National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1877-01-02
LITERARY NOTES.

The late George Dawson collected for the
public library OF birmingham, England, over 400
TRANSACTIONS in all languages into which they had
been rendered and the various English editions.
The Sons Of Goodwin" is q tragedy In blank
historical occurrences Of the Saxon period Of Ina
land in 1866. and is more successful as an at
tempt to revivify the historic traditions Of the
or a striking poem, thought it has spirited lines.
The Quarterly Journal Of Inebriety is the odd
name Of periodical published at Hartford, de-
voted to the treatment and cure Of inebriety as a
disease In the first number is an address by
by George M. Beard, NJ. D., the well-known
writer on physiological and psychological sub
drinking to intoxicationi is partly vice and partly
a disease: that both forms arc frequently COM
bined that the functional disease cannot be cured
by moral measures; that 1t is hereditary and Pc
rfodical, recurring every month or six weeks, and
during the interval the patient is sober. dur
ing these intervals the patient may not even be
tempted by the presence of alcohol. On the other
hand, on the day for the attack to appear, they
are impelled by force against which their own
VIII Is as the hand Of an infant against the rush
1t If they can" DIR. Beard finds that the vice of
drunkenness 1.-THE pursuit Of drink for pleasure or
disease, ineSriety. mostly among the upper
classes, who are most subject to nervous disor-
ders. Functional nervous diseases have increased
with civilization. For inebriety careful medical
treatment is strongly urged.
Bapard Taylor has closed a series Of six
lectures on "German Literature" before large
audiences at the Peabody Institute, in Baltimore.
The last was on Humboldt" Mr.; Taylor spoke
in glowing terms of the immense labor and at
tainments of the great scholar. No man except
Aristotle ever SO completely represented the az.
gregate knowledge Of the time In which he lived
as did Humboldt. He raised physical geography
to the dignity of a science. He gave great i'm
petus to all the studies which he was known to
be pursuing. He aided and encouraged students.
Agassiz relates that at time when he was about
to relinquish his studies in Paris for want of
means to longer prosecute them, Humboldt, un-
solicited, sent him ESQ. The knowledge he pos
sessed would have crushed dozen average men.
Macauley, who could repeat the whole Of Millions
paradise Lost" must give way to Humboldt.
whose memory was such that he never confounded
dates, names or order Of events. His equatorial
journey, from 1893 to 1900, was the greatest work
of Humboldt's life. In 1t he spent twenty years,
for though he did not travel much more than five
years of that time, he used fifteen Of them in pre-.
pairing the result of his extended observations
On his return home he took the route through
Mexico and the United States, and visited WASH
ington and met President Jackson, and was, of
course in Baltimore. In 1859, as he lay dying,
the suns rays came streaming in through the
window, flooding the room with a halo Of light.
"How glorious they seemr he said. "They Lift
earth heavenward," and he fell back and died.