21 JULY 1900, Page 23

Scwoot-Booxs.—School Geography of the World, By Lionel W. Lyde. (A.

and 0. Black. 2s. 6d.)—We have no quarrel with Mr. Lyde's dictum that "Geography is the most educational of all subjects except Literature." And we have only one fault to find with his book that, from the extent of its subject, it is too much crowded with facts. These are carefully studied, it is true, and well pat together—nor have we found omissions in any part that we have tried; but still to have the physical conditions, trade, human habitation, and we know not what else in this small com- pass, is too much.—Old Mortality, by Walter Scott (edited by S. A. Nicklins, B.A., 25. 6d.) is furnished with notes, appendix, glossary, &c.—The German Empire : a German fists. lc I. Rea:cr. by Julius Langham, BA. (Swan, Sonnenschein and Co., 2s. 6d.)-- Of military manuals we have to notice flegtmentalDteties Made Easy, by Captain S. T. Banning (Gale and Polden, 5s. net), and The Officer's Pocket-Book, by Captain William Planer (same publishers, 5s. net), both, to all apptarance, most useful publications.—Of

books of the Holiday Season we have a Gossipy Guide to Swanage and District, by Clive Holland (C. Arthur Pearson, 6d.)