They are usually unknown to the public during their lives, perhaps always. It is the function of the school and the college to teach knowledge which is already the possession of man; but the university has a further duty,—it must discover new forms of knowledge. There is a too popular notion that we have no need of support of experiment stations, laboratories and seminars of investigators; that the state has done its full duty in providing for elementary instruction. But a democracy which neglects the function of discovery is doomed to stagnation and decay. It is not enough to communicate to children what we already know; we must support scholars and specialists while they push on beyond the frontiers of the known and claim new continents for the race. The financial basis for this task of discovery may be furnished either by public or private wealth. America is far behind Germany is this respect, and, until recent years, it has been necessary for our best scholars to go abroad for such special training. This is a humiliating and a dangerous condition. The American mind is in danger of remaining dependent, superficial, a borrower of second-hand ideas. Its science and its literature may become a mere quotation. We all believe in the mental power, acuteness, versatility of Americans. We can certainly invent threshing-machines and electric motors; but we pilfer German chemical and physical science for our ideas. The American teacher should seek out true scholars, in city and country schools, and show them that a high school and college education, with a Bachelor's degree, is only the "commencement" of science and art. He who would add even one truth to the sum of knowledge must give himself to research in universities many years after graduating from college. There is another form of invention which we too often overlook, one of the most valuable to mankind,-new social combinations of men and institutions. It requires more than average intellectual power even to appreciate some of these inventions; we enjoy the results without comprehending the causes. Examples may be suggested. The recent campaign against Spain involved a new scheme of collecting and arranging military and naval forces in the Pacific and Atlantic ocean; the avoidance of collision with any one of the thousands of principles and rules of international law; the adoption of measures to the opinions and prejudices of parties in all civilized countries; the purchase and movement of a vast quantity of supplies, ammunition, medicines, of many varieties. The brain of our President was charged with a multitude of ideas and plans, and he was compelled to hold them together and see them in instants their manifold relations at the supreme of awful decision. How few of our great population are competent to form any sort of picture of that plan! The organization of great trunk lines of railroads to take the place of petty little branches was an invention as truly as was the steam engine, and one which involved far more complex elements. Not only the simple factors of steam and iron, but the wills of millions of different men and countless local interests and warring volitions had to be considered. The modern manufacturer's and commercial combinations may be attended, like all human changes, with injustice, dishonesty and cruelty, but they mark a new era in the trading life of mankind. Some of the operations of modern commerce require an order of inventive genius and combining power far higher than the daring schemes of Cæsar or Napoleon. Only a large experience in life can enable a student to appreciate the magnitude of these colossal undertakings and their value to the race. In order to bring these creations of genius under control of society, so that they may not prove a curse to all, we have yet to educate or discover political and economic and administrative leaders who can find for us a still higher and grander unification and method of conducting business, a method which shall retain all the advantages of individual enterprise and those of collective control. Socialism thus far has had the merit of stating one side of the problem, but none of its leaders has shown the peculiar kind of genius which produces actual results. We need not doubt that humanity will yet develop the right man or men for the situation. Meantime let the "little red school-house" be busy imparting knowledge and holding up the social ideal of a man who has the power to conceive, the will to dare, and the love of humanity to surrender personal advantage for the common good in business, as soldiers do in battle, as physicians do in plague, as missionaries do for religion. Who knows but some one-roomed rural school of Indiana may at this moment be teaching the man for the great opportunity,- —a boy with a big brain, a healthy body, a clear intellect, a noble heart? A closing word. The writer of these lines begs the privilege of a personal word to his Indiana friends. That great and noble “Hoosier" state is dear to him as his birth-place, his education in her public schools, and the field of ten years of his first public life. There are the graves of his dead. In having this year for his readers many thous ands of her teachers he finds one of the highest privileges and honors of his life. For all the proofs of kindness and appreciation which he has received he here takes occasion to return his sin cere thanks. The service rendered has been imperfect, but up to the best of his powers and with entire good-will. But beyond all merely personal consideration are the interests of the mighty commonwealth to which we owe gratitude and service. Self-sacrificing ancestors, pioneers of glorious empire, have laid foundations broad and deep. Let their successors build, while they live, according to their wisdom and strength. There is no room for the easy-going optimism which imagines that progress will be given without toil and pains. Nor is there room for the croaking pessimist who dulls courage and hope with his despondent complaints. We can do little as individuals, but each can do something, and all together we are leviathan. THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. C. R. HENDERSON. PLATO'S REPUBLIC. 1. The advanced education of the Republic is reflective and not imitative. Heretofore the individual has had his gaze fixed upon shadows, particular objects, changing phenomena, considering them as real, as essential. He is now to turn about and fix his eyes (1) upon the invisible principles (hypotheses) underlying the various sciences, and then (2) upon the" unhypothetical" principle which exhibits itself in each of these limited principles. This "unhypothetical" principle is the " absolute good." The process is symbolized by the passage from the shadows in the cave up to the sun. It is the passage from "opinion" through "understanding" to "reason" or "dialectic." The elementary education led the pupils to admire the beautiful and dimly feel the true. The higher education was to give clear understanding of the true. a. For hints of the function of the higher education see Bk. VI, secs. 508-511; Bk. VII, secs. 515-522. 2. The process in elementary education is imitation of the environment. (Sec. 401-403.) a. In the light of this principle consider- (2) The teacher, as to dress, bearing, language, pro- (3) The literature to be used in school and home. 3. The process in advanced education is that of reflection or insight. (See Book VI, secs. 509-511, and the Allegory of the Cave at the beginning of Book VII.) It involves a fourfold ascent toward truth. This ascent indicates four kinds of objects a. Shadows, reflections in water, art productions, etc. [The first two objects constitute that which is considered in the lowest stage of thinking, as explained by Commissioner Harris in Chapter IV, of Psychologic Foundations of Education. The third object is that considered in the second stage of thought (understanding); the fourth object is the subject-matter of the third stage of thought (reason or insight). Mr. Harris regards Plato's contribution as to the ascending stages of thought as one of the most important ever made.] The work of the common schools lies within the first and second stages. (1) Select the historical material given in sections 1 to 4, inclusive, pp. 1 to 6, of American History by Montgomery. a. Indicate the kind of work with this material appropriate to the first stage of thought. b. Show with the same material the kind of work that would tend to stimulate the second stage of thought. "The advanced education of the Republic is reflective and not imitative." (Outline p. 46.) "The process in elementary education is imitation of the environment." "We would not have our guardians grow up amid images of moral deformity, as in some noxious pasture, and there browse and feed upon many a baneful herb and flower day by day, little by little, until they silently gather a festering mass of corruption in their own soul. Let our artists rather be those who are gifted to discern the true nature of beauty and grace; then will our youth dwell in a land of health amid fair sights and sounds; and beauty, the influence of fair works, will meet the sense like a breeze, and insensibly draw the soul even in childhood into harmony with the beauty of reason." It is this principle which makes it important to pay much attention to the material arrangement and equipment of the school in all of its minute details. The school premises should be artistically arranged, the building a model of the architect's art and should be kept neat, clean and attractive; not simply to gratify the senses of the teacher and pupils, but because it is a silent stimulus to the pupil to embody these characteristics in his own activity and life. It is also a strong basis for consciously insisting on these qualities in whatever the pupil does. Again, it is incumbent upon the teacher to observe habits of cleanliness, neatness, politeness, etc., in his work as teacher, in school and in the community. Such little points as the arrangement of books, etc., on the teacher's desk, placing work on the blackboard, cleaning the blackboard, etc., are more potent than we think in creating tastes and sentiments in the pupils which sink into their characters as humanizing elements. All the little influences of this kind tend silently to elevate the standard of life in the minds of the pupils as much as the direct teaching of politeness, cleanliness, etc. In the selection of literature for children it must be remembered that they are impressed as much, if not more, by the particular or image side of it as by the deeper meaning which may be consciously brought before them. We cannot change the child's nature, and therefore material must be presented which is suited to it and which will leave a correct or ennobling impression. It is down along the surface of the clay and where the cut has been made the water oozes out between the sand and the clay. But if the main slope be across the direction of the track, the water runs down hill away from the track on one side and toward the track on the other side, and more water flows into the cut on one side than the other. Now, if the cut be a long one and you follow it you may be able to find where the sand stops and only the clay is left. This will, of course, be on a side hill. If you leave the track where the sand or soil ceases you will be able to follow along the side of the hill the line that divides the soil above from the clay or, perhaps, the rocks below. You will then probably be able to see what becomes of the water that sinks through the soil. If, in leaving the track, you have taken the direction in which the surface of the clay slopes you will find springs or wet places, showing where the water runs out between the soil or sand and clay. This is one of the simplest ways in which springs are formed. If you know of any springs in your vicinity you should see if they can be explained in this way. If not you may find that they are produced by little streams issuing from cracks in a rock, through which the water has sunk. VIII. In the preceding we have supposed that clay or an impermeable material through which the water will not pass comes out to the surface on a side hill near the bottom of a valley. But this may not be the case. The valley may not go deep enough to reach that layer. How, then, shall we get at the water? Evidently we must make an opening down to it. Such an opening is a well. In an ordinary well we know that the water has to be raised by a pump or bucket, but there are others called artesian wells, which require no bucket or pump, for the water, when we once reach it, rushes up to the surface. What is it that produces some kind of pressure below and forces the water up? If we could see down an artesian well we would find that at its bottom there is water confined in a permeable substance like sand by one layer of an impermeable substance like clay above and another impermeable layer below. Now, let us in imagination start from the bottom of the well and follow this sand layer. We will find that it slopes upward, and at a great distance comes out on a hillside, where it catches water when it rains. This water runs down through the sand, being prevented from escape by the two impermeable layers, and accumulates in the sandy layer so as to produce great pressure. When this reservoir of water is tapped by the hole bored down, the water rushes up with great force. If you wish to see how such action takes place punch a small hole in the bottom of a tin can (say a twopound coffee can) and after half filling a bucket with water, push the can down into the water and notice how the water spurts in through the hole, rising nearly to a height of the water in the pail. does contain salt, while There are places where thousands of tons of salt We thus see that a spring is a place where water comes to the surface after a long underground journey. Is it the same kind of water as when it went in? Try a drink of fresh rainwater and then a drink of spring or well water, and see. You will probably find the rainwater rather flat and tasteless compared with the spring water. The difference will remind you of how food, for instance oatmeal, tastes with and without salt. In fact, the spring water the rainwater does not. springs are so salt that per year are gotten from them. But the spring water contains other things also, chiefly lime, and this is what is left when the water is boiled away in a kettle. Thus we see that water is continually busy transporting materials from the depths of the earth to the surface. The things which are thus brought up are often of great importance. The lime contained in the water furnishes material for the bones of animals and the iron, which is another ingredient, supplies the coloring matter for their blood. It is true that most of what is needed of these materials is gotten from our solid food, but as spring water contains them it is healthier than rainwater for drinking and cooking. When we thus think of the water carrying away material from the solid rock we can see how so many cracks and fissures come to exist. As water passes through a very small crack it carries some material away with it, and so enlarges the crack, and so the crack grows until quite a stream can pass through. We now see how rivers continue to run during hot weather when no rain falls. They are supplied by the water from springs and underground streamlets, and as this water often has great distances underground to travel it only reaches the river a long time after it has fallen as rain. Some of this water must evidently be many months journeying in the earth before reaching the river and a small part of it perhaps even years. But at last it emerges, joins the river and reaches the ocean. IX. You may imagine that now its useful work is done. By no means. For let us see what happens to it after reaching the ocean. We have already seen that it carries a large burden of mud with it. This it drops gradually, some near the shore and some far out at sea. Thus it coats the sential, and is able, therefore, to penetrate to the heart of things and grasp their true meaning. It is this phase of education which enables the individual to set up what Harris calls a "view-of-theworld." If he is in this highest stage, his view-ofthe-world will be a rational one in which he thinks the world of phenomena as the manifestation of a thinking personality which is in them and out of them and above them. Plato thinks that such an individual is competent to think society in its essen: tial relations and is able to apply his wisdom to the needs of the state, and hence, the only competent ruler. It is the main function of the school to employ the means of education so as to stimulate the maximum of mental effort on the part of the pupil in order to give him the highest possible degree of independence and freedom in his thinking. The school furnishes three kinds of exercises to accomplish this end. First, the rest period which affords an opportunity for the spontaneous activity of the pupil. Second, the study period, which has as its aim to train the pupil in systematic habits of study and in independent study. Third, the recitation period, which furnishes an opportunity for the highest effort because, under the direction of the mature mind of the teacher and the stimulus of equals, the pupil's capacity is put to its highest test. Thorough work in the grades and lower schools equips the pupils both in mental capacity and knowledge for independent activity in the higher stage, in the higher schools and in society. Space will not permit a full illustration of the first and second stages of thought from the material assigned in Montgomery's History pp. 1-6. We will note one or two points for each. For the first stage may be given the story of Columbus, bringing in all of the facts that can be brought within the comprehension of the pupil. For the second stage the theories held by the race and by Columbus may be definitely dealt with since the pupil is assumed to have sufficient knowledge of the geography of the earth, etc., to grasp the points definitely in the light of relations and facts which he understands. This closes our discussion of this important book. The reader who drops this phase of study at the close of the institute work is not wise. He should enter into it even more largely and make a more extended study of Greek history and then Greek philosophy, especially of the three greatest thinkers in that period of the race's history. It is a part of the inheritance of the race which every school teacher should claim and appropriate. A. R. CHARMAN. CERTAIN ESSENTIALS OF LIBRARY EQUIPMENT. (Continued from page 16.) What are some of the popular delusions of library management regarding juvenile equipment? One is the belief that, put side by side, the masterpieces for children will finally crowd out the commonplace. The young reader will read Autun House, Being a Boy, The Story of a Bad Boy, The Dog of Flanders, Rab, Hector, The Jungle Books and the few other classics and will feel their charm; but he will immediately with apparently quite as much relish read a class of juvenile fiction where everything is false to life, where the painting of characters is the grossest daub, where all the cant and unreality are presented in a medium of desertlike commonplace. A moment's consideration of the immaturity and inexperience of youth who reads, and the exquisite observation and wise insight of him who can produce a children's classic, is sufficient to make us realize how impossible it is for the youth to compare and discriminate. I say, therefore, your classics, few in number on your library shelves, will never crowd out or even jostle the throng of commonplace juveniles by their side. As a consequence I go far, and counsel that the lists of books written for young people be kept small. It would be wise indeed to increase to the fullest extent the copies of the few classics and to begin a war of extermination on the commonplace. Librarians are fond of claiming that the classics drive out the others. Such instances can generally be reduced to the children where there are literary traditions and a literary environment; or to the occasional but always exceptional child springing out of unpromising conditions, but born with literary hunger and virility. The capacious maw of such children may emerge from a period of indiscriminate reception apparently unharmed. Such an exception is probably the girl of fourteen, whose answers among three hundred were conspicuous for their intelligence and for the excellent writing and spelling, but who, in six months, had read sixty-eight booksLongfellow, Scott, Dickens, Alcott and also Mrs. Southworth and twelve of the Elsie Books. In an effort to test what young people are reading and how they read, with the comparisons of different ages and classes, I recently obtained answers to six questions from 300 chosen from different schools and sections of a city. These questions were prepared with as much ingenuity as I possessed in the hope of getting really frank answers; but I failed. Even though the names were not disclosed, the unconscious bias of answering as they thought they should was apparent in so many answers that any statistics from them going NATURE STUDY. In the September number of THE INLAND EDUCATOR WE commented at some length upon the excellent Course of Study for the City and Town Schools of Indiana, and promised to quote portions of it in subsequent issues. We are quite sure that only a small per cent. of our readers have been able to examine this course, and therefore, at the risk of publishing material which may already be familiar to some of our patrons, we print below the introductory notes and the outline for two years' work in nature study. Work for the remaining five years may be expected in the March issue. -ED.] INTRODUCTORY. It is believed that a well-ordered course of study in nature work should suggest the main lines of work to be pursued; should arrange the work in each line in the order best suited to the stages of development of the pupils of the different grades pursuing it, and should make some general suggestions as to the plans and methods of procedure. It is not thought that specific directions as to the carrying out of the details of the work should enter very largely into a general course of study. Such matters should, we believe, as far as possible, be left to local supervision or to the actual teaching force. The outline of work in nature study here suggested is somewhat comprehensive. Different lines of work are suggested with no attempt to determine or suggest their relative values. It is not claimed that all lines of nature work which may profitably be pursued in the elementary schools, and especially in the primary grades, are here outlined. Neither is it claimed that all the work here suggested can be accomplished by any one grade. It is believed, however, that all the lines here laid down should receive some attention in every system of schools. The best judgment of the local supervision and of the teachers of the grades must determine the selections from the work which are adapted to the conditions under which they are working. If, whenever possible, the work is pursued by a study of typical forms as suggested in the outline, much more can be done;than at first seems possible. It is not intended that there should be daily al. terations of the lines of work suggested. The relative time devoted to each line and to the different phases of any one line will be determined by the conditions under which the teacher is working, the material accessible, etc. Some one line may be emphasized for a time, say a month or a term, and the emphasis then transferred to some other line or phase of the subject for a like time. This plan is recommended especially for the older grades. It awakens a more intense interest, and relieves the work of the scrappy appearance which would result from an attempt to fuse instruction in all lines into the work of a single day or week. The successive steps in the given lines are, we believe, sufficiently set off to enable the teacher at any stage to see what in that line has been done in the grades below, and what is to be done in the grades above. The study is not a book study. The truths are to be developed largely by experiment and observation. The first step in the presentation of the work is observation by the pupils; this should be followed, whenever practicable, by drawings and descriptions, and this, at a safe distance, by the reading of selected literature. "First see, next reproduce, next learn through literature what others have found out regarding it," is, in the main, a safe guide to the teacher as a process. Work in preliminary geography is outlined in connection with the nature work for the first and second and first half of third years. Up to this point it is believed that the geography work is but the geography side of nature study; that the nature lessons, tending as they do to develop the powers of observation, imagination and interpretation are really fundamental lessons in geography and that, other than to some degree directing the nature lessons towards geographical ends, no special emphasis of the subject is needed. It will, therefore, in these grades, occupy the same place on the daily program that the nature study does and be taught in connection therewith. Physiology, too, as outlined in this course, is very closely related to the nature work and especially to the work suggested in the study of animal life. It can, therefore, we believe, be most economically and successfully taught in connection with this work and is so outlined up to the eighth year, where the subject is given a separate place upon the daily program and its study is pursued in a more or less technical way. a. Plant life. FIRST YEAR. 1. Autumn fruits-peach, pear, apple, grape, etc., as types. 2. Autumn leaves-make collections, study forms, colors, etc. 3. Autumn flowers-golden-rod, aster, gentian, etc. 4. Autumn seeds-make collections, study disseminations by winds, animals and currents of water. 5. Preparations for winter as shown in buds and leaves; make collection of budshickory, buckeye, maple or fruit trees. Study an evergreen as a type form. Preparations for spring. (a) Planting of seeds in schoolroom-beans, peas, wheat, 6. 7. |