whose brighter light shall bring into view the peculiar vegetable forms of American oolitic times."-P. 190.

We have studied the Ichnology with much care, and we can freely congratulate Professor Hitchcock in having contributed such a monograph to the literature of science. Had he done nothing more than this, he would have gained for himself a name honoured wherever science is cultivated. Accepting the figure used in reference to himself at the close of our last extract, we watch the sun on the horizon, and hope that He who has control over it, may detain it long "among the golden clouds of even." It draws, in such a work as the Ichnology, so much brightness after it, as to tempt us to look above the author to Him to whose service his life has been devoted, and, adapting the words of the poet, to say—

"Those hues that mark the sun's decline,

So soft, so radiant, Lord, are thine."

Professor Hitchcock has not, however, been permitted to bear away his laurels, without other hands making an attempt to grasp them. The experience which might almost be said to be common to all who strike out new thoughts, or bend their working energies into new paths, has been his. Rival claims to priority in scientifically investigating and describing_the_footprints have been made. About fourteen years ago, Dr James Deane of Greenfield laid claim to precedence in these points; and since his death, which took place while the present Report was being prepared, some of his over-zealous admirers have renewed those claims, which most men of science had held were set aside during the original discussion. The controversy is one which admits of an easy settlement; and, after studying it without bias, we have not the least doubt but that, in the pages devoted to it in the present Report, Dr Hitchcock has settled it. Dr Deane had accidentally found some specimens of tracks "lying upon the side-ways at Greenfield," and had informed the author, who commissioned the finder to purchase them for him. They fell under the eye of science when Dr Hitchcock obtained them. Had they been left to Dr Deane alone, they would have been lying on the "side-ways" still. Professor Hitchcock set to work at once, and for six years, during all which time Dr Deane was silent, he worked constantly at the footprints. He had published descriptions of thirty-two species, with twentyfive plates, before Dr Deane had published anything on the subject. Professor Hitchcock claims to have been "the first to investigate and describe them, as a matter of science." The claim, we beg to assure him, was long ago admitted by British naturalists. The opinion of Professor Owen, which we have quoted above, should be decisive on this point.

ART. XI.-RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

Handbook of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. By Mrs WILLIAM FISON. Inscribed by permission to Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, G.C. St. S., President of R. G. S., DirectorGeneral of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, etc., etc. London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts. 1859. Handbook of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science. By Mrs WILLIAM FISON. Inscribed by permission to the Right Hon. Lord Brougham, F.R.S. London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts.

1859.

THESE volumes are very much alike in colour, form, size, and style. Their contents are arranged in the same manner, and the same line of thought is followed in stating the objects for which the two Associations have been formed. What Boswell was to Johnson, Mrs Fison has striven to be to the British Association, and to its vigorous offspring," The Association for the Promotion of Social Science." She has succeeded in her endeavours. A woman of culture and much intelligence, she has followed with great interest the rise and progress of those annual gatherings, which are regarded with interest by the most eminent men of Europe and America. The questions in Natural Science, in Physics, and in Sociology, which fall to be considered at the yearly meetings, are of the most important kind. The author of the Handbooks is so fully alive to this, that her admiration sometimes passes bounds, and her praise becomes too like adulation. She sees only perfection in the organization and the objects of the Associations, whose able chronicler she has become. Perhaps, had she been in the place of one called to take active concern in the business of the meetings, she might have discovered a good many things capable of improvement, and might have felt that the principle of association, in order to scientific and social progress, demands a development ahead of present attainments,-a development which, while it should not interfere with existing Associations, would give a direction to thought and action in the fields already occupied, which would tend to the highest interests of the human race.

Many men of eminence in science have recently begun to feel, that the present advanced state of their favourite pursuits makes it important that opportunities should be given of meeting together, on a broader platform than that necessarily which is occupied by scientific Associations in France, Germany, America, and in this country.

Might not a general Scientific Congress be assembled annually, in one of the great capitals of Europe, with the view of extending its sphere still further, as soon as possible?

To this Congress might be invited the representatives of all the Sciences from all nations. All persons who are members of known

The history of the "British Association" has been so fully sketched in No. XXVII. of this Journal, that we are not required to follow Mrs Fison's interesting outline.

General Scientific Congress.

265

scientific bodies (such as Royal Societies, Imperial Academies), or who are professors, doctores legentes, docentes intra extraque muros, authors of scientific works, students who have obtained the first prizes in their faculties, and all men who can produce a scientific manuscript of their own composition, containing original observations approved of by some professor or author of high standing, might become members by merely signifying their approval of the Congress.

The meetings might be held annually, during one week in the month of August, in capitals, which by their Museums, Libraries, Botanical and Zoological Gardens, Observatories, Hospitals, and other Institutions, offer the greatest external aids to science.

General meetings might be daily devoted to the advancement of science, by the highest inductive generalizations, and by the most extensive deductions, so that every new fact should occupy a definite position in its relation to other scientific facts previously known.

In the general meetings, all communications could be made vivâ voce, in the most concise manner consistent with clearness; while all laudatory giving of thanks, etc., should be strictly forbidden.

The communications might not exceed fifteen or twenty minutes each, unless at the urgent request of a majority of the meeting. Translations of these communications, to members not acquainted with the language of the speaker, need not be given in the general meeting, but could be deferred to the minor sectional assemblies in the afternoon and evening,-in which the votaries of different sciences from various nations might be requested to unite for reading concise papers on scientific subjects, and for discussion. These sectional meetings, being devoted to particular discoveries in special branches of science, the daily general meetings would advance science chiefly in its unity and totality.

The men who have been able to advance particular sciences, did not confine their attention to one branch of the tree of knowledge, but endeavoured to comprehend its totality. Such were Aristotle, Leibnitz, Humboldt, etc. The general meetings would assist students to follow the example of the great masters of intellectual generalization, in beholding the links between physics and metaphysics; natura

naturata et natura naturans.

The Handbook of the British Association praises the efforts made to give concentration and unity to physical phenomena, which had been before regarded as having no relation to each other. La Place had said: Les phenomena de la nature ne sont que les resultats d'un petit nombre de lois. Lord Bacon wrote in the Novum Organum: "Only let mankind regain their rights over nature assigned to them by the gift of God; that power obtained, its exercise will be governed by right reason and true religion."

If we consider the pre-eminence sometimes attained by men, who come into contact with the intelligence of more than one country, it appears to us, that a general scientific congress, annually repeated, would call forth more such men of peace and science as Leibnitz, Cuvier,

and Humboldt. Cuvier was born within the Germanic empire, and studied at Stuttgart before he became professor in France. Humboldt might have been a very well informed nobleman if he had remained on his estates; but he obtained his mental grasp by coming in contact with the intelligence of different nations. Leibnitz would have been, like his father, a very learned professor at Leipzig; but he was led on to his cosmic efforts for science and for peace by his acquaintance with France and England. Many more illustrations might be given.

In order to carry out our plan, it would be necessary to obtain the approbation of men high in station, who, like His Royal Highness Prince Albert, have shown themselves men of progress, notwithstanding their political differences,-e.g., the Emperors of Russia, France, and Turkey; the Regent and the Prince Royal of Prussia; the Kings of the Netherlands, Holland, Sardinia, Denmark, Sweden, Hanover, Bavaria, and Würtemberg; the Grand Dukes of Baden and SaxeGotha; the Presidents of Switzerland and the United States, etc. The favour and encouragement given by them might take the form of free passages on railroads and steamers to the capital chosen, the grant of a place for the meetings, and ready admittance to museums, libraries, hospitals, observatories, etc., etc. No other organization would be required, so that the money element would be kept out of view, as there would be no grants to bestow and no salaries to pay.

It would be the aim to cultivate as before, and still more so, the permanent intellectual and scientific growth through Universities, Royal Societies, Imperial Academies, Institute de France, British and National Associations, etc., in order to be enabled to enjoy also its annual inflorescence at the congress now proposed.

To such of our readers as wish to become acquainted with the history of the British Association, and with that of the Association for the Promotion of Social Science, we commend Mrs Fison's lucid and well written manuals.

Obras Completas de Fernan Caballero. 13 Tomis. Madrid: Mellado. 1857-59.

SOME years ago a distinguished critic remarked, that in Spain, so far as prose fiction was concerned, "native talent and invention appeared to be at an end." Such predictions are dangerous even if applied at home, but are tenfold perilous when used in reference to a foreign literature. The writer, whose works are before us, has proved herself superior to any Italian novelist of this century, equal to any German, and inferior only to the very best of the writers of fiction in this country and in France.

The reputation of this lady (the name Fernan Caballero is merely a nom de plume) has arisen within the last few years. Her name does not occur in the most recent book on Spanish literature (Brinkmeier Hist. d. Span. Lit. d. 19 Jahrh.). Partially translated into French, her works are scarcely known in this country. Her very name will probably be strange to numbers of our readers. This injustice, however, we hope will not be of long continuance; we trust that what

translation has done for Conscience and Auerbach, will, by the same medium, be, ere long, effected for the Andalusian novelist.

In former times, the prose fiction of Spain chiefly manifested two tendencies, first the pastoral, and afterwards the picaresco. Both have long since ceased to be accredited forms of literary composition. After the era of mere French imitation had passed away, and a measure of acquaintance with English and German literature was diffused among the literary men of Spain, there was in the peninsula a short period of historical novel writing. Martinez de la Rosa, de la Escosura, and others, followed this career, without any marked success. Fernan Caballero has taken up a thoroughly original position. No echo of foreign literary impressions, she is true to her own land; no reflection of former literary periods, she is true to her own age. The Spain, and especially the Andalusian Spain of the present time, in town and country life, in the various strata of society, rich and poor, travelled and home-bred, polished and uncultivated, such forms the staple of her stories. Where, as in one of her shorter tales, she takes her characters away from the land of their birth to England, she is vague and unlife-like in her delineations. Contemporary Spain, with its traditions of the contest against Napoleon, its reminiscences of the Constitution of 1820 and of the Carlist war, its very distinctive and powerfully marked national character, is the object of Caballero's descriptions. There is perhaps too much of laudation of Spain,-rather, however, as a matter terminating in itself, than in connection with vituperation or underrating of other countries. We cannot name any intellectual qualification of a novelist in which the authoress is deficient. One of her volumes is called Cuadros de Costumbres (Pic-. tures of Manners), and she elsewhere intimates that this name might be given to them all. But no one must from this suppose that her works are merely or mainly a succession of sketches; there is always a well-managed story. Besides the art of narrative, she has great vigour of description-she is varied and vivid in dialogue-her mastery over the pathetic is remarkable and she is possessed of much power of humour. She is not afraid to speak strongly against the cruelty of the national amusement of the bull-fight. With reference to another Peninsular specialty, more generally annoying than the one just mentioned to tourists, she remarks, "Innovation, which has assailed Spanish politics, literature, and even fashion, has not yet ventured to interfere with our-cookery!"

The works of Caballero may be recommended as original, varied, always interesting, morally pure. As specimens of her skill in sustaining her characters in difficult circumstances, the tales "Simon Verde" and "Lucos Gardia" may be mentioned. The difficulty in the former is material, in the latter moral. "Una en Otra" is a skilful combination of the circumstances of average life in good society, with the sanguinarily eventful history of a family on which the ancient Household Fate of Thebes or Mycena might be supposed to have fallen.