the various expedients which have been explained in detail in the chapter on Discipline. The proper adjustment of teaching and of tasks to each other is essential to the healthy progress of school education. There must not be exclusive tasking, for reasons just given and there must not be exclusive teaching, for this would never bring up the pupil to independent self-sustaining work. They must go on together from the first day of school attendance to the last; though in varying proportion according to the pupil's advancement. With the youngest pupils, the work is almost wholly teaching; as they advance, the learning of tasks increases, but is still subordinate to oral teaching: with senior pupils tasks and examination become the principal (though never the entire) occupation." "The Art of Teaching" as here discussed, under the head of "School Management," does not refer to the teaching of any particular subject, or to teaching at any particular stage. It merely discusses the best means of conveying instruction on different subjects to a number of young people assembled for the purpose of learning. When the teacher comes to deal with these different subjects separately he will find that they cannot all be taught in exactly the same way, and that the body of truth each of them contains cannot be taught all at once. This points to method in two aspects of it; first, the particular method of instruction to be adopted in connexion with each subject, how is reading to be taught, how grammar, how history, how composition; second, the particular order in which the parts of one subject are to be taken up. This occupies Mr. Currie's third part, and it is treated with the same ample knowledge, minute accuracy, and sound judgment as the others. Having said so much in the way of commendation, we therefore feel ourselves warranted in adding a modicum of dispraise. Mr. Currie's excellent and very substantial matter is in constant danger of sinking from the want of buoyancy and variety in his style. Why will Mr. Currie go on writing in that stiff and formal way of his? The profit to be derived from his books is unquestionable; but he has probably no idea how much the pleasure of perusing them would be enhanced if he did not project so many angularities of manner for his readers to knock against. If he would only throw a few of his sentences into the see-saw of antithesis, or carry us up on the wings of an occasional metaphor, we are sure that neither he nor his subject would be a loser thereby. We are aware that this defect is partly owing to what is in itself a merit, to wit, the remarkable condensation of statement by which his style is characterized. There are very few unnecessary words in this book. Would that there were more, say we; for this same verbal parsimony, which has given so much gravity to the style, has also in some cases imperilled its perspicuity. If Mr. Currie would only treat himself with "a little wholesome neglect" he would increase his usefulness as much as his happiness and his fame. As it is, however, the work is complete and exhaustive. No aspect of the subject is overlooked; every difficulty that the teacher may encounter is anticipated. From the first page to the last the book is a monument of method,―of careful, intelligent, conscientious work. XIII.-NOTICES Letter to Earl Granville, K.G., on the THE first three pamphlets exhaust the case for the objectors. Sir J. P. K. Shuttleworth speaks with the authority of a man who unites philosophic and statesmanlike views with large practical experience. Every sentence tells; and no man proposing to give fair consideration to the question which now agitates the country can omit to study carefully the arguments which the late Secretary so eloquently urges. The pamphlet by Omega contains a general statement of the objections, relying more on argument than on evidence. All the points suggested by the proposed changes are well brought out, and the objections clearly stated. It is evidently from the pen of a man familiar with the working of the present system. The pamphlet third on our list, eman. ating from the Free Church Teachers' Association, is somewhat too severe in its tone, and occasionally verges on intemperance of language. But, spite of these faults, it is conspicuous for method, intelligence, and ability. To no document could any man, professional or non-professional, turn with more profit, who desires to have a thorough knowledge of the changes proposed by the Revised Code, and of all that can be urged against them. The late head-master of Harrow defends the Code, while objecting to a few of its requirements. He offers the remarks he has to make as a contribution to the "settlement of a somewhat vexed question, and scarcely less as a protest against sweeping and precipitate judgments upon a subject peculiarly demanding discrimination, calmness, and candour." With much that he advances we cordially concur. It is unnecessary, after the space we OF BOOKS. have already given to this subject, to A History of English Literature, in a THE plan of Dr. Collier's book is excellent. He divides the whole period from Chaucer to the present day into nine well-marked literary eras, which, with one "pre-English era (it should have been called pre-literary or pre-historic; if the language and literature were not "English before the Conquest, what was there in the Norman influence to make them so?), make up the ten sections of the work. In each of these sections, a chapter is devoted to each of the great names or events of the era, the other writers" being included in a supplementary chapter or in summary tables. The history is brought down literally to the present time. It contains biographies of Tennyson, Dickens, Thackeray, and Carlyle, of living authors; and makes references now and then to the Magazines of the day. 66 The Edinburgh High School French Lon THE three parts of this book-Accidence of all the parts of speech except the verb, Accidence of the verb, and Syntax-form, in respect of the number of pages over which they severally extend, a descending geometrical series, thus: 200, 100, 50. Each lesson in Part I. is accompanied by three exercises or sets of examples: two of which, consisting of miscellaneous questions with their answers, are intended, the one for translation from French into English, the other for translation from English into French in the class; while the third, consisting of English sentences, most of them having no connexion with one another, is intended for a written exercise in French composition at home. Part II. is furnished with only this last kind of exercise; and Part III. with an altogether different kind, consisting of detached sentences in French, the intentional bad grammar of which the pupils are to correct. With the view of enabling teachers of French to conduct the grammatical examination of their classes in French, M. Schneider has appended to each lesson in Parts I. and II., a series of questions in French on the subject-matter of the lesson. To facilitate this attempt, ap. propriate answers, likewise in French, are subjoined to the questionnaire in Part I.; and, to supply materials for improvising questionnaires in the higher classes, the whole of Part III. is writ. ten in French. So far as French accidence is concerned, M. Schneider has produced a good book. The information is accurate and ample; the exercises numerous and varied; and the questionnaire upon the accidence is a novelty which will be highly appreciated by masters who aim at teaching their pupils to speak French. Part III. cannot be equally commended. The principle of the exercises, already stated, is bad: to print ungrammatical French for pupils who are sure to furnish more than enough of it themselves, is worse than superfluous; it is confusing and misleading. The exercises on the subjunctive are too few, occupying only about one page; and the peculiarities of French negation with the subjunctive are altogether omitted. How is it that a French grammar, bearing the name of a classical school, should contain no information about those peculiarities of French negation after verbs of hindering, fearing, doubting, and denying, which have faithfully preserved certain well-known Latin idiotisms with ne, quominus, and quin? Lectures Françaises; or, Extracts in Prose from Modern French Authors, with copious Notes for the use of English Students. By Léonce Stièvenard, principal French Master in the City of London School, etc. Pp. 420. London, Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts. 1861. These French readings are graduated; VOL. I.-NO. IV. numerous, and consequently brief; wonderfully varied; and every way suitable to the end proposed. The book is divided into three parts of nearly equal size, the first consisting of forty-five plain narratives or descriptions; the second, of forty-five extracts, which treat equally simple themes in a higher style, or with a minuteness requiring a more accurate and extensive knowledge of words; and the third, of fifty pieces more difficult still, the difficulty arising, in many instances, not so much from the style of the composition, as from the nature of the subject. The average length of the readings is under three pages. Thirty-three pages of notes, partly explanatory of the sense, without being in the least critical; partly, and indeed chiefly, biographical and geographical, are added, those in Part III. being in French-another proof that teachers of French now count upon imparting to their pupils a practical mastery over the language. Elements of the German Language. By Friedrich Otto Froembling, German Master in the City of London School. First Part, pp. 63. London, David Nutt. 1861. THE author has had in view a large school with three classes, and the present manual is intended for the lowest of these. Two other manuals are in preparation for the two other classes. This instalment of the whole work contains, first, a general view of the accidence, pp. 1-32; then, exercises in Ahn's style, but much more rapidly graduated, for they rise into continuous narrative, letter-writing, and even verse towards the end of the twenty pages which they occupy; and lastly, a vocabulary of ten pages. The view given of German accidence is intentionally imperfect. By means of lists, the beginner is taught the conjugation of every verb; but he is not taught the declension of every noun, befound his first year's pupils, for whom cause, we presume, M. Froembling has alone Part I. is intended, unable to overtake the additional work. However well M. Froembling executes his plan of three graduated manuals, it can be acceptable only to those teachers whose classes are of the same number, and meet with the same fre2 L quency as his own; and even then, it will have the disadvantage of making reference difficult. The information on each subject will be scattered over the three parts, and sometimes in mere driblets. Thus, in Part I., under the heading, "Chapter xx., Sundry Syntactical Rules," there are just two rules of what is popularly called Syntax, followed by ten directions for the order of words in a German sentence. A Compendium of Latin Syntax. By THE laws of syntax are deduced from written language by analysis, and scientifically they have their primary application in synthesis. Practically, however, this view of their use is at once partial and inconvenient. If every one had to deduce from his own reading a syntax for himself, he might require to use that syntax in composition only. But it is not so; and since there is a system of syntax already in existence for all to use, it is necessary that every boy in learning Latin or any other tongue should take its doctrines upon trust until he shall have proved and tested them for himself. The great primary use of syntax to him is to aid him, not in synthesis but in analysis, not in composition but in translation. Indeed all praxis in composition in a dead language should have for its object not the writing of that lan guage, but the perfecting of the scholars in their knowledge of syntax, with a view to their more accurate understanding of the authors read. To this extent some instruction in composition is necessary. And when it is cultivated for this end, as a training, not as an art, it is really a valuable instrument in the hands of the classical teacher. Looking now at Mr. Robertson's "compendium," in its applicability to the reading of authors as well as to composition, we consider that, as a clear and concise, as well as exhaustive digest of the laws of Latin syntax, it accomplishes more than any other book of its class. Indeed we know no book in which the subject is treated at once with so much scientific accuracy, so much completeness, and so much convenient condensation. The examples appended to each rule are most judicionsly selected. The similarity of many of them, in regard to the words used, we consider a great advantage in this respect, that the learner's familiarity with the words, from their previous occurrence, will enable him the better to detect the peculiarity which illustrates a new rule. We wish, however, that Mr. Robertson had extended the insertion of examples to the exceptions and supplementary remarks. A short example is often worth more than a very long explanation; and this applies with even more force to exceptional than to regular constructions. We have already observed that all syntax is and must be derived from analysis. Mr. Robertson has, therefore, only complied with a scientific law in basing his rules of syntax upon the general principles of the analysis of sentences. It is, we believe, the first time this has been thoroughly done in a Latin text-book; and as it will enable scholars to apply the principles with which they are (we hope) already acquainted in English grammar to another language, we anticipate the best results from the innovation. As an example of the greater clearness and intelligibility, as well as scientific accuracy to which the adoption of the phraseology of analysis leads, compare the primary rule on the genitive, as given in the old grammars, with that of Mr. Robertson's Syntax." The old Grammars : One substantive governs another, signifying a different thing, in the genitive, as lex naturæ, the law of nature. Robertson: When one substantive is the possessive attribute to another it is in the genitive, as lex naturæ, the law of nature. The absurdity of the old rule lies in its omitting all reference to the essential relation that subsists between the two nouns; a relation which the new rule states explicitly, and makes the reason for the particular case being used. The sections on the subjunctive mood are full of instances in which the same method has thrown clear and strong light on old and perplexing obscurities. We have noted one or two improvements, which we suggest to Mr. Robertson for future editions: 1st. The list of verbs in sect. 15, which govern the accusative in Latin, but in English require a preposition before their object, might be considerably extended. Apperiri, to wait for, and probare, to approve of, are somewhat important omissions. 2d. In the list of prepositions governing the ablative (sect. 63), the primary meaning of pro, in front of, should not have been omitted. 3d. In sub-sections (2) and (3), of sect. 94, we seem to have a cross-division. The case in which qui talis ut really includes the cases in which it follows dignus, indignus, etc. Talis is generic, dignus, etc., are specific; but they are essentially the same. 4th. In sect. 112, as to verbs after which the English infinitive is translated by ut with the subjunctive, it should have been noted that conor is excep tional, being followed by the infinitive. We cannot conclude without commending the excellent and useful chapter on The Order of Words in a Latin Sentence." This was much wanted; it has been well done, and makes the work complete. Goethii Iphigenia Græce. By Theodor Kock. Berolini, apud Weidman nos. 1861. M. Theodor Kock, a distinguished German scholar, whose late edition of Aristophanes in Weidmann's series presents a sufficient test of his critical ability and historical reading, has, during the past summer, put forth a translation of Goethe's Iphigenia into Greek verse. The rarity of such attempts among German scholars entitles this elegant little publication to the favourable notice of the English public, especially as M. Kock, in his long and stately dedication, pays to English scholarship the follow ing handsome compliment: "Viget adhuc in Britannia, fidelissima horum studiorum nutrice et adjutrice, viget Oxonii et Cantabrigia, locis omnium sæculorum fama celebratis, viget ad quietas argentea Sabrina ripas, viget in summo commerciorum strepitu ac tumultu antiquæ poesis consuetudo et vene. ratio, et in illo ipso populo, non carent honore qui ex tam turbulenta rerum hominumque concursatione interdum in gratas silvarum umbras, ad perlucidos fontium liquores confugiunt, et in dulci antiquarum lamenarum commercio tranquilla otiosæ vitæ gaudia consect antur. It is very true that, as a rule, German scholars are too much occupied with severer work, as commentators and critics, to have much time to spare for the ame nities of classical composition. Yet there is much reason to lament that such is the case; for even at the present day the stigma cast by Porson on German Grecians is often not wholly unmerited: and the barbarism of German Latin notes is too frequently a matter of comment. German schoolboys and stulents are taught a great deal that their equals in England have to do without: but the latter very generally, by their education, are put in lifelong possession of that taste and elegance in composition without which no classical scholar is complete. M. Kock has, by his present publication, done much to rival the authors of the Sabrina Corolla and the Arundines. His iambics have the same terseness of rendering and classicality of rhythm that distinguish the most successful efforts of our scholars: while in the metres of the choruses he has ventured upon a more difficult field with no less success. Goethe's Iphigenia was a happy choice: for while there may be much in the treatment of the subject which makes even a Greek translation un-Hellenic, Goethe's beautifully clear and finished verse seems almost to invite an attempt to clothe it in a classical dress We have no space for a consideration of details. But we may remark, that among the less successful portions of this version we should class the Xopikov at the end of the First Act. The simple contrast in the original is entirely lost by the amplification at the end of the strophe; while in the concluding verses of the antistrophe the German idea that the gods prolong the life of good men, becomes an assumption of a state of future reward. The spirit of the original is much better preserved in the fine version into iambics of Iphigenia's soliloquy at the beginning of the Fourth Act. We sincerely hope that M. Kock's scholar-like production will bear good fruit at home; here it cannot fail to meet with a sympathizing welcome. First Latin Reader: for the use of Schools. By A. H. Bryce, A.B., (Trin. Coll. Dublin.) London, T. Nelson & Sons. 1861. The success of the plan on which Mr. Bryce constructed his "First Greek Reader" has evidently been such as to induce him to give to the world an introductory Manual on Latin of the same |