The Principles of Education. By William Carl Ruediger, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology in the Teachers' College of the George Washington University. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company of Boston.

The author of this book is well known as a teacher of educational psychology. Professor Ruediger's experience, both as a teacher and a student, gives him a unique preparation for writing a helpful book on the principles of education. He has high rank throughout the United States as an investigator of educational problems, and he has made himself acquainted with all the reliable investigations and all the worthy opinions on education. The book bears striking evidence of this unique preparation of the author. The chapter headings give a fairly adequate idea of the subjects on which one may find reliable help: The Teacher's Professional Curriculum; The Biological Basis of Education; The Aim of Education; Other Statements of the Aim of Education, (a) Content Aims, (b) Formal Aims; The Doctrine of Formal Discipline; The Elemental Educational Values, (a) Instrumental Values, (b) Cultural Values, (c) Formal Values; The Curriculum; Educational Value of the Natural Sciences and Philosophy; The Administration of the Curriculum; The Agencies that Educate; The Psychological Bases of Teaching, (a) Instinct, Interest, Habit, (b) Memory, Perception, Inference.

As these topics indicate, the treatment is comprehensive, and readers will find that the treatment is reliable, for Professor Ruediger's philosophy of education is noteworthy in the extent to which it rests on an appreciation of all the known facts about education.

The introductory chapter on the Teacher's Professional Curriculum would alone be enough to make the book worth while, and it is only a fair sample. Rarely, if ever, has there appeared so helpful a statement of what the teacher needs to study in order to be a thorough-going educator. "Education as a professional study and practice has (1) a theory of aims, values and content; (2) a theory of instruction and training; (3) a history; (4) a theory of management and control; and (5) a technic of practice." No one who wishes to benefit by the best in education can afford not to know this book; it will bear several readings.-Review by C. W. Stone.

American Government and Politics. By Charles A. Bend, Associate Professor of Politics in Columbia University, New York. The Macmillan Company. Price, $2.10.

This is a comprehensive presentation of the subject indicated by the title. It is intended especially "for college students and citizens wishing a general survey of our political system." It is fresh and up-to-date in its conceptions and presentation of facts. Part I treats of Historical Foundations. Part II is on The Federal Government. Part III considers State Government. There is a full bibliography and index.

Who's Who in America? A Biographical Dictionary of notable living men and women of the United States. Volume VI, 1910-1911. Edited by Albert Nelson Marquis. A. N. Marquis & Co., Chicago. Price, $5.

There is always a human interest in a book like this. It reappears bienni

ally, and following its appearance statisticians get busy. All sorts of conclusions are drawn from it. Perhaps, in the absence of something better the data given are good to guess by. The trouble is that a person with a large bump of self-esteem can easily get himself included in the list; while another who is as modest as he is able and deserving is omitted. Evidently, however, the book is popular and commercially successful as is witnessed by the price and the regularity of its periodic reappearance.

Cranford. By Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. Edited with Introduction, Notes and Suggestive Questions by H. E. Coblenz, Head of the English Department of the South Division High School, Milwaukee, Wis. The Æneid of Virgil. Translated into English Verse. By Theodore C. Williams. Selections from Bracebridge Hall. By Washington Irving. Edited with Notes and Introduction by Samuel Thurber, Jr., Head of the English Department in the Technical High School of Newton, Mass. Houghton Mifflin Company. Price, 40, 75 and 25 cents respectively.

These are late additions to the well-known Riverside Literature Series, now used in so many schoolrooms throughout the country. They represent faithfully a scholarly editorial work combined with perfection of mechanical details. The light green binding is artistic and attractive.

The Mechanics of Writing. A Compendium of Rules regarding Manuscript Arrangement, Spelling, the Compounding of words, Abbreviations, the Representation of numbers, Syllabication, the use of Capitals, the use of Italics, Punctuation and Paragraphing. By Edwin C. Woolley, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English in the University of Wisconsin. D. C. Heath & Co.

Price, $1.

The sub-title of this book is almost a review of the volume. It is a book for earnest students who are striving to improve their style. It is thoroughly scientific, and goes into details in a minute way. Such books have their place, but it is the reviewer's opinion that such excessive analysis of spoken or written speech is chiefly useful as a matter of scientific curiosity. The best way to learn how to speak or write is first to learn how to think and feel; expression follows naturally, and will be essentially correct if there has been deep thought and feeling. Yet as a matter of scholarship, scientists may pick a volume to pieces, as the scientific botanist tears apart the beautiful flower and studies its make-up and functions. The present volume approaches English in this spirit. There are minds that delight in this minute analysis; and doubtless such a study of the subject satisfies a demand of the human mind, and tends to accuracy in the end.

Number by Development. A Method of Number Instruction. Primary. By John C. Gray, A.M., Superintendent of Schools, Chicopee, Mass. J. B. Lippincott Company.

This is a teacher's book, the aim of which is to present a working outline of a development system of primary number teaching. The general teaching plan of this system is set forth in the three steps in the development process of each department of the work: to teach the child the oral and written language

of the process under development; to give him experience in the use of this language through seat work in translating written into concrete expressions, and his concrete work into written form; and to give him experience in the use of this language applied to seat work counting, the child through this experience gradually acquiring a knowledge of the number facts, without the drills and coaching which such knowledge usually requires. The method, of course, is objective, planned with a view to give the pupil occupation counting, which he may do without the constant oversight of the teacher, the aim being to give the minimum of teaching with the maximum of independont work by the pupil. To an elaborate degree the system is worked out for the teacher, it being supplemented by diagrams, photographs, time schedules, seat plans, etc. It strikes us the book brings a new message to all primary teachers; it will certainly make the teaching of numbers in these grades not only a pleasant task, but one satisfying alike both to teacher and pupil. Its simplicity, logicalness and wholesomeness combine to make it an ideal system for teaching number.

The Century Student's Manual. By T. Sharper Knowlson. Author of The Art of Thinking, etc. Frederick Warne & Co. Price, $1 net.

This is a healthy, sane, practical book for all students to read and inwardly digest. It undertakes to tell them what to study, how to study, when to study, with definite information and pertinent suggestion on matters physical, intellectual and moral. It furnishes excellent advice on matters of diet, sleep, exercise, hours of work, etc.; and in a chapter on the right use of books, tells of the books that supply information, how to use a public library, methods of reading, how to take notes, original composition, etc. All of this, while perhaps commonplace and trite, needs to be said and resaid to all who set out to climb Parnassus.

Polar Star and Aurora Borealis, Ladder of Moonlight and Cotton Myth, The Mocking-Bird and Sunrise and Sunset. By Edith Ogden Harrison. Author of Prince Silverwings, The Moon Princess, etc. With illustrations and decorations by Lucy Fitch Perkins. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. Price, each, $1.25 net.

Mrs. Harrison is a beautiful story teller. Children will greatly enjoy these books. We have read the first and third with much pleasure. Each contains two stories, told in her charming way, which exalts and glorifies what to many would be only commonplace. The Polar Star is, in her hands, a beautiful jewel which God sent to men, by angel hands, to bring them happiness. At first they were very glad, then forgot the jewel in the palace they built for it. It became dull and lusterless, and then was lost. So God sent the angel to reclaim it. But he was told if a mortal would care for it for one year earth should not lose it. In vain the angel tried an old man, a lovely maiden, an innocent child. Then God told him to place the jewel-Contentment-in another Eden, where men could not find it for many centuries. There it now is, and its reflection upon the sky gleams like a star, "immovable in the North." Each book is very dainty, and beautifully gotten up, with delightful illustrations. They will help to sweeten and ennoble child life.

The Teaching of Arithmetic. By David Eugene Smith, LL.D., Professor of Mathematics in Teachers College, Columbia University. Reprinted, with revisions and additions, from the Teachers College Record, Vol. X, No. 1, January, 1909. Teachers College, Columbia University.

This monograph was originally printed as a contribution to the Teachers College Record; the demand for the number containing it was so great that another edition was printed, which was soon exhausted, necessitating the issuance of the article in book form, with certain additions. It is now in convenient form, and is a most valuable work on the subject. Dr. Smith stands the peer of any on the subject of mathematics; his writings have been many, and pertinently useful to teachers. In this little work he brings the best of his thought on the subject, and it is in the highest degree valuable. His chapters on the value of teaching arithmetic, and how to teach it, will prove of greatest worth to all teachers of the subject.

Progressive French Idioms. Compiled by R. de Blanchaud, The Central School, Aberdeen. D. C. Heath & Co. Price, 60 cents.

This little book claims neither to be exhaustive nor very highly advanced; it is meant to be practical and useful. It contains typical examples of most of the points in which French and English Grainmar do not agree; literary idioms more or less difficult of use for English pupils; trite similes that have lost their original point, but still employed in everyday speech; and many well-known proverbs, with their English equivalents. Hundreds of phrases and sentences are arranged under appropriate heads, all serving to explain their idiomatic construction. Every reader of French will find this to be an invaluable assistant.

A Syllabus of the History of Education. By William J. Taylor, Ph.D., Brooklyn Training School for Teachers. Formerly Lecturer on the History and Philosophy of Education in Yale University. D. C. Heath & Co.

This book is the outgrowth of several years' experience by the author in the use of the syllabus method in teaching the history of education. The syllabi were orignally used in graduate classes in Yale University, later in Dr. Taylor's classes in the Brooklyn Training School. As an adjunct to reading, and an aid to logical organization, this syllabus will prove to be of great service. In order to encourage a wide range of reading, page references to the most accessible text-books and reference books are cited. Dr. Taylor's arrangement of topics is most logical and orderly; his expositions of systems, lucid and concise; his citations and references, extensive. For the thorough study of the history of education this book seems to meet every requirement.

Lyell's Travels in North America. In the years 1841-2. Abridged and edited by John P. Cushing, Ph.D., Head Master of the New Haven High School, sometime Professor of Economics in Knox College. New York: Charles E. Merrill Company. Price, 30 cents.

Sir Charles Lyell was one of the most noted scientists of his time. He was at this time about forty-four years of age. He was a very close and careful observer. His style is somewhat quaint, but his descriptions and observations

are very interesting, and sometimes quite amusing. Here is an instance: At Corning, N. Y., he asked the landlord to find his coachman, and the latter calls out, "Where is the gentleman that brought this man here?" His journeying took him through parts of New England, New York State, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, and as far south as Charleston. As one reads these pages he realizes how our country has grown and improved in many ways in the last seventy years.

The Psychology of Childhood. By Frederick Tracy, B.A., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Philosophy in the University of Toronto, Canada, and Joseph Stimpel, Ph.D., Teacher in the Royal Seminary at Bamberg, Germany. D. C. Heath & Co. Retail price, $1.20.

This book represents a new edition, which unites the second German and the seventh English editions of the book. The German author has added several new paragraphs, and one entire chapter dealing chiefly with abnormal mental conditions in child life. The subject is one which is receiving increased attention from educators, and wonderful results are being obtained in the improvement of defective children. Lives are saved for usefulness and happiness that in the earlier age would have been doomed to irreparable misfortune and loss. No service to humanity is nobler or more beautiful than this. The present volume is a comprehensive statement of the principles and results of the science of child study. It will attain a large place in the libraries of educators, and will be an excellent text-book in schools of pedagogy and education. Laboratory Botany. For the High School. By Willard N. Clute, Author of The Flora of the Upper Susquehanna, The Fern Collector's Guide, Our Ferns in Their Haunts, The Fern Allies of North America, etc. Ginn & Co. Price, 75 cents list, mailing price 80 cents.

This is a useful little book for teachers of Botany. It furnishes a set of difficult questions, covering a year's work in this subject. The questions are so well chosen and phrased that they will stimulate investigation on the part of the student, and save the teacher much time. The pupil who is able to answer all the questions in this book will have a comprehensive knowledge of Botany. The Body and Its Defenses. By Frances Gulick Jewett. Boston: Ginn & Co. Price, 65 cents.

This is the latest volume in The Gulick Hygiene Series, edited by Luther Halsey Gulick. These six books are being received with the greatest favor all over the country. And they deserve all the good words being said of them. He must be a dullard indeed, and very foolish, who does not profit from reading these clear, concise chapters, and does not determine to be more careful and discriminating in eating, and to develop and improve his body in every way. It is a good sign of the times that so much is being done to acquaint school children with the conditions and needs of the body, and with the best and most scientific ways of securing health and vigor. We commend this wisely written, beautifully illustrated book most heartily.