November 26, 1886.] 



SCIEJSTGB. 



49& 



France and Germany. The needs of Spanish edu- 

 cation would therefore seem to be, f3rst, vigorous 

 and honest enforcement of the laws as they stand 

 at present ; and, secondly, some means of extend- 

 ing primary instruction. 



COLLARS LATIN BOOK. 



This book is an outcome of the discussions of 

 the past few years on the value of classical study. 

 Its method is a complete change from the tedious 

 study of grammar to a rational view of the lan- 

 guage as a form of expression. Its aim, as stated 

 in the preface, "is to serve as a preparation for 

 reading, writing, and, to a less degree, for speak- 

 ing Latin." This preparation it gives, not by 

 getting the Latin language before the beginner as 

 a collection of paradigms and rules of syntax, but 

 as a vehicle of ideas. It is here that the book 

 breaks away from the traditional method. 



Immediately on opening it, one notices the ab- 

 sence of any reference to the grammars. The 

 book is not, as so many are, a mere guide-post, 

 telling the pupil where in the grammars he can 

 find forms, rules, or exceptions. In a compact 

 form it gives all necessary paradigms and rules, 

 but with full and repeated illustration. The ex- 

 amples are chosen not merely to illustrate forms 

 and rules, but to show that forms and rules are 

 instrumental to expression, and that it is as 

 possible for a boy to express his own ideas in Latin 

 as it is to find out what some one else has ex- 

 pressed. Further aid in this direction is given by 

 the arrangement which brings the verb near the 

 beginning, before the completion of declension, 

 enabling the pupil to construct sentences, and by 

 inserting early in the vocabularies verbal forms. 

 Thus a boy learns that habet means ' has ' before 

 he can conjugate, just as a child learns ' has ' be- 

 fore he knows it is a part of ' to have.' By slight 

 changes of meanings, the exercises and vocabu- 

 laries are made suggestive, and the colloquia scat- 

 tered through the book cannot fail to interest and 

 stimulate to imitation. 



The plan of the book rests upon the fact that 

 the memory and not the judgment of the pupil is 

 to be exercised ; that one can learn facts rapidly 

 who cannot appreciate reasons. The unslaked 

 thirst of memory that belongs to the age when 

 Latin is usually begun is made use of, but is not 

 quenched by a mass of unnecessary detail and 

 unimportant exceptions. Explanations are omit- 

 ted, except as they help the pupil to understand, 

 not the theory of constructions, but their uses. 

 The omissions of the book are noteworthy, and 

 the editors have happily avoided the deplorable 



The beginner's Latin book. By William C. Collar and 

 M. Gkant Daniell. Boston, Ginn, 1886. 12°. 



error " of failing to discriminate between the rela- 

 tively important and unimportant." The sub- 

 junctive mood, that slough of despond for begin- 

 ners, is treated briefly but clearly, and fully enough 

 for such a book. 



The chapter on derivation does not seem quite 

 up to the general level of the book. The examples 

 are apt and well grouped, but they will be taken 

 as individual specimens rather than illustrations of 

 principles. In other chapters, after the examples^ 

 the rule or principle covering them has been 

 stated, and in this it would have been well to add 

 statements of the meaning attached to certain 

 terminations. 



The book is a live one. No lazy teacher can use 

 it with success. It gives suggestions, but requires 

 attention, and, properly used, will fulfil the expec- 

 tation of the editors that pupils can be prepared 

 by it for Caesar within a year. It will meet with 

 success, because it throws off the trammels of 

 artificial methods, and seeks those that are rational 

 and natural. John K. Lord. 



MONOGRAPHS ON EDUCATION. 



The pubHshers of this handy series of essays 

 are doing an excellent work. As they state in 

 their preface, " many contributions to the theory- 

 or the practice of teaching are yearly lost to the 

 profession, because they are embodied in articles 

 which are too long, or too profound, or too limited 

 as to number of interested readers, for popular 

 magazine articles, and yet not sufficient in vol- 

 ume for books." Every teacher knows how true 

 this statement is, and should therefore welcome 

 such contributions to pedagogics when presented 

 in so attractive a form as that in which these 

 monographs are issued. 



Prof. Stanley Hall's monograph on reading ' is 

 an example of applied pedagogics. He outlines 

 the various traditional methods of teaching chil- 

 dren to read, and also some of those suggested by 

 the psychologists, and reaches the eminently sen- 

 sible conclusion that "there is no one and only 

 orthodox way of teaching and learning tliis great- 

 est and hardest of all the arts." We cannot be- 

 lieve, however, that Professor Hall means to be 

 taken seriously when he says (pp. 17, 18) that 

 " many of our youth will develop into better 

 health, stancher virtue, and possibly better citizen- 

 ship, and a culture in every way more pedagogi- 

 cal and solid, had they never been taught to 

 read, but some useful handicraft, and the habit of 

 utilizing all the methods of oral education within 

 reach, instead. . . . The school has no right to 

 teach how to read, without doing much more than 



1 Hoio to teach reading, and what to read in school. By G^ 

 Stanley Hall. Boston, Heath, 1886. 12°. 



