Best Encyclopedia of Education Articles to appear in an early issue include Student activities and success in life, by LOUIS BEVIER, Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N. J. Elementary English and the high school, by FLORENCE H. JENNINGS, Belfast, New York. Making Americans in Minnesota, by MARGARET H. HOYT, Wellesley College. Education a national problem, by H. A. EATON, Syracuse, New York. National responsibility for the education of the negro, by KELLEY MILLER, Howard University, Washington, D. C. The future of the Flemish tongue, by ROY TEMPLE HOUSE, Norman, Okla. Shall the teaching of English be commercialized? by FAITH MARIS, New York City. Manuscripts intended for publication should be addrest to the Editor, and stamps for return enclosed. Correspondence relating to reprints, special editions, advertising, subscriptions and remittances, should be sent to the EDUCATIONAL REVIEW, Columbia University, New York 3 dollars. 14s. 6d. A Year 10 Numbers, none being issued 35 cents. Is. 8d. A Copy IN these days the teacher has an added responsibility to make his students more public-spirited citizens and more ardent patriots. He must teach them the new meaning of Americanism—that it stands for courage, enthusiasm and purpose, that it is an intense nationalism which signifies justice, freedom and humanity. The past history of this country he must explain with truth and impartiality. Hart's School History of the United States BY ALBERT Bushnell HaRT, LL.D., Gives young people a new and broader understanding of our true relations, both past and present, with other countries. Decidedly patriotic, it is yet devoid of "spread-eagleism." It is entertaining in style, well balanced in its proportions, attractive in its illustrations. A very appealing and inspiring book for the higher elementary grades and junior high schools. Hart's New American History BY ALBERT Bushnell HaRT, LL.D. 710 pages. With illustrations and maps. Distinguished by breadth of vision, stimulating patriotism, freedom from prejudice, absence of provincialism, masterly, judicial explanation of longstanding misconceptions. A vigorous high school textbook in which much attention is given to social conditions. McKinley, Coulomb and Gerson's School BY ALBERT E. MCKINLEY, Professor of History, University of A timely new book which enables teachers to bring home to students the lessons of the War and to interweave the teaching of patriotism with the most recent American history. Prepared upon the suggestion of the National Board for Historical Service. NEW AND FORTHCOMING EDUCATIONAL BOOKS The Management of a City School, by Arthur C Perry, District Superintendent of Schools, New York City, has been rewritten in the light of the new responsibilities acknowledged by modern education. The new edition of this standard work was published in March. It is indispensable to 1. Principals who wish to increase their own efficiency in their present positions. 2. Principals who wish to qualify themselves for promotion. 3. Teachers who aspire to principalships. (Ready in May) Modern Elementary School Practice, by George E. Freeland, University of Washington, treats of modern educational development along four lines: 1. The development of a new methodology which works through the use of problems, projects, motives and interest. 2. The selection of subject-matter that is worthy of the time and the effort of pupils. 3. Teaching in a way that will conserve children's health. 4. The realization of a proper balance between the individual and the social ends of education. (Ready in May) Socializing the Three R's, by Ruth Mary Weeks, co-ordinates the fundamentals of the elementary curriculum with the expansion of our social consciousness. It is another timely contribution to the nation-wide movement to "make democracy safe" by education. "The best thing that can be said of a plan of organiza- SCHOOL EFFICIENCY By HENRY EASTMAN BENNETT, College of William and Mary GINN AND COMPANY 70 Fifth Avenue New York THE THE STUDY OF LITERATURE One of the permanent themes of literature is the advancement of literary appreciation. Authors generally, like Aristophanes, have condemned both critics and the public as "mere triflers with regard to judging the abilities of writers." Students generally have agreed that the "drilled dull lesson, forced down word for word" execrated by Byron, merely, in the words of Pope, "made Homer dull, and humbled Milton's strains." Suggestions for improvement in the interpretation of literature are, therefore, always in order. If critics and teachers of literature may be said to agree in anything, it is either that style is incidental, or that the appreciation of style is uninteresting and difficult. Hence style is more often than not relegated to the last and least place in their consideration and presentation of literature. When all of an author's other characteristics have been pointed to with pride or viewed with alarm, the critic concludes with a paragraph and the teacher with a few words concerning style. There is much to be said for precisely the opposite theory and practise, that style is immensely important and capable of interesting the general reader exceedingly, that the study of style may be made simple for the student, and that it would be more pleasant and profitable for all concerned if style were dealt with first rather than last, not only for its own sake but also as the simplest and best introduction to the essential nature of an author's writing. The reason for these views of the nature and function of style will appear from a rapid glance at the history of critical opinion, ignoring Steele's censure "There is nothing so pedantic as many quotations." Aristotle commended in utterance first clarity and vividness, and then a natural suitability to the subject, basing such propriety upon both esthetic and ethical grounds. He recognized also that style has a special character of its own,-"the mere being in possession of what one ought to say is not enough; it is moreover necessary...to give speech quality." He divided diction into current usage, conducing to clarity; and unfamiliar usage, which conduces to elevation, if its artfulness is well concealed. Finally, he noted the distinction between "strung together" and "intertwined" expression, which we know as loose or periodic. It appears to have been Dionysius of Halicarnassus who first dwelt upon style as a source of pleasure in itself, pointing out that beautiful utterance is due to beautiful words, and these to beautiful syllables and letters; illustrating his belief by examples, as from Sappho's hymn to Aphrodite. To Plutarch all such things appeared mere tricks. Lucian blamed those who considered diction before meaning, sought new and foreign usages, and indulged in magniloquence and bombast. On the other hand, Longinus, the latest of the Greeks, considered style one of the chief sources of sublimity, "Thought and style in literature are for the most part intertwined and mutually enfolded," "Sublimity is a certain consummateness and preeminence of phrase," "Beautiful words are the very light of the spirit." They are, as it were, a living voice with a seductive and caressing effect. Harmony moves not only the ear but the soul. Longinus also considered the use of figures of speech a means to sublimity, provided they were inconspicuous. The Greek rhetoricians, however, magnified figures and wrote many treatises concerning them, dividing them into figures of meaning and figures of expression, enumerating them by the hundred; de |