had no vision whatever. For the most part the children had either been born blind or blindness had followed some infantile disease. The little ones are arranged around a table much as they are in a Public School kindergarten. They were singing a cuckoo song. Each child requires the personal attention of the teacher. Each child has to be taught his or her task, not by a general example, but by a special individual lesson. The work and responsibility of the teacher will be at once apparent. The Froebel system of gifts, of course, obtains in the school. The same little fancy things are made by the children, and the fancy weaving, plaiting, sewing and moulding of the non-seeing kindergartner is decidedly ahead of her more favoured little sister. The books used are all in embossed type and the children read by the sense of touch. They are fully as advanced as sighted pupils of their age generally are.

Principal Dymond next took me to one of the class-rooms of the senior scholars, the most advanced perhaps in the institution. The subject specially was the Life and Times of Lord Bacon, and the method of procedure resolved itself into a pleasant and educational discussion between the teacher and her students. In the English literature class the subject of special study was Hamlet," and the students evinced an almost perfect knowledge of their task. Quotations would be asked every now and again, and questions concerning the whole play, indicating the familiarity of the student with the work. "He was a man, take him all in all," "Seems, Madam! nay, 'tis," and "It is a custom more honoured in the breach than the observance," are a few of the quotations rendered, with their place in the play. A sort of literary talk followed, in which the chief works of Alexander Pope, author of the "Essay on Man," and the poet Dryden, were considered. There was an easy familiarity with the life, works and literary character of the writers of the period that impressed one with the thoroughness of the teaching.

The library is a curious place, with its great, massive, thick books in all corners. They are printed in New York point or ordinary embossed letters. I imagine that as a small print "Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress" is to a large print family Bible, so is a book of a certain length in our letters to one of the same length in the embossed type. The library is well stocked with interesting volumes of standard works. Everything of a frivolous character or a degrading tendency is carefully eliminated from the selection of books.

In a short time the dinner-bell rang out upon the air. Along came the girls first, in couples, arm in arm, laughing and chatting

gaily and going at a pace that only light hearts and good appetites could account for. The girls were no more than seated when the boys came along in the same order, only with a great deal more noise. It was a lively scene. I don't want to see knives and forks plied any better or faster anywhere.

The right of admission is granted to residents of the Province of Ontario who, being fairly healthy and reasonably intelligent, cannot be educated or trained by ordinary methods. As regards four-fifths of the pupils in attendance at the date of the examination, no question respecting their eligibility could arise, while one-fifth may be open to a discretionary judgment to be cautiously, but still generously, exercised. When it is found that the pupil, after trial, is ineligible, either by reason of an existing degree of vision larger than had been supposed, or by improved sight, retirement at the end of the session follows. For social reasons the admission of the partially sighted is of the highest importance. The totally blind youth will move, if uneducated and untrained, in a very contracted area. The loss to him is largely personal, or effects himself and his immediate surroundings. But the partially sighted, ranking as they may in other matters with the full sighted, are just as dangerous members of society if left in ignorance as the latter, with the further objection that their defect, however partial, circumscribes their opportunities for healthy and honest labour or employment. The community cannot afford to incur such danger as the enforced idleness of any class is sure to entail.

The writing class. "Writing!" you say, "a class of blind pupils writing!" Yes, they are writing from the teacher's dictation, and writing swiftly. I was shown a specimen, but, alas! it was an enigma to me. It was marvellous how quickly they could write in embossed characters. In one room the lesson somehow was cremation. "What do you think of cremation, anyhow?" I asked a pleasant-looking little fellow who sat near the door. "I think it is a burning shame," he answered, as he looked up at me and smiled. It was a very good answer; don't you think so?

Now for the junior writing class. The caligraphy was done on a board, either thin wood or heavy paper. It was ruled from top to bottom with little grooves. The paper was placed on the top of the board, and fastened there, and the little writer simply wrote into the grooves. The groove lines guided the hand. You would have found some little difficulty in reading it at first, but not any more, certainly, than if you were reading my own, or that of some people who, forgetful of their own efforts, smile pityingly at mine.

You wonder, don't you, how they would teach natural history to a non-seeing class of persons? Well, it is pretty much a case of first catch your fish and then fry them. In one of the rooms of the institution you will find a large number of stuffed birds of the air and beasts of the field, and I think I might venture to add fish of the sea. These are handled by the pupils, their characters, habits and genus explained, and the result is that these students are as conversant with the more outstanding features of the more common animals as the students of other schools. The wonderful power of touch and the remarkable feats of memory shown by the boys and girls has the effect of enabling them practically to see with their fingers, and see clearly, too.

Geography is taught by a system of dissected maps; that is a series of wooden maps on a flat board all divided up into sections, with rivers, cities and mountains marked with nails. Without a moment's hesitation a little fellow, of not more than eight or nine years, took hold of the map, and beginning at the Maritime Provinces, traced the Intercolonial through Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec to Point Levis; the G. T. R. to Ottawa, and the C. P. R. from thence to Vancouver, naming every principal or important city, town, river and mountain en route, and going out of his way to point out the lakes of the great North-West. "What is the name of this river?" I said, laying my finger on the Rocky Mountains. ""Taint a river," came the quick response, "it's a big mountain," and he turned towards me with a pitying smile.

In one room the teacher and pupils were discussing the respective merits of fall and spring wheat. In a box lay a quantity of wheat, corn, coal and other cereals and minerals. The children handle the various articles and familiarize themselves with them. By the mere sense of touch they could tell spring from fall wheat. It was more than I could do by looking at them. A Bible lesson was given; the subject chosen was the Life of St. Paul. They showed an intimate knowledge of that interesting history, and no number of catch questions seemed to baffle them.

We turned into the gymnasium for a little, where I found the teacher exercising a class of grown-up girls. In the bar-bell exercises and calisthenics generally, the class I saw was a splendid one. The drill, position, poetry of motion, carriage and deportment of the members of the class were everywhere excellent.

I had ample opportunity of hearing the vocal and instrumental talent of the institution. The music hall contains a magnificent pipe organ, and I have heard pupils of the institution give renditions upon it that would bring the blush of shame upon many