BOOK TABLE.

-THE MARK IN EUROPE AND AMERICA, by Enoch A. Bryan, (Ginn & Co.; 164 pp.; $1.10) reviews the theories on early land tenure which have gained such wide attention of late, especially through the writings of Sir Henry Maine. The theme, which seems to have a theoretical and archaeological interest merely, becomes practical when the advocates of state ownership of land seek in it a historical basis for their scheme. It will surprise those who have read Maine with unhesitating acceptance to find that the foundations of the whole theory are so involved in doubt that many competent authorities have called it in question. The author states the theory with much care, examines the earlier and later evidences in its support, and decides: "It is not overstating the case to say that the evidence for a free selfgoverned village community, practising communial ownership of land and forming the fundamental unit upon which all Teutonic society rests, and out of which it arose, is insufficient to establish the existence of such a community upon English soil, or, for that matter, upon that of Germany. On the other hand, the non-existence of such an institution is implied, not merely by the absence of positive evidence of its existence, but by the known facts in regard to an aristocratic social structure, in regard to the private ownership of land, and by what we know of the 'curve' of social evolution." This conclusion is sufficient to indicate the interest and significance of the present small volume, which deserves to be attentively read by students of history and of political economy.

-INDUCTIVE PSYCHOLOGY, an 'Introduction to the study of mental phenomena,' prepared for the first term's work in psychology in the state normal school at Winona, Minn., by E. A. Kirkpatrick, (Winona, published by the author; 104 pp.; 50c.) undertakes a very difficult task, to present in print the processes which will lead beginners in this branch to observe and think systematically about it for themselves. The result is a book largely made up of questions, answers to which are to be sought. The matter dealt with is necessarily quite elementary; the illustrations are a little trite and dreary; and the book, which has many excellent suggestions in it, will be much improved when the author finds time to recast it after fuller experience and with the aim to make it rich in matter as well as right in method. It is a move in the right direction, and will be found very suggestive by those teachers who are seeking means to make this study real and interesting to their pupils.

-THE ELEMENTS OF SOLID GEOMETRY, by Arthur L. Baker, (Ginn & Co.; 126 pp.; 90c.) bears on its title page the following quotation from Prof. De Morgan: "Every study of a generalization or extension gives additional power over the particular form by which the generalization is suggested." This is the key to the book. It organizes the matter so as to bring the parts into fruitful general relations and condense the work. Thus the number of propositions is reduced by making corollaries of many which are usually padded out with repetitions. "The one objeet which has been kept in sight throughont the book,'' the author tells us, "has been the attainment by the student of a practical and comprehensive working knowledge of the principles of solid geometry considered as a unit."

-XENOPHON'S ANABASIS, seven books, by W. R. Harper and James Wallace, (American Book Company; 575 pp. $1.50) has the appearance and general characteristics of the series to which it belongs. The introduction gives an account of the Persian and of the Greek art of war. Inductive exercises on the first three chapters follow designed to furnish grammatical drill. The text is organized into sections with descriptive headings, and abundantly provided with grammatical references and topics for study. There is a good map of Asia Minor, and numerous plans and illustrations are scattered through the volume. There are other helps, tabular views, word lists, grammatical matter and a good vocabulary. It is in every way a very satisfactory text-book.

-THE ANNUAL REGISTER OF THE UNIVETSITY OF CHICAGO for the past year makes a large double column pamphlet of two hundred and forty-four pages. Some of its special

features are the history and statutes of the University, th officers of instruction and government with a list of degree received and positions held attached to each name, the departments of instruction, twenty-seven in the faculty of arts, letters and science, with outlines of the courses offered in each; the divinity-school, University Extension division, libraries, museums etc., the University press and the affiliated work of the University.

-THE ÆNEID (six books) AND THE BUCOLICS OF VERGIL, edited by W. R. Harper and F. J. Miller, (American Book Co.; 564 pp.; $1.56) has been prepared with view to promote the study of these classic works as literature and not merely as drill books for grammar students. The notes, which are at the foot of the pages, besides grammatical and archaeological helps give parallel poetic passages from English and Latin authors, occasionally from Greek, to promote comparison. The volume is beautifully illustrated and well equipped with helps and guides for study, including a full vocabulary at the end.

-COLLAR'S SHORTER EYSENBACH, a practical German grammar (Ginn & Co., 242 pp.; $1.10) claims favorable attention by reason of the remarkable success of the larger work of which it is an abridgement. The present volume retrenches that by omitting comparisons with other languages, shortening the vocabularies, condensing explanations and illustrations, and leaving out less essential parts of the exercises. Thus the plan and essential material of the larger work are retained, and the time of the learner economized.

-ARNOLD'S LATIN PROSE COMPOSITION, corrected and revised from the first American edition by J. E. Mulholland, (American Book Co.; 415 pp.: $1.00) has not been greatly changed from previous issues, except to improve the arrangement in some particulars and to correct errors and remove verbiage. The book has been favorably known for many years, and seems likely to keep its hold for years to

come.

-PRACTICAL ELEMENTS OF ELOCUTION, by R. I. Fulton and T. C. Trueblood, (Ginn & Co.; 464 pp.; $1.50) attempts to fuse the principles of Rush and of Delsarte and to found elocution upon a scientific analysis of man's nature. The result is a somewhat formidable body of doctrine of the value of which we are not qualified to judge. The book contains also many practical precepts and materials for exercise.

-THE BEGINNER'S GREEK COMPOSITION, by W. G. Collar and M. G. Daniell, (Ginn & Co.; 201 pp.; 95c.) contains exercises based upon the first book of Xenophon's Anabasis, formal narrative in which the sentences grow more complex and difficult as the pupil advances. The exercises are all for translation from English into Greek, and are partly for oral, partly for written work.

-CHALK MARKS FOR THE BLACKBOARD, drawn by D. R. Angsbury, (New England Publishing Co., Boston; 20 cts), includes in an envelope twenty cards with simple outline form of familiar things at home and school, and of the vegetable and animal kingdom. Any teacher can quickly learn to put these forms upon the blackboard, for they draw themselves."

-The latest addition to the English Classics for Schools published by the American Book Company is Scott's LADY OF THE LAKE (30 cts.). It is equipped with a good map, sufficient notes, and a biographical and historical introduction.

--ARNOLD'S FIRST AND SECOND LATIN BOOK, revised edition, (American Book Co.; 416 pp.; $1.50), is a book long useful and now corrected and improved in some details but not materially changed from the previous edition.

-PETER THE GREAT, by John Lathrop Motley, (70 pp.; 24 cts.) an essay originally published in the North American Review, is issued by Maynard, Merrill & Co., as No. 121-122 of their English Classic Series.

-TWO ARTICLES in the November number of the Atlantic Monthly will be of particular interest to teachers. These are Horace E. Scudder's "School Libraries", and Ernest Hart's Spectacled Schoolboys."'

ONE use of the program of the Wisconsin Teachers' Association, which we publish this month, is to promote thought upon the topics. Intelligent, thoughtful discussion of them is needed, and this will not arise unless those who talk have thought upon the themes and tried to bring into clear and compact form what they would like to say. The young men of the association may well look upon themselves as called upon to contribute such interest to the occasion. This is the place for men who can lead to show themselves. What is wanted is not long discussions, but brief, pithy, practical suggestions, such as help others and give life and vigor to the meetings. Three minute talks that make a point sharply are of the most value. Shall we not have them from men who have kept silent for may years or are new to the body?

TEACHERS' Meetings receive special attentiou in this number of the JOURNAL. A revi

val of interest in them seems to be springing up, new and broader conceptions of their possibilities lying at the base of it. Those interested in their present phases will examine with care not only the programs of Racine and Madison which we publish elsewhere, but also the series of outlines on "The Study of Children," which come to us from Mr. Hancock, and of which others will appear in our next issue. In California especially, under the influence of Prof. Earl Barnes, Teachers' Meet

ings have been given this new direction. Suggestions furnished by him for the use of the Oakland teachers in such studies make the

first two papers in the present series.

Whether or not valuable scientific conclusions are derived from such studies it seems certain that they will infuse a new spirit into the teachers pursuing them, as they will be less and less inclined to routine processes and more and more able to understand and adjust themselves to the real needs of the children.

THE FREE HIGH SCHOOL DIRECTORY.

The Directory of Wisconsin Free High Schools, which we publish elsewhere, marks an interesting advance in the official representation of these institutions. In the first place we have the four and three year courses clearly separated for the first time. An inspection of these lists leaves the impression that the three years course still holds in a few communities in which the high school ought to have developed full strength. In other cases a four years course is maintained where the limited population would hardly lead one to expect it. In

the second place the importance of the high school assistants is at length fully recognized by the publication of their names in the official list. This is as it should be. Usually most of the teaching is done by the assistants, and the strength of the school depends upon them as much as upon the principal. The increased stringency of requisition as to their fitness for their work, and the publication of their names in the official directory are both recognitions of this fact.

In the list of four years courses there appear to be four schools which have no assistant. It is to be presumed that in most of these some assistance is rendered by teachers in other grades, or else that special combinations are made to diminish the number of classes, as one person can hardly in school hours attend to the whole number necessarily resulting from a four years course. There are fiftythree schools which employ but one assistant, three, four with four, three with five, one with thirty-five which employ two, fifteen with This places the school

six and one with ten.

at Madison far ahead of any other on the State list, on which it will be remembered, several important cities, as Milwaukee, La Crosse, West Superior, Manitowoc, and others do not appear. In this class of schools there are thus employed in the State 265 assistants.

We

As might be anticipated this list, if interpreted too strictly, may easily give rise to misapprehensions as to particular schools. have before us the letter of a principal in a community which for convenience we will call A, directing attention to the fact that his school has but one assistant while the school of B appears to have two. As a matter of fact five teachers are employed in the schools of A and but four in those of B. In the latter place the teacher of the grammar grade teaches some classes in the high school, and one of the lower grade teachers gives instruction in German. Both of these are reported as high school assistants, as they teach in the high school part of the time; but thereby a misleading impression as to the size of the school is created. In A, on the other hand, the one assistant also does grammar grade work, but gives most of her time to the high school. It is probable that a critical investigation of the list would bring to light many instances among the smaller schools of this crossing of grades by the assistant, and when two or more are enumerated it is possible that a like crossing occurs. A fair way of dealing with such cases would be to call for reports in such form as to show the portion of time given

IS THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES CHRISTIAN?

A little pamphlet with the above title has been widely circulated by the Covenanter church, which does not allow its members to vote or hold office. The pamphlet claims that the Constitution of the United States is not Christian because it does not acknowlege "the authority of Christ in the binding obligation of the law of the Bible."

With that definition of a Christian Constitution, no one can pretend that the Constitution is Christian. The same thing is true of the State Constitutions, except that most of them have some formal phrase about God in their preambles. We have no doubt that the United States Constitution is that of a secular, and not of a theocratic government, and that its framers purposely drew it so. The history of the civil war, the religious persecutions, and the great international conflicts of Europe for the previous two centuries had driven the lovers of liberty to the idea of religious freedom. And the United States Constitution, with the Bill of Rights added immediately to it, established the first national government in the world in which there was complete religious liberty. Toleration had preceded liberty in England and elsewhere. After the Revolution of 1689, Dissenters and Catholics were tolerated in England, but labored under many disabilities. Complete religious freedom has not come even yet in England and at the time of our Revolution it had not come in the English colonies. But religious freedom with certain trifling exceptions, came in all the states either just before the federal government was organized by the Constitution or with a generation afterward.

In all cases it was found that the choice was between a civil government which was secular and therefore not owned by any one or a dozen ecclesiastical organizations, and a civil government which persecuted or at best "tolerated" some of the best of its citizens because of their religious opinions. And it was for this reason and this alone that the government of this country was secularized. It was not because the people were irreligious or un-Christian, but because they wished religious freedom which they could not secure in any other way.

Suppose that the writers and publishers of this pamphlet could have their way. They wish now to "put God into the Constitution."

But they would not be satisfied with a merely formal acknowledgement of God. They now demand that their ideas of morals be incorporated in the civil law, as this and other pamphlets show. If they had the power they would soon establish a theocracy such as Massachusetts and Connecticut had in the first threequarters of a century of their colonial life. They demand now that the nation should be ruled by the law of Christ and the Bible, which means that it should be their interpretation of these so-called laws. This simply means religion enforced upon mankind by legal punishments. And there is no despotism more dangerous than that of sincere religious fanatics. Their very sincerity makes them all the more dangerous, as all history shows.

But we believe that the real thought of Jesus Christ is far better represented by the United States Constitution, secular as it is, than it would be by a state religion. The celebrated answer of Jesus, "Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's and unto God the things that are God's" draws a line between secular and ecclesiastical government as they existed then, the secular government being heathen. Another answer of Jesus, "My kingdom is not of this world," also indicates the difference between his ideas and those of a politico-ecclesiastical government. But we need not depend upon these two texts. The whole spirit of Jesus' teachings is toward the spiritual and away from the natural; toward the inward life and away from the outward form, toward individual liberty and away from outward authority in matters of conscience. Jesus gave no law, in the sense in which Moses gave a law. He established no political kingdom, not even any ecclesiastical organization, only a simple brotherhood of believers, agreeing in spirit. He gave a few grand ideas for the conduct of life and for the inspiration of the soul, but he did not apply those ideas even in a moral code, much less in the ceremonies and canons of a visible church. For this reason all churches are in a measure true churches; just so far as they carry out the law of love; and no church yet has been a perfect church. The churches which have had secular aims and have given worldly wealth and power to their leaders have usually been least in harmony with Christ's spirit. So with governments. Any form of government may be in harmony more or less perfect, with Christ's spirit. spirit. But a free government is more likely to be so than a despotism or an aristocracy, because the whole people are likely to know the interests of all, better than a few can know them.

Freedom is the best atmosphere for truth to live in, and it is the best atmosphere to help love to inspire itself in the hearts and lives of men. The best government is no government, if wrong doers would only let us get along without one. But as some government is necessary, a free government with all its imperfections comes the nearest to our needs. The long experiment of propagating religion by force has failed. and the new experiment of "a free church in a free state" is more successful than any other plan ever devised. The Christian religion in all its various forms is prospering more under our secular constitution, than it ever has prospered before, anywhere in the world. "The tree is known by its fruits."

A secular government which protects all in the exercise of their liberty of conscience, but compels no one, is the American ideal and no Christian need feel that he is untrue to his religion when he supports such a government heartily and loyally. Those who think otherwise, and would have the state teach religion, would go back to days from which we have happily escaped and would injure religion as well as freedom, if they could have their way. W.

MASTER ROUTINE.

Master Routine is well known to all of us. We have felt his power, and feel it more or less every day of our lives. He exacts of us to be on hand promptly, to take up unattractive tasks, to do them conscientiously and thoroughly. For this we have to thank him. Little enough we should bring to pass but for this stern insistence of Master Routine. When under his pressure we have overcome our natural reluctance and got to work, we are surprised to find how pleasant the tasks are after all. We have become so absorbed in them that time passed swiftly, and the very difficulties which they present afford a kind of stimulus which makes the eye sparkle and the cheeks glow, and the pleasant sense of power spring up in us. "What's well begun is half done" says the proverb, and every day's discipline under Master Routine proves it to us, by the way obstacles disappear and difficulties are mounted. All this is so certain that men who

sur

have a long task to perform make a definite routine for them as a means of vanquishing their difficulties; and one of the best things that school does for a boy is to teach him the power and necessity of routine.

But withal there are drawbacks to this discipline, and the worst is that it does not cease where its usefulness ceases, but becomes an

end in itself. We do things simply because we have been accustomed to do them, and without regard to the original purpose. In fact we are apt to forget that there was a purpose. Thus Master Routine becomes a tyrant. As such he exacts that the boy who already writes well shall continue to fill up copy books day by day, that the boy who reads well shall every day go through the form of a reading lesson which brings him no profit or next to none; that the good speller shall keep on in the spelling class, and so on. What is the harm of this? some partisan of Master Routine will ask: practice makes perfect: repetition is the mother of studies, said the old Jesuit maxim. Now the harm is this, that the teacher and pupil come to look upon the work as mere routine, forgetting its purpose.

If the success of those who have acquired the skill is properly acknowledged by excusing them from an exercise will not every member of the class be stirred by it? Will not a deeper sense of the purpose of the exercises spring up, and thus an intelligent effort to gain it take the place of formal perfunctory performances? Master Routine in fact is properly only an assistant, needing frequently to be controlled and overruled by his superiors. When this control is not exercised mechanical work results, and how often it does result teachers themselves are constantly confessing. Master Routine is of great value as an assistant, but as principal his rule is tyrannical and mischievous. S.