Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/868

850 shall be righted, and every evil exterminated, not seeing that, while they gain on one side, they are almost sure to lose on the other."

It was quite inevitable that the author should be led by this train of thought to an examination of the general subject of reforms. By this term has come to be understood that concerted and systematic effort which men put forth for the removal of evils, personal and social, and the attainment of a higher good through wiser action and better conduct. The reforms in which men and women engage are numberless, and are usually undertaken under the spur of a vivid sense of some evil to be removed, some suffering to be mitigated, or some great good to be achieved, rather than from any clear appreciation of how much it is possible to accomplish, or the danger of making matters worse by injudicious and intractable meddling. If ever amplitude of knowledge and cautious judgment are required for the guidance of human activity, it is certainly when experiments are to be made upon human beings in social relations for the purpose of attaining ideal results. But knowledge is generally not at a premium among reformers, and, instead of being men of dispassionate discernment and cool deliberation, they are too generally ardent and passionate, and even hot-headed and fanatical. It may be said that it is just these qualities that are needed to drive a reformatory crusade, and that nothing in this direction is ever accomplished by discreet and well-balanced men. But our experience with reforms and reformers—those who make it a business and a profession—is not such as to convince us that further knowledge on the philosophy of this important subject is superfluous.

For this reason we welcome the present book as a timely and valuable contribution to the question of the difficulties and the possibilities of reformatory effort. The author brings out a view of the subject that needed to be elaborated. It is a great subject, and his treatment of it is neither exhaustive nor faultless; but it is sufficiently full, cogent, and instructive to be of great public service. The writer modestly remarks: "It may be thought that more should have been said of the possibilities of reform. I could not say more on this point than has here been said without pretending to wisdom which I am perfectly conscious I do not possess. I believe there is need of some such presentation of the subject as an incentive mainly to a careful and judicious treatment of the great practical questions of the day."

The work is divided into three parts. Part I—consisting of five chapters, is devoted to the labor question—wages, saving and management, monopoly, schemes for industrial reform, etc. Part II—three chapters—takes up financial questions—money, protection, and monopoly. Part III—six chapters—is devoted to miscellaneous reforms—questions of every-day economics, some points in education, the woman and divorce questions, the temperance question, and issues of the near future. The work is neatly printed and brought out at a moderate price. It should have an extensive circulation, for the country is full of reformers.

commend Colburn's Arithmetic would be like painting the rose. The system he introduced has held its place for sixty years, and educators are not yet ready to depart from its principles. The changes made in the present edition have been designed to make the "Colburn Method of Instruction" more apparent and attractive, or to bring the modes of expression and the objects referred to into conformity with the changed conditions of the life of to-day. A sketch of Colburn's life, his original preface, and George B. Emerson's introduction to the edition of 1863, are given in the Appendix.

book is intended to+ present, in a compact and popular form, all the facts and principles of astronomy that are needed in a general course of collegiate education. Mathematical formulas and demonstrations have been avoided as far as possible, and