Second Edition. 

 Now ready, in One Vol, Fcap. 8vo, Price 5s. 



DAY DREAMS OF A SCHOOLMASTER. 



By D'ARCY W. THOMPSON, 



Professor of Greek in Queen's College, Galway. 



" This book has everything to recommend it to the general reader. It consists ot 

 upwards of a score of short essays, written in a style of genial humour, sharp, but never 

 ill-natured satire, ripe scholarship, and occasionally of unaffected pathos, which makes 

 it one of the most readable books that have fallen in our way for a long time. It is 

 i-eadable from the very best point of view — viz., imp'irtance of subject and ability of 

 handling. It contains much that ought to be read by everybody, and is written in a 

 style that everybody will read with pleasure. 



" We have read the book with the greatest satisfaction, and hope it is only the pre 

 cursor of another such. It is rare indeed to meet with an author who so happily com- 

 bines the elements of laughter and tears ; so full of scholarship, without an atom of its 

 pedantry ; so genial, yet with so keen an eye for humbug and sham ; so full of the 

 manliness we admire in a man, and the tenderness we love in a woman." — Reader. 



" We advise our readers to make early acquaintance with these Day Dreams. 

 Learning and philosophy have seldom put on a more attractive garb ; nor have we ever 

 felt more convinced than by Mr. Thompson's arguments that erudition, however 

 necessary, is the least part of a teacher's qualifications." — Athenceum. 



" Our Schoolmaster is no ordinary dreamer; neither is our Day-dreamer an ordinary 

 schoolmaster. It is not often that we find members of the scholastic profession making 

 contributions to real literature, such as the volume before us. For in spite of a good 

 deal of what we must take leave to call mannerism, there can be no doubt about Mr. 

 D'Arcy Thompson's genuine literary power. And the mannerism, in this case, really 

 belongs to the man. It is part of his individuality. It is not, we believe, a mere 

 artifice of style, — the toggery of office assumed for the name. It is of the writer's 

 essence, and therefore can be called mannerism only in a limited sense. The book is 

 full of this strong personal flavour. We are sometimes tempted, while we read, to call 

 it egotism ; but the term would be apt to mislead, for it is that natural, unconscious 

 egotism, which springs from honest earnestness of character, and is therefore void of 

 offence. We have said so much to indicate the general character of the work. Educa- 

 tion, in all its aspects and phases, is its subject ; but it does not belong to educational 

 literature merely. It takes a much wider range, and deserves a much higher place. 

 At times you think you are reading an autobiography ; at others, a history of school 

 systems; at others, a philosophy of education. The manner in which these various 

 elements are blended renders the book a remarkable one. It is a book to be read by 

 parents fully as much as by schoolmasters. It is full of sound sense and originality ; 

 and there is nothing more original in it than its vein of poetic sentiment, and its telling 

 touches of caustic humour," — Museum. 



Edinburgh : EDMONSTON & DOUGLAS, 88, Princes Street. 



