then we are in the presence of a momentous reality which, for importance and value, has not been exceeded, if indeed it has been approached, by any of the discoveries of modern times." However far the author's theories and enthusiasms may carry him, the book is an honest effort to explain some more or less tangible occurrences in a rationalistic manner, free from superstitious cant. It is a readable and interesting contribution to the literature of the new psychology.
Two out of the forty-five volumes of the Library of the World's Best Literature[1] have come to hand. This work, unique in scope and character, aims to do for literature what the Encyclopædia Britannica has done for the arts and sciences in general—to give a survey of what the best poets, writers, and thinkers of all ages have thought and felt and expressed in artistic form, from the records indelibly stamped on the baked brick of the Assyrians, the characters traced on the papyrus of the Egyptians and Chinese, the pergamena of the Greeks and Romans, the vellum of the mediæval monks, even down to the type-written manuscript of the present day. The plan, in the words of the editor in chief, Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, "is simple and yet it is novel. In its distinctive features it differs from any compilation that has yet been made. Its main purpose is to present to American households a mass of good reading. But it goes much beyond this; for in selecting this reading it draws upon all literatures of all times and of every race, and thus becomes a conspectus of the thought and intellectual evolution of man from the beginning. Another and scarcely less important purpose is the interpretation of this literature in essays by scholars and authors competent to speak with authority." Many of the best critics, both in this country and abroad, have taken part in the making of the work. Among the American contributors of note to the first two volumes may be named Prof. Toy, of Harvard, who writes on Accadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian Literature; Mr. H. W. Mabie, on Addison; Dr. H. T. Peck, on Æsop and Alciphron; Mr. R. Burton, on Amiel; Prof. E. S. Holden, on Arago;Rabbi Gottheil, on the Arabian Nights and Arabic Literature; and Prof. Woodberry, on Matthew Arnold. The selections thus introduced by critical and biographical essays, and representing the author at his best, are carefully chosen with reference not only to their literary quality, but also to their interest as reading matter, for "the work aims to suit a great variety of tastes, and thus to commend itself as a household companion for any mood and any hour." The names are arranged alphabetically, for ready reference. The volumes are handsomely bound in half morocco, with clear print on good paper, and illustrated with portraits of the authors, colored plates, and photo-gravures.
Prof. Baldwin's book on School Management is devoted to the practical side fo the subject.[2] It takes up the several divisions of educational work systematically, and gives helpful advice and suggestions on a vast number of topics in each division. Pupil improvement is the keynote of the work, and the author aims to show how this can be secured through better educational conditions and facilities, better school and college organization and correlation, and the most efficient methods of teaching, and how school government and class management can be made educative. Among the elements of educative governing power he names, first, character. "Be what you wish your pupils to become," he says. Next he places culture, and charges the teacher to "cherish the spirit of mastery and broad culture." Other elements whose importance he explains are pupil insight, teaching power, heart power, will power, system, tact, and bearing. Of the possible incentives to school work he points out which are low motives, which higher, and which the best. He shows how school regulations can have an educative effect, and what punishments operate to help and what to harm the pupil. In other chapters he gives advice as to school hygiene, means and methods of administration, methods of teaching the usual school studies, ways of conducting partly graded schools, etc. He is a strong advocate of oral teach-
- ↑ A Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern. In 45 volumes. New York: The International Society. Price, cloth, $3 a volume; half morocco, $4 a volume.
- ↑ School Management and School Methods. By Joseph Baldwin. International Education Series, Vol. XL. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 395, 12 mo. Price, $1.50
