olution of July, 1830. He warned his | found an annual mass for his calumnifellow-countrymen against re-establish-ators and enemies, living or dead.

ing monarchy, but he was not listened Everything considered, Grégoire to. His pamphlet on this occasion is stands high above most of his conteminteresting, having been written, as it poraries, who with him were called to were, in articulo mortis, and showing take part in the great drama of the that his opinions remained unchanged. French Revolution. If at times he On his deathbed he sent for his parish was carried away with the stream, priest. The priest communicated with there were moments when he rose the archbishop, who wrote to Grégoire to an almost supernatural height, as exhorting him to make a retractation, when he stood alone in the tribune of and told the priest to exact it before the National Convention and fearlessly giving him the sacraments. Grégoire confessed Christ. He died, as he had refused, on the ground that he had lived, a Catholic and a republican. He nothing which his conscience compelled had his faults. Some of his speeches him to retract. The priest left him, breathe a tone of fanatical republicanand he was finally driven to seek the ism unsuited to our more mature and help of an ecclesiastic who had written | more scientific point of view. But in much against him, but whose genuine- this he was the child of his time. We, ness he had suspected from the tone in who have the advantage of being im which he wrote. To this man the ex-bued with the dynamical view of hisbishop appealed, and his call was not tory, where all is growth and where in vain. He made his confession, re- monarchies and republics have their ceived the last rites of the Church, and place, should not blame one who lived prepared to meet his Creator. He died almost a century ago, whose childhood on the 28th of May, 1831, at the age of was passed in an old world, and whose eighty-one. In his will it was found old age found him standing on the that he had left four thousand francs to threshold of a new one.

WILLIAM GIBSON.

the resources and natural wealth of the
province. In the valleys at the foot of the
neighboring mountains pepper, tobacco,
sugar, and coffee are grown.
The moun-
tains are covered with forests, the wood of
which is cut down and brought to Chanta-
boon, whence it is shipped in junks to the
neighboring ports. Wood-aloe is, also, one
of the commercial items of the place. It is
found in the trunks of trees, and men are
specially trained to discover which trees
contain it. The secret of finding it is jeal
ously kept by the foresters. The forests
abound with monkeys, deer, tigers, and

THE town of Chantaboon, the temporary | heavy taxation, by the corvée, and by possession of which France has demanded slavery. Little is really done to develop of Siam, is situated on the river of the same name, about eight miles from its mouth, and is the second port of importance in the Siamese dominions. The port of Chantaboon, says the Daily Chronicle, is almost landlocked, and is very beautiful. Numerous islets rise here and there, and the coast is surrounded by picturesque hills, some of which are rugged and barren, while others are clothed with trees and vegetation from top to bottom. The town lies along the banks of the river, at a distance of some six or seven miles from the mountains. It contains some fine temples and other buildings. About a third of the pop-herds of elephants. The mountains of ulation are Annamites, the rest being Chantaboon are noted for their precious Chinese and Siamese. The Annamites stones one mountain in particular, called conduct the fishing in the river and the "The Precious Stone Mountain," being neighboring bay, while the Chinese carry remarkable for its fine rubies, topazes, etc. on the mercantile trade. Although Chan- Concessions for working part of these mountaboon is the next port in importance to tains have been granted to a British comBangkok, its trade is sadly hampered by pany.

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But when dawn sparkled through un- An April day in England saw a bridal

From The Contemporary Review.
ETHICS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR
EXISTENCE.

mand for justice when we can suppose that a man has certain antecedent rights which another man may respect or neglect. But this has no meaning as between the abstraction"nature" and the concrete facts which are themselves nature. It is unjust to treat equal claims differently. But it is not

for the original fact. If we explain the fall of man by Adam's eating the apple we are quite unable to say why In his deeply interesting Romanes the apple should have been created. lecture, Professor Huxley has stated If we could discover a general theory the opinion that the ethical progress of of pain, showing, say, that it implied society depends upon our combating certain physiological conditions, we the "cosmic process " which we call should be no nearer to knowing why the struggle for existence. Since, as those physiological conditions should he adds, we inherit the "cosmic na- have been what they are. The existture" which is the outcome of millions ence of pain, in short, is one of the of years of severe training, it follows primary data of our problem, not one that the "ethical nature may count of the accidents for which we can hope upon having to reckon with a tenacious in any intelligible sense to account. To and powerful enemy as long as the give any "justification" is equally imworld lasts. This is not a cheerful possible. The book of Job really sugprospect. It is, as he admits, an auda-gests au impossible, one may almost cious proposal to pit the microcosm say a meaningless, problem. We can against the macrocosm. We cannot give an intelligible meaning to a de-' help fearing that the microcosm may get the worst of it. Professor Huxley has not fully expanded his meaning, and says much to which I could cordially subscribe. But I think that the facts upon which he relies admit or require an interpretation which avoids the awkward conclusion. Pain and suffering, as Professor Hux-" unjust" in any intelligible sense that ley tells us, are always with us, and one being should be a monkey and aneven increase in quantity and intensity other a man, any more than that one as evolution advances. The fact has part of me should be a hand and anbeen recognized in remote ages long other a head. The question would only before theories of evolution had taken arise if we supposed that the man and their modern form. Pessimism, from the monkey had existed before they the time of the ancient Hindoo philos- were created, and had then possessed ophers to the time of their disciple, claims to equal treatment. The most Schopenhauer, has been in no want of logical theologians indeed admit that evidence to support its melancholy as between creature and creator there conclusions. It would be idle to waste can be properly no question of justice. rhetoric in the attempt to recapitulate The pot and the potter cannot complain so familiar a position. Though I am of each other. If the writer of Job not a pessimist, I cannot doubt that had been able to show that the virtuthere is more plausibility in the doc- ous were rewarded and the vicious puntrine than I could wish. Moreover, it ished, he would only have transferred may be granted that any attempt to the problem to another issue. The judge explain or to justify the existence of might be justified but the creator would evil is undeniably futile. It is not so be condemned. How can it be just to much that the problem cannot be an- place a being where he is certain to sin swered as that it cannot even be asked and then to damn him for sinuing? in any intelligible sense. Το ex- That is the problem to which no answer plain" a fact is to assign its causes can be given; and which already imthat is, to give the preceding set of plies a confusion of ideas. We apply facts out of which it arose. However the conception of justice in a sphere far we might go backwards, we should where it is not applicable, and naturally get no nearer to perceiving any reason | fail to get any intelligible answer.

We

The question therefore really re-evidently immoral, we think; and a solves itself into a different one. We doctrine which makes the whole proccan neither explain nor justify the ex- ess of evolution a process of war must istence of pain; but of course we can be radically immoral too. The strugask whether, as a matter of fact, pain gle, it is said, demands "ruthless selfpredominates over pleasure, and we assertion," and the hunting down of all can ask whether, as a matter of fact, competitors; and such phrases certhe "cosmic processes "tend to pro-tainly have an unpleasant sound. But, mote or discourage virtuous conduct. in the first place, the use of the epiDoes the theory of the "struggle for thets implies an anthropomorphism to existence throw any new light upon which we have no right so long as we the general problem? I am quite are dealing with the inferior species. unable to see, for my own part, that it We are then in a region to which moral really makes any difference; evil ex- ideas have no direct application, and ists; and the question whether evil where the moral sentiments exist only predominates over good can only, I in germ, if they can properly be said to should say, be decided by an appeal to exist at all. Is it fair to call a wolf experience. One source of evil is the "ruthless "because it eats a sheep and conflict of interests. Every beast preys fails to consider the transaction from upon others, and man, according to the sheep's point of view? We must the old saying, is a wolf to man. All surely admit that if the wolf is without that the Darwinian theory can do is to mercy he is also without malice. enable us to trace the consequences of call an animal ferocious because a man this fact in certain directions, but it who acted in the same way would be neither reveals the fact nor makes it ferocious. But the man is really feromore or less an essential part of the cious because he is really aware of the pain which he inflicts. The wolf, I nomena, in the sense of showing their suppose, has no more recognition of connection with previous phenomena, the sheep's feelings than a man has of but does not show why the phenomena should present themselves at all. If we indulge our minds in purely fanciful constructions, we may regard the actual system as good or bad, just as we choose to imagine for its alternative a better or a worse system. If everybody had been put into a world where there was no pain, or where each man could get all he wanted without interfering with his neighbors, we may fancy that things would have been pleasanter. If the struggle, which we all know to exist, had no effect in promoting the "survival of the fittest," things-so at least some of us may think-would have been worse. But such fancies have nothing to do with scientific inquiries. We have to take things as they are and make the best of them.

process. It " explains certain phe

feelings in the oyster or the potato.
For him, they are simply non-existent ;
and it is just as inappropriate to think
of the wolf as cruel as it would be to
call the sheep cruel for eating grass.
Are we, then, to say that " nature
"" is
cruel because the arrangement in-
creases the sum of general suffering?
That is a problem which I do not feel
able to answer; but it is at least obvi-
ous that it cannot be answered off-hand
in the affirmative. To the individual
sheep it matters nothing whether he is
eaten by the wolf or dies of disease or
starvation.

He has to die any way,

and the particular way is unimportant. The wolf is simply one of the limiting forces upon sheep, and, if he were removed, others would come into play. The sheep, left to himself, would still The common feeling, no doubt, is have a practical illustration of the docdifferent. The incessant struggle be- trine of Malthus. If, as evolutiontween different races suggests a pain- ists tell us, the hostility of the wolf ful view of the universe, as Hobbes's tends to improve the breed of sheep, natural state of war suggested painful to encourage him to climb better and theories as to human nature. War is to sharpen his wits, the sheep may