Mrs. S. B. Schlesinger; M. Bandelier's collections from the Pueblos and from Cholula, and Mr. Fred A. Ober's collection of copper implements from Oajaca, Mexico; specimens from English caves, and casts, by Mr. Dawkins; articles illustrating the making of pottery by the Caribs of British Guiana, from Professor H. A. Ward; soapstone pots from Northern Italy, by Dr. Emil Schmidt; and a cast of the "Endicott Rock" of New Hampshire. The curator carried on field-work at Madisonville, Ohio, and Indian Hill, Kentucky. More was done to make the museum and its objects known to the public, and more use was made of its collections for instruction and research, than in any previous year.
Lectures on Art. Delivered in Support of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. London: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 232.
The six lectures are by five authors, each of whom has devoted particular attention to the study of the subject he presents. The lecturers and their subjects are—Reginald Stuart Poole, on "The Egyptian Tomb and the Future State"; Professor W. B. Richmond, on "Monumental Painting"; Edward J. Poynter, R. A., on "Ancient Decorative Art"; J. T. Micklethwaite, on "English Parish Churches"; and William Morris, on "The History of Pattern Designing," and "The Lesser Arts of Life." The lectures are, one and all, interesting and instructive.
The Factors of Civilization, Real and Assumed: Considered in their Relation to Vice, Misery, Happiness, Unhappiness, and Progress. Vol. II. Atlanta, Georgia: James P. Harrison & Co. Pp. 359.
The whole work is to be in three volumes, of which the second precedes the first in time of publication. It treats of the subjects of more immediate and practical importance than those to be discussed in the first volume. The author maintains that man naturally inclines to goodness, and that all vice and misery arise from the operation of theological causes, bad government, ignorance, and poverty; or that the structure of society is defective because of defective institutions. Man, he holds, has a vital impulse to do implanted within him, which only requires that the institutions of society shall permit of its development, to create a growth "as grand in results as the magnificent oak bears in comparison to the insignificant acorn." The political economical factors of civilization arc considered in this volume under the heads of "The Unhappiness arising from Poverty" and "The Unhappiness arising from Uncongenial Pursuits and Labor." The theological, governmental, and educational factors will be considered in the first volume; and the third volume will be devoted to "The Analysis of Happiness."
American Hero-Myths. A Study in the Native Religions of the Western Continent. By Daniel G. Brinton, M. D. Philadelphia: H. C. Watts & Co. Pp. 251. Price, $1.75.
This volume is an endeavor to present in a critically correct fight some of the fundamental conceptions which are found in the native beliefs of the tribes of America. The author does not consider it creditable that so little has been done in this field, and is disposed to be severe, but hardly too much so, on those who have had opportunities to investigate the subject, and have not used them. He rejects the idea that the native myths are distorted historical reminiscences and exaggerated statements respecting persons that ever really existed, and has been guided by the principle that "when the same, and that a very extraordinary, story is told by several tribes wholly apart in language and location, then the probabilities are enormous that it is not a legend, but a myth, and must be explained as such." The myths of the lower races, he believes, "express, in image and incident, the opinions of these races on the mightiest topics of human thought, on the origin and destiny of man, his motives for duty, and his grounds for hope, and the source, history, and fate of all external nature. Certainly, the sincere expressions on these subjects of even humble members of the human race deserve our most respectful heed." With these views and in this spirit, Dr. Brinton presents the results of his studies, from the most authentic, accessible sources, of the hero-gods of the Algonquins, the Iroquois, the Aztec tribes, the Mayas, and the Quichas.
