238 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[August 1, 1888. 



oiu'ht to foil to notice ; and be will look in vain for the 

 ni -srlin" " readings " and the often ill-rewarded " see page 

 so and-Io " which encumber the notes of editions even so 

 good as those of the Clarendon Press. Mr. B.u-nett's book 

 will be invaluable for the local and army examinations. 



Primer of German Literature. By Isabel T. Lublin, 

 F.E.Hist.S. " (London : Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey, & Co. 

 1888.)— Miss Lublin's work is confined to the belles-lettres, 

 and wholly excludes the enormous mass of scientific litera- 

 ture—mental, moral, and physical— so eminently charac- 

 teristic of the German race. Beginning with the earliest 

 records, our authoress gives, in the first portion of her book, 

 a jjrecis of every work whose fame has descended to the 

 present day. The latter half of the work consists of a series 

 of succinct biographies of all those who have enriched German 

 literature, with lists of the works by which they have been 

 chiefly distinguished. The very comprehensive character 

 of the volume may be gathered from the fact that it o]iens 

 with Ulphilas {circa a.d. 340), and concludes with Von 

 Eanke, who died in 1886. 



The Vision of a Passion, and other Poems. By Thomas 

 FoLLioTT. (London : Wyman & Sons. 1887.)— The poem 

 from which Mr. Folliott's book takes its title is in blank 

 verse, and is not without a certain amount of grace in 

 places, albeit falling short of that excellence which can alone 

 render such numbers attractive. Of Lis versified pieces, 

 " Alice " has a needlessly dismal ending. We would invite 

 Mr. Folliott's attention to the fact that " streaming far " 

 does 7iot rhyme with " gleaming are," as he appears to 

 imagine, on p. 5G. 



Frosperifi/ or Pauperism ? Physical, Industrial, and 

 Technical Training. Edited by the Earl of Meath. 

 (London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1888.)— Haying once 

 admitted, and acted on, the Socialistic principle that 

 it is the duty of the State to " educate our masters," 

 the nature and character of such education become 

 a matter of vital national importance. The net result 

 of the existing .system has been to unfit the children 

 of the labouring classes for their own station, without 

 rendering them fit for any other — to dissatisfy them with 

 manual labour, and to tempt them to crowd the ranks of 

 clerks and pupil teachers, under the preposterous notion 

 that handicraft is vulgar and clerical work " genteel." To 

 show the enormous advantage which must accrue at once to 

 the individual, and to the nation at large, Lord Meath has 

 collected a series of essays, reports, and speeches by men of 

 the most diverse intellectual calibre — from Lord Hartington 

 down to Mr. Mundella. The thoughtful reader will readily 

 separate the wheat from the chaff in this heterogeneous com- 

 pilation, and will probably come to the conclusion that for 

 lads to learn to make a dove-tail joint, or in agricultural 

 districts ti) be taught .something of the nature of soils and 

 manures, and for girls to learn to cook a plain joint and 

 scrub a floor, would be almost infinitely better than for 

 them to be crammed with the French and algebra which 

 now so preposterously form a part of our Board School 

 curriculum. 



Eaygarth's Gladys and other Poems. By James Saunders. 

 (London : Thomas Laurie. 1888.)— Mr. Saunders is scarcely 

 at his best in the blank verse of the poem which gives its 

 title to this collection of his pieces. Now and again he 

 wanders into true poetry. His small volume is at least up 

 to the average of any of those of fugitive verse which have 

 recently been issued. 



The Way to Fortune. (London : T. Fisher Unwin. 

 1888.) — In a series of aphorisms and anecdotes, strung 

 together in fifty short essays, the anonymous author or com- 



piler of this little book really does contrive to give some 

 very sound and useful advice to the youthful aspirant to 

 fame and fortune. His work may be regarded as " Poor 

 Richard," amplified and extended, and would form a far 

 from useless present to a lad starting in life. 



Childrens Services, with Uymns and Songs. Edited by 

 the Rev. A. W. Oxford, M.A. (London : T. Fisher 

 Unwin. 1888.) — These short, bright, simplo little services 

 should prove a blessing to unnumbered hundreds of miser- 

 able children who are compelled, Sunday after Sunday, to 

 sit wearily through the battology of the three rolled into one 

 with which the Church of England hebdomadally afHicts its 

 attendants. 



THE FACE OF THE SKY FOR AUGUST. 



By F.R.A.S. 



IIB spotless sun is absolutely devoid of interest as 

 a telescopic object. On the evening of August 7 

 there will be a very small eclipse of the sun, its 

 magnitude even at the time of greatest phase 

 being only 0013 of the sun's diameter. It begins 

 at Greenwich at 6h. 48 8m. P.M., the greatest 

 phase happens at 6h. 57-7m. P.M., and by 7h. G om. 

 P.M. the moon has entirely cleared the sun's disc. 

 The first contact happens at 32° towards the West 

 from the apparent top of the sun, and the last contact 13° towards 

 the West. The sun sets at 7h. 36m. Map viii. of " The Stars in 

 their Seasons " shows the aspect of the August night sky. Minima 

 of the curious variable star Algol (" The Stars in their Seasons," 

 map xii.) will occur on August 2, at llh. 13m. P.M., on the 5th at 

 8h. 2m. P.M., on the 22nd 55m. after midnight, and on the 25th at 

 9h. 41m. P.M. ; as also on other occasions less favourable for the 

 amateur observer. Mercury is a morning star during the first three 

 weeks, but comes into superior conjunction with the sun at Ih, .\.M. 

 on the 24th. At the beginning of the month he may be detected 

 in the E.N.E. before sunrise. Venus is an evening star, but is an 

 insignificant object, and hardly worth looking for. Besides, she is 

 close to the horizon at sunset. She will be some two diameters 

 of the sun north of Regulus ("The Stars in their Seasons," map iv.) 

 on the 11th. M.ars is now receding from the earth, and looks like a 

 mere big red star in the telescope. He must be looked for the 

 momentit is dusk. Jupiter is worse placed still ; he may be picked 

 up as soon as he is visible in the twilight to the west of $ Scorpii 

 (" The Stars in their Sea.sons," map vii.). The phenomena of his 

 satellites, which, the weather being clear, will be certainly visible, 

 are : The egress of the shadow of satellite i. at 9h. 15m. p.m. on the 

 3rd; the ingress of the shadow of the same satellite at 8h. 58m. 

 p.m. on the 10th ; the reappearance from eclipse of satellite i. 

 itself at 8h. 23m. 13s. P.M. on the 11th ; the ingress of the shadow 

 of sateUite ii. at 8h. 10m. P.M. on the 18th; followed by that of 

 the shadow of satellite iii. at 8h. 50m. p.m. Then on the 25th the 

 transit of satellite ii. will begin at 8h. 6m. P.M. ; on the 26th the 

 egress of sateUite i. will happen at 8h. 14m. p.m., and, finally, on 

 the 27th satellite ii. will reappear from eclipse at 7h. 58m. 27s. 

 P.M. Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are all invisible. Watch should 

 be kept on the 9th, 10th, and 11th for the shower of shooting stars, 

 through which the earth annually passes, and which, anciently 

 called " St. Lawrence's tears,' are now known to astronomers as the 

 Perseids, from the fact that they appear to start from the constella- 

 tion Perseus ("The Stars in their Seasons," map xii.). The moon 

 will be new at 6h. 21-Om. in the evening on August 7, enter her 

 first quarter at 4h. 44-lm. P.M. on the 14th, be full at 4h. 20-3m.P.M. 

 on the 21st, and enter her last quarter at 2h. 18'3m. in the after- 

 noon on the 2V)th. Two stars only will be occulted by the moon 

 before midnight during the present month. The first is i(/' Aquarii 

 of the 5th magnitude, which will disappear at 9h, 4Cm. p.m. on the 

 22nd at the moon's bright limb, at an angle of 29° from her 

 vertex ; reappearing at her dark limb at lOh. 30m. P.M. at an angle 

 from her vertex of 320°. The second occultation occurs on the night 

 of the 26th, when {^ Ceti, a 4th magnitude star, will disappear at 

 the bright limb of the moon at llh. 20m. at an angle from her 

 vertex of 98°. It will reappear at her dark limb 22 minutes after 

 midnight at a vertical angle of 238°. When our notes open the 

 moon is in Taurus ("The Seasons Pictured," plate xxiii.). As she 

 traverses this constellation she arrives at lOh. p.m. on the 3rd at 

 the extreme north-western boundarj' of Orion. It only takes 

 her some 9% hours to cross this, and at 7h. 30m. the next 

 morning she emerges in Gemini (" The Seasons Pictured," 



