Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/715

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
LITERARY NOTICES.
697

over the thought of men and women competing for work, and doubtless such competition has already given rise to some unpleasant results. But, strictly speaking, competition for work is a feature of an imperfect social system, and therefore, as we may trust, an evil that is destined to disappear; while competition in work will remain as a powerful spring of progress. On the other hand, man will be roused by the rise of woman to a competition not so much with her as with himself. If he wishes to win her respect, to say nothing of conquering her love, he will have to be something better on the average than he has been in the past. Heretofore man has, consciously or unconsciously, counted too much on the power of instinct for his influence over woman; while she in turn has regarded him as a creature to be captivated mainly by appeals to the senses and by an appearance of subservience to his wishes. In the future the primitive attraction between man and woman will remain, but it will be so modified by intellectual and moral influences that it will not exercise the same mastery that it has done in the past, nor be so determining an influence in conjugal unions. It is vain to represent to women that it is their duty to marry; their first duty is to themselves, and only when marriage can give fuller scope to their individuality will the best women fo the now rising generation care to commit themselves to it. In some ways this may seem to bode evil, seeing that the less advanced will be as ready as ever to marry on the old terms; but, on the whole, we can not doubt that the reflex action on men will carry with it a large surplus of advantage to the world. We want individual men—that has long been recognized; but we want also individual women that has only lately been recognized: when once woman becomes an individual in the truest and highest sense, civilization will have reached the threshold of its most glorious period.



LITERARY NOTICES.

Geological Survey of New Jersey. Annual Report of the State Geologist for the Year 1890. By John C. Smock. Trenton. Pp. 305, with Map.

Mr. Smock entered upon the office of State Geologist on the 1st of October, 1890. Previous to that time the clerical work of the office and the superintendence of the distribution of publications had been carried on since the death of Dr. Cook by Irving S. Upson, at New Brunswick. The present report includes work done under Mr. Upson and Mr. Smock. The office of the Survey has been removed to Trenton, but distribution is still attended to by Mr. Upson at New Brunswick. The work of the year includes studies by Mr. Frank L. Nason of the crystalline rocks of the Highlands and of the magnetic ores of that district. An interesting feature of his work is the discovery of fossils in those limestones which give a clew to their age and determine their relative horizon. They have been referred by Prof. Beecher, of Yale, to the Cambrian—below the Potsdam sandstone, the oldest fossiliferous horizon hitherto known in the State. Additional detailed surveys of the country of the crystalline rocks are necessary to an accurate knowledge of the relative position and true nature of the formations grouped as Archæan, and for their correct representation on the geological map. In the southern part of the State preparation has been made, with surveys by Mr. C. W. Coman, for a detailed geological map, showing the limits and areas of the various superficial formations of sands, gravels, clays, peats, tidal marshes, and other recent deposits. The area of the "Trenton gravel" has been ascertained and its limits determined, but its relation to the yellow gravels of south Jersey, and that of the brick-clays to the latter gravel, are yet to be made out. Observations for the volume on water-supply and water-power have been carried on under the immediate direction of Mr. C. C. Vermeule. The census of the water-powers—a new line of inquiry in the history of the survey work—is still in progress, and is, therefore, incomplete. Papers appear in the report on the artesian wells, particularly the recently bored ones in the southwestern coast-belts of the State. A report on the