Friday, February S.-Berkeley Association (Evening Prayer)-Room 89, Dwight Hall, 6.45 P. M. Political Science Club-Paper by Mr. Charles H. Ludington, Jr., on Municipal Reform in New York City. 195 Old Chapel, 7.30 P. M.

Saturday, February 9. Sophomore Compositions due at No. 4 Treasury Building, before 12 M.

No. 77.-WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 16, 1889.

Sunday, February 10.—Public Worship-Battell Chapel, 10.30 a. M. Rev. Henry VanDyke, D.D., of New York City. General Religious Meeting-Dwight Hall, 6.30 P. M. To be addressed by the Rev. Dr. Vandyke.

Monday, February 11.-Dwight Hall Lecture Course-Rev. William M. Taylor, D.D., of New York City, on the Supernatural in Christ. Dwight Hall, 6.45 P. M.

Tuesday, February 12.-The French School of Painting (Lecture in the Art School)-Professor Hoppin. Art School, 3 P. M. Greek Readings (Eighteenth Book of the Iliad)-Professor Seymour. 195 Old Chapel, 7-7.45 P. M. German Readings (Goethe's Hermann und Dorothea)—Mr. Goodrich. Room C, Cabinet, 7 P. M. Semitic Club-Synopses of Recent Papers on Old Testament Topics. 135 College St., 7 P. M. Mathematical Club-A Comparison of the Electric Theory of Light and Sir William Thomson's Theory of a quasi-labile Ether, by Professor Gibbs. Sloane Laboratory, 7.30 P. M.

Wednesday, February 13.—Evolution-Professor J. D. Dana. Peabody Museum Lecture Room, 2 P. M. Metaphysics (University Lecture)— Professor Ladd. 194 Old Chapel, 4 P. M. History of Old Testament Prophecy (University Lecture)-Professor Harper. Room B, Cabinet, 5 P. M. Yale Assembly-Discussion on new rules and amendments to Constitution. Linonia Hall, 7.30 P. M.

Thursday, February 14.-Christian Education of the Colored and Indian Races (Lecture in the Divinity School)-Gen. S. C. Armstrong, of Hampton, Va. Marquand Chapel, 3 P. M. College Faculty Meeting— 7 Treasury Building, 4 P. M.

Friday, February 15.-Christian Education of the Colored and Indian Races (Lecture in the Divinity School)-Gen. S. C. Armstrong. Marquand Chapel, 3 P. M. Berkeley Association (Evening Prayer)— Room 89, Dwight Hall, 6.45 P. M.

Subjects for Sophomore Compositions-Yale College.-1. A Criticism of Hume's view of Cromwell. 2. Hampden. 3. Milton's Connection with Politics. 4. Burke and India. 5. The Practical Wisdom of Franklin. 6. The Utility of Third Parties. 7. The Construction of Plautus's Captivi. 8. Women in Plautus. 9. The Humor of Shakspere. 10. Shakspere and the Supersensuous World. 11. Chesterfield's Letters to his Son. 12. Analyze and discuss any one of the following works of fiction: Vanity Fair, or Esmond (Thackeray); Romola, or Middlemarch (George Eliot); The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne); Consuelo (George Sand); Peau de Chagrin (Balzac). The Compositions will be due on Saturday, March 23d.

No. 78.-WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 24, 1889.

Sunday, February 17.-Public Worship-Battell Chapel, 10.30 A. M. Rev. Professor Fisher. General Religious Meeting-Dwight Hall, 6.30 P. M. To be addressed by Professor Fisher.

Monday, February 18.-Science and Miracle (Lecture in the Phi Beta Kappa Course)-Professor DuBois. Linonia Hall, 7 P. M.

Tuesday, February 19.-The French School of Painting (Lecture in the Art School)-Professor Hoppin. Art School, 3 P. M. Greek Readings (Nineteenth Book of the Iliad)-Professor Seymour. 195 Old Chapel, 7-7.45 P. M. German Readings (Goethe's Hermann und Dorothea)-Mr. Goodrich. Room C, Cabinet, 7 P. M. Philosophical Club-Papers by Mr. Nakashima, on the Ultimate Distinction in Philosophical Methods. Room D, East Divinity Hall, 8 P. M.

Wednesday, February 20.-Evolution-Professor J. D. Dana. Peabody Museum Lecture Room, 2 P. M. Metaphysics (University Lecture)—

Professor Ladd. 194 Old Chapel, 4 P. M.

Thursday, February 21.-Divine Truth for all Conditions of Men (Lecture in the Divinity School)-Rev. John Hall, D.D., of New York City. Marquand Chapel, 3 P. M.

Friday, February 22.-Divine Truth for all Conditions of Men (Lecture in the Divinity School)-Rev. Dr. Hall. Marquand Chapel, 3 P. M. Berkeley Association (Evening Prayer)--Room 89, Dwight Hall, 6.45 P. M. The Great Basin (Lecture in the Sheffield Scientific School Course)-Professor Brewer. North Sheffield Hall, 8 P. M.

Lecture in the Sheffield Scientific School.-The programme of the annual course of Lectures on Military Science, by officers of the U. S. Engineering School at Willets Point, is as follows:

Monday, February 25-Armies, their Organization, Equipment, and Tactics. Lieut. Mason M. Patrick.

Friday, March 1-Moving, Supplying, and Sheltering Troops. Capt. Eric Bergland.

Monday, March 4-Strategy and Grand Tactics. Lieut. Charles S. Riché.

Friday, March 8-Light, Siege, and Sea-Coast Artillery. Lieut. H. C. Newcomer.

Monday, March 11-Field and Permanent Fortifications; their Attack and Defence. Lieut. J. G. Warren.

Friday, March 15-Sea-Coast Defence, Vessels which Attack them, and Torpedo Systems. Lieut. George A. Zinn.

CURRENT LITERATURE.

LANCIANI'S "ANCIENT ROME."*-Probably no man is in a better position to know what has been done in the way of excavation at Rome during the past twenty years than the author of this book, and one turns its pages with the expectation of finding much that will be of great interest. Nor is he disappointed in this expectation. Nothing is said in the preface that would indicate that the book is a collection of popular lectures, yet no one can read it without coming to the conclusion that such must be the case. It seems quite evident that the lectures which Prof. Lanciani delivered in this country, with additions and changes, are here given us in book form. This is a disappointment, for we had expected something rather different and which would have been of more service to the archæologist, from one so well fitted to speak on this subject. However, Prof. Lanciani has not chosen to gratify this wish and we must make the best of what we have. It must therefore be premised that there can be no proper comparison of this book with Prof. Middleton's Ancient Rome, as the latter is an archæologist's manual of great value, while the book before us is simply a popular presentation of many interesting features of Old Rome. Doubtless there was room for just such a book. Archæology is one of those relatively new and still unappreciated sciences, the discoveries of which have thrown a flood of light on many an obscure point in ancient history and language, and any attempt to popularize its results is of great value. We are not yet wholly free from that old feeling that the ancients lived in a different world, and were persons whose very existence was slightly mythical. To find one's self set down in the midst of a Pompeian bath or the Roman forum as it was in the time of the Empire, is for many, a peculiar experience and something of a shock. It is the great function of archæology to transport us back into the very life and atmosphere of antiquity in a much more perfect way than the study of language and literature alone can do, although a knowledge of the latter is indispensable *Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries. By RODOLFO LANCIANI. pp. 29 and 329. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1888.

to a thorough appreciation of the former. The perusal of such a book as this will give a man a more vivid conception of many things in Roman civilization than he could obtain from any amount of Latin literature. It may be well briefly to outline its contents. There is one chapter devoted to the Sanitary Condition of Ancient Rome, in which an account of the drainage, water supply, and kindred topics is given, and others on Public Places of Resort, the Palace of the Cæsars, the House of the Vestals, the Public Libraries of Ancient and Mediæval Rome, the Tiber and Claudian Harbor, the Police and Fire Department of Ancient Rome, and the Campagna. The description of the libraries and of the public places of resort is especially interesting.

To the cold blooded Anglo-Saxon it is an amusing book in one sense. The native exuberance and rhetorical extravagance of the author are visible on every page, and although perhaps to be expected in a lecture, even on archæology, seem forced and out of place in serious writing. Although the author writes in a foreign tongue, in only a few instances has unfamiliarity with our idiom caused the misuse of terms, but there is a marked fondness for French words and phrases, which is rather pedantic.

Chapter II. is entitled "The Prehistoric Life of Rome," and here we find numerous passages which seem to show that an archæologist's zeal is not always "according to knowledge." Prof. Lanciani returns fervent thanks to Heaven that "we are already far from that period in which it was fashionable to follow the exaggerations of that famous hypercritical school which denied every event in Roman history previous to the second Punic war," and then makes the somewhat startling assertion (p. 34) that "Philological researches have shown that the name of Romulus is a genuine one, and that it belongs to the builder of Rome, as we shall presently see." On page 38 we read, "As to the epoch in which the foundation of Rome, this greatest event in the history of mankind, took place, it was, chronologically speaking, the seven hundred and fifty-fourth year before Christ; pre-historically speaking it was the age of bronze." And at the close of the chapter it is really touching to find this: "Now that I have come to the end of this chapter I feel almost sorry that I have confined myself to a strict scientific inquiry in connection with Rome, and have spoken the language of dry exactness, when I might easily have abandoned myself to the fascination of poetical and legendary traditions." These three quotations give some

idea of the character of the chapter, and what can a critic say when in the year 1888, a man at the head of the Archæological Bureau of Rome, deliberately makes such statements. Prof. Lanciani seems to accept as true history stories which long ago lost all claims to truthfulness, and he announces with perfect simplicity and faith that "Tullus Hostilius built a stone enclosure called the Curia" (p. 76), and speaks of the "flight of steps, the same down which the body of Servius Tullius had been hurled by Tarquinius" (p. 78). Naturally such statements do not tend to increase the reader's confidence in the author's infallibility. It would be interesting to know just how much basis there is for the supposition (p. 52) that Cloacina was the "goddess of typhoid." On page 106 we find this remarkable tribute to Augustus: "This man, sent by God to change the condition of mankind and the state of the world, this founder of an empire which is still practically in existence." Great as Augustus' influence certainly was, Prof. Lanciani magnifies it far above the estimate of historians. In treating of the Vestals, Prof. Lanciani seems to be greatly exercised over their mysteries and secrets, and announces his belief that they were "buried with the corpse of the last Vestal." Undoubtedly, but we are quite sure that these mysteries and secrets were extremely few and insignificant, as compared with his idea of them.

The reader will be amused at this statement on page 49:"The history of malaria in connection with Rome must be divided into five periods, the prehistoric, the republican, the imperial, the medieval and the modern." The author then develops the interesting theory that the malaria was a result of the cessation of volcanic action in the region around Rome, and that the "deadly calm of nature" is responsible for its appearance and continuance. At the top of page 235 we are told that the "Tiber as regards volume and level of water has never changed within historical times," and, a dozen lines below, that during the last twenty-one centuries the level of the water and the bed of the river have risen a little more than two feet. On page 234 we read of the channel of the river which "shoals, moving sands and an almost complete absence of tide made exceedingly difficult and dangerous for sailing vessels." Why the absence of tide should add to the difficulty of navigation is not very easy to see, and we think that most sailors would even be bold enough to assert the contrary.