Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/284

272, heart-power, self-control, presentmindednets, wisdom in common things, and positive moral character. The best qualified teacher, however, may fail if his methods of instruction or discipline are brought into disrepute through official interference, or if his surroundings are cramped and unhealthful.

The mechanical means of government suggested are the proper seating of pupils, a good programme, a self-regulating system, and as few rules as possible. Under the head of moral training is embraced the education of the will, school incentives, punishment, and the principles of direct ethical instruction. Thirty-two topics in morals and manners are named and the material given for fifteen lessons in the primary grades and for sixteen in higher classes. A discussion of the function of religion in the school is given at the close. In this it is held that religious motives may be rightfully introduced in order to render moral teaching efficient.

Although the ethical value of several of the stories may be questioned, the fundamental lessons are such as are greatly needed in public schools, and in the hands of an earnest teacher the book can not fail to be a means of moral uplifting.

is a revised edition of a little manual upon pronunciation that appeared fourteen years ago. A thousand words that are often mispronounced have been added, and among these are many foreign names which betray the unlettered. We are told to avoid saying ŏl'wuz for al-wāys, sparrowgrass for as-par'a-gus, and be-cŏz for be-cause. Educated people may pass by the ranks where these vulgarisms are enrolled and meet foreign recruits of doubtful address.

Although the author presents chamois as shăm'wa and haricot as ă'rē'kō', he states, "It is well to make one's pronunciation when speaking English as English as permissible." From this we find that Mr. Ayres has his little linguistic leanings, since the word singled out for Anglicizing is cicerone, given as sĭse-rône, while massage, which in the International is English mass'-age, appears here only as ma-sazh'. Chemical terms are variously marked. The author favors quī-nīne, and says of iodine, "My impression is that long i will ultimately prevail." Bromide and chloride are marked both short and long, from which it may be judged that Mr. Ayres is unfamiliar with the late decree of chemists making the i short, and even dropping the final e in spelling. Among English words boatswain is given as bosn, a colloquialism according to the International, while bellows and strew are preferred as bĕl-lus and strō. In regard to his own profession, he tells us that any pronunciation but or'thoëpy and or'thoëpist sounds inelegant to him. Unhappily, we know the Greek progenitor of the word is ὸρθοέπεία, and that the French with loyal grace make this orthoépie. In English too we remember or-thog' ra-phy and orthog'amy from the same root ὸρθὀς, and we can not understand why there should be a lack of elegance in accenting the word "correct" correctly according to its descent.

But probably the whole trouble is with us; we are asking that the orthoëpist should verify his decisions in a scientific manner by some rule of consistency or etymology, whereas his art is in an inchoate state, and this little book helps us to realize its struggle for development.

who have examined his Inventional Geometry could not fail to be convinced that W. G. Spencer was a man of no small mental caliber. This conviction will be strengthened by a glance at the productron before us. The system of shorthand which it embodies was devised by him in the course of a few years preceding 1833. The present exposition was drawn up by his son, Herbert Spencer, in 1843, and is now printed unchanged, except by the addition of four specimens. In his prefatory note Mr. Herbert Spencer states that he has been impelled to publish the system at this late day "from the conviction, long since formed and still unshaken, that the Lucid Shorthand ought to replace ordinary writing. Possessing, as it does, not equal legibility but greater legibility (the distinctions among the symbols being so much more marked), and