Theory and Practice of Teaching. By the Rev. Edward Thring.
(Cambridge University Press.)—It is probable that any one resorting to this volume for actual instruction in the "theory and practice of teaching" will close it with disappointment. Mr. Thring has little or nothing to say to such inquirers. He deals—and in so doing has the precedent of great teachers to support him—with principles rather than with rules. Yet we take it that no patient hearer (if, as we suppose, these chapters were once lectures) or reader will have gone or will go away without profit. Mr. Thring's utterances cannot fail to raise a "noble discontent" in the hearts of those to whom they are addressed, discontent with accepted modes of teaching, and with results which we try to consider satisfactory. As for himself, the writer is profoundly dissatisfied. He compares English school teaching to the perpetual pouring of water on kettles which have their lids, a pouring which cau but result in a few drops accidentally getting down the spout. The remedy he proposes is, first to com- municate this dissatisfaction to others, and to look for better results to more loving and intelligent working in the future. Mr. Thring's quaint style is sometimes effective, sometimes, we must own, a little tiresome.
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