inciting the mind, begets a passionate aspiration to power, avowedly in the name of the higher principles of truth and virtue, but in reality in the name of the overgrown self.

"I will command," says the aspirant to power, "and my word will work wonders," for he fancies that words of command, as a magic wand, can act by themselves. Poor man, before he commands he has first to learn to obey! Before he has given orders, he must learn to hear them, and to listen to questioning. He must pass through the school of duty, where each in his place and time must faithfully and duly play his part in harmony with the parts of a host of others. He must learn to remember that orders do not spring forth armed as Minerva from the head of Jupiter, but are the last links in an infinite chain of reasoning; an infinite chain of causes and effects.

The imaginations of benevolent men draw pictures of good works; they wish to do good and to serve as instruments of good. Alas, goodness is but a little way on the path to the doing of good! Even he who wishes to do good after the precept of the Evangel out of his own estate, will at last be taught by experience that the doing of good to men in its truest sense is a wearying and burdensome task. How much more difficult is it to do good out of the capital of power with which men are invested! It is well for a man if when thinking of himself and of his power he does not for a minute forget that power belongs to him for the sake of the general welfare and for the benefit of the State; that in his sphere of action the little store of strength he has cannot and must not be transformed into a horn of plenty,

from which to scatter liberal gifts and many rewards. It is well if he does not forget that the power entrusted to him by the State to judge the merits of men, the justice of things, and the lawfulness of needs which cry for help, cannot, and must not, in his hands be perverted into favouritism and protection, for the temptation is strong to good men and to vain men, and goodness and vanity too often are joined. How sweet it is to meet on all sides grateful and affectionate glances! The seduction of this vanity may lead power to extreme weakness, to the confusion of merit and capacity with baseness and stupidity, to the demoralisation of subordinates by the general hunt for promotion and by an increased desire for honours, rewards, and monetary gratifications.

The first essential of righteous power is "a just standard." It gives the strength to judge by merit, and to allot to each a task no higher and no lower than his deserts. It teaches the preservation of human dignity in self and in others, and the distinction of faults which may not be tolerated from human weaknesses which ask for indulgence and care. It maintains all power in allegiance to its high calling, impelling and inspiring it to study the men and the work confided to its charge. It gives steadfastness to the orders that issue from power, and to the words of power a creative force. And he who has lost this standard through idleness or indifference forgets that the work which he neglects is a work of God.

W. H. WHITE AND CO. LIMITED, RIVERSIDE PRESS, EDINBURGH.

AN EXTRACT FROM Mr STEAD'S PREFACE.

"Why Blastus just now? First, because for some time the question of peace and war largely turned upon the personality and power of the Colonial Secretary; and secondly, I cannot resist the temptation of republishing the story because it--although written nearly three years ago-anticipates so curiously the leading features of the existing situations to-day. What I refer to is the extraordinarily lucky guess which made me predict in 1895 that Lord Salisbury and Mr Chamberlain would come into antagonism with each other upon a West African dispute, involving issues of peace or war with France. The dispute in West Africa has arisen almost precisely in the way in which I described it-viz. by the intrusion of a French force, under cover of an invitation from a native chief, into territory which lay unmistakably within our sphere of influence, but over which we had not established any effective occupation. Readers of the story will find that the phrases, the pretexts, the arguments, which have been used so frequently of late in the French and English Press, were anticipated three years ago in the pages of Blastus. I think the perusal of 'Blastus' will enable many of those who do not follow closely the trend of events in West Africa to understand better than they otherwise would the questions on which hang our recent controversies with France. Whether the scene is in Downing Street, in West Africa, or in Paris, I think the reader will find the case for both the contending parties stated sympathetically and accurately."

GRANT RICHARDS,

9 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.

S

The Evolution of the Idea of God;

An Enquiry into the Origins of Religions,

The World:

SOME PRESS OPINIONS.

"This book, the outcome of twenty years of thought and ten years of writing, is certainly one of the most important contributions to the history of the human mind which the last decade has given us. We have no space to trace further the unfolding of these suggestive ideas, which are developed and illustrated with a brightness uncommon in books of serious purposes. The present work, Mr Allen says, is but a sketch which will be filled in and amplified if the public is sufficiently interested." The Daily Chronicle:

"The sympathetic spirit in which Mr Allen treats a delicate and complex subject should have kindly consideration from those to whom the story of man's beliefs and guesses about the unseen makes appeal. A book which is the outcome of careful scholarly research."

The Times:

"One of the most ambitious and not the least successful of Mr Allen's works. . . . It is needless to say that the book is clever, showing marks of wide reading, ingenuity, and a certain verve-one might say dash-and that it attracts by the very reason that the writer is cumbered with few doubts or misgivings as to the soundness of his theories. . . . The true student will profit much by Mr Grant Allen's erudition and his criticisms of the work of his predecessors."

Mr H. G. WELLS, in the Daily Mail:

"A work of extraordinary interest and suggestion. . . . It is on the whole a worthy treatment of an immensely interesting subject, a book for the intelligent general reader; one of the books that bristle with the always plausible, and frequently convincing, reason why."

The Scotsman ;

"It will be understood by every one that the subject Mr Allen has chosen would be handled by him in a thoroughly scientific manner, and in absolute independence of all theological theories. The writer has collected an immense number of facts bearing on the development of religion, and has put them together in a most interesting way. The more educated part of the world is prepared for a work like this, and we have no doubt it will be read by many with the deepest interest.”

GRANT RICHARDS,

9 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.