errs, in our opinion, is in making the wealthy portion of society a simple burden upon the poor. Such is not the case. On the contrary, it is the men of wealth who have done more than any other class to direct labor into useful channels and generally to vivify and fertilize the industry of the world. If Mr. Bellamy could amend his story of the coach so as to bring this undoubted fact into prominence, he would dg more justice to the century in which he lives, and take a little of the sting from the diatribes of his Dr. Barton.
Education in the United States: Its History from the Earliest Settlements. By Richard G. Boone. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 402. Price, $1.50.
This is the eleventh volume of the "International Education Series," and is characterized by the general editor of that series as the first noteworthy attempt to present the subject, and as forming "a tolerably complete inventory of what exists, as well as an account of its origin and development." We find it a systematic and comprehensive treatise, presenting the important facts in their bearing upon one another and their relations to contemporary conditions. The history is divided into the Colonial and the Revolutionary periods and the period of Reorganization, to which is added a review of "Current Educational Interests." The discussion of "The Colonial Period" comprises the history of the earliest American schools, of colonial colleges, and of colonial school systems. Under "The Revolutionary Period" are sketched the conditions of elementary, secondary, and collegiate education during the time included. The third part, "The Period of Reorganization," includes accounts of the transition from the old to the new, with its centralizing tendencies, the agencies and methods for the preparation of teachers, the development of the course of instruction in the more recent colleges, the aspects of professional, technological, and special education, the growth of supplemental institutions, learned societies and libraries, and the relations of Government and education. "Current Educational Interests" embrace "Compulsory School Attendance," "The Gradation of Schools," "Education in the South," and "The Higher Education of Women." To each chapter is appended a bibliography. The author's aim has been "to suggest lines of thought for the teacher and sources of information, and, avoiding mere description on the one side and personal criticism on the other, to exhibit faithfully the development of contemporary institutions and educational forces, with something of their national setting." The editor, Dr. Harris, sees in the trend of the educational movement, as disclosed in this history, a tendency from private, endowed, and parochial schools, toward the assumption of education by the state, away from isolated efforts and toward system and supervision, and in methods toward the adaptation of the matter of instruction to the mind of the child and toward improved discipline. The entire educational idea of the people, too, "has progressed in the direction of divine charity," as is exemplified in the greater attention paid to the education of women and to institutions for unfortunates. The author finds our educational system still very imperfect, and notices as problems yet unsolved or not provided for the means of securing a supply of qualified teachers; a way, while shaping the understanding mind, of bringing up youth with sound bodies and a love for truth; the relation which the public schools should sustain to industrial training; questions concerning infant and primary and free public higher and professional education; extra-school training; and the constitution of a citizenship education. A hopeful outlook is discerned in the fact that common-school questions are being studied by college presidents and professors as related to their own labors, and by economists and historians.
Indoor Studies. By John Burroughs. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 256. Price, $1.25.
Mr. Burroughs is best known as a writer about Nature, or outdoor subjects. In that department he has gained a position among the select representative authors of our country. Completely at home amid rural sur-
