Jury 8, 1915] 
NALURE 
595 

mediate stages; systematic and argumentative in 
the later stages. The descriptive stage includes 
story-telling, the awakening of the child’s imagina- 
tion and interest, and the introduction of simple 
map and out-of-door work. In the transition 
stage, the pupil is chiefly concerned with the 
investigation of geographical principles rather 
than with the acquisition of geographical facts. 
In the final stage, the pupil has to collect his own 
data, to construct his own maps and diagrams, 
and to reason out his own conclusions, that is, 
he has to learn the methods and principles of 
geographical argument. Most teachers will agree 
with these divisions, and be prepared to follow 
Mr. Wallis in his treatment of the first and 
second stages; the ideas and methods of the 
third stage are more debatable, but, from the 
author’s point of view, they are well stated and 
reasoned. 
It is difficult, in a short space, to mention even 
a fraction of the valuable things the book con- 
tains. There are practical exercises for in and 
out of doors; plans and suggestions for the ideal 
geography-room and for apparatus; arguments 
on the relation between geography and history and 
other subjects, with sensible ideas on correlation ; 
and there are even a few lessons for examiners 
on how to set examination questions. 
Everywhere full details are given in a style 
attractive, lucid, and often of considerable literary 
merit. In many places there is geographical 
information of great value, information such as 
a teacher cannot always find in the text-books 
at his disposal. 
Full approval may be given to the recommenda- 
tions to teachers of geography to avoid straying 
into attractive historical or geological byways, 
interesting as they may be, for they are not 
geography, and there is plenty of work to be 
done without going out of the proper field. It is 
wise, also, to insist that the geography teacher 
is not to wait for the science master to explain 
the working of a barometer before the results of 
reading the barometer are utilised, nor to waste 
his own precious time in explaining what falls 
within the province of another. Sometimes the 
academic treatment of a subject has to give way 
to a common-sense one, but it not every 
author who writes a book who is willing to state 
this truth. 
We commend the book to all of 
geography, because it is so eminently sensible, 
practical, and stimulating. They need not adopt 
all the conclusions of Mr. Wallis, but they will 
find it difficult to disprove their truth, or to resist 
their attractiveness. 
NO. 2384, VOL. 95] 
is 
teachers 

there 
MUSICAL FORM AND DEVELOPMENT. 
The Musical Faculty: Its Origins and Processes. 
By W. Wallace. Pp. vi+228. (London: 
Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1914.) Price 5s. net. 
HE systematic and scientific study of the 
psychological processes involved in the 
creation and production of music is, from the 
nature of the case, exceedingly difficult, and the 
| author is fully justified in claiming that there is 
room for further literature on the subject. How 
far he has been successful in dealing with these 
problems in the present book is open to some 
doubt. 
Speaking generally, the first four chapters deal 
mainly with the development of music pure and 
simple, the remainder with musicians and their 
characteristics. Now in treating of individuals, 
lack of statistical and_ historical 
evidence on which to base conclusions. Whether 
is no 
| the subject-matter be the existence of musical 
prodigies, the part played by heredity, the in- 
fluence on health, both mental and physical, of 
great musical genius, or such functional characters 
as mental audition, tonal memory, sense of 
tempo, power of detecting differences of tone 
quality, inhibition of sound perception, the data 
from which inferences may be drawn are of a 
fairly definite character, and, on the whole, Mr. 
Wallace’s treatment may be regarded as satis- 
factory. But the present reviewer totally dis- 
agrees with what he says about music itself in 
the chapters entitled ‘“A Readjustment of Values,” 
“Historical Bearings,” and “ Individual Develop- 
ment.” 
Mr. Wallace prefer modern’ French 
cacophonies to Haydn’s and Mozart’s delightful 
quartets and symphonies, but he surely cannot 
may 
| seriously wish us to believe that those early com- 
posers were lacking in originality or individuality 
simply because they could obtain what they 
wanted with the use of simple chords and melodies. 
Neither can we agree with the statement that 
“Music, as we understand it, has not yet estab- 
lished her eternal verities,”’ and when he states 
that “it would be no feat for a composer to write 
another Orfeo to-day,” we can only say we should 
like to see anyone try to do it! 
Admittedly, both the character of musical form 
and the recognised standard of excellence are 
changing, and the changes are the result of a 
process of evolution similar to that which exists 
everywhere else. But evolution does not always 
represent a change to a higher standard of per- 
fection. It sometimes stands for degeneration, 
and ‘‘a readjustment of values’’ may spell bar- 
barism, as is evidenced in the use of poisonous 
