13° 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



leading types and those which best illustrate 

 the arts, customs, and culture status of the 

 former inhabitants are referred to. The 

 movements and remains are treated under 

 the three heads of the Arctic, Atlantic, and 

 Pacific divisions ; the first including the 

 works of the Eskimos, the second those of the 

 mound builders, and the third the curious 

 variety of works scattered along the Pacific 

 coast, and in Mexico and Central America, 

 rising to great elaboration in the latter coun- 

 tries. Theories have to be considered, though 

 they are all still uncertain, and Professor 

 Thomas notices the various views which have 

 been expressed as to the origin of the works 

 and the people who executed them. He 

 himself believes that they are all the work 

 of the peoples who lived here when America 

 was discovered, and are represented by the 

 present Indians ; that they are not of a very 

 extreme antiquity ; and that the continent 

 was peopled by tribes who came down from 

 the northwest through the region between 

 Hudson Bay and the Rocky Mountains. 



Of Nature books encouraging the study 

 of the life around us we have an abundance 

 — of some sorts, perhaps, a superfluity — and 

 they have their uses, one of the chief of 

 which is drawing people, who might other- 

 wise never think of it, to the observation of 

 natural facts, and to inquiry into their char, 

 acter and causes. Such books are fittingly 

 complemented by the Handbook of Nature 

 Study* of D. Lange, of St. Paul, Minnesota, 

 which teaches how system may be intro- 

 duced into this occupation. In it, the author 

 has undertaken to point out some of the ma- 

 terial which may be made the basis of profit- 

 able lessons in Nature study, and to show 

 how this material may be made available, 

 and what the pupils may be taught about 

 it. The author has arranged the matter of 

 the subject of his teachings according to 

 seasons and life communities. He begins at 

 home in the spring, and directs the wander- 

 ings of the pupils to the waters, fields, and 

 prairies, the roadsides and neglected cor- 

 ners, studying besides the plants and animals, 

 the geological action of water, the flowers of 



* Handbook of Nature Study for Teachers and 

 Pupils in Elementary Schools. By D. Lange. 

 New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp.329. 

 Price, $1. 



the fields and the needs of neglected places, 

 window flowers, and domestic animals. Then 

 he goes to the woods — in spring, in summer, 

 and in autumn — and their plant and animal 

 life, the effect of all these upon the earth, 

 and their relations to one another. Some 

 practical precepts are given to teachers con- 

 cerning the method of conducting the study 

 of Nature. 



In the presentation of his conception of 

 The State* or the Elements of Politics, Prof. 

 Woodrow Wilson has taken a comprehensive 

 view. Designing a book for study and in- 

 struction, he has sought to set forth the evo- 

 lution of existing systems of government 

 from the beginning. Possessing no model, 

 no text-book of like scope and purpose hav- 

 ing apparently hitherto been attempted, he 

 has had to make his own type ; and, in the 

 absence of anything else to refer the student 

 to, has been obliged to include much that 

 might otherwise have been omitted. The 

 volume is consequently large ; but this dis- 

 advantage, if it be one, is compensated for 

 by the fact that the student has the whole 

 subject before him. For his descriptions the 

 author has chosen governments which are 

 types of their several kinds. An indispen- 

 sable prerequisite to studies of things of this 

 sort is a knowledge of the constitutions of 

 the states of classical antiquity ; hence the in- 

 stitutions of Greece and Rome are studied : 

 Greece, which furnished the spirit and in- 

 spiration under which the world has ad- 

 vanced; and Rome, which laid the foundations 

 of modern jurisprudence. Before these, even, 

 a glance at The Earliest Forms of Govern- 

 ment, their Origin and Evolution, was re- 

 quired. Then, coming to modern systems, 

 which are also traced in their historical devel- 

 opment, "the government of France serves 

 excellently as an example of a unitary govern- 

 ment of one kind, and Great Britain equally 

 well as an example of a unitary government 

 of another kind ; Germany exhibits a federal 

 empire, Switzerland a federal republic of 

 one sort, the United States a federal repub- 

 lic of another ; Austria-Hungary and Sweden- 

 Norway show the only two existing European 



* The State : Elements of Historical and Pnic- 

 tical Politics. By Woodrow Wilson. Revised 

 edition. Boston : D. C. Heath & Co. Pp. Cf.6. 

 Price, $2. 



