who agree with the author, and profoundly useless to all other classes. And as to a book with so formidable a title as "Unanswerable Logic" (Colby & Rich), in which a "Series of Spiritual Discourses" have been given through the mediumship of Thomas Gales Forster, the reviewer who cannot accept the logic had best refrain from confessing it.
A number of new volumes have been added to the excellent "Story of the Nations" series (Putnam's) during the last six months. "The Saracens," by Arthur Gilman, and "The Moors in Spain," by Stanley Lane Poole, give an excellent summary of the most picturesque periods in the history of Mohammedanism. The subjects of " ncient Egypt" and "Persia" have both been intrusted to competent hands,—the first to George Rawlinson and the latter to S. G. W. Benjamin, with the result of giving us on the whole the best popular hand-books on the history of those countries. Sarah Orne Jewett writes a graceful history of "The Normans," though she shrinks a little from the brutality and ferocity of her heroes. The sketch would have been more vigorous if it had come from a male hand. "Alexander's Empire," by Prof. J. P. Mahany, is concise, accurate, and interesting.
"English as She is Taught" (Cassell & Co.) is, as its sub-title explains, a collection of "Genuine Answers to Examination Questions in our Public Schools." The collection is made by a teacher, Caroline B. Le Row, who vouches for its genuineness. But, indeed, the book is its own voucher. The most ingenious fancy, the most grotesque imagination, could never hit upon such whimsical distortions of thought and fact as are evolved by the half-formed brains of poor little boys and girls struggling with lessons far beyond their comprehension. The book raises alarming doubts as to the value of the system of instruction pursued in our public schools. Here, for example, is a Shakespearean essay: "Hamlet was exceedingly sensitiveness. He denunciated his mother because she entered the matrimonial condition, and showed her two photographs which he said one was Hesperus and one a Satire. He made her experience great regret. He was engaged to Ophelia, but had to neglect her as he was obliged to give his attentions to revenging his father's death. His uncle was the murderer of his father, Hamlet's father. He had a very mournful existence, and was a great philosopher." This is delightfully funny; but after you have laughed, your sober second thought reminds you that the author of the essay is luminously wise in comparison with the teacher or the system that could set such a pupil to such a task. The system may be funny enough, but it cannot be very delightful to any man who pays taxes to assist in carrying it on, or who has children whose minds are undergoing its Procrustean tortures.
"The Universal Cookery Book," by Gertrude Strohm (White, Stokes & Allen), is largely a selection of the best receipts from standard authorities already approved by the public. It shows patience and industry on the part of the compiler, and praiseworthy courtesy on the part of the authors who have allowed her to lay their works under contribution.
