between Russia and Turkey appears peculiarly striking, and
represents a very characteristic wave. At first the intervals between
the cycles of thirty years' duration--1710, 1740, 1770 then these
intervals diminish, and we have a cycle of twenty years--1790, 1810,
1829-30; then the intervals widen again--1853 and 1878. But if we take
note of the whole duration of the in-flowing tide of the war-like cycle,
then we shall have at the centre of it--from 1768 to 1812--three wars of
seven years' duration each, and at both ends, wars of two years.

Finally, the author comes to the conclusion that, in view of facts, it
becomes thoroughly impossible to deny the presence of a regular
periodicity in the excitement of both mental and physical forces in the
nations of the world. He proves that in the history of all the peoples
and empires of the Old World, the cycles marking the millenniums, the
centennials as well as the minor ones of fifty and ten years' duration,
are the most important, inasmuch as neither of them has ever yet failed
to bring in its train some more or less marked event in the history of
the nation swept over by these historical waves.

The history of India is one which, of all histories, is the most vague
and least satisfactory. Yet were its consecutive great events noted
down, and its annals well searched, the law of cycles would be found to
have asserted itself here as plainly as in every other country in
respect of its wars, famines, political exigencies, and other matters.

In France, a meteorologist of Paris went to the trouble of compiling the
statistics of the coldest seasons, and discovered that those years which
had the figure 9 in them had been marked by the severest winters. His
figures run thus:--in 859 A.D., the northern part of the Adriatic Sea
was frozen, and was covered for three months with ice. In 1179, In the
most moderate zones, the earth was covered with several feet of snow.
In 1209, in France the depth of snow and the bitter cold caused such a
scarcity of fodder that most of the cattle perished in that country. In
1249, the Baltic Sea between Russia, Norway and Sweden remained frozen
for many months, and communication was kept up by sleighs. In 1339,
there was such a terrific winter in England, that vast numbers of people
died of starvation and exposure. In 1409, the river Danube was frozen
from its sources to its mouth in the Black Sea.

In 1469, all the vineyards and orchards pe