REVIEWS. 
89 
Foodwould it not be well, following out this idea, to institute a kindred 
commission, whose duty it shall be to investigate “ Adulteration of Know¬ 
ledge ?” Is it more culpable, we ask, to put copper in our pickles, or blue 
vitriol in our bread, than to supply the minds of the rising generation with 
wrong ideas or false information? To adulterate a book is, in our opinion, 
no less a crime against society than to adulterate our food. We, therefore, 
hail with pleasure the appearance of Mr. Hughes’s Reading-book; in his 
good intentions, and in his thorough experience as a teacher, we have, at 
least to some extent, a guarantee that no deleterious element is to be found 
in the food he offers, and that we may, with safety, put his books into the 
hands of our youth. 
Mr. Hughes’s object is, no doubt, a good one; how well or how ill he 
may have accomplished it cannot well be told until the series be completed. 
A review, however, of his first volume may serve to encourage him in the 
prosecution of his useful labour, and, at the same time, warn him against 
the dangers to which a project such as his is peculiarly liable. His reading 
lessons—comprising, as they do, so great a variety of subjects—may be 
compared with a cyclopaedia; and who is it that does not know the diffi¬ 
culties and dangers of such an undertaking ? No man, be his learning or 
information ever so extensive, is competent to write on every branch of 
knowledge, to delineate -naiSsia in all its parts—-he must call in the aid of 
others; and although he may preface each man’s performance with his 
name, the responsibility of the work, as a whole, must, nevertheless, fall 
upon him—his reputation must depend on the character and reputation of 
those with whom he may associate himself. What judgment, then—what 
determination—what discrimination of character—will he not require to 
carry him safe through his arduous undertaking ? His work is like that of 
an engineer engaged in some ponderous construction—every rod and beam, 
every bolt, nut, and screw, must be looked to with an experienced and 
suspicious eye; no part of his material is good until it be thoroughly tested 
and examined ; his production, in fact, is a striking instance of the maxim 
that “ nothing is stronger than its weakest part.” Mr. Hughes himself 
seems to have some such idea of his work; his “ well-considered plan,” 
as he states in his preface, is u to make each book of the series a complete 
platform of knowledge, upon which the mind may, as it were, rest, and 
take a general view before ascending to a higher stage.” What becomes 
of the platform if it have a faulty plank—or, rather, beam—just at the point 
where the weight most needs support ? In this consists the danger pecu¬ 
liarly incidental to his task, and through which we would desire to see him 
safe. 
