Swoon AND TEXT Boos.—Scenes from Greek Plays. By A. Sidgwick.
(Rivingtons.)—These little volumes, which have been in use, we believe, for some years in Rugby School, are likely to be very serviceable. " Scenes " from four plays of Ariatophanes, viz., "The Knights," "The Clouds," "The Frogs," and "Pintas ;" and from two of Euripides, viz., 4' The Cyclops " and " Iphigenia in Tanris," have been published. They are furnished with stage directions, in fact made to look like plays that were really meant to be acted and were acted, not by any means the notion which one gets from the Greek play as it is commonly put before us. Besides these, there are notes, as brief as they could advantage- ously be, possibly more brief, but then the matter of price is to be considered ; and there is a "Grammatical Index," referring to explana- tions of the grammatical kind that have been given in the notes First Latin Steps. By Josiah Wright. (Macmillan.)—This is a very carefully constructed book, an introduction, as the author calls it, by a series of examples, to the study of the Latin language. The preface tells us that the author has printed it in order that his pupils may have in their hands what he thinks it "needful for them to know before they com- mence the study of a Latin author." We have no objections to make to the way in which this plan has been carried out. Mr. Wright has illustrated each construction with an abundance of well-chosen or well- made examples. But we cannot approve the plan itself. We should say that this "introduction to the Latin language" is intolerably wearisome and long. Here are more than 160 pages, each with about 40 sentences, not one of which possesses any human interest whatever, and through all these a boy must straggle before he is to begin the study of even the simplest Latin author. Surely such a discipline would strengthen that belief, always deeply rooted in a boy's mind, that the Romans were not real human beings. We much prefer what we shall take the liberty of calling the natural plan of patting a boy as soon as ever he is able to stumble along into an easy Latin author.—A. Short and Easy Latin Book, by the Rev. E. Fowle (Longmans), is on what may be called, from a well-known series, the " Mastery " principle. The boy is to use neither grammar nor vocabularies; everything is to be learnt by heart.-- Of the "Mastery Series," properly so called, we have before us Hebrew, by Thomas Prendergast (Longman).—In another well-known set of books, "The Practical Linguist Series," we have German ; Forty Pro- gressive Exercises, by David Nesmith, LL.B. (Nutt), intended as a companion to the German book of the series. —Germanica : Exercises in German Composition, by the Rev. J. D. Lester, is used in Wellington College, where the excellent system of committing the teaching of the modern and the classical languages to the same hands is, in a degree at least, carried out. —We have also to notice Part Two of A Method of Learning German, by E. Schiuzel (Whittaker).—Of French books we have Hachette's French Reader, Edmond About, by the Rev. E. H. Brette and Gustave Masson, (Hachette and Co.)—This is a volume which speaks for itself. Boys of course must not neglect their classical French, but French of the day is an absolute necessity. Nowhere could they learn it more delightfully than in the pages of M. About. The volume before as contains "La Fille da Chanoine ;" "La Mere de la Marquise," a most humorous novelette ; two scenes from "Trento et Quitrents," and one from the inimitable "Roi des Montagnes." To these the editors have added some notes which seem to us to hit every difficulty. --- Poesies Franyaises, by A. D. Duhart Fauvet (Bean), works out a good idea, giving a selection of pieces to be learnt by heart.—We have also before ua Part 1., containing lessons i.-v. of a French Course in Ten Lessons, by Jules Noirit (Triibner).—The great multiplication of English books is a welcome sign of a rational change in education. We must mention an English volume of the "Practical Linguist Series," by David Nesmith (Nutt); English Etymology : a Text-Book of Derivatives, by J. Douglas, Ph.D. (Oliver and Boyd ; Simpkin and Marshall); Studies in Composition, by David Pryde (from the same publishers); The Practical Moral Lesson Book, by the Rev. C. Hole (Longmans); Cassell's New Code Series, arranged to meet the various standards of the New Code (Cassell and Co.); King Henry 1V., Part 1., by the Rev. J. Hunter (Longmans); The Prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, by W. M'Leod (Longmans.)—We may mention at the same time The Student's Handbook to Mill's Logic, by the Rev. A. H. Killick (Long- mans.)—How to Write Clearly, by the Rev. Edwin A. Abbott (Seeleys), is an admirable little manual, by one of the authors of "English Lessons for English People."—In mathematics, pare and applied, we have to mention An Elementary Treatise on Differential Calculus, by B. Williamson, Fellow of T.C.D. (Longmans); a second edition of An Elementary Course of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, by R. Wormell (Groombridge) ; Geometrical Conic Sections, by J. Stuart Jackson (Macmillan); Explanatory Mensuration for the Use of Schools, by the Rev. A. Miley (Longmans); Practical Geometry for the Architect, Engineer, Surveyor, and Mechanic, by E. Wyndham Tarn (Lockwood). —In science we have before us Parts II. and III. of Descharners Natural Philosophy, translated by Professor Everett, containing " Heat " and "Electricity and Magnetism " (Blackie) ; and Dr. George Ffrilson's In- organic Chemistry, revised and enlarged, and furnished with the new notations by H. G. Malan (Chambers.)—Messrs. Longman's series of "Text-Books of Science " occupy the field both of science, as the word is commonly used, and of mathematics. We have before us the Theory of Heat, by J. Clark Maxwell ; The Elements of Plane and Solid Geometry, by H. W. Watson; and Technical Arithmetic and Mensuration, by Charles W. Merrifield.—Brinkley's Astronomy, an old-established text-book in Trinity College, Dublin, has been revised, partly re-written, and enlarged by J. W. Stubbs, D.D., and Franz Briinnow, Ph.D., (Dublin : Hodges, Foster, and Co.)
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