CURRENT LITERATURE.
We have to notice in the briefest way four volumes of bio- graphy —Thomas Best Jervis, by his Son, W. P. Jervis (Elliot Stock), is described as a "Centenary Tribute," relating the work of its subject as "Christian Soldier, Geographer, and Friend of India." T. B. Jervis was employed in the Survey of India ; he took a keen interest in native education ; and he was con- stantly on the watch for opportunities to advance the welfare of the races subject to our rule. He met, of course, with no little opposition (there was, especially, what now appears an irra- tional objection on the part of the Government to the publication of Indian maps), but it is satisfactory to find the emphatic testi- mony which he bears to the general wisdom and benevolence of British rule.—Horace Mann. By B. A. Hinsdale, Ph.D. (W. Heinemann.)—This volume is one of the series of "Great Edu- cators." It is written in the first place for American readers, for Horace Mann's work is described as a "'Revival of the Common School in the United States." There is much that is interesting in what is said of the condition of educational matters when the Reformer set to work. He was born in 1796, and died in 1859, after an unhappy experience as President for seven years of Antioch College in Ohio, an institution founded on a very strange and unsatisfactory method. Why, we may ask, the gratuitous rudeness of saying that "Andrew Bell vindicated his nationality by teaching and speculating in tobacco and American currency, and his High Church and Tory principles by speaking ill of the country after he had left" P It is possible to be a Scotsman and not greedy of gain, and a Tory and High Churchman and yet a gentleman.—Sir James Simpson. By H. Laing Gordon. (T. Fisher Unwin.)—Sir James Simpson has already appeared in the series of "Eminent Scots," and he now figures in that of "Masters of Medicine." No one could have a better right to both places. The speciality of the volume now before us is to tell the story of "Sir James Simpson and Chloroform." No greater service in the region of medicine has ever been rendered to mankind, and it is well that the fullest possible account should be given of it. John T. Dorland By William King Baker. Edited by Anne W. Richardson, B.A. (Headley Brothers.)—Mr. Dorland was a Canadian, descended from a Dutch family which had migrated to America in 1680-81. He was a Friend, and devoted his life to ministerial work. His biographer draws a picture of a generous nature, strongly moved by religious convictions, which penetrated the whole of his life. We cannot pass the vevy able preface which the editor has contributed without a word of appreciation.
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