pupils the ensuing session. There are already 107 students in attendance. An effort is on foot, with a certainty of success, to beautify the college grounds. The endowment now amounts to $115,000. The college needs an additional professor and enlarged accommodations, especially for class-rooms, a reading-room, and society halls.

-RANDOLPH MACON COLLEGE.-This, the centennial year of Methodism in the United States, will be celebrated by the raising of a fund of $2,000,000 as a thank offering, to be devoted to the cause of missions, church extension, and education. Randolph Macon hopes, in connection with the raising and distribution of this fund, to receive a liberal endowment. Already $50,000 have been added to the endowment fund of $20,000 through the energy of President Bennett and others. It is the oldest chartered college under the auspices of the Methodists of the United States. The Faculty has been increased by the election of Mr. R. M. Smith, Jr., M. A., to the chair of Greek and Oriental languages. Professor Smith has been prosecuting his studies in Germany for two years past, and will continue there another year before entering on the duties of his chair.

Book Notices.

THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY. A Brief Statement for General Readers. By JOSEPH Y. BERGEN, Jr., and FANNY D. BERGEN. Boston: Lee & Shepard, publishers. Price, $1.25.

To those who desire to secure in plain, untechnical language a statement of the "doctrine of descent," or the "evolution hypothesis," this volume furnishes a valuable means. In general the statement of the argument is concise and clear. In a few passages, and one at least important, there is considerable obscurity, as if the train of reasoning was not distinct in the author's mind. From a multitude of illustrations, only a few well-chosen ones are taken. The spirit of the book may be judged from the following statement of the author's conclusions: "The value of the development theory to the biological sciences is two-fold: it has rendered unnecessary the childish supposition that each new animal or plant must have been conjured into existence by an invisible and unintelligible Power, and it has correlated the whole series of forms of life into a comprehensive record of progress."

For sale by J. W. Randolph & English.

CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY; OR, MEN OF BUSINESS WHO DID SOMETHING BESIDES MAKING MONEY. A Book for Young Americans. By JAMES PARTON. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1884, Price, $1.25. The author has prepared, for the benefit especially of the young, a volume of entertaining sketches of men who have made names for themselves in the world's history and have been benefactors of the race in the face of opposition and hardship. The lessons inculcated are pure and helpful, and the style simple and pleasant.

For sale by West, Johnston & Co., 911 east Main street.

By WILLIAM

APPLETON'S SCHOOL READERS-Introductory Fourth Reader. T. HARRIS, A. M., LL.D., and ANDREW J. RICKOFF, A. M. New York, Boston, and Chicago: D. Appleton & Co.

1884.

This book is designed to furnish suitable reading for pupils who have passed through the Third Reader and yet are too young or too immature to take up the

Fourth. It furnishes, also, an easier transition from the methods of the earlier readers, designed to make words familiar to the ear also familiar and significant to the eye, to the study of the forms of literary style. Its publication removes what has seemed to be a grave fault in an otherwise excellent series of Readers—a too rapid gradation.

A FIRST BOOK IN GEOLOGY. Designed for the Use of Biginners. By N. S. SHALER, S. D., Professor of Paleontology in Harvard University. Boston: Published by Ginn, Heath & Co. 1884. Mailing price, $1.10.

The author in preparing a text-book designed to present the elementary facts of geology has begun with those geological agencies whose action is most easily appreciable, and has gradually passed on to those more complex in their nature and less easily understood. The facts of geology, and, so far as is known, their causes and effects, are stated in clear and simple language, readily understood by the student. The volume will form a valuable addition to elementary books on this subject and aid in popularizing the science. The volume closes with valuable directions to teachers for giving instruction on the subject.

Literary Notes.

--BATTLES AND Leaders of the Civil War.—Under this title The Century will begin with the November number of the present year, and continue without intermission (if possible), a series of separate papers, the object of which is to set forth, in clear and graphic manner, the life and spirit of the most important of modern military conflicts the War for the Union. The main portion of the scheme will be papers of a popular character on the great engagements of the war, by general officers high in command at the time, either upon the Union or the Confederate side. In many instances the contributor will be the officer of first command, and in every instance a participant in the engagement under consideration.

The illustrations of the scheme will receive the most careful attention, and in this particular it is thought that the series will possess an unequaled historical interest. The Century has at its disposal a very large quantity of maps and plans, portraits of general officers of both sides, authentic paintings and drawings, and especially photographs of camp scenes, battle-fields, famous localities, etc., etc., etc. The aim is to present, not official reports, but memoirs-no less authoritative (though, of necessity, less minute) in strategy and tactics, but laying more stress upon the human and heroic aspects of the great conflict.

-Prof. Ed. North, of Hamilton College, highly commends Bardeen's Rhetoric published by A. S. Barnes & Co., New York.

--The next number of the North American Review is to contain an elaborate defense of the Tariff system, prepared by leading advocates of protection.

-The Massachusetts W. C. T. U. have unanimously endorsed Dr. J. D. Steele's Hygienic Physiology.

---The penmanship specimens in Barnes New National Readers, now in press of A. S. Barnes & Co., show the marked tendency of the times in the direction of a simple chaste style of penmanship.

The Magazines.

ST. NICHOLAS for September.-Contents: Frontispiece, Gathering Autumn Leaves in the Mountains: The Little Quaker Sinner. Poem; The Dalzells of Daisydown, first half, three illustrations; An Ocean Notion, Verses; The Queen's Museum, Fra k R Stockton. four illustrations,; A Smart Boy, Jingle, illustrated; The Bird Matinee; Say? Jingle; Swordsmen of the Deep; Poor Robinson Crusoe, Jingle; Living Cameos and Bas-Reliefs; Benny's Horse; The Little Brotber, picture; Boys, Verses; Little Girl with the Shell, Picture; Daisy's Jewel-Box, Ninth Spinning-Wheel Story, Louisa M. Alcott; Historic Boys, Brian of Munster, the Boy Chieftain; Fraulein Mina Smidt goes to School, Charles Barnard, Nine Illustrations; The Playmate Hours, Poem; A Story of a Tree-Frog; A Summer Waif, Picture; Farmer Nick's Scarecrow, Verses; Marvin and his Boy Hunters, two illustrations, by W. L. Sheppard; A Floral Letter, Verses; For Very Little Folk; Little Berne; The St. Nicholas Almanac, illustrated by Jessie McDermott; Jack-in-the Pulpit, illustrated; The Letter-Box; Agassiz Association: The Riddle-Box, illustrated.

LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE for September.-Contents: Personal Reminiscences of Charles Reade, Second Paper, by John Coleman; Not His Deliberate Choice, a Story; Gossip from the English Lakes; The American of the Future; Bohemian Antipodes: At the Maison Dobbe, a Story; A Summer Trip to Alaska, by James A. Harrison; Delacroix and Shakespeare; also a continuation of the charming serial story, A Week in Killarney, by the author of Molly Bawn, Phyllis, etc., and several chapters of Mary Agnes Tincker's serial Aurora, with frontispiece illustration, together with other short stories, poems, and articles of interest upon current topics.

EDUCATION for September-October.-Contents: Reform of the Tenure of Office of Teachers, J. D. Philbrick, LL. D.; Education in Michigan during the Territorial Period, Lucy M. Salmon; Principles and Practice of Education as a subject for the Arts Course in the Colleges, Ed. M. Saunders, D D.; Humane Culture and Education among the Romans, a translation by members of the German Class in the Michigan State Normal School; Modern Languages as a College Discipline, A. M. Elliott JohnsHopkins University; The Laws of Thought, E. Edith Walker; Our Most Pressing Need, Horace H. Morgan; Treatise on Psychology Louisa P. Hopkins; Citizenship and Education, J. L. M. Curry, DD., LL., D.: The Study of Engli-h, Eugene Bouton, PhD; The Relative Position of French and English Teachers, William Soleman; Editorial-Nathaniel Hawthorne; Foreign Notes.

THE AMERICAN NATURALIST for September.-Contents: Notes on a Nevada Shell; Aspects of the Body in Vertebrates and Anthropods, illustrated. A. S. Packard; the Northernmost inhabitants on the Earth-an Ethnographic sketch, illustrated; Opinions upon Clay, Stones and Concretions; The Condylarthra, Con., illustrated, E. D. Cope; Editors' Table; Recent Literature: General NotesGeography and Travels, Geology and Palaeontology, Mineralogy, Botany, Entomology, Zoology, Physiology, Psychology, Anthropology, Microscopy, and Histology; Scientific News.

OUR LITTLE ONES AND THE NURSERY for September.-Fully up to its usual high standardhas been received.

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY for September.-Contents: In War Time-XVII., XVIII, S. Weir Mitchell; Mediæval and Modern Punishment. E P. Evans; Silence. Julia C. R. Dorr; Old Salem Shops, Eleanor Putnam; the Anatomizing of William Shakespeare-IV., Richard Grant White; Under the Maples, Mary Treat; A Legend of Inverawe, C. F. Gordon Cumming; The Piping Shepherd, Katharine Pyle; Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham, Francis Parkman: The Lakes of Upper Italy, I; The Story of the English Magazines, Charles E. Pascoe; The De-potism of Party, Herbert Tuttle: The Volcanic Eruption of Krakatoa; E. W. Sturdy; Elizabeth, Lucy Larcom; Not Mute, but Inglorious, Julie K. Wetherill; To Paul H. Hayne; A Literary Curiosity; Recent Fiction; A Bibliographical Rarity; The Contributors' Club; Books of the Month.

· POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY-Contents for September: Scientific Culture-Its Spirit, its Aim, and its Methods; The Upper Missouri River System, illustrated; Aims of the study of Anthropology; Where and How we Remember, illustrated; The Astronomy of Primitive Peoples; Sorghum as a Source of Sugar; The Chemistry of Cookery; Hygiene for Smokers; How the Dodder became a Parasite; Sun Kinks; National Health and Work; The Morality of Happiness; The Problem of Population; Protection against Lightning, I; Chinese Coroners' Inquests; Sketch of Prof. J. P. Leslie, with Portrait; Correspondence; Editor's Table: Meeting of the American Scientific AssociationThe British Association-International Science-the College Fetich once more-A Correction; Literary Notices; Popular Miscellany; Notes.

THE SEPTEMBER CENTURY.-In its contents the September Century aims to rival the August Midsummer Holliday Number in entertaining summer reading, as well as in articles of unusual importance. Pictorially, it is also of a popular character. In the frontispiece Mrs. Mary Hallock Foote has given a refined interpretation of Pancha, the heroine of a romantic story of Monterey, which T. A. Janvier contributes to the number. The other short story of the number is a humorons dialect story of Southern life, called The Brief Embarrassment of Mr. Iverson Blount, by Richard M. Johnston, the author of Duke-borough Tales. Charles G Leland's Legends of the Passam quoddy Indians, with illustrations drawn on birch bark by a Quadi Indian, has the interest of fiction as well as a value to students of folk lore. Henry James's two part story A New England Winter, is concluded, and Hjalmar H. Boyesen's longer novelette. A Problematic Character, is continued. Mr. Cable's novel, Dr. Seryier, approaches the conclusion, which will be printed in the October number An essay of extraordinary importance to political science in this country is Joseph Edgar Chamberlin's analysis of The Foreign Elements in our Population, with interesting conclusions as to the foreign character of the population of certain sections of the country now and in the near future.

The AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN for September -Contents: Lectures on Polytheism-Hindoo Mythology; Dates in the Ancient History of South America; Marvellons Cures at Epidaurus; The Hill Tribes of India; Ancient Earthworks in Rock County, Wis; Emblematic Mounds, S D. Peet; Correspondence; Editorial Notes; Notes on Classical Archaeology; Notes from Oriental Periodicals; Book Reviews; New Publications.

OFFICIAL DEPARTMENT.

R. R. FARR, Superintendent Public Instruction, Editor.

[The Journal is sent to every County Superintendent and District Clerk, and must be carefully preserved by them as public property and transmitted to their successors in office.]

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL OF VIRGINIA.--The Extra Session of the Legislature amended the section of the law establishing the above named institution so as to remove the feature that has been declared unconstitutional by the courts, and thus enabled the Board of Trustees to draw the $10,000 annuity out of the general treasury of the State, whence it should have been at first taken, instead of from the school fund, as the original bill provided; for, as much as we need Normal schools, we cannot afford to have them at the expense of our public primary schools, and, of course, if the $10,000 per annum could have been taken from the free school fund, as the original act provided, the schools would have been ratably shortened that much, to say nothing about the precedent: for, of course, if it was right to take $10,000, it was equally as constitutional to take $20,000, $40,000 or even $100,000. We think our public free school system has escaped a great peril by the construction put upon the constitution by the Court of Appeals. We want Normal schools, and to make our system of public schools complete, we must have them; but we want them generously supported as is the University of Virginia, which received last winter $40,000; the Virginia Military Institute, which received $30,000, and the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, which received $20,000-all out of the public treasury. For, certainly, if Virginia can afford-and she can—to give to her sons a chance to prepare for the learned professions, and to develop the arts of war, she ought to be able to, and should foster the institutions which will return ten fold on the investment. For the Normal graduate, unlike all other students, beneficiaries of the State, is required to teach at least two years in the public free schools, thus rendering to the State, in efficient work, more than an equivalent for the benefits bestowed. We are not discouraged; for, whilst the amount given by the last Legislature to establish the State Normal School at Farmville is meagre and totally inadequate to the work in hand, still it is a start, and if the school succeeds, as we feel certain it will, popular opinion and pressing needs will induce future legislatures to to give to Normal schools the support they merit. The Board of

Trustees met a short time ago and determined to open the school for students the 30th of October, and declared its intention to conduct the same in strict harmony with the public school system of the State, recognizing it as an integral part of that system; and, for the present' requested County and City Superintendents to recommend suitable candidates to fill up the quota to which their respective jurisdictions may be entitled.

Hon. W. H. Ruffner has prepared a circular for general information, setting forth the aims and purposes of the institution and the course of studies determined upon, which, in connection with instructions to Superintendents, we have issued as Circular No. 383, and caused it to be sent to all school officers and county officials The circular is printed on page 369 of this journal. We hope that all will read it carefully, and that each and every one will assist the Superintendents in forwarding to the school suitable students. Dr. Ruffner has secured reduced rates for all who may attend the school over the N. & W. R. R. and S. V. R. R., and arrangements will be made by which candidates who are recommended by the Superintendents can travel on the said roads at the rate of two cents per mile. We have endeavored to impress upon all, especially county and city Superintendents and other school officers, the great importance of acting promptly in selecting students. The matter is left entirely to Superintendents, and we expect them, with the assistance of the trustees, to exert themselves to select as students the very brightest minds in their sections; for, of course, its real success after organization depends upon the class of material that may be subjected to its discipline and drill.

Remember this school is an experiment to the extent of being new to Virginia. The principles upon which it is founded are as old as the hills, and as honorable as they are old. Hon. W. H. Ruffner, the principal, has a national reputation, and has thrown himself heart and soul into the work. He has selected as his first assistant a lady who has spent over fifteen years in the leading Normal Schools of the country, and who is recognized as an expert in her particular line. The other assistants are to be selected by the Board of Trustees, which meets the 15th of October; and we hazard nothing when we say that every member of the corps will be a thorough Normal School instructor, qualified to give the best instructions in his or her department, to make those who are so fortunate as to be students, realize that school teaching is a high and honorable profession. Read Dr. Ruffner's circular carefully, and go to work to