that books are useful, yes, indispensable, but frequently the preliminary steps must be taken without them. Study to know the individual child and you will be surprised how tractable and ambitious he will become.

THE small number of good High Schools and the hap-hazard way of conducting Institutes, are, in our opinion, the two chief defects in the otherwise admirable California school system. We hope to see the High Schools multiplied and strengthened by the speedy adoption of the county or township High School system, which works so well in Illinois. The Institute system, or rather no system, should be thoroughly overhauled at the next session of the Legislature, for whose consideration we offer the following facts:

Of the fifty-three counties in California, about forty-five, if we are correctly informed, held Institutes last year. The amount paid by each county to its lecturers or conductors cannot have averaged less than $125. This represents a total expenditure of $5,625. And the results? Almost nothing, if we may judge by the dissatisfaction of those for whose benefit the Institutes are supposed to be held; by the tardiness with which they get to work and the ingenious excuses they present to get away before the Institute closes.

The radical

This is all wrong. For the expenditure of nearly six thousand dollars the State should have something better to show than the general opinion among teachers that Institutes are a nuisance. fault is that provision of the school law which places the Institutes in the hands of the County Superintendents instead of in those of the State Superintendent. Every County Superintendent arranges his dates to suit the convenience of his own teachers; four or five Institutes will have the same date; then there will be, perhaps, three months without a single Institute. Whatever the date selected it is pretty sure to come at a time when the men best fitted for the work cannot be secured. By the best men we mean the University professors, the teachers in Normal Schools and private colleges and the principals of city schools; all these can be secured only during vacations, and in vacation time there is hardly an Institute held. Moreover, as at present arranged, Institute work is so uncertain and dates are so likely to conflict that it is not possible for a man of ability to devote himself exclusively to this work and make a decent living.

If the State Superintendent was authorized by law to appoint two Institute conductors at a salary of $3,000 each, and to arrange their dates, every county would be sure of getting somebody worth listening to and teachers would perhaps carry back to their work something besides a week's pay and the remembrance of having had a good time.

THE LAUGH IN SCHOOL.

Hold on for a moment, teacher!
You had better ignore the rule,
Than punish the little urchin

Who has just laughed out in school.
Had he done it out of malice,
It would be a different thing;
But he could no more help it
Than a lark can help to sing.

I know by his clouted jacket,

And his shoes tied with a cord,
That a laugh is the only luxury
Of childhood he can afford;
And he hasn't much time left him
For even that trivial joy,
For he'll have to earn his living
While he is yet a boy.

You ask why I defend him:
Well, the fact is, yesternight
I found a dog-eared primer
That I used when but a mite;
And, in imagination,

As I turned its pages o'er,
I saw some wonderful pictures
That I never found before.

I saw a certain urchin

(Called Clarence by the boys),
Go toddling into the school-room,
Making his share of noise;
And I saw him during school-time

Play pranks upon the sly

With the rosy little Agnes

Till she laughed as she would die.

And I think we all are better

When we grow up to men,

If we have something to make us
Look backward now and then;

And, therefore, I insisted

You had better ignore the rule

Than punish the little fellow

Who has just laughed out in school.

-School Messenger, Hendrysburg, Ohio.

ELEMENTARY

GEOGRAPHY.

Our Book Table.

California Professor Meissner is already so well State Series. known to American readers by his excellent Geography, as a school study, seems to grammar that another book from him is have fallen into disrepute for some years sure of a hearty welcome. Unlike the past and has not occupied the place which "natural method" fanatics, Professor Meissits value demands. ner does not believe that a pupil can acquire Just why this is so it is not our purpose an accurate knowledge of German without to discuss at this time. It is sufficient to knowing the ordinary accidence, the strong state that the compiler of this work has verbs and the most elementary rules of fully realized this fact and has endeavored syntax. These acquired, such a book as to present a book to our California youth these Practical Lessons may be profitably which should place the study of geography employed.

EVOLUTION. By J. Y. Bergen and
Fanny Bergen. Published by Lee &
Shepard, Boston. Price, $1.25.

As the title indicates, this is a simple exposition of the fundamental principles of Darwinism. It is adapted to young people who wish to gain from a small compass what evolution really is. The style is clear and the subject matter presented in an interesting manner.

where it properly belongs. To do this A PRIMER OF DARWINISM AND ORGANIC successfully is a more difficult task than at first appears, because the ideal book must be modified to a certain extent to adapt it to the teachers who are to use it; and they, unfortunately, are not always as intelligent or skillful as they should be. Considering the restrictions which are necessarily placed upon the writer of a geography, we consider this book a success. The primary facts of the science are presented in a familiar and attractive manner. Instead of long lists of natural bodies of land and water to be memorized, attention is rather given to such general views of different countries as would serve to make prominent their characteristic features. Our own State, as it should, receives considerable attention. An excellent

PRACTICAL SANITARY AND ECONOMIC
COOKING. Adapted to persons of small
means. By Mrs. Mary Hinman Abel.
Published by the American Public
Health Association.

Henry Lomb of Rochester, N. Y., offered a prize of $500 for the best essay on feature is the frequent reference to books the title given above, and the book before for a more extended discussion of the sub- us received this prize above seventy other ject under consideration. One is impressed competitors. It will be seen at once that with the fact, as he reads this geography, that the author wrote it con amore; if the teacher presents its topics to his class in the same spirit it will prove a successful book.

this must be a book of considerable value to
those who wish to prepare healthful food
in an economical way.

GOLDEN GATE KINDERGARTEN ASSOCI-
ATION. Tenth Annual Report, for the
year ending October 6th, 1889.
All friends of the kindergartens will find

PRACTICAL LESSONS IN GERMAN CONVERSATIONS. By A. L. Meissner, Ph.D., Professor of Modern Languages in Queen's College, Belfast. Published by D. C. this report of interest. It gives a detailed Heath & Co., Boston. account of the various free kindergartens

Professor of Mathematics in Phillips, Exeter Academy. Published by Ginn & Company, Boston.

of San Francisco, of which there are nine-A SCHOOL ALGEBRA. By G. A. Wentworth' teen in successful operation, all managed and conducted by public-spirited ladies under the general supervision of Mrs. Sarah B. This Algebra is intended for secondary Cooper. Our space forbids entering upon schools, covering sufficient ground for adeven an abstract of their work. This re- mission to any American college. The port gives abundant evidence that there problems are carefully graded, many of are many ladies of wealth in San Francisco them having been taken from recent exwho earnestly desire to mitigate the con- amination papers. The introductory chapdition of the poor children and raise them ter is intended to be a connecting link from ignorance and crime to the light of between the arithmetic and the algebra, knowledge.

STUDIES IN LITERATURE AND STYLE. By
Theodore W. Hunt, Ph. D., Professor of
English Philology and Discourse in the
College of New Jersey. Published by
A. C. Armstrong & Son, New York.

and to show the advantages of representing quantities by letters and operations by signs.

HEROIC BALLADS, with Poems of War and Patriotism. Edited, with note, by D. H. M. Published by Ginn & Company, Boston.

This book is published as one of the series of "Classics for Children." The familiar and of ac.

are all

This work furnishes a clear and full dis cussion of the representative types of style with particular reference to the needs of contents the literary student. It aims not only to knowledged worth. The chief value of the exemplify style objectively, but to consider book lies in the fact that it renders accessithose conditions which lie in the intel ble so many patriotic poems. lectual and ethical nature of the writer. and thus give a motive for the formal expression of thought. The subject is logic ally presented and the literary student will find it full of valuable suggestions.

LANGUAGE EXERCISES. By Robert C. Metcalf, Supervisor of Schools, Boston, Mass., and Orville T. Bright, Superintendent of Schools, Englewood, Ill. Published by Ivison, Blakeman & Co., New York. It would seem that in this day of language books nothing new could be written or deTHE ELEMENTS OF PLANE AND SOLID vised on the subject of language teaching; GEOMETRY, with numerous exercises. still the authors of this little volume have By Edward A. Bowser, LL.D., Professor of really given the teacher many valuable Mathematics and Engineering in Rutgers hints. College. Published by D. Van Nostrand Company, New York.

The author has endeavored to effect two objects to teach geometric truths and to discipline and invigorate the mind by training it to habits of clear and consecutive reasoning. The text is so arranged that the enunciation, figure and proof of each proposition are in view together, and notes are directly appended to the propositions to which they refer. The author recognizes the value of original demonstrations, and thus constantly leads to independent thought.

HARMONY IN PRAISE. Compiled and
edited by Mills Whittlesey and A. F.
Jamieson. Published by D. C. Heath &
Co., Boston.

This is a book of hymns suitable for the home, the school and the college. The music has been selected with care, special attention being given to take such music as would not injure the voices of those for whom the work has been prepared.

This treatise is designed for advanced the great explorer at work in Cairo by students in colleges who wish to make a Mr. Marston. Mr. Aldrich, Andrew Lang, thorough and scientific study of German G. Melville Upton and Emily Dickinson literature through the German language. contribute poems.

This, the first book, embraces the period
from the beginning of German literature to
the year 1100.

The always interesting MAGAZINE OF AMERICAN HISTORY opens its twenty-fourth volume with a brilliant July number. A fine portrait of Sir William Blackstone serves as frontispiece, its pertinence apparent

Count Tolstoi paid a great compliment to Dr. Stockham when he wrote a nove] founded on the teachings of "Tokology; a Book for Every Woman." But the thousand to whosoever reads the leading article, of women who have purchased the book "The Golden Age of Colonial New York.” and who sound its praises pay her a greater Mrs. Lamb has given a wonderfully vivid tribute. When women write that "Tok- picture of the little metropolis of the ology is worth its weight in gold," "Should province under kingly rule in 1768, conmy house take fire Tokology would be the ducting the curious through its streets, first book saved," "Next to the Bible it is houses, public buildings and churches, etcthe best book I ever read," "No book sells Following this delightful chapter, Roy like Tokology," we should think every lady Singleton writes briefly of "Sir William would make sure of possessing a copy.

Blackstone and his Work." One of the

To some it does not seem quite right that most stirring and important papers in the this work cannot be procured of dealers, number, however, is by the celebrated but the doctor desires to protect her good| Boston divine, Rev. Samuel E. Herrick, and faithful agents. In towns where there D.D., entitled, "Our Relation to the Past a Debt to the Future," which, although are no canvassers it can be bought direct of the publishers, for $2.75. Sample pages specifically addressed to the people of free. Southampton, Long Island, may be taken home and freely appropriated by every community in the land. Its lessons are worth committing to memory by all classes in the schools. 743 Broadway, New York

Address, ALICE B. STOCKHAM & Co.,
161 La Salle St., Chicago,

THE MAGAZINES.

SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE for August is a THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW for Fiction number containing six short stories, July contains an answer to Mr. Parnell, by five of them illustrated. As is usual in this the Right Hon. Arthur J. Balfour, Chief magazine, a number of entirely new writers Secretary for Ireland; "Children of the are brought forward with stories of striking Stage," by Elbridge T. Gerry; "The originality. They show great variety of Emancipation of the Family," by Mona scene and subject, and include a Newspaper Caird; "Critics of Problems of Greater story, a tale of Army life, a California story, Britain,'" by Sir Charles W. Dilke; " Suma Maine wood's story and a New York City ming up the Tariff Question," by Andrew story, besides Mr. Bunner's capital burlesque Carnegie; "The Prince of Wales," by modernization of Sterne's "Sentimental Justin McCarthy, M. P.; "Railway Men Journey." There is also the beginning of in Politics," by Chauncey M. Depew ; Part Second of the remarkable anonymous Speaker Reed's Error," by X. M. C.; serial, "Jerry," which brings the hero to "Contested Eections," by the Hon. Thomas manhood and opens his adventurous career. B Reed; and interesting notes and com"How Stanley wrote his book" is a view of ments.