18 MAY 1867, Page 20

The Child's Country Book, in Words of Two Syllables. By

Thomas Miller. (Routledge.)—Mr. Miller's idea is good, and the execution is such as will cause the book to take admirably with children. Of course it is written for the quite young children, for words in two syllables mean that there are no words of more than two syllables, and a great majority of words in one syllable. And this necessarily ties a man

down to write almost too simply. However, Mr. Miller avoids twaddle as a rule. Our chief objection to the book is that the sixteen coloured illustrations are an exact reproduction of the same number of pictures in another of Messrs. Rontledge's books published this season. We have- traced every one of the sixteen to its original, and we must say that the job is a flagrant one. If any parent bought this book and the other (which is called The Child's Coloured Gift-Book) for his children, he would be paying twice over for the same pictures, his children would detect the similarity at once, and would exclaim at his stinginess. What is the word that we ought to apply to Messrs. Routledge ?