Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/143

Rh sound basis for education, but more particularly those instructors to whom we look for guidance—from kindergarten to college.

Mr. Frank Sargent Hoffmann's book on The Sphere of the State is the substance, chiefly, of lectures delivered before the senior class of Union College in 1898, and is intended to set forth clearly and concisely the ethical principles involved in the rights and action of the state, and to show how they may be applied under present conditions and principles. Tn the author's view the state is the primal and universal unit of society; it is coextensive with the human race, and is independent of the existence of nations, and every man is born into it. It is manifold, for many distinct divisions of mankind called states may exist at any given period. The supreme control of all persons and commodities must be with it, and there can never be an individual right to anything in the state that is not subordinate to its right. Dismissing such conceptions as base the organization and extent of the state on geography, race, family relation, language, or religion, the author accepts that which founds it on brotherhood and the needs thereof, and makes the chief and ultimate end of the state, to which all other ends must be subordinate, the perfection of the brotherhood; and all this, the state, the entity, is distinguished from the government, which is only an instrument. The state's first duty is to enlighten its members respecting their ever-varying relations, and what they require—education. While the true and distinctive ground of property is labour, by which it is acquired, and that is performed by individuals, the natural right to property is ultimately resolved into a state right, and the individual's right must in the end be controlled by the needs of the state or the good of the whole brotherhood; and "only from the conception of property as ultimately owned and controlled by the state can we come to a true conception of the property right of each citizen of the state." The principles thus laid down are followed out in their application to the various functions and features of civic and social life; to the creation of corporations and the assigning them their places in the state; to the matter of transportation and its relation to the state; to taxation, the right to impose which belongs only to the state as a whole and is absolute there, but not to any individual i to questions of money; to the treatment of criminals; to relations with the poor; to the government of cities, the family, the Church, and relations with other states. The author's reasoning is profound and comprehensive, his tone is conservative, and the book is full of thought.

Of all the leaders in the late war for the preservation of the Union, General Sheridan probably comes nearest among the Unionist commanders to fulfilling the popular ideal of a hero. Brave, alert, often brilliant, and nearly always successful, he acquired his full measure of glory while in active service, while nothing happened in his after-life to dim his renown. His biographer was fortunate in his subject. We may say that the subject is as fortunate in its biographer. General Davies sei'ved with distinction in the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac under General Sheridan from September, 1863, till the end of the war, and his brigade was present in all Sheridan's battles. It was mainly for this reason that he was chosen by the editor of this series to be Sheridan's biographer. He was an officer of correct military information and was, as his narrative proves, a writer with clear perception of what should go into a biography, and was able to estimate correctly the value of each action and to describe his hero justly and without exaggeration or extravagance. He died one month after he had completed this book. He regards General Sheridan as having possessed to an eminent degree the most indispensable qualities of a commander. "He had the ability to think and act promptly and energetically, and, if need were, independently of instructions, and to assume and support with ease whatever responsibilities his situation might require; he had the power to impress his will and personal influence