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consist in taking neither side, but in taking both, and then carefully comparing the relative weight attaching to each.

tainly not necessarily unequal to one another. Equality and inequality had no meaning. You simply had nothing to say about relative magnitude at all, and were at a final standstill. So Mr. W. G. Ward,

their own memories when their memories made absolute affirmation that (suppose) they had been cold or warm the instant before, they certainly could not talk of learning by experience, since experience depends absolutely on trustworthy mem ory, and cannot be stored without it. No enterprise can be more hopeless than to clear the mind of all prepossessions. It really means clearing the mind of itself. A strong mind is, in fact, a bundle of most effectual and useful and necessary prepos. sessions, and unless you are prepared to use the most dominant and persistent of these, and use them vigorously, you cannot, properly speaking, have a mind, much less a vigorous mind, at all. All science is built up on the right prepossessions, and aims at the acquisition of the right pre. possessions by vigorously using and trusting those with which we were originally furnished, for the purpose of clearing away those which we have allowed to grow up in us without their being either of the essence of our faculties, or properly ac quired by the legitimate use of those faculties. Impartiality cannot exist without trusting implicitly to all the fundamental prepossessions with which the mind is furnished, and then using freely and experimentally the various prepossessions which experience suggests to us,

Or take, as another illustration of what impartiality should and should not mean, the statement which Mr. Wilfrid Ward | too, used to insist that if men did not trust makes in the very interesting final chapter which he has more or less gravely modified in the second edition of the life of his father, William George Ward, on the theological upshot of the Anglican movement. Theory, says Mr. Wilfrid Ward, led Newman and Ward up to this point, "that a certain moral disposition was needed to receive in their fullness and to appreciate justly the tokens of supernatural truth which God has allowed to mankind. Every one appreciates such tokens in one moral disposition or another. The charge of prejudice can be brought prima facie just as much against the secular spirit as against the religious; while closer consideration shows that the crucial testimonies which religion appeals to, cannot even be apprehended without a temper of mind which is in harmony with them." Is this not equivalent to saying that it is quite possible for a man to treat the difficulties of the sceptic impartially who has nevertheless prejudged the question whether those difficulties are insuperable, and has made up his mind that they are not? Surely it is. As well might you say that no man can treat the difficulties of a mathematical problem impartially who knows that the problem has actually been solved, as that it is impossible for one who is not a sceptic, but a believer, to do full justice to the sceptic's attitude? Impartiality no though without relying on the latter till more means clearing your mind of all we have carefully satisfied ourselves that prepossessions against a particular conclu- they really fit the facts, and that none sion than it means clearing your mind of others which we were able to construct all memories which tend to shake that con- would equally well fit the facts. The true clusion, many of which, indeed, as William distinction between prepossessions and George Ward used to press upon his prejudices seems to be that prejudices are sceptical friends, involve prepossessions prepossessions which are too confidently of the most serious kind. The present held before they have been thoroughly writer once knew a lad who had the notion tested and found indispensable, — in other that he ought to treat Euclid's axioms words, one-sided views which, however impartially, and he would profess to regard useful as provisional explanations of facts, it as a highly disputable point whether have not been shown to constitute a sound things which are equal to the same thing and adequate explanation of them, and are equal to one another. But the only which should not therefore be treated as result was, of course, that so far as he we are all of us too ready to treat them, as acted on his own theory, he was quite as if they were sound and adequate, though incompetent to be a reasonable sceptic of they may turn out to be either radically geometrical doctrine as to be a reasonable unsound, or, though sound up to a certain believer in it. He had no more reason to point, perfectly inadequate beyond that dispute than he had to accept any doctrine, point. Religion is just one of those subfor he had no premiss at all on which to jects into which you cannot even inquire take his stand. If things which were without forming a distinct judgment as to equal to the same thing were not necessa- what, if any, are the assumptions ingrained rily equal to one another, they were cer-in the very constitution of the human con

science. If you try to ignore the fact that | poetry, whether we consider its quantity there are such assumptions ingrained in or its quality, will contrast favorably with the conscience, you will constantly trip the poetry of any living men, except the yourself up, and find yourself out in self- first half-dozen. As with the poetesses contradictions, or slipping in unconscious- already mentioned, her Muse was frely in one sentence what you have refused quently inspired by sympathy for the to admit in another. But if you recognize sufferings of her sisters. But she is probfrankly what those religious assumptions ably best known as a sonneteer. For this are, and act upon them just as you do on artificial form of verse-of which the the assumptions which the mind is com- present generation has had a surfeit—she pelled to make with respect to number and possessed the qualifications of a refined magnitude, then you find yourself pro- imagination and considerable metrical vided with the foundation at least of a faculty. Her sensitive and cultured mind genuine religion in which there is no more, was also open to receive the impulses of and perhaps even less, danger of being thought and feeling which are most charself-deceived, than there is of being self-acteristic of our self-conscious age. Above deceived in building up the structure of science on assumptions probably even less certain. Impartiality, far from being the attitude of mind in which you ignore all prepossessions, is the attitude of mind in which you sift all your prepossessions strictly by comparing them with the appropriate facts, and dismiss only those which you find inconsistent with these facts.

From The Academy.
EMILY PFEIFFER.

NOT only a wide circle of friends, but all careful readers of contemporary literature, will have felt a pang of sorrow at hearing of the death of Mrs. Pfeiffer. She and her husband were bound together by no common tie. He died in January of last year; and now she has followed him to the grave within a twelvemonth, and the once cheerful house on the slopes of Putney Hill is left desolate.

all, the modern conception of nature, not as a kind nurse but as a relentless taskmaster, influenced her somewhat in the same manner that it influenced George Eliot. It was this aspect of her poetry that specially attracted the admiration of such a keen critic as the late rector of Lincoln.

Considering that Mrs. Pfeiffer never enjoyed good health, and also that she took an active part in all movements for the social and economical regeneration of her sex, the total amount of her published work is remarkable. Her earliest book, we believe, was "Kahmera: a Midsummer Night's Dream," published nearly thirty years ago; but this we have not seen. Her first volume of poems took its name from "Gerard's Monument" (1873). This was followed by another, called simply "Poems" (1876), which included several sonnets. Then came "GlanAlarch" (1877); "Quarterman's Grace" (1879); "Under the Aspens " (1882); and "The Rhyme of the Lady of the Rock" Prominent attention has recently been (1884). Most of these passed through drawn to the fact that, among the poets of more than one edition, though they were the Victorian era, women hold a conspic- never issued in a uniform series, such as uous place. Foremost of all, of course, she and her husband had contemplated. stands Mrs. Barrett Browning; and the The sonnets alone were collected into a popular suffrage, in America as well as in pretty volume bearing that title (1887), England, has put Miss Christina Rossetti which comprises most of her work that and Miss Jean Ingelow in a second class will live. Only last year, after her husby themselves. All three of these are em- band's death, she published another volphatically feminine poets, who attained ume of verse, "Flowers of the Night," their highest inspiration when writing as which hardly maintained her reputation; women and about women. To compare and at the very last she was actively entheir work with that of men otherwise gaged in preparing a drama for stage reptheir equals would be absurd. But when resentation. To complete this record of we pass to the next class of those who are her books, it should be mentioned that ungraciously styled "minor poets it is she wrote a pleasant account of her jour impossible not to be struck by the reflec-neys in Greece and North America, under tion that the women hold their own - and the title of "Flying Leaves from East and more than their own - against the men. West" (1885); and also an essay on a subThis is not the place to mention other ject that was very dear to her- "Woman names, which will readily occur to the and Work" (1888). mind. Suffice it to say that Mrs. Pfeiffer's

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For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage

Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & Co.

Single Numbers of THE LIVING AGE, 18 cents.

SNOWDROPS.

SHE stands before her looking-glass,
I see the busy handmaid pass

On fairy work intent;

Pure white the robe that round her flows,
And fair the flush that comes and goes
On cheeks of rose and lily blent.

I watch her from my cushioned nook,
I see the shy and sparkling look

That tells of sweet delight:

And while the handmaid smooths adown
The lustrous curls of ruddy brown,

I hold her wreath of snowdrops white.
I hold the wreath with trembling hand.
Ah, daughter mine! to-night you stand
Beside a mystic door :

The schoolroom porch was closed to-day,
Your childish tasks are put away

With childish dreams forevermore!

Life lies before you full and fair,
The hour has struck, you claim your share
Of pleasure's scented flowers;
Your share of laugh, and dance, and song,
And all sweet doings that belong

To youth in its unfolding hours.
So be it, dear, pass out, pass free
To scenes of cheer, to sounds of glee;
But, darling, ere you go,
Kneel lowly down at mother's feet,
And let me kiss that forehead sweet,

And whisper something soft and low.
My pretty flower, so fenced around
In love's fair plot of garden-ground,

From touch of worldly blight:
My milk-white flower with vernal heart,
Through quick, fond tears that trembling start,
I crown you with my snowdrops white.
Light rest the blossoms on your brow,
God keep it free from care as now,

God bless you, daughter dear! God guide your feet to sheltered ways, And love and comfort all your days

When mother is no longer here.

But oh, my child! my dear, one child!
God help you, pure and undefiled,
To choose the better part.

Life may bring roses for the brow

I crown with love and blessing now,
But like a snowdrop keep your heart!

All The Year Round.

FIVES SONG.

OH the spirit in the ball
Dancing round about the wall,
In your eye and out again.
Ere there's time to feel the pain,
Hands and fingers all alive,
Doing duty each for five.
Oh the spirit in the ball,
Dancing round about the wall!

See again, now up it goes,
Whizzing by that startled nose,
Hands and feet are everywhere,
Twinkling in the middle air,
Bodies, bodies are no more,
All is hit, and spring, and score.
Oh the spirit in the ball,
Dancing round about the wall!
Poets sung it long ago,

All the fight and all the woe,
Geryon and thundering Zeus,
Hundred-fisted Briareus,
Argus with his million eyes,
Oh, 'twas but a game of Fives.
Oh the lordly game of Fives.
Oh the spirit in the ball,
Dancing round about the wall!

EDWARD THRING.

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THE PROMISE OF SPRING.

SLOW dies the wintry day, the winds of March Break with their icy breath the evening hush,

And snow-clad hills reflect the sunset-flush That paints with purple all Heaven's western arch;

But, from the laden branches of the larch,
Upon the frosty air a happy thrush

Pours floods of melody, and flings a gush Of gladsome music to the winds of March. Thus when our life's drear winter lingers long

When with the eve there comes no vision sweet

To our sad eyes, and hope has taken wing

Oh, may some distant strain of seraph-song Burst forth, and tell us that our faltering

feet

Stand on the threshold of a joyous spring! Chambers' Journal. J. G. F. NICHOLSON.

From The London Quarterly Review.
PRINCE ADAM CZARTORYSKI.*

Poland split up into factions, divided by fierce political differences, and trammelled THE memoirs of Prince Adam Czarto- by obsolete customs, but the elective naryski, so ably edited by Mr. Gielgud, place ture of her monarchy opened a way to not only a historic figure before us, but foreign intrigues in behalf of one or anwhat may also be called a great represen- other favorite candidate, and courted for. tative name. The Czartoryskis are iden- eign interference. Moreover, another and tified with the supreme efforts made by more fatal bar to the success of any patriPoland to reform her constitution; they otic schemes lay in the unscrupulous are associated with those last struggles ambition of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, for national life and independence that who coveted certain portions of Polish convulsed her while she was writhing un- territory, and left no stone unturned to der the heel of the spoiler and oppressor. secure their own ends. It would take too And though some may question whether long to explain here the apprehension with Poland could ever have settled her own which these allied powers saw "the rich internal difficulties, even had fair play dawn of an ampler day" in the neighborbeen allowed her, still her undoubted ing State, in whose very disorder and conwrongs and sufferings, her superhuman stitutional weakness they hoped to find and oft-renewed resistance, the heroic their opportunity. They took cunning figures of Kosciuszko, Sobieski, Poniatowski, and last, but not least, of the Czartoryskis, have invested this page of European history with keen interest, and have colored it with the hues of poetry and romance.

It is towards the middle of the eighteenth century that the Czartoryskis, in the persons of two brothers, Michael and Augustus, begin to play a prominent part in the history of Poland. These distinguished statesmen were animated by the purest zeal and most fervid desire to serve their country, and save it, as it were, almost in its own despite. They would have constrained it to follow in the general wake of Western progress and development; they were eager to carry out the necessary reforms, and to establish those principles of constitutional liberty which, through all its errors and subsequent throes, Poland held sacred - and which, so far as they reached, were a natural growth in that country as in England and Hungary. As Mr. Gielgud says, in his lucid and interesting preface, these eminent statesmen used all the forces at their command · prestige, wealth, social relations to carry out their high political aims. None the less true or devoted was their patriotism, although time has shown them to have led a forlorn hope. Not only, indeed, was • Memoirs of Prince Czartoryski and his Corre

spondence with Alexander I. Two vols. Adam Gielgud. Remington & Co.

Edited by

advantage of every abuse; they imposed arbitrary checks on every reform calcu lated to make her stronger; they fostered her dissensions; and, if ever one or other found it expedient from time to time to play the part of Poland's friend, it was only to lead her more certainly to her own destruction.

Unfortunately, the very reforms advocated by the Czartoryskis were not carried out without rousing active opposition on the part of some of the great nobles, and even awakening a feeling of anxiety in the heart of the king. The state of anarchy into which the country had fallen was such that no statesman could act with authority and practical effect without the support of some foreign government. The Czartoryskis, deprecating a civil war, and with their country's vital interests at stake, sought the armed intervention of Russia. Circumstances possibly left them no other alternative, but time has proved this invitation of foreign interference to have been a fatal mistake. The eagle was only too ready to fasten on its prey. The evil day was put off a short space by reason of the mutual jealousies of the spoilers, but the doom of Poland was practically sealed. In 1772 Catherine of Russia, Maria Theresa of Austria, and Frederick the Great of Prussia, signed a treaty, in the name of the Holy Trinity, followed by the first partition of Poland. What remained of the kingdom was formed

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