Now, it appeared to the editors of this series that if the right kind of book could be prepared, it might have a very peculiar and double utility, as supplementing both the oral science lessons and the ordinary literary reading.

But this aim, in turn, imposed a double demand: first, that the pieces in the book should be good science; and, secondly, that they should be good literature. Whether this rare conjunction has been secured, the teacher must decide; but it may not be amiss to state briefly here what the editors have had in mind to do.

In the first place, the readings have been limited to two departments of nature, plants and animals; a sufficient reason for this choice being that botany and zoology are the two chief topics of oral instruction prescribed in most programmes of public-school study.

Secondly, the requirement of sound science has been secured by drawing the more systematic pieces from the recognized masters, from such sources as Gray, Audubon, Wood, Figuier, Lee, Michelet, Broderip, Darwin, Gosse, Buckland, and others, their peers on the shining bead-roll of science. So much for the scope and sources of the readings.

But what gives the book its individuality is the principle on which the selections have been made. This is, in brief, to substitute the interesting in science for the technical in science, to replace the classifications and terminology of the botanist and zoologist by the living forms of nature as represented in the large intelligible views, the stimulating narratives, and the charming fancies of those who have known nature best because they loved her most.

It has, for example, been left to "oral lessons" to teach pupils that an elephant is "a proboscidian pachydermatous mammifer," and that a lion is of the "order feræ, family felidæ, and genus felis;" while we follow Sir Samuel Baker to the native haunts of the "huge earth-shaker," and thrill with horror as in his

own pictured page we see Dr. Livingstone in the deadly embrace of the king of beasts. Not but that such technical epitomes as those cited are of very positive value in their place; but that place is at the crowning of the edifice of the pupil's knowledge, not at its commencement.

In the search for admirable and interesting pieces, the editors have laid under contribution the great body of the literature of natural history, exploration, and adventure, and have brought thence such spolia opima as perhaps no collection ever before showed. The wide eclecticism that has presided over the selection is sufficiently manifest by a reference to the contents, where will often be found, under a single topic, (a) a systematic treatment (Wood, Figuier, Buckland); (b) a literary treatment (Michelet, Broderip, Burroughs); (c) a personal treatment (Wilson, Bombonnel, Thoreau); and (d) a poetic treatment (Wordsworth, Bryant, Blake).

If to these we may add that there is a romantic treatment (as in the case of the elephant by Charles Reade, of the whale by Fenimore Cooper, and of the devil-fish by Victor Hugo), the fact will cause, not the adept, but only your novice, to "stare and gape;" for it is precisely the accomplished naturalist that best knows how thoroughly the three great novelists just named have plucked out the "heart of the mystery" of the creature whereof they wrote.

While, however, the attractive and the enliveningly-instructive have been borne foremost in mind in the choice of these readings, the orderly marshaling of pieces has not been lost sight of; and probably the teachers the best read in botany and zoology will be the first to see that the book, while not presenting the formality of scientific division, has an organism of its To such it will be apparent that the book contains the substantial outlines of vegetable physiology, and that the zoological readings are arranged with due reference to the hierarchy of animal forms; commencing, as they do, with the

own.

highest family of brute mammals, the simiadæ, and thence descending, through the several classes, orders, families, etc., of vertebrates, to the mollusks, crustaceans, and insects.*

It is hoped that this book may be serviceable to young inquiring minds (the elevation of whose apprehension is in too many cases underrated), and that to some at least it may be a prompting to read further in "Nature's infinite Book of secrecy," and follow star-eyed Science up her radiant height.

As a matter of fact, the order and sequence of the natural-history readings in this book are precisely those of Wood, whose great work follows the order of the Catalogue of the British Museum.

WEBSTERIAN MARKS USED IN THIS BOOK. a, e, i, o, u, y, long; ǎ, ě, I,

Ŏ, u, y, short; fär; fall; rude; è as in term; I as in firm; oo as in food; oo as in foot; ç as s; e, eh, as k; g as j; g as in get; n as in linger; § as z; as gz.