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this very dry and unpalatable manner. They should suggest thoughts and not rest satisfied with narrating facts.

Palæstra stili Latini, or Materials for Translation into Latin prose. By Benjamin Hall Kennedy, D.D., Prebendary of Lichfield. Pp. 412. London: Longmans, 1855.

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This book consists of extracts taken from all kinds of works; the compiler says from "the best prose authors, ample in number, various in style, instructive in matter, and gradually advancing in difficulty." the first place, they are only from some of the best writers, and certainly a collection which, omitting Warburton, De Foe, Sir Thomas Brown, Latimer, William Cobbett, and Junius, culls from Mayo, Abeken, Bolton, " Bozzy,' and a lot of anonymous miscellaneous MS., has very little pretension to the credit of completeness. There are, however, out of the 676 extracts in the book, some very good ones for the purpose. The author would have better answered his end of gradually increasing the difficulty of those passages for translation, had he commenced chiefly with those which were themselves translations from Latin authors; these are generally the easiest, and they possess the advantage of a key to the accuracy of the translation when done.

The matter is not always instructive, and sometimes very objectionable. Addison's nonsense, for example, that a charge of telling a lie, even in jest, can only be expiated by blood, ought not to have obtained a place in any collection which purports to go into the hands of young people. Very many, however, of the extracts convey useful knowledge and sound morals, and are unexceptionable.

Walford's Classical Cards. Nos. I. and II.

London: Longmans.,

These cards present to the eye at a single glance the elements of Latin and Greek accidence; the inflections of nouns, pronouns, and verbs; in short, all that is required for the ordinary formation of cases, tenses, &c. For the purpose of reference, they will be found very valuable, so much time being usually lost in turning over the pages of a grammar before the particular subject required is discovered.

The Life of Alderman Kelly. By the Rev. R. C. Fell.

London.

Groombridge:

This is a narrative of the private and official life of a very good man, who, like many others, have risen from a humble position to the lord mayoralty of London. He seems to have been a religious and industrious

man.

We

Handbook of Natural Philosophy. By Dion. Lardner, D.C.L. Pp. 408. This volume embraces the interesting subjects of hydrostatics, pneumatics, and heat, and most ably and popularly are they treated. have seldom, if ever, seen scientific subjects so successfully presented to ordinary intelligence, and so thoroughly divested of all technical hindrances to its comprehension. The work is beautifully got up, and well and carefully illustrated by woodcuts.

LITTLE BOOKS.

Horace; Epistles and Ars Poetica.-Latin Texts, with Notes. (Oxford and London : J. H. & J. Parker.) Another most accurate and well-noted Edition of this favourite poet. The Notes to this are the best that we have yet seen. The parallel passages, alias plagiarisms, of Pope and Dryden, forming the Ars Poetica, are not forgotten; and apart from the critical matter, they contain illustrations and comments which add vastly to the interest of the text. We wish that the very spirited publishers would direct the printer to bestow a separate paragraph to each note; they really deserve such distinction,—and the reader probably will agree, that he deserves this facility likewise.

Euripides. Greek Texts, with Notes. (London and Oxford: J. H. Parker, 1855.) This is also an accurate edition, and the Notes are learned, and well adapted to aid the reader without exempting him from the necessity of research and study.

The British Workman.-The Band of Hope Review and Almanack.-The SundaySchool Union Class-Books. These are all good, the latter especially so. Round the Almanack are arranged some very useful hints.

First Lessons in Rational Arithmetic. By W. Hardcastle. Teacher's copy, pp. 125; Pupil's, pp. 73. (London: Relfe, 1852.) This is a useful little book, as far as it goes; and to some teachers, who have not the faculty of framing questions out of their own heads, must be invaluable. We would recommend the author to bring out another edition, and to go beyond the four rules of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Ettling's Drawing-room Atlas of Europe. Pp. 16. (London: Longmans, 1855.) School Atlas of Physical Geography. Pp. 136. London: National Society's Repository, 1855.

Mr. Ettling has compiled, in this Drawing-room Atlas, a remarkably useful and prettily-got-up volume. The maps are well printed and prettily coloured, and that of the British Isles contains the population as taken from the census of 1851, and also gives that of the larger towns and cities separately.

The National Society have done well in binding together their School Atlas of Physical Geography, at the commencement of which is a most useful description of each map.

Parker's Church Calendar and General Almanack for 1856. (London and Oxford: J. H. Parker.) This is good in its way, and what it contains is accurate; but omissions have been made which had better not have occurred; for instance, the list of Training Institutions is imperfect, for if any are mentioned, why leave out the Carnarvon, Culham, Home and Colonial, and Stapleton, and insert Kneller Hall, which was just about to close when the Calendar went to press. Much useful matter is also not given which might have been more appropriately inserted than the list of the House of Commons on the probable eve of a dissolution, or the account of the Funded Debt.

Statistic View of the Population, Religions, and Languages of Europe, Transcaucasia, and Turkey in Asia, in 1855. By Ed. Ravenstein. Pp. 16. (London: Stanford.) These maps are nicely coloured, and the printing well executed. The first is called the Population Map of Europe, in which the shading exhibits the various degrees of density of the population in the European States, and all towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants are represented with black spots.

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The second is called the Nationalities Map, and instead of the countries being designated by their names, they are marked thus-English, Welsh, Irish, Spaniards, French, Dutch, Flemish, Wends, &c. &c., and on p. 9, are given the numbers of each nation divided into two groups.

The third, called the Religion Map of Europe, is coloured in six different ways, which colouring enables us to see at a glance what religion predominates in each country, each religion having its own peculiar colour: thus, the Protestants are painted red; the Heathen, blue; Armenians, striped red and white; Greek Church, yellow; Roman Catholics, lilac; and Mahomedans, green. And there is an Arithmetical Table of the numbers of each religion in the different quarters of the globe. Du Style et de la Composition Littéraire. Par Monsieur Antonia Roche. (Paris: Delalaiu. London: Longmans.) Pp. 243. 1856. This book is evidently a work of great merit, but we must delay our notice of it till a future occasion.

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Catechism of Practical Agriculture. By Henry Stephens, F. R. S. E. Pp. 76. (London and Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1855.) A very good work, arranged in questions and answers, and conveys a great deal of useful information, both for boys going out into farm-service and for girls learning dairy work. There are nice woodcuts with all the usual farming implements, cattle-roots, &c. The chief objections we have to the book are, first, that it is in the catechetical form; secondly, that it is too terse, and too entirely in the affirmative. As regards the first objection, useful space is lost, and repetition incurred; ex. gr. :—“ Of what form is the plungechurn?' "A plunge churn is an upright cylinder of wood with a flat plunger,' &c. &c. Now, in the first place, what occasion is there to ask the prefatory question? It is answered twice over, first in words, and secondly by a woodcut, and thirdly, by the explanation of the woodcut. Is this not enough? This book is made catechetical purely in order to make it a catechism, and a large amount of italic is thus utterly wasted. The second objection is a still more serious one, but the book omits the mention of prevalent mistakes and blunders in farming operations, and which it is so necessary to put people on their guard against. We hope there will soon be a new edition, for the book is meritorious and well worth revision and a second edition.

Excelsior: Reading made easy. By George Vasey. Pp. 64. (London: F. Pitman, 1855.) This is a nice little book, with much useful information.

The Governess. (London: Darton.) Some of the more practical papers in this monthly magazine are useful. There are others which are less unobjectionable. There is an attack on Gleig's Series of School Books, in which the system of writing school books by H. M. Inspectors under the Committee of Council is condemned as jobbery, and actual "peculation" is impliedly imputed to them. The Editor ought to know that Mr. Gleig, in the first place, is not one of H. M. Inspectors of Schools, or under the Committee of Council at all. Gleig's Series, published by Messrs. Longmans, and notoriously written by a variety of highly-esteemed school authors, are, not very fairly, depreciated on the strength of some errors and inaccuracies of style, which have been discovered in one only of these numerous publications. "The Governess" would probably think it not a little harsh to condemn that publication for its wretched style and bad English Grammar, simply because such a passage as this can be quoted verbatim, as we give it, from one of its articles :

"Or take an example from earlier life. Poor little Harry has been sitting in mournful silence for the last half-hour. He is engaged with that pleasant and interesting subject, the Multiplication Table. It is his first essay, and he has to learn by rote from once times one to eight times eight. He says he has said it over to himself a million times, but he don't know it now. If you dodge him he turns pale, and either madly shoots wide of the mark or is silent. But suppose the introduction to have taken place under other auspices: a piece of chalk, a black board, and ten minutes' lively chat thereon, a dozen or two *** or 0 0 0 0, and a few changes of position, will bring back the colour to his cheek, the light into his eyes, and hope into his heart. He will find that he has got a memory after all."

SERIALS.

Chambers' Educational Course; History of Ancient Greece; Tales for Young Men; Windycote Hall.

Question and Answer.

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MUSICAL NOTATION.- What is the origin of the use of the names of the notes in music -P.X.Q.

Answer. The French were first
from a hymn of Paulus Diaconus to St.
Ut queant laxis
Re-sonare fibris
Mi-ra gestorum
Fa-muli tuorum

used by Guido, and were taken by him John the Baptist; the words were—

Sol-ve polluti
La-bii reatum,
Sa-ncte Johannes.

In which these syllables are the first of each hemistich. Instead of ut the Italians have adopted do, as being of a softer sound, and the seventh of the scale was not named until it received its appellation, si, from a French teacher named Le Maire, in the beginning of the seventeenth century.

Entelligence.

UNITED ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOLMASTERS, 1855. Abstract of the Report of the Acting Committee, read at the Annual Meeting,

27th December.

THE Acting Committee were able to state at the last Annual Meeting, that the first year of the existence of the Association had been a period of steady natural growth, such as to give promise of a healthy and vigorous development with the course of time. They have now the pleasure to report, that the second year has been marked by a similar progress, and that therefore their anticipation has been so far fulfilled. Members. During the past year there has been an accession of nearly fifty new members, while there have been remarkably few cases of falling off. The Association now numbers about 250 members, of whom 100 reside in or near the Metropolis, and the main body of the others in various parts of England, Wales, and Scotland; but they have also the pleasure to count among their associates teachers residing in the Channel Islands, and in the distant Colonies, and one French Schoolmaster residing in Paris.

Local Associations in Union.-A Branch Association has been established at Staines, and it is hoped that others will be formed in many parts of the country, as it is mainly by the establishment of such associations that the realization of the original scheme of the Institution can be effected.

Finances.-Besides the expenses incurred during the year, the Committee has been enabled to pay £16 off the debt of £40 which they had to report at the last Anniversary Meeting. They have to mention with special commendation the exertions of Mr. John Drage, Master of the Croydon British School, on behalf of the Association. The fact that the Committee have been unable to clear off the whole of the debt has induced them to come to the conclusion, that though it is desirable to obtain, and reasonable to expect, pecuniary support, yet the stability and success of the Institution should not be jeopardized by being made to depend in any measure on such precarious and fortuitous aid; they consider that the only secure and satisfactory basis on which the Society can rest is that of self-support. This opinion has been confirmed by the views and feelings which many of the members have expressed to them in reply to their calls for the collection of funds; they accordingly recommend, that the annual subscription of membership should be raised, from half-a-crown to five shillings in the case of Schoolmasters, and from one shilling to half-a-crown in the case of Schoolmistresses. The subscription is due on the first day of the year, and the change can therefore conveniently take place forthwith, if the Meeting should adopt the recommendation. The Committee are anxious, however, that a special effort should be made on this occasion to liquidate the present deficit of £24; if this be done, they undertake to supply the members, free of expense, with printed copies of the lectures and addresses delivered before the Association at the annual and other general meetings, so far as the funds at their disposal shall enable them. Mr. Baker, the author of the "Circle of Knowledge," offers to make one of twelve, or one of twenty, of the members, to contribute a twelfth or a twentieth of the debt now due, providing the Association can be made in future self-supporting by its subscriptions. Library. The want of funds has continued to prevent the Committee from carrying into execution the project of a permanent exhibition of School Books and Apparatus. The difficulty is, to provide a suitable place in which to exhibit them; the Committee are not without hope, however, that the managers of some one of the London schools may be able to grant the use of a room for the purpose, as a temporary arrangement. On the subject of School Books, the Kent and Sussex Schoolmasters' Association has submitted to the Committee a resolution, which they have forwarded to the other Associations in union, but without receiving any reply; it is to the effect, "That the interests of Education, and justice to authors of School Books, and to the Bookselling Trade, require either that the Government Schedules be revised (with a view to supply some omissions), and other books of known merit placed on them; or that Book Grants be made irrespective of a prescribed List."

General Meetings. To increase the efficiency of the Association, the Committee lately decided on holding Monthly General Meetings for the reading of Papers and the giving of Model Lessons. Two meetings have accordingly been held, at which Papers have been read by the President and by Mr. Shepherd respectively. The Committee recommend that such meetings should be regularly held for the future; but that, as a necessary arrangement, the Association should hold an Annual Session, extending from September to May inclusive, for both General and Committee Meetings.

THE CHRISTMAS EXAMINATIONS of School Teachers and Students have been unusually well attended, and the papers, of which we shall give some specimens, are on the whole excellent.

THE DEAN OF HEREFORD has given a stirring Address on Education to the Huddersfield Mechanics' Institution, attended by 1,000 persons.

TEACHERS HOLDING UNION SCHOOL CERTIFICATES OF COMPETENCY AND EFFICIENCY, having served three years, are now to be admitted as Queen Scholars to training-schools.

THE SCOTTISH EDUCATIONAL Journal has terminated an able and useful career, to the great discredit of those who ought to have appreciated its value.

EDUCATIONAL BOOKS PUBLISHED IN DECEMBER.

Æschylus' Tragedies. Re-edited, with English Commentary, by F. A. Paley. 8vo.
Whittaker & Co.

Aristotle the Politics. With English Notes by R. Congreve. 8vo. J. W. Parker.
Aristotle the Politics. With English Notes by W. C. Eaton. 8vo. Longmans.
Horace Odes and Epodes. With Notes by Young. 12mo. Weale.
Quintilian's Institutes of Oratory. Translated. 8vo. Bohn.

Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon Abridged. Fifth Edition, 12mo. cloth. J. H. & Jas. Parker.

Kennedy's Palæstra Stili Latini. 12mo. Longmans.

Walford's Greek Accidence, on a Card.
Walford's Latin Accidence, on a Card.
Walford's Latin Prosody, on a Card.
Woodford's Table of Latin Verbs.
Geddes' Greek Grammar. 12mo.

8vo. Longmans.

8vo. Longmans. 8vo. Longmans. Simpkin & Co. Simpkin & Co.

Habersak's Conversational French Phrases. 16mo. Theobald.
French in a Fortnight. 12mo. sewed. Groombridge.

Oake's Essence of French Grammar. 12mo. Hamilton & Co.

Bernstein's German Reader. Third Edition, 12mo. Williams & Norgate.

Faris's Practical Grammar of the Arabic Language. 12mo. Quaritch.

Muller's Languages of the Seat of War. Second Edition, 12mo. Williams & Norgate. Michod's Orthographic Aids. 8vo. Longmans.

Liddell's History of Rome. 2 vols. 8vo. Murray.

Blew's Agamemnon of Eschylus. Longmans.

Thring's Construing Book. Bell.

Barrett's Propositions in Mechanics. Bell.

Woodmass's First, Second, and Third Books of Euclid. Bell.

Fischel's German Reading-Book. Nutt.

Smith's History of Greece. New Edition. Murray.

Notices.

Mr. Tilleard's Introductory Article on the Study of Music, the Index and Title-page of Vol. IX., several Letters, Questions and Answers, and Notes of Books, are reluctantly postponed till our next number, owing to press of matter and advertisements.

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*** We again particularly beg that letters relating either to advertisements or business, as well as orders, be directed not to the Editor, but to our Publishers, MESSRS. GROOMBRIDGE, and so to reach them a fulĺ week before publication.

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