Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-11-27

promise OF its motto BY giving al
ternately a political article by a
republican and a democratic author;
Messrs. Garfield and Bayard have
both, we believe. been contributors.
This is a little more impartial.
though we have never thought 1t 4
very profitable arrangement. Party
leaders are not the best contributors
to high-class review. There are
always thinking men not engaged
in the turmoil of political conflict
who can treat OF questions in civil
polity more profitabIy than the
champions of party warfare they
look down upon them from higher
plane than that occupied by the
working politicians, and conse-
quently write articles more accept
able to thinking men. We should
be better pleased with the thoughts
of such men than with campaign
papers such as we have enumerated;
and, if characterized with the quail
tiles of deep thought and elevated
aims, should not at all object to
their being ola republican tendency,
though ourselves devoted to democ-
racy of the straitest sect.
We have dwelt upon this as a de-
feet, because these shallow political
papers are associated with literary
articles of decided merit, which we
should like to see circulated in the
south, but which are not likely to
do SO in such company. We now
undertake the more grateful task of
referring to some of these.
The second article is a study by
Prof. Ernst Curtius of the recent
discoveries in Olympia, and COM,
prises a learned and intelligent esti-
mate of the light which those dis
coveries throw upon history in
general, but especially uDon that OF
Hellenic art.
The third is by the Rev. James
Freeman Clarke, on Rational Sum
day Observance. We have not yet
read it with the attention that its
Importance demands. and will not
give an opinion on it's conclusions.
1t starts with the statement that the
Christian Lords Day and the jew
ish Sabbath are two entirely distinct
things, which is indisputably true.
For all that, if it were only on
grounds of expediency, we should
be slow to admit innovations on our
Lords Day observances.
M. Desire Charnay gives us let
ter descriptive of his researches
among the ruins of Central America,
always an interesting subject to all
Americans. His researches would
be more valuable if he had prepared
himself with some special informa-
ton; for example, on the history of
architecture and sculpture. He ac-
knOwledges also that he is no zoOlo-
gist-and the fact would have been
evident without the admission
which disables him from giving a
! satisfactory account of the bones of
some of the larger mammalia dis
covered in some of the ruins. An
exact account of these would throw
important light upon the condition
of those enigmatic races who built
and inhabited those astonishing
buildings.
The Distribution of Time," by
DIR. L. Waldo, is a timely protest
against the loose way in which we
reckon the time of day, relying on
what our clock-makers may choose
to tell US rather than on accurate
astronomical observations.
Lastly, 1.-THE Public School Fail
ure," by Richard Grant White, will
require a separate notice in a future
number. This one. article differs
from the rest in manifesting a
marked southern feeling, which
makes il the more unfortunate that
we can neither admit the force of
his arguments nor accept his con-
illusions.
There is food for thought in all
these papers, the weakest being
those of a political character.