SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



421 



then we are in the presence of a momentous 

 reality which, for importance and value, has 

 not been exceeded, if indeed it has been ap- 

 proached, by any of the discoveries of mod- 

 ern times." However far the author's 

 theories and enthusiasms may carry him, 

 the book is an honest effort to explain some 

 more or less tangible occurrences in a ration- 

 alistic manner, free from superstitious cant. 

 It is a readable and interesting contribution 

 to the literature of the new psychology. 



Two out of the forty- five volumes of the 

 Library of the World?* Best Literature * 

 have come to hand. This work, unique in 

 scope and character, aims to do for literature 

 what the Encyclopaedia Britannica has done 

 for the arts and sciences in general to give 

 a survey of what the best poets, writers, and 

 thinkers of all ages have thought and felt 

 and expressed in artistic form, from the rec- 

 ords indelibly stamped on the baked brick 

 of the Assyrians, the characters traced on 

 the papyrus of the Egyptians and Chinese, 

 the pergamena of the Greeks and Romans, 

 the vellum of the mediaeval monks, even 

 down to the type-written manuscript of the 

 present day. The plan, in the words of the 

 editor in chief, Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, 

 " is simple and yet it is novel. In its distinc- 

 tive features it differs from any compilation 

 that has yet been made. Its main purpose is 

 to present to American households a mass of 

 good reading. But it goes much beyond this ; 

 for in selecting this reading it draws upon 

 all literatures of all times and of every race, 

 and thus becomes a conspectus of the thought 

 and intellectual evolution of man from the 

 beginning. Another and scarcely less im- 

 portant purpose is the interpretation of this 

 literature in essays by scholars and authors 

 competent to speak with authority." Many 

 of the best critics, both in this country and 

 abroad, have taken part in the making of 

 the work. Among the American contributors 

 of note to the first two volumes may be 

 named Prof. Toy, of Harvard, who writes on 

 Accadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian Litera- 

 ture ; Mr. H. W. Mabie, on Addison ; Dr. H. 

 T. Peck, on ^Esop and Alciphron ; Mr. R. 

 Burton, on Amiel ; Prof. E. S. Holden, on 



* A Library of the World's Best Literature, 

 Ancient and Modern. In 45 volumes. New York: 

 The International Society. Price, cloth, $8 a vol- 

 ume ; half morocco, $4 a volume. 



Arago ; Rabbi Gottheil, on the Arabian Nights 

 and Arabic Literature ; and Prof. Woodberry, 

 on Matthew Arnold. The selections thus 

 introduced by critical and biographical es- 

 says, and representing the author at his best, 

 are carefully chosen with reference not only 

 to their literary quality, but also to their 

 interest as reading matter, for "the work 

 aims to suit a great variety of tastes, and 

 thus to commend itself as a household com- 

 panion for any mood and any hour." The 

 names are arranged alphabetically, for ready 

 reference. The volumes are handsomely 

 bound in half morocco, with clear print on 

 good paper, and illustrated with portraits 

 of the authors, colored plates, and photo- 

 gravures. 



Prof. Baldwin's book on School Manage- 

 ment is devoted to the practical side fo the 

 subject.* It takes up the several divisions 

 of educational work systematically, and gives 

 helpful advice and suggestions on a vast 

 number of topics in each division. Pupil 

 improvement is the keynote of the work, 

 and the author aims to show how this can 

 be secured through better educational condi- 

 tions and facilities, better school and college 

 organization and correlation, and the most 

 efficient methods of teaching, and how 

 school government and class management 

 can be made educative. Among the elements 

 of educative governing power he names, first, 

 character. " Be what you wish your pupils to 

 become," he says. Next he places culture, 

 and charges the teacher to "cherish the 

 spirit of mastery and broad culture." Other 

 elements whose importance he explains are 

 pupil insight, teaching power, heart power, 

 will power, system, tact, and bearing. Of 

 the possible incentives to school work he 

 points out which are low motives, which 

 higher, and which the best. He shows how 

 school regulations can have an educative 

 effect, and what punishments operate to help 

 and what to harm the pupil. In other chap- 

 ters he gives advice as to school hygiene, 

 means and methods of administration, meth- 

 ods of teaching the usual school studies, 

 ways of conducting partly graded schools, 

 etc. He is a strong advocate of oral teach- 



* School Management and School Methods. 

 By Joseph Baldwin. International Education Se- 

 ries, Vcl. XL. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 

 Pp. 395, 12mo. Price, $1.50. 



