7690 Notices of Neiv Books. 



strong enough to tie poor Horndeni in a knot," " I thought you 

 couldn't come it again," " Look out for your pins," " Show a chap a 

 dodge or two," " Run precious deep into his hand," " By Jove, I 

 expected something of this sort," " How the deuce did he contrive," 

 " By Jove, it is sprung," " The deuce you did," " The sneaking rascal," 

 " The mean hound," " I'd break every bone in his body." These all 

 occur in five consecutive pages, and admitting how likely they are to 

 have been uttered viva voce in the hearing of Mr. Atkinson, is it 

 desirable to print them for the perusal of other schoolboys who 

 may happily be ignorant of such expressions ? Mr. Atkinson calls 

 this a " book for boys ; " is it well for a clergyman to instruct boys 

 in phrases which no sensible man would desire to hear, much less 

 repeat? Boys themselves are especially sensitive on this point, and 

 no boy of gentlemanly feeling likes to have such peccadilloes recorded 

 against him. I speak from positive knowledge when I assert that boys, 

 on meeting with these expressions in Mr. Atkinson's works, have used 

 still stronger expressions in condemning them, but expressions which 

 must not appear in the ' Zoologist.' 



I have said that the Natural History of these works is good ; it is 

 perfectly reliable, and often, which is a very great merit, original, the 

 result of careful observation, the work of a mind knowing not only how 

 to observe but what to observe. The instructions in entomological 

 lore are perhaps rather out of date ; the process of taking an impression 

 of a butterfly's wing in gum water reminds me of a heirloom of great 

 antiquity still in my possession, but Mr. Atkinson is an ornithologist 

 rather than an entomologist, and his instructions about birds may safely 

 be trusted. 



Most earnestly do I hope that these works, which must meet with 

 extensive circulation, will eventually appear before the schoolboys of 

 Britain in a style more calculated to elevate than to depress the standard 

 of excellence in the " schoolboy " mind. Educate a boy in the belief 

 that he is eventually to become a man ; point out to boydom that 

 there is an excelsior to be attained ; do not reiterate expressions that can 

 call a blush into the honest face of a lad of spirit. If any man who 

 presumes to teach can raise the intellect of others by his labours let him 

 do so, but let him never assume that it is necessary to write down to au 

 intellect of lower grade than his own ; the attempt to do so conveys 

 something very nearly approaching an insult. — Edward Newman. 



