er of
extraordinary genius, especially for depicting the human face and form.
Oddly given, I say, because the artist is a young woman, daughter of a
respected minister of the Society of Friends, living in North Carolina.

A Greek poet, chiefly lyric, recalling Pindaric days, has sprung up
lately in Athens. His rendering of the dramas of Sophocles into modern
Greek for the stage in Athens and Constantinople, is said to have
attracted much attention amongst theatre-goers.

A reunion of literary men and women of all nations is to be held at
Athens, in view of the ruins of the Parthenon, during May, next year.

A trial is now going on in this city, which is likely to illustrate
well the difference between the present method of trial by courts of
judges, and the old way by juries. Three judges must always be present;
and the statement of the accused, in criminal cases, is taken as part of
the evidence. The abomination of allowing lawyers to engage _expert_
witnesses on behalf of their respective sides, on questions of poisoning
or insanity, has been done away with. The court, in such cases, appoints
a commission of experts, who make a joint report in every instance.

Capital punishment has been abolished in all our States, and in all
European countries except Spain, Portugal, and Russia. Life-imprisonment
has taken its place; without pardoning power anywhere, even when the
plea of insanity has been sustained. A great gain in our jurisprudence
latterly is, making the proved _intent and effort to kill_ identical
before the law with successful murder. Moreover, repeated crimes,
burglaries for instance, are punished by cumulative increase of the
penalty after every new offence and conviction. As all imprisonment is
now conducted on the separate plan, jails are no longer, as once,
training schools for crime.

_December 25th, 1931._

The bells are ringing for the various church celebrations of Christmas.
I will, as I hear them, jot down some items about late religious
affairs. In yesterday's "Anglo-American Weekly Times," I read a
well-written sermon by the Dean of St. Paul's, London, on the evidence
of the wisdom and goodness of God derived from the facts of evolution;
not Darwinism, as that phase of the theory of development has latterly
become practically of secondary importance. Justice was done, however,
in this discourse, to the immense contributions made by Darwin