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XIV. Talk over all your difficulties together.

XV. Don't take any part in any village gossip. Don't allow yourself to talk about any one in the village, unless you have something good to say.

XVI. Try and make the children polite to each other in school. XVII. Try the plan of having a school house-keeper for each day. Try and get the children to feel interested themselves in keeping everything neat and in order.

XVIII. Don't be afraid to say, "I don't know" if you don't.

XIX. If you have made a false statement about anything in a lesson, don't be afraid to acknowledge it.

XX. Correct all errors in English speaking that you notice.-Journal of Education.

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-The teacher furnishes the following simple method of explaining to young pupils why the divisor is inverted in division of fractions. Before attempting to teach division of one fraction by another, you will of course teach how to divide a fraction by an integer, and how to divide an integer by a fraction. The three classes of problems are illustrated below:

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The first class may be taught by actual illustrations, from which may be deduced the principle that a fraction is divided by dividing its numerator or multiplying its denominator. The second class may be solved at first by changing the dividend to the denomination of the divisor. 36 thirds 2 thirds 18, needs no more explanation than 36 apples 2 apples 18. After a great number of problems have been solved in this way, analyze the numerical process, and show that in every case the number of units in the dividend is multiplied by the denominator, and the product divided by the numerator.

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Correspondence, etc.

To the Editor of the WITNESS:

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SIR,- Will you permit me to make a short statement, supplementary to the timely article of "Lindenbank on agriculture in schools. As that article refers merely to what has been done on this behalf in Ontario, it may not be unimportant to state that at the time of the establishment of Normal schools here, in 1857, the curriculum of studies authorized by the Government for teachers-in-training provided for the study of Agricultural Science. For some years instruction in this subject was regularly given by Dr. (now Sir William) Dawson, whose eminence as a naturalist, no less than his zeal for the introduction of agricultural teaching into the schools of Nova Scotia while he was Superintendent of Schools for that province, gave assurance of the highest interest and value to his lectures.

To aid him in his course of teaching in the Normal School, and to excite, if possible, an interest in the subject in the schools of Canada, Dr. Dawson published in 1864 a little manual which embodied the best agricultural science of the time in a condensed but readable form. Since that day chemistry has undergone revolutionary changes in symbols and nomenclature, so that this little work no longer accords in form with modern manuals of chemistry, but so well did the author distinguish between sound deductions from careful observation and merely ephemeral speculations, that its practical teachings are valuable to-day, and but slight alterations of form would make it again as useful as it was a quarter of a century ago.

As illustrations, which might be made very numerous, of the skilful insight of the author, it may be sufficient to say that it would be difficult to find anywhere, in equally concise form, a better description of the life history, and more practical instructions for contending against the ravages of the wheat midge, commonly but erroneously called the weevil, than are contained in this work. It contains also in abridged form the substance of the author's shrewd paper on the potato rot, which was published in the report of the agricultural societies of Massachusetts in 1851, and which, being frequently reproduced and quoted, stirred up practical men to those efforts for the replacement of the old and worn-out varieties of potato by new forms originated from the seed, which have reduced to comparative insignificance the ravages of peronosphora infestans.

It would be, in my judgment, well to issue a revised edition of Sir William Dawson's Agriculture, which has been for some time out of print. For, although the work on this subject that has been recently published in Ontario is an excellent book, admirably fullfilling its purpose, there is still room for a work which, like Sir William's manual, brings into great prominence principles which are of universal interest, disembarrassed of minor details that must in any case be learned by actual work on the farm. S. P. ROBINS.

MCGILL NORMAL SCHOOL, APRIL 23rd, 1891.

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DEAR MR. EDITOR,-I hear that some of our teachers have been able this year to visit the schools of their neighbours, and it seems to me some of them might send their experience to us who have not been able to do so. Out of a paper I clip the following " Way Notes," which may tell them what I mean. The visiting teacher says: the High School literature is now the subject for rhetoricals. The leading modern authors are taken up in order; biographical sketches, incidents, historical associations, reviews, abstracts, etc., serving for composition work, and selections forming the materials for recitations. One author may thus serve for several rhetoricals, and the year give a very good course, in which the whole school participates. Add responses in memory gems and every one will take part in each

exercise."

Speaking of the history class, the visitor says: "We then witnessed an exercise in general history. The class wrote upon the black-board an analysis of the lesson, and thus each member formed the habit of organizing the matter for himself. The topics were then rapidly discussed, contributions made from outside sources, and search questions reported upon. The analyses showed individuality."

Yours etc., T. O. S.

DEAR SIR, I look back to the old "Red School-house" of my boyhood days, in a country district. It had no school-yard of its own. What need of any when the children had the run of a broad highway and a still broader turn-pike road, roads that extended and branched all over New England. It did not stand on the road, no, one side was in the line of neighbor Williams' fence, and the school-house stood or sat in his field, not occupying a square foot more than necessary, and carrying a perpetual apology for being just there at all, only because it had been put there, and could not get away, and did not mean to intrude, and did not know where else to go, poor thing! The "red school-house," one teacher came and left, then another and another, men and women, good, better, best.

As to "sweetness and light," we had it always and abundance of it with dear Miss Lloyd, one of the best, all love and lore, all patience and sympathy, all hope and trust, all wisdom and prudence, all firmness and tenderness together, planning new methods and exercises, varying all by her originality and personal ways, helping our plays at noonspell and play-time, advising us with all motherly goodness. How we all loved her.

The school was full of the charms of a church and music hall and lecture room and circus. It was "all in all" where we loved to go early and stay long, where we loved to learn because the teacher furnished the light and herself was the sweet attraction to study.

Fellow-teacher, make yourself as much to your young, helpless, truthful, loving children, as Miss Lloyd was to us country children in the road-side school-house. L. W. HART.

Books Received and Reviewed.

[All Exchanges and Books for Review should be sent direct to Dr. J. M. Harper, Box 305, Quebec, P.Q.]

Of our exchanges, the most welcome perhaps is Education, published by Frank W. Kasson, 50 Broomfield Street, Boston. There is an engraving of the Ontario Minister of Education in the Toronto Educational Journal this month. The Open Court comes regularly and is read regularly no periodical reader, of a philosophic tendency should be without a copy of this well conducted paper. The Week continues to flourish, and no reader of the higher topics in our weekly political and literary experiences should be without a copy of it. Trübner's Record, with its reports on the literature of the East, is published at 57 Ludgate Hill. The Educational News of Philadelphia is evidently a favorite with the teachers of that city and elsewhere: we enjoy a perusal of it weekly. Among some of our most valued exchanges are the Educational Journal of Virginia and the North Carolina Teacher. We miss the old form of the Wisconsin Journal of Education, but still enjoy it in its new form: an excellent periodical. The current number of Our Homes has reached us and we note continued signs of improvement. Each village reading-room should send for this paper to Brockville, Ont. The same may be said of the Young Canadian, edited by Mrs. Murray and published in Montreal. The Quarterly Register of Current History is a new venture, and if it keeps away from making too much of what happens in the United States, should be encouraged by placing it in the school library. It is published in Detroit. We will watch its character and report to the teachers. The Presbyterian College Journal, the Collegium Forense, the School Moderator, Intelligence, Educational Review of New Brunswick, Western School Journal, the Catholic Educator, the Schoolmaster, the Journal of Education, and as many more which we cannot mention this month, have our heartiest wishes for their welfare. On account of want of space we have been forced to overlook for a time the books sent for review; but we will be able to to keep our promise, that no book is ever sent to the Educational Record without being noticed.

MACMILLAN'S CLASSICAL LIBRARY of school texts is still in progress of being issued. We would ask every teacher to place the various volumes in the school library, as they are strongly bound for school use. Those we have received of late are Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution, Shakespeare's Coriolanus, Scott's Lady of the Lake, Selections from Tennyson, Southey's Life of Nelson, Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice; with their predecessors, these volumes make a very fine series. Send to MacMillan & Co., London, England, for a catalogue, is the advice we would give our teachers who have the present prospect of adding to their libraries.

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HEATH'S MODERN LANGUAGE SERIES has been added to by the issue of Dr. Edgren's new French Grammar, which, though compiled on the stereotyped plan, has in it many newer elements which teachers of French will no doubt carefully examine. The book consists of two parts, the first being intended to enable the learner to begin reading with profit at the earliest practicable moment, while the second is intended for a more critical study of the language after reading has begun.

MECHANISM AND PERSONALITY, by the Rev. Dr. Francis A. Shonp, Professor of Analytical Physics, University of the South, and published by the Messrs. Ginn & Company, Boston, U.S.A. Nearer and nearer do we come to the seeming goal in our contest with scepticism-nearer to the period when the lamb and the lion shall lie down together-when what has been reviled as a name shall be allowed to shed of its light upon the problem of all problems, the relationship between soul and body, the boundary line of thought. The author of this volume has been for years trying to find a book which satisfactorily outlined, within moderate compass, the present attitude. of philosophy in the light of the latest scientific research; and failing to find such a work, he has set himself the task of preparing a text-book of the kind-a book which he hopes will meet the growing enquiry as to what has become of metaphysic in the glare of the scientific thought of the day. In our opinion, no one will say, after reading Dr. Shonp's work, that the erudite author has not placed the young mentalist, as our Old Schoolmaster calls the investigator of mind effects, under an obligation. If not the text-book of the future on metaphysics, it certainly shews, in very clear light, what the future text-book on metaphysics is to be.

THE SOUL OF MAN, by Dr. Paul Carus and published by the Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago. The student who can enjoy Dr. Shonp's book will turn with pleasure to the fine volume prepared by Dr. Carus. A more enjoyable study we have not had for some time, than the examination of such an investigation of the facts of physiological and experimental psychology. The centre of the universe lies. in our own mind, and the well written and beautifully illustrated volume which lies before us, gives the reader a text-book from which he may learn the intricacies of such a centre. The mentalist has his text-book at last. The problem is not solved, but the nature of man -the physical foundation on which the mind rests-is clearly enunciated as a problem that may have a solution around which men may rally, as they have around the shifting theories of the minor sciences. As a writer, Dr. Carus has been spoken of in these pages before. As a philosopher his industry is unabated, and every new work he issues from the press adds to a fame which is likely to last.

A PRINCE OF PEDAGOGY, by Daniel Putman, teacher of pedagogy in the Michigan State Normal School and published by H. R.

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