to itself, and it is less what a man has done, than what he is. And we advocate popular culture, whether artistic or otherwise, not only, nor principally, because it makes the more skilled craftsman-though this must ever have a high place in consideration, for we know that better skill in one generation is the postulate of a higher standard of workmen in another-but because it widens the mind and elevates the sentiment, creates a nobler humanity and a being more like the Divine.

WHAT THE CRIMEAN WAR DID NOT DO.

T did not settle the Eastern Question, which within the last few

the peace or Europe.

did not give to Turkey the permanent material guarantees which were thought necessary against Russian aggression, since the provisions introduced into the treaty of peace for that purpose have been given up with the common consent of all the signatary Powers, including Turkey itself. It did not diminish the influence of Russia in the east of Europe, but on the contrary largely added to it, by enabling that State to appear as the protector and champion of the oppressed Christian races, while England appeared as the friend of the oppressors. It did not regenerate Turkey, seeing that since the war it has been hastening more rapidly than ever to dissolution, as bankrupt finances, a decaying population, official corruption and incapacity, and chronic disaffection and anarchy throughout the whole country, abundantly testify. It did not secure the independence of the Ottoman Empire, as during the last twenty years the other Powers have been more than ever meddling incessantly in its internal affairs, sometimes by bombarding a town, sometimes by occupying a province with armed forces, sometimes by appointing Commissioners to regulate its finances, or to look after the administration of justice, and consequently by diplomatic dictations, remonstrances, and threats. It did not secure freedom and safety to the Christian subjects of the Porte, because the oppressions they endure, every now and then breaking forth into wholesale massacres, as at Jeddah and Damascus, have been growing more and more intolerable until they have culminated in the unutterable atrocities which have recently filled the world with horror and indignation. It did not

conduce to the security of our Indian Empire, for it is at least a moot point whether the Russian war was not one of the proximate causes of the Indian Mutiny. What then did it accomplish? This and only this that it helped to consolidate and perpetuate the Turkish dominion in Europe, and to rivet the yoke of Mahommedan oppression on the necks of the groaning millions of the Christian subjects of the Porte. We refer to these things now, not because some measure of change has taken place in popular opinion upon this subject, and because some who twenty years ago thought we were then doing the right thing have come now to think very differently; but because they have a very practical bearing upon actual events.

The heavy pall which quite recently hung over the immediate future has indeed lifted somewhat; but it is too much to hope that the danger of the crisis has altogether passed away. Any day some new complication may arise in the East which will call for the greatest circumspection on the part of our Government, and in dealing with which they may need to be fortified by the expression of the national will. Up to the present time the real conflict between the two belligerents can scarcely be said to have begun ; but important engagements must almost inevitably take place within the next fortnight, and a decisive advantage may be gained by either side within that time, such as may put an altogether new complexion on the strife. Already Roumania has declared herself independent, and is asking that she shall be recognised as such by the Great Powers of Europe. It is hard to say why she should not be, as it will certainly be for the benefit of the united Principalities that they should be free to act as their Government sees best, and to be represented at the Courts of Europe by their own ministers, instead of by those of the Porte; and certainly the annual tribute they have had to pay the Sultan would have been more profitably spent in Bucharest than in Constantinople. Then there is its immediate neighbour Servia. Last year that little state may have had enough of fighting, but even if it remains neutral in the war, it cannot be so to diplomacy. The recent history of Crete is too familiar to allow us to suppose that she can remain an indifferent spectator; a serious defeat of the Turks would be her natural opportunity; and, on the other hand, the success of their arms would arouse the Cretans lest the last rays of hope should be

extinguished altogether. The tributary states of Africa-Egypt and Tunis-are called by their Suzerain to his help; and it even seems that the independent tribes of Arabia are being invited to join the Turks on the ground of their common faith. If the last respond to the call, their natural route to the scene of action would be through the Suez Canal, and that might establish an inconvenient precedent.

The future, therefore, is not without its difficulties, and its dangers too; and the English nation may easily drift into another Eastern war, even though she may have the fullest purpose of profiting by the lessons of the past twenty years, and so avoiding being dragged or driven into another war, the only object of which would be to uphold for a brief space longer the most execrable system of government under the sun—a system doomed, as all incurably wicked and corrupt things are doomed, alike by the laws of nature and the decrees of Providence, to perish from the face of the earth.

РЕВН

INDISPOSITION TO PRAYER.

ERHAPS there is not a more frequent form of temptation by the Spirit of Evil than his constant endeavours to indispose the souls of God's people towards the exercise of prayer. Christ has commanded us to pray 66 always," and St. Paul exhorts us to pray "without ceasing." The poet Montgomery says "Prayer is the Christian's vital breath." And precisely because of this, its preeminent value and importance, Satan directs his most persistent efforts to prevent prayer, and to render it a difficult and unfervent duty. As is well known, one of the numerous evils connected with horse-racing is the practice of drugging beforehand, with some narcotic, certain horses whose speed is likely to interfere with the wagers laid by the low black-legs of the turf. A similar fraud is practised by Satan upon thousands of Christians daily. He renders them indisposed towards prayer. Feeling this, but not aware of the source of the mischief, they conclude that they cannot pray now, that they are too weak, or not in a fit frame of mind, and that therefore they must wait till better qualified. It is well that Christians should feel their inability to pray aright in their own strength; but then they should at once ask God for His strength, and keep on

asking till He gives it. This is the real meaning of "waiting upon God." Waiting means praying. At least, all right waiting means prayer. If there be waiting in the sense of delay or procrastination, it is not waiting upon God, but on the adversary of both God and man. Furthermore, the prayer which consists in wrestling importunity, in spite of the collateral narcotics of evil, is the more glorifying to God and the more strengthening to the soul. Yet sadly too often the attempts of the Evil one are successful in obtaining victims to his dissuasions from prayer, just as the natives of Eastern isles are said to catch fish by infusing an opiate mixture in pools and streams. This stupifies them and renders them an easy prey. The Christian needs daily vigilance against similar wiles of Satan, so frequent as to be perhaps seldom wholly absent from him, even during his best moments-his hours of devotion. But bold, prompt, persevering prayer will avail to drive away the tempter, by God's power and in Christ's name.

ASTRONOMY.-BY THE REV. T. W. WEBB, M.A., F.R.A.S.

HE complaints which have been made in these pages on former occasions of vapour-loaded and unpropitious skies, so far from being mitigated, have only become additionally applicable during the winter and spring that have passed over our heads. Few indeed have been the nights when the observer would leave a comfortable fire-side. We have, however, had some compensation in the fact that, as regards some branches of observation, little has been lost. For a long time no planet has been conveniently within our view except Uranus, an object with which not many ordinary telescopes can deal in a satisfactory manner. Few, therefore, are the notes that we can offer on the present occasion: yet they may not be wholly without interest.

The minimum period of sun-spots having passed by, we may now expect a renewal of these strange and unexplained phenomena; unexplained we may well call them, if not for ever unexplainable, as the abnormal condition of a surface of which, in its more usual state, so very little is known. One curious observation has come under

our notice; that of M. Janssen, on April 15. He found a spot of great size near the centre of the disc, 20" in diameter, with an area of disturbance round it of upwards of 2' in radius, where on the previous day nothing of the kind had existed. Mutable as these objects are known to be, perhaps there has never been an instance of so rapid a development of solar force (whatever those words may mean) on such a gigantic scale. The observations on each day were photographic; and it is interesting to observe this successful application of the process to record these marvellous phenomena. The employment of this most interesting art to astronomical purposes in general, in some respects a great step in advance, is not, however, without its serious drawbacks. Its great advantage lies in the perfect completeness and fidelity of the record. Every practised observer knows how possible it is through inadvertence to overlook details to which attention is not especially directed; in fact, how improbable it is that the whole of a minutely complicated object should make a complete and duly proportioned impression upon the mind. And besides this, it is questionable whether all eyes, even if equally acute and sensitive, are alike faithful in their estimates of proportion and position. And even if a fair approach to perfection were obtained in these respects, it is unfortunately notorious how few fingers are capable of reproducing the effect the eye has taken in. Either inaccuracy of proportion, or a tendency to exaggerate prominent features, or actual incompetency to harmonise details, even when correctly obtained, into a general likeness, will tend materially to impair the accuracy of hand representations; few perhaps would be aware to what a mortifying extent, unless they had undertaken the task of comparing astronomical drawings of the same object taken at the same hour by different observers. In all these respects photography has a clear advantage. It omits nothing: it misplaces nothing: it exaggerates nothing. In these essential respects the picture is perfect. Nevertheless it is not without a serious drawback. The image is seldom sharp enough to give with perfect fidelity the character of very minute details. This arises from no defect in the optical quality of the instrument, but simply from unsteadiness of outline caused by atmospheric undulation. Very few indeed are the occasions, at least in our climate, when such undulations are not perceptible, and too often very annoying.