Lower English. By David Campbell. (Blackie and Son.)—By "Lower English,"
a somewhat ambiguous title, is meant English for "intermediate classes." The book is well put together, and gives the information wanted in a clear and orderly form. lathe chapter on Prosody some more examples would have been service- able. We see that Mr. Campbell quotes a saying of "Bishop South." South never reached this dignity. He was too witty. —In "Arnold's British Classics for English Schools;' general editor, J. Churton Collins (E. Arnold), we have The Lay of the Last Minstrel, edited by J. Townsend Warner, MA. Mr. Warner has some interesting remarks on the origin of the poem, and vindicates the author's poetical honour with much spirit and success. The notes are adequate and give abundance of illustra- tion. The arrangement adopted for them, for the purpose of saving space, is not otherwise desirable. Also, The Lady of the Lake, edited by John Marshall, LL.D.—In the same publisher's "School Shakespeare," we have Julius Cwsar, edited by E. M. Butler, M.A.; and The Tempest, edited by W. E. Urwick, M A. —To Paradise Lost, Book III., edited by F. Gorse, MA. (Blackie and Son), our objection lies in the character of the book selected. Whatever opinion we may have of the famous dialogue between the Father and the Son unfolding the poet's conception of the Scheme of Redemption, there can be little difference, we should think, about the unfitness of it as a subject to be studied by young boys. Mr. Gorse says of a certain kind of note that it is "bewildering to the young pupil." The same criticism might be passed on the greater part of the text itself. In these days, too, when we are so careful of giving offence, "The Limbo of Fools," with its contents, is out of order.—We are not quite sure that we should like to read with a class Paradise Lost, Book IV., edited by M. Macmillan, MA. (Macmillan and Co.) Mr. Macmillan is an admirable editor, with plenty of originality and power in his annotation, but here, again, the subject inicit -scrape/um The passage 689-775 is very fine, but it is not suited for a class.—In the "Pitt Press Series" (Cambridge University Press), we have The Lady of the Lake, edited by J. Howard B. Masterman, B.A., and A Legend of Montrose, edited by H. F. llorland Simpson, M.A. —We have also received Macmillan's Geography Readers, Book VII (Macmillan and Co.), having as contents "The United States : Ocean Currents and Tides."
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