7 and S. Professor RENNIE has published an elementary work
on Entomology, entitled Alphabet of Insects. It seems part of an ex- tensive plan. "Alphabets" are about to be published of Plants, Birds, Kitchen Chemistry, Heat, and Cold—in short, the letters of the whole round of knowledge are about to be taught in this form. The scheme has our hearty approbation. It is the best form of elementary instruction. In noticing formerly a little work by Mr. INcE, of Dover, called the Outline of English History, we expressed our objection to catechisms, and termed them the school-books of parrots. Mr. INex has again come forward with a little book of Outlines of General Knowledge, on the same plan. But, however the Out- lines of History might be centained in a little volume of a hun- dred pages, when General Knowledge is attempted to be reduced into that compass, it necessarily becomes too miscellaneous and unconnected. The Outlines we speak of, though, for the reasons mentioned, they form a jumble, are not ill-selected, and they may be useful in schools where the course is not of a liberal description —where a great deal is to be done in a little time, and, provided the wallet be expeditiously filled, it is not minded that its con- tents are scraps of every description and of unassorted qualities. It is very different with the Alphabets : they are on a large and liberal scale of education, in which the mind is taught to reason while the elements of all knowledge are properly introduced to the memory. Professor RENNIE'S little book may be taken as a very favourable specimen of a good plan : we have read it with much satisfaction : it cannot fail to be understood and relished by the youthful inquirer.
Previous page
