the route that they enter the mind, and the existence of unconscious, rudimentary sensations which he had before essayed to establish. The latter we have already shown the illogicalness of; the former merely suggests, but proves nothing. The words "mental" and "physical" mark the widest distinction known to us in nature. Phenomena of the one order are entirely unlike phenomena of the other.

Though constantly related in all human beings, they stand as constantly in sharp antithesis, as well in their simplest as in their most complex forms, at their nearest points of contact as at their most remote divergences. "Between the idea of a motion and the idea of a sensation," says Tyndall, "there is nothing in common." "No exertion of thought," says Herbert Spencer, "can enable us to conceive either of these ultimate elements as convertible the one into the other." But if, as Taine tells us, thought is but vibration seen from within instead of from without, why does it thus vigorously repudiate any identity with its other side?

The fact is, that we cannot study the mind successfully unless we take consciousness as our chief instrument. That alone gives us the inside view, the immediate vision. In its crude, unrefined form, as the ignorant, unreflecting mind apprehends it, its testimony may perhaps mislead. It may need to be sifted. It may need to be tested, assisted, magnified, as Taine says; but when its strict and pure deliverances are ascertained, we can never have too much of them; we can find no source of information which can give us a more direct and more intimate knowledge of the mind. If consciousness needs the assistance and connection of physiology to attain a true knowl edge of the mind, still more does the physiologist need the help of consciousness, and a firm trust in it. To find the very problems to be explained or the simpler mental elements which he would resolve them into, he must resort to the interspection of consciousness. No unconscious action or connection of actions can, of themselves, tell us anything of the conscious states of the soul. A true philosophy must not only start with consciousness, but will consult her at every turn; and whenever it finds itself offending her deepest instincts, it will know that somehow it has missed the right path.

JAMES T. BIXBY.

ART. VI. The Service of the Poor. By CAROLINE EMELIA STEPHEN. London and New York: McMillan & Co. 1871.

THE title alone of this remarkable book does not give a correct impression of its contents. The title-page further announces it to be "An Inquiry into the Reasons for and against the Establishment of Religious Sisterhoods for Charitable Purposes." This amplification reveals the real task which the authoress has set herself, namely, a very close examination of the respective merits of religious and secular establishments for ministering to the sick, in the course of which she gives a history of the principal charitable sisterhoods on the Continent of Europe and their work, comparing the results with the experiment of a nurses' training-school, which is her example of the secular system. To find the most efficient method of relief for the poorer classes is a problem which has had so large a share of public attention of late years that an able book upon any subdivision of that subject is a valuable acquisition; and Miss Stephen has given the various modes of charitable succor of the sick thorough investigation, and weighed them with admirable clearness and judgment. But it is in its bearing on the more exciting topic of religious retreats for women that we think her work of most importance and interest. So much enthusiasm, romance, party spirit, personal feeling, and other emotions, both of a higher and lower nature, invest the question of sisterhoods, that great confusion has ensued as to the outward frame-work and inward spirit of such societies, while a sort of agitated interest in them is constantly increasing. In this country, where the interest is wider spread and more feverish in proportion to our ignorance of the nature and results of such communities in places where they have had time to take root and bear fruit, mere statistical knowledge alone would be of immense use, and a careful, comprehensive, impartial consideration of the subject of invaluable benefit to a very large class among us. Miss Stephen has, therefore, done a great service to the Christian, the civilized world, and peculiarly to our portion of it,-in giving us what she calls "a fuller knowledge of the facts of the case," and a keen, profound, dispassionate too dispassionate inquiry into its

moral phenomena. Moreover, as a contribution to general literature the book deserves a very high place; it is a solid octavo volume of three hundred and fifty pages, whose accuracy of information, laborious collection of materials, judiciously condensed, earnest thought, sustained argument, vigorous, lucid, and agreeable style, make it, in all respects, a capital perform

ance.

Miss Stephen begins her Preface by the incontestable position that "some kind of organization is necessary for providing a supply of trained women for works of charity, and for directing them when trained in the performance of such works." She distinguishes between the two bases of such organization as religious and secular, using the terms as representing respectively systems whose purpose is primarily the spiritual benefit of the performer or recipient of these works, and those whose ultimate object is charity. The first demands allegiance to some religious denomination as indispensable to membership of the association, and exacts the gratuitous service of all its members; such an association is called a "sisterhood." The other necessarily involves no such conditions. "Works of charity may be roughly divided into the three branches of teaching, nursing, and almsgiving." The first and last are dismissed, the former as a settled question, settled in favor of secular institutions, the latter as so unsettled that it is impossible to consider it in its present state; therefore, the only one to be examined is nursing. Miss Stephen illustrates her idea by reference to five sisterhoods, ancient and modern, Roman Catholic and Protestant, with an account of the Liverpool training-school for nurses, as an example of a purely secular establishment. This forms the first part of the book.

The first instance of a religious and charitable association among women is the female diaconate of the primitive church. Very little is known about them; they seem to have been the object of constant opposition from their first appearance, and to have exhibited very early some of the most marked features of monastic institutions, namely, perpetual vows, celibacy, addiction to penance and mortification, and reversion of the members' property to the religious establishment to which they were attached. They were suppressed in the Western

Church about the sixth century, in the Eastern about the twelfth.

The second example is the Béguines. They took their rise in Flanders at an obscurely early day, - during the seventh century, they say themselves; there is authentic mention of one at Vilvorden as early as 1065. In the following century they began to expand, and during the thirteenth, which has been called their golden age, they spread all over Europe. "Their original object was avowedly, not the performance of works of charity, but mutual perfection and the cultivation of spiritual perfection." They included men as well as women, the latter being always widows or blameless maids, who renounced the cares and pleasures of the world to devote themselves to a better life, reserving, however, the right to return and even marry. At first much liberty was accorded them; even in towns where a Béguinage, or house of the order, existed, they were permitted to live in their own homes, wearing the dress, frequenting the religious services, and sharing the duties of the members. In the fourteenth century abuses compelled them to put an end to this privilege. Originally, no age was fixed for admission; even children were received and wore the dress, although not allowed to take the vows or be considered members until reaching the age of fourteen; later, in consequence of the volatility of these youthful votaries, the age was fixed at forty in some places; it now ranges from eighteen to thirty, but is not made a point of. They managed their property at their own pleasure; but if a sister was expelled for misconduct, she forfeited what she had brought with her; if a novice withdrew without scandal, she took away what she had brought, paying a moderate sum for board. But if she had completed her novitiate and assumed the dress and pledges of the order, she was obliged to leave the greater part of her property to the society. This clause was so unpopular and gave rise to so many difficulties, complicated by the semi-secular constitution of the society, that it seems to have been one cause of the persecution which overtook them, reaching its climax under Popes Clement V. and John II., who issued edicts for their suppression, and confided the execution to the Inquisition. Under this oppression they sought the protection of the power

ful monastic orders, and some of them adopted the rule of the Franciscans, others of the Dominicans. Under this storm the brotherhoods disappeared entirely, and most of the sisterhoods. Belgium subsequently became their head-quarters, and I believe it is only there that they are to be found at the present day. Their principal seat is Ghent, where there are two establishments, the Grand and the Petit Béguinages.

In the beginning the members lived together in one building, according to the custom of most religious communities; but by degrees the system of separate dwellings grew up, and the Grand Béguinage is a mimic city, with its miniature houses, its church, infirmary, streets, gates, and outer walls, in the heart of the old Flemish town. There is the residence of the Groote Jufrow (Great Maiden), Grande Dame, or SuperiorGeneral, the head of the community; there are the convents, eighteen in number, each with its own superior, where the Béguines live for the first six years, and permanently if they prefer it, the home of the poorer members who cannot find room with sisters who are better off; there, also, are the hundred and odd tiny brick houses, with their respective courtyards shielded by solid wooden fences from the small straight streets. Those able to afford it can thus live by themselves, sometimes hiring a bonne to do their errands and household work, sometimes taking in a poorer sister or two as lodgers. Applicants for admission must bring a certificate of irreproachable character and good conduct; as every inmate must live at her own expense, she must likewise show that she has a yearly income of one hundred and ten francs (less than twenty-five dollars), besides which on entering she is required to pay about as much more, to be divided equally between the church and her convent, for repairs, etc. These sums are paid in three instalments during the two years' novitiate, and are restored to the novice if she leaves the Béguinage. Those who have no further resources are obliged to work for their own support; the favorite industry is lace-making. "Each Béguine has a fortnight's holiday in the year, and may, in case of the illness of any of her relations, obtain leave of absence for any length of time, even for years, if she is wanted at home. The sisters living in separate houses may receive their near