LITERARY NOTICES. 



501 



meval Man in Europe," and " The Antiquity 

 of Man," we have no room to speak. Prof. 

 Winchell deduces a general view, which 

 harmonizes all the phases of evidence, and 

 though contravening the old traditions, must 

 be accepted in proportion as men esteem 

 truth to be more desirable than error. He 

 says : 



" This scheme of prehistoric times, embrac- 

 ing only a few conjectural features, weaves in 

 all the facts of history and science. If it trav- 

 erses old opinions, we need not mourn. New 

 truths are better than old errors. Fact is worth 

 more than opinion. Certainty is more desirable 

 than confidence. Progressive knowledge im- 

 plies much unlearning. The loss of a belief, 

 like the death of a friend, seems a bereavement- 

 but a false belief is only an enemy in a friend's 

 cloak. It is only truth which is divine ; and, if 

 we embrace an error, we shall not find it ratified 

 in the oracles of divine truth. We who hold to 

 the valid inspiration of the sacred records may 

 feel assured that nothing will be found affirmed 

 therein which collides with the final verdict of 

 intelligence. Nor has the color of the first man 

 any concern with a simple religious faith. If 

 our creed embodies a dogma which enunciates 

 what is really a conclusion, true or false, based 

 on scientiflc evidence that is, evidence brought 

 to light by observation and research that may 

 be exscinded as an excrescence. All such sub- 

 jects are to be settled by scientific investigation 

 not by councils of the Church. Ecclesiastical 

 faith has had a sorry experience in the attempt 

 to sanctify popular opinions. A faith that has 

 had to surrender the geocentric theory and the 

 denial of antipodes, and of the high geological 

 antiquity of the world, should have learned to 

 discriminate between religious faiths and scien- 

 tific opinions. Religious faith is more enduring 

 than granite. Scientific opinion is uncertain ; 

 it may endure like granite or vanish like a sum- 

 mer cloud. Religious faith is simple, pure, and 

 incorruptible ; scientific opinion is a compound 

 of all things, corruptible and incorruptible. Let 

 us not adulterate pure faith with corruptible 

 science. An unadulterated faith can be defend- 

 ed by the sturdiest blows of reason and logic ; 

 a corrupt faith puts reason and logic to shame." 



Principles and Practice of Teaching. 

 By James Johonnot. New York : D. 

 Appleton & Co. Pp. 395. Price, $1.50. 



As it is now the latest, so Prof. Johon- 

 not's new work on education is undoubtedly 

 the best manual of school guidance that 

 has yet been prepared. It is better adapted 

 to the present condition of educational 

 progress than any other teachers' manual 

 that we have yet seen. Two things have 

 come prominently forward in the recent de- 

 velopment of thought with reference to the 



work of instruction: 1. Science is gaining 

 a more liberal recognition in our courses of 

 study, and is more and more coming to be 

 the chief thing ; and, 2. Teachers are com- 

 pelled to give more attention to psychologi- 

 cal science as an indispensable prerequisite to 

 the intelligent management of school-work. 

 There is still need enough for advancement 

 in both these directions, for there are plenty 

 of schools that are hardly beyond the middle 

 ages in their appreciation of science, and 

 plenty of teachers who are as ignorant of 

 the laws of mind as the untutored savage. 

 But these considerations are surely though 

 slowly emerging into confessed prominence, 

 and are beginning to take that controlling 

 position in the philosophy of education 

 which is bound to be universally conceded 

 to them in the not very distant future. 



Prof. Johonnot is by no means a blind 

 admirer of things established in our educa- 

 tional systems. He clearly sees that the 

 whole subject is in movement, that in many 

 respects current education is profoundly im- 

 perfect, that a critical spirit widely prevails 

 in regard to it, and that there is plenty of 

 work for reformers in bringing the general 

 practice into harmony with principles that 

 have been definitely worked out. He is not 

 only a practical educator of large experi- 

 ence in the special work of training teach- 

 ers, but he has his independent views of 

 what is needed, and how to attain it; and 

 his work will accordingly be found fresh, 

 suggestive, and stimulating, to all teachers 

 and school officials who are devoted to or- 

 ganizing and carrying out the best plans of 

 instruction. That he has reached anything 

 like a finality in the policy of school man- 

 agement he would be the last to claim ; but 

 we must cordially concede to him the merit 

 of having grasped the problem of practical 

 culture in its latest exigencies and newest 

 developments. In a growing and unfolding 

 subject, methods must be tentative and 

 proximate : it is enough if they are better 

 than their predecessors. Prof. Johonnot 

 has well digested for us the latest theoreti- 

 cal wisdom regarding the principles of teach- 

 ing, and he has embodied these in an im- 

 proved system of practice, which has stood 

 the test of experience. Having unfolded 

 the general principles of culture in the ear- 

 lier and chief portions of bis work, the 

 author devotes the last hundred pages to 



