The rules laid down for the management of children are very few. They are to be kept clean, they are not to be allowed to eat and drink gluttonously, nor to play too much for fear of contracting idle habits; and whenever a visitor arrives the girls are to be sent away and the boys only presented. Here also there are rules for summoning servants of both sexes. Their master is to exhibit towards them a serious air, and to forbear jesting with them on any pretence; but if they have committed a fault they are on the first occasion to be called to account-on the next they may be beaten. Paterfamilias, after reprimanding his butler for making too free with the '32 port, is afterwards justified in kicking him downstairs. The calculating wisdom of the Celestial crops out in the advice given to feed servants well, "since if you are sparing of their food they will be sparing of their exertions." As regards one's neighbors the having of a good understanding with them is held up as a magnificent thing," and elsewhere "unity between neighbors" is proclaimed to be an "inestimable jewel."

cold, bring them their food, and supply | it all the more necessary to impress upon them with new shoes when necessary; they such of his fair readers as have to yield must obey their orders and endure their their places to second wives the desirabil anger without replying." A young lady ity of controlling their feelings. when grown up and married is enjoined not to forget the benefits she has received from her parents. "Once or twice a year she ought to ask her husband's leave to go and see them." Nothing is said, however, on the subject of return visits on the part of the mother-in-law. Ample directions are given as to the bride's behavior towards her husband and the members of his family. "From the remotest antiquity to the present time the rule in marriage is that the husband commands and the wife obeys. In all matters it is the husband who will decide, and it is the duty of the wife to conform to his decision.' Not only is the wife to obey her husband, but she is to be even more attentive and respectful to his parents than towards her own. "She must inquire after their health night and morning, help them to go in and out, always meet them with a smiling countenance, obey their orders, bring them food and drink at appointed times, and joyfully offer to wash their clothes, caps, and sashes. She must furnish them with new shoes, new clothes, and new blankets, fulfil all their wishes without delay, and make every effort to satisfy them. Your new parents,' The section devoted to "woman's work she is told, "have the right to scold you if may possibly not find favor in the eyes of you are in the wrong," and under such the advocates of woman's rights. Chinese circumstances she is only at liberty to re- women are enjoined to rise early, since proach herself, and not to utter a single "as spring is the most favorable season word against them. Younger sisters resid- for the work of the year, so is the dawn ing with their married brothers are enjoined for that of the day." They are, moreover, neither to hate nor deceive their sisters-in-bidden to take care of the hemp and the law, and if the latter have faults they are to conceal and not divulge them. For it is remarked that "young girls are too fond of telling everything, thereby causing serious misunderstandings."

66

mulberry-trees; to spin with zeal silk and cotton for their own use; to learn to cut out and make their own garments, and not to have recourse to assistance elsewhere; to wash these when they get soiled in order A very delicate section, but one which not to become an object of repugnance to has no application in this country, is that others; while such leisure time as they treating of "the consideration to be shown can find is to be devoted to making shoes towards the second wife." If the first for their husbands and children, their wife has not the happiness to give birth to fathers and mothers in law. Mr. Bucka male child, the husband chooses a per- master and other professors of the school son whom he loves, in order to have a son of cookery will be pleased to learn that in 'who will continue his race. In these cir- China the care of the kitchen is regarded cumstances, remarks the sage, it does not as one of the first of the wife's duties. do to give way to sentiments of jealousy, Morning and evening she has to prepare for it is necessary that all who live in the the necessary dishes of fish, meat, soup, same house should maintain amicable re- and vegetables, taking care that they are lations. But he concludes by recording neither too salt nor too sour, and that the the sad fact that "nowadays great dissen- cups and plates are always clean. When sions exist between first and second wives. a guest arrives tea and hot water are to be Out of a hundred first wives scarcely more at once served, the one for internal, the than one or two are of a mild and affable other for external use. The wife is encharacter." For this reason he considers | joined always to fall in with her husband's

wishes when it is a question of pressing a | He must have powers of self-control, for visitor to stay to dinner. On such occasions the eatables and drinkables are to be the best that the house can afford, although we are assured that it is of little moment what is offered if it is only offered with politeness. And no doubt it is true that "the husband of a woman who knows how to receive a visitor is certain of being well received elsewhere."

he must be ready to give his mind for a moment into another man's custody. He must have a certain amount of deference and humility, which the man who accompanies your words with a running commentary of protest or contradiction does not possess. The person who lets his eye wander while you are talking to him shows that he is deficient in the first element of A concluding section of the work relates good breeding, courtesy. The eye of the to the libations and offerings accorded to good listener is one of the eyes which the the dead. Mourning for a husband and poet and novelist have not remembered to for a father or mother in law lasts for three extol. It is always serene, patient, and years. During this time the wife has to intelligent. It is sad to think how few wear garments unhemmed at the bottom, persons will take the trouble of learning and of a sad color. To laugh in the pres- the art of attention in its simplest form. ence of funereal hangings exposes the of- The majority who will not listen, however, fender to universal contempt. "In spring do not hesitate in constantly demanding and autumn offerings have to be made to of their neighbors what Mark Antony the dead, and this established rule is not asked as a favor of his countrymen, to to be lightly disregarded." "The porce"lend him their ears." When you have lain utensils reserved for this purpose gratified their request they do not hesitate must be of the best quality and scrupu- to inflict the greatest injury on those senlously clean." The wife is required to sitive and much-abused organs. The serprepare all with her own hands, "letting mons of Mr. Carlyle, preached in innuher zeal testify the sincerity of her senti- merable large volumes, on the text, "Siments." Conjugal fidelity is expected of lence is golden," have borne but little her not only during her husband's life- fruit. It is said of the elder Matthews time but after his decease. She is ad- that he suffered from a painful disease of jured to emulate the virtuous heroines of the tongue, from having talked so much antiquity-the wife of Ven-tchiang, who and so fast; we have often wondered that cut off an ear to disfigure herself; the the disease is not more prevalent in the spouse of Wang-i, who cut off her arm to present day. No doubt, if the majority escape a seducer; the lady of Koung-Ki- of people were more silent life might pos ang, who "took an oath as tough as a boat sibly become a little more dull, but it of cypress wood;" and the widow Soung, would be prolonged. The companion who refused to quit her husband's tomb. who is ever talking is no better than a Finally, she is told "not to imitate faith-murderer, and in a healthy state of society less women who transgress their duties, but to keep her heart, hard as stone and iron, always pure."

From The Examiner.
ON TALKERS.

A GENTLEMAN well known in literary circles for his inexhaustible flow of words was one day lamenting the decay of good conversationalists, when a very clever lady remarked that what she most regretted in the present day was the decay of good listeners. We fear the decay of good listeners is a sad and momentous fact, and proves the demoralized state of mind of the men and women of the present generation. It is not easy to be a good listener, for it requires certain high moral qualities. A man to listen well must be unselfish, he must be willing both to give and take.

he would be hanged. The saddest part of the matter is that most men talk, not because they have anything to say, but because they have a dread that the world will discover that they have no great wit. If they would only read a book much despised in this clever age, but which contains many wise sayings, they would find it there stated that "even a fool when he holdeth his tongue is counted wise." How many a man has gained a reputation for having a great deal in him by the simple process of holding his tongue. It is, however, now rare to meet with any one who ever thinks of ruling that member. But still, although talking goes on in the world without intermission, conversation in its proper sense is fast dying out. Our talking, like our writing, is serious and dull, and is unrelieyed by wit and brilliancy. There is no greater nuisance than when a company at dinner is forced to listen to two literary lions, who try to

talker is the young college don who solves
the enigma of free-will and constructs a
philosophy of being in twenty minutes.
He is fond of parading his small knowl-
edge of Hegel and Herbert Spencer, and
he is always expressing his deep regret
that the university does not allow him a
large endowment for the purposes of re-
search. He is a man whom only an eso-
teric audience can appreciate or bring out.
to his best. To the common vulgar herd
he is only a bore. He does not converse,
but he expresses his opinions in a serene,
confident voice. If you speak to him of
Shakespeare he gives a sickly smile, and
asks you if you have read Rosetti. He
informs you that works of art can only be
"appreciated by loving and reverent criti-
cism," and that if you wish to understand
an author you must get behind his soul.
He will not discuss anything so vulgar as
politics; but on green paper and china
plates he can be eloquent.
His language
is nicely chosen, but it would be incon-
sistent with his genius to call things by
the same names as are used by inferior
men. There is only one thing of which
he is ignorant. He is not aware that dis-
play of vanity is one of the most annoy-
ing of the minor social sins. A large
view of life, however, ought to teach all
of us to be tolerant of all things
of the young Oxford prig and his talk.

be clever and smart. No doubt it is pleasing to them, and to them only, but it is not conversation, because all present do not share in it. Nothing is more annoying than to find two men interrupt the easy flow of talk by a hot argumentation. As De Quincey says, "Mere good sense is sufficient, without any experience at all of high life, to point out the intolerable absurdity of allowing two angry champions to lock up and sequestrate, as it were, the whole social enjoyment of a large party, and compel them to sit in sad civility, witnesses of a contest which can interest the majority neither by its final object nor its management." There are a small class of men who mistake declamation for conversation. Coleridge was a good talker, but he spoilt it by too much declamation. The declamation of Coleridge was, however, instructive and brilliant, but the declamation of the modern littérateur can hardly, by any stretch of the imagination, be considered one or the other. No conversation was ever so delightful as that of Reynolds, Goldsmith, Burke, and Johnson. But then the famous club was composed of clever men who conversed freely on every subject, and who had steeped their minds in literature. In the present day most men limit their reading to their own writings. There are men whose sole conversation consists in putting forth the one idea they have borrowed from the leading article in the morning. But they are not nearly so disagreeable as the pretentious talker who talks his own article in a loud and authoritative voice. The leader-writer's talk as a rule consists in making pungent and SERVIA is about one-fifth smaller than exaggerated remarks on most topics. He Scotland, and sparsely inhabited by 1,352,carries his professional art into social life. o00 inhabitants. Like Scotland, it is a It is not conversation, but it is amusing if land of mountains. On the south-west the not carried too far, and it is useful at times. mountains consist of offshoots of the The writer of social articles is a man who Dinaric Alps, and elsewhere the branches earns a miserable pittance by making of the Balkan chain. One of these, gathbricks without straw, and he acquires the ered into a knotty group in the centre of painful art of going on talking for any the country, forms the Rudrik Mountains. length of time about absolutely nothing. Another, running northwards, meets a He is horribly vapid on nearly every sub-range of the Carpathians, and with it forms ject, but he prattles to his unfortunate the "Iron Gates" of the Danube. Nothing listeners like a giant rejoicing to run his course. Among young ladies in the country he can, however, generally ensure both attention and applause. The most spurious kind of talker is the middle-aged college don who has spent his vacation on the Continent, and who steals his new views and interpretations from foreign magazines. This is a very easy road to a reputation for sound learning in one of our universities. The most affected

even

From The Leisure Hour. SERVIA.

can exceed the wildness and stern sublimity of this celebrated portal, through which the great river flows. Generally speaking, Servia is traversed from south to north by extensive mountain ridges. These form valleys, which nowhere expand into plains. In its physical features the country is not unlike Bosnia and the Herzegovina, but with its green and wellwooded hills it is in striking contrast to the bare and sterile region of Montenegro.

As Montenegro was the unconquered | revolt. The drawn sword between the remnant of the old Servian empire, there- dates may be taken to indicate that the fore the little principality in the Black attitude of the subject Serbs on the DanMountain may, in that sense, be held as its truest representative. Modern Servia however, on account alike of name, resources, and geographical position, claims continuity of national life with the Servia of the fourteenth century. The motto of the princes of the present house of Obrenovitch is, "Time and my right." Their arms represent a white cross on a red field, and on the cross are inscribed two dates, 1389-1815; between them lies a drawn sword. The first date commemorates the fatal fight of Kossova, when the Servians, overthrown by the Ottoman arms, became a subject people; the second marks the year when Milosch Obrenovitch went from his dwelling among the mountains of the interior to the church of Takovo to raise anew the standard of

ube during four long centuries of Turkish rule was not one of servile submission, but of a nourished antagonism. What gives importance to the revolt of 1815 is that it resulted in the permanent acknowledgment of Servia by the Porte as a selfgoverning though still tributary power, under native rulers. Servia, restored to the Serbs, brought back with it the hope at some future time of entire independence, and of an extension of territory coextensive with the old Servian kingdom. Nor do the free and warlike inhabitants of the Black Mountain entertain any jealousy of the national aspirations of their brethren on the Danube. The two Serb powers are in close alliance, and between the families of the respective princes there exists a cordial friendship.

THE MAMMALS OF THE ASSYRIAN SCULPTURES. -The Rev. W. Houghton, who is a well-known contributor to this journal, recently read a paper on the above subject before the Society of Biblical Archaeology (May 2, 1876). Beginning with the order Quadrumana, Mr. Houghton said two species were represented. He referred to the absurdly human appearance of the monkeys of the sculptures: the face is that of a man with a fringe of whiskers round it neatly trimmed, but one figure more true to nature indicates the species of monkey-viz., Presbyter entellus, the hoonuman of India, or some closely allied species. There was also another species, the Macacus silenus. The Assyrian word for monkey was u-du-mu, the same as the Hebrew word Adam, "a man;" compare our "anthropoid ape.' Of the order Fera there are mentioned the lion, the hyena (in Accadian lig-bar-ra, "striped dog"); the bear, Ursus Syriacus, especially as being of various colors, and the leopard. Other wild animals were the hare, Lepus Sinaiticus (ka-zin-na, "face of the desert"); the wild bull, which was clearly a Bos and not a Bubalus, most probably Bos primigenius of the tertiary period; the wild goat (Capra Sinaitica), the Asiatic steinboc or ibex; the wild sheep (Caprovis orientalis), the wild deer (Cervus Mesopotamicus), and other species, Cervus elaphus and Cervus Maral, or Persian deer; the gazelle (G. dorcas); the wild ass (Equus hemippus); the elephant (Elephas indicus); the rhinoceros, or, as it is called on the black obelisk of Shalmaneser, "the ox from the river Saceya;" and the wild boar (Sus scrofa). Popular Science Review.

Three miles is the distance of the offing or visible horizon to a person six feet in height standing on the shore. It is natural to suppose that the early maritime peoples of Europe would lay claim to the sea as far as the eye could reach. This distance they would find by experience was just three miles, and it can be proved mathematically to be correct. Measured by this standard- - a tall man, usually taken as six feet high-the distance is invariable for all time, places, and peoples; measured by a cannon-ball, it is constantly varying, and now ought to be five miles rather than three. The fact that the distance depends on both ocular and mathematical demonstration, and is not subject to improvement in gunnery, is the best explanation of its origin and application. B. G. JENKINS. Dulwich, May 8. Nature.

PROVOST CAZENOVE has retired from the editorship of the Church Quarterly, but will continue to contribute to that periodical. The new editor is Canon Chichester. Athenæum.

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