formed without a great variety of expensive apparatus. Where difficulty or danger may attend the efforts of an inexperienced experimenter, directions and cautions are given in an appendix.

With regard to electricity, we greatly like the order which the authors have followed, giving greater prominence to Electro-Magnetism and Galvanism than to frictional electricity on account of their greater practical importance. They have very clearly exhibited the fundamental law which underlies the whole science; but we think that they have been tempted by the fascination of the subject to depart somewhat from their plan of giving only the essentials of each subject. Except in those as yet rare cases (at least, in our parts), when the teacher is fortunate enough to possess the apparatus needed for illustration and has acquired expertness in the use of it, we fear that much of this portion of the book will be very imperfectly, if at all, understood. Thus we have a very full and certainly a very interesting description of that wonder of the 19th century, the electric telegraph, all the varieties of which are explained in language that would be very clear if the pupils could see the machinery itself at work before them; but the plates can only serve to assist them in their preparation for recitation as reminders of what they have seen in the class-room: they can not supply the place of real, tangible models. The whole course, when completed, will form a very valuable addition to our school library.

THE HISTORY OF A MOUTHFUL OF BREAD: and its effect on the Organization of Men and Animals. By JEAN MACE'. Translated from the French. New York: Amer

ican News Company.

The French work has reached a 17th edition, a tolerable test of its popularity in its own country. The translation by Mrs. Gatty seems to be a very felicitous reflex of the sparkling brilliancy of the original. It consists of two parts-the first, the leading facts and laws of physiology as connected with digestion in all its stages, assimilation, respiration, secretion, etc. The lessons are supposed to be given to a little girl, and one can not help wondering at the rare skill of the author in presenting these complicated anatomical and physiological details (without shirking the necessary technical terms) in such clear language, enlivened throughout by an inexhaustible spirit of vivacious and playful fancy, seasoned with beautiful touches of gentle philosophy and feeling, which altogether form a peculiarly French mixture. Still as we read on, amused and delighted almost in spite of ourselves, the query will arise: Are not such topics premature in the case of one so young as to require to be addressed in such infantine language? Or, if she be old enough to understand and appreciate them, will she not tire of such frequent allusions to her "rosy lips," "pretty little hands," etc.? Would not a sensible child like it better, if that nursery style relaxed somewhat of its intensity? The fact is, that now and then the writer is betrayed into the use of words and certain historical or mythological references which seem above the supposed age of the reader. However, before he has proceeded one-third of his way, he drops, in a great measure, all babyish phraseology, and when he reaches the second part-the view of the animal kingdom-he has unwittingly fallen into the anachronism of supposing his little nursery pupil to have suddenly shot forth into a regular "young lady." Hence this second part in its soberer and still charmingly playful style, seems to us much superior to the first. If we had stood at the elbow of the spirited translator, we would have ventured to advise her to adapt the work still more than she has done to an American child's notions and associations, to omit a questionable instance of domestic government (see p. 109), to correct a point of doubtful chemistry (p. 169), to modify the comparison of the union of oxygen and carbon to a marriage, which is rather too French and too much spun out to suit the Anglo-Saxon taste.

For want of space we must deny ourselves the pleasure of giving specimens of the author's power to paint with the hues of glowing fancy matter-of-fact details. But the reader who looks into the book with a view to test its suitableness to some "dear child" of his own, can not fail to find them out for himself, as almost every page is sparkling with some graphic description, happy comparison, or some forcible appeal to the child's inner life and conscience. Yet, heedless of our dear editor's frown as he shakes his head at the length of our notice, we must refer to page 131, containing an exquisite comparison of harmonious action of the bodily organs to a concert, in which the instruments may be seen, but the musicians are invisible; to page 197, in which the insatiable hunger of the blood for oxygen even at the expense of the bodily tissues, is compared to the celebrated experimental potter Palisy, burning his furniture and the very floor of his house in order to feed his baking furnace; and, in general, to the beautiful digressions on the benefit of out of doors work as contrasted with the dreary drudgery of poor sewing girls stitching on and on in the pent up air of over-crowded rooms and robbed of needful rest, on the respect due to the worker, on the duty, the beauty of industry and independence, on the love due to the mother, and reverent gratitude to the Author of those wonders of the animal economy, etc.,

etc.

T. E. S.

SHEET MUSIC. We have received from W. W. Whitney, Music Publisher, Toledo, Ohio, several excellent pieces of sheet music, among which are "The Frolic of the Frogs "—a capital piece that can be played in several different keys; "Dream of the Absent "very pretty; "Sweetly they Sleep"-one of Ogden's best; "In the South the Clouds are Breaking," by J. W. Suffern; and "Oh! Millie is my Darling," by T. M. Towne. Price 30 cents each.

THE ADVANCE. This is the title of a new national religious newspaper, published weekly at Chicago, Ill. It represents Congregational principles and polity, and, judging from the first number, is to be ably conducted. Subscription price $2.50 in advance. Address: "The Advance," Chicago, Ill.

NEW BOOKS RECEIVED.

A PRIMARY GEOGRAPHY. By James Cruikshank, LL.D. New York: William Wood & Co. 1867.

HARPER'S WRITING BOOKS. In Ten Numbers. New York: Harper & Bros. 1867. THE MINOR PROPHETS. By Rev. Henry Cowles. New York: D. Appleton & Company. 1867.

Boston: C. Ladreyt.

CONVERSATIONAL FRENCH READER. By E. M. Ladreyt. RUDIMENTS OF THE GERMAN LANGUAGE. By Dr. F. Ahn, New York: E. Steiger. 1867.

PRIMARY PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY AND HYGIENE. By T. S. Lambert, M.D. New York: William Wood & Co. 1867.

A GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. By Samuel S. Greene, A.M. Philadelphia: Cowperthwait & Co. 1867.

A LATIN READER. By William B. Silber, A.M. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. 1867.

GRAMMATICAL DIAGRAMS. By Frederick S. Jewell, Ph.D. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. 1867.

OHIO IN THE WAR. By Whitelaw Reid. 1867.

Cincinnati: Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin.

ANALYTICAL SERIES OF READERS. In Six Numbers. By Richard Edwards, LL.D., and J. Russell Webb. Chicago: Geo. & C. W. Sherwood. 1867.

THE ANALYTICAL SPELLER. By Richard Edwards, LL.D., and Mortimer A. Warren. Chicago: Geo. & C. W. Sherwood. 1867.

THE

OHIO EDUCATIONAL MONTHLY:

A Journal of School and Home Education.

NOVEMBER, 1867.

Old Series, Vol. XVI, No. 11.

New Series, Vol. VIII, No. 11,

THE POWER AND INFLUENCE OF THE TEACHER.

ILLUSTRATED BY EXAMPLES.

There is probably no man who will be held to a stricter account for the use of his talents and opportunities than the teacher. This is because few men have less temptation to do wrong, and none have their duties more accurately defined. The teacher is not a child. His duties lie in one special province. His influence is most powerful, and his example is before the eyes of all his pupils. To them he is a wonderful man. Although we are a very democratic people, and our boys are men, in their own opinion, when they put pantaloons on, yet it is true to-day as in the days of Goldsmith,—

And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew,
That one small head could carry all he knew.

This power of teaching and example is one of surpassing influence, and in ways which are sometimes not imagined by the teacher himself. It is not by mere teaching-it is not by example only it is not only personal conduct; but oftentimes the manners, and oftener what may be called the genius of the man, not of the intellect or learning, but of the spirit which dwells in his form. Hence it is that some persons are particularly adapted to be teachers, and others ought not to be teachers at all. The