MATERIALS USED IN ANCIENT EGYPT Ancient Egyptian Materials. By A. LUCAS. (7s. 6d. net. Arnold.)

It is probably true to say that every teacher of science at some time or other tells his classes about the science of the ancient Egyptians. The subject is interesting in itself and, for some reason, it invariably holds a class as few other topics will. This phenomenon has been particularly marked since the excavation of the tomb of Tut-ankh-Amen, and the experienced teacher will know how to turn it to account. For this reason, and because the book is intrinsically valuable, all science masters and mistresses may well spend an hour or two of their limited leisure in reading Mr. Lucas's account of the materials which were used in the technical arts of ancient Egypt. For the most part, previous accounts of this subject were due to archaeologists who, however admirably equipped for their main task, were not professional chemists, and were therefore inevitably led to conclusions which cannot bear the test of criticism in the light of knowledge now available. We therefore welcome with peculiar pleasure this authoritative survey, which is entirely unbiased by any archaeological theory, and is based solely upon the results of formal chemical analyses carried out in the main by the writer himself. The formation of theories and hypotheses is, as we all realize, an essential part of scientific progress, but an accurate knowledge of fact is a necessary prelude to the use of the imagination. Unfortunately, the materials which the Egyptian technical workers employed in their operations have been the subject of much uncritical supposition, which Mr. Lucas's book should go far to shatter.

In commendable fashion, Mr. Lucas gives first a brief summary of the chief dates in Egyptian history, and then proceeds to an orderly description of the results of scientific investigation of the principal substances under consideration. He deals with building materials in his opening chapter, and follows, in subsequent chapters, with brief but illuminating accounts of faience, glass and pottery, metals, mummification materials (what a thrilling topic for a class!), oils, fats and waxes, pigments and varnish, precious and semi-precious stones, stones for monuments etc., textile fabrics, leather and dyes and writing materials, finishing with a chapter on miscellaneous materials which could not be included under any of the above heads.

It is impossible for us here to deal with the whole of the rich and varied information with which Mr. Lucas provides us. We may, however, put in a finger here and thereand wherever we put it in we can be sure of drawing out a plum. Thus we find that the Egyptians probably did not know lime before the Roman period; the plaster which they used before this time consisted of gypsum, and was employed to give a suitable surface for painting upon. Glass probably, and glaze certainly, were Egyptian-inventions; the former began to be produced regularly about the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ca. 1580 B.C.), and the earliest known piece bearing a date is a large ball bead with the cartouche of Amenhotep I, now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. Tin oxide, used to render white glass opaque, was in use as early as 1500 B.C.

Iron was known in Egypt from a very early date, the earliest iron objects being chiefly weapons and personal ornaments, and not tools. The earliest of all are some small beads of pre-dynastic date, which when found were entirely in the condition of oxide. The metal was not used in quantity until some time after the XXII Dynasty and before the XXV Dynasty, i.e. between 945 and 718 B.C. probably not an Egyptian but an Asiatic discovery. The blue pigment so characteristic of Egypt seems to have been in general an artificial frit consisting of a definite crystalline compound of silica, copper and lime. Cobalt occurs much more rarely. Kohl, the eye-paint, consisted then, as now,

It was

of finely powdered galena, though at times this was replaced by antimony sulphide, manganese dioxide, cupric oxide or clay coloured with black oxide of iron.

Indigo, occasionally found on ancient Egyptian linen fabrics, was almost certainly not cultivated in the country, according to Mr. Lucas, who believes that it must have been obtained from India. The indigo plant is, however, indigenous to Egypt, and it may be pointed out that the very word indigo is of Egyptian origin, being derived from the Egyptian name for the plant or the dye, viz. n-tinkon. The common etymology of the word, which derives it from indicum, is almost certainly wrong.

We have said enough to show that Mr. Lucas has rendered us all his debtors for a most interesting and valuable book, which ought to find its way on to the shelves of all teachers of science and of most other school subjects.

PASSION AND PREJUDICE

History and Social Intelligence. By Prof. H. E. BARNES. (21s. New York and London: Knopf.) In spite of a ponderous and undistinguished style, and notwithstanding a total absence of lightness and humour, Prof. Barnes's new book is exceedingly diverting. It takes itself so very seriously, and it is so extremely violent. It is a curious hotch-potch, compounded mainly of articles contributed to the Encyclopaedia Americana and reviews written for half a dozen different magazines. Most of the latter are mere superficial surveys of no permanent interest whatsoever, but they contain some of the professor's most fearful fulminations. He evidently expects other people to take him as seriously as he takes himself, for he says that he expects that both the style and content of this book will at times outrage the sensibilities of some of the most solemn mandarins of my profession." He imagines that he is propounding novel and revolutionary views which, though they shock the pundits of the present, will be accepted as the oracles of the future. They are nothing of the sort they are merely obvious truths inverted and so turned into paradoxical nonsense. For instance-and it is a good example also of Prof. Barnes's heavy style-he says: Probably the greatest service which history can render to mankind is to aid us in gradually weakening that solemn and unreasoning reverence towards the cultures and institutions of the past which is the chief cause of that contemporary lack of competence and insight everywhere in evidence in man's seeming inability to cope with the issues that confront him.' As opposed to this amazing dictum, it may be confidently asserted, first, that man's incompetence is not due to excessive reverence; secondly, that at the present time reverence is rather deficient than excessive; and, thirdly, that history renders many services more valuable than that of destroying such reverence as exists.

"

There is no doubt, however, that readers of Prof. Barnes's latter essays in this volume will receive some rude and unexpected blows on their bump of veneration. For the Professor sets out on a deliberate and provocative campaign of iconoclasm. He plays havoc with the reputations of the Fathers of the American Commonwealth, and he does so by raking up and exposing all sorts of private scandals concerning them. It is shocking, for instance, to learn that the austere Benjamin Franklin, whose severities rebuked the frivolous court of Marie Antoinette, was the sire of two illegitimate children, and that he felt himself free to give some very explicit and detailed advice to a young friend who consulted him respecting the choice of a mistress.

Prof. Barnes, however, is not merely an iconoclast and scandal-monger. He is also a denunciatory specialist on the causes of the Great War of 1914, and on the responsible authors of that immense catastrophe. Again and again, as

Mr. Dick recurred to King Charles's head, in review after review, he recurs to this theme, and always with a vehement outpouring of lurid language. He will not hear of German guilt. The villains of the tragedy are, first, President Poincaré; secondly, M. Izvolski; and, thirdly, Sir Edward Grey! Nonsense of this sort has so inflamed his imagination, that he has become wholly incapable of weighing the damnatory evidence of German culpability which Lord Oxford and Lord Grey have recently published. 'From Grey's recent memoirs," he remarks, "it would seem that the best which can be said for him is that he is a less open and direct liar than Asquith." If this is a fair specimen of the style and spirit of the new history" of which Prof. Barnes claims to be an exponent, there will be many who will repeat the words consecrated by tradition and say, "The old is better." It is a pity that Prof. Barnes should show himself so subversive, so passionate, so prejudiced, so violent. For he has a good deal of knowledge; he says many useful and interesting things; and his criticisms stir thought. It is to be hoped that for the future he will eschew politics and revert to the calmer sociology of his earlier works.

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THE HEART OF THE MIDDLE AGES The Cambridge Medieval History. Planned by Prof. J. B. BURY. Edited by Dr. J. R. TANNER, C. W. PREVITEORTON, Z. N. BROOKE. Vol. V. Contest of Empire and Papacy. (50s. net. Cambridge University Press.) This magnificent volume, of more than a thousand pages, with its accompanying portfolio of maps, is well worth the fifty shillings asked for it. To every serious student of the Middle Ages it is, indeed, indispensable. It is regrettable, nevertheless, that it is necessary to charge fifty shillings for it, because at that price it is inaccessible to large numbers of students and teachers, to whom it is essential. If at the moment subventions were more popular, we should venture to suggest a grant which would enable the University Press to issue the book at the original subscription price of fifteen shillings. The period covered by the volume is roughly the century and a half A.D. 1050-1200. The limiting dates, however, are not rigidly adhered to. Prof. Stevenson's chapter on Islam, for example, begins so far back as A.D. 750; while Mr. Kingsford's on the Kingdom of Jerusalem carries forward the story to A.D. 1291. Nay more, Mr. Reade in discussing Medieval Philosophy, can find no starting point later than "the half-legendary Pythagoras," who belongs to the sixth century B.C.!

The main era treated is that great constructive age which followed the destructive and chaotic centuries of the Viking raids and the Magyar invasions-the centuries which witnessed the growth of feudalism as a system of defence against external enemies, and a system of government amid the collapse of all central administration. This feudal and militant age terminated soon after the millenial year, A.D. 1000, by which time the Vikings had ceased their maraudings and the Magyars had settled in Hungary and had entered the pale of Christendom. The eleventh century saw distinctly the dawn of happier days. It saw the rise of new movements and the stirring of novel ideas; it witnessed the growth of towns and the development of commerce; it beheld a remarkable revival and reformation of the Church, together with a striking increase in papal power and authority; it viewed the commencement of the Crusades. Its peaceful progress was, however, prevented by conflicts between now obsolete feudal lords and the waxing might of national kings, and by the still more distracting struggle between the Empire and the Рарасу.

All these matters are dealt with in masterly chapters, by experts, in the volume before us. Prof. Whitney and Mr. Brooke treat of the reform of the Church and the rise of the papal power; Mr. A. L. Poole and Count Ugo

Balzani describe the Hohenstaufen Empire; Prof. Stevenson, Mr. Kingsford, and Mr. Passant discourse on the Crusades and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem; Mr. William Corbett and Mrs. Stenton tell the story of Norman and Angevin in England; Prof. Halphen and Miss Lodge sketch the history of contemporary France. At the end of the volume four general chapters of outstanding interest and importance deal respectively with the monastic orders, Roman and Canon law, medieval education, and scholastic philosophy.

PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY IN SCHOOLS An Introduction to Physical Chemistry. By F. B. FINTER. (6s. Longmans.)

During the last couple of decades, a great change has occurred in the content and presentment of school courses in elementary chemistry. The change is most marked in the post-School Certificate stages, but it has made itself felt in the lower work as well. It consists mainly in the gradual loss of ground suffered by descriptive chemistrythe old inorganic-and the corresponding advance of physical or theoretical chemistry. The revolution is not immediately obvious to a casual observer, but that it is there will be appreciated by anyone who compares the elementary text-book of to-day with its predecessor of the year 1900. There is at the present day a closer insistence upon the general theoretical structure of the subject, and less and less detailed knowledge of fact seems to be required of the candidate at examinations. In itself this is all to the good, but there appears to be a danger that school chemistry may slowly become once more a thing chiefly of the lecture room and not of the laboratory-an issue which we should all deplore but the possibility of which cannot be ignored. The difficulty of the present situation is that theoretical chemistry is rapidly becoming re-orientated and, incidentally, re-orientated in such a fashion that it will almost certainly prove far more difficult of comprehension to the average schoolboy or schoolgirl. There is, therefore, a very real need that experienced and able teachers should publish books in which they may place at the disposal of the profession as a whole the methods they themselves have adopted in dealing with the problem. It is by no means easy to write a book of this kind; the reviewer, though not without experience, does not hesitate to admit that he had himself envisaged the task and recoiled from it. It was therefore with a feeling far from confident that he began to read Mr. Finter's book—a feeling, however, which rapidly changed to one of admiration at the skilful way in which an intricate subject is made clear, and parts of it which are normally dull to youthful students converted into themes of great interest. If we may use a chemical phrase, Mr. Finter has transmuted the base-or at least dull-metal into shining gold, with a dexterity that says much for his power for clear thinking, his ability to grasp the gist of a matter, and his insight into youthful psychology. Dividing his book into four parts, which he calls, very truly, the Foundations, the Materials, the Scaffolding and the Builder's Task, he begins with a simple account of scientific method and fundamental laws. The "materials " in Part II are the different forms of matter, gases, solutions, colloids, and their properties. Part III deals with molecular weight determinations, ions, reversible reactions, chemical energy, thermochemistry and electrochemistry. The concluding part is a simple account of the nature of matter and the atom. The most striking feature about the book is its very modern standpoint; all the older elementary physical chemistry is there, but the treatment is of the year 1926, and is therefore in refreshing contrast to that of many school text-books on chemistry, whose authors frequently appear to have lost in chemistry what they have gained in teaching ability. We know of no better book than Mr. Finter's for Higher Certificate and Scholarship Candidates, and warmly recommend it also to elementary students at the university.

The book of reproductions of drawings which is published annually by the Royal Drawing Society is well up to the standard of previous years, and is of much interest to the student of the lively powers of visualization possessed by children. The Society, as its name implies, concerns itself more with drawing as an expression of observation and thought than with the art teaching referred to above. Its work is nevertheless a most useful tributary to the main stream of art work in schools, and Mr. Ablett has been for many years an influence for good in the art education of the public.

An Outline History of Architecture of the British Isles. By P. L. DICKINSON. (15s. net. Cape.)

In his essay on history Emerson says: "Man must not deny his conviction that he is the Court, and if Egypt or Greece have anything to say to him, he will try the case; if not, let them for ever be silent." Judged by this, the only true standard by which to estimate the value of any history whatever, the verdict must be that this outline history of the architecture of the British Isles has emphatically something to say to us, and that Mr. Dickinson has said it remarkably well. One feels that his real interest is, very rightly, history after 1925. It is altogether an admirable book, good in its brief summary of the past, suggestive in its survey of the modern position, and bright in its hope for the future: as to which the author has a wholesome and we think justifiable optimism, especially for the future of domestic architecture, where our individualism can have free play. We have scarcely yet risen in our large cities to the conception of the "street as a unit." Regent Street is no longer an entity, but a collection of architectural experiments, reminiscent of the buildings of a temporary exhibition. If an abridged edition of a book such as this could be used in our schools, it would go far to foster a taste for what is fitting and beautiful, and to prevent the recurrence of such costly failures.

Simple Art Crafts and Stage Craft for Schools. By F. GARNETT. (3s. Methuen.)

The London Series of Architectuarl Examples for Students. Ist Series. Edited by B. PITE and A. R. H. JACKSON. 1. Doric Order. Temple of Theseus, Athens. 2. Doric Order. S.W. Angle of the Parthenon. 3. Ionic Order. The Mausoleum, Halicarnassos. 4. Ionic Order. Temple of the Ilissus, Athens. 5. Corinthian Order. The Pantheon, Rome. 5. Roman Doric. Theatre of Marcellus, Rome. 6. Tuscan Order. After Vignola. (7s. 6d. net. University of London Press.)

The Painter's Methods and Materials: The Handling of Pigments in Oil, Tempera, Water-Colour and in Mural Painting, the Preparation of Grounds and Canvas, and the Prevention of Discolouration, together with the Theories of Light and Colour Applied to the Making of Pictures, all described in a Practical and Non-Technical Manner. By Prof. A. P. LAURIE. (21S. net. Seeley, Service.) Building Drawing, with Notes on Building Construction: A Complete First Year's Course. By W. ABBOTT and W. MILLAR. (3s. Blackie.)

Scenes from the Life of Christ: From the Psalter of Robert de Lisle, East Anglian Illumination, Early 14th Century. (Is. British Museum.)

March: From a Series of Calendar Miniatures Painted by Simon Bening of Bruges, About A.D. 1530. (1s. British Museum.) The Last Supper: From a Book of Hours (Paris Use) Executed in France for John, Duke of Bedford, About A.D. 1423. (IS. British Museum.)

The Substance of Architecture. By A. S. G. BUTLER. (128. net. Constable.)

A Short Story of Art: From Prehistoric Times to the Present Day. For the Use of Students and General Readers. Translated from the French of Dr. A. S. BLUM. Edited and Enlarged by R. R. TATLOCK. (218. net. Batsford.) The Drawing and Construction of Animals. By W. E. LINTON. (10s. 6d. net. Chapman & Hall.)

Pestalozzi, Educational Reformer, 1746-1827: A Short Account of his Life and Work Based on De Guimps' Histoire de Pestalozzi." By J. RUSSELL. (3s. 6d. net. Allen & Unwin.)

A pleasant little account of the great educational reformer, whose centenary will be celebrated next February. It passed through several editions some years ago, and it well deserved to be re-issued at this time. A fine portrait is prefixed. Shakespeare of Stratford: A Handbook for Students. By T. BROOKE. (4s. 6d. net. Library Edition, 6s. 6d. net. New Haven: Yale University Press. London: Oxford University Press.)

Its title might lead one to fear that this hand-book propounded some new Shakespearean heresy; but the briefest glance at its contents is reassuring. More than half its bulk consists of biographical facts concerning the poet chronologically arranged and briefly, yet pointedly, annotated. Tables of the dates of Shakespeare's works and of his metrical development follow, embodying more facts that will save the student from going further afield for information on these matters. Mr. Tucker Brooke's one adventure in opinion is contained in an essay on the personality of Shakespeare, in which he argues with much cogency that Shakespeare, a country-bred" poet, has more of Stratford than of London in his plays, and that his symThe pathies and views are Plantagenet rather than Tudor. little volume should prove of both interest and value to students. Old Days in Chapel Hill: Being the Life and Letters of Cornelia Phillips Spencer. By H. S. CHAMBERLAIN. (16s. net. University of North Carolina Press. London: Oxford University Press.)

When the reader learns that Chapel Hill was the original seat of the University of North Carolina, in its earliest days a backwoods college, there may come to him something of the charm that lingers in memories of old days" in such a place. Mrs. Spencer's father was one of the early teachers in the institution a mathematician and a deeply religious man, he combined in his person the professor and the preacher. A vivid picture is drawn of the miseries of the Civil War in days newer and far less prosperous than those old days of which the earlier

chapters tell. After that War the University suffered temporary eclipse; and one of the two great purposes of Mrs. Spencer's life was to restore its pristine prosperity. Handicapped as she was in her endeavour by early widowhood, comparative poverty, and almost total deafness, Mrs. Spencer persevered, and to her great personal influence and literary power was ascribed the educating of public opinion and the consequent renascence of the University. Her second purpose, never lost sight of but pursued with undivided zeal after the attainment of the first, was to secure higher education for women. In her late life, when the educational claims of her sex had been admitted, the University for which she had done so much conferred on her the degree of LL.D. She had a genius for friendship, and one of her oldest friends was Walter H. Page. Her letters have much of the blended seriousness and humour, the naïveté and charm of Cowper's; and it is these letters that render this volume of more than local or passing interest. Thomas Carlyle. By MARY AGNES HAMILTON. (4s. 6d. net. Parsons.)

In its reaction from biographies which represented their heroes as unnaturally perfect, the present age has too frequently forgotten that sympathy is an essential quality in a biographer. Mrs. Hamilton has this quality in an unusual degree, and for that reason her book is probably the best study of Carlyle as man and philosopher that has so far been written. Not only does she, with the help of a true understanding of Scottish humour, vindicate him amply from the misjudgments of Froude. She also shows convincingly that to claim his support either for selfish individualism or for arbitrary government is woefully to misrepresent him. Her picture of him as a pioneer of socialism will startle some readers, but at the worst it will help to redress the balance. Altogether a delightful book, which should not be missed by any one who is interested in Carlyle.

The Life of James W. Alsop, LL.D., B.A. By his Wife. With an Introductory Chapter by A. BIRRELL, and a Note on Educational Work in Liverpool by C. S. JONES. (5s. net. University Press of Liverpool.)

Queen Elizabeth. By S. DARK. (2s. 6d. net. Hodder & Stoughton.) Champions of Peace. By HEBE SPAULI (3s. 6d. net. Allen & UNWIN.)

The Novels of Jane Austen: The Text Based on Collation of the Early Editions. By R. W. CHAPMAN. With Notes, Indexes, and Illustrations from Contemporary Sources. In Five Volumes. Second Edition. Vol. I. Sense and Sensibility. Vol. II. Pride and Prejudice. Vol. III. Mansfield Park. Vol. IV. Emma. Vol. V. Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. (5s. net each volume. Clarendon Press.) Handy editions of Jane Austen's novels, suitable for the general reader, already existed. Here is an edition, scholarly in the best sense of the term, with an outfit of introductions, notes, and appendixes. It was extremely important that this work, though done thoroughly, should not be overdone. Mr. Chapman has fulfilled the double requirement most admirably. The text has been carefully revised, the notes are nowhere impertinent, and the appendixes are most interesting -witness, for example, the study of "Miss Austen's English in Volume I. The reprints of the old title-pages convey a suggestion of real contact with the originals, and the illustrations from contemporary sources are excellent. The five volumes are most suitable for presentation purposes, and for the purposes of school or college libraries.

Pomona, or, The Future of English. By B. DE SELINCOURT. (2s. 6d. net. Kegan Paul.)

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Many languages have developed from seedlings into the full maturity of trees and thereafter fallen into decay. Is this to be the life-history of English? The comparison of a language to a tree has possibly suggested the title, Pomona being the Roman divinity of fruit trees; and its title, as well as its stimulating thought, brings the " pamphlet into line with others of the To-day and To-morrow series, of which this is one of the latest. "The leaves (of this tree of English) are our conversations, the roots are our experience, the trunk and boughs our literature." How is decay to be avoided? Changes in our speech there have been, there are, and there shall be. These are wider and swifter now than ever, for varied climate and environment notably affect language; and hence EnglishEnglish and American-English have marked differences. But in this competitive English there is vitality and the spirit of freedom and toleration on which its future depends. Let us beware of standardization or uniformity which leads to death. Let the final exponents of correctness of speech be the great writers of English, who lived before they wrote: in whom the practical and the poetical were combined. Our language would thus seem to be possessed of nature's secret of growth. Here is fresh and suggestive thought quite different from most speculations on the destiny of our language.

A Dictionary of English Pronunciation with American Variants (in Phonetic Transcription). By H. E. PALMER, J. V. MARTIN, and F. G. BLANDFORD. (5s. net. Heffer.)

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Is there such a thing as American pronunciation, as distinct from Amurrican dialects? Or is there only one good pronunciation of English, the same for America as for Britain ? Mr. Palmer holds that, whatever the correct theory may be, there is a difference in practice between English and American speech. Hence his dictionary, which has the further aim of providing foreign students with a key to what is called the narrower system of English phonetic notation.

Essays of To-Day and Yesterday. A. G. GARDINER. AUGUSTINE BIRRELL. (Is. net each. Harrap.)

Two attractive additions to a series which ought to be, if it is not, on the railway bookstalls as well as in the schools. (1) The World Revealed-France. Travel Tales Selected and Edited by A. RIDGWAY. (2) Chaucer and Spenser. Contrasted as Narrative Poets by G. BOAS. (3) Shakespeare's Tragedy of King Lear. Edited by EVELYN SMITH. (Is. 9d. each. Nelson.)

Three new volumes of Sir H. Newbolt's " Teaching of English" series. The Travel Tales" (1) would make an admirable bedside book for the elders, as well as a good class-book for the youngsters. Mr. Guy Boas (2) presents his skilfully-chosen specimens with a lively introduction, somewhat of the university extension type. King Lear" (3) has very brief notes, but an appendix with many excellent suggestions for “thinking over the play.

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A Junior Course of English Grammar and Composition. Part II. By L. MARSH and G. N. GOODMAN. (2s. 3d. Blackie.) Part II of the Junior Course is intended for the use of pupils of 13 to 14 years of age and treats of the complex sentence in the manner adopted in Part I for the simple sentence. The exercises are well chosen, abundant, and interesting.

Dent.)

For Sons of Gentlemen. By K. SHAW. (7s. 6d. net. This is a school story in which neither day-boys nor boarders play any conspicuous part, nor is there any psychological muddle as far as the staff are concerned. The interest centres in " Straye," a school of ancient foundation on the outskirts of South London. We are shown the narrow snobbery caused by the unwillingness of the governing body to depart from a policy of exclusion entirely at variance with the expressed wishes of the original founder but popular with parents, particularly mothers. Our sympathies are enlisted on behalf of the struggling, harassed housemasters and the underpaid, illequipped staff. The War, Burnham scales, pensions, and the A.M.L. play their respective parts in bringing matters to a climax, and a happy solution is found with the help of the London County Council and the Board of Education. In his dedication to 'R. F. C.," the author expresses a gratitude which is shared by all teachers in secondary schools.

To Meet Mr. Stanley. By DOROTHY JOHNSON. (7s. 6d. net. Longmans.)

Margaret Carroll, nearly thirty and unmarried, is a teacher at a boys' preparatory school. On her solitude and spinsterhood intrudes Arthur Fisher, a junior master at the same school, several years younger than she, large and clumsy, very cautious, but, withal, kindly and good-tempered. The story ranges round the daily incidents of a preparatory school and Margaret's contacts with Mr. Stanley, the headmaster, and with his wife, but implied, rather than definitely stated, is the struggle within Margaret as to her right course of action. Should she marry without love, in order to get away from teaching and spinsterhood? She decides to do so, and we are left with a troubled feeling as to the wisdom of her choice. The book, dealing as it does with a problem familiar enough but not often stated, is interesting and Margaret's character well drawn.

The Writing of English: a Text-Book of Composition. By M. DRENNAN and J. G. LAWRIE. With a Special Chapter on the Short Story. (4s. Johannesburg, South Africa: Central News Agency, London: Gordon & Gotch.)

In a work admirably adapted to its purpose three sections show special merit: that on prepositions, vital to the overseas born; that on vocabulary, with its tabulation of mis-used words, like aggravate; and that on prose rhythm, a subject that few would have cared to tackle in so short a space. The Golden Company: Stories of Buddha, Asoka, Kalidasa, Padmani, Kabir, Chaitanya, Tulsi Das, Akbar, Nur Jahan, Mumtaz Mahal, Aurangzib, Sivaji, Ram Mohun Roy, Dayanand, Toru Dutt, Gopal Krishna Gokhale. By R. É. ROBINSON. (IS. 6d. net. Oxford University Press.) Intended for Indian schools, and part of a series in which stories from the native history and literature are told in language suitable for students in the upper grades of High Schools, this little work, written without bias, might well be employed to give to English children, who are usually unaware that India had any history prior to the European conquests, a better knowledge of their fellow-subjects in Hindustan. For this purpose, however, a glossary of such terms as sannyasi (page 49) would be desirable.

The Grip-Fast English Books: an Anthology of Prose and Verse for Schools. Compiled by F. O. FORBES. Book V. The Spirit of Chivalry. (2s. 3d.) Book VI. The Spirit of Literature. (2s. 6d. Longmans.) Nothing common-place or trivial is to be met with in these latest volumes of a series distinguished by good taste, but the same cannot be said of misprints, of which there are several. Furness (V, p. 148), presumably for Furnes, is particularly unfortunate.

Arabic Literature: An Introduction. By H. A. R. GIBB. (2s. 6d. net. Oxford University Press.)

The purpose of "The World's Manuals," is to map out for the student a special course of study, and to enlarge the outlook of the general reader. The latest volume, Mr. Gibbs' comprehensive and scholarly survey of Arabic literature, is well fitted for both of these ends. To those who think of Arabic literature in terms of only the Koran and "The Arabian Nights," it will come as a surprise to learn that in the dark and early Middle Ages Moslem libraries contained as many as 120,000 volumes dealing with such subjects as theology, medicine, philology, mathematics, law, philosophy, and poetry. Herrick, Wordsworth, Heine, and others, had their Arab prototypes. Hellenic, Persian, and Indian thought profoundly influenced Arabic

writers. Baghdad, Cairo, Cordova were successively their intellectual centres; and in spite of the blight that invariably followed Turkish conquest of Arab provinces, Arabic culture has in some sort followed the Koran from Mahomet's country to the ends of the earth.

Essay on Clive. By MACAULAY. (IS. 3d. Blackie.)
Utopia. By Sir THOMAS MORE. (IS. 3d. Blackie.)

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The Life of Sir Thomas More. By WM. ROPER. (IS. 3d. Blackie.) These charming little volumes, handy for the pocket and attractive on the bookshelf, are further selections from Blackie's English Texts," selections, which are gradually forming Library of Golden Prose." Most of the subjects chosen are obtainable in other, if less delectable, editions; but Roper's quaint and delightful Life of Sir Thomas More" is of the rara avis species.

Puck of Pook's Hill. By RUDYARD KIPLING. School Edition. (4s. Macmillan.)

The Jungle Book. The Second Jungle Book. By RUDYARD KIPLING. School Edition. (4s. each. Macmillan.)

In the outward attractions of binding, paper, type, and illustration, these volumes of a school edition of Kipling are all one could desire; but their stiff price (for which presumably the publishers are not entirely responsible) is, we fear, beyond all but select schools and wealthy parents. After all, however, inward attractiveness is the main thing, and one should set a high value on Kipling.

Plutarch's Lives of Greek Heroes: From the Translation of J. and W. Langhorne. With an Historical Introduction, and an Appendix of Biography, Geography, Literature, and Classical Antiquities, contributed by D. FREW. (25. Blackie.)

Children's Interests in Reading. By Prof. A. M. JORDAN. (7s. net. University of North Carolina Press. London: Oxford University Press.)

The Flower of Gold and Other Legends: From the French of Albert Meyrac. By DOROTHY KING. (IS. 4d. Blackie.) Reliquiae. By A. D. GODLEY. Edited by C. R. L. FLETCHER. 2 Vols. (18s. net. Oxford University Press.)

The Gentle Craft. By T. DELONEY. (10d. Blackie.)

The Lives of Alcibiades and Demosthenes. By PLUTARCH. (10d.
Blackie.)

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1. Prometheus Bound of Aeschylus: A Metrical II. Prometheus Unbound. By C. W. MENDELL. (9s. net. New Haven: Yale University Press. London: Oxford University Press.)

"

A translator of the Prometheus Bound" challenges comparison with many predecessors, both able and distinguished. But there is always room for a fresh translation as natural and pleasing as Mr. Mendell's. If here and there his version seems a little commonplace, that is mainly because he never seeks to avoid the commonplace by preciosity or affectation of any kind. But if boldness is required to translate Aeschylus, how much more is needed to supply a " Prometheus Unbound"? Mr. Mendell imagines the deliverance of the Titan to have come through the willingness of Cheiron the Centaur to offer himself as a substitute, the offer being accepted by Zeus. The dramatic interest is well sustained, and neither in blank verse nor in rhymed chorus does the poetry of the invented sequel fall much below that of the translated drama. This is high praise, but it is justified.

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"Come, Love, and let us talk awhile together,

Distract me from my wrathful mood, lord, pray;
Singing our lady's praise, let us see whether
We cannot lightly pass the time away.

Truly the journey would be sooner done,

Taking such dainty provender with us,

And blithesomely the homeward course would run,
Praising her worth and hearing it praised thus."

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PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS IN SCHOOLS.-With the growing belief in the importance of psychology in schools, it is important for teachers to know something of the practical results which are being obtained in this field. Mr. Leslie Fouracre, of the Secondary School, Barrow-in-Furness, described in the November issue of the Forum of Education his experiments in testing mathematical ability. Recognizing that educational attainment depends on two factors, general intelligence and a special capacity limited to a particular subject, he sets out to test mathematical capacity, as distinct from general attainment and intelligence, in boys of average age 12 years. He finds that there is evidence of specific arithmetical ability and specific geometrical ability, and that these two types of ability are only slightly related to one another. In another article in the same issue of The Forum, Dr. C. S. Slocombe, of the Teachers' Training College, Auckland, New Zealand, records some experiments on The Influence of Practice in Mental Tests." He recommends that a quarter of the time devoted to a mental test should be regarded as practice and remain unmarked. Further, if children are examined twice by similar tests, then the second test is almost unaffected by previous experience of tests; he suggests therefore that the marks won in a second test only should count in important cases. Related to this subject is a paper by G. H. Hanumantha Rao and M. V. Gopalaswamy in Psychological Studies (Vol. I), from the Psychological Laboratory, Maharaja's College, University of Mysore (Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 2s. 6d.), on the chance factor" in intelligence tests of the selective type. They find that among children, two-thirds to three-quarters of the answers given are guesses, and this chance element appears to increase on passing from more intelligent to less intelligent groups. A method is described of estimating an index of the chance factor.