the verse of Sidney Lanier and some of the verse of Henry Timrod, as well as selections of Edward Rowland Sill, Eugene Field and James Whitcomb Riley. (Boston: Ginn & Company, 1915. 635 p. $1.40.)

Still another book of selections entitled Modern essays, by Dr. John M. Burdan and Messrs. John R. Schultz and H. E. Joyce, of Yale, has just come from the press. Some of the selections seem to us to have been made more for their present interest than for their excellence. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1915. 448 p. $1.25.)

Essays for college men, second series is the title of a collection by Messrs. Foerster, Manchester and Young which covers a wide field on a high plane. (New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1915. 387 p. $1.25.)

To assist students in the mastery of what is called "college English," four members of the department of English, of Iowa State College, Messrs. Bowman, Bredvold, Greenfield and Weirick, have made a collection entitled Essays for college English. The essays included are intended to illustrate one of four subjects, namely, problems of country life, science, education and problems of life in general. (Boston: D. C. Heath & Company, 1915. 448 p.)

A book whose purpose is to be highly practical is entitled Effective business letters, by Professor Edward H. Gardner, of the University of Wisconsin. The author is obviously the academic analogue of an efficiency engineer. (New York: Ronald Press Company, 1915. 376 p.)

It seems as if it were only yesterday when Mr. James Russell Lowell was still with us, but already he is being made the subject of no little critical study and interpretation. We have examined with interest Lowell as a critic, by Dr. James J. Reilly, formerly instructor in English in the College of the City of New York. (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1915. 228 p.)

A college textbook pure and simple is Professor F. L. Pattee's History of American literature since 1870. In order to make a book of more than 400 pages on this subject it has been necessary to fish with a pretty, fine net.

(New York: The Century Company, 1915. 449 p. $2.00.)

A little book entitled The twelve best tales of English writers represents Mr. Adam L. Gowans's critical judgment. He includes one selection from Scott, one from James Hogg, four from Dickens, one from Thackeray, two from Mrs. Gaskell, one from Dr. John Brown and two from Robert Louis Stevenson. (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1915. 368 p. 35 cents.)

To Merrill's English textbooks there has been added Selected letters, by Miss Center, of the Julia Richman High School of New York City. America is represented by Benjamin Franklin, Washington Irving, George Peabody, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Robert E. Lee, Abraham Lincoln and James Russell Lowell. (New York: Charles E. Merrill Company, 1915. 275 p. 40 cents.)

A piece of compilation that will be found useful in libraries is Index to fairy tales, myths and legends, by Mary H. Eastman, of the Wilmington, Delaware, Institute Free Library. (Boston: The Boston Book Company, 1915. 350 p. $2.25.)

Effective public speaking is partly dependent on temperament, partly on natural capacity and partly on experience. Professor Frederick B. Robinson, of the College of the City of New York, has prepared a book which is intended to give thoro instruction in this field. (Chicago: La Salle Extension University, 1915. 466 p.)

The new Hudson Shakespeare is better printed than its predecessor and a number of improvements have been incorporated in it. We have already looked over volumes containing nine of the plays and unreservedly commend them. (Boston: Ginn & Company, 1915.)

We have also been examining two capital and very convenient Shakespeare volumes, one containing Julius Caesar and the other The Midsummer night's dream that have appeared in Bell's textbooks for schools. (London: G. Bell & Sons, 1915.)

There has been a good deal of writing during the past

few months on the subject of the military policy of the United States, but most of it has been in very vague and general terms and has rested on no secure foundation. The book entitled Military unpreparedness of the United States, by Frederic L. Huidekoper, is the best contribution to this subject that has come to our notice. It is, in effect, a careful history of American land forces from colonial times until the present. It is based upon the classic work of the late General Emory Upton and it contains an astonishing amount of interesting, valuable and accurate information. It is a pity that the author is not a master of a better and more attractive literary style, for the story that it has to tell is one which if invitingly told would reach a very large public. (New York: The Macmillan

Company, 1915. 734 p.)

In justice to the publishers of Webster's Condensed dictionary a word should be said as to an infringement of the copyright of this volume published under the title of Routledge's New dictionary of the English language and noticed in this REVIEW for June last. The publishers of the latter book were unaware of the fact that it was an infringement of copyright and when it was brought to their attention they withdrew the book from the American market. The book whose copyright was infringed was the well-known Webster's Dictionary, easily the best table volume of its kind and size. (Springfield: G. & C. Merriam Company.)

The reports that are issued annually by the Department of Education of the Government of India are very well arranged and contain much information that it is almost impossible to find elsewhere. The volume entitled Indian education, 1913-1914 is particularly instructive, and contains a number of admirable illustrations from which the American reader and student may obtain an excellent idea of the typical school and college buildings of India. (Calcutta: Government Printing Office, 1915. 2s. 6d.)

Writers on the history of education usually err either on the side of too much display of erudition or too obvious

superficiality. A truly excellent book which avoids both these faults and is readable is The schools of mediaeval England, by A. F. Leach, formerly Fellow of All Souls College. We know of no other volume from which one may obtain so complete and so interesting a view of school organization and school methods in the middle ages. The frontispiece has a striking illustration of Winchester College as it appeared about 1460. The book abounds in much curious information as well as in carefully ordered and welltold material. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1915. 349 p. $2.00.)

A book that is likely to be a standard in its field is State and county school administration, by Professor Ellwood P. Cubberley, of Leland Stanford University, and Professor Edward C. Elliott, who has just gone from the University of Wisconsin to be Chancellor of the University of Montana. The book falls into two parts of which the second part, a source book, is issued first. The book includes material from official documents and from standard writers on American federal and state policy, state administrative organization, extent of the educational system, financing of the school system, material environment and equipment, the state and the teacher and the oversight of the state. Some of the selections from non-official documents and utterances might well have been omitted and others that are not now included substituted for them. On the whole, however, the book is to be unreservedly commended as indispensable to the student of American school administration. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1915. 728 p.)

No one who wishes to be fully and fairly informed regarding the steps which immediately led up to the European war can afford to overlook the volume entitled The diplomatic history of war of 1914, by Professor Ellery C. Stowell, of Columbia University. This has been justly described as a statesman-like work. It is that and even more for the author's knowledge is little short of amazing and his fairness most unusual. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1915. 728 p. $5.00.)

The recent celebration of the 700th anniversary of Magna Charta brought to general notice the interesting fact that there exists in the United States a society composed of lineal descendants of the twenty-five barons who were made sureties for the observance of the charter. This society is known as The Baronial Order of Runnymede and it has recently issued a handsome volume entitled Magna Charta barons and their descendants, edited by Charles H. Browning, genealogist to the order. This volume abounds in interesting material, much of which is not to be found elsewhere. It deserves a place in every important collection of books on English history. (Philadelphia: Published by the Order, 1915. 366 p.)

There is a great deal of information in regard to the important educational movement in Wales packed away in The life of John Viriamu Jones, first principal of the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, edited by his widow. The personal touch thruout these pages adds greatly to their interest and value. (London: Smith, Elder & Company, 1915. 400 p.)

Citizens of New York and students of local history generally will be keenly interested in the little volume entitled Seal and flag of the City of New York, edited by John B. Pine. This book contains the record of the seal and flag of the city and of the action recently taken to make both seal and flag adequate and historically correct. (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1915. 102 p. $1.00.)

No small amount of information, well ordered and pleasantly conveyed, is to be found in The evolution of literature, by Professor A. S. MacKenzie, of the State University of Kentucky. (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1915. 440 p. $1.50.)

An admirable reading book or textbook of modern English history is The making of modern England, by Principal Gilbert Slater, of Ruskin College, Oxford, with a preface by Professor Shotwell, of Columbia University. The excellence of the volume and its distinction consist of the fact that it is really a history of the English people and not