CAXTONIANA; a series of Essays on Life, Literature, and Manners. By Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, Bart. New York: Harper & Brothers. San Francisco: A. Roman & Co. pp. 442.

Here is a work to make the evening hours of the teacher happy. The thoughtful pages carry away the reader from business annoyances, or schoolroom vexations, into another land. Written by an accomplished scholar, after long experience with the pen in almost all fields of literature, it is a book to be read, and reread, and then to be remembered with gratitude for the calm and joy it has given.

ORA, THE LOST WIFE. Cincinnati: P. C. Browne. San Francisco: A. Roman & Co. pp. 384.

A novel that probably caused pleasure to the writer as it was composed, and probably will not do serious injury to any one who reads it. If there were school libraries in every district of the State, as there ought to be, we should commend those more without this book than with it.

THE ART OF CONVERSATION; with Directions for Self-Education. New York: Carlton. San Francisco: H. H. Bancroft & Co. pp. 234.

A good little book, whose suggestions would be of service in almost every social circle of the land.

THE AMERICAN LITERARY GAZETTE, and PUBLISHERS' CIRCULAR, is issued at Philadelphia, semi-monthly, by Geo. W. Childs, at two dollars a year. While its chief concern is with publishers, its notes upon new books are of general interest to all literary men. A. Roman & Co. are the San Francisco Agents.

POTTER & HAMMOND'S COPY BOOKS, in a series of twelve numbers, have been sent us by the enterprising publishers, Schermerhorn, Bancroft & Co., New York. The system has recently been thoroughly revised, and may justly claim a place among the best of the aids in teaching penmanship to the boys and girls of our public schools.

HAND-BOOKS FOR HOME IMPROVEMENT-How to Write, How to Talk, How to do Business. Fowler & Wells. From H. H. Bancroft & Co., San Francisco.

This book ought to be on every teacher's desk, for reference both by pupils and teacher. The grammatical suggestions are plain and practical, and we think a great many scholars in school might study with great benefit the chapters on "How to Behave."

THE MERCY SEAT; or, THOUGHTS ON PEAYER. By Augustus C. Thompson, D.D. Boston: Gould & Lincoln; San Francisco: H. H. Bancroft & Co. pp. 345. This work seems to be almost exhaustive of the subject on which it treats. If there is any power in prayer, as very many assert, there are peculiar reasons why teachers should familiarize themselves with that power. Their task is difficult, important, continual. They need wisdom from every source, human and divine. Dr. Thompson treats the subject from the " Orthodox" stand-point, and considers "Prayer a Want," "Prayer a Privilege," "The Primary condition of Prayer,” “Its method," "Its Qualities," " Auxiliaries to Prayer," "Subject of Prayer," etc., etc.

I SHALL meet with no opposition when I say that a good artisan will use his materials economically. To avoid waste is one of the first lessons the young apprentice learns. The workman who carves gold or cuts diamonds, is more careful of waste than he who carves wood or shapes tin, in proportion to the superior value of his materials. We, then, whose happy lot it is to deal with materials infinitely more precious than any metal or any stone, should exercise more care and more economy than any smith or lapidary.

As teachers, some of the principal materials upon which we work are time, memory, the perceptive and reasoning faculties, and moral influence. Time is lost by doing that in school hours which should be attended to before or after. Filling up blank reports, transcribing registers and all collateral work should receive due attention out of school hours; for certainly, no real working teacher will claim that the period of his daily labor is limited to the interval comprised between the first and last bells of school. Time is wasted by a want of system. In grammar, arithmetic, history, and every branch taught in school, there should be a definite beginning and a predetermined order of progress. Nothing should be left to the

*A lecture delivered before the State Teachers' Institute at San Francisco.

hasty decision of the moment when the time for a recitation has arrived. Better an indifferent teacher with a system than an otherwise able one without. Better a defective system than none at all.

In nine cases out of ten, the principal difference between the teacher who has attained eminence in his profession and him who has failed, is that the former has been operating upon a definite system, while the latter has wasted his efforts in promiscuous driblets. The time lost in this manner is not to be definitely noted in so many minutes or hours a day. It is lost so insidiously that it is not perceived by him who loses it.

When, at the commencement of a term, I take up a new study with a recently promoted class, the first step I take is to inform the members of it what I intend to accomplish by the end of the term, and the progressive steps included in the plan. The direct results which I attribute to this care on my part impels me to recommend it to my fellow teachers. The difference between the pupil who understands distinctly what is required of him, and him who gropes in the dark, is precisely the same as that between the free contractor who knows what he has agreed to do, and the poor slave who is conscious that the duration of his toil depends upon a capricious will that he cannot reckon on. The former sees the end and strives to attain it; the latter lacks the incentive, and this want deadens every faculty within him.

There is another way in which time is wasted. Hardly a day passes in any school-room without placing at the teacher's disposal short intervals of unoccupied time between recitations, or before or after them. These intervals of from three to ten minutes are generally considered too short to be worth putting to any use; or it is considered impracticable to commence, conduct, and finish any exercise however brief in so short a time. But I consider these golden sands of much value. They are made so by circumstances peculiar to them. Children, of course, are familiar with their daily routine. They know that if their attention is called to anything new at such a time, that they will not be required to attend long, and they will pay a degree of attention which it would be difficult to draw from them at any other time.

A child ten or twelve years old, of mediocre ability, cannot concentrate its whole mind on a reasoning process for more than five

or ten minutes at one time. Attention for a much longer period may be excited or enforced; but any such compulsory tension of the mind will be obtained at the expense of a proportionate relaxation at the very next exercise.

I entertain the opinion that reviews are by far the most important part of the business of the school-room. There is a vast difference between merely knowing a thing and being familiar with it. The necessity of reviews is universally acknowledged and generally attended to. Now, instead of setting apart for this purpose hours at distant intervals, I avail myself of these chips of time; and I have reason to believe that my efforts at such times are more prolific of solid results than any one who has not tried it would be likely to imagine. But at such times it will not do to hesitate. I have my points or topics of review in each branch ready and conveniently noted in a blank book. The last point reviewed is marked so that I know exactly where to commence. For instance, if the last point reviewed in grammar was the difference between regular and irregular verbs, my next point would probably be the division of verbs in regard to their use, or the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs. If in arithmetic the last point attended to had been the principles concerned in the multiplication of fractions, the next would probably be those concerned in division.

Economy of time is not attained by crowding recitation upon exercise and exercise upon recitation-for time may be frequently lost to advantage—but it is compassed by the right use of the various intervals of time as we hapen to have them at our disposal.

The memory is one of the most important faculties the teacher has to work upon. To observe, to remember, and to compare, are the fundamental processes concerned in reasoning. We observe almost unconsciously, but it generally requires an effort to remember. Observation is easily stimulated, but the memory is not quite so easily trained. The cultivation of a faculty so indispensable should not be trusted to random teaching. Here, if anywhere, the work should be thoroughly systematized.

When history was young and science but just born, it was not unprofitable to exercise the memory on literature which owed its principal, if not its only value, to its poetic merit. Even down to a comparatively recent period, many teachers endeavored to

invigorate the memory of their pupils by assigning them long strings of verse to commit to memory-a process very much like taking a nap before going to sleep. But at this day, when the field of science offers gems in such profusion that the memory may be fully stored with them alone, it would be folly to load with pebbles.

In selecting nutriment for the memory, we should exercise at least as great discrimination in regard to quality and quantity as in feeding the body. I said as great-there is a reason that would justify me in saying greater. The aliment of the memory, besides subserving the same purpose for the mind that the food of the body does for the flesh, is retained by it and accumulates constantly. I might be allowed to go a step further, and say that, even in the mere matter of development, the mind should receive greater attention than the body, inasmuch as the latter is a thing of to-day, the former of eternity. If economy is commendable or waste reprehensible in regard to any faculty, it certainly is in regard to this. In youth the power of the memory is especially great, but the bounty of our Maker is certainly no reason that this power should be wasted.

One of the most fruitful causes of useless memorizing is the fact that writers and compilers for the school-room do not sufficiently distinguish between a school text-book and a treatise. Properly, a treatise should contain everything pertaining to the branch of science of which it treats, and its material should be arranged either according to some natural order, or so as to facilitate reference; while a school text-book should be so constructed that it may serve merely as an instrument in the hands of the teacher.

If teachers generally would select their own material and arrange their own systems, such a distinction would be merely a convenience, and not a necessity. But, as a great many teachers adhere faithfully to the plans of their text-books, it is important that books written for the school-room should contain principles rather than practice, and not be filled with that which properly belongs to a book of reference. It is neither possible nor desirable to enter fully into details at present. Time will allow me to illustrate only by a few examples.

In the treatment of fractions alone, Thompson's Higher Arithmetic contains no less than thirty-three specific rules, and these in