Education in the Home, the Kindergarten, and the Primary School.
By Elizabeth P. Peabody. With an Introduction by E. Adelaide Manning. (Swan Sonnenschein and Co.)—The greater part of the book consists of lectures delivered to the students of some Normal Colleges in America. The authoress's love of children, her intelligent observation of their early characteristics, her sympathetic tact in their moral training, and her intimate and Appreciative acquaintance with the methods and teaching of Frwbel, entitle her to speak with authority on the subject-matter of the title-page. We are sorry to have to add that these lectures are so interlarded with fantastic psychology, philosophical extra- vagances, fanciful interpretations of Biblical passages, and unsound theology, that their real value is in much danger of being over- looked, and that the reader will probably be exasperated without being benefited. Miss Peabody has so much to say on the early- training of children which is worth remembering, that it is a matter- of regret that she has not chosen to lay down the principles and canons of her art, with the suggestions and records of her own experience, in some simpler form. The best parts of the book are the two lectures on a psychological observation, the history of a practical demonstration of the method.
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