The Parents' Review

A Monthly Magazine of Home-Training and Culture

Books.

Tales from Plutarch, by F. J. [Frances Jameson] Rowbotham (Fisher Unwin, 5s.) We know that Mary Garth, after her marriage with Fred Vincy [in George Eliot's Middlemarch], wrote Tales from Plutarch for Little Boys. Mr. Rowbotham is, so far as we know, the first to take the hint, or to conceive on his own account, the idea thrown out so long ago by George Eliot. The titles of the four tales shew that the author has brought the teaching in each case to a point, or, anyway, has made a single episode the center of each of the four lives. We have (1) The King's Sword: a Story of Theseus. (2) The God of the Spears: the Story of Romulus. (3) Hannibal's Schoolmaster: the Story of Fabius Maximus. (4) The Father's Crown: the Story of Alcibiades. We need not speak of the exceeding interest of the tales, and Mr. Rowbotham tells them with admirable vigour and simplicity. Certainly, too, it is an advantage not to come across objectionable passages in a volume for the use of children. Though, for ourselves, we are fully convinced that English comparable with that of North's Plutarch's Lives is not to be produced today, we are obliged to admit that Mr. Rowbotham has done a capital piece of work.

Tales of the Canterbury Pilgrims: retold from Chaucer and others, by E. J. H. Darton (Gardner, Darton, 6s.) Here we have another volume of admirably told tales. As for the tales themselves, who would venture to praise the tale of Patient Griselda, of Palamon and Arcite, of faithful Constance? They have lived through the centuries. and will continue to live. The telling is a labour of love. The author gives evidence of a mind steeped in fourteenth century English and fourteenth century thought. As for the personages of the tales, they should be among the common acquaintances of boys and girls brought up to read. Mr. [F. J.]Furnivall's introduction is a valuable picture of Chaucer and his times, written with the careful, critical appreciation one expects. By the way, there are several tales from other contemporary sources, notably one by John Lydgate. Mr. Hugh Thomson's illustrations are very delightful and have a "fragrance" of quaint, old-world humour.

The School of Faith, by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Welldon (Bemrose, 3s. 6d.) We agree with the position advanced by Dr. Welldon in his preface. Speaking of the results of Biblical criticism, he says: --"I have studied them, and it is my firm conviction that under the shelter of criticism a good deal is advanced which is not scientific or literary or historical truth, and I think it will have its day and will run its course and will then be forgotten." Therefore, we hail with pleasure a series of sermons whose object is to "relieve difficulties"; for many Christian consciences are in a state of sore unrest, unwarranted by a calm review of the results of what is called the Higher Criticism. In the first place, the positions attacked are commonly those taken up, not in books of the Bible itself, but in the mass of loose and hazy opinion which has gathered round the inspired volume. In the second place, the criticisms are hostile, that is, they do not give weight to the unity, harmony and beauty of the unique and majestic revelation of the Godhead which is to be found in the Bible and nowhere else. Dr. Welldon's sermons, on Faith and Prayer, for example, breathe a reposing atmosphere of sincere and profound conviction. The King in His Beauty is a sermon to delight Christian people; for Christianity means passionate loyalty to an adorable Person. But the sermon in which we, personally, take most pleasure is that on the Words of Jesus Christ. We have always felt that in these is to be found the final argument against the popular idea of Christ as a good man, a great example, perhaps the best of the sons of men. "Never man spake like this man"; and, what is more, the man who said -- "I am the Light of the World," "I am the Bread of Life" -- would not be even a good man; for such words as these in the mouth of a man would be blasphemous and unutterable presumption. Bishop Welldon's sermons should form cheering reading for Christmastide.

Preparation of the Child for Science, by M. E. [Mary Everest] Boole (Oxford Press, 2s. 6d.). This is a remarkable and very interesting book, typifying what we mean by knowledge "touched with emotion." The preface and the dedication indeed, give a hint of what may be called the occult mathematics, fascinating to minds of an imaginative and somewhat mystic turn; but this hint is not carried out in the volume which contains many hints profitable for meditation. The chapter on Mathematical Imagination is an inspiring counsel of perfection (which contains, by the way, the most lucid notion of the parallax we have come across). The following passage too strikes us as worthy of consideration: -- "Much discussion has taken place of late years about the choice of a book from which to teach Geometry. There can be no better text book for the teacher to use than Euclud, on three conditions: That the child has been adequately prepared before the age for any formal teaching; that the Euclid is not given to the child to learn from till he has gone through the Geometry of the important statements in the first two books without being distracted by the Logic; and that such statement is put to him as not a statement, but as a question, e.g., "What is a circle?" We have been a little jealous for Euclid and have wondered whether the clear, clean logic of it would be lost in the effort to make Geometry "practical." By the way is this logical: "What is a circle?" The answer to be elicited is: "The line which I draw when my compasses are properly screwed up, so that the pencil point keeps the same distance from the steel point all round, is a circle." The child is asked for a definition and gives a somewhat clumsy example. We are at issue with Mrs. Boole as to the sort of preparation children should have from three to twelve for the study of Geometry. In the "forties" and "fifties" it was currently held that the continual sight of the outward and visible signs (geometrical forms and figures) should beget the inward and spiritual grace of mathematical genius or, at any rate, of an inclination to mathematics. But the educationalists of those days forgot, when they gave children boxes of "form" and stuck up cubes, hexagons, pentagons and what not, in every available schoolroom space, the immense capacity for being bored which is common to us all, and is far more strongly developed in children than in grown-up people. The objects which bore us, or the persons who bore us, appear to wear a bald place in the mind, and thought turns from them with sick aversion. Dickens showed us the pathos of it in the schoolroom of the little Gradgrinds, which was bountifully supplied with objects of uncompromising outline. Ruskin, more genially, exposes the fallacy. No doubt geometric forms are there, the skeleton of which living beauty in contour and gesture in hill and plant, is the covering; and the skeleton is beautiful and wonderful to the mind which has already entered within the portals of Geometry. But children should not be presented with the skeleton, but with the living forms which clothe it. Besides, is it not an inverse method to familiarise the child's eye with patterns made by his compasses, or stitched upon his card, in the hope that the form will beget the idea? for the novice it is probably the rule that the idea must beget the form, and any suggestion of an idea from a form comes only to the initiated. We should, too, be a little afraid to follow the counsels in the first chapter; indeed, the author herself treads warily. Is she, too, possibly afraid of producing the sort of little prig who was the outcome of advanced educational thought at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century? We wish Mrs. Boole could see her way to produce the sort of treatment of the important statements in the first two books of Euclid which she has in view.

My Australian Girlhood: Sketches and Impressions of Bush Life, by Mrs. [Rosa] Campbell Praed (Fisher Unwin, 6s.). Mrs. Praed has done us a service in giving us one of those volumes which take us into the intimacy of the author. She tells us that she grew up in the Bush, gives us delightful pictures of several squatter settlements, and, above all, she makes us familiar with the Australian Blacks. There are terrible tales to tell of them, and Mrs. Praed came in the way of some of the worst episodes, as, for example, the Fraser murder; but she does not seem to think those outrages were always unprovoked, and there is a tone of genial fellowship and human kindness in every mention of the much-abused Australian Blacks which does much to commend the writer to us. We become intimate with gum forests and grass trees, with all the distinctive features of life in the Bush, and get a hearty affection for that family of nice "Bush" girls of whom Mrs. Campbell Praed was one. Here is an interesting mention in a letter out of "my grandmother's box" of the ill-fated Leichardt, the explorer, who must eventually have been lost in the Bush: "I was delighted to learn yesterday that Leichardt had arrived safely after accomplishing his long and tedious journey to Port Easington, one of the most daring and successful expeditions which has yet been attempted. I have not heard particulars, except that there is a most splendid country and some navigable rivers. I shall write to Leichardt and congratulate him on his coming to life again. I hear that he intends publishing a work, and that a large subscription has already been made for him. He certainly deserves a grant from the Government for they will be the principal gainers by his travels." The illustrations (photographs) are extremely interesting.

Mr. Wind and Madam Rain, by Paul de Musset, translated by Emily Makepeace (Putnam and Sons, 6s.). That a children's story by M. Paul de Musset is charming goes without saying, and Miss Makepeace has preserved the charm; Mr. Charles Bennet's illustrations are quaint and delightful, and at the same time French and Faerie in feeling. "How the mill turns and the cabbages grow." is especially good. Whoever saw cabbages growing in such a hurry and with such intention! And what a good natured, turbulent, billowy baby of a giant Mr. Wind is! How the sentry boxes tumble off the castle wall, and how the Baron's soldiers are pelted by Madam Rain! The child who has read this book will always know Mr. Wind and Madam Rain as beneficent and rather amusing acquaintances -- good to John Peter the miller and Claudine his wife and to all poor folk who want their help.

How to Use the Prayer Book, by Mrs. [Ethel Duncan] Romanes (Longmans, 2s.) This is a valuable and interesting little volume which, though it does not profess to be a history of the Prayer Book, contains the sort of information that should interest young people, and the sort of teaching that should make the Liturgy a living profession, and should build the children up in sound doctrine. The remarks on the Benedicite are especially interesting, and, indeed, the idea of praise is throughout put before the reader in a convincing and appealing way. It should be added, however, that this little volume will appeal only to those who describe themselves distinctively as churchpeople.

Mrs. Barberry's General Shop, by Roger Ashton (Methuen, 2s. 6d.) The editor of The Little Blue Books contrives to maintain in the series the simple, matter-of-fact style of children's books half a century ago. We think children will enjoy the clear statements, orderly sequence of events, and the practical and obvious morals which appear in action but not in words. Indeed this little book, like the rest, is singularly free from "talky-talk," while the narrative, as the French say, marches.

Stories of the Ancient Greeks, by C. [Charles] D. Shaw (Ginn and Co., 2s. 6d.) This little volume, which is well illustrated, consists of two parts, mythological stories and historical stories. Sixty-four tales with sixty-four chief personages and many more subordinate characters are here in one small book. All the tales are admirably told and nothing seems to be left out -- Socrates and Xantippe, Plato, Phidias, Theseus, Jason, Pegasus -- everything is here, and Mr. Shaw tells his tales with becoming dignity and reverence, without any annoying effort to bring the matter to the level of children. At the same time, we are aware of an inner protest. It is too much; everything is here, and what is left for the years to follow? But this is after all, an ungracious criticism, the tales are so well chosen and so well told that we can but congratulate the author on his success. He says, "These stories belong to no one individual; they are the heritage of the race. To help the children of the present time to enter upon this priceless heritage is the aim and desire of the author."

Chopin, by J. C. [James Cuthbert] Hadden (Dent & Co., 3s. 6d.), is a well-written careful and interesting life of Chopin. The incidents of the composer's life are fairly well known, and the reader feels that Mr. Hadden is treating a difficult subject with sympathy and delicacy. Of the Nocturnes, he praises especially those in D Flat, E Flat, G Major, and C Sharp Minor. The reader will probably go with him in considering the Nocturnes the most characteristic and most admired of Chopin's productions.

Early Italian Poets, by D. G. [Dante Gabriel] Rossetti (Newnes, 3s. 6d.) This is an exceedingly charming volume. The poems belonging to 1100, 1200, 1300, are rendered in the original metres with the singular grace which we expect from Rossetti, but with a simplicity and freshness which savours more of Chaucer. Most of the poems breathe high chivalry and, for the most part, pure and exalted love. There are a good many interesting reflections upon life, generally in sonnet form, as Of Work and Wealth, Of Virtue, Of the Last Judgement. A curious poem by Fazio Degli Uberti (whose poem On his Portrait of his Lady Rossetti considers is not surpassed by any poem of its class in existance) gives us quite new lights upon our early English monarchs. Of John it is said: --
      "This John in kingly largesse and in war
      Delighted, when the kingdom fell to him;
      Hunting and riding ever in hot haste."

Dutch Doll Ditties, by Louis Robbins (Longmand, Green & Co., 2s. 6d.) Imitation is the best flattery, and another author, Mr. Louis Robbins, gives us another entertaining series of tales of which Dutch dollies are the heroines. Some of the rhymes are clever and the Dutch Doll pictures most facetious. We begin to suspect that it was not the Miss Uptons but the Dutch dolls themselves who are humorous and entertaining personages.

We have received the following from Messrs. Cassell: --

The Red Adventure Book, edited by A. T. Quiller Couch (5s.) should be a treasure-trove to boys. It is full of moving adventures by flood and field, told for the young people who love adventure for adventure's sake without asking whether the adventurer is heroic or simply plucky. The tales go. They range over time from gladiators fighting in Pompeii to the Boer War, and though the editor does not lay himself out to write about heroes, he has certainly annexed many heroic incidents.

The Adventures of Cock Robin and his Mate, by R. Kearton (6s.). A new book about birds by Mr. Kearton is always a delight, and the photographs are, as usual, revelations of bird-life and bird-nature. Mr. Kearton begins in an introductory address to the children by asserting that "the lives of the little wild creatures of field and wood, rock and wave, are quite as romantic as those of human beings." Then Cock Robin begins to tell his adventures.

The Little Folks Adventure Book, by S. H. [Sam Hield] Hamer (3s. 6d.). Here we have a volume of exciting adventures by sea, land and river, among wild Indians, wolves and bulls, with spirited illustrations. The tales are well told, though now and then the language is a little obviously brought down to the level of children.

The Little Folks Animal Book, by the same author (3s. 6d.), with charming pictures of animals (the silver-grey Persian on page 89 is delightful), is meant for younger children.

The Little Folks Picture Album in Colour, by S. H. Hamer (3s. 6d.) Another pretty book Mr. Hamer. The coloured pictures are wonderfully good and the tales and verses very various.

Little Folks, Vols I. and II. (3s. 6d.), is as usual full of pretty and interesting matter in verse and prose, in picture and type.

Bo-Peep (2s.6d.) is meant for younger children and would, like Little Folks etc., be a welcome Christmas gift in many a cottage home. So would Cheepy the Chicken, by H. Rowntree and S. H. Hamer (1s. 6d.), who is mixed up with the kangaroo and various other strange personages.

THE "P.R." LETTER BAG

[The editor is not responsible for the opinions of Correspondents.]

Mrs. Clement Parsons desires to express her grateful acknowledgments to Mrs. Halsted for kind suggestions respecting books for children. The address given, "Oats(?) Lodge," was insufficient for a direct note of thanks.

Typed by Alycia, Sep. 2024; Proofread by LNL, Jan. 2025