of novelty, and the liking to do as other people are doing, have no doubt exerted in gaining for these "Ladies' Lectures" greater popularity, and a larger share of public attention than they would otherwise have obtained,-we believe that their rapid spread, and the success which has so far attended them, are mainly due to a serious effort on the part of the women of this country to improve their intellectual condition, coupled with the conviction of the inefficiency of the facilities for mental culture that have been hitherto open to them.
An explanation of the appearance just now of such efforts and convictions must be sought for among those facts of our present social condition which are making the Woman's Question in all its aspects one of the foremost problems of the time. It is obvious enough what some of these facts are, but we should have little confidence in an attempt to enumerate them all, and to estimate exactly their relative importance. But without undertaking to explain fully the movement under discussion, we think there are evident signs that it is a natural and spontaneous outcome of existing social and intellectual conditions, and not the result of artificial stimulus. If this view is correct, it is obvious that the importance of the movement must be judged of rather by what it indicates than by what it is, by future results that may be hoped for, rather than by successes already achieved. Looked at in this way, it claims the serious attention and support of every one who desires the intellectual advance of the community, in order that the present opportunity may be turned to advantage, and that efficient plans of future action may be founded on the experiments now being tried with more or less of what must necessarily be temporary enthusiasm.
We venture to assume that in this, as in most other cases, the first condition of permanent success is that the object aimed at should be one in which it is worth while to succeed. If both lecturers and students are in carnust in trying to make these lectures really educational and serious, they cannot fail of producing valuable results. But this will require a good deal of determination on both sides. The most obvious, and perhaps the most serious, danger besetting the teachers, is the temptation-entered on the pastoral stage of his existence. arising from an unconscious want of respect for their audience to make their lectures interesting, instead of trying to impart the greatest possible amount of solid instruction. We confess that one or two very attractive- looking programmes that we have seen have suggested the thought, that possibly the lectures they announced might be equally well described as essays, such as con- stitute the more thoughtful kind of magazine articles; and that, if this were the case, it was not obvious what greater advantage would arise from their author reading them aloud to an assemblage of ladies than would result if the same ladies could be induced to read them to them- selves at home.
But, though we have no reason to believe that such a criticism would be really applicable to any of the actual courses, it is none the less desirable that all concerned should be on their guard against the tendency for it to become so. Thorough teaching, and not entertainment, of however high a kind, is what we trust that every lecturer will strive to give, and every student to obtain. And, after all, the spirit and quality of these lectures will depend as much on the students as on the teachers. No doubt a thoroughly earnest teacher may do a good deal towards producing earnest pupils; but, in the long run, the kind of instruction given will be that for which there is a demand. Ladies who intend to join any of the classes now forming will not expect to get any benefit from them, unless they give up for them all other engagements, at least so far as to be able to attend with regularity. If they only go to the lectures when in want of other occu- pation, they had better not go at all. Moreover, we have not much faith in the educational value, at any rate for residents in London, of courses in which only one lecture is given in a week. There are few persons who can keep up any vivid interest in a subject which occupies their thoughts for only one hour a week; and we imagine that ladies, who are unwilling to spare the time for two lectures a week on a subject which they wish to study, will scarcely be found among the number.
In conclusion, we may remind our readers of two sets of lectures to ladies which begin this week in London: one of them at the South Kensington Museum, and the other, by Professors of University College, partly at St. George's Hall, Langham Place, and partly at University College. We heartily wish success to them all, and urge all our readers to do what they can to promote it.
GEOLOGY AND AGRICULTURE
WHEN man penetrated into Western Europe and Britain, he found the country clothed with dense forests interspersed with fresh-water lakes, peat mosses, and bogs, relieved by few open glades, heaths, or moors. The native rocks could only be seen here and there, in crags and escarpments, sca-cliffs, river-banks, or mountain- heights; whilst herds of wild cattle, deer, and lesser game occupied the country, and afforded food to numerous beasts of prey.
In such a country, at first thinly populated, man could subsist by the chase alone, and a long period elapsed ere he added, first the horned sheep, and then the Bos longifrons, to his earliest domesticated animal, the dog, and thus
The shepherd's life, however, although a great step in advance of that of the hunter, necessitates wandering from one point to another in search of fresh pasturage or water. The early shepherd was a nomad, while agriculture proper necessarily dates from the period of fixed residence; for, even admitting that early man might clear for himself-if not with his axe of stone, at least by the aid of fire--a tract of land suited for the growth of cereals, yet he would hardly toil for even such scanty return as he could gather from his little patch of corn, unless he had some kind of fixed habitation, and a recognised right of occupation.
In Britain the art of agriculture, and indeed of all the arts of civilisation, really commenced with the Roman occupation, but the Saxons and Danes who followed, though doubtless good soldiers, sailors, and fishermen, were scarcely less barbarous than the early Britons, and no advance was made in agricultural pursuits until after the introduction of Christianity, the members of the religious establishments, once so numerous, and into whose hands most of the landed property passed, having done much to improve the cultivation of land,
