every word is exhibited in the most satisfactory manner by a method simple and uniform. When we add that we have 400 pages offered in the larger book for one shilling, and in the smaller upwards of 300 pages for sixpence, that both books are well printed, well bound, and most carefully edited, we have said enough to justify our strongest commendation of both. The Shilling Dictionary is larger, and presents greater variety of type. The matter, however, is the same in both, except that in the larger some words have their synonyms attached. In each, 250 words have been, with very fair judgment, selected for illustration. Turner's Absence Check Book. Groombridge and Sons, London.-—These are small books of forty-eight pages, about the size and shape of a tax-collector's receipt book. On each page is a printed form addressed to the master, which the parent is supposed to sign and send, whenever the child has been detained from school. Each form is an excuse for one half-day. Thus the number of checks used will show the amount of absence from the date of issue. We will let Mr. Turner, of Bristol, who, deploring the evil of absenteeism, had devised this remedy, speak in favour of his system : 'Nearly all plans hitherto adopted to check that great evil, irregular school attendance, have, save in a few exceptional cases, proved of little avail. This arises mainly from the fact that by them the working out of the remedy is thrust upon the wrong parties. The delinquents are sought for and hunted up by the school authorities, with the aid, it may be, of the regular attendants. But, the proper work of the school staff is to teach those who come, and just so far as they are withdrawn from that duty is an unfairness done; and, to put upon the attendants the burden of calling at the houses of non-attendants with either a verbal or written enquiry, is unfair to the latter, and often vexatious to both. The plan by which each pupil carries home a weekly record of attendance is open to lighter objections; but is, perhaps, equally ineffectual-1. It takes a large amount of time on the closing half day of each week. 2. The labour is equal for all. 3. The irregularity is only brought before parents periodically, and is not immediately incident to the absence. 4. The irregularity costs the parent nothing, either in money or trouble. : By the Absence Check Book method none of the foregoing objections apply, and it possesses the following advantages:-1. It is fair for the trouble and cost fall almost wholly, and of necessity, upon the delinquents. 2. It econonises the time of the school staff; for two or three minutes per diem will suffice in a school of 500 for all attendance matters. 3. It brings the fact before parents on each occasion of absence, by requiring the withdrawal of the only valid excuse from the book, which necessarily shows the gross previous absence since the date of issue, and also suggests the more or less remote exhaustion of the supply and consequent cost of renewal. 4. The book itself forms a home certificate of attendance. 5. It prevents truant playing, by making detection certain, for to prevent detection the book must first be surreptitiously obtained, then a forged entry made; and so as to deceive both parents and school authorities. 6. It exercises a wholesome educative influence upon pirants. a. By its careful preservation and periodical examination they can prevent any truant ying. b. It brings some terse maxim under notice each time of use, and when most likely impress. c. It economises the parents' time, in all cases of legitimate absence; a letter and ame being all that is then required. The covers supply any school notices, such as scale of fees, holidays, school hours, the rules of the school; as well as the necessary explanation for the use of the book. Salient Points of Scripture History, with copious Nt es. Part I.-The Pentateuch. By Zebina Cooper. Longmans and Co.-The compiler professes to have written this book for pupil teachers, the upper classes in schools, and bible readers generally. The real purpose, and, from a careful examination of the Notes, we might say the only object the author had in his own reading. He has overshot the mark. view, was to display the extent of He has succeeded in exhibiting— well! not to the world-his ignorance of what are Salient Points of Scripture History, and of the requirements of those for whom he professes to write. The book is worthless to teachers, and we hope Mr. Cooper, who promises us a Part II., will leave Scripture History to Pinnock, Wheeler, and Riddle-his acknowledged authorities, or to men of better judgment than himself. The Educational Calendar and Scholastic Year Book. Price 18. Simpkin, and Maishall, London.-This book is in its second year. Retaining the form and general arrangement of its predecessors, it comprises a larger amount of scholastic information. Everything which ordinary men can want to know about colleges, public schools, grammar schools, educational and scientific societies, or recent legislation on scholastics, they will find have been here most carefully collected and epitomised. mans. Scott's Lady of the Lake. Cantos I. and II. Price two shillings. Long-We examine with interest all editions of English Classics published with notes. There has been for some time a want created for school literature of this class by the numerous competitive examinations into which English enters as a subject, but it is only quite recently that competent men have come forward to supply it. It was for some time left to the bookmaker, and our shelves are slightly overweighted with English authors, impoverished by notes in which the smallest amount of second-hand and third-rate scholarship is dimly discernible amid a heap of rubbish. The list of the names issued of those gentlemen who have undertaken to edit the various authors of the 'Clarendon series' was at once a guarantee of better things, while the books of that series already published, instance Mr. Morris's Chaucer, are fruits of ripe English scholarship really valuable to the student of English literature. The book which we now notice is equally sound and good, but with an aim not quite so high. It is the first of a new series of 'British India Classics,' edited by Mr. Jeaffreson, M.A., formerly Principal of the Elphinstone Institution, Bombay, and designed primarily for use in the native schools in India. The notes being addressed to those to whom English is a foreign language, are often more copious than is necessary for our boys, but they are always lucid and forcible in explanation, sensible in their treatment of grammatical questions, and, above all, show a knowledge of English etymology and the history of English words far in advance of what we have been accustomed to find this side of the German Ocean. The Complete Cyphering Book. By Henry Combes and Edwin Hines. London: Longmans and Co.-This is a very carefully prepared course of arithmetic, arranged in the form of a Cyphering Book. The questions and examples are printed at the head of the page. In the earlier part of the book assistance is given in the way of model sums and dotted figures for writing over, and the space to be occupied by each sum is indicated by a number, and by the required lines faintly marked. In the latter part of the book dotted figures and lines are dispensed with. The book may be obtained in one volume or in three parts, all strongly bound. We commend it to the favourable notice of those engaged in Middle Class Schools, and in Ladies' and Private Schools generally. The Practical Guide to Perspective. By James P. Knight, Head Master of the Cheltenham School of Art, and Teacher of Drawing in the Cheltenham Training Colleges. Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. Price 1s.-This book is written and prepared specially to help those who are preparing for the second grade Examiation of the Science and Art Department. The author is a man thoroughly qualified, by his abilities and by his long and extensive experience in teaching drawing, to undertake such a work, and we thank him, on behalf of all present and future learners of Perspective, for his excellent guide to that by far the most interesting and important branch of Drawing. It is not a large book, as the price will signify, still it contains all necessary directions and examples to enable any student of ordinary intelligence to grasp and master the principles and mode of working linear Perspective. It contains 100 exercises, 35 of which are worked out and explained; the remainder are variations of these, and are intended for the learner to work out, cautions being given where needed. Some of the later exercises are taken from papers actually set by the Science and Art Department; the instructions given for working these will be specially valued by many. Excellent as the book may well be said to be, there are several little points in which we think it is faulty. The diagrams on plates XI. and XX. are indistinctly or imperfectly lettered, and in plate VIII. a line is wanting. We think it would be well to nake some distinction in the character of the various lines used. It would be an improvement if those lines belonging to the figures, and which were not seen, were dotted, and the vanishing and measuring lines fine and continuous. There is a little want of uniformity in this respect, which may lead to some confusion amongst learners. Again we find these expressions 'send up verticals,' 'set up two feet,' 'draw a line into the picture,' 'run off from every corner to the P.D.' We would suggest the following for insertion in the 2nd edition:-' erect perpendiculars,' measure off two feet,' 'draw a line within the picture,' 'run lines from every corner,' &c. Question 9 requires to be reconsidered and recast. The same may be said of another question and its answer on page 7-' What are the angles of an equilateral base ?' Answer, 60° This is true as far as the triangle is concerned; but what about the square, the regular pentagon, hexagon, &c.? We wish it to be known that Mr. Knight's book is the best and cheapest of its kind : were it not for the little points to which we have directed attention, it would be perfect as a Practical Guide to Perspective. Turner's Educational Works: Tablet Reading Lessons, The Patent Roller Mount, The Geographical Reading Book. London: Groombridge and Sons.— We fully agree with the very good opinion widely entertained of these school works. Teachers wanting reading lessons for young classes will not be able to find a more suitable, instructive, and interesting set than these under our notice. The Patent Roller Mount is the best invention we have seen for holding and displaying lesson sheets of all kinds. It cannot get broken or out of order. Its strength, simplicity, and low price, all recommend it to the favour of schoolteachers. The Geographical Reading Book, Part I., is a capital attempt to introduce the study of Geography into our schools. The Lessons are unusually instructive, and yet there is a persuasiveness and clearness about their style that must attract the deep attention of young pepole. The book which treats of Physical, Mathematical, and Commercial Geography will be found well adapted for the 5th and 6th Standards, English Spelling.-This is an honest attempt to grapple with the difficulties connected with the teaching of English spelling. It is astonishing how many apparently well-educated people make flagrant mistakes in spelling. Those who have read much, and copied much from books, rarely, however, err in this respect. The practice of making excerpts extensively from books, not only stores the mind with knowledge, but leaves on the memory an indelible impression of the form and appearance of words. It follows, therefore, that the exercise of the second standard, viz., copying from the reading book, might be with profit extended to the other standards. The compiler of this book seems to acknowledge the help that a knowledge of Latin gives to a writer of English, by adding a chapter on the English roots. We can only say of this work, that those who think that correct spelling can be acquired from the use of spelling books may have recourse to it with confidence. English History.-This work contains 278 pages, and is very clearly printed. It can be had bound in cloth boards for 1s. 6d., and in limp cloth for 1s. It aims at telling the story of English History in the simplest language. It is certainly one of the cheapest and most interesting narratives of English History we have yet seen. It, however, has one defect that all school histories share in common with it. The writer cannot understand how the history of our own time may be more interesting to us than the history of the days of our fathers. For instance, the history of the reign of George III., a period of 60 years, is narrated in only three pages. The reign of Elizabeth, however, a period of 45 years, takes twenty-two pages, or rather more than seven times as much. Now it cannot be admitted that the reign of George III. is less interesting, or less important, to Englishmen than the reign of Elizabeth, seeing that in it those two great events, the American War and the French Revolution, occurred. We should advise the author, in case another edition is called for, to add fifty extra pages to the work, in order to narrate clearly and fully, the English history of the present century, which is most interesting to the present generation. The style in which this work is written is clear and simple, the facts, as far as we have been able to judge, accurate, and the judgments moral and impartial. Bible Primer. Cloth, 6d.―This is a book containing easy lessons on Bible subjects, printed in good type, with three illustrations. We prefer the second and third parts to the first. The first parts contain a series of argumentative lessons in very simple language; the second some interesting narratives taken from the Old Testament; the third similar lessons taken from the New Testament. This is a very appropriate Sunday book for children. Laurie's Standard Copy Books.-This is a very good and very cheap series of copy books. The copies are clearly engraved, and the paper is good. They are of the same size as Darnell's copy books, and have two copies on every page. No. 14, which has copies of bills and business letters, appears to us especially good. There are also some cheap map books in this series which will be useful to the higher classes of schools, and to pupil teachers. This series also includes several very good exercise books in the French language. Register of the Month. Worcestershire Association of Church School Teachers. The members of this Association hold their annual meetings in the various towns of the three counties of Worcester, Gloucester, and Hereford. This year they met at Cheltenham. The business meeting was held in the lecture-hall of the Training College, which had been placed at the disposal of the members by the Principal; the Rev. Canon Douglas, the President for the past year, in the chair. After the rules had been submitted for revision, the officers for the ensuing year were appointed, the Rev. T. L. Wheeler, jun., being elected President, Mr. J. Pember, Hon. Sec. and Librarian, and Mr. Walker, Treasurer. Several new members having been proposed and accepted, a paper was read by Mr. H. A. James, the Vice-Principal, ' On the Teaching of Grammar in Elementary Schools,' which we propose to transfer to these pages next month. Some interesting discussion followed. The annual dinner took place in the afternoon, under the presidency of the Rev. Dr. Barry. Official Notice. General Association of Church Schoolmasters. Superannuation Fund for Teachers with Government Security. Members are respectfully requested to obtain signatures to this form. Scheme proposed.*-That a small per centage+ be deducted from the annual grants received by all schools under Government inspection, and that this be applied by the Committee of Council to form a fund for granting Pensions to Certificated Teachers. That Teachers become eligible for pensions after 20 years' service, at a rate to be determined hereafter (say £1 for each year of service), to be increased according to the same rate annually. Reasons.-Managers and the Cause of Education would be advantaged oy retaining men in the work who have done good service, and who often leave School Teaching only with the object of making better provision for old age. Teachers would be encouraged to remain in their places, the pension being a check to the more lucrative temptations which often occur. The pensioned Teachers, though not equal to the duties of the heavy town schools, would be fully competent to undertake the small country schools, and thus true education would be advanced in these neglected parts. We, the undersigned Managers and Teachers, do hereby promise to give our support to such a scheme, if the consent of the Committee of Council can be obtained. The following gentlemen have been proposed as a Local Committee for arranging the proceedings of the Annual Meeting, which will be held in Liverpool, in the week following Christmas Day, namely-Messrs. Watkins (President), Wilkinson (Vice-President), Jones (Secretary), Hampton (Treasurer), Gardner, Sharp, Foster, and Jeffries. The Secretary would be very glad to receive from Members suggestions on the subjects most suitable for discussion, &c., at the Annual Meetings. The following have already been suggested: 1. 'Compulsory Education'; 2. 'Secular and Denominational Teaching'; 3. The scarcity of fit and competent candidates for the profession of Teachers, and the cause of such scarcity'; 4. 'How can Technical Education be engrafted on our Elementary school work'? 5. 'The work and pay of a National Schoolmaster now and ten years ago.' *See 'Papers' for Feb., 1868, p. 40. A per centage of 1 or 1 per cent. has been suggested, but it will require con- |