Even if it seem a little removed from my subject, I feel justified in adding a few words upon the desirability of taking account of particular traits of character in pupils and of special aptitudes and even idiosyncrasies. Do not try to have all your pupils become men and women exactly like one another. Unless the special aptitudes of pupils are taken into account from the commencement of their school education many of them will suffer. A youth who is destined some day to be a bishop or a judge should be dealt with from boyhood onward differently from one who gives promise of becoming a successful tradesman. So long as, from youth onward through life, the individual is made to bear to the community the same relation which one board bears to all the boards in a fence, every individual of special genius must suffer wrong and injustice. The spirit of commercial democracy which dominates the life of our time may be an advance upon the ruling forces of former times, but it surely seems to involve an undue suppression of the individual for the sake of the mass. The assumption of public services by governments and great corporations, the mere scheduling of masses of human beings as numbers so and so on factory pay sheets, trade combinations and industrial amalgamations, all these characteristics seem to indicate that we are fast approaching a time when distinctive individuality of character will be regarded with something akin to the deprecatory wonderment with which we might look upon a Patagonian aboriginé. We have become so intolerant of persons who do not travel in the beaten track, that we promptly designate them as cranks or degenerates, not hesitating to coin words at short notice to facilitate the expression of our disparagement, and so far have we gone in this direction that the more exceptional and atrocious the offence which a ruffian may commit, the easier it seems to be for him to procure eminent specialists to hasten into Court and pronounce him insane.

I have directed attention to some of these general characteristics of contemporary fashion as they seem to be subJects upon which the instructors of youth should ponder and exercise careful judgment. Temporary popular enthusiasms are often in great part mistaken and are almost always mixtures of good motive and bad judgment. Hence the importance of sometimes encouraging a pupil to break away from the habit of imitation. There occurs to

me at present the case of a locality in this province where the elderly inhabitants, though not what would be considered well educated, express themselves with a fair amount of clearness and accuracy, but where the children of these same inhabitants have adopted a manner of speech which is nothing short of an offensive jargon wherein such expression as "aint" and "I seen" are not the worst which might be cited. It seems harsh to say that many of these young people spoke better English before they went to school than after, but in some instances such is the fact; and it seems to be the outcome of the weak, but prevalent desire to be, like other people, a notion which seems also to lie at the root of the prevailing fancy which attracts into cities hosts of young people who have no fitness or adaptation for professional or commercial pursuits. Accordingly, the inference is, that teachers should discourage sameness and imitation and encourage independence of judgment, thoroughness and excellence, particularly in the way of developing special aptitudes, that they should aim at making of their pupils all sorts of honorable and right-thinking citizens, even if the pupils differ from one another as widely as the proper qualifications for one calling may differ from the qualifications for another.

What after all is your mission to the youth of this Province, but to educate them to observe for themselves, to think for themselves, and to speak and write the outcome of their observation and reasoning, so that when the time of action shall have come, each one shall rightly act for himself in his life's calling.

In what has been said regarding the teaching of English, you will have observed that there is scarcely anything about the teaching of grammar. I do not feel open to reproach on this account. The teaching of grammar is of course necessary even for a low standard of education; knowledge of the rules of grammar however is quite a different matter from ability to express one self adequately. There are in this Province abundant illustrations of the fact that persons well instructed in grammar may be ill-educated in the use of the English language. The latter art is what is here chiefly in question.

If your patience will tolerate another criticism applicable specially to the subject of English, I would ask if there is not in our schools an absence of thoroughness of instruc

tion in the more elementary matter coupled with too wide a range of study, if there is not, on the one hand, too much ambition to teach something of many subjects, to "go over "-so to speak-a great quantity of matter, and not enough care on the other hand to make sure of what has been dealt with? I suppose that the close of teaching in our country elementary schools marks the close of all school instruction for over sixty per cent. of the pupils. Hence the importance of thoroughness of instruction in the small sum-total of education which these will have acquired. It has been my fortune to hear teachers assist pupils in class recitations by supplementing inadequate answers to questions upon the day's lesson. The practice is doubly injurious. It makes the pupil contract a disposition to lean upon the teacher, as it were, and it at the same time exhausts the teacher with work which properly is not the work of the teacher at all but that of the pupil. Pupils should be made to answer questions with deliberation, and should, by supplementary questioning and criticism, be mnade to take the responsibility of their answers and of the manner of expressing them. They should be made to find. out for themselves rather than be told that which they ought to know.

Just as the beauty of the greatest scientific discoveries often consists in the simplicity of the result when attained, so it is that the beauty of an education consists in the perfection of mastery achieved rather than in the bulk of what has been attempted. When this consideration comes to be more fully realized and carried into effect by our educators, we may contemplate the possibility that Canada may produce men who will deserve to be called statesmen and men of letters.

However, as it has been my object to lay before you certain considerations having a practical bearing upon the work of your profession, the beauties of the English language form a subject which I have not dwelt upon. These you appreciate probably more fully than can be expected of one whose calling has to do chiefly with the outcome of the controversial side of human nature.

I would not have it thought that I have ignored the smallness of the inducements from a pecuniary point of view which are held out to those engaged in the profession of teaching.

Constituted authority in our land makes elaborate provision for argument, persuasion and conviction in dealing with men in the domains of religion and politics, and for compulsion and restraint of obstinate men and wrong-doers in the sphere of the law, but in the realm of education the body politic seems averse to contributing more than from two to four hundred dollars a year to those who are charged with the unmeasurably more important mission of actually forming and moulding the characters and dispositions which our young people will carry through life with them, which in short make them what they will be.

Fortunately however, as teachers have sufficient occasion to know, there are better things in this world than money, and if you can manage to bring it about, that your pupils. shall secure that varied training which will enable them to be masters in the art of speaking and writing good English, you will have accomplished something which cannot be expressed in terms of dollars and cents.

Even if you be engaged in your profession only as a way of temporary bread-winning to be continued until you shall have been prevailed upon to assume the direction of a domestic establishment or until you shall secure command of sufficient money to enable you to gain an entrance to another profession, the knowledge that you are shaping the destinies of so many young Canadians will suffice to convince you how essential a thing it is that your standards should be high.

As regards any practical inferences which may be drawn from what has been said, let a word of qualification be added in conclusion. It may be that certain of the propositions here laid down are not in harmony with the instruction and recommendations which you have received in the course of your professional training, or may be such as your after experience as teachers makes you believe are not well founded. If so, it will still be quite in accordance with the spirit of what is here laid down, that you maintain your confidence in your own judgment of what is best, provided it be a deliberate judgment, and that you act accordingly.

My parting word to the representations of our honorable though ill-remunerated profession, upon whose indulgence I fear that I have unduly trespassed, accordingly is: "Be thorough in what you do and not ambitious to attempt more than you can do well."

Editorial Notes and Comments.

THE PRESENT NUMBER of the RECORD has been considerably delayed owing to various changes in the business arrangements that were found necessary.

We must therefore ask the forbearance of our readers. until regularity of issue can be again established. The March number will follow in a few weeks.

Common School Grant.

The Legislature will be asked next session to amend the law relating to the distribution of the Common School Fund, so as to enable the Protestant Committee to distribute the share of the Protestants in such a way as to assist the poorer municipalities more generously. At present the money is divided amongst the municipalities according to population. Thus the cities and larger towns, which are well equipped educationally, receive the larger share from this fund, while the struggling schools in the remote districts receive so little as to make it hardly worth their while in some cases to apply for it. In the State of New York no school section having a valuation of three millions of dollars is allowed to participate in the state grant. The presumption is that sections so wealthy, comparatively, are both able and willing to look out for themselves.

Probably the grants to our wealthier municipalities are welcome, well earned, and well spent, but if they are somewhat diminished in favor of the poor municipalities, no one will make serious objection. Our system should be provincial. Under our law the rich man contributes to the education of the poor man's children. The rich district in a municipality assists the poor district, and thus the inequalities of life are rendered less striking. Why not then require the rich municipality directly or indirectly to give aid to the less fortunate?

Compulsory Professional Training.

It will be seen by the minutes of the March meeting of the Protestant Committee that in a short time Normal School training for at least three months will be demanded from all candidates for teachers' diplomas in this province. The longer course of one year for the elementary and two