cial provision be made for training teachers thoroughly, competent teachers of modern languages, and for giving adequate pay to these teachers; that not less than four hours a week be given to a modern language when first taught, and that the teaching of Latin be discontinued for those boys who intend to pursue commercial studies."

The methods pursued in our own commercial schools are much discussed. The Times, in a recent issue, devoted above a column to extracts from a memorandum on the subject prepared in the Bureau of Education. A. T. S.

BOOK NOTICES.

We have read with intense interest THe Life and LETTERS OF ADMIRAL DEWEY, by Adelbert M. Dewey. It is a book of thrilling interest, somewhat hastily prepared, but readable from beginning to end. It is the official account, so far as there is any, of our great admiral. George Dewey comes of good stock; the best of American and English blood is in his veins. He had good training. His father was a prominent physician at Montpelier, Vt. The boy was fearless and manly. He early wanted to go into the navy, and finally his father consented. He studied at Norwich University and Annapolis, graduating fifth in the class of 1858. Forty years of faithful service of his country lay between that day and his great victory in Manila Bay. Our respect for him rises all the time as we read this book. He is a diligent man; one of the kind who rightly stand before kings. He did with his might what was given him to do. As he came to command, he inspired all under him with this same spirit of absolute and thorough devotion to duty. He took nothing for granted. He saw to it that his men were well fed, that they knew each his work and that they did it thoroughly and well. His men came to love him. his duty, and each strove to render his best service. honors. He fairly won them. He is now a strong, mind of a statesman. And his modesty and thoughtfulness of others equals his tried bravery. This book, which fully sets his life and deeds before us, is good reading for young men. They will do well to emulate his pluck, energy and faithfulness to duty, and his habit of being ahead of time. This large volume is handsomely illustrated. New York: The Woolfall Co. Price, $2.50.

They knew he would do Dewey deserves his great self-reliant man, with the

THE DUTCH AND QUAKER COLONIES IN AMERICA. By John Fiske. Two volumes. Illustrated. This is a sumptuous work, bearing the marks of profound scholarship and wide research. The author's historical writings are well known, and include The Beginnings of New England, which stands, chronologically, immediately before, and Old Virginia and Her Neighbors, which follows the present work. The field is particularly rich and full of interest to a large number of people on both sides of the Atlantic. The breadth and significance of the world movement which led to the settling of this country and to the making of the Constitution, are appreciated as never before. The whole subject of history has been seen in a new light. It is being studied in a new spirit. The modern scientific spirit has contributed immeasurably to the true and proper conception of the world forces at work in human society, and special

students have been raised up to do thorough work in particular fields,-such work as was impossible under the old conception of history as a narration of bare facts, with no relation to a living present, and a future pregnant with magnificent possibilities. Mr. Fiske is one of the best of these modern historical specialists. He is an authority on the early period of American history. His . style is finished, and his writings in this and other departments have brought him a large and intelligent following among the most intellectual and cultured of the world's scholars. We are glad to see his announcement of other works projected, which he makes in the preface of these volumes. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Price, $4.00.

THE TEACHING BOTANIST. By William F. Ganong, Ph.D. Professor Ganong presents the educational world with a useful and suggestive manual of information upon botanical instruction in this volume. It is a book about the art of teaching the subject, not a text-book of the subject itself. It is strictly on pedagogical lines, and no teacher of botany can fail to be profited by its perusal, whether all its suggestions are adopted or not. It is the ripe result of profound scholarship and wide, practical experience. Since botanical instruction is no longer confined to teaching how to collect, name and preserve specimens, but looks into and leads into the profounder subjects of plant anatomy, functions and relations, there has been taken a long step forward. This is one of the best books we have seen on the modern lines, and it will be widely welcomed alike by teachers and mature students of botany. New York: The Macmillan Co. Price, $1.10.

THE REAL HAWAII: Its History and Present Condition, including the True Story of the Revolution. By Lucien Young, U. S. N. If anyone desires to learn the "true inwardness" of the recent political changes in Hawaii from the standpoint of an anti-Royalist and annexationist, he should read this book. Lieutenant Young does not hesitate to speak right out with Yankee frankness about the rottenness of the Hawaiian monarchy, the partiality and onesidedness of "Paramount" Blount's report to President Cleveland, and the absurdity and shame of the latter's attempt to place Liliuokalani on the throne. This book was forbidden publication by the Cleveland administration. It now appears as an antidote to the Blount report and kindred documents. It is an interesting contribution to a controversy that has now been practically settled, and settled rightly. New York: The Doubleday & McClure Co. Price, $1.50.

STORIES OF OUR MOTHER EARTH, by Harold W. Fairbanks, is the suggestive title of an attractive volume intended for supplementary work in Nature study for the fifth and sixth grades. San Francisco: The Whitaker & Ray Co. Price, 50 cents.

LOBO, RAG AND VIXEN, and Pictures. By Ernest Seton Thompson. The author of "Wild Animals I Have Known," has achieved quite a reputation as an interpreter of the sentiments and language of the brute creation; for he says that "though the lower animals have no language in the full sense as we understand it, they have a system of sounds, signs, touches, tastes and smells that answers the purpose of language." It is his avowed aim to translate this into English. Of course Kipling is the great modern master in this field. But Mr. Thompson is also an expert, and he has made a remarkably readable and engaging little book in this instance. It will be a delight to the youthful reader. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

Price, 60 cents.

ELEMENTS OF RHETORIC AND ENGLISH COMPOSITION. First High School Course. By G. R. Carpenter. This volume is based on Carpenter's Exercises in Rhetoric and English Composition, published in 1891. The earlier work is now withdrawn, and the present treatise brings the subject up to date, embodying the important improvements in methods of teaching rhetoric that have been made in the past decade. New York: The Macmillan Co. Price, 60 cents.

BUSHY. A Romance Founded on Fact. By Cynthia M. Westover. Illustrated by J. A. Walker. This is an entertaining story of a little girl who grew up in an unusual environment of wildness and adventure in the Rocky Mountains. She is a mature woman now, and able to look back upon her childhood through the intervening years, and see how the web of human life is woven out of joy and sorrow, fortune and misfortune. The story is healthful, and teaches the value of a self-reliant and forceful character. New York: The Morse Co.

METHODS OF KNOWLEDGE. An Essay in Epistemology. By Walter G. Smith, Ph.D. The students of philosophy and thoughtful people of a metaphysical turn of mind will find pleasure and food for thought in this book. Parts of it have already appeared in the form of papers published in Mind, The Philosophic Review, The International Journal of Ethics, and EDUCATION. The love of knowledge and the benefits derived therefrom are discussed; the fundamental laws of truth and morality are set forth. It is a profound work, with helpful and stimulating distinctions and suggestions on almost every page. New York: The Macmillan Co. Price, $1.25.

1812.

MIDSHIPMAN STUART; OR, THE LAST CRUISE OF THE "ESSEX," by Kirk Munroe, is a capital story for boys. The plot is laid in the significant year of While the story proceeds to develop most interestingly, the author manages to teach a good deal of history and to inculcate lessons of manliness and force of character. It is well that the boys of our day have so many good books to read. They should grow up with an added nobility, and find it easier to assume the responsibilities that will come to them because of their manifold advantages. This book will make an excellent holiday gift for a boy or young man. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Price, $1.25.

FAVORITE SONGS AND HYMNS FOR SCHOOL AND HOME. We have looked over this large and comprehensive collection of songs and hymns with great interest. We are delighted to note the presence of so many old friends,-America, Anvil Chorus, Annie Laurie, Battle Hymn of the Republic, Bonnie Doon, Columbia the Gem of the Ocean, Last Rose of Summer, etc. There are new songs, also; but the best of the past are not left out. There are songs for Arbor Day, Children's Songs and National Hymns. The classification is excellent. The music and words are clearly printed, and the book is a gem in every way. It contains four hundred and fifty of the world's best songs and hymns, collected and arranged by J. P. McCaskey. Published by Harper & Brothers, New York.'

STEREOSCOPIC VIEWS OF SOLID GEOMETRY FIGURES, with references to Wells's essentials of solid geometry. The use of stereoscopic views for the presentation of geometrical facts and relations has many advantages. The French, who are great masters of mathematical presentation, have for some time made use of such aids in studying space of three dimensions. These views are clear and comprehensive, and will do much to interest the pupil and convey accurate knowledge. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co. Price, 60 cents per set.

HARPER'S SCIENTIFIC MEMOIRS, when completed, will consist of ten volumes, four of which are already before the public. These Memoirs are edited by Prof. J. S. Ames, of Johns Hopkins University; The Free Expansion of Gases, contains memoirs by Gay-Lussac Joule and Thompson, translated by Professor Ames. This volume is sparingly supplied with diagrams, and contains about seventy-five pages. The memoirs are not the complete writings of the authorities mentioned, but are parts selected from these men's writings with a view to brevity and clearness; PRISMATIC AND DIFFRACTION SPECTRA, are Memoirs by Joseph von Fraunhofer, translated by Professor Ames. The diagrams in this volume are few in number, but remarkable in clearness. There is a spectrum chart in the back of this volume which, though uncolored, is a model of its kind; RONTGEN RAYS, contains Memoirs by Rontgen, Stokes and J. J. Tomson, translated by Prof. G. F. Barker, of the University of Pennsylvania. This volume has no diagrams at all; but the text is so clear and definite that the reader easily sees all that is described. While the other volumes of this series will probably appeal only to persons studying the sciences, this volume ought to appeal to everyone interested in the great popular discoveries of the day; THE MODERN THEORIES OF SOLUTION, contains Memoirs by Pfeffer, Arrhenius and Raoult, translated by Dr. H. C. Jones of Johns Hopkins University. This is well supplied with diagrams, and has about eighty pages. There are assembled in this volume the essential parts of the writings of the authorities named, to read the entire writings of which would take more time than an ordinary student will care to devote, no matter how enthusiastic he may be. Other volumes in preparation are Second Law of Thermodynamics, On the Properties of Ions, On the Law of Gases, On the Law of Gravitation, Wave Theory of Light and The Farady and Zeeman Effect.

EL SI DE LAS NINAS, a comedy in three acts by Leandro Fernandez Moratin, is a charming little reading play, a model of tenderness and simplicity, and well worth a study by all classes in Spanish. It has been edited, with a biographical notice, explanatory notes, and a Spanish-English vocabulary, by Eduardo Tolra y Fornes, of the University of Barcelona. Professor Fornes has also edited El Cautivo, an episode from Don Quixote, taken from that veracious history. It consists of chapters thirty-nine, forty and forty-one of the first part of Don Quixote, and is said to be an account of the chief personal experiences of Cervantes during his captivity in Algiers. The notes and vocabulary are copious and satisfying. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

CHILD LIFE IN TALE AND FABLE, by Etta Austin Blaisdell and Mary Frances Blaisdell, is a second reader made up of delightful stories, retold in the daintiest style and in the most graphic manner. The authors have caught the charm of true story-telling, and their little book is simply exquisite. It is most carefully graded, the selections are choicely made, and the arrangement is inviting. It is a work sure to please both teacher and little reader. New York: Macmillan Co.

In QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS, by Cyrus W. Irish, we have a scheme by which the student is made to deduce from a series of experiments a system of analysis for himself. In this way the study of qualitative analysis becomes a living thing, full of interest, and not a dull, blind task which the pupil must perform without knowing the wherefore, only seeing the effects. After every important division there are sets of questions that will broaden out the subject,

and make it more real and tangible to the pupil. Frequent tabulations of the analysis serve to make a convenient working basis for the student. The system as set forth by Mr. Irish is sufficiently complete for any elementary analysis course, and at the same time is expressed in such a way and manner as to be intelligible to an ordinary secondary school scholar. New York: American Book Co.

INTRODUCTION TO RHETORIC, by William B. Cairns, Ph.D., of the University of Wisconsin, is a thorougly up-to-date text-book for beginners in this most important of subjects. The author believes that rhetoric should be presented to the student as a reasonable study; that the pupil should study style and invention together; and that every exercise that a pupil writes should be criticised, both as regards diction, sentence structure, etc., and as a whole composition. In harmony with this has the text-book been shaped, and it is as usable, practical, sensible a work on rhetoric as any published. It is a work that should find place in the upper grades of the grammar schools as well as in high schools and academies. Boston: Ginn & Co.

GRAMMAR SCHOOL ALGEBRA, by William J. Milne, LL.D., is designed as a course for grammar schools and beginners in public and private schools. The method of treatment is simple, and the arrangement of the subjects corresponds with the accepted plans now in vogue. Dr. Milne designs his book to "present the elementary facts of the science of algebra in such a manner that a deep interest will be awakened in the processes." It is a practical presentation of the subject, and is entirely free from pedantry and padding. New York: American Book Co.

LEHRBUCH DER DEUTSCHEN SPRACHE, by Arnold Werner-Spanhoofd, is a thoroughly practical first year's course in German for classes where the work is conducted in German. It is a work with some novel features. It consists of a series of carefully graded illustrative lessons, thirty-five in number, and each lesson is divided into five essential parts: development lesson, reading, grammar, vocabulary and exercises. It is a faithful work, constructed on logical lines and based on many years' experience in the classroom. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co.

We have received copies of CYR'S FIFTH READER, up to date in its selections of choice literature, even including accounts of some of the important events of the late war with Spain, by Ellen M. Cyr, price, So cents; and TARBELL'S LESSONS IN LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR, Book I., 50 cents; Book II., 70 cents, by Horace S. and Martha Tarbell; and HAZEN'S GRADE SPELLERS, First Book, by M. W. Hazen, 20 cents-from Ginn and Co., Boston, Mass.

We acknowledge the receipt of Two TRAGEDIES OF SENECA,-Medea and The Daughters of Troy, rendered into English verse, with an Introduction by Ella Isabel Harris, Boston, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 75 cents; For ChildHOOD DAYS, a first-year reader in the New Century Readers, by John G. Thompson and Thomas E. Thompson, a very beautifully illustrated book for beginners, designed to follow blackboard or primer instruction when the child has learned to recognize about thirty words, The Morse Company, New York, 28 cents; GRADED LITERATURE READER, First Book, edited by Harry Pratt Judson and Ada C. Bender, and published at 25 cents by Maynard, Merrill & Co., New York; STORIES OF ANIMAL LIFE, by Charles Frederick Holden, in