Work and Play in Girls_ Schools Lucy Helen Muriel Soulsby_ J. F. Dove_ and Dorothea Beale 879 downloads.pdf

T h e P ro j e c t G u t e n b e r g e B o o k o f Wo r k a n d

Play in Girls' Schools

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Title: Work and Play in Girls' Schools

Author: Dorothea Beale
J. F. Dove
Lucy Helen Muriel Soulsby

Release date: June 17, 2021 [eBook #65635]
Most recently updated: November 16, 2024

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TEACHING AND
ORGANISATION.
With Special Reference to Secondary Schools.

A MANUAL OF PRACTICE.

Edited by P. A. BARNETT, M.A.

CHAPTER
I. The Criterion in Education. By P. A. Barnett, M.A., late Principal of the
Isleworth Training College.
II. Organisation and Curricula in Boys’ Schools. By A. T. Pollard, M.A., Head
Master of the City of London School.
III. Kindergarten. By Elinor Welldon, Head Mistress of the Kindergarten
Department, The Ladies’ College, Cheltenham.
IV. Reading. By Arthur Burrell, M.A., Assistant Master in Bradford Grammar
School.
V. Drawing and Writing. By I. H. Morris, Head Master of the Gleadless Road
Board School, Sheffield.

VI. Arithmetic and Mathematics. By R. Wormell, D.Sc., Head Master of the City
Foundation Schools, London.
VII. English Grammar and Composition. By E. A. Abbott, D.D., late Head Master
of the City of London School.
VIII. English Literature. By the Editor.
IX. Modern History. By R. Somervell, M.A., Assistant Master in Harrow School.
X. Ancient History. By H. L. Withers, M.A., Principal of the Isleworth Training
College.
XI. Geography. By E. C. K. Gonner, M.A., Professor of Political Economy in
University College, Liverpool.
XII. Classics. By E. Lyttelton, M.A., Head Master of Haileybury College.
XIII. Science. By L. C. Miall, F.R.S., Professor of Biology in the Yorkshire College,
Leeds.
XIV. Modern Languages. By F. Storr, B.A., Chief Master of Modern Subjects in
Merchant Taylors’ School.
XV. Vocal Music. By W. G. McNaught, Mus.Doc. and H.M. Assistant Inspector of
Music in Training Colleges.
XVI. Discipline. By A. Sidgwick, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Corpus Christi College,
Oxford.
XVII. Ineffectiveness in Teaching. By G. E. Buckle, Master of Method in the Isleworth
Training College for Schoolmasters.
XVIII. Specialisation. By M. G. Glazebrook, M.A., Head Master of Clifton College.
XIX. School Libraries. By A. T. Martin, M.A., Assistant Master in Clifton College.
XX. School Hygiene. By C. Dukes, M.D., Lond. Medical Officer in Rugby School.
XXI. Apparatus and Furniture. By W. K. Hill, B.A., late Head Master of Kentish
Town High School.
XXII. Organisation and Curricula in Girls’ Schools. By M. E. Sandford, Head
Mistress of the Queen’s School, Chester.

L O N G M A N S , G R E E N , A N D C O.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON;

NEW YORK, AND BOMBAY.

WORK AND PLAY IN GIRLS’
SCHOOLS

W O R K A N D P L AY
IN

GIRLS’ SCHOOLS

BY

THREE HEAD MISTRESSES

DOROTHEA BEALE
LUCY H. M. SOULSBY
JANE FRANCES DOVE

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY
1898

PREFACE.

The book is divided into three Sections, and each of the writers is
responsible only for her own part, and yet I hope it will not be merely a
composite book; all the contributors are members of the teaching staff of
the Cheltenham Ladies’ College, or have at some time formed part of it, and
now, as then, there is I believe a unity of purpose, which will give harmony
to the work.
The book is intended to be a practical one, helpful chiefly to teachers in
our large Secondary Schools; the limits imposed compel us (1) to deal more
with methods than the underlying principles; (2) to isolate more or less the
influences of the school from those of the manifold environment, which are
at the same time forming the body, mind and character of the child, and
which seem to make the school-life of relatively small moment; (3) we have
to treat only of a few years of life; for, like the bird of the fable, the soul of
the child comes to us often from some unknown region, stays for a while in
our banqueting hall, and then passes again into the darkness.
Yet I suppose the experience of most of us bears witness to the great
importance of the school-life as one of the factors in the “development of a
soul”. “The atmosphere, the discipline, the life” of the school is so potent,
that the word education has been often limited to the school period, and the
pupils of an Aristotle, an Ascham, an Arnold, speak of their teachers as
having given them a new life. Our work is not insignificant, and our earnest
study must be by instruction and discipline, by what Plato calls music and
gymnastic, to promote the harmonious development of the character; to
bring our children into sympathetic relations with the noble and the good of
all ages; to lead them into the possession of that good land, “flowing with
milk and honey,” the spiritual inheritance of humanity.
I would fain hope, that one day all teachers will endeavour to spend at
least some time, before entering on professional work, in studying the art,
the science, the philosophy of education. In this little book we have had to
restrict ourselves almost to the first, but we have referred to works which

deal with the higher aspects of the subject. I would earnestly press on all my
readers, that their own education must never be regarded as finished; if we
cease to learn, we lose the power of sympathy with our pupils, and a teacher
without intellectual and moral sympathy has no dynamic, no inspiring
force. Especially should all teachers be students of psychology, of that
marvellous instrument, from which it is ours to draw forth heavenly
harmonies. To many a teacher might the words of Hamlet be addressed by
her pupils:—
How unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me; you would seem to know my
stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to the
top of my compass; and there is much music, excellent voice in this little organ; yet cannot you make
it speak. Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Though you can fret me, yet cannot
you play upon me.

Dorothea Beale.

CONTENTS.

SECTION I.
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. Edited by DOROTHEA BEALE,
Principal of the Cheltenham Ladies’ College; formerly
Mathematical and Classical Tutor, Queen’s College, London.
PAGE
Introduction
Dorothea Beale 1
A Few Practical Precepts
Dorothea Beale 37

PART I. HUMANITIES.
English Language Generally—Reading, Writing, Grammar,
Composition
Dorothea Beale 44
Classical Studies
William H. D. Rouse, M.A. 67
Modern Languages
Dorothea Beale 94
Spelling Reform
Dorothea Beale 106
History as an Educational Subject
Dorothea Beale 114
Teaching Modern History to Senior Classes 124

Alice Andrews
The Teaching of Ancient History
Mary Hanbidge, M.A. 159
Time-Maps
Dorothea Beale 168
Economics for Girls
Margaret Bridges 186
English Literature
Amy Lumby 192
Philosophy and Religion
Dorothea Beale 202

PART II. MATHEMATICS.
Arithmetic
Dorothea Beale 216
Mathematics
Dorothea Beale 239

PART III. SCIENCE.
Introduction—Psychological Order of Study with Special
Reference to Scientific Teaching
Dorothea Beale 251
The Teaching of the Biological Sciences
Charlotte L. Laurie 260
Geography
Margery Reid, B.Sc. (Lond.) 275
Physics
Agatha Leonard, B.Sc. (Lond.) 291
The Teaching of Chemistry
Clare de Brereton Evans, D.Sc. (Lond.) 307

PART IV. ÆSTHETICS.
Introduction—Art
Dorothea Beale 320
Pianoforte Teaching
Domenico Barnett 326
The Violin
Lewis Hann 338
Class-Singing
Florence Mosley 340
Singing. Tonic Sol-fa
Rhoda Rooney 344
Elocution
Rose Seaton 346
Drawing, Painting, etc.
Pauline M. Randerson 348
Brush Drawing
Mary Farbrother 354
Painting
Arthur Richardson 356
Fresco
Eadie Reid 358
China Painting
Minna Crawley 360
Art Needlework
Minna Crawley 361
Wood-Carving, etc.
M. S. Lyndon Smith 362
Modelling
Evangeline Stirling 363
Sloyd
Evangeline Stirling 366
Conclusion—Relation of School to Home
Dorothea Beale 367

SECTION II., p. 374.
THE MORAL SIDE OF EDUCATION. By LUCY H. M. SOULSBY, of
Manor House School, Brondesbury, N.W.; late Head Mistress of
the Oxford High School.

SECTION III., p. 396.
CULTIVATION OF THE BODY. By JANE FRANCES DOVE, of
Wycombe Abbey School; late Head Mistress of St. Leonard’s
School, St. Andrews, N.B.

INDEX 425

SECTION I.

INTRODUCTION.
By Dorothea Beale.

I have been asked to undertake one section of a book on the education of Subject.
girls, and to confine myself, as far as possible, to the intellectual aspects of
education, leaving to others the task of dealing with the physical and moral aspects. I
shall try to keep within the assigned limits—abstain from any systematic treatment of the
laws of hygiene, and write no formal treatise on school ethics—but all the intellectual
work must of course be conditioned by the necessities of the physical life, and the final
cause of all education must be the development of a right character.
I am to treat the subject too with special reference to Education of girls in secondary schools.
the large secondary schools which have come into
existence during the last fifty years, and in doing so, I must dwell briefly upon the
changes which have taken place in the ideals and theories regarding the education of
girls, which have found expression in these schools, and in the Women’s Colleges. I shall
speak of what has yet to be accomplished, for we are still in a period of transition, and I
shall consider by what means we may best realise our ideals.
Now in education there is always a twofold object. Bacon tells us the Aim of education
furthest end of knowledge is “the glory of the Creator and the relief of
man’s estate”—in other words, the perfection of the individual, and the good of the
community. In some periods, indeed in pre-Christian times generally, the latter was
emphasised,[1] men were to live for the commonwealth; the individual was regarded as
an instrument for accomplishing certain work—he was not thought of as an end in
himself. Thus even the most enlightened among ancient writers have spoken of slaves, as
if they were mere chattels. Our moral sense is shocked by much that we read in Plato and
Aristotle, and still more by what the laws of Rome permitted. Christianity on the other
hand taught that the primary relationship of each was to the All-Father, the primary duty
of each to realise God’s ideal for His children, to become perfect, and by glorifying
human nature to glorify God. This was the first commandment, but the second was
implied in the first—self-love was not selfish, the love of God descending from heaven
became the enthusiasm of humanity.
[1] Even Milton writes: “I call a complete and generous education that which fits a man to perform justly,
skilfully and magnanimously all the offices to the public and private, of peace and war”.

“Education,” writes Mr. Ruskin (Queen’s Gardens), “is the as regards the individual,
leading human souls to what is best and making what is best out of

them; and these two objects are always attainable together, and by the same means; the
training which makes men happiest in themselves, also makes them most serviceable to
others.” “The only safe course,” writes Miss Shirreff (Intellectual Education), “is to hold
up individual perfectness as the aim of education.”
And so the task of the educator is in the first instance to as regards the commonwealth.
develop to the highest perfection all the powers of the child,
that he may realise the ideal of the All-Father. But the perfection of man “the thinker,”
the anthropos, “the upward looker,” can be attained only when as a son he enters into,
and co-operates with the Divine purpose in thought and act: therefore to know God and
His laws for His children’s education and development, is the beginning and the end.
These laws man reads (1) in the world of Nature with which science has to do; (2) in
human history and institutions; (3) in the hidden life of the soul—of which philosophy
and religion and ethics treat. He has to seek first to know truth, to bring his will into
conformity with the Divine thought, and then to utter what is true and right in word and
deed; only thus will the kingdom of righteousness be set up, and the perfection of the
whole—the well-being of the commonwealth—of “man writ large” be secured. The most
civilised nations are devoting their best energies to the work of education, realising that
upon this depends their very existence—that it is not by starving the individual life, and
merging it in the general, but by developing each to perfection, that the common good
will be secured. They trust less to the power of laws and institutions, more to the power
of a right education—less to external restraint, more to the wisdom that comes of a
wisely directed experience.
These principles have guided the new movement for women’s Reforms since 1848.
education, and those who have followed the changes in public
opinion, since people have thought more of each individual as an end in himself, are full
of confidence and hope. The reformers said: “Let us give to girls an invigorating dietary,
physical, intellectual, moral; seclusion from evil is impossible, but we can strengthen the
patient to resist it”.
’Tis life, not death for which we pant,
More life and fuller, that we want!

Such were, I believe, the feelings and the thoughts of those who initiated just fifty
years ago the great movement, which found its first visible expression in the foundation
of Queen’s College by Maurice and Kingsley and Trench and others like-minded and
less known. This was soon followed by the opening of Bedford College, 1849, and the
Cheltenham Ladies’ College, 1853. Miss Buss and her brothers, in association with Mr.
Laing, established the first great High School, and Mrs. Grey and Miss Shirreff carried
on the movement in that direction; from the Union founded by them grew up the
G.P.D.S. Co., while Miss Davies with far-seeing wisdom won over Cambridge
professors (amongst whom I may specially mention Professor Henry Sidgwick and
James Stuart) to offer the highest culture to women.
The leaders had to ask and answer many questions. What direction, what shape should
the new movement for higher education take? Should there be two sorts of education for
girls and boys? The Schools’ Inquiry Commission had shown that a specially feminine

education had not produced very successful results, and the leaders said: Let us give to
girls the solid teaching in languages and mathematics and science, which are found to
strengthen the powers of boys, and prepare them to do good work of many kinds. If it
was objected that women were to rule in the home, and men in the larger world, they
argued, that for girls as for boys, the right course was to give a liberal education. The boy
does not learn in the school the things which will be required in his future business or
profession, but he brings to these the cultivated mind, the power of work, the disciplined
will.
And the world is more and more recognising that the leaders were right, and schools
have arisen in all our great towns. Fifty years ago there were dismal prophecies—an
outcry that study would ruin health. Now it is a common remark Results physical and moral.
that there is a general improvement in physique. Women too are
more conscious of their responsibilities in the life of the family, as well as in that of the
country, especially in social and church life. They feel, that though they may have but
the “smallest scruple” of excellence, they must render for it “thanks and use”. Besides,
another good has been more and more realised; as Mrs. Jameson, in her beautiful lecture,
[2] set forth, girls taught on the same lines, and women who can enter into the subjects of
study and thought which occupy the minds of their fathers, husbands, sons, have more
understanding, more sympathy, more power to make the home what it should be; the
only healthy intellectual companionship is communion between active minds, and the
highest purposes of marriage are unfulfilled, if either husband or wife lives in a region of
thought which the other cannot enter. Besides, those many women who remain
unmarried can, if well educated, find in some form of service the satisfaction of their
higher nature. Surely women trained in good schools and colleges have as wives and
mothers shared the labours and entered more fully as companions into the lives of
husbands and children. The names of many will occur to my readers, but one cares not to
name the living. We see every year at the Conference of Women Workers, that the seed
sown in faith has brought forth fruit; that the whole aspect of the woman’s realm has
changed since the days of Evelina and Miss Austen.
[2] “Communion of Labour.”

But none of us may rest in that which has been attained. We ask for the “wages of
going on and not to die”. There is earnest endeavour on the part of all engaged in the
work of education, which has found expression in such societies as the Parents’
Educational Union, the Child Study Society, and the Teachers’ Guild. Teachers are not
content with the school year, but holiday courses are the order of the day, and many are
seeking training, and others ask for a year or a term to improve, and books on education
are pouring from the press, and some of us, who have gained experience which may be
helpful to others, feel bound, though much hindered by the calls of active life, to share
those experiences, and say what we can about the ideals, the principles, the methods,
which, we trust, have already, in spite of the gloomy portents of years gone by, improved
the physical, the intellectual and moral vigour of those who have shared the larger life,
entered into the higher intellectual interests, and undergone the strengthening discipline
of our large schools.

With these preliminary remarks, I enter upon the subject of the curriculum; Curriculum
I have drawn up a table which I shall proceed to discuss. I have classed the
subjects of education under five heads, and divided the pupils in a general way also into
five classes. But before I deal with the practical, let me speak of the ideal. There is
nothing so practical as ideas—these are the moving power of all our acts.
If what I have said is true, the subject cannot be treated in reference to girls only; not
because I would assimilate the teaching of girls to that of boys, but because the teaching
of both should aim at developing to the highest excellence the intellectual powers
common to both. The teaching of modern science tells us that both pass through the
same lower stages, that they may rise into the higher, and all history tells us that men and
women
Rise or sink
Together, dwarfed or godlike, bond or free.

So we ask generally what is the Education of Man? Fröbel has rightly emphasised the
last word. It is the development of that which distinguishes man from all the lower forms
of life “summed up” in him, that can alone be properly called the Education of Man:
other creatures can live, as he does, the nutritive or vegetable life, which goes on of itself
—other animals live the conscious life, they see and know, but to man alone it is possible
to objectify all things by transcending them, and even that lower self, which is part of his
dual nature; he is able to know himself both as “I” and “me”; he brings to sensation the
formative power of his own thought, makes, as Kant has said, the universe which he did
not create. And so man does not merely perceive, but apperceive, takes into his own
being ideas, thoughts; combines, associates these,—and indeed it is difficult to speak of
these ideas otherwise than Herbart does, as entities, by which the mind grows, fashioning
them to its own uses, as the body does, the food on which it lives. Because he can
objectify thus, language is possible. Man gives to thoughts, these “airy nothings, a local
habitation and a name”; he is able to plan, to project and therefore to form judgments.
But if he is related to that world to which the senses reach, he is also in relation,
through an inward feeling which we call sympathy, with other “subjects,” able to
recognise in others that which he knows in himself as mind; if he finds himself so related
to the world of sense, that he responds to its touch, much more nearly is he in relation
with other personalities; these he knows, before he recognises objective nature; through
other minds his own is educated, and so the humanities take the first place; he enters into
relations through the communis sensus with a world of thinking beings. These persons
communicate thoughts, specially through (a) language immediate, and through written
language. By written speech the limitations of space and time are abolished, and we are
able to speak not only of men, but of man, for not only is his physical life continuous,
but his mental and moral life through the ages is one. So from language we pass to (b)
history and literature and historic act, the record of what men have done and suffered and
thought and recorded, not in books only but in all material things; for man the dead live;
and as the actors pass from the stage, history, no less than philosophy and science, tends
upwards to those higher regions of thought, where we ponder on the (c) mysteries of

man’s self-conscious life, on his relation to other minds, and to the One whose offspring
we are, and in Whom all things live and move and have their being.
The subjects of study then may also be classified under five headings:—
I. The Humanities: which have to do with man, known objectively through word and
deed, in language and literature, in history and art; subjectively, as in ethics, religion,
philosophy.
II. Mathematics: embracing three divisions relating to space, number, energy in the
abstract—these have to do with necessary truth.
III. Science: which rests not on a basis of thought only, but on facts given through
sense objectively.
IV. Æsthetics: which may be classed under the three heads, as music, painting and the
other arts—considered subjectively.
V. The exercises suitable for the physical development.
It is with the first section that every teacher has to do; though he may be a specialist
for science or mathematics or music, he has always to do with man in his manifold
relations, he has ever to do with the humanities. It must be the constant study of the
teacher to find the best means of developing the powers of thought, of calling forth right
motives of action, developing right habits, and so forming noble characters, which is the
final cause of all his labours. Ever throughout life he will by study and experience
deepen and extend his knowledge, but it is earnestly to be desired that he should have
some leisure for definite preparation by the study of education as an art, a science, a
philosophy, before entering on his responsible work. In this, as in everything else, only
those who have gained the knowledge are really judges of its value. The man who knows
no foreign tongue, supposes he understands English, but we know in how poor and
faulty a way. A study of the mysteries of our own being, of the fundamental basis of
philosophy and psychology, personal knowledge of and sympathy with the great thinkers
and philosophers and martyrs of education, must move us to more purposeful and
thoughtful and devoted lives, and give us a joy that we cannot feel when we are working
blindly and mechanically, without the faith which works by love.

HOURS OF STUDY INCLUDING PREPARATION PER WEEK.
B. 8 to 12 Hrs. C. 12 to 16 D. 16 to 18
A. Under 8 years. B years. years. E. Over 18
Subjects.
years. About 24 and About 30 About 36 years.
hours. C. hours. hours.

I. - 1. Language. English Elementary - Grammar; French, An
Hu- reading and ideas of
12 increasing German or additional
mani- French v. grammar, attention to Latin. In language,
ties. voce. French v. voce, philology; some cases Greek or
and reading French, with one other Italian.
and translation German, or language.
into English, Latin.
learning poetry,
dialogues, etc.

Mythological Time maps English English Ancient
tales and and epochs in history in constitutional classics in the
stories from world’s history. periods and history. original or
history. English history corresponding Special translations.
Learning treated literary period of Foreign
History. poetry. biographically. periods with English. Also classics and
2. Man
- Literature. Stories from special books. of ancient or view of
objectively.
Art. ancient history. Outlines of modern. European
Learning general Difficult literature.
poetry. history, books in
ancient and English.
modern, with
time maps.

Bible stories, Bible lessons A gospel. St. John or Fundamental
simple hymns selected. Instruction in epistles. ideas of
and prayers. Learning the prayer- Doctrinal philosophy.
Ethics. simple book, etc. teaching. Christian
3. Man
- Religion. passages from dogmatics
subjectively.
Philosophy. New and ethics.
Testament,
hymns and
collects.

4. Arithmetic and Arithmetic, Arithmetic in Arithmetic Advanced
Algebra. chiefly with some cases and algebra to pure and
concrete generalised to quadratics. mixed
objects. algebra for mathematics.
older children,
for younger
still much
concrete. 3
- to
5. Geometry. Simple ideas Elementary Euclid I. and
II. of form. practical 5 II., or
Math- geometry. equivalent.
-
emat- Many
ics. problems. In
some cases a
beginning of
logical
demonstrations.

Kinematics. Elementary
Mixed mixed
6. - Mathemats., mathematics.
e.g.,
Mechanics.

III. - 7. Natural Science. Object Botany, Botany, Physiology
Sci- lessons. zoology,
2 zoology, and one or
ence. astronomy, to astronomy, more
laws of health
—in 4 laws
—in
of health branches of
physical
succession. succession. science.

8. Physiography. Making map Erdkunde, Erdkunde,
of school and physiography, physiography
near places; natural or natural
modeling in phenomena. phenomena.
clay or sand.

9. Molecular Science. Chemistry,
heat, light,
electricity—
in succession.

10. Music. Sol-fa Instrumental Instrumental
singing. music, singing, music,
elocution. singing,
elocution.

11. Drawing, etc. Drawing Drawing and Drawing and
IV.
with pencil painting. painting.
Æs- Some one
- and brush. -
thet- branch.
ics.
12. Plastic Arts, etc. Modelling in Various kinds Various
clay. Basket of handwork. 7 kinds of
making, handwork.
cardboard to
sloyd, etc.,
etc.
9

13. Gymnastics, etc. Systematic Systematic
drill. drill.
V.
Ath- 14. Games. Kindergarten Games. Games.
-
let- games and
ics. drill.

15. Country Excursions. Field clubs. Field clubs.

I have mentioned at the close of the introduction some books not too large or difficult
which will be helpful to those who desire to begin the serious study of the subjects
included under the general heading of pedagogy.
In the table (p. 10) I have arranged courses of study and grouped pupils according to
age, but only for those called B and C have I attempted to give the time each week,
which might be allowed on an average for serious study. I think the Bs generally and the
Cs almost always should follow a fixed course, though some variation should be
permitted to the Cs. The Ds and Es should take special directions, dropping some
subjects and giving much time to others. Under the head of B, I have given what is
perhaps the nearest approach to the normal type in my own school. Those who do not
learn music, can of course take an extra language, or otherwise cultivate a special
subject; those who are but slightly pervious to mathematical ideas are allowed to drop
Euclid, after having done enough to profit by the wholesome discipline of writing out

propositions say up to Euclid I. 26. These may perhaps add another musical instrument
or some manual work.
The principle I would insist on is that our curriculum should, to use a sensible figure,
be pyramidal, having a broad base and narrowing; the total cubic content might be the
same each year, but in proportion as the subjects taken were fewer, there would be
greater depth. Thus the Cs would specialise to a slight extent, the Ds should do so still
more, and the Es have found out their vocation, so that for these last no time-table can be
given.
In drawing up a time-table I have given only the general lines, and assigned an
average time for each section; the case of every individual must be separately
considered, and there should always remain some hours of leisure—in the highest
classes I have arranged for school work about eight hours out of the twenty-four. If we
give four hours to meals and outdoor exercise, and eight to sleep, we have a margin of
four hours—a considerable amount of time, if multiplied by six; part of this may be
given to general reading, part to social and family life, but for the growing and
developing mind there must be time for solitude, for entering into the secret chamber,
and listening for the voice heard only in the stillness. We read much in praise of “Eyes”
and much in dis-praise of “No-eyes,” but there are times when great thinkers are blind to
outward things, and deaf to earthly voices; it is at such times there rise before the mind’s
eye ideals which fashion the whole life. I am sure that in these days the young lose much
for want of more quiet on Sundays. There may have been over strictness in the past—
there is now a surprising ignorance of the Bible and the grounds of faith. The Silence.
silence rules of a good school tend to produce a spirit of repose, and a library
where no speaking is allowed is a help. Rules which hinder idle talk in the bedrooms are
a great boon to those who find the value of quiet at the beginning and end of the day, and
I earnestly hope that the excitement of the playground may never supersede the country
rambles which have been fruitful of spiritual health to many of us.
In considering how I shall best make this small volume of use to teachers in high
schools, I propose to adopt the following plan. First to treat of a few general matters
which belong to organisation and the methods of management—e.g., distribution and
economy of time, corrections, marks, etc.
Then to deal with the subjects of the curriculum in order, in a series of papers by
myself and my colleagues.
In Part I. I have written first of language generally, embracing reading, speaking,
grammar, composition, foreign tongues. It will be clear to all that I could not possibly, in
the few pages assigned to each subject, treat the matter exhaustively, but I hope I may
strike out some lines of thought which will be helpful, and the lists of books may assist
teachers in their studies. In most subjects I have been able to get a few papers from
members of my staff, past and present. Under the head of Language I have one from Mr.
Rouse, a most able teacher, who had many years’ experience with our elder pupils,
specially those reading for classical honours in the University of London.
In History and Literature I have papers by Miss A. Andrews, Miss Hanbidge and Miss
Lumby, the very successful teachers who take these subjects in the London and Higher

Cambridge class; there is also a paper on Economics by Miss Bridges.
In Part III. I have papers by four specially able and experienced teachers—Miss de
Brereton Evans, D.Sc. Lond., Miss Reid, B.Sc. Lond., Miss Leonard, B.Sc. Lond., and
Miss Laurie.
In Part IV. I have a number of short papers by members of our teaching staff.
Section II. has been assigned by the publishers to another hand, and for that I am not
responsible. Upon the basis of this classification, I have drawn up a table showing how
the methods of teaching these subjects will vary with the age of the pupil, and what is, I
consider, the best order of subjects. I have also added some chapters on various subjects
—as Spelling Reform and the Relation of School to Home.
Before proceeding further it will be best to consider what is the amount Time available.
of time at our disposal for school teaching. The division of the year into
three terms of about twelve weeks, consisting of five or six days each, is so generally
adopted that we may take that for granted. The years of school life are at the utmost
about ten—in the case of most girls far less.
For day schools in large towns, attended by pupils from considerable distances, two
attendances are impossible, and the morning has to last from about 9 or 9·30 to 1 or
1·30. Of the four hours about three and a half are available for lessons, the remaining
half-hour being taken up with the general assembly for prayers and a brief interval for
recreation; but these twenty-one or twenty-four hours are not spent, as parents are apt to
imagine, in poring over books, but are varied by lessons in gymnastics, drawing, singing.
Some pupils in large towns remain to dine at the school, and have afternoon teaching in
accomplishments. In small towns they return. Thirty hours a week should, I think, be the
limit of time given to study for girls of school age. Students fully grown may study six
hours a day. Eight should, I think, not be exceeded by any.
In arranging the time-table, several things have to be considered. (1) Length of lesson.
A, the youngest children, would have no lessons of more than half an
hour, and not more than two hours of definite instruction, the remainder being occupied
with games, drill, singing and various hand occupations. Those under eight would have a
larger proportion of these last, and perhaps attend for a shorter time. The elder children
can have a reading lesson before the general assembly, and the little ones might leave
half an hour before the morning closes. If they wait for elder sisters, amusements may be
devised. (2) In the case of all, an endeavour should be made to place those studies which
make the heaviest demands on the attention as far as possible in the early morning hours.
(3) The lessons for Sections B and C would average about fifty minutes, some being
thirty minutes, others an hour, the drawing lesson being perhaps longer, whilst religious
instruction following upon prayers would occupy half an hour, as would drill and
singing. (4) Care should be taken to vary the subjects, so that if possible two lecture
lessons should not follow one another, nor two on language, nor two mathematical
lessons.
We have next to consider the order of study, what subjects are best Order of study.
adapted to the state of development of the child, or in what different ways
the same subject may be treated to make it suitable at different ages. In this matter fatal

mistakes are still made.[3] Happily the teachings of educational reformers have brought
before us the evils of the neglect of psychological principles. We are shocked Dietary.
when we hear of mothers ignorant of physiology, feeding infants on bread and
tea, and giving soothing syrups; we recognise the danger of too many sweets, and of
cigars for growing boys—these have their parallels in the mental dietary. But it is not so
much giving wrong things as the deprivation of right things at the right time that is fatal.
It is wonderful how much unwholesome food can be disposed of by a vigorous child—
there is a fit of sickness and it is gone; but we see in the adult bodily framework, the
stunted skeleton, the decaying teeth, etc., the effect of starvation during years of growth.
To deprive the child of the mental food and exercise necessary for his development at
each period of his growth is a fatal error, the consequences of which are irreparable. This
has been forcibly put by Dr. Harris, Chief Commissioner of Education, U.S.A. Speaking
of the prolongation for man of the period of infancy required for his development, that
he may be adapted to the spiritual environment of the social community into which he is
born, he writes: “Is it not evident that if the child is at any epoch inured into any habit or
fixed form of activity belonging to a lower stage of development, the tendency will be to
arrest growth at that point, and make it difficult or next to impossible to continue the
growth of the child into higher and more civilised forms of soul-activity? A severe drill
in mechanical habits of memorising, any overcultivation of sense-perception in tender
years, may arrest the development of the soul, form a mechanical method of thinking,
and prevent the further growth into spiritual insight—especially on the second plane of
thought, that which follows sense-perception, namely, the stage of classifying or even the
search for causal relations, there is most danger of this arrested development. The
absorption of the gaze upon the adjustments within the machine, prevents us from seeing
it as a whole. The attention to details of colouring or drawing may prevent one from
seeing the significance of the great works of art.... To keep the intellect out of the abyss
of habit, and to make the ethical behaviour more and more a matter of unquestioning
habit, seems to be the desideratum.”
[3] “The logical order of a good course of instruction,” writes Compayré (Psychology Applied to Education),
“must correspond to the chronological order of development of the mental powers.” “If,” writes Herbert Spencer,
“the higher faculties are taxed by presenting an order of knowledge more complex and abstract than can be
readily assimilated, the abnormal result so produced will be accompanied by equivalent evil.”

Tradition furnishes those who have made no formal study of the subject of mental
growth with some empirical rules for a healthy dietary,—as Mr. Barnett has shown,[4] or
our children would fare badly; but the evils of misplacing subjects in the order of study,
of neglecting to teach the right subjects at the right time, and of partial starvation, are too
apparent. Let me conclude with an illustrative anecdote—an object lesson. At school I
always kept caterpillars; they were regularly fed, and seldom failed to come out in
perfect condition. Once some “woolly bears” escaped; they were found after a few days,
and again provided with ample food; but it was too late, they came out with only
rudimentary wings.
[4] Teaching and Organisation, p. 5.

But not only have we to provide the right subjects at the right time, we have to
consider how the manner of teaching the same subject may be adapted to the age of the
pupil. In an excellent Report on the Schools of St. Louis some years ago, Dr. Harris
expounded the spiral system. In studying say botany in the lowest class, the children
would learn to observe the forms of plant life, and become familiar with the main facts
of classificatory botany, the observing power being chiefly called into action. Then the
subject would be dropped, and taken up years after from the physiological point of view,
when the learners would be able to understand the chemical changes, the process of
development, etc., as they could not in earlier years. Similarly all Herbartians know how
the teaching of history proceeds from the mythological story, through biography to
history, and some of us have seen the bad results of giving little children formularies
which have no meaning for them, instead of seeking to develop in them through the
discipline of home, and Bible teaching regarding the lives of the good, feelings of filial
trust and reverence and obedience. For examples of this I may refer to Miss Bremner’s
book on the Education of Girls.
In the accompanying time-table I have endeavoured to make a double classification in
reference to the subjects taught, and the age of the learners. In discussing it I shall
continue to use the word faculty, in spite of Herbartian protests, meaning thereby the
power of doing certain special acts, which vary in character. We have the power of
directing our attention to the objects of sense, or of withdrawing it from these, and
becoming conscious only of the working of our own mind; we have, i.e., the faculty of
observation and of reflection; by the use of the word faculty—etymologically, the power
of doing—we need not dismember the Subject, but think of the One person as acting in
different ways.
Part I., the humanities, should throughout the whole course be represented in all its
branches; to it belong specially the cultur-studien. I think of some miserable starved
specimens of girls I have known, fed upon an almost unmixed diet of either classics or
mathematics; their physique had suffered, and they had no mental elasticity, their one
idea being to win scholarships: they did this, but never flourished at the university, for
want of all-round culture. Others I have known, who thought they could be high-class
musicians by practising their fingers, without cultivating their minds; the results were
lamentable; whereas those who gave half the time to music and half to cultur-studien,
did more in the limited time. Is not the overwork of which many complain later, due to
the too undivided work at one subject during the undergraduate period at the university?
Mathematics relieves the strain of classics; specialising may be comparatively harmless
to the full-grown man, but the child-specialist will grow up deformed.
Shall teaching be by class teachers or by specialists? Once Class teachers and specialists.
every teacher was expected to take all the subjects with her
class, now the tendency is towards specialisation. In junior classes the class mistress has
many advantages over the specialist, for she knows what the children can do, the
character and difficulties of each, and can adapt her teaching to her pupils. In any case
she must exercise control over specialists, each of whom is inclined to think her subject
the most important. She can get hold of children, and exercise a stronger influence than

an occasional teacher, and the more subjects she teaches, the more intimate will be the
relation to her pupils. On the other hand, it is not good for children to be shut up to one
personality, though it is not well for them to be under too many, and there ought always
to be one predominant; for this reason special arrangements are made in some boys’
schools for a tutor to follow the boy’s career all the way up the school. A class teacher
too can correlate the different subjects, and make one help the other; being always at
hand, she can give such help as is needed at odd times, to bring up laggards, and
generally bring the intellectual to act upon the moral.
On the other hand, a specialist can attain to greater excellence, throw more life into
the subject, keep up with new discoveries and methods; the best plan is perhaps for the
class teacher, at least in junior classes, to hear and help to bring home to her pupils the
teaching of specialists; this is desirable with some foreign teachers, who fail to
understand the exact difficulties of English children. It can, however, only be done when
the staff is large. The case is different with upper classes, which should be taught almost
entirely by specialists, though there should be always some one person responsible for
each class.
There seems to be a great difference between the kind of influence and Head mistress.
control exercised by a Head Master, and a Head Mistress. The government
of a boys’ school approaches more nearly to a republic, of a girls’ school to a
constitutional monarchy; whilst classes and teachers change for the child each year, the
head mistress is permanent, and follows each through all the classes, knowing her in all
her phases. She reads marks, gives encouragement and admonition, and is in immediate
relation with the other controlling influences, parents and teachers. Then—owing
possibly to the fact that many women have not degrees—the head mistress permits
herself to criticise and advise her teachers in a way that no young master fresh from the
Honour Schools would permit. “I hear you go and listen to your teachers,” said the head
of an Oxford College to me—his face, on my admitting it, expressed more than his
words. Again, the head mistress considers herself responsible for good order in every
class, whereas in boys’ schools the entire responsibility seems to rest on the individual
master; this must always be the case to a certain extent; head mistresses try to avoid
indiscipline by insisting on the training of teachers, and resorting to various devices, e.g.,
a junior teacher is made assistant to a senior, and entrusted with a class of her own, only
when she has shown herself able; or—until she has well grasped the reins—she is set to
teach in a large room in which there may be the head mistress and some other teacher
capable of overawing the restless; or if she is a specialist the class teacher may be in the
room. If the class is insubordinate owing to the bad teaching they get, there is of course
no alternative but to change the teacher, or to improve her.
Here let me touch on some of the chief perplexities of modern Economy of time.
teachers. Professor Miall (Thirty Years of Teaching) writes: “No one can
write on education without insisting on new subjects; and yet the old claims are not
relaxed. We must have science in several branches, modern languages (more efficient
than heretofore), drawing and gymnastics, but classics and mathematics and divinity
must be kept up and improved. Increased hours are not to be thought of, fewer lessons,

shorter lessons, and not so much home-work, are the cry. More potatoes to carry, and a
smaller basket to carry them in.... I believe the problem is not an insoluble one after all.”
The remedy, or perhaps I ought to say rather the mitigation of the teacher’s
difficulties, is to be found in four directions. (1) In increasing the number of school
years. The well-trained kindergarten child comes with an interest in lessons, a power of
attention, a considerable amount of knowledge, and a clear understanding of much that
formerly children knew nothing about, so that we gain time at the beginning. (2) Then if
girls come earlier to school and stay later, if we have a girl from eight to eighteen, we
can give many things in succession, which we once had to attempt simultaneously, when
girls came “to finish” in a year, or at most two years. (3) If the hours are shorter, we can
get more work done than was the case when children were wearied out with long hours;
when I began my teaching life at Cheltenham, children came back sleepy for two hours
of afternoon lessons, and returned to do home work, when they should have been in bed.
(4) Better methods economise time, but this matter is so important that I shall insist on it
at some length.
(a) First let me beg a teacher to think how easy it is to waste Economy of time in school.
half an hour in one minute. You have thirty girls before you and
you say: “Now, girls, I am going to give you a lesson, and you must be very attentive,”
and so on for one minute. Let every teacher use as few words as possible. Let there be no
preambles, no repetitions: “Now, my dear child, I wonder whether, if I asked, you would
be able to tell me at once,” etc. Let the question be direct. “As I have said just now,” then
do not say it again.
Wordiness must be avoided. We all know how wearisome it is to hear the same thing
repeated in the same or different words. If we see this in a book, we skim; if it is done in
lesson or lecture, we let our thoughts wander. Children do the same. I once heard a
mistress of method recommend teachers to repeat themselves!
(b) Learn what not to say, e.g., a name that you do not want remembered. I knew some
boys who were set to learn the names of the “Do nothing” kings; the memory must not
be loaded with useless luggage.
(c) In giving a dictation, some teachers will habitually repeat twice; the consequence
is that many do not listen the first time, and a third repetition is often asked for. Let it be
understood that the sentence will be given distinctly, and not repeated.
(d) In English dictations do not ask that every word should be written, but emphasise
those required—“Each separate parcel was received”. “I did not perceive his meaning.”
“He did not succeed in persuading her to secede.”
(e) If a lesson has been set, we must ascertain that every one has learnt it, but there
should be no questioning round and round a class. If a question and answer take one and
a half minutes in a class of thirty, the whole time is gone, and the teacher has no distinct
impression of which pupils have answered well; but if two questions in succession are
asked of each and are promptly answered, the whole lesson may be considered to be
known. Suppose there is a French dialogue to be heard, or an exercise has been learned,
the teacher should not read the English; the sentences should all be numbered, the
teacher call the number, and the child read the French from the English. The sentences in

some books are not numbered, and some dialogue books are so printed, that the French
cannot be covered; these are time-wasting books. A prompt reply must always be given;
since we speak at the rate of over a hundred words in a minute, three children could say
two short sentences each in half a minute. Thus a class of twenty could be heard in ten
minutes, or if the class teacher is assisting, and takes half the class, five minutes only
would be necessary, and time saved for oral composition, or reading exercises at sight, or
training in pronunciation, etc. Some teachers, if unanswered, repeat a question. A girl
who is not sure will often give an indistinct reply; one who does this robs her
companions; the time of the class cannot be wasted thus, she must come in the afternoon
and say it by herself; it will generally be found that her vocal powers are improved by
this exercise.
(f) In many subjects a so-called written viva voce may be properly substituted—say
six questions written on the blackboard with numbers, the answers promptly written in
class, the papers of different girls exchanged, the faults underlined and the name of the
corrector signed. The answers can be quickly marked by the class teacher at home. This
has been dwelt on in Miss Andrews’ paper.
If French verbs have to be heard, table should be suspended, and the teacher point to a
tense and a number. Here is a portion of one:—
Sing. Plur.
Indic. Pres. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3.
Imperf.
Passé défini, etc.
Of course this rapid questioning is suitable only when we wish to ascertain whether a
lesson has been learned, not to such viva voces as are dialectic, intended to elucidate a
subject and make pupils think.
Note-taking should never be allowed in junior classes; a syllabus may in some cases
be profitably supplied, or the lesson may be an amplification of a text-book which the
pupils have read, or questions may be set calculated to bring out the main points of the
lesson. It should be an invariable rule that whatever is written is looked over and
corrected; if this is not done, we shall certainly get bad writing, slovenly work and
general inaccuracy. Should this not be possible without over-working the staff, the
written work of the pupils must be diminished, or the number of teachers increased.
The work of correcting is not mere drudgery, and it is essential, not for the Corrections.
sake of the pupil only, but of the teacher. Without written exercises she may
imagine she is teaching, whilst her pupils are not learning. A lesson she felt to be good,
she will find perhaps has been ill-adapted to the class, and therefore relatively bad. She
will find she has not emphasised the important matters, she has given a confused picture
in which one fails to see the wood for the trees. There are no teachers like one’s own
pupils if one will learn of them: they convict us of disorder, inaccuracy, vagueness, etc.
It is important however that the teacher should be spared as much as possible
unnecessary labour and waste of time. It is one of the most urgent duties of the head
mistress to see that the teachers have not so much to do in the way of correcting, as to

stupefy them, and deprive them of the time required for preparing lessons. The work of
correcting should be reduced as far as practicable for the teacher, and made as profitable
as possible for the pupil.
Suppose the teachers to be free after one o’clock, an hour may be given in the
afternoon to correcting, and one in the evening. Language teachers, whose preparation is
light, might do more, those who give lectures less; the work of correction must be fairly
distributed, and a junior teacher trained to correct, by taking books first, and having
these revised and given out in class, in her presence by a senior teacher.
Very strict rules must be made regarding the giving up of books at the Giving up books.
right time by the pupils, and their being returned punctually in class by
the teacher with explanations and comments. The books should always be in uniform,
and some rules, e.g., respecting French being red, German, blue, etc., are very useful.
Outside should be a label with the name of the pupil, the class and the boarding-house.
This is important in the case of derelicts. All corrections should be made in red ink, and
the exercise signed with the initials of the corrector.
Suppose we have a foreign language exercise to be given out. The Giving out books.
teacher should come into class with memoranda of faults which have
commonly occurred, and mention these to the class generally. Faults of mere
carelessness should have a special indication in the book of the offender, and need not be
spoken of further to the class. Each pupil should, before writing the next exercise, divide
the page, write on one side correctly the sentence in which the fault occurred,
underlining the words that were wrong, but on no account writing the mistakes again,
and on the other explain why it was wrong.
When an arithmetic paper has been set the teacher may read out the answer, and each
girl write W or R. The papers may be then collected, and it will only remain for the
teacher to see whether the method was good. If not, she can write L W for “long way,”
give explanations at the next lesson, and have the sum done again. Slates should not be
used, nor loose papers, for such exercises.
If the paper is an essay, or answers to questions, the teacher should make notes of the
subjects in which the class generally has gone wrong, and explain these. She may select
specimens of broken figures, bad grammar, etc., but it is very profitable to read out good
specimens; it is a great help to us to see others succeed, when we have tried and failed,
and there is nothing that many need more than a word of encouragement to make them
feel able to try. One who has done well may be requested to enter good paragraphs in a
book (what I think Dr. Kennedy called a “Golden Book”) for the benefit of the class, and
the worst writers desired to copy it; this would have done them no good, had they not
tried and failed, but afterwards it helps us much to see how well another can express
what we could not. The teacher may herself write in the book of the most painstaking
pupil, things which she has failed to make clear, and ask her to copy that into the
aforesaid book; it will do her good and help others. Certain conventional marks may be
agreed on, e.g., L would stand for wordiness, C P for commonplace, S for satisfactory, G
for good, Fig. for broken metaphors, etc.

Diagrams and apparatus may be reckoned amongst time-saving things, but Apparatus.
like ready-made toys these may be less profitable to children than very simple
things, which they put together themselves, and the more they make for themselves, the
more they appreciate and profit by the labours of others. Fergusson, lying on his back
with a brown paper roll for a telescope, and watching the movement of the stars, learned
more than many who are provided with an elaborate orery, and the Edgworths learned
more about the reason of a rainbow from their glass of water, than many from the lens.
As Miss Leonard has said in her paper, many things are not necessary in teaching
elementary science, and it is a great pleasure to children to make anything for
themselves. Here the kindergarten training will tell. For higher work well-equipped
laboratories are good, but these are an expensive luxury, especially as new things are
being constantly invented.
Physiological models are almost indispensable for class teaching, and excellent
botanical ones are obtainable. A museum in which lessons can be given, and specimens
referred to, is very desirable for natural science, but children should have their own
private ones. Maps of physical geography should be constantly before the eye, but wall
maps of political and historical geography cannot be so well seen; the teacher should be
able to draw on the board or on paper, maps bringing out the special features of the
lesson. It is understood that no class on history or geography is given without large maps
both of space and time.[5]
[5] And here let me protest against the mischievous practice of having a round roller at the bottom, but a flat
piece of wood at the top of maps. They are sure to be rolled on the latter and the map cut to pieces.

Working models of pumps, archimedean screws, mechanical powers, and steam
engines are within the reach of most, and some simple forms of orery. There is an
inexpensive one with the world inside a glass globe, on which are engraved a few
circles, and this removes the difficulty which most children feel on seeing a pair of
globes.
In former times when lessons were made less Marks, reports, prizes, place-taking.
interesting, many ways were employed to keep up
attention. Place-taking, by which each child took down all above her who failed to
answer a particular question. This was most distracting; and so much depended on
accident, that it was impossible by means of it to arrive at any trustworthy conclusions.
Except for small children it has wholly gone out. The giving of counters has found more
favour on the Continent, but this lends itself to barter, and anything which fosters the
habit of considering what we can get by knowledge, is destructive of that calmness, that
“wise passiveness” which is as necessary for mental, as for physical assimilation; it is
equivalent to playing games, or running about during dinner-time. Some record there
should be of each exercise, some “stock-taking” at intervals, and these intervals should
for little ones be short, for time passes more slowly with them. If the head mistress each
week looks over the mark-book in the presence of the class and the teacher, she is kept in
touch with all, comes to know if there are girls who are wasting their time, and is able to
give encouragement or reproof, and strengthen the hands of teachers. If there are a great
number of lessons returned, she may find that a specialist is making unreasonable

demands; she sees if corrections have been omitted by the teacher—in fact, notices
things which, if left to the end of the term, might have resulted in considerable mischief.
It is undesirable, however, to take up much of the teacher’s time in adding up marks, and
placing pupils in order of merit; it may be left to individual class teachers to do as they
think best; there is no need in this for uniformity of practice, and it is always well to give
every teacher as much liberty in following her own methods, as is consistent with the
general management.
In language exercises the number of faults can be written at the end, and classified as
mere careless ones, and those for which there is at least some excuse—the former being
counted double. In these and other exercises a maximum say of ten marks may be given;
in many the teacher can give only a general estimate, but when returning books, she can
show why she puts a higher estimate on one than on another. In junior classes the marks
may be added, read with comments, and perhaps sent home each week. A sort of weather
chart is used by us in the youngest classes—showing for each week whether they have
risen or fallen in the number of marks.

Prizes, in part determined by work done at home, are dangerous, the temptation to get
undue help is great; a conscientious child will reject such assistance as would be really
good for her, lest she should gain an unfair advantage. Prizes given on the result of
examinations, provided they are given not to the best, but to all who have attained a
certain standard, are less objectionable; we cannot make it too clear that good may be

better than best, and that the only praise we should desire is to hear: “She hath done what
she could”.
Public prize-givings seem to me very undesirable. A terminal report parents may
reasonably look for, and words of blame or encouragement may be made very helpful to
the child. Punishments in the shape of doubled lessons, lines, etc., are objectionable; if a
duty has been neglected, or badly done, it has to be done at an inconvenient time—say in
the afternoon. A fine may be required for untidiness and damage—in order to
compensate others for trouble and expense, but to inflict a fine for breaking rules is
altogether wrong. At a school I knew, where this was done, girls would deliberately
break rules, e.g., talk at prohibited times, and say they were going to have “three
pennyworth”. Into a matter of right and wrong, money cannot enter; so also conduct
prizes should, I think, never be given; the proper reward for doing right is a good
conscience, and the trust, friendship, respect of others.
Having lived through the pre-examination period, and seen the Use of examinations.
great evils which resulted from there being no test, I cannot join in the
popular condemnation. There is no unmixed good, and many mistakes, which we learn
to avoid later, are made when a system is new. I shall regard examinations only from the
point of view of their value educationally. (1) They are useful as a test of what we really
know; preparation for them enables us to find out what are our permanent possessions;
(2) competitive examination compels us to set these in order, and estimate their relative
importance. (3) Examinations tend to produce presence of mind, mental self-control, (4)
to suppress wordiness and abolish a florid style, and (5) to make us feel the supreme
importance of clearness and accuracy.
Examining is a difficult art, and examiners have to learn their métier. All are not
perfect; the process of reading papers is exhausting, and after reading ninety-nine, an
examiner may fail to appreciate the exquisite thought and philosophic insight of the
hundredth. It is possible he may form an erroneous opinion regarding some unusual
performance—there have been reviewers who failed to appreciate the early volumes of
Wordsworth, Tennyson and Browning; there are examiners, however, really sympathetic,
laborious, and anxious to see what has been done (which is limited) rather than find out
what has not been done (which is unlimited), and these may give much help both by
their criticisms and their encouragement. It is good for all of us to have our work tested
by a competent critic.
An internal examination, if well conducted, is most valuable, as it can better follow
the work, but on the other hand, many teachers feel that an internal examination places
them too much at the mercy of caprice, or personal feeling, and hence prefer a central
one, such as the University Locals.
Schools must insist on punctuality in returning, and no unnecessary Regular attendance.
absences should be allowed. Children who are absent cannot follow
the teaching in the next lesson, and laggards demoralise the class and distract the teacher,
who feels she is not understood.
In conclusion let me say the teacher must have the power of Rapport with the class.
holding the class. She must be sensitive to the least inattention,

quick to discern whether it is her fault or that of the pupil, and take her measures
accordingly, acting always upon the wholesome maxim (which should never be heard
outside the common room), certainly never whispered to parents, that it is always the
teacher’s fault, if pupils do not learn. When she fails to establish the rapport between
herself and her class, she must try to discover the cause of her failure. Young children,
like wild animals, are tamed by the eye, and a class is controlled by a teacher who sees
everything that goes on. If a teacher when using the board turns away and writes in
silence, a restless child is almost sure to play some amusing trick, and it may take a
considerable time to recover attention. If experiments are performed, the teacher, like the
conjurer, should never cease talking or questioning. If she cannot manage to do both, she
must have an assistant.
She must avoid awkward tricks. I knew two very distinguished Dress, manner, etc.
teachers whose lectures were admirable, but one had a habit of pulling
a tuft of hair, and another would stuff his handkerchief carefully into his folded hand,
and then draw it out again—to the great distraction of the class. We have all heard of the
parliamentary orator and his button.
A study of the Pedagogical Seminary for August, 1897, would be profitable to
teachers careless about externals. The article is called “A Study in Morals”. The question
was put in writing and answered by twenty-three boys and one hundred and sixty girls:
“Reflect which teachers, from kindergarten to college, you have liked best, and been
influenced most by, and try to state wherein the influence was felt. Account if you can
for the exceptional influence of that particular teacher. Was it connected with dress,
manner, voice, looks, bearing, learning, religious activity, etc.? Four out of five
mentioned the manner of the teacher as exerting an influence. One in three speaks of the
voice, one in four speaks of dress.” These externals, as we are apt to call them, are the
outcome of the personality, or they would not exert influence. We must therefore so
order our inner being that manner, voice, dress, should express self-respect and
unselfishness, right feeling, love of order, good taste.
If I were writing a treatise on psychology, I might insist on the teacher’s gaining an
insight into the contents of the child’s mind—what Herbart calls apperception-masses,
but in this short introduction I can only touch on the subject. I subjoin a short list of
books not too difficult for teachers. I conclude with a few common rules derived from
psychological observation and a few practical hints for the schoolroom.

A FEW PRACTICAL PRECEPTS.

This is not a treatise on psychology but a practical hand-book for young teachers.
Before entering on the special subjects, it may be well to say something of the
application of the principles which are familiar to all who are trained, and dwell upon a
few of the most important.
(1) There is the fundamental precept, awaken interest. Have you seen the Medusa
spreading its tentacles idly on the waves? Have you watched the change as it fastens on
its prey? So does the mind grasp that which is suitable for its nourishment. As the

intelligence of the child awakens, it no longer perceives in the lazy, dreamy way in
which the infant is conscious of a light; it apperceives, takes into itself the object, the
word, the thought, and grows thereby.
(2) Avoid distractions. The senses and the mind must be fixed on the subject of
instruction. When a bird is to be taught to speak, he is placed in a dark room, shielded
from the distractions of sight, until the words are acquired, then the use of other senses
than hearing is permitted; so little children require more quietness and isolation than
older ones.
Distractions are not all of sense. The mind is distracted by fear. How dreadful are the
old pictures of the dame, teaching rod in hand, or the master with his cane; some may
remember the music teacher ready to rap the knuckles, and know how all sense of
harmony was destroyed. And it is so also with the seeking of rewards. I hope place-
taking and prizes and scholarships will one day follow the rod and the cane, and children
be led from their earliest years to feel, what is really natural to them, that knowledge is
in itself a pleasure and a good.
(3) Proceed from the known to the unknown. Observe the laws of association; for this
a teacher must be in intellectual sympathy with her pupils—know and feel by an inner
sense, when mind is responding to mind. I have heard some so-called teachers, who
spoke like a book, who were lecturers; they saw their own thoughts, but not those of
their pupils, and were therefore unable to lead them on. E.g., if a sum was wrong, they
would say, “Do it thus,” instead of inquiring into the cause of the mistake. In questioning
they would not try to see into the child’s mind.
It is more difficult to enter into intellectual sympathy with very little ones, hence we
need specially able teachers for them. It is also better for class teachers not to change too
often, as it takes time to get into sympathy with a new class. Of course specialists have
to do this; it is one reason why cæteris paribus they are less successful than class
teachers.
(4) Proceed in classifying by noticing first the likenesses, then the differences—in
other words, proceed from the genus to the species. There are some excellent chapters on
this in Rosmini’s Method of Education, translated by Mrs. Grey, p. 15.
(5) Make lessons pleasant. This does not imply that the act of learning should be
always easy or amusing. Children like to feel they are making progress, and a teacher
wearies them who is always trying to be amusing, but does not really get them on.
Porridge has a very plain taste, but for everyday fare even children prefer it to tarts for
breakfast. A London confectioner was asked, if he did not find the many boys he
employed make depredations. “No,” he said, “when first they come I tell them they may
eat what they like; in a few days they make themselves sick and eat no more.” There was
a book called the Decoy, a story mixed with conversations on grammar; children always
managed to get the story without the grammar. They like sums and history for regular
meals, fairy tales for dessert.
(6) Teaching must be adapted to the mental state of the pupil, and be just a little above
his unassisted intelligence. It is a worse fault to teach below than above the powers of
the child. I shall never forget my indignation at having a book given me, which was

below my powers, nor the stimulus of trying to do what was hard. One who was
afterwards a distinguished teacher, told me how the Maurice lectures helped him, by
making him feel there were regions of thought on which he had not yet entered.
Knowledge quite within reach does not promote progress. A friend who had a night
school was told by its members, “We want to be taught something as we can’t
understand”. They meant something they could not learn without help; they wanted to
overcome difficulties.
(7) Form right habits. We should as far as possible prevent the making of mistakes
even once. A child when reading the Bible miscalled the word patriarch, reading it
partridge; when an old man, he never saw the word without recalling his error. Hence we
should not give children misspelt words, or bad grammar to correct, or let them write
exercises before the ear has been cultivated to know what is right. I knew a music master
who would anticipate mistakes, and stop the pupil, saying: “You shall not play that
wrong note”.
On the other hand each repetition of a right action makes it easier, and the prime work
of the educator is to form right habits; these should become instinctive, and so set free
thought for ever higher and more perfect performance.
(8) Awaken and sustain the spirit of inquiry. We need, however, to be very careful not
to ask questions, which the child cannot possibly answer. This encourages mere
guessing, and the habit of deciding upon insufficient data. We should question the pupils,
and build on their knowledge, but as they get older the viva voce questioning may be
overdone—and for the highest classes it would be simply a distraction. For these it is
well to give questions to be thought out, and answered in writing. Pascal’s father shut
him up alone to find out the translation of a classical author; there are so many helps
now, that people rely upon them when they might gain vigour by grappling with
difficulties. No intellectual habit is more essential than the habit of patient, sustained
inquiry, that described by Newton when he said: “I keep the subject of my inquiry
continually before me, till the first dawning opens gradually by little and little to the
perfect day”.
(9) Foster intellectual ambition. Help the child to feel the joy of surmounting
difficulties, of climbing the heights. This invigorates the intellectual life. Some can
remember how, e.g., they grappled with the dull work of early mathematical study, that
they might one day learn to solve the problems of astronomy, or went through the labour
of learning irregular verbs, that they might read the poetry and philosophy of Greece.
(10) Put before pupils the highest ideals which they can appropriate. These are not the
same at each stage of development. The little child desires first to have something, and
this is not wrong. Later it feels more the need of love, of approbation, and this is a
legitimate and right motive; it is generally his best guide, until he can exercise himself,
irrespective of the outward voice, to have a “conscience void of offence”. We have to
teach him to discriminate voices which are in harmony with, from those in discord from,
that inward voice, and to make this ultimately his supreme law.
(11) The ultimate ideal or final cause should be implied in all that we teach, viz., the
attainment of the perfect development of the individual, through bringing each into

harmony with the environment, the universal, and thereby on the other hand helping to
perfect the whole. For this, wisdom and self-denial and sympathy with the noblest and
the best are to be sought, and above all with the One, the Infinite Wisdom revealed in
Nature, in the world of thinking beings and in the self-conscious mind. All should feel in
their inmost soul what Milton has expressed:—
How charming is Divine philosophy,
Not harsh and crabbed as dull fools suppose,
But musical as is Apollo’s lute,
And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets,
Where no dull surfeit reigns.

Name of Work. Author. Pages. Price. Publisher. Remarks.
Psychological W. Harris 400 6s. Appleton An excellent book by the Commissioner of
Foundations Education, U.S.A., showing the
correlation of the Philosophy of Education
with Psychology and Ethics.
Philosophy of Rosenkranz 280 6s. Appleton Well translated. Notes by Dr. Harris add
Education much to its value.
Handbook of Sully 400 6s. 6d. Longmans
Psychology
Education of Man Fröbel 330 6s. Appleton Well translated by Hailmann.
Educational Laws Hughes 300 6s. Arnold Should be read by all teachers. A very clear
exposition of the ideas of Fröbel and other
reformers.
Pedagogy of Herbart Ufer 120 2s. 6d. Isbister Not too difficult for beginners.
Herbart and De Garmo 270 5s. Heinemann A clear account of Herbart’s thoughts and
Herbartians application of his principles by others.
Essentials of Method De Garmo 130 2s. 6d. Heath
Herbart’s ABC of Eckhoff 300 6s. Appleton Not an easy book. Gives much insight into
Sense-Perception Herbart’s theories and practice, especially
in mathematics.
Application of Mulliner 360 4s. 6d. Sonnenschein Introduction gives a full exposition of
Psychology to Herbart’s psychology.
Education
Apperception Lange 120 Isbister Very clear. Suitable for beginners. On
Herbartian lines.
Herbartian Adams 200 2s. 6d. Isbister Excellent for beginners. Full of apt
Psychology illustrations.
Primer of Psychology Ladd 5s. 6d. Longmans
Leading Principle of Rosmini 360 5s. Heath A thoughtful, religious, sympathetic writer.
Method Translated by Mrs. Grey.
Vocation of the Fichte 130 2s. 6d. Chapman Will kindle enthusiasm and lift the thoughts
Scholar to the higher aspects of learning.
Metaphysica Nova et Laurie 300 6s. Williams & Clear and full of interest.
Vetusta Norgate
Outlines of Rein 200 6s. Sonnenschein
Pedagogics
Educational Theories Oscar 192 3s. 6d.
Browning
Elementary Baldwin 300 Appleton Very systematic. Not a book for the general
Psychology reader, but for the serious student. Many
good diagrams.
Psychology Kirchner 350 Sonnenschein A very thorough book, suitable for those who
have some knowledge of philosophy.

Psychology Applied Compayré 220 3s. 6d. Isbister Useful and well arranged.
to Education
Education as a Bain 450 5s. Kegan Paul
Science Contains much of value to teachers. With a
-
Education Herbert 170 2s. 6d. Williams & good deal the editor is not in sympathy.
Spencer Norgate
L’Education des Gréard 300 Hachette A very interesting book.
Femmes
Rousseau’s Emile Worthington 160 3s. 6d. Heath
Extracts
Les Pères et les Fils Legouvé 350 3s. Hetzel Short chapters giving in the narrative form
the way a father deals with his son.
Delightful reading.
Hist. Critique des Compayré 500 Hachette Several volumes. Very judicious and
doctrines de interesting.
l’Education
Educational Quick 330 Longmans Very good.
Reformers
L’Education Necker de 7s. Three vols. A mine of original observation.
Progressive Saussure Rosmini depends much on it.
Home Education Mason 3s. 6d. Kegan Paul A very helpful book for parents and teachers.
Lectures on Teaching Fitch 430 5s. Camb. Univ. Should be in the hands of all teachers.
Press
Teaching and Barnett 420 6s. 6d. Longmans A very valuable book. Contains 23 papers on
Organisation different subjects.
Aims and Practice of Spenser 280 Camb. Univ. Very good. Contains 12 papers by various
Teaching Press writers. An excellent one on modern
languages by the editor.
Thirty Years of Miall 250 3s. 6d. Macmillan A series of brightly-written practical essays,
Teaching which all teachers may read with pleasure
and profit.
School and Home Rooper 480 1s. Brown Original and suggestive.
Life
Educative Holman 530 6s. Isbister Not too difficult for beginners.
Psychological
Foundations
Teaching and Trumbull 400 Hodder
Teachers
Religious Teaching Bell 180 2s. 6d. Macmillan A very good book.

The Bureau of Education, U.S.A., issues valuable reports each year, which are presented
to the Teachers’ Guild and a few favoured places. They always contain a great deal of
interesting matter.
The Pedagogical Seminary, edited by Dr. Stanley Hall, should be studied by all who
desire to keep in touch with the new scientific methods. No. for Aug., 1897, is specially
good.

PART I . HUM ANI T I E S .

ENGLISH LANGUAGE GENERALLY—READING, WRITING,
GRAMMAR, COMPOSITION.
By Dorothea Beale.

I propose to treat in order of the different subjects of our school
curriculum. The first of these is language generally.
As a branch of formal instruction, we begin with reading. A more Reading.
aggravating subject of dispute can hardly be found than that which
relates to the teaching of reading. The pure Fröbellian will have none of it
before the child is seven years old, and occasionally children do come to
school unable to read, but with the senses awakened to all sorts of other
relations except that of articulate sounds to written forms. In spite of the
reproaches of those who build the sepulchres of the prophets, we teach
reading when a child seems ready for it, and maintain that the principles of
Fröbel are best carried out when we improve on his methods, and adapt
ourselves to new circumstances; we urge that the children from intellectual
homes are different from the class of children with whom he had most to do.
I would not press reading upon infants, nor require the close When begun.
and continuous attention that reading implies, but as soon as the
appetite for any special kind of knowledge is shown, we may conclude, on
Fröbellian principles, that the child is fit for it. Our order is: (1) drawing, (2)
writing, (3) reading.
The kindergarten child has learned to draw lines, straight and First lessons.
curved, developing into simple objects and curious patterns—
rude picture-writing, it may be called. We lead on to writing in some such
way as this.
“How did men at first send silent messages to one another when Alphabet.
they were far off? If you wanted a doll, you might draw a picture
of one and send it to mother on your birthday. A man might make a picture of
a fish, and send it to a fisherman with a piece of money, and the fisherman
would understand; or one might want to sell a sheep, and send a picture to his
neighbour; this would be easier than sending the sheep. In fact, the first letter
of the alphabet is a rude picture of the head of an ox, . People were not

particular, as we see on old monuments, which way the letter stood, and so
we have it sometimes topsy-turvy, sometimes sideways, ; this is like a
Greek alpha, , . Beth in Hebrew was a dwelling, two tents , Gimel
, the camel’s head and long neck. Delta , a door. Kappa Κ, a bird with its
wings out. Rho Ρ, a man’s head. But with pictures only it is hard to make
sentences; e.g., if you wanted to say, “I have found some water,” you might
draw , but you would have to find some way of showing whether you
meant ‘I have’ or ‘I want’; and if somebody sent you the picture of a man
walking, you might not know whether you were expected to come or to go. It
is hard to represent verbs by pictures, though it is so easy in speaking.”
Some pictures of Egyptian hieroglyphics and explanations will here be
found to interest children much—-part of their drawing lesson might be to
copy a hieroglyph alphabet. Then we might enlarge on the need for words to
tell people what to do. Baby says “mamma,” “doll,” “puss,” but it wants also
to say “come,” “give,” “go,” and this cannot be pictured, so people seem to
have tried to represent sounds by drawing a picture of the mouth making the
different sounds.
I suppose the first sound most babies make is a sort of mumbling, and if
they open their mouths we get a sound like ma; now in all languages ma
stands for mother, with some slight alterations. What is M like? Is it not
much like a mouth shut up? and suppose you add a round shape to represent
an open mouth you would get something like picture-writing ma. You might
put the two side by side, a picture of a woman and ma—the Egyptians often
had the two signs. The next easy sound is pa, and this stands in all languages
that I know, for father. How could this be written? If you say ap you will
notice a movement of the lips, which open with a sort of bursting sound. We
may represent that movement by a stroke and put a round after it to stand for
the open mouth P. There is another sound very like P, but not quite so sharply
said. We hear it in ab. We can make the stroke as before, and put the loop
lower down, to show that ba is a quieter sound than pa—so shorthand writers
make a long stroke for the b and a short one for p (│b ╷p) and put no loop.
Thus we get three lip letters, but we can shut up the mouth in the middle—
half shut it and we get n, which is half m. The breath will have to come of
course through the nose. We can move the tongue suddenly from the teeth
and get d as in ad, and write a stroke as before, but put a loop representing
the open mouth behind it; the sound nearest to it which we hear in at would
have the loop at the top, , as we had in pa, but in our alphabet the loop has

disappeared and we have only t. In shorthand we write a long horizontal
stroke for d and a short one for t. Thus we have three dentals.
We may also shut up the throat and let the breath go through the nose, as in
sing, or we may make the sudden movement quite in the throat. We could
take the bird shape but think of the two strokes as if pointing down the throat
in Κ, and for the softer sound only one pointer Γ, this was the Greek G. We
make it rounder at the bottom now. For the first of the throat sounds we have
no single letter, but we write an n to show it is a nose letter, and a g to show
the shutting up is to be done in the throat.
So now you see we have got nine letters—three made with the lips, three
with the tongue near the middle of the mouth, three in the throat. Three are
made by sending the breath through the nose, three are made by a sudden
opening and sending the breath through it with force, and three by sending
the breath more gently. The names given to these different sorts of letters I
may now give and the shorthand signs:—[6]
Nasals. Hard. Soft.
Lip letters m p ╷ b │
Tooth letters n t ╴ d ─
Throat letters ng k ‿ g ∪
[6] I give the characters of the script, which is much simpler for children than Pitman’s.

Reading books published by A. Chrysogon Beale (Sonnenschein) are
perhaps the best for beginners. There are coloured pictures of the mouth; the
deaf alphabet is given, and the words which are not written phonetically are
gradually introduced. Sonnenschein’s books are also good, and Miss Soames’
Introduction to Phonetics.
Thus the child could be taught to observe the movements for articulation,
be interested in early writings, and prepared to look intelligently at ancient
monuments.
In teaching, the sounds of the letters will be given of course, not their
names, and the alphabet will be from the first classified, and a basis laid for
philological study. A shorthand alphabet will be learned side by side without
trouble, and besides this, the pronunciation will be improved—all this
without any over-pressure or giving any instructions unsuited for a small
child.
In a later lesson the meaning of an aspirate should be explained, and added
to each of the mutes; we then get four varieties under the heads of labial,

dental and guttural. The sibilants, which are in some respects aspirates, may
be classified, and the feeble lip aspirate in when (written in old English hwen)
should be noticed. The relation of palatals l and r, and the different kinds of
palatals, may be dwelt on.
I give a comprehensive table, founded on one in Professor Key’s volume
on the alphabet. The three horizontal planes give gutturals, dentals and
labials. The front plane the sharp mutes, the back the flat mutes; the right
plane the sharp aspirates, the left the flat aspirates; the sibilants are classed as
dental aspirates and the nasals appended.
Other classifications are noticed in the paper on Spelling Reform.

The classification of vowels is more difficult, and it may be pointed out
how easily these pass into one another. How difficult it is too for English
people to sustain a pure vowel, o, without passing into u, a into ai. The vocal
triangle as given in Brachet’s dictionary, adapted from Helmholtz and
Brücke, is perhaps most easily understood.

For those who do not use the alphabet of the maître phonétique, tables
such as those of Larousse should be always at hand to hang on the wall, when
French lessons are given. These tables enable one to draw attention to sounds
which English people do not discriminate, or which offer special difficulty,
e.g., ê, è, é, ais, ai, ou, u, eu, e; to the feebly nasalised vowels as in French
pain, pronounced Anglice, pang; to the formation of the sound constantly
changed by English people into ou, when a vowel follows, e.g., loui for lui;
to the proper pronunciation of moi, mwa, not mwau; to the addition of a
syllable, as in deer for di+r; to the attractive power of labial consonants,
making impossible inpossible, and so on. Systematic teaching saves much
time.
For older pupils it is an instructive and amusing exercise to work out the
combinations of two vowels to produce a multitude of mixed or diphthongal
forms; such an exercise will do much to teach delicate discrimination of
sounds, and it is important early to cultivate the ear and the vocal organs. I
append the diphthong table—to read it proceed from one vowel to another,
following the arrow head.

The classification of letters is of the greatest Interchange of letters.
importance as the basis of linguistic study, and so the
matter should early be made interesting and intelligible, not only for the sake
of pronunciation, but as accounting for, and simplifying a great many rules of
grammar, and enabling pupils to acquire quickly a large vocabulary, when
they begin foreign tongues, by observing such laws as are expounded by
Grimm and Vernier, and thus helping them later to recognise that there is
such a thing as a science of language, something more than a wearisome list
of empirical rules and unreasonable exceptions. Thus reading, if taught as it
should be, conforms to the psychological principles (1) that we should
develop the powers of observation, (2) let the child do or make something,
(3) show the uses of what is produced, (4) plant some root principles which
may grow up and bear fruit in later studies, (5) associate the different studies
with one another. The reason why teaching is often so dull, is that teachers do
not take a large view of the field of instruction, but work like day-labourers,

and adopt that fatal maxim, you should “throw it all off, out of school hours”.
“I am a gentleman after four o’clock,” said a schoolmaster! Now I should
like those who are going to teach the alphabet to read Max Müller’s Science
of Thought in their leisure hours. It is too ponderous a volume to buy—660
pages—but it should be in the Teachers’ Library. There is a most interesting
chapter on the origin of roots, which he traces to imperatives. I need hardly
say that the two volumes of Lectures on Language should be familiar to all,
and that the teacher should work out roots for herself after the model of
“Mar”. She must not, however, bury the important things under a mass of
erudition; the larger her store the more should she be able to select by the
discursive faculty (I ask pardon of Herbart) what is most illustrative of her
subject for the special class: it is very important to know what not to say.
Melville Bell’s Visible Speech is very instructive reading, and all should be
familiar with Le Mestr.: Fonetiq of Paul Passy. I abstain from recommending
some of the very learned books “made in Germany”. These are not suited to
persons of limited leisure, but are rather for the Grammarian who said:—
Let me know all! Prate not of most or least,
Painful or easy,
Even to the crumbs, I’d fain eat up the feast,
Ay, nor feel queasy.

If reading is begun early, taught in the way suggested, and the sounds
insisted on, to the exclusion of the absurd spelling, which pretends to produce
cat from see ay tee, children seem to get on slowly at first, but the progress is
rapid, when they have once mastered the signs, i.e., as rapid as is possible
with our cacography.
In an excursus I have insisted on the great importance of reformed
spelling. It is difficult to get people to agree, but any system, Soames’ or
Pitman’s or Bell’s, would be better than our present chaos. If Government
would give liberty to those who teach a phonetic system, things would
improve, and children would easily read ordinary characters afterwards. All
who write shorthand must spell phonetically.
Not only right articulation needs attention, but what is Voice production.
called voice production. The health of many a delicate girl
may be greatly strengthened by habituating her to breathe as she ought, and
the whole class of what are called clergymen’s throats are in great measure, if
not entirely due to the improper use of the organs of speech. There will be
little difficulty later, if we, from the beginning, make children stand and

breathe rightly, speak and read with due attention to stops and emphasis, and
to those subtle changes of voice on which expression depends so much.
Children should never be allowed to learn a poem without preparation, or
to memorise it by gabbling it over; as well might we expect them to become
musicians by rattling off pieces unstudied, without regard to time and accent.
At first, the poems to be learned should be repeated viva voce by the teacher
to the little ones. Later, a special study should be made of anything set to a
class, and it should be learned by the mind, not the ear. In France and
Germany a poem is not set until it has been discussed and explained, points
of importance insisted on, special beauties, etc.
A reading class should not be one in which each girl has to listen to the bad
reading of another. I know no manual so good for the teacher, and for elder
pupils, as Professor Meiklejohn’s Expressive Reading. There are some good
remarks in a brief paper by Mr. Birrell in Barnett’s Teaching and
Organisation, and I may draw attention to page 131 of Spenser’s chapters on
Teaching, for all these books should be in the Teachers’ Library.
From the first, children should learn poetry by heart—poetry suited to their
understanding. A child was heard to drone forth:—
Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower
The lowing herd doth to the moon complain.

The reflections of the poet were utterly uninteresting to him; he did not
perceive the absurdity of cows ascending a tower.
I cannot sufficiently deprecate the setting of melodramatic pieces chosen
not for their intrinsic beauty, but to show the power of execution—to borrow
a musical term. The pieces learned need not be all poetry. Some of Hans
Andersen’s Mährchen are excellent. Scenes in which several can take part
help to give animation.
Throughout their school life children should continue to Learning by heart.
store their memory, during the years in which it is easy to
learn, with masterpieces in prose and poetry; because learning by heart was
formerly overdone it is much neglected now. These early acquisitions are a
treasure all one’s life. Familiarity with really good writers is the first thing
necessary for writing well; it is good to let children write from memory
passages learned instead of giving dictation.
Looking at the higher aspects, I can hardly exaggerate the Recitation.
importance of getting children to speak with the understanding
and right expression; for this teachers must make them enter into the meaning

of the writer, realising the imagery, the feelings, the thoughts; this calls out
right emotion, and thus elocution becomes of no small value as a part of
moral training. Plato dwells much on the influence for good or evil upon the
actor who realises the character he represents, and as Aristotle has said that
through the drama one may purify the soul, so we may help our pupils to feel
all the grand music of our great poets, and to enter with fuller sympathy into
the teaching of the sacred scriptures of the world.
There is an excellent article in the volume of Special Reports issued by the
Education Office by Mr. Dale of Merton College, from which I give extracts.
“Before the reading of Geibel’s poem on Frederick Barbarossa (the story
of the sleeping kaiser who wakes to grasp the sceptre once more) a scholar
was bidden to relate the fairy tale of the sleeping princess.
“The analysis of the piece into sections was given, each with a brief title
indicating its subject-matter, and the exposition of their relation to one
another, showing it had a distinct purpose and value.”
The practice of composition may begin systematically in Oral composition.
quite early years. Mr. Dale has given an interesting account
of the way in which children are taught orally, and one who attended a
Ferien-Kursus at Jena has explained the matter fully to me. First, the teacher
always insisted upon answers to questions being complete sentences. I quote
once more from Mr. Dale, but the whole article should be read.
“The first division of the subject in the German code is ‘exercises in
speaking’; and the careful and admirable training in oral expression is worthy
of special attention. It is of frequent occurrence to hear a boy when called
upon for an answer speak with but little hesitation for two or three minutes,
using grammatical and connected language, and displaying a vocabulary
which might have been supposed to be too wide for any but adults. This
result is the working, primarily, of a principle which has always lain deep in
the German conception of teaching, and which has been reinforced by the
influence of Herbart and his followers, that in every lesson the child should
take an active part. It is given as a precept to every seminar student, ‘Let the
teacher speak little, the children much’.
“The teaching of composition is one of the most valuable parts of the work
done in the German schools. It is begun at a very early age and practised
steadily throughout the course.
“The composition is conducted by word of mouth. ‘Who,’ asks the teacher,
‘can give me a sentence to begin the first section?’ One is suggested, and
criticised. ‘Can any one else give me a better?’ The others then suggest, if

necessary with a little help, their variants, and finally one version is accepted.
In the case of the youngest children this is written on the blackboard. The
same process is pursued with each section till the piece is finished. With the
older boys the blackboard is not used, save for the titles indicating the outline
of each section. The class then writes it out from memory.
“The fundamental presupposition of this method is the inability of young
pupils to compose and think out a series of ideas without much assistance,
even though the subject be a familiar one. Their thoughts need concentration
and guidance, and this help is given them by the working out of the matter in
class. Yet individual liberty of expression is by no means sacrificed. The
sentences are the children’s own, and for the purpose of good composition
the oral method is invaluable. It proceeds on the sound principle that a child
should be taught to test style by the ear and not by the eye alone. It makes
short work of a lumbering period.
“On the other hand, the activity and interest of every scholar are kept up by
the desire to improve on his fellows, and to have his own version accepted.
Constant practice, moreover, is gained in the art of finding synonyms, and it
affords an admirable opportunity of instruction in grammar and orthography.
Indeed, the practising school at Jena, following a suggestion of Professor
Ziller, removes grammatical explanations altogether from the reading piece,
and transfers them to the child’s own composition, an expedient which avoids
the fault of defacing the beauty and unity of a poem by picking it to pieces
for the sake of illustration.”
Sometimes a picture is used to form a subject of conversation, questioning
and explanation. Thus is the valuable power of oral composition formed, a
good vocabulary obtained, taste cultivated, and that respect for the mother
tongue which is so sadly wanting in many English people. Children gain a
facility in writing which no dissection into different clauses, enlargements of
predicates, etc., can give. Rules are introduced with the reasons for such
rules, and only at last a grammar is placed in the pupil’s hands—even as a
Euclid is given when it is all known. I have heard a small kindergarten boy
stand up and give in a clear and quiet way quite a long story which he had
studied. The habit of accurate expression will thus be formed and the thought
become clear, for it is language alone which gives form and body to thought
—gives it “a local habitation to a name”.
In the higher schools, Mr. Dale writes, the practice of oral composition is
continued (p. 573):—

“The practice of oral paraphrase which we saw existing in the elementary
schools here reaches its climax. The scholars are bidden to prepare a scene or
passage of some author, or to read up some period of literary history at home.
The next morning, before the lesson begins, one of them is called upon to
give a summary of what he has read, a sort of short essay by word of mouth
—lasting three or four minutes, and sometimes even longer. The correctness
both of style and matter, with which this difficult task is performed, needs to
be heard in order to be fully appreciated at its true value. It combines many
of the advantages gained from a debating society with those of an essay. It
cultivates readiness of speech and thought, while, like an essay, by enabling
the teacher to gauge the points on which interest has centred, it lends him a
proper starting-place for his lecture.”
This oral composition tells very advantageously upon the written work,
and could be introduced more generally into English schools; but from quite
early years children should be accustomed to write answers to questions upon
their lessons, or to tell something that they know. Later, subjects may be
given to be thought out or a résumé given of a lesson; and lastly the pupils of
the higher class required to read up a subject, and write upon it, or compose
an essay.
As regards the formal teaching of English Grammar taught inductively.
grammar, I shall say but little. I may instead refer
my readers to the long and interesting paper by Dr. Abbott in the volume
edited by Mr. Barnett, and to his book, How to Tell the Parts of Speech. The
system he recommends will form a good foundation for the acquisition of
foreign tongues. Pupils are led to make their own definitions, and in part their
own grammar. A class thus taught French by our present Mistress of Method
were astonished and delighted to find they knew already the chief rules of
their French grammar, when at length it was placed in their hands. It is
impossible and unnecessary to insist upon all grammatical forms being
obtained inductively; life is too short to carry it out in all its details, and so
the tabulation and learning of various paradigms becomes necessary; but
pupils should learn to form them. I am sure there is much less use in the old-
fashioned parsing exercises than is generally supposed; parsing becomes
mechanical; nine-tenths of what they have to write children know, and need
not think about, and when sentences are given to parse, certain words only
should be underlined for parsing. I first questioned its usefulness when I
found at school that one who was so dull, that we used to regard her as
somewhat of an idiot, always came to the top when we took places for

parsing. What the French call analyse logique—classifying all words and
phrases according to their function in the sentence—is valuable.
Mr. Blakiston in his School Management Logical and grammatical analysis.
endorses this view, and recommends the
teaching of logical even before grammatical parsing. Mr. Fearon in School
Inspection writes: “What is wanted is to get as quickly as possible a notion of
the structure of the sentence, and the logical relation of its parts. The teaching
of English should be based on the analysis of sentences. Some may think the
teaching of English grammar by means of logical analysis more difficult than
the old method. I am perfectly convinced from observation and experience,
both as a teacher and as an inspector, that this is not the case. They are not
more difficult than the terms which it is necessary to use in teaching grammar
on the old system. The great point is to make children have an intelligent
understanding of the real things which underlie them and which they
represent.”
Professor Woodward (Monographs on Education) writes: “There is need
of preparatory drill in forms and language study, to bring a child to the
intelligent study of construction, but this done, the analytical method of
sentence-study commends itself. Intelligence is called into play, for the pupil
is no longer studying words as words, but as the expression of thought;
memory is subordinate and reason to the front—nouns, verbs, etc., are in
some languages stamped with distinguishing marks, and can be recognised
by their forms, but in English the power of any word and its influence in the
sentence are rarely dependent on its form; the part of speech cannot be
determined at sight, but by its connection and dependency.”
The analysis of sentences is of course very important in the study of
foreign languages. Hosts of rules about conjunctions, governing moods, etc.,
can be discarded if once children can recognise a dependent sentence.
Various models of analysis are given in all good grammars. Here is a form
which has many recommendations as showing clearly the structure of a
complex sentence:—
Sentence. Dependent. Principal.
1 The man - - subject of 5
2 who subj. of 3
3 wrote pred. of 2 -adjective extension of 1
4 that letter obj. of 3
5 said predicate of 1
6 that conj.
7 he subj. of 8 - substantive object of 5

8 would return pred. of 7
9 but conj.
10 he subj. of 11
11 did not pred. of 10

Another matter which should have great attention is the use of tenses.
There is nothing perhaps so difficult for foreigners to acquire as the power of
discriminating tenses. Owing to the want of the present and future imperfect
in French verbs, many children get an idea that imperfect means past, and
few know until they learn Greek that “I have written” is a present tense. Such
a table as this can be used to contrast languages:—
Indefinite. Imperfect. Perfect.
Present I write am writing have written
Past Wrote was writing had written
Future Shall write shall be writing shall have written

The authors of the Parallel Grammar Series have sought to reduce the time
occupied in learning grammar. In one book the general rules only need be
given, and the variations from these rules appear in other grammars. Thus the
tiresome repetitions in each grammar of the letters of the alphabet—the
definitions of the parts of speech of many rules regarding concords—could
appear once for all.
Let me in conclusion quote a portion of the resolutions concerning the
teaching of English passed by the Conference called by the Committee of
Ten.[7]
[7] Report of the Committee of Ten on secondary studies, 1892, Washington.

“The main direct object of the teaching of English in schools is (1) to
enable the pupil to understand the expressed thoughts of others and to give
expression to thoughts of his own; and (2) to cultivate a taste for reading, to
give the pupil some acquaintance with good literature, and to furnish him
with the means of extending that acquaintance. Incidentally, other ends may
be subserved, but such subsidiary interests should never be allowed to
encroach on the two main purposes. Though it may be necessary to consider
these separately, in practice they should never be dissociated in the mind of
the teacher, and their mutual dependence should be kept constantly present to
the mind of the pupils.
“If the pupil is to secure control of the language as an instrument for the
expression of his thoughts, it is necessary (1) that during the period of life
when imitation is the chief motive principle in education, he should be kept

so far as possible away from the influence of bad models and under the
influence of good models, and (2) that every thought which he expresses,
whether orally or on paper, should be regarded as a proper subject for
criticism as to language. Thus every lesson should become a part of the
pupil’s training in English. There can be no more appropriate moment for a
brief lesson in expression than the moment when the pupil has something
which he is trying to express.
“In addition to this incidental training, appropriate special instruction in
English should form a part of the curriculum from the beginning. This special
instruction may be considered under three heads: A. Language and
composition. During the first two years at school, children (under eight) may
acquire some fluency of expression by reproducing orally in their own words
stories told them by their teachers, and by inventing stories about objects and
pictures.
“In the third school year children should begin to compose in writing; they
should copy and write from dictation and from memory short and easy
passages of prose and verse.
“The subjects assigned should gradually increase in difficulty. (The
paraphrasing of poetry is not to be commended.) Pains should be taken to
improve the child’s vocabulary by suggesting to him, for the expression of
his thoughts, better words than those he may himself have chosen. He should
also be trained to perceive the larger divisions of thought which are
conventionally indicated by paragraphs. The teacher should bear in mind the
necessity of correctness in the formation of sentences and paragraphs.
“Compositions and all other written exercises should receive careful and
appropriate criticism, and the staff of instructors should be large enough to
protect every teacher from an excess of this peculiarly exacting and fatiguing
work.
“B. Formal or systematic grammar. Not earlier than twelve years of age
the study of formal grammar, with drill in fundamental analysis, may be
taken up. It should not be pursued as a separate study longer than is necessary
to familiarise the pupil with the main principles. Probably a single year will
be sufficient. Subsequently, although grammatical analysis may properly
accompany reading and the study of composition, it should not be regarded
as a separate subject in the curriculum. The teaching of formal grammar
should aim principally to enable the pupil (1) to recognise the parts of
speech, and (2) to analyse sentences both as to structure and as to syntax.
Routine parsing should be avoided.

“With regard to the study of formal grammar the Conference wishes to lay
stress on three points: (1) a student may be taught to speak and write good
English without receiving any special instruction in formal grammar; (2) the
study of formal grammar is valuable as training in thought, but has only an
indirect bearing on the art of writing and speaking; and (3) the teaching of
formal grammar should be as far as possible incidental, and should be
brought into close connection with the pupil’s work in reading and
composition. These principles explain the considerable reduction
recommended by the Conference in the amount of time allowed to this study.
“The best results in the teaching of English in high schools cannot be
secured without the aid given by the study of some other language. Latin and
German are especially suited to this end.
“Every teacher, whatever his department, should feel responsible for the
use of good English by his pupils.”
One would like to say much on the study of language generally, and not
only of its mere formal elements—of the “fossil poetry” to be found in
figures of speech; of the metaphors which express the same thought in
different languages. I give the names of some useful books, but there are
many other good grammars.
Name of Work. Author. Pages. Price. Publishers. Remarks.
Lectures on M. Müller 1100 Longmans Indispensable.
Language
Lectures on M. Müller 660 Longmans Full of interest.
Science of
Thought
Philology Peile 100 1s. Macmillan Excellent. May be used as a
class-book for children.
Etymological Skeat 7s. 6d. Clarendon Press Very necessary for language
Dictionary teachers.
Etymological Brachet Clarendon Press Introduction specially good.
Dictionary Required by all who teach
French.
English Past and Nesfield 450 3s. 6d. Macmillan Very good for upper classes.
Present
English Grammar Hyde 150 1s. Crosby Suggestive for the teacher.
Clarke Contains much that is
interesting.
Comparative Sayce 400 Trübner
Philology
Primer of Sweet 120 1s. 6d. Clarendon Press
Phonetics

Visible Speech Bell 80 2s. Volta Press, The large book costs about four
Washington dollars.
Ecriture
phonétique
- Passy 1s. 6d. Firmin Didot Clear and easy.
Les sons du
français
Phonétique des Victor 5s. 6d. Heelbronn Somewhat difficult.
deutschen
Introduction to Soames 280 3s. 6d. Sonnenschein A very useful introduction,
Phonetics adapted to English, French
and German.
Expressive Meiklejohn 360 Holden Very good. Contains a suitable
Reading selection.
Plea for Reformed Pitman Pitman
Spelling
Spelling Reform Gladstone Pitman
How to Teach Stanley 40 1s. Heath
Reading Hall

Amongst English grammars I may mention those by Morris and Mason,
various books by Dr. Abbott, and the Parallel Grammar Series. There are
good grammars, too numerous to mention, suitable for school use.

CLASSICAL STUDIES.
By W. H. D. Rouse, M.A., formerly Fellow of Christ’s College in Cambridge, and a Master at Rugby
School.

It were idle to expect that classics can be studied Aim of a girl’s education.
with the same thoroughness in girls’ schools as in
boys’. Girls’ schools have grown up with other traditions; music and drawing
and modern languages have so long been the staple of a girl’s education, that
it is perhaps too late now to make any radical change. Nor is it clear that even
if possible, it would be well to substitute classics for these subjects. If the
object of girls’ education be, as many think, not so much to turn out finished
scholars as to give an intelligent and sympathetic interest in life, this can be
better achieved by grafting classics upon the existing curriculum, than by
ousting other studies for the sake of these. Nevertheless, there will be many
whose aim it is to give themselves to teaching as a profession, and some who
are scholars born, and willing to spend their life in research and study. A
good school must provide for these; and we have to consider how to combine
the interests of both classes. The result will naturally be a compromise: the

average pupil getting less than the average boy gets, while the few specialists
will need to make up for lost time, and to compress their work into a shorter
period than is usually given to it. The object of teaching will be the same in
any case: a mastery of the matter perfect as far as it goes; and at the outset,
the methods will be much the same.
It is scarcely necessary to insist on the Importance of Latin in all schemes of
value of Latin for every educated man or higher education.
woman. It is not only valuable as a
thorough training of the mind, in close reasoning and unremitting attention;
nor only as opening to the student a literature of great interest: it is actually
useful in a practical way. It is the key to all the Romance languages; Latin
once mastered, French and Italian, Spanish and Portuguese are brought
within easy reach. Almost all that has then to be learnt is the grammar of
these languages; for the body of the words is already familiar. Certainly much
study and practice will be needed before these languages can be spoken; but
is it nothing to be able to read? Men who are preparing for the Civil Service
in India learn Sanskrit; not because the Government is interested in the
training of their minds, but because this is the key to the spoken dialects of
India. As this dead language is practically useful in learning Hindi or
Bengali, so Latin is practically useful in learning Italian or French. Then
again, the grammatical drill is much more rigid and effective in teaching
Latin than in teaching French, Italian, or even German. The relation of action
to object, the subordination of thought to thought, the dependence of an
oblique statement, all become clear to the mind in English or French when
they have been made clear to the eye by Latin. Nor must we forget that
without Latin no one can really understand English, especially the English of
such writers as Milton and Bacon. And besides these advantages, Latin has a
direct use in several professions, which are now or may yet be open to
women: in medicine, in the law, in letters; and even in business a knowledge
of it, as already pointed out, will enable any one to become fit for foreign
correspondence with far less difficulty than otherwise.
We will assume, then, that Latin will be begun even in girls’ schools early
enough (say at thirteen or fourteen) to get through the grammar, without
undue pressure, by the time the specialist will wish to begin Greek. There
may be at that time a certain amount of work yet to get through which a boy
of the same age would have done; but this will have to be done more quickly,
that is all. It must not be slurred or neglected, certainly; but the student will
probably find that the work progresses at a rather quicker rate than might be

expected, because the mind is already better trained and stored than is usual
at that stage of the study.
The right method of teaching a language The right method of teaching a language.
may be put in a nutshell: grammar, reading,
writing and conversation should go side by side. For convenience, and
because of the importance of the subjects, grammar and exercises in
composition will naturally have special times assigned to them; but they
should never be left out of sight. No construing lesson ought to be done
without some grammatical drill, or without a few sentences of conversation,
which is in fact composition in brief. The importance of (1) Grammar.
grammar can hardly be overestimated; and the first thing the
learner must understand is that the skeleton of the language, the inflections,
have to be known by heart. A knowledge of cognate languages may help, and
comparative tables of forms may help both intelligence and memory, but in
the end it all comes to the same thing: however the pupil may have learnt
them, he must be prepared to say off his declensions and conjugations from
memory in the usual tabular form. There are, in this slipshod age, those who
affect to despise precise knowledge, such as geographical names and facts,
historical dates, and the paradigms of a grammar. “Learn by reading” is their
motto in language; a most false and pernicious To “learn by reading” not sufficient.
principle, as I can testify from sad experience.
It has been my lot to learn one or two languages sufficiently well to enable
me to read in them, and I grieve to relate that in these I shirked the drudgery
of the grammar. The result is that although a certain amount of grammar has
soaked in, I cannot yet read without a manual by my side. The most such a
method can do is to give the general sense of a sentence; but it often fails to
do even that, inasmuch as the general sense of a sentence is made up of the
precise sense of its parts. Exactness in understanding is not to be had without
paying the price, and the price is an exact knowledge of grammar. The
rottenness of this system is shown when it comes to writing; and the
productions of these empirics might well make Quintilian stare and gasp.
Thus, however the grammar may be taught to begin with, the class should
always have handy some book containing just the facts of the language,
arranged in the usual fashion, and not encumbered with exercises. They will
need this in the end, and they may as well have it at the beginning. The most
useful books of the kind are Kennedy’s Revised Latin Primer (or Postgate’s
New Latin Primer, which is in some respects better, notably in the marking of
quantities) and Abbott and Mansfield’s Greek Grammar. If no book of

exercises is used, it is hardly necessary to say that these books cannot be
learnt straight through from cover to cover. Indeed, the very first pages of
both are unintelligible to beginners. In that case the teacher must himself
select what is to be learnt; and the tables which follow (pp. 87-8) are meant
to assist in this.
As soon as the pupil is able to (2) Reading to be begun as soon as
understand a simple sentence, he should possible.
begin to use some reading book. One of the
most satisfactory Latin readers I have had to do with is Abbott’s Dux Latinus;
some of the books err in not being simple enough in the structure of the
sentences. Equally good and more easy to work with are the cheap Single
Term Readers of Messrs. Rivington. The sooner the pupil can be put on to a
genuine classical author, the better. Eutropius, Nepos or Phædrus is better
suited for beginners than Cæsar; Cæsar will come next. Stories from Ovid
may follow, and some of Cicero’s lucid and interesting narrative; the best
selection is that of Walford (Clarendon Press). Virgil may be well begun in
Allcroft’s Story of Æneas (Blackie). Once the pupil has attained this stage,
further selection should be easy; only, be it said, too many notes spoil the
scholar.
The student will be able sooner to tackle an author in Greek than in Latin,
because of the greater simplicity of the language. In a very short time he
ought to pass on to the excellent Clarendon Press Easy Selections from
Xenophon, or some adaptation of stories from Herodotus, or parts of Lucian.
He may then take one of the Rugby Scenes from Greek Plays (Rivingtons),
and the easier parts of Thucydides, as edited in Rivington’s Middle Form
Greek Readers.
In the construing lesson, the teacher will of course try to give Construing.
each pupil a small portion to translate; and with a class of twenty-
five this can easily be done in three quarters of an hour, leaving time for
questions. He will then go through the passage himself, asking a question or
two now and then to rivet their attention; and then one and another should be
called upon to decline or conjugate as many of the words (regular as well as
irregular) as can be got into the time. It is needless to insist that constant
practice is necessary in grammar and parsing. In this manner the accidence
will be kept fresh in the mind, and at last (it is to be hoped) firmly impressed
upon it. But one most important aid to learning is so often neglected, that it
will be necessary to speak about it rather fully. This is (3) Conversation.
conversation. First let me say that nothing is meant

resembling the method of Gouin. What may be the merits of that method in
the case of French or German, it is needless to ask here; but I am confident
that a syntax and accidence so elaborate as those of Greek could not possibly
be taught by that method in any reasonable time, and I do not believe they
could be so taught at all. Simple conversation can be begun as soon as the
pupil begins to read. We will suppose the reading book contains the sentence,
Post triduum Cæsar equitatum ad Labienum misit. The How to be used.
teacher will ask, Quid fecit Cæsar? and the pupil must be
made to answer, at first by prompting if necessary, Misit equitatum Cæsar.
The next question may be, Ad quem misit equitatum? the reply, Ad Labienum
misit equitatum Cæsar. Other questions may be got out of this short sentence;
such as Quis misit? quid? quando? The class should be made to give always a
complete sentence in reply. At first they may have the book open before
them; but so soon as they are used to the sound of the words, they should be
made to shut the book and answer from memory. Five minutes at the end of a
lesson is not much to give, and it is surprising how this kind of thing
quickens interest and memory. The pupils find the Its great advantages.
advantage when they sit down to write their exercises, for
now the words and constructions come quickly into the mind. Moreover, they
will find that they have learnt unconsciously the difference in emphasis
which position makes; for it will be observed that in the simple answers
given above, the words which answer the question, and are therefore the most
important, come first in the answer. The teacher should ring the changes on
his reading exercise in this way, until after a term or two he will be able to
begin talking to them on other subjects: such as the weather, the pictures on
the walls, the pupils’ dress, their inky fingers, anything that occurs to him. He
must take every opportunity of dropping in the accusative and infinitive, a
phrase of purpose or consequence, or the like; and thus, without much
trouble, these bugbears will be got rid of. If a pupil can answer no more than
Nescio quid dicas, it is something that he uses the subjunctive in a dependent
question.
But it will be asked, where are the teachers to be found who can do this?
The answer is, that it is perfectly easy to learn, and only needs A difficulty met.
practice. The teacher will have his own book open before
him, and need not go beyond its words till he has gained confidence; then by
degrees he will do it more and more easily, and in a while talking will come
quite naturally to him. In more discursive conversations, it is true, some
preparation will be necessary, but it is quite worth the while. There are one or

two little books that teachers will find useful,[8] but they will best make their
own collections. A few hours’ reading will give an ample store of
colloquialisms from Plato, Aristophanes and Lucian, from Plautus, Terence,
and Cicero’s letters. It is not a bad plan to compile lists of colloquial
sentences, say a hundred, and make every pupil learn them by heart.
[8] Sprechen Sie Attisch? Ioannides: Koch, Leipzig, 1889. Sprechen Sie Lateinisch? Id. Sargent,
Greek Prose Composition. Blackie, Gr. Conversation.

It may be worth while saying that the writer has tested this A practical test.
method, and found it practicable with young and old.
Moreover it has been applied, within his knowledge, to the teaching of
Russian, a language hardly less difficult than Greek; and it is found possible,
by combining conversation, reading, writing and learning by heart, to teach
even obtuse persons how to read an ordinary novel or newspaper, to write a
social or official letter, and to converse on ordinary topics, in three months,
although before they began this course they knew not even the Russian
alphabet.
For Latin composition the teacher can hardly do better than (4) Composition.
begin with Abbott’s Via Latina; for Greek, Ritchie’s Practical
Greek Method is to be recommended, though not so unreservedly. What
books are best to follow up with may be seen from the lists given below. But
after all, it is not books that teach, so much as the teacher; and he had better
fix on the subjects that are to be taught at each stage, and select or make the
exercises necessary to teach them.
Every exercise will of course be corrected, and the pupil should never pass
on without having written out a correct translation of the exercise himself. If
it is practicable, the best thing is for him to be told Practical hints for teaching it.
his mistakes, and then to rewrite the exercise, doing
it again and again until it is right. But if time permits not this, the teacher
may do a good deal to encourage self-help by going round the class whilst
they are writing, and underlining all mistakes, which the pupils are then to
correct, if they can. As soon as possible, pieces of continuous prose should be
done as well as sentences; and this can be begun quite early, in fact after a
couple of terms’ work. The same plan of underlining mistakes may be
followed with these; but it will be found advantageous, as the work increases
in difficulty, to give more and more often fair copies of the teacher’s, or by
some other competent person. In all composition it is useful to dictate the fair
copy, and then to give a few minutes for the class to learn it. The class should

then be called up, the copy taken away, and the English should be translated
viva voce. Of course any reasonable translation will be accepted; it is not
meant that only the very words of the copy given will do. Let the old pieces
be done over now and again at sight; and the results cannot fail to be good.
Most of the exercise books have Type-sentences to be learnt by heart.
explanations prefixed to each exercise, with
examples. All such examples, or at least one of each construction, should be
learnt by heart. The same should be done with the syntax rules of any
grammar which may be in use. These should all be so well drilled into the
pupils, that when a rule is given, or a heading, or (for beginners) the English
meaning, the pupils should be able to reel off the example without hesitation.
A certain portion of syntax, or of the exercise book, or both, should be set for
each stage; and the classes which are studying that part of the subject must
learn these, and keep up the old work. The reading book will give plenty of
opportunity to ask for these quotations, and it should constantly be done. The
oftener the pupil repeats his example of the instrumental ablative, or
whatever it may be, the better he will know it; and he cannot know it too
well. The pupil should be tested and kept up to the mark by regular grammar
papers, at least twice a term.
Unseen translation should be commenced as early as Unseen translation.
possible, and form part of the regular work. Beginners can
try some unprepared piece out of their reading book, which they must do on
paper, and without help, except that they will use the vocabulary. As soon as
the pupils are far enough on to use a dictionary, some special book of unseens
should be taken, such as Jerram’s Anglice Reddenda. The use of helps can be
gradually discontinued, until the pupil is weaned from them altogether. This
can be done by forbidding dictionaries, and giving the meanings of the more
unfamiliar words, fewer and fewer by degrees.
As soon as the pupil has begun to read a verse author, repetition Repetition.
should be begun, and never afterwards discontinued. Verse is
easier to learn, so with verse we begin; but pieces of prose for learning
should be set later. It is useful to make the repetition a part of the terminal
examination, and to have every word of it written out. A Greek play and a
book of Virgil should be chosen (say the Medea, or the Œdipus Tyrannus,
and the IVth or VIth Æneid), together with the Heroides of Ovid, and if time
allows, one of the speeches against Catiline and a Philippic of Demosthenes.
These can be divided into portions, a portion for each form or class, and it
should be understood that this has to be learnt during the term and kept up

afterwards. The examination will simply consist in writing out all the portion
learnt during the term, and all the old work, if any. As the work will always
be the same, the older pupils will soon get to know it perfectly. The system
here recommended has been used in one great school for perhaps a quarter of
a century, and the results have been excellent.
We will now suppose that the accidence and Methods of work more advanced.
syntax are fairly well known, and that the pupil
is ready to read a book of Virgil or a speech of Cicero, Euripides or
Demosthenes, without serious difficulty. The methods followed will not
change; they will merely be applied more widely. The grammar will need to
be kept fresh by the same means as before, and the study will be made more
intelligent by use of the comparative and historical methods;[9] construing
will be done in the same order, but some style will be expected; composition
will be worked by means of correction and fair copies, but the pieces chosen
will be harder, and here, too, style will be more attended to; conversation will
by this time have become easy and interesting, and will cover a wider range
of ideas. The aims of the teacher at this stage must be to What is to be aimed at.
teach self-reliance, and to direct the student more and
more to illustrative reading. It is advisable at this stage to do part of the work
without the aid of notes. The class is reading, we will suppose, a book of
Horace’s Odes, and one of Cicero’s speeches. He should have a complete text
of Horace, and the proper volume of Cicero’s works (or the whole), with no
notes at all; from this he should prepare the work for the first time of doing.
Difficulties he must make out as best he can, with the aid of grammar and
dictionary, some dictionary of antiquities (Rich for beginners, Smith’s large
one for older students), Gow’s Companion and the pictorial Atlas of
Antiquities. For revision, he should be given notes What is to be aimed at.
dictated by the teacher, or some edition with printed
notes in it. The class work should be done with the utmost care and
exactness, and parts of the author committed to memory: side by side with
this should go more discursive reading, especially for the older students.
They should be encouraged (and at last expected) to read more of the author
by themselves, and to bring difficulties to the teacher, who ought now and
again to test their progress. Thus the curriculum of the latter part of the
school work will consist of a portion of all the chief authors to be read in
school, and as much more as possible of the same authors read out of school.
[9] Lindsay’s Short Historical Latin Grammar. For Greek there is none such as yet, but notes may
be given from Giles’ Manual, or King and Cookson (see lists below).

The pupil should also be directed to illustrative works Illustrative works.
which will serve to quicken his interest in any author. The
excellent series of Ancient Classics for English Readers contains an account
of each author, with extracts translated; and well do I remember my interest
in the Xenophon of this series, when quite a boy. Passages might be read to
the class from some book of travels; On the Track of the Ten Thousand, if
Xenophon be the author; Travels or Explorations in Egypt, if Herodotus; and
so forth. The reader of Cicero could not fail to be interested in Boissier’s
Cicero and his Friends; the Latin poets are well illustrated by Sellar’s Roman
Poets of the Republic and of the Augustan Age. Symonds’ Greek Poets,
Mahaffy’s literary and historical books, Champagny’s Les Césars, Girard’s
Education Athénienne are only a few out of many books which make the old
days live again, and add to the literary appreciation of a learner.
The elder pupils in their private reading must be taught the Translations.
proper use of translations. It is not to be expected that they will
do without them entirely; but they should have access to the best, in a school
library or elsewhere, under some direction at first and afterwards at
discretion. If they are clearly shown that it is their interest to use them only
where their own honest efforts have failed, or as models in the case of books
they have already done, most of them will be sensible enough not to abuse
their liberty. The pupil will gain much, too, by reading some of the old
translations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. From North’s
Plutarch, Hobbes’ Thucydides, Holland’s Livy, and other such, the learner
will gain a new idea of what the English language can do, much to the
advantage of his style. Nor is there the same danger in giving pupils these
books as in allowing them the free use of modern translations. They
reproduce the spirit rather than the letter, and are of little use as “cribs”.
When the pupil has learnt how to write correct Latin or Greek, it Style.
will be time to pay some attention to style. The pieces chosen should
at first be definitely historical, oratorical, philosophical, or dialogue,
according to the author being at the time studied; in the last stage, these
should be given one after the other, unless any weak point needs
strengthening. It is useful now and again to give Lectures and demonstrations.
lectures and demonstrations in composition to a
class. Each will be provided with a copy of the English, and the teacher then
will get to the heart of it, state its thoughts in the sequence and subordination
as simply as possible, and finally translate it bit by bit, using the blackboard
to record each step. Questions may be asked or anticipated, and the various

renderings suggested should be weighed and discussed. In this manner the
beginner sees how a trained mind works, and is helped to guide his own.
Good examples of the method may be seen in Sidgwick’s Lectures on Greek
Prose Composition, Postgate’s Sermo Latinus, and Sargent’s Primers.
So far nothing has been said of verse composition. Much Verse-writing.
obloquy has been poured on this of late years; and it may be
admitted that formerly too much time was given to it. But in spite of all that
objectors can say, there is no manner of doubt that verse-writing is a practice
of very great value. No one really pretends that it can make poets (the
common sneer); all that is claimed for it is, that it is valuable as a mental
gymnastic and in training the literary sense. Prose-writing can teach the
power of words, but only verse their subtler associations; prose teaches the
effect of position upon emphasis, but verse makes clear that there is such a
thing as literary form. Most people never realise the rhythm of a piece of
prose; its more striking faults may offend or its merits unconsciously please,
but why these please or offend it would be beyond their power to say. But the
dullest boy or girl who has learnt how to piece together an elegiac Its value.
couplet, understands that this particular kind of composition is
regulated by definite bounds, and cast in a form, the variations of which are
limited. His ear becomes attuned more or less to rhythm, and this first step
may be used to lead him on to the comprehension of literary form in other
kinds. I do not say that he will never learn the lesson without writing verses,
but that this is the easiest way to teach it; and I would apply the same
principle to English or any other language. Some incidental advantages
follow at the same time; not the least that the pupil understands the metre of
the poets he reads. He will not learn this equally well by scanning. To have
full effect the act of scanning must be unconscious; that is, the reader must
take in words, meaning and rhythm at the same time without effort. So far as
my experience goes, those who have not learnt how to write verses never
read poetry in this way, but the scanning (if done) is done by a conscious
effort, which draws off the mind from the poetry. Let the class, then, as soon
as they begin to read a verse author, do a term’s work or two on elementary
exercises in metre (I will not say verse-writing) from Penrose’s Latin Elegiac
Verse Composition. The time will not be wasted, as has been shown, even if
no more is done. Those who wish to go further in Latin verse cannot do
without a skilled teacher, for no books exist which can help him much.
Demonstrations on the blackboard can teach a great deal at this stage; but
nothing can be done by the pupil without learning a great deal of Latin verse

by heart. Greek verse is easier to compose than Latin, and may be begun
quite late. Nearly all the elementary books on Greek verse are useless without
a teacher, and need constant supervision and help; perhaps I may be pardoned
for mentioning a little book called Damon, since this is the only one wherein
the learner is led on by steps graduated close one after the other. Pupils may
go straight from this book to the rendering of pieces of English verse, but
both Sidgwick’s and Sargent’s books on Greek verse will always be found
useful.
It is necessary now to say something about the Pronunciation of Latin and Greek.
pronunciation of Latin and Greek. The reformed
pronunciation is strongly to be recommended. This is simply set forth in a
pamphlet published by the Cambridge University Press,[10] and for Latin is
practically that given in the first pages of the Latin Primer. The sole
advantage of pronouncing Latin and Greek words as if they were English, is
that the learner need learn nothing new. But this is far outweighed by the
disadvantages; and after all, the pupil has begun to learn French or German,
and so is not struck dumb at being called upon to pronounce i as ee. The main
disadvantages are these: (1) Confusion of s, c, and t, as Ceres with Seres,
cedit with sedit; (2) Confusion of quantity, mensīs (abl. pl.) with mensĭs (gen.
sing.), mālum (“evil”) with mălum (“apple”); (3) Difficulty of pronunciation
in many words, especially in Greek, as παύω when the first syllable is made
to rhyme with law; (4) Loss of much beauty in the sound of the languages.
[10] The Reformed Pronunciation of Greek and Latin: Arnold and Conway. 1895. IS.

In one point, however, I differ from the authors of this The accent in Greek.
pamphlet—that is, on the question of Greek accentuation.
It is generally agreed that the Greek accents must be learnt, and rightly so, for
many interesting linguistic points turn on them; but it is also the invariable
practice not to try to pronounce them. But there To be taught as far as practicable.
is really no reason why most of them should not
be pronounced. The Greek accent, as is well known, was a musical
intonation; the acute[11] denoting a rise in the tone, the circumflex a rise
followed by a fall, i.e., a kind of drawl. The circumflex can always be
pronounced with ease; so can the acute, when final; so can the great majority
of internal accents. It is just as easy to say ἐλΕΙποντο as ἐλειΠΟΝτο. The
only cases of real difficulty are words like φέρηται, άνθρωπος, where a long
vowel follows an accented syllable. These might be waived for beginners, but
these are few compared to the rest; and even to pronounce the accent and

quantity in these is not very difficult, especially with the reformed
pronunciation. This plan has been tried, and found to work fairly, with young
boys from twelve to sixteen.
[11] The grave on finals, when written for acute, is practically the same.

There is a means by which the classical Value of old English translations.
teacher may be greatly helped, and that is if the
general course of studies in the school be so arranged, that good English
translations of the classics form a fair proportion of the English authors read.
Many of these translations are themselves English classics, such as
Chapman’s and Pope’s Homer, North’s Plutarch, Dryden’s Virgil and
Juvenal. Others there are in plenty, no less excellent than these, if less known
—Phaer’s Virgil, Holland’s versions of Livy, Suetonius, Plutarch’s Morals,
and many other works; Hobbes’ Thucydides, Barnard’s Terence, Echard’s
Plautus—indeed there is hardly a classical author of repute who did not find
a worthy translator in the Elizabethan age. A few of these are accessible in
cheap reprints,[12] and if there were a demand for any of them a reprint would
appear at once. By reading these the children will become familiar with the
subject-matter of classical authors before they have to translate them; and
they will also have made acquaintance with some fine works of literature,
many of which (such as North) are interesting from association with
Shakspere. When Roman or Greek history comes in the regular historical
cycle, some of these books might well be read along with them.
[12] Messrs. Dent & Co., in the Temple Classics, have brought out Chapman, and intend to
include North and others.

The last thing to be mentioned is the use of models Models and illustrations.
and illustrations. There is almost no limit to the number
of such things that can be had; the real limit is the depth of the teacher’s
purse. But the schools ought to provide these things for use; it is too much to
expect that teachers should spend their sparings and savings in educational
plant. Any money spent in this way is amply repaid by the interest added to
the work. Classical teachers ought to have at their disposal lantern slides
illustrating classical life and history, wall pictures and maps, photographs and
models. Slides may be hired from the Hellenic Society, or bought through the
Teachers’ Guild;[13] for wall pictures there are two excellent series, those of
Cybulski and Launitz. Of photographs there are thousands. The wise teacher
will travel and collect them; but for those who will not, one or two addresses

of photographers are given below,[14] with the names of some useful works.
The pictures can be kept in the school library, and hung up for the term when
they will be useful. For the photographs, frames with movable backs are most
to be recommended, as the pictures can then be changed at will. The teacher
should talk about them, and question his class, and (as already suggested)
they may form a topic of Latin or Greek conversation. It is astonishing how
much children will learn from these things. In addition, it is highly desirable
that each pupil should have his pictorial atlases as he has an atlas of
geography.
[13] There is a large collection in the Guild Museum, Gower Street, London. Here also models
may be seen.
[14] See p. 93.

The writer has now pointed out what, in his opinion, is the Recapitulation.
place which Latin and Greek should take in a girl’s education,
and the methods best calculated to teach them. If in these there is not much
that is new, they are at all events such as experience has proved to be sound.
One or two points may be indicated which are apt to be weak in girl students,
and must therefore be specially guarded against. Weak points to be strengthened.
They are apt to be shaky in grammar, and they
seem to have less mental self-reliance than boys. As regards those who learn
late, they must go over the same ground; for no teacher and no book, no not
if angels wrote it, can point out a royal road to learning. These late-learners
bring to the task a mind already more or less trained, and so they will get on
faster; but let them beware of trying to get on too fast. They must make up
their minds that grammar has to be learnt, and work at it with a will. If they
have already done half of the drudgery by learning Latin, as here
recommended, their task will be not easy indeed, but not beyond their
powers; and even if both Latin and Greek are begun late, they need not even
then despair. I have known several, both men and women, who have begun
late and ended with success, even with distinction; although it must be
admitted that these were persons of exceptional powers. But it is of the
utmost importance that the most capable teachers should have charge of the
late-learners. The greater the difficulty, the greater need for a teacher who has
his subjects at the ends of his fingers, who can see a short-cut, and is able to
judge how much of the preliminary work can safely be shortened, or even
omitted for the time. When skill in the teacher meets with will in the taught,
between them they may remove mountains.

SUGGESTED SCHEME OF WORK IN SIX PARTS.

LATIN.
Grammar. Composition.
1. Parts of speech and elements: regular 1. Simplest sentences: statement, question
nouns and adjectives: est, sunt, and how to and answer.
form 3rd sing. and pl. pres. indic. first
conjugation, given the infinitive present.
2. Commonest pronouns: present indic. of 2. Cases of agent and instrument, time and
sum, and how to form 3rd sing. and pl. of all place: quam with nom. and acc., abl. of
four conjugations, given the infinitive present. comparison: a few common prolate verbs:
simplest relative sentences and cum temporal.
3. Pronouns and cardinal numerals: active of 3. Ablative absolute, and a few more case
the four conjugations: sum: meanings and case usages: accusative with infinitive: use of se,
of a few common prepositions. suus, ipse: double questions: factitives in
active, prolate verbs: relative sentences, with a
hint of finals: commands and prohibitions:
causal, concessive and temporal sentences.
4. Ordinal numerals: passive of the four 4. Quisquam, quisque, quivis, etc. (meaning):
conjugations: a few common irregular verbs. chief case usages: factitives: common verbs
with dative: dependent questions: accusative
with infinitive, tenses distinguished: simple
finals, pos. and negative: simple consecutives:
verbs of hindering and fearing.
5 and 6. Deponents, impersonals, irregular 5. Utor and other verbs with various cases:
verbs: fill up gaps (add e.g., the rest of the all case usages: gerund and gerundive: some
numerals). impersonal verbs: final and consecutive
sentences: conditions begun.
6. Quisquam, etc., use and idioms:
participles: nunquam, etc., causal, concessive,
temporal and other conjunctions: conditions:
obliqua.

GREEK.
Grammar. Composition.
1. Regular nouns and adjectives: article: 1. Concords (including that of neuter plural):
εστιν and εισιν: how to form 3rd sing. and pl. article in direct predication: simplest sentences,
pres. indic. of verbs in -ω given the infinitive statement, question and answer: simplest
present. meanings of cases: meanings of απο, εις, εν, εξ,
μετα (gen.), συν.
2. Some irregular nouns: cardinal numerals: 2. Article with demonstrative and with
comparison of adjectives: commoner pronouns: adjectives of position: αυτος: simplest meaning
ειμι, with active of λυω. General rules for of the tenses: accusative with infinitive: some
accent in its dependence on quantity. further particles of question and emphasis.

3. Numerals: ειμι, λυω: a few irregular 3. Genitive absolute: agent and instrument
nouns. Accent of nouns and verbs (general and other case usage: infinitive with verbs of
rules). command or request: commands, prohibitions,
wishes (opt.): ἱνα and its sequence: double
questions and further formulæ.
4. Contracted verbs: parts of a few irregular 4. ὁπως with fut. indic. ὡστε: all final
verbs: accent of nouns and verbs (special rules) constructions: verbs of fearing: δια, νατα, μετα,
and contracted syllables. παρα, προς, ὑπο.
5. Verbs in -μι: οιδα φημι: parts of commoner 5. Accusative and nominative with
irregular verbs. infinitives: use of participles with certain verbs:
consecutive and temporal constructions: simple
indirect statement and question: the conditions
begun.
6. Irregular nouns and verbs: fill gaps. Revise 6. The cases, tenses, participles and
with Goodwin’s Grammar. prepositions: idioms, such as καιπερ ἁτε ὡς:
conditions: all rules of obliqua.

BOOKS.[15]
[15] V is added to those which have vocabularies; K means key.

The writer wishes it to be understood that this is not an exhaustive list.
These books he has either tested by use, or has good grounds in the
experience of others for the judgment given of them; but there are many
others of the same kind, and there is often little to choose between them. The
publishers whose books are given below are: Camb. Univ. Press, Clarendon
Press, Blackie, Dent, Grevel, Isbister, Longmans, Macmillan, Murray,
Rivingtons, Seeley, Trübner.
LATIN: GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION.
Public School Lat. Primer (or Postgate’s New Lat. Primer, in some respects a more useful book) should
be kept at hand, if only for reference and revision. Abbott, Via Latina (v), 3/6; excellent. Morris,
Elementa Latina, with Tripertita as an exercise book, followed by Mansfield’s Lat. Exercise Book;
a good series for very beginners, but the exercises need supplementing. Allen, Rudimenta Latina
(v) 2/6; belongs to a complete series, the other books being an Elementary Latin Grammar, 2/6, a
First (v), 2/6, and a Second Latin Exercise Book (v), 3/6. The last named is an excellent book for
teachers, who may learn much from it, but I have found it dull and difficult for the learner.
Ritchie, First Steps in Lat. (v), 1/6; also one of a series, with Ex. in Lat. Prose Comp. (v), 2/6, and
Easy Continuous Lat. Prose, 2/6,[16] Latin Clause Construction, 1/6, a First Lat. Verse Book (v),
2/-, and a Reader Fabulæ Faciles (v), 2/6, with Imitative Lat. Ex. (v), 1/6, based upon it. These are
good books, and I prefer them to Allen’s after using both series: the explanations are clearer, and
there are more sentences. Macmillan’s Latin Course (v), two parts, 3/6 and 4/6; good. It has an
advantage in the large number of exercises. England, Exx. in Latin, Syntax and Idiom (v k), 2/6; a
companion to Roby’s School Latin Grammar. Rooper and Herring, Primary Lat. Exx. (v), 3/6;
specially adapted to the Revised Lat. Primer. North and Hillard, Lat. Prose Comp. (v), for the
middle forms, 3/6; carefully arranged and progressive from phrases and sentences to continuous

prose. Champneys and Randall, Easy English Pieces for Translation into Latin Prose, 1st and 2nd
series, each 1/6; excellent, and can be used with a sentence book as soon as the elements are
mastered. More advanced Grammars: W. M. Lindsay, Short Historical Lat. Gr., 4/6; excellent.
This is mainly philological. H. J. Roby, School Lat. Gr., 5/-; good. Not philological.
[16] See below, Champneys.

For Idiom and Construction in the higher stages:—
Bradley, Arnold’s Lat. Prose Comp. (v), 5/-, and Aids to Writing Latin Prose, 5/-, with full
explanations; the former has sentences, the latter continuous prose. Abbott, Lat. Prose through
Eng. Idiom, 2/6; is a most useful little book for committing to memory. This should be used with
one or two forms or sets in addition to the stock books. Jerram, Latine Reddenda, 1/6; useful
collection of miscellaneous sentences. Books of chosen English: Holden, Foliorum Centuriæ, 8/-,
for Gr. and Lat. prose; the standard collection. Wilkins’ Manual of Lat. Prose Comp., 4/6. Sargent
and Dallin, Materials and Models for Lat. Pr. Comp. (k), 6/6; with references for each piece to
portions of Latin authors on similar subjects; a useful book. Potts, Passages for Transl. into Lat.
Prose (k), 2/6. Nettleship, Passages for Transl. into Lat. Prose, with a valuable introduction.
Postgate: see below.
Most useful for teachers, advanced students, or private students:—
J. Y. Sargent, Lat. Prose Primer (v), 2/6; most of the pieces are carefully analysed, and the steps by
which the sense is mastered and then translated are shown in detail. It is a companion to Sargent’s
Easy Passages for Transl. into Lat. (k), 2/6. Potts, Hints towards Lat. Pr., 3/-; perhaps the most
useful of all manuals on Latin prose style. Postgate, Sermo Latinus (k), 2/6; interesting and
instructive. Ramsay, Lat. Pr. Versions, with the English, 5/-; excellent models. Meissner’s Lat.
Phrase Book, 3/6; phrases and quotations classified and indexed; a most useful book. Roby’s Lat.
Gr., two vols., 9/- and 10/6; indispensable. W. M. Lindsay, Lat. Language, 21/-; indispensable to
those who study Latin from the comparative standpoint. His Short Historical Lat. Gr. will,
however, be sufficient for less advanced students.

VERSE.
Manuals by Penrose (elegiacs); Morice (same, more advanced), and Lupton (lyrics): Holden, Foliorum
Silvula (the best anthology).

READERS.
There are numbers of elementary readers, and there is really little to choose between them. The most
useful set seems to the writer to be Rivington’s Single Term Latin Readers, 8d. to 1/4 each. With
notes, exercises and vocabularies. These are sets of three books for each of six terms, each book
containing enough for a term’s work, and each set having the same standard. Others in common
use are: Morice, Loculi, 2/-; Abbott, Dux Latinus, 2/-, adapted to Via Latina; Ritchie, Fabulæ
Faciles; Bennett’s Easy Lat. Stories, Hardy’s Lat. Reader, etc. Teachers and private students may
learn much from Abbott’s Latin Gate.

GREEK: GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION.
Abbott and Mansfield, Primer of Gr. Gr., 2/6, or with Syntax, 3/6; is perhaps the most convenient as a
collection of facts. A Primer of Gr. Ex., 3/6, has been compiled to go with it. Ritchie’s elementary
exercise books can be recommended. Ritchie and Moore, Practical Gr. Method for Beginners (v
k), 3/6. Ritchie, First Steps in Gr. (v), 2/-; exercises need to be supplemented. Jackson, First Steps

to Greek Prose Comp. (v k), and Second Steps (v k), 1/6 and 3/6; are useful exercise books.
Macmillan’s Greek course: Easy Ex. in Gr. Accidence (v), 2/-; Easy Ex. in Gr. Syntax (v), 2/6;
Second Gr. Exercise Book (v), 2/6; companions to Rutherford’s Greek Grammar. They are almost
exclusively exercises, and very full. Jerram, Graece Reddenda (v), 2/6; a collection of
miscellaneous sentences. Sidgwick’s First Gr. Writer (v k), 3/6; easy continuous prose, may be
used along with any book of sentences. Following this comes his excellent Gr. Prose Comp. (v k),
5/-, and then the pupil will be able to dispense with crutches. Both have clear and useful
introductions. Arnold’s Gr. Pr. Comp. (v k), 3/6, ed. by Abbott, has useful exercises in idiom.
More advanced, and to be used as soon as the accidence is mastered, is Goodwin’s Gr. Gr., 6/-, new ed.,
excellent; or his School Gr. Gr., 3/6. To the advanced student Goodwin’s Gr. Moods and Tenses,
second ed., 14/-, is indispensable. Much may be learnt from the Gr. Gram. of Goodwin, 6/-;
Rutherford, 3/6; and Sonnenschein. Collections of chosen English: Holden, Foliorum Centuriæ;
Wilkins, Manual of Gr. Prose Comp., 5/-; Sargent and Dallin, Materials and Models for Gr. Prose
Comp. How to tackle a piece of English, see Sidgwick’s Lectures on Gr. Prose Comp., and
Lectures on the Teaching of Composition, 4/6. Sargent’s Gr. Prose Primer (v k), 3/6, is
stimulating.

VERSE.
Damon: A Manual of Gr. Iambic Verse (v k), by Williams and Rouse, 2/6. Holden’s Foliorum Silvula
(the best anthology). Help may be obtained from the Greek verse books of Sidgwick and Morice
(v k), (v), Sargent (v), and Kynaston (v), 4/6.

READERS.
Rivington’s Single Term Readers (v), like his Latin readers, 9d. each; recommended. Heatley, Græcula
(v k), 1/6, for beginners. Sidgwick, First Gr. Reading Book (v), 2/6: 100 easy stories, with some
grammar. Rushbrooke, First Gr. Reader (v), 2/6; Bell’s Second Gr. Reader, 3/-; Murray’s Fourth
(specimens of dialects), 4/6, and Abbott’s Fifth (Homer and the dramatists), 4/6. Macmillan’s Gr.
Reader, stories and legends, 3/-. Mayor, First Gr. Reader, 4/6. The student had better pass on as
soon as possible to some such book as the following: Xenophon, Easy Selections, Philpotts and
Jerram. Herodotus, Battle of Marathon in Attic Prose. Herodotus, Tales from, Atticised, Farnell,
1/6. Arrian: Selections, Walpole, 1/6. Lucian: Extracts, Bond and Walpole, 1/6. The next step will
be to selections from the Attic Orators: Rivington’s Middle Form Greek Readers, 1/6 each; Plato’s
Crito or Apology; Sidgwick’s Scenes from Greek Plays.

GREEK AND LATIN: UNSEEN TRANSLATION.
Jerram, Anglice Reddenda, three series, 2/6, 3/-, 3/-. Reid, Transl. at Sight, 2/6 each part. Spratt and
Pretor, Transl. at Sight (k); an extremely good selection of difficult passages.
Models: Jebb, Jackson and Currie’s Translations, and Fox and Bromley, Models and Exx. in Unseen
Translation.

ANTIQUITIES.
Gow, Companion to School Classics; indispensable. Schreiber, Atlas of Class. Antiq., 21/-. Anderson,
Atlas to Homer, 21/-. Rouse, Atlas of Gr. and Rom. Portraits, 1/6 each part. Macmillan’s Manuals
of Antiq., 5/- each. Murray, Handb. of Gr. Archæology, 18/-. J. Harrison, Mythol. and Monuments
of Early Athens. Middleton, Remains of Ancient Rome. Lanciani, Ruins of Ancient Rome and other
works. Schneider, Das Alte Rom. (Pictorial atlas with maps; excellent.)

COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY AND TEXTUAL CRITICISM.
P. Giles, Manual of Phil.; the best handy manual. Henry, Comp. Gram. of Gr. and Lat. King and
Cookson, Introd. to the Comp. Gram. of Gr. and Lat., 5/6. Lindsay, Short Hist. Lat. Gram., 5/6.
More advanced: Brugmann, Compar. Gram. of the Indo-Germ. Languages (translated). The
standard work. King and Cookson, Principles of Sound and Inflexion, 18/-. Lindsay, Lat.
Language, 21/-. Prellwitz, Etymolog. Wörterb. der griech. Sprache; good. Wharton, Etyma Græca
and Etyma Latina. Thompson, Gr. and Lat. Palæography, 3/6.

ILLUSTRATIVE PICTURES AND MODELS.
Cybulski, Tabulæ quibus antiquitates Græcæ et Latinæ illustrantur (Köhler, Leipzig). Wall pictures,
coloured, 4/- or 5/- each. An excellent series. Launitz, Wandtafeln zur Veranschaulichung antiker
Lebens und antiker Kunst. Through Deighton Bell, Cambridge. Casts: Brucciani, Covent Garden
(catalogue).
Models: Inquire at Museum of Teachers’ Guild, Gower St., London.
Slides: the same. Field, Cat. of Lantern Slides for Fyffe’s History of Greece, 6d. Roman catalogue
preparing. Catalogue of the slides in the Loan Collection of the Hellenic Society.
Photographs, etc.: Catalogue of English Photographic Company, S. C. Atchley, Place de la
Constitution, Athens. A very full and cheap collection. Mr. Atchley is well known to the writer,
and strangers need have no hesitation in writing and sending money direct. Photographs are sold
by German School at Athens.
The following Greek photographers have good collections: Rhomaïdes Frères, Rue de Niké, 24;
Constantin Athanasiou, Rue d’Hermès, 6. Catalogues. The Levant: Bonfils & Co., Beyrout, Syria;
and local photographers at Constantinople, Smyrna, Jerusalem and Cairo. Purchases should be
made through some one on the spot. Italy: Sommer e Figlio, Largo Vittoria, Napoli: photographs
and models. Collezione Brogi, and the Stabilimento Fotografico Moscioni have large choice.
Museums. London: Stereoscopic Company, Clarke & Sons, Mansell & Co. Berlin: the Museum
publishes a few (catalogue). Paris: Girardon, 15 Rue Bonaparte. Munich: Bruckmann,
Verlagsanstalt für Kunst (see below).
Publications. Denkmäler der Griech. und Röm. Skulptur: Brunn & Bruckmann, Munich. Magnificent
plates. Griechische und Römische Porträts: Arndt & Bruckmann, Munich. Einzelverkauf:
photographs of sculpture (Bruckmann), separately about 6d. each. Classical Sculpture Gallery:
Grevel & Co. 12/- a year. Cheap reproductions of all the chief works of sculpture, ancient and
modern. Bilder zur Mythologie und Geschichte der Griechen und Römern. Hoppe-Graeser,
Vienna.

MODERN LANGUAGES.
By Dorothea Beale.

First a few words on the order in which languages should be taught. I do
not think that we should make a change for the better as regards girls’
education, were we to substitute Latin for French, placing that subject first in
order of time. It seems to me best to begin with French, a language
etymologically related to our own, and having a simple grammatical
structure.

Secondly I prefer to take German, the grammar of Order of language teaching.
which approaches more nearly to the classical
models, whilst the inflections are easier to learn than the French; its
etymology too not only throws much light on our own, but is more
transparent, which makes it a medium, perhaps as valuable as Greek, far
more valuable than Latin, for showing the refinements of language, the
poetry and philosophy fossilised in speech. Thus those only take up the
classical languages who have some linguistic power. Girls who are unable to
master the difficulties of the grammar will never encounter them, and as the
languages gradually increase in difficulty, we can better fit the means of
education to the power of the pupil. The classics form, it is true, a key to
modern tongues, but on the other hand modern tongues lead up to Latin and
Greek, and I believe this order is equally logical and answers better with
girls; it is something to open to them the literature of France and Germany,
something to teach them languages, so that they shall find the study (as they
generally do) one of interest. At any rate there are four stages at which we
can leave behind those unable to continue their march, and who, if we tried to
bring them further, would form only a crowd of stragglers. Those who have a
good knowledge of one or two modern languages will have no great
difficulty in taking up Latin or Greek say at fourteen or fifteen. They will
have a large etymological store, which will make it easy to acquire the
vocabulary, and they will have to study only the differentia of the grammars
of the different languages—may we not rather say dialects?—of the Indo-
European stock.
Nearly all syntax rules will be already known, and a Latin Grammar in
which the principles are brought out, may take the place of one written for
young boys in whom the grammatical faculty is rudimentary—in which
dogmatic rules only abound; dogma should as far as possible yield to
principles, which are intelligible and interesting to elder girls, and this will
help them over the necessarily considerable labour of learning the inflections.
Perhaps few will attain the minute exhaustive scholarship of which some
minds are capable, but many will read with keen enjoyment; some girls who
have begun late have taken high places in university examinations.
Much has been recently written on the subject of modern languages; in the
books edited by Mr. Barnett and Dr. Spenser, just published, to which I have
frequently referred, are excellent papers. I shall therefore make my remarks
on the subject very brief. In the first is an excellent paper by Mr. Storr, and

Dr. Spenser has written a paper of about fifty pages, giving a full account of
the modern system of teaching.
It is time that some reform took place. The Oxford Local Examiners of
1896 reported the French as phenomenally bad. In 1897 nearly half the
seniors failed. I have tabulated the answers to the few questions set by me to
pupils entering over twelve, and I find, taking some two hundred, that not
one in ten knows the regular verbs, and scarcely any write very simple
sentences without egregious faults.
The first teaching in modern languages should Only oral teaching at first.
certainly be oral. In the kindergarten, French and
German songs and simple sentences may be taught in the lowest forms.
Supposing that children begin about seven or eight, it seems better they
should not see written French at first. If they have learned the alphabet, as I
have suggested in a former paper, they will take some interest in the new
sounds of French and might read from a phonetic transcription.
There are good papers in the (August and September, Phonetic alphabet.
1897) Journal of Education on this subject by Mr. Ware, Mr.
Kirkman and Mons. Passy, which I commend to my readers. I give a few
extracts. Mr. Ware writes: “In Germany, every teacher has to render himself
capable of teaching pronunciation, and results prove that he succeeds. In
various German training colleges, there are courses of lectures on phonetics
applied to the study of foreign languages. It was owing to the success
attending the introduction of phonetics in the French teaching in certain
German schools that I was finally induced to try them in the earliest stages of
French teaching at Bradford. The results have exceeded my expectations.”
This is confirmed by Mr. Bearder of Nottingham. He writes: “Though I
have not used the method in such a thorough and systematic manner as he
has done at Bradford, still the results are such as to convince me that I am
entitled to support Mr. Ware in his refutation of one argument, letting alone
others, which the opponents of phonetic teaching continually bring forward,
that time is wasted in learning the two modes of spelling”.
If it is not possible to get the reading taught phonetically, using the
international alphabet, the use of the tables of Larousse will be a great help.
In any case pieces which are learned by heart, dialogues, etc., should be
repeated in the class after the French teacher, before the children see the
book. Few English people have ever learned to distinguish the Common errors.
sounds of the final syllable in the imperfect and passé défini
or the future and the conditional or the gradual opening of the sounds as we

pass through e, é, è, ê. Very few pronounce u properly when it precedes
another vowel—lui is pronounced looee. Very few observe that a labial nasal
before another labial is changed into a dental nasal, thus not impossible but
inpossible, and nearly all say leer for lee + r. Children are taught to read so
unsystematically, that if they are told these things they forget them, and waste
time in repeating easy sounds, instead of working at the hard ones. Children
should not be set to learn verbs, etc., without having first repeated them and
practised the sounds with their teachers. When they do begin to read, the
sound-table should be hanging up, and should be referred to, that they may
correct their errors themselves. These pronouncing lessons should go on in a
room alone, so that children may speak together in imitating the teacher; then
she should single out individuals for different sounds; but the whole class
should never sit round, as is the custom in some schools, and hear each of
their companions read in succession a piece of French with true British
accent. If they listen, their time is worse than wasted; if they do not, they get
habits of inattention. The attention must not be wearied, and if two or three
sounds are acquired each week, the whole will very soon be mastered, and
time saved for the repetition of poetry, for viva voce composition, etc.
When children begin to read, we should spare them as much Translation.
stupefying dictionary work as possible, but it is not well to let
them learn the vocabularies of the book without comment, and they should be
led from their past knowledge to discover the meaning, and as far as may be,
get at the root meaning of unknown words, and see the underlying figure.
Thorough work is much quicker in the end. Pascal’s father left his son with a
Latin book, and no dictionary, to find out the translation. This may be a
counsel of perfection suited only to a Pascal, but there are not many words of
which children could not discover the meaning. Much more translation from
French into English should be got through than is usual; children ought soon
to be able to read at sight. Time need not be wasted by hearing all that has
been prepared, but each could be called on to translate one sentence, and then
translation go on at sight.
The pupil should have a small note-book in which each new Vocabulary.
word is entered. This book should be divided into three columns:
the first will contain the word in its general form; the second the root of the
word with its etymological meaning, if known, or any cognate by which it
may be remembered; the third column, the primary and principal secondary
meanings. Every noun should have the article before it; these should be
learned and repeated before the next translation lesson. The teacher may also

give groups of words, derivatives of the root, and by this means a copious
vocabulary will be in a short time acquired—the words once grasped will not
be forgotten. The enthusiastic teacher will probably have to put a check on
his zeal, for if he is led off too far into etymologies, he will get through no
translation. After a little the pupil should begin to prepare alone, and to make
his own word-book; every translation should begin with the inspection of this
book by the teacher and by the hearing of the words.
Since the acquisition of correct habits is the main thing in Exercises.
learning languages, we should before all things prevent the
acquisition of wrong ones, by letting pupils speak, and write exercises before
their ear and eye have been trained. They should not be allowed to speak a
language carelessly, to “pick it up,” as the phrase is, incorrectly. A most
pernicious practice is it to set girls to speak a foreign tongue together. The
evil habits acquired cannot possibly be undone in subsequent study. I knew a
master of languages who refused to give lessons to those obliged to speak
thus. He could not, he said, in a few hours a week, correct the bad French
learned during the remainder. Learning bad French, however, is one of the
least evils connected with this practice. Anything deserving the name of
conversation is banished where it is strictly enforced, and so the mind is
dwarfed and stunted, and when girls leave school, they are often found
unable to talk except upon trivial subjects, and unable to express themselves
like rational beings in any language.
I quote from the rules of the maître phonétique:—
“Le maître fera étudier les phrases les plus uselles, des textes Re-translation.
suivis, dialogues, descriptions et récits, aussi faciles, aussi
naturels et aussi intéressants que possible. Il enseignera d’abord la grammaire
inductivement, comme généralisation des faits observés: une étude plus
systématique sera réservée pour la fin.”
The translation book must be made the basis of teaching, and the ear
familiarised with the correct form by the learning of good French, the rules as
far as possible being found inductively. Thus the children will observe the
changes in mon frère, ma mère, mes frères et mes sœurs, and be able to make
a table. Life is too short to find out all grammar, and so we shall eventually
have recourse to collections of grammatical forms, but this need not be done
until a good deal has been discovered by means of sentences formed for the
purpose.
Easy passages should be translated into English and back into French
according to Ascham’s method. This should precede the writing of exercises,

which may, however, be read at sight in class. Children should repeat verbs
interrogatively and negatively with pronouns in their places, so that the ear
may be trained before the rule is discovered. Fassnacht’s books are good.
Mrs. Bell’s books too are useful for children to learn instead of ordinary
dialogues. It is impossible for them to speak in a natural way, when they are
merely giving abstract sentences, but they can hold short conversations with
one another in an animated way, and these can be taught viva voce in daily
lessons.
Monotony should be avoided, and occasionally instead of Composition.
setting an exercise, it is well for the teacher to relate a short
story, and let the children repeat what they can, or write what they can
remember; but in all these things we must avoid as much as possible wasting
their time by making them listen to one another’s mistakes.
Exercises may be written and a grammar used later, but if the teacher
economises time, there will remain enough in each lesson to prepare pupils
for the writing of the next exercise and to warn them of mistakes they would
otherwise be likely to make. I need not repeat here what I have said under the
head of corrections and time saving (see p. 28, introduction).
Finally as regards grammatical rules. There are doubtless many Philology.
forms which must be learned, and rules which we must treat as
arbitrary, because we can see no reason for them, but the more reasons we
can show, the more interesting will language become, and the easier to learn.
Thus children are glad to discover that the terminations are not mysterious
letters for which there is no reason, but the remnants of pronouns put on at
the end—that in the French future we get the same as the English, “I have to
write,” only “have” comes after, and in the conditional, “I had”. They need
not then learn these tenses, only notice the abbreviations. The survival of the
t in a-t-il and many other things will enliven the grammar lesson. Peile’s
delightful Manual of Philology and D’Arcy Thomson’s Day-dreams of a
Schoolmaster are suggestive, but of course the more a teacher knows of
philology, the more interesting she can make her lessons, and one versed in
the subject should be found in every school.
The never-ending rules for the past participle may be at Rationale of rules.
once disposed of by just showing children that the participle
being an adjective must agree with the word it belongs to. If I say, “I have
written a letter,” of course “written” belongs to letter and therefore it must
agree. We need not make them think about whether it is subject or
complement. The only curious thing they have to notice, is that it does not

agree when the word it belongs to comes after “have”. Is it because the
thought of the act of writing is more present to the mind when we say, “I
have written a letter,” and we do not think of the letter as written, whereas
when the letter is objectified to our gaze, being represented by a pronoun, we
think of it rather as a letter written?
The learning of a third language will present less difficulties. If the
language is German we can, by a few simple etymological laws, get
command of a copious vocabulary in a short time. The declensions offer
some difficulty at the outset, chiefly on account of the adjectives. But the
phonetic change is made in order to avoid the repetition of the harsh sound s,
m, r, and therefore when this occurs in a preceding pronominal adjective, it is
dropped or softened in the second adjective; thus the ear guides, and we have
not to think about the forms; one has only to notice that in the oblique cases it
is weakened to n, and in the plural it is always n.
The order of words offers difficulties too, and we have a complicated
construction. We have to fix our attention on the functions of words, as we
did not in a simpler language, for a whole row of words goes to make up an
adjective, and dependent sentences are constantly taking the place of simple
words. Insight there must be to see what are dependent sentences, and then
the whole paraphernalia of rules about certain conjunctions which require the
verb to be sent to the end vanish too and we move freely.
Another difficulty is the different uses of prepositions. In English we go
“through” the street, in German “on”. We go “through” a town, the Germans
“over”. Let the difference of the conception be realised, and the prepositions
will come right.
It is a great pleasure to those approaching maturity to study a Literature.
language made for metaphysics. We cannot read German without
finding everywhere fossil poetry and philosophy, and the rolling periods and
the grand verse stir our soul like a trumpet, and we know that we hear the
voice of an heroic people, who speak a language and think thoughts akin to
our own.
Latin does not attract perhaps in the same way; the military precision of
the Latin classics has its charm. I feel strongly that Latin should, however,
properly come after German, specially for girls. There is a pestilential
atmosphere in the Campania, and one needs to have one’s moral fibre braced
by the poetry of the Hebrews and of England and Germany, if one would
remain unaffected by writings saturated with heathen thought.

Those who are able to spare time and strength for Greek, and love poetry
in all its forms, will delight indeed in the “Wine of Hellas,” and with the
enthusiasm which they will bring to a new study they will surmount in a
short time obstacles which would have delayed them for months, when they
had less knowledge of co-ordinate forms, less taste, less insight, less joy in
wrestling with problems and searching into mysteries. If there is not time nor
talent nor inclination for all, then I would say prefer Greek to Latin.
The chief thing for the teacher to do is so to teach that the pupil shall enjoy
the work. I do not mean that the pupil should be spared hard work and
drudgery, or be always expecting to find honey on Hymettus; but do we not
all know that the labour of making our way over rotten glaciers and up stony
moraines is forgotten when we stand on the crest, and that all the way we go,
we think of the joy set before us, when we shall attain to some lofty peak,
whence we can see the outstretched heavens and the sunlit earth? For this we
must throw ourselves in each language upon literature—the forms of
grammar will be the ladder whereby we mount.
And then we shall return to our own native poets and thinkers, with minds
enriched by foreign travel, and Milton will be the interpreter of the poetry of
the world—of ancient and modern times, Spenser of the mediæval romances,
Chaucer of the world of nature, Wordsworth and Coleridge of spiritual
philosophy, and we shall feel that we must be worthy of so great an
inheritance, and not trample under our feet the pearls, the precious jewels of
speech.
Do I seem unpractical? It is just these ideas that are practical, which we
must get our children to see and to feel, and then the burden of earnest,
thoughtful labour will seem light, and our English tongue will not be
degraded by slovenly pronunciation or the use of vulgar and inappropriate
words.

SPELLING REFORM.
By Dorothea Beale.

Let me earnestly beg of teachers not to put aside the question of spelling
reform as of little moment, but to do their utmost to bring it about.
Can it be to educators of little moment that learning to read, instead of
introducing children to an orderly system, reveals chaos, and interferes with
the tendency upon which all science is founded to expect law and order. As

Professor Max Müller writes «Every thing that children have to learn in
reading and spelling is irrational; one rule contradicts the other, and each
statement has to be accepted simply on authority, and with a complete
disregard of those rational instincts, which lie dormant in the child, and ought
to be awakened by every kind of healthy exercise».
I find it difficult to express my strong sense of the immense importance of
this reform on grounds educational, economic, patriotic. Not only does our
cacography oppose an enormous obstacle to intellectual progress during the
most important years of mental development, and thus squander brain power
on useless work, it is also a waste of money which is expended by the upper
classes in forcing on the children of the poorer a waste of time and—a sort of
useless prison-labour.
Dr Gladstone calculates that the average board-school child spends more
than 2000 hours in acquiring the arts of reading and spelling, and that the
waste of money is over £ 1000000. This was 20 years ago; with increased
grants, the loss of money must be far more now. He also calculates the waste
of capital in printing unnecessary letters at nearly 20 per cent. This is only
one of the many arguments for reform, which he puts most clearly and
forcibly.
Most of the richer children have an indefinite amount of leisure in
childhood, and they forget how long it took to learn to read, but children in
elementary schools groan under a pedantic tyranny, which imposes
wearisome and useless labours upon those who might otherwise in their short
school time gain such facility in reading, that it would be a pleasure ever
after, and the time which is now wasted on spelling, would be available for
much beside: Germans have time to acquire foreign tongues, but Englishmen
and Frenchmen have not time to acquire them in addition to their own
spelling; either language from its simple structure might become a world-
wide tongue, and there would be no need of Volapuk.
I quote from Professor Max Müller’s article.
«According to a Liverpool Schoolmaster of great experience it takes from
6 to 7 years to learn the arts of reading and spelling with a fair amount of
intelligence. I. e. about 2.000 hours. A Glasgow schoolmaster writes, «I have
taught poor children to read the Sermon on the Mount after a course of
exercises extending over no more than 6 hours», and a father writes, «My
boy who is a few months more than 4 will read any phonetic book ... and how
long do you think it took me to impart to him this power? Why something
less than 8 hours, and that was in snatches of five minutes at a time; his next

brother a boy of 6 has had a phonetic education, what is the consequence?
Reading in the first stage was so delightful that he taught himself to read. My
eldest boy 11 years old, at a first-rate school has carried off the prize for
orthography». Mr. Ellis, who did so much for education writes, «With the
phonetic system the Primer is mastered within 3 months at most; careful
experiments have established 1) that pupils may be taught to read books in
phonetic print in from 10 to 40 hours, and that when they have attained
fluency in reading ordinary print, the pronunciation is much improved, the
interest in study kept alive, and a logical training of enduring value given ...
and they acquire the art of ordinary spelling more readily than those
instructed on the old method.»»
Let those who think I exaggerate, look into Miss Soames’s introduction to
Phonetics, and they will marvel how a foreigner can ever learn to read and
write English—she gives the 34 ways in which we write the indefinite ‘a’
sound in aloud—the 26 for representing ‘or’; the 18 for giving ‘sh’ the 20
representing ‘n’, 18 for ‘k’, and so on—Pagliardini enumerates the 44 ways
in which ‘oo’ is written and 36 for the sound ‘ee’; those who have tried to
teach foreigners know how hopeless it all seems.
Pagliardini tells of a work published 1861 on French spelling, which gives
163 ingenious rules and occupies 285 pages. It is asserted that 2 lessons a
week for 3 years will suffice. How much better writes Pagliardini would
these precious hours be spent in studying noble thoughts in books, the history
of nations, the mathematical sciences, or the laws by which God governs the
universe, or if confined to words, then how much more interesting and
intellectual would be their decomposition into their elements, showing their
affinity with words in other languages. What a fund of poetry might be found
in the metaphors of which words are the abbreviated forms. All this, now
unopened to his view for lack of time, would be revealed.
This may be paralleled by the spelling book of the Meiklejohn series.
‘Spelling with sidelights from history.’ It contains 150 pages, gives many
rules, and concludes with one thousand of the most difficult words selected
from examination papers.
M. Pitman has done good service in printing and circulating for a very
small sum various tracts, and I hope my readers will get some, specially the
paper by Prof. Max Müller. Alas, reforms are slow when the opinion of many
unthinking persons has to be formed, before they can be carried. It needed a
pope to reform the calendar.

The Westminster Review for Sept. 1897 has an article on spelling reform,
urging its great importance, if English is to be a world-wide language. The
impossibility of getting a new alphabet adopted at least for a long time is
urged as a reason for pressing minor reforms, the chief being the omission of
all useless letters. Thus we should leve out awl thos perplexing vowels in lev
recev decev belev; and thes changes mit posibly be carid with sum slit efort
at wuns, if sum popular orthor wood requir his book too be printed foneticaly.
Some defend our spelling for philological reasons, but it is unanimously
condemned by philologists; I name those best known in England—Professor
Max Müller pronounces it a national misfortune, and has written an article
against it—Professor Sayce and Skeat, Ellis and Sweet, Dr Murray, editor of
the Etymological Dictionary, condemn it, and amongst linguists, Pagliardini,
and scientists, Dr Gladstone.
But the chief reason, that we should press forward this movement is, that
only thus does it seem possible to avert the catastrophe foreshadowed in an
article on the Queen’s English in the Review of Reviews for June 1897.
Dialectic varieties are arising in the English-speaking Colonies, which, if
unchecked by phonetic symbols corresponding with speech, will develop into
different languages. The longer we delay, the greater will be the difficulty of
agreeing on a common notation—at present the differences of opinion
between us and our colonies, and even between us and our American cousins
are slight, but those who have heard the English of the States spoken by the
children of German immigrants, will recognise the danger.
Miss Soames before her death published reading books in phonetic type,
and spent much time and money in promoting the teaching of English
reading on this system, and in introducing to the notice of English people the
alphabet of the Association Phonétique Internationale, 11, Rue de Fontenay,
Bourg la Reine (Seine).
Such an alphabet would be better than one suitable for English only, but if
Pitman’s is the only one generally available, it is better to use that for
elementary schools, and remember the maxim ‘le mieux est l’ennemi du
bien’—For teaching the right pronunciation of foreign languages, le Maître
Phonétique is very valuable.
Melville Bell’s Visible Speech is a physiological alphabet of marvellous
ingenuity—but perhaps too elaborate for general use, and the conclusions at
which he arrives are not always endorsed by the chief authorities. All
students of phonetics will learn much from reading it.—English visible

speech, in 12 lessons 50 cents, Volta bureau Washington, gives the essentials
of the system—the large work costs 4 dollars.
Great efforts are being made in France to introduce an international
phonetic alphabet.
If all could agree on one alphabet, it would be possible for a foreigner to
read at sight any foreign language. It is true there would be certain niceties of
pronunciation to be taught Viva Voce, but the pronunciation would be very
nearly correct at once.
I subjoin a few specimens of writing and the alphabet from ‘lə mɛːtr
fɔnetik’ (Le Maître Phonétique).
The French alphabet is very simple. The consonants are as in English
except

ɲ for the palatal n as in signe.
- ʃ for ch as in champ—Ex. shut.
ʒ for ʒʰ as in je—Ex. pleasure.
The vowels are
ɑ pâte ɛ tête i ni o côte u tout
- - - - -
a patte e dé j yeux ɔ tort y tu

œ seul w oui nasalises
- ø peu - ɥ huile - ː lengthens
ə de
The complete international alphabet which is subjoined requires more
signs but this suffices in French.
French.— kɑ̃t yn fwa ɔ̃ li kuramɑ̃ l ekrityːr fɔnetik
quand une fois on lit couramment l’écriture phonétique
i syfi d kɛlkəz œːr pur aprɑ̃ːdr a liːr l ekrityːr
il suffit de quelques heures pour apprendre à lire l’écriture
ɔrdinɛːr.
ordinaire.
In English we want θ ð for th in thick & then, ɕ for ch in hue, ŋ for the
guttural nasal, ʌ for but, a vowel not quite the same as seul, æ for at—
English.—nau ðə pɔint ai wɔnt tu get æt iz hweðəɹ ðe seːm deskripʃən kæn
bi givn.

(now the point I want to get at is whether the same description can be
given.)
German.—vɛn viːr uns in unserm lɑndə rɑif dɑfyːr hɑltn di ɑlgəmɑinə
høːərə bilduŋ ɑusʃlisːliɕ auf di mɔdɛrnə kultuːr tsu gryndn.
(Wenn wir uns in unserm Lande reif dafür halten die algemeine höhere
Bildung auschliesslich auf die moderne Cultur zu gründen.)

COMPLETE ALPHABET

Laryn- Guttu- Vé- Palatales Palatales
Linguales Labiales
gales rales laires d’arrière d’avant

C Plosives ʔ qG kg cɟ td pb
O
N Nasales ŋ̊ ŋ̌ ɲ̊ ɲ̌ n̥ n̬ m̥ m̬
S Latérales
ɫ̥ ɫ̬ ʎ̥ ʎ̬ ɭ̥ ɭ̬
O-
N Roulées Q̥ Q̬ R̥ R̬ r r̬
N
E fv Fʋ
Fricatives h H h̬ ʁ̥ ᴚ̬ (ʍ w) x g (ɥ̊ ɥ̌) ɕ j ɹ̥ ɹ̬, θ ð, ʃ ʒ, s z
S ʍw ɥ̊ ɥ

V Fermées u ɯ ü ï y i (u ü y)
O
Y Mi- o v ö ë ø e (o ö ø)
fermées
E
-
L Mi-
ɔ ʌ ɔ̈ ä œ ɛ (ɔ ɔ̈ œ)
L ouvertes
E
S Ouvertes ɑ a

Phonetic alphabet as illustration

HISTORY AS AN EDUCATIONAL SUBJECT.
By Dorothea Beale.

The second subdivision of Part I. is of great educational value. Definition.
“History,” writes Dr. Harris, “reveals the higher self of man as
organised in institutions. For the first time man comes to know his substantial
self, when he comes to study history. His little self beholds his colossal self.”
The Man “writ large” of Plato.
“History,” writes Dr. Martineau, “enlarges the Enlarges sympathies.
sympathies, opening fresh continents of character to
mental survey, throwing human tones upon the ear in language unheard
before; it acts upon the judgments of conscience like foreign travel upon
those of perception; it imparts a breadth of view unattainable within a narrow
circle. The smaller the scale of the personal lot, the more precious and
needful are the friendships of history.
“The ground plot of a man’s own destiny may be closely shut in, but if he
can find his way through vanished cities, hear the pleading of justice, visit the
battlefields where the infant life of nations has been baptised in blood; if he
can steal into the prisons, where lonely martyrs have waited their deaths; if
he can walk in the garden or the porch, where the lovers of wisdom
discourse; if the experiences of his own country consecrate the very soil—he
consciously belongs to a grander life. Hence the advantage which human
studies possess over every form of science, the sympathy with man over the
knowledge of nature. They are an enlargement of moral experience, and call
into continual exercise the sense of right and wrong.
“In watching the drama of history, the soul may be purified by ‘pity and
fear’. ‘Here we find examples for judgment, examples of patient suffering,
that touch the springs of pity; of selfishness and cruelty that gnaw the heart
with honest indignation, of heroic faithfulness that flings across the soul a
breeze of resolution, of saintly love that diffuses the very atmosphere of
heaven.’”[17]

[17] Hours of Thought. Martineau.

In history as in science we learn facts that we Supplements the teachings of science.
may trace laws, and history corrects by a larger
outlook the erroneous judgments deduced from a limited experience. History
too seems specially useful as a complement to the teaching of science. In
physics we find inexorable law. Admiration and fear may be excited, but we
look on the inevitable; we pass no moral judgment. History and biography show
us the Divine government adapting itself, so to speak, to the necessities of man,
an education of men and of man, we study a mystery which attracts and baffles
us; we are able to predict our world’s path in space and time, unable in
reference to those larger regions beyond our “little systems”—regions, however,
in which we must believe the same laws, physical and moral, to be working.
History corrects the judgment of the world; in its Gives an outlook beyond time.
pages we look only at dead men, and we call him
happy, not who has been successful, but him who has left the world better
because he has lived, and so history reverses the pernicious teaching which puts
before the young success as the main object of life, and shows us the difference
between noble and pitiful ambitions. The heroes of history are those who
endured hardness and lived and died for others, a Heracles, a Theseus, a St.
Louis, a Gustavus, a Washington. The villains are those who lived for self, in
ease and splendour, and self-indulgence. We find in these, and still more in
those in whom the lights and shades are less strongly marked, encouragements
and warnings for our own life, and help in interpreting the lives of those around
us. How tawdry looks the field of the cloth of gold in the light of a later
century! How silly seem those courtiers who carried their “manors on their
backs”! “He is worth so much” has a different meaning for the dead and for the
living; the dead have not, they are. Each noble life has left the world richer in
spiritual energy, in the power of self-sacrifice, in great ideals, in true riches;
there is a treasury of saints, not of a transferable righteousness, but of a
transforming, a transfiguring. We can see that no noble life has been lived in
vain. “In the sight of the unwise they seem to perish, yet is their hope full of
immortality;” the corn which falls into the ground and dies bears much fruit.
Lastly if we include in this study not only the Reveals progress through the ages.
history of men and of societies, but of the
intellectual and moral life of man as a whole, not his descent but his ascent,
history forms a subject of surpassing interest and energising hope. We find there
enacted upon the largest theatre the daily recurring drama of the contest of light
with darkness. We learn how man’s eyes have been gradually opened to the

wonders of the visible universe, and his soul lifted into the regions of the
invisible, his intellectual conceptions enlarged, his higher being developed, and
his desires purified; history which discourages, as we look at a narrow tract,
strengthens our faith in a Divine order of progress, as we take in the larger
regions of time; the waves seem often to recede, while the tide advances, the
stars seem to retrograde, but it is because our little world oscillates in space; and
so our faith is strengthened, and our hope increased, and we learn not patriotism
merely, but we catch something of that enthusiasm of humanity, which shone
with unclouded brightness in the Son of Man.
Another use of history, rightly taught, is to train in Cultivates the judgment.
habits of justice and truthfulness, though it is too often
written to serve party ends. It is not easy to be just. The hearts of the young are
naturally drawn out to those who suffer. If the Eikon Basilike was not true, we
are inclined to say it must have been true, as we look upon Vandyke’s picture,
see the calm face of the martyr, or read the verses:—
He nothing common did nor mean
Upon that memorable scene,
But bowed his kingly head
Down as upon a bed.

We must, however, not let our sympathy with Stirs right enthusiasm for heroic men.
suffering blind us to the fact that Charles failed
in his duty as a king—that had he been successful in what he attempted,
England must have suffered from the evils under which France subsequently
groaned. We must point out that it was his incurable deceit which brought him
at last to the scaffold. But neither, on the other hand, must we ignore the fact
that Cromwell trampled on the rights of men, that his was a lawless
Government too. We would not, however, have that sham impartiality which
paints all men of one colour and height, which is incapable of conceiving a
hero, and contemplates crime with calmness, remarking there are always two
sides to a quarrel. Need I say that throughout, the teacher must stir noble
enthusiasms, a worthy emulation, admiration for true manliness, for virtue,
rouse sympathy for the oppressed, zeal for right—show that the history of each
nation is that nation’s Bible—the Book which tells of the Heavenly Father’s
care for it, as manifested in the incidents of its life? If addressing higher classes,
the teacher will point out, as opportunity offers, that each had a work to do in
the world, Hebrew, Greek, Roman, as Miss Wedgwood has shown so well in the
Moral Ideal.[18]
[18] Moral Ideal, by Julia Wedgwood. Trübner.

The young must learn, too, that the great Shows the disintegrating power of
principle is found everywhere, that what we unrighteousness.
sow we must reap in the moral as well as the
physical world—that the selfish neglect of the poor brought about the Black
Death and gaol fevers, that the selfishness, rapacity and immoral greed fostered
by England’s unjust claims on France, brought its own punishment; this was
seen when the Hundred Years’ War ended in the internecine strife of the
fifteenth century, and led to the extermination of a selfish aristocracy. So too the
degradation of the higher classes, say in the eighteenth century in France, which
led them to regard the lower classes as scarcely human, brought about the
fearful retaliation of the Revolution. Or again the wealth of Spain, filling the
nation with pride and haughtiness, was actually her ruin; by persistently
destroying or expelling, by war or persecution, all the nobler spirits, the nation
was degraded in a few centuries. Of course these latter lessons will be more
suited to a higher class, but something of it may be taught early.
Questions of right and wrong will ever be arising. What ought to have been
done under such circumstances? Is rebellion ever justifiable? and when? What
forms of government are best? is there an absolute best? We shall see how
short-sighted is crime when we come to the murder of Cæsar, of Henry III.,
Henry IV., William the Silent. The teacher will not omit to look at the historical
clock, when asking whether acts were right or wrong. We must do justice to
devotion, while pointing out errors and crimes; we must be warned by seeing
that wrong deeds are often done by those who mean well; we must learn that
though error and ignorance is evil, and we must fight against both, yet that good
often comes of the honest working out even of mistaken opinions; that through
illusions we gain the vision of truth.
The many experiments of the past show us too that evils Teaches by experience.
which exist in a community cannot be cured by merely
changing a form of government, or getting rid of this man or that man by
violence; to do this is only to sow dragon’s teeth. A nation is made up of
individuals, and only by individual virtue can salvation come; so people now
seek to bring about the well-being of nations by education rather than by
revolution, because freedom without sense to use it is an evil, and a nation that
is truly free will deserve and obtain free institutions. As Mazzini says:—
“We must convince men that they are all sons of one Teaches the solidarity of man
sole God, and bound to fulfil and execute one sole law
here on earth; that each of them is bound to live not for himself, but for others;
rights can only exist as a consequence of duties fulfilled, and we must begin
with fulfilling duties in order to achieve rights. We can obtain our rights only by

deserving them through our own spirit of love and sacrifice. If we seek our
rights in the name of duties, we shall obtain them. If we seek them in the name
of egotism, or any theory of happiness and well-being propounded by the
teachers of materialism, we shall never achieve other than a momentary
triumph, to be followed by utter confusion.”
One may point out the gradual progress which, with occasional recessions,
has, we trust, been made. One may stir in the young patriotism, and an
enthusiasm of humanity, and make them feel a desire to do what they can to
amend the evils of their own time.
Lessons of political economy seem to me and the duty of each to the community.
more important for girls than the legislative
contests of constitutional history. They cannot enter into these with the keen
interest of boys, who may themselves one day be lawgivers. All should be
taught that a selfish, wasteful citizen is a disgrace, a sort of moral caterpillar—
learn that selfishness, sensuality, falsehood, under whatever disguises, are
detestable, whilst a self-devoted life is a heritage for ever. We should especially
recognise the faults of our own nation in past times, and in the present too; we
should desire the elevation of the degraded classes, and each should feel that his
life and example has at least some power, that each of us is responsible to men
as well as to God, that it is by noble enthusiasms, by self-devotion, by giving up
one to another that human society is possible.
History, like geography, can be approached two ways:—
1. We may take the map of the world, indicate Methods of approaching the subject.
its leading features and its political divisions.
2. We may take a small tract, realise by description the form and beauty, the
flora and fauna, the temperature, the snowy peaks, the rushing rivers, the silent
stars, think it all out, until we feel at home in the land, work up through details
of topography to clear conceptions.
In teaching history, I think we ought to take some kind of time-map, mark out
in it a few of the most prominent recorded facts, tell something of the heroes,
after whose names tracts of time have been called, trace out a few of the leading
empires, give landmarks.
Then we may, after showing the position of a certain period in With juniors.
the world-chart, work it up in detail. The way in which each period
should be treated will depend much on the age of the class. With young ones,
the teaching will be more narrative and biography; the memory and imagination
will be chiefly called into play. Some outline or short history should be read by
the child, the most prominent events, etc., should be entered in a special
historical map. The chronological, as well as the geographical atlas, should

always be at hand. The teacher should go quickly round the class, asking each
child a few questions, just to ascertain whether the work has been properly
prepared, then she should fill up herself such parts as will come home to the
class. For young classes, though some passages from good histories may be
read, the teacher must be prepared to give a great deal viva voce. Little children
do not take in so well what is written for older people, the words are not
adapted to them, nor the mode of expression. Besides, the teacher’s eye is
occupied, she does not see whether she is holding the attention of her class.
True, her words may not be quite well chosen, but she will be able to make the
narrative more life-like to those whose minds she knows. But she must on no
account try to learn it up. If she would relate well, she must conjure up the
scene before her own mind, carefully paint in the details, and then describe her
own vision, watching the children to see if they, too, take it in.
But all must not be told; as far as may be, children should be led to anticipate.
Thus in a narrative of a campaign, generally so dry and unprofitable, the
children should be led to consider what were the aims, what would be the best
way of carrying out operations, what posts would be occupied, which leader
chosen, how the money would be raised, etc. They will take great delight in
finding out these things, and not easily forget what they have discovered; it will
accustom them to read in an intelligent way, so they will be able to predict to
some extent what people are likely to do.
The elder classes should read some large history, if possible With senior classes.
some original authority, and thus learn to read for themselves,
to examine the statements set before them, and to sift evidence. The characters
of Richard II. and Richard III., of Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth, of the
Stuarts and Cromwell, of Laud and Bacon, will form good exercises in the
discussion of probabilities, and teach caution and moderation in the judgments
of daily life. For elder classes, too, we may make great use, not only of
Shakspere, but of the best historical novels. For the teaching of higher classes I
may point to the following papers and add also a chapter on time-maps.

TEACHING MODERN HISTORY TO SENIOR CLASSES.
By Alice Andrews.

Girls,
Knowledge is now no more a fountain seal’d;
Drink deep, until the habits of the slave,
The sins of emptiness, gossip and spite
And slander, die.

The Princess.
In teaching history our aim should be not to miss the “spirit” of Introductory.
the period we are taking. We have to inquire what forces are at
work moulding the character of the nation, and to estimate the results they
produce. We have to find the place our period holds in building up the national
history. Each period has a heritage from the past, each hands on its legacy for
the future—of warning from failure or from a success which is more disastrous
than failure—of encouragement from victories, not necessarily of the
battlefield, and which perhaps were won at the cost of noble lives willingly,
even joyfully, offered.
There have been periods of ignoble wars, such as the Hundred Years’ War,
when Englishmen were brutalised by murder and rapine, ruining a people too
deeply sunk in misery to defend themselves. And retribution overtook the nation
as it overtakes the individual. Our own Wars of the Roses were the fruit of the
unjust wars in France. There have been periods of ignoble peace, when “peace
with dishonour” might have been England’s motto, when foreign troops were
subsidised to protect the shores that Englishmen were too craven-hearted to
defend themselves, when enthusiasm was ridiculed as “mock patriotism,” and
political reformers were nicknamed “boy patriots”. Corruption was reduced to a
system, and Walpole believed that every man had his price. The Church was
paralysed by spiritual deadness.
Individual men stand out as warnings or examples. Richard II. appears first as
full of noble impulses, a born leader of men, but his crime determines his life.
To rid himself of the man who knows his crime, he banishes Norfolk for life; the
other, who suspects it, he banishes for a term of years, and this is reduced at the
intercession of old Gaunt. Either the punishment was, or was not, just. If just, it
ought not to have been reduced on petition; if unjust, it ought never to have
been inflicted. Henceforward Richard rapidly deteriorates: he seizes Gaunt’s
lands in spite of his promise to the absent Bolingbroke, in spite of the warning
of his uncle York:—
Take Hereford’s rights away and take from Time
His charters and his customary rights...
You pluck a thousand dangers on your head,
You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts,
And prick my tender conscience to those thoughts
Which honour and allegiance cannot think.

Richard has himself set the example of disregard of others’ rights, and makes
it possible for Bolingbroke to return in the name of justice and raise the country
against the king.

The teacher of history in the older classes ought to be able Previous knowledge.
to assume a correct knowledge of the most important facts
and dates at least in English history. These are very easily learnt in childhood
and most difficult to acquire by older girls. Those who have been trained on the
historical chart are acquainted with the main characteristic of each century, and
the principal events in it, and have no difficulty in grouping fresh knowledge
round central well-known facts, just as the geographical student can fill in with
increasing completeness a map from memory. Comparatively few are trained in
any knowledge of foreign history, and I have known not a few grown-up girls
find the greatest difficulty in mastering the leading names and events in French
and other European history. In this respect other nations are beyond us. Foreign
girls, both French and German, are trained to connect the history of their own
country with the general course of events, and know the facts of European
history as a whole. The absence of this knowledge in English girls makes the
study of foreign policy unnecessarily difficult to them.
In outline history, paint with a thick brush. “One can’t see Continuity of history.
the wood for the trees in it” might too often be the criticism
of the pupil on a lesson. The conscientious teacher tries to omit nothing, the
consequence in the pupil’s mind is blind confusion. The principle of selection
rules here if anywhere. We must aim at avoiding the defect which Lord Acton
denounces as “the want of an energetic understanding of the sequence and real
significance of events, which ... is ruin to a student of history. It is playing at
study (he continues) to see nothing but the unmeaning and unsuggestive surface
as we generally do.” We want instead to trace in broad outline the continuity of
history—for instance, look at the Wars of the Roses in this light. How do they
stand in relation to constitutional development? While the nobles were at war,
the commons were gaining victories, bloodless it is true, but more lasting than
any gained on battlefields. It was a time of immense constitutional
development. And yet these victories were practically worthless for the
moment. What advantage was it to the victim of the “overmighty subject” that
the Statute Book provided for his rights and liberties? The “Paston Letters” give
a vivid picture of the impotence of the ordinary subject to get the law enforced.
What the country needed was strong government, not political privileges.
“Constitutional development had outrun administrative order,” had outrun, that
is to say, the general point of development reached by the nation at large, and
the Tudors came in, so to speak, on the programme of strong government. The
Tudor rule represented the two great principles of orderly administration and
even-handed government. It needed a dictatorship to accomplish the task. The
task was completed at the Armada, and the country took back the trust at the

accession of the Stuarts. That the Stuarts failed to recognise this, was the cause
of the long constitutional struggle that culminated in the Civil War. Once more
constitutional development proceeds, but now the nation is keeping pace with it.
The subject of sectional as opposed to Topical or sectional arrangement.
chronological teaching seems to belong here, for
upon it depends the very essence of clearness in teaching. If pupils have before
them the time-map, or chronological chart, already referred to, the teacher can
with greater freedom treat the subjects sectionally, for before the eye of the
pupil are grouped all the parallel events in each square representing some
definite space of time. To teach chronologically may seem more accurate
perhaps, but really too often produces hopeless confusion in the mind of the
pupil—the thread is lost in taking up many different subjects, e.g., in
Elizabeth’s reign, I would take as separate sections her relations with Scotland,
necessitating a review of Scotch affairs generally, and the series of plots for
releasing Queen Mary; Elizabeth’s policy with regard to (a) the Anglican
Church; (b) Roman Catholics; (c) Protestant Nonconformists; her Irish policy;
her foreign policy illustrated by her “courtships”; the domestic history of the
reign and so on. The different sections touch sometimes, but it only adds to the
interest to illustrate the new section from one already known. So in the Seven
Years’ War, I would not follow the course of events for each separate year on
the Continent and in America and in India, but I would take the whole course of
the war in Europe, explaining why it was not only justifiable but a stroke of
genius in Pitt, to do what he had himself denounced in the “Hanover-troop
minister,” and by utilising foreign troops for England’s war on the Continent,
set her free to follow her true interests in the colonies, and I would trace as
separate sections the laying of the foundations of her world-empire in India and
in Canada.
This method of teaching presupposes that a scheme has Syllabus of lessons.
been drawn out for the course. If possible the scheme should
be given to the class in the form of a syllabus of the lessons. If printing is too
expensive, it is worth while to cyclostyle copies oneself. The value the class
attaches to them is sufficient reward for the trouble, and they become a model to
the girls on which to arrange their own study of history in post-school days.
Examples of such a syllabus for English history and French history lessons will
be found at the end of the paper.
The historical map ought to be the inseparable Illustrations: (a) Historical atlas.
accompaniment of the history lesson, and in this
respect there is nearly everything to be wished for. Good wall maps with bold
colouring in which the outlines of different territories can be seen from a

distance, and in which the names are clearly printed in English, have yet to be
found. To use a modern map in doing French outlines or other continental
history is most misleading, and yet too often this is all the teacher has at hand.
There is Sprüner of course, but even if the school can afford these expensive
maps, they are not very satisfactory for the ordinary class; the colouring is not
distinct, and the map is so overcrowded with names that it is difficult to find at a
glance the places one wants. They are rather for private and minute study than
for class work. The publisher’s explanation is that there is not a sufficient
demand to make it worth while to bring out historical maps, an incidental
illustration of how little attention is given in English schools to continental
history, while a class map of the Roman Empire can be found everywhere. At
present the teacher is forced to make her own maps. If she is happy enough to
have old pupils with a talent for map-drawing, she can gradually make a
collection of maps enlarged from those in good histories; the maps in Kitchin’s
History of France are invaluable for this purpose, but Kitchin provides nothing
for the periods of the Italian expeditions, and these have to be adapted from
Sprüner.
Gardiner’s Student’s Atlas provides what is necessary for the pupil in the
English history class; there is a small cheap German atlas for general history
(Putzger, 2 marks), but it is not very satisfactory for the ordinary English
schoolgirl, the difference in the names is puzzling. What is wanted is a student’s
atlas for continental, especially French history, at a reasonable price.
But even given the atlas, it remains for the teacher to find an unfailing receipt
by which to ensure its use.
Not the least part of the value of a syllabus in the hands of a (b) Blackboard
pupil, is the saving of time it makes in the lesson, otherwise the
blackboard must be used for unfamiliar names and words. The merest glance
through a pupil’s rough notes of French history will be a sufficient proof of this.
Besides the text-book, which every pupil (c) First-hand acquaintance with
should possess, no teacher of older girls will authorities.
be satisfied unless they read at least passages
from the authorities on the period. The difficulty is to provide a sufficient
number of copies for a large class, or any copies at all, beyond those possessed
by the teacher or the school: this difficulty, however, may be met. There are
always girls who are glad to have good books suggested for Christmas or
birthday presents, and who begin a really nice library of their own in this way.
But a class-library can be formed without much trouble. The nucleus of a class-
library being made by the necessary books for one year’s work, the girls can be
asked to leave a similar legacy for their successors. A list of books wanted, with

their prices, can be prepared, and it will be found that several will combine to
give really expensive books, and in this way the class can command the use of
sets of Stubbs, Froude, Gardiner, Ranke, Lecky, etc., besides smaller books like
the Great Statesmen Series.
Since it is impossible for girls with their limited time to read the whole of the
big histories, the teacher will find it a valuable practice to dictate the numbers of
the pages (in one or more volumes) bearing upon her lesson, which the girls
should read. They are thus trained to use authorities, and this is being
recognised more and more as of the first importance. There was a time when
girls depended entirely upon their notes, and the misspelling of names of
historians showed that their knowledge of great writers was second-hand. But
when they get a first-hand acquaintance with historians like Froude, Gardiner,
Seeley, Ranke, Lecky, they are insensibly being trained to be satisfied with
nothing but the best.
The period should be studied by the teacher, (d) Contemporary writings: chronicles.
and to a certain extent by the pupil, in
contemporary writers. Chronicles are delightful reading. Who that has once
learnt to know Saint Louis of France in the pages of his faithful seneschal, can
fail to breathe the very atmosphere of the time? De Joinville shows him what a
later preacher called him, “the most loyal spirit of his age”. Again no weighty
dissertations on the small account in which human life was held in the Middle
Ages would be so convincing as the incidental contemptuous remarks of the
courtier-chronicler Froissart. The exquisite courtesy to a De Ribeaumont was
quite compatible with the halters for the six citizens of Calais. And to take one
more illustration quite late on in the centuries—what a gulf separates ante-
Reform times from our own! How expressive of the haughty landed aristocrat
are these words of the Duchess of Buckingham after condescending to listen to
the Wesleyan preaching: “I thank your ladyship for the information concerning
the Methodist preachers. Their doctrines are most repulsive and strongly
tinctured with impertinence and disrespect towards their superiors, in
perpetually endeavouring to level all ranks and to do away with all distinctions.
It is monstrous to be told that you have a heart as sinful as the common
wretches that crawl the earth. This is highly offensive, and I cannot but wonder
that your ladyship should relish any sentiments so much at variance with high
birth and good breeding.”
Full lists of contemporary writers will be found in Traill’s volumes on Social
England, which as “a record of the progress of the people in Religion, Laws,
Learning, Arts, Industry, Commerce, Science, Literature and Manners, from the
earliest times to the present day,” meets perhaps the greatest want of the

ordinary teacher, to whom no one general history of social progress was before
accessible.
As illustrations there are also historical portraits, (e) Historical pictures.
contemporary pictures of historic scenes, and pictures of
costumes. Most schools now subscribe to the “Art for Schools Association,”
and can make a very good portrait gallery of their own. The splendid collection
of historical costumes designed by Mr. Lewis Wingfield for the Healtheries can
still be seen, I believe, and a few of them have been reproduced by him in a
book with descriptive letterpress. Exhibitions, like the Tudor and Stuart, are
most valuable to the realisation of history, and visits to historical buildings are
within the possibilities of most, and add great zest to many a holiday both for
teachers and girls. It is impossible to forget the circumstances of the Dauphin’s
coronation at Rheims, after staying where Joan of Arc stayed and standing in
the cathedral, where she witnessed the fulfilment of her mission.
Passages from historical poems or from a (f) Historical poems, Shakspere’s plays,
Shakspere play often add to the interest of a historical novels.
lesson; as the challenge-scene from Richard
II., the trial-scene from Henry VIII., Milton’s sonnet on the massacre in
Piedmont, Spenser’s Gloriana and the false Duessa for Elizabeth and Mary
Queen of Scots. And in quite modern history Mrs. Hamilton King’s Disciples,
Swinburne’s Songs before Sunrise, Mrs. Browning’s Peace of Villafranca, all
give expression to the passionate longing for freedom of Italy.
Perhaps nothing makes history more real than a good historical novel.
Bulwer-Lytton’s Last of the Barons makes the figure of Warwick as lifelike as
that of any minister of our own day. Edward IV., Clarence, Richard III. have
each their individuality, and so has that shadowy prince who was killed at
Tewkesbury, while Isabella Neville stands out for ever distinct from her gentle,
timid sister Anne.
John Inglesant gives the very spirit of the Charles I. period—cavaliers and
ladies coquetting with the classics in the learned Oxford halls, the devotion,
even to the death, of the Jesuit-trained John Inglesant, and the midnight
apparition of the murdered Strafford to the king, for whom he had laid down his
life.
It is quite worth while to put up a list of historical novels bearing on their
period, for older as well as for younger classes.
How are we to test the work done by the pupils? Home-work: (a) Viva-voces.
Lord Acton quotes from Sir W. Hamilton: “I must
regard the main duty of a professor to consist, not simply in communicating
information, but in doing this in such a manner and with such an

accompaniment of subsidiary means, that the information he conveys may be
the occasion of awakening his pupils to a vigorous and varied exertion of their
faculties”.
By means of viva-voce questions and paper work, the class should be tested
between each lecture. The object of the teacher is to find out with as little
expenditure of time as possible, that the work set has been thoroughly done. I
know no better means of doing this than by what are called written viva-voces.
The teacher prepares two sets of questions called respectively A and B. The
alternate girls write the answers to the A and B questions in small exercise
books which they keep for the purpose. They rule two margins, the left-hand for
the number of the question, the right-hand margin is used by the corrector. Ten
minutes can test an hour’s lesson. The books are changed so that the Bs correct
the work of the As, and have to attend to the answers of the questions they did
not do. The teacher repeats aloud the answer to each question. Each corrector
signs her name and puts the mark obtained. The teacher, when she looks
through the books afterwards, can thus bring home any careless correction to
the right person, and anything like favouritism in correcting is prevented. This
viva-voce work ensures accurate knowledge of facts, and I have known girls
find it sufficiently useful, to continue the same system among themselves after
they have gone up to the university.
The most valuable exercise for the pupil is the writing of (b) Essay-writing.
essays. These may begin on a subject already dealt with in class
(care being taken that the essay is not a reproduction of notes of the lesson), but
the pupil will soon be trained to read and think out for herself subjects which
she has not previously heard discussed. She will learn experimentally what Lord
Acton calls, “those shining precepts which are the registered property of every
school, that is to say, learn as much by writing as by reading; be not content
with the best books, seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites; keep
men and things apart; guard against the prestige of great names; see that your
judgments are your own and do not shrink from disagreement; no trusting
without testing; be more severe to ideas than to actions; do not overlook the
strength of the bad cause or the weakness of the good”.
The giving back of the essays ought to be a very valuable lesson. Happy
passages should be read aloud, weak passages criticised, each paper estimated
as a whole, and the pupil ought to leave the class, feeling that if the work were
to be done again, she at least understands the general drift of the subject and
could treat it more adequately than before.
I venture to illustrate my meaning, the subject set being a discussion of the
policy of Francis I. in his relations with Charles V. The essay should show that

Francis I., like his predecessors in the Italian expeditions, Charles VIII. and
Louis XII., failed to realise in what direction lay the true interests of France,
with regard to the new problem of balance of power. By entering into personal
rivalry with Charles and striving for territorial conquest in Italy, Francis lost the
opportunity which should have belonged to France, of controlling the European
situation. If he had only been content with securing gateways into Italy and
making alliances with the northern Italians and German Protestant princes
against Imperial encroachments, he would have gained the casting vote in
European affairs and have held the key to the problem, which it was not
permitted to France, till the time of Richelieu, to solve.
A word or two as to the way in which the teacher can help Post-school work.
her old pupils to read history. There are a fortunate few who
pass on to the universities. An increasing number can attend University
Extension lectures and become members of a local Students’ Association. But it
is those who are not within reach of any local organisation, who are glad of a
little help. To these, when they first leave school, an old girls’ Reading Society
is generally welcome. The regular reading it requires is a training in methodical
arrangement of time, and schemes of reading, with plenty of choice, are a help
to those who have hitherto had all their intellectual work arranged for them.
Teachers have sometimes found it possible to take up parties to the Summer
Extension meetings. Parents are willing to let their daughters go with
responsible guardians, and the preparatory reading is a great interest, besides the
stimulus that the lectures themselves give to subsequent work at home.
The educational value of historical study does not belong to this Conclusion.
paper, but I end by quoting three passages, which are full of
encouragement to the teacher of history. They are referred to by Lord Acton in
his famous lecture at Cambridge.
“The study of modern history is, next to theology itself and only next in so
far as theology rests on a divine revelation, the most thoroughly religious
training that the mind can receive.” (Bishop Stubbs.)
“History is full of indirect but very effective moral teaching. It is not only, as
Bolingbroke called it, philosophy teaching by examples, but it is morality
teaching by examples. It is essentially the study which best helps the student to
conceive large thoughts. It is impossible to overvalue the moral teaching of
history.” (Sir J. Fitch.)
“The object (in history teaching) is to lead the student to ... take interest in
history not as a mere narrative, but as a chain of causes and effects, still
unwinding itself before our eyes and full of momentous consequences to
himself and his descendants, an unremitting conflict between good and evil

powers, of which every act done by any one of us, insignificant as we are, forms
one of the incidents, a conflict in which even the smallest of us cannot escape
from taking part, in which whoever does not help the right side is helping the
wrong.” (Mill. Inaugural Address.)

SPECIMEN SYLLABUS OF ENGLISH HISTORY.

Foreign Policy of Elizabeth.
Introductory.—Keynote of the period; dynastic alliances. Power of House of Hapsburg built up on
political marriages, even England threatened with absorption by the Hapsburgs, as a consequence of Mary
Tudor’s marriage to Philip, and though Mary’s death made “a great rent in the Hapsburg net, in which
England was enmeshed” (Seeley), yet Philip long struggled to re-establish the Hapsburg dominion in
England, and this, according to the fashion of the time, by marriage. “Courtships of Queen Elizabeth”
begin January, 1559; Philip offers his hand to Elizabeth: “The more I reflect on this business, the more
clearly I see that all will turn on the husband which this woman will choose” (De Feria). Other suitors in
Hapsburg interest, Philibert of Savoy, Archdukes Ferdinand and Charles—Elizabeth encourages Hapsburg
suitors—could thus keep English Catholics in hand in spite of innovations, and get better terms from
France in Treaty of Cateau Cambrésis, April, 1559, France believing her supported by Spain. But
England’s safety from Hapsburgs largely due to her danger from Valois. The Valois had secured Scotland,
and claimed England through marriage of Mary and Francis. For Philip to overthrow Elizabeth would
mean to clear the way for Mary of Scots: it was not till he could come as Mary’s heir, that he openly made
war on England.
Period I. The Scotch Period, 1558-1567.
(i.) 1558-1564, in which a Basis is laid for the Union of England and Scotland.
England and Scotland both under queens; both had to choose between a power based upon the wishes of
the nation, and a power supported by foreign help. Elizabeth chose a national position: “took a course
visibly full of danger, a course in which success was only possible by courage and heroic endurance, but in
which success, if it came, might be splendid, and might raise the nation itself to greatness”. Mary, on the
contrary, brought her subjects under a foreign yoke. Since Mary of Guise’s regency was a High Catholic
rule, the Reformation in Scotland took the form of a national movement, and the national party turned
towards England for help. “The first achievement of Elizabethan policy lay in this, that she called out a
great Reformation party in England and Scotland at once, and thus laid the foundation of the union of
England and Scotland.” Elizabeth’s self-justification in helping subjects against their sovereign: that she
was maintaining national independence against a foreign power. Arran becomes Elizabeth’s suitor in
Protestant interest. January, 1560—Treaty of Berwick—importance. Elizabeth “put herself at the head of
the national religious movement in Scotland”; “in consideration of the attempt to annex Scotland to the
French crown, she promised to aid the Scotch to drive out the foreign invaders”. Success of Elizabeth’s
policy; French troops recalled. July—Treaty of Edinburgh ends the government of Scotland by the French;
December—death of Francis II. severs the union of French and Scotch crowns. 1561—Return of Mary to
Scotland; she refuses to ratify the Treaty of Edinburgh, and sets to work to build up an Anglo-Scotch party
in the interest of the Counter-Reformation.
(ii.) 1565-1567, in which the Danger is of the Union of England and Scotland under Mary against
Elizabeth.
1565—Marriage of Mary and Darnley—importance: Mary puts herself definitely at the head of the
Catholic party in England. 1567—Murder of Darnley; marriage with Bothwell; Lochleven; battle of

Langside; collapse of Counter-Reformation in Great Britain; prospect in James of a solution for England of
both problems of succession and religion.
Period II. The French Period, 1567-1585.
Danger lest France or Spain, or both, make war on England to release Mary and secure the Catholic
succession, but hands of both tied at home, and Elizabeth’s efforts directed to keeping them so. To that
end, sends help to Huguenots in Wars of Religion, and to the revolted Netherlands.
France alarmed by victory of Lepanto (1571), makes advances to England. Courtship of Anjou, 1570-
72, and of Alençon, 1572-84. “Matters were indeed in a critical position for England; the Ridolfi plot was
brewing, the English Catholic nobles in a ferment, and the Pope, Philip, the League and the Guises ready
to turn their whole power to the destruction of Elizabeth.” 1572—Treaty of Blois, pledging Charles IX.
and Elizabeth to give informal aid to the revolted Netherlands. The St. Bartholomew; marriage
negotiations interrupted. 1574—Don John, Governor of the Netherlands, grasps the necessity of the
overthrow of Elizabeth as a preliminary to reducing the Netherlands, and aims at himself marrying the
Queen of Scots and securing England. “The true remedy for the evil condition of the Netherlands ... is that
England should be in the power of a person devoted and well affectioned to your Majesty’s service.” 1575
—The Netherlands offer sovereignty of Holland and Zealand to Elizabeth; she declines. 1578—Flemish
appeal to Alençon to lead them; he accepts in reliance on England; Elizabeth’s policy is that Alençon shall
be under English, not French, patronage, and she poses before Europe as his affianced bride. 1579 and
1581—He visits England for supplies. 1582—Alençon invested with sovereignty of the Netherlands;
Elizabeth’s connection emphasised by presence of Leicester and Sir P. Sidney. 1584—Alençon expelled
from Netherlands; his death. “Elizabeth had begun her long marriage juggle in 1559 in hourly danger of
being overwhelmed and crushed by her own Catholic subjects in union with one or other of her great
continental neighbours. She ended it in 1583, triumphant all along the line, with both her rivals crippled
and distracted, whilst she really held the balance of peace and war of Europe in her hands.”
Period III. The Spanish Period, 1585-1603.
(i.) To 1596, when England, France and the Netherlands fight Spain either Separately or in a
Concert which is secret.
Counter-Reformation in France represented by the League, the anti-dynastic party; Pact de Joinville
between Philip and the League, after murder of William of Orange, for extirpation of heresy in France and
the Netherlands; importance of 1585 in English policy; Alençon gone, Elizabeth must act openly if
Netherlands are to be saved. Only military movement as yet helping Scotch in 1561. With 1585 begins
what is meant by the “Elizabethan Age”. Pause to estimate Elizabeth’s policy. Froude finds no clue but
inconsistency—really a consistent inconsistency. Seeley’s estimate: “There are emergencies in which a
persistent abstinence from action, a kind of resolute irresolution, is the only sound policy.... Everything at
her accession was in a sort of suspense. Whether the nation was Catholic or Protestant, by what title she
herself reigned, who would be her own successor, and whom she should marry—all was undefined.”
Elizabeth really understood popular government; she gave her people twenty-six years of peace, in which
they learnt to know themselves and what they wanted. 1585—Siege of Antwerp; Netherlands in extremity;
offer sovereignty to Elizabeth; she refuses; Philip tries intimidation by wholesale arrest of British sailors;
war inevitable. Leicester’s expedition; his blunders; fall of Antwerp; Zutphen; Elizabeth also lets loose her
“Knight of the Ocean”; Drake’s expeditions, 1577, 1585, 1587; execution of Mary Queen of Scots. “The
execution of Mary Stuart in the greatest degree, and the campaign of Leicester in a secondary degree,
together with the adventurous voyages of Drake, brought on the open war between Elizabeth and Philip.”
1588—Armada; causes of failure: (a) superiority of English ships and English sailors; (b) English guns
heavier and better served; (c) unfavourable winds causing delay and then destruction; (d) unfitness of
Parma for command. “But all said and done, the victory was one of men and tactics more than materials.”
“The Armada was not defeated by a storm, but at Gravelines, on Monday, 29th July; and the enterprise was
defeated when Parma failed to bring up his flotilla.” Results of Armada: (a) gave England a new position
in Europe; (b) secured her from danger of future invasion, and consequently (c) enabled Elizabeth to turn
her attention to the divisions that weakened the English Church; (d) gave the nation leisure for the struggle

between Crown and Parliament, which only ended with William III. 1589—Elizabeth’s Counter-Armada;
Drake’s advice, “better cheap” than awaiting renewed attack. Spain’s power broken, the religious question
is fought out on a new battle-ground; succession struggle in France; League helped by Spain against Henry
of Navarre; Arques; Ivry. 1591—English forces under Essex to help Henry of Navarre. 1595—Henry
publishes declaration of war against Spain.
(ii.) 1596-1598. France, England and Netherlands united in a Formal Coalition of one Catholic
and two Protestant Powers against the Counter-Reformation.

1596—Elizabeth makes a formal alliance offensive and defensive with Henry IV. and the States against
Spain, and sends expedition under Howard and Essex against Cadiz; the “Trafalgar of the Elizabethan
War” (Laughton). 1597—Essex and Raleigh make the “Island voyage” against Spain.
(iii.) 1598-1603. Coalition Dissolved. Philip III. against Elizabeth and Netherlands.
1598—Henry IV. deserts his allies and makes peace with Spain in Treaty of Vervins. Philip III.
continues war against Elizabeth in order to use Ireland—in revolt—as basis of operations for the Counter-
Reformation against England. Danger from Ireland increased by treason of Essex. 1602—Spanish
expedition lands in Ireland; joins Tyrone against Kinsale; defeated by Mountjoy. 1603—Elizabeth
increasingly hostile towards Spain till her death.
Results of Elizabeth’s Policy.
1. She gave England twenty-six years of peace, in spite of the distracted state of things abroad, and by
this means (a) the religious question, (b) the succession question, were settled without civil war.
2. By creating a new mental atmosphere, she gave England a new national temper, which found
expression in a national poetry. Shakspere’s “jubilant patriotism”:—
“This England never did, nor never shall
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror....
Come the three corners of the world in arms,
And we shall shock them; nought shall make us rue,
If England to herself do rest but true.”
—K. John.
“This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle ...
This precious stone set in the silver sea ...
This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land.”
—K. Richard II.
And the passionate devotion to Elizabeth as the embodiment of the national greatness:—
“She shall be loved and feared; her own shall bless her:
In her days every man shall eat in safety
Under his own vine, what he plants, and sing
The merry songs of peace to all his neighbours.”
—K. Henry VIII.
Elizabeth the Gloriana of Spenser.
3. She saved England from absorption by Spain or France, and from fear of future invasion.
4. She created the monarchy of Great Britain by laying the basis of union between England and
Scotland.
5. She made England insular, but counterbalanced the disadvantages of insularity by encouraging
maritime expansion.

SYLLABUS OF LESSON ON RICHELIEU.

1610. Louis XIII.
Difficulties of Regent Mary de Medici. “The day of Kings is
past, that of Grandees and Princes has arrived.” Her
Spanish policy. Concini.
1614. States-General, last of old Régime. Louis assumes
government. Fall of Concini. Rise of De Luynes. Queen
Mother becomes centre of disaffection. Guise. Bouillon.
Mayenne. Epernon. Huguenots.
1622. Peace of Montpellier. Huguenots have only Rochelle and
Montauban.
1624. Entrance into power of Richelieu.
RICHELIEU. Born a leader of men. Genius of conception, force of will.
Ideal, absolutism. Obstacle, feudal nobility; destroys their
political vitality by increasing power of monarchy. 1.
Substitutes Intendants for great Governors of Provinces.
2. Destroys feudal strongholds. 3. Brings nobles under the
law; duelling, Montmorency; peculation, Marshal de
Marillac; conspiracy, Cinq Mars. 4. States-General never
meet. 5. Parlements restricted to judicial duties. 6. Heavy
taxation. Cultivates three powerful alliances: 1. Men of
letters; 2. Favour of commons; 3. Love of national glory.
Foreign Policy. To substitute influence of France in Europe for
Austro-Spanish power. Founder of an “occidental” policy.
Two things necessary: 1. Balance of power; 2. Mutual
religious toleration. Difficulties at home: 1. Spanish
sympathies of Anne of Austria; 2. Huguenot struggles for
independence.
Periods of Richelieu’s Rule.
I. The Valtelline Period, 1624-26. Richelieu enters
European politics. Importance of Valtelline as connecting
link between Austro-Spanish dominions. Seized in
defiance of Treaty. Interference of Richelieu. Huguenot
revolt. T. Montpellier pacifying them while he concludes
Valtelline question in T. Monzon.
II. Period of La Rochelle, 1626-28. Richelieu crushes all
opposition at home to clear his way for decisive
interference abroad. “La conspiration des Dames.”

Vendome in Brittany. 1627. Buckingham’s expedition to
Rhé. 1629. Fall of La Rochelle and Montauban.
III. Period of absolute supremacy at home, 1629-35.
Re-enters European politics, but only as a secondary
power, in Thirty Years’ War. France acts again in Italy.
Succession in Mantua and Montferrat. Valtelline question
reopened, and again settled in favour of France. Day of
Dupes, 11th Nov., 1630. T. of Cherasco, 1631. Intrigues of
Gaston of Orleans with enemy. Richelieu acts with
Gustavus Adolphus, the “Protestant Crusader”. Interests
of France move to Lorraine border. Death of Gustavus
indirect advantage to France. Richelieu’s terms with
Bernard of Weimar. 1635. France declares war against
Spain.
IV. Period of France’s supremacy in Europe, 1635-43.
1636. Recovery of Corbie from Spanish. 1638. B.
Rheinfeld. Fall of Brisach. 1639. Death of Bernard of
Weimar. “Turning point of the contest,” from a useful ally
was becoming a dangerous rival. Richelieu secures
Alsace. Conspiracy of Cinq Mars.
1642. Death of Richelieu. Rise of Mazarin.
LIST OF BOOKS.
The following lists have been drawn up with the help of several teachers of history, and are intended for
the practical work of the school. They aim at giving the chief authorities for each period, besides other
books dealing with special subjects. Where possible, the publisher and price have been given. Those who
want more exhaustive lists and desire original authorities can find them in the syllabuses of the University
Extension Lectures.
The historical stories have been chosen from lists furnished by pupils.
Text-books.
Gardiner. Student’s History. Longmans. 4/- a volume.
Vol. i., to 1509; vol. ii., 1509-1689; vol. iii., 1689-1885.
J. F. Bright. History of England. Longmans.
Vol. i., “Mediæval Monarchy,” 449-1485 (4/6); vol. ii., “Personal Monarchy,” 1485-1688 (5/-); vol. iii.,
“Constitutional Monarchy,” 1689-1837 (7/6).
Ransome. An Advanced History of England. Rivingtons. 7/6.
Acland and Ransome. Analysis of English History. Longmans. 6/-.
D. Beale. Text-book of English and General History. Bell & Daldy. 2/6.
Taswell-Langmead. Constitutional History. Stevens & Hayes. 15/-.
D. Beale. Student’s Chronological Maps (Charts). Bell & Daldy. 3/6.
Gardiner. Student’s Historical Atlas. Longmans. 5/-.
F. W. Putzger. Historischer Schul-Atlas. Bielefeld and Leipzig. Verlag von Velhagen und Klasing. 2 marks.

Period 1066-1272—
Stubbs. Constitutional History. Frowde. Clarendon Press. 12/- each volume.
Vol. i., to 1215; vol. ii., 1215-1399.
J. R. Green. History of the English People, vol. i. Macmillan. 16/-.
— The Making of England. Macmillan. 16/-.
— The Conquest of England. Macmillan. 18/-.
Freeman. History of the Norman Conquest. Macmillan. 36/-.
Lingard. History of England, vols. i. and ii. Duffy. Set of 10 vols. £1 10/-.
Kate Norgate. England under the Angevin Kings. 2 vols. Macmillan. £1 12/-.
Mrs. J. R. Green. Henry II. (Twelve English Statesmen). Macmillan. 2/6.
O. H. Richardson. National Movement under Henry III. Macmillan. 6/6.
Stubbs. Early Plantagenets (Epochs). Longmans. 2/6.
Cox. Crusades (Epochs). Longmans. 2/6.
Traill. Social England, vol. i. Cassell. 15/-.
Thorold Rogers. History of Agriculture and Prices, vols. i. and ii. Clarendon Press. £2 2/-.
Hunt. English Church in the Middle Ages. Longmans. 2/6.
Stubbs. Introductions to (a) Gesta Henrici II.: Benet of Peterbro; (b) Roger of Hoveden (for foreign policy)
(Rolls Series).
St. Thomas of Canterbury. David Nutt. 1/-.
W. H. Hutton. - Misrule of Henry III. David Nutt. 1/-.
Simon de Montfort. David Nutt. 1/-.
In English History from Contemporary Writers Series.
De Joinville. Saint Louis. Chronicle (translated by James Hutton). Sampson Low. 2/6.

Period 1272-1399—
Stubbs. Constitutional History, vol. ii. Clarendon Press. 12/-.
Green. History of the English People, vol. i. Macmillan. 16/-.
Lingard. History of England, vols. ii. and iii. Duffy. 10 vols. £1 10/-.
Author of “The Greatest of the Plantagenets.” Life and Reign of Edward I. Seeley Jackson. 6/-.
Tout. Edward I. (Twelve English Statesmen). Macmillan. 2/6.
Longman. Life and Times of Edward III. Longmans. 2 vols. 28/-.
Traill. Social England, vol. ii. Cassell. 15/-.
Burton. History of Scotland. Blackwood. 8 vols. £3 3/-.
Oman. Art of War (Hundred Years’ War). Fisher Unwin. 17/6.
Wakeman. History of the Church of England. Rivingtons. 6/-.
Stubbs. Early Plantagenets (Epochs). Longmans. 2/6.
Poole. Wycliffe and Early Movements for Reform. Longmans. 2/6.
Freeman. Historical Essays. 1st series, Essay on Edward I. Macmillan. 10/6.
Jusserand. English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages. Fisher Unwin. 7/6.
Ashley. Economic History. Longmans. Part i., 5/-; part ii., 10/6.
Shakspere. Play of Richard II.
Froissart. Chronicles.
Chaucer. Canterbury Tales.
Langland. Piers Plowman.

Period 1399-1485—
Stubbs. Constitutional History, vol. iii. Clarendon Press. 12/-.
Green. History of the English People, vols. i. and ii. Macmillan. 16/- each vol.
Lingard. History of England, vols. iii. and iv. Duffy & Sons. 10 vols. £1 10/-.
Ramsay. Lancaster and York. Clarendon Press. £1 16/-.

Wylie. England under Henry IV. Longmans. 4 vols. 10/6, 15/-, 15/-, £1 1/-.
Church. Henry V. (Men of Action Series). Macmillan. 2/6.
Gairdner. Richard III. Longmans (out of print). 10/-.
Oman. Warwick (Men of Action Series). Macmillan. 2/6.
Stubbs. Lectures on the Study of Medieval and Modern History. Clarendon Press. 8/6.
Seebohm. Oxford Reformers. Longmans. 14/-.
Traill. Social England, vol. ii. Cassell. 15/-.
Gairdner. Lancaster and York (Epochs). Longmans. 2/6.
James Gairdner. Paston Letters. Constable. 16/-.
Fortescue. Governance of England (edited Plummer). Clarendon Press. 12/6.
Shakspere. Plays: Henry IV., Henry V., Henry VI.

Tudor Period, 1485-1603—
York Powell and Tout. Text-book, History of England (Henry VIII. to William III.). Longmans. 2/6.
Lingard. History of England, vols. iv., v., vi. Duffy & Sons. 10 vols. £1 10/-.
Green. History of the English People, vol. ii. Macmillan. 16/-.
Froude. History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Armada. Longmans. 12 vols. 3/6 each.
Hallam. History of England (Constitutional). Murray. 7/6.
Busch. England under the Tudors. Innes & Co. 16/-.
Gairdner. Henry VII. (English Statesmen Series). Macmillan. 2/6.
Bacon. Henry VII. (edited Lumby). Cambridge University Press. 2/-.
Brewer. Reign of Henry VIII. Murray. 2 vols. 15/- each.
Beesley. Queen Elizabeth. Macmillan. 2/6.
Creighton. Elizabeth. Boussod. £2 8/-.
— Age of Elizabeth (Epochs). Longmans. 2/6.
— Wolsey (Twelve English Statesmen). Macmillan. 2/6.
Ranke. History of England, vol. ... endon Press. 6 vols. £3 3/-.
Traill. Social England, vols. ii. and iii. Cassell. 15/- each volume.
Stubbs. Lectures on Medieval and Modern History. Clarendon Press. 8/6.
Macaulay. Essays (Burleigh). Longmans. 2/6.
Seeley. Growth of British Policy. Cambridge University Press. 2 vols. 12/-.
Seebohm. Oxford Reformers. Longmans. 14/-.
Wakeman. History of the Church of England. Rivingtons. 6/-.
Burnet. History of the Reformation. Clarendon Press. 7 vols. £1 10/-.
Aubrey Moore. History of the Reformation. Kegan Paul. 16/-.
Froude. English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century. Longmans. 6/-.
Hume. Courtships of Queen Elizabeth. Fisher Unwin. 12/-.
— The Year after the Armada. Fisher Unwin. 12/-.
— Walter Raleigh. Fisher Unwin. 5/-.
— Philip II. (Foreign Statesmen). Macmillan. 2/6.
Cunningham. English Industry and Commerce. Pitt Press. Vol. i., 13/4; vol. ii., 15/-.
H. Hall. Society in the Elizabethan Age. Sonnenschein. 10/6.
Berville. The Story of the Chevalier Bayard (Chronicle). Friswell. 2/6.

Stuarts and Commonwealth, 1603-1660—
Cordery and Philpotts. King and Commonwealth (text-book). Seeley. 5/-.
Gardiner. History of England, 1603-1642. Longmans. 10 vols. 6/- each.
— History of the Great Civil War, 1642-1649. Longmans. 4 vols. 6/- each.
Lingard. History of England, vols. vii. and viii. Duffy & Sons. 10 vols. £1 10/-.
Green. History of the English People, vol. iii. Macmillan. 16/-.
Ranke. History of England, vols. i., ii., iii. Clarendon Press. 6 vols. £3 3/-.
Hallam. Constitutional History. Murray. 7/6.

Guizot. History of the English Revolution. Bohn. 3/6.
— Life of Oliver Cromwell. Bentley. 6/-.
Frederic Harrison. Cromwell (Twelve English Statesmen). Macmillan. 2/6.
Traill. Social England, vol. iv. Cassell. 17/-.
Sanford. Studies and Illustrations of the Great Rebellion. John Parker. 16/-.
Forster. Sir John Eliot. Longmans (out of print).
— Grand Remonstrance. Murray. 12/-.
Church. Bacon (English Men of Letters). Macmillan. 1/-.
Carlyle. Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches. Chapman & Hall. 2/6.
W. H. Hutton. William Laud (Leaders of Religion Series). Methuen. 3/6.
Ottley. Lancelot Andrewes (Leaders of Religion Series). Methuen. 3/6.
Lady Verney. Memoirs of the Verney Family. Longmans. 2 vols., 42/-; vol. iii., 21/-.

The Later Stuarts, 1660-1714—
Hale. Fall of the Stuarts (Epochs). Longmans. 2/6.
Morris. Age of Anne. Longmans. 2/6.
Lingard. History of England, vols. ix., x. (ends 1689). Duffy. 10 vols. £1 10/-.
Ranke. History of England, vols. iii., iv., v. (use for foreign policy). Clarendon Press. £3 3/-.
Macaulay. History of England. Longmans. 5/-.
Hallam. Constitutional History. Murray. 7/6.
Lecky. History of England in the 18th Century. Longmans. 7 vols. 6/- each.
Green. History of the English People, vols. iii. and iv. Macmillan. 16/- a vol.
Traill. William III. (Twelve English Statesmen). Macmillan. 2/6.
Stanhope. Reign of Queen Anne. Murray. 16/-.
Wyon. History of Great Britain during the Reign of Queen Anne. Chapman & Hall (out of print). 2 vols. £1
12/-.
Leslie Stephen. Swift (Men of Letters Series). Macmillan. 1/-.
Swift. Conduct of the Allies. Various.
Hassall. Bolingbroke (Statesmen Series). W. H. Allen. 2/6.
Macaulay. Essays (Temple). Longmans. 2/6.
Evelyn. Diary (Chandos Classics). Warne. 1/6.
Traill. Social England, vol. iv. Cassell. 17/-.
Burnet. History of His Own Times. Clarendon Press. 9/6.
Anson. Law and Custom of the Constitution. Clarendon Press. Vol. i., 12/6; vol. ii., 14/-.
Hodder. Shaftesbury. Cassell. 3/6.

Hanoverian Period, 1714-1815—
Skottowe. Our Hanoverian Kings. Sampson Low. 3/6.
Lecky. History of England in the 18th Century. Longmans. 7 vols. 6/- each.
Stanhope. History of England (to 1783). Murray. 9 vols. 5/- each.
Green. History of the English People, vol. iv. Macmillan. 16/-.
Erskine May. Constitutional History (from George III.). Longmans. 3 vols. 18/-.
Hallam. Constitutional History. Murray. 7/6.
Ranke. History of England, vol. v. Clarendon Press. £3 3/-.
Seeley. Expansion of England. Macmillan. 4/6.
Traill. Social England, vol. v. Cassell. 17/-.
Morley. Walpole (Twelve English Statesmen). Macmillan. 2/6.
Macaulay. Essays (Clive, Hastings). Longmans. 2/6.
Morley. Chatham (Twelve English Statesmen). Macmillan. 2/6.
Not yet published.
Rosebery. Pitt (Twelve English Statesmen). Macmillan. 2/6.
Montagu Burrows. British Foreign Policy. Blackwood. 6/-.

Mahan. Influence of Sea Power on History. Sampson Low. 15/-.
Burke. Thoughts on the Present Discontents. Clarendon Press. 4/6.
— Reflections on the French Revolution. Clarendon Press. 5/-.
Also cheaper editions.
Carlyle. French Revolution. Chapman & Hall. 2 vols. 2/6 a vol.
Also cheaper issues.
Thos. Wright. Caricature History of the Georges. Hotten. 6/6.
LIST OF HISTORICAL NOVELS AND TALES AND POEMS
Illustrating the Period 1066 to 1815.

Period 1066-1272—
Kingsley. Hereward the Wake (Last Struggle of the English). Macmillan. 3/6.
Lytton. Harold. Routledge. 2/-.
M. M. Blake. Siege of Norwich Castle (Struggle of the English). Seeley. 5/-.
Henty. Wulff the Saxon (written for boys). Blackie. 6/-.
— Winning his Spurs (written for boys) (Crusades). S. Low. 2/6.
Macfarlane. Camp of Refuge (Hereward). Constable. 3/6.
Sir W. Scott. Count Robert of Paris (First Crusade). Black. 1/6.
— The Betrothed (Henry II.). Black. 1/6.
— The Talisman (Richard and Saladin). Black. 1/6.
— Ivanhoe (Richard Cœur de Lion). Black. 1/6.
C. M. Yonge. The Constable’s Tower (King John). National Society. 3/-.
— The Prince and the Page (Edward I.). Macmillan. 3/6.
— The Little Duke (Richard the Fearless of Normandy). Macmillan. 2/6.
These are children’s books.
G. P. R. James. Philip Augustus (Struggle with King John). Warne. -/6.
Tennyson. Harold: a drama.
— Becket: a drama.

Period 1272-1399—
Jane Porter. The Scottish Chiefs (1296-1314). Routledge. 2/-.
Grace Aguilar. The Days of Bruce. Nisbet. 2/-.
Mary Peard. Prentice Hugh (Edward I.). National Society. 3/6.
M. Everett Green. The Lord of Dynevor (Edward I. Wales). Nelson. 2/6.
Sir W. Scott. Castle Dangerous (1306). Black. 1/6.
Henty. In Freedom’s Cause (William Wallace). Blackie. 6/-.
C. M. Yonge. The Lances of Lynwood (Black Prince in Spain). Macmillan. 2/6.
Henty. St. George for England (Crecy, Poitiers). Blackie. 5/-.
Conan Doyle. The White Company (Black Prince in France). Smith & Elder. 6/-.
E. Mitchell. The Golden Horseshoes (Chivalry. Edward III.). Masters. 5/-.
Everett Green. In the Days of Chivalry (Black Prince). Nelson & Sons. 5/-.
Henty. A March on London (Wat Tyler). Blackie. 5/-.
— The Lion of St. Mark (Venice). Blackie. 6/-.
Lytton. Rienzi (Last Tribune, 1354). Routledge. 3/6.
Sir W. Scott. Lord of the Isles (Bruce).

Period 1399-1485—
James. Agincourt (1415). Warne. -/6.
Henty. At Agincourt. Blackie. 6/-.
Mark Twain. Joan of Arc (serious). Chatto & Windus. 6/-.

Author of “Schönberg Cotta Family”. Joan the Maid. Nelson. 4/-.
Andrew Lang. The Monk of Fife (Joan of Arc). Longmans. 3/6.
Mrs. Oliphant. Joan of Arc. Putnam. 5/-.
Sir W. Scott. The Fair Maid of Perth (Murder of Rothsay). Black. 1/6.
C. M. Yonge. The Caged Lion (James I. of Scotland). Macmillan. 3/6.
Miss Wilbraham. For and Against (Wars of the Roses) (out of print).
C. M. Yonge. Grisly Grisell (Wars of the Roses). Macmillan. 3/6.
Lady G. Fullerton. A Stormy Life (Margaret of Anjou). Burns & Oates. 6/-.
C. M. Yonge. Two Penniless Princesses. Macmillan. 3/6.
Sir W. Scott. Anne of Geierstein (Margaret of Anjou). Black. 1/6.
Lytton. Last of the Barons (Warwick the King Maker). Routledge. 3/6.
H. Ainsworth. The Star Chamber (Henry VII.). Various.
Author of “The Spanish Brothers”. Crushed yet Conquering (John Huss). Religious Tract Society. 6/-.
Sir W. Scott. Quentin Durward (Louis XI. and the Scottish Guard). Black. 1/6.
G. P. R. James. Mary of Burgundy (1477). Warne. -/6.

Period 1485-1603—
Harrison Ainsworth. The Star Chamber. Routledge. 2/-.
Everett Green. Evil May Day (1517). Nelson. 2/6.
— The Church and the King (Dissolution of the Monasteries). Nelson. 5/-.
A. Manning. The Household of Sir Thomas More (Diary of Margaret Roper). Hall. 2/6.
Harrison Ainsworth. Windsor Castle (Henry VIII.). Routledge. 2/-.
C. M. Yonge. The Armourer’s Prentices (Divorce). Macmillan. 3/6.
Mark Twain. The Prince and the Pauper (Edward VI.). Chatto. 3/6.
Stanley Weyman. Francis Cludde (Mary Tudor). Cassell. 6/-.
Harrison Ainsworth. Tower of London (Lady J. Grey). Routledge. 2/-.
Kingsley. Westward Ho! (Elizabeth’s Seadogs). Macmillan. 2/6.
Sir W. Scott. The Monastery (Murray’s Regency). Black. 1/6.
— The Abbot (Loch Leven). Black. 1/6.
— Kenilworth (Amy Robsart). Black. 1/6.
Whyte Melville. The Queen’s Maries (Mary of Scots). Longmans. 1/6.
Eliza Pollard. A Gentleman of England (Sir P. Sidney). Addison. 5/-.
C. M. Yonge. Unknown to History (Mary of Scots in Captivity). Macmillan. 3/6.
Everett Green. Loyal Hearts and True (Queen Elizabeth). Nelson. 5/-.
Henty. Under Drake’s Flag. Blackie. 6/-.
— St. Bartholomew’s Eve. Blackie. 6/-.
Robert Leighton. Under the Foeman’s Flag (Armada). Melrose. 3/6.
Mrs. Marshall. Penshurst Castle (Sir P. Sidney). Seeley. 5/-.
Hon. E. Lawless. With Essex in Ireland. Smith, Elder. 6/-.
— Maelcho (Irish Rising of 1579). Smith, Elder. 6/-.
Kingsley. Plays and Puritans (Essays). Macmillan. 3/6.
Reed. Sir Ludar (Ireland. Queen Elizabeth). Sampson Low. 2/6.
Charles Reade. The Cloister and the Hearth (for Picture of Middle Ages. Erasmus). Chatto. 3/6.
Mrs. Charles. The Schönberg Cotta Family (Luther). Nelson. 3/6.
Author of “Mdlle. Mori”. In the Olden Time (Peasant War in Germany, 1525). Longmans. 2/6.
C. M. Yonge. The Dove in the Eagle’s Nest (Maximilian). Macmillan. 3/6.
G. Eliot. Romola (Savonarola). Blackwood. 3/6.
Yeats. The Honour of Savelli (Cæsar Borgia). Sampson Low. 2/6.
Grace Aguilar. Vale of Cedars (Ferdinand and Isabella). Groombridge. 5/-.
Gordon Stables. Westward with Columbus. Blackie. 5/-.
Author of “Dark Year of Dundee”. The Spanish Brothers (Persecutions). Nelson. 4/-.
Henty. By Pike and Dyke (Netherlands). Blackie. 6/-.

— By England’s Aid (Netherlands). Blackie. 6/-.
Liefde. The Beggars (Netherlands). Hodder. 3/6.
Everett Green. Shut In (Siege of Antwerp, 1585). Nelson. 5/-.
Stanley Weyman. The House of the Wolf (St. Bartholomew). Longmans. 3/6.
C. M. Yonge. The Chaplet of Pearls (St. Bartholomew). Macmillan. 3/6.
Stanley Weyman. A Gentleman of France (Henry III. and the League). Longmans. 6/-.
James. Henry of Guise (the States of Blois. League Times). Routledge. 2/-.
Sir W. Scott. Marmion (a tale of Flodden Field).
— The Lady of the Lake (James V. and Douglas).
— The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1557).
Tennyson. Columbus: a poem.
— Queen Mary: a drama.
— The Revenge: a Ballad of the Fleet.

Period 1603-1660—
Sir Walter Scott. The Fortunes of Nigel (Court of James I.). Black. 1/6.
— A Legend of Montrose (Montrose and Argyle, 1645). Black. 1/6.
— Woodstock (Cavaliers and Roundheads). Black. 1/6.
Harrison Ainsworth. Guy Fawkes. Routledge. 2/-.
Shorthouse. John Inglesant (perfect Picture of Court of Charles I.). Macmillan. 3/6.
Whyte Melville. Holmby House (Cavaliers and Roundheads). Longmans. 1/6.
Edna Lyall. To Right the Wrong (Cavaliers and Roundheads). Hurst & Blackett. 6/-.
A. J. Church. With the King at Oxford (Charles I.). Seeley. 5/-.
J. S. Fletcher. When Charles the First was King. Bentley. 3 vols. 31/6.
Author of “The Schönberg Cotta Family”. The Draytons and the Davenants (Civil Wars). Nelson & Sons.
3/6.
Wilkie Collins. Hide and Seek (Civil Wars). Chatto. 3/6.
George Macdonald. St. George and St. Michael (Civil Wars. Siege of Raglan Castle). Kegan Paul. 3/6.
Rev. A. D. Crake. Fairleigh Hall (Civil Wars). Mowbray. 2/6.
M. and E. Lee. Rosamond Fane (Escape of Duke of York). Griffith & Farran. 3/6.
Anna Glyn. A Pearl of the Realm (Civil Wars. Nonsuch Palace). Hutchinson. 6/-.
Emma Marshall. A Haunt of Ancient Peace (Little Gidding). Seeley. 5/-.
Edited by Canon Carter. Nicholas Ferrar (not a story; account of Little Gidding). Longmans. 6/-.
— Brave Dame Mary (Siege of Corfe Castle). S.P.C.K. 2/-.
C. M. Yonge. Under the Storm (Cavaliers and Roundheads). National Society. 3/6.
Miss Holt. Ashcliffe Hall (Cavaliers and Roundheads). Silver & Co. 3/6.
Harrison Ainsworth. Boscobel. Routledge. 2/-.
Emma Marshall. The White King’s Daughter (Charles I.). Seeley. 3/6.
Emma Marshall. Under Salisbury’s Spire (George Herbert). Seeley. 5/-.
Marryat. The Children of the New Forest (Cavalier story for children). Routledge. 2/-.
Author of “The Schönberg Cotta Family”. On Both Sides of the Sea (Commonwealth and Restoration).
Nelson. 5/-.
D. G. McChesney. Miriam Cromwell’s Royalist. Blackwood & Son. 6/-.
Miss Manning. Mary Powell (Diary of Milton’s Wife). Hall. 2/6.
Field. Ethne (Cromwell in Ireland). Wells, Gardner. 6/-.
Alfred de Vigny. Cinq Mars (in French. Richelieu). Calmann Levy. 2 vols. 8 francs.
G. P. R. James. Richelieu. Warne. -/6.
Stanley Weyman. Under the Red Robe (Richelieu). Methuen. 6/-.
— My Lady Rotha (Thirty Years’ War). Innes. 6/-.
Henty. The Lion of the North (Gustavus Adolphus). Blackie. 6/-.
Sir W. Scott. Rokeby (Marston Moor).
Browning. Strafford.

Period 1660-1714—
Sir Walter Scott. Old Mortality (Lauderdale and Claverhouse). Black. 1/6.
— Peveril of the Peak (Popish Plot). Black. 1/6.
— The Bride of Lammermoor (1700). Black. 1/6.
— The Black Dwarf (Jacobites). Black. 1/6.
Austin Clare. The Carved Cartoon (Plague and Great Fire). S.P.C.K. 3/-.
Henty. When London Burned. (Plague and Great Fire). Blackie. 5/-.
Harrison Ainsworth. Old St. Paul’s. (Plague and Great Fire). Routledge. 2/-.
Miss Manning. Cherry and Violet (Plague and Great Fire). Nimmo. 6/-.
Anthony Hope. Simon Dale (Treaties of Dover). Methuen & Co. 6/-.
Edna Lyall. In the Golden Days (Algernon Sidney). Hurst & Blackett. 6/-.
Emma Marshall. Winchester Meads (Bishop Ken). Seeley. 5/-.
Conan Doyle. Micah Clarke (Monmouth’s Rebellion). Longmans. 3/6.
M. and C. Lee. The Oak Staircase (Monmouth’s Rebellion). Griffith & Farran. 3/6.
Blackmore. Lorna Doone (Monmouth’s Rebellion). S. Low. 2/6.
Walter Besant. For Faith and Freedom (Monmouth’s Rebellion). Chatto. 3/6.
Everett Green. In Taunton Town (Monmouth’s Rebellion). Nelson. 5/-.
A. E. Mason. The Courtship of Maurice Buckler (1685). Macmillan. 6/-.
Mary Peard. To Horse and Away (Charles II.). National Society. 3/6.
Mary Rowsell. Traitor or Patriot (Rye House Plot). Blackie. 3/6.
Stanley Weyman. Shrewsbury (a Romance of the Reign of William III.). Longmans. 6/-.
Henty. Orange and Green (B. Boyne). Blackie. 5/-.
Emma Marshall. Kensington Palace. Seeley. 5/-.
Anon. The Last of the Cavaliers (1688). Bentley. 6/-.
Henty. The Bravest of the Brave (Peterbro in Spain). Blackie. 5/-.
M. Rowsell. Thorndyke Manor (Jacobite). Blackie. 3/6.
Conan Doyle. The Refugees (Revocation of the Edict of Nantes). Longmans. 3/6.
Thackeray. Esmond (Jacobites. Anne’s Reign). Smith, Elder. 1/6.

Period 1714-1815—
Sir W. Scott. Rob Roy (Rising of 1715). Black. 1/6.
— The Heart of Midlothian (Porteous Riots). Black. 1/6.
— Waverley (Rising of 1745). Black. 1/6.
— Guy Mannering (1750). Black. 1/6.
— Red Gauntlet (Jacobites, 1770). Black. 1/6.
— The Antiquary (1798). Black. 1/6.
Henty. Bonny Prince Charlie. Blackie. 6/-.
— A Jacobite Exile (in service of Charles XII. of Sweden). Blackie. 5/-.
— With Frederick the Great (Seven Years’ War). Blackie. 6/-.
— Hold Fast for England (Siege of Gibraltar). Blackie. 5/-.
— With Clive in India. Blackie. 6/-.
— With Wolfe in Canada. Blackie. 6/-.
— In the Reign of Terror. Blackie. 5/-.
— True to the Old Flag (War of American Independence). Blackie. 6/-.
— One of the Twenty-eighth (Waterloo). Blackie. 5/-.
— With Moore at Corunna. Blackie. 6/-.
— Through Russian Snows. Blackie. 5/-.
Walter Besant. Dorothy Forster (Rising of 1715). Chatto. 3/6.
Thackeray. The Four Georges. Smith, Elder. 1/6.
Andrew Lang. Pickle the Spy (Young Glengarry. Ellibank Plot). Longmans. 18/-.
Author of “Atelier du Lys”. Mistress Beatrice Cope (Rising, 1745). Hurst & Blackett. 3/6.

Harrison Ainsworth. Preston Fight. Routledge. 2/-.
Thackeray. The Virginians. Smith, Elder. 5/-.
Author of “The Schönberg Cotta Family”. Diary of Mrs. Kitty Trevylyan (Wesley). Nelson & Sons. 3/6.
— Against the Stream (End of 18th Century). S.P.C.K. 4/-.
Dickens. Barnaby Rudge (Gordon Riots). Chapman & Hall. 2/6.
Walter Besant. The Chaplain of the Fleet (Fleet Marriages). Chatto. 3/6.
Sarah Tytler. The Huguenot Family (Refugees in England). Chatto. 2/-.
Fenimore Cooper. The Last of the Mohicans (English and Americans). Routledge. 2/-.
G. Parker. The Trail of the Sword (French in America). Methuen. 6/-.
Emma Marshall. The Four Reigns (George III. to Victoria). Seeley. 5/-.
— In Colston’s Days (Old Bristol). Seeley. 5/-.
— Under the Mendips (Hannah More). Seeley. 5/-.
Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities (French Revolution). Chapman & Hall. 2/6.
Stanley Weyman. The Red Cockade (French Revolution). Longmans. 6/-.
Author of “Mdlle. Mori”. The Atelier du Lys (French Revolution). Longmans. 2/6.
Harriet Martineau. The Peasant and the Prince (French Revolution). Routledge. 1/6.
M. E. Coleridge. The King with Two Faces (Gustavus III. of Sweden. French Revolution). Edward Arnold.
6/-.
Author of “Mdlle. Mori”. On the Edge of the Storm (French Revolution). Warne. 3/6.
Felix Gras. The Reds of the Midi (French Revolution). Heinemann. 3/6.
Sarah Tytler. Citoyenne Jacqueline (French Revolution). Chatto. 2/-.
Whyte Melville. Sister Louise (French Revolution). Ward, Lock. 2/-.
C. J. A., author of “Good Fight of Faith”. In Palace and Faubourg (French Revolution). Nelson. 5/-.
Author of “Atelier du Lys”. A Child of the Revolution. Longmans. 2/6.
F. M. Peard. Mother Molly (Threatened Invasion of Napoleon). Bell. 5/-.
Conan Doyle. Uncle Bernac (Napoleon). Smith, Elder. 6/-.
— Brigadier Gerard (Napoleon). Newnes. 6/-.
Tolstoi. War and Peace (Napoleon’s Russian Campaign, for teachers). W. Scott. 4 vols. 2/6 a vol.

THE TEACHING OF ANCIENT HISTORY.
By Mary Hanbidge, M.A. (Lond.).

The importance of history as a school subject has been fully General scope.
discussed in an earlier section. But “history,” as taught in schools,
too often connotes merely English, or, at best, modern history. Hence the
necessity of asserting separately the claim of ancient history, though in the very
fact that it is not a separate subject, lies its importance.
The progressive development of the human race is a scientific axiom. If we
ignore the continuity of history, we tend to base our teaching only on facts,
rather than on the laws which form the bond of sequence between them. Thus
the sense of historical proportion is never awakened; and the girl so trained may
know in detail the history of England, and the history of the Israelites, but has
little idea of their relation to the rest of the modern or ancient world. The child
of to-day cannot attain to a true understanding of the history and culture of her
own nation unless she has some ideas of the civilisation we inherit. The

Renaissance is a fact which every text-book emphasises, and every schoolgirl
knows; but what does she know of its spirit? How little can she realise the
enthusiasm that stirred those “spacious times” if she is an utter stranger to the
“glory that was Greece, and the greatness that was Rome”! Again, in neglecting
ancient history, we lose sight of the homogeneity of the human race, that
oneness which Thucydides felt would make his history not merely a passing
record, but a prophecy ες το αει. And in truth the ancient city states grappled
with many of the social and political problems of to-day. They are set before us
in miniature, we see them in their entirety, and their solution guides or warns us.
The influence of capital in politics, the depopulation of country districts, the
dangers of a foreign corn supply, the drifting of democracy to socialism, and the
treatment of subject races, were questions of as vital importance for Greece and
Rome as they are to-day. So true is Dr. Arnold’s paradox that the ancient world
is the most modern of all. Thus regarded, ancient history forms a valuable
mental training for upper forms, a training which, in the case of girls, is
especially useful, since women too often do not realise the modern problems in
which they are unconscious factors. A further advantage is the accessibility of
the original authorities, even to a school class. Here at least they are not
dependent on retrospective theories, but can see how the history of the day
impressed the men who made it—a result not so easily obtainable in other
branches of history.
To turn to the practical teaching of the subject. From the General suggestions.
beginning, the child must be trained to realise that the history
of the world is a whole. Throughout the school, ancient and mediæval history
should be taught side by side with that of England and Palestine. English history
may with advantage be taught in less detail, and time thus secured for the sister
subject. In French and German schools this system is definitely adopted; we
append a German scheme. If possible, the subject should be in the hands of the
same teacher, that the correlation of interest may be duly emphasised. In classes
where reading lessons are given, poems, plays, etc., which bear upon the
history, should be chosen, and may suggest subjects for composition. A
geography lesson should precede the history course, and the importance of
geography throughout cannot be overestimated.
With young children history proper is an impossibility, but Graduated scheme.
an interest in the life of the past may be awakened very early. Course A.
The mental development of the child epitomises that of the Ages 9-10.
race, and in the record of a nation mythology precedes history.
In the lowest classes of the Cheltenham Ladies’ College a course of stories from
Greek mythology has met with marked success. Quite little children know

Jason, with his one sandal, as well as they do Cinderella, and Athene is a
familiar friend, whose picture they recognise. Cavillers may say that we are
only teaching fairy tales, but the same children grown a little older see their
Athene the central point of all the glories of Periclean Athens, and find
themselves in a world they know.
Such a course will begin with a talk about the Greeks and their Gods, pass on
to the heroes, and end with the “Tale of Troy Divine,” the wanderings of
Odysseus, and the story of Thebes; of course these will be stories pure and
simple, not vehicles for any ætiological theory, and the success will depend
entirely on the descriptive power of the teacher.
We are now on the threshold of history, and since a child is Course B.
naturally anthropomorphic, the personal element must be made the Ages 10-12.
most prominent. This course will therefore consist of a series of
biographies, but biographies introductory to history. The men therefore whom
we choose must be men who make or mark a period, and their lives must be
closely connected. For this Greek history offers greater facilities than Roman,
where the personal element is weaker.
The following series is suggested:—
1. Lycurgus (the dawn of history); revive knowledge of Atridæ; new
Peloponnesus, cf. Heptarchy; Lycurgus and his laws; rise of Sparta. 2. Solon,
lawgiver of Athens. 3. Pisistratus, the tyranny; rise of free Athens. 4. Crœsus,
Cyrus, Cambyses; Asiatic Greece, connection with Bible history. 5. Darius and
his wrath against Athens. 6. Miltiades and Marathon. 7. Themistocles and
Salamis. 8. Pausanias, victor of Platæa; his insolence and fall. 9. Cimon,
expulsion of Persians from Ægean. 10. Pericles and his Athens; Sparta’s
jealousy; the war. 11. Brasidas and Demosthenes. 12. Nicias and the Sicilian
expedition. 13. Lysander and fall of Athens. 14. Socrates and degradation of
Athens. 15. Agesilaus and the fall of Sparta. 16. Conon and the rebuilding of the
walls. 17. Epaminondas, the humbling of Sparta. 18. Philip of Macedon and his
plans. 19. Demosthenes and how he failed to stop them. 20. Alexander.
In these two courses no text-books need be used or notes taken, but the
children should be required to tell the tale of the last lesson, either viva voce or
in writing. The appended chart should be used throughout this course, and will
show the connection with Jewish history.
History of Rome to b.c. 31. We now come to history proper, Course C.
necessarily in outline. This must not be mere chronology, but a series
of connected pictures of events. Such dates as are given must be the dates of a
century. We suggest that Rome should form the subject of this course, since in
the story of the nations Rome follows Greece. Rome touches the world the

children already know, as mistress of Britain, and heir of Alexander, while
Pyrrhus and Philip V. of Macedon are connecting links with the Hellenistic age,
as a rule a terra incognita. Antiochus and the Maccabees will connect it with
Jewish history. For chart of connection with Course A see end.
Augustus to Charlemagne. The Germans recognise the Course D.
importance of this period. In England, forming as it does the link Ages 13-14.
between ancient and modern history, it is taught with neither, and
yet it is the key to the race question of modern Europe. We suggest a scheme
whose two connecting links are: the rise of Christianity and the barbarian
migrations. 1. Augustus; Tiberius; Claudius. 2. Nero; the Christians. 3.
Vespasian; Titus; fall of Jerusalem. 4. Roman life; Pompeii. 5. Britain and the
expansion of the empire under Trajan. 6. Marcus Aurelius; Christianity and
Paganism; death of Oracles. 7. Diocletian; last persecutions of Christians;
barbarians; inroads. 8. Constantine, first Christian emperor; Constantinople. 9.
Julian; reaction against Christianity; Franks; Strasburg (357). 10. Alaric and
Visigoths (410). 11. Attila and Huns (450). 12. Fall of empire. 13. Alexandria.
14. Theodoric and Ostrogothic kingdoms. 15. Clovis and Frankish kingdoms.
16. Descendants of Clovis; Brunhilda and Fredegond; extension of Frankish
kingdom. 17. Monastic age, Celtic and Roman; Gregory the Great; rise of
Papacy; Gregory and Brunhilda; Augustine. 18. Mahomet. 19. Caliphs; spread
of Mahometanism in Asia, Africa, Spain. 20. Saracens repulsed (732); Charles
Martel. 21. Fainéant kings; mayors of palace. 22. Charlemagne. 23. Holy
Roman empire.
In the higher classes of a school we may assume a fair History for higher classes.
knowledge of outline history. Periods bearing on the
classical reading should be selected and read in detail. Typical periods as “The
Empire of Athens and the Age of Pericles,” and “The Age of Augustus”.
A standard history should be worked through, and other books, notably the
original historians, will be suggested. A lending library is therefore essential. An
essay subject will be set in connection with each lecture to form a centre for
reading.
Throughout, the importance of concrete illustrations cannot be Illustrations.
too strongly insisted upon. In many places the lectures can be
supplemented by visits to local museums, Roman relics, etc. (e.g., Chedworth
Villa near Cheltenham, Gloucester Museum, Bath). For elder classes a visit to
the British Museum would obviously be helpful, but it is wonderfully easy to
interest even quite young children. A board schoolboy of eleven, who was
wandering aimlessly about the Elgin room, was delighted when I showed him

the Nemesis head and told him the story of the Persian Invincible Armada,
which never set up its trophy.
Invaluable help can also be obtained from the Educational Museum of the
Teachers’ Guild. A full catalogue is published, in which we specially notice (1)
illustrations of Greek dress, which might be copied by the mythology class
(Course A); (2) maps and plans, especially of Athens and Rome (Holzel); (3)
coins, museum reproductions; (4) portraits; (5) lantern slides. Mention may also
be made of views of the English Photographic Co., Constitution Square, Athens,
who send a priced catalogue; the series of card reliefs, 6d. each, by Lecherchier,
Barbe et Cie., to be obtained from the Art Schools Association, 21 Queen’s
Square, Bayswater; card illustrations from Menge’s Antike Kunst. These
illustrations would be of double value were they the permanent possession of
the class-room; the class could then become really familiar with each one. It
would be a great boon if a central loan collection could be formed by some such
body as the Teachers’ Guild, from which illustrations of special periods could
be borrowed term by term, a plan which at present is only adopted for lantern
slides. This would give access to a greater selection of pictures and models than
a single school can provide, and might lead to the development of the historical
side of the school museum, and the consequent formation of a school
archæological society.
Kiepert’s wall-maps may be taken for granted. The list in the Maps.
Teachers’ Guild catalogue is helpful, but a teacher must make her own
period maps. (White blind holland is an excellent material.)
1. Text-books. (a) Roman. Creighton’s Primer; E. S. Shuckburgh’s Books.
History of Rome for Beginners and History of Rome; Well’s Short
History of Rome to the death of Augustus; How and Leigh’s History of Rome;
Mommsen’s History of Rome (abridged for schools); Pelham’s Outlines of
Roman History (Epoch Series); Bury’s Student’s Roman Empire.
(b) Greek. Fyffe’s Primer; Oman’s History of Greece; Cox’s General History
of Greece (Epoch Series); Butcher’s Demosthenes.
(c) Transition. Freeman’s Europe (Primer); Freeman’s General Sketch of
European History.
2. Historical atlases. Student’s Kiepert.
3. Suggestions for school library in connection with junior courses. Miss
Gardner’s Friends of the Olden Time and Rome the Centre of the World;
Church’s Stories; Cox’s Tales of Ancient Greece; Kingsley’s Heroes and Poems;
Macaulay’s Lays; Hawthorne’s Tanglewood Tales; Epics and Romances of the
Middle Ages (Wagner and Anson); Lang, Leaf and Myers’ Iliad; Butcher and
Lang’s Odyssey; Worsley’s Odyssey; Morris’ Earthly Paradise and Life and

Death of Jason; Browning’s Balaustion and Aristophanes’ Apology; Miss A.
Swanwick’s Æschylus; Tennyson’s Œnone, etc.; Milton; Atlas of Classical
Portraits—(a) Roman; (b) Greek (published by Dent); Baumeister’s Bilder aus
dem Alterthum.
German Scheme for History Teaching:—
1st year. Greek legends and German sagas.
2nd year. Pictures of ancient German and Prussian history, Cyrus to the
Emperor Frederick.
3rd year. German and Prussian history, from invasion of barbarians to the
Emperor Frederick.
4th year. Ancient history to invasions of barbarians (every fortnight, one
hour’s repetition of German and Prussian history).
5th year. German history, from invasion of barbarians to 1648.
6th year. From 1648 to the present day, with special stress on general history
of civilisation.

PARALLEL CHART FOR THE YOUNGER CLASSES.
Year. Biblical History. Greece. Rome.
1400
1300 Exodus. Troy?
1200
Samson.
1100
1000 David.
900 Homer?
800 Lycurgus?
Rome.
700
600 Nebuchadnezzar. Solon.
Belshazzar. Cyr us. Pisistratus.
500 Temple rebuilt. Dar ius. Expulsion of Kings.
Esther. Xer xes. Miltiades. Themistocles.
Pericles.
400 Socrates. The Gauls.
Epaminondas.
Alexander.
300
(Ptolemies.) (Pyrr hus.)
1st Punic War.
200 (Antio chus.) (Philip of Macedon. Hannibal.)
(Maccabees.) Poly bius.
Corinth. Carthage.
Cicero. Pompey.
100 (Cleopatra.) -
Julius Cæsar.
Herod the Great.
A.D. Augustus.
Birth of Christ.

At the beginning of Course B, Column I. (except the names in brackets) will be marked on the chart.
Column II. as far as Alexander to be filled in during Course B. Column III. and the brackets of Columns I.
and II. to be filled in during Course C.

TIME-MAPS.
By Dorothea Beale.

The practice of representing to the eye by means of diagrams the facts of
science, physical and social, is becoming more common: we have jagged lines
indicating fluctuations in the winds or in the stocks. In an American record
which has been sent to me, there are coloured squares representing the
thousands of children who are regular in their attendance at school, black
squares standing for the defaulting thousands. By such means we can see at a
glance what the mind finds it difficult otherwise to realise; it furnishes a
framework into which we can fit anything we wish to locate.
It is hardly necessary to say that for any orderly study of history it is
necessary to have some scheme into which we may fit the subjects of study. As
well might we expect by learning latitude and longitude to understand the
position of places on the earth’s surface, as by learning dates to get a clear idea
of the relative position of events in time. We want some form of map which will
represent the events to the eye. Many excellent charts have Historical Charts.
been drawn up giving us parallel histories, but the great
difficulty is their prodigious size. Time is one-dimensional, and if we give a
small linear space to a century, and try to represent a few thousand years, the
mind fails to grasp the picture; if the scale of the different periods varies, the
proportion is wrong. For this reason rivers and trees of time, etc., have been
more or less failures; they are useful and interesting, but the objection is, that
they are either too large and detailed to be carried in the memory, or that the
landmarks are too slight. The Méthode Mnémonique Polonaise, which is much
used in France, was introduced to my notice, and first used by me at Queen’s
College: it has the great advantage of compactness—it is in form like a
geographical map. It can be adapted to various purposes, but I shall dwell now
on its applications as a record of time, and show the different ways in which it
can be used by little children, though it is equally well adapted for Tom Brown
at Oxford (who seems to have used it) and for the mature student of history. It
may be made for little ones into a system of object-lessons, or hieroglyphics, if
you will, which appeal to the child’s imagination and help him to realise
something of the proportion of things, and whilst looking at the world, as each
of us must, from our own “pin-point,” yet see life in relation to the lives of

others. It is compact; it shows at a glance the relations of events. We can have a
world-map and give only the great landmarks, or we may by a map of large
proportions work out to any degree of detail a short period. The plan is to make
a square of ten represent a century, and each horizontal line a decade. Thus:—

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39
40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49
50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59
60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69
70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79
80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89
90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99

It will at once be seen that all the numbers in the first line of a century are
units, in the second tens, in the third twenties, and so on; whilst, if we look
down the vertical line, all the numbers in the first row end with nought, in the
second with one, and so on. The thick line is intended to help the eye; we have
forty and fifty on each side of the horizontal thick line, four and five on each
side of the vertical. A few minutes’ practice will generally enable the pupil to
read off numbers rapidly from a blank square. He will then have to learn the
position of the marks in any century, as he would learn the geography of a
country, or the shape of a constellation. Take, for example, the English history
of the fourteenth century. We mark Edward II., in 1307; Edward III., in 1327;
Richard II., 1377; Henry IV., 1399. The dates need not be learned; we have the
picture of the century in our mind and can read off the square.

●

●

●

●

Some children take much pleasure in making and painting illustrated charts. I
have one on a large scale of the sixteenth century, giving the accession of Queen
Mary—1553, and a picture of the Tower, to which Northumberland and others
were sent. A block in 1554 tells of the executions consequent on Wyatt’s
rebellion, and a dove with an olive branch of Philip’s intercession for Elizabeth
—1555; there is a picture of a martyr at the stake, and a hand in the flames for
Cranmer—1557; a scroll stands for the first Covenant in Scotland, and a sword
for the war with France—1558; there is a heart with Calais written on it.
Here is a specimen of a chart with a key of the sixteenth century.[19] It will be
seen from this how events in contemporary history can be introduced. Thus the
first year, 1500, reminds us of the discovery of America, and of the great
jubilee, the precursor of the Papal downfall; the fleur de lys standing for the
French kings and the cross for the German Emperors, tell of the accession of
Francis I. and Charles V. Portraits are given of English sovereigns. We have
later the massacre of St. Bartholomew with daggers, a ship for the Armada, etc.,
etc.
[19] It may be well to add that I am not ignorant of the discussions respecting the proper beginning of
a century. Is the year 1800 the last year of the eighteenth or the first year of the nineteenth century?
Our dates have been translated from the Latin ordinals, and we ought to say the eighteen-hundredth
year, instead of the year eighteen-hundred. I have deliberately preferred to conform the chart to the
vulgar tongue. If I did not, the numbers in the first line would contain nine units and one ten, instead
of all units; the second line of tens would contain one twenty, and so on. If we are content to use the
inaccurate language of daily life, bearing in mind that it requires correction, and making such
corrections when we are engaged in important historical or astronomical calculations, we may well be
content to do the same with the chart. I shall, therefore, consider the life of a century as that of a
centenarian. We say of a child that he is in his 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc., year, when he is 0, 1, 2, etc., years
old; so, also, a person is in his 100th year when he is 99 years old; and he has lived a century at the
close of this year, for the cardinal marks the number of completed years, the ordinal the number of the
year in progress. So 1799 is regarded as the closing year of the last century, 1800, 1801, as the first
and second of this. For a learned and elaborate discussion on the subject, and a list of authorities for
the view adopted, see An Examination of the Century Question, George Bell, Fleet Street, 1850.

KEY TO SIXTEENTH CENTURY CHART.
1500. 1501. 1502. 1503. 1504. 1505. 1506. 1507. 1508. 1509.
Columbus Julius II. Henry
prisoner. VIII.
Jubilee.
1510. 1511. 1512. 1513. 1514. 1515. 1516. 1517. 1518. 1519.
Flodden. Francis I. Charles
Leo X. V.

1520. 1521. 1522. 1523. 1524. 1525. 1526. 1527. 1528. 1529.
Soleyman. Diet of Prussia. Baber.
Worms. Teutonic
Order
secularised.
1530. 1531. 1532. 1533. 1534. 1535. 1536. 1537. 1538. 1539.
Death of Anne Fisher and Anne
Wolsey. Boleyn. More Boleyn
executed. beheaded.
Jane
Seymour.
1540. 1541. 1542. 1543. 1544. 1545. 1546. 1547. 1548. 1549.
Jesuits. Cath. Catharine. Council of Edward
Anne of Howard Parr. Trent. VI.
Cleves. beheaded. Henry II.
Cath.
Howard.

KEY TO SIXTEENTH CENTURY CHART.
1550. 1551. 1552. 1553. 1554. 1555. 1556. 1557. 1558. 1559.
Mary Persecutions. Cranmer. Elizabeth. Francis
Spenser Ferdinand II.
born. I.
1560. 1561. 1562. 1563. 1564. 1565. 1566. 1567. 1568. 1569.
Charles Guise Max. II.
IX. assass. Shakspere
born.
1570. 1571. 1572. 1573. 1574. 1575. 1576. 1577. 1578. 1579.
Massacre of Henry II. Rudolph
St. II.
Bartholomew.
1580. 1581. 1582. 1583. 1584. 1585. 1586. 1587. 1588. 1589.
Orange Mary Armada. Henry
assass. Queen of IV.
Scots
beheaded.
1590. 1591. 1592. 1593. 1594. 1595. 1596. 1597. 1598. 1599.
Faerie Shakspere’s Hooker’s Bacon’s Edict of
Queene, Poems. Eccles. Essays. Nantes.
3 Polity. Shakspere’s
books. first Play.

In the charts I have published,[20] I have given only English kings; when
these are fixed in the memory, events of general history can be gradually
introduced, and paper ruled on any scale required.

[20] Students’ Chronological Maps (Bell & Sons, 3s. 6d.).

If the chart is studied as a whole, either in reference to English or modern
history, it is convenient to divide it into four periods, of five hundred years each,
corresponding to four lines in the chart, and to characterise each century. Then
on a larger scale, for which we have sheets of paper ruled, we put in gradually
certain landmarks, whilst giving lessons on modern history, such matters being
written in as the teacher directs. The writer’s text-book of English and general
history, in which are given the sovereigns of the principal European countries,
notable persons and events, etc., can be used for lessons in connection with the
chart.[21]
[21] For more complete lists of sovereigns and a selection of the more important dates, Beale’s
Student Text-book of English and Modern History may be referred to, and Students’ Chronological
Maps (Bell & Sons).

I subjoin a syllabus of a course of lessons on modern history:—
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
Christianity Good Emperors Military Despotism Constantine Fall of Rome
6th 7th 8th 9th 10th
Barbaric Wars Mahomet Charlemagne Alfred Feudalism
11th 12th 13th 14th 15th
Rise of Middle-
Hildebrand Crusades Schoolmen Renaissance
class
16th 17th 18th 19th 20th
Reformation Religious Wars Political Wars Revolution

I.—In the first century we see Rome at the height of prosperity, victorious on
all sides. During the second, she maintains her position fairly under the good
emperors. The third is a period of trouble and confusion, the empire is
struggling for existence. In the fourth, the firm government of Constantine
maintained, for a short time after his accession, comparative peace; but the
removal of the seat of government, and the subsequent division of the empire,
facilitated the barbaric triumphs of Radagaisus, Alaric, Attila and Genseric in
the fifth; and before its close, the Western empire had fallen, and Theodoric the
Ostrogoth was king of Italy. This line embraces in Britain the 400 years of the
Roman occupation, and a small portion of the Anglo-Saxon period.
II.—In the second line we have the period of barbarian settlements—tribes
are changing into nations. The Anglo-Saxon invasions, the unceasing contests
amongst the numerous petty kings, have terminated, by the middle of the tenth
century, in the union of the country under Athelstane, the first who can properly
be called King of all England. In France we have the union of the Franks under
Clovis, the constant civil wars, interminable divisions, and fainéant kings of the

Merovingian period, the union of the country under Charlemagne, the renewed
civil strife, subdivisions, and fainéant kings of the Carlovingian line, and the
accession of the third, or Capetian Dynasty.
In Germany, too, order is being developed out of confusion, and, in the tenth
century, the different nations have agreed to choose one king; barriers are
opposed to further invasion from without, free cities are rising, feudalism is
being rapidly developed, the spirit of chivalry is felt, and the idea of a united
Christendom, subject to the emperor as temporal, to the pope as spiritual head,
may be traced most distinctly in the schemes of the Othos, and the attempt of
Sylvester II. to rouse the European nations for a crusade.
In Italy, so long a battlefield, the great republics are rising, and the pope from
time to time asserting his independence. In the East, in Africa, in Spain, the
Mahometan kingdoms have been established. During so turbulent a period, we
must expect to find many heroes, and from these we may select Mahomet,
Charlemagne and Alfred, as the central figures of the seventh, eighth and ninth
centuries.
III.—-In the third line we have the formation of the states of modern Europe.
The great nations of the West are no longer isolated units, for they have joined
together in crusades against the East, they acknowledge one head in the popes.
The popes, mighty in the person of Gregory VII. in the eleventh century, in
Innocent III. in the thirteenth, have sunk to the lowest depths of ignominy in the
person of Alexander VI. The Albigenses are almost exterminated in the
thirteenth, but Wickliffe has preached in the fourteenth. Huss and Jerome of
Prague have been martyred at Constance early in the fifteenth, but Luther has
begun to study the Scriptures. The middle classes, too, have been growing in
importance, citizens have triumphed over warriors. The power of a turbulent
chivalry has been destroyed by civil wars, the people have risen to power. The
invention of gunpowder has changed the aspect of war, and the introduction of
printing brought about a vast change in education; great writers, as Chaucer and
Dante, are beginning to produce their works in the vulgar tongue. America has,
at the close of the period, been just discovered.
IV.—In the last line we have a period marked first by struggles for religious,
afterwards for political liberty, the long religious wars of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries. The oppression of the aristocratic and papal powers during
the preceding period led, in some instances, to the exaggeration of the
monarchical authority, and to this are opposed the revolutions of the
seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which have in some instances
produced a reaction in favour of despotism. The discovery of America has given
an extraordinary impulse to naval enterprise, to colonisation and commerce;

this, together with the diffusion of knowledge by printing, has greatly
stimulated intellectual activity, and the mathematical and philosophical studies
of the sixteenth century have prepared the way for the practical triumphs of our
own day.
Only a few leading dates have been marked in the published charts, which are
coloured for different periods, but these may be added to indefinitely—
sometimes by writing in additional signs or words to mark contemporary
sovereigns, etc., but it is better not to multiply these too much; for many things
no signs need be used, as persons and things of minor importance will become
associated in the memory with the more important. Or again, suppose a special
subject is taken up, as English literature or the history of painting, the name of a
leading author or painter can be written across that portion of the century in
which his chief works appeared, and all who belong to his school of thought
will be easily remembered in connection with him. A chart of English literature
has been published on this plan by Baker, Clifton.
In the Chart of Ancient History, the numbers are read upwards and
backwards. Thus:—

99 98 97 96 95 94 93 92 91 90
89 88 87 86 85 84 83 82 81 80
79 78 77 76 75 74 73 72 71 70
69 68 67 66 65 64 63 62 61 60
59 58 57 56 55 54 53 52 51 50
49 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 40
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

We give, in conclusion, photographs of two charts prepared for the Victorian
Exhibition (1897) with a key.
The first gives the chief events of the Queen’s reign, the second the chief
scientific discoveries.

1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829

1830

1899

KEY TO CHART No. I.
CHART OF THE QUEEN’S REIGN.
1837. The Queen’s Accession. 1838. First Electric Telegraph.
1840. Queen’s Marriage—Penny Postage. 1841. Birth of Prince of Wales.
1842. Capture of Shanghai. 1846. Repeal of the Corn Laws. 1848.
Death of Lord Melbourne—Chartist Revolt.
1850. Death of Wordsworth and Sir Robert Peel. 1851. First Great Exhibition.
1852. Death of the Duke of Wellington. 1854. Crimean War. 1857.
Indian Mutiny.
1860. Death of Lord Aberdeen. 1861. Death of the Prince Consort. 1863.
Prince of Wales’ Marriage. 1864. Birth of the Duke of Clarence. 1865.
Birth of the Duke of York—Death of Lord Palmerston. 1869. Death of
Lord Derby.
1871. Disestablishment of the Irish Church. 1876. Queen Proclaimed Empress
of India. 1878. Death of Lord John Russell. 1879. Zulu War.
1880. Lord Roberts’ Relief of Candahar. 1881. Death of Lord Beaconsfield.
1884. Soudan War. 1885. Death of Gordon—Bible Revised. 1887.

Queen’s Jubilee. 1889. Death of Browning.
1892. Death of Duke of Clarence. 1893. Marriage of Duke of York—Death of
Tennyson—Home Rule Bill Rejected. 1894. Birth of Prince Edward.
1896. Jameson’s Raid. 1897. Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1838
Daguerre

Joule

Mechanical
1840
Equivalent

of Heat.

Origi
1850 n

of

Speci

es

LISTER

Edison’s
Phonograph

Maxim
Gun

Lord

Rayleigh

and

Professor

Ramsay

KEY TO CHART No. II.
SHOWING PROGRESS IN SCIENCE DURING THE QUEEN’S REIGN.
1837. First Telegraph. 1839. Photography—Daguerre.
1841. Sewing Machine. 1842. Nasmyth’s Steam Hammer. 1843. Ross’
Telescope. 1848. Planet Neptune Discovered. 1849. Joule’s Mechanical
Equivalent of Heat—Anæsthetics.
1851. The Great Exhibition. 1852. Ophthalmoscope. 1854. Armstrong Gun.
1856. Tyndall’s Investigation of Glaciers. 1857. Atlantic Cable from
Valentia to Newfoundland. 1858. The Great Eastern. 1859. Darwin,
Origin of Species—Brunel’s Death.
1860. Stellar Spectroscopy—Huggins. 1861. Aeronautic Experiments. 1864.
Clifton Suspension Bridge. 1865. Lister, Antiseptic Treatment. 1867.
Death of Faraday. 1868. Suez Canal.
1870. Torpedo. 1871. Huxley, Anatomy of Vertebrates. 1872. Daily Weather
Chart first begun. 1876. Challenger at Portsmouth—Bell’s Telephone.
1878. Electric Light on the Embankment. 1879. Phonograph.
1880. Pasteur’s Cure of Hydrophobia. 1882. Sir W. Siemen’s Steel Process.
1885. Maxim Gun. 1888. Stellar Photography—Sir Isaac Roberts.
1889. Bicycles, The Pneumatic Tyre.
1890. Forth Bridge. 1892. Tower Bridge. 1894. Argon, by Lord Rayleigh and
Professor Ramsay. 1895. Röntgen Rays. 1896. Lord Kelvin’s Jubilee.

ECONOMICS FOR GIRLS.
By Margaret Bridges.

Nothing strikes a student of economics Changed attitude of public towards
more forcibly than the change which has economics.
come over public opinion with regard to this
subject during the last few years. Until quite lately, it has been regarded, except
by scholars, with suspicion and dislike, accused of setting forth material wealth
as the supreme object of human desire, and of ignoring all that is generous and
disinterested in human nature. To-day things are very different: indeed it might
be said we are all economists now. Some vestige, however, of the old prejudice
still lingers in the minds of those who ask: “What is the good of teaching
economics to Girls?”
(1) The student of economics is trained to think Training given in accuracy.
exactly, to reason closely, and to express herself clearly.

No one surely would maintain that such training is less needed by girls than by
boys. On the contrary, we are often assured that women are less accurate than
men, and are constitutionally illogical. In any science, vagueness of thought and
looseness of expression are fatal to success, but the student of economics has a
peculiar difficulty to overcome, for he finds no special vocabulary ready for his
use. The terms used are for the most part those familiar in everyday language,
employed however in a very definite and sometimes peculiar sense. Great care
is needed in distinguishing between the ordinary and the economic meaning of
such terms as utility, wealth, capital, value, and many others. And the training in
scientific precision of language thus given is no small gain in these days of slip-
shod English.
(2) The study of economics tends to stimulate Reasoning powers developed.
independent thought, and to develop “mental muscle”.
We take it for granted that the questions set for home work require an
application of the principles given, and not a mere reproduction of notes. The
girls must think out the problems for themselves, for, as they truly remark
sometimes: “We can’t find the answers in our books”. Political economy
certainly does not lend itself to cribbing or cramming—and we are thankful that
our text-books supply no ready-made solutions of problems.
(3) We find that the study of the industrial History rendered more interesting.
conditions of our country gives an additional
interest to history. To read it with economic eyes is to read it afresh, whilst to
study it without them is to leave out a very important factor.
(4) I would urge the great importance of giving Interest shown by pupils in subject.
our girls, especially those engaged in
philanthropic work, some knowledge of those economic principles upon which
such work must be based to do real good. We have learnt that this is not easy,
and that incalculable mischief may be done by thoughtless benevolence, which
is too often cruelty in disguise. Mr. Loch, in speaking of charity organisation,
has said: “It is likely that we shall in the future draw our women secretaries
from the ranks of those who have taken the trouble to study political economy”.
Of course, there must be the training of the heart as well as the head. Our
theories, however perfect, will avail us little without the sympathetic insight
that love alone can give, but perhaps women specially need to remember that
sympathy itself must be guided by reason. Still it may be asked: “Can political
economy, dealing as it does, for the most part, with dry abstractions, be made
interesting to girls?” My experience is, that in no branch of their studies are the
pupils more responsive or more ready to do their part of the work, and indeed to
give often more than is actually demanded. They particularly enjoy the making

of original diagrams (very original sometimes!), and Diagrams supplied by pupils.
occasionally so elaborate as to cost the teacher some
anxious study. Much amusement may be got out of such seemingly unpromising
material as even the Law of Diminishing Returns or Ricardo’s Theory of Rent,
when they are touched upon by an imaginative or artistic girl. To past
generations of pupils I owe many apt illustrations and ingenious diagrams,
which have been stored up for future use, because they were much better than
any I had thought of myself. I think our lessons fail sometimes, because we
work so hard ourselves, that we leave our pupils nothing to do! Now in
economics we are dealing to a great extent with facts that are already familiar to
them, so that we can constantly appeal to their own experience and observation,
and the teacher will find that “interrogative lessons on the Socratic model” are
particularly suited to this subject. The daily Illustrations drawn from daily life.
newspapers will furnish her with plenty of
illustrations, and economic laws can be shown to be working themselves out
before our eyes. What better comment on the Laws of Demand and Supply
could we wish for than that supplied by the recent “boom” and subsequent
“slump” in the bicycle trade, or the speculation in seats during the late Jubilee!
The illustrations furnished by the girls themselves, from their own experience,
are specially valuable. The daughters of Indian officers can testify to the
diminished purchasing power of the “vanishing rupee,” whilst Irish girls are
eloquent on the system of Land Tenure in their own country; a banker’s
daughter will supply us with skilfully forged bank notes and bills of exchange,
and on one occasion an Austrian pupil gave us some interesting information on
the working of the Metayer system abroad.
In teaching younger girls—say from fifteen to Judicious use of text-books.
seventeen—a sparing use should be made of text-books
for home reading: paragraphs, exemplifying or enlarging on the lesson given,
may be selected, but indiscriminate reading, for the average girl, at that age, is
pretty sure to result—as she will candidly tell you—in her getting “hopelessly
muddled”. Jevons’ Primer of Political Economy is an admirable introduction to
the subject, but avowedly does not cover the whole ground, and I regret to say
that Professor Gonner’s very helpful text-book is now out of print. To a great
extent indeed the teacher will find it necessary to form her own text-book, that
is, to collect her materials from many sources, and adapt them to the use of her
pupils. One feels in this, as in other subjects, that one cannot hope to do much
more, in the limited time at our disposal, than awaken interest, and show what a
wide field there is to be explored. We are glad to Economics as an examination subject.
know that the subject is often continued after

school days are over. Many of our pupils are preparing for the Senior Oxford
Examination, but economic lessons are given in non-examination classes as
well.
Some take up the subject again later for the Cambridge Higher Local, and
have to make themselves acquainted with Adam Smith, J. S. Mill, and a host of
more modern writers, hardly any of whom could have been placed in their
hands with advantage at an earlier age, although they will unconsciously have
imbibed much of their teaching and will find that their year’s training in
elementary economics will have helped them a long way on their road.
In conclusion, we would advocate the Ethical considerations. Enlarged
study of economics for girls, because we sympathies.
believe that it helps them to live in a larger
world, and to take a more intelligent interest in the lives of those around them.
The “sordid science” is lifted into a higher plane Wealth an element in well-being.
when we regard it as “a part of the study of man”—
and look on wealth as a means to an end, not an end in itself—valuable only so
far as it facilitates a “growth towards that higher and purer condition of society,
for which alone we care to strive”.

APPENDIX.

I give a few extracts from papers received from old pupils, in answer to the request that they would
say, quite simply and unofficially, what benefits they had derived from a course of economic study.
“I think that learning economics has helped me to take a more intelligent interest in everyday
matters.”
“I consider I have benefited more by that subject than by any other. There are so many subjects
you can take an interest in if you understand economics, that if you do not, would appeal to you in no
way whatever.”
“It helps us to understand some of the most important subjects of the day, and gives us a clearer
idea of the difficulties of the poor—and shows us the best way of helping them.”
“The human sympathies cannot fail to be awakened, and narrow-minded and selfish views cannot
long be entertained. Economics often shows the best methods in the relief of our less fortunate
brothers and sisters.”
“Living as I do, in Ireland, the study of this subject has widened my interests greatly. Now I can
more fully understand the problem of landlord and tenant.”
“Besides economics being useful, it is also very interesting.”
“It tends to make one speak more exactly and to keep to the point.”
Many more answers to the same effect might be given, but these are perhaps enough to show that
the study of economics is neither uninteresting nor unpractical.

ENGLISH LITERATURE.
By Amy Lumby.

“All spirits upon which poetry falls,” The general aim and method of the
says Shelley, “open themselves to receive teacher.
the wisdom which is mingled with its
delight.” To remember these words will help the teacher of literature to bear
in mind her double aim—to inspire delight and at the same time to impart
wisdom. It is impossible to lay down rules for accomplishing this aim, but
we may trace out a few principles by which to guide our course. Literature
appeals to the imagination, the faculty of the mind in which emotion and
intellect join, and a literature lesson should combine the two elements of
feeling and thought. Poetry needs to be enjoyed if it is to be understood, for
it is the expression, not of facts which can be demonstrated, but of truth
which can only be recognised by those who care for it. So the first aim of
the teacher must be to make her class enjoy what they read. Dulness is a
bad fault in any teacher; in the teacher of literature it is high treason. No
one ought to teach the subject unless she thoroughly enjoys it herself and
can communicate her enjoyment. But in trying to inspire delight in her
pupils, she must be on her guard against the mental indolence of children
who ask only to be amused. In this age of trivial literature and comic papers
young people are apt to be impatient of serious reading, to find the Faerie

Queene dull and the Pilgrim’s Progress slow, but the teacher must persevere
in presenting to them as attractively as may be the very best they are
capable of relishing at all, and after a while a better taste will destroy all
desire for the worthless rubbish they once found pleasure in.
When once the teacher has roused real enjoyment in her class, her part
becomes merely that of the interpreter. She must see to it that her pupils
understand the words they read, realise the images that are called up before
them, and follow as closely as they can the thoughts that are presented to
them. The subject does the rest. For the power of intercourse with great and
good thoughts is such that it enlarges and lifts the mind insensibly to better
things. If the spirit is but rendered sensitive to poetry, wisdom enters hand
in hand with delight. We can give no rules for producing this effect. The
power to do it is the special gift required in the teacher of literature. She
must possess the faculty of kindling and stirring thought and feeling to
respond to the thought and feeling presented to them. Without this she will
never make her pupils feel anything of what poetry can teach. In no subject
does the mental attitude and the mental furniture of the teacher matter so
much.
Assuming then a thorough enjoyment The earliest stage—the reading lesson.
and appreciation of the subject, we will
consider a little more in detail the method in which it may be treated in one
or two typical cases. To begin with the simplest form of literature—the
reading lesson—we will suppose that we have to read a poem, say “The
Wreck of the Hesperus,” with a class of young children. We shall have in
our own minds a clear conception of the qualities which make this one of
the finest of modern ballads—the extreme simplicity of the theme, the
vigour and breadth of the treatment, the pathos of the little human tragedy
set against the great background of Nature in storm and tumult. But we
shall not burden the children’s minds with this information; with a very few
words of preface to prepare them for what they are to expect, we shall first
read the whole poem through to them. The reading is a very important
point, for on this depends to a large extent the enjoyment they will have in
the poem. A harsh voice or a dull delivery is fatal to pleasure; and
monotonous reading fails to convey the point of the story, and to suggest
the atmosphere of the poem. Every teacher of literature should be a trained
reader.

The poem must next be taken verse by verse; the meaning of difficult or
unusual expressions, such as “veering flaw,” “lashed to the helm,” “she
stove and sank,” should be explained, while those that are peculiarly apt
should be noted with appreciation; for instance, “fairy flax,” “a whooping
billow,” the vessel “swept” towards the reef, and many others. At the same
time the class must be made to see the pictures suggested, as they rise: the
wintry sea, the skipper beside the helm, the child lashed to the mast, the
frozen ship rushing headlong to her doom. And lastly, the whole drift and
significance of the poem must be kept before their minds by making them
realise the situation; the happy child so suddenly overwhelmed, helpless
and at first bewildered, then as calamities thicken, turning for help to
prayer; hurried on with the doomed vessel through night and storm, and
sharing its fate among the exultant breakers. And they should feel the calm
of the close and the survival of the human interest beyond the short-lived
triumph of the sea. Of course it will not be possible at first to make young
children feel all the force of a poem like this, but our aim must be to rouse
their imaginations by bringing the picture it presents vividly before them, so
that they gradually become more and more sensitive to the stimulus of
poetry.
A course of reading lessons, graduated The second stage—the detailed study of
in difficulty from the simple ballad to one of Shakspere’s plays, or some other
such poems as “The Forsaken Merman,” work in detail.
“Tithonus,” and the “Ode to Duty,” will
lead up to the next stage, the reading of a play of Shakspere. Here we must
cling very closely to our principle of the importance of enjoyment. Very few
people who have read their first play at school are happy enough to have
enjoyed it. And why is this? Because a mistaken ideal has been before the
teacher’s mind, and a mistaken method has been used to attain it. Careful
study and exact understanding of the language of Shakspere is almost a
liberal education in itself; but it is not always borne in mind that the
understanding of the language is but a means to an end, and that notes,
whether philological or historical, are of value only when they really throw
light on the meaning of the text. It is worse than useless to burden the
memories of children with derivations of words from languages with which
they are absolutely unacquainted. When the original or root-meaning of a
word is really worth knowing, and a knowledge of it tends to a more
accurate use of the word, then it should be learnt, but to make children learn

Saxon or Welsh or Sanskrit words simply because an English word is akin
to them is a waste of time and power, and this explaining of the vaguely
understood by the totally unknown is a subversion of all educational
methods. The teacher should exercise a wise discretion in the use of notes,
and not disgust her class with Shakspere altogether, as is too often done, by
forcing upon the children a mass of dry information which overloads their
memories without bringing a ray of illumination with it.
Some care will be needed with young children reading their first play to
see that they can really follow the story of it. The dramatic form is puzzling
to them; the absence of descriptive matter, together with the constant
change of scene, is apt to bewilder them, and it may be necessary to read
the story to them in Lamb’s Tales from Shakspere, or some such form,
before we launch into the play itself. With older pupils this will not be
required. With them the kind of preparation we should give would be rather
a very simple talk about those moral laws of which Shakspere is the
inspired teacher. Children of sixteen years of age, or thereabouts, are easily
interested in problems of character, and it is well to explain to them
something of what we understand by character and how it may be built up
or undermined, rousing their consciousness to realise what their own moral
experience has been, so that they look into themselves for confirmation of
the facts with which the plays deal. Having done this, however, we must
avoid tacking any specific “moral” to a play. Shakspere teaches, like life, by
indirection, and we have to consider his plays as pictures of life, not as
tracts against particular vices.
In bringing before a class the characters of a play, we should first form a
clear conception of them ourselves. Shakspere’s people are so complex that
many different views can be taken of them, and no thoughtful estimate is
without its value. But it is most important that no statement about a
character should be unsupported by evidence from the text. Adherence to
this rule will save the teacher from making fancy sketches of her own, and
will also make her shun those little text-books which give catalogues of
qualities attached to each name, bringing no image whatever before the
mind, and destroying all true realisation of the character. We should not be
satisfied until we have made the chief characters in the play we are reading
so real to our children that they would recognise them if they met them in
the street.

When we have clearly realised the characters we shall be able to see the
drift and the force of the play, and to show our children how the persons
develop and change under the stress of circumstances and according to the
absolute decrees of the moral law. To convey this teaching, all steeped in
poetry of the richest kind, should be the purpose of a Shakspere lesson; and
the notes that are learnt should be subordinate to that end. Our work must
not be less thorough than it usually is at present, but it may well be less
pedantic.
The reading of a play usually takes up a course of lessons, so that it is
impossible in this space to give notes on any particular one, but the same
principles which guided us in our treatment of a simple ballad will hold
good here, and in the study of such longer poems as may be chosen for the
reading of our class. Here as there we must first secure clear understanding
of the language, then we must realise the images called up by it, and lastly
yield ourselves in intelligent self-surrender to the poet’s thought, not
obtruding our own personality but letting him lead us where he will, feeling
ourselves, and teaching our class to feel, a deep reverence for what he has
to say to us.
The reading of prose may be treated in much the same way, bearing in
mind the fact that the emotional element is less marked in prose, the appeal
being rather to reason than to feeling. Such prose as has become a part of
literature is, however, largely imaginative, and we have to teach the
children not only to follow closely a train of reasoning and to criticise it, if
need be, but also to appreciate the means by which the writer makes his
thought vivid to us, what figures he uses, what light he flashes upon his
subject. Some of Macaulay’s Essays, Addison’s Essays, Rasselas, and
similar works may well be read at this stage for the sake of the training they
give in the right use of language, the first element of literary cultivation.
The teaching of a period of the history The most advanced stage—the study of
of literature is a matter on which only the history of literature.
broad general principles can be laid down.
Children of fourteen to sixteen can hardly be expected to realise clearly
differences in style or treatment, or to be able to write criticisms on the
poets of the period. With them, it will be best to make them acquainted with
the lives of the chief writers, as far as may be necessary, and then to let
them read as much as they can of their works. We can teach them to love
choice expressions, to recognise beauty of thought, to appreciate true

imagination. They may not be able to say why they like these things, but
they need not like them the less for that. With older pupils, capable of
taking in general ideas as to the drift of thought in any particular age, the
period to be studied should be set against its historic background, the first
lessons being devoted to discussion of the stage of cultivation reached at the
time, and the influences which had tended to produce it. For instance, a
course on the Elizabethan period would require introductory lessons on the
Renaissance as it affected England, on the Reformation in its bearing on
education and freedom of thought, on the discovery of America and the
spirit of adventure connected with it, and on the social and political
conditions of the times. With clear conceptions on these points to start from,
it will be easy to follow the art movement in poetry during the period, the
growth of the drama, the development of prose writing in its various
branches, and the students will be in possession of information which will
help them to understand why Spenser, Shakspere, Bacon and our
Authorised Version belong to that age and to no other. Then the chief
authors should be read as far as possible at first hand, and the very cheap
editions which are published of all our classics make it easy for the class to
come provided with their own books. It will not be possible to read many of
the longer works through with the class, but selection can be made of the
choicest passages, and these can be linked together by a short analysis of
the rest.
During this stage the sense of style should be carefully cultivated.
Differences in style may be shown by comparing examples of the treatment
of similar themes by different writers; for instance, in poetry, “Lycidas,”
Gray’s “Elegy,” Adonaïs, and Thyrsis, might be studied with this aim, while
in prose, selected essays of Bacon, Cowley, Addison and Lamb might be
used in the same way. Taste must also be trained, and it should be made as
catholic as possible; each author should be enjoyed for his own special
excellence, Dryden for his vigour and common-sense, no less than Sir
Thomas Browne for his “moth-like flitting” in intellectual twilight.
A suggestion for reading-courses adapted for girls of different ages is
subjoined. It is not, and could not be, in any sense complete, but it may
serve to help those who have not yet had much experience to estimate the
character and scope of the reading that may be expected from children of
various ages. Except in the case of the youngest children, the choice of
books has been made so as to include prose and poetry of different epochs,

and thus make the intellectual outlook wider than it could be if the reading
were restricted to the works of one particular age. A girl who had read
through the books mentioned in this course, or any drawn up on similar
lines, would have a fair all-round acquaintance with the best kind of
literature by the time she was eighteen.
Age.
10-12. 1st year. Macaulay’s “Lays”; “Marmion”; Kingsley’s “Heroes”; Keary’s “Heroes of
Asgard”.
2nd year. “Evangeline” and “Hiawatha”; “Enoch Arden”; “Ancient Mariner”; Lamb’s
“Tales from Shakspere”; “Ivanhoe”.
12-14. 1st year. “Midsummer Night’s Dream”; “Lady of the Lake”; “Deserted Village”;
“Gulliver’s Travels”; “Kenilworth”.
2nd year. “Merchant of Venice”; “Childe Harold”; “Morte d’Arthur”; “Vicar of
Wakefield”; Essays from the “Spectator”.
14-16. 1st year. “As You Like It”; “Henry V.”; Gray’s “Elegy”; “The Princess”; “Esmond”; some
of the “Essays of Elia”.
2nd year. “Faerie Queene,” book i.; “Julius Cæsar”; Milton’s “Minor Poems”; Macaulay’s
Essays on “Clive” and on “Mme. d’Arblay”; Ruskin’s “Sesame and Lilies”.
16-18. 1st year. “Macbeth”; “Paradise Lost,” books i. and ii.; “The Holy Grail”; “Areopagitica”;
Burke’s “Speeches on America”.
2nd year. “Hamlet”; “Essay on Man”; “Selections from Wordsworth”; Bacon’s “Essays”;
“Rasselas”; Carlyle, “The Hero as Poet and the Hero as Man of Letters”.

PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION.
By Dorothea Beale.

The third division of Part I. has to do with man as subject, a person, self-
conscious, related to other persons and to One All-embracing Personality in
whom all live and move and have their being. I am to treat the subject from
an intellectual point of view—religion, ethics, philosophy.
No school, and especially no day-school for Sphere of school instruction.
girls, is responsible for the whole of the religious
education. The school is the link between infancy and mature life, between
the home and the world, the secular and the spiritual. The school has to
systematise instruction, and bring it to bear on the daily tasks, on the social
life, on the developing character; to make the secular and religious life one
organic whole.
We have to teach our pupils, so that they may know the truth, feel nobly,
and hence act rightly. We have to cultivate the power of thought by

instruction, to purify the emotions by the teachings of history and poetry
including the Bible and the utterances of heroic and saintly lives, to
strengthen the character by the discipline of the mind, heart, will.
Emotion and action must be the expression of Relation of dogmatics to ethics.
an intelligent belief. “He that cometh to God
must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that seek Him.”
We ought to offer the noblest gifts we can—a “reasonable service,” a
devotion of heart, which rests upon the truest conception we can form; in
the highest of all subjects there should be that clearness of apprehension,
that strong conviction, which is necessary, if any truth is to become a
practical power. We are so made that we must, if we think at all, theorise,
and our acts will depend on our theories; no student of history can doubt
this. Our sanitarians have found that we may teach the poor about the value
of cleanliness and fresh air, but not until they understand the breathing
functions do they act upon it.
So in deeper things, it is ideas that govern the world. When the Apostle
would teach the most practical truths of family life and social virtue, he
began with the great doctrines of the indwelling Divine life, of our
brotherhood in Christ, of our citizenship in a spiritual Kingdom, extending
far beyond the regions of sense. We must found Christian teaching upon
definite beliefs accepted and felt to be true by the highest reason. We must
not be satisfied with cultivating the affections only. There must be
something more than an “enthusiasm of humanity,” something which can
embrace and fulfil it, else it will blaze up like a bonfire, but soon die down,
smothered under the ashes of pessimism. None of our faculties can be
isolated from the others; each acts and reacts on each, the thought
stimulating emotion, emotions quickening thought, and the life acting and
reacting upon both. Ethics springs from dogmatics.
What do we mean by religion? Our age has been fertile in definitions.
May we not say it is the power by which we enter into conscious personal
relation with the One, the Eternal, the Father of all?
Though it may be truly said that all Religion as related to science and
knowledge of Nature is knowledge of philosophy.
God, we feel that there is a difference
between the teaching of science and the teaching of religion—a distinction
between the knowledge of a thing, or an act, which we may know
objectively, and the knowledge of a person whom we know subjectively.

We might know all the movements of a machine, but we never speak of
knowing a machine. It is possible to know the works of God, and not know
Him. It is personal sympathetic knowledge which is the chief factor in the
education of character—the humanities are educative in a different sense
from mathematics and natural science. It is this personal relation to God
with which religious teaching has to do; its true end is to draw us into
sympathy with the All-Good.
Two things I would here insist on which are sometimes overlooked. 1st.
The child knows persons before things, and in the earliest exercises of will-
power, it is the will of another that rules his will. 2nd. Through obedience to
the higher intelligence, and trust in the love of another, the child is enabled
to acquire right habits.
Fröbel’s religious teaching is very beautiful, but he brings out less clearly
than Rosmini the priority of the personal; if Nature speaks to a child of the
All-Father, it is because he knows that all has to come to him through
persons, it is only much later that forces can be hypostatised, and power,
justice, spoken of apart from a person; though this is, as Lotze has specially
insisted, as inconceivable as is quality without substance—attribute without
subject.
First in the old sense of the word the child Piety in its double sense.
“worships” his parents and those to whom he looks
up, he is miserable when he feels the displeasure of those with whom he is
in sympathy, and their approbation is the sunshine of his soul; thus is he
early led to think of the Father, to whom he and his parents owe all things,
to whom they speak in prayer and whose unseen presence they feel.
Hymns then and prayers, which express the feelings of a child to a father,
or the love to Jesus, and the desire to be like Him, are suitable; such as give
rather the consciousness of a penitent reprobate, are sometimes heard at
children’s missions, to the great sorrow of those who know how dangerous
it is to play with the emotions and to excite terrors.
We must consider first that the conscious Consciousness and self-consciousness.
life is only gradually developed;
perceptions must become apperceptions by the controlling power of
attention; very gradual is the dawn of consciousness, marked as Rosmini
thinks by the first smile. So too there is an epoch at which self-
consciousness seems to awaken. Maurice and other philosophers have
marked the dawn of it by the use of the personal pronoun.

The baby new to earth and sky,
What time his tender palm is prest
Against the circle of the breast,
Has never thought that “this is I”:
But as he grows he gathers much,
And learns the use of “I” and “me,”
And finds “I am not what I see,
And other than the things I touch”.
So rounds he to a separate mind
From whence clear memory may begin,
As thro’ the frame that binds him in
His isolation grows defined.

Then, as in teaching science or language we first awaken the powers of
observation, and lead the child to reflect, so here, in the case of the self-
conscious subject, we help the child to interpret the facts of the inner life as
well as the outer.
Whilst recognising the danger of forcing the subjective in children, we
ought in this, as in other things, to follow the guidance of nature, and surely
our own experience, and that of most children, will show how much they
are occupied with their own feelings, with the struggles of the higher to
subdue the animal nature, and how through contest they are developing the
will-power, which is the only safeguard of later life.
It is especially important early to correlate the subjective with the
objective in early teaching. Surely much irreligion results in later life from
the divorce of the two. As we guide the observing powers in the outward
life, so as the power of reflection develops we should do with the inward
life: the child is conscious of the pang which comes to all of us, when we
act against conscience: that pang which makes our blood run cold, as we
feel we have done wrong, is as much a fact of experience, as real, as the
sensation of heat, when we touch hot iron. Would people grow up to deny
the existence of the spiritual consciousness, if they had been led to question
their own experience? A beautiful story is told by Parker and quoted by
Armstrong.[22]
[22] Man’s Knowledge of God. Swift.

“When a little boy in my fourth year, my father took me to Conscience.
the farm and sent me home alone. I had to pass a pond. A
rhodora attracted my attention. I saw a spotted tortoise sunning himself in
the shallow water at the root of the flaming shrub. I lifted the stick I had, to

strike; though I had never killed any creature, I had seen boys destroy birds,
squirrels and the like, and felt a disposition to follow their wicked example.
All at once something checked my little arm, and a voice within said clear
and loud, ‘It is wrong’. I held my uplifted stick in wonder at the new
emotion, the consciousness of an involuntary but inward check upon my
action, till the tortoise and rhodora both vanished from my sight. I hastened
home to mother and asked what it was that told me it was wrong. Taking me
in her arms, she said: ‘Some men call it conscience, but I prefer to call it the
voice of God. If you listen and obey it, it will speak clearer and clearer, but
if you turn a deaf ear, it will at last leave you in the dark without a guide:
your life depends on your obedience to its voice.’ No event in my life has
made so deep and lasting an impression.”
The fact that we cannot get rid of the A witness for the spiritual, the universal.
consciousness of wrong, shows that there
is a higher Self condemning the self, one other than ourselves; we must not
force answers on the child, but we can bring into his consciousness the
presence of the holy and righteous God. We may help to make clear and
permanent in his consciousness the facts, which he will only later interpret
—the conflict of the merely individual, the selfish life, with the larger, the
all-embracing life of unselfish love.
We may appeal too to the experience of each child, who suffers
punishment rather than disobey conscience. Such victories establish faith,
convince us that we are more than creatures of time, that we are sons of
God. Every true and self-denying act that a child is able to do is a ground of
confidence; “I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the
wicked one”. Each time that the mere animal desires are subdued by the
love of truth and righteousness, we prove that we transcend the things of
time and space. These are the eternal things, which eye sees not and thought
cannot conceive, and yet for the sake of these unseen and eternal things
men live and die, and count all earthly things as nought. Do not the hearts
of all children “burn within them” as we expound to them the Scriptures
which tell of heroes who have done battle, who laid down their lives for
righteousness’ sake, of Him who triumphed from the Cross? We can appeal
too to the inward experience of those who are naughty; they do not in their
inmost heart wish to be so, but they try and fail; nothing is more touching
than the penitence of children, when they find that we have seen the good
which is hidden, and not only the evil that comes forth—that we know, not

only what is done, but what is resisted. We can, as in the old myths, show
that their deliberate choice is not for selfish pleasure; they would if offered
the things most delightful to the mere animal, refuse all, if they could have
it only on condition of becoming wicked and cruel and deceitful. Hauff’s
Cold Heart is a beautiful story on the subject. Thus should we base healthy
religious experiences upon facts, and foster habits of attention and
obedience to the inward voice.
Right ambitions too should be fostered, the desire to enter into the Divine
purposes in thought and word and deed, to be a fellow-worker with God.
This will take more definite form in the later idealising period of life; still
there will be developed sometimes at an early age earnest desires to become
wise and good and to do some special work.
For objective formal teaching the little ones would begin Order of teaching.
with the stories of the world’s childhood. The lessons first
given in a simple form will be expanded in the higher classes. The child
who has learned to trust his father, will learn from Abraham’s sacrifice that
we can trust God; the higher classes will see how by the frustration of his
purpose Abraham learned the true meaning of sacrifice; the Psalms and
Prophets will carry on the subjective teaching, and the words of the old
prophets will become a fact of experience; “the word of the Lord came unto
me”.
The inner meaning of the sacred myths which had once been told as a
mere story will now be felt; the story of the flood as interpreted by St. Peter,
and quoted in our baptismal service, the deliverance from the bondage in
Egypt, typifying redemption from the slavery of sin, the New Testament
teaching of the synoptical gospels, especially the parables, will have
supreme educative power.
It is essential that in this, as in other subjects, written Written work.
exercises which require thought be set, and corrected and
criticised—this is often the only subject in which pupils are not required to
formulate their thoughts—hence there exists a vast amount of current
religious phraseology to which no definite meaning is assigned; the words
may be true in themselves, but not true for the person using them. An
American writer tells of one who for years was a regular attendant at
church, and often encouraged him by her attentive and responsive
expression; when he came to know her later, he found to his surprise that

she was as ignorant of the fundamental truths as if she had been brought up
in a heathen land.
The later period, that of ripening experience, of Sceptical phases.
adolescence, will give the maximum of reflective, as the
earliest childhood, the maximum of the sensitive power. As the mysteries of
their own being are more and more unfolded, the problems of philosophy
and metaphysics have an attraction which should not be disregarded: there
is a desire to be alone; the young feel that they must work out the problems
for themselves, and they resent the attempt to force on them other people’s
solutions. They must question ere they can fully believe; we must never
give utterance to the profane idea, that God is angry with those who make
mistakes in seeking truth, only show that truth like light is a good, that we
may not rest in an indolent agnosticism, for we cannot grow vigorous and
strong out of the sunlight; we must encourage them, in this as in all studies,
to be ever seeking a fuller knowledge of truth, to live by the truth they have
attained, and then they will gain more and more, even through the mistakes.
The function of the teacher now is as Socrates described it, to be ready to
give help, when needed, to bring to the birth the great thoughts which
oppress the soul.
Later the deep spiritual experiences of St. John and the Need of leisure.
arguments wherewith St. Paul convinced himself, will come
home to the religious experience at least in some degree, and the words in
which he describes the vision of God as seen from the spiritual heights,
which he had reached in his later epistles. But there must be for the ripening
of the character time for quiet, and the incessant activities of to-day, the
filling up of every hour, the deprivation of quiet even on Sunday, are much
to be regretted, and all educators should see that those who need time for
spiritual thought, for working out the great questions which come to every
thoughtful person, should not be deprived of it, because some would misuse
it. There are two excellent articles in the Pedagogical Review for July,
1891, on the “Psychology and Pedagogy of Adolescence,” by E. Lancaster,
and another, a study in “Moral Education,” by J. Street, both Fellows of
Clark University; the second article is especially emphatic on this subject.
In the highest classes, some systematic reading Systematic reading.
regarding the history and foundations of philosophy in
general and Christian philosophy in particular should not, I think, be
omitted: one cannot do better than begin with Plato; taking the Apology, the

Crito and parts of the Phædo, or the two volumes of selections by Professor
Jowett, or some less expensive edition. The Memorabilia of Xenophon is
obtainable for 3d. Selections might be made from Aristotle’s Ethics, and
some good history of philosophy be made accessible, e.g., Schwegler’s,
edited by Dr. Hutchinson Stirling, which is not too long; and some such
inspiring book as Fichte’s Vocation of the Scholar may be recommended;
other books I might mention, e.g., Henry Jones on Browning; Professor
Frazer’s selection from Berkeley; Mackenzie’s Social Philosophy and the
series of small hand-books edited by Professor Knight. There might be
meetings for discussion and reading under the presidency of one versed in
such matters; this would give definiteness to thought, and would at least
lead to the kind of wisdom which made the oracle pronounce Socrates the
wisest of men; such meetings would be specially useful for the staff. Some
effort should be made to establish the primary convictions which alone
make life worth living, enable one to possess one’s soul in patience, live in
the faith that each is working out the will of the All-Wise and All-Good—if
willingly, then with the fullest joy and reward.
The subject is not ignored at the University Colleges of Higher teaching.
the States, and there is much of deep interest in the article to
which I have referred, viz., “Psychology of Adolescence”. In an article by
Caswell Ellis, the special training of teachers of religion is insisted on, and
the establishment of professorships. “A department of pedagogy cannot be
called complete that does not deal with this important part of its field.
Religious training is as much a problem for the pedagogue, as is physical or
mental training. Surely we cannot entirely separate them. We have already
at our command in the Universities, many helps in the study of the Bible, of
theology, of philosophy, of psychology, etc.; why cannot there be found
some man of broad culture, wide sympathies, reverent spirit, to focalise
these in a chair of religious pedagogy, or whatever it may be called? it
would give the opportunity while in college to look at the larger phases of
the problem of religious training. No subject is more vital, and our best men
need not leave college ignorant of the problem or the possibility of its
solution—and find in the decline of life that (as editors, preachers, etc.) they
have been spending their energies on reformation, while the great work of
formation was never considered.”
The means of giving a thorough and systematic Foundations of faith.
teaching regarding the strong foundations of faith, is one

that should be considered by all educators. It is true that the emotions and
affections are, as in the case of all personal relations, the appropriate means
of intercommunion; but the religious life, if it is not to become weak and
sentimental, needs the bracing power of intellectual study, and the
Scriptures, especially the writings of St. John and St. Paul, afford such
exercise.
I may perhaps summarise the lines on which the grounds of a rational
faith seem to be established, and which should surely be formulated, as we
formulate the principles on which we base our faith in matters of science.
They may be arranged under two heads—objective and subjective:—
1. Sense compels us to recognise the existence of a universe, to which we
can set no bounds of space or time. We find everywhere at work forces
adapted to produce results immeasurably greater, yet similar in character, to
those produced by our own exercise of thought and will; we are unable to
conceive of either except as ultimately proceeding from a personal mind
and will.
Since our mind interprets the phenomena of sense, which is the language
of Nature; since the intelligent mind is related to an intelligible universe, the
finite mind must be related to the infinite, man must be the child of God.
The facts of history show us man in all ages renouncing all that the
animal craves for, for the sake of the ideal, the transcendent.
2. Man is self-conscious, he can become an object to himself; that he can
do this proves him to have a dual nature. The higher sits in judgment on the
lower, or animal nature (identified with the individual), seeks to bring it into
obedience to the universal. Since we can identify conscience with the
universal mind and will, we infer that we are on the one side in communion
with God, as on the other with the universe.
Man has the power of sympathy. As we cannot conceive of light without
postulating an all-comprehending æther, through which all things are
related, so the fact that we are affected, actually feel physically and
mentally with others, is inconceivable without postulating one all-
embracing Personality.
The faith that good must ultimately triumph is an axiom of the moral life;
we find it impossible to believe the reverse.
These are some of the broad bases on which rest the Christian dogmas of
the relation of man to God the All-Father, which tell of a perfect Son, and of
the power given to all to rise through grace into the spiritual life.

I have dwelt on the subject at some length, because it seems to me that
the intellectual relation to God has been too much ignored; we should love
with the mind as well as with the heart; with the developing of the physical
and psychical life, the soul craves to root itself more firmly on the
consciousness of the universal, it desires to be at one with the All-Wise and
the All-Good Father of spirits to work out the purpose of its own existence.
It seeks to be in harmony with all who are living by the highest ideal; hence
the impulse to work in associations, specially in the spiritual life, for life
must overflow into action! It seeks evermore to be at one in its being, and to
bring the individual self into harmony with the all-embracing Spirit in
whom we are one.
I may recommend to teachers the recently published volume on Religious
Teaching in Schools, by Dr. Bell of Marlborough.

PART I I . M AT HE M AT I CS .

ARITHMETIC.
By Dorothea Beale.

Multiplication is vexation,
Division is as bad,
The Rule of Three doth puzzle me,
And Practice drives me mad.

Never will such lines express the feelings of properly taught children.
It may be convenient to work out the process of teaching arithmetic on
strictly psychological principles.
(1) From the concrete to the abstract. Let the Concrete teaching first.
children learn to count with the actual things.
Once the teacher would have set the child down to a slate, taught it to
count, and write down the figures, and work sums in addition and
subtraction, and then to learn the multiplication table. Now the child has
actual things—stones, coloured beads, sticks, bricks—anything but marbles
(which one of H.M. Inspectors recommends) or things which run about
freely. A box of china buttons, which cost only a few pence the gross, is
perhaps best.

(2) Associate doing and knowing. Let the child add actual things: Mary
has 3 buttons, Anna gives her 2, she now has 5.
(3) Put thoughts into words. Get the child to say exactly what addition is
—“giving to”—and let her find out from words she already knows or may
know, as donation, donor, etc., the meaning. The sign + for addition may
also be given.
Similarly, subtraction ought to be actually performed by drawing away,
and the word explained—its connection with drag, traction, tray, dray, etc.
Thus the common fault of writing “substraction” may be avoided. It should
be thought of as undoing addition. The signs - and = may now be given.
(4) We learn by analysis and synthesis, i.e., to see the Analysis of numbers.
parts in the whole, and the whole as made up of parts. It
is very useful at this stage to get children to group numbers, to think of 2,
e.g., as 1 + 1, of 3 as 1 + 1 + 1 and 1 + 2, of 8 as 1 + 7, 2 + 6, 3 + 5, 4 + 4, 2
+ 2 + 2 + 2. This is much insisted on in Germany and America. In
kindergartens there are many pictures which are used for grouping numbers,
thus, e.g., a seven-branched candlestick.

We may give 7, as 3 + 1 + 3, as 1 + 2 + 2 + 2, as 1 + 6. This makes
numbers, so to speak, easily fall into their constituents, which will be shown
to be of use later. I knew a child who habitually thought of the written
figures as picturing the number. Children might arrange the 9 digits in
various ways, thus, giving also the written figures:—
· ·· ··· ···· ····· ······ ·······
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
·+· ·+·· ·+··· ·+···· ·+····· ·+······
1+1 1+2 1+3 1+4 1+5 1+6
2+2 2+3 2+4 2+5

etc.

At this stage the question would naturally arise why there are only 9
figures, and an historical digression could be conveniently made. I give a
sketch of such a lesson before coming to more difficult and abstract things.
Dogs are very clever. A collie will go with the shepherd Historical methods.
and take care that none stray. Suppose one has
disappeared over a cliff when he was not looking, would he know one was
gone, would he count like the shepherd? No, he will track out a lost sheep,
by scent, as we cannot, but I never heard of a shepherd setting the dog to
count. If puss has 3 kittens and you take 1, she seems not to know. Some
savage races can count only a few numbers, but man carries a ready-
reckoner in his fingers, and most can easily count up to 5 or 10, or, if taking
in the toes, up to 20; all the higher races are marked out by their greater
power of doing long and difficult sums.
Now, suppose some great owner of sheep, as Abraham or Jesse, sent out
a shepherd with many sheep, how would he know each day whether they
were all right? Well, the simplest way would be to have two stones for each
—the master could have one bag and the man another, and then they could
calculate each night; calculus is the Latin for a stone. The shepherd would
need a long bag for his stones. Was that how David happened to have the
one which he used as a sling to kill Goliath?
Suppose, however, the flock was very large, a bag of stones would be
heavy. Has a shepherd something else, which, instead of his exactly
carrying, seems to help to carry him? The shepherd’s staff. Could he not put
notches on this for his sheep? It would hold a good many; but in days when
people had to use stones for knives, it was not so easy to cut a great many
notches, and besides it would get used up with a large flock. Could he not
make a sign like a hand, V, for every 5 sheep? That was what the Romans
did, and next they said, why not have a sign for two hands, X, and let that
stand for 10? So, if they wanted to write sixteen sheep, they would put XVI
instead of sixteen strokes. You see in the Bible the Roman numbers. The
Greeks used letters, too, as the Romans did, for numbers.
When people began to trade they wanted something more than Money.
tally sticks and stones—something the value of which all knew.
Amongst pastoral people the most ready things to calculate by were sheep
or cattle. A piece of land would be sold for so many sheep, but it would be
very inconvenient to have to drive your money about, and so people seem

very early to have had pieces of metal which were reckoned to be equal in
value to sheep or cattle, and to save weighing, each piece had, perhaps, a
sheep scratched on it; and this was called in Latin (from pecus, cattle)
pecunia, i.e., the piece of metal representing the value of cattle. This would
be carried about and exchanged. Lawyers now put in our wills “goods and
chattels”; by the first they mean houses and lands, which cannot be moved;
by the latter, things which, like cattle, can be moved. Then people could
have larger and smaller pieces of money, representing half or a quarter of a
sheep, or many sheep.
You wonder, perhaps, that people did not have books to Account-keeping.
keep their accounts in, as we do; but in early days people’s
books were made of clay, and were more like our slates, and they scratched
on them with a sharp instrument called a stylus, which looks something like
our stylograph, but had no ink inside, and they could not put these in their
pockets.
It was not till the beginning of the third century before Modern arithmetic.
Christ, that the Greek Archimedes proposed a plan not
altogether unlike ours, because he was a very clever scientific man, and he
wanted to do difficult sums, which he could not with the old Greek system.
And something of the kind was used in India. But it was not introduced into
Europe until about 1000 years after Christ by the Arabs, who had made
many conquests. The first English book about it seems to have been written
in the reign of Edward III. Chaucer, who died in 1400, talks of the “figures
newe,” i.e., the figures we use now, instead of those difficult Roman
characters which we find in the Bible.
But I think that before that, people had begun to use some such plan as
ours. Have you ever heard of public-houses being called “The Chequers,”
and seen a painted board hung up covered with squares of different colours?
This was once a sign for a house of public entertainment, where people
could make reckonings, and the place where they reckoned the money they
paid was called a “counter,” and the court belonging to the king where the
people paid their taxes was called the Court of Exchequer.
Suppose a man came into an inn, he would find the counter marked with
lines thus:—
Score. Dozen. One.

and he could have say 3 glasses of beer; the landlord would put a chalk
mark for each, but when he had had 12, one mark would be put instead in
the next row, or in the third row if he had had a score, i.e., 20, and these
marks would correspond with pieces of money. Thus we have pence and
shillings and pounds, and we put dots between instead of lines to mark them
off.
Here we will take real pieces of money. Suppose £1 „ 14 „ 6 has to be
S. D.
added to 7 „ 9 . I say 9 and 6 make 15 pence. I change the 12 pence into
one silver shilling, add that to the 14 shillings and the 7, and I get 22
shillings. 20 shillings is one pound, so I change that and leave the 2
shillings. Thus I get altogether £2 „ 2 „ 3. We can now write that in figures
and add, as before. Suppose I had to pay to A £1 „ 17 „ 9, and I had £2 „
14 „ 6. We can first do the sum with real money. I find I have not enough
pence to give 9, so I have to change one of the shillings, then I shall have 18
pence, out of which I give 9, and write down 9 left. Now, I have only 13
shillings, and I want to pay 17, so I change one pound, then I have 33
shillings, out of which I take 17 and have 16 left. When I have given the
S. D.
pound, I have none left, and there remains in my purse 16 „ 9 . We can
then also write it down thus—
£ S. D.
2 „ 14 „ 6
1 „ 17 „ 9
16 „ 9

putting the money we have to take away below, pounds under the pounds,
shillings under shillings, etc.
After a while people all agreed to have for general arithmetic Decimals.
what we call the decimal notation, or reckoning by tens, and so
lines were drawn, and figures in the first row were worth one, in the second
ten, in the third ten tens, i.e., 100; after that would come figures
representing ten hundreds or a thousand, and then ten thousands, and then a
hundred thousands; and so we could go on to any length. Ten seemed such a

natural number to use, because we all have our ready-reckoner in our ten
fingers.
hundreds tens units

We can have bags containing 10 buttons, 100 buttons, and then Addition.
we can get change. Sonnenschein’s box makes carrying very
clear. Suppose I want to put down 5 thousands, 9 tens and 3 units or ones. I
should write it thus, and if I wanted to add to this 2 thousands, 9 hundreds
and 9, I should write that below.
th. hun. tens units
5 9 3
2 9 9
8 2

Then I should say 9 units and 3 units make 12 units. But this is equal to 1
ten and 2 units, so I should carry on 10 to the second row, and write down 2
in the unit row. Then I add the 1 to the 9, that makes 10, but 10 in the
second row is the same as 1 in the third, so I carry that on; 9 and 1 make 10,
but 10 in the third row makes 1 in the fourth, so I carry again, and get 5 + 2
+ 1 = 8 thousands, and we should read it 8 thousands and 2.
Then after a while people said, “Why need we have all the Subtraction.
chequers? suppose we put a nought when there is no number,
just to mark that there is a row, and all will come right;” so they wrote
thus:—
th. h. t. u.
5 0 9 3
2 9 0 9
2 1 8 4

And a little later they left off writing anything at the top of the line, because
every one knew. Here is a subtraction sum. We cannot take 9 units from 3
units, so we get change from the next row, that gives 13 units, from which
we take 9, and have 4 left. We have nothing to take from our 8 remaining
tens, so we write 8. We have no hundreds, so we cannot take away 9, but we
change one of our thousands into 10 hundreds, and take away 9, leaving 1;
lastly we take away 2 from our 4 thousands, and get 2—altogether 2184.
Now would come in naturally the extension of this Decimal fractions.
system of notation to decimal fractions, marking the unit
by a full stop. If numbers decrease as we go from left to right, they might
get smaller than one; the next row to the right would be one-tenth of a
penny or of an inch, and the next one-hundredth, and so on. Sums in
addition and subtraction might be worked at this stage with decimal
fractions. Then it should be pointed out that to push the number a row
farther from the point which marks the unit row increases it tenfold, and
pushing to the right diminishes tenfold.
hun. tens units tenths hundth. thousandths
1 3 2 . 7 9
2 5 . 8 9 7

It is good practice and interests young children to work in different scales
of notation—one may suggest that Goliath would prefer the 6 or 12 scale.
It would be well now to give children some practice in counting
backwards, and in rapid viva voce addition, which the exercises in analysis
of numbers will have made easy. E.g., 15 + 7, the number naturally falls
apart into 5 + 2, and we get 22; 29 + 7, it falls into 6 + 1, at the next step
into 3 + 4.
We should next proceed to continued addition or Multiplication.
multiplication. Many children come to school not knowing
that multiplication is continued addition, and still fewer have any idea that
division is continued subtraction. In entrance papers I have had sheets
covered in reply to such questions as “How often can 19 be subtracted from
584?”
A few multiplications should be worked with real things. Thus, we have
to give to 5 people 3 buttons each. We arrange them in parcels of 3 and add
3 to our pile five times. Now, if we have 15 and want to know how many
times we can take away threes, we find we can do it five times over; this is
subtraction or undoing the addition. It is the same as making little parcels of

3 each, and so continued subtraction is called division. Some continued
addition sums should be given, thus: Find 4 times 891.
891
891
891
891
3564

It will be easily seen that such sums are done much more quickly if we
know by heart how much 4 nines come to, and how much 4 eights; and so
people learn their addition tables by heart, and children make them out for
themselves thus, generally up to 12 times, some learn up to 20 times. Here
is part of 7 times worked out:—
7 times 1 = 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
7 „ 2 = 14 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
7 „ 3 = 21 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
7 „ 4 = 28 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
7 „ 5 = 35 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
7 „ 6 = 42 7 7 7 7 7 7
7 „ 7 = 49 7 7 7 7 7
7 „ 8 = 56 7 7 7 7
7 „ 9 = 63 7 7 7
7 „ 10 = 70 7 7
7 „ 11 = 77 7
7 „ 12 = 84

The signs × and ÷ may now be given. All tables should be written out and
learned, and it is well to say both ways, 6 × 7 = 42, and 7 × 6 = 42. There
are certain numbers that are easily remembered, others in which children
habitually make mistakes: it is a waste of time to hear the tables therefore
all through after a time, but these difficult ones, 7 × 8, 6 × 9, 11 × 11, etc.,
should be insisted on; then, finally, the whole heard through, and any about
which there is the slightest hesitation asked for daily. If children can learn
up to 20 times without much trouble, it is an advantage.
We could next point out that this continued addition is called
multiplication, and all the numbers made up by continually adding threes
would be called multiples of 3, i.e., many times 3. So 12 would be a
multiple of 2 or 3 or 4.

Then examples should be worked, but here let me say that at the early
stages concrete examples should abound. Many good books there are
containing miscellaneous examples of concrete quantities, such as, There
are 319 fruit trees planted in each field for making jam, and there are 12
fields; how many fruit trees? Or, 7 labourers have to be paid on Saturday
£17 each; how much will they get in 12 weeks?
When children know the effect of pushing numbers to the left,
multiplication by two figures will be easy, but the child should be
accustomed to write at the end of each row the real sum, thus: 73 × 25:—
73
25
1460 = 20 times.
365 = 5 „
1825 = 25 „

and to work the same sum in a variety of ways, e.g., multiply by 5 × 5; by
100, and divide by 4; by 30, and take off 5; by 10, halve and by 10 again
and halve:—
73 4 7300 = 100 times.
5 1825 = 1⁄4 of 100, or 25 times.
365 = 5 times.
5
1825 = 5 × 5 times.

73 2 730 = 10 times.
30 365 = 5 „
2190 = 30 times. 3650 = 50 „
365 = 5 „ 1825 = 1⁄2 50 = 25 times.
1825 = 25 „

It is well to accustom children to begin to multiply with the left-hand
figure, as we shall see later. Thus we get the most important part first.
It should be insisted on that division is undoing multiplication Division.
—that if we divide 63 by 9, we are finding a number 7 which
when multiplied by 9 gives 63. In working division sums it is better to put
the quotient over the dividend, and the children should be ready to explain
each step thus: Divide 3496 nuts amongst four schools equally. None will

get as many as 1 thousand. They will get, out of 34 hundreds, 8 hundreds
each; of 29 tens, 7 tens each; of 16 units, 4 each.
874
4 3496

Long division should be fully explained thus: Divide 43921 amongst 23
people. We see that no one will have as much as 1 ten-thousand. Out of 43
thousands, each can have 1 thousand, and there will be 20 thousands left,
that is, 200 hundreds; adding 9 we get 209 hundreds. We give 9 to each and
2 hundreds or 20 tens are left. 22 tens do not give one each; they equal 220
units. Of the 221 units we give 9 to each. Some dispense with the written
multiplication. This seems to me to strain too much young children’s
attention, and to lead to loss of time.
1909
23 ) 43921
23
209
207
221
207
14

Here, while continuing to work many Factors, measures, multiples.
miscellaneous examples, it may be well to
interpose some useful exercises on matters interesting and yet puzzling to
children, on factors and measures of numbers, and primes and squares. If
they get quite familiar with factors, they will not have such difficulty as
they do when they come upon the whole set at once: factors, common
factors, measure, common measure, G.C.M., multiple, common multiple,
L.C.M.
Let us bring out the box of buttons once more and arrange the numbers,
finding the factors. 1, 2, 3 have only the number itself, and so these are
called primes, because they have no other factor than 1, the first number.
· ·· ··· ···· ····· ······
·· ···
·· ···
··
··
··

But 4 is not only 4 × 1, it is 2 × 2, and we may notice that the dots form a
square—it is a compound number. 5 is again a prime; 6 can be arranged in
three ways—in a row of ones, in three rows of 2 or two rows of 3, but these
are the same if we look at them a different way round, i.e., 2 × 3 is 3 × 2. 7
is a prime, but for 8 we can have 2 × 4 and 4 × 2, which are the same. 9 is
again a square number; it has no factors except 3. Here we might give the
expressions 22 for 2 × 2, 32 for 3 × 3 and 33 for 3 × 3 × 3.
······· ········ ·········
·· ···· ···
·· ···· ···
·· ···
··

We might go on to pick out all the primes by what is called the sieve of
Eratosthenes, and to give all squares and cubes, say up to 100. Sometimes
we speak of measure of numbers; 4 can be measured into rows of twos, 6
into rows of twos or threes, so 2 is said to be a common measure of 4 and 6.
After working some examples in factors and measures, it will be well to
leave the matter, returning to the subject later. I should pass over for girls
the wearisome exercises in weights and measures, bills of parcels, etc., very
slightly. These things belong to the shop rather than the school, and waste
the time that should be given to learning principles.
We may proceed at once to fractions. In nothing is the Vulgar fractions.
advice Festina lente more valuable than now. Once give the
children a clear idea of what a fraction is, how the two numbers represent
respectively the size of the pieces and the number taken, and all will be
easy. They are already familiar with 1⁄2d. and 3⁄4d., so we can get from them
that the lower figure stands for the number of pieces into which the penny is
divided, and that the figure above shows the number of pieces taken. Many
fractions should be drawn by the children—5⁄6 of a line, a circle, a square,
5 numberer
etc. The fraction may be written thus: ,
6 namer
5 gives the number of pieces taken; is numberer or numerator;
6 gives the number of pieces into which the whole is cut,
the size, the name, the denominator.

Let there be plenty of such questions as these: What is the effect of
increasing the numerator or the denominator? Of doubling each? Of halving

each? Notice that most things grow larger the larger the number, but with a
fraction the larger the denominator the smaller the pieces. Children should
not have books giving explanations. They must discover these by the
dialectic process, and then in their own words answer questions, and
sometimes explain every step in the sum they are working. All we require in
books are well-chosen examples. Those who have not taught, have no idea
how hard children find it to get really hold of the nature of a fraction.
Homely illustrations should not be spared. For instance, there are two ways
of getting much cake. To take many pieces, that is have a large numerator,
—or to look out the biggest piece, that is have a small denominator.
We are now ready for multiplication and Multiplication and division by integers.
division by integers. Take 5⁄12. There are
two ways of making the fraction twice as large, that is by taking twice as
many pieces, that is 10⁄12, or twice as large pieces, 5⁄6. The shortest way must
always be insisted on. Similarly, 4⁄5 may be divided by 2 in two ways. Many
examples should be worked out in detail thus:—
3
⁄14 × 7 ÷ 3 ÷ 4 × 5 ÷ 8.
3
⁄14 × 7 = 3⁄2; 3⁄2 ÷ 3 = 1⁄2; 1⁄2 ÷ 4 = 1⁄8; 1⁄8 × 5 = 5⁄8; 5⁄8 ÷ 8 = 5⁄64.

Nearly all children will write thus: 3⁄4 × 7 = 3⁄2 ÷ 3, etc., and leave the whole
unreadable.
Next should come the proposition 7 is 8 times as large as 7⁄8. (Some
a
pupils might be ready to use letters by this time, a is b times as large as .
b
The teacher must be on the watch for such.) It is very difficult for young
children to see this, and also that 7⁄8 is the same as 7 ÷ 8. This should be
illustrated by drawings in a variety of ways.
On that would follow multiplication of fractions by By fractions.
fractions, which is explained as making a mistake and
correcting. Thus if we have to multiply 5⁄7 × 2⁄3, we know how to multiply by
2, so we do that first: 5⁄7 × 2 = 10⁄7. But we have multiplied by a number three
times too large; to correct the mistake, we must divide by 3; 10⁄7 ÷ 3 = 10⁄21.
Similarly, we explain division. Not until some sums have been worked in
detail should pupils be allowed to get hold of the rules. They should work
with factors only, whenever possible.
Now we might return to the subject of multiples and Reduction.
measures. We have 16⁄24. We want to have it in its simplest form.

16 2×8
We divide it into factors: = ; 2 is a common measure of both;
24 2 × 12
the 2 above makes the fraction twice as large, the 2 below twice as small, so
16 8×2
both may be taken out. But we might have said = ; 8 is the largest
24 8×3
number that will measure both, so it is called the greatest common measure.
I think it better not to give the ordinary rule for finding G.C.M. until its
proof can be given algebraically. It is very seldom that children will fail in
the attempt to analyse numbers, and so find out all their common measures.
The common rules should now be given for finding at G.C.M. and L.C.M.
sight when a number is commensurable by each digit,
though the reason of these rules will not perhaps appear yet. These children
know at a glance whether a number can be measured by 2, 4, 8, 3 or 9, and
remove the common factor.
8008
Suppose we have , we cannot see a common factor, but we can
9009
proceed to break it up, one being commensurable by 8 and the other by 9.
8 × 1001
Then we get , and the greatest common measure comes to light.
9 × 1001
1176
We see that the numerator of is commensurable by 4 and 3, i.e., by
2205
12, the denominator by 9:—
1176 3 × 4 × 98 3 × 4 × 2 × 49
= = ;
2205 3 × 3 × 735 3 × 3 × 5 × 147

so the G.C.M. is 49 × 3, or 147.
I may here notice there is an ingenious table by Mr. Ellis, published by
Philip at 6d., showing graphically the common measures and multiples of
numbers up to 36, which makes this matter clear. I give a section of it:—
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Ones · · · · · · · · · · · ·
Twos · · · · · ·
Threes · · · ·
Fours · · ·
Fives · ·
Sixes · ·
Sevens ·
Eights ·
Nines ·

Tens ·
Elevens ·
Twelves ·

We find at a glance the primes.
Looking down the line we see the multiples thus, 12 is a multiple of 1, 2,
3, 4, 6. Looking horizontally and moving down, we come to all the
measures of each number.
It is also useful for teaching fractions.
We should next proceed to bring fractions to a Common denominators.
common denominator preparatory to addition and
subtraction. It is not always easy to find a number that will do for all the
denominators. We want a common multiple, and of course the smallest we
can have is the best. For this we have only to break up the denominators
into factors and make up a number which shall contain all these. I would
not let the pupils work at first by the mechanical methods sometimes given:
7 3 11
+ + .
230 46 621
230 = 2 × 5 × 23 We want therefore as the common
Here - 46 = 23 × 2 - denominator 2 × 5 × 23 × 3 × 3 × 3, which
561 = 3 × 3 × 3 × 23 is 6210.
Suppose we want to add 2⁄3 + 3⁄4 - 7⁄8 + 11⁄24. I should Addition of fractions.
write what we may call skeleton fractions below; I mean
simply the line; next enter the denominator 24. This is 8 times as large as 3,
i.e., we have made the pieces in the first 8 times as small, so we take 8
times as many. Only after working a fair number of sums should children
write all in a single fraction thus:—
16 + 18 - 21 + 22
.
24

If we have larger numbers, the pupils must never be allowed to make a
7 3 11
number of long-division sums, but work thus: + + . They
230 46 621
7 3 11
would factorise and put down + + . To
2 × 5 × 23 2 × 23 3 × 3 × 3 × 23
get the common denominator we see we must multiply the first by 3 × 3 ×
3; the second denominator by 5 × 3 × 3 × 3, the third by 5 × 2:—

7 × 3 × 3 × 3 + 3 × 5 × 9 + 11 × 5
.
2 × 5 × 23 × 3 × 3 × 3

I have not given a complete exposition, but touched on what seems
essential as regards the method and the order of teaching, derived from my
experience of children’s difficulties, some will think, I fear, at unnecessary
length.
In regard to the later rules for decimals, I need only make two remarks:
that the points should be always removed from the divisor, e.g.:—
·35
·000035 ÷ 5·9623 = .
59623

and the point put in as soon as we reach the decimal fraction. In working
circulators it is well for a time to express the equations thus: ·32̇94̇ = No.
10,000 No = 3294·294, etc.
10 No = 3·294, etc.
9990 No = 3291
3291
∴ No =
9990

As regards proportion, I need add little. But there is one Proportion.
vexed question: Shall we let children work by the unitary
method? I think not, at least not those who are likely to go on to
mathematics. We cannot get the thought of proportion too ingrained, and the
unitary method evades it.
In compound proportion I would make pupils work out the double
process in detail, and then with factors only, e.g.:—
If 5 men dig a trench 14 ft. long in 3 days, how long ought 12 men to
take to dig one 28 ft. long? Put in tabular form thus:—
Men. Long. Days.
5 14 3
12 28 ?

First confine attention to the length of trench.
Ft. Ft. Days. Days.
14 : 28 ∷ 3 : 6

Now we have to consider the consequences of altering the men:—
Men. Days.
5 6

12 ?
Men. Men. Days. Days.
12 : 5 ∷ 6 : 21⁄2.

But we could have arranged it thus and worked it out fractionally at once:—
14 28
: ∷3:x
12 5
3 x 28 x 5 3⃥ × 2⃥ × 1⃥4⃥ × 5 5
= = = 21⁄2.
14 x 12 1⃥4⃥ × 3⃥ × 4⃥ 2 2

If practice sums are done, the meaning of each line should be marked at
the end thus:—
£
984 price at £1.
Price of 984 yds. at £2 „ 15 „ 6. 1968 „ £2.
492 „ 10s.
246 „ 5s.
24 „ 12 „ 6d.
2730 „ 12 at £2 „ 15 „ 6

Approximate methods should be practised, and for this Approximations.
reason it is well to get the habit of multiplying by the larger
number first.
Suppose we want a sum accurate, say to 3 decimal places. We remove the
point from one of the factors, pushing it, of course, an equal distance in the
other. We make the whole number reversed the multiplier, and begin with
the fourth decimal figure (one beyond the one we need). This will give the
fourth place as the first number, since we are multiplying by units. In the
next row we must take in the fifth decimal, since we are multiplying by 10,
and so on. Here is a sum worked out at length and an abbreviated one:—
Find correct to 3 places of decimals 3·45 × ·00059692:
3·45 × ·00059692 = 345 × ·059692
·059692 ·059692
345 543
17907600 2984
2387680 23876
298460 179076
20·593740 20·5936

In division we approximate by cutting off a figure each time from the
divisor as soon as we have come to the number which is one less than the
number of digits still to be found. Get correct to five places.
454523)145367·9 (·31982
1363569
901100
454523
446577
409068
37509
36360
1149
908
241

I might summarise the order of teaching fractions thus:— Summary.
What a fraction is—mixed numbers, improper fractions.
Effect of increasing or diminishing numerator or denominator.
Multiplication and division by integers.
a
Proposition a is b times as large as .
b
Multiplication and division by fractions.
Meaning of 2⁄3 of 7⁄8.
Measures, common measures, factors, common factors.
Reduction by inspection.
Meaning of common multiple, common measure, L.C.M. and G.C.M.
Bringing to common denominator.
Addition and subtraction.
There are interesting papers by Potts of Exclusion of some subjects.
Cambridge, 2d., published by the National Society,
giving the history of arithmetic. I have found it throws much interest into
the subject to teach it historically. It seems to me that various things at
present included in arithmetic books should be deferred; e.g., present
values, annuities, etc., which no one would be likely to attempt who is
unacquainted with algebra.
The Mathematical Conference called by the Committee of Ten, U.S.A.,
writes as follows, and I quite agree with its view: “The conference
recommends that the courses in arithmetic be abridged and enriched—
abridged by omitting entirely those subjects which perplex and exhaust

without affording any really valuable mental discipline, and enriched by a
greater number of exercises in simple calculation and in the solution of
concrete problems. Among the subjects which should be curtailed or
omitted are compound proportion, cube root, abstract mensuration and the
greater part of commercial arithmetic. Percentage should be reduced, and
the needs of practical life—profit and loss, bank discount, compound
interest, with such complications as result from fractional periods of time—
are useless and undesirable. The metric system should be taught in
application to actual measurements, and the weights and measures handled.
“Among the branches of this subject which it is proposed to omit are
some which have survived from an epoch when more advanced
mathematics was scarcely known in our schools, e.g., cube root,
duodecimals; so far as any useful principles are embodied in them, they
belong to algebra, and can be taught by algebraic methods with such
facility, that there is no longer any sound reason for retaining them in the
arithmetical course.”
I do not insist on algebra for all; it gives the same sort of mental
discipline that arithmetic does, and so, educationally, is not of special value.
Geometry, on the other hand, gives a different kind of training—opens a
different set of ideas. Many girls, therefore, do not learn algebra, especially
those who come late with no clear ideas about arithmetic. Those who have
been taught arithmetic well from the beginning can be led on to use
algebraic symbols and letters very early.
As soon as a pupil has gone through the course I have recommended, she
is ready to take up algebra in a systematic way—I shall suppose she has
already been familiarised with the use of letters as general symbols.

MATHEMATICS.
By Dorothea Beale.

How and when can we best introduce mathematical teaching? We have to
do at present in girls’ schools with many who have come to the age, say of
fifteen or sixteen, with no mathematical teaching except a very slight
knowledge of arithmetical processes. For these it seems to me more
important to give the mental training afforded by some initiation into
geometrical ideas and methods, than to teach algebra.

For the children (and they are happily a Beginnings in the kindergarten.
rapidly increasing number) who have had good
teaching in the kindergarten, one may frame a course more approaching the
ideal. Children can be quite early familiarised with geometrical forms and
figures, and learn some of their simpler properties in connection with the
drawing and modelling lessons.
The Conference on Mathematics, called by the Practical geometry.
Committee of Ten, U.S.A., recommends that children
from the age of ten should have some systematic instruction in concrete or
experimental geometry. “The mere facts of plane and solid geometry should
be taught, not as an exercise in logical deduction and exact demonstration,
but in as concrete and objective a form as possible; the simple properties of
similar plane figures and solids should not be proved, but illustrated and
confirmed by cutting up and rearranging drawings and models. The course
should include the careful construction of plane figures by the eye and by
the help of instruments, the indirect measurements of heights and distances
by the aid of figures drawn to scale, and elementary mensuration plane and
solid.”
A small book by Paul Bert, First Elements of Experimental Geometry
(Cassell), is very suggestive, and would throw much interest into the
subject. Spencer’s Constructive Geometry may be referred to, but it is not
altogether satisfactory. A useful and practical book is Geometry for
Kindergarten Students, by Pullar (Sonnenschein).
I consider that geometry should be preferred to Geometry before algebra.
algebra in order of time, because, as I have said,
arithmetic gives the same kind of mental training as algebra, whereas from
geometry the learner gains a unique mental discipline.
Thus the learner is taught to frame a definition; he has Its educational value.
to put before the imagination the abstract generalised
idea, and then describe, in words clear and precise, what is in the mind.
Each proposition begins with a general statement regarding what is to be
proved, or to be done, and compels us to have a clear idea of what we are
going to talk about before we begin. The sub-enunciation makes us bring
the general into the region of the particular, and infer the general from it.
We must for the demonstration select certain relations relevant to the
subject and omit all others, and we must be ready to give a reason for every
assertion. Thus geometrical teaching trains the judgment and forms a most

useful and logical habit of mind. One finds the tendency is greatly checked
to use words without any clear idea of their meaning, to plunge into a
subject without having set in order in the mind, what is the matter to be
discussed, or the problem to be solved, and order is introduced into the
general work in all other subjects of study.
But geometry has still higher uses in the Leads up to the region of ideas.
process of mental development. It is, so to speak,
the link between the real and the ideal; as Professor Cayley has said,
“imaginary objects are the only realities, the οντως οντα, in regard to which
the corresponding physical objects are as the shadows in the cave”;[23] if, on
the one hand, it opens the gates of science, on the other it leads us to
philosophy, and so Plato is said to have placed over the door of the
Academy, “Let none enter here ignorant of geometry”.
[23] Presidential Address, Brit. Assoc.

To study geometry is to enter a new path, and we do not see at first to
what heights it leads, upwards to the universe of ideas; ideas are nothing for
sense, and yet they are the most necessary things for the everyday life we
lead. Thus, a point, though it exists not, yet as a thought-dynamic is—it
moves and traces out lines which do not exist, and yet give us direction, and
are of most practical use; by them we calculate the height of real things, we
guide our ships, we find paths in the heavens. Again, moving lines give us
planes, and these, which exist only in thought, as they move, form what we
call solid figures, i.e., something which occupies space.
Of course, no one who is grounded in the principles of Forming definitions.
real education, would think of letting children begin by
learning definitions; they must be made to put their vague notions into
words; and it will be well for them to see how difficult this is, e.g., in the
case of a straight line, an angle, though the notion is quite clear to the
mind’s eye. It is surprising to those who have not taught the subject how
long it takes girls, who have not been trained to exactness, to bring out, e.g.,
the definition of a circle. They will say, all lines drawn from the centre are
equal; or all lines drawn from the centre to the circumference are equal.
No child should be allowed for a long time to see a Euclid. Each
proposition must be treated as a rider, and a copious supply of riders
provided in addition; the child helped to discover the solution or the proof,
then set to write it; if wrong it must be gone over again and again; it will

take a long time to get through a very few propositions thus, but later all is
easy.
It appears from the report of the Oxford Local Methods of teaching.
Examinations, August, 1897, that the methods of the
dark ages still prevail in too many schools; we read: “In many cases
candidates who wrote out correctly all propositions for the first six books
sent up attempts at problems that can only be described as grotesque, and
showed their complete failure to understand the subject, giving the
unpleasing impression that all they knew was learned by heart”.
As a formal introduction to Euclid for young pupils, I know Euclid.
nothing better for the teacher to study and use than Bradshaw’s
First Step. Many others might be named. The Harpur Euclid is good
(Longmans), and Books I. and II., by Smith and Bryant, may be specially
recommended. Still I regret that the text-book in England is Euclid; its
inconsistencies are manifest; we stand alone in keeping it. Yet a good
workman will make the best of his tools, and there are editions which
remedy many of the defects. One would, however, hope that some day
Societies for the Improvement of Geometrical Teaching and Reformed
Spelling will rejoice together. It does seem an anachronism not to have an
angle as large as 180°; to use the circle, and think of a circumference, yet
refer to no other loci, and work out in a cumbrous manner the propositions
of Books III. and IV.—to talk of lines touching and not make use of limits.
The more a teacher knows of the higher mathematics, and looks forward for
the pupil, the better will he teach the rudiments. The treatment of the
subject by Professor Henrici (London Science Class-books, Longmans)
seems excellent, but I do not know how far it would answer for young
beginners. I should be glad to have the experience of some who have tried
it. The professor derives the notion of a point from a solid, particular figures
from infinite planes, and proceeds generally in an inverse direction from
that of Euclid; the nomenclature is admirably compact, and must result in a
large economy of thinking power—the notion of a locus is introduced early,
and the methods employed lead up to the modern or projective geometry.
I once spent some time at Zurich, a town especially remarkable for its
intellectual activity, and chiefly for its mathematical school. Through the
kindness of Professor Kinkel and other friends, I easily obtained permission
to be present at various lessons in the Polytechnic and Canton School. I
found the method there similar to that which we follow. The pupils used as

a text-book Wolff’s Taschen-buch, a duodecimo of less than 300 pages,
which contains the principal results in pure mathematics and the applied
sciences, but no demonstrations. I heard a lesson given in the Canton
School. Professor Weileman first read the proposition; it was the same as
Euclid, XI. 2: to draw a perpendicular to a plane from a given point without
it. About a dozen held out their hands to show they were ready to
demonstrate. The professor selected one, who took his place at the board,
and, subject to correction, worked the problem. The professor gave as little
direct instruction as possible, appealing rather to the class. I was much
struck with the eager interest that the class (I think it was Class II. B) took
in the work. The next proposition (in Wolff) afforded much amusement. The
demonstrator jumped to the conclusion that the lines required to complete
the construction would meet, and could not be made to see he had assumed
what required proof. Other members of the class offered to take the matter
up; he was accordingly superseded by No. 2, who having surmounted this
difficulty, also broke down before he reached the end. No. 3 therefore took
his place at the board. Thus were the reasoning and inventive powers of the
boys developed, and a keen interest awakened; there was no weariness, no
apathy.
I make a few remarks on what may seem to some trivial matters, yet
which are of importance to beginners.
In giving the proof at the board, there is no need to use three letters, and
drag children by their help round every angle; we can write a Greek letter or
a number, as we constantly do in trigonometry, or we could colour the
angles; say the red is equal to the blue, and let the children write out the
propositions in an abbreviated form first; or we might adopt the convenient
and concise plan of Professor Henrici: let capitals stand for points, small
letters for lines, and let angles be represented by the small letters with ∠
prefixed. Thus we have line PQ or a; PR or b; and ∠ QPR or ∠ ab;
anything to avoid tediousness is good; children are so bored by verbosity.

Riders need not be always mere lines without any human or scientific
interest. Suppose instead of saying—From two points to draw lines to a
given line, which shall make equal angles with the given line, we say—Let
CD be a mirror or a wall, a ray or a ball strikes it at P, draw the direction it
will take after—or, There is a big house A, and a little house B, near a river
—the man in B has to fetch water for A daily, where should he draw the
water so as to go the shortest possible distance?

The method of determining the distance of the moon can be made clear
long before a child is able to conceive the trigonometrical ratios, and if we
are able to arouse an interest in astronomy, we may excite ardour in some
which will make hard thought and work delightful. The distant prospect of
the mountain top has a wonderful power of leading us on. The writer can
never forget the joyful enthusiasm with which she threw herself into the
study of mathematics in consequence of hearing courses of lectures on
astronomy from Mr. Pullen of Cambridge, Gresham Professor of
Astronomy, and the late Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge has described to her
the power which the first realisation of the wonders of the boundless
universe had over him when a boy of fourteen.
Mr. Glazebrook has suggested that some insight may be given to those
who have no high mathematical ability into what seems so marvellous to
the uninitiated, the development of curves from equations.
The close relation between algebra and geometry becomes Algebra.
apparent in Euclid, Book II., but this might be shown somewhat
earlier by methods such as those recommended by Mr. Wormell in the first
pages of Plotting or Graphic Mathematics. We can see by a figure that 1 +
2 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 32, and lead the pupil on to the general proposition which is
in constant use, when treating of falling bodies.

Or we can show similarly that the sum of an arithmetical series equals
a+l
.
2

As regards the formal introduction of generalised arithmetic or algebra,
one cannot lay down any limit of age, owing to the very untrained state in
which girls come to secondary schools, but with children who have been
taught thoroughly the principles of arithmetic up to fractions, it is easy to
introduce literal symbols and so prepare the way: this should be done much
earlier than is usual.
Children well taught in arithmetic might perhaps begin the subject
formally about thirteen, and I think it well for the first term to drop
arithmetic altogether, so as to get as much time as possible for overcoming

the initial difficulties, and making use of the zeal which a new study gives;
but of course every good teacher of arithmetic will train his pupils to use
letters for numbers very much earlier. There is a good deal put into
arithmetic books, which would be much better dealt with by algebraical
methods, and should be postponed, e.g., involution and evolution, and much
time should be saved by omitting long sets of examples on weights and
measures, etc., and giving sums to be worked out mechanically with large
numbers. As in arithmetic, it is extremely important to give an insight into
the composition of quantities, so that de-composition may be easy,
subsequent mechanical work in multiplication, division, involution, etc.,
minimised, and the pupil reach sooner the more attractive branches of the
subject, and feel the power it gives.
If children have acquired early a fair knowledge of Mixed mathematics.
geometry and algebra, they may, say at sixteen, be ready
to pass on to those branches in which the alliance of the two is most
intimate, and which are so closely correlated with all the teaching in
mechanics and physics. It takes most girls some time to assimilate the ideas
of the trigonometrical ratios, and it is fatal to hurry them.[24] Those who are
able to proceed further, and enter upon the study of co-ordinate geometry,
usually take great delight in it; and it is well, too, to lead them gradually on
by some such books as Proctor’s Easy Lessons in the Differential Calculus,
to form some idea of what a powerful instrument the Calculus is, before
they actually make use of it or formally study it; it takes time for a new
method to infiltrate the mind of an ordinary student.
[24] I may add that there is an interesting chapter in Herbart’s A B C of Sense-Perception, in
which he works out trigonometrical ratios on the basis of his philosophical system: this chapter
would interest those teaching mathematics.

Finally, I would once more recommend that, whenever it Historical method.
is possible, pupils should be led along the path of
discovery pursued by original investigators, both in physics and applied
mathematics; I have found the interest of logarithms greatly increased by
this method.[25]
[25] Professor Salford (Monographs on Education and Health) insists on the importance of
teaching logarithms as a part of scientific arithmetic. “Often logarithms are first taught in
connection with trigonometry, and the average pupil does not learn the difference between a
logarithmic and a natural sine; there is no cure for this confusion but to teach logarithms where
they belong and to apply them to purely arithmetical problems.” He advises the introduction of

logarithms “as soon as the pupil has reached in algebra the proposition am × an = am × n, and
he should be shown that the practical method of dealing with powers and roots is the
logarithmic. Teachers will then abstain from annoying young pupils with difficult and needless
problems solved in the antiquated manner; they will learn how to calculate a compound interest
table, an excellent exercise in itself, as well as a labour-saving contrivance in arithmetic. The
reason why logarithms are so little appreciated, is that teachers of arithmetic have not as a rule
really learned their use; they go on wasting time in arbitrary exercises in evolution, interest, etc.,
done by tedious methods, and do not appreciate how instinctively the best calculators employ
logarithms.”

Professor Lodge’s popular book, Pioneers of Science, is very much
appreciated by the young, and I may quote à propos evidence given by Dr.
Bryce of Glasgow before the Royal Commission of 1864:—
“Pure mathematics cultivates the power of deductive reasoning, and as
soon as boys are capable of forming abstract ideas, and grasping general
principles, as soon as they have got correct notions of numbers, and an
accurate knowledge of the essential parts of arithmetic, and have made
some progress in geometry, then natural philosophy may be advantageously
taught. I speak on this matter from experience. My relative and colleague,
who had charge of the mathematical department in the Belfast Academy,
introduced natural philosophy as part of the work of all the mathematical
classes. After these classes had gone a certain length in geography and
algebra, he took up the elements of natural philosophy two days in the
week, as part of the work of every mathematical class. He began with
simple experiments, and according as the progress of the boys in Euclid and
algebra admitted of it, more mathematical views of natural philosophy were
introduced. The great advantage of the study of physical science is that,
when properly taught, it interests boys in intellectual pursuits generally. For
instance, Newton’s great discovery, the identity of the power which retains
the moon in her orbit with terrestrial gravity, was being explained to a class
of from twelve to eighteen boys. The teacher did not tell them the result; he
enumerated the phenomena by which Newton arrived at it, taking care to
present them in the order most likely to suggest it. As fact after fact was
marshalled before them, they became eager and excited more and more, for
they saw that something new and great was coming; and when at last the
array of phenomena was complete, and the magnificent conclusion burst
upon their sight, the whole class started from their seats with a scream of
delight. They were conscious that they had gone through the very same
mental operation, as that great man had gone through. The consciousness of

fellowship with so great a mind was an elevating thing, and gave them a
delight in intellectual pursuits. An unusual proportion of those boys who
passed through the Belfast Academy during the twenty years that I was able
to have natural and physical science taught on those principles, have, as
men, been distinguished and successful; and they owe it, I am convinced, in
a large degree to the taste for intellectual pursuits thus formed.”

PART I I I . S CI E NCE .

PSYCHOLOGICAL ORDER OF STUDY WITH SPECIAL
REFERENCE TO SCIENTIFIC TEACHING.
By Dorothea Beale.

As Rosencranz expresses it, there may be distinguished three epochs:—
I. The intuitive—I use the word with the German meaning of sense-
perception.
II. The imaginative, during which the developing mind is more accustomed
to dwell on mental images, is less passive to impressions, more
active in calling them up, in fashioning them anew.
III. The logical, during which the impulse is to harmonise the world without
and the world within, to fit all things into a scheme of space and
time, of order and law.
Regarding these, we may ask what is the thought-material in which the
developing mind may best work successively—or if we take the same
material, in what varying way shall we deal with it? The near objects which
the children can touch and taste and see objectively, these are the first things
which call forth the attention, that self-activity by which the mind fastens
on its prey, and converts percepts into concepts; as the jelly fish catches the
floating prey in its tentacles, and absorbs it into its substance, so the child
stores up experiences and memories which enrich all future percepts.
What subject of systematic study can be better suited to the child Botany.
then, than that which calls out its sense of wonder and beauty, and
which in harmony with its own restless nature is ever changing; in which is
found endless variety with underlying order? Surely the world of flowers is
specially suited for teaching the little ones. How the colours and forms
delight them—has not the first sight of a flower remained with many of us

through life, “a joy for ever”? It is for us to teach how to observe, so that
the memories shall be not mere vague impressions, but clear-cut, accurate,
lasting: all the senses must combine to give unity and completeness to the
sense-concept, so that the child may feel the beauty, enter into loving
sympathy with Nature, and perfect that “inward eye, which is the bliss of
solitude”. Children should be led to form collections, by which the first
observations may be repeated and fulfilled; they should also learn to draw,
so that not merely the individual, but the essential, the typical may be
brought into clearness; we should, too, encourage in them the desire to co-
operate with Nature in making the earth beautiful, and call out the
affections towards the Unseen Giver of all good things.
These are a few of the reasons why botany in its simplest forms is fit
nourishment for the child. The hard names, the intricate divisions into
classes and orders, the physiology of growing plants can be touched on only
lightly; but the power of observation can be greatly developed, and the main
facts of classificatory botany can be taught, and teaching full of interest
given as regards structure, growth, seed distribution and relations to the
insect world. Mrs. Bell’s Science Ladders form a good introduction. When
we have exhausted our material, so far as the little child is capable of
understanding, it is better to turn to some fresh subject; we may later, when
the mind is ripe for these things, take the subject up again. Children whose
eyes have been opened, will be able to go into the country, and note down
the things they have seen. Diaries I have seen quite beautifully kept by poor
children taught at the House of Education at Ambleside. The children knew
the different buds as they came out on the trees, and watched the delicate
and deepening tints, saw the leaf-buds develop into leaves, and the opening
of the flowers.
Elementary botany should, I think, be followed by a year of Zoology.
zoology (say at ten years old), treated in a simple way; the teacher
should dwell not upon the internal structure, but on what presents itself to
the eye, beginning with living creatures that the children are familiar with,
or can get to know—domestic animals, “beasties” from garden and pond,
caterpillars and birds, tadpoles and dragon-flies—they should have their
menageries, and watch the creatures’ habits. Especially suited to women is
the work of observing insect life, and there are worlds for us to discover, if
we, as we walk round our garden, have eyes to see.

The animal world too is specially calculated to develop the affections
rightly. The character of the human being is too complex, too far above the
understanding of the child, and as long as he is dependent, he should not be
exercised in observing and chronicling the doings of those whom he cannot
yet understand. It is something to give him objects, on which he can
exercise his powers of criticism and observation. So too the sense of
responsibility may be fostered towards those who depend upon him, and are
in his power.
These two sciences bring the child into contact with things on Astronomy.
the earth; he might next lift up his eyes to the heavens. It
delights the child to learn the names of the constellations, and trace their
forms, to notice the movements of the planets, the changing aspect of the
sky as the years go round. The sense of the greatness of the universe
gradually dawns on him, and the awe and reverence for that power and
wisdom which is revealed in the heavens, prepares the way for those deeper
teachings which belong to religion. Especially stimulating is astronomy to
the developing reflective powers, from the number and variety of problems
it suggests; and yet it is not altogether baffling, for the child can be led on to
draw conclusions respecting the movements and distances of the heavenly
bodies; very early he can be shown how to solve such questions by simple
processes, and thus the mathematical passion awakened; surely most of us
can remember the first time that our soul really ascended into the seventh
heaven. I have heard a mathematician describe what it was to him—how at
fourteen he fled from the school into the fields to be alone.
And what next? There is something near to the child, Physical geography.
which he can touch, which lies at his feet, a magic book
with mysterious characters, in which he reads of infinite time; let him open
the pages of the great rock-book, and gather the relics of the past. Geology
will help him to observe in a new way; astronomy and geology (I use it in
the sense of earth-history) are more suited than the two first to the
beginning of the reflective period, because there is nothing to be done to
alter the objects of the two last sciences—whereas we can do much, and
observe the effect of our doings on plants and animals.
Physiography, including geology and all that has to do with the
phenomena of Nature included under the head of physical geography,
would claim a two years’ course and unify the subjects already touched on:
the pupil will learn many facts on physical science.

And now the girl, say about fifteen, with an increasing power of
abstraction and reflection, and a greater knowledge of mathematics, will be
ready to receive more formal and definite instruction regarding what we call
matter and force—elementary physics; the subjects of light and heat,
electricity or chemistry might be selected; the girl is becoming the woman
—the reflective powers are gaining the ascendant—she is longing to
interpret more than to gain ever more knowledge, she understands
something of physics and chemistry; let her return now to her first study
and carry it still further, see the mysteries of life revealed in the flower, take
physiological botany, the chemical changes produced by the physical
processes, watch the plants as they grow, and trace the relation of flower
and insect, plant and animal—recognise that all-embracing intelligence
working in all, which has harmonised not only the outward things, but the
intelligence of every living creature, and made each able more or less to
know the laws of their life and to obey them. The developing and deepening
religious instinct will find utterances from heaven in these earthly things,
hear the voice of God among the trees of the garden. Later still we can pass
into the inner temple, treat of physiology, show how marvellous is the
living tabernacle of the soul, how fitted for our temporary abode.
It is objected by some that physiology should not be studied because it
involves the whole circle of sciences, whilst others regard it as the most
necessary and fundamental branch of instruction. Experienced teachers
know that much of great educative and practical value can be given on the
lines of Mrs. Bell’s Laws of Health, and brought home to comparatively
uneducated people by the tracts of the Ladies’ Health Society, and we all
know how important it is for those who are growing into womanhood, that
the subject should be treated with the wisdom and judgment and reverence
which it demands.
On the later stages of the teaching of natural science I do not propose to
dwell. Those who take up science as a speciality will have to limit the field,
and others will be guided by circumstances, but whatever special line they
may follow later, such a course of study must surely have nourished the
powers of the mind, developed the sympathies, disciplined the character,
enlarged the horizon beyond the petty concerns which occupy the whole
attention of the uneducated of all sorts and conditions. The woman who has
really thought about these things, when she travels will see things with
different eyes, she will understand enough to profit by the companionship

of able and thoughtful men, and later perhaps to share it may be a man’s
work as Miss Herschel, and Mrs. Huggins, and Mrs. Proctor, and Mrs.
Marshall, and Mrs. Sidgwick and many more—to be the friend of her
brothers and the first teacher of her sons—and she will surely have learned
the first lesson of wisdom, the humility which knows that all we know is to
know that our knowledge is as nothing in the presence of the Infinite, that if
any man think that he knows, he knows nothing as he ought to know it.
I have worked out the order in detail in respect to science; it will be
enough to touch very briefly on the parallel teachings in other subjects,
which must also be taught scientifically.
Take, e.g., language. The child is ever observing and imitating; restless
activity characterises the child.
The teacher has to perfect the observing powers by insisting on right
pronunciation, as I have shown in another chapter, first in English, then in
another language; knowledge is first empirical.
Next will follow, not grammatical definitions and rules to be learned, but
the discovery of classification, just as in the case of botany, through
observation—the discovery of rules inductively; then, when the need is felt
for a shortening of the process, the collections made by grammarians may
be produced, as the book of dried specimens, say of ferns, which the child
had not time and opportunity to collect for herself. Afterwards will come
reading and reflection upon the relationship of words, like the systems of
scientific classification of flowers, and later the age of poetry and
philosophy. It is the giving the grammatical abstractions to children who are
at the stage of observation merely, which creates the distaste for school
learning; it is the giving dead languages at a time when children are at the
active, intuitive age, and have not the powers of thought necessary to
disentangle the classical authors, that makes so much of our teaching a
failure.
So with history. First the simple tales, e.g., Jack and the Giant—no
complications of character there—good and bad, black and white—stories
of fairies and hobgoblins, beings so unlike ourselves, that we are not
troubled too much with moral scruples; they are like dream people. Then
old-world heroes, in whom the moral emerges—not the priggish boys and
girls, to cramp the character, but boys and girls, writ large. Then passing
from the individual to the general, the specimen to the species, we have
family life enlarged to the state under a kingly constitution, as in ancient

patriarchal times, the first teachings of which are best gathered from the Old
Testament. As in the nature teachings we shall lead children to feel
underlying all, the sense as of an unseen presence, a King of Kings ruling
the course of this world, leading and guiding the mind of man to work with
Him as in the nature realm. And lastly in the highest teachings, which have
to do, not with the objective surroundings, but with the man himself, with
his thoughts and aspirations, with the expression of these in literature, in art,
in ethics, and politics, and philosophy, the student will find enough to
develop the highest powers of thought, as he wrestles with the problems of
life, when he has reached the later period of study.
And the same order is observed in religion. The objective first—the
Divine acts seen in nature, in the acts of the good, in the punishment of evil;
at first the thought of God is more objective, since it must be so in the early
life of the child under parental government. Later more subjective, through
conscience. Sin is at first regarded chiefly as an act against a loving person,
later it is felt to be the degradation of our nature, or that of others, by taking
in a poison as it were; or as ἁμαρτια, the frustration of the true ends of our
being, the exclusion from the light and life and joy of the Divine presence,
which is the soul’s sunlight, into outer darkness—the conceptions formed
will be different, the underlying truths one, the thoughts will pass from the
physical to the panpsychical, and later to the highest conceivable by us—
the anthropomorphic, stripped of the transitory and the finite, but embracing
all those eternal things by which we know that we are more than creatures
of time, since we gladly throw from us all that would then be our highest
good, for the things which eye sees not and ear hears not, but which can
come to us by revelation only of the spiritual; things which all men, in all
ages, have felt to be the best, whatever their actions may have been, truth,
love, righteousness, justice, the eternal things.

The worst man knows in his conscience more
Than the best man does, whom we bow before.

THE TEACHING OF THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES.
By Charlotte L. Laurie.

The biological sciences deal with the manifestations of life. Introduction.
This distinguishes them at once from the physical and chemical
sciences; not, indeed, that it is possible to understand the life of any
organism without some knowledge of physics and chemistry; thus to
explain intelligibly the circulation of the blood some acquaintance with
mechanics is necessary, but organisms have certain properties which belong
to them from the very fact of their being endowed with life; the inherent
properties of protoplasm, its contractility, irritability, etc., are all vital
properties due to the presence of life.
The first point then that a teacher of biology has to decide in order to
teach this subject rightly is: What is it possible to teach about life? Is this
nineteenth century with its marvellous electrical discoveries any nearer the
secret of life? Although it may fairly be claimed that the manifestations of
life are better understood, yet scientists will be the first to confess that what
life itself is still remains a mystery; therefore the teacher of biology must
never be satisfied without arousing in the minds of his pupils a growing
consciousness of the limitations of knowledge, the basis of true reverence.
Any teaching of science, not only of biology, which fails to do this is
defective.
The teacher of biology then will desire Development of observation (a) in class
first of all to develop a reverent attitude of and home work.
mind, so that the facts of life may be
understood aright. Observation of vital phenomena is by no means an easy
thing; it needs much accuracy, constant patience and minute attention to
detail. In school teaching the foundations of accurate observation ought to
be laid. Botany affords much scope for this. In planning lessons, in
choosing specimens for home work, the teacher should aim at developing
this faculty. A lesson on a buttercup may very well be followed by home
work on a marsh marigold. The two plants belong to the same order and
have great similarity in structure, but certain important differences; the

tendency of unobservant pupils will be to conclude that the same
description will apply to both, and possibly nectaries will be described as
present on the sepals of the marsh marigold instead of on the carpels, etc.
As a rule, home work should demand original observation on the part of the
pupils; it should not be a mere repetition of what has been done in class;
thus, supposing the sweet-pea has been worked through in class, clover may
be set for home work, provided of course that the class is sufficiently
advanced.
Then, as regards the observation of vital phenomena, it is possible to
show that plants, like animals, take in oxygen. The details of “Garreau’s
experiment” can be contrived even in schools where there is no
physiological laboratory; with a water plant such as Anacharis, the
evolution of oxygen in the making of starch can be demonstrated; and with
such a simple thing as yeast growing in sugar and water, it is easy to show
that carbonic acid gas is given off by fungi; more elaborate experiments are
necessary to demonstrate the evolution of this gas by green plants. The
teacher should always point out any similarity of process in plants and
animals; transpiration of plants should be compared with the perspiration of
animals, so that after a few lessons on the physiology of plants, it is
possible to indicate the essential differences between plants and animals as
far as they are known.
In zoology, as in botany, the teacher should aim at developing the power
of observation, but zoology is a much more difficult subject to teach well;
for it is not always possible to get animals for observation, consequently
lessons in zoology are often dry; they are wanting in that living interest
which comes not from book study, but from watching the animal itself.
Where, however, this has been done, keen interest is aroused. A teacher who
has spent hours off the coasts of Devonshire, pulling sea-anemones out of
the crevices of the rocks, or watching them expand their tentacles and draw
them in, will give a very different lesson from one who has merely read
about a sea-anemone.
A class, having lessons in zoology, should have access to an aquarium,
which can be kept in the class-room, and in planning a course on this
subject, especially for young children, it is most important to choose those
types which can be observed. In a first year’s course for children of ten or
eleven, preference should be given to the habits of the animals, and
structure introduced only so far as is necessary to explain habit. Living

specimens for lessons may be obtained from aquaria in Jersey, Birmingham
and elsewhere.
It is not possible, however, to do all that ought to (b) By means of field work.
be done in developing observation within the limits
of an hour a week in a schoolroom. The teacher of botany or zoology
should be willing to organise expeditions into the country for botanising or
pond grubbing. Here we have a Field Club, consisting of three or four
sections: botanical, geological, zoological, archæological. The teacher of
each subject is naturally the leader of the section, and is thus able to arouse
a keener interest than is possible in the class-room alone. A yearly
conversazione, when collections are exhibited, gives zest to the working of
the sections, brings all the members of the club together, and affords an
opportunity for obtaining a lecture from some original worker. It is found
that if 200 belong to a school society of this kind, each member subscribing
one shilling a year, a conversazione can be held, and prizes for collections
given out of the funds of the society; each member bears in addition her
share of the expense of an expedition; but the less expensive and the nearer
home these are, the better.
An excellent means of arousing a real interest in (c) Through a museum.
science lessons, and of developing the observation, is
to have a school museum. That part of the museum devoted to natural
history should combine two functions; it should have perfect specimens of
the chief types of animal life arranged morphologically; for instance, the
covering organs, such as scales of fishes, feathers of birds, hair of animals,
should be grouped together, so that the homology of these organs can be
seen at a glance; secondly, the museum should have surplus specimens
specially intended for teaching purposes. One specimen will not serve these
two purposes; for the only way of preserving any specimen in its perfection
is to keep it under lock and key in a glass case, which must be air- and dust-
tight. As soon as a specimen is taken out and passed about from teacher to
teacher and from class to class, it will inevitably get damaged, as the curator
of many a school museum can testify.
What share can the pupils take in the museum work? They may furnish
specimens, but here the difficulty is to get them perfect enough; children
require to be trained to aim at a standard of perfection, and in this particular
the school museum may do valuable work; at the same time if the curator
demands too much, the ardour of the children becomes damped; so it is

sometimes well to accept an imperfect specimen, and put it in the museum
until a more perfect one is forthcoming. Pupils can also do much useful
work in making diagrams and drawings; every specimen in the science
portion of the museum should be drawn, and parts explained by means of
an accompanying diagram. Reference may here be made to the scheme at
the end of this paper for a specimen museum case, illustrating the flowering
plant. It has been drawn up on the lines of the Natural History Museum at
South Kensington, where, as is well known, great attention is paid by Sir
William Flower to the homology of organs. This scheme has been carried
out in our museum; almost every specimen has been illustrated with a
drawing done by pupils, the scientific explanation being written by the
teacher. In the first instance, as the case was being arranged, specimens and
diagrams were merely pinned, not gummed, so that as the work progressed
it was possible to alter and improve upon the first arrangement.
In connection with the development of observation, (d) Use of microscopes.
a word may be said about the use of the microscope in
schools. Every school should have at least one microscope, if even it has
only one or two powers; a great deal can be done with a 1-inch and 2-inch
objectives. At present many girls take the course required by the University
of Oxford for the Senior Local without having seen a single structure under
the microscope. This ought not to be, especially now that microscopes are
so inexpensive (a microscope with 1-inch and 1⁄4-inch objectives can be
obtained for £3 6s.).
There is considerable difficulty in managing microscope work with large
classes; not more than two pupils, or at the most three, can work at a
microscope at the same time, and where there are only one or two
microscopes in a school, the simplest plan is for the teacher of botany to
have pupils out singly, whilst the rest of the class are doing paper work at
their desks. Lantern slides are an immense help in class work, but they
cannot altogether take the place of the microscope, and it is very important
that elder pupils likely to do anything at science should learn to manipulate
the microscope.
In no subject is it more necessary to plan lessons Order of lessons.
carefully than in science, for not only does the development
of the observing faculty depend on a right sequence, but the scope of
science is ever widening.

Biology alone includes at the present time subdivisions which hardly
existed thirty years ago. Teachers of botany now have to find time for
vegetable morphology, histology and physiology, for the life-histories of
plants as well as for the descriptions necessary to classification. At the same
time there are other considerations, besides a right sequence, which must be
borne in mind in planning a course. Theoretically, it would be best in
botany to begin with a description of the plant as a whole; root, stem, leaf,
flower, branch, and the relation of these parts to each other, should be the
subject of the first lessons. But children of ten or eleven could hardly be
expected to be interested in learning that a leaf is a lateral appendage of a
stem, and a branch an axillary outgrowth, whereas they are fascinated by
flowers, and enjoy lessons about the visits of insects to flowers, etc.
Undoubtedly with young children it would be wiser to begin with the
flower and gradually lead up to the plant as a whole. The teacher, too, must
be guided to some extent at any rate by his own individuality. In a subject
as wide as botany some minds are attracted by one part, some by another;
one teacher can be so luminous in his account of structure and its adaptation
to function that the children are in their turn interested, especially if minute
structure is seen through the microscope, and the delight of drawing forms
part of the lesson. Another teacher revels in classification, and loves to
point out the resemblances between plants of one order and those of
another.
There must be, and it is almost impossible to over-emphasise this, a
certain sequence, a certain gradation, a definite plan, on which the lessons
are arranged; but this plan, this sequence should be the teacher’s own, it
should be the outcome of his own individuality; he will best teach what
most interests him, hence he had better follow his own order than that of
any text-book, however excellent. In higher classes, where the work is
arranged on examination lines, the teacher has a definite syllabus for his
guidance; but even in this case there is play for his individuality, and
nothing can dispense with this. He must be always reading the new books
on his subject; he must keep himself in touch with the new work that is
being done through visiting museums, botanical gardens, working in
laboratories, etc., so as to be keen about his subject, otherwise his lessons
will be dull and lifeless, and the unforgivable sin in a teacher is dulness.
Although teachers of biology will Science cultivates the faculties of
naturally attach much importance to the

development of observation, it is very imagination and reasoning.
necessary to remember that observation is
only a means to an end, not an end in itself. If teachers aim only at
cultivating the faculty of observation, they are likely to produce pupils who
will make good collectors (a work not to be despised), but nothing more.
The accurate observation of facts is absolutely necessary, but it is by no
means the only thing to be done in science teaching. The power of
generalisation, from the facts collected, should follow if science is to
advance at all. It may be thought that this cannot be done in school work,
but surely some attempt should be made in this direction, for it is most
necessary that pupils should be taught to understand, to some extent at any
rate, when a generalisation is sound and when unsound. This is specially the
case in teaching physiology; for instance, pupils are most interested in
hearing something of the cell theory of the body, and can quite appreciate
the bearing of the discovery, that the walls of the capillary blood-vessels are
composed of cells, on this theory.
Science is not a matter merely of memory and accurate observation, it
needs considerable reasoning power and much imagination, for without the
power of seeing resemblances in facts, i.e., true induction, progress is
impossible. The theory of evolution, which has revolutionised not only
science, but the whole thought of the present day, could never have been
formulated had Darwin and Wallace been mere observers, however
accurate, and in this connection a science teacher may be allowed to bear
witness to the importance of the Humanities in the training of the mind. As
a scholar of Shrewsbury Grammar School, Darwin had little training in
science, but possibly without the mental discipline of the classics, he would
have been unable to accomplish what he did for science in later life; for the
higher walks of science require much imagination. In science lessons pupils
may be called on to devise experiments for themselves, to invent diagrams,
to find out resemblances, to note dissimilarities, in order to develop the
faculty of imagination. Speaking very generally, in younger classes the aim
of the teacher will be to cultivate the faculty of observation, in the upper to
develop not only observation, but the imagination and power of reasoning.

Notes of a Specimen Lesson on Growth of Seedlings for Senior
Oxford Class.

Time—one hour.
In a previous lesson the structure of the seed of bean, maize and
sunflower has been given.
Material required:—
A. Seedlings of bean, maize and sunflower, ten days old; one of each
kind for each pupil.
B. Seedlings of the above, three weeks old.
C. Seedlings grown in different media; water, sawdust, soil.
1. The Seedlings of the Broad Bean should first be examined.
(a) The radicle, observed in the seed, has given rise to the primary
root, on which possibly lateral roots have begun to develop. This
is an instance of a true tap root.
(b) The plumule is beginning to form the stem.
(c) The cotyledons are gradually getting smaller, for the seedling is
feeding on them.
These points should be emphasised by means of the blackboard, the
pupils themselves drawing the seedlings as exactly as possible, always
naming each part.
2. Seedlings of Sunflower.—These the pupils should describe as far as
possible by themselves. They should notice from the green colour and
absence of soil on the cotyledons that they are above ground, and that there
is a portion of the seedling between the cotyledons and the beginning of the
root; this the teacher tells them is called the hypocotyledonary portion of
the stem, and the pupils ought to be able from previous lessons to explain
the word, or even to make it up for themselves.
3. Seedlings of Maize.—Here the pupils will be able to describe by
themselves the endosperm and the primary root, provided that only one root
has shown itself. If the lateral roots have begun to develop, the teacher must
explain which are lateral and which primary, and point out the difference
between the primary root of this seedling and that of the bean and
sunflower. It should be noticed that there is only one cotyledon, and here
the point to emphasise is, that the bean and sunflower live on the food
contained in, or made by, the cotyledons; the maize on the food present in
the endosperm.
The seedlings three weeks old should then be compared with those
already observed, the differences in length of radicle and plumule being

noted.
The observation of these seedlings will naturally suggest the subject of
growth. What is growth? By judicious questioning the teacher will show
that it is impossible to define it, except by its manifestations in plants and
animals; it is associated with the taking in of food; then by comparing the
growth of a building or rock with that of a plant and animal, it will be
possible to give some idea of growth by accretion as distinct from growth
by assimilation; thus the mystery of growth will be gradually approached,
the teacher pointing out that growth is only possible where there is life. This
should be illustrated in every possible way, e.g., growth of the body, of the
mind, of a school, a nation, etc.
Lastly, the effect of environment on growth will be illustrated by the
seedlings grown in different media.
The home work in connection with this lesson should consist of: (1)
Descriptions of seedlings; instead of maize, wheat may be given; nasturtium
instead of bean; these the teacher must have ready for distribution; a
drawing of each should be insisted on, with parts named; (2) Short notes on
the conditions of growth and its essential nature.
The children should also be invited to grow seedlings for themselves;
these should be exhibited in subsequent lessons.

LIST OF BOOKS ON BOTANY.

(A) Text-books for Class Use.
Elementary Botany. By Joseph Oliver. 2/-. Blackie. Useful for S. Kensington and London
Matriculation.
Elementary Text-book of Botany. By Edith Aitkin. 4/6. Longmans. This is specially suitable for
Senior Oxford Course.
Student’s Introductory Handbook of Systematic Botany (Blackie’s Science Text-books). By Joseph
Oliver. 4/6. This is one of the best text-books for Group E of Cambridge Women’s Examination.
Practical Elementary Biology. By Bidgood. 4/6. Longmans. This gives most of the types, animal as
well as vegetable, required for the Biology of Group E of Cambridge Women’s Examination.

(B) For Teachers.
Naked-eye Botany. With Illustrations and Floral Problems. By F. E. Kitchener. 2/6. Percival & Co.
Very useful for teachers of younger classes; it is most suggestive.
A Manual of Botany. By Reynolds Green. Churchill. Vol. i. Morphology and Anatomy. 7/6. Vol. ii.
Classification and Physiology. 10/-. Very helpful for London Examination work.

The Natural History of Plants. From the German of Kerner von Marilaun. Translated by F. W. Oliver.
4 vols. 12/6 each. Blackie. This is a very readable book, full of suggestion and beautiful
drawings, and not too technical.
Handbook of the British Flora. By Bentham. Vol. i., 10/6. Illustrations of the British Flora, vol. ii.,
10/6. Reeve & Co. This is indispensable for the identification of species.
A Student’s Text-book of Botany. By Vines. 21/-. Sonnenschein.
Practical Botany. By Bower and Vines. 10/6. Macmillan. Both of these are very technical, suitable
only for advanced work.

MUSEUM SPECIMEN CASE.
BOTANY.
ANGIOSPERMS OR FLOWERING PLANTS.

Root. Stem.
Tap Root.—Seedling of Sunflower. (a) Underground stems.
Rhizome—Solomon’s Seal.
Primary Root.—Seedling of Maize (not a tap Bulb—Long: Section of Ranunculus
root). bulbosus.
Corm—Long: Section of crocus.
Drawing of transverse Tubers—Drawing of potato in different stages
Histology of root. section of a of growth.
dicotyledonous root,
showing axial arrangement of bundles. Runner—Drawing of strawberry.
(b) Histology of stem.
Illustrated by Drawings of transverse and longitudinal
Development of drawings of transverse sections of monocotyledonous and
bundles. sections of young and dicotyledonous stems.
old roots.
Drawing through Specimens of bast fibres of hemp, Mexican
Origin of lateral long section of root, aloe, lace tree.
roots. showing lateral roots (c) Axillary outgrowths of stem or modified
arising from pericycle. branches.
Drawings of carrot, Tendrils—Sweet bryony.
Forms of roots. turnip, orchid, etc.
Thorns—Black thorn and gorse.

Leaves.
1. Drawing of poppy plant in five different stages, showing cotyledons, foliage and floral leaves, in
illustration of Goethe’s generalisation, “all lateral appendages of the stem are leaves”.
2. Cotyledons. Seedlings of mustard, cress, nasturtium, etc. Drawings of bean to show fleshy
cotyledons. Seedling of maize.
3. Covering leaves.
(a) Bud scales from horse chestnut.
(b) Bracts forming an involucre as in the wild carrot, black knapweed, acorn.
4. Foliage leaves.

A typical leaf with parts named.
Drawing of transverse section.
Arrangement of foliage leaves, alternate and whorled (including opposite).
The chief types of “simple divided” and “compound” leaves should be mounted.
Chief modifications of foliage leaves:—
(a) Tendrils for climbing—Vetch.
Petiole developed into tendril—Lathyrus aphaca (rare).
(b) Spines—Barberry.
(c) For food, e.g., carnivorous plants, sundew, pitcher plant, bladder-wort.
(d) Modifications due to the medium in which the plant lives—Water crowfoot.

The Flower.
I. Inflorescences.—A specimen and diagram of each.
Racemose. (1) Capitulum, e.g., daisy; (2) raceme, e.g., lily of the valley; (3) spike, e.g., wheat.
Cymose. 1. Dichotomous, e.g., most of the Caryophyllaceæ.
2. Helicoid cyme. Forget-me-not.
3. Scorpioid cyme. Rock-rose.
4. Verticillaster. Dead nettle.
II. Flower.—Drawings (coloured alike throughout) to show hypogynous, perigynous and
epigynous flower.
Calyx—Spurred, larkspur; galeate, monkshood.
Corolla—Papilionaceous, sweet-pea; bilabiate, dead nettle; rotate, convolvulus; cruciform, wall-
flower.
Andrœcium—Diadelphous, sweet-pea; monadelphous, mallow; didynamous, dead nettle;
tetradynamous, wall-flower. Attachment of anthers—drawings.
Ovaries—Diagram of monocarpellary and unilocular, tricarpellary and unilocular,
polycarpellary and unilocular, polycarpellary and multilocular; free central.
Ovules—Drawing of orthotropous, anatropous and campylotropous—each part of the ovule
coloured the same throughout.
Fertilisation.
The two forms of primrose to show heterostylism.
Drawing of figwort to show protogyny.
Drawing of epilobium angustifolium to show protandry.
Nectaries—Drawings of petal of buttercup, stamens of wall-flower, stamens of violet, carpel of
marsh marigold, style of coltsfoot; nectaries coloured blue throughout.
Fruits.
A specimen and explanatory diagram of each.
Dry Indehiscent. Dry Dehiscent. Succulent.
Nut— Follicle— Berry—
Hazel. Marsh marigold. Drawing of gooseberry.
Acorn.
Achene— Legume—
Corn buttercup. Sweet-pea.
Yellow goat’s beard. Capsule— Drupe—
Clematis. Thlaspi arvense. Drawing of peach.
Schizocarps— Shepherd’s purse.
Violet.

Geranium and umbelliferæ.
Porous Capsule—
Poppy.

Spurious Fruits.
Pome—Apple; Hip—Rose; Haw—Hawthorn, etc., etc.
Modes of Dehiscence of Fruits. Diagram of
Septicidal—specimen of datura.
Loculicidal—specimen of horse chestnut.
Septifragal—specimen of cruciferæ.
Seed.
Bean (a) with testa; (b) without testa.
Maize (a) with pericarp; (b) without pericarp.
Date cut through to show position of embryo.
Coffee cut through to show position of embryo.
Walnut to show cotyledons.
Dispersion of Seeds.
1. Wings. —Scale attached to seed of pinus.
Wing attached to fruit of sycamore and ash.
Seed of Bignonia alba.
2. Hairs. —E.g., silky hairs of seed of cotton and epilobium.
Pappus of compositæ (fruit).
Awns of clematis (fruit).
3. Hooks.—Bristles of geum.

GEOGRAPHY.
By Margery Reid, B.Sc. (Lond.).

It is a vexed question how far the study of geography Aim in teaching.
should be looked upon as a training for the mind, or whether
its primary function be not to supply material on which the trained mind
may work.
This difficulty may be to some extent solved by dividing the geography
teaching into two distinct branches—physical and general geography.
If this be not done it will be found that the general geography lesson is
overloaded with a mass of explanations of physical phenomena.
Thus, in a general lesson on the climate of India, it detracts from the
unity of the subject if the teacher is obliged to make a digression to explain
the theory of barometric pressures, but, presupposing this scientific
knowledge, references to the special application of it are within the bounds
of the lesson.

The first course in physical geography should consist Physical geography.
of lessons requiring only observation of phenomena with
which the children are well acquainted.
In a town like Cheltenham, situated within Observation and experiment.
walking distance of the source of the Thames, the
subject of the watershed dividing the small streams flowing into the Severn
from those flowing into the Thames, forms a much better subject for
observation and reasoning than the form and movements of the earth.
Simple experiments also may be performed, but artificial conditions should
as far as possible be avoided. Thus in a lesson on the principles of
evaporation, the children may be made to observe the gradual drying of a
cloth, but if heat artificially obtained be used to hasten the operation, the
object-lesson loses the greater part of its value.
At the beginning of this course the work should be Style of written work.
almost entirely that of observation and simple reasoning,
but it is well to insist from the very first that exercises either spoken or
written should be good in form as well as in matter. The composition should
be as terse as is compatible with clearness, though this applies rather to the
description of experiments than observations, for in the case of an
observation, if we are to minimise the danger of overlooking the true cause,
all accidental circumstances must be carefully noted.
The difference between an observation and experiment should be
carefully explained, and the children should be shown that whereas in an
observation we have to listen to whatever Nature says, an experiment is a
question so framed that Nature will answer “Yes” or “No,” and that we
must only ask one question at a time. Thus we may ask the question: “Is
water-vapour lighter than air?” We boil water in a kettle and the visible
cloud appears above the spout showing that the invisible vapour must have
risen as it left the kettle. The question asked was “Does water-vapour rise
through the air?” and the answer is “Yes”. The children should then write a
description of the experiment with as close attention to form as though it
were a proposition of Euclid.
Experiment. To prove that water-vapour is lighter than air.
Apparatus. A kettle containing water and a spirit lamp.
Method. Place kettle on spirit lamp, light lamp and boil the water.
Result. Water-vapour issues from the spout in an invisible form and
becomes visible as a cloud some little distance above the level of

the spout.
Deduction. That water-vapour is lighter than air.

Subject-matter of the earliest course in Physical Geography.

This course should include lessons on the following subjects:—
1. Clouds: introducing the foregoing Subject-matter of early course in
experiment to show why they occur high physical geography.
up in the atmosphere and how they are
produced.
2. Rain, snow, hail, etc.: the different conditions under which clouds
discharge their moisture.
3. Winds, with only such simple facts about their causes as can be shown
by the movements of air or draughts in a room. If tissue paper be cut into
fine strips, and held at different points in a room in which is a fire, the
draught towards the fire may be simply demonstrated and also the draught
up the chimney.
4. The sea: its saltness, the rising and the falling of the tide and the fact
that high tide is later by nearly an hour every day, also that some tides rise
higher and retire lower than others. (Causes of tides should not be touched
upon till later.) Waves and their causes.
As this course proceeds the children should be exercised in Definitions.
the making of good definitions. It is a mistake to think that
definitions must be given by the teacher. It is well to ask one child what she
means by the word to be defined. Write the definition on the board, and
then, by means of a series of questions to the children, criticise all those
points which are superfluous in the definition given. Having eliminated all
these, let the teacher take the definition as it now stands, and by giving
examples of all the facts which come under it, show that it is probably a
great deal too wide, and draw from the children gradually all the necessary
limitations.
A definition so obtained will be easily remembered, and, as the children
get practice in framing them, they will appreciate the meaning and neatness
of a clear definition.
In the later part of this course the physical features of countries may be
introduced, and the children should get clear conceptions and accurate
definitions of terms commonly used in geography, such as mountains,

valleys, plains, islands, capes, etc., and they should both be shown models
and allowed themselves to make them.
The simpler facts concerning the work of rivers and other forces
modifying the surface of the land will also find a place among these
lessons.
The physical geography which should follow this preliminary work must
of course be modified to suit the age and intelligence of the pupils.
Physical and chemical experiments may Later course in physical geography.
now be introduced, and the mathematical side
of the subject will be more insisted upon as the children begin to learn
algebra and geometry.
The illustrations also need no longer be drawn from the child’s
immediate surroundings, but may be the result of reading, or of description
on the part of the teacher, and whereas in the lesson general laws are arrived
at from special cases, in the home work the class should be encouraged to
search for new cases illustrating the laws.
These later courses should be preceded by simple work on the physical
and chemical properties of air and water. The form and movements of the
earth should be treated of, and with the help of a tellurium most of the
simple facts may be made clear, and the phenomena of the seasons and the
varying length of day and night may be demonstrated. The nature of the
proof of the earth’s movement round the sun is appreciated by few, and the
children should be encouraged to make for themselves some of the
observations on which it is based.
Thus they might be expected to keep an account of the groups of stars
seen due south every evening at a given hour. The change of constellations
will stimulate their curiosity, and it will not be necessary to wait for the
whole year before giving them some explanation. Or they might be asked to
keep a register of the varying length of the shadow of a stick at noon for
three months. The fact could then easily be drawn from the children that the
sun is at some times higher in the heavens than at others, but they would
almost certainly have to be helped to find out the reason.
The meaning and use of the various lines ordinarily drawn on a globe
may now be given.
After this work on the earth as a planet, The atmosphere: pressure and
its gaseous envelope should next be temperature.
studied, i.e., the atmosphere, its

composition, pressure and temperature, and the instruments used for
measuring them. In an earlier course the instrument and its use will be
enough to deal with; in a course to older pupils the construction and
correction of the instruments may be considered.
The children might keep a chart of both temperature and pressure for a
month, and at the end of that time be taught to find the average temperature
for the month, and to understand the methods for showing variations of the
barometer used in the leading daily papers. The nature of isobars and
isotherms should also be explained, and the isobars for July and January
should be filled into two maps and kept for use later. A map with isotherms
filled in should also be given, and the children encouraged to find reasons
for the curves in any given line.
They will now be prepared to understand the laws treating of Winds.
movements of the atmosphere. With younger classes only the more
important winds should be taken, such as cyclones and anti-cyclones, land
and sea breezes, trade and anti-trade winds and monsoons, whilst the older
classes should be led to observe the local variations arising from peculiar
circumstances.
When the principles are grasped, an exercise might be given to indicate
with arrows the direction of the wind on the maps on which they have
already marked the isobars.
The water envelope of the world will next demand Ocean depths.
attention, i.e., the depth of the ocean and its deposits. This at
first sight will appear to the children to be a subject about which they
cannot possibly be expected to have any knowledge, but by a short
recapitulation of the work of rivers treated in the preliminary course, the
fact of the necessary existence of a continental shelf may be drawn from
them, as also the fact that the breadth of this shelf will depend on the slope
of the continent in the immediate neighbourhood of the coast, and on the
amount of deposit made by rivers.
A wall map contoured to show depths in the Atlantic should be shown to
the class, and the instruments should be described used in investigating
depth and nature of the deposits on the ocean floor. With an older class the
nature of the evidence with regard to the belief in the permanence of ocean
basins may be touched upon.
Saltness of sea and causes regulating it. Various seas should be compared
with regard to their salinity.

The tides. Their causes; spring and neap tides; reason for high Tides.
tide being fifty-four minutes later each day. The subject of the tidal
wave as experienced in England requires careful treatment, as many text-
books leave the impression on the minds of children that the tidal wave in
the North Sea travels from east to west, and that the shores of the Baltic are
experiencing low tide when the eastern coast of England is having a high
tide.
Currents. Causes of currents should be sought in the Currents.
movements of the atmosphere. The class should be asked to
indicate on the map showing winds, which they drew to illustrate a previous
lesson, the effects of the trade and anti-trade winds in the production of
currents. Attention must then be drawn to the way in which the position of
the land modifies the currents so produced, and thus the class may gradually
evolve a chart of the currents of the Atlantic. For an exercise they may be
given a chart of the currents of the Pacific and asked for the causes of the
direction of the currents.
The teacher must then proceed to the more complex subject of the Land.
physical features of the land.
Mountains produced by folding; their position with regard to the ocean.
Volcanoes and their distribution.
Hills produced by denudation.
Plains and valleys.
Rivers; their work and the various causes determining their volume,
velocity and course.
Springs.
Islands.
Climate. Temperature and rainfall.
Distribution of plants and animals.

The order of treatment of the general geography of General geography.
various countries does not vary, and consequently, notes
of a first term’s course will sufficiently indicate the lines of later work.
Opinions differ as to whether it is better to begin with the study of a
continent or a smaller division of land.
Lesson I. Before the actual course begins, the children should have a
preliminary lesson on the making of plans and the use of scales. A plan of
the schoolroom and of the immediate surroundings has now-a-days

generally been made by children whilst still in the Kindergarten, but if so, a
little recapitulation will do no harm before a first lesson on the nature and
meaning of a map.
The teacher’s preparation should be done several weeks in advance, so
that no point essential to a later lesson may be omitted in its proper place.
Lesson II. For the second lesson an outline Position of places on earth’s surface.
map of the continent or country to be studied
is given to the children with the lines of latitude and longitude. If the work
has not already been done in a physical course, the meaning of latitude and
longitude should be clearly explained. After having shown that the distance
between the equator and either of the poles is divided into 90 degrees, a
sphere may now be taken, and by rough measurement the two parallels
corresponding to those through the top and bottom of the given map may be
drawn upon it. After a short description of what we mean by longitude, the
longitude of the given country is then indicated on the sphere, and the use
of the two sets of lines to show exact position on the earth will be
appreciated. If it be not a first course, the position of the given country may
be compared with others equidistant from the equator, or on the same
meridian.
In this lesson may also be introduced a few words about the temperature
of the given country so far as it is dependent on latitude.
Lesson III. Height above sea level.
For this lesson the teacher should have drawn and painted for Contouring.
the class a map of the continent being studied, with contour
lines marked in two different colours or with two different kinds of lines.
(Too great detail only tends to confuse the children.)
The first contour line should be drawn joining all places 500 feet above
the sea level, and the second joining all those places 1500 feet above sea
level. Each child should then be provided with one of these maps, and a
wall map similarly contoured and also coloured should be hung on the wall.
The teacher then explains the nature of contour lines, and shows that if
that part of the map between the 500 contour line and the sea be coloured
green, the coloured part will represent all that part of the land which is less
than 500 feet high, that is, generally speaking, the plains. That part between
the 500 and 1500 contour lines is then coloured light brown, and all those
areas enclosed within the 1500 contour line a darker brown. When the maps
are coloured, and each child has her own, they may then be taught how to

read a map so coloured. The teacher will draw from the class that if the
contour lines come close together the ground slopes very rapidly, but that
the slope is more gradual when the contour lines are more widely separated
—that the greatest height of the land lies near the greater ocean, and that the
more gradual slope is towards the smaller ocean, and that this allows of the
development of larger but slower rivers than those flowing down the steeper
slope.
A raised model may then be shown to the class, and this may be coloured
in the same way as the maps, but the children must clearly understand the
disadvantages of a model, and be shown that the vertical heights are always
enormously exaggerated in proportion to the horizontal distances.
In recapitulating, the children might be asked what they consider a
common slope for the sides of mountains. Their notions will always be
found to be extravagant, many of them thinking they have seen and even
climbed slopes of 60 degrees and upwards. By placing a piece of india-
rubber on the cover of a book, and gradually opening the book and sloping
the cover till the india-rubber rolls off, the children may be shown how very
small is the angle at which it is perfectly impossible for anything to rest on
a slope, and that therefore if we find stones on the side of a hill, we know
that the slope cannot be greater than 30 degrees. Examples may be drawn
from any hill in the neighbourhood of the school.
Lesson IV. A second lesson will be necessary on the contour of the given
continent, when the names of the mountain ranges and of the plains may be
given, short descriptions of them read, and exercise given in filling them
into a blank map from memory.
Lesson V. The teacher fills into a wall map, blank and Position of rivers.
uncontoured, the principal rivers, and asks the class to put
them in their contoured maps. Many of the children will be found not to
have appreciated the meaning of contour lines, but will have drawn a river
flowing from the part coloured green to that part coloured brown. One such
map will form a good object-lesson, and the children can be brought to see
the absurdity of what they have done in representing a river as flowing up a
hill.
The properly contoured wall map may then be hung up, and the actual
position of the rivers followed. The meaning of watershed will now be
apparent, and the fact should be noted that it does not necessarily or even
generally correspond with the highest land.

The varying velocity of the river should be drawn from the children from
the nature and position of the contour lines, and from that, which parts of its
course are being sculptured and in which parts deposition is taking place.
Lesson VI. If a physical course is given, the work of rivers will already
have been treated, but certain rivers in the continent should be chosen for
special description. From the contour line the children will be able to say
for how great a distance the rivers are probably navigable, and the uses of
the given rivers as a means of communication and the position of towns on
their banks may be discussed.
Lesson VII. Coast line. Sufficient knowledge will now have Coast line.
been gained to render possible the appreciation of some of the
causes affecting coast line.
When rocks are hard and folded, producing mountains, then they will
also give rise to rocky promontories. Clays and sands, which inland allow
themselves to be worn into plains and valleys, will here produce bays.
Rivers, if still capable of erosion, will produce valleys, which a slight
subsidence will convert into narrow gulfs. Finally the accessibility of
various points on the coast may be considered, and the position of the chief
harbours and ports.
Lesson VIII. Climate. This lesson may be treated deductively, as Climate.
the class is already familiar with those phenomena upon which
both temperature and rainfall are mainly dependent. The rainfall might be
given as an exercise, allowing the use of contoured maps, and the chart of
the prevailing winds.
Lesson IX. Distribution of vegetation, pastoral and agricultural districts.
Lesson X. Distribution of minerals, centres of population.
At the end of this course a physical map of some country not already
studied by the children should be hung before them, and they should all be
asked to write an essay about the country from the facts that they find in the
map.
If they can do this, they will have learnt to read a map intelligently, and
one of the great ends of a course in geography will have been attained, since
they will not only have acquired many new facts, but have also gained the
power of searching for and assimilating facts for themselves.
When England is the country being studied, this course must be
supplemented by more detailed work on the causes that have determined the
positions of cities and towns, and how these causes have operated during

the last 2000 years. The children should be shown that British camps were
generally on escarpments overlooking the surrounding country. The district
round was cultivated, and the inhabitants sought safety in the camp in time
of danger. After having been told that the position of some of these “duns”
or hill forts is still indicated by such place-names as London, Dunstable and
Dundee, the children might be encouraged to suggest other places
themselves. The number of camps was greatly increased by the Romans,
many of the sites being marked by corruptions of the Latin word castra, as
Chester, Colchester and Winchester, and these camps were joined by well-
made roads.
Later immigrants formed their centres either in the neighbourhood of
these roads, as the Saxons, who often formed villages at a point where the
road crossed a stream, as Hertford and Stamford on the Ermine Street, or on
sheltered bays and navigable streams, like the Norse and Danes, whose
towns and villages, ending in “ley,” “thorpe,” “wic,” are never found except
where there is a spring or other natural water supply.
As the various races inhabiting England became amalgamated, and the
land was cleared, there was a tendency for towns and villages to spring up
over such districts as the Weald, the eastern counties, the central plain and
broad river valleys. But there was no great concentration of population save
in the south-east, where the neighbourhood of the continent called into
existence the Cinque Ports, and where iron smelting was carried on by
using the wood of the Wealden forests.
As the Cinque Ports declined, the growth of the navy and the increase of
fisheries and trade with the continent increased the size of other ports, and
the growing importance of the woollen trade called into existence the large
Norfolk towns, which flourished until vexatious guild regulations induced
many workers to leave the towns, and form industrial villages as
Manchester, Birmingham and Sheffield. Settlements of foreigners, as the
French silk weavers at Spitalfields, also formed a nucleus for other
industries.
At this point the children might be shown a geological map of England,
and also a map in which all those districts with a population of more than
500 to the square mile are coloured red; they would notice that almost all
these red patches correspond with coal fields, and be told that the period of
beginning to work many of these coal fields, corresponded with that at
which America was being opened up; that consequently such ports as

Liverpool and Bristol on the west coast became identified with the
importing of cotton and sugar, and that towns engaged in these industries
sprang up in the neighbourhood of these ports.
The use of steam power in various manufactures still further attracted the
cotton and woollen industries to the towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and
the working of iron, found in the neighbourhood of coal, accounts for many
other centres of population.
Another map may now be shown with the various manufacturing towns
marked, and attention called to the physical features which have caused the
location of the industry at that spot, as the presence of water power, the
possibility of water carriage, the neighbourhood of a port, the presence of
hard water used in beer-making, as at Burton.
When the internal growth of England has been considered, a lesson
should be given on her commercial supremacy, and the factors which have
determined it. England’s position in the centre of the great land hemisphere,
the climate, the indented character of the coast, and the mineral wealth,
should all be touched upon; nor in doing this should points not geographical
be omitted, as the needs of a continually increasing population, the
founding of colonies by a part of this surplus population, and, above all, the
character of the people, upon which alone the greatness of an empire can
rest.

PHYSICS.
By Agatha Leonard, B.Sc. (Lond.).

As a preliminary to any remarks on the Position of “physics” in scheme of
teaching of physics, it will be well to science teaching.
consider the place which the subject
should hold in a general scheme of science teaching. It is not the most
suitable subject for junior classes; for young children the sciences of botany
and zoology which cultivate the observing faculty, while making less
demand upon the reasoning powers, are preferable, but for children of
thirteen or fourteen a course of elementary physics affords valuable training
and arouses great interest. The subject must, of course, be treated on purely
experimental and non-mathematical lines, indeed the chief value of physics
at this stage is to teach the children the true use and nature of experiment.

They will probably begin with the idea that the use of experiments in a
lecture is somewhat the same as that of illustrations in a story-book, to
render it more entertaining, though they might be dispensed with, and it
takes time to make clear to them that experiment is the very groundwork of
all science, the careful “questioning of nature” as to what effects follow
upon certain causes. These lessons on physics will lay an excellent
foundation for a course on physical geography, which may be taken for the
next year’s work.
With girls of fifteen or sixteen either a second course of physics,
involving a knowledge of elementary mathematics, may be taken, or
chemistry may be begun; while with older classes the choice of a subject
will greatly depend on the nature of their previous work, and on the
facilities for laboratory work in chemistry or physics. Physiology should not
be taken with girls below sixteen; it is of less educational value than either
of the subjects above-mentioned, the possibility of personal observation
being less, and the whole as taught in schools too often a matter of memory
rather than of observation or reasoning; if taught to elder girls it is rather for
the practical advantage of the information imparted than for scientific
training. Some such scheme of science teaching throughout a school as the
following might therefore be suggested:—
Classes of average age 10 to 12 Botany or Zoology.
„ „ „ 13 „ 14 Elementary Physics.
„ „ „ 14 „ 15 Physical Geography.
Chemistry or Physics (Magnetism and Electricity or Heat and
„ „ „ 15 „ 16 -
Light).

Chemistry or Physics or Botany; Physiology and Hygiene (in
Senior Classes -
addition to one of the above).

The first course of physics (see end of chapter) may deal with some of
the chief forces of nature (gravity, cohesion, friction); the three states of
matter and their properties, under which head would come lessons on
atmospheric pressure; elementary ideas of work and energy; and the simple
phenomena of sound and heat. The subject of light is better omitted until
sufficient knowledge of geometry has been acquired to allow of the laws of
reflection and refraction, and the effect of prisms and lenses being rather
more adequately dealt with than is possible at this stage. Magnetism and
electricity also are better postponed until a later course.

No text-book should be given to the children, as their home- Home-work.
work in science should never take the form of learning from a
book. Some teachers, to avoid this, let the children take notes, and attempt
to reproduce the lesson, others give, either on the blackboard or by
dictation, a clear summary which the pupils take down verbatim, but neither
plan is satisfactory; the first leads to confusion and inaccuracy, as the
children are not old enough to take good notes, while under the second all
the work is done by the teacher. I have found it best to end each lesson by
setting some questions, framed so as to bring out the chief points of the
lesson, to be answered by the children in their own words. The answers
must be carefully looked over and criticised at the next lesson, and a
methodical account of experiments insisted on, specifying in order the
object of the experiment, the apparatus employed, the method adopted, and
the results obtained and conclusion drawn. Specially good passages may be
read to the class, both as an encouragement to the writer, and as an example
to the rest of what can be done by one of themselves; and special censure
should be given to careless work, but great care must be taken to avoid
confusing mere mistakes with “bad work”; the children should be made to
feel that more value is attached to even faulty explanations or descriptions,
which show that their minds have worked on the subject, than to the most
perfect reproduction of the teacher’s exact words.
Besides the advantage of securing that the pupils and not the teacher shall
do the main part of the home-work, the teacher may gain most valuable
hints from the errors of the children; they will be found often to arise from
some misconception, the removal of which will suggest a quite fresh
method of explanation; indeed a teacher will be unlikely to succeed in
imparting clear scientific ideas to her pupils who is not on the watch for any
indications of what ideas, right or wrong, they really have formed, and able
therefore to see their difficulties from their point of view.
The only case in which knowledge may perhaps with Definitions.
advantage be cast into words not by the pupil alone but by the
teacher, is that of a definition, the construction of a concise and accurate
definition being in most cases beyond the child’s unaided powers. Even
here, however, the child should do as much as possible of the work herself,
only it should be done in class with the teacher’s help instead of at home
alone. Thus, suppose the lesson to be on the three states of matter, it is
better not to give a definition of each as the starting-point, and then go on to

illustrate and explain the same, but to start from the undefined idea which
every child possesses of a solid, a liquid, and a gas, and develop from it by
degrees the precise definition. Suppose the class to suggest as definitions
that substances in the solid state are “hard,” in the liquid state “wet,” and in
the gaseous state “invisible,” they will be much interested in having the
imperfection of these definitions brought home to them by the help of the
liquid metal mercury, which does not “wet” glass or porcelain, and of the
visible gas chlorine, and in being led to find out the true distinctions by
observing the different behaviour of solids, liquids, and gases respectively
when placed in vessels of differing shapes and sizes.
It must indeed be a fundamental principle Science teaching not “authoritative”.
throughout these lessons to tell as little as
possible; not only should the children produce unaided reports of their
work, but the reports should be of what they have themselves observed, not
of what they have received on authority. The worthlessness of authoritative
science teaching is very generally felt in these days, and some modern
teachers are disposed to deny any value at all to science lectures for young
children, asserting that only by experimental work carried out by
themselves, with as little interference from the teacher as possible, can any
really scientific ideas be communicated to them. The value of personal
practical work I, of course, fully admit, but I am sure that really “scientific”
training may also be given in a “lecture” lesson, by a teacher who knows
her subject, and is skilful in the art of questioning, and in making her
children tell her what they really do see in an experiment, instead of telling
them what they ought to be seeing.
That observation may thus be trained, it is of importance to secure that all
experiments shown to young classes should “go”. With older classes the
occasional failure of an experiment may be no great matter, they are capable
of understanding that the conditions of the experiment were not fulfilled
and hence the failure, but with beginners in science it is very undesirable to
produce the impression that when Nature is “questioned” she sometimes
gives one answer and sometimes another. Experiments that cannot be
shown to the children should as a general rule not be described, though
when any principle is thoroughly grasped and driven home by experiments
performed before the class, there is no harm in mentioning as additional
illustrations such phenomena as the falling of the mercury in a barometer
tube on being carried up a mountain, or the impossibility of making good

tea at high altitudes owing to the lowering of the boiling-point of water; but
should the want of apparatus prevent an experiment otherwise suitable for a
lecture from being performed it is generally better with beginners to omit
all mention of it.
For carrying out such a course as that now Apparatus for elementary course.
being considered very simple and inexpensive
apparatus is for the most part needed. The only expensive piece really
necessary is an air-pump; for the rest, an ordinary pair of scales, a few glass
beakers, flasks and funnels, some glass tubing and rods, a little mercury,
some wire gauze, some sheet india-rubber, thermometers, a Bunsen burner,
and a retort stand or two, are all that is needed, though the addition of such
pieces of apparatus as the Magdeburg hemispheres will enable interesting
experiments to be shown.
As regards the children’s own practical work it is not Practical work.
always possible to arrange in schools for laboratory work for
beginners; the time at disposal is often insufficient, and the class too large
for a single teacher to give the supervision needed by children so young; but
where the class can be taken in sections of not more than ten or twelve
pupils for an extra lesson, nothing so greatly rouses the children’s interest
and gives so real a grasp of principles as a course of simple experimental
work carried out by themselves. Accuracy must be insisted upon from the
very beginning; each experiment must have a definite object, and a
description of the experiment with the results obtained must always be
written out by the child. It is a good plan to give as many experiments as
possible in which the result aimed at is quantitative, it is a great satisfaction
to a child to obtain a result whose correctness can be gauged, but it is not
necessary that the work should be exclusively of this type. The course may
begin with the careful measurement of lengths, employing different
methods, such as the direct application of the rule to the object, the
transference of distances by means of compasses, and obtaining the lengths
of curves by means of a string laid along them and afterwards measured;
and the children should be taught to make measurements on the metrical
system as well as in feet and inches, especially if they already possess any
knowledge of decimals. When they can measure as accurately as their
scales will allow, the vernier may be introduced, its principle explained by
the aid of a large-sized model, and practice given in reading the verniers on
barometer scales, etc. Then may follow measurement of the area of

rectangles, and, if the children’s mathematical knowledge allow of it, of
triangles and other rectilineal figures, then the determination of the volume
of rectangular solids from their linear dimensions. The determination of
mass may next be taken up, and the pupils taught how to use a balance
properly, the C.G.S. unit being again employed as well as the pound; then
they may learn how to weigh in water, and how to prove experimentally
that the loss of weight of a body weighed in water is equal to the weight of
the displaced water; then the volume of a body may be determined by
finding the mass and hence the volume of the water it displaces; from this
they pass readily to the determination of specific gravities. Experiments on
air pressure may follow; the children may learn to read the height of the
barometer, and to make for themselves barometric charts showing the
variation of the height from day to day; this affords a good opportunity of
teaching them to use squared paper. There are also many simple
experiments in mechanics, such as the experimental determination of the
principle of the lever, the finding of the position of the centre of gravity of a
lamina, the finding of the resultant of two parallel forces, etc., very suitable
for such a class. Then may come easy experiments and measurements in
heat, the reading of various thermometer scales, the filling of a thermometer
and its rough graduation, and experiments proving the fact of expansion and
of the force exerted by expanding or contracting bodies; measurements of
the amount of expansion are too difficult for this stage. Much supervision is
required; special care should be taken that children are not left with
unoccupied intervals during which they get listless and bored; this requires
careful previous planning out of sufficient experiments for the whole class.
It will stimulate interest if several children in succession are allowed to
make the same measurement, and then to compare their results.
Even where no laboratory class is taken, the teacher can still take
opportunities of convincing the children that experiments can be performed
by themselves as well as by their class-teacher; they enjoy being called up
to perform an experiment in class, and will, if they have any taste for the
subject, take an interest in repeating any possible ones at home; they can
convince themselves of air-pressure by private experiment with syringes,
siphons, and inverted tumblers, or can find centres of gravity, or experiment
with sounding strings of various lengths, but of course such desultory
experiments, followed by no careful writing out of results, do not give very
valuable training in scientific accuracy.

I would insist also on the importance of requiring children Diagrams.
from the first to illustrate their work by diagrams; a little time is
well spent in criticising these, and in showing how they might be improved.
Very neat and serviceable diagrams may be produced even by children with
no natural taste for drawing, but they need to be shown how to work, and
perhaps to have the lines of a diagram suggested to them at first by a rough
blackboard sketch, or it may not occur to them that a few simple lines will
show all that is necessary better than a would-be realistic sketch of
apparatus, with impossible perspective and smudgy shading.
I pass on now to somewhat higher classes. Course of electricity and magnetism.
With pupils whose average age is about
fifteen, some one or two of the branches of physics may be taken more in
detail. Suppose electricity and magnetism to be chosen, the aim throughout
the course should be so to impart elementary ideas that they may be a real
help and not a hindrance to any future effort to take in modern views of
electricity. To this end attention should from the very first be directed to the
electric or magnetic “field” about any charged or magnetised body and not
exclusively concentrated upon that body itself, and the pupils should be
accustomed to attribute the motions in such fields not to the “action at a
distance” of a charge, a pole, or a wire carrying a current, but to the special
condition of the medium immediately around the moving body. The idea of
a magnetic field is more readily grasped by beginners than the
corresponding idea in electrostatics, owing to the ease with which the field
may be mapped to the eye by means of iron filings, or by marking down
successive positions of a tiny magnetic needle; it seems to me, therefore,
well to begin with the study of magnetism, rather than, as is common in
text-books, with that of statical electricity. From magnetism the more
natural transition is to current electricity, and it will be found a good plan to
take the subjects in this order, passing from the magnetic fields which
surround permanent steel magnets to those which are found to exist in the
neighbourhood of a wire whose ends have been joined to plates of zinc and
copper immersed in a vessel of dilute acid. The existence of such fields will
be proved by the magnetisation of iron round which the wire is coiled, and
by the motion of permanent magnets near which it is held, and the direction
of the lines of force will be inferred from the direction of such motion. The
existence of the magnetic field established, the term “current of electricity”
may be introduced; the children will readily understand that it arose from

the idea that it was something flowing through the wire which gave it such
strange properties, and that whether this is the case or not, there is a
practical convenience in retaining the old terms.
Some of the practical applications of the magnetic effects of currents may
now be explained, e.g., the electric telegraph and electric bells, and the use
of a galvanometer as a current indicator. Simple experiments on the
induction of currents by motion of magnets, or starting and stopping of
currents may follow, it being carefully pointed out that the one essential for
such induction in a coil is some change in the magnetic field in which it
lies. The principle of dynamos readily follows. The heating and
decomposing effects of electric currents may next be considered with their
practical applications to electric lighting, and electro-plating respectively,
and the attention of the children should be directed to the energy appearing
as heat or as chemical separation in the two cases. If they have gone
through the preliminary course they will know enough of the conservation
of energy to look for the disappearance of energy in some other form, and
the chemical action in the battery may now be pointed out. Some
explanation of “polarisation” and of the need for more complicated forms of
battery than the simple voltaic cell may be given.
Lessons on statical electricity will end the course; they may be connected
with the preceding lessons by first speaking of the discharge of a Leyden
jar, and that between the knobs of an induction machine as instantaneous
“currents,” and going on to the state of affairs in the medium between the
knobs or coatings when they are not sufficiently near for the discharge to
take place; this will be made clear by going back to earliest facts known
about electricity and following the ordinary course of electrostatic
experiments.
Should “heat and light” be chosen instead of electricity for Heat and light.
this year’s course, the mode of treating the subject must
depend very much on the mathematical advancement of the pupils. It is
probable that their knowledge will not exceed the first two books of Euclid,
and algebra to simple equations, and it will therefore not carry them very
far in the treatment of geometrical optics; it will enable the laws of
reflection to be intelligibly explained, and the position of the image in a
plane mirror to be determined (the law of refraction may also be made clear,
as the children can easily be made to understand the meaning of the term
“sine”), but formulæ connected with mirrors and lenses should be left to a

later stage, the changes in size and position of the image formed by a
curved mirror or a lens being determined experimentally and not by
calculation. A general explanation of the action of optical instruments,
telescope, microscope, spectacles, etc., can be given, without exact
calculations, and illustrated either by carefully drawn diagrams, or by
models with lenses of cardboard and rays represented by strings. The
interest of lectures on dispersion and the spectrum is greatly increased if
they can be illustrated by lantern experiments. The subject of heat lends
itself better to non-mathematical treatment, and is specially good for
practical work by the pupils themselves.
The work of senior classes, i.e., girls of seventeen or Work of senior classes.
over, depends so much upon circumstances, such as
their previous training, their mathematical knowledge, etc., that it is
difficult to say much to the point about it, but a word may be added on a
very common fault of such classes, a tendency to rely too much on their
teacher and their notes of lectures, and to read and think too little for
themselves. The practical work, which is an essential for Independent reading.
such classes, does much to encourage self-reliance, but
besides this they should from time to time be given some reading to do on
points which have not been previously made clear in lectures; difficulties
met with in the reading should be brought up at the next lesson, when the
teacher will either solve them or put the pupil in the way of doing so for
herself. This kind of work takes time, and is therefore apt to be crowded out
from a full time-table, but it is worth an effort to find a place for it.

LIST OF SOME BOOKS USEFUL FOR TEACHERS.

I. Practical Physics.
For Beginners—
Inductive Physical Science. F. H. Bailey. Heath & Co., Boston, U.S.A.
Practical Lessons in Physical Measurement. A. Earl. Macmillan. 5/-.
Exercise Book of Elementary Practical Physics. Arranged according to Head Masters’ Association
Syllabus. R. A. Gregory. Macmillan.
For rather older Classes—
Elementary Physics. Henderson. Longmans, Green & Co.
Elementary Practical Physics. W. Watson. Longmans, Green & Co.
Intermediate Course of Practical Physics. Schuster & Lees. Macmillan.
For Senior Classes—
Practical Physics. Stewart & Gee. Macmillan.