Scaoor,Boors.—The Evagoras of Isocrates. With an Introduction and Notes by
Henry Clarke, M.A. (Swan Sonnensohein and Co.)- Isocrates deserves to be much more generally read. His Greek is singularly pare and graceful, and he throws a flood of light upon the change in Greek political feeling which was caused by the Pelopon- nesian war. Mr. Clarke's edition of the Evagoras is of a convenient size, and the notes strike us as, for the moat part, eminently suited for
the use of young scholars. Tobr aviraiy, however, seems to us a more usual expression for " their contemporaries" than roes amok, by which it is explained ; Mors, on p. 35, is clearly a mis- print for etbeo&. We should like to have seen a somewhat longer introduction. Even each common books as Grote's "History of Greece" are not always accessible to school-boys; and the writers of volumes like the present should, we think, put before their readers all the information which is necessary for an appreciative study of their author.—Easy Selections from Thucydides. By E. H. Moore, M.A. (Rivingtons.) —This little book, which is modelled on Mr. Phillpott's excellent selections from Xenophon, should be very useful in enabling boys to commence their acquaintance with Thucydides at an earlier age than is usual. The passages are well chosen, and the notes and introductions good. The value of the book is farther enhanced by maps, and an excellent index.—We have received from Messrs. Browne and Nolan of Dublin three volumes of their Classical Series : Selections from Phaedrua, Ovid, and Virgil, by L. D. Dowdall, may be useful to beginners, although we think that some of the passages chosen will be found rather difficult for very young scholars. In a book of this kind a little more translation in the notes would be an improvement.—Select Dialogues of Lucian, by the same author, contains an excellent introduction on the life and position of Lucian. The commentary is copious.— Handbook of Greek Composition. By Henry Browne.—Except in the hands of a very good teacher, this book could not, we fear, fail to prove misleading. Such a statement, for instance, as that on p. 4, that " the passive voice is formed from the active by taking the object of the person as subject," is, to say the least of it, ambiguous. We cannot altogether recommend its adoption.— Tales for Latin Prose Composition, by G. H. Wells, M.A. (George Bell and Sons), is an attempt to substitute continuous stories for the disconnected sentences of which the balk of elementary Latin prose books are composed. The hints appended to the exercises, while pointing out almost every difficulty, are so framed as to make the boy think for himself. This book should be found valuable in the lower forms in schools.—Mr. Paley has edited the Andronuiche of Euripides for the Cambridge Texts. (Deighton, Bell, and Co.) —This play deserves to be more generally known, as it is a very characteristic production, containing, in a marked degree, almost all the distinctive features of the Euripidean drama. The present volume is quite up to the standard of this excellent series. —History of England to 1509. By F. York Powell, M.A. (Rivingtons.)—Mr. York Powell has added one more to the already numerous school histories of England. His book differs from others of its kind in giving, as far as possible, the very words of the original authorities, a practice which has certainly much to recommend it. We cannot find any account of the reasons which have induced Mr. Powell to take 1509 instead of 1485 as his concluding date, except the bare statement that he " regards the former as essentially a deep dividing line in the history of this country." The reign of Henry VII. seems to us to belong far more to the new than to the old order. With the exception of the Reformation, all the influences which marked the Tudor dynasty as different from its predecessors were in operation during the reign of its first Sovereign ; and the con- clusion of the Wars of the Roses left the old nobility almost destroyed, and enabled the Tudor Kings to fill its place with a new aristocracy entirely dependent upon the Crown.—How to Draw a Map from Memory. By P. E. Swinstead, B.A. (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.)— We must confess that Mr. Swinstead's system does not commend itself to us. The elaborate diagrams which it is necessary to commit to memory in each case would, we fancy, be quite as difficult to retain as the outline in an Winery atlas ; and for proportion we should ourselves prefer to rely on the guidance of the parallels of latitude and longitude.---Summary of English Grammar. Compiled for the use of Notting-Hill High School. (Rivingtons.)—This strikes ns as a fairly satisfactory hand- book of a difficult subject, and should serve as a useful basis for oral teaching.—Edgar Quin* : Lettres d sa Mare. Selected and edited by George Saintsbnry. (Clarendon Press, Oxford.) —Quinet is, in many respects, a characteristic Frenchman, and these Letters show him, so to speak, in undress. He seems to have felt a genuine admiration for England, and writes in 1825 :—" Ici (Londres) la dignite morale est partont reconnue et rappelite, at je conuneuce it com- prendre comment des institutions gdnereusee penvent eider le banhear individnel en sappleant aux affections privies qui soot en tont pays si rares et si promptes it se briser." The name of Mr. Saintsbury is sufficient guarantee that the editorial part of the work is well done. —M. Esclangon, who appears to have had very considerable teach- ing experience, has brought out, for Messrs. Collins, a new First French Course. The constant production of works of this kind argues, we suppose, a demand for them ; and those who are discon- tented with existing " First French Courses " may, perhaps, find what they want in M. Esclangon's book.—We have also received from Messrs. Blackwood Short Stories from English History and Algebra for Beginners, by C. Smith, both specially intended for use in elementary schools.—Messrs. Griffith, Ferran, and Co., forward a specimen of the Standard Authors' Readers. The passages selected seem well calculated to stimulate the interest and intelligence of the children ; while the Third Infant Primer, with coloured pictures, issued by Marcus Ward and Co., should serve to lighten the pro- verbially difficult task of learning to read.
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