THE GRAND SYMPOSIUM.--The wise (?) men express themselves in our symposium upon immortality. Their utter blindness to the grand displays of immortality, which have long challenged attention, and their reference to every obscure and blind path for its search, remind one of Carlyle's expression in reference to Comte. "I found him to be one of those men who go up in a balloon and take a lighted candle to look at the stars." What a deep shadow upon the intellectual landscape of America is seen in this picture of collegiate ignorance in contrast with foreign enlightenment. While the sovereigns of England, France, and Russia have been communing with the higher world, our college presidents have their heads and eyes covered with the cowl of monkish superstition and ignorance. Surely the search for truth is the most imperative of duties for those who are chosen to lead the rising generation. They who fail in this duty are as guilty as the sentinels who sleep or carouse upon their posts. The eloquent words of Rev. J. K. Applebee are appropriate to such offences: "The man who is not true to the highest thing within him, does a treble wrong. He wrongs himself; he wrongs all whom he might have influenced for good; he wrongs all the willing workers for humanity by heaping on their shoulders extra toils and extra responsibilities." What is the difference between the Barnard, Hill, Gilman, Elliott, Newcomb, Youmans, and their sympathizers to-day, and the old time opponents of Galileo, Columbus, and Harvey. The men who rely upon learning or memory represent the past, while those who rely upon investigation and intuition represent the future. They are ever in conflict, and ever illustrate the truth of Goethe's remark that "Error belongs to the libraries, truth to the human mind." A NEW MUSSULMAN EMPIRE has been established on the Red Sea, east of the territory occupied by the followers of the Mahdi. Mohammed Abu is the Sultan, and Kassala is his residence. His army has 8000 men. PSYCHOMETRIC IMPOSTURE.--Those who wish to understand and practice psychometry should avoid being duped by an _ignorant_ pretender who professes to _develop_ their psychometric faculties--a pretence which is a self-evident imposition. OUR TOBACCO BILL.--The _American Grocer_ estimates the total annual expenditure for tobacco in the United States, at $256,500,000. The estimates of cost are as follows: Liquor, $700,000,000; tobacco, $256,500,000; sugar, $187,000,000; coffee, tea, and cocoa, $130,000,000; schools, $110,000,000.