LITERARY NOTICES. 



563 



were, to him, till he is expected to express 

 himself easily in the language. The pres- 

 ent volmne is a second part, being preceded 

 by one of a more elementary charactei'. 

 The lessons are arranged each to illustrate 

 some special grammatical form, and include 

 a passage to be read, analyzed, and ques- 

 tioned upon, with exercises in adapting va- 

 rious words to the form ; and, further along, 

 extracts from French classical authors. 

 (Halifax, Nova Scotia, $1.) 



The Daughter of the Nez Perch is a 

 story of Indian life strictly founded on fact, 

 by Arthur Patcrson. Without desiring to 

 take ,ides in the questions concerning the 

 troubles in which the Nez Perces have been 

 involved, the author's object has been to de- 

 scribe with what vividness he could certain 

 scenes in the life of a chief Joseph, still 

 living " who, whether right or wrong, is un- 

 questionably one of the most remarkable 

 men his race has ever produced." Liberties 

 are taken with the details of Joseph's family 

 life and some incidents not historical are ad- 

 mitted, but, in the main, the true course of 

 events has been followed. Mr. Paterson's 

 endeavor has been to present Joseph as the 

 man he was, and not as a mere ideal of what 

 he should have been. We have found the 

 story very interesting. (Published by George 

 Gottsberger Peck, New York.) 



The Epitome magazine (Washington, J. B. 

 Lockwood, manager ; M. Sewell Roy, editor ; 

 monthly, $2 a year) is the outgi-owth of the 

 literary club life of Washington, and is ex- 

 pected to perpetuate the best of the essays 

 read at the meetings. It is, however, some- 

 thing else than' simply a club magazine, and 

 opens its columns to discussions on all sub- 

 jects of general interest. The articles in the 

 number before us are varied, fresh, and in- 

 teresting. 



An excellent manual for primary schools 

 is the Firat Book in English, by W. H. Max- 

 will. The method is inductive, the lessons 

 short and novel in character. By observa- 

 tion and comparison of models the pupil 

 learns to recognize and construct the simple 

 sentence. Later he is taught in the same 

 manner to identify the principal parts of 

 speech. Practice is given in drawing and 

 dictation as well as in composition, and with 

 the varied drill afforded there seems no rea- 

 son why a child should not easily acquire a 



thorough knowledge of elementary grammar 

 and writing in even less time than the speci- 

 fied three years which allows for very delib- 

 erate work in a volume of 172 pages. 



The Neui Science Review is the name of 

 a quarterly periodical undertaken by the 

 Transatlantic Publishing Company, Phila- 

 delphia, as a miscellany of modern thought 

 and discovery. In outer appearance it is all 

 that could be asked. In its "announce- 

 ment" it declares that it will differ from all 

 the scientific periodicals, not attempting to 

 supersede the older and more conservative 

 periodicals, but to supplement them, address- 

 ing itself not to specialists but to the public 

 at large, presenting matter of scientific value 

 in popular style ; not assuming that the read- 

 er has an esoteric acquaintance with the 

 matter in hand, but giving him a preliminary 

 acquaintance with it, explaining before it 

 demonstrates. The first number starts off 

 with an effort of Major-General A. W. Dray- 

 son to solve the mystery of the ice age, in 

 which he presents his theory of a second rev- 

 olution of the pole under the operation of a 

 displacement of the earth's center of gravity, 

 under which the polar circles may be period- 

 ically brought down as low as 54" of latitude. 

 The Problem of the Polt; that is, the pres- 

 ent status of the attempt to reach it is 

 lucidly set forth by Charles Morris. Mrs. 

 Bloomfield Moore is allowed to describe the 

 propeller of the Keely air ship, and to glorify 

 its projector in an article entitled The New- 

 ton of the Mind ; Julian Hawthorne in an- 

 other article tells how great a man Mr. 

 Keely is ; and a long and laudatory notice 

 is given in the second number of the review 

 of Mrs. Moore's book on Keely and his dis- 

 coveries. Among other articles in the two 

 numbers that deserve or will attract atten- 

 tion are Major Ricarde leaver's Diamonds 

 and Gold a description of the South African 

 mines ; Lieutenant Patten's account of the 

 eminent electrician, Nikola Tesla, and his 

 works ; a summary of Prof. Dewar's lecture 

 on Fluorescence and Phosphorescence; the 

 presentation by W. G. Jordan of "Mental 

 Training a Remedy for Education ; " the 

 Rev. John Andrews's description of the 

 pendulograph and its curious work ; sym- 

 posiumlike discussions of the causes of suc- 

 cess of certain works of fiction, the nature of 

 electricity, and What is Science '? a summary 



