MRS. HALE’S WOMAN’S RECORD; or, Biographical Sketches of all Distinguished Women, from the Creation to the Present Time. Arranged in Four Eras, with Selections from Female Writers of each Era. By Mrs. S. J. Hale. Illustrated with more than 200 Portraits, engraved by Benson J. Lossing. A New Edition, with Additions. 8vo, Cloth. (Nearly Ready.)
HAYDN’S DICTIONARY OF DATES, relating to all Ages and Nations. For Universal Reference. Edited by Benjamin Vincent, Assistant Secretary and Keeper of the Library of the Royal Institution of Great Britain; and Revised for the Use of American Readers. 8vo, Cloth. (Nearly Ready.)
HAVEN’S RHETORIC. Rhetoric: a Text-Book, designed for Use in Schools and Colleges, and for Private Study. By Rev. E. O. Haven, D.D., LL.D., President of the Northwestern University, Evanston, and late President of Michigan University, 12mo, Cloth, $1 50.
I welcome the book heartily, and shall adopt it in my classes here.
Dr. Haven seems to me to have aimed to produce a useful book rather than a showy one. Too many who deal with the subject are only theoretical rhetoricians: on every page of Dr. Haven’s book I find the good effects of his being also a practical rhetorician. Hitting the happy mean between the excess and the total rejection of the old technical phraseology, he has given to us a series of just such sensible, suggestive, and helpful talks about writing and speaking the English language as one would expect from a man of his great experience as a speaker, writer, and teacher. This, after all, is precisely what American students need.
Upon the whole, the book has these great merits: it is a growth, and not a manufacture; it is fresh, sincere, lively, clear, practical; finally, instead of being, like so many text-books on this subject, dry and deadening, it will prove throughout positively interesting to the student—it will stimulate, cheer, and guide him.—Moses Coit Taylor, M.A., Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature, University of Michigan.
Concise, direct, lucid, and arranged in a natural order of topics.—Advance.
This book, by President Haven, had its growth in a class-room. This accounts for its character, which is decidedly practical. It is no high-flying treatise or deeply-profound discussion on this subject of rhetoric. It is plain and concise, and every way a good statement of those principles and rules which must be observed in order to a correct and happy expression of one’s thoughts and feelings.—Watchman and Reflector.
I have carefully read “Haven’s Rhetoric.” It is a good elementary book, and has the merit of presenting many new illustrations instead of the hackneyed quotations usually found in compilations.—Wm. Preston Johnston, Professor of History and English Literature, Washington College, Va.
WOOD’S WEDDING DAY IN ALL AGES. The Wedding Day in all Ages and Countries. By Edward J. Wood, Author of “The Curiosities of Clocks and Watches from the Earliest Times,” and “Giants and Dwarfs.” l2mo, Cloth, $1 25.
One of the most curious books we have seen for a long time. It is packed full of facts. Beginning with the institution of marriage, the author successively treats of all the strange and picturesque customs by which different peoples have given character and interest to the marriage ceremony. The past has been ransacked, and the present investigated. History, poetry, philosophy, archæology, have all been drawn upon, and the result is one of the most entertaining books we have seen for a long time.—N. Y. Commercial Advertiser.
A compilation of historical facts relating to the marriage ceremony as it has been conducted in ancient and modern times among all the peoples of the earth. A great deal of antiquarian research has been expended upon it, and the curious reader will find the topics of the wedding ring, the marriage bells, the bridal cake, flinging the old shoe, etc., etc., fully treated by the author.—N. Y. Evening Post.
MARCH’S PARSER AND ANALYZER. A Parser and Analyzer for Beginners, with Diagrams and Suggestive Pictures. By Francis A. March, Professor of the English Language and Comparative Philology in Lafayette College, Author of “Method of Philological Study of the English Language,” “Comparative Grammar of the Anglo-Saxon Language,” &c. 16mo, Flexible Cloth, 40 cents.
The volume is small, but compact and serviceable. Its design is to introduce beginners to the laws of the English Language by appealing directly to their rational powers, and as little as possible to memory. It abolishes mere recitation, and makes the work of learning more nearly recreative than any attempt yet brought to our notice. The teacher can easily perceive its scope and purpose. It will not relieve him of care, but will so change his duty that, instead of sitting and hearing tasks, he will be called upon to stimulate and guide development. The work unites the pupil and teacher in their theme, and the processes of teaching and learning take an identity which does away with estrangement and begets naturalness. It combines all the benefits of object-teaching, by fullness of illustration, with that active inquiry common to youth when matters touching history, biography, geography, or every-day occurrences are suggested. It is more and more seen that the duty of education is to bring the pupil into direct relation with things, that he may reflect or exercise judgment upon them. The lessons or suggestions in this work are so arranged as to keep as nearly as possible an even pace with healthful development. * * * A look into it will prove almost as profitable as a glance at nature. They can learn without memorizing to a harmful extent, and what they learn will not be forgotten. We commend the work to general attention upon its merits. Its author is one of the first philologists in the land, and no man has a keener appreciation of our language, or understands better the true methods of introducing the young mind to its beauties.—Philadelphia Press.
Beginning with the definitions of simple nouns, the lessons ascend by easy stages to the highest form of grammatical construction. The diagram analysis and illustrations are admirable aids to the student in the lessons, impressing them upon the mind.—N. Y. Herald.
BARNES’S NOTES ON THE PSALMS. Notes, Critical, Explanatory, and Practical, on the Book of Psalms. By Albert Barnes, Author of “Notes on the New Testament,” “Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity,” &c. Three Volumes. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50 per volume.
* * * There is the same blending of the critical and the practical, with constant expression of devout feelings and sentiments, which, in a work on the Psalms, is peculiarly congruous with the book which Mr. Barnes is interpreting.—Presbyterian (Philadelphia).
These Notes on the Psalms are characterized by the excellences which made Mr. Barnes’s earlier expository works so eminently successful.—American Presbyterian.