w that the class is not
possessed with that total spirit of abnegation requisite in the
guardians of public funds. The requirement might be extended to
bank-presidents with benefit, if some Cincinnati episodes are any
criterion. It is safe to assume that the bank that could advertise, in
connection with its attractive quarterly or semi-annual statement, that
the president and cashier were properly attested and vouched-for eunuchs
would find in the public such a recognition of the fitness of things
that the patronage it would receive would soon compel other banks to
follow the example. The procedure might, with national benefit, be
extended as an ordeal to our legislators at the national capitol, as it
would do away with the particular influential lobby so graphically
described in Mark Twain's "Gilded Age." These things or ideas are merely
thrown out as suggestions to be used by those who write those
interesting articles in the _Forum_, or the _North American_ or
_Fortnightly Reviews_, on government and social reforms, as a perusal of
the many articles written in that direction will convince any one that,
from a practical psychological view of the matter, they are sadly
deficient. To make those articles effective the reflex impressions made
by the animal on the psychological and moral nature of man should not be
neglected.

Semiramis, whose beauty and many accomplishments, assisted by the
murders of several of her husbands by the hand of the succeeding one,
had this subject in hand in a far more practical manner than it is
generally forced on the understanding; hence we see that she was the
first to introduce the use of eunuchs in the capacity of servants as
well as in official positions in and about the palace, as well as
trusting some of the positions of the highest importance to the class.
From her epoch, eunuchism has become an inseparable attendant on
Oriental despotism, and has so continued to the present day. Like yellow
fever, phthisis, and some diseases, as well as many other social
afflictions and customs, eunuchism does not seem to flourish beyond
certain degrees of north and south latitudes,--a fact that probably
assisted Montesquieu to arrive at the conclusion that climate was a
powerful factor in all things.

Bergmann, of Strasburg, quotes the ancient traditions, wherein it is
stated that man was taught the art of castration by the brute creation.
The hyena is cited as having so instructed man by the habi