ADVANCED ARITHMETIC, by William W. Speer, District Superintendent of Schools, Chicago, seems to belie its name, for it is simplicity itself compared with other so-called advanced arithmetics. But there is much method in Professor Speer's design, and his book is charged full with strong material that will tax the learner's utmost endeavors to use. The strictly original plan of teaching number that Professor Speer has put forth in his other books is here further developed and carried to the logical extreme. It is satisfying to have such a text-book on number work; the popularity attending the other books in this series fully attests the worth and power of the new method. Arithmetic takes on a new meaning when it is taught by this method. Boston: Ginn & Co.

THE ESSENTIALS OF LATIN, by Benjamin W. Mitchell, Ph.D., of the Central High School, Philadelphia, is a book for beginners, and contains many novel and striking features. It is a work that has grown up in the classroom, and is the result of the author's experience in teaching Latin. The student is set to reading Latin at the very beginning of his course, and in sentences that, while long, are easy; continuous Latin is introduced very early in the course, the exercises taking the form of anecdotes. The arrangement and order of development of the various subjects are admirable, and will merit the prompt attention of all teachers of firstyear Latin. Philadelphia: Eldredge & Brother.

PLANE AND SOLID GEOMETRY, by William J. Milne, LL.D., President of New York State Normal College, is an attractive work, practical and unique. It combines the important features of conventional and concrete geometry, doing this with logical methods and in an entirely usable manner. The author continues throughout to employ the laboratory method; every theorem is introduced by direct questions designed to give a correct and definite idea of what is to be proved. The book is rich in unsolved problems and undemonstrated theorems, thus delighting the heart of the teacher. Dr. Milne has made a graphic presentation of geometry, and has adequately maintained the high reputation his previous text-books on mathematics set up. New York: American Book Co.

NEW HIGHER ALGEBRA, by Webster Wells, of the Massachusetts Institute or Technology, is designed to meet the requirements for admission into college and technical schools. The author has added to his text-book, Essentials of Algebra, upward of one hundred pages, the additions treating of compound interest, permutations and combinations, continued fractions, summation of series, general theory of equations, and solution of higher equations. Every page demonstrates the profound scholarship of Professor Wells and his marvelous power in setting forth the science of mathematics in such a manner as to gratify both student and teacher. He is without a superior in the making of mathematical textbooks. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co.

ADVANCED LESSONS IN HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE for grammar, ungraded and high schools, by Winfred E. Baldwin, M.D., is a carefully prepared book on this very important subject. The author presents clearly and fully the structure and functions of the human body, and what is necessary for its care and the preservation of health. A large number of good illustrations add interest and clearness to the teachings of the text. He speaks out very strongly in condemnation of alcohol and tobacco, evidently not being swayed at all by the results of Dr. Atwater's recent experiments. Chicago: Werner School Book Co.; 80 cents.

Young people who are studying in school the early history of our country will be stimulated to a new interest in the subject by reading such books as TOMLINSON'S WAR OF 1812 SERIES, and Edward Stratemeyer's Old Glory Series. THE BOYS WITH OLD HICKORY, and FIGHTING IN CUBAN WATERS, with the other titles in the series, make the events which they describe real and vivid before the "mind's eye" of their young readers. They stimulate patriotism, and enlarge one's view of the mission of our country. They are to be unqualifiedly commended. Why any boy should read "yellow" literature when such excellent and thrillingly interesting books as these are to be had, is a mystery. Published by Lee & Shepard, Boston.

A second edition has been issued of the HANDBOOK OF British ConTINENTAL AND CANADIAN UNIVERSITIES, by Isabel Maddison. The book has been published in order to set forth the position of the different foreign universities in regard to the admission of women to their courses, and to give particulars of the lectures, degrees, entrance requirements, etc. The information given has been obtained from the authorities of the different universities, and may be entirely relied upon. It is compiled for the Graduate Club of Bryn Mawr College. New York: Macmillan Co.

LITTLE TONG'S MISSION. By Ethelred Breeze Barry. We have here a choice little story for young readers, from the pen of a young writer who confesses that this is her first book. This is no disparagement of her ability. She has produced a story that is full of pathos and of humanity, and therefore interesting and effective. It is chiefly about a young cripple and his little canine companion. Little Tong had a mission and accomplished it, which is more than can be said of some people more fortunately situated. The book belongs to The Young of Heart Series. Price, 50 cents each. Published by Dana Estes & Co., Boston.

PEGGY. By Laura E. Richards. This is a story for girls,-about the experiences of a girl who went away, untrained and awkward, to boarding school, and passing through various adventures came out a cultivated and noble young woman. The subject is fascinating and the story well told. Girls will like it. Boston: Dana Estes & Co. Price, $1.25.

PERIODICALS.

The Case of the Negro is ably stated by Booker T. Washington in the December Atlantic Monthly. In the same magazine Mrs. Elia W. Peattie pictures The Artistic Side of Chicago, including the æsthetic, educational and literary features of the great city. An important contribution to the literature of to-day is announced by the publishers of McClure's Magazine, who have engaged Dr. John Watson (Ian Maclaren) to prepare a new life of Christ. The December number contains the initial chapter-the "Prologue”—and an announcement by the publishers of the inception and scope of the work. The illustrations are by Corwin Knapp Linson.-Pearson's Magazine is the earliest of all the monthly periodicals to reach our table. The December number contains an interesting account of Queen Victoria's diligent studies in Hindustani, a most difficult language, which she has nevertheless so far mastered as to be able to converse in it with her Indian subjects.—Sir Walter Besant begins in the December Century a series of papers illustrating life in East London as it is to-day.— The Living Age, which recently reprinted from the Nineteenth Century a caustic criticism of the Women's Congress, written by a woman, presents the other side in its issue for November 4, in an article written for the Nineteenth Century by Fannie H. Gaffney, president of the American Woman's Council.—The Youth's Companion issues a beautiful calendar for 1900. This popular paper for young people presents a most attractive prospectus for the coming year. The calendar will be presented to all subscribers.-The Journal of Education celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary by issuing a special number of great interest and value,

EDUCATION

DEVOTED TO THE SCIENCE, ART, PHILOSOPHY AND

VOL. XX.

LITERATURE OF EDUCATION.

A

THE NURTURE OF MORAL IMPULSES.

HON. HENRY SABIN, DES MOINES, IOWA.

TEACHER said to me the other day: "I don't understand that boy. He is a strange mixture of good and evil. He is courteous, good-natured, and prepares his lessons well, yet I can feel that his influence is generally on the wrong side. Certain boys who trouble me when he is here are quiet and well behaved when he is absent. He has his moods. There are some weeks when he is all right, and then there are others when he is all wrong."

In reply I said: "Have you ever studied him? I do not mean have you thought about him, but have you considered his traits as inherited, or as developed by his surroundings or by the vicious nature of his early training? Are you not taking too many things for granted as being bad in his tendencies and impulses? Motives are powerful, but the only way to destroy the influence of a bad motive is to supplant it by a better one. The impulses under which that boy acts may be due to the love of fun innate in every active child. You cannot whip it out of him. Perhaps that which seems to be a disposition to annoy you is simply a desire for the notoriety which comes from being counted a leader among his mates."

This is only a part of a conversation which lasted for an hour. When we parted I think each of us had a new line of thought opened up for investigation.

We are more the creatures of impulse than we are of habit. One child is obedient because his impulses lead him in that direction, and another is constantly disobedient for the same reason. The larger part of children's attitudes toward any particular question is of that unhesitating, unquestioning kind which does not stop to analyze with a view to determining the right or wrong view of the matter in hand.

Impulses may be born with the child or they may be created by the environments of his earlier years. When hereditary they should be encouraged if good, suppressed if bad, by careful, judicious nurture. I use the word nurture because it more nearly expresses our present needs than the usual formal term, training.

I grant that we have none too much moral training in our schools. Much of it is weak and ineffective, but such as it is, much better than nothing. It is also undoubtedly true that most of the teachers in our schools are anxious to do the best work in this field which is possible under the circumstances. Formal ethics, lectures and talks calculated to lead the pupil up to a point at which he may discern the right from the wrong, every right motive and the all-powerful influence of example, are brought to bear upon the child in attempts at moral training.

But we need on the part of parents and teachers much more of the spirit of moral nurture, of that inward culture, which by a hidden process shapes and forms the life. Only a true understanding of this will enable us to reach the living springs of action which lie in the recesses of the heart, and thus prevent the formation of habits of thought and action which are wrong, because based upon wrong impulses of which no one had taken cognizance. The moral growth of the child should be directed with this fact in view. The entire instruction of the school and the nurture of the home should be such as to predispose him toward those things which are right, honest, pure and truthful. Instruction in ethics alone will not suffice. He should dwell continually in an atmosphere of high moral purpose and of right living. Hence, we cannot be too careful as to the influences which surround the child from his earliest infancy.

His æsthetical nature cannot be separated from his emotional. A statue, a picture, a flower rouses his feelings of love for the

beautiful, and the emotions thus created lead to right impulses in the heart. The same is true in other respects. The presence of that which is grand in nature leads often to loftiness of purpose. Nobleness of character, grand, unselfish deeds, as well as living examples, can be made to stir the childish mind to efforts toward that which is noble and grand, even in the everyday life of the common man.

Pictures on the walls and works of art to cultivate the taste, absolute cleanliness of person and tidiness of dress on the part of teacher, an appropriate fitting up of the room and the school premises, contribute to create a new sense, almost unconsciously leading to the formation of correct impulses, which in turn induce right action. The voice, the eye, the manners which characterize good breeding," a thousand little things which are so attractive to children,-these may not be neglected, although they are but seldom included in what the schools technically term "moral training."

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Impulses are born of the heart. They spring into being without any conscious volition on our part. We often say, "My first impulse was to do so and so; but upon reflection I concluded not to." Not only, then, must we train the child so that the first impulse must be right as a general thing, but so that he may when necessary subject his impulses to the judgment of reason and conscience. The power of self-control, not habit alone, is the thing we must study. Habit may be overcome by a quick impulse under great provocation, but the all-powerful will never fails at a critical moment when it is most needed.

A clean conscience void of offense, a strong will, prompt to assert itself, and a keen desire to do what is right, are the foundation without which it is hopeless to attempt to create in the mind of the child a tendency toward right impulses.

When we say of a man or child that his impulses are all wrong we reveal a terrible defect in his character, and at the same time we destroy the basis of confidence in his conduct. On the other hand, when we are convinced that a man's intentions are good, that his impulses are in the right direction, we raise the presumption that his action will be in the line of rectitude and in accordance with his best judgment.

The question at once arises as to what means are at our dis