14 DECEMBER 1901, Page 23

Stanley's Life of Thomas Arnold. (John Murray. 6s.) — This "Teacher's Edition"

is reprinted from the twelfth, which sppeared with Dean Stanley's final revision in 1881 (just a year before the biographer's death). It contains, we should add, the noble poem," Rugby Chapel," in which Matthew Arnold appreciates so admirably his father's character. Sir Joshua Fitch has fur- nished a new preface, in which we welcome, among other things, the declaration of the writer's firm conviction that Arnold believed in the " humanities " as the foundation of education, —Another new edition of no common importance from the same publisher is Charles Darwin's Origin of Species (1s. net). It seems that the term of copyright of the original edition has expired. The publisher very properly points out that this original edition did not contain Darwin's mature convictions, his views having been modified by criticism and further observation. This is something; a more effectual preventive of a competition that might do some injustice to Darwin's reputation is the publication of the authentic text at the very low price mentioned above. If the public can get the revised book for a shilling, there can hardly, we suppose, be much of a market for the =revised. There is sometimes a not very seemly scramble for a work which goes out of copyright. We saw some time ago a volume of some of Tennyson's earlier poems with a preface which seemed to hint that his later and still protected work was not worth reading.