forts of a philosopher, and is not one of those "who keep their fame as scientific hierophants unsullied by attempts—at least of the successful sort—to be understanded of the people"; but has found that the task of putting the truths learned in the field, the laboratory, and the museum, into language which, "without bating a jot of scientific accuracy," shall be generally intelligible, taxed such scientific and literary faculty as he possessed to the uttermost. Yet the popularization of science has its drawbacks, and success in it has its perils for those who succeed. "The 'people who fail' take their revenge. . . by ignoring all the rest of a man's work and glibly labeling him a mere popularizer. If the falsehood were not too glaring, they would say the same of Faraday and Helmholtz and Kelvin." The volume contains eleven lectures, among which are some considering the origin and beginnings of life and the date of the beginnings, and involving the questions concerning which the biologists and the physicists are at odds. In literary style these essays are fit to rank among the most vigorous and idiomatic examples of English expression.
A Treatise on Astronomical Spectroscopy. Being a Translation of Die Spectralanalyse der Gestirne. By Prof. Dr. J. Scheiner. Translated, revised, and enlarged by Edwin Brant Frost. Boston: Ginn & Co. Pp. 482, with Plates. Price, $5.
Thisbook was prepared in the original German because, although the astronomical was one of the most important applications of spectrum analysis, no suitable text-book was found especially devoted to it; the popular works, like Schellen's, admirable as they were within their range, were not suitable for the serious study of the subject, nor adapted as handbooks to scientific investigators; and while Kayser's Lehrbuch treated the subject in a more scientific way, it dealt with celestial spectroscopy in too brief and incidental a manner. The author felt, therefore, as the domain of astronomical spectroscopy was widening constantly, an increasing need of a work presenting an exhaustive account of all the modern methods and results of research in this branch of science. For like reasons, and because of the welcome that was given to the book, the translator regarded it as desirable that it should be made more available for instruction in the higher institutions, and more accessible to English-speaking persons interested in astrophysics. The author has endeavored to satisfy the requirements of both practice and theory, while at the same time giving a record of the results thus far accomplished; and, to make it more useful for practical work, has added a number of spectroscopic tables and an ample bibliography. The translator has found the advances in the science during the three years since the original was published so great that much had to be added giving the results of recent observations. As a rule, the portions so added are not distinguished from the original, all that is attempted having been to make the work thoroughly homogeneous and to present the facts and theories as impartially as possible. While this has been done with Prof. Scheiner's consent, he has opinions of his own on some of the points thus added, which he expresses in the preface. The work is divided into four parts, which relate severally to Spectroscopic Apparatus, Spectroscopic Theories, the Results of Spectroscopic Observations, and Spectroscopic Tables.
Great Commanders. General Washington. By General Bradley T. Johnson. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 338. Price, $1.50.
The author approached the duty of preparing this biography for the Great Commanders Series with much diffidence, because of the multitude of lives of Washington, the industrious authors and translators of which had spared no effort to find all that could be learned about him, so that "no new facts could be adduced to throw light upon his career or his character." Yet he believes that his work is the first attempt to consider the military character of Washington and to write his life as a soldier. While we may admit with General Johnson that the superhuman glamour with which a grateful child-nation invested Washington in the years just after the Revolution has fallen away and given place to a more reasonable estimation of him as simply a man of extraordinary virtues, we can not agree with him that any diminution in the general respect for the abilities of the Father of his Country has taken place; and we can not conceive that he has ever been regarded by the American
