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is centred throughout on the evolution of the nation politically, and upon the Church's varying course in relation to the State. and then are to be met with some striking bit of portraiture, in king, priest, or minister; but nothing is ostentatiously intruded for rhetorical effect or to mar the quiet and impressive course of the on-moving narrative. The volumes are a contribution of surpassing interest to English history, and the author deserves unstinted praise for the achievement which is the fit crown of a long and strenuous life.

Reminiscences of the Bishop of

*

Under the title of "Lights and Shadows of a Long EpisMinnesota copate » that apostolic Father of the Western Church, Bishop Whipple, of the diocese of Minnesota, has published a delightful record of his pioneering missionary and diocesan labors. This now venerable prelate of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States has been long known for his unwearied good work in the evangelization of Indians and the elevation of the negroes of the South. His zeal and devotion in missionary work among the Indians, and his phenomenal success in utilizing them for the Master's service, have made his name familiar not only throughout the United States, but among the learned and influential churchmen of England, where he has many hearty friends, and, on repeated occasions, has been warmly welcomed and honored by them. The book is rich in interesting recollections of the bishop's intimate personal contact with distinguished people both in this country and in England. His frank and engaging manners, his great pulpit power and energy in diocesan work, his interesting memories of early pioneering life, and alluring methods in dealing with Indians, together with his enlivening fund of anecdote, give great charm to the narrative. Nor is the least interest to be found in the broad catholicity and spirit of religious toleration which characterizes the bishop, and of which there are many pleasing examples throughout the volume. In his forty years' labors in the Episcopate Dr. Whip ple has been a most active and enthusiastic worker. His relations with the dusky children of the Northwest, among whom he has zealously ministered, winning many of them to Christ, are here delightfully yet modestly told, and with a degree of heartiness in his evangelizing work which redounds to the good bishop's honor. No one can read the reverend gentleman's itinerary of travel with and among them without noting how much good has been done by this earnest and faithful servant of the Cross.

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a companion volume dealing very charmingly with child life during the colonial period. The story is graphically related how the young of those days were dressed, reared, and educated; how, under the hard conditions and surroundings of early life on this continent, the child passed its babyhood days, was taken often under the bleakest and most wintry of skies to meeting-house to be baptized; then, when it had grown a bit, was sent to the primitive log schoolhouse, there, under the rigid supervision of a not unkindly old dame or a grim old pedagogue, to make its acquaintance with the hornbook and primer and be disciplined in matters scholastical, theological, and moral. Pace Mrs. Earle, we also see how the little ones amused themselves on the playground, on the beach, in the woods, or at home; how the girls among them were taught needlecraft and the decorative arts; what were their toys, games, and pastimes; how unattractive and forbidding were the story and picture books they read; in what gloom they were trained morally, and how austere was their religious upbringing. When they were done with the dominie, we see also what they had to endure at the hands of the magistrates; yet with all the chillings of the old-time discipline we know what sturdy citizens the period turned out. We are made to see, moreover, that life in these early days was much better in many ways in America than in the England from which numbers of the colonists had come. Especially was this so in the case of families of moderate means, and children, as Mrs. Earle tells us, shared the benefits of these better conditions. The book is replete with interest, and many of its chapters have a positive charm — especially to the grown folk with active memories, who have not forgotten that they themselves were once children. The volume is enriched with a number of interesting illustrations.

Crawford's That industrious and cul"Via Crucis >> * tured story-teller, Mr. F. Marion Crawford, has for the time being dropped his delightful "Saracinesca» series of Italian stories to give us a romance of the era of the Second Crusade. The story "Via Crucis» gives a remarkable picture of Christianity in the twelfth century, when the light of chivalry, to use the novelist's phrase, "had dawned upon an age of violence, but was not yet fully risen.» The crusade is the one preached by the famous St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, in which over a million men-at-arms of France and Germany took part, but which proved a costly failure. The early part of the novel moves rather heavily, but it becomes enthralling when Queen Eleanor of Gascony appears in that rôle on the scene, and the hero of the book, Gilbert Warde, crusader, who had set himself to follow the way of the Cross," falls under the witchery of a woman's fair face. Here we reach the strong *New York and London: The Macmillan Co.

and stirring parts of the story, and we consequently find the author at his best. The tale has much of the charm of Scott's "Ivanhoe," which deals with the Third Crusade; but Mr. Crawford has more brilliant qualities, with greater intensity of emotion, than his early prototype; together with a wider range of scholarship and greater perfection of literary style. His sympathy with Roman Catholicism leads Mr. Crawford to interest the reader deeply in the ecclesiasticism of the Middle Ages; yet this is done so artistically as not to interfere with, but to give greater scope to, the play and passion of romance. Abundant passages throughout the book reveal this, as the two following quotations show:

"God, honour, woman-these made up the simple trinity of a knight's belief and reverence, from the moment when the Church began to make an order of fighting men, with ceremonies and obligations of their own, thereby forever binding together the great conceptions of true Christianity and true nobility."

"In the absence of anything like real learning among the laymen of those days, education in its simplest and most original sense played a very large part in life, and Gilbert [the knightly hero of the book] had acquired that sort of culture in its highest and best form. The object of mere instruction is to impart learning for some distinct purpose, but most chiefly, perhaps, in order that it may be a means of earning a livelihood. The object of education is to make men, to produce the character of the man of honour, to give men the inward grace of the gentleman, which cannot manifest itself outwardly save in good manners, modesty of bearing, and fearlessness; and such things in earlier days were profoundly associated in the minds of men with the inward principles and the outward rites of Christianity."

"Via Crucis will be found to be a great novel, remarkable alike for its power and brilliance, and, above all, for its engrossing qualities as a love story of the highest and most enduring type.

Mr. P. L. Ford's

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"Janice Meredith" belongs «< Janice Mere- to the same historical period dith » * as Mr. Winston Churchill's "Richard Carvel," though the chief scenes of the love-story are placed by Mr. Ford in New Jersey. The novel is a splendid bit of characterization, and should be read by everyone who can appreciate a delightful romance and especially by those who are interested in a vivid and painstaking narrative of the stirring scenes in the War of the Revolution. The student of history should at least be attracted to the book, since most of the incidents of the war are picturesquely dealt with, from its first outbreak down to the British capitulation at Yorktown. The lovers of the charming heroine being numerous enough to include officers of Howe's army as well as Washington's, we naturally get glimpses of the chief actors on both sides, together with pictures of the social and military surroundings of the opposing armies.

Of Washington himself we get a most

* " Janice Meredith: a Story of the American Revolution." By Paul Leicester Ford, author of "The Hon. Peter Stirling," etc. 12mo. 536 pages. New York: Dodd, Mead, & Co.

pleasing picture; and the novel is true enough to life vividly to show us what were the difficulties, political and military, that the great leader of our arms had to contend with at the head of the Continental army, with a parsimonious and often hostile Congress, and with officers whose fidelity was undermined by intrigue and jealousy. This adds greatly to the historical value of the novel. Many of the scenes are most spirited, while the romantic incidents are in many cases highly dramatic. All centre effectively round the winsome figure of "Miss Janice," who makes a charming heroine, winning the hearts alike of rebel and loyalist. One there is, of course, who carries off the prize; but his name must not even be hinted at in these pages. The story is one that will ab

sorb and enthral the reader.

Knowlson's "The Art of Thinking»

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In this busy age, when, as the author of this useful little textbook aptly says, "life is so complex, the struggle for existence is so keen, and when pleasures of various kinds are so cheap and abundant, men and women seem to live entirely on the surface of things. What we need is a call to independent thought. People read a great deal more than they used to do- there is more to be read-but they think less." To counteract this, and to stimulate the act and art of thinking, is the purpose of Mr. Knowlson's instructive and inspiring volume just issued by Frederick Warne & Co., London and New York. The book, which can conveniently be read through in an evening's leisure, is full of the method of clear and practical thinking, and will be found very helpful to the young student who seeks to know the rules and practices in which the art of thinking consists and how to avail himself of those constructive processes, familiarity with which make the clear, the ready, and the accurate thinker. The chapters successively deal with the thinking faculty, what the mind is, how it is furnished, how one can think correctly, creatively, morally, that is, honestly, fairly, and without emotional bias or prejudice. The illustrative material is very helpful, as are the works referred to suggested for fuller study. who are conscious that they daily devour a heap of scrappy reading and do little or no thinking, and want a guide and mentor to correct their shortcomings, we commend Mr. Knowlson's compact and suggestive little vol

ume.

A Canadian

To those

That Canadian writers are Poet's Verse ambitious to win laurels in the fields of poesy is again shown by the publication of a new collection of Mr. W. Wilfred Campbell's verse, from the press of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., Boston. Mr. Campbell, who holds a position in the civil service of the Dominion Government at Ottawa, is already favorably known as "the Laureate of the

Lakes," and especially is he known by his strikingly beautiful poem, "The Mother," which attracted so much attention on its appearing, some eight or nine years ago, in "Harper's Magazine." The present collection, which includes the latter poem, is entitled "Beyond the Hills of Dream," the subject-title of a delicious bit of verse which opens the poet's new volume. The work is throughout distinguished by beauty of thought and diction, by melody and tunefulness, and by felicity in the choice of themes. Nowhere is there any mark of morbidness or of those besetting sins of our modern poets - want of sincerity in the themes and their treatment, and lack of lucidity as well as of beauty in the technical fashioning of the verse. The volume bears the stamp not only of mental healthfulness, but of high and severe thought. Nor will the reader fail to mark the note of humanness, and of love and sympathy with nature, which in a special degree characterize Mr. Campbell's work. The poems "Morning on the Shore,» «Victoria," and the tribute to the memory of a Canadian poet-comrade (the late Mr. Lampman) entitled "Bereavement of the Fields," are proofs of this. Other examples in the volume strike varied strings of the lyre, and are marked not only by the qualities of imagination and picturesque thought, but also by a fine and exact sense for verse-structure and rhythm. Besides the gift of felicitous lyrical expression the author possesses a wide range of fancy, and, as we have said, is actuated by high and serious purpose. The work, while it is a distinct gain to literature, confers high honor on Canadian letters.

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Drake's "Historic The publishers, Messrs.

Mansions Little, Brown, & Co., have around Boston» done helpful service to the

historical student as well as to the lover of oldtime reminiscences in reissuing, in handsome garb, the delightful itinerary around the cradle of the national life from the pen of a wellknown Bostonian, Mr. Samuel Adams Drake. The work originally appeared about a quarter of a century ago, under a somewhat different title: it is once more put on the market with revisions caused by the disappearance of some of the old landmarks and other changes in the historic surroundings of the capital of the New England Commonwealth. Its present title, "Historic Mansions and Highways around Boston," is a fit as well as an appetizing one, not only to the local Bostonian with antiquarian tastes, but to all who are interested in the early records of a community, many of whom were actors in the struggle of the Thirteen Colonies to throw off allegiance to Britain, or have since been closely identified with the nation's educational, religious, literary, and social life. The itinerary is pleasantly and often graphically written, and is lit up by many enlivening stories and happy reminiscences. The work sets vividly before the reader numberless char

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Zangwill's Under the title of "They "Ghetto that Walk in Darkness » Mr. Tragedies» * Israel Zangwill, the AngloJewish novelist, has issued a fresh collection, with some infusion of earlier material, of the remarkable stories of Jewish life from his pen which he terms "Ghetto Tragedies." The author, it need hardly be said, is widely known both in literary and dramatic circles for his realistic studies of life in the Jewish purlieus of East London. The volume gives the reader many vivid pictures of this life, some of the stories being highly dramatic as well as most thrilling and impressive. Round them play the flashings of an exuberant imagination, with streaks of keen humor and biting irony. The volume is engrossing in its interest and will do much to evoke compassion for "they that walk in darkness" and to compel admiration for the gifted writer who is its sympathetic interpreter.

Stories from Froissart's Chronicle

*

In these militant times it is a happy idea to put on the book market a compact, well-edited collection of the famous narratives which deal with the wars waged in the fourteenth century, from the pen of the courtier-poet and historian, Sir John Froissart. The selection from the well-known mediæval chronicler has been happily made by the editor, Mr. Henry Newbolt, who has done his work spiritedly and with manifest sympathy for the roving knight-errant who industriously gathered the material of his martial chronicle from knights, sres, heralds, archers, and yeomen-at-arms either at court or on the tented field. The volume includes, besides the journey of Sir John FroissaTM and the account of the proposed invasion of England by the chivalry of France in 1386, vivid and entertaining narratives of the naval battle of Sluys, of the siege of Calais, and of those great encounters at Crecy and Poictiers that first taught the French the skill and prowess of English bowmen and the destructiveness, even at that age, of English artillery. The chronicle fairly glows with the military pageantry of the time and the pride of battle. But the narrative does not wholly consist of battle pictures lurid with blood: we see something also of life at court and in hall and castle; and here Froissart is most delightful as a chronicler. The text is the approved one of Lord Berners, and is enriched by many realistic pictures.

G. M. A.

*New York and London: The Macmillan Co.

THE TEACHING OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

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"It seems to be thought at times that children are not competent to study human relations and social phenomena, and that they must be held chiefly to the observation of natural objects. I set high value on nature studies, but I believe that humanity is the object of keener interest and of higher importance. Children show that humanity is most interesting to them when they personify all nature objects, giving them the voices, thoughts, and attributes of man. It is something to know plants and toads and insects, and be able to describe them, identify them, classify them. But it is still more important to know the essential facts of humanity."

With the growing interest in the study of the political and social sciences, the desirability of placing the elementary principles of those subjects within reach of the young becomes more and more manifest. In a country like the United States, where the mainsprings of political action are constantly before the public for discussion, it would seem most logical that the youth should be taught at least the more essential of the principles of government, so that they will have a basis of thought and motive in their adult days. One would suppose that in a democratic community like the United States, provision for instruction would be made for as early a time in the school life of the child as will enable it to grasp some of the primary ideas, so that at whatever age it terminates its school career it will have learned somewhat of the institutional character of the country. And yet, when the curricula of our schools are examined, it is found that such expectations have not been realized, that provisions for the study of civil government are far from being made along the lines of the foregoing suggestions. On the other hand there is reasonable ground for hope of better times coming in this connection, from the fact that not only are educators and students of government agitating for its introduction in the public schools, but it is obtaining wider and wider acceptance as a school subject, and gradually forcing its way in, notwithstanding the conservative forces represented in the governing bodies of schools.

We ask men to vote for councilmen who have the disposition and regulation of large rights and privileges belonging to and affecting the citizens individually and collectively; for a mayor whose single word and act touch upon

* Page 52. (Boston: D. C. Heath & Co., 1894.)

the welfare of the city; for legislators who control great powers respecting the relations of the citizens in the States, of the States to each other, and of the nation to other nations; for a President who makes policies and acts on principles momentously influencing the weal and woe of the nation at large. The voters ought surely to be equipped with the best possible knowledge of the candidates and the leading political ideas they espouse, so that they will choose representatives and officials on whose intelligence and discretion they may rely. And if these representatives and officials should want to be guided by a public sentiment, surely this sentiment ought not to be that of a set of ignoramuses, of a purblind constituency.

Accepting the principles of universal suffrage which we have adopted, it ought to be our endeavor to educate our voters not only by a schooling in the ordinary subjects now taught, but in the principles of government, so that public sentiment may be formed by a large number of individuals trained to think on the questions which bear on our public policies, who will be able to make effective demand for broad, enlightened action by the legislators, and faithful, efficient service by the administrators. Teach them the basal notions of civic duty, so that they will have high respect for honesty in public affairs; so that they will contemn dishonest acts of officials; so that they will as readily reject public men who do dishonorable and venal things as they would private individuals; so that they will exact an even cleaner moral record of a candidate for or appointee to public office because of the larger relations into which he enters.

Teach the children how the wheels of government go round and how they can assist in making them go round so that they will produce benefits for their communities. Point out to them the results of the present manipulation of the machinery. Show them the possibilities of engineering by experienced men whose sole interest is the public welfare.

We ought not to place ourselves in the position of the French, whose indifference to politics is well brought out by Mr. Bodley in his "France. »* He observes:

"In a nation which lives under a representative system of government this [lack of interest in politics] is an unhealthy sign. . . . That the French people . . . should choose representatives to legislate and to govern, for whom they have scant respect, and who in their legislative capacity are incapable of inspiring *Vol. II, p. 192. (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1898.)

popular interest, gives the impression that the parliamentary system, and consequently the régime whereof it is the basis, are provisional arrangements. For when parliamentary institutions, by reason of their composition or their action, are not respected, they cannot be regarded as permanent, and it is difficult to foresee who would protest in France if a dictator treated the deputies of the Chamber constituted in 1875 as did Louis Napoleon their more respectable predecessors."

We in the United States are not looking for a dictator. Those who truly love this country are endeavoring to release citizens from the rule of dictators in the cities and States, are trying to make the government more representative in reality, and are constantly urging more active participation in political matters. Mr. Bodley's observations point an interesting and instructive moral for us.

In an article entitled "Shall We Have Trained Officials?" in "The Outlook" for October 29, 1898, the writer said:

"It is well understood that one of the best means of reforming a people, and sometimes the only means, is to educate their children; and I believe that this plan can be applied by the instruction of our children in the public schools in the principles of political reform. The study of civil government, . . . once implanted in the minds of our future voters, will go a long way toward compelling changes in our political methods. . . . Our colleges, in their teaching of political science, are doing much for the elevation of the civic spirit; and when the boys and girls in our lower schools become imbued with this spirit, by a process similar to that obtained by the graduates in higher education, the politicians will point their fingers of scorn and ridicule in vain."

Mr. Bryce, in his "American Commonwealth,»* says:

"That the education of the masses is nevertheless a superficial education, goes without saying. It is sufficient to enable them to think they know something about the great problems of politics: insufficient to show them how little they know. The public elementary school gives everybody the key to knowledge in making reading and writing familiar, but it has not time to teach him how to use the key, whose use is in fact, by the pressure of daily work, almost confined to the newspaper and the magazine. So we may say that if the political education of the average American voter be compared with that of the average voter in Europe, it stands high; but if it be compared with the functions which the theory of the American government lays on him, which its spirit implies, which the methods of its party organization assume, its inadequacy is manifest.»

Now it seems to me that the elementary school has the time or should take the time to give the key to a more specific knowledge of public affairs. And Mr. Bryce himself agrees to this, for in an article in "The Forum » for July, 1893, entitled "The Teaching of Civic Duty," he declares that the habits which the schoolmaster may seek to form in the pupils are to strive to know what is best for one's country as a whole; to place the interest of one's country,

* Second Edition, Vol. II, p. 276. (London and New York: The Macmillan Co., 1891.)

when one sees it, above party or class feeling or any other sectional passion or motive; to be willing to take trouble, personal and even tedious trouble, for the well-governing of every public community to which one belongs, be it township or parish, a ward or a city, or the nation as a whole.

Assuming then, with Mr. Bryce, the propriety of the schoolmaster endeavoring to instil habits which will lead the pupils to interest themselves in the workings of their local and national governments, so that when they come to exercise the suffrage, to partake of the duties of citizenship, and to help to voice public sentiment, they may bring with them the best possible training, let us inquire as to what knowledge they ought to receive, how it can best be supplied, and to what extent the public schools attempt to supply it.

It is not intended here to outline the exact scope and method which such a study of civil government should take, so much as to emphasize its importance as part of the curriculum of a public-school system, and to urge the introduction of the study into the lower grades of the schools.

In order to ascertain what is being done in the study of civil government in the public schools, the writer sent out schedules to superintendents of the schools of a limited number of the leading cities of the country, representative of the various sections. Replies relating to the public schools of Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, St. Louis, Detroit, St. Paul, Milwaukee, New Orleans, and San Francisco form the basis of the summary. It shows that, as a rule, civil government is not taught below the eighth or highest grade of the grammar school; that the average age of the pupils in this grade is about thirteen or fourteen years; that the proportion of pupils in this grade to the whole does not, in all probability, exceed five per cent; that the study is usually correlated with American history; and that ordinarily no special training is afforded teachers who instruct in civil government. On this last point Prof. A. B. Hart, in his "Studies in American Education,»* says:

"Another subject for university participation is history and civil government. Teachers need to be made aware of the possible improvements in the teaching of these respective subjects, and especially in the use of material on what may be called the laboratory method. A good course of this kind ought to give a teacher a fund of valuable material and illustration, and a training in the teaching of history as a developing subject rather than as a memory subject."

Mr. Robert A. E. Cutter, teacher of civics in the Northwest Division High School of Chicago, writes:

"The presumption is that civics is constantly taught whenever occasion offers during the entire * Page 63 (New York and London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1895.)

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