plot are pretty fully exhibited, the general merits of the play discussed, and the characters of Shylock, Antonio, Portia, and Jessica, severally estimated.

an

Occasionally, it may appear that the editor has attempted to explain what is of itself plain enough already in such cases, however, the object has generally been to suggest some appreciation of the philological import of the language, import which may not be very obvious, even when the idea meant to be conveyed is in no danger of being mistaken. Occasional examination of the grammatical character of phrases that are idiomatic, elliptical, &c., is useful as a mental discipline, and may very properly be admitted as one mode of illustration in endeavouring to adapt such works as those of Shakspeare to the minds of youthful students, and to the use of schools. The utility of this species of comment in relation to the Oxford University Middle-Class Examinations of 1860-1, will be manifest in comparing the Questions set at these Examinations with the specific material for Answers provided in the Editor's notes on Henry VIII. and Julius Cæsar.*

Helps to English Grammar; or, Easy Exercises for Young Children. By G. F. GRAHAM, Author of "English, or the Art of Composition," &c. New and cheaper Edition; pp. 146, with several Woodcuts. Fcp. 8vo. price 2s. 6d. cloth. [July 11, 1861. THE object of this little work, which is an im

proved spelling and reading made easy combined, is to give the child who has mastered the alphabet distinct ideas on the nature of words and the grammatical structure of sentences; and it is intended to be put into the pupil's hands before he begins the regular study of grammar. The principle of the work is

*At the Oxford Middle-Class Examination of 1861, in a carefully-drawn set of Questions on Shakspeare's Julius Cæsar, one was the following" Explain the constructions, sit thee down as lief not be you ought not walk—what trade art thou?-if thou path thy native semblance on — who is that knocks?—you are the first that rears your hand." Of these constructions every one had been distinctly explained in the editor's notes on the play; and the same is to be said of the four passages of which an explanation of the meaning was proposed in another question; while, for the remaining questions, the notes, taken along with the introductory remarks, had anticipated very nearly all the details requisite to compose full and appropriate answers. The notes and introductory remarks on Henry VIII. had a similar relation to the University Paper of 1860.

illustration by example and by frequent repetition, with a view to bring into action a child's powers of discrimination from his earliest conception of a combination of spoken or written words to convey an idea. In order to accomplish this end, neither a rule nor an explanation is given which is not immediately exemplified in an exercise. The book having no higher aim than to prepare the pupil's mind for grammatical studies, syntax and prosody are entirely omitted; and the abstruse nomenclature of the rudiments is freed from technicality. The simpler definitions are addressed to the eye, wherever practicable, in woodcuts; and the arrow is adopted to show the connexion by action or motion between persons and things. Great care has been taken to make the rules and explanations as clear as possible, in the hope of lightening the labour of the teacher, and of exciting the learner's interest in what he too commonly finds a dry and repulsive task.

THE design of this book is to answer the

question so commonly proposed by young persons, What would you advise me to read? The author explains that all depends on the curiosity on the avidity for knowledge of any kind-on the appetite or interest felt by the mind. Lists of books and parts of books-doses small as well as large-are prescribed on every subject of literature, light as well as serious.

To exemplify the system from advice to readers of English history, a brief outline is recommended in the first instance, with particular instructions for making our forte or strong point, any one of the six following eras according to the taste and curiosity of the reader-it be ng premised that that only is retained which is read with interest -that only is digested that is taken with an appetite; the choice lies between the history 1. Till the Conquest - recommended for antiquaries. 2. Middle ages feudal system - chivalrycrusades-recommended for lawyers, &c.

-

-

3. Commencement of modern history, as marked by printing-gunpowder-the compass-America discovered-Colonial system-Reformation.

4. The civil wars.

5. The Revolution, 1688.

6. From George III. to present time: but divided with special directions for students of history, for ladies, and for general readers.

The readers of novels and travels, and poetry as well as prose, will all find their requirements in this book. The whole is enlivened with literary anecdotes, like "Ways and Words of Men of Letters," by the same author. The book ends with three chapters, entitled

1. How to keep a common-place book.
2. How to remember what we read.
3. English composition-how acquired.

Introduction to the Art of Reading, in a Series of Instructions and Exercises on English Pronunciation. By J. G. GRAHAM. Fcp. 8vo. pp. 124, price 2s. 6d. cloth. [June 5, 1861.

Pa false cophasis

a short treatise the Author endeavours to

and unimpressive reading is to be found in an imperfect training of the intellect; but the chief aim of his work is to present a clear and concise view of the elements of a good articulation, and exhibit important principles of pronunciation in a practical form, by directing attention to the numerous faults which too commonly impair the elocution of both juvenile and adult readers.

For this purpose he has drawn up a series of twenty-five Lessons and Exercises, the latter consisting of short prose and poetical extracts containing words which illustrate the principles commented on. These are followed by twelve longer pieces selected from the writings of Alison, Disraeli, Agnes Strickland, Irving, Macaulay, Sir W. Scott, L. E. Landon, Mrs. Hemans, Moore, Spencer, Coleridge, and Burns. words, syllables, and combinations that require attention in connection with the foregoing lessons are printed in Italics throughout.

All

So far as the writer is aware, his book is the first of the kind that has been published; and he has been led to undertake the task by his own experience of the want of such a manual, which he trusts will be found a useful supplement to the educational course.

Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic; and How they may be more successfully taught in Elementary Schools. By ROBERT FLOYD. 8vo. pp. 66, price 2s. 6d. cloth. [Aug. 28, 1861.

THE 'HE object of this treatise, which has been composed and published in consequence of the surprising statements contained in the recent

Report of the Commissioners on Education, is to make known a method of teaching the three elementary branches of learning which the author has found eminently successful in practice. The author submits in plain language, free from sentiment and pedantry, the result of much careful thought combined with experience, to the consideration of parents, teachers, and all persons interested in teaching and training the young. And he believes that if the principles which he has laid down are generally adopted, and his plan carried out, a great step will be gained towards remedying the grievous defects found prevalent by the Royal Commissioners.

A section on READING clearly indicates the kind of lessons most suitable for juvenile learners, and gives some examples. A system or method of teaching well calculated to interest the pupil in his own progress, as well as to abridge his instructor's labour, is next described. The value of home lessons is estimated and enforced; and an easy mode is shown of making SPELLING attractive, and at the same time of readily impressing on the youthful memory the orthography and application of the words of the language.

The next section, devoted to WRITING, is mainly an analysis of the lines, curves, and angles, by a combination of which the written alphabet is formed; accompanied by a few simple rules for imparting with precision a free, bold, and rapid handwriting.

In the third section, on ARITHMETIC, the author applies the principle of synthesis to the science of Numbers, beginning with the Numerals and the Multiplication Table set out in a welltried plan for simplifying the art of calculation by imparting its elements in their natural order. The four elementary rules having been thus treated, some observations are added on the exercise of Mental Arithmetic, showing how far its practice may be usefully introduced into the work of elementary instruction. A few practical remarks on SCHOOL INSPECTION, RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION, and some kindred topics, follow; and the work concludes with a recapitulation of the points which the author has sought to establish.

It is proper to add that the author, who has been many years engaged in tuition, offers his work as the result of his long experience, in the full consciousness of the shortcomings which are admitted to vitiate the mode of teaching now in general use in English boys' and girls' schools; mischievous errors, which too often defeat the first purpose of education, as a training and discipline of the mind and body for the business of life.

Key to HILEY'S "Arithmetical Companion; comprising Mensuration, Book-keeping, and Mental Arithmetic." Fourth Edition, worked afresh throughout by the Rev. A. HILEY, M.A. of St. John's Coll., Cambridge. 18mo. pp. 240, price 5s. cloth.

student under the necessity of prosecuting his arithmetical studies without the advantage of a master. In order to insure perfect accuracy in the bills of exchange, promissory notes, and other forms of mercantile documents introduced as models, the whole of the division of Book-keeping has been revised by a friend of the Author's at the head of a large commercial firm.

Liddell and Scott's smaller Greek Lexicon.

tion, which it steadily maintains, being now in its fifth edition. The Author took advantage of each reprint not only to correct the errors inevitable in a work dealing largely in figures; but, without increasing the size or price of his little manual, to introduce certain useful additions on branches of calculation strictly cognate with the subject, although not falling within the scope of his original plan, such as Mensuration, Book-keeping, and Mental Arithmetic. Under each of these three heads, the Arithmetical Companion presents a few well-considered, practical rules, easily mastered for use, without burdening the memory. In its present shape the work will, it is believed, be found a valuable auxiliary in carrying out an efficient course of mercantile instruction.

A KEY for the use of teachers was soon called for and supplied. But as the changes, indicated above, found their place in successive editions, the Key gradually ceased to correspond with the book. It was, moreover, objected to the Author's Key that the mere answers, accompanied by a few solutions at large of some of the more complex questions, did not afford the assistance expected by the master of a large class of boys, to enable him to test the work submitted for his correction without considerable labour and sacrifice of time. With a view to relieve the teacher whose pupils use the Companion from all uncertainty as to the correctness of the results of their calculations, as well as to save his time, the present volume, which is rather a new work than a new edition, has been prepared by the Author's SoN. It corresponds throughout with the fifth edition of the Arithmeti cal Companion, which has been stereotyped. As every solution, except the very simplest, few in number and resolvable at a glance, is printed IN FULL, any error in the working may be detected at sight, without any mental process whatever. It is needless to add that the volume is designed for the aid of the teacher alone; but, judiciously used, it may serve the place of an instructor to any

A Lexicon, Greck and English, abridged from Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon. Ninth Edition. Square 12mo. pp. 786, price 7s. 6d. cloth. [June 26, 1861.

Lexicon has lately been carefully revised, and compared throughout with the fourth edition of the original work. It now comprises, amongst other additions and improvements, all the tenses and forms of words in the Gospels which present any difficulty, inserted in their alphabetical place. For the sake of greater clearness the parts of which compound words are made up are marked by a hyphen at the division.

Liddell and Scott's larger Greek Lexicon.

A Greek-English Lexicon. Compiled by HENRY GEORGE LIDDELL, D.D., Dean of Christ Church; and ROBERT SCOTT, D.D., Master of Balliol. Fifth Edition, revised and aug mented. Crown 4to. pp. 1,658, price 31s. 6d. cloth. [August 14, 1861. THIS Lexicon has been for some months out of print; but the delay in the appearance of the fifth edition is explained by the extensive corrections and additions which it has received. By the adoption of a larger page and a closer though equally legible type, and by various other means, room has been found for nearly one sixth of additional matter, without adding many pages to the bulk of the volume. The longer articles have been to a great extent rewritten, especially those on the adverbs, conjunctions and prepositions; and the valuable materials contained in Rost and Palm's copious Greek-German Lexicon have been made available, while numberless errors which disfigure that work have been corrected. Full use has been made of the (still unfinished) Paris Edition of Stephens' Thesaurus by Hase and the Brothers Dindorf. The Etymological articles are entirely new, and will be found to embody in a condensed form the results of the latest researches in Comparative Philology. And no pains have been spared to make the work as useful and complete as possible.

The First Step in French; being an Easy
Method of Learning the Elements of the
French Language. By LEON CONTANSEAU,
lately Professor of the French Language and
Literature in the Royal Indian Military
College, Addiscombe (now dissolved), and
Examiner for Military
Military Appointments;
Author of The Practical French and English
Dictionary, &c. Fcp. 8vo. pp. 132, price
2s. 6d. cloth.
[Aug. 29, 1861.

THE present work is intended to supply a first book or introduction to grammar, carefully adapted to the requirements of English pupils about to commence the study of the French language. It comprises a VOCABULARY of words in common use, selected chiefly with a view to exemplify the rules of pronunciation, and to be learnt by heart for repetition. To this succeed a few GRAMMATICAL RULES applying to the declensions, the use of the pronoun and the participle, and two or three points of construction in which the French syntax puzzles beginners; each rule numbered for reference. A series of easy EXERCISES in both languages follows, graduated in order to develope the pupil's capacity and confirm his progress step by step, and accompanied by some familiar CONVERSATIONS on ordinary events and topics; each phrase referred by number to the rule which explains its construction. A selection of short, simple EXTRACTS is added for exercise in reading,-passages taken from the best modern French writers, whose works are appropriate for the study of youth. All these exercises are subdivided into lessons of suitable length, and each set is preceded by the rules which bear upon it, conspicuously printed to fix the learner's attention to his task and aid his memory, conformably with a plan adopted with success in the author's other elementary works.

The Projection and Calculation of the Sphere, for Young Sea Officers; being a complete Initiation into Nautical Astronomy. By S. M. SAXBY, R.N., Principal Instructor of Naval Engineers, H.M. Steam Reserve; late of Caius College, Cambridge. Pp. 126; with 77 Diagrams. Post 8vo. price 5s. cloth. [July 17, 1861.

IN this book the Author's first object is to ex

plain thoroughly the difficulties which present themselves to young sea officers in the study of Nautical Astronomy, and to enable them to possess in one small book, written in familiar language by an experienced teacher, ample illustrations of various subjects which at present are scattered through several works mostly of a bye

gone age. The simplicity of the arrangement of the various parts will, it is believed, greatly advance in this country an increased desire for the study of Spherics and the practice of Projection, so essential to the accurate comprehension of the theory. The Projections of the Sphere form a prominent feature of the work; the Orthographic, in particular, is, by a new method of construction, now rendered available for the purposes of Nautical Astronomy, nearly as much so as the Stereographic. Much attention is also given to the formation and use of LOGARITHMS ; so that any person who understands vulgar fractions may be made to fully comprehend their principles and to form his own Logarithms. Euclid is, by many easy illustrations in general Geometry, divested of its supposed difficulties. Spherics is treated of practically. Every question and example in this volume is new and fully worked out, as well by construction (every step of which is very plainly shown) as by calculation; while rules for the calculation of Spheric Angles are put into the simplest and least perplexing form. The Author has aimed at leaving no question in Spherics which can occur in the practice of navigation without a full and explicit elucidation in his treatise.

Elementary Geometrical Drawing, PART II. [completion] The Practical Geometry of Planes and Solids. By SAMUEL H. WINTER, F.R.A.S. Principal of the Establishment for Military Candidates, Woodford. Pp. 144; with 84 Woodcuts and 2 Plates of figures. Post 8vo. 6s. 6d. cloth. [Aug. 5, 1861.

THIS work is intended to supply the want re

ferred to in the following extracts from the reports of the Council of Military Education :

"This state of affairs must arise from the absence of any English work treating of the subject of Geometrical Drawing in anything like a practical manner."-Woolwich Report, Jan. 1859.

"Such results naturally suggest that the mode in which the majority of candidates have been taught mechanical drawing is desultory, and ill calculated to enable them, after joining the Academy, to proceed at once with their Artillery and Engineer studies."— Woolwich Report, July 1859. The volume comprises the Practical Geometry of Planes and Solids, subdivided as follows:Chapter I. is an Introduction to Descriptive Geometry, based upon the Eleventh Book of Euclid. Chapter II. consists of Elementary Problems on the Straight Line and Plane. Chapter III. treats of Horizontal Projection. Chapter IV. contains Problems on the Projection of Solids, with sectional plans and elevations, and tangent

planes; in Chapter V. the application of Descriptive Geometry to the delineation of Shadows is explained and illustrated by examples; the elements of Isometric Projection constitute Chapter VI. Numerous sets of examples are appended to the various chapters; and, in addition to these, a large collection of miscellaneous exercises forms a separate chapter, all having been selected from Military Examination Papers.

The author has used the MS. of this work for some time with considerable advantage to his pupils, and only delayed its publication in the hope that some more able hand would supply the obvious deficiency in educational literature. Seeing, however, no announcement of any treatise of the kind, he has been induced to publish his own. His object is to provide for the use of tutors, engaged in preparing young men for the Army, an Elementary Text-Book to aid them in their task; and at the same time to furnish candidates with an easy introduction to the study of Geometrical Drawing, from which they may acquire an amount of knowledge sufficient, not only to enable them to solve such questions as are usually set, in this branch, at Military examinations, but also to qualify them to enter upon the study of the more difficult portions of the subject.

as to show the presumed influence of Jupiter on certain wet, cold, and disastrous years, like 1800, 1805, 1809, 1812, 1816, &c. to 1860; and, by inference, when similar bad years may be expected to occur again in England; also the meteorological character of the intermediate years between each wet and cold period. The author next shows, as he believes conclusively, that the cometic bodies exercise a peculiar influence, not only on the climate of England, but also on the climates of the whole earth; and to these mysterious bodies he traces the unusually hot summers and excessively cold winters occasionally experienced. The late famine drought in India and the severe winter in Europe, are, the author maintains in like manner, COMETIC PERTURBATIONS, and foretold the approach of the comets discovered in the present year. In the astronomical part of his work the author has received assistance from an eminent astronomer, J. R. HIND, Esq., F.R.A.S. &c.

The APPENDIX is devoted to a consideration of the deficiency of food for our still increasing population. The author shows the dependent position of England with a deficient harvest from her own soil, and how every interest is deranged

social, financial, and commercial. With a deficient harvest we experience high price of food, general stagnation of trade, a heavy drain of the trading capital to purchase foreign food; then distress and misery ensue amongst our labouring classes. The author next calls attention to the backward state of the English agriculture, and shows, he contends, from conclusive data, that if our landowners would restore to the earth the elements received from it in the shape of FOOD, instead of throwing this invaluable manure into our rivers in the shape of TOWN SEWAGE, it would increase the fertility of the soil, raise the rental value of arable land from 200 to 300 per cent. per annum, and thereby place an abundant supply of bread and animal food within the reach of the English working classes, besides rendering us independent of supplies from abroad. This question the author has discussed in various bearings. Landed proprietors are told that their exhausted soil is the only vulnerable point in England's breast-plate; and are reproached by the author for the present deficiency of animal and vegetable agricultural produce; and they will continue, he argues, to be responsible until, by the application of resources now wasted, they have raised English agriculture to the high position already attained by English manufactures. The author's arguments in this division of his work are supported by letters from Baron Liebig and several other eminent agriculturists.