THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS FOR MIDDLE AND HIGHER SCHOOLS. THE FINSBURY TRAINING COLLEGE FOR SCHOOLMASTERS. THE opinion that some special preparation is needed for the training of those whose intention it is to become masters in middle and higher schools has been rapidly gaining ground among all who have to do with practical education. It is a general complaint among head-masters that a large portion of their own time is absorbed in training their assistants, and that their assistants, for the first year or more, are only half effective. All other leading countries have made provision for training teachers above the elementary grade. England alone has no superior normal school for men, either public or private, and only two for women. It was from a knowledge of this deficiency that, on the 11th of last May, a private meeting was held at the Middle-Class Schools, Cowper Street, City Road, E.C., to consider a scheme for a training college for schoolmasters, to be conducted on the same system as that which has been carried out with such success at the Bishopsgate Training College for Women. A provisional committee was formed; the approval and support of a considerable number of head-masters and heads of colleges was obtained, and a public meeting was held at the Westminster Palace Hotel, on June 28th, the Earl of Morley taking the chair. At this meeting it was stated that the Rev. W. Rogers, and the Corporation of the Middle-Class Schools, Cowper Street, had offered their schools as a model and practising school, and that Dr. Wormell, the head-master, had promised to co-operate. It was further resolved that a Guarantee Fund of not less than £1000 be raised to meet the estimated expenses of the first three years, during which the college could not be expected to be self-supporting. The committee have since then received promises of support sufficient to justify them in appointing a 2 L principal, and announcing that the college would be shortly opened. H. Courthope Bowen, Esq., M.A., lately head-master of the Grocers' Company's schools, has been appointed principal-an excellent choice, by the way and it is proposed to begin work in January. The list of the council of management, we notice, contains the names of many of the most prominent educationists of the day, and includes those of the head-masters of Rugby, Uppingham, Clifton, Marlborough, Charterhouse, University College School, Walthamstow Forest School, Cranleigh County School, Winchester College, and the Cowper Street MiddleClass Schools. Under the auspices and patronage of such an influential committee the college can hardly fail to prove a great success. The course of study will be mainly practical; consisting of (a) Model and Criticism Lessons, and (b) actual work in school classes for a certain number of hours weekly, under the direction of the principal. Students will be specially prepared for the Examination of the Teachers' Training Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, or for the Teachers' Diploma of the University of London; and classes will be held to enable those who have not a degree to obtain such degree or certificate as is required by the two universities. Some of the lectures given in the college are open to outside students, who are engaged in teaching. Permission to attend must be obtained from the Principal, The Schools, Cowper Street, City Road, London, E.C., by whom also information respecting the Entrance Examinations, Forms of Entry, will be supplied. We may add that the cost of tuition at the college is £24 yearly, payable in £8 instalments, at the commencement of each of the three terms into which the college year is divided. For fuller particulars concerning the Examination of the Teachers' Training Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, mentioned above, we must refer our readers to Mr. Oscar Browning, Secretary to the Syndicate, King's College, Cambridge. Information respecting the Teachers' Diploma of the University of London may be obtained on application to 'The Registrar of the University of London, Burlington Gardens, W.' Publications Reviewed. The Drama as an Element of Education. By Capt. Dumaresq de C. Bisson. London: Simpkin and Marshall. This is an essay read at Westminster before a large assembly of eminent personages interested in educational questions and the higher development of the Drama, and is dedicated by its author to Mr. Henry Irving. It appears to have been published by request of the distinguished audience mainly with the view of bringing into prominent notice 'the Dumaresq Edition of Shakspere,' two of the plays, Julius Cæsar' and 'King Lear,' being already published with the notes of S. T. Coleridge, and 'authorized for use at colleges and schools and the Boards of Military Examination.' The essay is a fair resumé of, first, the influence of the Drama on national character, wherein the writer argues that Rome's decadence might have been more or less arrested if, instead of the brutalizing sports of the Coliseum, the more humanizing amusements of the theatre had been substituted; and that Spain would have never fallen so low if the people had been entertained with plays and farces rather than with bull-fights and autos-da-fe. The second portion gives in detail the origin and progress of English Drama, from Udal and Sackville up to Shakspere, whose life and writings are given in part three. We may note as a curiosity of literature that Herr Elze, an eminent Teutonic Shaksperian scholar, identifies Desdemona with a princess of the house of Hohenzollern,— her name in Greek signifying 'the unfortunate.' The remainder of the volume is taken up with Captain Bisson's introductory notices of several schools and colleges to which he stands sponsor; and some stanzas by his friend Roscoe Morgan on 'The Queen's Return from Mentone,' and 'The Persecution of the Jews in Russia.' It may, by the bye, be worth mention, that Mentoné is more properly, after the Italian, pronounced with the final e (as if rhyming with 'stoney"), and not as if the French Mentōne, rhyming it as Mr. Morgan does with 'thrown.' The Midland' Algebra. Part I., for Stage I. Code, 1882-3. London: John Marshall and Co. Birmingham and Leicester: Midland Educational Co. As its title shows, this little text-book has been prepared to meet the requirements of the New Code Specific Subject in Algebra, Stage I., and a careful perusal shows that its aim has been carried out in a very efficient manner. The general principle adopted is, we are confident, the only one likely to be successful in school work. It is to seek to impress on the learner's mind every fresh fact that occurs in the shape of definition, sign, or rule, by means of numerous well-chosen examples and exercises. Almost every definition has its own exercise, and the examples given therein are copious and well chosen. The fact that no less than twenty-three exercises, besides numerous examples and miscellaneous questions, are given on the thirty-four sections of explanatory matter of which the book consists, will show how completely this method has been carried out. The simple way in which the raison d'être of the rules of signs in addition and subtraction is explained, deserves particular mention. In simple language, and by the use of appropriate examples, this difficulty, so often an obscure point to young algebraists, is so clearly expressed as to be readily understood by any child of ordinary intelligence. The answers are embodied in a separate book. The Midland' Algebraic Test Cards. Stage I. London: J. Marshall and Co. Birmingham and Leicester; Midland Educational Co. This set is based on the text-book referred to above, and to those who use it (and we feel sure they will be many) will prove most serviceable. The examples are carefully graduated, and deal most exhaustively with all points met with in that portion of Elementary Algebra covered by the text-book. We think that some of the sums are a trifle difficult, but no doubt these have been inserted purposely by the compiler from a knowledge that those who take in this specific subject will not be dullards. The cards are clearly printed en stout cards and enclosed in a serviceable cloth-covered case. New Light through Old Windows. By Gregson Gow. London: Blackie and Son. This series of eight tales, designed to illustrate some fables of Æsop, are rather grave than gay, and more useful as cautionary examples for young men than pleasing to children. We have no right, however, to judge all juvenile books by the standard of juvenile amusement, and acknowledge the value of the lessons conveyed by Mr. Gow's stories. That of 'The Mother's Choice' will perhaps induce reckless youths to pause in the career of folly in which the mania for betting now largely enters. 'The Jay in Borrowed Plumes' is a story of school-boys plagiarism, in which the honest lad is wrongly blamed and the copyist at first commended. Of course truth comes out at last, and honest industry meets with its reward, while the artful trickster has to sneak off. Every other tale 'points a moral' indicated by the prefixed fable. The Ball of Fortune. By Charles Pearce. London: Blackie and Son. Messrs. Blackie take time by the forelock in dating this book 1883. This will not, however, prevent the reader being interested in this little novel, which is very readable, full of incident, smart in dialogue, and with a dramatic though perfectly natural ending. It would be unfair to describe fully what the ball of fortune is, other than that it is a real ball, and which is dexterously kept out of the hands of clever but unprincipled rogues. Their schemes and the straightforward honesty of the hero are cleverly portrayed. The printing, binding, and illustrations all deserve praise. The Adventures of Mrs. Wishing-to-Be; and other Stories. By Alice Corkran. London: Blackie and Son. The Christmas holidays will be not unprofitably spent by children if they have such capital books as this to read. Artfully throwing school aside under the fancy of laughing at the multiplication table and similar inflictions in the way of LEARNING, little ones are amused and beguiled into associating knowledge with pleasure. Their childish fairy-love is appealed to by introducing Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, and the rest of the goodly company into the narrative of adventures. Little Dodo is taken by Robinson Crusoe to his island, and there visits the house of the Three Bears, who threaten to eat her-all make-believe, you know-and then Robinson Crusoe comes to rescue her; and then she makes friends with the Bears; and then Mother Goose comes with a letter for everybody, and then, and then, and so on, to the end of the rapidlychanging kaleidoscope that will delight youthful readers. Our Dolly. By Mrs. C. A. Read. London: Blackie and Son. Our Dolly is not a wax or wooden figure-far from it. She is a little girl, and a nice little girl too, who now and then makes mistakes as all girls and boys do, but who tries to do her best. She sees many things that every boy and girl may see, and of which we are told just enough to interest us but not to tire us. Mrs. Read knoweth well the ways of childhood. The printing is good, the illustrations excellent, and the binding pretty. Fairy Fancy. By Mrs. C. A. Read. London: Blackie and Son. Under the guise of a little fairy, with whose autobiography the reader at once becomes identified, we are led through pleasant tales of animals and their amusing adventures, in which a knowing raven, Toph, generally outwits a clever dog and an equally artful pussy. From animals we are led to pleasing personages, among whom is an attractive youth named Ernest, who becomes a famous violinist and composer. All is pleasant, nice reading, with a little knowledge of natural history and other dry matters gently introduced and thus divested of dryness. The book is well printed, well bound, and well illustrated. The frontispiece is a pretty coloured, or rather delicately tinted, picture of a little girl, and the usual rather ugly but yet benevolently-disposed old woman, whose acquaintance we advise the reader to make. Nat the Naturalist. By Geo. Manville Fenn. London: Blackie and Son. Scott gave us a great deal of history in fiction, and also with it some considerable fiction in history. Geography and the most salient features of natural history are by no men. means unimpressively taught by stories of travel and adventure. Of this the book before us is an agreeable speciThe early taste of a schoolboy in this direction is shown by his preferring to spend his half-holidays on Clapham Common hunting for efts and lizards, and to catch the bright sticklebacks in the ponds. Thus beginning, Mr. Fenn carries his protégé on through the pleasant fields of foreign adventure, in which natural history forms the most prominent feature. Touches of humour are introduced in the character of a black companion. We are taken to the Eastern Archipelago, among bright-coloured birds, big snakes, and lots of adventure. Brother and Sister. By Elizabeth J. Lysaght. London: Blackie and Son. This novel for youthful readers tells us of the 'uses of adversity' in a manner that will both interest and edify. Tom, the hero, is left with his family in straitened circumstances by the failure of his father in business. He is taken in hand by a merchant; tempted by an artful fellow-clerk; maintains his simple integrity; and makes his way step by step in the path of successful effort. Such a course has been often told, but is nevertheless an everwelcome tale, especially when detailed so interestingly as this is by Mrs. Lysaght. The book is in all respects well got up. Facing Death. By G. A. Henty. London and Glasgow: Blackie and Son. A spiritedly-written tale of the coal-mines, whereof one, Jack Simpson, is the hero throughout, in the midst of such antagonistic elements as strikes, explosions, dogfights, man-fights, riots, mine incarcerations, hard times, and other usual incidents of Stokebridge and its brutalized inhabitants. Of course, Jack is the perfect contrast throughout to all his bad surroundings; and as the good boy, the strong man, the night-school scholar, the local civilizer, and ultimately the new manager, and the happy bridegroom, fulfils every phase of this melodrama of low life in its coarsest form, by being justly rewarded in the compensation of final success accorded to pluck, principle, and perseverance. Just the book for boys. Under Drake's Flag. By G. A. Henty. London and Glasgow: Blackie and Son. This is another of the beautifully got up 'New Series for the Young,' issued by Messrs. Blackie, and by the same author as in our last notice. Being a graphic piece of English history, it practically teaches what life was like in our land and on our seas in 1572 and thereafter, and is full of military and maritime exploit sufficient to charm 'a whole wilderness of' school-boys, to whom Sir Francis Drake and his patriotic adventures have been a source of rejoicir g and a fountain of courageous inspiration now for several generations. The volume is in this respect perfectly recommendable, and if somewhat too sensational in parts for the ordinary prose of common life, is perhaps thereby all the better fitted for the juvenile readers who will delight in its ornate pages. In the King's Name. By G. Manville Fenn. London and Glasgow: Blackie and Son. Of the least of pretty books lately sent to us for notice by the enterprising house of Blackie, this is perhaps the best in a literary point of view, the author having long achieved success as a writer who knows how to combine humour with incident. This 'Cruise of the Kestrel,' the second title of the book, is a record of smugglers and excisemen in Jacobite times, touching incidentally upon the exciting times of Charles Edward after Culloden, wherein the brave sailor, Captain Hilary Leigh, does many gallant acts for his country's good and in the King's Name. All Messrs. Blackie's publications in this series are beautifully illustrated and appropriately bound with great taste and cost in decoration. They are just the books for prizes at school, or presents to the boys at Christmas. By Mrs. Elements of Morality, in Easy Lessons, for This little book, paragraphed in orderly fashion, and each chapter epilogued with questions to rivet every sentence on the infant mind, may have its good uses in the younger classes of school or nursery, especially as it is interspersed with anecdotes and illustrations. But for deeper thinkers and higher scholars Moralities are the fruits which spring entirely from the taproot of Religion, and it is not until we come to the last few pages that we are referred to our 'Union with the Unseen.' The surest growth of good morals will follow on a dressing of the root with all heart-diligence; works being dependent upon faith, and a true life here growing from the direct hope of the Better Life hereafter. The building up of Morality as a house on the sand is a mere Aristotelian process: Paul and John lay the foundations more truly and more surely in faith, hope, and charity. However, while we say this, we have no desire to disparage the very pleasant and suggestive booklet thus recently produced by a well-known authoress. Health Lectures for the People. 5th Series. London and Manchester: John Heywood. These lectures are issued by the Committee of the Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association. This Association has taken advantage of the collection of large bodies of work-people after their mid-day meal, and arranged to give them the lectures now collected in the book before us. The lectures are, without exception, well written, and in such a simple and yet scientific style, as to ensure a good reception, not only among those for whom they were originally intended, but among a much larger circle of readers. Each lecture deals with one or more of the preventible class of diseases, and discusses the means of preventing it ; the only exception to this rule being the lecture by Dr. Ashby on Infant Feeding in Relation to Infant Mortality. We are glad that an exception has been made in favour of this subject. It is dealt with very ably, and the causes and means of removing the excessive mortality among children are given in detail. The inclusion of a lecture on Consumption in a course devoted to preventible diseases is especially appropriate, inasmuch as Koch's researches on Tubercle, the publication of which is of a later date than the lecture in question, go very far towards proving that consumption is due to definite microscopic organisms like other infectious complaints. Be this as it may, the practical lesson stated in this lecture, enforcing cleanliness and ventilation as preventatives, remains equally pertinent. In the lecture on Scarlet Fever we are especially glad to see the following sentence :-'However slight the case may be, the same care must be taken in dealing with it, for it is found by bitter experience that the mildest form in one person may communicate the most fatal form of the disease to another; and also that most dreaded complication, dropsy, follows actually oftener on mild. attacks than on severe ones.' This statement cannot be too strongly recommended to the careful notice of all parents and teachers. The unfortunate mistake made by the general public, in supposing that scarlatina and scarlet fever are two different diseases, is exposed in the same lecture. We quite agree that 'the use of the word scarlatina, by giving to the attendants on a case a sense of false security, become a source of positive danger, and it would be well if the word dropped out of our language altogether.' The lecture on diseases produced by Drink is perhaps the least satisfactory of the series. Drink is a most potent and fertile source of disease; but surely the number of actual diseases produced through its baneful influence is so great as to require no additions from a doubtful list. The description of 'gin-drinker's liver' is somewhat imperfect ; and the numerous nervous diseases due to alcoholic excess are left for a future lecture. Fevers in general form the subject of a very good lecture. The description of Pasteur's experiments on the Bacillus, to which Splenic Fever is due, stops short at the most interesting point. Just sufficient detail is given to whet one's appetite. We are told that Pasteur discovered the method by which thousands of cattle are yearly saved from disease and death; but we are left in the dark as to the process by which this is accomplished. The next lecture appears under the title of Small-pox and Vaccination. We wish this lecture were published separately and distributed everywhere. It clearly states the facts of this vexed question; and without over burdening the subject with figures, gives a masterly and most conclusive statement of the superlative value of vaccination. 'Colds and their Consequences' are dwelt on by Dr. Dreschfield in a very interesting and valuable lecture. The series is completed by lectures on 'Measles and Whooping Cough,' Typhus and Typhoid;' the whole forming a most interesting and valuable course. We cannot too strongly recommend the book. Teachers will find much matter of great importance in their relation to their pupils as well as in private life. The book is well printed, is very free from printers' errors, and is bound in a gay cover, having a pictorial representation of the four great requisites for good health-cleanliness, good food, healthy homes, and pure air. Winners in Life's Race; or, the Great Backboned Family. By Miss A. B. Buckley. Stanford, 55, Charing Cross. This work is intended to supply a sequel to another charming book by the same authoress, entitled 'Life and her Children.' It is written in an easy and most interesting style, and if we are not mistaken will form a very popular giftbook for intelligent boys and girls. It is an elegant book, very profusely illustrated, and will be welcomed not only by the young, but by all who enjoy a fresh and glowing account of the beauties of animal life. In a pleasant way we are introduced to vertebrate animals in general, and the gradations in complexity of structure which they manifest are skilfully described. As the title indicates, the history of vertebrate animals is worked out from the evolutionist standpoint; and the law of the survival of the fittest is accepted in its entirety. This, however, does not in any sense render the book unfit for perusal by any youth, as the following extract to some extent shows:-'There was growing up among us that patient lover and searcher after truth, Charles Darwin, whose genius and earnest labours opened our eyes gradually to a conception so true, so deep, and so grand, that side by side with it the idea of making an animal from time to time, as a sculptor makes a model of clay, seems too weak and paltry ever to have been attributed to an Almighty power.' A prominent feature of the book is the beautiful illus trations, all of which, with the exception of about twenty, are new, and have been expressly drawn for this work. The figures are uniformly good and life-like. In addition to the figures of living animals, we notice some very useful drawings of skeletons. At the head of each chapter is a pictorial representation of the primeval animals of a given section of the vertebrate sub-kingdom. These geological restorations, given as picture headings, increase very greatly the value of the book; as does also the geological aspect from which the subject is treated in the body of the work. Teachers will find here abundant material for Natural History lessons; and it is only fair to add that the book, while most popular in its treatment of the subject, is scientifically accurate and reliable. Alice through the Looking-Glass, and other Fairy Plays for Children. By Kate Freiligarth-Kroeker. London: W. Swan Sonnenschein and Co. We have here four nice little plays for children, which, if somewhat wanting in dramatic incident, make up this by genial humour. The dialogues are easy, never dull, and abound in the gentle drollery of repeating grotesque words easily learnt by children and capable of being effectively rendered. This field of amusement is not half sufficiently cultivated. The selection before us comprises also some pretty German melodies set to humorous words of the nursery type. The book will be a welcome aid to juvenile Christmas parties. The printing and binding are excellent. True to Himself; or, the Story of Savonarola. By Frances E. Cooke, London: W. Swan Sonnenschein and Co. The touching story of the great Italian martyr is here detailed in glowing terms. His yearning after usefulness and intense devotedness to his calling are well described. At last he made himself heard. Crowds flocked to hear him wherever he went. His power of the Italians increased and rendered him an object of dislike to the Pope. The story of his persecution and martyrdom is generally too well known to need detail from us, and may be learned from the able pages before us. The book is excellently printed on fine and delicately-toned paper. The binding is neat and good. Tales of the Olden Times. By Ella Baker. London: W. Swan Sonnenschein and Co. We have here a pleasing collection of tales free from everything sensational or exciting, and free also from inspiring children with a love of the warlike which marks many tales. Several of the tales are founded on history, others are traditional, but all are deserving of commendation. The printing, bearing the impress of 'The Modern Press,' is hardly satisfactory-more to bad ink than to defective type, though that is faulty. This-probably cheap-will also spoil the woodcuts. From the modern press we expect something better than the ordinary productions of the old. The pretty cover bears the title of 'Stories from Old History.' The Life of John Wiclif. By William Chapman. London: W. Swan Sonnenschein and Co. We have in a beautifully-printed little book on paper fit for a de luxe edition an interesting life of the great herald of the Reformation. This is prefixed by a general sketch of the rise of the pontifical power that culminated in the craven submission of John after the two years' interdict. The Barons took no notice of the Papal claims, to the great rage of the Pope, who issued a bull annulling the Charta. But the Barons were made of very different stuff to be frightened by Papal Bulls, and after this the kings of England ascended the throne without taking the oath of fealty. In the reign of Edward II. the yearly tribute of 1,000 marks was discontinued, and the Pope was so shorn of his power as to think it wise not to make any remonstrances! Now and then arose good men and true among the priests who opposed the most glaring of Papal abuses. Among these were Greathead (Robert Grossetête), Bishop of Lincoln; Henry of Bracton, the great lawyer; William of Oscam, the Franciscan; Richard Fitzralph, Primate of Ireland; and the Profound Doctor' Thomas Bradwardine, who contributed largely by his personal influence to the successes of Edward III. in France. But all these pale before the star of John Wiclif, whose patriotism and love of the poor was as remarkable as his religious zeal. To this spirited sketch we refer the reader, regretting that our limits preclude quotations from the well-written pages. Hiawatha and other Legends of the Wig- Adventure. By C. E. Boume. London: W. Among the books of African exploration, few that we have met with are more readable, and in other respects commendable than the one before us. It treats of the course of African discovery from the death of Livingstone to the present year. With a goodly number of very good full-page woodcuts, several capital maps printed in colours, and a few extra illustrations also printed in colours, nothing is wanted to render the book attractive as well as readable. We ought to add that well-drawn portraits of the 'Heroes of African Discovery' adorn the chapters devoted to each. Tales from the Edda. By Helen Zimmern. London: W. Swan Sonnenschein and Co. Norse literature has received considerable attention of late, but is yet capable of yielding much pleasing fruit, especially of the legendary kind. The exuberant fancy which bears remarkable impress of the wild features of northern scenery is shown in the legends of Odin, Thorthe ruler of the clouds, storms, and hurler of the thunderbolt-the sinless and beneficent Baldur, the crafty trickster, Loki, together with the beautiful Freyja (Friga), and other goddesses, are often quoted to show the affinities between Norse and Greek Pantheism. The merry times of the Norse heroes in Asgard are told in Edda, from which collection the present pleasing little book is made up. The illustrations, mostly by Kate Greenaway, show that this lady is equally at home with the severe and classical as with the quaint and charming grandmotherly little girls with whom she is so pleasingly associated. Both printing and binding are commendable. Handwork and Headwork. By the Baroness Bülow. Swan Sonnenschein and Co. This is a translation by Mrs. Christie from the German of one of the well-known Kinder-Garten manuals, written in the keynote of Froebel's educational theory, which we gather to be that we must not overload young children's brains with hard knowledge, but teach them by amusements and illustrations suitable to their infantile capacity the truths that may make their lives happier and more useful hereafter. It is, in fact, much what Charles Kingsley taught in that humorous episode about the turnip-headed children in 'Water Babies,' showing what a muddled mass their brains had become through overeducation of the mind before proper development of the body. Early precocity is often fatal, always harmful. |