Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/292

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
280
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Sunday looking out for trees on which to hang criminals on Monday; and there is a story of a photographer in Washington Territory "taking views" of the lynchers hanging some men, and "making quite a pile" by the sale of copies. The descriptions of country and scenery are terse and definite, and something may be gathered from the narrative concerning the economical value of the various districts to which it relates.

Correspondences of the Bible. The Animals. By John Worcester. Boston: Massachusetts New Church Union. Pp. 294.

In the view of the author of this book, "the natural objects of the world about us are images, or manifestations to bodily sense, of the spiritual things in human minds. . . . Every branch of science, with all the particulars of it, is a physical emblem of deeper things than itself; and, if interiorly opened, it presents to our view a corresponding branch of spiritual science, with its particulars. . . Common speech testifies to a general recognition of relationship between animals and human feelings"—as when we emblematically use the names of different animals in describing various human qualities. The traits and peculiarities of all the animals named in the Bible are considered under this aspect.

Geology and Mineral Resources of the James River Valley, Virginia. By J. L. Campbell, LL. D. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 119, with Map and Geological Sections.

The object of the author of this report is to lay before the minds of capitalists, immigrants, his fellow-citizens, and others who are interested in Virginia, "a concise yet comprehensive statement of the great extent and variety of available resources within the area under review, which only await capital, enterprise, and labor, to make them productive." The report reveals a great wealth in iron-ores, limestones, and forest products, with manganese, gold, slates, granite, steatite, mica, kaolin, barytes, white-sand, and asbestus, which are doubtless destined to have a large development in the future, and which are brought within reach of the market by means of the Richmond and Alleghany Railroad.

Arithmetical Aids. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. In box.

The "Aids" consist of single counters and strips of ten counters each, and of cards expressing quantities of goods supposed to be sold, and values. The counters are used in solving problems in the four arithmetical rules; the goods-cards furnish stock to the pupil, who is supposed to keep a store; and the value-cards represent money in the hands of the supposed buyer of the goods. By a judicious use of the two kinds of cards, with the addition of such other goods-cards as it may suit the players to devise, all the transactions of store-keeping can be performed. Thus exercises in the learning of business, as well as amusement, may be had out of the Aids. A tract packed in the box explains the use of the Aids, and gives suggestions of other "arithmetical diversions."

A Grammar of the German Language. For High-Schools and Colleges. By H. C. G. Brandt. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 278. Price, $1.50.

This grammar, which is designed both for beginners and advanced students, embodies the results of philological research during the last twenty years, so far as it concerns the German language, and draws from the works of eminent modern writers on the subject. From the brief examination we have been able to give it, it strikes us as a systematic and well-matured work, that can not fail to be useful to those who wish to study the language critically.

A Reader of German Literature. Prepared, with Notes, by W. H. Rosenstengel. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 402. Price, $1.50.

The Reader is intended for students who have mastered a German grammar and an elementary reader, and are at home in using the dictionary. It aims to confine the selections to masterpieces; to give a full representation to modern literature; to add selections from the best and latest works on German history and the history of the civilization and language of the country; and to set forth accurate texts. Biographical sketches arc given of some of the authors, and analyses of the more important works quoted from; and a chronology of German literature is added.