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 A Co11 ~e e 1 · re Resource
or cient · · c Co 11 11icatio11

• .• ~
•

o ·Ll.lJ
U IVEltSITY PRESS
 ••
C O NTENTS VII

8.3 Revising Subsequent Drafts 143

8.4 Checklist for Revising 144
8.5 Editing Someone Else's Manuscript 145
8.6 Checklist for Editing Someone Else's Manuscript 146
8.7 Submission and the Review Process 149
Summary 151
Problems 151

CHAPTER 9 Sample Reports 153

9.1 General Overview 153
9.2 Sample Weekly Lab Report 154
9.3 Sample Project Paper 159

CHAPTER 10 Reading, Summarizing, and Critiquing a Scientific

Research Article 179
10.1 Content of a Scientific Research Article 179
10.2 Reading a Research Paper 181
10.3 Writing a Summary of a Research Paper 181
10.4 Critiquing a Research Paper 183
10.5 Checklists 186
Summary 187
Problems 187

CHAPTER 11 Term Papers and Review Articles 188

11.1 Purpose of Reviews 188
11.2 Deciding on the Topic 190
11.3 Format 191
11.4 Title 193
11.5 Abstract 193
11.6 Introduction 194
11.7 Main Analysis Section 196
11.8 Conclusion 198
11.9 References 200
11.10 Checklist 200
Summary 201
Problems 202

CHAPTER 12 Note Taking and Essay Exams 205

12.1 General Overview 205
12.2 Effective Note Taking 205
12.3 Preparing for an Essay Exam 209
12.4 Answering an Essay Question 210
12.5 Time Management Tips 217
12.6 Checklist 217
Summary 218
 • • •
VIII CONTENTS

Part IV ADVANCED SCIENTIFIC DOCUMENTS

AND PRESENTATIONS 219
CHAPTER 13 Oral Presentations 221
13.1 Format of a Scientific Talk 221
13.2 Preparing for a Talk 223
13.3 Delivery of a Talk 228
13.4 Question-and-Answer Period 231
13.5 Useful Resources 232
13.6 Checklist 233
Summary 234
Problems 235

CHAPTER 14 Posters 238

14.1 Components and Format of a Poster 238
14.2 Preparing a Poster 242
14.3 Presenting a Poster 247
14.4 Useful Resources 248
14.5 Complete Sample Poster 248
14.6 Checklist for a Poster 249
Summary 250
Problems 250

CHAPTER 15 Research Proposals 252

15.1 General Overview 252
15.2 Components and Format 252
15.3 Abstract 253
15.4 Specific Aims 255
15.5 Background 255
15.6 Research Design 256
15.7 Impact and Significance 258
15.8 Additional Proposal Components 258
15.9 Checklist 259
Summary 260
Problems 260

CHAPTER 16 Job Applications 263

16.1 Curricula Vitae and Resumes 263
16.2 Cover Letters 271
16.3 Personal Statements 273
16.4 The Hiring Process and Interview 282
16.5 Letters of Recommendation 285
16.6 Checklist for a Job Application 287
Summary 288
Problems 289
 •
C O NTENTS IX

Appendix A: Commonly Confused and Misused Words 290

Appendix B: Microsoft Word Basics and Top 20 Word
Tips 304
Appendix C: Microsoft Excel Basics and Top 20 Excel
Tips 308
Appendix D: Microsoft PowerPoint Basics and Top 20
PowerPoint Tips 315
Appendix E: Microsoft Office Cheat Sheet 319
Answers to Problems 321
Brief Glossary of Scientific and Technical Terms 337
Bibliography 341
Credits 345
Index 347
FOREWORD

cademic science has a language of its own. Written and spoken by its practi-
tioners, this language is sometimes practically unintelligible to the uniniti-
ated. As a college or graduate-level student beginning to write scientific literature
with highly technical content papers, abstracts, proposals your biggest chal-
lenge is to go beyond learning the jargon to convey complex factual information
clearly and logically. As an instructor, your challenge is to teach your students
this language through classroom practices. As a researcher, your challenge is
to be fluent in the scientific language, producing peer-reviewed grants, manu-
scripts, and talks that may even reshape the language itself.
Despite years of training, in my experience, most new faculty researchers
in science and medical fields are shocked and beleaguered by the writing work-
load required to build and sustain an independent research group. While they
are scientifically ready for their new roles, much less attention has been paid to
preparing their communication abilities. Yet, successful faculty researchers are
also those with the communication experience and ability to advocate for their
science effectively especially as the pool of funds available for research con-
tinues to decline. To help prepare trainees for the challenges that lie ahead, the
importance of scientific communication must be emphasized during college and
graduate school. Moreover, as students practiced in scientific writing and com-
munication also develop the ability to think logically and critically about the
subject matter, these skills can be viewed as tools with which to train the budding
scientific mind. Thus, the principles of sound scientific writing should be viewed
as foundational and should be integrated throughout the curriculum of higher
education much as chemistry is for those majoring in biology.
Why is the craft of scientific communication so often pushed to the side? This
essential discipline requires specific educational resources to guide instructor
and student. This text, Writing in the Biological Sciences: A Comprehensive
Resource for Scientific Communication, is an invaluable contribution to the field.
Through an accessible, clear, and concise, yet thorough, treatment of the subject,
it instructs in the unique language of scientific communication. The book's
practical approach of breaking down the most relevant forms of writing and
presentation into their component parts enables the student to internalize
key common principles that are discussed throughout the text. The text also

•
Xl
 • •
Xll FOREWORD

demonstrates that those adept in scientific communication in the classroom be

it through lab reports, term papers, or in-class oral presentations are those well
on their way to crafting independent research publications, review articles, and
seminar presentations.
Much like a box of paints, the techniques and information in this book are
your toolkit with which you will communicate your own ideas and contribu-
tions to the outside world. You may be opening this book for one of many rea-
sons. Perhaps you are using it as a required textbook. Perhaps you are coming to
the formalized study of scientific writing for the first time, or perhaps you are
someone who is seeking specifically to improve your scientific writing skill. Keep
in mind that as with a foreign language, true proficiency in scientific communi-
cation can take years to achieve. Hold on to this volume in the years to come,
because you will refer to the guidelines within again and again.
Tammy Wu, PhD
Yale University
PREFACE

ommunication plays a fundamental role in the sciences, and beyond. It is

...... the engine that propels virtually all progress. Without good communication
skills, those in science stand little chance of publishing their work, obtaining
funds, attracting a wide audience when giving a talk, or getting a new job. In the
sciences, even the most promising discovery means little if it cannot be com-
municated successfully. In fact, it is more often the case that advancements are
limited not by their technical merit but by ineffective articulation. Thus, clear
communication is a necessity, not an option, for scientists and students in
this field.
Writing in the Biological Sciences: A Comprehensive Resource for Scientific
Communication, third edition, serves as an all-inclusive ((one-stop'' reference
guide to scientific writing and communication for budding professionals
in the life sciences and other fields. The book is intended as a free-standing
textbook for a corresponding course on writing in the sciences as well as
an accompanying, practical text or reference guide in courses with writing-
intensive components. It covers all the basics of scientific communication that
students need to know and master for successful careers. The book lays the
foundations for future professional writing by starting with basic scientific
writing rules and principles and applying these to composing lab reports, lit-
erature reviews, summaries, and critiques and eventually to full-fledged scien-
tific research articles, review articles, and grant proposals. Thus, for example,
lab reports that follow the general format provided in this book provide the
groundwork for later scientific research articles that get published in academic
journals; term papers/literature reviews are the basis for review articles, and
research proposals for grant proposals. Practical advice for organizing aca-
demic presentations and posters as well as for putting together job applica-
tions is also included.
Through extensive and annotated practical examples and easy-to-understand
and easy-to-follow rules and guidelines, this book explains how to write clearly as
an author in the sciences, and how to recognize shortcomings in one's own writ-
ing, as well as in that of others. It does so not only by providing crucial knowledge
about the structure and delivery of written material but also by explaining how
readers go about reading. Furthermore, potential problem areas in written and oral

•••
Xlll
 •
XIV PREFAC E

presentations are pointed out, and many examples are provided for wording certain
sections in research papers, grant proposals, or scientific talks.
There are numerous hallmark features of this text, including:
Practical organization. As a result of extensive class testing, the text has
been revised repeatedly to reflect the interests, concerns, and problems under-
graduate students encounter when learning how to communicate in their disci-
plines. The table of contents is divided into four distinctive parts. Parts I and II
follow a logical progression from the basics of scientific writing style and com-
position to constructing effective figures and tables and selecting references. Part
III applies these basic rules and guidelines to planning and organizing founda-
tional precursors of scientific publications, namely lab reports, literature reviews,
summaries, and critiques, to the specifics of how to write each major section of
a scientific research paper and review article. Part IV covers more advanced sci-
entific communication, including how to compose grant proposals, posters, oral
presentations, and job applications.
Comprehensive coverage. The text includes detailed discussions of the main
scientific documents undergraduate students in the sciences encounter, including
laboratory reports, scientific research papers, literature reviews, review articles,
proposals, oral presentations, posters, and job applications. The broad coverage
of multiple forms of communication allows the text to serve as a writing guide for
science writing courses as well as a companion text for advanced biology courses
that have a writing-intensive component or for work to be published by a stu-
dent. In addition, the text provides comprehensive coverage of writing mechan-
ics, style, and composition.
Numerous real-world and relevant examples. The in-chapter examples
are derived directly from real lab reports, scientific research papers, review ar-
ticles, and grant proposals in the biological sciences. Throughout the chapters,
common pitfall examples are followed by successful revisions, and annotated
examples provide explanations of various text elements and concepts. These
annotated examples bring to life the rules and guidelines presented throughout
the chapters.
Extensive exercise sets and end-of-chapter summaries. Chapter sum-
maries reference the most important concepts in an easy-to-understand
format. The end-of-chapter exercises and problems review style and com-
position guidelines and encourage students to apply the presented rules and
guidelines to their own writing. Answers to the exercises are provided in a
separate appendix.
Writing guidelines and checklists for revisions. Straightforward rules and
guidelines presented in the book provide the basis for writing scientific articles,
proposals, and job applications and for creating clear posters and oral presenta-
tions. Explanations of these basic writing rules and guidelines are followed by
common pitfall examples, as well as by suggestions and advice to revise one's
work successfully. Checklists at the end of each chapter aid readers in remem-
bering and applying these rules when writing or revising a document.
 PREFACE xv

Sample wording for scientific documents and presentations. Beginning

scientific writers will especially value the many tables with sample sentences
that apply to different sections of a scientific research article, review article,
or grant proposal. Anyone presenting data at meetings and conferences will
find the sample phrases and advice on creating and delivering a talk or poster
highly useful.
Writing in the Biological Sciences: A Comprehensive Resource for Scientific
Communication teaches students how to practice writing and thinking in
the sciences and beyond. It lets them learn by example from the writings of
others. Familiarity with the nuances of these elements will be enhanced as
students read scientific literature and pay attention to how professional sci-
entists and others write about their work. Students will see improvement in
their own writing skills by understanding and repeatedly practicing reading,
writing, and critiquing of others' work. Writing a clear research article or
grant proposal or presenting an articulate talk can be difficult for any sci-
entist, but this difficulty is by no means insurmountable. Ultimately, with
guidance and practice, students should be able to write papers or proposals
that sparkle with clarity and deliver engaging presentations. As they write
their own papers or prepare their own posters, they will recognize that every
project has its unique challenges and that they will need practice and good
judgment to apply all the writing and communication guidelines presented
herein. In giving due attention to composition, style, and impact, students
will improve their communication skills significantly, and this book will have
accomplished its purpose.

NEW TO THE THIRD EDITION

Since the publication of the first and second editions, I have heard from many
professors and students that they found the text's comprehensive, practical,
and hands-on approach to be of great value as they produced a wide range
of scientific documents. Listening to their comments, I revised the text with
the goal of expanding these hallmark features and providing additional new
resources. Specific updates and improvements in the third edition include
the following:

• New sections on the scientific method and scientific writing provide

context and understanding of the importance and approach of scientific
communication.
• A new section on scientific ethics discusses the importance of these issues
and provides guidance on key questions.
• A new section on basic statistical analysis explains the fundamentals of
reporting statistical data and analyses in a scientific context.
• An expanded section on plagiarism guides students on avoiding this pitfall
and makes them aware of important bioethical issues.
 •
XVI PREFACE

• A glossary of scientific and technical terms confers a convenient place to

look up specific terminology used in scientific communication.
• A new section on the most common interview questions allows those seek-
ing jobs to prepare for being interviewed.
• An updated layout of the text and chapter overviews enables readers to find
information quickly throughout the book.
• Updated PowerPoint slides accompany the revisions of the third edition of
Writing in the Biological Sciences: A Comprehensive Resource for Scientific
Communication.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book includes many ideas and ''specimens'' that I, as a scientist, instructor,
and editor, have collected over the years. A few of these ''specimens'' are origi-
nals. Many are a variation of someone else's original. Others are cited intact
from their respective sources. Without these ''specimens'' and samples, this
book would not have been possible. For their contribution, I would therefore
like to especially acknowledge my students, friends, and colleagues from the
Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Max Planck Institute, Fritz-Haber
Institute, Humboldt State University, Karolinska Institute, University of
Carabobo, University of Pittsburgh, University of Massachusetts at Worcester,
Washington University, and Yale University who have shared information
and ideas across the sciences. I am particularly thankful to all those who were
courageous enough to allow me to use draft sentences, paragraphs, or sec-
tions as examples or problems in this book as well as to those providing me
with extensive and very specific samples: Maxx Amendola, Irene Bosch, Mark
Bradford, Jaclyn Brown, Stephane Budel, Philip Duffy, Monica I. Feliu-M6jer,
Nikolas Franceschi Hofmann, Alison Galvani, Roland Geerken, Jun Korenaga,
Annie Little, Amanda Miller, Klaus von Schwarzenberg, Jeffrey Townsend, and
Tammy Wu. Without these samples the book would not be nearly as effective in
exemplifying clear writing.
I am also grateful to all the reviewers who have edited and commented on
various draft chapters, including:

Andrea Aspbury Keith Gibbs

Texas State University Tennessee Technological University
Scott D. Banville Douglas Glazier
Nicholls State University Juniata College
Lynn Carpenter Christopher J. Grant
University of Michigan Juniata College
Mary Carla Curran Andrea Henle
Savannah State University Carthage College
 ••
PREFACE XVII

Brooke Jude Marc Perkins

Bard College Orange Coast College
Michelle Kulp McEliece Alice Jo Rainville
Gwynedd Mercy University Eastern Michigan University
Alan McGreevy Cara Shillington
University of Winnipeg Eastern Michigan University
Jennifer Metzler Jeffrey H. Toney
Ball State University Kean University
Roman J. Miller Charlotte M. Vines
Eastern Mennonite University University of Texas El Paso
Lindsay Emory Moore Neal J. Voelz
University of North Texas St. Cloud State University
Judith D. Ochrietor Larissa Williams
University of North Florida Bates College
T. Page Owen Jinchuan Xing
Connecticut College Rutgers University
Nikki Panter
Tennessee Technological University

I would also like to acknowledge those reviewers of the first and second
editions, whose advice and comments were instrumental in establishing the
foundation of this text: Daniel Abel, Andrea Aspbury, Robert Benard, Daniel
G. Blackburn, Lisa Ann Blankinship, Christopher P. Bloch, Chad E. Brassil,
Heather Bruns, Arthur Buikema, Alyssa C. Bumbaugh, Douglas J. Burks,
Renee E. Carleton, Lynn L. Carpenter, Dale Casamatta, Deborah Cato, David T.
Champlin, Kendra Cipollini, Francisco Cruz, Charles Elzinga, Robert Feissner,
Kirsten Fisher, Laurel Fox, Christopher J. Grant, Blaine Griffen, Carl James
Grindley, Glenn Harris, Christiane Healey, Leif Hembre, Evelyn N. Hiatt, W.
Wyatt Hoback, Terry Keiser, Lani Keller, Tali Lee, Michelle Mabry, Joshua Mackie,
Nusrat Malik, Jesse M. Meik, Jennifer A. Metzler, Daniel Moon, Barbara Musolf,
Judith D. Ochrietor, Michael O'Donnell, T. Page Owen, Jr., Helen Piontkivska,
Mary Poffenroth, Byrn Booth Quimby, Ann M. Ray, Letitia M. Reihcart, Ann
E. Rushing, Allen Sanborn, Roxann Schroeder, Robert S. Stelzer, Ken G. Sweat,
Katerina Thompson, Charlotte Vines, Neal J. Voelz, and Nancy Wheat.
Particular thanks go to Betty Liu, Fiona Bradford, Paola Crucitti, Riccardo
Missich, Rudolf Lurz, Tammy Wu, Francois Franceschi, Jennifer Powell, Stephane
Budel, and John Alvaro for their encouragement as well for as their critical com-
ments and the many helpful discussions over the years. My deepest gratitude is in
 • • •
XVIII PREFACE

memory of Francisco Triana Alonso for his unwavering belief, support, and pride
in me and this endeavor beginning with my first sprouting ideas, to the delivery
of them to students, and ultimately, to the publication of this book.
Finally, I would like to express appreciation to everyone at Oxford University
Press: Jason Noe, senior editor; Andrew Heaton, associate editor; Nina Rodriguez-
Marty, editorial assistant; Patrick Lynch, editorial director; John Challice, pub-
lisher and vice president; Bill Marting, national sales manager; Frank Mortimer,
director of marketing; Tina Chapman, marketing manager; Colleen Rowe, mar-
keting assistant; Lisa Grzan, production manager; Denise Phillip Grant, produc-
tion team leader; Patricia Berube, project manager; Michele Laseau, art director;
and Todd Williams, designer.
 PART I

• • • •
c1en 1 1c OSICS
Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
dwelling here." Filled with gratitude, they knelt to thank God, and
being thirsty with the heat and the travel, the saint by his prayers
obtained a fresh fountain.

But the possession of the land was not easy to obtain from the
avaricious proprietor, whom the French legend charitably calls "an
honest man." Hervé demanded of him, however, only a little corner
in which to erect a small monastery.

"Bless my soul, bless my soul!" cried the owner, "but my wheat is

still all green, and so if you cut it now it will be lost."

"No, no," said Saint Hervé, "it shall not be so, for as much wheat as
I cut now so much will I render to you ripe and in the sack at
harvest time."

{822}

To this he agreed, and commenced to cut down the wheat, which he

tied in bundles and sheafs and laid apart; and God so favored them,
that at the time of the harvest, these sheafs which had been cut all
green, not only became ripe, but had blossomed and so multiplied
that where there had been one there were now two. The owner of
the field seeing this, gave thanks to God, who had sent these holy
men to him, and gave the whole field to the saint. [Footnote 193]

[Footnote 193: Albert le Grand.]

Thus the toil and intelligence of the monks made the earth render
double the ordinary crops, and, conquered by such miracles, the
barbarians, who, moreover, did not lose anything, gave willingly all
that was asked of them.

The good religious from whom I have borrowed the translation of

the preceding narrative even assures us that the proprietor went so
far as to promise Hervé to build him a beautiful church at his own
expense. This new miracle, however, was only half carried out; for
we see Hervé, once the land had been conceded to him, going to
work with his disciples to procure the wood necessary for the
construction of his church and convent. He made a collection for this
end, not only in the country of Léon, but even in the mountains of
Aiez, and in Cornwall, visiting the manors of the chiefs and the
richest monasteries.

Everywhere, it is said, he was well received, thanks to the benefits

that he spread along his passage, and all the nobles to whom he
applied caused as many oaks to be cut down for him in their forests,
as he desired. It is, however, probable, notwithstanding the
assertions of the legendaries, that he found many but little disposed
to aid in the building of a Christian church, and that all those whom
he visited did not show themselves very eager to cut down the trees,
so venerated in Armorica; for in the following century, a council held
at Nantes near the year 658, attests that no one dared break a
branch or offshoot of one. The legend itself allows us to see
imperfectly some stumbling-blocks which the holy architect found in
his way; they must have torn his feet as cruelly as those which we
have seen him punish by hardening them, in the days when he was
a public singer. At first there was a rude chief who passed near him
with a great train of men, dogs, and horses, without saluting him,
even without looking at him; again there was another who did not
believe in his miracles, and said so out loud at supper before a large
company, and in the face of the saint. At that same banquet, at the
commencement of the repast, while Hervé was singing with the harp
to bless the table, a new kind of adversary, the frogs, commenced
also to sing, to defy him, to sing their vespers, as a Breton poet
explains it, provoking the laughter of the guests. At another
banquet, a cup-bearer who was a demon in disguise, one of those
who excited to intemperance, to gluttony, to idleness and noise, to
discord and quarrels, wishing to kill him, served him, together with
the other guests, a beverage the effect of which was to make them
cut each other's throats.
This evil spirit followed the holy architect even to the midst of a
monastery, with the intention of deceiving him more surely. Taking
the form of a monk, he offered his services to help him in building
his church.

"What is thy name?" Hervé asked of him.

"I am a master carpenter, sir."

"Thy name, I tell thee," returned the saint.

"Sir, I am a mason, locksmith, able to work at any trade."

"Thy name? For the third time, I command thee in the name of the
living God, to tell thy name."

"Hu-Kan! Hu-Kan! Hu-Kan!" cried the demon; and he threw himself,

head foremost, from a rock into the sea.

Thus did the Druid superstitions vanish before Hervé, having for a
moment resisted him, and sought to deceive him under different
disguises.
{823}

This Hu-Kan, that is to say, Hu the genius, is no other than the god
Hu-Kadarn of the Cambrian traditions. The devil who incites to
idleness and debauchery is the Celtic divinity corresponding to the
Liber or Bacchus of the Romans. There is in these frogs who chanted
their vespers a recollection of Armorican paganism. "The saint
silenced them as suddenly as if he had cut their throat" says a
hagiographer, adding, "he left voice but to one, who ever since has
continued to croak."

Now, by a sort of prodigy of tradition, a popular song, entitled the

"Vespers of the Frogs," has come to us; it is the work of the pagan
poets of Armorica, represented in common recitatives under the
grotesque figure of these beastly croakers. It offers a summary of
the Druid doctrines of the fourth century; and it seemed so
necessary to the first Christian missionaries to destroy it, that they
made a Latin and Christian counterpart, as if they would raise the
cross in the face of the heathen pillars. One of these missionaries,
Saint Gildas, was so opposed to the pagan music of his time that he
qualified its croaking with the sweet and gentle music of the children
of Christ; and his disciple Taliésin, the great poet baptized in the
sixth century, hushed at a banquet, as Saint Hervé had done, the
infamous descendants of the priests of the god Bel, who wished to
put him to defiance.

The sound of Christian music was to be heard from all the vaults of
the church, for the construction of which Saint Hervé had made so
many journeys. Twelve columns of polished wood were erected to
hold the low and arched framework; three large stones formed the
altar; the spring with which he had refreshed his disciples furnished
the water necessary to the sacrifice; the wheat sown by them, the
bread for consecration; and the wines of some richer monastery,
more exposed to the sun, the eucharistic wine; for it was an ancient
and touching custom that those who had vineyards gave wine to
those who had not, and in exchange, the owners of bees furnished
wax to those who lacked it. Hervé, according to his biographers,
himself superintended the workmen, or rather incited the laborers by
his words, and sustained them by his songs. Like another poet of
antiquity, he built, with his songs, not a city for men, but a house for
God.

VI.

The fathers of an Armorican council of the fifth century terminated

their canons by these noble words: "May God, my brethren, preserve
for you your crown." A last flower seemed wanting to that of Hervé.
He was now to obtain it. The poor shoeless child, the poet of the
wretched, the school-teacher of little children, the wandering
agriculturist, the mendicant architect, was to become the equal--
what do I say?--the corrector of bishops and kings.

At that time there reigned a Kon Mor in Brittany, who had rendered
himself abominable to the men of that country by his tyranny and
cruelties. Unable to endure him, they flocked in great numbers from
all parts of Armorica to their bishop, the blessed Samson; and as he
saw them at his door, silent and with lowered heads, he asked them:

"What has happened to the country?"

Then answered the more respectable among them:

"The men of this land are in great desolation, sir."

"And why so?" asked Samson.

"We had a good chief of our own race, and born on our own land,
who governed us by legitimate authority; and now there has come
over us a foreign Kon Mor, a violent man, an enemy to justice,
possessed of great power; he holds us under the most odious
oppression; he has killed our national chief, and dishonored his
widow, our queen. He would hare killed their Sun, had not the poor
child taken to flight and sought refuge in France."

{824}

The bishop, moved with pity, promised the deputies that he would
aid them, and seeking a means to re-establish their rightful chief, he
resolved to begin by striking the usurper with the terrible arm of
excommunication.

He therefore sent letters to all the Armorican bishops to unite with

him in devising some means of frightening the tyrant. The place of
reunion was a high mountain much venerated by the bards and the
people, named the Run-bre, and situated in the heart of the country
governed by the Kon Mor. Although only prelates should have been
present, Hervé was sent there, and even the venerable assembly
were not willing to enter into deliberation until he came,
notwithstanding the opposition of one member of the meeting, less
humble and less patient than the others. This courtier bishop, as
the legend styles him, finding that Hervé made them wait a long
time, "Is it proper that men like us," he exclaimed, "should remain
here indefinitely on account of a wretched blind monk?" At this
moment, the saint arrived. His bare feet, his miserable hermit's robe
made of goat-skin, in the midst of the men and horses richly
apparelled, belonging to the prelate of the court, drew perhaps a
smile of proud disdain to the lips of many. Hearing the impious
words of which he was the object, the saint was not irritated, but
said gently to the bishop: "My brother, why reproach me with my
blindness? Could not God have made you blind as well as me? Do
you not know well that he makes us as he pleases, and that we
should thank him that he has given us such a being as he has?" The
other bishops, continues the legend, strongly rebuked this one, and
he was not long in feeling the heavy hand of God; for he
immediately fell to the ground, his face covered with blood, and lost
his sight; but the good saint, wishing to render good for evil to this
proud mocker, prayed to God for the unfortunate; and then, rubbing
his eyes with salt and water, restored him his sight; he gave him
understanding also; according to the remark of another
hagiographer, understanding, that light of the soul, obscured by
pride, more precious still and not less difficult to recover than the
light of the body. After this they proceeded to the ceremony of
excommunicating the great chief of the Armoricans.

Standing on a rock, at the summit of the mountain, a lighted taper

in his hand, and surrounded by the nine bishops of Armorica, each
one holding a blessed taper, the saint pronounced, in the name of
all, according to the formula of the times, these terrible words
against the foreign tyrant: "We in virtue of the authority which we
hold from the Lord, in the name of God the Father, of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost, do declare the great chief of the Armoricans
excommunicated from the threshold of the holy church of God, and
separated from the society of Christians; that, if he comes not
quickly to repentance, we crush him beneath the weight of an
eternal malediction, and condemn him by an irrevocable anathema.
May he be exposed to the anger of the sovereign Judge, may he be
torn from the heritage of God and his elect, that in this world he
may be cut off from the communion of Christians, and that in the
other he may have no part in the kingdom of God and his saints; but
that, bound to the devil and his imps, he may live devoted to the
flames of vengeance, and that he may be the prey, even in this
world, to the tortures of hell. Cursed be he in his own house, cursed
in his fields, cursed in his stomach, cursed be all things that he
possesses, from his dog that howls at his appearance even to his
cock who insults him by his crowing. May he share the lot of Dathan
and Abiron whom hell swallowed alive; the lot of Ananias and of
Sapphira, {825} who lied to the Apostles of the Lord, and were
struck with instant death; the lot of Pilate and Judas, who were
traitors to God; may he have no other sepulchre than have the
asses, and may these tapers which we extinguish be the image of
the darkness to which his soul is condemned. Amen." [Footnote 194]
 [Footnote 194: This formula of excommunication of the
sixth century has been discovered and recently translated
by M. Alfred Ramé, in an article, the "Melanges d'Histoire
et d'Archaeologie Bretonne," a commendable publication.]

The bishops repeated three times, Amen; and the president of the
synod, having extinguished under his foot the candle which he held
in his hand, all the prelates did the same. But this dying candle, the
image of the extinguished light of the great chief, was not so easily
relighted as that of the haughty prelate. Once the tyrant's head was
under the bare foot of the mendicant monk, tyranny was dishonored
and humanity avenged.

Hervé does not appear to have long survived this great act of
national and religious justice, in which he performed the greatest
part; he saw, however, the result, and could hail the dawn of a noble
reign which would assure, without the effusion of blood, say the
historians, the death of the usurper.

Another dawn was rising for the saint.

It is related that being shut up in the church which he had built,

fasting and praying for three days, separated from his disciples and
his pupils, the heavens opened above his head, and with the
heavens his eyes were opened to contemplate the celestial court.
Ravished to ecstasy, he chanted a Breton canticle, which was later
put into writing, and has received its modern form from the last
apostle of the Armoricans, Michel Le Nobletz.

"I see heaven opened, heaven my country; I would that I might fly
there as a little white dove!

"The gates of Paradise are opened to receive me; the saints advance
to meet me.

"I see, truly I see God the Father, and his blessed Son, and the Holy
Ghost.
"How beautiful she is, the Holy Virgin, with the twelve stars which
form her crown.

"Each with his harp in his hand, I see the angels and the archangels,
singing the praises of God.

"And the virgins of all ages, and the saints of all conditions, and the
holy women, and the widows crowned by God!

"I see radiant in glory and beauty, my father and my mother; I see
my brothers and my countrymen.

"Choirs of little angels flying on their light wings, so rosy and so fair,
fly around their heads, as a harmonious swarm of bees, honey-laden
in a field of flowers.

"O happiness without parallel! the more I contemplate you, the more
I long for you!"

The heavens did not close again until the canticle was finished, as if
they had taken pleasure in the song of the predestined son of
Hyvarnion and Rivanone, who heard him with smiles and called him
to them.

VII.

Before the Revolution there was preserved in the treasury of the

Cathedral of Nantes a silver shrine, enriched with precious stones, a
present from an ancient Breton chief. In great judicial cases it was
carried in procession to the judges to receive the solemn vows which
they afterward made upon the book of the Evangelists. A king of
France and a duke of Brittany, after long wars, united under this
shrine their reconciled hands and swore to live in peace.
At the same time there was seen, in the depths of lower Brittany, in
the sacristy of a little country church, an oaken cradle, with nothing
about it remarkable unless its age. The inhabitants of the parish,
however, venerated it as much as the silver shrine. The mendicant
singers, above all, have {826} for it an especial affection. They love
to touch it with their great musical instruments, their traveller's
goods, their rosaries, their staffs, all that they have which is most
precious. Kneeling before this cradle, they kiss it with respect, and
arriving sad, they depart joyous.

Now, the silver shrine contained, wrapped in purple and silk, the
relics of Saint Hervé. The oaken cradle was the same in which he
slept to the songs of the bard and his poet-wife, whom God had
given him for father and mother.

To-day the ducal reliquary is no longer in existence. The metal,

thrice consecrated by sanctity, justice, and royalty, was stolen and
melted down in that sadly memorable epoch when these three
things, trampled under foot, were valued less than a bit of silver. But
the wooden cradle of the humble patron of the singers of Brittany,
that poor worm-eaten cradle, so like his fate on earth, exists still,
and more than one mendicant having respectfully pressed his lips
upon it, as in other times, goes away singing with a clearer voice
and a comforted heart.
 From Once a Week.

LOST FOR GOLD.

She stood by the hedge where the orchard slopes

Down to the river below;
The trees all white with their autumn hopes
Looked heaps of drifted snow;

They gleamed like ghosts through the twilight pale.

The shadowy river ran black;
"It's weary waiting," she said, with a wail,
"For them that never come back.

"The mountain waits there, barren and brown,

Till the yellow furze comes in spring
To crown his brows with a golden crown,
And girdle him like a king.

The river waits till the summer lays

The white lily on his track;
But it's weary waiting nights and days
For him that never comes back.

"Ah! the white lead kills in the heat of the fight.

When passions are hot and wild;
But the red gold kills by the fair fire-light
The love of father and child.

"'Tie twenty years since I heard him say,

When the wild March morn was airy,
 Through the drizzly dawn--'I m going away,
To make you a fortune, Mary.'

{827}

"Twenty springs, with their long grey days.

When the tide runs up the sand,
And the west wind catches the birds, and lays
Them shrieking far inland.

"From the sea-wash'd reefs, and the stormy mull,

And the damp weed-tangled caves:--
Will he ever come back, O wild sea-gull.
Across the green salt waves?

"Twenty summers with blue flax bells,

And the young green corn on the lea,
That yellows by night in the moon, and swells
By day like a rippling sea.

"Twenty autumns with reddening leaves,

In their glorious harvest light
Steeping a thousand golden sheaves,
And doubling them all at night.

"Twenty winters, how long and drear!

With a patter of rain in the street.
And a sound in the last leaves, red and sere;
But never the sound of his feet.

The ploughmen talk by furrow and ridge,

I hear them day by day;
The horsemen ride down by the narrow bridge,
But never one comes this way.

And the voice that I long for is wanting ther,

 And the face I would die to see,
Since he went away in the wild March air,
Ah! to make a fortune for me.

"O father dear I but you never thought

Of the fortune you squandered and lost;
Of the duty that never was sold and bought.
And the love beyond all cost.

"For the vile red dust you gave in thrall

The heart that was God's above;
How could you think that money was all,
When the world was won for love?

"You sought me wealth in the stranger's land,

Whose veins are veins of gold;
And the fortune God gave was in mine hand,
When yours was in its hold.

"If I might but look on your face," she says,

"And then let me have or lack;
But it's weary waiting nights and days
For him that never comes back."

{828}
 From The Dublin University Magazine.

THE SOLUTION OF THE NILE PROBLEM.

[Footnote 195]

[Footnote 195: "The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the

Nile, and Exploration of the Nile Sources." By Samuel
White Baker, M.A., F.R.G.S. London: Macmillan. & Co.
1865.]

For some time the complaint of those who have been everywhere,
and seen everything men of travel and of fashion ought to see, has
been that the world is "used-up" for the tourist. Where can he now
go for a fresh sensation? Asia and America remain no more
untrodden fields than Europe; and as for the isles of the farthest
sea, rich and idle "fugitives and vagabonds" have braved as many
dangers among savage tribes as the early missionaries, from impulse
no nobler than restlessness. Whither next shall they direct their
strides? Iceland stood in favor for a year or two; but the cooks are
bad there, and the inhabitants speak Latin. Japan has novelties, but
bland Daimios are not trustworthy. The sightseeker has no relish for
being among a people who, on very slight provocation, may perform
upon him a process akin to their own "happy despatch." In the
exhaustion of interest in mere horizontal locomotion, the Cain-like
race we form part of try the effect of ascension to the highest and
hugest cloud-capped peaks; but Matterhorn accidents have rather
brought these mountains-of-the-(full)-moon performances into
disfavour. Pending the discovery of some new wonder or feat, to
occupy many vacant minds and stir a few energetic ones, and during
the crisis of a Continental war, the migratory section amongst us
must bear their misery as best they can. It may console them to
hope that the flying-machine will yet be perfected, and air-sailing
supersede Alpine climbing. Probably it would be quite as exciting,
and it would not tire the limbs. If there be one geographical problem
still left unsolved, it must be to find the site of that cave of Adullam
which has sorely puzzled numbers of erudite Parliamentarians, one
of whom was heard to make answer to a query regarding its locality
that he "never was a geographer." For the purpose of stimulating the
curiosity of the gentleman, and of guiding him in his search among
the lore of school-boy days, we may take from a book well known a
real, and not figurative, description of the Cave in which shelter was
lately found by some forty wayfarers uncertain as to their route in a
difficult country. "Leaving our horses," says an Adullamite, who long
preceded them, "in charge of wild------, and taking one for a guide,
we started for the cave, having a fearful gorge below, gigantic cliffs
above, and the path winding along a shelf of the rock, narrow
enough to make the nervous among us shudder. At length, from a
great rock hanging on the edge of this shelf, we sprang by a long
leap into a low window which opened into the perpendicular face of
the cliff. We were then within the hold of, ------ and creeping half-
doubled through a narrow crevice for a few rods, we stood beneath
the dark vault of the first grand chamber of this mysterious and
oppressive cavern. Our whole collection of lights did little more than
make the damp darkness visible. After groping about as long as we
had time to spare, we returned to the light of day, fully convinced
that with ------ and his lion-hearted followers inside, all the strength
of ------ under ------ could not have forced an entrance." Next to a
search for the celebrated cave, we can {829} imagine no
geographical extravagance equal to one for those Nile Sources that
have been the dream of ancients and moderns. The undertaking
possessed an the attraction of freshness. Your North-west passage is
a mere track through a waste, without the possibility of novelty.
What its dangers and privations, its few monotonous sights and
events, were to half-a-dozen navigators they would be to half-a-
dozen more. But in passing upward to the huge plateau in Central
Africa where the Nile Basin lies, itself again overtopped by the lofty
range of the Blue Mountains, down which giant cascades ceaselessly
roll in unwitnessed splendor, the traveller encounters perils enough,
but relieved with a human interest. The tribes he meets are many
and unique in their habits, strangely unlike each other, within short
distances, and having about them an extraordinary mixture of an
incipient civilization with some of the most depraved of the customs
of savage life. In the journey, too, there is endless variety. The
expedition up the river, with its hunting episodes, its difficulties with
mutinous servants and seamen, its devices to appease native
cupidity and circumvent native cunning, and its encounters with
those vilest of the pursuers of commerce, the slave-traders, forms
one part of the interest; and next come inland rides through tangled
forest shades, rude villages of cone-shaped huts, suspicious hordes
of naked barbarians, to whom every new face is that of a plunderer
of slaves or cattle, and "situations" in which it is impossible for the
honest traveller to escape sharp contests with a party of Turkish
marauders, for whose sins against the commandment he would
otherwise be held responsible by the relentless javelin-men of the
desert. All this offers adventure of a genuine description to him who
has the love of it in his disposition; and such a man is Mr. Samuel
White Baker. His impulses are irrepressible: nature made him a
traveller. He is the modern counterpart of those primitive
personages, the Columbuses of the times just succeeding the flood,
whose purposeless wanderings into far space from the spot where
the Mesopotamian cradle of mankind was rocked, peopled lands
lying even beyond great seas; men whose feats were such that the
philosophers of five thousand years after can hardly believe they
performed them. If Mr. Baker had been a dweller in Charran, he
would have begged the patriarch Abraham to give him camels,
water-bags, and bushels of corn, and would have set off for the
eastern margin of the globe, and the shores of the loud-sounding
sea. Arrived there, he would have burned a tree hollow, and
launched boldly forth upon the deep, to go whithersoever fortune
listed.
All his life a traveller in the true sense, Mr. Baker last conceived the
idea of securing for "England" the glory of discovering the sources of
the Nile. This bit of patriotic sentiment undoubtedly added to the
zest of the undertaking, to which, as has been said, he was impelled
by instinct. He is a man of resolute will, and to think and to do are
with him simultaneous acts. His preparations were instantly in
progress, and from that moment his motto, come what might, was--
Forward. Part of this perseverance no doubt was due to the
encouragement of Mrs. Baker's presence. That lady is the model
explorer's wife, and we could wish for such a race of women if there
were any problems geographical left to be solved. She set out with
Mr. Baker from Cairo, determined to go through all dangers with
him, and well knowing their nature; and she successfully
accomplished the task, and has returned to share his renown. To a
full share of it she is really entitled; for Mrs. Baker was much more
than a companion to her husband on his wanderings. She assisted
him materially, not only tending him when sick, not only conciliating
the natives by her kindness, but contributing to remove difficulties
by wise {830} counsel, bearing all hardships uncomplainingly, and--
rare virtue!--submitting to her lord's authority when he was
warranted in deciding what was best to be done, or left undone.
Mrs. Baker could also somewhat play the Amazon when occasion
required. If she did not actually take the shield and falchion, and go
to the front of the fight, she spread out the arms, loaded and
prepared the weapons, and rendered brave and effective aid on an
occasion when the Discoverer of the Great Basin of the Nile was
likely to have become, if he did not succeed in intimidating his foes
by the parade of his armory, a sweet morsel for the palate of the
Latookas. Mr. Baker speaks with manly tenderness of his wife, and
the picture drawn of her in his incidental references, will gain for her
hosts of friends among his readers.

The narrative is quiet until he reaches Gondokoro. There, in March,

1863, he met Speke and Grant, who were descending the Nile,
having completed the East African expedition. When there the report
reached him on a certain morning that there were two white men
approaching who had come from the sea. These were the travellers
from the Victoria N'Yanza, the other, and smaller, source of the Nile.
They had undoubtedly solved the mystery. Still they had left
something for Baker to do, and candidly declared to him that they
had not completed the actual exploration of the Nile sources. In N.
lat. 2° 17' they had crossed the river which they had tracked from
the Victoria Lake; but it had there (at Karuma Falls) taken an
extraordinary bend westward, and when they met it again it was
flowing from the W.S.W. There was clearly another source, and
Kamrasi, King of Unyoro, had informed them that from the Victoria
N'Yanza the Nile flowed westward for several days' journey, and fell
into another lake called the Luta N'Zige, from which it almost
immediately emerged again, and continued its course as a navigable
river to the north. Speke and Grant would have tracked out this
second source had not the tribes in the districts been at the time at
fend, and on such occasions they will not abide the face of a
stranger. Mr. Baker, guided by their hints, set out to complete what
they had begun.

Gondokoro is a great slave-market--Mr. Baker says "a perfect hell,"

"a colony of cut-throats." The Egyptian authorities wink at what goes
on, in consideration of liberal largesses. There were about six
hundred traders there when Mr. Baker visited it, drinking,
quarrelling, and beating their slaves. These ruffians made razzias on
the cattle of the natives, who are a cleanly and rather industrious
race of the picturesque type of savage. Their bodies are tattooed all
over, and an immense cock's feather, rising out of the single tuft of
hair left upon their shaven crowns, gives them rather an imposing
appearance. Their weapons of defence are poisoned arrows, with
which the traders at times make deadly acquaintance. Of course Mr.
Baker had unforeseen difficulties on setting out. What traveller ever
started on an expedition without meeting with his most irritating
obstacles at the threshold? Mr. Baker, however, was an old hand, and
it took a good deal to daunt him. His escort were as troublesome a
set of vagabonds as could have been collected together probably in
Africa itself. He had a mutiny to quell ere many days; and it is at this
point we come to see what sort of man is our explorer. He is a
muscular Christian of the stoutest type. Heavy fell his hand on skulls
of sinning niggers--it was the readiest implement, and down went
the offender under the blow so signally that his fellows saw and
trembled. Mr. Baker was a great "packer." His asses and camels
carried a vast amount of stuff, but so arranged and fitted that no
breakdown occurred in the most trying situations for man and beast.

{831}

The Latookas were the first race of savages Mr. Baker encountered.
They are about six feet high, and muscular and well-proportioned.
They have a pleasing cast of countenance, and are in manner very
civil. They are extremely clever blacksmiths, and shape their lances
and bucklers most skilfully. One of the most interesting passages of
the whole book is the author's account of this tribe:

"Far from being the morose set of savages that I had hitherto
seen, they are excessively merry, and always ready for either a
laugh or a fight. The town of Tarrangotté contained about three
thousand houses, and was not only surrounded by iron-wood
palisades, but every house was individually fortified by a little
stockaded courtyard. The cattle were kept in large kraals in
various parts of the town, and were most carefully attended to,
fires being lit every night to protect them from flies, and high
platforms in three tiers were erected in many places, upon which
sentinels watched both day and night, to give the alarm in case
of danger. The cattle are the wealth of the country, and so rich
are the Latookas in oxen, that ten or twelve thousand head are
housed in every large town. . . . The houses of the Latookas are
bell-shaped. The doorway is only two feet and two inches high,
and thus an entrance must be effected on all-fours. The interior
is remarkably clean, but dark, as the architects have no idea of
windows."
Mr. Baker notices the fact that the circular form of hut is the only
style of architecture adopted among all the tribes of Central Africa,
and also among the Arabs of Upper Egypt; and that although there
are variations in the form of the roof, no tribe has ever yet dreamt of
constructing a window. The Latookas are obliged constantly to watch
for their enemy, a neighboring race of mule-riders, whose cavalry
attacks they can hardly withstand, although of war-like habits, and
accordingly--

"The town of Tarrangotté is arranged with several entrances in

the shape of low archways through the palisades: these are
closed at night by large branches of the hooked thorn of the
bitter bush, (a species of mimosa.) The main street is broad, but
all others are studiously arranged to admit only of one cow,
single file, between high stockades. Thus, in the event of an
attack, these narrow passages can be easily defended, and it
would be impossible to drive off their vast herds of cattle unless
by the main street. The large cattle kraals are accordingly
arranged in various quarters in connection with the great road,
and the entrance of each kraal is a small archway in the strong
iron-wood fence, sufficiently wide to admit one ox at a time.
Suspended from the arch is a bell, formed of the shell of the
Dolape palm-nut, against which every animal must strike either
its horns or back on entrance. Every tinkle of the bell announces
the passage of an ox into the kraal, and they are thus counted
every evening when brought home from pasture."

The toilet of the natives is of the simplest, except in one particular.

The Latooka savage is content that his whole body should be naked,
but expends the most elaborate care on his headdress. Every tribe in
this district has a distinct fashion of arranging it, but the Latookas
reduce it to a science. Mr. Baker describes the process and the
result:

"European ladies would be startled at the fact, that to perfect the

coiffure of a man requires a period of from eight to ten years!
 However tedious the operation the result is extraordinary. The
Latookas wear most exquisite helmets, all of which are formed of
their own hair, and are, of course, fixtures. At first sight it
appears incredible; but a minute examination shows the
wonderful perseverance of years in producing what must be
highly inconvenient. The thick crisp wool is woven with fine
twine, formed from the bark of a tree, until it presents a thick
network of felt. As the hair grows through this matted substance
it is subjected to the same process, until, in the course of years,
a compact substance is formed, like a strong felt, about an inch
and a half thick, that has been trained into the shape of a
helmet. A strong rim of about two inches deep is formed by
drawing it together with thread, and the front part of the helmet
is protected by a piece of polished copper, while a piece of the
same metal, shaped like the half of a bishop's mitre, and about a
foot in length, forms the crest. The framework of the helmet
being at length completed, it must be perfected by an
arrangement of beads, should the owner of the head be
sufficiently rich to indulge in the coveted distinction. The beads
most in fashion are the red and the blue porcelain, about the size
of small peas. These are sewn on the surface of the felt, and so
beautifully arranged in sections of blue and red, that the entire
helmet appears to be formed of beads, and the handsome crest
of polished copper, surmounted by ostrich plumes, gives a most
dignified and martial appearance to this elaborate head-dress."

{832}

With Commoro, chief of the Latookas, Mr. Baker had a religious

conversation. The savage was clever, even subtile. He does not
appear, however to have shaken the faith of the traveller. Probably
had Mr. Baker been a Bishop (Colenso) trained in the theology of the
schools, he might have been driven crazy by this mid-African
counterpart of the famous Zulu. The natives exhume the bones of
their dead, and celebrate a sort of dance round them; and Mr. Baker
asked his Latookan friend--
"Have you no belief in a future existence after death? Is not
some idea expressed in the act of exhuming the bones after the
flesh is decayed?"

Commoro (loq.)--"Existence after death! How can that be? Can

a dead man get out of his grave unless we dig him out?"

"Do you think a man is like a beast that dies and is ended?"

Commoro.--"Certainly. An ox is stronger than a man, but he

dies, and his bones last longer; they are bigger. A man's bones
break quickly; he is weak."

"Is not a man superior in sense to an ox? Has he not a mind to

direct his actions?"

Commoro.--"Some men are not so clever as an ox. Men must

sow corn to obtain food, but the ox and wild animals can procure
it without sowing."

"Do you not know that there is a spirit within you more than
flesh? Do you not dream and wander in thought to distant places
in your sleep? Nevertheless, your body rests in one spot. How do
you account for this?"

Commoro (laughing.)--"Well, how do you account for it?"

...

"If you have no belief in a future state, why should a man be

good? Why should he not be bad, if he can prosper by
wickedness?"

Commoro. --"Most people are bad; if they are strong, they take
from the weak. The good people are all weak; they are good
because they are not strong enough to be bad."
Extremes meet; there are sages of modern days whose much
learning has brought them up to the intellectual pitch of the savage's
materialism. They might, ingenious as they are, even take a lesson
in sophistry from the Latookan. When driven into a corner by the
use of St. Paul's metaphor, the astute Commoro answered:

"Exactly so; that I understand. But the original grain does not
rise again; it rots, like the dead man, and is ended. The fruit
produced is not the same grain that was buried, but the
production of that grain. So it is with man. I die, and decay,
and am ended; but my children grow up, like the fruit of the
grain. Some men have no children, and some grains perish
without fruit; then all are ended."

Nevertheless, the Latookans continue to dig out the bones of their

kindred, and to perform a rite around them which is manifestly a
tradition from the time when a belief in the immortality of the soul
existed among them.

It was impossible for Mr. Baker to reach the Lake toward which he
pressed without appeasing Kamrasi, King of the Unyoros. But to do
this was not easy when his stock of presents was getting low, and
his men were so few and weak as to inspire no barbarian prince with
the slightest fear. Yet, though debilitated with fever, his quinine
exhausted, and Mrs. Baker stricken down in the disease, he pressed
on with an unquenchable zeal--one would almost write worthy of a
better cause. Finally, he was abundantly rewarded. Hurrying on in
advance of his escort he reached at last, ere the sun had risen on
what proved afterward a brilliant day, the summit of the hills that
hem the great valley occupied by the vast Nile Source. There it lay
"a sea of quicksilver" far beneath, stretching boundlessly off to the
vast Blue Mountains which, on the opposite side towered upward
from its bosom, and over whose breasts cascades could be
discerned by the telescope tumbling down in numerous torrents.
Standing 1500 feet above the level of the Lake, Mr. Baker shouted
for joy that "England had won the Sources of the Nile!" and called
the gigantic reservoir the Albert N'Yanza. The Victoria and Albert
Lakes, then, are the {833} Nile Sources. Clambering down the
steep--his wife, just recovered from fever, and intensely weak,
leaning upon him--Mr. Baker reached the shore at length of the great
expanse of water, and rushing into it, drank eagerly, with an
enthusiasm almost reaching the ancient Egyptian point of Nile-
worship.

Mr. Baker describes the Albert Lake as the grand reservoir, and the
Victoria as the Eastern source.

"The Nile, cleared of its mystery, resolves itself into comparative

simplicity. The actual basin of the Nile is included between about
the 22° and 39° east longitude, and from 3° south to 18° north
latitude. The drainage of that vast area is monopolized by the
Egyptian river. . . The Albert N'Yanza is the great basin of the
Nile: the distinction between it and the Victoria N'Yanza is, that
the Victoria is a reservoir receiving the eastern affluents, and it
becomes the starting-point or the most elevated source at the
point where the river issues from it at the Ripon Falls; the Albert
is a reservoir not only receiving the western and southern
affluents direct from the Blue Mountains, but it also receives the
supply from the Victoria and from the entire equatorial Nile basin.
The Nile, as it issues from the Albert N'Yanza is the entire Nile;
prior to its birth from the Albert Lake it is not the entire Nile."

". . . Ptolemy had described the Nile sources as emanating from

two great lakes that received the snows of the mountains in
Ethiopia. There are many ancient maps existing upon which
these lakes are marked as positive. There can be little doubt that
trade had been carried on between the Arabs from the Red Sea
and the coast opposite Zanzitan in ancient times, and that the
people engaged in such enterprises had penetrated so far as to
have gained a knowledge of the existence of the two reservoirs."
The interest of Mr. Baker's volumes of course culminates with his
account of the Great Lake. He embarked in a canoe of the country,
and with his party in another, navigated it for a long distance,
encountering storms and weathering them with a skill and courage
which show him as cool and experienced a traveller on sea as on
land. On his return overland he was again in perils oft. But the same
undying spirit which supported him through a dozen fevers carried
him through every danger triumphantly. The English nation has
reason to be proud of such men, and of such women as Mrs. Baker
still more. Devotion like hers honors the sex. There is an end,
however, of Nile voyaging with the old object. If the Victoria and
Albert Lakes are revisited it will be in pursuit of other ends than
mere geographical inquiry or curiosity. Mr. Baker seems to think that
missionaries may be the first to follow in the track he has made, and
it is a fact that next to professional explorers (if even second to
them) those influenced by religious zeal have made the most daring
expeditions into unknown regions. Livingstone has done even more
in another part of Africa than Baker did on the great level, which, as
he thinks, from its altitude, escaped being submerged at any
previous part of the world's history, and may contain at this moment
the descendants of a pre-Adamite race. On the ethnology of the
central Africans he can throw no light, and his mere speculations are
worthless, but he is doubtless right in considering that commerce
must precede religious propagandism among those races, if anything
is really to be done for their benefit. For commerce there are large
opportunities, if only the abominable slave-trade, which makes
fiends of the natives, were effectually suppressed. Mr. Baker writes
warmly on this point, and none knows better the character and
extent of the evil. A more interesting book of travel was never
written than his Albert N'Yanza: in every page there is fresh and
vivid interest. The author, who is admirable in many things, is a
model narrator, and there is no romance at all equal in attraction to
the simple and unvarnished, but full and picturesque, account of his
protracted and exciting travels.
{834}
 Translated from the French.

THREE WOMEN OF OUR TIME.

EUGÉNIE DE GUÉRIN--CHARLOTTE BRONTË--

RAHEL LEVIN.

BY GABRIEL CERNY.

It is now quite a number of years since it became the fashion to

study women, and writers of note have called to life more than one
who would have preferred being left to oblivion under her cold
tombstone. Is it not enough to have lived once even if we have lived
wisely? "No one would accept an existence that was to last forever,"
said a philosopher who had suffered from the injustice of mankind.

It seems, for example, as if the heroines of the seventeenth century

must smile in pity to see the pettiest actions of their lives as well as
the deepest inspirations of their hearts given up for food to the
indiscreet curiosity and vivid imagination of the eminent philosopher
who had so lovingly resuscitated them. And the intellectual women
who came after them, are not they not often wounded by the
judgments passed upon them by the most inquisitive and fertile of
critics?

In two works entirely devoted to woman, a fantaisiste who was

once an historian, has tried to explain the best means to insure
happiness to the fairer half of the human race, with a minuteness
very tender in intention but often quite repugnant to our taste. He
states in detail the hygienic care indispensable to creatures weak in
body, feeble in mind, and so helpless when left to themselves that in
truth there are but two conditions in the world suitable for them--to
be courtesans if they are beautiful, and maid-servants if they are
destitute of physical charms; nay, such is the arrogance of this
literary Céladon that he would assign to the wife an inferior position
and leave the husband to superintend not only business affairs but
household matters. In short, when we read these books we seem to
be attending a session of the Naturalization Society, teaching the
public to rear and domesticate some valuable animal much to be
distrusted.

Not even the toilettes of the eighteenth century have failed to

arouse the interest of two authors of our day, who, displeased
perhaps with the slight success of their book, have now abandoned
the range of realities for the dreary delusions of a lawless realism. In
a work as long as it is tiresome, they have described with feminine
lucidity the various costumes of the ladies of the court of Louis XV.,
of the Revolution, and the Empire.

A book has now appeared which, according to its title, promises to

show us the "Intellect of Women of our own Time," but in reality
confines itself to giving three interesting biographies. The author
was already known to the public through a romance which reveals
true talent "Daniel Blady," the story of a musician, is written in the
German style, and shows an elevation of sentiment, a
straightforward honesty of principle, and above all a simplicity of
devotion rarely to be met with in the world. M. Camille Selden
admires modest women, incapable of personal ambition or vanity,
who consecrate all the tender and enlivening faculties of soul and
reason to the service of a husband, father, or brother, and such a
woman he portrays in "Daniel Blady."

{835}

In order to represent fairly the women of our day M. Selden has

selected three different characters; three names worn modestly,
usefully, and honorably; three contrasts of position, race, doctrine,
and education: a French Catholic, an English Protestant, a German
Jewess: Eugénie de Guérin, Charlotte Brontë, and Rachel Varnhagen
von Ense. They were all affectionate, devoted, and self-forgetful;
two of them married, and the French-woman alone had the happy
privilege of restoring to God a heart and soul that had belonged to
no one.

I.

Eugénie de Guérin du Cayla was born and bred en province,

although of a truly noble family, of Venetian origin it is said. Her
mode of life was that of a woman of the middle class (bourgeoise)
enjoying that comparative ease which we see in the country; a large
house scantily furnished, a garden less cultivated than the fields,
and servants of little or no training, who seem to form a part of the
family.

Mlle. de Guérin lost her mother early, and having two brothers and a
sister younger than herself, became burthened with the care of a
household and family. Her letters and journal show her to us as she
was at twenty-seven or twenty-eight years of age, not one of those
persons of morose and frigid virtue who are good for nothing but to
mend linen and take care of birds, but a woman of intelligent and
unembarrassed activity. She made fires, visited the poultry-yard,
prepared breakfast for the reapers, and when her work was done,
betook herself in all haste to a little retreat which she dignified with
the name of study, where she ran through some book or wrote a
few pages--always charming, always strong--of a sort of journal of
the actions of her life. Eugénie's especial favorite was her brother
Maurice, who was five years younger than herself, and it would be
impossible to speak of her without recalling the passionate maternal
tenderness with which from her earliest youth she regarded this
brother whom she had loved to rock and nurse in infancy.
"I remember that you sometimes made me jealous," she wrote to
him one day, "it was because I was a little older than you, and I did
not know that tenderness and caresses, the hearts milk, are
lavished on the little ones."

Devotion was the principle motive-power of Eugénie's actions;

ardent prayer and charity profoundly moved her; wind, snow, rain-
storms, nothing checked her when she knew that in some corner of
the village there were miseries to be relieved, tears to be wiped
away. She felt sympathy with all living creatures, even if they were
inanimate like trees and flowers; she sighed when the wind bowed
them down; "she pitied them, comparing them to unhappy human
beings bending beneath misfortune," and imitating the example of
the great saint, Francis of Assisi, she would gladly have conversed
with lambs and turtle-doves.

Mlle. de Guérin pitied the educated peasants who knew how to read
and yet could not pray. "Prayer to God," she said, "is the only fit
manner to celebrate any thing in this world." And again, "Nothing is
easier than to speak to the neglected ones of this world; they are
not like us, full of tumultuous or perverse thoughts that prevent
them from hearing."

She loved religion with its festivals and splendors; and breathed in
God with the incense and flowers on the altar, nor could she ever
have understood an invisible, abstract God, a God simply the
guardian of morality as Protestants believe him to be.

Most women become useful only through some being whom they
love and to whom they refer the actions of their lives; it is their
noblest and most natural instinct to efface and lose themselves in
another's glory. Having no husband or children, Mlle. de Guérin
attached herself to her brother Maurice, a delicate nature, a sad
{836} and suffering soul, destined to self-destruction, a lofty but
unquiet spirit that was never to find on earth the satisfaction and
realization of his hopes. "You are the one of all the family," he wrote
to her, "whose disposition is most in sympathy with my own, so far
as I can judge by the verses that you send me, in all of which there
is a gentle reverie, a tinge of melancholy, in short, which forms, I
believe, the basis of my character." Mlle. de Guérin's letters to her
brother were not only tender and consoling, but strong and healthy
in their tone. Indeed, he needed them, for terrible were his
sufferings from the ill-will and indifference of others. He wrote and
tried to establish himself as a critic; but some publishers rejected
him and others evaded his proposals with vague promises, until with
despair he saw every issue closed to him, and knew not what
answer to make to his father, who grew impatient at the constant
failure of his expectations.

Though ignorant of the world, Mlle, de Guérin did not the less
suspect the dangers that Christian faith may encounter. One day, a
voice that seemed to come from heaven told her that Maurice no
longer prayed; and then we find her trembling and uneasy. "I have
received your letter," she says, "and I see you in it, but I do not
recognize you; for you only open your mind to me, and it is your
heart, your soul, your inmost being that I long to see. Return to
prayer, your soul is full of love and craves expansion; believe, hope,
love, and all the rest shall be added. If I could only see you a
Christian! Oh! I would give my life and everything else for that." . . .
Like all persons who try to dispense with the divine restraints of the
precepts of the gospel, poor Maurice struggled in a dreary world; his
sensitive and poetic soul saw God everywhere except in his own
heart; he longed sometimes to be a flower, or a bird, or verdure; his
brain and imagination ran away with him, and his soul poured itself
forth without restraint, and lost its way through wandering from the
veritable Source of life.

This passion for nature led him to write a work which shows genuine
power even if it be unproductive; a prose poem in which Christianity
is forgotten for the sake of fable and antiquity. But thanks to his
sister's prayers, Maurice was one of those who return to God. He
passed away without agitation or suffering, smiling on all, and
begging his sister Eugénie to read him some spiritual book. At the
bottom of his heart he had never ceased to love God, and he
returned to him as a little child returns to its mother.

Eugénie did not give herself up to vain despair after Maurice's death.
Thinking perpetually of him whom she had loved so deeply, she
busied herself with the writings which he had left behind him, and
prayed for his soul, recommending him also to the prayers of her
friends. She still addressed herself to him, and oppressed with
sadness unto death, communed with his absent soul, imploring him
to come to her. "Maurice, my friend, what is heaven, that home of
friends? Will you never give me any sign of life? Shall I never hear
you, as the dead are sometimes said to make themselves heard?
Oh! if it be possible, if there exist any communication between this
world and the other, return to me!"

But one day she grew weary of this unanswered correspondence,

and a moral exhaustion took possession of her. "Let us cast our
hearts into eternity," she cried. These were her last words, and
she died, glad to see her life accomplished, confiding in the mercy of
God, in his goodness who reunites the soul which he has severed
here below, but never has forgotten in their bereavement.

{837}

II.

Charlotte Brontë, (Currer Bell,) whom M. Camille Selden offers to us

as a type of energy and virtue, was the daughter of a country
clergyman. Sad was the childhood and sad the youth of the poor
English girl. Her mother was an invalid, her father a man of gloomy
and almost fierce disposition, their means were so limited as to
border upon poverty, and as if to complete the dreary picture, the
scenery about the parsonage was "austere and lugubrious to
contemplate, like the sea beneath an impending tempest."
In England the clerical profession is totally unlike the holy mission of
a Catholic clergyman. The ecclesiastical life there is a career, not a
vocation. "Mr. Brontë never left home unarmed," a singular method
of preaching peace to the world and reconciliation among brethren.
He was a good father, no doubt--almost all Englishmen are so. But
he kept his family at a distance, and spoke to them seldom, and
then in a curt and supercilious manner. His morose spirit did not
relish the society of children, and if he became the preceptor of his
little family, it was rather in order to fulfil a duty and conform himself
to custom, than from a feeling of tenderness or even solicitude for
their future welfare. Thus the minister's children lived amid
influences which were cold and serious, but upright, and in a certain
sense strengthening. There are so many children in every English
family that parents of the middle class are obliged to treat them less
as subordinates than as auxiliaries. The children are less familiar
with their parents but more respectful than among us; life is not so
easy and gentle, education more masculine.

Independence is the goal toward which all young English people

tend, and both girls and boys are early taught that labor alone can
lead them to it. In France we long impatiently for the time to shut up
our children in the high-walled barracks which we dignify with the
name of boarding-schools; for it is extremely necessary, we say, to
be rid of idle, noisy boys. Girls are generally educated at home, but
either through weakness or indifference, they are treated with far
too much indulgence. "Poor little things!" we say pathetically; "who
can tell what fate awaits them in married life?" for in this country we
so far forget Christian duty as to make marriage a necessity, an
obligation, a matter of business, instead of seeking therein, as the
English do, a basis of true happiness.

Children, educated as they are in England, early acquire habits of

observation and reflection; sitting around the tea-table in the
evening, they listen to the conversation of their grandparents, and
are often questioned upon the most serious subjects. This is
Protestantism, you say. Not at all: it is the remains of the Christian
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