two periods there is a regular interchange, so that the former always answers to the highest, and the latter to the lowest position of the sun. Thus it rains in the West Indies during the summer months, and is dry during winter. In Brazil, however, the rainy season sets in at the same time as the dry season of the northern hemisphere, and conversely. A great part of this summer rain is driven by the west wind of the upper regions into inland Africa. But since the belt of the calms in the Atlantic always remains on the north side of the equator, it is chiefly in the parts of Africa lying in the north tropic zone that it rains in summer. The south-west of Africa, on the other hand, is remarkable for its extreme dryness. Over the parched soil, too, of Sahara, the atmosphere is seldom cooled down below the dew-point; there, then, it scarcely ever rains. The lower trade, the dry wind, is met with, as you know, in the summer, even to the north of the tropic. In the region, then, of the tropics, it is dry in summer; but in autumn the upper trade, the rain-wind, comes down gradually lower and lower, and reaches the earth in winter in the latitude of the Canary Isles. On the borders, then, of the torrid zone the rainy season answers to the lowest position of the sun. On the north coast of Africa, too, and in the south of Europe, we find the dry alternating pretty regularly with the wet season; but the latter becomes shorter as the latitude increases, because the south-west wind reaches the ground the earlier the farther it goes north. In mid-Europe, there is no more of this regular setting in of a dry season: there rainy weather may come whenever the north-east or the south-west wind is prevalent. GRADUATED SERIES OF ENGLISH READING-BOOKS. Just published, in 5 vols. fcp. 8vo. price 10s. cloth, each of which Volumes may be had separately as below, THE GRADUATED SERIES OF FIVE READING-LESSON BOOKS, WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES; Adapted, as a Progressive Course of Reading, for all Classes of English Schools and Families :— FOURTH BOOK, comprising 440 Pages, Second Edition 2 6 3 0 THIS is an entirely new series of English Reading-Lesson Books, each arranged in progressive sections, on a plan which is consistently maintained throughout the whole. The difficulty of the exercises is graduated chiefly with reference to the mental capacity requisite to comprehend and grasp the information conveyed; and also, as far as possible, with reference to the peculiarities of grammatical construction. The object of the Series is no less to facilitate the acquisition of the art of reading than to form a pupil's taste for pure literature, and to tempt him, by awakening his interest and enlisting his sympathies, to pursue his studies voluntarily. It is intended that the FIRST BOOK should be put into the hands of children who have gone through that rudimentary stage in which the pronunciation of single words or the enunciation of simple sentences is commonly taught. The lessons which it contains are all of so colloquial and homely a cast that it is believed they present no obstacles which such children will not surmount with alacrity. In the first section, no attempt has been made to furnish information or instruction of any kind; the object aimed at being merely to induce the child to read. It will prove no disadvantage, but rather an advantage, if his ear happens to be already familiar with some of the earlier rhymes and tales. The occasional repetition of certain words and phrases which will be noticed in this part of the volume, is designed to put the children at their ease, and so, by adding to their amusement, to facilitate the acquirement of reading. The second section consists of a collection of easy fables and parables, which will prove influential in the hands of the teacher who can point a moral with effect. The pieces forming the miscellaneous section, with which the First Book closes, are designed to introduce the young learner to that kind of variety in the treatment of simple themes which he will meet with on a slightly extended scale when he passes to the Second Book. The reading lessons of the SECOND BOOK are arranged in three groups, under the heads of Miscellaneous, Stories of Animals, and Adventure. To these a small collection of simple Ballads has been added. In this, as in the other books, the grand end aimed at has been to cultivate a taste for reading by presenting to the pupil only that sort of material which he is capable of assimilating in an easy and healthy manner. A glance at the subject of the pieces will show that the Editor has made a diligent endeavour to furnish, in ample variety, some congenial food for those faculties whose ascendancy at the age for which the book is intended the teacher should accept as a fact in mental physiology, a fact not to be ignored or suppressed, but to be taken hold of as a means of culture. Thus, for instance, it will be perceived that the Miscellaneous section is enriched with a due amount of the imaginative element. The Stories of Animals are preliminary to the Natural History division of the Third Book. They have reference chiefly to domestic animals, but also to a few tropical ones which possess features of rare interest for children. The lessons given under the head of Adventure consist of one or two graphic sea-sketches, followed by a Succession of vivid pictures from Robinson Crusoe. It is believed and hoped that these st will pave the way for an early acquaintance with the famous original itself. 3 Graduated Series of English Reading-Books. The lessons of the THIRD BOOK are arranged in four divisions: Miscellaneous, Descriptive Travel, Natural History, and Historical Narrative. In the Miscellaneous division a short collection of poems is added to the prose Exercises. The poems have been selected solely on account of their combination of simplicity and substantial interest. The prose lessons occasionally take a didactic turn, but without detriment, it is believed, to their entertaining features, and without embarrassing the learner with subtleties of thought or expression. The Descriptive Travel of the third volume being introductory to the corresponding department in Books IV. and V., has reference to North Europe only. A few technical or scientific expressions, the use of which could not well be dispensed with, and which rather lie out of what may be supposed to be the average range of the pupil's knowledge, are explained in brief notes. The Natural History touches chiefly on that portion of animated nature with which, in this country, we are all in more or less frequent and familiar contact. To certain descriptions which are furnished of the most marvellous displays of instinct, the Editor attaches, in an educational point of view, a high importance. Under the head of History will be found a series of sketches, freed as much as possible from all detail that is not graphic. These sketches are intended to present a general, rudimentary, and, as it were, a panoramic view of the more important or entertaining features of English history, up to the date of the Battle of Waterloo. Book the FOURTH, which was published first on account of the more pressing demands for such a volume, carries the series a step in advance in the same direction, and is designed for the highest class of small rural schools. "The contents "of the Fourth Book," observed a critical writer in the Inquirer newspaper," are "gathered from the richest and most varied fields of literature. In the first Mis"cellaneous section, we have, among many others, the works of Herschel, Chan"ning, Ruskin, Leigh Hunt, Irving, Sterne, Chas. Lamb, Guizot, Scott, and Emer"son, laid under contribution. In the part which treats of Descriptive Travel, "we have some of the finest word-painting from the works of Parkyns, Warburton, "Kinglake, Hettner, W. Ware, Gallenga, Laing, and Wills. The Natural History "is written by Waterton, Kirby, Spence, A. Karr, Buckland, Lewes, Gordon "Cumming, Livingstone, and other naturalists; whilst the History is gathered "from the finest passages in the works of Arnold, Macaulay, Hallam, Froude, "Cavendish, Stanley, Russell, Bancroft, Carlyle, and D'Israeli. The Biography and "Natural Science and Physics are equally attractive and excellent.. . For children of ten years old and upwards there is not a selection that is not full of interest, and that is not sure to command their sympathies. The book is one of the cheapest, as well as the best, "that has come under our notice. We commend it very strongly to the attention of every "teacher, whether in our elementary schools or in our homes, and earnestly hope it may "attain the end its compiler had in view, of training up some good readers to cheer and "charm the poor man's fireside, and to pour the rich stream of modern attainment into "thirsting, though humble, souls." The arrangement of the FIFTH Book corresponds with that of Book IV., embracing the same departments of knowledge, but, of course, from a more advanced point of view. The Miscellaneous section presents, in ample variety, typical specimens of our best writers from the Johnsonian era to the present day. The Descriptive Travel has reference to those portions of the globe, which, in accordance with the general plan, the preceding volumes have left untouched; and its chief aim is to direct attention to the results of scientific inquiry with regard to cosmical phenomena in general. The section on Natural History has been restricted to the more interesting examples of feræ naturæ. The History continues the thread where it is broken off in Book IV., viz. from 1688 to the present time, and it necessarily dwells largely on the events which attended the administration or the acquisition of our chief foreign possessions. The chapters on the English Constitution, with which this section closes, present a general tableau of leading points of interest and importance. To the division on Natural Science a series of valuable chapters on the prominent questions connected with Social Science is appended. The Five Books of this series are arranged, each in corresponding sections, on a serial and uniform series of progressive, yet constantly varied, selections. Book the FIRST is adapted to the comprehension of children who have mastered the first steps in reading. BOOK the SECOND contains miscellanies, tales of adventure, imaginat preliminary t prose and ver section,) and n is introductory division on th ranged. Boo completion of Book of later E London: LON history, and ballad poetry,-all comprises literary selections in (with reference to the previous FOURTH, (to which the Third Book neral plan, with the addition of a ence and Physics, sequentially arse, forms a further advance and a the practical purposes of a Class and CO. Paternoster Row. |