Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 44.djvu/577

Rh work of Mr. Arnold and an outline of the story on which the poem is founded; and to the latter, a sketch of Mr. Emerson's life and an inquiry into his religious belief, which is deemed necessary for a proper understanding of his writings. (Price, 20 cents each).

Mr. E. A. Kirkpatrick, of the State Normal School, Winona, Minn., has prepared, primarily for use in his own classes, a manual of Inductive Psychology, or introduction to the study of mental phenomena, in which a kind of experimental method is applied. The pupil, instead of taking what the author tells him about imaginary mental processes, is expected to analyze and observe the actual processes of his own mind and those of others, whereby he may be led to observe, judge, and think for himself. (Published by the author.)

The Exercises in Greek Prose Composition, based on Xenophon's Anabasis, of William R. Harper and Clarence F. Castle, originated in the belief that Greek prose composition is not an end to be sought for its own sake, but a means for learning the principles of the Greek language, that they may become the key to unlock its literature. The method adopted is believed to be one that will stimulate observation and investigation, and so become an inductive process. The text book matter is preceded by some helpful suggestions about composition, and followed by a series of inductive studies in the uses of the Greek modes. (American Book Company. Price, 75 cents.)

The Principles of Fitting—engine fitting it is usually called, but the author objects to that designation as being too special—by a foreman pattern maker, is a manual designed for apprentices and students in technical schools. The author has directed his attention to those cardinal matters which lie at the basis of the trade, in preference to entering into a multitude of details that would be applicable only to the practice of a limited class of shops. He has also assumed that his readers are thrown upon their own resources without the aid of the automatic machines of modern shops, and has devoted considerable space to vise work. (Macmillan & Co. Price, $1.50.)

The main purpose of the Duchess of Cleveland's relation of The True Story of Kaspar Hauser from Official Documents appears to be the vindication of her father, the Earl of Stanhope, who had the care of the mysterious personage during the latter part of his career, against the aspersions which have been cast upon his motives and conduct by certain writers who have assumed to tell the story. The author's version is told in a terse and vigorous style, with pungent criticism and comment. She regards Kaspar Hauser as simply an impostor and liar, whose whole life and conduct were a deception, and who fabricated the attacks that were made upon him, including the one from which he died, the fatality of which was due to some awkwardness or blunder of his own. She rejects the idea of his having been a person of any importance. (Macmillan. Price, $1.50.)

In Castorologia, or the History and Traditions of the Canadian Beaver, Mr. Horace T. Martin has presented a popular monograph on that subject, in which he has endeavored to separate the tradition from the history, while giving each its due presentment. His book includes chapters on the mythology and folklore respecting the animal, Indian legends of giant beavers, and the mammoth beavers of geology; the European beavers; the more important American rodents; the life history of the Canadian beaver, its geographical distribution, its engineering accomplishments, the economical uses that are made of it, the chemico-medical properties of castoreum, the importance of the animal in trade and commerce, the uses made of it in manufactures, the hunting of it. Experiments in Domestication, its anatomy and osteology, and the Beaver in Heraldry—all handsomely illustrated. (Montreal, William Drysdale & Co.)

Mr. D. W. Taylor's book, largely mathematical, on the Resistance of Ships and Screw Propulsion originated in the author's own sense of the need of a treatise on the subject, containing data, formulas, and tables. Much of the material has been derived, necessarily, from papers read by the late William Froude, and R. E. Froude, his son, before the Institution of Naval Architects; and much of it is original. The author has intended to discuss ships as they are, not floating bodies in general; and to set forth methods and deduce results as