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vainglory or aggression or defiance - far from it- but a spirit of pride and joy in the extension of our language, our literature, our laws, our commerce over the vast spaces of the earth and the furthest islands of the sea, with a sense of the splendid opportunities and solemn responsibilities which that extension carries with it-till we and our colonies have more of such an imperial spirit, hardly shall we be able to create the institutions that will ere long be needed if all these scattered segments of the British people are to be held together in one enduring fabric. But if sentiment ripens quickly, and we find ourselves able to create those institutions, they will themselves develop and foster and strengthen the imperial spirit whereof I have spoken, and make it, as we trust, since it will rest even more upon moral than upon material bonds, a guarantee as well of peace as of freedom among the English-speaking races of the world.

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It is common to talk of ignorance as the chief peril of democracies. That it is a peril no one denies, and we are all, I hope, agreed that it has become more than ever the duty of the State to insist not only on a more penetrating and stimulative instruction, but upon the inclusion of the elements of constitutional knowledge among the subjects to be taught in the higher standards of our schools.

Democracy has, however, another foe not less pernicious. This is indolence. Indifference to public affairs shows itself not merely in a neglect to study them and fit oneself to give a judicious vote, but in the apathy which does not care to give a vote when the time arrives. It is a serious evil already in some countries, serious in London, very serious in Italy, serious enough in the United States, not indeed at presidential, but at city and other local elections, for some reformer to have proposed to punish with a fine the citizen who neglects to vote, as in some old Greek city the law proclaimed penalties against the citizen who in a sedition stood aloof, taking neither one side nor the other. For, unhappily, it is the respectable, well-meaning, easygoing citizen, as well as the merely ignorant citizen, who is apt to be listless. Those who have their private ends to serve, their axes to grind and logs to roll, are not indolent. Private interest spurs them on; and if the so-called "good citizen," who has no desire or aim except that good government which benefits him no more than every one else, does not bestir himself, the public funds may become the plunder, and the public interests the sport

of unscrupulous adventurers.

Of such evils which have befallen some great communities, there are happily no present signs among ourselves; though it is much to be wished that here in Britain we could secure both at municipal and parliamentary elections a much heavier vote than is usually cast. More common in all classes is that other kind of indolence which bestows so little time and thought upon current events and political questions, that it does not try to master their real significance, to extend its knowledge, and to base its opinion upon solid grounds. We need, all of us, in all classes and ranks of society, the rich and educated perhaps even more than others, because they are looked up to for guidance by their poorer or less educated neighbors, to be reminded that as Democracy - into which we have plunged so suddenly that some hardly yet realize what Democracy means-is, of all forms of government, that which needs the largest measure of intelligence and public spirit, so of all democracies ours is that which has been content to surround itself with the fewest checks and safeguards. The venerable Throne remains, and serves to conceal the greatness of the transformation that these twenty-five years have worked. But which among the institutions of the country could withstand any general demand proceeding from the masses of the people, or even delay the accomplishment of any purpose on which they were ardently set, seeing that they possess in the popular house a weapon whose vote, given however hastily, can effect the most revolutionary change? I do not say this to alarm any timid mind, believing that our British masses are not set upon such changes, and are still disposed to listen to the voices of those whom they respect, to whatever class such persons may belong. The mutual good-will of classes is still among the most hopeful features in our political condition. But it is well to remember that it is upon the wisdom, good sense, and self-restraint of the masses of the people that this vast and splendid edifice of British power and prosperity rests, and to feel that everything we can do to bring political knowledge and judgment within their reach is now more than ever called for. Let me express this trust in the majestic words addressed to the head of the State by the poet whose loss we are now mourning, and than whom England had no more truly patriotic son:

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"Take withal

Thy poet's blessing, and his trust that heaven

Will blow the tempest in the distance back

From thine and ours; for some are scared who mark,
Or wisely or unwisely, signs of storm,

Waverings of every vane with every wind,

And that which knows, but careful for itself,

And that which knows not, ruling that which knows
To its own harm: the goal of this great world
Lies beyond sight; yet-if our slowly grown
And crown'd Republic's crowning common sense,
That saved her many times, fail not- their fears
Are morning shadows huger than the shapes
That cast them, not those gloomier which forego
The darkness of that battle in the West,
Where all of high and holy dies away."

From the Contemporary Review, 1893.

LUDWIG BUCHNER

(FRIEDRICH KARL CHRISTIAN LUDWIG VON BUCHNER)

(1824-)

UDWIG BUCHNER, celebrated as a scientist and essayist on philosophical subjects, was born at Darmstadt, Germany, March 28th, 1824. Educated at the universities of Giessen, Wartburg, and Vienna, he began his professional life as a lecturer at Tübingen where he remained until the radical views of his "Force and Matter" (Kraft und Stoff) led to his retirement. In this work which has been translated into most European languages, he taught "the eternity of matter, the immortality of force, the universal simultaneousness of light and life, and the infinity of forms of being in time and space." It may be more intelligible to add that the book was generally accepted as an expression of the most advanced materialism. Among Doctor Büchner's other works are "Nature and Spirit," "Physiologische Bilder," and "Man's Place in Nature.»

THE

WOMAN'S BRAIN AND RIGHTS

HE ancient Greeks as a rule gave their female statues relatively small foreheads, while, on the contrary, their representations of male figures, such as, for example, the Zeus of Phidias, exhibit the powerful forehead of intellectual ascendency. The strange fashion of wearing a "fringe" of hair over the brows is undoubtedly an endeavor to make the forehead appear as low as possible. This experience in daily life, which, like all rules, is of course limited by numerous exceptions, receives full confirmation from the observations made by Professor Huschke in brain and skull measurements, according to which the frontal bone of the female is less in area than that of the male by 2,000 millimetres, while, on the other hand, the female crown bones possess a proportionate advantage over the male. In the course of his measurements of the brains of Germans, who of all nations

possess the largest crowns, Huschke found that in the male this part measured on an average 262 cubic centimetres, in the female only 208. He also ascertained that the "middle brain," containing the "central gray" matter, which has no connection with the intelligence, and which in animals shows a considerable proportionate development compared to the rest of the brain, exhibits also in women a noticeable preponderance. In other words, the woman possesses more crown and middle brain, the man more forehead and thinking brain. Now, according to many scientific experiments, the details of which would lead us too far from our subject, it may be assumed that the front sections of the brain are the seat of the intelligence and higher intellectual activities, that is, the powers of imagination, proportion, and determination, while the locus operandi of the emotions and feelings lies in the crown or hinder part. Huschke sums up the result of his investigations as follows: The character of the masculine disposition is shown in the frontal bone, that of the feminine in the crown bones, and the woman whose physical character is a continuation of the childlike has remained a child in respect to her brain also, though more exceptions to the rule occur than in the case of the ordinary child, and though the difference between the crown and frontal bones is not marked in the same degree. This scientific result is therefore in accord with the view held for so many thousand years, that the woman is designed more for the life of the heart and of the emotions than for that of the mind and the higher intellectual activities.

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The opponents of the movement in favor of women always point out, as did even the otherwise unprejudiced Darwin, that the intellectual achievements of individual women do not amount to a very imposing total and that a comparison between the sexes on this point must result very unfavorably to the women. This is certainly the case, and in face of their social disadvantages it would be wonderful if it were otherwise. But we cannot here deduce the conclusion that nature has for all time ordained the intellectual inferiority of woman, but rather must we agree that nature has not here spoken at all, especially when we call to mind the important circumstance that the lower in the scale of civilization we look, the less do we find the difference in size between the brains of the sexes. This circumstance proves that in civilization and not in nature must lie the causes for this difference in development. The fact is that in

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