ponds with that of other cities, will demonstrate its feasibility and its wisdom. When we shall have introduced music and its kindred art-drawing-into our schools-the expense of which would be comparatively small-we will have done all that could be reasonably expected of us in this direction.

Again, it is the part of wisdom to keep well in accord with the needs of our people. It was to meet a practical want that the question of introducing stenography and type-writing into our schools arose. It may not be long before other needs will press their claims on us for consideration. It becomes us as wise men to consider these things. I should like to see our schools in closer touch with our higher institutions of learning. I should be glad to see our colleges offering scholarships to our graduates. I should like to see our boys and girls in larger numbers seeking a higher education. But to accomplish this some concession must be made. We must so modify the course of study in our High School that our graduates can enter with advantage the college classes. Might it not be wise to rearrange our High School schedule of study so as to provide for three distinct courses? Our present general course, which I regard as admirably suited to our wants, for those who wish a good education, but who do not care to extend their studies beyond the High School; a commercial course, especially adapted to the wants of those who expect to enter into business; and a classical course, which shall be arranged so as to prepare pupils for entering advantageously college classes. This does not mean three times the expense of our present High School. There would necessarily be additional cost, but these courses would be so interlaced that the entire expense would be but little in excess of the present cost. I have long thought such an arrangement desirable. It would meet essentially the wants of all classes, and to our more ambitious pupils would furnish an important step in a consecutive course from their most elementary studies to the acme of their desires.

Again, the persistent presentation all over the country of the manual labor question indicates a popular need for manual training schools. This question has not been specially pressed in our city. But the efforts already on foot to establish here a splendid technical school is a distinct pointer towards a felt want. A community largely engaged in manufactures will not be long in perceiving its wants and in making them known. I am not ambitious to push the work of our schools beyond the legitimate bounds of elementary and secondary education, but I do earnestly desire that our schools shall, within these limits, meet all the reasonable wants of our people, and meet them in the very best way. The school of technology, with its courses of civil and mechanical engineering, its school of mines, and its various advanced scientific schools, is, perhaps, too elaborate an institution for our moderate wants; but methinks it will not be very long before we shall be called on to consider the claims of its more modest, but no less useful, kinsman-the manual training school. Here our youth may acquire, along with their intellectual training, that control of their physical powers and that mastery of the ordinary working tools which will enable them to enter with advantage any of the mechanic arts, and in briefer time and with greater thoroughness acquire the skill necessary to conduct satisfactorily its more important branches.

Mr. Chairman, I am done. I very heartily thank you and the gentlemen present for your very kind and patient attention, and I simply pause to say that if we will all, as in the past, continue our united efforts for the benefit of the schools, I have every reason to believe that they will not merely retain their present excellence, but rise to still higher usefulness.

Book Notices.

PESTALOZZI: HIS LIFE AND WORK.' By Roger De Guimps. Authorized translation from the second French edition. By J. Russell, B. A., Assistant Master in University College School, London. With an Introduction by Rev. R. H. Quick, M. A. New York: D. Appleton & Company.

This is Volume XIV of the International Education Series, edited by Dr. William T. Harris. The name of Pestalozzi is familiar to all teachers, but how few there are who know anything of his great work-how much of what is now the essential feature of every truly educational system is due to his influence. To get at the source of that influence, and to understand it, one must study his life and writings, and for that purpose the volume before us is well suited. It ought to have a place in every teacher's library, and should show the marks of frequent use.

A SCHOOL ALGEBRA. By G. A. Wentworth, Professor of Mathematics in Phillips Exeter Academy. Boston: Published by Ginn & Company.

We cannot better express our judgment of this book than by quoting from the preface: This book, as the name implies, is written for high schools and academies, and is a thorough and practical treatment of the principles of Elementary Algebra. It covers sufficient ground for admission to any American College, and with the author's College Algebra, makes as extended a course as the time allotted to this study in our best schools and colleges will allow.

QUINTUS CURTIUS. The first two extant books, edited for sight-reading by Dr. Harold N. Fowler of Phillips Exeter Academy, with an introduction on reading at sight by Prof James B. Greenough, of Harvard College. Boston: Ginn & Company, Publishers. Introductory price, 30 cents.

This book has been preferred on account of the conviction of the editor that for practice in sight reading some continuous prose narrative not readily accessible in a copiously annotated edition should be in the hands of the pupil. The notes of this edition are confined to translations of unusual, or striking, words and phrases, with occasional brief hints concerning syntax, the main object of which is to save time in the class-room. In the introduction, Professor Greenough shows by examples the method to be pursued in reading at sight, besides explaining fully his ideas on the subject.

GREEK FOR BEGINNERS. A Companion Book to the Hadley-Allen Greek Grammar; an Introduction to either Coy's First Greek Reader, or the Anabasis of Xenophon. By Edward G Coy. M. A., Professor of Greek in Phillips Academy. New York: American Book Company Price, $1.

This book is, in one sense, a revised edition of "Coy's Mayor," but the author has made so many changes in that work that he has dropped Professor Mayor's name from the title page, and himself assumes entire responsibility for the work. He claims that the distinctive features of the book consist (1) in its "building up a boy's knowledge of Greek upon the foundation of his knowledge of English and Latin"; and (2) in the fact that "no Greek words have been used in the earlier part of the book except such as have connections either in English or Latin." This must be a great help to one who is beginning the study of the language.

LAURETTE OU LE CACHET ROUGE. Par Alfred De Vigny.

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Alcée Fortier, Professor of the French Language and Literature in Tulane University of Louisiana. Heath's Modern Language Series. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co., Publishers. Mailing price, 15 cents.

This book is intended to follow such reading as is found in the best elementary French readers. The editor has, therefore, made his notes full, and has taken especial pains to explain the most difficult rules of grammar.

NINE HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE COMPOSITION SUBJECTS. Compiled by Josephine Simpson. New York: Teachers' Publishing Company. Price, 15 cents. Received from Randolph & English, Richmond, Va.

True to its title, this book is only a list of subjects. It is divided into three grades-primary, intermediate, and grammar. In the first, the themes are "Picture Stories" and "Science for Little Folks." In the second they are "Description," "Information," and "Imagination." In the third they are "Historical," "Twice Told Tales," "Geographical," and "Imaginative." Each division contains three hundred and thirty-three, and any teacher or class can surely be suited.

SELECTIONS IN ENGLISH PROSE FROM ELIZABETH TO VICTORIA (1580-1880). Chosen and arranged by James M. Garnett, M. A., LL.D., Professor of the English Language and Literature in the University of Virginia. Boston: Ginn & Company, Publishers. Mailing price, $1.65.

Dr. Garnett, in the preparation of this work, has done the student and teacher alike of English Literature a great service. The selections have been made with taste and judgment, and give a very satisfactory view of the progress of English prose for the last three hundred years.

SKETCH OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE. By Greenough White, A. M. Boston: Published by Ginn & Company. Introduction price, 30 cents.

This essay aims, as its preface explains, to point out the connection between our country's literature and history, and to show how new forms in letters and arts have arisen as advancing thought required—a task not attempted hitherto. It may be used as a key to the whole subject, as well as to the excellent and extended treatises upon it and the numerous compilations that have recently appeared. It is believed that it will interest the general reader (it can be read at a single sitting), and that the experienced teacher will find it highly valuable in inculcating in more advanced classes habits of sound and scholarly appreciation of American intellectual life.

FROM COLONY TO COMMONWEALTH.
Days in Boston. By Nina Moore Tiffany.
Mailing price, 70 cents.

Stories of the Revolutionary
Boston: Ginn & Company.

This is a sort of sequel to "Pilgrims and Puritans," by the same author. It takes up the beginnings of the Revolution, and indeed is confined to that date. The stories are, of course, familiar to readers of Massachusetts history, but are not less attractive and interesting on that account.

GOOD-NIGHT POETRY [Bedside Poetry.] A Parent's Assistant in Moral Discipline. Compiled by Wendell P. Garrison. Boston: Ginn & Company, Publishers. Mailing price, 70 cents.

The compiler aims to give to the family circle wholesome moral and religions instruction in a form that will be most attractive to the young, and most likely to secure the desired result; a worthy object, surely, and one for which he deserves praise. His book ought to be successful.

OPEN SESAME! Poetry and Prose for School Days. Edited by Blanche Wilder Bellamy and Maud Wilder Goodwin. Vol. II: Arranged for boys and girls from ten to fourteen years old. Vol. III: Arranged for students over fourteen years old. Boston: Published by Ginn & Company. Mailing price, each

volume, 90 cents.

A most excellent collection of the choicest excerpts in the English language in a cheap and accessible form.

OLD MORTALITY.

By Sir Walter Scott, Bart. Complete with notes and glossary. By D. H. M. Boston: Published by Ginn & Company. Mailing price, 70 cents.

This is another number of the "Classics for Children," issued by this firm. It is uniform in style with "Guy Mannering," "Ivanhoe,” “Lady of the Lake," and other numbers of this series, and the publishers deserve great credit for putting these grand old classics within the reach of persons of small means.

THE BIBLE ABRIDGED. Being Selections from the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, forming a reasonably complete outline of the important events of sacred history in their proper sequence, and in the closest connection practicable. For families and schools. Arranged by the Rev. David Greene Haskins, S. T. D. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co., Publishers.

We like the plan of this author. One can get a connected story from the Bible without the necessity of using a concordance or other guide; and if his book can arouse a greater interest in the sacred volume and lead to its more careful and thoughtful study, he will have wrought a good work.

From Houghton, Mifflin & Company, Boston, we have No. 48 of the Riverside Literature Series-Fables and Folk Stories, in two parts. Part II, by Horace E. Scudder. It is the "Riverside Second Reader," and will prove a veritable treasure-house of interest and enjoyment to children of that grade.

Our thanks are due to the Norfolk & Western Railroad Company for a copy of "The Future Situs of the Principal Iron Production of the World," by Edward Atkinson, a very able and interesting discussion of a subject which is of vast importance to the people of Virginia and of the whole South.

From the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D. C., United States Board of Geographic Names-Bulletin No. 1. This is a new enterprise of the Government. The present issue contains a new spelling for many geographic names, especially in the comparatively unknown territory of Alaska. Other numbers are to follow, and doubtless new editions of our geographies will adopt the new and authorized spelling for all these places.

Publishers' Notes.

-The Youth's Companion for 1891 will give an instructive and helpful series of papers, each of which describes the character of some leading trade for boys or occupation for girls. They give information as to the apprenticeship required to learn each, the wages to be expected, the qualities needed in order to enter, and the prospects of success. To new subscribers who send $1.75 at once, the paper will be sent free to January 1, 1891, and for a full year from that date. Address, The Youth's Companion, Boston, Mass.

-Messrs. A. S. Barnes & Co., New York, have just issued an Edition de Luxe of Goodyear's History of Art, which work is considered by most critics to be the best of the smaller histories of art published. The book is bound in rich red cloth, white and gold sides and back, ornamented with designs selected from art subjects, gilt top, uncut edges, and put up in a neat box. It contains 314 illustrations in color, is replete with numerous text-cuts, is printed from the clearest of type, and in this form makes one of the most beautiful and valuable gift books of the year. Send for specimen pages to the publishers.

This firm has also just published a new atlas by the famous geographer, James Monteith. It is entitled “A School and Family Atlas," and contains all the latest maps and statistics, and is illustrated with numerous engravings showing the physical outlines of the different countries and the various characteristics of the industrial centers all over the world.

-Ginn & Co. will publish in January The Education of Girls. By Fénelon. Translated from the French by Miss Kate Lupton, A. M. (Vanderbilt University), formerly of the faculty of the Virginia State Normal School.

This is an educational treatise by the celebrated Archbishop of Cambray, tutor to the grandson of Louis XIV, and author of Telemachus and other noble writings less known to English readers. While dealing primarily with the education of girls, a subject much neglected in Fénelon's day, the book is largely taken up with the discussion of the elementary principles of education, and gives careful and detailed directions for the proper training of children of both sexes. It anticipates the methods of the modern kindergarten, and gives practical suggestions for carrying them out. All who have the care of children, whether at home or school, will derive pleasure and profit from its pages. It presents almost as many attractions from a literary and historical as from a pedagogical point of view.

-The first instalment of selections from "The Memoirs of Talleyrand,” which appears in the January Century, contains a sketch of the author's strange and lonely childhood, and account of his entry into Parisian society, his estimate of Lafayette, some account of the beginnings of the French Revolution, a striking passage concerning the Duke of Orleans; an account of Talleyrand's residence in England and America, and of a most interesting conversation between Talleyrand and Hamilton on the subject of Free Trade and Protection.

-From Babel to Comparative Philology is the title of a chapter in Dr. Andrew D. White's "Warfare of Science," which opens the January Popular Science Monthly. It gives the origin of the legend in regard to the great tower and the confusion of tongues, and also traces the early history of the belief that