THE THREE GERMANYS. Glimpses into their History. By Theodore S. Fay, Published for the author, 65 John Street, New York. Two volumes. Cloth. Pp. 1281. For sale by A. S. Barnes & Co., New York, and A. P. Soule. 5 Somerset Street, Boston.

Mr. Fay visited Europe for the first time in 1833, and was for twenty-five years connected with the American Diplomatic Corps in Germany, Switzerland and England, thus securing abundant opportunities for obtaining a pretty accurate knowledge of much of the political histories of the different countries of that portion of the Old World.

Probably there has been no greater political changes and no more intensely interesting conditions in the countries of Europe than those which have during the last sixty years changed what is now the great German Empire from the old Roman German Empire through the German Revolution, and the growth from the little kingdom of Prussia to the present empire.

In these two volumes Mr. Fay has, beginning with a chapter entitled "The World before Charlemagne," carried his readers with unabated interest, and by the use of the most clear and simple English, which at times in describing some battle is particularly vigorous, through the entire history of Germany, of necessity including much of the history of all Europe.

The author gives a clear insight into the various causes which have led up to every change in the map of Europe which in any way affects that of Germany, and his estimate and characterization of the different monarchs, princes, and great advisers is particularly notable for the fairness and justice with which the good and evil in each is shown.

No one with any care for history will be inclined to skip hastily through these volumes after having once begun at the first chapter.

ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICAL TABLES. By Alexander MacFarlane, D. Sc., LL. D., Professor of Physics in the University of Texas. Boston and London: Ginn & Co. Cloth. Pp. 107. Price, 85 cents.

These tables will be useful, not only in computing and in the graphic method, but also in the illustration of the theorems of algebra, and in the teaching of arithmetic.

The arrangement of the several tables is on a uniform decimal plan, and the entries of any particular number will generally be found in the same position on the page. The book is arranged to be of much aid to students of mathematics.

We are indebted to Dr. C. H. Fisher, Secretary of the Rhode Island State Board of Health, for "The Monthly Bulletin," bound; a record of Sanitary Progress, Public Health, and Mortality in Rhode Island.

Dr. Samuel Abbott, Secretary Massachusetts State Board of Health, will please accept thanks for copy of the Twentieth Annual Report of the State Board of Health. These are two interesting and useful volumes.

A GERMAN READER FOR BEGINNERS. With Notes and Vocabulary. By H. C. E. Brandt, Hamilton College. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. 1889. Pp. 418. Price, $1.25.

In a book of this size can be grouped sufficient material for a year's work in German, and many schools will find this enough for a year and a half's work. Prose and Poetry from the best and brightest German authors are here introduced, with notes judicious and sufficient, and a full vocabulary. It is a most attractive reader. The type is excellent.

GEOMETRY IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. By J. W. McDonald, Principal of the Stoneham (Mass.) High School. Boston: Willard Small. Cloth. Pp. 137. Mr. McDonald, though he says he lays no claim to being a profound mathematician, has at least shown himself an excellent teacher of mathematics. He has grasped the idea that the great object of the study of geometry is to exercise and strengthen the reasoning faculties, and he has in this book shown the plan by which he has had in his own teaching the greatest success in this subject. The book will be of service to teachers of the study, for while no teacher should imitate, he should so make use of the best methods of others as to make them a part of his own style.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF SHAKESPEARE.

By Hiram Corson,

LL. D., Professor of English Literature in the Cornell University. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co. Cloth. Pp. 377. Price, $1.40.

A book from the hand of Professor Corson upon any line of English Literature is sure to be worthy of study, and when one comes from his pen upon the "Study of Shakespeare," it is certain to be one of particular value.

This book is indeed worthy a place upon the shelf of every student and teacher of English literature. In his introduction Professor Corson discusses briefly but clearly, the personal history of Shakespeare, his contemporary reputation, features of his dramatic art, etc., then after a few brief comments on the "Shakespeare-Bacon controversy" which show very clearly the small reason for the Baconian claim, he gives in fifteen well-written chapters, an insight into the character, strength, style, immaginative and creative power and truthfulness to history of Shakespeare's writings and the vigorous and peculiar style of his English.

We congratulate the publishers as well as the student of English literature upon this excellent addition to the works upon this great subject.

ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION. An Historical Treatise. By Hannis Taylor. In two parts. Part I. The Making of the Constitution. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Cloth. Gilt. Pp. 616. Price, 84.50.

While the direct purpose of this great work is a commentary upon the English Constitution, this object is hardly more prominent than is the Commentary on the American Coustitution. Prof. Herbert B. Adams has said, "The popularization of English constitutional history, which is now in somewhat unpopular form, the unification of the results of various individual writers, and the establishment of clear connections between English and American constitutional history are very desirable. American students, as well as American citizens of the more intelligent type, would welcome a convenient and readable presentation of the above subject, if treated in its modern relations and with trustworthy scholarship.”

This book we think will be all that Professor Adams suggests. It is accurate, judicious, and one in which the subject is treated properly, that is, upon the line of evolution. It is a masterpiece. It is a thoroughly American book, and will be read with much interest by every student of English or American History and Government.

The complete manner in which the book is indexed, the marginal notes, and the general make-up of the book are such as to be of much assistance to the student who wishes to get authority upon any point in the development of the English or our American Constitution.

MAGAZINES RECEIVED.

In the Forum for November are some valuable articles. That which is attracting the most attention is "The Owners of the United States," by Thomas G. Shearman.Nicholas P. Gilman's paper on "Nationalism' in the United States," and Simon N. Patten's contribution entitled "President Walker's Theory of Distribution" in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, will find many readers. — -Joseph Jefferson begins his Autobiography in the November Century. "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," is a brief extract from a new book of that name by Mark Twain. "The Merry Chanter" is begun by Frank Stockton, and the "Lincoln Papers" keep up their interest.—“A Plea for Endowed Newspapers" in the November Andover Review is the most striking article in a very full and interesting number. — - Lend a Hand is ever full of good things, the last issue being particularly valuable. "Improved Dwellings for the Poor and National Pensions," will be read with interest.— The Popular Science Monthly is opened by an article from the pen of Edward Atkinson, LL. D., entitled "The Art of Cooking." "Is the Human Body a Storage-Battery," will please many readers. —“ Is divorce wrong," is characteristically answered by Cardinal Gibbons, Bishop Potter, and Colonel Ingersoll in the North American Review. — In the current New Englander and Yale Review“ Considerations touching the School Question," by Charles C. Starbuck will interest most readers of Education. The third and November number of the New England Magazine maintains the standard which it has established. Each number which appears adds to its friends and supporters. · -The complete story in Belford's is "In God's Country," while that in Lippincott's is "A Belated Revenge." - -In Donahoe's the principal arti cle of interest to educators as well as to all good citizens is, "Should the Policy of the Indian Schools be Changed.". -The Academy for November is of especial value to College and Preparatory School instructors. It has the official report of the meeting of the N. E. Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools, and the full text of four excellent papers read before that body.· Shakespeariana is full of interest to students of the great dramatist.-. ·Bibliotheca Platonica, An Exponent of the Platonic Philosophy is a new Bi-monthly coming from Osceola, Mo.- The English Illustrated Magazine is one of the neatest and best printed which we see.

PAMPHLETS RECEIVED.

Training of Teachers, Report of George A. Walton, Agent Massachusetts Board of Education. Fifth list of the Publications of Harvard University and its officers, with the chief Publications on the University.. Brief Lessons on the Human Body, W. D. Kerr, New York. In Defense of the American Public School System. Rev. Charles Wendte.- - Air, its Uses and Abuses. Gouge Heating and Ventilating Co., New York. What Constitutes an Educator? R. B. Welch, Topeka, Kans. The Work of the North Bennett Street Industrial School, 1888-1889.The Sources of the Mississippi: Hon. James H. Baker. Before the Minnesota Historical Society.- -Books and Reading. Brother Azarias.- Inauguration of E. D. Warfield, A. M., LL. B., as President of Mi. ami University. - A National University. W. A. Mowry. Circular of the Friends Seminary, Rutherford Place, New York. — A Teacher's Dream and other Songs of School Days. W. H. Venable. An Honest Dollar, E. B. Andrews; Malthus and Ricado Patten; The Study of Statistics, D. R. Dewey; Analysis in Political Economy, W. W. Folwell; Socialism in England, Sidney Wild, LL.B. from American Economic Association, Baltimore.The Training of Teachers in Austria, E. Hornnak, Ph. D.; Domestic Economy in Public Education, Ellen E. Richards; Form Study and Drawing in the Common Schools, John H. French, Ph. D. New York College for the Training of Teachers.— Graphic Methods in Teaching. By Charles Barnard. New York College for the Training of Teachers. Chancellor's Address at the Opening of the Fifteenth Session of the Peabody Normal College, Oct. 2, 1889.

EDUCATION,

DEVOTED TO THE SCIENCE, ART, PHILOSOPHY, AND

LITERATURE OF EDUCATION.

VOL. X.

JANUARY, 1890.

No. 5.

THE STUDY OF NATURAL SCIENCE, -ITS USES

NA

AND DANGERS.1

BY W. T. HARRIS, LL. D.

ATURAL science, the investigation of nature, is well said to be the characteristic intellectual activity of modern civilization. An acquaintance with the several provinces of nature and their relations to each other has brought with it an era of invention of labor-saving machines. With machinery man has been to some extent emancipated from drudgery, and the work of this emancipation is going on at an increasingly rapid rate. There is less hand labor and more labor of directive power. Man uses higher powers to direct a machine to do his work than to per-` form the same work by hand, and the machine increases his productions to such a vast extent that with fewer hours of labor he obtains far more.

By machinery man turns nature against itself. For it is nature in our bodies that makes us want food, clothing, and shelter. Nature furnishes the supply for those wants, but at a great cost of bodily labor. At first man is bound to Nature as her serf, his physical wants obliging him to toil for their gratification. By learning Nature's storehouses and the laws of natural forces, man becomes able to harness those forces, and set them to work elaborating the supplies of food, clothing, and shelter, and collecting them into the world-market and distributing them to all mankind represented in that market. Thus nature is made to provide

1 A paper read at the American Institute of Instruction at Bethlehem, N. H., July, 1889

for its own wants take care of itself as it were, and man is left more and more independent to care for the needs of his immortal soul.

These spiritual needs relate especially to intercommunication. They begin to be supplied when man comes to carry on commerce of material goods extensively. For with the getting of his merchandise the trader gets acquaintance with the manners and customs of men, both like and unlike himself. And the most precious part of the load brought home in every ship is the education of its crew through observation of foreign peoples. The travellers bring home treasures of human experience and distribute them to their kith and kin. By intercommunication each man is able to avail himself of the views of life which other people have come to posTheir observations of nature and man, their experiments in living, in undertaking social combinations, in studying nature, their successes and failures, their thoughts and reflections on these, their ethical discoveries, their explorations of the problems of life as a whole, their intuitions of the divine, their poetic and prose literature which sums up the net results of their living, knowing, and doing — all these things belong to the spiritual commerce which rapid transportation brings about.

sess.

Natural science indeed has stimulated the invention of most marvellous special means of preserving and disseminating the wisdom of the race. The arts of writing and printing, added to such devices of intercommunication as the telegraph and railroad, have produced the modern daily newspaper which reflects as in a magic mirror the entire world of man's doings, good and bad. Not only may man read as he runs, but knowledge runs after him, and the world holds up her picture to him at every turn.

While a continuously larger proportion of the entire civilized world, from year to year, enjoy more comfortable houses, more substantial clothing, more abundant and more wholesome food, their progress in these material aspects is not nearly so rapid as in the spiritual phase of participation in the wisdom of the race through the arts of intercommunication.

Natural science, knowledge of nature, has been the chief instrument in all this progress. What are its methods? There are three stages in the development of science. First, there is the observation of things and facts the scientists must map out and inventory the objects in each department of nature; secondly, the