The new “Epitome of Universal History,”[A] by Dr. Carl Ploetz, the
veteran German scholar and teacher, is just what it proposes to be—an
“epitome,” giving no descriptions or detailed accounts, but a summary
of the more important facts of ancient, mediæval and modern history.
The facts are grouped in a comprehensive manner, yet so skilfully as
to indicate their relationship. For the teacher it will be a valuable
help; and students will find it a hand-book very serviceable in their
reviews. The compressed statements are as clear and intelligible as can
be desired, and may serve as models for notes to be taken in the lecture
room; such facts as an attentive listener can jot down without loss of
interest in the animated discourse. The attempt to report a lecture
in full may so engross the attention that the impressions naturally
received from the voice and manner of an earnest instructor are nearly
lost. The learned author, as class lecturer, deprecates a too free use
of the pencils in his lecture room, and when as epitomist he conducts us
over fields once familiar he does not multiply landmarks beyond what are
needed, or burden us with details when a word is sufficient.
The translator’s work is valuable not only for his faithful rendering of
the original, but for the additions made; none the less valuable because,
as he modestly tells us, “they are only compilations from reliable
sources.” A very full index gives the book somewhat the character of a
historical dictionary, and increases its value.
We commend this “epitome” to those pursuing, or having occasion to review
historical studies, as a vade mecum that they will not likely part with,
if it is once possessed.
A most interesting series of “Health Primers”[B] has just come to our
notice. There are twelve manuals in the series, each of about 150 pages.
They have been written by as many different authors, all well qualified
to discuss the subjects treated by them severally. Some of them, as
specialists, have attained much celebrity in their profession, and in
these admirable monograms show familiarity both with the elementary
principles of their science, and with the results of the latest
researches having a bearing on the topics discussed. Here is certainly
much knowledge, important for the masses, and the writers, avoiding
technical terms, have presented it in a manner intelligible to all
classes. The twelve volumes, carefully edited, are now published in four.
The first contains “Winter and Its Dangers,” by Hamilton Osgood, M.D.;
“Summer and Its Diseases,” by Jas. C. Wilson, M.D.; and “Sea Air and Sea
Bathing,” by J. H. Packard, M.D.
Many publishers are wisely putting some of their best books, as well as
reprints of standard works, into cheap editions. To be sure they are
paper bound, the covers will tear, will come off, will grow limp, if wet,
but still they are almost without exception well printed. They contain
the much desired _book_ in a shape that suits even the shallowest purses.
Among the most valuable which have reached us is “The Intellectual
Life.”[C] It is a genuine public benefaction for a publisher to put such
a book at twenty-five cents. Mr. Hamerton has so many true and strong
thoughts on the training and habits of the intellect expressed plainly
and pleasantly in it, that it is a matter for congratulation that anybody
may own a copy of “The Intellectual Life.”
Two cheap editions of Edward Everett Hale’s “In His Name,”[D] have
recently appeared. The story gives a chapter of the fascinating history
of the Waldenses[E] seven hundred years ago.
In an unpretentious but well written and neatly published little volume,
W. C. Wilkinson, already known to Chautauquans, discusses with becoming
earnestness one of the living questions of the day, “The Dance.”[F]
The dance confessedly has many apologists among reputable people, who
think it a harmless amusement, but it is here arraigned and held to
answer sundry charges of most damaging character. The author writes
with the vigor of his convictions, but is calm—does not dogmatise or
indulge in ranting invectives. The arguments, in themselves strong and
convincing, gain in force because free from violent or indiscriminate
abuse of those who see neither danger nor impropriety in the amusement
condemned. The book will do good. Most persons who read it with candor,
and dispassionately examine the case as presented, will feel that the
several counts in the indictment are sustained, and unite in the verdict,
“The dance of modern society should be dropped from our list of innocent
or harmless amusements.”