January 1, 1898. 



KNOWLEDGE 



19 



photograph of the two ; but the "setter" is an unmistakable 

 pointer. Having said so much of what we consider to 

 be bad judgment and error, we gladly pass on to the good 

 points in the book. These are chiefly to be found in the 

 photographs, a great number of which are exceedingly fine. 

 We would especially draw attention to the following : — 

 Barn owl, photographed by flashlight (page 24B), kingfisher 

 (page H57), cormorants and guillemots (page 251), common 

 gull's nest (page 269) ; and to those which we have been 

 able, by courtesy of the publisher, to here reproduce. Mr. 

 Cherry Kearton, who has taken the photographs for his 

 brother's book, has had many perilous 

 adventures, as all who climb cliffs — and 

 especially those who carry a camera with 

 them — must ; but we cannot help thinking 

 that Mr. Kearton has often run into un- 

 necessary dangers. Many of the things he 

 has photographed in difficult places could 

 have been found in more accessible situations. 

 We recommend the book with the (jualification 

 that if the author has not made " much ado 

 about nothing," he has certainly made too 

 much of not a very great deal. 



OniKiiieiitdl lk'si(jn fur ll'oren l^'ahrics. By 

 C. Stephenson and F. Suddards. (Methuen.) 

 Illustrated. 7s. 6d. We are not by any 

 means convinced that the authors of this 

 handsome-looking book have succeeded in 

 their laudable desire to " bring the necessary 

 knowledge within a narrower focus, and 

 thereby make it more easily accessible." In 

 attempts like this to find the path of least 

 resistance to a useful knowledge of a science 

 or an art, there is always a danger of re 

 tarding progress by, in a manner, increasing 

 friction — making the pathway too constricted 

 for one to get through with comfort. For 

 example, although a knowledge of elementary 

 geometry is assumed, a single plate is given 

 showing the construction of the most simple, 

 and at the same time useful, figures, and 

 then in a few pages their application to the 

 design of woven fabrics is dispensed with. 

 The authors, indeed, exhibit a clear insight 

 as to the way in which such figures are 

 utilized in the designer's office ; but a beginner 

 would be all at sea in practice if only equipped 

 with such knowledge as is here so over con- 

 densed as to be nearly, if not quite, indi- 

 gestible. Coming to the main part of the 

 work, however, we find a difl'erent state of 

 affairs. Dealing with the laws of com- 

 position, plant forms in textile designs, 

 limitations imposed, drop-pattern, repeats, 

 and so on, as well as in the arrangement 

 of the warp-threads and their sequence 

 in rising and falling in order to attain 

 any given pattern, all is clear, and in the 

 highest degree commendable. The book 

 way handsome, and the illustrations are 

 quality. 



TIk Rise nt Piinocrncy. By -J. Holland Eose, m.a. The 

 Victorian Era Series. (Blackie i- Sou.) 2s. 6d. This is a 

 wholly inadequate treatment of a great subject, due in a 

 large measure to the laudable desire of the author to 

 compress a vast amount of historical detail into a small 

 compass. The result is a more or less disjointed catalogue 

 of names and incidents, often incomplete, and always 

 lifeless. Admittedly circumscribed in the space at his 



disposal, Mr. liose has persistently stood in his own way, 

 and filled valuable space by recounting his own inter- 

 pretation of the facts, so that his reader is often unable to 

 appreciate the picture by reason of the obtrusive nature of 

 the showman. However interesting the author's opinions 

 may be to Mr. Rose, he should remember they are of no 

 value to his reader. Some haste, too, is apparent in the 

 text, where we find Sir Francis Bm-dett, the famous 

 member for Westminster, figures as Sir Thomas Burdett, 

 and Richard Carlile as Carlisle ; while the alleged " toning 

 down " of -John Stuart MiU is, of course, an entire mis- 



Guillemots on Cliff. (From " With Nature and a Cam 



13 m every 

 of first-rate 



apprehension of the facts. Then we do not like to find 

 such phrases as the " immense vogue " of Darwin, or the 

 " viewy schemes " of Owen, in a book which promised in 

 the preface to be " scholarly." The index, too, is hasty, 

 incomplete, and lacking in method. Yet, notwithstanding 

 these defects, Mr. Rose's little book will be found to be an 

 interesting sketch of the growth and expansion of repre- 

 sentative institutions in England, as well as of the patient 

 doggedness and prescience of our countrymen. But it 

 leaves the task yet unfulfilled of writing the history of the 

 rise of democracy. 



