the development of our moral and mental nature, than that of indifference. It is the great internal stumbling-block in the pathway of progress, a heavy and dead weight operating powerfully to retard all motion. The air of opposition is bracing and invigorating, that of indifference is lethargic and stagnating. For example, some measure is before the country for the effecting of certain social or political improvements. Who are its greatest enemies? Not the men who honestly and persistently oppose it, but those who "don't care how it is." The man who "doesn't care" will not be at the trouble to investigate; whereas he who does care, and strongly objects, will examine it if only that he may discover the weak points; will think about it, if only to determine in his own mind how best to oppose it; and will talk about it, and thus call attention to the subject. And though opposition often causes the postponement of really desirable changes, their adoption is easier to secure in the teeth of a violent opposition than in the face of a stolid and widespread indifference. Beyond this, there is a far greater probability of converting a conscientious opponent, and thus of gaining a helper, than there is of convincing one who objects to the trouble of thinking about what you say to him. The "don't care" people are not only of little credit to themselves, they are a thorough nuisance to society at large, mere cumberers of the ground, impervious alike to argument and ridicule, and altogether a very unsatisfactory specimen of the human race. Race is rather too stirring a term for them; they should more properly be described as members of the human crawl. There are few situations more trying than that of an earnest and intelligent man trying to get up a conversation with one of the "don't care" fraternity. "What do you think about the present state of the Education Question?" "Education is a matter I take very little interest in." Tries again, with a reference to modern scientific research: "Nothing in my way." Quotes poetry: "All moonshine." Refers to some event in history: "What's the use of bothering about the past?" Hazards a conjecture respecting the future: "Oh, it's no use our speculating about the future." Endeavours to interest them in the present position of the labouring classes: "Always are in some condition or other." Passes on to our foreign relations: "We've plenty to do at home without troubling ourselves about foreigners." Points out the immorality existing: "It's a great pity." Draws attention to the poverty and destitution in the immediate neighbourhood: "Very sad; somebody ought to see things put on a better footing." People that try to pass through the world in such a state of indifference cannot be said to live, they scarcely exist. Their hearts are cold, their intellects undeveloped; they are in a state of perpetual sleepiness, with scarcely enough energy to dream. And as it is in social and mental matters, so it is in religious affairs. Indifference blocks the way of progress; indifference to the value of truth, indifference to the use of our privilege, indifference to the performance of our duties. We need to be more in earnest. Recognizing the existence of ignorance and sin in ourselves and in those around us, we need to realize our own responsibilities in relation to these twin enemies of human souls. Shutting our eyes against the state of things around us will not effect an improvement. Let us look our work in the face by the aid of the clear light of the New Age. There is much to be done, and we ought to do it. In the diffusion of knowledge upon all points, in the promotion of civil and religious liberty, in the removal of the shackles of priestly domination, in the efforts to ameliorate the condition of the sick and the poor, members of the New Church have a right to be in the van. We need to be alive, fully alive, to our position and our power. Above all, let us shun indifference, which operates upon our mental nature like the upas tree of ancient fable was said to act upon the physical condition of those coming within range of its influences. It saps the energies, weakens the power to think, and robs the soul of its capabilities of perfection. It is the enemy of civilization, the foe of education, the destroyer of reason, the assassin of virtue. Its influences seem to throw a deadly languor all around; its very name is enervating, and its presence is death. SEDAN. SUNBEAM AND FOUNTAIN. A PARABLE FOR OLD AND YOUNG. Sun UNBEAM and Fountain were playmates. beam loved her friend dearly, and promised to present her with a beautiful robe, resplendent with all the colours of the rainbow, similar to those he had bestowed upon many of Fountain's lovely companions. Fountain leaped into the air for joy, as she thought how envious her companions would be of her dazzling beauty when decked out in the variegated costume prepared for her with such wondrous skill. strange to relate, no sooner did poor vain Fountain attempt to put the garment on than its bright colours vanished. But Fountain wept bitter tears from very vexation, and accused Sunbeam of favouritism; but Sunbeam assured her there was no difference between her robe and those of others. At last in her dilemma Fountain consulted a wise friend, who said to her, "Observe how pure your companions are, while you are defiled! Emulate them in avoiding all contamination, and, like them, you will find Sunbeam's present will render you an object of attraction to all." J. C. B. REVIEWS. The Year Book of Facts in Science and the Arts, 1877. By JAMES MASON. London: Ward, Lock, & Co. The Annual Summary: A Complete Chronicle of Events at Home and Abroad, 1877. By JAMES MASON. London: Ward, Lock, & Co. T the present time, when discoveries and developments in every department of nature and art proceed at such a rapid pace, and when the events of history itself seem to be concentrated in a manner formerly unknown, the above works merit the attention. of all who desire to keep themselves well informed. The first named gives in sections the facts of the year on all subjects of material progress, ranging from home economy and food supplies to the animal world, heat and light, the machinery of war, together with nearly twenty-five other divisions of a similar kind. The other work contains a complete chronicle of home news, of the proceedings of Parliament, of events in the colonies and the various countries of Europe, etc.; also a summary of everything of importance that has transpired in literature, art, music, the drama, religion, education, antiquities, anecdotes, and bon-mots, statistics, notices of the eminent persons who have died during the year; and, finally, respecting wills and bequests. Contemporary events are so variously and so partially shown in the newspapers from day to day as they are enacting themselves that, unless of the first importance, they often leave very vague, and in some cases even contradictory, impressions; and when a person is less than an inveterate newspaper reader many breaks occur in the information he gathers from them which, unless he is specially interested in the topics, is, after the time has passed, never supplied at all. It is therefore of great service to the busy man of business to have everything worth knowing respecting the facts and events of the past year collected in a form so concise, so well arranged, andwhich is no small matter-so excellently indexed as are the present works. To give an example from the latter, which will, we think, both please and interest our readers, we quote the account it contains of the proceedings of the late Conference: |