the thought which catches like a spark upon the mind of its next neighbor. Yet that half-awakened soul is destined to work its way through all the phases of human possibility and reach at last the harbor of peace. This thought should make one ashamed to be impatient or negligent. Why should one lose patience with this boy's inability to learn, more than at the inanimate obstacle in one's pathway? How can one be unfaithful in one's effort, when it may be the means of lessening the number of times that that poor soul must pass through earthly life?
Do I believe in the teachings of this book? I do not know. So far as the doctrine of repeated incarnation goes, I hold it to be not inconsistent with Christianity; but rather an explanation of Christ's coming upon earth at the precise time when he did. I still hold the subject of Buddhistic philosophy as a matter of very serious and edifying reflection.
THE DEFENCE OF NEW YORK, 1776.
By Henry B. Carrington, U.S.A., LL.D.
[The siege of Boston gave to the Continental Army that instruction in military engineering and that contact with a disciplined foe which prepared it for the immediate operations at New York and in New Jersey. (See The Bay State Monthly, January, 1884, pages 37-44.)
The occupation and defence of New York and Brooklyn, so promptly made, was a strategic necessity, fully warranted by existing conditions, although temporary.]
It is not easy to reconcile the views which we take, in turn, through the eye and object lenses of a field-glass so that the real subject of examination will not be distorted by too great nearness or remoteness.
If we bring back to this hour the events of one hundred years ago, it is certain that the small armies and the smaller appliances of force then in use will seem trifling, in contrast with those which have so recently wearied science and have tasked invention in the work and waste of war.
If we thrust them back to their proper place behind the memory of all living men, we only see a scattered people, poorly armed, but engaged in hopeful conflict with Great Britain, then mistress of the seas, proudly challenging the world to arms, and boldly vindicating her challenge.
In an effort to reproduce that period and so balance the opposing factors that the siege of Boston and the deliverance of Washington at Brooklyn and New York shall have fair co-relation and full bearing upon the resulting struggle for National Independence, there must be some exact standard for the test; and this will be found by grouping such data as illustrate the governing laws of military art.
It has never been claimed that the siege of Boston was not the legitimate result of British blunder and American
