the Supreme Court of Chicago. Two parties claim $10,000, the amount of a policy from the Manhattan Life Insurance Company. One of the litigants tries to cause the company to be appointed trustee; but the latter having quite enough to do besides watching for months, or perhaps for years, to see who is entitled to the money, pays the whole amount into court at once, so that as soon as a decision is made the successful claimant may receive it without any further trouble. Conduct so exemplary as this needs no praise. Many of our readers will be glad to learn that the seventh distribution of the surplus funds of the New-England Mutual Life will commence in January next. Had not the termination of the company's fiscal year been recently changed from the 30th of November to the 31st of December, we should have had the annual report of Mr. Stevens before this; and we never read one of that gentleman's papers on insurance, which he has made the study of a lifetime without profit and pleasure. It is from the Modern Athens we also learn that the Phoenix Mutual Life, of Hartford, continues progressive in its eminently deserved prosperity. In their statement for the month of October-the last that has reached us-its Boston agents announce the following results: "By comparing it with the October of last year, you will see that we have made this year an increase of 120 policies-$313,000 in insurance and $58,000 in premiums. We have already issued for ten months of this year 6773 policies, against 5811 for the whole of the year 1867, and have two months yet to spare. Had it not been for the excitement of election during the past two months, we could have made a still larger increase." This should be an encouragement to all who mean to pursue a straightforward course. We shall have an immense pile of annual reports to notice in our next number, including those of at least fifty new companies. Nay, according to the present ratio of increase, may we not expect that twentyfive more new companies will be "organized" between this and March next? It is sometimes said by well-meaning people that our State Superintendent should be a little more careful in issuing certificates; we have taken the liberty of intimating ourselves that he should abstain from praising new companies, at least until they get out of their swaddling-clothes; but it should be remembered that the worst of those companies with which Mr. Barnes has to do, are only blanks in some respects. Perhaps this will be best explained by an extract from Circular No. 40, addressed by the Superintendent to insurance officers, calling on them to hurry up with their annual statements, etc. "You will please transmit the fees for filing the annual statement (fifty dollars) by check or draft, payable to the order of the Superintendent. Companies from other States and foreign countries will also remit five dollars for each agent's certificate of authority and certified copy thereof. In cases where higher or other fees or taxes are chargeable by the laws of a company's own State, the same fees and charges are payable to the Superintendent." Of course the laborer is worthy of his hire, and why should he not get it? We merely want to show that too much is expected from Mr. Barnes by those who think he is a little too ready with his "certificates of authority." 3. Lives of Alexander, Fabius Maximus, etc. PLUTARCH. 4. La Vita di Diogene Cinico. (The Life of Diogenes the Cynic.) 1. Euvres Complètes de P. J. DE BERANGER. 2 vols. 2. Ma Biographie: Ouvrage Posthume de P. J. DE BERANGER. 3. Songs of Béranger. Translated by the author of the Exiles of IV. SUCCESSIVE CONQUESTS AND RACES OF ANCIENT MEXICO..... 278 1. Histoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique Centrale durant les Siècles anterieurs à Christophe Colomb, écrite sur des documens originaux et entièrement inédits, puisés aux anciennes archives des indigènes. Par M. l'Abbé BRASSEUR DE BOURBOURG, ancien aumonier de la Legation de France au Mexique, et administrateur eccle- siastique des Indiens de Rabinal (Guatemala.) 2. Description of the Ruins of an Ancient City discovered near Palenque, in the Kingdom of Guatemala in Spanish Ame- rica. Translated from the original report of Don Antonio del Rio; followed by a critical investigation and research into the history of the Americans, by Dr. PAUL FELIX 3. Mémoire sur l'Ecriture figurative et la Peinture didactique des anciens Mexicains. Par M. AUBIN. Paris: 1849. 4. The History of Mexico, collected from Spanish and Mexican historians: to which are added critical dissertations on the land, animals, and inhabitants of Mexico. By the .ART. 2. Statutes of Columbia College and its Associated Schools; to 4. Letter to the Hon. the Board of Trustees of the University of 5. Prof. Barnard on Collegiate Education and College Govern- VI. THE RULING CLASS IN ENGLAND.. 1. The Red Book, or Royal Calendar for England, Scotland, 2. Murray's Official Handbook of Church and State. VII. CELTIC MUSIC.... 1. The Music of the Most Ancient Nations, particularly of the 2. An Introduction to the Study of National Music; comprising 3. Essai sur la Musique, ancienne et moderne. Par M. DE LA BORDE. 4. Musical and Poetical Relics of the Welsh Bards. By EDWARD 5. Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards: interspersed with 6. A General History of Music from the earliest times to the 7. Histoire des Gaulois depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à 8. Memoirs of the Celts or Gauls. By JOSEPH RITSON, Esq. VIII. PRESIDENT GRANT AND HIS CABINET.. 1. The Inaugural Address of President Grant. IX. NOTES AND CRITICISMS. Belles-Lettres.. Education.... Miscellaneous... APPENDIX, Insurance.. PAGE 321 336 339 368 368 376 379 381 THE NATIONAL QUARTERLY REVIEW. No. XXXVI. MARCH, 1869. ART. I.-1. Diogenes Laertii de Clarorum Philosophorum, Vitis, Dogmatibus, etc. Libri Decem. (Lives and Doctrines of the Ancient Philosophers, etc. Ten Books.) By DIOGENES LAERTES. 2. The Dialogues of Lucian. 3. Lives of Alexander, Fabius Maximus, etc. 4. La Vita di Diogene Cinico. Cynic.) GRIMALDI. PLUTARCH. (The Life of Diogenes the Ir is a remarkable fact that none of the higher order of thinkers have set any value on fame. Most of them have sought to avoid it, or, at least, proved themselves entirely indifferent to it. Thus it is that the very existence of Homer will ever be a matter of dispute among the most learned men; while the superiority of the Iliad and the Odyssey to all other epics is universally acknowledged by nations the most dissimilar in their tastes-indeed by every nation that can be regarded as capable of forming an intelligent opinion on the subject. The author was content to charm all who heard him; he was too sublime a genius to be influenced by vanity. Yet what has he lost by this? If many have denied his existence, have not many also denied the existence of the Creator of the universe? As little is known of Æsop, the great fabulist, as of Homer. The instructive wisdom and beauty of the fables with which his name is associated, are acknowledged by all; but because 'little or nothing is known of the author, some are pleased to maintain that he was but a myth. It is sufficiently evident that Socrates cared nothing for fame; and that his pupil, the divine Plato, was equally indifferent to it, is shown by the fact that he represents himself in his noblest and most eloquent works, only as the reporter of his master's thoughts. Pythagoras was not merely careless of fame-he always avoided it, and inculcated as a duty on his disciples, that they also would spurn it. Virgil was quite as careless of fame as his master Homer. This is fully proved by the request he made shortly before his death, that his greatest work should be burned. It was different with Horace and Ovid; both, although of a high order, were intellects of an inferior stamp, compared with the author of the Eneid, and accordingly nei ther was indifferent to fame.* Nor have the great minds of modern times been less unmindful of what the world might say. There are many ordinary authors who wrote long before the time of Shakespeare of whom we have full biographies; they have themselves left us abundant particulars of their lives; but scarcely any thing certain is known of the great dramatist. Of those who flourished nearer our own time, suffice it to mention Swift and the author of the Junius Letters. That both were men *While Virgil gives all the glory to his patron in his fine peroration at the close of his Georgics, the two minor poets boast of having built themselves everlasting monuments. No authors present more striking contrasts in this respect. Thus Virgil concludes his admirable pastoral, perhaps the best ever written, with all the modesty of a bashful maiden, reminding his reader that while he sang Tityrus in inglorious ease beneath the beechen shade, victorious Cæsar was extending his laws over willing realms: "Illo Virgilium me tempore dulcis alebat Horace, on the contrary, boasts in the following grandiloquent strain: "Exegi monumentum ære perennius, Still more pompous is the glorification of Ovid over his own fame. Just in proportion as he is inferior in genius to Horace does he laud himself more : "Jamque opus exegi, quod nec Jovis ira, nec ignis |