committee of the Lower Chamber. It is therefore probable that it will become the law. The government has also presented a bill augmenting the appropriations for pensions-the funds are to be increased from the fees exacted from candidates who apply for the examination for the newly created certificate of primary studies. The fee is five francs ($1.00), one-half is to go to the examiners and the other half to the pension fund. GERMANY. In accordance with a decision of the school board of Berlin, the classes of the primary schools of that city will henceforth be limited to sixty-six pupils in the lower grades and sixty in the upper. The total number of elementary pupils in the city is 175,620, and of classes, 3,206. From a table comprising sixty-eight cities, it appears that the number of pupils per class ranges from forty-nine to eighty-two. Higher Education of Women. - The government of Baden favors the admission of women to the university courses, the faculty of Fribourg takes the same position, Heidelburg maintains opposition. A. T. S. AMONG THE BOOKS. To accommodate readers who may wish it, the Publishers of EDUCATION will send, post-paid, on receipt of price, any book reviewed in these columns. Under the title of Modern French Series, Dr. Edward H. Magill is editing the choicest works of modern French writers. The first of this series consists of two stories by Francisque Sarcey, entitled LE PIANO DE JEANNE, and QUI PERD GAGNE. The books in this series are designed to be used as reading books by students in schools and colleges, and the annotations are designed to aid the beginner in reading and in understanding the numerous idiomatic expressions in which French writers indulge. The notes are free from grammatical technicalities and are models of clearness and precision. The stories selected are among the choicest of Sarsey's and are clean, wholesome, and pure in tone and diction. An admirable biographical sketch of Sarsey is given, with an excellent portrait. Other volumes in the series will follow rapidly. Philadelphia: Christopher Sower Company. Price, 60 cents. THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS IN SCOTLAND is a valuable little pamphlet containing notes made during the summer of 1892, by Dr. Jerome Allen, Professor of Pedagogy in the University of the city of New York. Dr. Allen is an accomplished, able writer and in these pages shows how rapidly the universities of Scotland are coming to "recognize teaching as one of the studies of a university course." We also learn with interest that in four months all the universities of Scotland will be open to women as well as to men. The Comedy of the MERCHANT OF VENICE has been edited with an introduction and notes for use in schools and added to the growing series of English classics for schools. This is the third of Shakespeare's plays now in this series. New York: American Book Co. Price, 20 cents. We have read with much interest THE CONFESSIONS OF A CONVICT, a book which sets forth the deeds of the famous burglar, James Hope and his prison life at "Copper John's," the Auburn (N. Y.), State prison, as told by his prison chum, "19,759." The book is edited by Julian Hawthorne. Here is an inside and wonderfully realistic portraiture of criminals and prison life. The good and bad qualities of Hope are vividly depicted. Good qualities he certainly had; most criminals have redeeming qualities. Hope was a kind and true husband, a loving father, and true as steel to his confreres. Prison diction is freely used; case for dollar, con for convict, gopher for safe, sugar for money, zebu for convict, etc., and add piquancy to the narrative. The last sixty pages are given to prison life as seen by the keepers and to female prisoners. It is a very readable book. Rufus C. Hartranft. Philadelphia, Pa. THE LAST SENTENCE, by Maxwell Gray, author of "The Silence of Dean Maitland," is a thrilling, fascinating tale. The chief characters are Marlowe, a young Englishman of good family and superior abilities, and a lovely, ignorant, unsophisticated Breton lass, Renée Kéronac. With a firm, true and very skillful hand the author brings out the life tints. We see the young scholar, recovering from sickness, meeting the beautiful, healthy peasant girl, also his injuries received from her brutal lover; then, after being nursed back to health, Marlowe marries his lovely nurse. A little later he places her in school and returns to England. He he meets a noble English girl and becomes engaged. His wife comes to England with her baby girl, but Marlowe turns his back on her and a day or so later she is found dead in the snow, near his door. He marries, rears a family, becomes a judge, and finally is called on to sentence to death his own daughter by his murdered wife. He does so, and then falls stricken by a deadly stroke. This daughter's innocence is proved at the last moment. The interest is sustained to the end. It is a powerful, tragic story. Few scenes in modern writing surpass those in which Renée sees her husband to whom she is rushing with beaming countenance, deliberately turn his back to her and skate away, or that, a score of years later, where in his intense agony, Justice Marlowe discharges his duty as a magistrate and sentences his own flesh and blood to death by hanging. Tait, Sons & Co., New York. Price, $1.50. There are now forty-five bound volumes of the CENTURY magazine. The last, which is just at hand, includes in its 960 great pages the six numbers, November, 1892 to April, 1893. Did this massive volume only hold the wonderfully interesting "Letters of Two Brothers,” General Sherman and Senator John Sherman, and the papers by Archibald Forbes on "War Correspondence as a Fine Art," and "What I Saw of the Paris Commune," it would be well worth its price. But these are only a few of its treasures, Mark Twain, Aldrich, Matthews, Page, Eggleston, Dr. Gladden, Mrs. Harrison, Octave Thanet, Rudyard Kipling, Janvier, Riley and many others have added richness and value to this volume. The illustrations also are numerous and among the best known to art. The Century Co., New York. Price, $3.00. DEAREST, by Mrs. Forrester, author of "Diana Carew," "Dolores," etc., is a readable tale of English life which sets forth the adventures of a tactful young governess, whereby she rose to the position of mistress of a fine estate. The book has the merit of being interesting from the first chapter to the last, but is not deep, and is hardly healthful in its estimates of the mission of woman and the virtue of truthfulness. For mature readers it will help to pass away a summer day. New York: Tait, Sons & Co. From the Hygienic School Furniture Co. of New York, we have received a twenty-page circular which sets forth in convincing language the dire effects following the improper seating of children in school. Extracts are given from the reports of physicians and savants who have studied this subject, and their opinion is unanimous that there should be used in every school-room adjustable desks and seats. The subject is of very great importance. It concerns the health of coming generations. This pamphlet will be read with interest, not only by all school officers and teachers, but by parents everywhere. It may be had by writing to the Hygienic School Furniture Co., 150 Nassau St., New York City. The new and ever new education makes continuous demands for new and ever new text-books. The changes that have been made in text-books on language, geography, history, etc., have been in response to these demands. Text-books in arithmetic have probably undergone fewer changes than any of the other books to be used in schools, although the later text-books in this subject have almost entirely been made on the inductive plan. The latest textbooks on arithmetic that have come to our table are two books under the title of the Normal Course in Number, one on ADVANCED ARITHMETIC, the other on ELEMENTARY ARITHMETIC. The authors are John W. Cook, and Miss N. Cropsey. There are many points in these two books which are to be commended, the problems are for the most part new, the statement of methods concise, the definitions lucid. But there is nothing strikingly new in either book, they are both made on traditional and conventional lines. None of the trite subjects are omitted, but few are cast over into the appendix. In percentage we observe that such subjects as Taxes, United States Revenue, Annual Interest, Exchange, Equation of Payments, etc., subjects which are now taught in but few schools, and of no practical importance whatever, are here treated in extenso. These should be relegated to an appendix, or better still, entirely omitted from school text-books in arithmetic. There is to be noticed also that in the Advanced books there is a surprising lack of mental or oral problems. This is a serious omission. Boston: Silver, Burdett & Co. In A PATHFINDER IN AMERICAN HISTORY, the authors, Wilbur F. Gordey and W. I. Twitchell, both practical teachers, both principals of schools, have given the teacher and pupil such an abundance of matter in every conceivable form, that the users of the book will be embarrassed with riches. So multifarious are the methods and devices, so generous is the supply of interesting facts and details, that one is bewildered when the fulness of the book is revealed. When so much is given it is well nigh impossible to specify points of excellence. In a word it may be said that for a guide and help to the teacher and student no work of its kind has ever approached it. It furnishes all that the teacher of American history will require in giving lessons on this subject, and the student will have abundant material with which to delve into the rich stores of our nation's history. Boston: Lee & Shepard. Price, $1.20. "Those who condemn the pursuit of happiness reveal the baseness of their own conception of it." Daniel G. Brinton, LL. D., the erudite scholar and ethnologist, has, in the leisure moments from his severer labors on peoples and places, turned his thought upon subjects which most engross mankind, and under the title of THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, A Book of Studies and Strowings, has given a careful study of happiness, pleasure, etc. "Rules for happiness are worth studying, even if they are no better than the rules for writing poetry: which are said to prevent ill poets, if they never make good ones." Dr. Brinton believes fully in the pursuit of happiness and discusses the means to that end. His philosophy is not deep nor musty, and his thoughts are true and readable. It is a good book for the young to read. Its maxims are sound, its teachings lead to a broader view of life, and its tone is elevated and pure throughout. Philadelphia: David McKay. Price, $1.00. A HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY, from the Renaissance to the Present, by B. C. Burt, A. M., is a somewhat ambitious attempt to exhibit the historical continuity of modern philosophical thought, and to furnish to students materials and stimulus for the final value of ideas and things. Necessarily the work must partake largely of the nature of an epitome of systems and the endeavor to connect the various systems or to show the thought running through all of them, must be a task not easy to accomplish satisfactorily. But Mr. Burt is an indefatigable student, and he has done his stent as well as could be expected in the limited space assigned him. He thoroughly understands the importance of his undertaking, and he is a close reasoner, quick to seize upon the salient features of a system and, lucid in expression. The work is a splendid exhibit of tireless study and research, and deserves high recognition. It is published in two volumes by A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago. Price, $4.00. PERIODICALS. Ernest Richard, Principal Hoboken Academy is the author of an instructive pamphlet on The German School System, the Prussian schools being taken as a standard. It is a critical survey of the system and is accompanied by an illustrative chart.-Queen & Co., Philadelphia, publish considerable information concerning the World's Columbian Exposition and their own great exhibit there. The Journal of Education of May 18th reprints an admirable address by the late Bishop Brooks on "Milton as an Educator," which was read before the Massachusetts Teachers Association, Dec. 29, 1874, and printed in the Journal the following March. Every teacher and thoughtful person who wishes to keep abreast of the best thinking of the day, will be greatly profited by scanning the columns of The Literary Digest. Funk & Wagnalls, New York; $3 00 a year. The Review of Reviews for May is a strong and interesting number, containing a fine character sketch of Frederick Selous, the great African traveler, by Mr. Stead, much information about the World's Fair, the usual ably edited review of the world's progress, and other features. This magazine offers the most, in quality and quantity, for the least money of any publication in its particular field. The May Cosmopolitan gives the result of an interview with a number of leading men in different professions as to what they would do if science were to predict that the world would end in thirty days. This idea was suggested by Flammarion's exciting novel " Omega." The answers are various and curious, and few readers will skip the second part of Flammarion's story which also appears in this number of the Cosmopolitan. The two leading articles in the New England Magazine for May are "Phillips Brooks and Harvard University," by Alexander McKenzie, D.D., with a picture of Phillips Brooks as a Harvard student, and "The City of Seattle," by John W. Pratt, the latter profusely illustrated. Dr. Rainsford, rector of St. George's Church, New York, suggests a new method of dealing with the liquor question. He contends that public houses should be established providing food of various kinds, amusements, and selling milk, coffee, tea, beer, wines, etc. He proposes that groups of people in our large cities should establish such houses and seek to rival the saloons by cheering the monotonous lives of the laboring classes. In the May number of the North American Review Dr. Rainsford defines his plan. In the June num ber he will publish a second article answering the most pertinent of such criticism of the plan as the public may in the meantime send to him. The Overland Monthly for May contains an interesting illustrated article on Architecture of San Francisco, by Ernest C. Peixotto. The Century Company will make a unique exhibit of original manuscripts and drawings at the World's Fair, including manuscript poems by Tenny. son, Longfellow and Whittier, with the manuscript of the first chapter of Mrs. Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy, —The trustees of Columbian College, New York City, have just perfected the details of an alliance with the Teacher's College, formerly New York College, for the Training of Teachers, at 9 University place, whereby the students of the latter will have many privileges of the older college. This is one more step in advance toward providing complete facilities for a genuine pedagogical education. A series of interesting Art Educational Conferences has been held on five successive Saturday forenoons at Steinert Hall, Boston, under the auspices of the Directors of the Prang Normal Art Classes, which have attracted distinguished audiences of those interested in this branch of education. The discussions have been led by prepared papers and then thrown open to all. REMINGTON TYPEWRITER ABSOLUTELY UNRIVALED For Superiority of Design, Durability. Excellence of Workmanship, Easy Manipulation, Great Simplicity. N other lines of study it is a common assertion that the eye help. ing the hand leads on to success. But in composition the eye does not help the hand. The difference between the script which the writer employs and the printed page in which he is wont to see the result of the writing of others is almost tantamount to a dif. ference in language. The sooner the little men and little women of our schools are encouraged to employ the typewriter in their school tasks the sooner will be removed the diffi. culties which now seem to stand in the way of acquiring the art of employing virile language in expressing thought. The typewriter may safely be warranted to amend poor spelling better than hours with the spelling book, and to correct crudities of style and diction better than all books on rhetoric without its aid."- Brooklyn Daily Times, Nov. 1st, 1892. "The Remington Standard Type- chine of the World's Columbian WYCKOFF, SEAMANS & BENEDICT, 327 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. Please mention "Education" in corresponding with advertisers. |