courtiers and merchants, great noblemen and great ladies, soldiers, adventurers, fishermen, and traders, mix themselves up in the narrative with the most fascinating blending of colors and of voices. With the background of the brilliant array made by such a chorus, there is, however, always in the front a duo, sometimes even a trio or quatuor, of leading men, with just a glimpse of Madame de Guercheville, whom we may fairly call a leading woman, and of Madame de Champlain. Such men as Poutrincourt, as Biencourt, as De Monts, and the hero of chivalry whom we have named, will not let the chorus clamor run into chaos. They steadily rebuild burned forts, re-establish deserted sites, out-manœuvre the most crafty antagonists; and, for that generation, Acadie and Canada are established on foundations which are sure.

The reader will readily judge how interesting a narrative might be wrought out of such adventures, if only the narrators condescend to leave some memoirs of them behind. Mr. Parkman's rare zeal, of which we are to speak again, has brought out what is really large store of material for the reproduction of such history. Merchants, soldiers, and priests had the French tact at "mémoires pour servir." And so the dull page of the history of poor, starving, fishing settlements is lighted up with gleams of human pathos, and becomes as wild and affecting as the story should be which is the beginning of the history of nations.

With the winter following the lawless raid of Argall on Acadie, Mr. Parkman turns from that province to the St. Lawrence, and follows the fortunes of Champlain and of his colony there. We have spoken of the man. The scenes of his adventures were the St. Lawrence, the lake which is his fit monument because it bears his noble name, all the great lakes but Lake Superior, and all the waters between them. The people with whom he had to do were mostly the Iroquois Indians; a variety of the Indian race much more interesting than our dead and stolid Algonquins were. Shall we say that the talkative, adventurous, and sociable Iroquois was the Frenchman of America; and that the dull, stoical, morose Penobscot or Massachusetts man was its Englishman? Mr.

Parkman will rule us out of court for such a dashing generalization. But none the less is this true, that, in his hands. and in Champlain's narratives, the Iroquois and the Hurons are far more interesting companions than Roger Williams or John Eliot ever make out our "red-skins" here to be.

We have attempted the briefest possible sketch of this curiously varied narrative, simply to direct the attention of the reader to the volume itself, in which it is so thoroughly digested. Under the title which we have quoted, Mr. Parkman presents to us now this interesting study of every suc cessive effort which France made in America, by way of introduction to his study of the rivalry of France and England on this continent, a study for which he is particularly well prepared, of a subject of the first interest and importance. We must not leave our sketch without direct acknowledgment of the picturesque interest of the narrative, and of the solid and manly style in which the work is done.

Although it is evident that the history of the attempts of an absolute civic rule and an armed hierarchy to establish themselves over a domain so vast, and a population so utterly unaccustomed to and unfit for the restraints of organized society, must be sought for and found, if at all, in many places, and in scattered and fragmentary condition, yet it is surprising to find how much of written authority remains upon which to base it. The earlier period of the history of New France was, it appears, very prolific of a class of publications of much historical value, but of which many are now exceedingly rare. Of these most important tributaries to the work which he had in hand, Mr. Parkman is able to say in his introductory note, "The writer, however, has at length gained access to them all." This "all" includes a vast amount of unpublished matter, like the early records of the colonies in the archives of France, and other documents of important bearing upon the subjects, treasured in public and private libraries in France and in Canada. Besides these more hidden authorities, there is the published matter with regard to this history; but even that is much scattered and little known. Captain Jean Ribaut's account of his voyage to Florida, in

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1562, only exists in the English translation made the next year. Le Clerc's "Establissement de Foi" was suppressed by the government soon after its publication in 1691. Of the eight accounts of the Huguenot occupation of Florida, given by eye-witnesses, used by our author, none can be said to be works easily attainable or generally known to exist; and two of them are still in the original manuscript, and only unearthed so to speak-by his investigations. With resources of this sort dispersed over the world, and buried in many obscure recesses, Mr. Parkman says that it has "been his aim to exhaust the existing material of every subject treated;" and he expresses a confidence, which we cannot think misplaced, that nothing of importance has escaped him. Indeed, the internal evidence of untiring research, and judicious selection, and careful weighing and comparison of authorities, furnished by the volume itself, is sufficient to show that there is little left for the gleaner in the field where he has gathered and bound the sheaves.

But it is not merely in the examination of the special authorities for the immediate transactions and incidents that he records, that Mr. Parkman has appreciated and accomplished his duty. That more general study and cultivation which enables him to grasp the whole of his subject; to exhibit it as a whole, and not as a series of fragments; and from the mass of colors, and the confused lights before him, to make one intelligible, interesting, and agreeable picture

has preceded and accompanied the work of detail. He has himself personally followed much of the trail. He has possessed himself of the tone and spirit of pioneer life by an actual experience of its haunts and its habits; and such has been the result of the strenuous effort at French subjugation of this continent, that, in many an instance, he can describe, from his own observation, scenes of his drama, still as wild, as savage and deserted, as when they were first seen by the adventurers whose progress he narrates. As he has thus prepared himself, by a personal acquaintance, with the actual boundaries of his subject, he has, by the study of the history and literature and romance of the times of which he writes,

imbued himself with the spirit and fathomed the character of those with whom he speaks, and made habitual to himself a clear and accurate judgment of their principles, their pas sions, and their motives. He is as much at home in the intellectual and spiritual sphere of his drama, as in its outward and local one. He He groups his actors as well as he paints and shifts his scenes; and brings back to us, as far as seems possible, the "very form and image of the times."

ART. V.

ENGLISH COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS.

1. Classical and Scientific Studies, and the Great Schools of England. A Lecture. By WILLIAM P. ATKINSON.

2. On the Cam. Lectures on the University of Cambridge in England. By WILLIAM EVERETT. Cambridge: Sever & Francis.

THESE two books, between them, embrace the whole subject of the Higher Education in England. One takes for its subject the Public Schools; the other, the Universities: the second thus taking up the subject where the first laid it down. But here the continuity ends. The two accounts do not dovetail into each other at all. So far from one supplementing the other, the two are so violently contrasted, that it would seem hardly possible to believe that they were written on subjects so closely connected. If we are to believe Mr. Atkinson, the English system is below contempt; it is more than a failure: it is a cheat and a sham. If we follow Mr. Everett, it is a noble, a magnificent scheme of education; second to none in the world; unapproachable, indeed, in its own line. Mr. Atkinson brings forward his evidence to show that the public schools send a wretched set of ignoramuses to college. Mr. Everett gives his to the effect, that the English schools send to college much better classical scholars than the American colleges graduate. At first sight, then, we seem obliged to decide in favor of one of two witnesses, who flatly contradict each other;

VOL. LXXIX.-5тH S. VOL. XVII. NO. III.

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and should probably incline to favor that of the eye-witness: for Mr. Atkinson gets at his facts from a parliamentary bluebook, while Mr. Everett obtained his by actual residence at an English university. The real truth, however, is, that the two are looking at the same object from opposite directions; Mr. Atkinson fixing his eyes exclusively on the defects, while Mr. Everett looks chiefly at the excellences, of the English system.

Let us proceed, then, to examine each of these witnesses separately. For we shall find that each has valuable truth to tell, truth that it behooves the American educator to consider, and that quickly: for it will not be denied now, if ever it was denied, that the destiny of a first-rate nation is coming upon us; and that that destiny is coming upon us faster than we can educate first-rate minds to meet it. Mr. Atkinson has a cause to plead, which he rightly feels to be noble, — the cause of science. His earnest advocacy of this ennobles his pamphlet, and makes it, in spite of many unfairnesses, a most welcome contribution to educational literature. The sum of what he would say is this:

"The study of Physical Science is as ennobling as the study of Language or of Mathematics, and ought therefore to have an honored place in any comprehensive system of education. Further, there are some minds, of a very high order, who gravitate toward Physical Science, just as surely as other minds gravitate toward Language or Mathematics; and it is a grievous injustice to such minds that their scientific faculties should not be developed at as early an age, and with as constant care, as the language faculties and the mathematical faculties are already developed. At present, partly from the lack of competent instructors, and partly from the general ignorance which prevails upon the subject, this is nowhere adequately done; the English public schools being, perhaps, the most conspicuous and most outrageous offenders in this respect.

To enforce this idea, he makes admirable use of the Report of the Commissioners of Public Schools. The evidence he quotes, weighty or ludicrous, as the case may be, is all brought to bear upon this central topic. The criticism is just. Mr.