The Kindergarten, (named after that beautiful German expression meaning Garlen of Children), is found only in the most nodern Public Schools, generally in the North only. Here little children are taught o sing songs, draw pictures, play games and make simple playthings with the use of colored paper, scissors, paste and blocks of polished wood. In a few places the Montessori method of teaching very young children to read and write while at play has been introduced. The grammar school or merely "the grades," are divided into 8 grades of one year each. They attempt to give a good general English education. The subjects taught are: Mathematics, for all ordinary commercial purposes. Spelling, Reading, Writing, Grammar. Geography, from that of the locality to that of the world, U. S. History. Elementary sciences, especially physiology and botany. Drawing, Painting, Clay Modelling. Manual training, carpentry, basketry, weaving, sewing (for girls only), cooking, arts and crafts. Manual training is becoming more and more extended each year and more or less of this work is found even in the smaller cities. In the Public High Schools the students are allowed a wide choice of a great number of studies. There are three or four groups of instruction all overlapping and all requiring a minimum of 30 or 32 credits* for graduation. The College Preparatory Course, providing for college entrance without examination, except in a few cases. The Academic Course, for those who do not intend to continue their education. Not so much specialization is required. The Business Course, which fits for clerical work. The Domestic Science Course, which trains for scientific housekeeping. The studies offered by the High Schools are, One credit is given each semester for each subject recited 5 times per week. Four years are ordinarily necessary to complete the High School course, but 31⁄2 years are not unusual. Cooking and study of food values, Sewing and designing, Household decoration, Household accounting. There are a group of schools almost entirely outside of the Public School system that form an important part of the educational opportunities for young women in America. These are; Trade Schools Business Colleges Art Schools Normal Schools Music Schools The trade schools for women are not well developed but there are a few good ones in the large cities where millinery and dressmaking are usually taught. Public The commercial course of the High School was first developed in the "Business College" which is maintained as a purely business proposition. The Business College is a successful and well developed institution and is found in nearly every city and town where office help is needed. While art and music are taught in all Public Schools, the more advanced specialized courses are given in special institutions or by independent teachers scattered throughout the country. Nursing the sick is taught by regular systematic instruction in connection with the larger hospitals. Many of the states are now requiring women to pass state examinations before they can practise as trained nurses. Of course this applies to both men and women but the profession of nursing is almost entirely in the hands of women. The normal schools, with a two years' course, which teach men and women to teach in the grades, are almost all free Public Schools as far as tuition is concerned. Every State has at least one Normal School and the thickly populated States have several each. Students are sometimes accepted after they have completed the Grammar School course but usually a High School course is desirable for entrance.. The State Universities offer to women as a whole, the greatest opportunities for knowledge and the usefulness that comes with knowledge, that has ever been known in the history of the world. Though all the universities are not equally extensive, residents of one State may attend the university of another state by paying a nonresident tuition fee. Theoretically tuition is free even in the universities for the residents of the State, but there are a number of fees of one kind and another that are met only after much hard labour by poor students, whose ambition carries them over all obstacles. Every course of instruction in the State Universities is open equally to both men and women and there are many women professors of deep learning and high posi tion. There are a large number of private colleges especially for women but only a half dozen of them are of first class rank as educational institutions, and even these offer merely academic courses. Simmons College in Boston, where domestic science and library work are taught and the Woman's Medical College of Baltimore are exceptions. Women of all ages from 16 to 60 are seen as fellow-students in American Universities and many a time a mother and daughter will be classmates. American women study civil and sanitary engineering, medicine, and law; architecture, agriculture, and domestic science; music, art, and pedagogy, history, litera ture, and ture, and languages; scientific research which fits them for government investigations in connection with the enforcement of the pure food laws, etc., laws, etc., and public hygiene which trains them to be public health officers. Above all they learn to be good and useful citizens, full of enthusiasm for life and the determination to make this larger life possible for others. The aim of the Public School system of the United States is to fit students for a fuller aud more prosperous life and arbitrary standards are being rapidly discarded, with the result that each year a larger and larger number of women from all parts of the world, especially from China and Japan, are flocking to the schools of higher education. FRIEDA FLIGELMAN. REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS ENGLISH. I. Life and Letters of Raja Rammohun Roy: by Sophia Dobson Collet. Edited by Hemchandra Sarkar, M. A. Price Rs. 2-8-0 (Pp. lxxx+278, 8vo). Printed and published by A. C. Sarkar at the Brahmo Mission Press, 211 Cornwallis Street, Calcutta, 1914. The book was first privately published in England in 1900, but it had not the opportunity of a wide circulation. Mr. Sarkar obtained the copyright and in this edition he has included everything worth preserving out of the voluminous literature about the Raja that has grown up during the last thirty years. He has also embodied everything of interest in Miss Carpenter's 'Last Days of Raja Rammohun Roy. A biographical sketch of Miss Collet has been prefixed to the volume, and in an elaborate introduction Mr Sarkar sums up the main events of the Raja's li and the distinguishing note of his character an teachings. In the Appendix some sonnets written by the English friends of the Raja have been quoted, ar extracts from the anniversary speeches of Bab Surendra Nath Banerjea, Mr. N. Ghose, Dr. Brajendr Nath Seal, and other eminent scholars and leaders public opinion has been given. The frontispiece is beautiful coloured portrait of the Raja, and the portraits of Miss Collet and Miss Carpenter have als been reproduced. A very useful Index and bibliogra phy complete the volume. Altogether, Mr. Sarka has spared no pains to make the present volume complete up-to-date collection of all available informa on about the Father of Modern India. The book well bound in cloth, the paper and printing are irly good, but the general get up is not as attractive s what, for instance, we are accustomed to associate ith some of the Madras firms of publishers, who asily surpass us of Bengal in this important partialar. In order to attract the attention it deserves, he book should, in our opinion, have been published England. But this volume should leave no educated idian with an excuse for not knowing something the great Raja and his works. As for Bengalis, ey are expected to know all about him from his andard biography in Bengali by the late Babu agendranath Chatterji. II. The Fundamental Unity of India (from Hindu ources): by Radhakumud Mookerji, M. A., P.R.S., uthor of the 'History of Indian Shipping.' With an ntroduction by J. Ramsay Macdonald, M.P. Longmans, Green and Co, 1914. (pp. 140). not We entirely approve of the idea of bringing out original books in English by Indian authors through English firms of publishers, in as much as this nsures greater attention to the publication only in Europe, but also in India. Few Indian pubishing firms have a standing before the Republic of etters, and so long as this is justifiably so, we should nake our contributions to the original thought of the world through eminent European firms. The little book before us needs no introduction to readers of he Modern Review, since it was first published in its pages. It has now been thoroughly revised, and a ynopsis of the discourse, as well as a valuable map of Ancient India by Babu Nundolal Dey, late of the Provincial Judicial Service, have been added. Small though the book is, the theme has been developed by the author with remarkable breadth of vision and originality. Though here and there in the writings of Swami Vivekananda, Sister Nivedita, and Mr. Bipin Chandra Pal, the idea was lightly touched upon, it was never fully elaborated in the way Mr. Mookerji has done, and his researches in the field of ancient, and often out of the way, Sanskrit literature, as well as his faculty for synthetic and constructive work, deserve all praise. Mr. Ramsay Macdonald truly says in his short but thoughtful introduction that though this is only a history, we read it with political thoughts in our mind, and in the new Indian art and literature of this kind, he perceives, a truer and more effective expression of Indian nationalism than in the crude political attempts which go by that name. Mr. Mookerji says in his preface: "In this work I have not dwelt upon the important evidence of the fundamental unity of India furnished by the social and religious institutions of the country, but have confined my attention mainly to its geographical basis." We sincerely hope that Mr. Mookerji will round off his discourse by extending his investigations into the field of social and religious institutions, and favour us, in the next edition, with a complete presentation of the case in which the points of contact between Hindu and Mahomedan culture and institutions should be duly noticed, so that the unity of India, instead of being a mere tradition and memory of the ancient Hindu civilisation, may be a living and wholesome integrating force in the practical politics of modern India. We heartily welcome the book, both as a statement of fact and as an inspiring suggestion for the future, and we hope the author will enrich our historical literature with more of his fruitful and invigorating researches. H. G. Wells, Macmillan and CO., 2|6d. 1914. (Empire In this book the author of 'A Modern Utopia' and 'Anticipations' makes another bold bid for the role of the prophet. In this case the future is limited to the next sixty years or so, but within this comparatively short period the world, according to the author, will pass through such a mighty revolution as was never witnessed before. This will be primarily due to the discoveries following in the train of radium, and the slow process of disintegration of energy which radioactivity implies will be so quickened that the storehouse of atomic energy will be capable of being suddenly released with a tremendous force of which we can at present form no conception. The 'atomic bombs' will shatter cities and empires, and will make war absolutely impossible. The perfection of aeroplanes and automobiles and other scientific discoveries of all sorts will leave no unknown or impenetrable corner in the habitable globe. When the engines of destruction will bring the Earth to the brink of chaos, the representatives of the various nationalities will meet together and establish a world-state, and national and political distinctions will be obliterated. Some of the results of the introduction of the new order of things are thus described: Cultivating guilds have substituted the individual cultivator. That shy, unstimulated life of the lonely hovel, the narrow scandals and petty spites and persecutions of the small village, that hoarding, half inanimate existence away from books, thought, or social participation and in constant contact with cattle, pigs, poultry, and their excrement is passing away out of human experience'. 'Every year the work of our scientific laboratories increases the productivity and simplifies the labour of those who work upon the soil, and the food now of the whole world is produced by less than one per cent of its population, a percentage which still tends to decrease... the garden side of life, the creation of groves and lawns and vast regions of beautiful flowers has expanded enormously and continues to expand.' English has become the lingua franca of the world, the metric system of weights and measures has been universally adopted, all the different calendars have been standardised and the year divided into thirteen months of four weeks each, an universal monetary standard has been established, and universal education prevails. The war against disease-carrying flies has been waged so successfully that this pestilential branch of life is nearly extinct. The spirit though not the form of Christianity has been retained, the eternal search for knowledge and the subduing of nature to higher and better purposes has become the aim of life. The majority of our population consists of artists, and the bulk of activity in the world lies no longer with necessities but with their elaboration, decoration and refinement.' Mr. Wells is however not so blind in his enthusiasm as not to perceive that 'most people who have made their labour contribution produce neither new beauty nor new wisdom, but are simply busy about those pleasant activities and enjoyments that reassure them that they are alive.' One might doubt how far this dull and monotonous though high level of existence will satisfy the coming man, or what chance it has of stability. Indeed, as might be expected, our author merely sketches the outlines of the new polity, leaving us to fill in the details, and on many grave questions of ordered social life, e. g. morality, religion, poverty, equality of opportunity, he says virtually III. The World set Free: A story of Mankind, by nothing. Still the picture he paints is eminently in spiriting, and foreshadows not only great material but spiritual progress also, and it is in the main in accord with the trend of the scientific and moral evolution of advancing humanity. It is a picture at once bold and prophetic, and such as can only be drawn by a product of one of the young and virile civilisations of the West. The East,-at least the middle East-has become too old and effete to etertain these dazzling visions, for its gaze is enternally fixed on the past with a mute and tragic appeal which is half a confession of failure. But the stirrings of a new life are already visible in the Orient, the immobile land of the Rishis is already falling in line with the vanguard progress, the dry bones of the valley are becoming instinct with a new life. Some recognition of this new fact is to be found even in this volume. The author speaks of the Dass-Tata engine,' 'the invention of two among the brilliant galaxy of Bengali inventors the modernization of Indian thought was producing at this time.' In the. Assembly of the ninety-three select men who were to formulate a world-government, King Egbert (the President) found himself between a pleasant little Japanese stranger in spectacles and his cousin of Central Europe, and opposite a great Bengali leader, and the President of the United States of America. Finally, we find that in Mr. Wells' new world-council two of the members are from India. We welcome this change in European literature in its attitude towards things Indian. Formerly India was the skeleton at the feast, 'where every prospect pleases but man alone is vile,' and which was referred to only for its royal Bengal tigers and huge elephants, its plagues, pestilences and famines, its poverty, its superstitious customs and rites, but seldom or never for its present or past achievements and future potentialities. Evidently India is now giving promise of better things, and this is being reflected in current western literature. And to us the satisfaction is not less that in bringing about this change, so desirable from the point of view of our growing self-respect, the Bengali has contributed perhaps more than any other contemporary people in the Indian Empire. And foremost among those Bengalies whose contributions are the largest stand out four names in bold relief,-Drs. J. C. Bose, R. Tagore, P. C. Roy, and Mr. A. Tagore. Though not strictly pertinent to this review, we cannot help adding that t the head of the research workers in the field of literature, science and history who have yet to win their laurels, stands Dr. B. N. Seal, whose works, when published, are expected to bring further recognition to the gifted race to which Mr. Wells pays more than one tribute in his forecast of the future. IV. Fatal Fallacies or Society under Searchlight by D. P. Thakore, Ps. D. Madras, The India Printing Works, 1914. Price Re. 1. This little book is neatly printed and bound, and there is not a word in it within quotation marks, so that the views and opinions propounded by the author appear to be strikingly new and original. And yet they are all borrowed from Nietzsche and his followers, though they have not been so much as named in the book. The philosophy of the superman and of human values is in some respects a virile philosophy, and there is much in it which deserves the study of the mild Indian. Some of the current conventions and sham valuations of modern society are here mercilessly exposed. But in aiming at truth, and bringing the plague-spots of society under its searchlight, it often overshoots th mark, and indulges in wild exaggerations and un sound generalisations. Nietzsche was often a mai rhapsodist. He set himself in opposition to the school of Marx and Lassalle, and ignored these elements of truth which were to be found in socialis tic doctrines. Dr. Thakore's views suffer from all the vices of his masters, and of course possess many of their virtues also. We refrain from quoting his views as many of them, apart from the context, will appear to be singularly indiscreet and totally subversive of the foundations of society, besides being at best hall truths. We shall leave this thought-provoking book. written in excellent English but fit to be read by people of mature age only, with a quotation from the author himself (p. 114): There is not a faddist but has a number of fools to follow him.' V. The Political Quarterly: February 1914. Oxford University Press. Annual subscription, 10 shillings. (Medium 8 Vo, pp. 220). This is a new journal of contemporary political studies. 'Its aim will be in the first instance to consider developments of political, social and econom policy in the United Kingdom'. 'But it will also be an object of this Quarterly to review systematically the progress of political movements in the British dominions, in the United States of America, and in the leading European States of to-day. Each number iş bound in boards, so as to save the trouble and expense of rebinding. The article on the Amendment of the United States Senate discusses the change in the constitution providing that henceforth the Senators (members of the Upper House) should be elected by direct popular vote and not by the legislatures of the different States. The writer regards this as ar attempt to return to methods of Government of the most primitive kind.' In 'the School in Relation to Civic Progress,' the writer, paraphrasing a saying Sir J. R. Seely, very truly says: 'without [the study of history, citizenship has no root; without citizenship, [the study of ] history has no fruit.' The most thoughtful article in this number is contributed by Mr. Lindsay, Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford and is headed 'The State in recent political theory He starts with the proposition that the utilitarian view that society is a mere aggregate of individuals is wrong, that the general will is more than the sum of its members, and proceeds to show that neither individualism nor collectivism is adequat to the facts of modern life, that there are a large number of corporate organisations within the state which extend beyond its borders and whose activities cannot be controlled by any one state. 'The cotton-spinners in Lancashir may affect the lives of men in India or Africa.' 'In world which is rapidly becoming one economic market. these are world-wide economic organisations which can control the lives of men over whom they have political control, and who have no political control over them.' We may therefore define the state as ar organisation of organisations. According to the writer, an world-state is impossible, for it presup poses a common culture and traditions out o which arises that mutual confidence which is so neces sary to good government. In the Political year in Canada' the question of Indian immigration is summed up in a way which shows what a huge fiction the British Empire is, so far as the only cou try which justifies the imperial title is concerned "There is, of course, no possibility of abandoning This is the latest addition to the well known series "Biographies of Eminent Indians" issued by Messrs. atesan. This little book will no doubt be perused ith great interest by people outside Bengal. To a engalee, however, the booklet must necessarily ppear sketchy and incomplete, based as it is upon econdhand information gathered from translations. VII. Gems Indian: J. R. Tullu. 1914. Price Re. 1. Poona. Contains English metrical renderings of some oice Sanskrit passages with an introductory essay poetry. VIII. The Beauties of Islam: by Mohamad Sarfaraz wayn Quari. 1914. Price 8 annas. This neatly printed and handsomely bound little olume of 87 pages deserves more than a passing otice. It consists of some essays, all well written, nd breathing a wide and liberal culture and deservg the study of all thoughtful persons. IX. Study of Chemistry and first aid: for standard VII: Professor Pratt and Wren, of the Indian Educational ervice. Longmans, Green & Co. 1913. This is an excellent elementary treatise on first aid, written in easy language, and illustrated with cooured engravings. The book will no doubt be much ppreciated by school students. X. A Descriptive Catalogue of Books and Periodicals eceived in the Press Director's Office, Baroda, 'uring the half-year ending 31st December, 1913. This catalogue follows the lines of the Bengal abrary catalogue of Books. We find that there are hree Anglo-Vernacular weeklies at Baroda, and one t Narsari, and one Gujarati weekly at Baroda, one t Narsari, and one at Amrali. Besides these, there re fortnightlies and monthlies. There are excellent rinting presses at all the above places. The legal Forks of Mr. Desai have acquired more than a local eputation. Few of the books published in the state f Baroda during the half year under notice however eserve serious mention. XI. The Teaching of Indian History: an inaugural lecture: W. H. Hutton, B. D. Reader in Indian History in the niverstiy of Oxford: Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1914. me shilling net. The lecture is dedicated to Lord Curzon, and refernee is made to his 'devoted and far-sighted rule.' In he domain of history, especially in archæology, Lord urzon undoubtedly deserves our thanks, but such ombastic and vain-glorious statements, so charactertic of his Lordship, as the following, are by no eans to be taken as the verdict of history: "To the message is carved in granite, it is hewn out of rock of doom, that our work is righteous and hat it shall endure." Refuting the charge that Indian story is a dull subject, the lecturer says: "Dull! I nnot conceive any epithet more inappropriate or unjust......Nowhere have greater deeds been done, nowhere greater sacrifices made, nowhere have more noble and strenuous lives been lived, nowhere more devotion shown by rulers to those submitted to their sway." As a corrective to this strain of extravagant self-appreciation, natural perhaps to an Englishman, the following observation is indeed very sound: "There is history which needs to be written from the native as well as the foreign point of view, by native as well as by English scholars,-or better still, in collaboration between the two." Till this is done, any verdict that may be passed on England's work in India must be one-sided. In Oxford there is no permanent chair of Indian history. We heartily endorse the learned lecturer's appeal: "I appeal to those whose interest in India is real, who desire that her history should be fully known and rightly understood, who desire that she should be recognised in her greatness among the nations, to Indian princes, and to Europeans who have made fortunes in India, to provide for the creation of a Professorship of Indian history in the University. ." The following sentence, introduced apologetically and haltingly in the midst of panegyric of British rule, deserves to be rescued from its obscurity: "From the pure historian's point of view, it is obvious that the English settlement would have been more rapid, more beneficent, some will say (if they are bold enough to prophesy) more enduring, if it had had for its motive power less of the spirit of Clive and more of the spirit of Christ." Yet Clive is the latest god of the AngloIndian pantheon in the Maidan of Calcutta. POL. The Life and Teachings of Swami Khunni Lal Shastri, by one of his disciples Ram Swarup Agarwal, Professor of Languages, European College, Mussoorie. (To be had of the Central Book Depot. Chowk, Allahabad.) Pp. 36. Price three annas and six pies only. Swamiji was an M.A. of the Punjab University and served, in the Lahore College, as a Professor of Sanskrit for sometime. Afterwards he resigned his post and became a sadhu. The sale proceeds will be utilized in the production of English translations of Sanskrit works of the departed Saint. Address of Welcome read by Babu Nibaranchandra Mukherjee M. A., B.L. of Bhagalpur (Chairman, Reception Committee, All-India Theistic Conference, Session 1912) at Bankipur on the 26th December, 1912. A thoughtful paper. (1) My heresies, or where I beg leave to differ from Annie Besant. By F. T. Brooks, Theosophist At-targe. Pp. 18+ xiv +iii. Price 3 annas. (2) "My Resignation" or the Sequel to "My Heresies" by F. T. Brooks, Theosophist. Pp. 46. Price 2. (3) The Theosophical Society and its Esoteric Bogeydom Part I. A study in the sifting of chaff from grain by F. T. Brooks, Late of the Theosophical Society and Mrs. Besant's Esoteric school. Pp. 184+ xcvi. Price Re. 1 (wrapper); Re 1-6 (cloth). These books are to be had of Vyasashrama Bookshop, Mylapore, Madras, India. Here is another exposure of the Theosophical Society. The books are written by one who once belonged to the inner circle. Those who take an interest in Theosophy and anti-Theosophy will find, in these books, much that is worth knowing. But the attitude of the author is not praiseworthy. The Sacred Books of the Hindus (No 56.). Volume xiiiPart iv. Sukraniti, by Prof. Benoy Kumar Sarkar M.A. |