CURRENT LITERATURE.
of Nature," the book which was too thorough-going in its negation ) Fortnightly is the editor's sketch of Holbach's dreary book, the "System even for the sceptics who preceded the French Revolution ; but per- haps more people will read Mr. Grant Duff's plea for a "rational education," which is really a sketch of the best method of educating a wealthy lad, or as he puts it, "a lad who can have all tho chances.' His loading idea is that education should be modernised, that a lat should acquire German, French, and Italian, as well as Latin and Greek very little mathematics, and a good deal of " knowledge," which includes book-keeping, jurisprudence, and physics. We rather think ho wants to teach too much, but the paper is valuable because it enters into de- tail. Mr. Mackenzie Wallace's account of "Secret Societies in Russia
is unsatisfying, though readable. It main thesis is that the societies are of no particular importance, and that Nihilism in particular is a mere name for the very vague discontent of young dreamers who derive most of their inspiration from France. A paper by Dr. Burney Yee, on "The Comparative Curative Effect of Sea Mr and Mountain Air," though dry, is full of curious information, and lays down as doctrine that in illnesses arising from mental overwork mountain air is best, more especially as it can be obtained amid the stillnesa of high mountain regions.
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