REVIEWS. 89 



Food ;" would it not be well, following out this idea, to institute a kindred 

 commission, whose duty it shall be to investigate " Adulteration of Know- 

 ledge ?'' Is it more culpable, we ask, to put copper in our pickles, or blue 

 vitriol in our bread, than to supply the minds of the rising generation with 

 wrong ideas or false information? To adulterate a book is, in our opinion, 

 no less a crime against society than to adulterate our food. We, therefore, 

 hail with pleasure the appearance of Mr. Hughes's Reading-book ; in his 

 good intentions, and in his thorough experience as a teacher, we have, at 

 least to some extent, a guarantee that no deleterious element is to be found 

 in the food he offers, and that we may, with safety, put his books into the 

 hands of our youth. 



Mr. Hughes's object is, no doubt, a good one ; how well or how ill he 

 may have accomplished it cannot well be told until the series be completed. 

 A review, however, of his first volume may serve to encourage him in the 

 prosecution of his useful labour, and, at the same time, warn him against 

 the dangers to which a project such as his is peculiarly liable. His reading 

 lessons comprising, as they do, so great a variety of subjects may be 

 compared with a cyclopaedia ; and who is it that does not know the diffi- 

 culties and dangers of such an undertaking ? No man, be his learning or 

 information ever so extensive, is competent to write on every branch of 

 knowledge, to delineate -naiSeLa in all its parts he must call in the aid of 

 others; and although he may preface each man's performance with his 

 name, the responsibility of the work, as a whole, must, nevertheless, fall 

 upon him his reputation must depend on the character and reputation of 

 those with whom he may associate himself. What judgment, then what 

 determination what discrimination of character will he not require to 

 carry him safe through his arduous undertaking ? His work is like that of 

 an engineer engaged in some ponderous construction every rod and beam, 

 every bolt, nut, and screw, must be looked to with an experienced and 

 suspicious eye ; no part of his material is good until it be thoroughly tested 

 and examined ; his production, in fact, is a striking instance of the maxim 

 that " nothing is stronger than its weakest part." Mr. Hughes himself 

 seems to have some such idea of his work ; his " well-considered plan," 

 as he states in his preface, is " to make each book of the series a complete 

 platform of knowledge, upon which the mind may, as it were, rest, and 

 take a general view before ascending to a higher stage." What becomes 

 of the platform if it have a faulty plank or, rather, beam just at the point 

 where the weight most needs support ? In this consists the danger pecu- 

 liarly incidental to his task, and through which we would desire to see him 

 safe. 



