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of language alone can a real mastery be attained. Such a mastery a child is incapable of. So, from Mr. Webster's conclusion, that "the study of a language makes almost no demands upon the reasoning powers," I most emphatically dissent. On the contrary, I know of nothing, not even geometry or logic, that affords a better opportunity for cultivating the logical faculty than the grammar and science of the English language. Of all the curricula, from that of the kindergarten to that of the most advanced post-graduate work, for cultivating quick perception, accurate discrimination and logical acumen give me plain English grammar. I would not affirm so much of Greek, however, for there are many barriers to be overcome, which make progress so slow that it is questionable whether the value derived is worth the time and effort. In concluding this part of the discussion let it be understood that, for reasons very different from those he assigns, I agree with Mr. Webster's answer, that " • Greek is not necessary in the high school curriculum of to-day."

I now turn to the constructive side of my review. My reasons for accepting the above conclusion are: first, there is too much already in the high school curriculum of to-day; secondly, while the disciplinary value of a study of Greek, if pursued properly, is very great, it is excelled in this respect by quite enough studies to constitute a high school or college curriculum sufficient to meet every reasonable demand either of the university, or of practical life, so far as a high school course can be expected to meet the demands of practical life at all; thirdly, the study of Greek is almost wholly disciplinary or cultural, and is almost destitute of practical value; fourthly, the leading universities have made a study of Greek for A. B. elective, and, with slight exceptions, actual life has never made it necessary; fifthly, even if required in the university course, as we think it should be at present, when pursued by a rational method it can be mastered sufficiently for all purposes of practice and discipline within the limits of the university period; sixthly, through Greek or Latin or both does not lie the best or quickest road to a mastery of English.

Let me now briefly restate some of these reasons. I have said that the value of Greek is almost wholly disciplinary. This value is very important, but whether it is sufficiently so to justify its retention in the college curriculum is and has been the core of contention for years, and is likely to continue so until conditions change. Evidently Greek is on the wane as a college requirement and will entirely drop out when it ceases to constitute an element in the popular definition of a classical education. Another strong cable that binds Greek in the present curriculum is the Greek derivatives found in the English. Had it not been for this tie it would probably have been dropped long

ago.

Mr. Webster is pre-eminently just in his observation that "English cannot be learned by studying any other language than English." It seems to me that if there is one thing in all this subject that ought to be accepted universally and without further argument it is that, aside from its historical and etymological connection with the English, a knowledge of the Greek language becomes valuable to the study of

English only at the point where one is ready to take up the study of comparative philology. This is evidently at the very close of one's study, if indeed it come at all. Would a man study the physiology of a horse or the anatomy of the extinct mastodon in order to understand his own? Yet we are told by the Greek and Latin worshipers that we must go into the catacombs of the past and bring up the dead mummies of Greek and Latin, and with our intellectual scalpel in hand proceed to study English! To me this seems the high-water mark of folly. Greek art, Greek literature and the Greek language have played an important part in the world's progress. I would not detract one iota from their value and their honor. We are what we are to-day because of them, but the traditional idea handed down from the monasteries of Europe-that is, the necessity of a long course in the dead languages-must go. Mathematics, the science of truth, and the life-giving sciences must take the place of the husks and dry bones. The age demands men and women who are not alone conversant with the past, but who are students of the history of present events, events grander and more sublime than any that ever happened in the time of Shadrach and Abednego.

BOOK NOTICES.

To accommodate readers who may wish it, the publishers of EDUCATION will send, postpaid, on receipt of the price, any book reviewed in these columns.

THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY IN THE CIVIL WAR. By John Fiske. Like the other volumes from the pen of this great American historian, this book enchains the attention of the reader from the first chapter; and there is not a dull page to the end. The author has a masterly grasp of historic facts, a graphic style; and having lived through the events which he describes, and enjoyed the acquaintance and friendship of many of the principal actors in the great civil drama, is peculiarly fitted to prepare such a work as this. It will add to his enviable fame as a writer of history. There are numerous charts and illustrations which aid the reader in understanding some of the greatest battles of the war. The massive character and brilliant genius of General Grant are fully brought out. Words of ours are not needed to commend anything that John Fiske writes to the attention of the readers of EDUCATION; but we advise all who wish an unsurpassed intellectual feast to obtain this book and follow the author through the thrilling scenes which he so aptly and eloquently describes. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Company. Price, $2.

EDWARD THRING, Headmaster of Uppingham School: Life, Diary and Letters. By George R. Parkin, C.M.G. The biographical method of studying educational history is deservedly popular. It gives the subject a living interest. The great principles of modern pedagogy have been largely thought out and applied by certain educational leaders in England, Germany, America and other lands; and to study the lives of these men is to understand the principles to the evolution and application of which they gave their best efforts. Edward Thring was one of these individuals. He was the most striking figure in the teaching world

of his time in England. His work has an abiding value in the truth and practicality of the principles which he stood for. In this book he is left to speak largely for himself. This is the best test of a biography. We are allowed to see and feel the man himself, in his work, rather than something that the author of the book has to say about him. Educators will enjoy and profit by the perusal of this volume, which is among the more important of the educational books of the year. New York: The Macmillan Company. Price, $2.

STORIES FROM THE ARABIAN NIGHTS. Selected by Adam Singleton. The selections are well made and the book, which belongs to the popular Appleton's Home Reading Books Series, gives to young readers the better and more famous of the Celebrated ARABIAN NIGHTS Stories. The author claims that the book will help to prepare the young people of to-day for the duties of the morrow in which they are destined to be called upon to deal with and rule alien peoples, who are even now subjects of our Government. Many of these people are Mohammedans, and whoever has read the ARABIAN NIGHTS has taken a distinct step toward the comprehension of the Moslem mind. Dr. Wm. T. Harris furnishes an able Introduction. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Price, 65

cents.

THE MAKING OF CHARACTER: Some Educational Aspects of Ethics. By Prof. John MacCunn, LL.D., Balliol College, Oxford, and University College, Liverpool. This is a crisp, earnest, strong book. It discusses such themes as heredity, vital energy, temperament, development and repression, bodily health, livelihood, citizenship, the religious organization, example, precept, sound moral judgment, self-development, self-control, etc. This book is an educational and moral tonic. It is fresh and strong and wholesome. Take such a word as this: "Our great prophets of Nature are realists to the core. . . . there lies in visible appearances a revelation of ideas, and of God in whom all ideas find their source and unity." New York: The Macmillan Company. Price, $1.25.

BY THE MARSHES OF MINAS. By Charles G. D. Roberts. The region of the Minas Basin in Nova Scotia has a romantic and historic charm that is all its own. Longfellow has made this felt for all time in his marvellously beautiful poem, Evangeline. Mr. Roberts has contributed no mean part in making the fascination of the legendary lore and the actual beauty of the natural scenery of the region widely known. His Forge in the Forest had an instant acceptance by the reading public. His History of Canada, and a number of other works, have enhanced his reputation as an accurate historian and sympathetic student of an interesting country and romantic period. This volume gathers up some of the tales of the French and English races who so long contended for supremacy in Acadia. The increasing number of tourists and others who are interested in that neighboring land will be deeply interested in these stories. Boston: Silver, Burdett & Company. Price, $1.25.

THE ESSENCE AND ART OF HISTORY is the title of the latest addition to the "Nugget Series," now well known and highly appreciated by the reading public. The volume includes selections from Macaulay, Stanley, Froude, Fiske, Armstrong and Emerson. It is a neat and attractive little book, inside and out. New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert. Price, 45 cents.

EDUCATIONAL AIMS AND METHODS. By Sir Joshua Fitch, M.A., LL.D. Dr. Fitch has gathered together in this volume a number of essays and addresses which have been published or spoken from time to time in England and America. His former volume, LECTURES ON TEACHING, is well known. The present volume touches some themes not often discussed by educators. Every essay is thoughtful and effective, and those who are in any way responsible in shaping the policy of public education will do well to read and ponder these suggestive chapters. Lectures VIII, X., and XIII. on Teachers' Institutes and Conventions in America, The University Extension Movement, and the Sunday School of the Future, respectively, are especially important. New York: The Macmillan Co. Price, $1.25.

GRAPHIC SHORTHAND, prepared for the American public by C. R. Lippmann, is an adaptation of the system invented in 1817 by Gabelsberger, of Munich, and now most extensively used on the continent of Europe, being employed in over forty parliaments for purposes of official record, and taught in government schools in many countries. It is an exceedingly simple system, and may be readily learned by the tyro. The first ten lessons will suffice for the business man who merely desires to take private memoranda; the commercial writer may be required to take the entire nineteen lessons in order to be able to write as many as one hundred and twenty words a minute. For professional men it is a rapid method of taking notes, and is a system that may be acquired in a very little time and with small effort. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co.

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We have received a large quintuple number of the Riverside Literature Series, being Thackeray's HENRY ESMOND, published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company, Boston. Price, 60 cents. In the same series, No. 141 is a single number, THREE OUTDOOR PAPERS, by T. W. Higginson. Price, 15 cents. . . . We acknowledge the following: De Quincey's OPIUM-EATER, in Macmillan's Pocket English Classics Series. Price, 25 cents. . . . THE CIVILIZATION OF INDIA, and ROMAN HISTORY. Price, 40 cents each, in The Temple Primers Series. ... THE WOOSTER ARITHMETIC, Grade I., by Lizzie E. Wooster. Price, 25 cents. Published by Crane & Company, Topeka, Kan. . . . THE DEPARTMENT STORE SYSTEM, by Wm. Cooke Daniels; a paper read before a philosophical society in Denver, Col., against the Department Store System. . . . AN INDUCTIVE COURSE IN ENGLISH, a first book for primary and lower grammar grades, by the late Larkin Dunton and Augustus H. Kelley. Boston: Thompson, Brown & Co. . . . OLD NORSE STORIES and DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS, the former by Sarah Powers Bradish, and the latter by Edward R. Shaw; each a worthy addition to the American Book Company's Eclectic School Reading Series. . . . TALES TOLD BY HANDWRITING, by William J. Kinsley; a tract giving many interesting facts about expert investigation of handwriting. . . . THE CAPTIVI OF PLAUTUS, edited with notes and stage directions, by Grove Ettinger Barber, A.M., and published by Benjamin H. Sanborn & Company, Boston. . . . INTEREST IN ITS RELATION TO PEDAGOGY, by Dr. Wilhelm Osterman. New York: E. L. Kellogg & Company. WHY HIC, HEC, Hoc FOR THE NEGRO? by R. S. Lovinggood. Published by the author at Marshall, Texas. Price, 25 cents. . . . ACADEMIC SYLLABUS, Bulletin 8, High School Department, and PHARMACY, College Department, two documents published at Albany, by the University of the State of New York.

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THE STORY OF PHILADELPHIA. By Lillian Ione Rhoades. This volume has been especially prepared for school and home use, and contains an introduction by Edward Brooks, Superintendent of Public Schools, Philadelphia. The author graphically presents the Quaker City in the foremost place among the influential cities of the colonial period and during the later time. The story is instructive and inspiring. The young people of all other cities and towns will be the better and more patriotic for reading the record of events narrated in this volume. New York: The American Book Company. Price, 85 cents.

IVANHOE: A ROMANCE. By Sir Walter Scott. Edited by Porter Lander MacClintock, A.M. This is a full and pleasing edition of Ivanhoe, with excellent illustrations by C. E. Brock. While intended especially for school use it makes a valuable addition to any library. The binding is neat and serviceable. Boston: D. C. Heath & Company. Price, 50 cents.

ELEMENTS OF ETHICS. By Noah K. Davis, Ph.D., LL.D. This is a painstaking, conscientious presentation of the author's system of moral philosophy, as wrought out in a long search for truth and an extended experience in teaching. While sufficiently elementary it still comprises a well-developed system of philosophy, which is clear, practical and satisfactory. It is a strong book, and is written with such clearness, sincerity and loyalty to truth, that the reader or student is sensibly uplifted and made nobler in his own aspirations for truth and character. Published by Silver, Burdett & Company. Price, $1.60.

The American Book Company, New York, publish a new edition of Dr. William Smith's A SMALLER HISTORY OF ROME, by A. H. J. Greenidge, of Brase. nose College, Oxford. He has carefully revised the original book, preserving its essential features, but adding the valuable results of recent historical investigation. Price, $1.

SOUTH AMERICA. By Frank G. Carpenter. This is the latest addition to the Carpenter's Geographical Reader Series. It approaches the subject from the right standpoint. The reader is taken on an imaginary tour to the principal ports of South America, and is made to observe the people in their homes and in their daily life. The study is thus made interesting and real. There are excellent colored maps and illustrations. New York: The American Book Company. Price, 60 cents.

AMONG OURSELVES is the title of some earnest talks with teachers by "a schoolmaster with his friends at the round table." The book is by Pres. A. R. Taylor, and is No. 17 in The Reading Circle Library. New York: E. L. Kellogg & Company. Price, 50 cents.

SCHOOL SANITATION AND DECORATION. By Severance Burrage and Henry Turner Bailey. We have in this volume a practical study of matters of health and beauty in their relation to the public school. The location of schoolhouses is considered, the correct principles of ventilating, heating and lighting, sanitary problems, school furniture, the use of pictures in the schoolroom, the influence of school life upon the eye, etc.-an interesting, valuable and helpful treatise that should have a wide reading. Boston: D. C. Heath & Company. Price $1.50.

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