kind of artifices with all other demagogues, whether political or otherwise. He flatters the vanity, caresses the weakness, and strengthens the prejudice of the great mass of people. He is one of the people; he lives for the good of the people; he has their welfare nearest his heart; his whole object is to protect them from the tyranny of science; to guard them from placing confidence in learned and skillful physicians, who have devoted their whole time and talents to the study and improvement of a noble profession, and are not of the people, but are combined against the people, to enslave them while living and inherit their effects when dead. Empiricism has always been the same; a compound of libels upon science and virtue, of ignorance, effrontery, and falsehood."

In the thirtieth year of his age Dr. Monette entered upon his greatest literary undertaking,-the writing of an elaborate work on the geography and history of the Mississippi Valley. His original plan embraced only a book on the physical geography of the Mississippi Valley, and he spent several years upon this work before deciding to enlarge it so as to embrace also the political geography and history of this region. In 1837, after four years of unremitting toil, he thought that his physical geography was well nigh ready for the press, but before he could complete his revision new information required to be inserted. Although the book was re-written and enlarged several times, as new information was acquired, the author, because of his anxiety "to give it the greatest possible perfectness," would never consent to hand the manuscript over to his publishers.

About the year 1841, at the suggestion of some of his friends, Dr. Monette undertoook to prepare a history of the Mississippi Valley as a separate volume. But before he had completed his work he found that his history would make two large octavo volumes. Strange as it may seem, these two volumes, published by the Harpers in 1846, are the only published results of his more pretentious efforts.

As this valuable work may be found in almost every important library in the country, no attempt will be made to give an elaborate account of it in this connection. His manuscripts show that this part of his work was done with his usual care. If further evidence of this fact were necessary, it could be furnished by his private copy of the printed

volumes, to which the writer of this paper has had access. It contains a large number of erasures, annotations, and corrections, including in many places the addition of valuable facts in manuscript notes. On the margin of these books are found a large number of entries, as follows: "rewritten," "omitted," "revised," "see manuscript text," etc. In each case the carefully prepared manuscript text is pasted in its proper place. One of the three new chapters which he intended to add to this work upon the publication of a second edition will be found in Volume VII of the Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society. It bears the title, "The Progress of Navigation and Commerce on the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes, A. D. 1700-1846."

The first volume of this history contains an account of the events which happened in the Mississippi Valley prior to its acquisition by the United States. The second volume, entitled "The United States in the Valley of the Mississippi," contains the first comprehensive history of the region as a whole during this period. The style of the author is simple and fascinating. His account of frontier life is full of interest. One of the most commendable features of the entire work is the large number of references to sources and authorities. There were few books of value then available upon the history of the Mississippi Valley which are not referred to in the footnotes of these volumes. The magnitude of Dr. Monette's undertaking and the financial outlay necessary to its execution will be evident to any who reflect that the work was done before there were any great libraries in the Mississippi Valley and before there was any system of inter-library loans. The editor of DeBow's Review referred to it as the only work which could at that time "in any degree satisfy the desire for information" which was everywhere felt with reference to the great Valley of the Mississippi, and he expressed an opinion that this able work deserved many editions and an extensive circulation in our country. He also said: "In its arrangement, it is admirable; in its matter and execution, nothing could be more fruitful and reliable."

Dr. Monette did not live to finish the work on his physi cal geography, which treatise he seemed to think would be

his most important contribution to knowledge. Judging from his manuscripts, this work was well-nigh completed at the time of his death. Any one who reads it today will join with Professor Forshey, his intimate friend and associate in scientific work, in saying that Dr. Monette and the public were both losers by the failure to publish the physical geography. Professor Forshey expressed a further belief that upon its publication it would be found "to form one of the most valuable works ever given to the public, from an American hand."

In order to place a proper estimate upon Dr. Monette's physical geography it must be studied in the light of the time at which it was written. There was then no book which gave an adequate treatment of the subject. The only works that professedly treated it were those by Timothy Flint and William Darby. The first of these writers, according to Dr. Monette, presented his statistics and facts "with such careless inaccuracy and such looseness of language," that many viewed it "more as a kind of geographical romance than as a great work on physical geography." Although Darby's books contained much valuable information, they treated of the Mississippi Valley only incidentally.

At the time when Dr. Monette was engaged in the preparation of his physical geography, the Valley of the Mississippi was attracting thousands of settlers from the Atlantic coast and was receiving the attention of the entire nation. These facts led to a widespread inquiry concerning this interesting and little understood region and there was a demand for an elaborate and authentic treatise on the subject. Dr. Monette intended his book to be "the nucleus for such an undertaking," which he said might be "extended and enlarged at some future time." In his manuscript preface he claimed credit for originating the plan of dividing the physical geography of a country according to its "river regions." He also states that "the physical details of the lower Valley of the Mississippi" as given in his book were "mostly new and the result of personal observation." His treatment of the climate and seasons of the Delta is full of interest. Professor Forshey gives a compact summary of this elaborate work in the following language:

"The scope of the work is such as to entitle it to the name of 'Physical Geography' in its fullest sense. The height of mountains; the elevation of plains, uplands, and alluvians; the force of torrents, their rate of fall, and quantity of discharge; the variations of climate, its humidity, healthfulness, temperature, and general and local meteorology; the natural productions of the earth, mineral and vegetable; forest trees, shrubs, medicinal plants and waters; agriculture, and its variety of products, both local and general; and the mode of culture of the several great staple productions; the native inhabitants of the valley, their manners, customs, and the antiquity that marked the footsteps of the earlier races of men; the animals peculiar to each portion of the valley, and the effects of civilization upon the native races of men and animals; the conquest, settlement, and advance of states, to their present condition of prosperity and enlightenment; these and analogous subjects, are treated in a most elaborate and masterly manner."

It is pathetic to think that after his prolonged and arduous scientific investigations, the name of Dr. Monette, like that of his great predecessor, William Dunbar, the pioneer scientist of Mississippi-cannot be found among American men of science. Dr. Monette was completely enamored of nature, but his ideals were so exalted that he could not get his own consent to publish any of the most valuable scientific treatises which he prepared from time to time. As a result, the only evidence that remains of his persistent efforts to penetrate the secrets of nature is the large batch of manuscripts, now yellow with age, which are prized by his son as a most precious family heritage. Although deprived of the fame to which his scientific labors entitled him, his important though less pretentious service to the cause of history has justly earned for him the title of the pioneer historian of the Mississippi Valley.

The Poetry of Madison Cawein

BY ANNA Blanche MCGILL

When all is said concerning the present status of the poetic art in America, and during the past year many things seem to have been said, if not in the higher courts of criticism at least in the lesser tribunals, perhaps the quality most generally found wanting in the work under consideration has been that of distinctiveness. Though in characterizing that portion of our literary field sacred to the muse, one may not go so far as the English critic who named the American Anthology a wilderness of mediocrity, the most partial judge must lament the infrequency of his opportunity to enjoy that special exhilaration kindled by the appearance of some particular, arresting individuality. Other prerequisites for the singing art seem to be a common possession-even of the versifiers. Fluency, felicity and other lyric graces exist in an abundance that would have made many an arid period of the past blossom as the rose. But we have become so accustomed to these technical excellencies that they no longer captivate the ear as they did. It is not sufficient that every one raises the flower now since all have the seed-the glory of the early burst of bloom is never recaptured, and in vain as a rule does the reader who does not believe that poetry is a dead art, some day to be classed with mound-building, look for some new burgeoning to arrest his attention and inflame his fancy.

In the introduction to an English edition of the poems of Madison Cawein, published in London a few years ago, Mr. Edmund Gosse, viewing this condition of the muse as a crisis of languor, remarked: "In his own country, at this particular moment, in this matter of serious nature-painting, Mr. Cawein possesses what Cowley would have called a 'monopoly of wit." A less exclusive yet fastidious judgment might admit into the monopoly, if one may speak Hibernianly, a few exponents of other phases of the poetic art, if not of this special one, serious nature-painting. But after this re