Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 38.djvu/436

422 But if history be a setting forth of the past as the past really was, he reasons, the aid of inference and analogy can not be excluded. An interesting picture is presented of times of which not much is accurately known, for the composing of which the authorities of the chronicles and poems have been collated.

The chronology of historical events, originally compiled by the late George P. Putnam, and forming a part of his cyclopædia on The World's Progress, has been revised and brought down to the present time by Lynds E. Jones, and is issued in separate form by G. P. Putnam's Sons as Tabular Views of Universal History. The tables are arranged in parallel columns, the headings of which vary according to the charcteristicscharacteristics [sic] of the succeeding ages, but which usually include a column for each of the leading nations of the time, one for the world elsewhere, often one devoted to ecclesiastical affairs, and always one headed Progress of Society. For ancient Egyptian events, the chronology of Brugsch and Duncker, which puts the erection of the Great Pyramid at about 3700 is adopted as a compromise between extremes. The earliest Chaldean date is 2234 for the earliest astronomical observations; and the first Israelite date is about 1055  for the accession of Saul.

An excellent Brief History of the Empire State has been prepared for schools and families by Welland Hendrick, and is published by C. W. Bardeen, of Syracuse. The author assumes as one of the reasons why the history of New York deserves to be studied, that the importance of the colony in the making of America has been underrated. That it learned liberty under the Dutch and held to it through a century of English governors; that, handicapped by many disadvantages, it was among the first of the colonies in the war for freedom, and alone of the thirteen met every demand of Congress; and that with its canal it opened the Northwest—entitle it, he thinks, to prominent consideration at least in its own schools. There are also reasons, of a general character, for which he regards the study of State history as profitable.

An Easy Method for Beginners in Latin has been prepared by Prof. Albert Harkness, and is published by the American Book Company, with the intention of introducing the learner to such a practical and working knowledge of the Latin language as will enable him to read Cæsar or Nepos with some degree of pleasure. It approaches the subject on the practical side, introducing the student in the first lesson, without a word of grammar, to the complete Latin sentences, with verb, subject, and object.

The Handbook of Latin Writing of Henry Preble and Charles P. Parker grew, in the first place, out of the necessities of class work at Harvard College. The development of Latin writing there and the fuller experience of the authors have suggested modifications, and a new revised edition has been prepared and is published by Ginn & Co. The essential principle of the first edition is retained, but some of the exercises having proved less useful than they were expected to be, others have been substituted for them. The authors, attributing ill-success in Latin writing largely to the habit of translating the words rather than the thought, have been at pains to insist on fastening attention upon the thought, and have tried to show the learner how to express in Latin form the ideas which he has grasped from the English words.

The American Book Company publishes an edition of the Satires of Juvenal, edited, after several years of careful study, and a comparison of the views of the best critical editors, and annotated, by Thomas B. Lindsay, of Boston University. Thirteen of the sixteen satires are given, and from these such lines are omitted as seemed likely to offend a rational delicacy—a very proper measure for a Juvenal that is to be read in mixed classes. The notes are copious, and the whole work is richly illustrated. The author makes a comparison between Horace and Juvenal as satirists, showing that Horace wrote in a brilliant, hopeful age, and is therefore lively and amusing; while Juvenal, writing in an age of decline, when vices were rife, is contemptuous and bitter.

The short exposition of the Roman method made by Harry Thurston Peck in his handbook on Latin Pronunciation is principally intended for those persons interested in the study of Latin who have accepted the Roman method without acquainting themselves with the arguments on which it is maintained. It has now received the