guisher on the chances of the candidate, perhaps the ablest and most respected who could be nominated at Saint Louis, and lit the feeble taper, already burned into the socket, of one by no means so able or so much respected, and who could hardly by any possibility be elected, were his nomination even capable of accomplishment. The action of this Convention is noteworthy in teaching again two things -the extraordinary blunder-power of the Democratic party, and the fact that he who sacrifices his convictions to help his own advancement will eventually be disappointed. Courage and devotion to principle last fall would have made Judge Thurman the day after the October election the master of all the better elements of his party. He feared to oppose his party then, and to-day it passes him by almost contemptously.

ANOTHER noble example of Democratic capacity to satisfy the people of this country is seen in the election to the Senate of Barnum —not P. T., but the other one. The Senator elect enjoys the rare distinction of being the most absent Congressman that ever was in Washington. It is a form of distinction attainable to many, but secured by few; but it is the only thing for which the Bridgeport member is said to be famous, and it is said to be one of the best things about him. It is not hard to imagine that a modern lawgiver should be thought to be serving his country best by being never in his seat— indeed, there are many who do not serve it half so well; but neglect of congressional duties is hardly likely to suggest to other than Connecticut legislators' minds peculiar fitness for the Senate. There are rumors of other considerations, but it is pleasanter to think that a twelvemonth of Eaton in his seat has convinced the Hartford dignitaries that the best thing a Senator can do is never to attend the meetings of the Senate.

THE Combination of beauty with utility, for which in their public works we praise the French, is singularly wanting in the figure of Liberty, proposed to be erected in New York harbor, as a memorial of the aid rendered by France in securing American Independence. A gigantic colossa, bearing aloft a dull flambeau, and carrying a gaoler's keys, standing upon a light-house tower, may be a very artistic conception to put upon paper, but can scarcely prove so

effective in execution. The mere size and height of the figure ensures that fidelity to the laws of proportion shall seem to the naked eye a gross violation of them; the head and torso tapering off like the thin end of a telescope. On the other hand, any variation in the relative size of limbs will involve a breach of the canons of art, which any dilettante ogling through an opera-glass from a distance, must, on the instant, detect. Possibly it is intended so to treat the subject in delightful freedom from anatomical rules, as to suggest to posterity the notion that Liberty could never have been human, nor could she be a favorite with the sterner sex; or, it may be designed that the lady shall display her charms only to those heroic mortals who dare to climb up to the giddy elevation of a foretop gallant.

THE Centennial Exhibition was grandly opened, in the presence of a multitude whose very numbers were impressive. There were many little hitches in the arrangements (which were well enough planned), and sins both of commission and omission. But on the whole the affair was a success, and certainly none who saw it can forget the spectacle. The speaking was not remarkable, and with the exception of Bishop Simpson's prayer-which certainly fatigued the audience, to which it was not of course addressed, but which, nevertheless, had to listen to it was admirable for brevity; but the music was the main feature of the ceremonies. Whittier's hymn was grand and thrilling; but Buck's music, written for the Cantata, was the masterpiece, and carried off the honors. Mr. Lanier's conception was certainly fine, and in some parts his Cantata is exceedingly dramatic. It has been much laughed at, and not wholly without reason; for while the limitations of such a work are narrow and the poet is necessarily confined in its execution, there can be no necessity for him to strain the noble old English tongue, so rich in Saxon words and so wonderfully adapted to the poet's art, until he twists it either into the meaningless or the common-place. But there are many fine ideas and some fine lines in the Cantata, and it certainly has the merit of boldness and originality. The procession through the buildings on the opening day was broken into by the crowd, and the effect no little marred; but considering all things, the opening was successful in the best sense. Of the Exhibition this is no place to speak. In extent, variety, practicalness, it is a world. In taste there are many things to

be desired; but the wonder is not that there are so many that might be improved, but rather that there are so few. The time will come when the patriotic labors of John Welsh, and A. T. Goshorn, and Thomas Cochran, and the men who helped them—it would almost be insidious to name any without naming all-will be appreciated by the American people at their proper value. How much the Centennial will do for the merchants of Philadelphia, who have done so much for it, remains to be seen; but this at least is certain, that it has brought with itself its own reward in the stimulus it has been to the energy, and enterprise, and public spirit, and patriotism of our people. It has shown them what they could do when united in an honorable cause; and if every dollar that has been spent be sunk in the enterprise, such a teacher and peace-maker as the Exhibition will inevitably be, will be worth all the care, and the labor, and the money that have or could have been expended.

THE University of Pennsylvania has sustained a great loss, as every one of the thousands who have graduated since 1845 will feel. Dr. George Allen, Professor of Greek, died of heart disease at Worcester, Mass., after twelve hours of illness. Vir nullâ non donandus laurâ.

CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THEORIES OF THE EARTH'S PHYSICAL EVOLUTION.

(Concluded.)

HE contractional hypothesis is here rejected as being incon

THE

sistent with all indications we possess of the condition of the earth's interior, and with the structural forms which are visible upon its surface. These indications all point to the conclusion that the cooling of the earth is still in its earlier stages, and such will be the assumption here made. From this it would necessarily follow that those alternations of emergence and submergence which have occurred in some places, and those elevations and depressions which occasion the irregular profiles of the earth's surface, have not been relative movements, due to a variable amount of convergence towards the earth's centre, but have been absolute—now upwards, and now downwards. Plateaus and continents are true uplifts, and ocean bottoms are true subsidences. They have been regarded so for many years, and are still so regarded in the present discussion. With this starting-point, the path of argument is walled and narrowed for a short distance by certain alternatives, and its first inference becomes rigorous. If we consider any area which has been uplifted as the base of a cone having its apex in the centre of the earth, then such an uplift would necessarily involve an increase in the volume of the cone. But volume is the quotient of mass (quantity of matter) divided by density. Therefore, an increase of volume must be attended either by an increase in the quantity of matter, or by a decrease of the density of the cone. No third modification is possible or conceivable, and we must find the cause of the uplift in one of the two, or both. This deduction enables us to state the problem in a little more definite terms than would be available in its original form. Thus, does physical science furnish us with any processes by which a rising area can receive an accession of mass, and a sinking area can lose mass, or any by which they can respectively lose and increase in density?

Areas below ocean level may receive increments of mass by the deposition of strata, and those above that level are known to lose mass by the manifold processes of denudation. But these are not the changes which are called for at present. To account for the facts, the addi

once.

tion or subtraction of matter must be in the subterranean regions, if they exist at all. Is this a possible occurrence? We may here have recourse to a suggestion which has been made by Babbage and Sir John Herschel, and is so self-evident that it will be accepted at The removal of material from the land and its accumulation in the sea, is equivalent to the unloading of the former and an overloading of the latter. If, as most theories assume, both land and sea bottom rest upon a liquid or viscous magma, movements will take place in conformity with certain well-known hydrostatic laws. The sea-bottom will subside through overloading, protruding the plastic matter beneath in the direction of greatest relief or least resistance; that is, towards the unloaded land. Thus, a static equilibrium is maintained, and the problem is essentially resolved into a hydrostatic one. This suggestion is a valuable one, and implies more than it expresses. It is quite clear that if the crust of the earth everywhere rests upon a liquid, or even considerably plastic support, the altitude of every portion of the earth's surface is determined solely by the laws of hydrostatic equilibrium. But its importance at this juncture is not very great in its present form ; but in connection with certain considerations to be hereafter alluded to, it will be seen to have a most significant relation to the general problem. It is not capable, as here presented, of explaining great uplifts and mountain-building, for the utmost that such movements could accomplish would be the maintaining of the respective areas at their old levels, in spite of denudation on the one hand, and the deposition and building up of strata on the other. It does suggest a mode by which a land area may receive beneath it an accession of mass, but only to a very limited extent; and how an oceanic area may lose mass, but only to an amount equivalent to the gain in stratification.

There is another way in which the required additions of mass may be conceived to occur. The action of water upon rock material at high temperatures has within a few years become a subject of much research among certain eminent "chemical geologists." The results of the inquiry have been of great moment, especially in connection with theories of metamorphism. The point with which we are most concerned just here is the fact that there is a general tacit assumption that in the progress of the evolution water gradually penetrates into the profounder depths of the earth, and into the presence of the