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The Sunday-school Teacher, a monthly magazine, devoted to the interests of Sunday schools, No. 1, Jan. 1866. Chicago: Adams, Blackmer, & Lyon.

A new magazine of 32 pages, of very neat appearance. The present number, besides reading matter, has a map of the Bible lands, and a page of music. Questions on the Principles of Arithmetic, designed to indicate an outline of study, to incite among pupils a spirit of independent inquiry, and especially to facilitate a thorough system of reviews; adapted to any text-book, and to all grades of learners. By JAMES S. EATON, M.A. 12mo. pp. 47. Boston: Taggard & Thompson, 1866.

We heartily recommend this little work to the attention of teachers. The name of its lamented author is a sufficient guarantee of its quality, and no object can be so important in the teaching of mathematics as the substitution of a clear comprehension of principles for a dull, mechanical rote-method of "ciphering."

HOOKER'S CHILD'S BOOK OF COMMON THINGS. For the use of primary schools. New edition. New Haven: H. C. Peck, 1866. THE CHILD'S BOOK OF NATURE.

For the use of schools and families.

Intended

Part I., Plants. Part II., Animals. Part III., Air, Water, Heat, Light, &c. Small 4to. Harpers, N.Y., 1860-5. FIRST BOOK IN CHEMISTRY. Small 4to. Harpers, N.Y., 1862. FIRST BOOK IN PHYSIOLOGY. as introductory to the larger work. 12mo. pp. 191. Sheldon & Co., 1865. SCIENCE FOR THE SCHOOL AND FAMILY. BY WORTHINGTON HOOker, Prof. of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in Yale College. Part I., Natural Philosophy, 12mo. pp. ix. and 346. Part II., Chemistry, 12mo. pp. vi. and 435. Part III., Mineralogy and Geology, 12mo. p. vi: and 360. Part IV., 12mo. pp. xi. and 382. Harpers, New York, 1860-65. By the same author, HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY. Designed for colleges and the higher classes in schools, and for general reading. 12mo. pp. xi. and 454. Sheldon & Co., New York, 1865.

We believe this is the most complete series of school-books on natural and physical science published in this country. Dr. Hooker is doing brave service in a department which, of all others, most needs it. We have long been satisfied that the foundation of the instruction in our public schools should not be literature, but science; and science not merely abstract and theoretical, but practically applied to meet the common, every-day wants of the people. We have recently spoken somewhat at large on this subject, and find ourselves in singular agreement with Dr. Hooker.* We cannot do better here than give the following excellent statement of his plan and object from his own preface. With his views on the importance, and on the right method of teaching physical science, we most heartily agree.

"The natural sciences should be made prominent from the beginning to the end, [of school education,] not only because they are of practical value, but also because they are as useful in their way for mental discipline as the study of mathematics and of language. They can be taught to some little extent to the

* Dynamic and Mechanic Teaching: a lecture read before the American Institute of Instruction, and printed in its volume for 1865, and separately. Cambridge: Sever & Francis.

youngest pupils. There are facts about air, water, and the various objects that they see around them, which they can understand if they be presented in the right manner. And the busy inquiries which they make after the reasons of the facts, and their appreciation of them if stated simply and without technical terms, show the appropriateness of such teaching. Children are really very good philosophers in their way. They have great activity not only of their perceptive but of their reasoning faculties also, to which due range should be given in their education.

Beginning thus, not a year should pass during the whole course when the pupil shall not be engaged in studying some one of the physical sciences to some extent. This continued attention to such studies in a reasonable amount, so far from interfering with the due prosecution of the other studies deemed so essential, will so promote the pupil's advance in them as to more than make up for the time that is taken from them. It will do this not only by the genial influence which such studies exert upon the mind, but by the contributions which they make to the knowledge of language and mathematics; for language is largely built up from natural objects and from the acquisitions of science, and there is an abundance of interesting applications of portions of the mathematics in the facts which the physical sciences develop to us.

I have said that the teaching of the natural sciences in our colleges is generally a failure, and it always will be so as long as the present plan is continued. In order to have it successful there must be the same gradation in teaching them that we have in teaching language and the mathematics. The college student needs to be prepared for the lectures which he hears on natural philosophy, chemistry, etc., and for his study of those branches, by previous familiarity with the simpler portions of them acquired in the school-room.

There is another very important reason for the early introduction of the physical sciences into education. By far the larger portion of pupils in our schools stop short of the college, or even the academy and high school. That they should go forth into the world with no knowledge of the principles that lie at the basis of the arts in which so many of them are to engage is a shame and a wrong, if the communication of such knowledge be indeed practicable, as it undoubtedly is. Even those who are not to engage in these arts will be greatly benefited by this knowledge, because in addition to its constant practical applications in the management of life, it will contribute to their mental power, and, what is no small consideration, to their enjoyment; and it is in fact requisite to constitute them well-informed persons.

If the views which I have presented be correct, there should be a series of books on the natural sciences carefully adapted to the different periods of the course of study. Those intended for the young beginner should be exceedingly simple, and should not attempt to present anything like a full view of the subjects treated. They should deal largely with familiar facts or phenomena. The terminology of science and formal statements of principles, such as we often see in so-called compendiums, should have no place in them, but should be gradually introduced as the series advances, and should be made complete only in the concluding books."

We have never used Dr. Hooker's books in the school-room, and cannot, therefore, speak of their merits in detail, but we should judge, from a cursory examination, that he has an excellent faculty for bringing down the truths of science to the level of a child's comprehension, and of describing scientific facts in plain and familiar language, - a gift not so common as might at first appear. We feel very sure that public sentiment will demand continually, more and more, the introduction of this simple elementary teaching of the great laws of the physical world into our primary and grammar schools, that even the children who carry their education no farther, may learn the rudiments of what will be so useful in after life, and may have a curiosity aroused, which, long after schooldays are over, they will contrive to find means in this country of cheap books, and the universal diffusion of information, to satisfy.-[ED.

MARIA STUART EIN TRAUERSPIEL VON FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLER: Mária Stuart, a Tragedy, by Frederick von Schiller, the original German-text, with an Introduction and Notes for translation into English. By Dr. ADOLPHUS BERNAYS. Annotated German Text-books; German series, vol. 10, 12mo. pp. 175. Boston, De Vries, Ibarra & Co.

A very elegant edition of one of the best and most interesting of all pieces for the beginner in the German language, who has mastered its elementary difficulties. Spite of Mr. Froude, the fortunes and fate of Mary Stuart, as depicted by the great German dramatist, will continue to draw tears from many eyes, and advocates enough will still be found to side with all good Scotchmen in her defence.

No modern language presents such claims upon a teacher's attention as the German. Not only does the study of it, from its close relationship to our mother tongue, throw great light upon the English language, but, not to speak of its wealth in every other department, Germany possesses the best, almost the only educational literature extant. The acquisition of a tolerably good knowledge of the language is not, with all the modern helps at our command, a matter of such difficulty as, from the forbidding aspect of German types, would at first sight appear.

Messrs. De Vries, Ibarra & Co. are to be commended for their enterprise in bringing out these manuals in such a beautiful style.-[ED.

MASSACHUSETTS ECCLESIASTICAL LAW. By EDWARD BUCK, of the Suffolk Bar. 12mo., pp. viii. and 310. Boston: Gould & Lincoln.

"In this volume," says the author, in his preface, "I have attempted to collect and arrange, in convenient form, for reference, The Ecclesiastical Laws of Massachusetts, which lie scattered in profusion among the Statutes and Reports of the Commonwealth. . . . . Something has been done towards tracing our present ecclesiastical laws and usages to English sources. . . . . . . . The reader will trace with satisfaction, the manner by which painful decisions of courts have led to a complete separation between Church and State."

No higher guarantee of the accuracy of the work can be had, than the fact that it was read in manuscript to and approved by the late Chief Justice Shaw. The work is handsomely printed, has a copious Index, and a list, filling nine pages, of cases cited. We should think it would be a valuable addition to a legal or a parish library.

LIST OF BOOKS RECEIVED.

Dr. Hooker's series on Physical Science, 11 vols. Noticed above. Hanson and Rolfe. Handbook of Latin Poetry. Crosby & Ainsworth. Noticed above.

First Annual Catalogue of the Officers and Students, and Programme of the Course of Instruction of the School of the Mass. Institute of Technology, 1865–6. Noticed on page 42.

Schiller's Maria Stuart. De Vries, Ibarra & Co.

Noticed above.

Charles Dickens' New Christmas Story. Dr. Marigold's Prescriptions. From A. Williams & Co.

Annual Catalogue of Amherst College.

SARGENT'S

ENTIRELY NEW

SERIES OF READERS,

AND PRONOUNCING SPELLER.

Send for the Latest and Best before making a Change.

In consequence of the great success of Mr. EPES SARGENT in his specialty of preparing Readers for schools, there has been a large demand for new books from him; and he has consequently prepared an entirely new and improved Series of Readers, which have been carefully and elegantly electrotyped, and are now ready.

The smaller books are beautifully illustrated, and all those improvements, which constant consultation with our best teachers has suggested, are included.

We defy contradiction in saying that the Series is the Best, the Handsomest, the most Carefully Prepared, and, we may add, the Cheapest, ever published.

Mr. Sargent's long experience, careful scholarship, high culture as a literary man, and acknowledged taste, added to his admitted success in ONE Series of Readers, of which millions are sold annually, are a guaranty that committees will find it for the interest of schools to examine his New Series before making any change.

The most striking evidence of his previous success may be found in the extent to which the latest compilers of Readers and Speakers have made use of his original labors in selection; his works appearing to have been

The magazine from which compilers have taken nearly two-thirds of their pieces.

The New

Fifth Reader,

.just issued, is the greatest book of its class before the public. The ELOCUTIONARY INTRODUCTION embraces all the instruction of any practical value; and the Reading Lessons com. prise the best elocutionary pieces in the language. It is eminently a book FOR THE TIMES, AND UP WITH THE TIMES-far in advance of any competing work.

Sargent's New Pronouncing Speller

has among its features a NEW AND IMPROVED SYSTEM OF NOTATION, and is exciting the greatest interest among teachers for the thoroughness and ingenuity of its system of indicating pronunciation.

Copies for examination furnished on application to the Publisher.

Aug., '64.-tf.

JOHN L. SHOREY,

13 Washington Street, Boston, Mass.

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