his activities. The infant school of France is full of movement, but it is movement without progress; the infant school of Italy is much worse in this respect. It presents a heterogeneous collection of work, paper-cutting and folding, stitching, knitting, sewing, drawing, without connection, principle or definite aim, excepting that of keeping the hands and eyes busy. In striking contrast with this medley was the kindergarten exhibit of Hawaii. Here the Fröbelian system is followed with some modifications suited to the natives. Thus the songs employed relate to objects and activities with which the Hawaiian children are familiar, and which they readily recognize in English speech. The exhibit from this distant and detached portion of our country excited peculiar interest on account of its bearing upon colonial problems which have been graphically and prominently displayed in the colonial sections. Education is the most important of these problems; and France exhibits nothing of which she has reason to be prouder than the evidence of progress in bringing Algeria and Tunis under the influence of European culture. One of the most memorable sessions of our jury was that in the Algerian building where M. Bayet, now Director of Primary Education in France, formerly Inspector of the Academy of Algeria, reviewed this important work. Subsequently, at the banquet given in honor of the Congress of Primary Education, we heard a glowing testimonial to the French school administration in Algeria from the lips of a native who spoke fluently the language of his rulers. He was followed by a negro from Guadaloupe who re-echoed the tribute in the same tongue. This banquet was an immense affair, in respect to numbers, good cheer and oratory, and to the foreigners who were invited guests a memorable sign of the unbounded hospitality and social charm of their French colleagues. The festivities which follow each other in rapid succession are the complement of the educational exhibit which France has made. They reveal the motive of the art side of school training; in fact fashion is a pillar of the French republic.

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.

JOEL DORMAN STEELE, Teacher and Author, by Mrs. George Archibald. He was one of the clear lights in the educational world, a light that shone for all too short a time, but whose radiance was an illumination for thousands. A teacher of renown, having the courage to break away from traditional methods and make for himself a plan of instruction and government that was revolutionary when it was tried, but has since become the method of all successful schools, he pioneered the way to brighter and better things in schools. And not only was he a leader in the art of keeping school, but he set the stamp of disuse upon the text-books in use in his time in the schools and made a series of books that have brought about a new order of things. His famous Fourteen Weeks was one of the most popular line of text-books published, and they placed Dr. Steele in the front rank as a writer and scholar. His life was singularly uneventful, but was full of good works. He was a faithful soldier in the Civil War, a good citizen, a devoted teacher, a successful author, a high-minded, consistent Christian man. Mrs. Archibald has made the story of his life a labor of love, and it is a delightful memoir of a true-hearted, faithful, earnest teacher and man. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co.

AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, by John Swett, is a handbook "containing a series of studies on the vital points of public school history," and is intended for public school teachers and normal institutes. Dr. Swett knows the subject as well as any man in the country; he has made the study of the schools a persistent one for more than fifty years, and is a recognized authority on methods. In this book he sets forth with great power the facts in the history of American public schools, beginning with the Colonial schools and ending with an educational outlook for the twentieth century. And this part of the book is a treasure house of facts that will prove of immense advantage to the normal instructor and the school teacher. The second part of the book relates to applied pedagogics in the common schools, and treats specifically of modern courses of study in primary and grammar grades, of school management, of professional reading and study for teachers, etc. In this part the author writes as one inspired; he is helpful, suggestive, encouraging, uplifting. Practical in every method he offers, he presents a series of methods for the teaching of the various branches in the curriculum of the common schools that is incomparable. The book is one of the books of the year in educational literature. New York: American Book Company. Price $1.00.

The second book of the Tarr and McMurry Geographies deals with NORTH AMERICA, giving an especially full treatment of the United States and its dependencies. The first book served to show the plan of the authors, which is novel and a wide departure from the stereotyped method so hoary with age and decrepit with the objurgations of teachers and students. Volume I. of the series is for the early grades and deals with the earth as a whole; book three, which is in preparation, will treat of other continents and a review of the whole subject. The authors claim for the striking features of the series: convenient form; home geography made prominent; relation between man and the earth continually

brought out; physiographic facts about different regions clearly presented; clear, distinct maps, not overburdened with useless detail; illustrations that are not merely pictures; and the cost of a complete set for five grades will be less than that of any other series. The series must commend itself to every teacher of elementary grades as a work of great value and a decided advance over other text-books on geography. Typographically the book is a model, and this is no small virtue in a school geography. New York: The Macmillan Company.

EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES is the title of two substantial volumes, edited with introduction by Prof. N. M. Butler, and containing nineteen monographs very carefully prepared for the service of the United States' exhibit at the Paris Exposition. Each monograph is packed full of fresh and valuable information, and every scholar will wish to have access to them. Here is a list of subjects and authors: Educational Organization and Administration, by President Andrew S. Draper; Kindergarten Education, by Miss Susan E. Blow; Elementary Education, by Dr. William T. Harris; Secondary Education, by Professor Elmer E. Brown; The American College, by Professor Andrew F. West; The American University, by Professor Edward D. Perry; Education of Women, by President M. Carey Thomas; Training of Teachers, by Professor B. A. Hinsdale; School Architecture and Hygiene, by Principal Gilbert B. Morrison; Professional Education, by James Russell Parsons; Scientific, Technical and Engineering Education, by President T. C. Mendenhall; Agricultural Education, by President Charles W. Dabney; Commercial Education, by Professor Edmund J. James; Art and Industrial Education, by Issac E. Clarke, Bureau of Education; Education of Defectives, by Edward E. Allen, Principal of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind; Summer Schools and University Extension, by Professor Herbert B. Adams; Scientific Societies and Associations, Professor James McCattell; Education of the Negro, by Booker T. Washington; and Education of the Indian, by Superintendent William N. Hailmann. Of course every one will be specially interested in what Dr. Harris writes, which is in his best vein. But there is much more meat and drink in these many pages. Albany, N. Y.: J. B. Lyon Co. Price, $3.50.

PHYSIOLOGY, by Buel P. Colton, of the Illinois State Normal School, is a briefer course in this science and is adapted for use in elementary and high schools. The author's "Experimental and Descriptive Physiology” has had extensive use in academies and colleges; to meet the demand for a simpler book he has prepared the one under notice. It has all the excellencies that characterized the larger work, is eminently practical, thoroughly scientific and intensely interesting. The author makes large use of experiment to demonstrate his propositions, and the experiments are such as are within the compass of the ordinary teacher of the public school. Due attention is paid to the subjects of stimulants and narcotics, and the subject of hygiene is treated with unusual fullness. It is a thoroughly good book on physiology. Boston: D. C. Heath & Company.

RHETORIC AND HIGHER ENGLISH, by G. H. Bell, is a work designed to teach pupils how to write agreeably and forcibly, and to make the language a perfect medium of the thought. The author has divided the work into six parts, beginning with the choice of words, followed by a classification of sentences and their combination into paragraphs, then by the qualities of style, rhetorical

figures, composition, and in Part Six full directions for preparing manuscript for the press and instructions as to proof reading, etc. For definiteness of purpose, exactness of statement, clearness of expression, and logical arrangement the book is a model of its kind. It has all the essential elements of a practical working text-book; it is well suited for use in academies and high schools. Chicago: Ainsworth & Company.

DEACON BRADBURY. A novel, by Edwin Asa Dix. This is an excellent story of New England life. It has been compared to David Harum by some reviewers. In our judgment this comparison does not do it justice. It is an original work, absolutely unlike David Harum, moving on entirely different lines, having dissimilar aims and motive. Each book describes a shrewd Yankee, and makes him speak in the provincial dialect. But there the likeness ceases, and if anyone takes up the book with the idea of finding a second David Harum in it he will be disappointed. The story is, however, intensely interesting and entertaining. It pictures the mental and spiritual struggles of a strong, noble, conscientious, but unimaginative New England deacon, whose son's supposed guilt unsettles the father's faith. In his instinctive determination to be upright and strictly honest, at all hazards, he feels called upon to renounce his former religious faith, and withdraw publicly from the church. The chapter describing his public dismission by his grieving pastor and sympathetic neighbors and brethren is dramatic in the extreme. There is a thread of love woven through the story,

and everything ends happily. It is a healthful book that leaves a good impression upon the mind. We hope that it will tend to increase the number of earnest, conscientious Deacon Bradburys wherever it is read. New York: The Century Company. Price, $1.50.

THE BIOGRAPHY OF A GRIZZLY. By Ernest Seton Thompson. This author has made an enviable reputation for work of a new kind in literature. His books are not so much the products of imagination as of actual observation. He studies animals in their native haunts, and comes into such close sympathy with them that it almost seems as though they, not he, were speaking in his books. Everyone, whether young or old, is fascinated with wild, animal life, and when this is described as it is in these chapters whoever reads a few lines will read the whole book. It is impossible to get away from the charm of the life history of poor Wahb, whose cubhood opened so auspiciously, but soon developed many ships and cruel enemies. We read this book to a four year old child. The first chapters filled his little eyes with tears and his throat with sobs, but he could not let the book alone, and we had to finish it aloud. This indicates its power, and it was as fascinating to our maturer mind as to that of the little child. Mr. Thompson is suggestive of Kipling, but more refined, and closer to real nature. His writings will take a permanent place in literature. New York: The Century Company. Illustrated. Price, $1.50.

hard

REFORM. By Will S.
The reform movement

COMENIUS, AND THE BEGINNING OF EDUCATIONAL Monroe. This belongs to The Great Educators Series. in education from Vives, Bacon and Ratke to Comenius is ably traced, and the connection of the labors of these men with the later reformers, Francke, Rousseau, Basedow, Pestalozzi, Frobel and Herbart, is brought out. The book is one of the most interesting of this important series. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Price, $1.

A HISTORY OF EDUCATION. By Thomas Davidson. This is a learned book, tracing the history of education from the beginning of intelligence, through savage and barbarian times to Judea, Greece and Rome, and down through the Middle Ages to modern times. The author's object throughout is to show that education is the product of evolution,-that it is the last and highest product of evolution. Thus it is dignified, and educators are given the loftiest place in the list of the professions. Much account is taken of portions of educational history that are often ignored and neglected by educational writers. The book thus supplements other books, such as those of the Great Educators Series by the same Publishers. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Price, $1.

A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES FOR BEGINNERS. By W. B. Powell, A.M. This volume is intended for use in elementary schools. It gives an outline of United States history on a plan that is certain to engage the interest of young pupils from the start. It makes plain many causes of events, showing not only what happened, but why it happened. It begins with a brief study of geography and government, and carries the pupil forward through our history to the significant events of the closing year of the century. New York: The Macmillan Company. Price, 75 cents.

TARBELL'S COMPLETE GEOGRAPHY. By Horace S. Tarbell, LL.D., and Martha Tarbell, Ph.D. The authors define the province of geography as threefold: first, to show the processes by which earth-changes are being made; second, to disclose the actual features of the earth as it is to-day; and third, to trace the influences of these on mankind. TARBELL'S COMPLETE GEOGRAPHY contains all of the essential facts of astronomical and physical geography, together with an up-to-date treatment of political, historical and commercial life. It includes the historic events of 1898 and 1899. The illustrations are exceedingly good and the maps are equal to the best. In all essential particulars this book is close to the ideal of a grammar school geography. Published by the Werner School Book Company. Price, $1.

Advanced Elementary Science, being Part II. of SYSTEMATIC SCIENCE TEACHING, a Manual of Inductive Elementary Work. This volume is one of the International Education Series. It is by Edward Gardnier Howe. It is intended to aid the student in becoming an intelligent observer of nature, not simply to perceive facts, but to understand them, and to gather up and retain in the mind, what other men have learned concerning them. Various departments of study are treated, and the book will be a stimulus to broad and thorough scholarship. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Price, $1.50.

To Appleton's Home Reading Books Series, the following have recently been added: STORIES OF THE GREAT ASTONOMERS, by Edward S. Holden; THE STORIED WEST INDIES, by Frederick A. Ober, and THE CHRONICLES OF SIR JOHN FROISSART, condensed for young readers, by Adam Singleton. Each of these books is a gem in its way. The series has achieved a deserved popularity, not only among the schools where these books furnish most interesting and instructive supplementary reading, but also among young people in the homes of the land, whose taste for good reading is cultivated by the ownership and perusal of such volumes. New York: D. Appleton and Company. Price, 75 cents each.