Minor Notices 389 ing of the colonies, the development of union among them, the causes of the Revolution, the formation of the Constitution, its interpretation with respect to the question of nationality, the history of slavery, the Civil War and reconstruction, foreign relations and economic history. The chief differences between this and the other small source-books are the presence of much more than the usual amount of comment intended to direct the teacher in the use of the book, and the fact that its extracts are usually quite brief quotations, often much compressed by elision. Many interesting bits are presented, which it will do teachers good to contemplate. Yet the book seems scrappy, and it is questionable whether its plan is a wise one. The author would concede that in no one of his chapters are the quotations sufficient of themselves to enable the student to form a judgment. Especially is this true of the last two studies, which present only a few items in two vast fields. The question is, whether the student does not get more of that for which the study of original mate- rials is valuable, by studying thoroughly the whole of a small number of documents so selected that by their means he acquires something like a complete knowledge of a few transactions. Stephen Decatur, by Cyrus Townsend Brady. [The Beacon Biogra- phies] . (Boston: Small, Maynard and Co., 1900, pp. xviii, 142.) Mr. Brady has had access to material belonging to the descendants of Decatur, and has also drawn upon the manuscript collections of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. The result of his efforts is a clear and graphic description of the man and his work, in which the picturesque and heroic largely predominate. The burning of the Fhihiihlphia in the harbor of Tripoli, and the battle with the Tripolitans which followed, are given with great fullness of detail. So also are the engagements between the Macedonian and the United States where Decatur first commanded as a captain, and that resulting in the loss of the President after a gallant struggle against over- whelming odds. The greater part of the book is occupied with " wars and rumors of wars." Mr. Brady is frankly a hero-worshipper, and treats his subject with an open admiration that at times amounts to naivete. He regards with undisguised indignation all slurs or criticisms upon his idol. This method of writing historical biography is not judicial, but it may fairly be said that it is in great part its own corrective. The fifteenth volume of the Proceedings of tlie Massachusetts Histor- ical Society, second series, embraces the records of meetings held from March 1899 to February 1900 inclusive, the first series of meetings held in the Society's new building, of which a heliotype picture is given. Among the papers included are the address of the President, Mr. Charles Francis Adams, on Historians and Historical Societies, an address read upon the occasion of the formal opening of the building ; a careful paper by Mr. John T. Hassam on the early attempts at colonization in the Bahama Islands ; and two papers by Mr. Andrew McF. Davis on the pro- vincial currency of Massachusetts, the latter a curious study of Occult
