Amazon.com description: Product Description: The True Order of Studies, presents the views which the venerable ex-president of Harvard has given from time to time in lectures before various educational bodies. It is an eminently suggestive book, and even those who disagree with the author, will find in it enough to repay abundantly the time given for careful perusal. After an elaborate classification entitled "The Hierarchy of the Sciences," the author gives us chapters upon each of the general subjects of study, with special reference to their presentation in the school, and in conclusion, a complete curriculum of studies covering the whole period of a child's education, from the age of five years, up to the time when he emerges from the present influence of the teacher, into complete independence of thought and action. The classification of the sciences is valuable, as grouping the different branches of study by nations expressed in terms readily comprehended by the average teacher; but it is not comparable with that of Spencer in logical accuracy, reach, or exhaustive analysis. In fact, its logical value is destroyed in the very outset by a fatal violation of the rule of exclusion. It is surprising that Dr. Hill should contrast the terms "unlimited will," and "infinite will" as specific differences in separating great departments of science. Also similarly the terms "limited" with "finite." Such classification will hardly displace that of Spencer or Comte. In methods of instruction, is repeated the common mistake of assuming that each child is to be a specialist in every branch of natural history, and that his entire education is to be obtained in the school-room. In the majority of cases, broad views of the generic divisions of a science will prove a more valuable acquisition than an infinite number of unclassified facts, however interesting; and the home, the streets, and the green fields, must continue to be, as they ever have been, the great school for the education of the senses. The teacher who follows implicitly the directions of the author, will be likely soon to abandon his profession, or to become a theorist upon methods of instruction. The curriculum, with which the book closes, bears evidence of judicious labor, and the whole volume abounds with valuable suggestions, which we heartily commend to the teacher whose practical judgment enables him to winnow the golden grain from its modicum of chaff.

—The International Review, Volume 3