LITERARY NOTICES. 



851 



human conditions which gave them birth, 

 the limitations as well as the nobility of the 

 authors who penned them. We appreciate 

 the greatness of their varying messages, but 

 we also trace the burning lines of error and 

 passion which mar these pages. There is 

 truth enough to make them grandly human ; 

 there is superstition enough to prove them 

 no more than human." 



A History and Description of thk Modern 

 Dogs (Sporting Division) of Great Brit- 

 ain AND Ireland. By Rawdon B. Lee. 

 London : Horace Cox. Pp. 584, with 

 Twenty-six Plates. 



The author has attempted in this book to 

 summarize the progress and describe the va- 

 rieties of the sporting dogs as they are at 

 present known and appreciated in the British 

 Isles. Without losing any of the early his- 

 tory, his wish has been to introduce matter 

 bringing the subject up to date ; both so far 

 as the work of dogs in the field is concerned, 

 and in viewing them as companions, and 

 when winning, or attempting to win, prizes 

 in the show ring. After this method full 

 accounts are given of twenty-nine varieties 

 or " sports " of dogs, with historical informa- 

 tion, anecdotes, gossip of the market and the 

 kennels, discussion of values, the points by 

 which the kinds are distinguished, and quali- 

 ties ; constituting the book of great value to 

 all who are interested in breeding, using, or 

 admiring dogs. Of the illustrations, only two 

 those of the greyhound and of the Kerry 

 beagles are actually portraits. The othei\s, 

 though originally drawn from living exam- 

 ples, are rather typical specimens of the 

 various breeds they represent. 



Object Lessons and How to Give Them. 

 By George Ricks. First Series. For 

 Primary Schools. Pp. 202. Second 

 Series. For Intermediate and Grammar 

 Schools. Pp. 214. Boston : D. C. Heath 

 & Co. Price, 90 cents each. 



The primary purpose of lessons in com- 

 mon objects and natural phenomena, the 

 author believes, is to cultivate the senses, to 

 train the habits of attention, intelligent ob- 

 servation, and accurate comparison, and so 

 lead up to the higher processes of the mind 

 reason and judgment. The natural course 

 of the teacher would seem to be to gather 

 up into something like order and to perfect 



what has so far been imperfectly accom- 

 plished by the child, and to evolve from this 

 as a basis a systematic course of training ; 

 and the teacher who would best succeed 

 should take childhood's method of imbibing 

 knowledge and adapt it to her own use. 

 The child, as Spencer says, should not be 

 told or shown, but taught how to observe. 

 The lessons in the first series are intended 

 to be short, simple, pleasing, and attractive, 

 and relate to objects of sense, common arti- 

 cles, and the simpler qualities. Those of 

 the second series relate to the common prop- 

 erties of solids, liquids, and gases, in that 

 order, and to those matters which demand 

 closer observation and exercise of the rea- 

 soning faculties. They are suggestive rather 

 than exhaustive. 



Suicide and Insanity : A Physiological and 

 Sociological Study. By S. A. K. Stra- 

 han, M. D., Barrister-at-Law, etc. Lon- 

 don: Swan, Sonnenschein & Co., 1893. 

 Price, $1.Y5. 



The author states that he has endeavored 

 to trace modern suicide to its source, to show 

 how large a percentage of what is really 

 avoidable is deliberately propagated, and how 

 closely it is related to those other abnormal 

 conditions met with in all civilized commu- 

 nities. The cause of suicide is cultivation, 

 and it is propagated by the intermarriage of 

 the insane, the epileptic, and the criminal. 



Suicides are divided into two major 

 classes rational or quasi suicide and irra- 

 tional or true suicide. The former class is 

 further subdivided into, first, those who de- 

 stroy their life for gain, consisting of reli- 

 gious devotees, of those who die to follow 

 friends, of those who die to gain notoriety, 

 and of those who die that others may gain. 

 Second, those who commit the suicidal act 

 that they may escape some real and impend- 

 ins evil that is considered more terrible than 

 death. 



Irrational suicides are divided into three 

 groups : First, that in which there is mental 

 aberration; second, that in which the act 

 depends upon an irresistible impulse and in 

 which there is no mental aberration ; third, 

 that in which a certain predisposition makes 

 it possible for a slight shock, trial, or irrita- 

 tion to awaken the unnatural impulse. 



As statistics show that suicide is on the 



