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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



hesitation in deciding what to do. He 

 at once gave in his resignation in a letter 

 that is a model of manliness, declaring 

 his preference " to maintain allegiance to 

 the Constitution of the United States as 

 long as a fragment of it survives." His 

 career as a general in the civil war is de- 

 scribed at length. Through it all his 

 foresight, seeking always to accomplish 

 the most with the least expenditure and 

 ultimate suffering, to which his strategy 

 was adapted, is conspicuous. At this 

 time and afterward his supreme thought 

 appears to have been as to what would 

 best conduce to the permanent good of 

 the republic. To his military ability and 

 self-effacing patriotism he added a far- 

 seeing wisdom in council that could al- 

 ways be relied upon. " In his most un- 

 guarded words his principle was always 

 clear, noble, and intensely patriotic, and 

 his careless colloquial expressions often 

 covered a practical wisdom and insight 

 of a most striking kind." 



In preparing their Text-Book of Al- 

 gebra * the authors, assuming that men- 

 tal discipline is of the first importance 

 to every student of mathematics, have 

 endeavored to present the elements of 

 the science in a clear and logical form, 

 while yet keeping the needs of begin- 

 ners constantly in mind. Special atten- 

 tion is given to making clear the reason 

 for every step taken; each principle is 

 first illustrated by particular examples, 

 and then rules and suggestions for per- 

 forming the operation are laid down. 

 The authors have endeavored to avoid 

 apparent conciseness at the expense of 

 clearness and accuracy, and have there- 

 by made their volume somewhat larger 

 than ordinary text-books. Features to 

 which attention is called are the devel- 

 opment of the fundamental operations 

 with algebraic numbers and the concrete 

 illustrations of these operations; the 

 use of type forms in multiplication and 

 division and in factoring; the applica- 

 tion of factoring to the solution of equa- 

 tions; the solutions of equations based 

 upon equivalent equations and equiva- 

 lent systems of equations; the treat- 

 ment of irrational equations; the discus- 



* Text-Book of Algebra, with Exercises for 

 Secondary Schools and Colleges. By George Eg- 

 bert Fisher and Isaac J. Schwatt. Part I. Phila- 

 delphia : Fisher & Schwatt. Pp. 683. Price, 

 $1.25. 



sions of general problems and the inter- 

 pretation of positive, negative, zero, in- 

 termediate, and infinite solutions of 

 problems; the treatment of inequalities 

 and their applications; the outline of a 

 discussion of irrational numbers; a brief 

 introduction to imaginary and complex 

 numbers; and the great number of 

 graded examples and problems. 



The material of the Primary Arith- 

 metic, Number Studies for the Second, 

 Third, and Fourth Grades, of A. R. 

 Hornorook (American Book Company), 

 has been chosen with careful reference 

 to the development of the number sense 

 of little children, as noticed by the au- 

 thor and as reported by many other 

 observers. A distinctive feature of the 

 work is the use of diagrams called 

 " number tables," as a concrete basis for 

 the child's thinking while he is getting 

 his first ideas of the facts of the addition 

 and multiplication tables. In them the 

 numbers up to one hundred are pre- 

 sented in columns of tens, and so han- 

 dled as to exhibit to the child's concep- 

 tion the relations of the several digits. 

 By their use he first learns the proper- 

 ties of ten, then of two, and so on 

 of the others not presented in regular 

 order, but with a view of exhibiting 

 special properties and their relations 

 to one another. The method is ingeni- 

 ous and appears useful. 



The study on Rhode Island and the 

 Formation of the Union, of the Colum- 

 bia University Series in History, Eco- 

 nomics, and Public Law (The Macmil- 

 lan Company, New York), was under- 

 taken by Mr. Frank Greene Bates in 

 order to ascertain why Rhode Island so 

 long delayed its ratification of the Fed- 

 eral Constitution. The delay seems to 

 have been largely a matter of the asser- 

 tion of State rights, in which Rhode 

 Island appears at that time to have been 

 but little, if any, behind South Caro- 

 lina. Liberty " was the presiding genius 

 of the spiritual life of the colony, and 

 the principle of freedom of conscience 

 was never lost sight of; and this could 

 not otherwise than heighten the other 

 characteristics of the colony individu- 

 alism." The course pursued was the 

 natural outcome of the conditions of the 

 times, the " outcropping of the undying 

 love of the people of the State for democ- 

 racy and liberty, and their jealousy of 



