y valuable additions.

[Footnote 4: Notes on the History of the Old State House. By George H.
Moore, LL. D. Boston: Cupples, Upham & Co. Paper. 50 cents.]

[Footnote 5: Final notes on Witchcraft in Massachusetts. By same author.
New York: Printed for the author. Sold in Boston, by Cupples, Upham &
Co. Paper, $1.00.]

* * * * *

Mr. Smith's recent work on _The Science of Business_[6] should be
read, and its facts and arguments carefully weighed, by all men of
business. It professes to be a study of the principles controlling the
laws of exchange. Reasoning from analogies existing in the natural
world, the author logically deduces his law that civilization moves
along lines of least resistance, and contends that this law holds true
throughout the phenomena of mind also. The law of the survival of the
fittest is but another expression of the subject under discussion. "Do
we not see civilization," asks the author, "advancing along those lines
where the tractive forces are the greatest, where the least labor will
produce the largest crops, and where the obstacles to complete living
are the fewest? Do not people invest their money where it will safely
bring the largest returns? Do we not buy in the cheapest, and sell in
the dearest market? Does not the tide of immigration set from least
favored nations to the most favored?" There is still one other
law,--that motion is always rhythmical. These two principles or laws Mr.
Smith applies to his theories regarding general business, the iron
industry, the building of railroads, immigration, stocks, exchange,
foreign trade, etc. Indeed his theories are based on these laws, and are
worthy of consideration if not always of acceptance. We quote one
reflection:--"If we admit that business motions are in the line of least
resistance, and rhythmic, and that these rhythms show a tendency to
become balanced, we may conclude that panics and periods of depression
will always continue at intervals, with this qualification, the next
period of depression will not be as severe as the present, and the next
less severe, and so on, until, to all outward signs, they will at last
cease."

By reason of a lack of space, we cannot say all that we had wished to
say in regard to this work. It is, on the whole, a most ingenious
argument, well conceived and brilliantly sustained. We are not sure that
Mr. Smith has not explained satisfactorily some of the nuggets of
mystery