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A feeling was abroad that all things must be new in the new world. There was call for immediate application of ideas of life. In the old world, thoughts remained cloistered a generation before any questioned their bearing on public or private affairs. In the new world, the thinker was called on to justify himself on the spot by building an engine, and setting something in motion. The test of a truth was its availability."

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"Practically it was an assertion of the inalienable worth of man; theoretically it was an assertion of the immanence of divinity in instinct, the transference of supernatural attributes to the natural constitution of mankind. Such a faith would necessarily be protean in its aspects. Philosopher, critic, moralist, poet, would give it voice according to cast of genius. It would present in turn all the phases of idealism, and to the outside spectator seem a mass of wild opinions; but running through all was the belief in the living God in the soul, faith in immediate inspiration, in boundless possibility, and in unimaginable good. The editors and reviewers of its day could make nothing of it."

It is doubtful whether those of the present day will find it much easier to avoid misunderstanding the true nature of this mysterious movement or school, even with the aid of Mr. Frothingham's account of it, which is in fact rather a description of persons than of any system of thought. More than a fourth of the volume is taken up with sketchy notices of the chief writers in Germany, France, and England, who are more or less ideal in their cast of thought. Then follow chapters on the leading New England transcendentalists, their religious opinions, literary works, practical experiments in political and social life, &c.

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The chief of these experiments was a communist co-operative scheme at Brook Farm, near Boston, which was founded on the principles of justice, wisdom, purity, brotherly love, and all the other virtues of humanity, with of course a total absence of selfishness, intemperance, impurity, injustice, or imperfection of any sort, and intended to promote human culture, including the highest physical, intellectual, and moral education" of both old and young. The author favours us with the constitution and bye-laws of the association, which, after a brief existence of five years with an average of seventy members, ended in failure and loss. This being the principal practical outcome of New England transcendentalism, one would be disposed to think the movement or school in which it originated might as well have been allowed to pass into oblivion. Such, however, is not Mr. Frothingham's opinion, though he is honest enough to confess he did not of his own accord undertake the task of chronicling its history. He maintains that transcendentalism in New England, whether a sound system of thought and action or not, deserves to have its history written, because as a matter of fact it has greatly influenced the character and destiny of the American nation. If he could really prove this satisfactorily, instead of simply asserting it, one might be willing to accept his conclusion, though even in that case the subject would seem to demand a higher and more exhaustive style of treatment than it has received at his hands.

"His purpose," he tells us, "has been to write a history; not a critical or philosophical history, but simply a history; to prepossible admixture of discussion, sent his subject with the smallest either in defence or opposition. He has therefore avoided the metaphysics of his theme by presenting.

cardinal ideas in the simplest statement he could command, and omitting the details that would only cumber a narrative." Surely if the subject was worth handling at all, it should have been discussed thoroughly. The idea of writing a history of transcendentalism without touching upon metaphysics or philosophical discussion seems almost ludicrous to an unsophisticated mind, not indoctrinated with transcendental mysteries. But if Mr. Frothingham is chary of philosophical discussion, he favours us with here and there a specimen of transcendental literature, from which we are tempted to present our readers with a single gem, by "Thomas T. Stone, a modest, retiring, deep, and interior man, a child of the spiritual philosophy":

"Man is man, despite of all the lies which would convince him he is not, despite of all the thoughts which would strive to unman him. There is a spirit in man, an inspiration from the Almighty. What is, is. The eternal is eternal; the temporary must pass it by, leaving it to stand evermore. There is now, there has been always, power among men to subdue the ages, to dethrone them, to make them mere outgoings and servitors of man. It is needed only that we assert our prerogative, that man do with hearty faith affirm: 'I am; in me being is. Ages, ye come and go; appear and disappear; products, not life; vapours from the surface of the soul, not living fountain. Ye are of me, for me, not I of you or for you. Not with you my affinity, but with the Eternal. I am; I live; spirit I have not; spirit am I.'”

There may be more in this than meets the eye, but to those blest with only average perspicacity it looks very much like solemn trifling or ironical caricature. A still brighter luminary in the galaxy of New England transcendentalists is Mr. Alcott, whom the author ranks

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next to Emerson, devoting a special chapter to him under the designation of The Mystic." He is described as "a thinker, interior, solitary, deeply conversant with the secrets of his own mind, like thinkers of his order, clear, earnest, but not otherwise than monotonous from the reiteration of his primitive ideas." A true follower of Pythagoras, he abandoned the use of animal food, and declining to take part in the Brook Farm, or any other socialistic experiment, "he undertook to do his part towards the solution of the labour and culture problem' by supporting himself by manual labour in Concord, working during the summer in field and garden, and in winter chopping wood in the village woodlands, all the time keeping his mind intent on high thoughts.' One of these high thoughts was, that all existing forms of society were objectionable, and that it was his exalted mission to show mankind a better way of life. Fascinated by his vision of an ideal society, and determined to commence with a scheme of his own, he resolutely began by withdrawing from civil society as constituted, declined to pay the tax imposed by the authorities, and was lodged in Concord jail."

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Another transcendental curiosity who figures in these pages is Mr. Brownson, thus described: "Of rational stability of principle he had nothing, but was completely at the mercy of every speculation. That others thought as he did, was enough to make him think otherwise; that he thought as he had six months before was a signal that it was time for him to strike his tent and move on."

We fear our readers will think we have already transcended the bounds of reason in devoting so much space to such senseless mon

strosities, and will therefore refrain from further remark.

Cup and Platter; or, Notes on Food and its Effects. By G. Overend Drewry, M.D., author of "The Common-sense Management of the Stomach," and H. C. Bartlett, Ph.D., F.C.S. Henry S. King and Co., London. 1876.-It is only during the present century that the subject of Dietetics has received the attention which its vast importance in the economy of human life demands. Dietetics, properly understood, includes the adaptability of food to individual constitutions with a view to the preservation of health, and also regimen or hygiene. In other words, Dietetics is the science of using food so as to maintain health, and also of employing it as an auxiliary curative agent in the treatment of actual disease. The valuable researches of physiologists and chemists have succeeded in placing dietetics on a sound scientific basis, and a competent knowledge of the subject, especially in its prophylactic and therapeutic bearings, is now rightly deemed an essential part of an accomplished medical education.

Mankind, for the most part, live as if the air they breathe, and what they eat and drink, had no serious and abiding relationship with the preservation of health. Public health is public wealth; hence the great importance of educating the people in sound sanitive principles, which are few and easily understood. The laws of health are just as fixed and undeviating in their operation as those that govern the universe, and no natural law can be infringed with impunity. But the laws of health are perpetually violated, not only from indulgence in vitiated appetites, but also in a large

degree from ignorance, which is not alone confined to the mass of the population, but is largely shared by those who claim to rank par excellence as "the educated classes." There is, however, a growing disposition in the public mind to regard this subject with the importance it merits, and we are inclined to believe that the time is not far distant when instruction in the leading principles that govern the physiology of life and regulate health, will be considered an essential part of national education.

The work before us is, in some respects, a valuable contribution to the many popular treatises that subject of Dietetics. What relates have appeared, of late years, on the to the Platter" is commendable for sound physiology, good sense, and practical utility. The writers very clearly point out how essential the knowledge is of the chemical elements of food, and of the laws that regulate the all-important processes of digestion and assimilation. Upon this knowledge depends the therapeutic agent, and also its skilful employment of diet as a judicious use as a most potent means of counteracting hereditary predisposition to disease:

"If every one were born healthy, and there were no constitutional diseases, the proper system of diet might soon be arrived at; but inasmuch as, from the earliest times to the present, a certain peculiar tendency to some one particular form of disease, or a deviation from health, has been recognized in each individual, it is of the highest importance to ascertain in which direction the tendency lies. By a wellregulated system of life, and notably by a proper selection of food, we may counteract that disposition, affording in plenty those matters which are lacking, and withholding such as in each individual case tend to form compounds in excess of those necessary for health.

"In this way, for example, taking infancy and childhood, the well-known disease called rickets' is caused by a deficiency of phosphate of lime, on the presence of which solidity of bone depends. A healthy child may be starved into rickets by withholding those components of food, otherwise plentiful, which contain these salts, just as a rickety child may be fed into health by giving food which contains them in full proportion.

"In the case of rickets, lime is an absolute necessity; but in the case of children brought up to drink plentifully of water charged with lime, we find goître, or Derbyshire neck, all kinds of deposit in the urine, and often stone in the bladder. Here, that which is beneficial to a rickety constitution is most injurious when the system is overcharged. Advancing, we may take the cases of pallor and weakness so commou in over-crowded towns and cities, which are due to a want of salts of iron in the blood; in them, the kind of food taken is of the utmost importance. in order that it may provide a sufficiency of such salts.

"Again, in constitutional diseases, such as gout, rheumatism, or diabetes, which are well known to depend upon an excessive formation of uric acid, lactic acid, and sugar respectively, the mode of controlling them is obvious, namely, to exclude as much as possible those matters which science teaches us favour the formation of these compounds, and to give those only which will nourish sufficiently without encouraging these diseases.

So, in cases in which there is a difficulty in the absorption and assimilation of various matters, such as fats, which, either in that form or in the form of oil, are incapable of being absorbed, and which require a process similar to that of saponification, it is of the utmost importance, not only to those structures containing them, but to the health of the entire body, that food should contain those matters in that condition, or that the agents necessary to produce it shall be present at the time of digestion.

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The converse also holds good in cases where there is a tendency to an excessive deposit of fat, and to degeneration of the muscular tissues

into fat, which is frequently a cause of death. If care be taken to exclude as much as possible those foods which directly tend to form fat, and if a sufficiency of exercise is also insisted upon, this tendency is diminished."

With respect to flesh meat, our authors very properly protest against the cruel system of overfeeding which has been encouraged to a baneful extent by the prizes bestowed on gross obesity at agricultural exhibitions. The meat of such animals, so far from being thoroughly sound, and nutritious. in proportion to its bulk, verges so closely on a condition of degeneracy that it is more dangerous than wholesome for the consumer:

Many persons, in selecting their daily joint, believe, when they securo the meat which is charged at the highest price, that they obtain the finest possible nourishment.

"They may sometimes be correct, they may sometimes also obtain fine flavour, the most juicy condition, and the most tender fibre. The aesthetic enjoyments of carving may be indulged in so as to display at once the dexterity of the carver, the skill of the butcher, and the ripeness of the animal; and, at the same time, a sufficiently scientific veterinary surgeon would pounce down upon the tempting helpings, and declare that that which is most inviting has only been obtained by the degeneration of the most valuable qualities of the meat.

"It may appear ridiculous to declare, with some emphasis, that at no time of the year is the liability of purchasing diseased meat so great as immediately after the great cattle shows. Instances, however, have not been wanting to prove that the beasts exhibited have been in that condition in which fat deposited externally, and interstitially (as marbling of the meat), and also in the viscera, has reached such a degree as to admit of the easy passage of the finger through the walls of the pericardium, or membrane which surrounds

the heart. Mr. Gant testified that this was the precise condition in which he found several beasts exhibited by the late Prince Consort, the slaughter of

which anticipated by a very brief period

the inevitable termination of their lives by disease (fatty degeneration)."

While Drs. Drewry and Bartlett are thus scientific and practical in their observations on matters appertaining to the "Platter," we certainly cannot compliment them. on being equally so when dealing with the subject of the "Cup. They adopt and enforce the pernicious and illusory doctrine that alcohol is "food," properly so called, and have no hesitation in recommending it as fitting diet, in this climate, during the period of youth. More dangerous advice could not well be given. It is little to the purpose to say that "in health, perhaps, a greater superstructure of strength may be obtained without the use of any alcoholic fluids," when it is preceded by the positive assertion that "light beer or wines of low alcoholicity may be occasionally taken with benefit during the period of youth "-the most critical period of life, when most assuredly an appetite for pernicious stimulants should not be cultivated.

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Totally ignoring enlightened medical opinion of the present day, our authors maintain that alcoholic drinks are not only salutary in a state of health, but that they cannot, as a rule, be dispensed with. Total abstinence is a physiological heresy according to their philosophy. "Alcohol fluids," they assert, are frequently found to exert a beneficial influence, and they can be no more dispensed with in many instances than can the nourishing but easily digestible food, just alluded to, as the proper food for persons living under the artificial conditions of civilized life."

Now the great preponderance of medical opinion, supported by physiological research and sustained by experience, denounces the hypotheses that alcohol is food, or

that alcoholic fluids are beneficial in a state of health. In a state of disease alcohol, like other deleterious matters, may be usefully employed, but to recommend their use as salutary in a state of health, and especially during "the period of youth," is to run directly counter to the enlightened professional opinion of the day.

Words; their Use and Abuse. By W. Mathews, LL.D. Chicago: Griggs & Co. London: Trübner & Co. 1876.-It is not easy to discover the precise object of the present volume, which has grown out of a lecture delivered by the author some twenty years ago. It can hardly have been to make any important contribution to existing knowledge on the subject, or to call attention to circumstances connected with the use and abuse of words which have not already been repeatedly pointed out. The author has derived his materials from works familiar to all readers who take any interest in such matters. He has brought to light no new facts ascertained by original investigation, established no new principle, and given utterance to no subtle criticism or striking observation. These deficiencies would scarcely be felt in a lecture intended simply for an hour's entertertainment. But in a permanent volume one looks for something more than a heterogeneous collection of odds and ends jotted down in a note-book from well-known authors, interspersed with anecdotes. and sayings that are too familiar,

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