Two-Book Series of Arithmetics

By JAMES B. THOMSON, LL.D., author of a Mathematical Course 1. FIRST LESSONS IN ARITHMETIC, Oral and Writte Fully and handsomely illustrated. For Primary Schools. 144 p 16mo, cloth.

2. A COMPLETE GRADED ARITHMETIC, Oral and Wr ten, upon the Inductive Method of Instruction. For Schoo and Academies. 400 pp. 12mo, cloth.

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This entirely new series of Arithmetics by DR. THOMSON has be prepared to meet the demand for a complete course in two books. following embrace some of the characteristic features of the books:

First Lessons.-This volume is intended for Primary Classes. It divided into Six Sections, and each Section into Twenty Lessons. The Sections cover the ground generally required in large cities for promoti from grade to grade.

The book is handsomely illustrated. Oral and slate exercises are co bined throughout. Addition and Subtraction are taught in connectic and also Multiplication and Division. This is believed to be in accordan with the best methods of teaching these subjects.

Complete Graded. This book unites in one volume Oral a Written Arithmetic upon the inductive method of instruction. Its aim twofold: to develop the intellect of the pupil, and to prepare him for t actual business of life. In securing these objects, it takes the most dire road to a practical knowledge of Arithmetic.

The pupil is led by a few simple, appropriate examples to infer f himself the general principles upon which the operations and rules deper instead of taking them upon the authority of the author without explan tion. He is thus taught to put the steps of particular solutions intc concise statement, or general formula. This method of developing pri ciples is an important feature.

It has been a cardinal point to make the explanations simple, the ste in the reasoning short and logical, and the definitions and rules brief, cle and comprehensive.

The discussion of topics which belong exclusively to the higher depar ments of the science is avoided; while subjects deemed too difficult to appreciated by beginners, but important for them when more advance are placed in the Appendix, to be used at the discretion of the teacher.

Arithmetical puzzles and paradoxes, and problems relating to subjec having a demoralizing tendency, as gambling, etc., are excluded. All th is obsolete in the former Tables of Weights and Measures is eliminated, a the part retained is corrected in accordance with present law and usage. Examples for Practice, Problems for Review, and Test Questions a abundant in number and variety, and all are different from those in t author's Practical Arithmetic.

The arrangement of subjects is systematic; no principle is anticipate or used in the explanation of another, until it has itself been explaine Subjects intimately connected are grouped together in the order of the dependence.

Teachers and School Officers, who are dissatisfied with the Arit metics they have in use, are invited to confer with the publishers.

CLARK & MAYNARD, Publishers, New York.

Copyright, 1885, by Clark & Maynard.

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LIFE OF EDMUND BURKE.

EDMUND BURKE, the famous orator and statesman, and, if Mr. Matthew Arnold's judgment be accepted, the greatest master of English prose style that ever lived, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1729. Unlike his friends, Dr. Johnson and Goldsmith, he did not pass his youth in penury and want, for his parents were, if not wealthy, at least well-to-do people. In 1743 he entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he remained for five years. His university career, if not brilliant, was far from an idle one. Though he did not apply himself very closely to the studies of the place, he read largely and acquired a fund of general knowledge. In 1750 he came to London to study law, but soon finding his legal studies irksome, he began to cast longing eyes upon the more pleasant field of general literature. He did not formally appear before the public as an author till 1756, when he published two works, “A Vindication of Natural Society," and "A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas on the Sublime and Beautiful." In 1758 he was engaged by Dodsley to edit the "Annual Register." He is said to have written the whole of the volumes for 1758 and 1759; he contributed largely to it for many years afterwards. These occupations introduced Burke into literary society where his stores of knowledge and powers of conversation eminently qualified him to excel. He soon became acquainted with Dr. Johnson, an intimacy to which we owe some of the best conversations recorded by Boswell. "That fellow calls forth all my powers." exclaimed the burly Doctor, who was never tired of praising the extraordinary readiness and affluence of Burke's conversation. In 1759, the future orator became private Secretary to "Singlespeech" Hamilton, with whom he went to Ireland in 1761. In 1766 Burke entered Parliament. From this time he took an active part, both by tongue and pen, in all the leading political struggles of the day. He supported a conciliatory policy towards the American colonies, advocated the abolition of certain restrictions which hampered the trade of Ireland, brought forward in 1780 a great scheme of political reform,and was the leading spirit in the impeachment of Warren Hastings. In 1794 Burke retired from Parliament, his son having been returned member in his stead. Shortly afterwards his son died, leaving the great orator, as he wrote to a friend, " desolate at home, stripped of my boast, my hope, my consolation, my counselor, and my guide." Burke received a pension from the government in 1794, which was assailed by the Duke of Bedford, as in contradiction to the whole scheme

of economic reform. To this attack Burke replied in his famous "Letter to a Noble Lord," which is a fine example of spirited invective. He died July 8, 1797, in his sixty-eighth year.

Few men have been the subjects of higher panegyric than Burke, and, on the whole, few have better deserved praise. In private life he was a man of unbounded benevolence, great affability of manners, and spotless morality. Intellectually he was most richly endowed; with much imagination, rare powers of observation, and an indefatigable industry. There was no subject which he could not master, and, none which, having mastered, he could not expound with unparalleled rich. ness of language. But with these virtues and powers were joined defects which largely neutralized their influence. His oratory astounded by its brilliancy rather than persuaded by its tone and argument. The orator who at first evoked the enthusiasm of the House by the brilliancy and power of his eloquence, did actually at last empty it by persistence in the monotonous splendors of his speeches. In public life he sometimes allowed the passion of the moment to get the better of him, and said things which would have been better left unsaid. No one ever doubted his thorough honesty and integrity of purpose; he was, indeed, as the genial Goldsmith said, "too fond of the right to pursue the expedient." Every production of his is, as Matthew Arnold says, "saturated with ideas." Hence, his speeches which, owing to his amplifications and deviations from the subject in hand, were often found tedious by his hearers, attract and reward the attention of the reader, while those of such men as Fox and Sheridan, are of interest only to the historian, and have little merit considered merely as literature.

In person Burke was five feet ten inches high, erect, well formed, never very robust; when young, expert in the sports of his country and time, and, until his last illness, active in habits suited to his years. He was near-sighted and, on account of this defect of vision, he almost constantly from the year 1780 wore spectacles. His conversation, which was often serious and instructive, abounded at times with wit, pleasantry, and good humor. He was somewhat negligent in the matter of dress, wearing, in his later years, a tight brown coat which seemed to impede freedom of motion, and a bob wig with curls which in addition to his spectacles made him a marked man the moment he rose to speak in the House of Commons. "Sir," said Dr. Johnson, "if Burke were to go into a stable to give directions about his horse the hostler would say, 'We have had an extraordinary man here.'"

EDMUND BURKE. 1729-1797.

BURKE was one of the first thinkers as well as one of the greatest orators of his time. He is without parallel in any age, excepting perhaps Lord Bacon and Cicero; and his works contain an ampler store of political and moral wisdom than can be found in any other writer. -Sir James Mackintosh.

I HAVE studied the ancients long and attentively, and I have found nothing in any of their orators superior, nay scarcely equal to what we see in Burke.-Dr. John Gillies.

A GENTLEMAN whose abilities, happily for the glory of the age in which we live, are not entrusted to the perishable eloquence of the day, but will live to be admiration of that hour when all of us shall be mute, and most of us are forgotten.-Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

I DELIBERATELY and steadily affirm that of all men who are, or who ever have been, eminent for energy or splendor of eloquence, or for skill and grace in composition, there is not one who, in genius or erudition, in philanthropy or piety, or in any of the qualities of a wise and good man, surpasses Burke.-The Learned Dr. Parr.

THERE is no single speech of Burke which can convey a satisfactory idea of his powers of mind. To do him justice, it would be necessary to quote all his works: the only specimen of Burke is, all he wrote.Hazlitt.

BURKE will always be read with delight and edification, because in the midst of discussions on the local and the accidental, he scatters apophthegms that take us into the regions of lasting wisdom. Burke is among the greatest of those who have wrought marvels in the prose of our English tongue.-John Morley.

"AS AN eloquent and philosophic political character, Burke stands alone. His intellect was at once exact, minute, and comprehensive, and his imagination rich and vigorous. As to his style, he is remarkable for the copiousness and freedom of his diction, the splendor and great variety of his imagery, his astonishing command of general truths, and the ease with which he seems to wield those fine weapons of language, which most writers are able to manage only by the most anxious care,"

BURKE AS A MASTER OF ENGLISH STYLE.

THE writings of Burke are the daily bread of statesmen, orators, and political writers. We cannot study the speeches of any successful modern orator, without observing how much he owes to the method, the phraseology, the images, and even the quotations of Burke. Shakespeare above all things refines the taste; Milton quickens and exalts the imagination. The peculiar effect of Burke is to enlarge, strengthen, liberalize, and ennoble the understanding. His method was admirable. No man ever gave more care to the arrangement of his thoughts. Whatever may be the intricacy of its details, there is reigning throughout the whole a massive unity of design like that of a great cathedral. His language, though copious, was not verbose. Every word had its peculiar force and application. No writer, not even Macaulay, excels him in producing an effect by interspersion of short, pointed, and forcible sentences, so necessary to an energetic and suggestive style. Burke gave a lasting stimulus to English prose literature, by the introduction of a fresher and more natural diction. His writings have ever since been the model of all who wish to say anything forcibly, naturally, freely, and in a comparatively small space. The young student of Burke will find it necessary to exert an unusual degree of patience, and to acquire the habit of continually suspending his own judgment. He will find himself in contact with much that seems dry and uninviting. It may therefore be well to caution him at the outset, that Burke, like all writers of the first class, will not repay a superficial perusal. He gains upon us, not altogether by the adherent interest of what he presents to us, but very much by the will and force with which he presents it, and these qualities do not immediately strike the mental eye in all their fullness.

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