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that the question is not what to say, but what to leave out; and to feel so well and vigorous that your vivacity compels attention and interest, and makes the faces in front of you look bright contagiously — that is how to prepare the lesson.... The story (told by the Professor at the Breakfast Table, I think) of a tailor lamenting over a customer departing empty-handed, that if it were not for a headache he would have a new coat on that back in spite of himself, is freighted with truth. There is a magnetic influence passing from a healthy and alert mind to all with whom it comes in contact; that influence is the teacher's conjuring wand, and without it he will never bring the dry bones of education to life. It will readily be seen that no patent process for the production or maintenance of this influence can be found. It is best fostered by variety of life; by a wide experience of men and things (not at all an easy thing for one so closely tied as a teacher to attain); in short, by anything that tends to keep the heart and mind open, and to make life interesting. Teachers lead too often very dull lives, and the dullness reacts on their pupils. Men and women who have to give out so much can hardly lead too full and rich and interesting lives. Their minds ought to be a storehouse of thoughts and pictures and recollections, from which they can draw at will to enrich their lessons and to furnish the minds of their pupils."

Importance of Interest in our Work. It is indeed true that enthusiasm is a gift of nature conferred on but few teachers. But there is a degree of interest within the reach of every one of us, if we are willing to work for it. There is no danger that we shall lack interest in our subjects if we study them. When we think we know so much

about them that it is not worth while to study them any more, that very fact proves that we are lacking in interest. But interest in our work is quite as essential as knowl edge to success in teaching.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT.

1. Summarize the results reached in the preceding chapters on attention.

2. State the rules given by Comenius, und show how each of them is related to the laws of attention.

3. Show that a teacher must supply the conditions of both voluntary and non-voluntary attention.

4. What is meant by "education values"?

5. What can we do to commend the subjects we teach to our pupils?

6. What is the secret of interest?

7. Describe the curiosity of little children, and state what should be done to deepen it.

8. What is an important object of questioning older pupils?

9. Explain and describe the effect of enthusiasm in awakening interest.

10. What is the point of the story told by the Professor at the Breakfast Table?

11. What is meant by "humanizing science"?

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.

1. Dr. Arnold said: "The more active my own mind is, the more it works upon great moral and political points, the better for the school." Account for the fact.

2. Account for the influence of Sheridan at the battle of Shenandoah.

3. Describe the Socratic method of teaching, and account for its stimulating effect.

4. What are the education values of arithmetic, geography, grammar, and United States history?

5. Make a study of children, as you have opportunity, to ascertain the character of their attention—whether (a) it is easily distracted, or (6) hard to transfer from one subject to another.

6. What use can you make of that kind of knowledge of children? 7. How would you humanize the subject of chemistry?

LESSON XVI.

ATTENTION.

(Continued.)

IN the last lesson we considered the question as to what we should do to keep the attention of our pupils during recitation. The wider question—the question as to the other means at our command to help us in cultivating the power of attention — has yet to be examined.

We learned from Comenius that one of the ways of keeping the attention of our pupils during recitation is to encourage them to ask questions; and we know that the reason is that in this way we stimulate their curiosity, and give them the pleasure of mental activity.

Curiosity of Young Children. But our observations of children have enabled us to see that the curiosity of very young pupils is not strong enough to incite them to hard work. When they ask us questions, or when we ask them questions that they can not answer, if we do not answer them at once, they stop thinking about these questions, because they have so little curiosity.

Curiosity of Older Pupils. But when we are dealing with older pupils, we should make a different use of the principle of curiosity. Their curiosity is strong enough to stimulate them to harder work. You can get their

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attention by asking questions that will make them conscious of their ignorance; and the realization of this fact will often be a sufficient motive for vigorous exertion. When you should answer your question, your own tact must determine. It often happens that a student has interest enough in a subject to be clearly conscious of the labyrinth of difficulties in which the questions of his teacher have involved him, but not enough to make him willing to undergo the labor of threading his way out. Now, while we ought not to remove difficulties that have not been realized, or which the pupil's interest might induce him to overcome, there are circumstances under which the clearing up of difficulties may greatly increase his interest, and thus put him in the way of a more vigorous and protracted exertion of his powers. When the subject under consideration lies before his mind wrapped in a fog, a few direct, luminous, incisive statements from you may, like a brisk wind, clear away the fog and reveal the outlines of the country sharp and clear to your pupil's mind.

You may thus give him that experience that can be felt, but can not be described that delightful consciousness of power which he realizes when, instead of groping in darkness in an unknown country, he finds himself at home, with a noonday sun to guide his footsteps. His feeling of weakness gives place to a feeling of power. Instead of feeling himself overborne and beaten back by a superior force, he is victor, and his enemies are flying, or rather annihilated, before him. This delightful experience, this stepping from darkness into light, this transition from mental chaos and anarchy into a region of order and law, is an exceedingly powerful stimulus.