cised? there is room for only the briefest answer; and this even must take, like the rest of this essay, the form of simple hints.

First of all, a teacher needs accurate conceptions. He can clearly portray only what he clearly sees. He can explain only what he really understands. If his own ideas are in the mist, le cannot put them into the bright sunshine for another eye. If he has only half mastered a subject, he will put his pupil in contact with it only to bring him a defeat. If twilight makes the original dusty, the copy-picture will be dark with the shadows of night.

cure.

This accuracy and clearness of thought may be somewhat owing to peculiar mental endowment,-to the strength and activity of imagination,—to the training which has been received, and to other circumstances which were determined ab extra. But this is by no means the only or the adequate explanation. Some minds consent to abide in a perpetual fog. When the eyes have been opened sufficiently to "see men as trees walking," there is contentment; and so the healing stops half way to the Every man knows some things thoroughly. And a strong, practical resolution to know whatever is possible in the same way, would scatter the mist from many a half-hidden idea, as a north-western breeze scatters the mists of Newfoundland and uncovers the bold headlands of Cape Race. A natural animation of manner, and an enthusiasm which takes fire with as little friction as phosphorus, are valuable traits, without doubt; but a clear, piercing vision is far better. Indeed such definite conceptions fill manner with animation, and constitute the soil from which a genuine enthusiasm springs.

A ready command of language is certainly of great service. And yet that natural gift of gab" which so many covet, and which such marvels are attributed, is a thing rarely found, and when it is, it is apt to be greatly overestimated. The old maxim, that "the orator is born, not made," as usually interpreted, carries a falsehood with it. The accurate and fitting and skilful use of speech is always a laborious attainment. A man who never waited for a word is a man who takes an immense number of wrong ones: The language of a perpetual talker is

apt to be greatly diluted, or thick only with mud. He who is ready to go off at any time the moment one touches the trigger, will be generally found to be loaded with blank cartridges, or the discharges will be only the rapid explosion of caps. À diarrhoea of words is usually a great affliction, for it wastes all the healthy vigor of thought. A teacher who can talk on the gallop for an hour, on any common topic, usually bewilders his pupil in the forest of verbiage, instead of affording him a clue to the highway. Such a teacher, considered as an artist, is occupying himself much as the painter would be, if he were to catch up the pigments from his palette,-blue, orange, green, purple and vermilion,—and dash them on to his canvas by the handful. The daubs would be abundant, but the pictures wanting.

A recognition of the office of words, as intended to picture accurately the ideas and moods of the mind, and a careful study of their significance and powers, would make any teacher's knowledge available, and render his daily instruction magnetic. Dull eyes would brighten, enthusiasm displace languor, perplexed minds find the way of deliverance, and latent forces come forward for definite work. Teaching would be something more than a routine of recitations, and successive classes would be beckoned to other service than to follow an instructor around the tread-mill. The knowledge which cannot be told is of doubtful value. The thoughts which we have no power to reproduce in pictures are like the dreams which cannot be definitely recalled, and which are beyond the reach of actualization.

Accurate and vivid speech may be gained, and that is always impressive. It is of less consequence how much shall be said, ' than what shall be said. There is as much danger of too many words as of too few. The orator's pauses are as vital as his vehement words. He makes his silence help him as well as his sonorousness. He must know when to stop as well as when. to. begin. It is not the amount of paint which the artist puts on which determines the quality of his work. He must use the right colors, and dispose them judiciously. And when he has produced just the right shade for the needed effect,. another stroke of his brush would mar or ruin the whole work. And

able to understand Dr.'s Notes." And o teacher uses his words as so many elements of the means of which he is to put his thoughts into cont pupils, will his instruction elucidate instead of 'm topics with which he deals.

Let the teacher realize that nothing is really don transferred the distinct conceptions of his own sphere of the pupil's vision; let him remember tha ment is an artistic effort which can be successful the verbal colors are rightly blended and dispo learn to estimate his prospective success by the vivi he imparts to every representation, and his work wi nity and command new devotion. For his pictures stitute the furnishings of that spiritual gallery wher experiences are to look down forever from the walls the life is to be spread out in an illuminated pano inspection of immortal eyes.

commendation, and of the successful working out of that pla first installment with which we had then been favored. An in of the second volume confirms, in the main, the views then ex It is a noble undertaking. The labor involved is immense. T ment and skill and patient industry required are of the highes A large and minute learning is indispensable to guard against in cies, omissions, redundancies and repetitions. Only a mind th once critical and comprehensive, analytical and synthetical, is tent to plan wisely such a work as this,―much less to direct in tails of its execution. It is peculiar in its scope and aim, having sphere and limits, and yet entering, in the exercise of a unique cism, many departments of study and literature which it can means ignore, but which it does not pretend to exhaust. Where t ject treated is such as to require it, the very latest information available is wrought into the article at the last moment before g press, so that, though the material for nearly the entire work is prepared, there is a large amount of labor to be still expended way of revision and emendation before the successive volumes tak final shape.

As an indication of the extent of the plan, and of the effort m embody it as completely as possible, we find that the present v contains nearly 2,500 separate articles, and about 300 wood-cu the better illustration of the text. Of course most of the articl comparatively brief; but more or less of them, -as for example, found under such heads as Calvin, China, Christ, Christology, C Chronology, Congregationalists, Daniel, David, Deluge, Divin etc., are little less than carefully written and exhaustive treatises. ences are also made to the sources whence the information here aff has been derived, and to such works as will enable the reader to find and more detailed information on the various subjects, should he des It is not at all likely that this Cyclopædia will or ought to satisfy e body. It is imperfect, like all human productions. It is not diffic quarrel with it, and to find a justification for adverse criticism bo

view of what it is and what it is not. The ecclesiastical proclivities fo the compilers could be easily guessed by any shrewd Yankee. The prominence given to whatever is specially Methodistic is easily discovered even by those who have no real inclination to look for weakness and faults. The special mental and religious culture which distinguishes the editors, crops out when there is no purpose to betray individuality or make an indirect plea for an accepted system. But this does not prevent the work from being eminently able and valuable, nor rob it of real fairness. There is manifestly a steady aim to do exact justice to every sect and subject that is dealt with, and the just grounds of complaint seem to us very few. They who find fault because the work does not sufficiently emphasize the peculiarities of their own sect, are only showing themselves guilty of the same sort of partisanship which they condemn in the editors.-The work is one of great and rare value, and whoever puts it into his library and makes himself master of its contents will find himself truly enriched, and will thank us for any word of ours that prompted him to make it his own.-The original announcement promised us the work complete in six volumes. Possibly it may be condensed within that number, but the fact that two volumes only take us over four letters of the alphabet, hardly looks like it.—Whether six or ten volumes are filled, we trust that the plan adopted will be fully and fairly worked out.

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. By John William Draper, M. D., LL. D., author of "A History of the Intellectual Development of Europe," etc. In three volumes. Vol. II. Containing the events from the inauguration of President Lincoln to the Proclamation of Emancipation of the slaves. New York: Harper & Bros. 1868. Octavo. pp. 614.

In the first volume of this work Dr. Draper seems to have completed the task of stating his peculiar theories of national life in general, and of our own national life in particular. These theories are nearly the same as those which have become so closely associated with the name of Mr. Buckle, and aim to expound human life, character and history by reference to climatic conditions and physiological laws. In the present volume he devotes himself to the legitimate work of the chronicler and the historian, and has given us an excellent, straightforward, vigorous, instructive and trustworthy account of the operations in the cabinet and the field during two memorable years in our history. He writes out of the most abundant and detailed information, and in a style the eminent merits of which not even his severest critic will hardly venture to dispute. The publishers have given to the work the very highest and most substantial mechanical excellences.

THE POEMS OF JOHN GODFREY SAXE. Complete in one volume. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1868. 16mo. pp. 465.

Mr. Saxe is a pleasant and popular poet even if he be not a great one. His wit is always juicy, his humor is rotund and broad-faced even when