Literature as an Aid to Teaching. By Alan Northman. (Sunday
School Union. is. net.)—We Would not say a word that could tell against the predominance of the literary element in education ; but we do not altogether welcome the help of Mr. Northman, His observations are somewhat trite, but they might pass. It is when he comes to give his list of books that he fails conspicuously. He does not include "Paradise Lost," because it has not been his "fortune to know any one who had a familiar acquaintance with that poem beyond the connecting of it with a certain drudgery in schooldays." We can only say with Domini° Sampson, " Pro- digious !" In " poetry " we miss Spenser, Pope, Cowper, Shelley, and Byron. In fiction, "Tess of the D'Urbervilles " might surely give place, in view of the fact that the list was made for readers of the Sunday School Chronicle, to, say, "The Trumpet Major." Why such anachronisms as "The Tower of London," "The Romance of the Forest," and "The Scottish Chiefs"? And why no "Princess of Thule" in the novels of William Black ? We doubt, con- sidering the readers, the wisdom of suggesting " Wuthering Heights," "New Grub Street," "Lea Atiserables," "The Wages of Sin." What about "P. B. Shelley : Poet and Pioneer"? " Pioneer " of causes which hardly commend themselves to the Sunday School Union.
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