there are 216,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms. This confident arithmetician also says that an atom of air weighs just fifteen ten-thousandths of a grain. This is the last degree of science.

THE IRIDOSCOPE.-M. Moudin, of Paris, has added another of these ingenious instruments-the iridoscopeby the aid of which an individual is able to see all that is going on in his own eye. It is simply an opaque shell to cover the eye, pierced in the center with a very small hole. On looking through steadfastly at the sky, or at any diffused light, the observer may watch the tears streaming over the globe, and note the dilation and contraction of the iris, and even see the aqueous humor poured in when the eye is fatigued by a long observation. It is needless to say that with the aid of this instrument a man can easily find out for himself whether he has a cataract or not. If he has, he will only see a sort of vail covering the luminous disk which is seen by a healthy eye. The instrument is certainly simple and curious, and will no doubt excite attention in those who are anxious to know more of themselves. An "iridoscope" may be readily extemporized by making a hole in the bottom of a pill-pox

with a fine needle.

TO KEEP TIRES ON WHEELS.-I ironed a wagon one year ago for my own use, and before putting on the tires I filled the felloes with linseed oil; and the tires have worn out and were never loose. I ironed a buggy for my own use several years ago, and the tires are now as tight as when put on. My method of filling

the felloes with oil is as follows: I use a long cast iron heater, made for the purpose. The oil is brought to a boiling heat, the wheel is placed on a stick, so as to hang in the oil each felloe, an hour for a common-sized felloe. The timber should be dry, as green timber will not take oil. Care should be taken that the oil be no hotter than a boiling heat, in order that the timber be not burnt. Timber filled with oil is not susceptible to water, and the timber is much more durable.

INTENSE HEAT FROM GAS.-M. Schloesing, a German chemist, has succeeded, it is said, in discovering an arrangement by which an intense heat, sufficient to melt iron, can be obtained from ordinary gas. The principle of his contrivance is the complete combustion of proportionate amounts of gas and air within a confined space. A copper tube, carefully pierced, is the chief instrument in securing these results. M. Schlosing was able to melt a piece of iron, weighing four hund. red grammes, in twenty minutes.

METHODISM IN NEW ENGLAND.-From the statistical report made to the late Centenary convention held in the city of Boston we gather the following interesting items:

The Methodist Church in New England contains 104,000 members and local preachers, 111,000 Sabbath school scholars, 370,000 volumes in the Sabbath school libraries.

There are 910 church edifices and 430 parsonages, valued at $1,250,000, or $40 to each member. The largest average is in Rhode Island, where the value of property to each member is $81.

There are 13 educational institutions, with 113 instructors, 3,368 pupils, and property worth $670,000.

Since 1860 there have been added 12,000 Sabbath school children, 30,000 volumes, 50 churches, 40 parsonages, and $1,000,000 in church property.

In 1800 the Church numbered 5,800 members, and in no decade since had decreased. From 1820 to 1840 the increase was 9 per cent. annually; from 1840 to 1860 the average increase was 14 per cent.

In 1800 the Methodists were 1 to 211 people in New England; in 1830, 1 to 44; in 1866, 1 to every 29. The proportion is largest in Vermont and Maine, or 1 to 21; and least in Rhode Island, 1 to 37.

The Congregational is the largest evangelical denomination in New England; the Methodist the second; the Baptist the third.

The average salaries of Methodist preachers in 1860 was $468; in 1866 it was $610. In the mean time the cost of living has more than doubled. The increase of salaries has been highest in the Providence Conference, equal to 36 per cent.

Not including home charities, $23,000 was given for benevolent purposes in the year.

SICILIAN MODE OF EATING STRAWBERRIES.-It is the custom throughout Sicily to eat strawberries along with sugar and the juice of an orange or two. The strawberries, a small kind, come to the table without stalks, are crushed with white powdered sugar, and the juice of an orange is squeezed over them. The result is a most fragrant and agreeable compound, much superior, in my opinion, to strawberries and cream. Indeed, I think it is all but worth while to make a

journey to Sicily to be initiated into this mode of eating strawberries.

VALUABLE MANUSCRIPTS REVEALED.-The Paris Moniteur lately made the following remarkable state

ment:

"The town of Edcemiadzin, near Mount Ararat, in Armenia, the residence of the Patriarch, contains a splendid library, composed of three thousand Armenian manuscripts of which the literary world was hitherto quite ignorant. A catalogue of the collection has now been printed, and presents a vast field for researchers into the religious and political history of Central Asia. It reveals the existence of unknown works by the fathers of the Church, and of fragments of Diodorus, The Armenian Patriarch Sicilus, and of Aristotle.

states, in an official preface, that those manuscripts which have been kept secret will be for the future not only open to examination, but that extracts may be taken for learned men in all parts of the world, if they pay the cost of copying."

ELECTRICITY OF THE OCEAN.-The Paris correspondent of the Chemical News states that an important experiment has been made by M. Duchemin during a holiday at the seaside. He made a small cork buoy, and fixed to it a disk of charcoal containing a small plate of zinc. He then threw the buoy into the sea, and connected it with copper wires to an electric alarm on the shore. The alarm instantly began to ring, and has gone on ringing ever since, and it is added that sparks may be drawn between the two ends of the wire. Thus the ocean seems to be a powerful and inexhaustible source of electricity, and the small experiment of M. Duchemin may lead to most important results.

HECK HALL.

BY REV. J. SMART.

As it is now certain that this memorial edifice will be erected, and as the Ladies' Repository was in some sense the occasion of its origin, I trust it will not be altogether uninteresting to your readers to learn how the idea of it was first suggested.

The necessity of erecting suitable and permanent buildings for the Garrett Biblical Institute had long been felt by the Faculty and Trustees. At last they resolved not only to appeal to the public for this purpose, but to come forward themselves and head the subscription, Rev. Dr. Kidder giving one thousand dollars, Rev. Dr. Raymond one hundred, and Rev. Dr. Bannister one hundred. On the part of the Trustees, O. Lunt, Esq., gave one thousand dollars, John V. Farwell, Esq., one thousand, Hon. Grant Goodrich five hundred, and Rev. Dr. T. M. Eddy two hundred.

The enterprise had also received the unmistakable sanction of the Bishops. Bishop Baker, from whom I received my original appointment as Financial Agent, and who gives a thousand dollars as a Centenary offering to the New England Institute, assured me that, in his opinion, the work was worthy of any man, and that nothing that I could do would more effectually advance the interests of Christ's kingdom.

ought to afford as good facilities for the education of her ministry as any other; that students had sometimes gone to the theological seminaries of other denominations for the sake of superior advantages, but that this was absurd when we have both the men and the means to make our own theological schools equal to the best in the land, and far superior to any other for the education of Methodist ministers.

It was decided, as indeed it before had been by several General Conferences, that these schools, for the education of our common ministry, were properly connectional institutions, under the supervision of the Bishops and the General Conference, and, therefore, legitimately claimed attention from the General Centenary Committee.

In the mind of the Committee their claims took precedence of all others; hence the Garrett Biblical Institute at Evanston, and the General Biblical Institute at Concord, were placed first on the list of objects for the Centenary offerings of the Church. Our original design of erecting Centenary memorial buildings having thus received the sanction of the highest authorities of the Church, we deemed it expedient to publish eirculars in the various Church papers calling the attention of the Methodist public to the importance of our work.

While sending off these circulars the thought sug

Ladies' Repository?" And so I began to write:

The design was to erect memorial buildings to mark the first Centenary of American Methodism. Accordingly this was one of the first objects placed before the General Centenary Committee at its session in Cleveland, Ohio, February 22, 1865. Bishop Ames introduced the subject, saying that he would not attempt to dictate the policy of the Committee, and that he arose even to make a suggestion with some diffidence at that early stage in its proceedings, but he desired to call attention to the propriety of providing for the upbuilding of our two Biblical Institutes, and for the establishment of a fund for the education of our rising ministry.

His proposition was very thoroughly discussed, and, with some slight modifications as to the fund, very unanimously adopted.

It was felt that nothing was of greater importance to the Church than that our theological schools should be placed, in every respect, upon a first-class basis. The example of our English Wesleyan brethren, who made the erection of buildings for their theological schools the first great object in their Centenary movement, was cited as full of wisdom and worthy of imitation. It was urged that the State makes very ample provision for general education, including all the secular professions, while the entire responsibility of a professional education for those called of God to preach the Gospel devolves upon the Church; that our Church

"REV. I. W. WILEY, D. D.-Dear Doctor,-As this Institution was founded by a lady, perhaps this appeal' for it ought to appear in the Ladies' Repository. At any rate you might notice it, and make some extracts from it. Would it not be well for Methodist ladies to aid in erecting memorial buildings upon a foundation laid by one of their own sex?"

Here I paused and began to reflect upon the part borne by women in the history of Methodism. I instantly remembered that the mother of the Wesleys had been called by Isaac Taylor and Dr. Stevens the mother of Methodism. Immediately a confused idea of the part taken in the origin of American Methodism by Mrs. Heck flashed upon my mind. I turned to my library, took down Stevens's History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and found it there recorded that this holy woman had, as a Methodist, made the first earnest assault upon the powers of darkness, delivered the first exhortation, persuaded the first preacher to do his duty, convened the first congregation and class, and planned the first Church edifice of the denomination upon this continent.

I am aware that this order was changed by the Committee at New York in November, 1865, and that the Centenary Educational Fund was placed first in position and importance. This was not because the claims of the Institutes were esteemed less, but the Fund more. Eight months' consideration had deepened the conviction of the importance of both in the mind of the Committee.

I felt as I never did before that the whole sex was honored by that record, and that if any name in our history deserved to be remembered at such a time as this, it was hers. It seemed to me that especially every Methodist woman would delight to have this record made prominent in this Centenary jubilee.

The great historian of the Church had acknowledged her claims to attention, and had awarded her the honor of being the foundress of American Methodism. In commemorating the origin of Methodism in this country we therefore celebrate her good deeds.

This thought may humble us, but it honors God. Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord," was Methodism planted in America-this great Church of two millions planted by a poor, humble, but holy woman!

If this be so, her record ought to be written in letters of gold. Her name ought to be engraved on every Methodist heart, and a monument should be erected to her memory which will lift up her holy example in the eyes of all the world forever.

No specific work had hitherto been assigned to the women of the Church in this Centennial celebration. This seemed to me an oversight. What was there so fitting and appropriate for them to do as to erect a monument in honor of Barbara Heck? And where could that monument so appropriately stand as upon the only great foundation in the country laid by one of her own sex? And what could be so significant and expressive a memorial of her who called out the first Methodist minister in this New World as to build up an institution whose very existence is a perpetual reminder of the duty to preach the Gospel, and whose sole business is to prepare men for this holy work?

We had already determined to make our educational building a memorial edifice in a double sense; that is, it is to mark our first Centennial, and at the same time preserve the names of great historical characters in the Church, by having its various departments dedicated to their memory. Thus the chapel is to be called "Dempster Hall," the library perhaps "Elliott Hall," one lecture-room "Asbury Hall." Detroit Conference, by contributing five thousand dollars, is to be permitted to name one apartment "Collins Hall," in honor of Rev. W. H. Collins. Central Illinois Conference, upon the same conditions, is to give the name of Hon. John W. Spencer, of Rock Island, Illinois, to one of these halls.

Indeed, any one upon payment of five thousand dollars is allowed to name one of these apartments. Names for all the rooms are thus to be substituted for numbers. My first idea was that one of the apartments in this building might be erected in honor of Mrs. Heck, and be called "Heck Hall." But this, it was suggested, was not a work of sufficient magnitude as a Centenary monument to be erected in honor of the foundress of a Church whose membership in all its branches must number at least two millions. Besides, it would lack distinctness and individuality of character. It was desirable that her monument should be sui generis, and not included in a class, such as I have named.

The ladies suggested that nothing is so appropriate for women to present in the name of a woman as a home; and it was decided by the Faculty and Trustees that

the necessity for a comfortable home for the students is more pressing by far than for the educational building, though the latter is greatly needed. The ladies, therefore, determined to build a separate edifice, costing fifty thousand dollars, as a home for the students of the Garrett Biblical Institute while prosecuting their studies preparatory to the work of the ministry. This would be all their own, and might be pointed to a hundred years hence, not only as the monument of Mrs. Heck, but as their monument. And it ought to be noted that this is the only monument proposed to be built by the ladies alone in connection with this Centennial. This plan was submitted, not only to the ladies, but to many of our most prominent brethren in various parts of the country, and met with very general approbation. A convention of ladies was called, and met in Clark-Street Church, in Chicago, September 4, 1865. An organization was formed for the purpose of prosecuting this work under the title of the American Methodist Ladies' Centenary Associa tion. Mrs. Bishop Hamline was elected President; Mrs. Gov. Evans, First Vice-President; Mrs. Rev. C. H. Fowler, Secretary; Miss Frances E. Willard, Corresponding Secretary; and Mrs. E. Haskin, Treasurer. This is the origin of "Heck Hall," and also of Ladies' Centenary Association.

Had it not been for the Repository, I know not that any thing of the kind would ever have been suggested. In a subsequent article I propose to show how this Association was heartily approved by the General Centenary Committee, its basis of operations enlarged so as to embrace the New England Institute, the Fund and the Mission-House, and how gloriously it is now prosecuting its work.

THE CENTENNIAL EDUCATIONAL FUND.-From a recent circular issued by the Central Committee we extract the following considerations on the abovenamed great Centenary interest:

While all the other general enterprises of the Church are working harmoniously under well-regulated systems, our educational interests are irregular, discordant, and isolated in their action. It is believed that a board of education having the dispensing of the interest of a large fund to such institutions as might be subject to their oversight, would so far regulate our educational system as that the Church would no longer be called upon to mourn over ruined institutions, or behold with pain surviving ones struggling for exist ence. It is well known that in the history of academies and colleges a few thousand dollars, at particular junctures, would save an institution from going down, but hitherto there has been no fund to which appeals could be made.

"It is becoming clear that Methodism is to perform a controlling part in the intellectual, as well as the religious education of this great nation. Springing from comparative obscurity and poverty, our Church has risen in numbers and power till her sons are found seated in the high places of commerce, manufactures, and agriculture, and wielding a proportionate influence in the councils of the nation. It is not, therefore, our high mission to so concentrate the power of the Church that we shall act as vigorously and efficiently in the interests of education as we do in the interests of missions and Sunday schools, and so ultimately largely control the education of the whole people?

As our members increase in wealth, they will naturally seek objects for their benevolent gifts. It may happen that educational institutions in the localities where they reside will be amply supported; hence for want of a general fund the gifts and bequests of our wealthy members will flow in other channels, and the cause of education correspondingly suffer. But with such a fund as is now contemplated all the gifts for the promotion of education will be secured. And what shall prevent such a fund from accumulating till every section of our broad Methodism, every color and race, shall be amply provided with institutions of all grades to meet the wants of the whole people.

There is danger to our unity as a Church when we become accustomed to regard sectional interests, of whatever kind, so strongly as to lose sight of the general good. Indeed, there is danger that local attachments will be unduly stimulated this Centenary year, unless our people are well guarded, and are led to look broadly at the connectional interests of the Church. Will not a general fund do much toward cementing us as one people, and to a large extent arrest the tendency to localization? In contributing to this fund an opening is made for each member to lay a gift on a common altar, and thus present tokens of a Methodistic brotherhood. Will not every Methodist in our connection yield to the fund a portion of his offering?"

THE CHILDREN'S FUND.-The same circular from the Central Committee also calls fresh attention to this fund, and well considers its claim on the regard of pastors and superintendents. It speaks as follows:

"The more this part of the plan is discussed, the more acceptable does it become to the whole Church. First viewed with suspicion, or at least with timidity, it│| is making its way to almost universal favor.

"1. We feel it our duty to press this measure upon the consideration of the adult membership as well as the children, for there are multitudes who have received their all of spiritual and temporal good through the Sabbath school, and should, therefore, welcome the opportunity which is hereby afforded to make an offering of gratitude.

"2. The children have been busy workers in the missionary cause, till they have become a principal source of reliance for its funds; indeed, they have cheerfully promoted every financial interest of the Church. The time has now come when they have an opportunity to accomplish a grand work for their own benefit. Shall they be allowed to do it, or shall their efforts be devoted to local interests, and so be denied the privilege of par

ticipation in the monumental work of the Centenary year?

"3. What nobler enterprise than to make this year historic in bringing together the educational interests of the Church, both intellectual and moral? Hitherto no link has bound together in a common interest our Sunday schools and academies. Shall not this be the occasion to unite them in indissoluble bonds?

"4. Has not the time come when the Church shall assume her entire responsibility, and provide ample educational advantages for her sons and daughters, the indigent as well as the prosperous? Many of the older scholars in our schools, who would become burning and shining lights if permitted to enter our higher institutions of learning, are now forced, through poverty, to ordinary occupations, and thus multitudes of laborers are spending in obscurity the strength which is so much needed in the broad fields of the Church.

"5. This fund for the education of children will only be inaugurated this Centenary year, whether it reaches one quarter, one half, or a round million. Its operations will be so widely extensive, its benefits so marked, that gifts and bequests will flow into it in a perpetual stream; and when those now living shall see our population increased to one hundred millions, and our Sunday school scholars to ten millious, they may also behold a children's fund of at least as many millions of dollars as there may be millions of scholars.

"6. The same consideration prevails in relation to the Children's Fund as prevails in relation to the Connectional Educational Fund; it will prove a source of strength to the whole Church. By a common interest we bind all our children together, and then bind them to the Church. What a glorious consummation, if with bands of love, and bands of gold, "Methodism shall at last secure to herself her own precious fruit!"

CENTENARY DOCUMENTS.-The following excellent suggestion is from Dr. Mattison:

With what interest will the Methodists of 1966 look upon every thing that may then exist which relates to our present Centenary celebration-books, pamphlets, sermons, proceedings of conventions, etc.! Now, as we are to have a fire-proof Centenary Mission Building-and we hope also a Centenary Book Room, all in one-we respectfully suggest that three copies of every book, circular, printed sermon, programme, report of proceedings, etc., that in any way relates to Centenary celebrations, general or local, be sent free of postage to Rev. William C. Hoyt, as the general depositary of Centenary documents.

By

"By this simple process a collection of documents can be secured which will be of great use in the future, and which no money could buy a hundred years to come. Will not all our brethren in the ministry bear this in mind, and see that their local celebrations, however humble, are represented in this collection? writing the words Centenary Documents' on the outside of the wrappers, they can be selected from the exchange papers, and put by themselves with little trouble. Will our brethren of Boston, Philadelphia, Trenton, and elsewhere, whose Centenary meetings have been held, please see to it that all documents relating thereto, even to the programmes and tickets of admis sion, be forwarded immediately as above?"

"

44

AN EIRENICON, IN A LETTER TO THE AUTHOR OF THE CHRISTIAN YEAR." By E. B. Pusey, D. D. 12mo. Pp. 395. $2. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Cincinnati: R. W. Carroll & Co.-The author of "The Christian Year" is Archbishop Manning, one of the former leaders of the High-Church movement in the Establishment, and who naturally enough passed over to the Church of Rome, in which he has taken a high position, and has become a zealous defender of all the pretensions and exclusivism of the Papal Church. A thorough devotee of Rome, he still has kindly feelings toward his old confreres in the controversies of the past, and is still most ingeniously laboring to draw them on toward the same goal which he has himself reached. Yet he is uncompromising in his attachment to the claims of Rome, and while waiting to welcome the clergy and laity of the Church of England to the bosom of the infallible mother, he is utterly opposed to any other method of reaching that maternal embrace, than by an absolute abnegation of Anglicanism, and an equally absolute acceptance of the high and exclusive claims of Romanism. The Church of England, in his view, like all other sects and denominations, is nothing more than a schism from the one only true Church of God, with which the "Catholic Church" can have no fellowship, and with which union or consolidation would be utterly impossible. In "The Christian Year" Dr. Manning vigorously attacks the position of Dr. Pusey, that the Church of England is in God's hands the great bulwark against infidelity in this (England) land." On the contrary, the Archbishop maintains that "the seventeen or eighteen thousand men (the English clergy) educated with all the advantages of the English schools and universities, and distributed all over England, who maintain a perpetual protest, not only against the (Roman) Catholic Church, but against the belief that there is any divine voice immutably and infallibly guiding the Church at this hour, are the necessary promoters of infidelity, as the defenders of a great schism, the promoters of free thought and discussion, and the antagonists of the only antidote against infidelity-the infallibility of the Church. In another letter recently addressed by the Archbishop to the Papal clergy of England, on the organization formed among some members of the Anglican, Greek, and Roman Churches, to labor and pray for the reunion and consolidation of these three branches of the Church, he, in obedience to orders from Rome, strongly denounces the "Union," and in the name of the "Holy See" forbids the faithful to have any fellowship or participation with this movement, even to pray with the heretics" of the Greek and Anglican Churches. Of course he stands upon the high ground of Romanism-union there can be none-there may be unity, but only by the Greek and Anglican Churches returning obediently and submissively into the bosom of the one Holy Catholic Church." The "Eirenicon" is an able review of all these positions of Dr. Manning, a vindication of the claims of the Church of England as a branch of the

apostolic Church, an attempted exhibition of the close approximation of the Anglican and Roman Churches in the many points in which they agree, and the few in which they disagree; the whole being a running argument in favor of the reunion of the three branches of the "one Holy Catholic Church." The controversy is an interesting one, exhibiting on both sides a constant tendency to embrace each other, but manifesting on the side of Dr. Manning the ancient pride and haughtiness of Rome, and on the side of Dr. Pusey containing some home-thrusts into these lofty pretensions.

THE TEMPORAL MISSION OF THE HOLY GHOST; or, Reason and Revelation. By Henry Edward, Archbishop of Westminister. 12mo. Pp. 274. $1.75. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Cincinnati: R. W. Carroll & Co.Another work from the pen of Archbishop Manning. Of course it is a work of great learning, and equally, of course, it is intensely in the interest of Romanism. It is a discussion of the great problem of the relation of reason and revelation. The doctrines of the book, as a whole, are precisely the same as those of the famous Encyclical of the Roman Pontiff of 1864, defining the relations of the Church and the faith to the political and social changes of this age, and the limits of time and false liberty of the intellect and the will in individuals and in societies of men. The introduction, con

sisting of some fifty pages, contains some admirable propositions well stated, defining the relations of reason and faith, with some excellent strictures on rationalism. It also contains the author's retraction of his former

views, and his transition from the freedom of Protestantism to subjection to "the infallible teachings of the Church." All the rest of the book is only a new form of presenting the old argument for the immutability of the Romish Church.

THE PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY. By Herbert Spencer, Author of The Principles of Psychology," etc. Vol. I. 12mo. Pp. 475. $2.50. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Cincinnati: R. W. Carroll & Co.-In our brief space we can do nothing more than announce this great work from the pen of one of the greatest thinkers and essayists of our day. The class of minds for whom it is intended will need nothing more. The way for it was prepared by the author's "First Principles," which was republished in this country a year or two since. The subject of Biology, or the Science of Life, which comes next in order in his system of Philosophy, is to be treated in two volumes, of which this is the first. Mr. Spencer is a positivist, not technically of the school of Compté, but of that school which sets aside all sources of human knowledge but those which lie within ourselves, and which discards all facts but those which are discoverable by human investigation. Disdaining as a philosopher the help of revelation, he enters into an independent investigation of natural and social problems as they are. He is an admirer of the new philosophy," an apostle of the "dynamic theory" of the