work of similar compass in any other language." The book is designed to aid the mode of studying this science which is insisted on by the so-called "historical school" of political economists lately arisen. It aims to trace the successive economic doctrines of the past, in connection with the conditions of the time in which each one appeared. Passing quickly over the economic thought of ancient and mediæval times, the author enters upon the modern period, which he divides into three phases. In the first phase, or during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the "Catholico-feudal system" was breaking down, while a new order, the commercial, was rising beneath it. In the second phase, the collapse of the mediaeval social structure is followed by the advance of the central government, which, while promoting the growth of commerce, levies tribute upon it to obtain the necessary supplies for military operations. The conditions of this time give rise to the "mercantile school" of political economy. In the last phase—during the eighteenth century—a spirit of individualism arose, and the dogma of laisser faire was received with general favor. This tendency, in the absence of the moral discipline partly established in the middle ages, led to the domination of national selfishness and private cupidity. But the rising elements—science and industry—are bringing with them a discipline more effective than the old, and the effort to press forward in the path which they point out gives the character to the period in which we live. The author then proceeds to indicate that the respective features of the second and third phases are reflected in the contemporary economic speculation; those of the first, he says, can scarcely be said to find an echo in any literature of the time. He gives an exposition of the mercantile doctrine, with comments on each important economic treatise which appeared during the prevalence of the tendencies which formed the mercantile school. In treating the doctrine of the third modern phase, or the system of natural liberty, the author takes up first the economic writers of France, Italy, Spain, and Germany before Adam Smith, and follows these with an extended review of Smith's teachings. The later economists of England and the Continent next receive attention, and a few pages are devoted to those of America. The rise of the historical school in the chief countries of Europe and in America is then traced. In conclusion, the author says that political economy has been heretofore governed to its detriment by the methods of metaphysics, and that its progress depends on the substitution of scientific methods; that it must be studied in its relations with the science of sociology which includes it; and that the doctrine of right which lay at the basis of the system of "natural liberty" must be replaced by a new doctrine of duty regulating the co-operation of each class and member of the community.
Three Cruises of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Steamer Blake, in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea, and along the Atlantic Coast of the United States, from 1877 to 1880. By Alexander Agassiz. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Two vols. Pp. 314 and 220. Price, $8.
The author styles this work "a contribution to American Thalassography," meaning by that word the science which treats of oceanic basins. While we have had narratives of explorations with general summaries of results and special treatises and papers on particular points, which may altogether cover the whole subject, there has previously been no American work treating it comprehensively and systematically; although the fruits of English research have been embodied in the masterly books of Wyville Thomson and Wild. The expeditions of the Blake were by no means of minor importance among the enterprises for investigation of the deep seas. They covered a less extent of territory than the Challenger Expedition, but the region in which they operated is among the most interesting divisions of the ocean in the lessons which it affords concerning the relations of currents and temperature with the development and distribution of organic life; and its well-defined limitation made a thorough and nearly exhaustive survey all the more feasible. That the survey has been fruitful in results, in both the physical and biological departments, is attested by this careful and well-arranged presentation of the facts which were learned from it. Condensing the narrative into a very few pages, the author goes at once to the consideration of the immense variety of
