national constitution of such a kind that perfect freedom of worship would be allowed in Chili, and entire religious equality for all before the law be acquired. To this effort to obtain full religious liberty, Dr. Trumbull contributed efficient assistance. At the time of his death, the result which had been sought had not yet been attained, but the bill in Congress for the revision of the Constitution had successfully passed through all the preliminary stages. It had been twice approved by Congress, according to the requirements of the Constitution, and though the bill failed the third time it was taken up, it was only because, at the time of the vote, there was not a quorum present. Its friends are confident that the bill will ultimately pass. It is impossible to say how much Dr. Trumbull contributed to this particular change in public opinion; but the statement is made in the newspaper, El Heraldo, for Feb. 2d, that "it was he who brought about this revolution."

The importance of what had thus been accomplished by Dr. Trumbull, in all these respects, is not to be measured by its value to the people of Chili. The influence of his religious work was felt all along the Pacific coast of South America. To that whole coast, he was a veritable Apostle. Even the people of the Islands of the Pacific felt their indebtedness to him, and gratefully acknowledged their obligations. Above all, the change in the public sentiment in Chili, in favor of religious liberty, which to so great an extent was due to his persistent efforts, is slowly producing its effects in all the States on the Pacific side of the South American continent, and the day is fast coming when full religious freedom will become a part of the organic law of every one of them.

A few years ago, Dr. Trumbull found that his interests had become so identified with those of the people among whom he had so long lived, that he resolved to make application to be received as a naturalized citizen of Chili. To secure this privilege is no easy thing. The statesmen of that country have shown a practical wisdom on the subject of admitting foreigners to the rights of citizenship in their republic which might well be imitated by us in this country. It is considered to be a matter of such consequence, that great caution is shown, and the formalities with which the obtaining of the privilege is

hedged about make it a somewhat difficult matter to accomplish. But when Dr. Trumbull applied for papers of naturalization, the proof which was given of the general affection and respect with which he was regarded, must have been very gratifying to him. According to the newspaper, El Mercurio: “On hearing his petition, one of the municipal officers, in manifesta tion of the wishes of all, asked that a note might be entered, in the record, of the pleasure with which as a body they received Dr. Trumbull's application; and he asked that without the legal formality of placing it on the table, it should be at once forwarded to the President of the Republic. The motion was unanimously sustained." This act of Dr. Trumbull, as it proved, served to strengthen the feeling of affection with which his Chilian friends had long regarded him. It was recognized by them as a very touching and graceful proof of his love for Chili. One of them said: "Valparaiso had before felt honored in claiming him as the most worthy and best known of her foreign residents," but now they should regard him as "a fellow countryman and a true brother."

The naturalization of Dr. Trumbull was followed at no long interval by his death, when the demonstration that was made, among all classes of the population of Valparaiso, of the love and respect in which this Protestant clergyman of foreign birth was held, was something that may well create surprise. Perhaps never among any Spanish-speaking people, in either hemisphere, has an Anglo-Saxon, or a Protestant, received such a testimonial of the popular respect. In addition to several addresses which were made at his funeral, an oration was pronounced by Don Francisco Pinto, a distinguished citizen of Valparaiso, son of an ex-president of the Republic, in which he said that he considered Dr. Trumbull "to have been one of those men who appear to be specially sent by heaven into this world to do good, to heal many wounds, and to assuage much suffering; to be the best and most discreet friend in the hours of misfortune, and the kindest of companions in the days of happiness." He added that "in the streets of the city every body uncovered before him," and he closed by speaking of the "eminent services" that he had rendered to the State, and declared that "Chili, grateful for the many services that he had

rendered to her people, will watch over his tour with loving kindness and deep veneration."

While this brief outline of some of the important results accomplished by Dr. Trumbull has been passing in review before us, we have been reminded of what is so often said of late, that the days have gone by when men are to be found who are ready to give themselves to a life of unselfish devotion to the work of seeking to elevate and improve their generation. Even within the past week, we have read, in the columns of one of the most influential daily newspapers in the country, a well meaning editorial, deploring the fact-that is indeed too true that the present times are characterized by the haste to get rich, but adding, that there is no longer to be found that spirit of self-sacrifice which characterized a former generation. All such statements are founded on a very superficial observation of the facts. Notwithstanding all that is said, we believe that there never has been a time when there have been so many men who have given an example of high principle, as in this last half of the present century. Of course there is no question that there are also too many examples of self-seeking and self-indulgence. Too many, also, are striving to satisfy their consciences, and to apologize for their own want of interest in a life of active benevolence, by saying that all men are naturally selfish, forgetting that the great object of Christianity is to inspire all with higher aims. But the proof is every day accumulating, in the biographies of those who have lived during the last half of the present century, that there never has been an age more prolific of those who have led lives of self-sacrifice in behalf of some noble object. We are also assured by those who ought to know that there never before were more young men, in all our schools for the higher education, who are proposing to themselves the highest ideals, even though they can be accomplished only by self-sacrifice. While there are those whose ambition is only to pile up wealth, and who can find satisfaction only in surrounding themselves with all that wealth can give, who find their only stimulus to work in fine houses and lands, in fine equipages, and in the glitter of silver, and gold, and jewels, there are others who find a higher satisfaction and a stronger stimulus in devotion to Right and

Duty, and in working for the good of others. To the long list of these men who have passed away within a few years we add the name of one who was no whit less devoted than they. What Livingstone did for Africa; what "Chinese Gordon " did for the Soudan, what it was hoped that Keith-Falconer might do for the Mohammedan world, that was done for South America by David Trumbull.

WILLIAM L. KINGSLEY.

UNIVERSITY TOPICS.

CLASSICAL AND PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF YALE COLLEGE.

TUESDAY, April 9.-Professor Goodell presented a paper o Recent Excavations at Mycena. In connection with an enlarged sketch map of the acropolis of Mycenae, a general description of the locality was given, with a somewhat detailed account of the pre-Homeric royal dwelling brought to light by the Greek Archsological Society in 1886-7. The palace, though not so well pre served, closely resembled, in general arrangement and mode of construction, that of Tiryns described at length in the work of Schliemann and Doerpfeld. Above this palace were found, first, a stratum of poorer house-walls, built after the destruction of the palace, and secondly, crowning the summit of the acropolis, the foundations of a Doric temple, itself probably older than 500 B. C. The arrangement and depth of these two upper strats furnished the clearest evidence of the antiquity of the structure first described. Two inscriptions of the second century B. C portions of decrees of the village of Mycenae, not only prove the existence of a settlement here at that time (contrary to the statements of Strabo and Pausanias, who represent the site as having remained uninhabited after 468 B. C.), but give us a glimpse of the village organization, with its popular assembly, various magistrates, and religious festivals. Doubtless the settlement was dependent on Argos, but must have possessed a considerable degree of self-government. Finally a brief account was given of the discovery of a number of pre-historic tombs in the slopes of the hills about Mycena. These consist of one or two rocket chambers, approached by a dromos like that leading to the socalled treasury of Atreus. In some instances these passages are over 20 meters long and two or more meters wide; the chambers are mostly square, with an area of 35 to 40 square meters. They were evidently family vaults, containing each several bodies, with a great number of articles of use and ornament, many of which are enriched with representations of animals and human figures, thus furnishing a mass of valuable material which cannot but yield considerable information with regard to the pre-Homeric inhabitants of the land.