Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/137

Rh through the period in which religious wars were a part of the order of the day. Notwithstanding this, and the sharp religious divisions between the cantons, union has prevailed, and a federal government has been established under which both Catholics and Protestants live without serious friction. Another peculiar feature of Switzerland is the prevalence of three distinct and official languages (besides the unofficial Romansch), and the maintenance of as many national characteristics, while in the United States there is a tendency to assimilation in all things of this kind. The negro in the South introduces a problem into our political life "of which the population of Switzerland gives no hint." Such class distinctions as may exist there are those that may arise in a homogeneous society under the conditions of modern life, or are a survival from the feudal age; but "they are not such as proceed from the existence in the population of different races regarded as inferior and superior." Illiteracy and general ignorance in any part of the population are wanting in Switzerland; "in fact, in no country of the world are the affairs of education administered more zealously or with greater efficiency. The problem of republican government is, therefore, simpler in Switzerland than in America, in spite of the proximity of the Swiss to the monarchical rule of European states." The analysis of the Swiss Constitution is introduced by a review of the "Antecedents of Swiss Federalism," and is applied in succession to the several departments of the government, its foreign and internal relations, the army and finance, "Rights and Privileges," and "The Common Fraternity."

is the second volume of a work whose first volume was noticed in this magazine several months ago. While in the preceding part of this work the editor has taken the more agreeable task of paraphrasing the original, because the "Kritik" is already accessible in English, he has deemed it "due to Kant to put his 'Prolegomena' in all their homeliness literally before the reader." He has reprinted in the appendix the suppressed passages of Kant's first edition of the "Kritik." The work is unfortunately without an index.

The Modern Chess Instructor, Part I, by W. Steinitz (G. P. Putnam's Sons), contains elementary explanations for beginners, the description of notations, a telegraphic chess code, an essay on the principles of the game, and analyses of six popular openings, with illustrative games to each opening, while the appendix contains the games of the contest between Messrs. Steinitz and Tschigorin which were played at Havana in January and February, 1889, with annotations by the author. Pp. 193. Price, $1.50.

Prof. Charles W. Kent, of the University of Tennessee, has prepared an edition of the old English poem Elene, which is asscribedascribed [sic] to Cynewulf, with introduction, Latin original, notes, and a complete glossary. The introduction and notes are designed for the use of students, and not with any view to critical purposes. The glossary has been made more complete than is usual in editions of old English poems. From the historical notice in the introduction, it appears that the manuscript of this poem was found in 1822 in the Cathedral Library in Vercelli, and the question of the way it got there has given rise to considerable discussion, with not very definite results. The author is supposed to have been a Northumbrian, and to have lived in the eighth century. The poem is founded on the story of the search for the cross and its discovery by the Empress Helena, wife of Constantine. While the author has followed the story with considerable fidelity, he has not bound himself too closely to it, and those passages which are all his own are the best in the work. Besides the historical and critical introduction, a metrical introduction and a bibliography are given. We last month published a notice of a translation of this and two other old English poems. Ginn & Co., publishers. Pp. 149. Price, 65 cents.

Of two text-books in Greek published by Ginn & Co., Mr. Isaac Flagg's edition, with notes, of Euripides's Iphigenia among the Taurians commends itself, not only on