Smoot, Booxs.—This class of books multiplies upon us in a
way that defeats any attempt to deal satisfactorily with them, the more so as it is only to a few, and then only after intervals of time, that the real 'tat—that of practical use—can be applied to them. In recent works of this kind, Xenophon has been well represented. We have before us The First Six Books of Xenophon's Anabasis. Edited by W. W. Goodwin, Ph.D., and John William White, Ph.D. (Macmillan.)— The editors say of their notes, that "they make no pretension to learning, and aim merely at aiding beginners in laying a solid founda- tion for future scholarship." They are brief, practical, and excel- lent, with references throughout to Professor Goodwin's " Grammar," and suggestive questions which call the attention of the learner to important points of word formation or syntax.—Xenophon's Anabasis of Cyrus, Book II., by R. A. Taylor, M.A. (Rivingtons), is a very elaborate edition, which gives the learner every possible help, and oven leaves, we should think, too little to his own efforts. Every construction, for instance, is referred to its appro- priate heading in a synopsis of syntax, which follows the notes ; and the simplicity of a vocabulary is substituted for the laborious use of a dictionary. Mr. Taylor's notes are noticeably full in their historical and geographical explana- tions.—The Second Book of Xenophon's Anabasis, edited by C. S. 3erram, M.A. (the Clarendon Press), is a good and useful book, with nothing that seems to call for special remark.—Mr. Alfred Pretor's Anabasis of Xenophon, Book VI. (Cambridge University Press), is a ivaluable contribution to the study of Xenophon, especially from the ,excellent introduction in which Mr. Prober dischsses that author's style and literary and historical merits.—The Fourth Book of Xenophon's Anabasis, by John T. White, D.D. (Longmans), is one of .the series of " Grammar-School Texts," in which a vocabulary, with an etymological account of the words and references to grammar, supplies the place both of dictionary and the usual apparatus of notes.—Somewhat new ground is taken in Mr. H. Hailstone's excellent edition of the Agesilaus of Xenophon, with critical and ex- planatory notes, &c. (Cambridge University Press.)—The Second Greek Reader, by A. M. Bell, M.A. (Clarendon Press), is composed of extracts from Horodotus and Xenophon.---Professor Jobb has prepared for the use of his classes at Glasgow The Anabasis of Xenophon, Book III., with the modern Greek version of Constantine Bardalachos. (D. Maclehose.)—Mr. Paley adds to his series of small and serviceable editions of the Greek tragedians The Perm of Aschylus, with brief English notes. (Deighton and Bell ; Boll and -Sons.)—We observe that he °bonzes that part of the Herald's speech which describes the retreat of the land forces, beginning, " Ateurepa- ekev trete eneelen, xthiva." Tho passage is certainly awkwardly joined, and the internal evidence is in every respect against it.—Euripidis Alcestis, by C. S. Jerram, M.A. (Oxford, Clarendon Press), is a useful edition, in which the practical experience of a teacher has been employed to good purpose.—Homer, Iliad MCI., by Herbert Hailstone, M.A. (Clarendon Press), and Homer's Odyssey, Book I., by J. T. White, D.D., one of " The Grammar-School Texts" (Lougmans)„ may be mentioned together.—The Euthyphro of Plato, with an Introduction and Notes, by George Henry Wells, B.A. (Bell and Sons), is certainly a useful school book. The Euthyphro is a short and easy dialogue, and after the Apology and Crito may .very well have precedence in the young scholar's course of making acquaintance with Plato. Mr. Wells supplies all the 'help that can be wanted, both for the understanding of the nature of the dialogue and for the elucidation of the text.—In his Extracts from the Greek Elegiac Poets (Marcus Ward), Mr. Kynaston makes a welcome addition to Greek reading-books. Boys cannot do bettor than make early acquaintance with this beautiful and, for the most part, simple poetry.—Mr. Drake's well.known edition of Dernosthenis de Corona appears, revised by Mr. T. Watkin (Macmillan). —We have also received Demosthenes ; the Oration on the Crown and the Philippic Orations, by the Rev. J. H. Lindsay Leary, M.A. (Crosby Lockwood.)—Pliny's Letters, Book III. Keil's Text, with a Commentary by John E. B. Mayor, M.A., and a Life of Pliny, by G. H. Rendall, M.A. (Macmillan.) Professor Mayor's method of annotating a classical text is well known. For a school book, strictly speaking, this might be said to be overloaded with learning ; but it represents the lectures of a term addressed, it may be presumed, to the elite of Cambridge students of the Classics. As snob, its abund- ance of illustrations and its suggestiveness give it the highest value. Among the letters in the third book are those describing the retire- ment of Vostricius Spuriana ; the interesting description, addressed to Baebius Macer, of his uncle's mode of life and study ; the account of Silius Italicus, of the speech against Oaeoilius Claseicus, ex- Governor of Ba,etica, and of the panegyric on Trajan, and the in- terosting account of Arria. Mr. Rendall's life of Pliny is excel- lent.—Selected Epigrams of Martial. Edited, with Introduction, Notes, and Appendices, by the Rev. H. M. Stephenson, M.A. (Mac- millan.)—We naturally compare this edition with the similar work published twelve years ago by Messrs. Paley and Stone. The two volumes are of very much the same bulk ; but as Mr. Stephenson has limited his selection to scarcely more than half the number of epi- grams contained in the earlier edition, the notes are proportionately fuller. Illustrations of the text, drawn from modern works on Rome and its neighbourhood, as Murray's Handbook, Mr. Burns' Rome and the Campagna, &c., are a noticeable feature. And, generally, Mr. Steplionson's historical, geographical, and antiquarian notes are excellent, while those that deal with the text seem to leave no difficulties unexplained. — We have also received Horace, Epistles, Book II., and Art of Poetry, by the Rev. Sir G. W. Cux, Bart. (Longmans), containing a serviceable amount of in- formation within a very moderate compass.—Similar commendation may be bestowed on Select Orations from Cicero, by J. R. King, M.A. (Clarendon Press.)—The orations are " In Verrem Actio," "Pro Logo Manilia," "Pro Archie, Poeta," "Philippics IX."—In Livy, The Hannibatian War (Macaulay), one of the series of " Elementary Classics." Mr. G. C. Macaulay has constructed out of Livy, somewhat simplified in style, with occasional passages translated from Polybius, an excellent reading-book ; on M. Tulli Ciceronis Cato Mayor de Senectute, by James S. Reid, M.A. (Cambridge University Press), the only pos- sible criticism is that the notes are too full. Mr. Reid anticipates the objection in his preface, and makes a remark thereon which is worth quoting :—" The notes may be considered too full by some ; my own opinion is that Latin is better learned by a painstaking study of a few books than by a rapid reading of a great many, though a judicious interchange between a minute study of some books, and a broad and cursory reading of others, will produce the best results."—We have also received new editions of the late Mr. George Long's Cicero de Senectute, Cicero de Amicitia, and Cicero's Select Epistles. (Boll and Sons.)—"Unseen Papers" in Latin Prose and Verse, with Examination, Questions, by T. Collins, M.A. (Boll and Sons), is a useful class-book. We would suggest that in a second edition, the earlier extracts at least should be furnished with some such vocabulary as the Oxford and Cambridge local examiners are accustomed to supply with the " unseen " pieces which they set. Another book of the same kind is Easy Extracts for Translation at Sight from Latin Prose Authors, by Alfred S. West, M.A. (J. T. Beeoroft, Reading ; Hamilton and Adams, London.) Mr. George L. Bennett follows up the first manual of Latin Prose Composition with a Second Latin Writer (Rivingtons) ; and Passages for Translation. into Latin Prose, by Alex. W. Potts, M.A.., LL.D. (Macmillan), is a sequel to his " Hints towards Latin Prose Composi- tion," giving a number of passages for translation in which reference is made to the earlier work.—Mr. H. W. Wilkins' New Greek Delectus (Longmans) combines the functions of a reading-book and an exercise-book.—Wo have also to notice a "now and thoroughly re- vised edition" of Professor G. C. Godwin's Elementary Greek Grammar. (Macmillan.)—In Gorman, we have to acknowledge the fifth volume of " German Classics," Iphigenie auf Tauris, a drama, by Goethe, edited, with English Notes, by 0. A. Buchheim, Ph.D. (Clarendon Press) ; A School German Grammar, by H. W. Eve, M.A. (D. Nutt), the work of one who unites thorough acquaintance with the German language with a practical knowledge of the habits of English teach- ing; and a new edition of Werner's First German Course, by J. W. Laurie. (Thomas Laurie.)—In French, La Verre d'Eau, a comedy, by Scribe, edited by W. Colbert, M.A. (Cambridge University Press) ; a useful manual for students preparing for examivation is Questions and Answers on the French Grammar, by V. Laurent, B.A. (Stanford) ; the first instalment of what promises to be a serviceable series, Macmillan's Progressive French Reader, " First Era," by G. Eugene Fasnacht (Maomillau) ; and My First French Phrase-Book, by C. Grover, LL.D., revised by G. de Beauchamp. (Rolfe Brothers.)----- An Introduction to Geometry, Euclid, Book I., by J. Walmsloy, B.A. (C. F. Hodgson and Sons), contains a number of illustrations and ex- planations for the use of begiunors, which should make the early days of geometrical study mere pleasant, and easy.—The title of Mathe- matical Examination Papers, by W. F. Austin (Stanford), speaks for itself. These papers have been sot for entrance to the R.M.A., Wool- wich. The editor furnishes answers.—Of books dealing with subjects that are popularly classified as " English," there is an overwhelming number. Foremost among them may be mentioned a series of books on " Foreign Countries and British Colonies," edited by F. S. Pulling, M.A., and published by Messrs. Sampson Low and Co.—Two volumes of this series, Austro-Hungary, by David Kay, F.R.G.S., and Peru, by Clements R. Markham, are now before us. Both are likely to be most useful, for general as well as for educational purposes. Read somewhat rapidly in class, they will do far more good than the dry and indigestible summaries to which the ordinary books of geography are necessarily limited.—At the opposite pole of the same branch of study is Geography for Little Children, by Antonia Zitnmorn (Stanford), a book of simple and easily intelligible descriptions and definitions. Dealing with a special part of this subject, wo have The Industrial Geography of France, by G. Phillips Bevan, F.G.S. (W. Swan, Sounenschein, and Allen.—In Histories, we have a History of Scotland for Schools, by William F. Collier, LL.D. (Ishister.)—Mr. Collier is the author of a well-known "History of the British Empire," much used in schools, and this book is written in the same vigorous and picturesque style, and with a like 'compression of much matter into a small space.—An Introductory History of England, by W. M. Lupton (Longmans), is "adapted for those who merely require to got at principal facts, being a précis of the author's larger history."—Three sets of English Readers have to be mentioned,—the Tropical Reading Book, compiled by E. C. Phillips (Griffith and Farran), in three books, graduated for children of different ages.—The Modern School Rpaders (Cassell and Co.), a series comprising four " Infant Readers," and five " Readers " for children above the infant age, forming together a carefully gradu- ated series.—The Empire Readers (Jerrold and Son), two primers and six books, the latter containing extracts from a very wide range of the best authors.—Marie ; or, Glimpses of Life in France, by Annie Raino Ellis (Bell and Sons), is an interesting book for children of ten years old, or thereabouts.—To somewhat more advanced 'readers, Episodes of French History : St. Louis and the Nineteenth Century, by Gustave Masson, B.A. (Sampson Low and Co.), may be recommended, as also may be Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome, by E. N. Berens (Blackie).
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