able degree of relief and satisfaction at having life's problem so comfortably settled for them; but the guarantors might be pardoned if they were not in an equally jovial mood. Where liberty comes in for the latter is a question we are not prepared to answer. If it be explained that under such an agreement everybody would guarantee everybody, the answer, which every one must feel to be true and sufficient, is, briefly, that that is nonsense.
A man is a freeman, Mr. Howells says, "if he has the means of livelihood and is assured in their possession; if he is independent of others." Other similar observations are: "Liberty and poverty are incompatible." "If (a man) has not the means of livelihood in his hand.s, he can not come and go when he will; he can not command his time, etc." "Liberty is for those who have the means of livelihood." Now, with the utmost respect for the motives of this very able writer, we are compelled to say that, in our opinion, he has here written some very mischievous stuff. By identifying liberty with the advantages which flow from a more or less successful conduct of life he virtually authorizes, so far as his words carry weight, those who have failed to secure such advantages, or who are not satisfied with the share they have gained, to lay violent hands on the possessions of others. It is deeply ingrained in the general consciousness that liberty is something which communities and individuals may vindicate for themselves—that liberty is not a thing to sue for, but to seize the moment you feel strong enough. Mr. Howells comes forward and says: "In wealth consists liberty. You have not wealth, and therefore you have not liberty; you are not free men. The only free men in this nation are the men of means, the men whose livelihood is secure." Surely this is warrant enough for those who accept it as true for taking, without more ado, the means of liberty; in other words, for overthrowing violently the present organization of society. Mr. Howells may say that he does not think much of the present order of society; but does he see his way clear beyond the chaos which would ensue if his hint were taken?
This is an old story; still, as the attacks on the true principle of liberty are unceasing, we do not see how the believers in that principle can do aught else than continually come forward in its defense. The important distinction to be observed is this: liberty is one thing; what a man can accomplish with his liberty is another. Some men can accomplish, and do accomplish, much; others, whether they can or not. do, in point of fact, accomplish little or nothing. It might not unreasonably be said that such men are not fit for liberty, and some of them prove it by getting themselves incarcerated for criminal practices. That, how ever, is another matter. Mr. Howells and others refuse to make this distinction; they say that liberty is not liberty unless you add thereto the fruits of a successful conduct of life, and that the community ought to guarantee these fruits to every man. We thus get the question into a nutshell. Mr. Howells and those who think with him must hold that the community could give such a guarantee and render it effectual; we hold that it could not, and there the argument must rest for to-day.
THE NEW NATURAL HISTORY.
Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan, of Bristol University, during January gave a course of public lectures in New York, under the auspices of Columbia College. The main ques-
