Chapter IV (2)

He thus speaks of the influence of Luther and the Reformation: “At his bidding truth leaped over the cloister walls and challenged every man to make her his guest; aroused every intelligence to acts of private judgment, changed a dependent, recipient people into a reflecting, inquiring people; lifted each human being out of the castes of the middle age, to endow him with individuality, and summoned man to stand forth as man. The world heaved with the fervent conflict of opinion. The people and their guides recognized the dignity of labor; the oppressed peasantry took up arms for liberty; men reverenced and exercised the freedom of the soul. The breath of the new spirit moved over the earth; it revived Poland, animated Germany, swayed the north; and the inquisition of Spain could not silence its whispers among the mountains of the Peninsula. It invaded France; and, though bonfires of heretics, by way of warning, were lighted at the gates of Paris, it infused itself into the French mind, and led to unwonted free discussions. Exile could not quench it. On the banks of the Lake of Geneva, Calvin stood forth the boldest reformer of his day; not personally engaged in political intrigues, yet, by promulgating great ideas, forming the seed-plot of revolution.… Calvinism was revolutionary; wherever it came it created division.… By the side of the eternal mountains and perennial snows and arrowy rivers of Switzerland, it established a religion without a prelate, a government without a king.… It entered Holland, inspiring an industrious nation with heroic enthusiasm; enfranchising and uniting provinces; and making burghers, and weavers, and artisans, victors over the highest orders of Spanish chivalry, the power of the inquisition, and the pretended majesty of kings. It penetrated Scotland, and while its whirlwind bore along persuasion among glens and mountains, it shrunk from no danger, and hesitated at no ambition; it nerved its rugged but hearty envoy to resist the flatteries of the beautiful Queen Mary; it assumed the education of her only son; it divided the nobility; it penetrated the masses, overturned the ancient ecclesiastic establishment, planted free parochial schools, and gave a living energy to the principle of liberty in a people. It infused itself into England, and placed its plebeian sympathies in daring resistance to the courtly hierarchy; dissenting from dissent, longing to introduce the reign of righteousness, it invited every man to read the Bible, and made itself dear to the common mind, by teaching, as a divine revelation, the unity of the race and the natural equality of man.”[I]

It is evident that Bancroft has studied the Reformation, not simply in its outward political aspect, but so as to understand the different shades of theological belief that influenced the minds of the great reformers. His parallel between Luther and Calvin is a fine specimen of composition, noted for its vigorous English, clear, discriminating judgments, and polished style: “Both Luther and Calvin brought the individual immediate relation with God; but Calvin, under a more stern and militant form of doctrine, lifted the individual above pope and prelate, and priest and presbyter, above Catholic church and national church and general synod, above indulgencies, remissions and absolutions from fellow-mortals, and brought him into immediate dependence on God, whose eternal, irreversible choice is made by himself alone, not arbitrarily, but according to his own highest wisdom and justice. Luther spared the altar, and hesitated to deny totally the real presence; Calvin, with superior dialectics, accepted as a commemoration and a seal the rite which the Catholics revered as a sacrifice. Luther favored magnificence in public worship, as an aid to devotion; Calvin, the guide of republics, avoided in their churches all appeals to the senses as a peril to pure religion. Luther condemned the Roman Church for its immorality; Calvin for its idolatry. Luther exposed the folly of superstition, ridiculed the hair shirt and the scourge, the purchased indulgence, and dearly bought, worthless masses for the dead; Calvin shrunk from their criminality with impatient horror. Luther permitted the cross and the taper, pictures and images, as things of indifference; Calvin demanded a spiritual worship in its utmost purity. Luther left the organization of the church to princes and governments; Calvin reformed doctrine, ritual, and practice; and, by establishing ruling elders in each church, and an elective synod, he secured to his policy a representative character, which combined authority with popular rights. Both Luther and Calvin insisted that, for each one, there is and can be no other priest than himself; and, as a consequence, both agreed in the purity of the clergy.”[J]

While the rhetoric of Bancroft is not faultless, it certainly deserves a place in our classic English. In the discussion of grave historical and philosophical questions, his stateliness of expression and his dignity of style challenge our admiration. His descriptions are very fine, and suggest a mind keenly alive to the beautiful and the poetical; but they do not reveal that spontaneity so characteristic of Irving, nor that indefinable symmetry so noticeable in Hawthorne. If his style is sometimes declamatory, I think it is generally in a connection such that the cultivated taste will pronounce it admissible.

Thoroughly versed in the historic lore of this and other countries, broad in his general scholarship, remarkably free from prejudice, an uncompromising American, and yet not an American in a narrow and bigoted sense, careful and systematic in his methods of labor and recreation, unswerving in his belief in the superintending providence of God, George Bancroft justly merits the high place of honor and esteem so willingly accorded to him, and his noble example should be a never-failing source of inspiration.

[E] Vol. III., p. 6.

[F] Vol. II., p. 177.

[G] Hist., Vol. II., p. 545.

[H] Hist., Vol. III., p. 183.

[I] Hist., Vol. III., p. 99.

[J] Hist., Vol. I., p. 212.

* * * * *

GOING TO THE BOTTOM THE ONLY WAY TO REACH THE TOP.—First go to the bottom of everything which you have to do. Know all its principles. If it be a trade, know not only its rules, but the reasons for them. If it be merchandise in raw materials, or in one or more manufactured articles, be sure to learn the whole process, from the planting of the seed, or the digging of the ore, to the completed fabric. Do this by observation, conversation with the heads of departments, and with workmen in different specialties. This was the plan of the late William E. Dodge.—_From Dr. J. M. Buckley’s “Oats or Wild Oats.”_

HOW PERSEUS BEGAN TO BE GREAT.

BY ELIZABETH P. ALLAN.

Fair Perseus slept upon enchanted ground,
And to him came, but with no stir or sound,
The goddess Pallas, whose clear, shining eyes
Read all men’s hearts that are beneath the skies.

“Many there be,” she cried, “who dwell at ease,
Who neither do nor dare—art thou of these?
Or dost thou to some glorious deed aspire?
Hast thou a heart of clay, or soul of fire?”

Then answered Perseus, vehement, “But I
Would do great deeds, though for them I should die.
Point me, O goddess, to the monster’s lair,
And give me leave to show what I can dare!”

“Nay,” said the voice divine, “thy stripling arm
Must first set free from danger’s fierce alarm
_Thy mother’s life!_” With this young Perseus woke,
Nor knew the peril whereof Pallas spoke.

But straight to Seriphus he hied with speed,
To find his Mother Danæ in sore need,
And rescuing her from danger and from dread,
_Then_ went he forth to win the Gorgon’s head.

O, sons and daughters of our happy land,
Whose waking dreams are filled with actions grand,
Ere yet in search of these afar you roam,
Free every burdened heart that sighs at home!

CANADA OF TO-DAY.

BY M. VICTOR DU BLED.

An Abridged Translation for THE CHAUTAUQUAN, from the _Révue des deux Mondes_.

Canada, for so long a time apparently forgotten by her mother country, came out from her isolation and again called back to herself the attention of France by sending to the Exposition of 1855 specimens of her products. In 1856 M. de Belveze, commander of the French frigate “Capricieuse,” was sent into Canadian waters. His mission resulted in the establishment of a French consulate, and the reduction of the tariff which permitted the two countries to enter upon commercial relations.

From 1854 to 1862 material and intellectual progress here marched by the side of great political progress. Public works, canals, and interior colonization, all, during this time received a vigorous impulse.

There is no such thing as spontaneous generation in politics any more than in natural history. Questions give rise to other questions, and the philosophy of history shows them springing up, one after another, from some mysterious source, obeying a sort of atavism, and producing often a most unexpected result. Excitement over representation, fixed according to the population of the country, gave birth to the confederacy. On October 1, 1864, a conference assembled at Quebec, composed of delegates from the maritime provinces, and from the Canadian government. After a long and stormy session, during which threats of resorting to arms were now and then heard, the cause of the confederation triumphed by a large majority. A basis of federal union was submitted to the several legislatures for ratification, and on July 1, 1867, the confederacy was established in the midst of public rejoicings. They gave to the united provinces the name of the Dominion of Canada. Lower Canada was called Quebec, and Upper Canada Ontario.

The Legislature is composed of a Governor-general, a sort of a constitutional viceroy, named by the crown; of a Senate, and a House of Commons. The Senate consists of seventy-six members, appointed for life by the crown, of whom twenty-four each are from Quebec and Ontario. The House of Commons is representative, its members being elected for five years. The Dominion now includes Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward’s Island, British Columbia, Manitoba, and the territory of the North-West, or Hudson’s Bay Territory. Thus it is fulfilling the prediction of the great American statesman, William H. Seward: “Canada is destined to become the seat of a great empire, the Russia of North America, but a Russia with civilization more advanced than the Russia of Europe.” An illustrated paper of the Dominion has published a patriotic caricature representing the Canadian Gulliver with a debonair and placid figure, without any implements save his own gigantic arms and hands, seizing and swallowing the greater part of the American continent, while a crowd of Lilliputians, armed to the teeth, Turks, Yankees, Germans and Italians, survey him with an envious and astonished air.

In order to develop her resources, and to open the way for immigration, that her immense tracts of unused land may more rapidly become the granary of the world, Canada is furrowing her domains with canals and interlacing them with lines of railroads. The Grand Trunk railway, traversing the country from Portland, Me., to Detroit, has been built, with its Victoria bridge (one of the most noted structures in the world) crossing the St. Lawrence opposite Montreal. Immense sums of money have been spent in order to convert the St. Lawrence into a canal. And now she is constructing a transcontinental road, which, binding the two oceans from Port Moody to Halifax, will cross the entire confederation. They expect to finish this route in 1886, and it is estimated that the journey from Liverpool or Havre to Japan will be a thousand miles shorter by this road than by the transcontinental routes of the United States.

Almost in the middle of the Dominion, at an equal distance from the pole to the equator, lies the territory of Manitoba. There lived in 1869, a population half nomadic, called the half-breeds, sprung from marriages between the French Canadians and the Indians. They spoke the French language, and professed the Catholic religion. After the delivery of this country by the Hudson’s Bay Company to the Dominion, the government determined to direct toward it a stream of English emigration. They sent a governor and some surveyors to reside at Winnipeg, the capital. But the natives warned them they might look for trouble if they attempted to place, without consulting them, new inhabitants upon the land which they and their ancestors, from time immemorial, had held and enjoyed. The government was not to be frightened, and so the conflict came. The half-breeds obliged the governor to leave, and constituted a provisional government, with a president at its head. They then drew up a declaration, of which the following is the preamble:

“We, the representatives of the people, assembled in council at
Fort Garry, November 24, 1869, after having invoked the God of
nations, … solemnly declare, in the name of our constitution and
in our own name, before God and men, that we refuse to recognize
the authority of Canada, which pretends to have the right to
command us and impose upon us a despotic form of government.”

Later, however, they changed their opinion, and entered into negotiations with the federal government. But at the moment when all things had been arranged without bloodshed, the English colonists, who were very numerous around Lake Winnipeg, rose in insurrection against the half-breeds. The president of the latter, Louis Riel, who took upon himself the _rôle_ of dictator, had the leading mutineers seized, and their chief, named Scott, was tried, condemned and shot. Far from establishing his authority, this execution discouraged the natives themselves, and when two battalions of militia under Col. Wolseley arrived on the ground, they were welcomed as liberators by the half-breeds, and Riel, with his leading accomplices, fled to the United States. A compromise was then effected, and Manitoba was annexed to the Dominion as an autonomous province. It sends to Parliament two senators and five representatives. Winnipeg contains 30,000 inhabitants, and property has increased its value to an extraordinary degree, as the following anecdote will show: A parishioner of Archbishop Taché, obliged to leave the country, sought the archbishop, and excusing himself for not being able to pay the rent of his church pew, offered as part payment a small piece of land; “scarcely what would pay for a low mass,” timidly said the poor man. Ten years later that land brought $14,000.

In spite of the expenses occasioned by her canals and railroads, the people of the Dominion are, perhaps, among all the tax-payers of the civilized world, those upon whom the smallest rates are levied. There is no standing army, only a simple militia of about 50,000 men. The total expenses of government in 1884 amounted to $28,730,157. The receipts for the same year were $36,800,000. The minister of finances, in making out his estimates for the year 1885 placed them as follows: Expenses, $29,811,639; receipts, $31,000,000, which were to be raised as follows: Duties, $20,000,000; excises, $5,500,000; postoffice returns, $1,900,000; public works, $3,000,000; interest on investments, $750,000; other sources, $800,900. Duties on goods supply the source of two thirds of all the receipts. In 1880 they adopted a very strict system, which, without any distinction, exacts duties from English goods as from any other nation. On the other hand, England has granted to them the right of concluding treaties of commerce with foreign nations.

The only difference of opinion in regard to the question of tariff existing between the two parties is that the liberals wish the laws of entrance to be more moderate than the conservatives have made them, but neither of them will adopt the cosmopolitan theories of European free trade. The English compare protection to a bullet, Canadian tariff to a museum of instruments of torture, and declare that in following the example of the United States, the Dominion has forgotten the fable of the frog which wished to become as large as an ox. The Canadians hold that they shall do what they think best for their country, and that duties are the taxes least inconvenient to raise; that they save national work; and that they not only have made up the deficits of the past, but have put into the treasury an excess, so they have been able to reduce them to the amount of two and one-fourth millions dollars. The tariff for protection has become a tariff for revenue.

Since 1853 especially, public instruction has made great progress. These people who, under the patronage of the crown of England, have realized the ideal conception of a conservative and Christian republic, hold that public schools are among the luxuries of a young nation, and do not hesitate to impose upon themselves heavy sacrifices, as they believe they will result in good to their children. In the province of Quebec alone, government expended during the year 1882-83, $350,000 for school buildings, while the contributions paid directly by the people amounted to more than $2,000,000. In a population of 1,359,027 inhabitants, statistics show that there are 5,039 schools of different grades; 7,211 professors and teachers, and 245,225 scholars, making an average of one scholar for every six inhabitants. As to universities and colleges, they do not come under the school regulations, but are independent institutions, which, however, may receive appropriations from the government on condition of making a report each year to the superintendent. When in a school district there live a number of families who profess a different religion from that of the majority, they have the right to have for their children separate schools, under the care of three officials, chosen by them. Thus Catholics and Protestants have equal privileges, and everything is done to secure respect for religion, independence to the citizen, and his active and constant interest in educational matters. The circulars of the present superintendent, M. Ouimet, define in clear terms the spirit of the school laws in Quebec: “In our system of primary instruction we first teach the children the catechism of true religion, in order that they may know how to serve God; then the manuals of agriculture and of design, in order to put them in condition to serve their country. _For God and country!_ Behold the words which the Canadian legislature has inscribed on the walls of her educational institutions. The state unites itself to the two systems of religion in the matter of education, and does not authorize any school to be atheistical, but demands of it to be Christian before it accords help. It does not provide that one church shall be helped rather than another. Full and entire liberty it demands, and from this comes perfect harmony among the people.”

Religious liberty marches by the side of educational liberty. Each church supports itself; the state no longer takes cognizance of clergy or congregations, to protect them, to annoy them, or to persecute. They can, as the citizens, found a university, a college, or a school.

Men such as Labelle and Racine have accomplished wonderful results in planting in the most barren regions, at the peril of their lives, strong and flourishing colonies. “Go west,” incessantly repeated Horace Greeley to young Americans. “Go north, French Canadians and Catholics,” said Father Labelle, with a prophetic foresight.

Canadian literature only dates back to 1840. Before that time it was made up of songs. Such a literature was absolutely essential to the gay and sociable race who consoled itself, in all its troubles, with stanzas. There was a time when France held the government under control by her songs. Did any Canadian patriot attract attention by some great deed? At once a song was written. Was the question that of elections? They addressed themselves to some crude poet, and sharp, malign couplets soon overran the country. The festival of St. Jean Baptiste has furnished many a contribution to this list, and Sir George Cartier owes in great part his popularity to the fact that he composed one for the first banquet, in 1834. Often among the remote rural districts are found people possessing magnificent tenor voices, which would make the fortune of an impressario who would come from the other side of the water to look them up.

“We are yet amateurs,” said one of their writers to me. Without endorsing this very modest judgment, one can but admit that up to the present time our American cousins have been more occupied with making history than with writing it. Action has absorbed thought. They have run, closely pressed on all sides, to the conquest of political liberties. The books which they published during their unsettled national history partook of the character of the times, as the great work of Garneau will show, which was a revelation to his countrymen, and was of more value to them than an army, since it assured them of a nation’s faith and the certainty of success. The greater part of the writers have been obliged to tax their ingenuity for a livelihood, and too often politics, that deceptive siren, keeps them from those severe studies which alone will bring talent to maturity.

In poetry, MM. Crémazie and Louis Fréchette have left behind them all rivals. High inspiration, poetic fervor, appreciation of nature, and love of country have made them true poets. One can not read without emotion some of the productions of M. Crémazie. His patriotic songs, which seem to have been breathed from the very heart of the country itself, in a language harmonious and vibrating, do not for an instant decline in interest or power. The verses of M. Fréchette are written in a graceful style, and possess a youthful freshness. In history, MM. l’Abbé Casgrain, Benjamin Sulte and Joseph Tassé have become distinguished. M. Tassé, in his book “Canadians of the West,” tells of the pioneers of the American continent, those who penetrated into the icy regions of the pole, who crossed the Rocky Mountains, and spread over the fertile plains of Mexico; and has shown that of them all the French in the Canadian settlements were the only ones who treated the Indians honorably and kindly, and who succeeded in winning their respect and affection.

The group of prose writers and romancers is increasing every day. One of the best, without doubt, is M. J. C. Taché, the author of three legends, each of which characterizes an epoch in the history of the Indians. M. de Gaspé, with his “Ancient Canadians,” and M. Joseph Marmette, with his historic romances have acquired a well merited reputation.

What, then, shall be the aim in the future of Canadian literature? To acquire new strength and vigor without ceasing the study of the past; to revive the glorious annals; to gather with a pious care its legends; to identify itself also with the present; to paint the manners and the contemporaneous social life; to note and to report the majestic symphony of their land; never to lose sight of the thought of Carlyle, that the universe is a temple as well as a workshop. Such will be the duty of Canadian writers.

The Canadians through all the years since their country passed out of the hands and the control of the French, have clung to them with great affection, drawn by some profound and mystic instinct, by the lines of heredity, the power of traditions, the religion of memory. They are not ignorant of the fact that if they had remained united to France, they would not now have, in all probability, their free social and religious institutions; they would likely have formed an administrative colony such as Algeria. They know that it was England who sent them, under hard circumstances, perhaps, to the school of liberty, and to her they are indebted for their prosperity, but they look to France still as their mother country. Why should not that country give them some more solid proof of its affection? While with South America the annual exchanges of France are counted by the hundred million, and great numbers of French people emigrate there, her total commerce with Canada does not exceed $15,000,000, and it is with great difficulty that she has commenced to send thither a few of her citizens. Why should not French emigration direct itself toward a country where wages are good, the soil fertile, where property offers itself to all, and where a welcome is awaiting them? Why should not the French go to visit the Canadians and learn of them how a people became and remain free?

SOME AMERICAN MUSEUMS.

BY CLARENCE COOK.

Under this heading it is intended to give in successive numbers of THE CHAUTAUQUAN descriptions of the principal Art Museums of our country: The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington. We begin in the present number with the Boston Museum.

In the year 1870 the trustees of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts were organized under a charter from the Massachusetts legislature. It was not, however, until 1876 that a building was erected in which the pictures, casts, antiquities, engravings and objects of curiosity which formed the nucleus of its present extensive collections could be exhibited to the public.

Up to the time when the first portion of the present building was erected, the amateur or the student of the fine arts in Boston or its neighborhood had been obliged to take a good deal of trouble, and to spend much time, if he would see the few objects that existed there—in public institutions or in private houses—in the domain of painting, sculpture, antiquities, or in that of the minor arts—now classed together in popular speech under the incorrect title of bric-a-brac.

Beside the permanent exhibition of the pictures which belonged to it, the Athenæum Library had generously devoted some of its rooms every season for several successive years to the exhibition of pictures painted by American artists, an exhibition answering to those held yearly by the National Academy of Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Beside these regular exhibitions, there had been many occasional ones of importance, such as that of the Spanish pictures belonging to the Duc de Montpensier, which gave to those of us who had not visited Europe, the opportunity of seeing respectable specimens of the works of Zurbaran, Herrera, Morales, Murillo, Ribalta and Velasquez. There was also in the Athenæum a small but well selected collection of plaster-casts of antique sculpture, so that for a long time this institution was an art center of no little value and importance. The Athenæum was not, however, an art institution, but a library, and the time came when the increase of the library made it necessary to give up its art collections and devote all its space to books.

The collections of the Athenæum were the most important, both in number and in value, to be found in Boston, but there were many interesting objects scattered about which it was felt would be of much greater service to the community if they could be brought together under one roof, and made to work in common for the education of the whole community. The late Francis C. Gray had bequeathed to Harvard College his large and valuable collection of engravings together with a fund for its maintenance, and it was found that its usefulness, whether for purposes of enjoyment or as a means of education was very much restricted by its being so far away from the capital. Yet it had been impossible to find a proper place for it in Boston, and it therefore remained shut up in Cambridge. The Institute of Technology had formed, under the direction of Prof. William R. Ware, a collection of architectural ornament, but as this was lodged in the Institute building it could only be seen and studied at such times as suited the convenience of the professors and their pupils. The Social Science Association had called the attention of the public to the need that existed of a large and complete collection of casts of antique sculpture. But—what to do with such a collection, could it be brought together?

In a city like Boston, a want so deeply felt could not long remain unsatisfied, and the matter having been widely discussed, and a general interest created in the public mind, the first steps were taken with generous unanimity, and as has been stated, a charter was procured from the legislature, the Museum was organized by the naming of trustees, and the city having given a site, no difficulty was met with in raising a subscription of $261,000 toward a building. The plans of Messrs. Sturgis and Brigham, submitted in competition, were selected, and on the 3d of July, 1876, one wing of the front of the building was opened to the public. This was filled by the collections of the Athenæum, and by the Gray collection of engravings, both permanently loaned to the Museum, by the casts of antique sculptures purchased with funds bequeathed by the late Charles Sumner, the Egyptian collections presented by Mr. C. Granville Way, and valuable gifts from Mr. Lawrence and other persons. The space at the disposal of the trustees was soon overcrowded, and in 1878 a fresh subscription of $126,000 having been raised, the front was completed and opened to the public in 1879. At the present time of writing the need is seriously felt for more room, and it is hoped that the means may soon be provided for taking a third step toward the completion of the original plan of the building.

The building containing the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Art is constructed of red brick and terra cotta on a basement of granite. It stands in the new quarter of the city, and is built like all other structures in that part of the city, on piles. It is rather ornate in its character, and compared with its massive neighbor, Trinity Church, has a somewhat effeminate look, but it is solidly built, and planned with great good sense, and with a steady view to convenience. On entering, the visitor finds himself in a large hall, in the center of which rises an ample staircase conducting to the second floor. At the right and left are doorways leading to the rooms containing the casts from antique sculpture. By taking either of these doorways we can make the circuit of the whole series of apartments, but as the present arrangement is only temporary, awaiting the completion of the building for a logical disposition of the material, it may be better to pass at once to the rear of the hall, and taking the door at the left hand, enter

THE EGYPTIAN ROOM.

The contents of this room were chiefly collected between the years 1828 and 1833, by a Scotch gentleman, Mr. Robert Hay. After his death they were purchased by Mr. C. Granville Way, of Boston, and presented to the Museum in 1872. Several fine pieces of sculpture, collected in Egypt in 1835 by the late Mr. John Lowell, the founder of the Lowell Institute, have been added to this room by the gift of Mr. Lowell’s heirs. The valuable and interesting casts from bas-reliefs and statues are the gift of General Charles G. Loring, the director of the Museum, to whose zeal and efficiency the institution owes so much of its usefulness.

The room is finely lighted by large windows, and General Loring, who is much interested in botany, generally keeps here a few fine specimens of tropical plants, especially such as belong to Egypt. Thus, on the occasion of my last visit, I had the pleasure of seeing there a fine specimen of the papyrus plant waving its graceful fans in salute to Pasht and Amenophis, hard by. The giant figure of Amenophis III., the Memnon of the Greeks (1500 B. C.) is a cast from the granite original in the British Museum. Near it is the statue of Pasht, the Cat-headed, in black granite, with the cartouch of Amenophis III., and there are also several blocks of red granite, probably portions of a throne, with a few fragments of sculpture—the colossal head of a king, pieces of the lid of a sarcophagus in green basalt, and two capitals cut out of sandstone, showing the lotos and papyrus forms. In the center of the room are several mummy cases, and in glass cases are disposed mummied heads, skulls, hands and feet, with mummies of animals, the cat, the dog, the dog-faced ape, the hawk and the ibis. In one of these cases is a hand still bearing a ring on the fourth finger. The remaining cases contain very interesting specimens of mummy-cloth of various dates and quality, one of the most important being a robe of justification supposed to be worn in the trial of the deceased before Osiris. It is sixteen feet in length by six feet nine inches in width, and has a fringe. The remaining contents of this room consist of various objects gathered from the tombs and from the mummy cases in such number and variety as to make it impossible to describe them in the narrow space at my command. But while there can be no doubt as to the value of the collection as a means of study in a field of wide interest and importance, it may be said, so far as art is concerned, the Way collection is of less value than the Abbott collection in the Historical Society of New York City. Each collection, however, supplements the other in a most interesting way, and taken together, they enable a student to make a fair beginning in the study of Egyptian antiquity.

THE FIRST GREEK ROOM

Opens directly from the Egyptian Room, and contains casts of archaic and early Greek sculpture. Here will be found the Lions from the gate of Mycenæ, the funeral slabs of Orchomenos, of Aristion, and of the soldier of Marathon, the Dresden Pallas, the relief of Demeter, Persephone, and Triptolemus, from Athens, and the so-called Leucothea, and the infant Bacchus from the Villa Albani, with several interesting archaic reliefs from the same collection. There have lately been added to the Museum a number of the funeral slabs or _stele_ discovered at Athens and preserved in the museum there, objects of great beauty and interest, properly belonging, either in this room or in immediate connection with it, but placed for temporary convenience, in the Roman and Renaissance Room. The most important objects in this First Greek Room are the casts from the sculptures of the eastern and western Pediments of the Temple of Minerva at Egina, consisting of five figures from the eastern pediment and ten from the western, arranged as they are believed to have been originally. Passing from this room to

THE SECOND GREEK ROOM

We find ourselves in the midst of a group of statues, most of them of the Praxitelean type and making too sharp a contrast by their grace and sensuous refinement to the hardness and severity of the contents of the room just left. It must be remembered, however, that owing to the small space at the command of the Museum authorities it has not been possible to follow a strict chronological order, and we must therefore be content for the present to follow the arrangement of the separate rooms. We have, therefore, here, the casts from the Parthenon frieze, the Theseus and the Fates from the eastern and the Ilissus from the western Pediment of the same building, with the Torso of the Victory, also from the eastern Pediment, together with several figures from the temple of the Wingless Victory (Nikè Apteros) on the acropolis. But space fails us to enumerate all the casts contained in the rooms devoted to antique sculpture; and why attempt a mere catalogue? The Venus of Milo is here, and the lately discovered Hermes with the infant Dionysus, the Niobe and her daughter, the Ludovisi Mars, the Diana of the Louvre, the Apollo Belvidere, the Eirene and Plutus, the Faun of Praxiteles, and the glorious mask of the Ludovisi Juno. Indeed, we miss few works of prime importance, and there are many casts here that can not be found elsewhere in America, and which are yet essential to even a superficial study of the rise and progress of Greek sculpture. Passing on, we come to the other rooms where are the Laocoön, the Dying Gladiator, the younger Agrippina, the Sophocles, the Demosthenes, the Menander, the Æsculapius, the Discobulus, the Silenus and the infant Bacchus, and the Boy taking a Thorn from his Foot (the Spinario), with many another famous and less famous work, enabling us to carry on the study until the stream dies away to rise again in new beauty in the art of the early Italian Renaissance. While no capital piece can be said to be wanting to this collection there remain many pieces to be added which are needed for fullness of knowledge, but every year sees important acquisitions, and there can be no doubt, judging from the past history of the Museum, that if the wished for addition to the building could be made, the missing gaps in the sculpture would speedily be filled up by gift. But before leaving the antique rooms we must mention the two sarcophagi from Vulci, now deposited in the Museum, and which, it is earnestly to be hoped, will become its property, since they are not only deeply interesting in themselves, but have an added value from their great rarity. They represent the bodies of two married pair reposing upon the lids of the two sarcophagi, as on the marriage-bed. The finer of the two groups is carved in alabaster, the other is in travertine; the one in alabaster has a monumental beauty and sweet dignity that is surpassed by nothing of the kind that exists, and considering its great beauty and rarity it is said there is only one other example of this treatment of the subject, and that is in the Vatican.

Crossing the Hall of Entrance, to which we have returned, we find ourselves in the last of the antique sculpture rooms, where are placed some of the most interesting of the Roman works just enumerated. Nothing would be gained by an attempt to catalogue the rooms at present, as their contents are likely to be changed at any time when the projected enlargement of the Museum is carried out. The space in this portion of the building, the addition built in 1879, answering to that occupied in the older portion by the first and second Greek Rooms, is here thrown into one large apartment filled with the

CASTS OF ARCHITECTURAL ORNAMENTS.

The principal object here is the cast of the Caryatid Portico of the Pandroseion, one of the portions of the complex structure generally called the Erechtheium, from the name of one of its parts dedicated to the worship of Erechtheus. The Portico with its Caryatids is given here of the full size of the original, and is so placed (until the great court can be built in which these large objects are to be shown) that a good view of it can be obtained from a considerable distance, while it is well lighted by a large window at one side. The remaining objects in this room are casts in great numbers from Greek and Roman architectural ornament, from the ornament of the Italian Renaissance, from the Alhambra, from the Gothic buildings of France, Germany and England, the specimens from England including twelve out of the thirty angels composing the so-called angel choir of Lincoln Cathedral. These figures of angels playing on musical instruments are of the thirteenth century, and are among the most beautiful works of their time. In this room again we find it impossible to do justice to our subject; the variety is too great and the range of artistic development covered by the example too extensive to be dismissed in less than an entire article, and even that would be insufficient. Turning to the right at the end of this room we come to

THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE,

Where the works of Michelangelo, Donatello, Ghiberti, Luca della Robbia, and a few other such names meet us in some of their best works. Here is the Lorenzo of Michelangelo with the statues of Day and Night, the David of Donatello, the Cupid of Michelangelo with his unfinished bas-relief of the Virgin and Child, the Mercury of John of Bologna, and various bas-reliefs of the time with the singing boys of Donatello and those of Luca della Robbia. Here, too, is the cast of the trial plate, “The Sacrifice of Isaac,” made by Ghiberti in competition with Brunelleschi and Donatello for the Florence Baptistery Gates, interesting in itself, and in connection with that most important event in the history of modern art.

The last room on this floor is filled with specimens of Greek, Roman, and Asia Minor pottery, with a sufficient number of examples of the sculpture, pottery, and glass of Cyprus, a small but well-chosen group of figurines from Tanagra, and the results of the late researches at Assos by the members of the American Society of Archæology. This room is full of interesting objects, but it is uncomfortably crowded and necessarily ill-arranged. In the next article we shall describe the contents of the second floor of the Museum.

NATURAL HISTORY AND PEOPLE OF BORNEO.

Report of a lecture delivered March 7th in the National Museum of Washington, D. C., by Mr. Wm. T. Hornaday, Chief Taxidermist of the Museum.

The island of Borneo is the home of the Head-hunter, the land of the orang-utan, the Garden of the Sun, and perhaps even the sepulchre of the missing link. There is a possibility of its being the cradle of a great empire which shall be at the zenith of its glory when the greatness of the United States shall have passed away, like that of Greece and Rome, and Washington have become the Athens of America. The center of human progress will probably eventually move into regions now peopled by savages only, and the Kaffir or Dyak of the thirtieth century will perhaps study the archæology of the Yankee with the same interest that we now bestow upon the ruins of Carthage and Mycenæ.

Borneo is situated nearly in the middle of the Malay Archipelago. Its greatest length is 850 miles, greatest width 630 miles, and its area is 192,000 square miles. The whole of New England, the Middle States and Virginia could be set down in the evergreen forests, which everywhere cover its surface, and still be surrounded by a wide belt of jungle. The whole interior is very mountainous. The rivers and creeks are the highways of Borneo, and other roads are practically unknown. Nothing could be more arduous, and full of risk to life and limb, than overland travel through such dense forests and over such rugged mountains as confront the explorer at every step. The interior is practically an uninhabitable wilderness. Even in this age of daring and persevering travelers, no white man has ever crossed the island from one side to the other. The interior is still a land of mystery, whence come marvelous accounts of a race of men with tails, with detailed descriptions of their appearance and habits, stories implicitly believed by many natives. The climate of Borneo is what one would least expect, considering its equatorial position. The temperature is very agreeable all the year round. The mercury usually stands at 80° Fahrenheit in the morning, 88° at midday, seldom reaching 90°, and never exceeding 93°. The annual variation of temperature is only 24°—from 69° to 93°. Usually there are about 200 rainy days in the year, and from 158 to 178 inches of rain.

The vegetation of Borneo is probably unsurpassed by that of any other country in the world, either in luxuriance, economic value, or, the possession of wonderful forms. On the spurs of Mount Kina Balu are found four species of pitcher plants (Nepenthes), of marvelous size and form and gorgeous colors. The largest pitchers of _Nepenthes rajah_ measure thirteen inches in length, twenty in circumference, and hold five pints of water. Among the curiosities of vegetation is the tapang tree, which, in lieu of spur roots, throws out enormous slab-like buttresses. The _cocoa_ palm bears a bountiful crop of nuts, which in turn yield oil and a coarse kind of sugar. The _sago_ palm yields the valuable pearl sago of commerce. The _areca_ palm produces the betel-nut, which, together with a fresh pepper-leaf and a bit of moist lime, is in the mouth of nearly every East Indian native in lieu of tobacco. The _nipa_ palm yields salt, toddy, excellent syrup and sugar, and the leaves are made into kadjangs for boat awnings and roofing material for houses. The _gomouti_ palm produces the best toddy, and the cabbage is esteemed by the natives as food. The _nibong_ palm is valuable for its timber. The primeval forests are rich in timber trees, one of which, the _bilian_, furnishes wood which seemingly never decays. Bamboo grows abundantly in the interior, and is of great use to the natives.

Of the many fruits of the forest we can only refer to the durian. In size and shape it resembles a roundish pineapple, and is set all over with sharp conical spines, three fourths of an inch long, and stout enough to pierce the hide of a rhinoceros. When the fruit is ripe, the pod opens of its own accord. Although the smell of the pod is most offensive, we find inside four or five large cells, in each of which are from three to five horse-chestnuts, coated thickly with the most delicious paste that ever tickled the palate of man.

The agricultural products consist of sago, gambier, rice, sugar-cane and cotton, which is grown to a limited extent by the Dyaks. The cultivation of coffee is now engaging the attention of enterprising English planters, and may eventually become the most important industry of the island.

The whole island teems with animal life in great variety of forms. It would appear, judging from the success of Mr. A. R. Wallace, to be a paradise for the entomologist. This gentleman once collected seventy-six species of beetles in one day, many of which were new and of remarkable form, and during his stay of fifteen months in Sarawak he took over 500 species. There are a number of handsome species of butterflies, including the magnificent _Ornithoptera Brookana_. This butterfly is eight inches in width, and of a rich, velvety black color, on which is a broad band of metallic green scales, resembling a humming-bird’s feathers. Of all insects Borneo is richest in moths. At one place, on a mountain top, Mr. Wallace took 200 specimens in a single night, representing 130 species. In the same place he took in twenty-six nights 1,300 specimens of moths.

The fishes include quite a variety of fresh-water species, among which may be mentioned the curious tree-climbing perch, the thread-fish, the celebrated _gourami_, the jumping-fish, or _Periophthalmus_, which hops about on land in search of small crustaceans stranded by the receding tide; and the very rare and curious little fish known to icthyologists as _Luciocephalus pulcher_. The Malays capture a great many fish in small streams by poisoning the water with an extract made from the pounded roots of the tuba plant, and either spearing or netting the fish when they rise to the surface to breathe.

Among the reptiles, the most important is the crocodile, which attains a maximum length of seventeen feet, and is very destructive to human life. It seldom happens that a person escapes or is rescued, after being seized in this burly reptile’s powerful jaws. Some years ago the Sarawak government began a war of extermination against the crocodiles, by offering a reward of 35 cents a foot for all killed in the Territory. In 1878, 266 crocodiles were killed, and $738 paid out in rewards. I discovered a crocodile’s nest containing fifty-five eggs. The native crocodile hunters use hook and line. The hook, or _alir_, as it is called by the Malays, is a simple contrivance made of wood, tied at the end of a tough bark rope. Another saurian, the gavial, is found in Borneo. It is not unlike that of the Ganges, called by Dr. Gray, _Tomistoma schlegelli_. This species inhabits the headwaters of some of the rivers, and is rarely seen. In the swampy forest near the coast, small reptiles are very abundant. There are pythons in Borneo twenty-four feet long. Two twelve-foot specimens were brought to me, and a monster python twenty feet six inches long, I purchased alive in a cage, and put to death for its skin and skeleton.

Notwithstanding the contrary opinion of many observers, I think it can not be said with truth that Borneo is rich in bird-life. There are 392 species on the island. The finest bird is the argus pheasant. In life its plumage has a soft, velvety richness which is never seen in a dry specimen. These birds are extremely shy, and are taken by the natives in snares. Hornbills of several varieties are numerous. A bird of great commercial value is the swallow which builds the edible nest, so dear to the palate of the Chinese mandarin. These nests are built in caves, and are of a gelatinous substance resembling white glue. Their shape is like a small soup ladle with a broad, flat handle about an inch long. There are two kinds of nests, the white and the black, the former being most prized. A picul (133 pounds) of these is worth from two to three thousand dollars.

Borneo is favored with a great variety of very interesting mammals. So far as is at present known, there are ninety-six species, thirty-three of which are not found elsewhere. In apes and monkeys the island is especially rich. At the head of the list is the huge, red-haired orang-utan, of which we will speak presently. Then comes the long-nosed monkey, with its immense flabby proboscis. The _Nasalis_ is a large species of monkey, found in the same localities as the orang, always over the water, and usually in large troops. It is something marvelous to watch a troop of monkeys, when terrified by an attack with firearms. They head directly away from the danger, and gallop madly through the tree-tops along the larger branches. Another interesting mammal is the long-armed ape, _Hylobates concolor_. This animal is extremely wary, and so rapid in its flight as to render pursuit exceedingly difficult. The flying lemur is also found here. Another curious monkey is the tarsier, a small, nocturnal animal. The krah, _Macacus cynomolgus_, actually swarms in the low trees along the river banks. The clouded leopard, the otter-cat, and civet cats of two species occur, and also several other small members of the cat tribe. Two species of bear are found, the smallest known. The Indian elephant occurs in the extreme northeastern part of the island; also the rhinoceros and tapir. These three are very rare. The thin-haired deer is very common in Sarawak Territory, and is frequently noosed by the natives. The muntjac, or rib-faced deer, is occasionally met. Wild hogs are very abundant and destructive. They sometimes measure forty inches at the shoulder, and are good swimmers. Many beautiful squirrels are found here, and also, remarkable bats, the bear cat, otter, porcupines, and other small mammals which fall an easy prey to the hunter-naturalist.