LITERARY NOTICES. 



275 



informal class of three boys, he led them to 

 observe their common surroundings fields 

 and farms, buildings and machinery, plants 

 and insects bringing out their embodiment 

 of laws of form and size of the widest 

 sweep. Breaking a live coal into fragments 

 on a hearthstone, his pupils saw that the 

 smaller a lump the sooner it cooled and 

 turned black ; step by step they discovered 

 that the moon, the earth, Jupiter, and the 

 sun, from their relative magnitudes, are in 

 the same case are but cinders, or cinders 

 in the making. Simple models, easy to re- 

 produce, served in other lessons an inverted 

 wedge gradually withdrawn from immersion 

 in a jar half full of water became an ex- 

 tractor of square root; an inverted cone, 

 similarly treated, was employed as an ex- 

 tractor of cube root. A diagram, which has 

 only to be seen to be understood, enabled his 

 class to perceive that the surface of a sphere 

 is equal to the curved surface of the cylinder 

 which incloses it, and hence is equal to the 

 rectangle which the cylinder describes in be- 

 ing rolled round once on a plane. Mr. lies 

 abundantly exemplifies the inventiveness 

 which he recommends as an element in mak- 

 ing a lesson stick to a pupil's mind. On 

 the very threshold of Euclid he has come 

 upon novel and important implications of 

 the elementary laws of space ; he has thence 

 opened new paths of approach to the study 

 of mechanics and physics. A distinctly re- 

 freshing note is struck in illustrating that 

 not the immediate but the total indications 

 of geometry point the way to the constructor ; 

 that if calculation is to be just, it must be 

 directed with judgment. This little book 

 can be as helpful to the teacher as that other 

 unconventional aid, William George Spencer's 

 Inventional Geometry. 



WHITE'S NEW COURSE IN ART INSTRUCTION. 

 Manual for the Fifth-year Grade. New 

 York, etc. : American Book Company. 

 Pp. 112. Price, 50 cents. 



WHITE'S New Course in Art Instruction 

 embodies the ideas of many teachers, who, 

 starting at different points and working 

 along different lines, arrived at the same 

 conclusions. Its aims are, first, to acquaint 

 pupils with the rudiments of all kinds of 

 drawing included under the two depart- 

 ments, mechanical and free hand ; secondly, 



to lead pupils to feel that, while art and 

 love for the beautiful may be fostered by an 

 artistic and beautiful environment, skill and 

 power and quick original perception of beauty 

 come only through faithful and persistent 

 practice in drawing ; and, thirdly, to develop 

 a love for the beautiful in Nature and art. 

 The fifth year or grammar course includes 

 the study of measurement, geometry, writ- 

 ing, drawing, development, color, historic 

 ornament, botanical drawing, design, paper- 

 cutting, and model and object drawing. Each 

 subject is logically pursued throughout the 

 grade, and each subject supplements others 

 in the grade. The book abounds in each 

 department in practical directions, concisely 

 and perspicuously given, to which the illus- 

 tions, clearly and accurately drawn, are a 

 real help. 



SYMBOLIC EDUCATION. A COMMENTARY ON 

 FROEBEL'S MOTHER PLAY. By SUSAN E. 

 BLOW. New York : D. Appleton & Co., 

 1894. International Education Series. 

 Pp. 251. Price, $1.50. 



THE advent of the kindergarten in the 

 educational system of this country has great 

 significance, and statistics show a steady in- 

 crease in kindergartens, teachers, and pupils. 



Symbolic Education, by Susan E. Blow 

 (Appletons' International Education Series), 

 discusses practically the foundation of Froe- 

 bel's philosophy in Mother's Play and Nurs- 

 ery Songs. 



The editor, Dr. Harris, says the kinder- 

 garten inspires its teachers with the true 

 missionary spirit, to devote themselves to the 

 work of unfolding the self-activity of human- 

 ity in its feeblest and most rudimentary stage 

 of growth. The teacher of advanced pupils 

 does not need such refinements of method to 

 secure profitable industry it is the teacher 

 of feeble-minded adults, or of very young 

 children, that must have what the Germans 

 call a " developing method." The good 

 kindergartner continually follows Froebel by 

 directing the pupils' own efforts without 

 stunting them by officious help. Mothers 

 should take heed of the warning that over- 

 cultivation of verbal memory cripples alike 

 the power of original thinking and accurate 

 observation. He says that the first self-revela- 

 tion of the child is through play. He learns 

 thus what he can do what he can do easily at 



