ments themselves are often doubled, so that he will probably reach a higher sum. The allowance for residence is equal to one fifth the fundamental salary. The report shows that the mean salaries range from $446 to $580, as against a mean average of $323 in France.

Attention has already been called in these columns to the very unsatisfactory financial condition of the primary school teachers of France. Not only are the salaries too low,-lower in fact than those paid in any other branch of the civil service,-but the strict limitation of the proportion of the whole number of teachers allowed for each of the five classes into which they are divided and the meager appropriation for pensions had effectually stopped promotions, so that the majority of the teachers, irrespective of the length of service, were kept down in the lower classes. This injustice has been partially remedied (1) by a special appropriation for increasing the number of pensions and also the proportion of the higher grade salaries; and (2) by doing away entirely with the "pourcentage," that is, the limit of the number of teachers assigned to each grade. Meanwhile, the air is full of proposals for increasing the salary attached to each grade, and undoubtedly some measure of the kind will be passed as soon as the Chamber of Deputies can take up the matter. The salaries are paid by the State, but the communes may increase the amount, and must also provide a residence for the teacher. The increase is seldom forthcoming, except in the large cities.

The present range of salaries guaranteed by the State is as follows:

In the chief cities the range of salaries is higher. In 1900 the average salary in Paris found by dividing the total amount appropriated for salaries and indemnities for residence by the total teaching force was $510. This estimate does not include money allowed for certain extra or special services, which increased the total income of many teachers. The school directors of the highest class, who do little teaching, but are responsible for the work of an entire school or school group, numbered 108. Of these eighty-seven received each $880 a year, and the remaining twenty-one a little more, namely, $900 each. These amounts include the allowance for residence.

The statistics published annually by the commissioner of education enable us to compare the salaries of the countries above considered with those that teachers receive in the states and cities of our own country; but for reasons already stated such comparisons signify little; indeed, they are generally misleading.

In this country it would be impossible to imagine a teacher continuing in the service under conditions of such hopeless misery as are described in the pathetic story of Jean Coste, the village schoolmaster whom all France has recognized as a national type. Fortunately, also, France responds naturally to an appeal cast in literary form, and Jean Coste has become the symbol of a national peril" which the government will no longer tolerate.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

The Franco-Scottish Association, which was founded in 1896 at the inauguration of the new Sarbonne, celebrated its third biennial anniversary in September at Grenoble. From the recently published accounts of this gathering it is evident that the association is not only a means of strengthening the bonds between university men, but of promoting good will between the subjects who own allegiance to Edward VII and the citizens of the French Republic. The toast to the King of England was drank amid great enthusiasm to the music of "God Save the King."

The disposition to break down the barriers that separate secondary and primary education in France is emphasized by the call of a united congress of delegates (professors and teachers) representing both departments. The proposition originated with the professors of secondary or classical colleges, and has been authorized by the government, whose sanction was essential. The congress will meet in April.

The London Journal of Education publishes a recent address by Dr. Sadler on the "Influence of Herbert Spencer's Educational Writings." Like every criticism from this source the paper is thoroughly appreciative, but at the same time judicial. Dr. Sadler notes that Spencer's work on education appeared in 1861, the very year that Mr. Robert Lowe issued his "Revised Code," by which the government grants to elementary schools were apportioned on the results of the examination of individual children. Mr. Spencer's teaching was fundamentally opposed to the cramming induced by the system of "payment upon results," and was the strongest influence making for its ultimate overthrow. "It was Mr. Spencer, also," he says, "who dealt the heaviest blow at false ideals in the education of girls" and who "roused multitudes of his fellow-countrymen from their 'strange disregard of physical education.'' Spencer's exaggerated estimate of the claims of natural science was due, in Dr. Sadler's opinion, to an intense dislike of the pedantic method of language teaching. What he desired was "to stimulate individuality, the spirit of inquiry, and freedom of ideas." While recognizing what is truly valuable in Spencer's educational docrines, Dr. Sadler is fully alive also to the evils that are directly traceable to his influence. He never understood nor rightly interpreted the forces that make for spiritual life in men or nations. In this respect "he differed from what is strongest and most fruitful in the great humanistic tradition." The review is in Dr. Sadler's happiest manner, and well deserves the careful attention of all educators and students of education.

A. T. S.

Book Notices

NOTE.-The number of books now published monthly is so large that we shall hereafter adopt the plan of promptly acknowledging by title, author, publisher and price, all books sent us for review; and later, as space is available, give more extended notice to such as seem most likely to be of interest and value to our readers.-PUBLISHERS EDUCATION.

Outlines of Greek History. By William C. Morey. Dr. Morey is professor of history in the University of Rochester, has written several books on Roman history and law, and is a cultured and accomplished scholar. He has made in his story of Greek life a working text-book that has many excellencies and many novel features. Beginning as the writer of Greek history should, with a survey of ancient nations, he leads the student through a perfect avenue of approach from earliest times direct to the beginnings of Greece. The first four chapters, brief and succinct, are models of deliberate study and information. They treat of the beginnings of history; the far Eastern countries-China and India; the Mesopotamian countries-Babylonia and Assyria; and the hither OrientEgypt, Phoenicia, and Judea. With this preliminary sketch of the progress of civilization before the time of the Greeks among the ancient Oriental peoples, well studied by the pupil, he is ready to attack the more special study of the history of Greece. Dr. Morey's idea developed in every chapter of his book is that the historical significance of any people must be estimated by what it has contributed to the general civilization of the world. The historical importance of the ancient Greeks rests upon their contributions to the growth of political liberty and to the development of a superior intellectual and æsthetic culture. Dr. Morey has endeavored to select and describe those facts which illustrate the most important and distinguishing traits of the Grecian character, the political history, to show the extent to which Greeks were successful in the development of free institutions, the history of culture, to show the great advance made by the Greeks upon the previous culture of the Orient. The successive stages are traced through the several periods of Greek history; and thus the student comes to the very heart of the life of the Greeks. The topical method has been employed as being the most scientific in its results, and the best adapted to the student needs and abilities. Every aid that will materially assist the student is indicated; there are selections for reading, with references to specific chapters in books; there is a vast number of cuts that serve to illuminate the text; and a striking feature is the progressive maps, ten in number, which show the geographical progress of Greece and the Orient. An evidence of good judgment and of appreciation of the return to better ways is found in the use of the familiar Latinized forms of Greek names in place of the rather bungling spelling which came about in an attempt to recast these names into a form more consistent with the original Greek. It may be summed up in a word, that Dr. Morey's history is a notable text-book on Greek history; that it is eminently readable, fair-minded, trustworthy, scientific; that it will stimulate the student to deeper reading and wider investigation. American Book Company.

Samuel Chapman Armstrong. By Edith Armstrong Talbot. This very interesting biographical study, by the gifted daughter of a distinguished father, has peculiar significance to teachers, in that General Armstrong was one of the founders of the great modern movement for manual training. His birth and early life in the Hawaiian Islands brought him into close relations with an inferior race, and gave him just the point of view and the practical training needed for his great mission to the American negroes. That Hawaiian life itself was a charming and romantic story, unlike anything else in the world, and calculated to make a lasting impression on a youth with a fresh, wholesome, poetic nature. Young Armstrong's college life at Williams, his thrilling experiences in the army during the Civil War, his wonderfully fruitful work as an organizer and educator, leading up to the founding of Hampton Institute, and the giving to the world that great personality, Booker Washington, are all told modestly, sympathetically, interestingly. This book makes a worthy companion volume to those two others by the same publishers,—“Up From Slavery" and "Character Building," by Mr. Washington. There are sixteen illustrations. Doubleday, Page & Co. Price, $1.50 net.

Earth's Enigmas. By Charles G. D. Roberts. Mr. Roberts is one of the most readable of the modern nature writers. Probably people of different temperaments will have different minds in regard to the faithfulness of his portrayals. His is distinctly a poetic temperament. His stories lie in the borderland between the real and the unreal-the fascinating, alluring region between human life and brute life; who shall draw the line of demarcation? Scientists are still hunting for the connecting link. The region of mystery between the two animals, man and brute, is a legitimate field for imagination and fancy. Mr. Roberts knows nature at first hand, having been brought up in the Canadian wilderness. He loves nature with a poet's fondness. He can see more of reality and dream more beautiful fancies than most of us; but we like to listen to his narration of what he sees and dreams, just as we love to hear the music of a great composer, even if we cannot fully understand it. "Earth's Enigmas" deals, as the author himself tells us, "with one or another of those problems of life or nature to which, as it appears to many of us, there is no adequate solution within sight." There are a few well drawn and helpful fullpage illustrations scattered through the volume, the work of Charles Livingstone Bull. L. C. Page & Co.

Plane and Solid Geometry. By Alan Sanders. This is prepared for the use of classes in high schools and preparatory schools. It is marked by certain well-defined features: the omission of parts of demonstrations; the introduction, after each proposition, of exercises bearing directly upon the principle of the proposition; all constructions are given before they are required to be used in demonstrations; exercises in modern geometry; propositions and converses, and the number of exercises. By the omission of parts of the demonstration the pupil is forced to rely more on his own reasoning powers, and is prevented from acquiring the detrimental habit of memorizing the text. In no case, however, is the student required to originate the plan of proof. The arrangement of the propositions and the style of the book render it an attractive one to students; its mastery will set them well along in their mathematical studies and on a well-grounded basis. American Book Company.

Our Government. By J. A. James and A. H. Sanford. The authors have been teachers of civil government for years, and they have embodied in the book the methods and subject-matter employed in their own schools. The subject is treated in the natural order, local, state, and national, and with the proper amount of fullness to each division. With a devotion to a style suited to the comprehension of the students who will use the book, the authors have suffered their temptation for fine writing to pass on, and they have made a book that will appeal at once to every teacher of civics and to every student of the subject. They set forth the facts of the government of the people in a manner that is at once attractive and inviting, and they give just the incidental facts to illuminate the subject that will inflame the desire of the student to further reading and deeper study. A fine harmony and due proportion of subjects characterize the work; nothing of importance is subordinated, nothing of importance is expanded to gratify the impulse for speculation and evidence erudition. It is a working text-book for boys and girls in civics, the kind that will make them wiser men and women, better able to appreciate the spirit of our government and its institutions, the kind that will make them better citizens. We give the work our cordialest greeting, assured that the schools will be all the richer for their use of the book. Charles Scribner's Sons.

Education as Adjustment: Educational Theory Viewed in the Light of Contemporary Thought. By M. V. O'Shea. In a pleasant style Professor O'Shea discusses fundamental problems of education in the light of modern scientific thought. The reader will find in his book a useful review of the theories of the great educators from Plato to the present time. It is made very plain that modern psychology and the light that has come through other sciences give us a more satisfactory conception of the aim of education than mankind has ever before had. It will be a satisfaction to all workers in this great field to find such a full and encouraging summary of the results of modern education. In the way of practical suggestiveness and inspiration teachers will find the book most helpful. It is one of the best of the very excellent books composing the American Teachers Series. Edited by James E. Russell, Ph.D., Dean of Teachers College, Columbia University. Published by Longmans, Green & Co. Price, $1.50.

The Care of Destitute, Neglected and Delinquent Children. By Homer Folks. Mr. Folks was until recently the Commissioner of Public Charities in the City of New York, and by his previous training and duties qualified beyond most men to write on the subject which he makes the burden of his book. His purpose in his work is to bring to bear on the practical problems of American social workers a concise knowledge of the historical evolution through which the charities of the country have passed, and to a consideration of the care of children who have been removed from their earlier environment and from parental control, and the direction of whose lives and the burden of whose support has been directly assumed or provided for by public authorities or private charities. The study is made exhaustive and thorough; each state is considered with respect to its law in caring for children and the various methods employed in public and private charities. Everyone interested in the care of neglected children will find this a most serviceable and valuable work. It is a perfect thesaurus of facts for all charity workers. The Macmillan Company.