850 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



shall be righted, and every evil extermi- 

 nated, not seeing that, while they gain on 

 one side, they are almost sure to lose on the 

 other." 



It was quite inevitable that the author 

 should be led by this train of thought to an 

 examination of the general subject of re- 

 forms. By this term has come to be under- 

 stood that concerted and systematic effort 

 which men put forth for the removal of 

 ovils, personal and social, and the attain- 

 ment of a higher good through wiser action 

 and better conduct. The reforms in which 

 men and women engage are numberless, 

 and are usually undertaken under the spur 

 of a vivid sense of somQ evil to be removed, 

 some suffering to be mitigated, or some 

 great good to be achieved, rather than from 

 any clear appreciation of how much it is 

 possible to accomplish, or the danger of 

 making matters worse by injudicious and in- 

 tractable meddling. If ever amplitude of 

 knowledge and cautious judgment are re- 

 quired for the guidance of human activity, 

 it is certainly when experiments are to be 

 made upon human beings in social relations 

 for the purpose of attaining ideal results. 

 But knowledge is generally not at a pre- 

 mium among reformers, and, instead of be- 

 ing men of dispassionate discernment and 

 cool deliberation, they are too generally ar- 

 dent and passionate, and even hot-headed 

 and fanatical. It may be said that it is just 

 these qualities that are needed to drive a 

 reformatory crusade, and that nothing in 

 this direction is ever accomplished by dis- 

 creet and well-balanced men. But our ex- 

 perience with reforms and reformers — those 

 who make it a business and a profession — 

 is not such as to convince us that further 

 knowledge on the philosophy of this im- 

 portant subject is superfluous. 



For this reason we welcome the present 

 book as a timely and valuable contribution 

 to the question of the difficulties and the 

 possibilities of reformatory effort. The au- 

 thor brings out a view of the subject that 

 needed to be elaborated. It is a great sub- 

 ject, and his treatment of it is neither ex- 

 haustive nor faultless ; but it is sufficiently 

 full, cogent, and instructive to be of great 

 public service. The writer modestly re- 

 marks : " It may be thought that more 

 should have been said of the possibilities of 



reform. I could not say more on this point 

 than has here been said without pretending 

 to wisdom which I am perfectly conscious I 

 do not possess. I believe there is need of 

 some such presentation of the subject as an 

 incentive mainly to a careful and judicious 

 treatment of the great practical questions 

 of the day." 



The work is divided into three parts. 

 Part I — consisting of five chapters, is de- 

 voted to the labor question — wages, saving 

 and management, monopoly, schemes for 

 industrial reform, etc. Part II — three chap- 

 ters — takes up financial questions — ^money, 

 protection, and monopoly. Part III — sis 

 chapters — is devoted to miscellaneous re- 

 forms — questions of every-day economics, 

 some points in education, the woman and 

 divorce questions, the temperance question, 

 and issues of the near future. The work is 

 neatly printed and brought out at a moder- 

 ate price. It should have an extensive cir- 

 culation, for the country is full of reformers. 



Intellectual Arithmetic, upon the Induc- 

 tive Method of Instruction. By War- 

 ren CoLBURN. Revised and enlarged 

 edition. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & 

 Co. Pp. 216. Price, 36 cents. 



To commend Colburn's Arithmetic would 

 be like painting the rose. The system he 

 introduced has held its place for sixty years, 

 and educators are not yet ready to depart 

 from its principles. The changes made in 

 the present edition have been designed to 

 make the " Colburn Method of Instruction " 

 more apparent and attractive, or to bring 

 the modes of expression and the objects re- 

 ferred to into conformity with the changed 

 conditions of the life of to-day. A sketch 

 of Colburn's life, his original preface, and 

 George B. Emerson's introduction to the 

 edition of 1863, are given in the Appendix. 



Text-Book of Popular Astronomy. For 

 the Use of Colleges, Academies, and High 

 Schools. By William G. Peck, Ph. D., 

 LL. D. New York : A. S. Barnes & Co. 

 Pp. 330. 



This book is intended to present, in a 

 compact and popular form, all the facts and 

 principles of astronomy that are needed in 

 a general course of collegiate education. 

 Mathematical formulas and demonstrations 

 have been avoided as far as possible, and 



