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generally embellish the pages of children's readers. It has been said with truth, that these learned and dignified explanations of every third line often kill whatever interest the child may feel in what he is reading. Children easily learn to love good poetry and good prose, if they are but allowed to proceed unmolested and digest as much as they can and care to. But aside from notes the strongly didactic tone of much of this sort of literature is a hindrance to the young reader. The Step Ladder has neither of these faults. It aims to interest the child in what is good by the eminently proper method of letting him read what is good and draw his own conclusion. It aims to teach him good articulation and emphasis by letting him read aloud some of the most musical words that have been written by English authors. The subjects are chosen first and foremost for their interest to the child's mind, and are neither milk and mush nor dry bones. The book needs no defence for it will speak for itself.

Head-master W. C. Collar, of the Roxbury Latin School, whose revision of Eysenbach's German Grammar met with such a favorable reception, has taken another step to the front and put forth a revision of his own work,* by Mrs. C. S. Curtis. It will doubtless meet with objections in some quarters, for its primary distinction from the earlier editions is that it is condensed. No more has been included than was thought absolutely necessary. What has more often been expressed in set rules and paradigms, the anathema of the average not too willing scholar, or the one who has but a short time to devote to the subject, is in this edition included in notes and suggestions here and there, as the need for them arises. From the start, the pupil is familiarized with the construction of the sentence, and the noun and verb forms are not learned wholly by rote, but by practical experience. As to the order in which the various portions of the work is arranged, and the methods of explanation, however, every teacher has his or her own ideas, and follows them independent of the text book. The chief advantage of such a book as this seems to be the help it gives the student in such work as he must do alone, by presenting only the essential principles on which as a frame work he may build up a more comprehensive knowledge of the language.

Professor Newcomer's book on English Composition is based on a rather minute classification of the various kinds of composition, of which he makes three great classes. The first is " 'Composition Based on Experience and Observation," which is subdivided into first, Narration, of incidents, of biography, of history; second, Description, of objects, manufactured and natural, of nature, of works of art, of persons; and third, Narration and Description combined, including travels, scenes from life and from history. The second class is "Composition based on Reading and Thought,

*A Practical German Grammar. By William Eysenbach, revised by Wm. C. Collar, revised by Clara S. Curtis. Boston: Ginn & Co. 1893.

A Practical Course in English Composition. By Alphonso G. Newcomer. Boston: Ginn & Company.

which is divided again into first, Exposition, including essays, scientific treatises and criticism; second, Argument, including the various kinds of reasoning, evidence and debate, and third, Persuasion, which includes persuasion by appeal to various motives, and different kinds of oratory. The third class is Miscellaneous Forms, which includes news, editorials, book reviews, letters, diaries, dialogues, the short story, and rather strangely humor, which all will not concede to be a class of composition, any more than pathos. It is not to be supposed that Professor Newcomer would attempt to find a place for any specimen of literature in this classification, but such a detailed and mechanical division as this is, particularly in the beginning of the book, will probably be useful to younger scholars, for whom this part is chiefly intended, in making definite their ideas on the divisions of literature. The book is arranged in about seventy exercises, each on some particular class of this classification. The exercise consists of a description of the kind of composition in hand, advice for its writing a list of appropriate subjects, and usually, as models, an extract from some writer of recognized position, and further references to such writers. There are also at the beginning of each of the three parts some general directions for the class of composition treated of in that part. The book has the promise of being successful. The descriptions of the various classes of composition and the hints for writing are in good taste, sensible, clear, and seem easy to be followed. The subjects given are suitable, and the models well chosen, with some exceptions, such as a selection from Dr. Talmage as a specimen of pulpit oratory. The first part seems especially helpful, and in particular the suggestive introductory chapter on "How to Find Material," for the choosing of a satisfactory subject is usually the hardest part of the beginner's work in composition. It may be thought that the minute classification of composition which the book gives, for example, the divisions of narration into narration of simple, complex, colored, embellished, and complex incidents, and so on, may cause in the scholar a mechanical arrangement of all composition work in these classes, then a following of the rules for the classes, and so a stilted, stiff style of writing. In many cases it doubtless will at first, but the study of the latter part of the book will cause a more comprehensive view. It seems as if a thorough, complete and intelligent following out of Professor Newcomer's method, with the large amount of practice he advises, will surely give the scholar an ability to write correctly and clearly, and in an appropriate style. Doubtless it will help some scholars to go further.

Baker's Elements* is a_new_treatise upon the subject of Solid Geometry. including a short chapter on Conic Section. The propositions are brief in their statements, and so clear as to be easily mastered. Much is gained in brevity by the grouping together of many propositions which follow naturally as the corollaries of others, and the treatment, on the whole, seems unusually clear and comprehensive.

* The Elements of Solid Geometry. By Arthur Latham Baker. Boston: Ginn & Co.

The Language Lessons* of Mr. Conklin, ought, in spite of the many text books that have been published in this department, to find a place in our Grammar Schools. Though little novelty is to be expected in the treatment of so elementary a subject, his method, in paying unusual attention to composition, is one that thoroughly commends itself. By its means, through alteration as well as original composition, he tries to develop thought and clearness of expression by encouraging its unfolding from within, instead of impressing it from without. The lessons are intended to cover a period of two years, and are graded to suit the capacity of pupils as they advance.

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The Harvard Graduate Club, assisted by similar clubs at Cornell, Johns Hopkins and Yale, has prepared and issued a pamphlet entitled Graduate Courses," which is an account of the advanced courses announced by eleven of the leading universities of the United States for 1893-4. The institutions whose work is presented are Bryn Mawr, Chicago, Clark, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale. The pamphlet gives a very short description of each university, and then sets forth in detail the courses of graduate work now offered by it with the names and positions of the instructors. The courses are in the book divided into three classes-Language and Literature; Philosophy, History and the Fine Arts; Pure Science. These are subdivided into many smaller departments, with a sufficient description of the studies in each; and the whole presentation thus shows how far specialization may be carried, and what studies are generally regarded as most important. The book will doubtless be useful to those who wish to do graduate work, and are uncertain where to go, and it is, because of its showing what prominence advanced studies are beginning to have in America, encouraging.

This book is designed to be a permanent memorial of the Fair. It is filled with artistic illustrations; the press work is excellent, and the subject matter is well written and entertaining. This is undoubtedly the best of the many books to which the Fair has given rise.

The American Book Company has issued in the English Classics for Schools series an edition of Arnold's "Sohrab and Rustum," and a volume containing Emerson's essays on The American Scholar, Self-Reliance, Compensation. Sensible introductions, containing short biographies of the authors'

*Practical Lessons in Language. By Benjamin Y. Conklin. New York : American Book Company.

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The Book of the Fair. By Hubert Howe Bancroft. In twenty-five parts. Price $1.00 per part. Chicago: The Bancroft Co.

Sohrab and Rustum. By Matthew Arnold. New York: American Book Company. Price 20 cents.

The American Scholar, Self-Reliance, Compensation.

By Ralph Waldo

Emerson. New York: American Book Company. Price 20 cents.

selections from standard criticism on their work, in the case of "Sohrab and Rustum," historical information sufficient for the understanding of the events of the poem, and in the volume of Emerson brief summaries of the three essays, are given. The books with their substantial binding, good print and reasonable price, are well adapted for school use.

TO BE REVIEWED.

The Witness to Immortality. By George A. Gordon. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

Princeton Sketches. By George R. Wallace. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.

A School History of the United States. By William Swinton. New York: American Book Company.

Exercises in Greek Prose Composition. By Harper & Castle. New York: American Book Company.

Aeneid and Bucolics of Virgil. By Harper & Miller. New York: American Book Company.

A First and Second Latin Book and Grammar. By Thomas K. Arnold. New York: American Book Company.

The Lady of the Lake. English Classics for Schools Series. New York: American Book Company.

Livy, XXI., XXII. Edited, with notes, by J. B. Greenough and Tracy Peck. Boston: Ginn & Company.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

The disappearance of old landmarks and old faces is one of the inevitables. Everyone knows this as the greatest and most solemn fact of our daily lives. Yet any number of lessons fails to make us realize each new experience of loss. For our poor minds are not so constructed that they can fully grasp the possibility of that which is ceasing to be.

Still always must the old and the endeared through association yield to the young, the new, and the vigorous. Reform and improvement are remorseless iconoclasts. Saint Elihu knows well that the wonderful growth of Yale in wealth of buildings and enrollment of students should warm every Yale heart with loyal pride and satisfaction. That the campus

quadrangle no longer has a gap in the boundary lines of halls and dormitories, and that a new quadrangle is a certainty of the near future testify to the way our fathers planned and builded, and upon how worthy shoulders the mantle of succession has fallen.

Of course the old buildings, already falling down of themselves must be swept away, and all must soon share the melancholy end of old South. There is danger that with the obliteration of the "Old Brick Row," another thing will be missed, for the loss of which a campus filled with marble halls could never compensate. I mean the old spirit of democracy and simple manliness which has made Yale the glorious word that it is. The "Yale spirit" is a phrase worn commonplace and threadbare you say, but is not Yale tending toward the making of this splendid old watchword a new name? The Brick Row was the source of this sentiment which has been breathed in with the campus air for two centuries. In those old living places there were no social distinctions. There could be none when all Yale men lived out their college lives within the same brick walls, the same low-ceilinged rooms, and multi-paned windows. One roof covered all sorts and conditions of men. Less than half a dozen years ago the Seniors sought rooms in the Brick Row, North especially, in preference to more pretentious halls, more for the sake of the associations and the traditional atmosphere of good comradeship about the old piles than for anything else.

Vanderbilt, Welch and White Halls will furnish far more luxurious accommodations for the Yale student of the future, than are at present obtainable. This is, of course, advantageous for the student and the institution, yet it is inevitable that with the present policy of those who govern Yale affairs, each year will see a lessening of the old fraternal spirit and more and more class distinctions drawn, on the most pernicious of lines, financial. In each new dormitory thrown open the cost of rooms is made higher in some sort of an ascending scale proportioned to the cost of the building. This expense is borne by the donor, not by the college, and it is not apparent why rooms in Welch should be nearly twice as expensive as in Durfee. It is probable that the rooms in Vanderbilt Hall will be as high priced, if not higher, than in Welch. Hence most men of moderate incomes will be kept out.

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