Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by Ticknorand Fields, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of theDistrict of Massachusetts.
Transcriber's Note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes movedto the end of the article. Contents generated for the HTML version.
SAINTS WHO HAVE HAD BODIES.
NO TIME LIKE THE OLD TIME.
COUPON BONDS.
THE AUTHOR OF "SAUL."
NEEDLE AND GARDEN.
JOHN JORDAN,
NOËL.
WILHELM MEISTER'S APPRENTICESHIP.
DOCTOR JOHNS.
DOWN THE RIVER.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.
All doubtless remember the story which is told of the witty Charles II.and the Royal Society: How one day the King brought to the attention ofits members a most curious and inexplicable phenomenon, which he statedthus: "When you put a trout into a pail full of water, why does not thewater overflow?" The savans, naturally enough, were surprised, andsuggested many wise, but fruitless explanations; until at last one oftheir number, having no proper reverence for royalty in his heart,demanded that the experiment should actually be tried. Then, of course,it was proved that there was no phenomenon to be explained. The wateroverflowed fast enough. Indeed, it is chronicled that the evolutions ofthis lively member of the piscatory tribe were so brisk, that thedifficulty was the exact opposite of what was anticipated, namely, howto keep the water in.
This story may be a pure fable, but the lesson it teaches is true andimportant. It illustrates forcibly the facility with which even wise menaccept doubtful propositions, and then apply the whole power of theirminds to explain them, and perhaps to defend them. Latterly one hearsconstantly of the physical decay which threatens the American people,because of their unwise and disproportioned stimulation of the brain. Itis assumed, almost as an axiom, that there is "a deficiency of physicalhealth in America." Especially is it assumed that great mental progress,either of races or of individuals, has been generally purchased at theexpense of the physical frame. Indeed, it is one of the questions of theday, how the saints, that is, those devoted to literary and professionalpursuits, shall obtain good and serviceable bodies; or, to widen thequery, how the finest intellectual culture can exist side by side withthe noblest physical development; or, to bring this question into a formthat shall touch us most sharply, how our boys and girls can obtain allneedful knowledge and mental discipline, and yet keep full of gracefuland buoyant vitality.
What do we say to the theories