they went away from hearing Socrates talk, he says, with the point of what he had said sticking fast in their minds, and they could not get rid of it. Socrates has drunk his hemlock and is dead; but in his own breast does not every man carry about with him a possible Socrates, in that power of a disinterested play of consciousness upon his stock notions and habits, of which this wise and admirable man gave all through his lifetime the great example, and which was the secret of his incomparable influence? And he who leads men to call forth and exercise in themselves this power, and who busily calls it forth and exercises it in himself, is at the present moment, perhaps, as Socrates was in his time, more in concert with the vital working of men's minds, and more effectually significant, than any House of Commons orator, or practical operator in politics.

Everyone is now boasting of what he has done to educate men's minds and to give things the course they are taking. Mr. Disraeli educates, Mr. Bright educates, Mr. Beales

educates. We, indeed, pretend to educate no one, for we are still engaged in trying to clear and educate ourselves. But we are sure that the endeavour to reach, through culture, the firm intelligible law of things—we are sure that the detaching ourselves from our stock notions and habits-that a more free play of consciousness, an increased desire for sweetness and light, and all the bent which we call Hellenising, is the master-impulse even now of the life of our nation and of humanity,— somewhat obscurely, perhaps, for this actual moment, but decisively and certainly for the immediate future; and that those who work for this are the sovereign educators.

Docile echoes of the eternal voice, pliant organs of the infinite will, such workers are going along with the essential movement of the world; and this is their strength, and their happy and divine fortune. For if the believers in action, who are so impatient with us and call us effeminate, had had the same good fortune, they would, no doubt, have surpassed us in this sphere of vital influence

by all the superiority of their genius and en

ergy over ours. human race is going, while they abolish the Irish Church by the power of the Nonconformists' antipathy to establishments, or they enable a man to marry his deceased wife's sister.

But now we go the way the

THE END.

NEW EDITIONS OF POPULAR

BOOKS.

Uniform with this Volume.

New, cheap, and handsome editions of many recent books of outstanding merit and great interest, the original price of which has restricted their enjoyment to a limited circle of readers.

They are well printed and illustrated, and bound in Blue Cloth with gilt top, in the same style as this volume.

The Series includes works of Travel, History, Biography, etc., nothing but Novels being excluded, and a new volume is added twice a month.

NEXT TWO VOLUMES.

Collections and

Recollections (Second

Series).

G. W. E. RUSSELL.

Originally published under the title of "An Onlooker's Notebook," this work possesses the same qualities as the famous first series of "Collections and Recollections." It is full of

good stories, shrewd comments, and a kindly humour.

The Life of Frank Buckland.

Frank Buckland was the most whimsical and original of modern naturalists, and delightful are the chapters which deal with his boyhood and youth when he pursued his hobby under many difficulties.

A Book about the Garden.

DEAN HOLE. Dean Hole was chiefly famous as an expert rose grower; but in the present volume he gossips wisely and entertainingly about all the thousand and one things which appertain to the garden.

Life of Alexander Hamilton.

F. S. OLIVER.

To Hamilton on the intellectual and political side, as to Washington on the military, the American Union was mainly due. The book was hailed on its first appearance, three years ago, as one of the most remarkable and most important of political biographies.

From the Cape to Cairo.

E. S. GROGAN.

An extraordinary journey, practically all on foot. The book is full of startling pictures, strange adventures, and the story of appalling hardships.

The Making of Modern Egypt.

Sir AUCKLAND COLVIN.

A book without a dull page, and in which the complex story of Egyptian development is turned into a romance.

Life of Lord Russell of Killowen.

R. BARRY O'BRIEN.

As Lord Chief Justice, Lord Russell was the greatest figure on the modern bench. The book gives a wonderful picture of a massive personality.

Selected Essays.

AUGUSTINE BIRRELL.

A selection approved by Mr. Birrell himself, and which may be taken as an anthology of his best work. There is no more delightful guide to a library than the author of " Obiter Dicta."