brief presentation of the subject of participation by employés in the profits of the business in which they are engaged. In the words of the preface, "It is an attempt to state, in the shortest and clearest terms, the theory of profit-sharing, to explain its methods, and to describe its results." A visit by the author to Paris and Guise in 1886 and to Geneva in 1887, in addition to study of the literature of the subject, has furnished the material for this essay. A brief statement of the arguments for profit-sharing is first given; this is followed by descriptions of the ways in which the practice is carried on by a number of concerns in France and neighboring countries; the relation of profitsharing to pure co-operation, and the aid it may give to industrial reforms, are then pointed out, while in the last chapter certain ethical and economic objections to profit-sharing are answered.
The Union of the Societies for Ethical Culture began with April, 1888, the publication of a quarterly organ, called The Ethical Record. The subscription price is $1 a year, and the address of the publication committee is Post-office box 772, Philadelphia. The purpose of the "Record" is to present news of the ethical movement, and articles stating the spirit and aim of ethical culture. The third number, now before us, contains an address by S. B. Weston, Lecturer of the Philadelphia Society, on "The Final Aim of Life," in which Mr. Weston gives reasons for discarding the ancient Greek and the Christian views, and states, as the modern rationalistic idea, that the highest human purpose is "the development of life to its fullest perfection, physically, intellectually, morally." Another paper in the same number is part of an essay on "The Ethics of Insolvency," by Leo G. Rosenblatt. There are also "A Responsive Exercise," in use by the children's classes of the St. Louis Society, a selected poem, several pages of notes, and two pieces of music.
The Agnostic Annual for 1889, which is its sixth number, is edited by Charles A. Watts (W. Stewart, London, &d.), and contains eight essays and three poems. The leading article is by Samuel Laing, and is a criticism of the position taken by Mr. Gladstone in his controversy with Colonel Ingersoll. Miss Constance Naden contributes a paper on "The Atrophy of Religion," and Mrs. E. Lynn Linton one on "Women and Agnosticism." The other essays are "Life: the Agnostic Definition," by Albert Simmons; "The Sublimity of Nature," by Charles Watts; "Science and its Detractors," by John Wilson; "Agnosticism among the Moors," by H. J. Hardwicke, M. D.; and "The Aloneness of Man," by G. M. McC.
Ruth, the Christian Scientist, by John Chester, M. D., D. D. (Carter & Karrick), is a novel with a purpose, which is to present various theories in regard to the effects of mind in the cure of disease. The doctrine of "Christian Science" is put into the mouth of one character, that of "Faith Healing" into that of another, while materialism is represented by a young physician, and other characters fill in the background.
In The Human Mystery in Hamlet (Fords, Howard, and Hulbert), Mr. Martin W. Cooke, attempting "to say an unsaid word," maintains that this great tragedy, far from being a mere play-writer's happy thought, was wrought out, under an inspiration created by the achievements of earlier poets, with a definite end in view. This end was to show in the hero typical man, as he was moved under the force of the interior spiritual struggle of the passions for prevalence, under the domination of supernatural law. His arguments are well considered and forcibly presented, and are strengthened by illustrations from the "Electra" of Euripides and of Sophocles, and Vergil's "Æneid," illustrations which show great resemblance in motive and methods of treatment between Shakespeare and the classical poets.
Adams, Herbert B. Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 308.
Allen, Grant. Force and Energy: A Theory of Dynamics. London and New York; Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 161.
Atwater, W. O., Director. Storrs School Agricultural Experiment Station, Mansfield, Conn. Pp. 11.
Austen, Peter T. Chemical Lecture Notes. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 98. $1.
Bliss. V. L., Detroit. Mich. Report of the Principal of the Detroit High School concerning Overwork. Pp. 23.
Boehmer, George H., Smithsonian Institution. Systematic Arrangement of the List of Foreign Correspondents, July, 1888. Pp. 56. Additions and Corrections to the List of Foreign Correspondents. Pp. 32.
