Its amplitude instead of being 26° is 40° N. of E.; with a latitude of 51°, the 26° azimuth of Thebes is represented by an amplitude of 40° at Stonehenge.

"The structure consists of a double circle of stones, with a sort of naos composed of large stones facing a so-called avenue, which is a sunken way between two parallel banks. This avenue stretches

away from the naos in the direction of the solstitial sunrise.

"But this is not all. In the avenue, but not in the center of its width, there is a stone called the 'Friar's Heel,' so located in relation to the horizon that, according to Mr. Flinders Petrie, who has made careful measurements of the whole structure, it aligned the coming sunrise from a point behind the naos or trilithon. The horizon is invisible at the entrance of the circle, the peak of the heel rising far above it; from behind the circles the peak is below the horizon. Now, from considerations which I shall state at length further on, Mr. Petrie concludes that Stonehenge existed 2000 B. C. It must not be forgotten that structures more or less similar to Stonehenge are found along a line from the east on both sides of the Mediter

ranean.

"It will be seen that the use of the marking stone to indicate the direction in which the sun will rise answers exactly the same purpose as the long avenue of majestic columns and pylons in the Egyptian temples. In both cases we had a means of determining the commencement and the succession of years.

"Hence, just as sure as the temple of Karnak once pointed to the sun setting at the summer solstice, the temple at Stonehenge pointed nearly to the sun rising at the summer solstice. Stonehenge, there is little doubt, was so constructed that at sunrise at the same solstice the shadow of one stone fell exactly on the stone in the center; that observation indicated to the priests that the New Year had begun, and possibly also fires were lighted to flash the news through the country. And in this way it is possible that we have the ultimate origin of the midsummer fires, which have been referred to by so many authors."

Professor Larkin draws a vivid picture of the consternation which must have seized the priests of Egypt when they began to notice the deviations of the solar rays. It meant to them a change in the constitution of the world involving the ruin of Egypt, and if we consider that the dreaded catastrophe actually came, that Egypt, the land of civilization, lost her eminent position among the nations, became a prey to foreign invaders and had to yield her leadership to other races, we seem to be confronted with a fulfillment of the

astrological prophecies of a superstitious past. Yet, after all, the reverses of the land of the Pharaohs are only the result of a general principle underlying the views of both the world-conception of primitive mankind and that of modern science, which is the truth that there is a universal world-order and that changes set in according to immutable laws. The leadership among the nations has been constantly shifting and so far the saying has proved true, at least in general outline, that the course of empire has been toward the west. Though the change of place is perhaps not determinable in geographical data, we know that great revolutions are constantly taking place and that even for us the time may come when we shall cease to be the representatives of progressive humanity.

MISCELLANEOUS.

MODERN ART IN JAPAN.

The victories of Japan have acted as an effective advertisement for the country of the rising sun. Even during the war, its trade and commerce have been expanding, while science, literature, and the arts are flourishing. As an instance of how dangers and triumphs are stimulating her national life we publish as a frontispiece, a series of panels which characterize modern Japan in the very latest phase of her development.

The first panel, called "Victory," by Eitatsu Koyama, appeals to Japanese patriotism. It shows the taking of the hostile wall on top of which a young Japanese officer is waving the banner of the rising sun.

Part of the Japanese success is due to the care with which all the accessory institutions indispensable for the general support of the army have been handled. It is well known how much Europe and America will have to learn from the Japanese medical and sanitary staff and also from the practical way in which baggage and ammunition have been forwarded. Kogyo Sakamaki has devoted a picture to this important branch of the Japanese army, and shows us an incident in the life of the commissariat department.

While the present war naturally stands in the foreground of interest, we observe that the old national heroes and traditions are not forgotten. It has been observed by war correspondents and also at the Russian headquarters, that the Japanese dead are always dressed in clean linen and scrupulously washed and kempt; and it is a fact that before every battle all the Japanese troops from the higher officers down to the privates, bathe and dress in clean clothes. This is the reminiscence of an idea prevalent in feudal Japan, when the hero was more anxious for his honor than even for victory. It is reported of Kimura-Shigenari that before he started out to give battle to his adversary Tokugava, the Sho-gun, that he was dressed in new and clean clothes, and when he fell in battle, his enemy found his hair perfumed with sweetest odors. It was a point of honor to the medieval Japanese warrior to make a good appearance even in the hour of death. Eiga Yamakaga pictures the moment when Kimura-Shigenari is making ready for battle. His wife kneels at the side of his chair, having a vase of ointment before her on the tabouret.

Another picture of the same class by Konen Kumamimi represents the youth of Date-Masamune, one of the chief generals of Kimura-Shigenari. A priest is instructing the youth as both are kneeling before an altar of Achala, the god of will-power.

ON THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF CONSCIOUS SURVIVAL.

To the Editor of The Open Court:

I should like to reply to that part of Mr. Wakeman's article on "Human Immortalities," that directly concerns my own position as stated in the November number of The Open Court.

I take exception to no portion of Mr. Wakeman's paper, save that under the heading of "Science and Sentiment"; and even here I can quite see and appreciate Mr. Wakeman's attitude of mind, which, as I before stated, is thoroughly understandable. I would point out, however, that Mr. Wakeman, in his reply, has in no wise answered my objection to his position, as stated in my own criticism, which was, namely: "That the majority of Open Court readers do not look at Psychical Research phenomena in the proper spiritor study them from the particular point of view of the Psychical Researcher." (P. 697.)

Mr. Wakeman confines his criticism of my previous article to my other article on "The Origin and Nature of Consciousness," to which I referred in my discussion, and has limited his criticism to my viewpoint, as expressed in that article, and to the theory I there maintained; and has not at all answered the primary objection I raised in The Open Court, as to the attitude of mind assumed by himself and others towards the possibility of immortality. Before discussing this at greater length, I should like to reply briefly to the criticism as raised by Mr. Wakeman of my theory of consciousness, and its relation to brain-function. In stating that "it must be admitted that thought is in one sense or another a function of the brain,” I did not intend to imply, and in fact my whole article was against the assumption, that the thought was the production of the brain functioning, and I then pointed out that the functioning might be connected with states of consciousness in altogether another way than in the relation of producer and produced, and that it was at least conceivable that this functioning, accompanying all thought, is but coincidental with the thought;-not necessarily its producer, but conceivably the produced, the thought being the real causal agency; or that both are but aspects of something else-differing from both in its underlying reality,—just as the tremors of a violin string are perceived by us as sound, and as more or less visible vibrations of cat gut, according to whether the ear or the eye interprets these vibrations; and, though they appear to us as dissimilar as possible they are, it will be seen, but the differing aspects, or subjective methods of interpretation, by ourselves, of the same physical cause. Thus it may be that consciousness and brain functioning, though apparently so dissimilar, are ultimately one and the same thing at basis,-the two being but the differing modes in which the same cause is interpreted. I admit that the brain is simply 'active nervous tissue'; but this simply states the condition of the physical brain at the time of thinking,-upon which I would insist as much as Mr.Wakeman,-for it is always in connection with this activity that thought is associated in this life;-but it does not prove that the activity produced the thought, as I have before pointed out, but merely that it is coincidental with it. There is absolutely no proof that the nerve activity produces the consciousness; all we can ever say on this question is that they are coincidental in point of time.