"It is unnecessary to pursue the subject further. It would
be one of the greatest marvels of this wonderful age, if the
world, with these facts before it, did not confirm the
decision which it has already pronounced, and award to Dr.
Wells the merit of a discovery, which will be remembered and
appreciated as long as mankind shall be exposed to
suffering, or have occasion to apply an antidote."

The section upon etherization, we presume, will serve as a specimen of
Dr. Davis's _History_ of the First Half of the Eighteenth Century.

FOOTNOTES:

[14] _The Half Century; or a History of changes that have taken place,
and events that have transpired, chiefly in the United States, between
1800 and 1850_; with an introduction by Mark Hopkins, D.D. By Emerson
Davis. D.D. Boston: Tappan & Whittenmore.

POPULAR LECTURES.

Thus far this season, there has been even more than the usual amount of
lecturing in our principal cities. The mania lasts longer than was
thought possible. The "phenomenon" has really become a feature of the
times. It absorbs a great share of the current literary enthusiasm--much
of which it has created, and will, it is to be feared, entirely satisfy.
Professor Pease, of the University of Vermont, in an essay upon the
subject, seeks to determine its import and value; to trace the feeling
which gives it birth to its source, and to determine as accurately as
possible the grounds of promise or of fear which it affords. "These
interpretations," he says, "vary between the widest extremes. On the one
side is heard the exulting shout of those who whirl unresistingly in the
vortex--'Does not wisdom cry and understanding put forth her voice?'
behold the 'progress of the species' and the 'march of mind!' And, on
the other side, the contemptuous murmur of those who will be overwhelmed
rather than gyrate against their will, they know not whither--'What
meaneth this bleating of the sheep in mine ears?'"

This mania for lectures, taken in connection with the prevailing
literary taste (of which it is in some sort an index), is regarded as
pointing, more or less directly, to a want of the human spirit--to its
cry--strong and importunate, though often stifled and but dimly felt,
for light--the light of science and of truth. Many feel this want only
as a _traditional_ need--one which their fathers before them have felt
and have taught them to feel--and _they_ are apt to be satisfied