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as well as the author of several excellent school books. Both herself and her sister, Mrs. Emma Willard, founder of the Troy Female Seminary, have deserved the gratitude of every friend of female education in this country. These ladies belong to the class of competitors of men who deserve to be revered and honored-a class who are, indeed, masculine in intellect and knowledge, but at the same time eminently feminine in modesty and delicacy. Neither of the sisters can now be much less than seventy years of age. Each established an educational institution, which was famous under her auspices. Both those institutions, we believe, still exist, but neither has the reputation it once had.

Mrs. Willard's Seminary was the first female institution we visited in this country; and our impression of it was, after having been present at several of its recitations; that it compared favorably with the best similar institutions of Europe. This is some twenty years ago. At this time it had no superior in America; but soon after Mrs. Willard had to retire from delicate health. Not many years had elapsed when it became too evident that the presiding genius of the seminary no longer directed its studies. We have been reminded of this falling off by the forcible remark of Mrs. Lincoln in the first paragraph noted above as to the character of the change which has taken place since the days of Linnæus. Who will deny that a similar sort of “progress has been the cause of a retrogade movement" in female education?

Acta ex iis decerpta quæ apud Sanctam Sedem geruntur. In Compendium opportune redacta et illustrata. Fit evulgatio singulis mensibus. Fasciculus XLIX. Volumen Quintum. Baltimorae: Typis Kelly, Piet Et Soc., MDCCCLXIX.

This is a much more interesting publication than the general reader would be likely to infer from its title. Those unfamiliar with the language of Cicero and Tacitus may be informed that it is a monthly Latin periodical, published at Rome, containing reports, more or less condensed, of the principal cases brought before the ecclesiastical tribunals, including the sacred college, from all parts of the world. It also contains copies of all the ecclesiastic decrees, or bulls and encyclycal letters, issued by the pope.

The work is now republished in Baltimore by Messrs. Kelly, Piet & Co., to whom we are indebted for the two last numbers, and who, we think, deserve much credit for their enterprise in undertaking to reprint a periodical the circulation of which must necessarily be very limited, although if these numbers had reached us in time we could have satisfied our readers that there are very few monthlies which will be read with a more lively interest, at least by those catholics who understand the language. Even now, at the eleventh hour, when we are preparing to go to press, we will make an observation or two which, we think, will fully bear us out in our opinion as to the interest which the Acta is capable of

exciting. Thus, among the articles in No. XLIX., are a report of a great divorce case, and one of the suspension and trial of a priest; a decree from the Congregation of the Index declaring several books condemned, etc., etc.

The first article in No. L. is an elaborate discussion of the claims of St. Julia of Belgium to be recognized as a saint by the universal church, whereas the lady has hitherto been recognized only as a Belgian, or local saint. The archbishop of Malines petitions the pope to render this honor to Belgium, and his petition is strongly supported by the queen of the Belgians, who claims the favor on the twofold ground of her being a daughter of the Hapsburgs, and a queen. Her majesty writes naively to his Holiness, urging "that since Belgium, so fecund in saints, has hitherto had none publicly honored by the whole church, that privation ought now to be removed by the universal recognition of the holy St. Julia. The report of this case occupies twenty pages in the Acta; it is certainly a learned and curious paper-one that discusses the subject of canonization from the earliest records of the church; and as the claims of St. Julia were found beyond dispute, the prayer of the petitioners was granted, and henceforth the Belgians will find their chief saint acknowledged as such in every catholic country they may visit.

None must think that we mention these facts in any sneering spirit. It is true that we are not a believer in modern saints, but we respect both the opinions and feelings of those who are. Besides, we hold that when either men or women have led an exemplary life and proved benefactors to their contemporaries, there is nothing absurd or reprehensible, but the contrary, in their being distinguished and honored after their death. Our protestant education does not prevent us from believing that there is really good in it; but the good is not to the virtuous and benevolent who have passed away, but to the living, whom it is the duty of the church to encourage by honoring the memory of the good and great of other days.

But there is one thing in the Acta which gives us no little concern. We fear that one of our Jesuit college presidents has got into trouble. The full name of the clergyman is not given, but among the things laid to his charge are ignorance and an undue proclivity for speech making! The report before us goes on to say that for these reasons he is less fit to give instruction than he should be, although in other respects his character is blameless :

"Imo argumenta habere, Bernardum bonis moribus esse praeditum, cum eius adversarii non valuerint eum pravorum morum insimulari: se tamen existamere necessaria scientia in theologia morali eum esse destitutum, et minus idoneum ad instructionem."

This seems to point rather plainly in a certain direction-we only hope we may be mistaken. At all events, we shall look with considerable interest to the next number of the Acta. The work will prove an excellent thing for some of our colleges, if the professors will only learn to read it.

*Acta, No. XLIX., vol. v., Suspensionum, p. 13.
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VOL. XX.NO. XXXIX.

Mitchell's New Reference Atlas, for the use of colleges, libraries, families and counting-rooms, in a series of fifty-six copperplate maps, exhibiting the several countries, empires, kingdoms, and states in the Modern and Ancient World. Compiled from the latest authorities. Quarto. Philadelphia: E. H. Butler & Co. 1869.

The readers of this journal are well acquainted with the superior merits of Mitchell's whole series of geographies and atlases. It were superfluous, therefore, to describe the work now before us; suffice it to say, that the title page, which we have copied in full, does not in the least exaggerate its value. The maps are finely engraved, printed on thick white paper, and tastefully colored; the boundaries are everywhere plainly and accurately indicated; in short, we find nothing omitted that could reasonably be expected even in a reference atlas. The geographical tables at the end of the volume embrace every variety of geographical information which it is possible to convey in a tabular form; and the style in which the work is gotten up is fully commensurate with the value of its multifarious contents.

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New Exposition of the Science of Knowledge. By J. G. FICHTE. lated from the German, by A. E. KROEGER. Pamphlet, pp. 182. St. Louis, Mo. 1869.

This is one of the several expositions of the Science of Knowledge which have contributed so much to the fame of the author as a philosopher. Fichte is one of the boldest and most original of the great German thinkers, and he has found a faithful and zealous interpreter in Mr. Kroeger, who has translated several of his most remarkable works. We take pleasure in recommending the present pamphlet to those who wish to be initiated, in an agreeable and instructive manner, into the peculiar philosophical system of Fichte.

HISTORY AND TRAVELS.

1. The Polar World; a Popular Description of Man and Nature in the Arctic and Antartic Regions of the Globe. By Dr. G. HARTWIG, author of "The Sea and its Living Wonders," the Harmonies of Nature, &c., with additional chapters, and one hundred and sixty illustrations. 8vo., pp. 486. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1869.

2. The Malay Archipelago; the Land of the Ourang-Outang and the Bird of Paradise. A Narrative of Travel, with Studies of Man and Nature. By ALFRED RUSSELL WALLACE, author of " Travels on

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the Amazon and Rio-Negro,' "Palm Trees of the Amazon," &c. 12mo., pp. 638. New York: Harper & Brothers.

1869.

We place these two works together, because, although entirely different in their general plan and style, they frequently serve to illustrate each other by the striking contrasts which they exhibit. One is devoted to the coldest regions of the earth, the other to a portion of the hottest. The author of the one depends on his researches among the works of others for his facts; he places under contribution every navigator, explorer and traveller, to whom the world is indebted for any interesting or useful information relative to the polar regions—their climate, their geological, meteorological and botanical characteristics, their inhabitants, their wild and domestic animals, their birds, &c.; and it must be admitted that he has made judicious use of so large and valuable a mass of materials.

We do not mean by this that Dr. Hartwig is a mere compiler; this would be unjust, for, on the same ground, our best historians might be called compilers, since none of them have been able to visit even those scenes which they have described most graphically and most truthfully; none of them have been present at those great battles, or other startling occurrences, in regard to which all posterity regards them as authorities. But the author of "The Polar World" does not merely present us the facts in his own language, except where he gives a quotation here and there, which is duly credited to the source from which it is taken; he clothes those facts in a popular and attractive garb, so that almost "he who runs may read." It is this characteristic which causes his former works to be so much more extensively read than any recent similar works.

The work of Mr. Wallace, on the other hand, embodies chiefly the results of actual observation. But although he has travelled, studied and investigated, he has not overlooked the efforts of those who have gone before him. Although Dr. Hartwig is by no means inattentive to the teachings of science, but presents us many curious and interesting scientific facts, incidentally, he does not make the study of nature a prominent object, as Mr. Wallace does. A remark, or two, will be sufficient to explain what the chief aim of the latter was. He tells us in his preface that he has adopted "a geographical, zoological and ethnological arrangement," that he "travelled about fourteen thousand miles within the Archipelago, and made sixty or seventy journeys," and occupied about six years, in collecting specimens of natural history, securing a grand total of 125,660 specimens. His essay on the races of man in the Malay Archipelago is a valuable contribution to ethnological science; and still more valuable is the appendix, in which we are presented with a highly interesting dissertation on the crania and languages of those races. In order to give an idea of the attention Mr. Wallace has bestowed on comparative philology, we may mention

that he presents us the equivalents of nine familiar English words, in fifty-nine different languages of the Archipelago.

Yet it would be a great mistake to suppose that Mr. Wallace's book is not attractive, as a whole, to the general reader. Even its "Physical Geography" is quite readable. But it is in describing the habits, modes of life, and other characteristics of the various species of tropical animals, birds, insects, &c., that Mr. Wallace is most entertaining. Nor must it be supposed that he overlooks the manners and customs of the people, or their religion, or social organization.

At the same time we must not yet lose sight of Dr. Hartwig's book. And what a transition it is from the scenery of one to that of the other! While in one we find everywhere an exuberance of life; in the other, nearly all nature is dead and frozen for nine months of the year. While Dr. Hartwig is entertaining us with accounts of whales, walrusses, foxes, dogs, reindeer; or while he is describing those dreary Antartic solitudes in which the cold is so intense that scarcely any land animal, bird, or even reptile, can exist in them, Mr. Wallace is describing to us the bird of paradise, and various other gay and beautiful species; still more beautiful butterflies; or the richest flowers in the world; or he is amusing us with sketches of the tricks and gambols of various tribes of apes and monkeys, including the ourang-outang.

In one book we find men covered with furs from head to foot, as a necessary condition of existence; while in the other we find him perfectly naked. It is worthy of remark that the dog is the only animal that is common to the polar and tropical regions described in these two books; and that neither the intense cold of the former nor the excessive heat of the latter prevents him from being the faithful friend and companion of man. Our authors show that, like man, too, he adapts himself to all kinds of food, as well as to the means of providing it. As the Malay lives principally by hunting, so does his dog, and as the former is prone to pilfering from strangers, so is the latter. In the polar regions, upon the other hand, man has to live chiefly by fishing, and so does the dog, who is as skilful a fisher as his master. Again, while Dr. Hartwig presents the reindeer in all the relations which he bears to man, both as a wild and a tame animal, Mr. Wallace takes similar pains with the ourang-outang, and other members of the ape family. In these descriptions we have another great contrast, which we need hardly say is entirely in favor of the polar animal, although in the wild state one affords the hunter pretty nearly as much sport as the other.

But our limited space in this department will not permit us to enter into details; and we readily admit that a hasty glance like this can give no adequate idea of works like "The Polar World" and "The Malay Archipelago." Those who would appreciate them must read them, as we have ourselves; and those of our readers who find the task so en

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