Two works on Rhetoric, The Elements and The Principles, by M. de Mille and Professor Hill (of Harvard) respectively, lie before us. Were it any more possible to make an orator than to make a poet, aspirants to fame at the bar, in the pulpit, or in the senate, might peradventure find these books signally valuable. But two facts lie in the way of the usefulness of every manual of rhetoric, One is that eloquence resides as much in the audience as in the orator, and that the most brilliant effects are the result of sympathy which cannot be at will commanded. The other is that rhetorical rules are derived not from the nature of things, but from the practice of great orators who played upon their audiences as upon musical instruments. The circumstances attendant upon each great triumph of ancient or modern oratory cannot be reproduced, cannot even be described, and without an absolutely accurate reproduction the rules thus derived are likely to be misleading. Did space permit, e might, we think prove that there is no purely rhetorical rule that has not on occasion been violated with startling success. Setting their usefulness aside, these manuals are interesting. But no style except a very bad one, to be acquired from didactic treatises on composition.
Wewouldheartily welcome Mr. Kennedy's The School and the Family, a3 a protest against the far too common belief that anybody can teach, and that in fact teaching is not as much a profession as any other to which an arduous apprenticeship is necessary. But the slightness of the temptation which suffices to lead the author off into a maze of bombastic nonsense, makes the reading of his little book a far from easy task. However, the root of the matter is in him, His message, which he delivers clearly enough, is that teachers must be taught how to teach.
tarpers have reprinted the Rev, Alfred Church's Stories from Homer, a charming little book for intelligent children, and one that will also, we doubt not, be welcomed by many adults to whom Homer is—Greek. Tales of gods and heroes are vastly seduce tive to the minds of children, always craying for supernatural interferences, The old Homerictales satisfy this want, which comes naturally though whence we Know not, and they have the further advantage of. demanding belief only until the thread of the story is wound up.
To the "Halt-hour Series" have been added several new volumes as neatly printedandaslightand handy as their predecessors. They are A Sussex Idyl, Georgie's Wooer, Seven years and Mair, and The Youth's commend it; not very much perhaps, but
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.