Review of President Eliot's Book.

We print this morning a portion of the review of "American Contributions to Civilization and Other Essays and Addresses" by President Eliot, which appears in the last issue of the Nation. The book is published by the Century Company.

"President Eliot's book consists of miscellaneous addresses and magazine articles written during the past twenty-five years. The reason of their being mainly social and political-a fact which at first strikes the reader with surprise-is explained in the preface; it is merely because the educational addresses and papers are reserved for another volume. There are, however, in this volume a good many passages relating to education, and one entire essay discusses the question "wherein popular education has failed." What is striking about the book, coming from the President of the oldest American university, is that his field of speculation and interest is so much larger than the mere field of education. Fifty years ago such a book would have been a narrow if not sectarian performance; today the essayist is no mere educator, but a man of the world, an administrator, the executive, representative head of a corporation so important, so closely connected with the life of the country, as to make him a public character; a man whose function it is to speak, not merely for Harvard University, but for the United States."