were free and independent republics, the world would soon see the harvest of Democracy in noble works and in great minds. And for the mother of these nations the result would be infinitely better, even as to trade. Besides, she would be far prouder of her progeny: which, in itself, is not a bad return for a fond mother like her. -Triumphant Democracy, Chap. V.

FARM WEALTH OF THE UNITED STATES.

The farms of America comprise 837,628 square miles -an area nearly equal to one-fourth of Europe, and larger than the four greatest European countries (Russia excepted) put together: namely, France, Germany, Austria and Hungary, and Spain. The capital invested in agriculture would suffice to buy up the whole of Italy, with its olive-groves and vineyards, its old historical cities, cathedrals, and palaces, and every other feudal appurtenance. Or, if the American farmers were to sell out, they could buy the entire peninsula of Spain, with all its traditions of mediæval grandeur; and the flat lands which the Hollanders, at vast cost, have wrested from the sea, and the quaint old towns they have built there. If he chose to put by his savings for three years the Yankee farmer could purchase the fee-simple of pretty Switzerland and not touch his capital at all.— Triumphant Democracy, Chap. IX.

TWO NATIONS AND ONE PEOPLE.

The assimilation of the political institutions of the two countries proceeds apace, by the action of the older in the direction of the newer land. Year after year some difference is obliterated. Yesterday it was an extension of suffrage; to-day it is universal and compulsory education; to-morrow the joining of law and equity; on the next day it will be the abolition of primogeniture and entail. A few years more, and all that remains of the feudalistic times will have disappeared, and the political institutions of the two divisions will be practically the same, with only such slight variations of structure as adapt them to the slightly varying conditions by which they are surrounded.

It has always been my chief ambition to do what little I can-if anything-to hasten this process, that the two divisions may thereby be brought more closely into unison; that the bonds between my dear native land and my beloved adopted land may be strengthened, and draw them more tightly together. For sure am I-who am in part a child of both, and whose love for the one and the other is as the love of man for mother and wife-sure am I that the better these grand divisions of the British race know each other, the stronger will grow the attachment between them. And just as sure am I that in their genuine affection and indissoluble alliance lie the best hopes for the elevation of the human race. God grant, therefore, that the future of my native and adopted lands may fulfil the hopes of the stanchest, ablest, and most powerful friend of this land, the Great Commoner of his own, that, "although they may be two Nations, they may be but one People." Thus spoke John Bright; and, echoing once more that fond hope, I lay down my pen, and bid my readers, on both sides of the Atlantic, farewell.-Triumphant Democracy, Chap. XX.

CARPENTER, WILLIAM BENJAMIN, famous English biologist, was born in Exeter, October 29, 1813; died in London, November 10, 1885. His father, the Rev. Dr. Lant Carpenter, Unitarian minister, removed to Bristol in 1817, and the son was educated in that city. He began the study of medicine with Dr. J. B. Estlin, of Bristol, and sometime after accompanied this physician on a visit to the West Indies. He resumed his studies on his return to Bristol, and continued them in 1834 at University College, and Middlesex Hospital, London, and in 1835 at Edinburgh, where he was graduated in 1839. During a part of this time he had been Lecturer on Medical Jurisprudence in the Bristol Medical School. In 1844 he was appointed Fullerian Professor of Physiology in the Royal Institution, and in the same year was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, lecturer or professor in the London Hospital and University College (1849), Principal of University Hall (1852), and Registrar of the University of London (1856). He edited a Popular Cyclopædia of Science (1843), and from 1847 to 1852 was the editor of the British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review. Among his many published scientific works are: Principles of Human Physiology, Animal Physiology, The Microscope and Its Revelations, Use of Alcoholic Liquors, Physiology of Temperance,

Mesmerism and Spiritualism, Nature and Man. Dr. Carpenter received medals from the Royal and Geological Societies, the degree of LL.D. from Edinburgh, and in 1873 was made a corresponding member of the Institute of France. His death was due to burns received from the upsetting of a spirit-lamp.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF Belief.

But having happened long since to speak on the subject to Professor Max Müller, I learned from him the additional very important fact, that this condition of self-induced suspension of vital activity, forms, as it were, the climax of a whole series of states, with two of which I was myself very familiar-" electrobiology," or artificial reverie, and "hypnotism," or artificial somnambulism; both of them admirably studied by Mr. Braid, through whose kindness I had many opportunities of investigating their phenomena. The self-induction of these states, practised by the Hindoo devotees, is part of a system of a religious philosophy which is termed the Yoga; and by the kindness of Professor Max Müller I possess a very curious account of this philosophy, printed at Benares twenty-two years ago, by Sub-Assistant Surgeon Paul, who had carefully studied it.

pears from this that the object of the whole system is to induce a state of mystical self-contemplation, tending to the absorption of the soul of the individual into the Supreme Soul, the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer of the World; and that the lower forms of it consist in the adoption of certain fixed postures, which seem to act much in the same way with the fixation of the vision in Mr. Braid's methods. The first state, pránájáma, corresponds very closely with that of reverie or abstraction; the mind being turned in upon itself and entirely given up to devout meditation, but the sensibility to external impressions not being altogether suspended. The second state, pratyáhára, is one which-the external senses being closed, while the mind is still activecorresponds with some forms of somnambulism. Those

who have attained the power of inducing this condition then practise dhardna, a stage of complete quiescence of body and mind, corresponding with what is known as catalepsy-the body remaining in any posture in which it may be placed. From this they pass into the dhydna, in which they believe themselves to be surrounded by flashes of external light or electricity, and thus to be brought into communion with the Universal Soul, which endows them with a clairvoyant power. And the final state of samádhi, which they themselves liken to the hibernation of animals, and in which the respiratory movements are suspended, is regarded as that of absolute mental tranquillity, which, according to these mystics, is the highest state which man can attain; the individual being absolutely incapable of committing sin in thought, act, or speech, and having his thoughts completely occupied with the idea of Brahma, or the Supreme Soul, without any effort of his own mind.-Nature and Man.