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Boys should as soon as possible be accustomed to write out fables, or the substance of other reading lessons, in their own words. They may also write descriptions of things with which they are familiar, or any event which has recently happened, such as a country excursion. Every one feels the necessity, on grounds of practical utility at all events, of boys being taught to express their thoughts neatly on paper, in good English and with correct spelling. Yet this is a point rarely reached before the age of fifteen or sixteen, often never reached at all. The reason is, that written exercises must be carefully looked over by the master, or they are done in a slovenly manner. Anyone who has never taught in a school will say, 'Then let the master carefully look them over.' But the expenditure of time and trouble this involves on the master is so great that in the end he is pretty sure either to have few exercises written, or to neglect to look them over. The only remedy is for the master not to have many boys to teach, and not to be many hours in school. Even then, unless he set apart a special time every day for correcting exercises, he is likely to find them 'increase upon him.'

The course of reading-books, accompanied by large illustrations, may go on to many other things which

some good hints for impressing on boys' memories the words they have spelt wrong. An exercise-book, he says, should always be used for the dictation lesson, and of every word in which a boy blunders, he should afterwards make a line at the end of the book, writing the word as many times as it will go in the line. Now and then the master may turn to these words, and examine the boy in them, and by comparing different books, he will see which words are most likely to be wrongly spelt.

the children see around them, such as trees and plants, and so lead up to instruction in natural history and physiology. But in imparting all knowledge of this kind, we should aim, not at getting the children to remember a number of facts, but at opening their eyes, and extending the range of their interests.

Hitherto I have supposed the children to have only three books at the same time; viz. a reading-book about animals and things, a poetry-book, and Esop's Fables. With the first commences a series culminating in works of science; with the second a series that should lead up to Milton and Shakespeare; the third should be succeeded by some of our best writers in prose.

But many schoolmasters will shudder at the thought of a child's spending a year or two at school without ever hearing of the Heptarchy or Magna Charta, and without knowing the names of the great towns in any country of Europe. I confess I regard this ignorance with great equanimity. If the child, or the youth even, takes no interest in the Heptarchy and Magna Charta, and knows nothing of the towns but their names, I think him quite as well off without this knowledge as with it-perhaps better, as such knowledge turns the lad into a 'wind-bag,' as Carlyle might say, and gives him the appearance of being wellinformed without the reality. But I neither despise a knowledge of history and geography; nor do I think that these studies should be neglected for foreign languages or science: and it is because I should wish a pupil of mine to become in the end thoroughly con

versant in history and geography, that I should, if possible, conceal from him the existence of the numerous school manuals on these subjects.

We will suppose that a parent meets with a book which he thinks will be both instructive and enter taining to his children. But the book is a large one, and would take a long time to get through; so, instead of reading any part of it to them or letting them read it for themselves, he makes them learn the index by heart. The children do not find it entertaining; they get a horror of the book, which prevents their ever looking at it afterwards, and they forget the index Just such is the saga

as soon as they possibly can. cious plan adopted in teaching history and geography in schools, and such are the natural consequences. Every student knows that the use of an epitome is to systematise knowledge, not to communicate it, and yet, in teaching, we give the epitome first, and allow it to precede, or rather to supplant, the knowledge epitomised. The children are disgusted, and no wonder. The subjects, indeed, are interesting, but not so the epitomes. I suppose if we could see the skeletons of the Gunnings, we should not find them more fascinating than any other skeletons.

The first thing to be aimed at, then, is to excite the children's interest. Even if we thought of nothing but the acquiring of information, this is clearly the true method. What are the facts which we remember? Those in which we feel an interest. If we are told that So-and-so has met with an accident, or failed in business, we forget it directly, unless we know the person spoken of. Similarly, if I read anything about

Addison or Goldsmith, it interests me, and I remember it, because they are, so to speak, friends of mine; but the same information about Sir Richard Blackmore or Cumberland would not stay in my head for four-and-twenty hours. So, again, we naturally retain anything we learn about a foreign country in which a relation has settled, but it would require some little trouble to commit to memory the same facts about a place in which we had no concern. All this proceeds from two causes. First, that the mind retains that in which it takes an interest; and secondly, that one of the principal helps to memory is the association of ideas. These were, no doubt, the ground reasons which influenced Dr. Arnold in framing his plan of a child's first history-book. This book, he says, should be a picture-book of the memorable deeds which would best appeal to the child's imagination. They should be arranged in order of time, but with no other connection. The letterpress should simply, but fully, tell the story of the action depicted. These would form starting-points of interest. The child would be curious to know more about the great men whose acquaintance he had made, and would associate with them the scenes of their exploits; and thus we might actually find our children anxious to learn history and geography! I am sorry that even the great authority of Dr. Arnold has not availed to bring this method into use. Such a book would, of course, be dear. Bad pictures are worse than none at all and Goethe tells us that his appreciation of Homer was for years destroyed by his having been shown, when a child, absurd pictures (Fratzenbilder)

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of the Homeric heroes. The book would, therefore, cost six or eight shillings at least; and who would give this sum for an account of single actions of a few great men, when he might buy the lives of all great men, together with ancient and modern history, the names of the planets, and a great amount of miscellaneous information, all for half-a-crown in Mangnall's Questions'?

However, if the saving of a few shillings is more to be thought of than the best method of instruction, the subject hardly deserves our serious consideration.

It is much to be regretted that books for the young are so seldom written by distinguished authors. I suppose that of the three things which the author seeks, money, reputation, influence, the first is not often despised, nor the last considered the least valuable. And yet both money and influence are more certainly gained by a good book for the young, than by any other. The influence of 'Tom Brown,' however different in kind, is probably not smaller in amount, than that of Sartor Resartus.'

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An improvement, I hope, has already begun. Miss Yonge's 'Golden Deeds' is just the sort of book that I have been recommending. Professor Huxley has lately published an elementary book on Physiology, and Professor Kingsley has promised us a 'Boys' History of England.'

What we want is a Macaulay for boys, who shall handle historical subjects with that wonderful art displayed in the Essays'-the art of elaborating all the more telling portions of the subject, outlining the rest, and suppressing everything that does not