twenty who will do their worst if they can make any thing at all by it. We fancy in most cases that we can detect in the work the spirit which actuated the workman, but occasionally we confess to being puzzled. We are puzzled, for instance, by The New Timothy, a novel, for such, we suppose, we must call it, written by Mr. William M. Baker, and published by the Harpers. What impelled Mr. Baker to write "The New Timothy?" If it was to make reputation, we do not think he will succeed; nor do we think he will succeed, if it was to make money. For while it is possible that he may do both (as what is not possible among a people who have run "St. Elmo " and "Vashti" into, say, fifty or sixty editions cach ?), it is not probable that he will do either. Not that "The New Timothy" does not possess merit, for it does, but that its merit is not of a kind that draws attention, or satisfies attention when drawn. Its fault is that it is not interesting. It might have been made so, we think, if Mr. Baker had written for the special instead of the general reader—for those who are interested in knowing something about the trials of a young minister, rather than for those who are interested in the fortunes of the laity. It is possible to interest novel-readers with a political or relig ious novel ("Lothair" is an example to the point), but to do this demands genius. This Mr. Baker does not possess. Nor does he possess the talent which enables such writers as Miss Sewell and Miss Yonge to attract readers of an evangelical turn of mind. Mr. Baker misses these, as he misses the frivolous and worldly-minded. The best portions of his book are those in which General Likens and Mrs. General Likens figure. The character of the latter is well conceived, and Mr. Merkes is not bad, as a sketch of a peevish, discontented minister. What little there is of the Peculiar Institution makes us think well of both races in their old relation of master and slave. LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART ABROAD. THE march of civilization is stopped, to determine who shall lead it hereafter. The two foremost nations of Europe, in science, literature and art, lay aside these, their true glories, and join in a deathgrapple, to decide which of them possesses the greatest power for destruction. To look for marks of progress and the works that honor peace at such a time, is to sweep the sky for new planets while it is thick with clouds, or to watch for faint stars amid dazzling lightnings. It is not strange if we find but few. -The assertion that Mr. Tennyson is preparing a new poem for the press is denied on authority. He has many short poems which have never been published, but perhaps they never will be; for the present, at least, he enjoys his laurels at rest. -The plays of Beaumarchais have been carefully revised and corrected according to the author's editions, but with all the readings added, in the edi-' tion of Messrs. d'Heylli and de Markscott, of which the third volume appeared just before war was declared. -The enthusiasm for architecture in England does not abate; but it is still scholarly rather than productive, and spends its strength in restorations. Fifty thousand pounds sterling have lately been spent upon Worcester Cathedral, and the sixteen thousand now needed to complete it have just been collected, almost without an effort. A subscription is now circulating for the completion of St. Paul's, in London, after the original plans of Sir Christopher Wren, and it is estimated that one hundred thousand pounds will be enough, or nearly so, for the work. More than one fourth of the sum is already obtained. Many other cathedrals are now undergoing restoration, among which those of Chester, Canterbury, Salisbury, and Exeter are the best known to American travel- archbishop, in order to replenish the lers. M. Guizot has begun to publish in weekly numbers his "History of France" for the rising generation; and although the work will doubtless be interrupted for a time by the war, it is earnestly to be hoped that it may be carried on to completion before long. A translation of it by Robert Black is announced by Sampson Low & Co, London, in monthly numbers, beginning in October. -The liberal Catholics of Europe are disposed to meet the proclamation of papal infallibility, by a rigorous campaign against ultramontane ideas in every form. In Munich, a series of essays have been prepared, in which the whole policy of the Pope is attacked, and an ecclesiastical system outlined which may be "Catholic," but is as far from being that of Pius IX as Luther's own. ("Stimmen aus der Katholischen Kirche über die Kirchen Fragen der Gegenwart," vol. i. Oldenberg, München.") Only the first volume has been published, and although the editors are thoroughly in earnest, they can scarcely hope to retain public attention while war and revolution rage around them. -The largest Bible in the world, that of Mr. J. G. Bell, a Manchester collector, has been sold in a London auction for £165. It was a fine copy of Macklin's beautiful folio, with eleven thousand engravings and cuts, illustrative of the text, and gathered from possible source, the whole handsomely bound in sixty-three thick volumes. every -In his "History and System of the Jesuits (Geschichte und System des Jesuitenordens. Mannheim, Schneider") Herr Hoffman has drawn a just distinction between that ambitious and troublesome order and the Church they profess to serve, pointing out how their plots and principles have always been, and more than ever in this age are, a kind of war against honest Protestants and Catholics alike. -A strange auction sale was recently made at Saragossa, in Spain. The There treasury of the diocese, exhausted by completing the ugliest cathedral in existence, offered for sale the whole of the offerings of the pious accumulated at the rich shrine of the Virgin; whose statue, it will be remembered, was brought by angels from Jerusalem to the site of the building, and set up by them under her own protection and guidance. was every variety of offering, from a cross containing fifteen thousand dollars' worth of diamonds, and the crowns of queens, to the commonest rings and wreaths, the gifts of the poorest peasants. Most of the objects sold for ludicrously low prices, although a fine enamelled watch of Henry IV brought nearly seven hundred dollars, and jewels of Marie de Bourbon and of court ladies of Charles IV's time were in demand. -The veteran bistorian, Wolfgang Menzel, was just publishing his work on "Prussia's Services to Germany " ("Was hat Preussen für Deutschland Geleistet," Stuttgart, Kröner) when the war broke out. Herr Menzel earnestly advocates the union of all Germany under the primacy of the House of Hohenzollern, as her only safety against aggression from the other. But what seemed to him a France on one side, and from Russia on month ago an immense work for the statesmen of years to come, has been practically accomplished, almost in a day, by the attempt of a meddler to prevent it. -The famous painting of Bathsheba in the Bath, by Paris Bordone, formerly a chief ornament of the Fesch gallery in Rome, has been bought for the museum in Cologne. -Trossin's copperplate of Guido Reni's "Mater Dolorosa" is praised as one of the greatest achievements the art of engraving has produced, and the King of Italy has presented to the engraver the cross of the Order of the Golden Crown in recognition of his merits. -The proposed international conference, to settle forever the precise length of the meter, as the basis of the metrical system, has been postponed on account of the war. For the same reason the publication of some of the leading scientific periodicals of Europe has been suspended, and science, as well as literature and the arts, may be said to be at a stand-still in the warring nations. -Vienna has just had a census, showing the population within the city limits to be 632,038, and, including the suburbs, 956,204. In 1864, the city itself had 578,525, so that the increase in six years has been 53,513, or little more than nine per cent. New York grows at the rate of nearly sixty per cent. in the same time, and is now larger than Vienna, although in 1820 it was less than half as large. -For some weeks past Mount Vuache in Savoy has appeared to be on fire, and has poured out such volumes of smoke as to terrify the people of Savigny and the neighboring valleys. It is believed that there are volcanic fires in the mountain, but the matter has not yet been scientifically explored. There is no volcano near in any direction. We have the satisfaction of announcing the above union, to take place on the completion of the present volume of Putnam's Magazine. The new Magazine will be edited by Dr. J. G. HOLLAND (Timothy Titcomb); will be HANDSOMELY ILLUSTRATED, and will bear the name of SCRIBNER'S MONTHLY, and be issued about the 15th of October for the month of November. *See separate Prospectus. To the friends of Putnam's Magazine: G. P. PUTNAM & SONS. The November number of Putnam's Magazine will complete the sixth volume of the second series, with title and index. The remainder of MRS. AMES' excellent story, "EIRENE; A WOMAN'S RIGHT," will be sent free to all subscribers who have paid for 1870. It is expected to be completed in November. The first number of the NEW Magazine (for November), to be issued about 15th October, will be sent by us to all our subscribers, in place of the December number of Putnam's, and to all subscribers who have paid for any numbers of 1871 we shall send the new Magazine for the same time. We do this believing that it will be welcomed as an entirely satisfactory continuation of the present work-presenting additional attractions at large expense, and yet furnished at a low price. With a high literary character, it will contain more matter, very handsomely printed, and profusely illustrated. We shall send also a bill for subscription to the new Magazine for one year, beginning with December. Our personal friends, and those of Putnam's Magazine, will do us an important service, first, by a prompt remittance of the amount of the subscription ($3) for the new work; and, second, by taking a little pains to send us additional subscribers. There is only one subscription price for the new work, viz.: ($3.00) Three Dollars, the price per single number being 30 cents each. The publishers give no clubbing discounts, or other modifications. But the present subscribers to "Putnam," who remit to us promptly for the new year, will receive (free) a cloth cover (price 50 cents) for the Sixth Volume of "Putnam." G. P. PUTNAM & SONS, ASSOCIATION BUILDING, COR. OF 28D ST. AND FOURth Ave. PUTNAM'S MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, AND NATIONAL INTERESTS. VOL. VI.-NOVEMBER-1870.-No. XXXV. THE MAN IN THE MOON. "He made an instrument, to know And prove that she's not made of green cheese." WHAT were "the precious things put forth by the moon"? Surely not the thousand-and-one absurd theories about its inhabitants which we find are entertained in some shape or other by nearly every nation on earth. The oldest and at the same time the most familiar to our race is the story of the two children who were robbed just as they were bringing water home from a spring; hence they may still be seen as dark spots on the face of the full moon on bright winter nights, carrying a bucket between them on a long pole. When this pagan view was duly exorcised by the zealous missionaries who converted the old Saxons, our ancestors, it gave way to a more refined but hardly more credible account. Now it is a man who had stolen a bundle of fagots on a Sunday, and was transferred, as a punishment, to the moon, where he has to carry his burden for evermore, and suffer at the same time of unceasing cold. This is the original Man in the Moon. It is curious to see how popular superstition has clung to this theory in spite of all the light that science has endeavored from time immemorial to BUTLER. shed upon the subject. The mystery is much aided by the remarkable fact that we only know one half of the moon, which is constantly seen by us, while the other half has never yet been beheld by human eye. The face of the moon, which our first father Adam watched, no doubt, with fear and admiration strangely mixed, as it rose on the horizon, is the same which the last man will take leave of when the earth shall perish in fire. But this very fact of a whole world, so near to us and yet lying so utterly beyond our reach, has from of old existed and stimulated the imagination of men to its utmost; and the question ovho is the Man in the Moon has occupied the ablest minds of antiquity as well as the most gifted writers of our own day. The result has been necessarily very unsatisfactory first, for thousands of years, because the moon was inaccessible to the eye in the absence of proper instruments, and in recent times, because, even with the aid of such magnificent glasses as those of the Earl of Rosse, which shows objects of the size of a moderate mountain on our satellite, no sign of life has Entered, in the year 1870. by G. P. PUTNAM & SON, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the U. S. for the Southern District of N. Y. VOL. VI.-30 yet been discovered. But failure seems only to have increased the desire to enter into communication with the lunar world, and efforts have been made in every age, from the proposed Tower of Babel, the summit of which was to reach unto heaven, to the colossal mirrors which, a few months ago, a clever Frenchman suggested might reflect such a dazzling mass of light as would attract the attention of the Man in the Moon, and induce him to reply by similar signals. Quite recently the question, whether life-the highest manifes tation of Nature's forces-exists in other planets also, has apparently acquired new interest in the eyes of our savaus, and the great controversy between men like Whewell and Brewster has called public attention to this interesting subject. Nor have the authors of the Continent remained inactive; and from several recent authors in France and Germany we cull a brief account of the Man in the Moon as he has appeared at different times to the most learned of our race. How fully the ancients were imbued with the idea that, while the earth was, as they supposed, the centre of the universe, still other worlds also existed, and might be peopled with beings created like ourselves, appears most strikingly in Lucian's famous Voyage to the Moon. Starting from the smiling coasts of Italy, his gay bark was driven beyond the happy seas on which it was accustomed to sail, and, having passed the Pillars of Hercules, became the sport of fierce winds, which forced it to wander helplessly for seventy days on a dark and stormy ocean. Then the exhausted travellers landed on a blissful island, with rivers flowing with wine, and vineyards in which each vine was an affectionate maiden. But Lucian could not be tempted; and, leaving a few of his bewitched companions behind, he sailed on with those that remained faithful. One fine day, however, when the sun shone brightly and the waters were blue and calm, a sudden whirlwind arose and bodily lifted up their little vessel, till it reached a height of a hundred miles; there, in vague, vacant space, they wandered about, they knew not how, for seven days and seven nights, landing at last on a large island, which hung suspended in the ether, round, and brilliantly illuminated. They had no sooner left their ship, casting a longing look at the earth far below them, with its mountains and valleys and its forests and populous cities, than hippogriffs came and summoned them to appear before the monarch. The king of the Moon at once recognized them by their costume as Greeks, for he was a countryman of theirsEndymion. It so happened that he was at that moment engaged in fierce warfare with His Majesty Phaeton, king of the Sun, and on the very next day a great battle was to be fought. Lucian was, of course, delighted with the opportunity to become thus fully acquainted with the Man in the Moon, and appeared, early on the next morning, on the battle-field. The lunar army, drawn up in battle array, consisted of nothing less than sixty millions of men, with eighty thousand hippogriffs-men mounted on winged asses with three heads-and an equal number of other indescribable creatures, among whom he was especially pleased with thirty thousand men riding fleas of the size of twelve elephants. The list is as long as that of Homer's heroes before Troy, and has furnished many a name, if not more, to later authors, from Rabelais to Swift. The battle took place on an enormous cobweb stretched out between the sun and the moon, and ended, after true Greek fashion, to the honor of both the contending parties; they made peace, formed an alliance, and engaged not to trouble their neighbors! The Man in the Moon, Lucian tells us, is not born, but buds forth like the plants of the fields; nor does he die, but slowly and pleasantly passes off in a puff of smoke. His wants are supplied without labor by an over-abundant Nature, which teems on all sides with food and drink; and he never suffers of indigestion, for his stomach |
