CURRENT LITERATURE.
ness and accuracy of the knowledge out of which it is written. Just as a genuine scholar shows his gift even in teaching the rudiments, so in this brief outline Professor Jebb reveals a thoroughly well-stored mind and an accomplished pen. Let any one read, if he wants an instance, the account of the drama, which occupies the first chapter of Part IL It contains the substance of a lengthy treatise, and any one who has thoroughly mastered its contents is not ill acquainted with the subject. Another subject with which a Cambridge scholar might be supposed to be less familiar, but of which Professor Jebb exhibits an equal mastery, is Aristotle. We cannot imagine any better book to put into the hands of a young student.—The Ajax of Sophocles. With Notes, Critical and Ex- planatory. By C. E. Palmer. (Bell and Sons.) Mr. Palmer is for adhering as closely as possibly to the text of the MSS., and thinks that too much liberty has been taken with it. He quotes in his preface a letter of the late Professor Conington's, condemning in emphatic terms the textus receptus of Oxford, that of Dindorf. A curious instance is supplied by a well-known puzzle, the word %%while.), (1. 360), when Ajax says to the chorus,-21 70i 14ra, bildexec gro■pirevy iirspzivorr% The word has been generally condemned and various emendations suggested, Linwood'a iAa,r being as good as any of them. Mr. Palmer accounts for the word by supposing that the chorus consisted of shepherds from Mount Ida, i.e., sailors (for sailors they certainly had been) who had turned shepherds, to support themselves during the long siege. He supports the thesis by another puzzling expression is 603-4, ,apixeir arrier4.4f, where Hermann conjectured pow:4,, and others punctuated after priAmi, leaving &slip/per inexplicable. For all this, we cannot accept the conjecture. Surely the chorus, if it is anything, is nautical. And who were the other shepherds, if these were the only ones ready to help? Had all the Greeks betaken themselves to this occupation ? In Tecnsesaa's speech, 284-330, we think Mr. Palmer unnecessarily complicates matters by refusing the usual punctuation of the line Trat•vr, aifvar, gler;ipas. 4,arpl,r1- Away, and putting a stop between ram/ and A•r;itaf. He will have it that Tromessa describes the bringing-in the herdsmen with the hard. But what, then, about the following expreseion,—T.4 li 31,,s4pur ia4sf Ityvi ce;c1gc ? If any of the dsria.r were men, why should he be spoken of as dealing with them Z01,1 prerat? But though we do not always agree with Mr. Palmer, we highly appreciate his ingenious and painstaking annota- tions.—Of Latin school-books we may note the De Amicitia and the De Senectute of Cicero, belonging to Dr. White's "Grammar-School Texts." (Longmans.)—A Few Hints on Latin Rhetoric, with Tables and Illus- trations, by J. E. Nixon (Macmillan), is a careful summary of the subject which will be very useful to advanced students. The technical pre- paration of the speaker is almost absolutely neglected in this country. Yet it ought to he recognised, in an education which professes to fit a man for public life.—A History of Latin Literature, by Leonard Schmitz, LL.D. (Collins), belongs to "Collins's School Series." This is, as far as its somewhat narrow limits admit, a complete account of Latin literature. Dr. Schmitz very properly refuses to confine his attention to the narrow circle of classical or quasi-classical works. It is too much the fashion in this countri to make this limitation. The student's reading is strictly directed to academical ends, and books which do not pay are religiously tabooed. Of course this is more true of Oxford than of Cambridge, where the Classical Tripes takes a fairly wide range. "I have thought it preferable," says the writer in his preface, 'to give a complete, though very brief survey of the whole domain of literature, from its rudest beginnings down to the time when the Latin language, in Italy and in the Latinised provinces of Gaul, Spain, and Africa, was losing its original character." Accordingly he begins with Appius Claudius Ca3C118 (who spoke against Pyrrhus, B.C. 280), and ends with Isidorus, Bishop of Seville, whose life extends as far as 640 A.D. No person more competent to review the vast amount of literature comprised within this period than Dr. Schmitz could be found, and this volume of his may be confidently recommended as a handbook for the student.---A. History of Roman Literature : from the Earliest Period to the Death of Marcus Aurelius, by Charles Thomas Cruttwell (Griffin), has a somewhat different purpose from the book last mentioned. Its object is, in fact, academical. The books of which it treats are such as may be likely to be " set " in the scholar- ship examinations and the schools. At the same time, while the period it embraces is much shorter, its own limits are far more extended. (It is a closely-printed octavo of moderate dimensions, and of nearly five hundred pages.) Hence Mr. Cruttwell is able to be much more copious, we may oven say discursive. While acknowledging in the preface his obligations to Dr. Teuffel's work, he claims to have him- self regarded "the history of Roman literature from a more purely literary point of view." This purpose has been very well carried out. The book is vigorous and well written, and does not disdain to make itself attractive by illustrations from modern literature, which may seem undignified to a severer school of writers. Sometimes, perhaps, criticism is too much put in the background. The student, for instance, ought to have been told that several of the " Heroides "commonly attributed to Ovid are not genuine. Sometimes, too, Mr. Cruttwell is discursive, and even irrelevant. A disquisition on Cassar's personal and public character does not concern the literary judgment on his "Commentaries." If the pages devoted to this had been given to more detailed description (Mr. Cruttwell allows only ten or eleven lines) of the "Metamorphoses" or of the " Fasti " (of which he briefly says that it was "a great work on the national calendar "), it would have been well. The book gives us the impression of being written in a hurry, and wanting the sense of proportion and per- spective which more consideration would have given. Mr. Crattwell, who has many qualifications for his task, should recast it. (Where, by the way, does he find that Passennus Paullus, on the occasion of the memorable interruption by Iavolenus Priscus, was asked by the audience to recite after Stating, who had been reading, had left the hail? Pliny says nothing about it.)-----The Mythology of Greece and Rome, from the German of 0. Sieman, edited by G. H. Bianchi, BA. (Marcus Ward), is written "with special reference to its use in art," and is furnished with sixty-four illustrations. For this purpose it seems well adapted. We note also, as a distinguishing merit, that the difference between the Greek and Roman divinities, known often to English readers by the same names, or names which are supposed to be interchangeable, is clearly brought out. The Latin gods, as they appear in the Augustan poets, are indeed for the most part the same beings as the Greek ; Horace's Mercurius, for instance, is identical with the Greek Hermes. But the real, indigenous Latin deities, before the Roman mythology became Hellenised, were very different. — A Parallel Syntax, Greek and Latin, for Beginners, with Exercises and a Greek Vocabulary, by the Rev. Herbert A. Sneyd-Kinnersloy (Black- wood), is a book of which the purpose is sufficiently indicated by the title. Every teacher will recognise the utility of the idea, because every one will have felt the difficulty of keeping distinct in the minds of his scholars, not to say in his own mind, the usages of the two languages. Mr. Sneyd-Kinnersloy puts the Greek and Latin con- structions on opposite pages, and where it is needful points out the differ- ences. He does not aim at anything very elaborate ; this his limits forbid. But any boy who has mastered this book will have got a good way beyond the stage of the beginner. The statements of construction are, as far as we have examined them—and we have given special attention to such cardinal points as " consocntio," " prohibitio," and " oratio .obliqua "—are both clear and concise.—Among English class-books we have to notice Samson Agonistes, with Notes and a Glossary. By J. P. Fleming. (Longmans.) Mr. Fleming's notes are scarcely full enough. He especially fails to explain the very complex constructions which occur from time to time in the text of the Samson, constructions where the student certainly stands in need of help. The passage 522-510, "When in strength all mortals I excelled," stn., is left unnoticed, but it is as difficult as a Greek chorus. There is a curious mistake in the note to line 1,231, "Samson is made to invoke Baalzebnb, so afterwards Ashteroth." Of course it is Harapha who invokes them. We think that Mr. Fleming has not carefully studied the date of the writing of the Samson. Though published in 1671, it WAS probably written very soon after the Restoration. Hence the allusion in the expression, " The poet's error of intermixing comic stuff with tragic sadness or gravity" is probably due to Shakespeare rather than to Dryden, who did not begin to publish plays till 1663.—Paradise Regained, edited by C. S. Jerram, M.A. (Longmans), is, as far as we have been able to examine it, an excellent edition, which leaves nothing untouched. Mr. Jerram has already published an edition of " Lycidas," which we remember to have noticed some time ago, and it is sufficient to say that this is a worthy successor. —To the same series belongs Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour, edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Henry B. Wheatley, U.S.A.—We may also mention Byron's Childe Harold, edited by Walter Ilsley, B.A. (Longmans); Poems, Selected from the Works of Robert Burns, edited, with Memoir of the author, Notes, and Glossary, by Alexander M. Bell, M.A. (Rivingt,on); Goldsmith's Deserted Village, and Sponsor's Fairy Queen, Book I., Canto ix., Stanzas 33-54, edited and annotated by Charles H. Pearson, MA., and Herbert A. Strong, M.A. (S. Mullen, Melbourne) ; and in the series of "Annotated Poems of English Authors," edited by the Rev. C. T. Stevens, MA., and the Rev. D. Morris, The Lady of the Lake, First Canto (Longmans). —A Short Geography, by John Markwell, M.A. (Longmans and Co.) Why a work of 320 pages of matter, containing almost everything whioh a person-of ordinary education should know, is called "short,"
• we cannot imagine. The title is a misnomer, and does not truly repre- sent the contents of the book. We gladly recognise in it an advance on the old system of teaching geography. The plan of comparing and contrasting different geographical facts, and drawing conclusions, and teaching the pupils to draw conclusions therefrom for themselves, is admirably conceived and successfully carried out. If this method of teaching be adopted, the learner will be exercising his active mental powers, as well as the passive one of memory, and the one will largely aid the other. Furthermore, the study of geography will in this manner become interesting, while now it is often considered the very driest of school-work, and indeed is so, if it be made a mere catalogue of names. In spite of one drawback—the insufficiency of the record of recent exploration,—we can safely recommend this book to teachers, as the best published for junior classes in publics schools, and its value is considerably enhanced by the large collection of exercises which accom- pany it, for testing both the knowledge and intelligence of the pupils. —We cannot accord the same praise to Elemental, Geography, by R. Johnston, F.R.S. (Longmans and Co.), which is very little else than the dry catalogue we have just animadverted on. We pity the boy or girl who is made to swallow this undigested mass of names in the form hero
put for them, and cannot believe any intelligent teacher would ever use it as a class-book. It is only fit for those who cram for examintion and their " crammers."— Geography Primer, by George Grove, F.R.G.S. (Macmillan and Co.). is an excellent introdaction to the more compre- hensive study of geography. It explains fully how maps are made and how they are to be understood, and gives a clear general view of the distribution of land and water throughout the globe. The map of the bed of the Atlantic, embodying the results of the recent expedition of the 'Challenger,' is an admirable one, which ought to be in every physical atlas.— The Rugby Modern Geography, Part I., by Rev. C. E. Moborley (Billington), is an account of the principal features of the Mediterranean countries, written in an interesting narrative form, and entirely free from the vexatious catalogue. The historical element is by no means the least attractive part of the book.—Physiography, by the Rev. Alex. Mackay, LL.D., F.RS. (Blackwood and Son.) The Com- mittee of Council on Education have devised a new science, or rather they have included under one specific class the fundamental principles of nautical astronomy, geology, and biology, as they are found operating on terrestrial phenomena. The well-known and successful writer of School Geographies steps into the gap thus made, with his accurate knowledge, comprehensive grasp of facts, and power of preparing his information for tolerably easy assimilation in the minds of beginners, and produces a book which is a sort of elementary compendium of nearly all the sciences, containing knowledge up to the latest date. The chapter on the configuration of the surface and the atmosphere are .ex- cellent in every way, but the biological section is anything but satis- factory. The doctrine of Lamarck and Darwin is never even alluded to. It is nonsense to keep such a theory out of the school-room, since when the learners arrive at maturity, and find out for themselves its importance, they will be very likely to under-value and feel disgust at what will prove a really useful text-book.- The Complete Grade Parsing and Analysis. By Dr. William Davis. (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.) The teacher, whose leisure time iabetter employed than in looking out exercises for parsing and analysis when those in the text-book are exhausted, will thank Dr. Davis for his handy little work, which we are sure will supply an oft-felt want.—.Englisk Grammar, for Elementary Schools (Daldy, Isbister, and Co.), will form a fair text-book in the hands of an experienced teacher, who will amplify, emend, and illustrate it. It contains everything which must be learnt by heart for successful examination, and all the elementary grammatical forms. It is deficient in the science of grammar, being especially weak in the treatment of case and the pronouns. To say "my" is a possessive case of the pronoun " I " is execrable.—The Precis-Book. By W. Cosmo Monkhonse. (Crosby Lockwood and Co.) Precis-writing is an important part of most Civil-Service examinations. Men of clear intellects, accurate observation, and methodical habits, who have acquired a logical mode of expression, will find little difficulty in acquiring it. A little practice will enable them to easily overcome the few technicalities. Students will find this book very helpful for judicious hints, and plenty of ade- quate exercises—Introduction to Logic. Edited by M. C. Hime, M.A. (Hamilton, Adams, and Co.) No mind can be considered to- have been properly trained unless it has been put through the discipline of logic, and as the number who proceed from our middle-class schools to the Universities are comparatively few, while it is there only that at present logic is professorially taught, it follows that a large number of intellects by no means wanting in acuteness never receive the necessary training to prevent them falling into fallacies in reasoning, or to enable them to arrange their ideas in a logical manner. This excellent little manual of introduction to this subject will enable teachers to introduce it into their senior classes, and will be of use to the junior members of the Universities, who find logic a stumbling-block in their examinations.— We have to notice what is likely to be a very useful book, a "School Edition" of the "Annals of England," An Epitome of English History from Contemporary Writers. (James Parker.) Two volumes are before us, one embracing the period B.C. 57-A.D. 1154, the other reaching from 1154-1485. We have spoken before in these columns of the "Annals of England," and need only repeat here generally our high opinion of its value. The writer gives the evidence on which historians found their conclusions, and gives it accurately and fairly, though he does not conceal, when occasion occurs for expressing them, his own opinions. The present edition has been epitomised for school use.— The Handbook of Essentials in History and Literature, by the Rev. D. Gallery, S.J. (Gill and Son, Dublin), may be described as a "Grain book." It is a collection of facts which it is supposed well-educated lads ought to know.—First Principles of English History, by T. S. Taylor (Help), aims at giving an outline which the young learner may apprehend without having his memory overburdened with details.— We may also mention Geographical Questions for the Use of Army, Woolwich, and Civil-Service Candidates, collected and arranged by A. Dawson Clark, BA. (Clowes and Sons.)—Among "reading books" we have the Poetical Reader, Standard IV., in the "White- land's Series of Standard Reading Books for Girls," edited by S. P. Faunthorpe, M.A. (Stanford) ; Kindness to Animals, Illustrated by Stories and Anecdotes (Chambers), and the National Reading-Book, Book VI., edited by A. F. Muirson (Chambers), these two volumes be- longing to " Chambers's Educational Course."—The Book of Poetry for School and Families, by Dr. W. Davis (Simpkin and Marshall), "a
revised edition ;" and Domestic Economy for Girls, Book HI., edited by the Rev. Edward T. Stevens (Longmans.) This book, which is classed under the "sixth standard," deals with "the work, health, morals, income, and expenditure of the household." These lessons are illustrated with stories, and considerable effort has been made, and we should think, with success, to make them attractive. We are glad to have an opportunity of recommending this most useful series, which it would be a great mistake to suppose useful only to the yin:mg.—Along with this may be mentioned The Scholar's Handbook of Household Management and Cookery, by W. B. Tegetmeier (Mac- millan), "compiled," we read on the title-page, "at the request of the School Board for London."—Another reading-book which may be re- commended, though it is of a very different kind, is Grimm's Tales, selected and translated especially for schools (Bell and Sons)
We may also mention Webster's Book-keeping, comprising "a Perfect System and Course in Book-keoping by Single and Double Entry" (Ward, Lock, and Tyler), and Outlines of English History, by Henry Ines, M.A., and James Gilbert (Kent), a voltam°. which, having reached its "three hundred and sixtieth thousand," does not need any further notica.—The History of the British Empire (Collins), belonging to Collins's School Series," appears in a "new and enlarged edition," with questions and copious index.—A History of English Literature, by William Spalding, A.M. (Oliver and Boyd), appears in a new edition, 4' continued to 1876."—Text Book of Botany, by Otto W. Thome, translated and edited by Alfred W. Bennett, M.A., B.Sc., and F.L.S. (Langroans and Co.) Those who wish to pursue a systematic course of botany cannot do better than put themselves in the hands of Mr. Bennett, who has taken as the basis of his work the recognised text- book of the technical schools of Germany, and added many valuable notes and emendations, the results of recent discovery. The text is illustrated by a large number of well-executed woodcuts, especially in the part devoted to structural and physiological botany.—We have also for notice Botanical Tables, for the Use of Junior Students, by Arabella B. Buckley. (Stanford and Co.) One sheet contains the definition of the most important botanical terms, arranged in classes according to the part of the plant to which they belong ; the other is a classification of the principal British orders. Both are ingenious, logically arranged, and easy to use.— Efow to Draw a Straight Line, by A. B. Kempe, B.A. (Macmillan and (Jo.) This lecture was delivered to science teachers in connection with the Loan Collection at South Kensington, and is slightly enlarged, and annotated. The object is to illustrate the methods of describing true straight lines, according to the geometrical definition, by means of linkages. The describing of a circle is simple, that of a straight line very complicated, and the apparatus described here is most ingenious. Those who are interested in mathematical matters, and have not studied the question of linkages, will find this an easy and intelligible introdue- tion.—The Elements of Machine Design, by W. Cawthorn° 'Unwin, B.Sc. (Longmans and Co.), explains the principles upon which the for- mulas of the drawing-office are founded, and thus what was an empirical art is raised to a science. The labours of Redtenbacher and Reuleaux first established order out of chaos. Students will find this book full of information necessitating only a knowledge of ordinary algebra and tri- gonometry, and the illustrations and tables are all that could be desired. — Thermodynamics, by R. Wormell, D.Sc., M.A.; and Astronomy, by Professor R. S. Ball, LL.D., F.R.S. (Longmans and Co.) These two numbers of a new series entitled the London Science Class-Books are intended to form an intermediate step between the primer and the more advanced treatises, and are especially adapted for school purposes. If the remaining volumes are in any way equal to these in fullness and clearness of treatment,they will supply a real want. That this is so in the case of astronomy every one will admit who has had to prepare pupils for the mathematical section of the Senior Cambridge Local Ex- amination.—Elements of the Method of Least Squares, by Mansfield Merriman, Ph.D. (Macmillan and Co.) An elementary treatise, and adapted for those who have not received any extended mathematical training on the law of probabilities, and consists of two parts, the practical and the theoretical. Mr. Merriman thoroughly understands hie subject, and knows how to express himself without ambiguity.
The Window Observatory, by H. King. (Crosby Lockwood and Co.) We cannot conceive what use this book can possibly be. Those who care enough about astronomy to take observations will certainly know enough from their text-books to be able to do so without Captain King's assistance, and those who do not will certainly find no benefit from his book.—Primer of Pianoforte-Playing, by Franklin Taylor. (Mac- millan and Co.) The only way of learning to play any instrument is by long and laborious practice, and no book of instruction can supply this. Still there are many hints and suggestions which a book can offer as to position of wrist, quality of touch, and mode of fingering, etc. This little book will give some very valuable information on these matters, and -we would advise all would-be players to study it carefully. Many who have already acquired consi deralole facility in execution will find useful teaching on accent and phrasing, which are often so painfully deficient in drawing- room music.—Among French and German books we have The First French Book, Grammar, Conversation, and Translation, edited by Henri Bud (Hachette); The Philological French Primer, by A. Cogers, MA. (Rolfe), the word " philogical" being somewhat curiously used for a book which does not give, as far as we can see, a single derivation. Is it possible that there are "eighteen thousand French nouns?" French Verb*, by Louise Amilie Albiges (Griffith and Ferran); The Children's Own Book of French Composition, by Emile C. Angier, with- a preface by Jules Bu° (Haohette); First German Exercises, adapted to Vecqueray's "German Accidence for the Use of Schools," by E. F. Greenfell, M.A. (Rivingtons); An Elementary German Grammar, Part 1., Accidence, by Ernest L. Naftel (Longmans); and its companion volume, by the same author and from the same pub- lisher, Part 11., Syntax; (Jhamisso's Peter Schlemil, with impious ex- planatory notes and a vocabulary, by Moritz Foerster (Williams and Norgate); A Book of Ballads on German History, arranged and Anna. tated by Wilhelm Wagner, Ph.D. (Cambridge University Press), a volume belonging to the "Pitt Press Series."—The Normans in Europe. By the Rev. A. H. Johnson, MA. (Longmans and Co.) To understand the significance of the Norman Conquest, we must be acquainted with the early history of the Normans and their peculiar organisation, grafted on the elements that they found amongst the people among whom they settled. This "Epoch of Modern History" will prove a very useful handbook to this part of our history. The chapter on Norman administration is especially valuable— The Life of Edward the Black Prince. By Louise Creighton. (Riving.; tons.) The beginners who read intelligently and take an interest in this book—and they must be indeed dull learners who cannot—will know more about this important part of our history in its relation to the foreign policy of the European nations with whom we were then concerned, and the state of things at home, than many who have studied a more pretentious work. It is a perfect historical miniature. —Among educational books dealing 'with less familiar subjects of study, we may note An Anglo-Saxon Reader in Prose and Verse, with Grammatical Introduction, Notes, and Glossary, by Henry Sweet, M.A. (Clarendon Press); Elementary Grammar of the Turkish Language, with a Few Easy Exercises, by F. L. Hopkins, MA. (Triibner); an Arabic Primer, by General Sir Arthur Cotton, K.C.S.I. (Triibner); and A Grammar of the Baloochee Language, in the Persi-Arabic and Roman Characters, by Major E. Mockler (Henry S. King.)—Arithmetic for Use in Schools and Colleges, by the Rev. J. Barter (Daldy and 'ablator), contains a great number of graduated exercises in arithmetic. The teacher is expected to supply the rules, and when it is necessary to illustrate the working-out. Mr. Barter gives the examples ; their great variety and their carefully arranged order are the valuable features of his book.
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