EDUCATIONAL NEEDLECRAFT.*
MISS MARGARET MACMILLAN has written a preface to this book, in which she says that " the key of the whole work Tie acceptance. The two authors (they are instructresses at the Glasgow School of Art) take the little child as she is—with her long-sighted child eye, her hunger for bright colour, her small undeveloped hand, her wandering desires." They begin with very simple lessons, illustrated with good diagrams adapted to a little girl of six years old, and go on gradually increasing their demands on the intelligence and skill of their pupil until she becomes an expert needlewoman. Stitches, the use of materials, and the cutting out of garments are all cleverly combined in the lessons, so that by this method of teaching there is, instead of the hateful drudgery of "learning to sew," the pleasure of "making something." The end of the book treats of decorative embroidery ; but, though we agree with the authors' theory of design, we think that they would have been wiser to have advised the use of well-drawn patterns, either Renaissance or Modern, instead of the rather dull lines and circles, of which they give a number of examples. "The freedom in experimental work," on which they rightly lay stress, can be obtained in adapting a beautiful design, even if the worker cannot invent it for herself. We wish that the Education Departmeit might be brought to see the wisdom of adopting the " suggested scheme of work for an elementary school." If they would insist on the real instead of the theo- retical teaching of needlework the efficiency and comfort of every family would be wonderfully increased.
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