there was no other wife-killer than the old cerulean-barbed Turk, and that "Bluebeard's Closet" was only to be found in the nursery tale. But, alas! poor Adeline Grant is not the only one who has met her death by closet-tippling. An old schoolfellow of my father's, who told him her tale of woe in after-life, said, "Ah, sir, I have supped sorrow by spoonfuls." How many have supped death by glassfuls! When will the world be wiser ?' SOCIAL SCIENCE SELECTIONS. THE SEVEN PHYSICAL FORCES OF CIVILIZATION. According to the first of the two propositions which we have to demonstrate, the material indications of the degree of civilization of a society, consist in the first place, in the number of physical forces employed by such a society; in the second place, in the sum of useful result which such a society has been able to obtain from these same forces. In fact, history, no less than the daily observations of travellers, concurs in establishing the exactitude of this two-fold characteristic. The most reliable portion of ancient history is that which treats of the communities which inhabited the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, or extents of country connected with those shores by frequented roads. If we leave aside the Jewish nation-a nation which would merit a special study-this group comprehends principally: the Assyrians, the Medes, the Persians, and the Greeks, on the one hand; on the other the Phoenicians, the Arabs of the shores of the Red Sea, and the Romans. If we study the annals of these different peoples and tribes, the first fact to attract our notice is the extreme simplicity of social relations, compared with their complexity in modern times. All the aforesaid communities labour by the aid of three physical forces only: the force of gravitation, common to man and to animals; muscular force, common likewise to both, but infinitely better utilized by man whether by means of tools or by the domestication and training of certain species of animals; lastly, the force of wind, the most wonderful, perhaps, of the primitive conquests of man, and one which affords the most striking evidence of his true superiority-the faculty of observation-and of his true pride-the predominance of the reflective powers over the brute instinct of self-preservation. But none of these societies penetrated the secret of the expansive force of gases (gunpowder), or of the magnetic force of the globe (the compass), which were only revealed to European societies towards the close of the medieval era. Still less do they suspect the existence of the two last physical forces which have been mastered in modern days-dynamical electricity (the electric telegraph), and the elastic power of steam (steam-engine). Such, then, was the order of the progression in the successive acquisitions of the physical forces, by the Indo-European race, and few families of Semitic origin intermingled with that race: in antiquity, three forces only; in the medieval era, five; in modern times, seven. This preliminary observation being admitted, let us now examine whether these The Seven Physical Forces of Civilization. 281 these same societies developed their civilization according to a parallel order of progression. That such was the fact, will appear evident to most persons; but the proof ought nevertheless to be furnished, just as in beginning arithmetic we find it necessary to prove, that two multiplied by three are equal to three multiplied by two. The proof we are in want of, is naturally derived from the signification of the word civilization, as interpreted by the great majority amongst us. If we were to understand by that term, a social state favourable to the development of a limited number of the remarkable individualities in politics, in philosophy, in the arts and sciences; but development founded on the subordination of the labouring and trading to the warlike class, the societies of antiquity would no doubt furnish us with an ideal. But modern conscience decides otherwise: modern conscience judges the degree of a nation's civilization, viewed from the moral side of the question, by the amount of the individual guarantees which that nation enjoys. Thus, while we endeavour to establish that force is the material criterion of progress, it is already proved and accepted that right is the moral criterion. Social economy might rest satisfied with holding up to view the hideous diseases of body and mind, the everlasting conflict of brute instincts and their predominance over the faculties of mind, all phenomena strikingly characterizing the societies of antiquity; and, though in a gradually diminishing degree, the mediaval societies and those of our own day. But this science (social economy), was the first to establish a phenomenon of still more conclusive character. The successive transformation of the slave labourer into the serf, and of the serf into the workman; each of these evolutions, whether tumultuous or calm, penetrating more and more enormous masses with a continually higher sentiment of justice, the ultimate aim of civili zation. It is then indisputable that within the last three or four thousand years at least, the successive acquisition of the physical forces by our race corresponds with its progress in civilization. In antiquity, the processes of productive labour are but few and stationary, compared with the rapid development they take in our own day. The processes of destructive labour, on the contrary, give rise to important changes from one century to another. War is then the great art, and its influence over the social economy of that remote epoch, is too profound to allow of our passing it over in silence. Having vanquished the Medes, a nation devoted to science more than to rude labour, the Persians next destroy the Assyrian Empire, already long enfeebled by the participation of the priesthood in military affairs. The Persian nation, poor at its origin, sober, active, and hostile to luxury, is the first of our race among those known to us, to introduce science into warfare. The result of this superior utilization of the two forces, gravitation and muscular force, is to ensure victory at once to the small organized bands over the great masses. And thus we see explained, the successive subjugation of the Persians by the Macedonian phalanx, and of the Greeks by the Roman legion. Now, civilization, that is, the practical notion of right, became gradually ameliorated in the transition from the Assyrians to the Persians, from the Persians to the Greeks, and from the Greeks to the Romans. It would be easy to establish the same concordance in respect to the other societies of the same period, who owed their material prosperity chiefly to the utilization of the third physical force-wind. Among these were, for instance, the Phoenicians and the Arabs of the Red Sea, monopolizing maritime trade north and south, until that monopoly fell into the hands of the Greco-Roman people,―then more powerful and highly civilized than the Semitic races. Ancient history thus confirms in detail the result attained by a first general observation of ancient, mediæval, and modern periods. Ancient This analysis also gives us insight into the fact that what we call a superior utilization of physical forces, has its origin in an entirely moral phenomenon, the exercise of the reflective faculties of man. Let us now proceed to examine the principal facts which marked the acquisition of the four last discovered physical forces by the Indo-European, in the mediaval and modern societies. It will afford us not only a new confirmation of our own first proposition, but the direct proof of the second. Two of these forces, gunpowder and the compass, have generally been ascribed to the fifteenth century; the two last, steam and dynamical electricity, to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The history, however, of these four great discoveries, removes to a date far earlier than that assigned by tradition, the successive improvements which were destined to bring about such important results in the fifteenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. With respect to gunpowder, everyone knows that it was not, as tradition would have us believe, a spontaneous discovery, due to the accidental approximation of fulminating substances, but, on the contrary, to laborious researches directed towards the progressive improvement of the inflammatory compounds, introduced many ages ago into the art of warfare by the Asiatic races, who dwelt upon a soil where these ingredients are found in abundance. Byzantine civilization owed to the secret of the preparation of these compounds, already greatly perfected in the seventh century of our era, the maintenance of the national independence during eight hundred years-an independence destined later to play so important a part in the civilization of Europe. Greek-fire had certainly no pretension to vie with gunpowder, but may be called its precursor. With yet a few more efforts, and the art of purifying saltpetre, combined with other no less ordinary processes borrowed from the alchemists, would transform a compound, destructive, no doubt, but destitute of expansive force, of elasticity, into a formidable agent of dislocation, before which the ponderous armour of the feudals, and the fetters imposed upon liberty of conscience throughout Europe, were alike destined to disappear. With this enfranchisement, social economy sees the dawn of new destinies, in the apparition, on the stage of the world, of the maritime races of the North, an apparition which would have been impossible without the compass. But the discovery of that instrument, no more than that of the musket, was due to accident. The Mediterranean sailors had long made an unskilful use of it, as, in our own times, the sailors of the yellow race. It was then called the marinet, and required important modifications before it could be available for long voyages across the ocean. We must come down to the fifteenth century to find it perfected and connected into the compass, by an ocean race, the English, who thereby opened out new routes to the Portuguese and Spaniards, of which the political and social importance were incalculable. All the examples we are acquainted with, of a superior utilization of the physical forces, bring out in astonishing relief the creative power of our reflective faculties. This highly moral conclusion is strikingly borne out by observation of the facts which put us in possession of the sixth and seventh physical forces, steam and dynamical electricity. Before it became transformed by man's intelligence into that powerful agent which we see every day at work-what, for instance, was steam? A substance of vague, æriform essence, already exhausted by the insignificant labour of raising the lid of the kettle? In order to utilize its elastic properties, to make of it a working force, and thus give it value in a social point of view, we might in vain have waited for a fortunate concurrence of accidental circumstances; in order to bring about such a result as this, nothing less was required than the actual process of laborious, humble, patient, and sagacious investigations, carried out The Seven Physical Forces of Civilization. 283 out by aid of instruments already in existence, themselves the product of careful and skilful combination. What we have said above, touching the fruitful results of the invention of such instruments, dispenses us from again adverting to these well-known facts. Of all the forces which jointly contribute to the life of European societies, the seventh, dynamical electricity, appears the most feeble, if its power be measured in a direct manner. Such, nevertheless, is the reciprocal influence of man's material conquests over nature, such their collective action upon the movement and organism of societies, that the apparition of this seventh force, yet in embryo, brings us into presence of the most important modifications that European ideas have undergone since the invention of printing. A new power has come to light; a power of altogether moral essence, but which required for its manifestation that the seven physical forces already named should be in existence: a power which is irresistible and never again to be extinguished, and which already re-acts favourably upon the material well-being of our race; a power, in short, which has received the name of public opinion, and upon which, on strict analysis, reposes the right of the weak. The history of the origin and development of this power would no doubt carry us back to a remote age. But the apparition of a true European public opinion, can be said to date only from our own time, for the prior existence of a medium of universal character was required in order to bring to a focus all the moral and physical forces already assimilated. Now we possess just such a medium in the aggregate of those slender metal wires, which disseminate truth and falsehood amongst us with the like indifference. Many of those who read the telegraphic intelligence published daily, lament that falsehood should be mixed up with truth on so many questions. But this very circumstance contributes in the highest degree to form public opinion, and to render it supreme. The wicked are only to be feared when they remain silent: compel them to speak, and sooner or later they will throw off the mask. In the same manner the electric telegraph always ends by enlightening. Formerly, established governments monopolized the privilege of rapid information, and could envelop their actions in secresv. But since the humblest citizen of Europe is apprised in a few seconds of what is taking place at the four cardinal points of the earth, the governments can no longer maintain their reserve, they are forced to reply, and to vindicate themselves by addressing the public.-From Physical and Moral Forces of Human Societies,' by Felix Foucon, C.E., in Transactions of the Social Science Association for 1863. CAUTION TO WOMEN ABOUT TO MARRY. Women have not usually much acquaintance with law, and perhaps as a general rule rather pride themselves in their ignorance. But we are about to invite attention to a branch of jurisprudence with which, as the law of England now stands, it is essential for their honour and character that they should be acquainted. That we may teach by example, we will cite a case which occurred in the Divorce Court on August 5th, 1864. It was suit not for divorce on the ground of subsequent immorality, but to declare that a certain alleged marriage had never been legally solemnized. It was brought by neither of the parties, but by the father of the supposed husband. And the plea was, not that it was a runaway match, or a mock ceremony, void of all reasonable show of legality, for it was duly solemnized by a clergyman in the parish church-but that it was bad because the bridegroom, whose name was George Henry Wells, had in putting up the banns omitted the name George, George, and had told the bride of the fact. For the law declares that if one of the parties is married under a false name, the error being concealed from the other, the marriage stands good, but if both parties are aware of the deception the marriage is bad. In this case it happened that the only evidence of the bride's knowledge of the omission of her husband's Christian name was that of the husband himself, who at his father's summons piously stepped into the box and swore his wife into a concubine. The judge told the jury that as the wife-for so we still take leave to call her had not come forward to rebut this evidence it must be taken for true, and therefore the marriage must be annulled. We see no reason to dispute the legal presumption thus laid down. No doubt the bridegroom did tell the bride that he had dropped one of his Christian names. No doubt she replied, 'Oh, George, how could you ?' and so was unable to satisfy the exigencies of the law by coming into the box and swearing ignorance of the fact. It would have been no use her swearing, though with perfect truth, that she had not the smallest idea that the fact made any difference to the legality of the marriage; that would have been evidence which the court would not have listened to. The law presumes that every woman, as well as every man, is acquainted with all its provisions, and it will let no one off from the most frightful consequences on the excuse that he or she had no knowledge that they were being incurred. Therefore it is necessary that all young women study carefully the law of marriage, and if they happen to be alone in the world, and not to have a father or brother to keep them safe, it is needful that they criticise with anxious attention every word that falls from the bridegroom's lips, lest what seems at the moment only a light-hearted folly may make the marriage vow, pronounced before God at the altar, only the convenient snare to effect their livelong shame. If in recommending this course we recommend what we know will never be adopted, if to expect that a woman in any circumstances, but above all when in the position of an affianced bride, shall apply the scrutiny of a sharp lawyer to the proceedings by which she is affected, is wholly out of the question, we certainly pronounce the condemnation of a law which makes such scrutiny essential to safety in a relation so important.-Daily News. FEMALE ATTIRE. The question of ladies' dresses is hedged about with many difficulties. The articles of female attire are so numerous, some of them of such mysterious use, and of such intricate construction, that it is not easy at first sight to perceive in them any very clear design or system of bodily covering. With the dress of boys or of men it is different. At a glance we see the number and the nature of their garments, the materials of which they are made, their shape and size; and we can judge at once of their suitableness to the age, health, and habits of the wearer. Take that of the schoolboy. Besides the universal skin-covering, linen or calico, his dress consists of three garments:-trousers for the lower limbs and lower region of the trunk, waistcoat for the upper region, and the tunic or jacket as a second covering, capable of being worn buttoned or unbuttoned at the desire of the wearer; the whole generally of some fabric woven of wool, soft, warm, light, and loose. In exceptional instances a duplicate of the first-mentioned garment, in the shape of drawers, is worn. In adult life this costume is varied but by the addition of skirts to the jacket, converting it into the coat. In summer or winter the dress is the same, differing only in texture of material, with an upper coat for cold or wet weather, large, loose, comfortable, fit alike for city-street or country -road, saddle or carriage. For this country and climate nothing can be better for boy or man. How |