LITERARY NOTICES. 



419 



"great public interest" has been awak- 

 ened in education, and the Government 

 has " taken it up in earnest," and grants 

 of money become available for schools 

 that can earn them by passing a cer- 

 tain number of pupils through certain 

 grades, then the whole spirit of educa- 

 tion becomes changed. The student's 

 one ambition — if he has any at all — is 

 to pass an examination, the teacher's is 

 to get as many of his pupils as possible 

 to pass as many examinations as pos- 

 sible; and to these wretched ends the 

 whole work of the school is made sub- 

 servient. There is no time allowed for 

 reflection or for the slow gathering of 

 results, none for the enjoyment of what 

 is learned, none for the gathering of 

 wayside illustrations; all is hurry and 

 press, strain and stress, business from 

 the start and business to the close. The 

 result is, the all but complete extinc- 

 tion of true intellectual interests. Our 

 young people do not learn to love 

 knowledge for its own sake, for any 

 sense of mental enlargement that it 

 confers, or for any benefit that it enables 

 them to bestow on their fellows. They 

 hardly have time, indeed, to realize the 

 difference between what is real and vital 

 in knowledge and what is its mere out- 

 ward husk or shell; and they leave 

 school in thousands with intelligences 

 blunted rather than sharpened, and — we 

 grieve still more to think — with moral 

 sensibilities dulled rather than quickened, 

 by the routine to which they have been 

 subjected. 



Some may hold that we overdraw 

 the picture ; but there can hardly be a 

 doubt in the mind of any liberally cul- 

 tivated man or woman tliat the evil to 

 which we refer, and on which the signers 

 of the " protest " that has given rise to 

 our remarks expatiate, is a very real 

 one. We trust sincerely that the 

 whole subject will receive a very thor- 

 ough discussion, and that, in our own 

 country, there will prove to be a suf- 

 ficient force of enlightened public opin- 

 ion to introduce at least some partial 



reforms. More than this, in an es- 

 sentially state-directed system of edu- 

 cation, we dare not hope for. 



Otte readers who have followed the 

 " New Chapters in the "Warfare of Sci- 

 ence," by Dr. Andrew D. White, as they 

 have appeared from time to time in the 

 "Monthly," will be glad to learn that 

 the publication of this unique series will 

 be resumed in the February number. 

 These papers are characterized by nov- 

 elty, pith, and scholarly research. Dr. 

 White has devoted several years to the 

 investigation of his subject, and is now 

 in Europe, examining the libraries and 

 collections of antiquities for additional 

 material. This research, which the au- 

 thor is making unusually exhaustive, can 

 not fail to bring out many facts and in- 

 cidents in the history of dogma and su- 

 perstition which have never before seen 

 the light, or have been buried in ob- 

 scurity for centuries. Witli such re- 

 sources at his command, Dr. White is 

 in a position to lay before his readers 

 some very remarkable illustrations of 

 the persistent dominance of delusion in 

 the human mind. But much more than 

 this superficial interest is aimed at, for 

 the author hopes by the publication of 

 these papers to start some trains of 

 thought among reflecting men which 

 shall be of permanent service alike to 

 Christianity and to science. The chap- 

 ters immediately forthcoming will treat 

 of the subject of " Demoniac Possessions 

 and Insanity." 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



English Composition and RnETORic. Part 

 II. Emotional Qualities of Style. By 

 Alexander Bain. New York: D. Ap- 

 pleton & Co. Pp. 325. Price, $1.40. 



The discussion of the subject of this 

 volume is considerably amplified from that 

 given in the original work, with a more pre- 

 cise classification and fuller detail of exam- 

 ples. The subject is confessed to be beset 



