LITERARY NOTICES. 



421 



subject (Longmans, 75 cents). The author 

 names, as trifling advantages of an interna- 

 tional coinage, the convenience of travelers, 

 facility in the exchange and transmission of 

 coin, and in the comparison of monetary 

 statistics. What he deems the one great 

 advantage of such a money would consist in 

 making identical the monetary language of 

 the trade circulars of different nations. He 

 believes that an international coinage should 

 be founded on a single standard, have a high 

 gold unit, have decimal divisions, and do no 

 violence to national jealousies. Several inter- 

 national unit coins have been proposed a 

 twenty-five-franc piece, the English sover- 

 eign, a piece weighing ten grammes, and a ten- 

 franc piece but Mr. Bagehot points out ob- 

 jections to them all. The scheme which the 

 author proposes is to unite the two great 

 Anglo-Saxon nations upon a system of coins, 

 by changing the sovereign from 960 to 1,000 

 farthings, or 1 0s. 10c/., which is almost 

 identical with the American half-eagle. He 

 believes that Germany and the Latin Union 

 would in time adopt the Anglo-American 

 money. 



In his essay on Involuntary Idleness, read 

 before the American Economic Association, 

 and now published as a book (Lippincott, 

 $1), the author, Mr. Hwjo Bilgram, searches 

 for the cause of lack of employment. He 

 first examines the relation of capital and 

 interest to labor, and obtains the inference 

 that " a close relation exists between the 

 economic cause of involuntary idleness and 

 the law of interest." The author states that 

 there is a tendency for the industrial class 

 to drift into bankruptcy, and for money to 

 accumulate in the hands of the financial 

 class, thus depriving the channels of com- 

 merce of the needed medium of exchange, 

 and causing stagnation of business and 

 dearth of employment. The law of interest 

 is then evolved by an analysis of the mone- 

 tary circulation between the debtors and 

 creditors. From this analysis is drawn the 

 inference that " an expansion of the volume 

 of money, by extending the issue of credit- 

 money, will prevent business stagnation and 

 involuntary idleness." 



The Teacher's Manual of Geography, by 

 Jacques W. Rcdway (Heath, 55 cents), con- 

 sists of suggestions to teachers on out-of- 



door lessons for young pupils, the use of 

 pictures and models, recitation, map-making, 

 geodesy, hydrography, meteorology, history 

 in geography, and boundary lines. Simple 

 ideas of form, size, color, and locality are 

 suggested to be presented to the youngest 

 children in preliminary oral work. The tend- 

 ency of the book throughout is to lead the 

 teacher to give pupils a practical, compre- 

 hensible knowledge of the earth's surface, 

 to correct popular errors, and to escape from 

 traditional ruts. A list of books for geo- 

 graphical reading is appended. 



A series of Topics in Geography, pre- 

 pared by W. F. Nichols, for the use of his 

 own schools, has now been published (Heath, 

 55 cents). The author states that his aim 

 has been to make the study of geography 

 more valuable, while shortening the time 

 usually spent upon it. To this end he shows 

 what to teach and what to omit, giving first 

 a brief outline for a study of any continent 

 based upon slope, and furnishing topics, to 

 be taken up after this, which cover all that 

 it is desirable to learn. Other features of 

 his treatment are the sparing use of statis- 

 tics, the combination of language with geog- 

 raphy, and the making prominent of natu- 

 ral objects and wonders, which are always 

 interesting to pupils. The course of study is 

 graded. By permission, Prof. Redway's list of 

 books for geographical reading is included. 



The Nursery Lesson Book, by Philip G. 

 Hubert, Jr. (Putnam, 75 cents), is designed 

 as a guide for mothers in teaching young 

 children. It comprises fifty lessons, each 

 conveying simple and progressive instruc- 

 tion in reading, writing, arithmetic, drawing, 

 and singing. It contains one hundred illus- 

 trations in outline and sixteen songs set to 

 music. The page is large, the margins gen- 

 erous, and the general appearance of the 

 book is attractive. 



The life and labors of Vitus Bering, the 

 Discoverer of Bering Strait, have been re- 

 corded in Danish by Peter Lauridsen, and 

 an English translation by Prof. Julius E. 

 Olson is now published (Griggs, $1.25). 

 Bering was a Dane, who took to the sea in 

 early life, and at the age of twenty-two 

 joined a Russian fleet as a sub-lieutenant. 

 This was during the period of Russia's rapid 

 advancement under Peter the Great. In 

 1724 Bering, then a captain, was appointed 



