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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



jcct," she then says, "has been to gain for 

 my pupils from this study, not merely knowl- 

 edge, but all the mental discipline it could 

 afford. In order to accomplish this, I have 

 made it an invariable principle to make 

 them do all the observing, all the thinking, 

 possible. They have watched the heaven- 

 ly bodies to discover their appearance and 

 motions, and then I led them on to discuss 

 the causes. It has been genuine inductive 

 study, so far as it has gone. My own work 

 seemed very simple; but it occasioned me 

 a great deal of observation, thought, and 

 study. I have simply kept them on the 

 track." This book is intended to aid other 

 teachers in the performance of that duty, 

 and to help the pupil too. In it, an efficient, 

 easy, well-tried plan for teaching the con- 

 stellations is described, the use of which 

 will obviate the necessity of a teacher doing 

 work out of school-hours, by enabling stu- 

 dents to become independent observers ; 

 careful directions are given when, how, and 

 where to find the heavenly bodies ; and 

 their motions are described in the order in 

 which they can be seen by an observer, and 

 in familiar language. Thus the student is 

 excited to thought. lie is prompted to see 

 for himself, and then can not avoid the in- 

 quiry what it all means. In order that his 

 inquiries may take the right direction, facts 

 are in the book stated first, and theory is 

 given afterward, as a deduction from the 

 facts. The selection of subjects for the 

 student's thinking is a little different from 

 that of other school astronomies. The gen- 

 eral principle governing it is to make the 

 student understand what he can see. Miss 

 Bowen has also sought to make her book of 

 use to those instructors who have little or 

 no practical knowledge of the science, but 

 who would improve if the text-book were a 

 guide to observation, and to the increasing 

 class of young people out of school who 

 would study the stars for themselves if they 

 had suitable leading. 



A Farmer's View of a Protective Tariff. 

 By Isaac W. Griscom. Woodbury, 

 N. J. : Published by the author. Pp. 

 53. 



It would be hard to find in the literature 

 of political economy an author who has writ- 

 ten about the protective tariff with a clearer 

 head than this " farmer." The basis of bis 



thesis is that, agriculture having been rec- 

 ognized on all sides as by far the most im- 

 portant business interest in the nation, it 

 has followed that one of the main argu- 

 ments in favor of maintaining a protective 

 tariff has been, that it would aid agricult- 

 ure by creating increased home consumption 

 with steady and remunerative prices for the 

 farmer's products. " This looks very well, to 

 be sure, as a theory, but, after twenty years' 

 experience, the agriculturist finds himself 

 getting no more (a good deal less, in fact) 

 for his products than before the civil war ; 

 and, with his necessary expenses very much 

 greater than then, he naturally begins to 

 wonder if there was not something wrong 

 in the original calculation." Mr. Griscom 

 then proceeds to show that there was some- 

 thing wrong there, and wherein it lay. 



The Rear-Guard of the Revolution. By 

 Edmund Kirke. New York: D. Apple- 

 ton & Co. Pp. 317. Price, $1.50. 



Tins work presents a chapter in Ameri- 

 can history of which not so much is known 

 as ought to be, but which, if the view the 

 author takes of it is correct, is of exceeding 

 importance. It embodies the history of 

 three of the pioneers of the central region 

 of the United States, who, " clad in buck- 

 skin hunting-shirts and leading inconsider- 

 able forces to battle in the depths of a far- 

 away forest, not only planted civilization 

 beyond the Alleghanies, but exerted a most 

 important influence in shaping the destinies 

 of this country." They were John Sevier, 

 Isaac Shelby, and James Robertson, " all 

 of them characters worthy of the most 

 heroic ages, and so exactly adapted to the 

 work which had to be done that the con- 

 clusion is irresistible that they were, like 

 Lincoln and Washington, ' providential 

 men.' . . . Their slender forces trod silent- 

 ly the Western solitudes, and their greatest 

 battles were insignificant skirmishes, never 

 reported beyond the mountains ; but their 

 deeds were pregnant with consequences 

 that will be felt along the coming centu- 

 ries." These ascriptions are justified, in the 

 author's mind, by the conclusion at which 

 he has arrived from his studies, that two of 

 the men thrice saved the country by thwart- 

 ing the British plan to envelop and crush 

 the Southern colonies, and by turning the 



