LITERARY NOTICES. 



boyp, agriculture, and military drill, manual 

 labor for girls, sewing, and domestic econ- 

 omy, are touched upon. The two closing 

 chapters deal with rewards and punish- 

 ments, and discipline in general. The text 

 is divided into paragraphs, each with a title. 

 Throughout the volume the author makes 

 evident his belief that a living, active per- 

 sonality is needed in addition to rules and 

 formulas, in order to make any system of 

 education effective. 



Civilization and Progress. By John Beat- 

 tie Crozier. London and New York : 

 Longmans & Co. 1888. Pp. 477. Price, 

 $L50. 



In this work there is much to commend. 

 The defect seems to be a failure to properly 

 condense and clarify the thought. Again, 

 there is, perhaps, too much reference to 

 particular men as exponents of intellectual 

 movements. Not that names should be neg- 

 lected, but more prominence is given to the 

 person than to the thought represented; 

 leading to the false impression that men 

 make an epoch instead of the truth that the 

 epoch makes men, who are only representa- 

 tives of the intellectual feeling of their times. 

 But, apart from these matters of minor criti- 

 cism, the book is a most excellent one, for 

 the reason that the author aims to show, and 

 succeeds in showing, the controlling factor in 

 any social progress " to be the material and 

 social conditions, and not, as so many be- 

 lieve, moral exhortation and appeal." This 

 rests on the law that " in this world things 

 make their own relations — that is to say, 

 their own morality — in spite of politicians or 

 priests. Now, should this turn out to be a 

 true law, it will not only settle speculatively 

 the basis on which civilization rests, but will 

 also furnish a practical guide for action. Its 

 importance, therefore, can not be overesti- 

 mated. For if the moral relationships of the 

 great masses of men — their ideals, opinions, 

 and habits of thought — grow directly out of 

 their conditions of life, it is evident that, in- 

 stead of sitting invoking {sic) a lofty morality 

 which will prove as obstinate as the fire in- 

 voked by the priests of Baal, it behooves us 

 rather to set to work resolutely to bring 

 about that amelioration in the material and 

 social conditions without which the higher 

 morality can not arise." This is a truly sci- 



entific position to assume, and the fact that 

 the author takes it entitles his work to the 

 consideration of disciples of science. As to 

 the value of the idea set forth, there is much 

 force in the author's contention that we 

 ouo-ht to regard with serious attention the 

 question whether we can have any such thing 

 as equality or security in rights unless there 

 be substantially a social equality of power. 

 If power be unbalanced, the stronger will 

 oppress the weaker, and endeavor to per- 

 petuate its domination at the expense of the 

 latter. This process will go on till the press- 

 ure of the more powerful becomes unbear- 

 able, and provokes violent and destructive 

 eruptions leading to all sorts of convulsions. 

 Hence we must not expect any stable social 

 equilibrium unless there be an equaUty of 

 power — that is to say, of material and social 

 conditions. 



Accessory to this central thought of Mr. 

 Crozier's work are many interesting criti- 

 cisms, historical, political, religious, and ethi- 

 cal. The book is worthy of careful study, 

 and is a genuine contribution to sociologic 



In his Complete Graded Course in Eng- 

 lish Grammar and Composition (D. Appleton 

 & Co.), Mr. Benjamm C. Conklin has en- 

 deavored to compass with a single volume 

 the entire range of the usual two-hook course. 

 This he does by making it sufficiently ele- 

 mentary in the beginning to be put into 

 the hands of pupils in the lowest grammar 

 grades, and sufficiently advanced to cover 

 all that is required of the highest grammar 

 classes. The theory of the book is the grad- 

 ual development of the sentence ; the method 

 inductive. The teachings of the text are 

 exemplified by graded sentences, which in 

 themselves afford a concrete presentation of 

 the whole subject ; and these are accompa- 

 nied by questions so framed as to require 

 the pupil, after a study of the text, to formu- 

 late his own answers. Analysis and syn- 

 thesis are so carried along together as to 

 develop, with the knowledge of the structure 

 of the sentence, the power to use language. 

 Instead of giving examples of false syntax 

 for correction, a better way is sought of ac- 

 complishing the same object by presenting 

 exercises for filling out sentences by supply- 

 ing the correct forms of words in blank 



