Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 38.djvu/872

852 this will, of course, be an elementary volume; accordingly, a list of books is given, mostly German, in which fuller information can be found. There are 383 cuts in the volume.

the past decade a very noteworthy increase of interest has taken place in economic, social, and political science. Its literature to-day flows in a stream many times as wide as that of 1881, and, passing the limits of the monographs and reviews specially devoted to it, now finds its way into popular magazines and leading journals. The quickening of interest which this denotes is not without a reason. Every year brings its enlargement of the functions of the state and some fresh appeal for yet wider extension of its scope. Interstate commerce is one of the more significant of its accessions of sway in recent years. It would seem that the guardianship of forests and the supervision of irrigation are to be among its duties in the near future. With authority in international trade to speak the word of good or ill fortune, Government is constantly being asked to step into the arena of domestic industry. Why may not the power which claims to bring prosperity by a tariff be invoked to regulate immigration, fix the hours of labor, or otherwise become as a Providence to the nation? With a literature teeming from the press treating these and allied questions—questions of the creation of wealth and its distribution; Government, and its relations to the commonwealth—such a guide as that provided by the Society for Political Education is clearly invaluable. Its editors present a classified list of the leading books, articles, Government and other reports, in the various fields covered by the manual. Each department has been revised by a competent specialist; and where, as in the case of free trade and protection, there are opposed camps, a representative of each has co-operated with the editors. The book is not a mere list, but a trustworthy guide, every work of importance receiving a brief descriptive or critical note. Prefixed to the several sections, wherever desirable, are a few lines advising the reader or student which books are best, and in what order they may most profitably be taken up. The titles have been selected not only from American and English, but from German, French, and Italian works. That foreign literature is very much richer than our own in economic and social science is a fact which this little book brings out very clearly. In emphasizing it, something will be done to broaden the outlook of American students, too often content with home authors not of the first rank. Lists for reading, elementary, intermediate, and advanced, are prescribed. The courses in politics and economics in leading American colleges for men and women are epitomized; and a very full index doubles the value of the book.

Those who have a taste for speculations on abstruse scientific questions will be interested in Cosmical Evolution, by Evan McLennan (Donohue, Chicago). It is a new theory of the physical universe, which substitutes for gravitation a system of bonds connecting the stars and planets as chemical atoms and molecules are assumed to be connected. The author's handling of the subject gives evidence of much ability.

Under the title Manual of Archæology Mr. Talfourd Ely publishes a sketch of ancient art (Putnam, $2). It is divided into two books, the first relating to Prehistoric, Egyptian, and Oriental Art, and the second to Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Art. The art of these countries is described as displayed in architecture, sculpture, engraving, painting, enameling, mosaic, and in the industrial arts. At the head of each of the eighteen chapters is a list of books recommended by the author for further reading. The work has an index, and contains one hundred and fourteen illustrations.

The Third Annual Report of the Agricultural Experiment Station, at Cornell University, covering the year 1890, comprises the separate reports of the several officers of the station, together with the collected bulletins that were issued during the year. These reports are largely devoted to descriptions of the buildings and laboratories that have been provided for the use of the station, illustrated with views and plans. The