New Publications [pp. 427-432]

1887.] NEW PUBLICATIONS. 429
SPIRITUAL CONFERENCES: KINDNESS. By the Rev. Frederick W. Faber,
D.D. New York: James Pott & Co.
It is late in the day to say anything new by way of either praise or criti cism of Father Faber, but we may call attention to the cheap but charming
dress into which his Conferences on Kindness have just been put by a Pro testant publishing house. Considering how uncompromising and out spoken he is in matters of dogma, the writings of Father Faber seem to
have a peculiar attraction for our separated brethren. His charm for them
is probably that of sweetness of tone and temper, for he shares it with
Fenelon, whose Spiritual Letters have also been issued, at a like inexpen sive rate, for the same public. They make one sigh, these little books, so
carefully printed, so neatly bound, so clear and elegant in type, for a little
-or a good deal-more care and good taste on the part of some of our
Catholic publishers.
THE PASSION AND DEATH OF JESUS CHRIST. By St. Alphonsus de Liguori.
Edited by the Rev. Eugene Grimm. New York: Benziger. I887.
This volume is the fifth of the Centenary Edition, and is entirely devoted
to the Passion and Death of our Lord. As the preceding ~olumes have already been noticed as they appeared, all that we need say is that the present is quite equal to its predecessors in get-up, etc.
INTRODUCTORY HEBREW METHOD AND MANUAL;
ELEMENTS OF HEBREW;
HEBREW WORD-LISTS. By William R. Harper, Ph.D., Professor of Semitlc
Languages in Yale College, Principal of the Schools of the Institute of
Hebrew. Chicago: American Publication Society of Hebrew; New
York: Charles Scribner's Sons. I886.
These Hebrew text-books of Dr. Harper are different from those which
'have been heretofore in use. The old method was to take a large grammar-e.g., that of Nordheimer-and learn and recite the greater part first,
lust as school-boys have been used to do with the Latin and Greek grammars. Next a Hebrew reader, containing extracts from the Bible, was
taken up, with the aid of a large lexicon, to be construed in class, and perhaps, after this, some books or parts of books from the Bible were studied
in the same way that Caesar, Virgil, Homer, etc., are usually studied in
school and college. Some experienced teachers object to this method of
studying grammar as the principal thing, and classic authors as an illustration of the grammar. They think the method should be reversed, and the
language itself be studied and taught, with the use of grammar to illustrate the language. Dr. Harper follows an inductive method of this kind.
His manuals are suited for beginners, yet they are intended to give not
merely an elementary but a thorough knowledge of Hebrew. They include lessons, in a progressive series, grammar, the text of the first eight
chapters of Genesis, a vocabulary and word-lists-in fact, all that a student
needs until he is ready, if so disposed, to take up the Hebrew Bible by himself and prosecute the study of it to such an extent as he may choose. Of
course it is necessary that a teacher of Hebrew should examine these manuals for himself, in order to understand fully Dr. Harper's method and to
form a judgment of its merits. We merely wish, in this notice, to call attention to it as worthy of examination by those who are engaged in teach