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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Prof. William Watson Goodwin's Syn- 

 tax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek 

 Verb appears from the press of Ginn & Co. 

 in a new edition, rewritten and enlarged 

 from the editions of 1860 and 1865, and so 

 modified by the operation of the author's 

 own criticisms of his earlier effort as to 

 have become to a great extent a new and in- 

 dependent work. A great change has in 

 fact come over the conditions of Greek 

 scholarship during the interval, so that it 

 could hardly be adequately represented in its 

 present state without reconstructing the ex- 

 position almost from the beginning. As 

 the author remarks, "few are aware how 

 modern are many of the grammatical doc- 

 trines which are now taught in all classical 

 schools." The writings of the Greek au- 

 thors are full of refinements of style and deli- 

 cate distinctions which greatly impede the 

 progress of the beginner and make the labor 

 of the advanced student not easy, and on 

 which the ordinary grammars and lexicons 

 cast but a dim light. The purpose of Mr. 

 Goodwin's manual, if we gather it correctly, 

 is systematically to use the full light of the 

 most recent scholarship in explaining them. 



The Directional Calculus of Prof. JEJ. W. 

 Hyde (Ginn & Co.) is an effort to introduce 

 the system of multiple algebra invented by 

 Hermann Grassmann, and called by him the 

 Theory of Extension. The author has be- 

 come convinced of the superiority of Grass- 

 mann's system to Hamilton's quaternions, in 

 that it is founded upon and is consistent 

 with the idea of geometric dimensions ; and 

 that in it all geometric quantities appear as 

 independent units. His directional methods 

 are also believed to be superior to the com- 

 paratively awkward and roundabout methods 

 of the Cartesian co-ordinates. "While Grass- 

 mann's results are all obtained for n- dimen- 

 sional space, Prof. Hyde has, for greater 

 simplicity, restricted the discussion to space 

 of two and three dimensions. 



The purpose of Mr. William Boscoe 

 Thayer's The Best Elizabethan Plays (Ginn 

 & Co.) is to present specimens of the 

 work of the five Elizabethan dramatists who 

 stand highest among Shakespeare's contem- 

 poraries. The selected works are Marlowe's 

 Jew of Malta, Ben Jonson's The Alchemist, 

 Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster, Fletcher 

 and Shakespeare's Two Noble Kinsmen, and 



John "Webster's Duchess of Main. The choice 

 in each case is justified by critical remarks re- 

 specting the author and his works, with com- 

 parative estimates of the merits of the latter. 

 A general view is presented of the develop- 

 ment of the English drama from its rise in 

 Marlowe to its last strong expression in Web- 

 ster. Its development was urged by the impul- 

 sion of the modern spirit which was remolding 

 the society of the Renaissance, added to the 

 great stimulus of the recovered appreciation 

 of classical antiquity. The great poets of 

 the Elizabethan age took all nature for their 

 province. Literary precedents and the con- 

 ventional rules prescribed by writers of rhet- 

 orics and grammars did not hamper them. 

 "Taking the implements at hand — the 

 tedious moralities and the loosely spun mira- 

 cle plays — they soon improved upon them, 

 soon invented a drama-form not so rigid as 

 to be cramped nor so loose as to be redun- 

 dant, but articulate like a highly developed 

 organism and as elastic as the various ma- 

 terial furnished by nature required. And 

 for their meter they adopted and perfected 

 a line susceptible of almost infinite modula- 

 tions, suited alike to the simplest narration 

 and to the highest outbursts of passion, and 

 to the most delicate whisperings of fancy." 



The Leading Facts of American History 

 (Ginn & Co.) is the title of a generally ad- 

 mirable presentation of this important topic 

 by D. H. Montgomery. The work is based 

 on a careful study of the highest recognized 

 authorities. Its purpose is to present, in a 

 clear, connected, and forcible manner, the 

 important events in the history of our coun- 

 try. The author has aimed to be accurate in 

 statement, simple in style, and impartial in 

 treatment. We are glad to observe that 

 military events and politics do not have the 

 first places, but that these are given to social, 

 scientific, and industrial progress, to which 

 they belong. Another commendable feature 

 appears in the brief summaries of most im- 

 portant features attached to each period. 



While Mr. Joseph H. Crocker's purpose 

 in his essay on Different Kcw Testament 

 Views of Jesus has been solely to state the 

 facts respecting the single topic indicated in 

 the title, the author has compiled the paper 

 from the point of view of the supposition 

 that each of the authors of the Gospels had 

 1 his own ideas of the nature, personality, 



