The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-11-26
PROFESSOR rorTEN's LATEST.

To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER
The indefatigable Totten is out again
in another book, This is the seven
teenth Study Of the Our Race Series
that We hold in our hands. 1t Is enti-
tied the Canon of History (secular in
particularly, or The Victorian Canon,
1t is a straight (regnaD record of all
the kings $50 from Menophres, 1922 B.
c., down to Victoria, 1896, A. D., with
full annotatlons along the line, and if
as accurate as it appears to be, is call
culated to make some of the professo-
rial authorities green with envy that
they did not think of doing the same
thing long ago. But in the first place,
Professor Totten takes advantage of
the present situation as to lengths of
reign and dedicates the book to Queen
Victoria. This is an important year
in her reign. She is the oldest mon
arch of the AngloSax race; her
reign is now a maximum. Professor
Totten dedicates his book as follows:
God save the Queen and may the
Lord unite the Anglo-Saxon race,
Great Britain and America, Brother
John and CBrother JonathanD even
Ephraim and Manasseh, in the perma-
nent bonds of defensive international
confederation, with all that this i'm
plies, and to them be an arbiter inter
arbitres himself" Such is his intro
duction. Fortuitously it syncronizes
CaI Nm. OF hn
Mayors dinner and the dream of An
glo- Saxon confederation for which Tot
ten has long stood as an exponent, is
fair to be realized AS said above, this
is his seventeenth effort to get sound
doctrine before the public, before the
scientific public, before our peers, who
ought to investigate this mans work,
even if only to dry it UP, if it be pure
fallacy.
But what is the book? 1t is a regnal
digest of the "Times of the Gentiles"
It's preface opens with the following
paragraph:
Our chief surprise in publishing this
Canon of History, mere completion
and extension of Ptolomeys is that no
one seems to have anticipated us in
perceiving the ripeness of it's opportu-
nifty or the urgency of it's necessity"
"It is now some 1887 vague or canoni-
cal years since Ptolomey's labors
colsed with the reign of Antoninus
Plus, 160 A. D.; nevertheless, although
the value of his canon has been repeat
eddy extolled, in fact ever since the re-
viyal of learning, the intervening S65
years has been suffered to elapse with
out a suggestion to any of Totten's pre-
decessors of continuing it down to
date"
This Is what Totten has done. There
is no future need of referring to Pto-
lomey's canon The Victorian canon
takes up the topic at this present mo-
ment and reverses the application to
where Ptolomey's labors cease; picks
up Ptolomey's canon itself, and pro-
crosses back beyond it SIS years to
where Menophres established the Cam
ocular. In other words, this canon is
1919 years long instead of 907 this end
of it is in our hands, 1896 A. D., and the
other end of it fastened to the only au-
thentic date in Egyptian history-that
of Menophres.
We presume that chronologists will
recognize the value Of the conception.
If it has been realized it will supple
ment Ptolomey's canon. The issue is
opportune Victoria the greatest mon
arch the monarch of the greatest
three-score years the world has ever
seen, is now beyond the measure of the
reigns of all her predecessors Here is
a woman who for sixty years has been
an empress of one of the greatest ma
lions the world has ever seen. Profess
sor Totten has traced her monarchical
pedigree through 1874 reigns inclusive,
back to the GRAY dawn of time" the
nineteenth dynasty of Egypt; this has
been done upon the identical principle
that has made Ptolomeys Canon ia
NOUS for fifteen hundred years. He
has made this canon familiar to us by
putting this end of it's continuation into
our hands.
We can appreciate the spirit of en-
thusiasm In which this book is con-
ceived it's opportune issue, but it is be-
yond us to divine the reception it will
meet. 1t certainly ought to be exam
ined at the hands of all who are inter
ested in historical, chronological or
Biblical topics. 1t is a funny thing
that no one has anticipated the profess
sor in this realization, and if it has
U6GI III tilC SCiAoC ~ ebp
pears to have realized it's object; the
work is a masterpiece. Its frontispiece
is a very long chart, about yard and
a half This is the Canon. Ptolomeys
portion covers only about a third; the
rest is new. 1t gives the measure Of
time by reigns, just as Ptolomey's
does. Had it given it by years it's
length would have been some sixty
four feet, but if the natural unit had
been employed, that is, day by day, the
chart would have been five miles long.
Professor Totten, whose chronological
acumen few will be disposed to ques-
ton, considers 1t his masterpiece, and
it only remains for candid students of
history, Bible students who have APP
pealed to Ptolomey heretofore, to IA
miliarize themselves with it and en-
dorse his claims, or condemn them with
fair argument If they are misfounded,
Totten's career has been an odd one.
He was an army man, one might say
this by inheritance Grandfather,
father, brother, seventy or a hundred
cousins and connections (the Rogers,
the Perrys, etc., all army and navy
people. Himself a graduate of West
Point. g. soldier of no mean note for his
age Imbued with the fact that we
nglo-Saxons are none other than the