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Book Reviews

So many books are sent to this department of EDUCATION that it is impossible to review them all. Naturally we feel under obligation to give preference to the books of those publishing houses which more or less frequently use our advertising pages. Outside of the limitations thus set, we shall usually be able and glad to mention by title, authors, and publishers, such books as are sent to us for this purpose. More elaborate notices will necessarily be conditional upon our convenience and the character of the books themselves.

THE HERFORD AESOP. Fifty Fables in Verse. By Oliver Herford. Illustrated by the Author. Ginn and Company. Price 52 cents.

Written primarily for the children of the fifth grade, this charming little volume will delight children and adults of any age; for not only are Aesop's fables unique as literature, they are so true to universal human experience at all ages that mothers and fathers and grandparents find as much joy in reading them as do the little folks. The illustrations in this edition are very happily conceived and executed. We append a poetical review of the book,—which, again, is something unique. It was furnished us by the publishers.

NOT JUST ANOTHER AESOP.

"A Child was found one pleasant day
Reading a Book of Verses gay.
Of him, an Adult, chancing by
Demanded what he read, and why
He was not with his friends at play.
The Child replied he'd rather stay
And read his Aesop story book.
The Adult said, 'Come, let me look!'
And then exclaimed, 'Why this is done
By Mr. Herford! Well, what fun!"
He took the book, turned with delight
To drawings gay and verses bright.
An hour passed, the Child now wept,
'I want my book that you have kept.'
Alas, the Adult heard him not,
The waiting Child he quite forgot,
But not the book. He passed from view
And took the Herford Aesop too.
The moral, friends, is plain as pease:
This Herford book is sure to please
Both young and old,—and I surmise
That Mr. Aesop's pleased likewise."

-E. D. S.

ENGLISH STUDY AND ENGLISH WRITING. By Henry Adelbert White. D. C. Heath and Company.

A very clear exposition of a subject than which none is more important in the entire curriculum of our schools and colleges. The author bases his book largely on the claim that three main elements are combined and necessary in the attainment of an individual style, viz., information as to correct grammatical and rhetorical laws; skill in applying these in our own writing and speaking; and taste for good literature in all ages. While the book is very thorough in covering the entire subject, it assumes that the true teacher will supplement the text with comments and further material. "Comprehensiveness" is a good word by which to characterize this volume of 336 pages. An excellent text book for High School, Junior High, or College students.

EARTH EVOLUTION AND ITS FACIAL EXPRESSION. By William H. Hobbs. The Macmillan Company.

New theories of the physical origin and history of our earth are presented in this volume. They will startle and surprise the studious person who has been brought up under the former teachers who were as firm believers in the nebular hypothesis as they were in the inspiration of the sacred Scriptures. The author claims that the long accepted idea that the interior of the earth is in a liquid state has, with the nebular hypothesis, gone into the discard. Various matters, such as the manner of growth of mountains, the formation of coral reefs and the origin of lava are restudied and the latest theories of the advanced science are given. The book is fully illustrated.

THE AMERICAN NOVEL. By Carl Van Doren. The Macmillan Company.

To any person who is interested in either American history, or in literature and the literary art, this book will have a real fascination. It is clear that the new world has developed a real literature of its own, unlike that of every nation in certain particulars. We have no reason to be ashamed of the literary output of our more than three centuries of experience,-though we had no literature, of course, to speak of, for a good part of the first two centuries. Indeed Cooper, born in 1789, was perhaps the first real novelist of the new world. There is a splendid chapter on Nathaniel Hawthorne; others on Howells, Henry James, Mark Twain, and so on, down to the present time. The sketches are most enjoyable.

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1. An accurate and attractive presentation
2. Hygiene and health stressed rather than anatomy
and physiology

3. A possitive rather than a negative appeal

4. Illustrations from actual photographs

5. Practical and original exercises at the end of each

chapter

6. Material which stimulates interest in practical

problems

7. Excellent discussion of communicable diseases, common accidents, and health exercises

8. Avoidance of unnecessary pathological detail 9. Personal progress health charts

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Devoted to the Science, Art, Philosophy and Literature

VOL. XLII.

D

of Education

APRIL, 1922

The Triune Mr. Burroughs

JAMES CLOYD BOWMAN, MARQUETTE, MICH.

I.

No. 8

ESPITE its irrelevancy, one is tempted to write, the triune Mr. Burroughs. Nature delighted, surely nough, in seeing how nearly the personality of Mr. Burroughs could be fashioned after the pattern of the triangular beech-nut. From one facet radiates the Naturalist; from another, the Literary Critic; from the third, the Scientific Philosopher. One's first glimpse of Mr. John Burroughs is likely to leave one quite unaware of the author's versatility. One senses immediately that Mr. Burroughs is in love with country life. He is so strongly averse to show and pretense that he takes little pains to maintain his personal pride. He believes that civilization is only saved by the antiseptic virtues of continual fresh supplies of country blood. "The lighter the snow, the more it drifts; and the more frivolous the people, the more they are blown by one wind and another into towns and cities." One is not unlikely to believe, at first, that the only difference between Mr. Burroughs and the ordinary conservative countryman is in his strangely magical gift of speech. While this is but a half truth, it can be made to serve as a profitable point of view from which to interpret much of his writing.

With a brief acquaintance, however, it is the intimate Mr. Burroughs who greets the reader at each succeeding page. The

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