erb is evident to any one who has visited | proached nearer the sound increased in their cities and villages. In the festering volume until it became a loud roar. It filth which there abounds and increases, was not until I was close to the black line the fly finds a happy covert and hunting- that I could make out the cause. Then I ground. The fly, however, is not confined could see the topmost flies as they hovto Persia alone, for its gregariousness is ered and dived above the lower strata. I proverbial. Those who took part in the could trace this black line of flies for a Afghan campaign of '79-80 will have a half mile or so on either side of me; and lively recollection of the swarms of flies it rose like a thick curtain for some ten that infested the camps of Barrakab, Jel- yards off the ground. Here is a calculalalabad, Pezwan, and Kabul. It was a tion for some mathematician. A wall of common thing to see the whole camp of flies one mile long, ten yards high, and officers and men seized after meals with an forty yards wide; and the flies so thickly attack of nausea, much as if they were on massed that they might be said to be ridboard a troop-ship in a storm in the Bay ing one on top of the other and brushing of Biscay. So great was the fly-plague each other side by side. This black wall during those memorable summers' cam- represented the line of dead Egyptians; paign that it was found impossible to and, certainly, if they were unburied they cook food without numbers of those pes- did not want for a pall. How I was to tiferous insects trailing their poisonous get through this cordon of flies was a bodies over it and imparting to it an doubtful problem. Time was pressing; unpleasantly medicinal effect. Towards and a party of Arabs were hanging behind the end of summer the flies became lan- and enjoying some nice ball practice with guid, and, if possible, more loathsome; for my pony and me for targets. To go they would light on one's face and hands, around the flank of this fly-wall was out of and hang there until they were literally the question; so I put spurs to my pony brushed off. It was found impossible and urged him through. The brute reto drink tea or any other liquid without taking it from a bottle; and it was only with the greatest dexterity that one could pass the neck of the uncorked bottle into one's mouth without the flies gaining admission thereto. It would be difficult to express the amount of misery which they occasioned until winter set in and they made off in search of more congenial cli mates. But as downright pests the sandflies of the Egyptian deserts take the palm. Fort Tel-el-Kebir, the day after the battle there in 1882, presented an extraordinary collection. It was the scene of a great and perhaps unsurpassed gathering of flies. It may be remarked that the Egyptian troops had neglected to bury their dead; in fact, the Egyptians had to take to their heels quite suddenly, and the British did not trouble to bury the enemy's dead, so that the bodies of the dead Arabs and Egyptians lay about the trenches and fort walls. Long before I got to the trenches I noticed a dark line distinctly visible on the otherwise bright sandy landscape, and as I got nearer the fort seemed to be covered with a dark pall. I could not account for this phenomenon at first, and at the instant it was suggestive of something supernatural. On nearer approach, however, at about a hundred and fifty yards distance from the dark mass, I heard distinctly a loud humming noise. As I ap fused several times, literally frightened by the hum and noise. At last I managed to get him "head on; " and never shall I forget my passage through those forty yards of flies. They presented such a firm front as we passed through that I could feel a heavy pressure heavy enough to compel me instinctively to grip the saddle closer with my knees. I had to close mouth and eyes, and trust to chance to get straight through; and it was no easy matter to endure the horrible stench that emanated from the mass. My pony was so terrified that I could not pull him up until we had got some hundred yards beyond the black mass and out in the clear desert air again. I looked behind me now and again as I continued on my journey, and there in the blazing sun was the same dark pall a distinct feature in the desert, and to me a hideous memory of flies. I may further mention that I passed by these same trenches a week after; and the dead bodies were still there now black bloated masses, save that in some cases a black stain in the sand surmounted by a skeleton told where once there had been human flesh. But the fly hordes had gone; even they were satiated when there was nothing left but the animal juices. From this, too, I conclude that flies, however numerous, play but a small part in the dissolution of dead bodies; putrefaction under a hot sun is so rapid that the air is the great absorbing factor; but that the flies help the process goes without question. It would appear that the heat in some Oriental countries is a powerful agent in breeding fly ova; and as there is little shade or moisture elsewhere than in the village huts and by the village tanks and wells, the fly world, as a matter of course, make for the shade to escape from the broiling sun and the arid regions around; hence they are found about human habitations where they can not only get shade, but in the filth of both place and people find all they desire in the way of food. Evidently the fly is nature's great sanitary reformer. As to the travelling propensity of flies, any one who has travelled much with camps in the East must have noticed with what tenacity the fly hosts stick to the moving camp-baggage, camels, horses, and men being literally covered with them on the road from camp-ground to campground. Often, when travelling alone from one encampment to another in India, I have noticed the usual posse of flies following in my wake, or more often perched on me or my pony. Often have I galloped ahead to shake them off; but to no purpose they can race for miles at a stretch, and keep up with a horse at a trot. You may shake them off by hard galloping for a time, but they will keep on the scent and overtake you by-and-by. I used to think at first that I had got rid of my tormentors after a long gallop, and that the flies that turned up when I drew rein were fresh relays; but I found out from observation that the flies that left one camp with me usually followed me to the next. Certainly those flies that leave one camp may be augmented by stragglers on the way, and some may fall out on the journey; but the bulk keep with the traveller throughout the distance. The most interesting experiment I ever tried with flies was to catch a dozen or so, and give them a bath in cochineal, thus dyeing them red, and then to look out for the red flies, when I got to the camps ahead. In this way I was astonished to find one or two of the number appearing day by day, and at least half-a-dozen of the twelve I originally dyed travelled with me for over three hundred miles. HOW LONG DOES A DREAM LAST?-The Globe says that this interesting question has recently been discussed in Germany, among others by Dr. F. Scholz, who has given some striking examples from his own experience and observation. It is not possible to give a definite answer; and probably enough dreams vary very much in point of duration, just as they vary in force and vividness. At one time the figures of a dream, whether they emerge from the horn or the ivory gate, are as real as in life; the sorrow is even more intense, the happiness more realistic. At another time they seem to live only in a pale moonlight, and we watch the scenes rather than participate in them. It is very certain, however, that the majority of dreams are only of momentary duration, though extended occasionally to the length of a minute. In proof of this, Dr. Scholz tells the following story from his experience: "After excessive bodily fatigue and a day of mental strain, of a not disagreeable kind, I betook myself to bed after I had wound up my watch and placed it on the night-table. Then I lay down beside a burning lamp. Soon I found myself on the high sea on board a well-known ship. I was again young, and stood on the lookout. I heard the roar of the water, and golden clouds | floated round me. How long I so stood I did not know, but it seemed a very long time. Then the scene changed. I was in the country, and my long-dead parents came to greet me; they took me to church, where the loud organ sounded. I was delighted, but at the same time wondered to see my wife and children there. The priest mounted the pulpit and preached, but I could not understand what he said for the sound of the organ, which continued to play. I took my son by the hand and with him ascended the church tower - but again the scene was changed. Instead of being near my son I stood near an early known but long dead officer-I ought to explain that I was an army surgeon during the manœuvres. I was wondering why the major should look so young, when quite close in my ears an unexpected cannon sounded. Terrified, I was hurrying off, when I woke up and noticed that the supposed cannon-shot had its cause in the opening of the bedroom door through some one entering. It was as if I had lived through an eternity in my dream, but when I looked at my watch I saw that since I had fallen asleep not more than one minute had elapsed-a much shorter time than it takes to relate the occurrence." Dr. Scholz has collected many other examples of a similar kind. For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & Co. Single Numbers of THE LIVING AGE, 18 cents. When man shall burst the bars of Fate, Amid the wondrous whole, But Earth with tender jealous care For pride may grow, and love depart, So now I draw the curtain o'er The world's wide mysteries; While thoughts of friends, in pleasant train, Shed healing influence on the brain. Kind eyes smile on me through the dark, I hear the silent voice, and mark From The Fortnightly Review. A COMPARISON OF ELIZABETHAN WITH VICTORIAN POETRY. BY JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS. I. sance and Reformation, took place. It is a peculiarity of this transition time in our islands, that what used to be called "the new learning," with its new theories of education, its new way of regarding nature, and its new conceptions of human ENGLISH literature, under the Tudors life, was introduced simultaneously with and the first king of the house of Stuart, the Reformation. Italy had accomplished owed much of its unexampled richness the revival of learning; Germany had to a felicitous combination of circum- revolted against Catholicism. France had stances. Feudalism had received a mor- felt both movements unequally and partal wound in the Wars of the Roses, and tially, amid the confusion of civil wars and was dying. The people came to knowl- the clash of contending sects. Italy, after edge of itself, and acquired solidity during the Tridentine Council, was relapsing into the reigns of Henry VII., Henry VIII., reactionary dulness. Germany was disand Elizabeth. Englishmen were brought membered by strifes and schisms. France into the comity of European nations underwent the throes of a passionate through Wolsey's audacious diplomacy. struggle, which subordinated the intellecThey began to feel their force as an im-tual aspects of both Renaissance and portant factor, which had henceforth to be Reformation to political interest. England reckoned with in peace or war. Grave alone, meanwhile, enjoyed the privilege perils attended the formation of Great Britain into a separate and self-sustaining integer of Europe; nor was it until the Protectorate that these islands made their full weight recognized. None of the perils, however, which shook England during the period of consolidation, sufficed to disturb the equilibrium of government and social order. On the other hand, they stimulated patriotism, and braced the nation with a sense of its own dignity. Our final rupture with Rome, after the trials of Queen Mary's reign were over, satisfied the opinion of a large majority. Our collision with Spain, in the crisis marked by the Armada, took a turn which filled the population with reverent and religious enthusiasm. These two decisive passages in English history promoted the pride of the race, and inspired it with serious ardor. Instead of weakening the crown or the Church, they had the effect of rendering both necessary to the nation. Then, when Scotland was united to England and Ireland, at the accession of James, a disciplined and nobly expansive people thought themselves for a moment on the pinnacle of felicity. While the English were thus becoming a powerful and self-conscious nation, those intellectual changes which divided the mediæval from the modern period, and which we know by the names of Renais of receiving that twofold influx of the modern spirit without an overwhelming strain upon her vital forces. The Marian persecution was severe enough to test the bias of the people, and to remind them of the serious points at issue, without rending society to its foundations. Humanism reached our shores when its first enthu siasms-enthusiasms which seemed in Italy to have brought again the gods and vices of the pagan past - had tempered their delirium. We have only to compare men like More, Ascham, Colet, Buchanan, Camden, Cheke, the pioneers of our Renaissance, with Filelfo, Poggio, Poliziano, Pontano, in order to perceive how far more sober and healthy was the tone of the new learning in Great Britain than in Italy. In this connection it is worthy of notice that humanism, before it moulded the mind of the English, had already permeated Italian and French literature. Classical erudition had been adapted to the needs of modern thought. Antique authors had been collected, printed, annotated, and translated. They were fairly mastered in the south, and assimilated to the style of the vernacular. By these means much of the learning popularized by our poets, essayists, and dramatists came to us at second hand, and bore the stamp of contemporary genius. In like |