LITERARY NOTICES, 



yog 



undoubtedly precede its actual and more 

 thorough cultivation, and a great point will 

 have been gained when this literature se- 

 cures a prominent and established place in 

 the schools. It is a concession to the rights 

 of knowledge. Hitherto we have stopped 

 with rhetoric, careless of the contents of 

 thought, and in subserviency to the dogma 

 that style and expression are everything. 

 Such works as this are tributes to a sounder 

 view, and evidences of advancement in the 

 right direction. On this subject Professor 

 Johonnot well remarks : 



" Under the later system, the truth is rec- 

 ognized that the object of all school exer- 

 cises is to promote mental growth, to which 

 end ideas and thoughts are indispensable. 

 "Words, like bank-notes, are regarded not 

 for their intrinsic but for their representa- 

 tive value. In so far as they clearly reveal 

 the gold of thought, they may be taken for 

 genuine coin, but, failing in this, they are 

 worthless counterfeits. The kinds of ideas 

 and thoughts are also a matter of serious 

 moment. In each stage of the mind's 

 growth, those only should be used that will 

 command the attention by the interest ex- 

 eited, that will stimulate the reflective ac- 

 tivities of the mind, and that will incite to 

 further observation and investigation. 



" With these objects kept clearly in view, 

 reading and the general acquisition of lan- 

 guage become secondary and not primary 

 processes. They are incident to the general 

 objects of instruction. Reading-matter is 

 selected upon the same principles as stud- 

 ies that which will interest, stimulate, and 

 incite. At every stage of growth it is such 

 aa will best serve the present purposes of 

 the mind, and, at the same time, promote 

 the next step in advance. The pupil reads 

 because he is anxious to know. His progress 

 is rapid, because he is interested. His man- 

 ner of reading is correct, because he under- 

 stands the thought, and thought controls the 

 expression." 



We must add that the " Natural nistory 

 Reader "is an attractive and a handsome 

 book. It is beautifully illustrated, poems 

 are interspersed with the prose chapters, 

 and it is elegantly printed. Its selections 

 are from the most recent writings of natu- 

 ralists, and the information they convey will 

 be found fresh and up to the times. 



Lectures ox Painting. Delivered to the 

 Students of the Royal Academy. By 

 Edward Armitage, R. A. New York : 

 G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 337. $1.75. 



Professor Armitage has given in this 

 book a selection of twelve from the lectures 

 delivered by him during the term of his pro- 

 fessorship in the Royal Academy, between 

 1876 and 1882. He has published them un- 

 der the impression that they might be inter- 

 esting to other students than those of the 

 Royal Academy, u and possibly even to those 

 who do not intend to follow art as a profes- 

 sion, but who would be glad to have a little 

 daylight thrown on a subject which, though 

 much written and lectured about of late 

 years, does not seem to have been often 

 treated in a simple, practical manner." The 

 subjects of the lectures are, "Ancient Cos- 

 tume," "Byzantine and Romanesque Art," 

 " The Painters of the Eighteenth Century," 

 "David and his School," "The Modern 

 Schools of Europe," " Drawing," " Color," 

 "Decorative Painting," "Finish," "The 

 Choice of a Subject," "The Composition 

 of Decorative and Historical Pictures," and 

 the " Composition of Incident Pictures." 



Archivos do Mcseu Nacional do Rio de 

 Janeiro (Archives of the National Mu- 

 seum of Rio de Janeiro). Dr. Ladislao 

 Netto, General Director. Vol. Ill, 1878, 

 pp. 194, with Six Plates; Vol. IV, 1879, 

 pp. 154, with Six Plates ; Vol. V, 1880, 

 pp. 470. Rio de Janeiro : Typographia 

 Economica. 



The " Archives " are a quarterly publica- 

 tion of papers on scientific subjects that 

 properly come under the purview of the 

 Museum. The present volumes include the 

 publications for the second half of 1S7S, 

 and for 1879 and 1880. In the third vol- 

 ume are included papers on the venom of 

 the rattlesnake, by Dr. Lacerda; on the 

 geology of the diamond-bearing region of 

 the Province of Parana, by Orville A. Der- 

 by; observations on geological features in 

 the Bay of Todos os Santos, by Mr. Derby 

 and Richard Rathbun ; and other papers of 

 a more special character. The fourth vol- 

 ume contains a number of anthropological 

 and linguistic studies on the natives of the 

 country, and papers on subjects of entomol- 

 ogy and geology. The fifth volume is given 

 to the "Flora Fluminensis," a Flora, in 



