LITERARY NOTICES. 



561 



education is idea-growth. lie understands 

 the conditions of this growth, and he knows 

 that the first business of a teacher should 

 be to learn these conditions. So far as we 

 kuow, the subject of mental growth is not 

 put on this footing in our training-schools, 

 nor are our teachers tested by any such 

 standard. But the circulation of such books 

 as this will hasten the time when the teach- 

 ers of children will be required to know 

 something of the laws that govern their 

 mental development. 



An Address on the Fiftieth Anniversary 

 of the Class of 1832, parts of which 

 were read at a Class-Meeting at Union 

 College, June 27, 1882. By Charles E. 

 West. Brooklyn, N. Y. : Tremlett & Co. 



This is a volume of unusual interest of 

 its kind. There is of course much in it of 

 local and personal import that will be chiefly 

 prized by the parties in most intimate rela- 

 tion with the scene of the history, but we 

 have found even this portion of Dr. West's 

 monograph very entertaining. We call at- 

 tention to it here, however, on account of 

 the admirably executed survey of scientific 

 progress in its main departments which has 

 taken place during the fifty years which 

 have elapsed since the organization of the 

 "class of '32." From his wide familiarity 

 with the labors of scientific men, and his 

 clear appreciation of the great drifts of mod- 

 ern thought, Dr. West was well prepared to 

 perform the duty that devolved upon him in 

 sketching the great changes of the last half- 

 century, and he has done it in a most able 

 and attractive manner. 



The Life of James Clerk Maxwell, with a 

 Selection from his Correspondence and 

 Occasional Writings, and a Sketch of 

 his Contributions to Science. By Lewis 

 Campbell, M. A., LL. D., and William 

 Garnett, M. A. London : Macmillan & 

 Co. Pp. 662. Price, $6. 



No stronger individuality has appeared 

 in recent English science than that illus- 

 trated by the present biography. Clerk 

 Maxwell was a man of undoubted genius, 

 as a mathematical physicist among the very 

 ablest, and withal original, versatile, and ec- 

 centric. He had a strong sense of humor, 

 and mixed wit, fun, pictures, and poetry, 

 with much of his speculation in science. 

 He was affectionate and interesting as well 

 vol. xxiii. 36 



as adventuresome and refractory as a boy, 

 and was always unconventional, quaint, and 

 simple in his ways. He dipped deeply into 

 logic and metaphysics when in college, and 

 the tendency to subtile speculation is exem- 

 plified in all his scientific works. His life 

 furnished much material for the pen of the 

 biographer, and the volume is graphic, spicy, 

 and very readable. Much of it consists of 

 his correspondence and previously unpub- 

 lished notes, while the course of his mental 

 development is well delineated, and the im- 

 portance of his researches is clearly pre- 

 sented. He had a very profound admira- 

 tion for the genius of Faraday, and perhaps 

 his own most important work consists in the 

 mathematical development of physical ideas 

 concerning the constitution of matter, the 

 germs of which are found in the insight of 

 the great electrician. Professor Maxwell's 

 character is thus summed up by the writers 

 of the present volume : 



Great as was the range and depth of Maxwell's 

 powers, that which is still more remarkable is the 

 unity of his nature and of his life. This unity came 

 not from circumstance, for there were breaks in his 

 outward career, but from the native strength of the 

 spirit that was in him. In the eyes of those who 

 knew him best, the whole man gained in beauty 

 year by year, as son, friend, lover, husband ; in sci- 

 ence, in society, in religion ; whether buried in re- 

 tirement or immersed in business, he is absolutely 

 single-hearted. This is true of his mental as well 

 as of his emotional being, for indeed they were in- 

 separably blended. And the fixity of his devotion, 

 both to persons and ideas, was compatible with all 

 but universal sympathies and the most fearless open- 

 ness of thought. . . . That marvelous interpene- 

 tration of scientific industry, philosophic insight, 

 poetic feeling and imagination, and overflowing hu- 

 mor, was closely related to the profound sincerity 

 which, after all is said, is the truest sign alike of his 

 genius and of his inmost nature, and is most apt to 

 make his life instructive beyond the limits of the 

 scientific world. 



Oliver Wendell Holmes, Poet, Littera- 

 teur, Scientist. By William Sloane 

 Kennedy. Boston : S. E. Cassino & Co. 

 Pp. 356. 



No doubt the rampage for personal gos- 

 sip, displayed alike by our newspapers and 

 magazines, is largely shared also by bio- 

 graphical writers who enter upon the delin- 

 eation of many lives before the life has 

 ceased. As to the gossip, it is of course 

 but an index of the public appetite, and, as 

 to its untimeliness, that must be held as 

 timely which is sufficiently wanted. That 



