sertion of that principle of expansion which is a law of nature: in other words, it is natural that all classes and all persons should strive to be heard in matters of moment to the entire community. This being, then, the course which events must take, and which it is even desirable that they should take, we must prepare for the changes it will unavoidably bring about. This must be done in two practical ways: 1. By making the change easier, and this will be done by certain alterations in the laws of bequest and inheritance; and, 2. By making due provision for the new order of things by reforming middle-class education. The state (of which Mr. Arnold accepts Burke's definition, the nation in its corporate and collective character) is to found schools for the middle classes resembling those French lycées which have made the middle classes in France so superior to the same classes in England, rather than the "classical and commercial academies" whose advertisements crowd the newspaper columns; and the purpose to keep in view in the bestowal of that education is the awakening of a wider sympathy and a greater tolerance than have hitherto marked the English middle classes. They are to be delivered at once from "narrow Biblism" and from "immense ennui." For the rest, Mr. Arnold points out how democracy, instead of being, as it might be, the salvation of the race, may be the end of progress if, in the new conditions, the ideals of life and conduct are less high and less beautiful than of old, and if the arts and other refining influences not bearing immediately on practical life be suffered to fall into disuse and dishonor.
The Argan-Tree of Southwestern Marocco.—Dr. Hooker gives a full and very interesting account of this tree in his "Journal of a Tour in Marocco." It is found on a strip of land about forty miles wide which extends along the coast some two hundred miles. "It is absolutely unknown elsewhere in the world." This tree was first described about the year 1510, by Leo Africanus, who saw it in its native habitat. It is closely allied to the Sideroxylon (iron-wood), a tropical genus. The wood is extremely hard, fine grained, of a yellow color, and apparently indestructible by insects. It is of slow growth, and occurs on sandy soils, and on barren hills, where irrigation is impossible. Not far from Mogador is a large specimen, probably three hundred years old. It measures twenty-six feet in girth. Three immense branches extend from the trunk at only three feet from the ground, one of which rests on the ground and measures eleven feet in circumference. The spread of the branches covers an area seventy feet across. The tree attains only a very moderate height. As the trees throw out branches near the ground, goats frequently climb them to obtain the oily fruit which they bear. Dr. Hooker observes that he had not been accustomed to consider the goat an arboreal quadruped. The oil extracted from the nuts is used by the natives for many domestic purposes, but has a rank and unpleasant flavor, not relished by those unaccustomed to it. About fifty tons is annually consumed. The argan-tree is a striking feature of the plains of Southwestern Marocco. It never forms a dense forest, but is distributed in clumps where few other trees are found.
What Modern Geography includes.—In a memorial addressed by the Council of the London Royal Geographical Society to the Vice-Chancellors of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, the scope and purpose of geographical purposes are defined in the following terms: By geography is meant a compendious treatment of all the prominent conditions of a country, such as its climate, configuration, minerals, plants, and animals, as well as its human inhabitants; the latter in respect not only to their race, but also to their present and past history, so far as it is intimately connected with the peculiarities of the land they inhabit. A scientific geographer does not confine himself to descriptions of separate localities, such as may be found in gazetteers, but he groups similar cases together and draws those generalizations from them to which the name of "Aspects of Nature" has been given. He studies the mutual balance and restraint of the various forms of vegetation and of animal life under different local conditions, and he gathers evidence from the geographical
