in the borders of _La Patrie_, happy and vital in the possession
of freedom.

Her lilies still bloom in the depth of the valleys.

Her vineyards are a covert under which if there be a peasantry it is not
a peasantry forced down by oppression, but only the modest residue of
the stronger life above and beyond. The free institutions of this
beautiful land are the natural counterpart of our own; we should be all
the better for warming ourselves not a little in the glow of the Gallic
enthusiasm. _Vive la France!_

Le Siecle.

The century passes as a broken dream
That fades into the darkness ere the dawn!
The hopes it cherished and its griefs are gone
As spirit-shadows on Time's silent stream!
The outcry and the anguish of it seem
Like echoes on dusk hills--like lights upon
The haunted borders of oblivion--
Pale will-o'-wisps of a disordered scheme.

O thou New Age that comest! welcome thrice--
More welcome than the ever-welcome birth
Of the expected love-child of our youth!
Bring us a nobler portion--nobler twice
Than ever yet was given unto earth!
Bring us our freedom--bring us love and truth.

BOOK REVIEWS.

[_In this Department of_ THE ARENA _no book will be reviewed which
is not regarded as a real addition to literature._]

President Jordan's Saga of the Seal.

David Starr Jordan, President of Leland Stanford Junior University, has
many times deserved well of his country. As a scientific man he has, we
believe, given to the American public and the world a greater number of
original monographs on important branches of current investigation than
has any of his distinguished contemporaries. From his special department
of ichthyology, in which he became an expert fully a score of years ago,
he has branched into nearly all fields of scientific exploration,
finding ever new paths, leading to new regions and new empires of
knowledge.

Upon this basis is builded Dr. Jordan's fame as an educator. In two
great States of the Union he has presided over the affairs of high-grade
institutions of learning. After a successful career as President of the
Indiana University, he was selected from the great array of American
scholars to preside over the destinies of Leland Stanford Junior
University, at Palo Alto, California. But the onerous duties and
responsibilities of these positions have hardly distracted Dr. Jordan's
mind f