LITERARY NOTICES. 



855 



" The Century." Views of the buildings of 

 the other colleges described are also given. 

 Several special articles on the university are 

 contributed by various writers, viz. : " Influ- 

 ence of the University upon Southern Life 

 and Thought," and "The Writings of the 

 Faculty of the University, 1825-'2'7," by 

 William P. Trent, A. M. ; " Present Organi- 

 zation and Condition of the University," by 

 Prof. John B. Minor ; " The Elective System 

 of the University," by Prof. J. M. Garnett ; 

 and a " Bibliography of the History of the 

 University," by the editor. 



The book on Manual Training in Ele- 

 mentary Schools for Boi/s, by A. SIut/s {Indns- 

 trial Education Association, New York, Part 

 I, 20 cents), will form Nos. 1 and 8 in the 

 series of monographs published by this asso- 

 ciation. The author is principal of the Nor- 

 mal School of Brussels, and has studied the 

 subject of manual training in Sweden, whither 

 he was sent for this purpose by the Belgian 

 Minister of Education. His book has been 

 translated for this series, with the belief that 

 it is the best and most accurate as well as 

 the most condensed treatment of the subject 

 that has yet appeared in any language. In 

 the first part of this work, now before us, 

 the author states the two standpoints from 

 which manual training is advocated, the eco- 

 nomic and the pedagogic, giving a somewhat 

 detailed view of the economic side of the 

 subject. An account of the schools of Naas, 

 and a history of instruction in manual train- 

 ing in the primary schools of Sweden, are 

 the other topics treated in this portion of 

 the book. There are some traces of the 

 translation process in the English of this 

 pamphlet. We note, for instance, the ex- 

 pression " whets the saw," and on the same 

 page the visitors are made to say, " We have 

 often assisted the pupils in their manual 

 work at the Naas school," where the original 

 phrase undoubtedly meant "to be present 

 at " ; and in the Gallicism " assisted at," at 

 the foot of the next page, the translator has 

 reproduced the form of the same phrase in- 

 stead of its meaning. 



In his oration on TTie American JJniver- 

 siti/, delivered at Columbia College, June 2, 

 ISSY, Prof. Charles Sprague Smith expresses 

 the view that the future university of this 

 country must be formed in harmony with 

 the development of the American people; 



that the last two years of the usual college 

 course may be taken a« the first two of the 

 university, relegating the present freshman 

 and sophomore work to a preparatory course ; 

 that election of courses rather than of sepa- 

 rate studies should be allowed in the univer- 

 sity, and but little or no election in the acad- 

 emies ; and that the scope of the university 

 should be twofold — to instruct the few and 

 to enlighten the many. 



Prof. Robert T. Hill delivered before the 

 University of Texas, October 26, 1888, an 

 inaugural dissertation on Some Eecent As- 

 pects of Scientifc Education, in which he 

 points out that the introduction of the study 

 of the natural sciences into the modern sys- 

 tem of education has had a vast and be- 

 neficent influence on the popular mode of 

 thought, and of searching for truth, on the 

 public health, on the art of agriculture and 

 the mechanical arts, on our knowledge of 

 man, on the methods of education itself, and 

 on the progress of sociology. He touches 

 also upon the benefits of the extension of 

 university study into the homes of the people. 



According to Secretary S. P. Langleifs 

 Report, the Smithsonian Institution is over- 

 taking the capacity of the fund to sustain 

 it, and is beginning to need larger resources. 

 New accommodations are needed for the 

 National Museum ; the library, now includ- 

 ing 250,000 volumes, and extremely valuable, 

 is so crowded in the Congressional Library 

 rooms as to be of little use ; the erection of 

 an astro-physical observatory is suggested. 

 The first part of Prof. Cope's work on the 

 reptiles and batrachians of North America 

 is in the hands of the printer. Explorations 

 are mentioned in Japan, the islands of the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence (for remains of the 

 great auk). Central America, and Alaska. 

 A steady falling off is remarked in the rate 

 of addition to the quarto series of Smith- 

 sonian " Contributions," while the series of 

 " Miscellaneous Collections " grows much 

 more rapidly. The recent accessions to the 

 museum (12,000 groups or lots of specimens 

 since the present building was opened) in- 

 clude several extensive collections. The in- 

 creasing popularity of this department is 

 proved by the increase of 32,463 in one year 

 in the number of visitors (249,025 in 188'7- 

 '88). A higher standard than the average is 



