LITERARY NOTICES. 



127 



past down to the present time have been 

 modified by all the changing conditions of 

 national life to which they have been con- 

 formed, and have been molded in sympathy 

 with the ideas which were dominant in the 

 races among which they have been applied. 

 Following the subject in its chronological 

 and logical relations, attention is first called 

 to the Oriental countries, in which are in- 

 cluded China, India, Persia, Palestine, and 

 Egypt. In these lands, the individual counts 

 for nothing ; and education does not aim to 

 develop a perfect man or woman, but to 

 prepare its subjects for their place in the 

 established order of things. Subjection to 

 authority is the principle on which most 

 stress is laid, while the source of the all- 

 controlling authority may vary in the differ- 

 ent countries. Quite different were the 

 idea3 in the classical nations, Greece and 

 Rome, where the individual was brought 

 into prominence : education was made the 

 subject of careful thought and was con- 

 trolled by higher principles ; enlarged views 

 of its nature were promulgated ; and beau- 

 tiful results were obtained as exhibited in 

 the physical and intellectual fife of the peo- 

 ple. With the Christian dispensation came 

 a new era in history, and education was 

 profoundly affected and placed on a new 

 and immovable foundation. The history of 

 Christian education in Europe and America 

 is naturally divided into two periods — the 

 period before the Reformation and the pe- 

 riod after the Reformation. The story of 

 the latter period is largely occupied with 

 the struggle between the " humanist " and 

 the "naturalist" or modern tendencies, 

 which has continued and is still going on in 

 our own day. Finally, under the heading 

 of " Education in the Nineteenth Century " 

 are reviewed the systems of Pestalozzi and 

 Froebel, and contemporary education in 

 Germany, France, England, and the United 

 States. 



The Depression in Trade and the Wages 

 of Labor. By Uriel II. Crocker. Bos- 

 ton: W. B.Clarke & Carruth. Pp. 31. 



Mr. Crocker is the author of the pam- 

 phlet entitled " Excessive Saving a Cause of 

 Commercial Distress," which was noticed in 

 the " Monthly " several months ago. In the 

 present pamphlet he continues the discus- 



sion of the subject, and endeavors to give 

 his views a practical direction. Reviewing 

 the various theories that have been advanced 

 to account for the present supposed hard 

 times — when the "suffering" working-men 

 are rejoicing to put themselves in idleness — 

 he plants himself upon that which ascribes 

 the depression to over-production. " We 

 have," he says, "increased production by 

 bending all our energies in that direction, 

 aided all the while by the immense increase 

 in the effective power of the machinery of 

 production and distribution, and by the fact 

 that years of labor spent in the creation of 

 that machinery have brought us to a time 

 when we are prepared fully to enjoy its use. 

 On the other hand, we have done compara- 

 tively little for the increase of consump- 

 tion. The possibility of such increase by 

 the poor has been enlarged but little, while 

 the inclination of the rich therefor has 

 been greatly restricted. Under such cir- 

 cumstances, what wonder that production 

 has run ahead of consumption — what won- 

 der that general over-production, as an act- 

 ual existing fact, has finally been reached ? " 

 His views of the means of remedying the 

 conditions he depicts are quite as indefinite 

 as those of most of the writers who have 

 given attention to the subject. After dis- 

 missing several suggestions as remedies to 

 be avoided rather than sought for, he falls 

 back upon strikes and boycotts, but can not 

 conceal an apprehension that they too — as 

 they have done — will prove to have the 

 action of a boomerang. 



Astronomy by Observation. By Eliza A. 

 Bowen. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 

 Pp. 90. Price, $1. 



By observation mankind learned all the 

 astronomy it knows, and came to the theo- 

 ries it holds as correct. By observation, 

 Miss Bowen believes, pupils in schools can 

 to-day be best taught to learn the phenom- 

 ena of the heavenly bodies, and be guided 

 to the deduction of the principles on which 

 they depend. A brief article on " Astron- 

 omy in High Schools," which the author 

 published in the " Monthly " of January, 

 1882, describing her experiences with her 

 pupils in the method of observation, will 

 furnish the key to this book, which has 

 grown out of these experiments. " My ob- 



