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He takes out of the old narratives their universal human elements and clothes them for modern use; he emphasizes the spiritual and minimizes the physical in any historical event, being anxious to get the inner meaning and caring but little for the form in which that meaning is held; he not only shows that a certain significance is in the narrative, but that it belongs there. The great truths thus discovered in what might seem to some a hard, mechanical, and not altogether trustworthy narrative assume such wide-reaching importance that we no longer trouble ourselves about the peculiar setting in which they are found. The most artificial events seem in his hands quite natural and in thorough accord with human nature.

There is nothing of the dogmatist in Dr. Dodds. His thought is vigorous and striking; his spiritual insight fine, and his religious and moral purpose exalted.

C. L. DIVEN.

G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York City.

Yale and Her Honor-Roll in the American Revolution, 1775-1783. Including original letters, record of services, and biographical sketches. By Henry P. Johnston. Privately printed. 357 pp.

The Tariff History of the United States.

Taussig, LL.D., Ph.D. 12mo. pp. 269.

A Series of essays. By F. W.

The Story of the Nations. The Story of Media, Babylon, and Persia; from the Fall of Nineveh to the Persian War. By Zénaïde A. Ragozin. 12mo. pp. 447. The Centennial of a Revolution; an address by a revolutionist.

171.

12mo. pp.

A Sketch of the Germanic Constitution; from early times to the dissolution of the empire. By Samuel Epes Turner. 12mo. pp. 181. Industrial Liberty. By John M. Bonham. 12mo. pp. 414. Tariff Chats. By Henry J. Philpott. 12mo. pp. 38. The Independent in Politics. By James Russell Lowell. Relation of the Tariff to Wages. By David A. Wells.

D. Lothrop & Co., Boston.

12mo. pp. 27. 12mo. pp. 45.

The Indian's Side of the Indian Question. By William Barrows, D.D. 206 pp.

The Dream and the Awaking, with Other Sermons. By Rev. Owen Street, D.D.

415 pp.

Lee & Shepard, Boston.

Educational Topics of the Day-Chips from a Teacher's Workshop. By L. R. Klemm, Ph.D. 408 pp.

First Steps with American and British Authors. By Albert F. Blaisdell, A.M. 12mo. pp. 345.

The Pilgrim Republic.

Ticknor and Company, Boston.

An Historical Review of the Colony of New Plymouth. By John A. Goodwin. 8vo. pp. 662.

Atalanta's Race, and other tales from the Earthly Paradise. By William Morris, edited with notes by Oscar Fay Adams, with the coöperation of William J. Rolfe. 16mo. pp. 242.

Robert Carter & Brothers, New York City.

The Nonsuch Professor in his Meridian Splendor; or, the Singular Actions of Sanctified Christians. By the Rev. William Secker; with an introduction by Rev. T. L. Cuyler, D.D. 12mo. pp. 307. Gospel Sermons.

By James McCosh, D.D. 12mo. pp. 336.

A. C. Armstrong & Son, New York City.

The Sermon Bible. Genesis to II. Samuel. 12mo. pp. 500.

John B. Alden, New York City.

The Spirit of Beauty, essays scientific and æsthetic. By Henry W. Parker. 12mo. pp. 252.

George Sherwood & Co., Chicago.

The virtues and their reasons. Austin Bierbower.

A system of ethics for society and schools. By 12mo. pp. 294.

Fords, Howard & Hurlbert, New York City.

Plymouth Pulpit: Sermons preached in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, by Henry Ward Beecher. Vol. I. September, 1873-March, 1874. 12mo. pp. 600. Vol. II. March-September, 1874. pp. 590. Vol. III. September, 1874-March, 1875. pp. 632. Vol. IV. March-September, 1875. pp. 612.

Spirit and Life-Thoughts for to-day. By Amory H. Bradford, D.D. 12mo. pp. 265.

Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston.

The Law of Equivalents in its relation of Political and Social ethics. By Edward Payson. 8vo. pp. 306.

Poetry, Comedy, and Duty. By C. C. Everett, D.D. 12mo. pp. 315.

Funk & Wagnalls, New York City.

The Presidential Campaign of 1896. A Scrap-book Chronicle. Compiled by 12mo. pp. 163.

an editor of that Period.

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My Aunt's Match Making, and other stories by Popular Authors. 12mo. pp.

212.

The Brown Stone Boy. By William Henry Bishop. 12mo. pp. 282.
The Silver Lock and others stories. By Popular Authors. 12mo. pp. 212.

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A GREAT national peril prompted the selection of this theme, and will control its treatment on the present occasion. It would be highly entertaining to trace the history of the customs, laws, and edicts under which, in various countries, aliens have been admitted to more or less of the privileges of the native-born; and it would also be interesting to compare our naturalization laws with those which prevail in other lands, but the space at our command will only allow a consideration of the existing naturalization laws of the United States, their defects of provision and administration, and the means by which their amendment and better enforcement may be secured. The science of society is preeminently practical. To that science even more than to the serene and saintly poet, “Life is real,

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life is earnest ;"-so real and so earnest, that it cannot do otherwise than deal most attentively with the serious practical questions that life presents. It is not that the students of social science find in abstract science, literature, and art, a less exquisite charm than their devotees discover; but it is because the earnest service of our fellow-men yields a nobler delight, and adds the greater compensation of satisfied duty, that we turn aside from the fountain-gladdened garden, to cultivate the waiting field.

II.

From the beginning of American civilization, aliens have been welcomed to this country, and since the establishment of the republic have been freely endowed with the rights and privileges of citizenship. And it is well, at the outset, to say that a just system of naturalization, properly applied, has become an indispensable incident of our free government. There is no question whether we shall have a naturalization law; but there are very serious questions whether the provisions of the existing naturalization law are just, and have been properly applied. There is a widespread belief that the provisions of the law are very crude and defective, and that they have been carelessly, and sometimes recklessly administered.

Immigration to this country has been practically unrestricted; and while it has brought vast benefits to the United States, it has by no means been a pure and unmixed good. If it has, for the most part, brought to us from other lands the innocent, the industrious, the self-supporting, the law-abiding, the healthful, and the intelligent; it has also brought among us a terrible minority of paupers, criminals, and persons who are immoral, diseased, or insane. These dangerous classes are, at the same time, a constant menace to the peace and good order of society, a serious tax upon the public revenues, and an intolerable burden to the penal and charitable institutions of the country.

The statistics which establish these facts have been so fully collected and so widely published, that it is hardly necessary to recapitulate them here as a basis of judgment. On the existence of the essential facts public opinion may be regarded as settled.

Nevertheless, it may be well to note, in passing, that by the census of 1880, the population of the United States consisted of 43,475,840 natives, and 6,679,943 persons of foreign birth, making a total of 50,155,783. But while the native population was more than six and one-half times that of the alien-born, the proportion of insane was 26,346 of foreign-born to 65,651 of native-birth, making a total of 91,997. Of 67,067 paupers, 44,106, were natives, and 22,961 were of foreign birth; and of 59,255 prisoners, 12,917 were immigrants; and 46,338 were natives. (Compend. Tenth Census, pp. 1671, 1675, 1676.)

Thus, less than one-sixth of the population furnished nearly a third of the insane, more than half of the paupers, and nearly a fourth of those committed to prison.

We do not object to foreigners as such, but we insist that the ratio of good and useful members of society, to those who are otherwise, should be increased.

There surely cannot be at this time any need of argument to show that the acknowledged evil of unworthy immigration ought to be, as far as practicable, restricted and decreased, if it cannot be wholly prohibited and removed. On this point also, the American people have reached a conclusion.

III.

The open questions are: Where does the responsibility for pernicious immigration and naturalization belong?

Is the fault in the provisions of the laws, or in their administration and enforcement, or in both? The evil being indisputable, we need to inquire its cause and what practical remedies can be provided and applied.

It is obvious that no alien person is worthy to be received as an inhabitant of this country who is unworthy to enjoy the rights and privileges of free institutions.

The two subjects of immigration and naturalization are so intimately related, that a proper consideration of either requires at least some passing references to the other.

The sub-foundation of our naturalization laws is the specification, in the Declaration of Independence, among other causes of the revolutionary war, that the King of Great Britain "has endeavored to prevent the population of these States, for that

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