The illustrations are given with the aim to connect the study with the work of the artist, rather than for use as diagrams, by which to demonstrate abstractions; and they are of precisely the same character as those which the author has used for many years in teaching perspective from the blackboard. The successive chapters of the book treat of "First Principles," "The Horizon," "Measurement by Means of Parallels," "Of Diagonals" and "Of Triangles," "The Perspective of Curves," "Methods," "Shadows," "Reflections," and "Cylindrical, Curvilinear, or Panoramic Perspective."
Institutes of General History. By E. Benjamin Andrews. Boston: Silver, Rogers & Co. 1887. $2.
This is a rather peculiar book. It is by no means an elementary work; on the contrary, a student just beginning the study of history, would not be able to understand it, so much is taken in it for granted. But by one who already has a knowledge of the outlines of history it will be found both interesting and instructive. It is rather a series of historical essays than a regular history, and, while making no pretensions to originality, it presents in a brief form the conclusions of the leading writers on most of the main events of the past and the contributions of the various nations to the civilization of the world. English and American history are neglected on the ground that these subjects are taught in our schools by themselves. The book is broken up into short paragraphs, each followed by a mass of notes treating matters of a more specific character than those mentioned in the text.
Professor Andrews opens his work with a brief discussion of the nature and method of history, and considers the question whether history is a science. To this he gives an affirmative answer, quoting Mill's remark that "any facts are fitted in themselves to be a subject of science which follow one another according to constant laws, although those laws may not have been discovered nor even be discoverable by our existing resources." He regards historical science, however, as in an inchoate condition, and its laws as but very partially known; and he defines it as "the science of humanity viewed upon its spiritual side, and in course of evolution." Having thus stated his conception of history and the method of studying it. Professor Andrews proceeds to consider first the character of the civilization of the old Eastern nations, and then that of Greece and Rome. The classical period receives but scant treatment, apparently because it is usually taught in the schools as a separate study. Then, having sketched the character of the Roman Empire and Church, he takes up the history of modern Continental Europe, to which the greater part of the volume is devoted. This portion of the work is fuller of detail than the earlier parts, and gives a good though very condensed outline of feudalism, the Renaissance and the Reformation, the Thirty Years' War, the French Revolution, and the rise of the new German Empire. Each chapter is preceded by a bibliography of the subject of which it treats, so that the real student of history will know where to go for fuller information. The utility of such a book for educational purposes must necessarily be determined by experience; but to general readers it will be of value both for reading and for reference.
Industrial Education. A Guide to Manual Training. By Samuel G. Love. New York: E. L. Kellogg & Co. 1887. $1.75.
The subject treated in this volume is one of great and increasing importance. The keen competition of industrial life, and the greater skill now demanded of manual laborers, as compared with those of former times, make it necessary for all who can to learn some trade or profession; while at the same time the want of any regular system of industrial training, and the unwillingness of the labor unions to permit the taking of apprentices, render it often difficult for a young man to learn the trade to which he inclines. Under these circumstances it has been proposed to establish schools of industry for the express purpose of teaching trades, and also to introduce some system of manual training into the public schools. Special industrial schools have been established in some cases, and have proved successful; but how far industrial work can be advantageously taught in the public schools is yet an unsolved problem.
