work be so planned that time would be allowed him frequently to visit this collection. Much latitude would be given for individuality, yet, at the same time, it should be required that he examine at least the best books in each classification. The surface knowledge of a book has educational value, provided surface knowledge and real knowledge are kept in sharp distinction by the student himself. It is a matter of general intelligence to know who has best translated Homer and Dante, who are authorities in American history, whether or not any remarkable work is being written in geology or philosophy, who has written the best biography of Lincoln, even if these subjects never absorb us. A student of science is too likely to visit only the shelves of science; a student of art, only the books of art. Darwin regretted that in his later years he had lost the power to enjoy poetry. Browning's optimism goes so far as to say:

I want to know a butcher paints,

A baker rhymes, for his pursuit.

Very few students who pass through our universities have a general acquaintance with a wide range of books. Our curricula are so overcrowded with specialities that we have no time for real education. So many definite things are prescribed that the student has no life left with which to find his own individuality. Hours of credit and the commercial value of a degree have become task-masters to the extent of excluding time and opportunity for the student to determine the real place for which nature has fitted him. We have forgotten that

Truth is within ourselves. It takes no rise
From outward things, whate're you may believe.
There is an inmost center in us all,

Where truth abides in fulness. And to know

Rather consists in opening out a way

Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape,
Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be without.

A course devoted to the aim of giving an intelligent idea of good books in the different branches of human knowledge would not prevent the specialist from the study of his technical subject, nor necessarily encourage dilettantism in literature, It might guide the dilettante to a specialty, and the specialist to broader sympathies.

But the best results of such a course would not come from the knowledge thus gained. It would come rather from the delicate influence of the literature of power. The most fruitful moments of one's education are those spent with the choice minds of the world, gathering from favorite sources that which quickens the better self and tends to lead one into the life more abundant. After the working part of such a browsing course was over, and the student free to choose from the many books handled that one with which he wished to spend his leisure time, he would undoubtedly experience the same untrammeled delight as did Aurora Leigh, in the garret of books left her by her father:

We get no good by being ungenerous, even to a book,
And calculating profits-so much help

By so much reading. It is rather when
We gloriously forget ourselves, and plunge
Soul-forward, headlong, into a book's profound,
Impassioned for its beauty and salt of truth-
'Tis then we get the right good of a book.

And when his times are ripe he, too, may chance upon the poets.
And at poetry's divine first finger touch

Let go convention, and spring up surprised,
Convicted of the great eternities

Before two worlds.

DISCUSSION

REUBEN POST HALLECK, Louisville, Ky., urged that the pupils in high schools be given some definite work to do in the library. This is the best method of teaching the pupils the place and value and use of the library. In the Louisville Boys' High School, students who are especially interested in books are chosen to act as pupil-librarians, and are given entire charge of the library during certain hours of each day.

In this age of shortened working hours, when the leisure of all men is increasing, it is very desirable that the boys and girls be taught how to use and how to love books. The library habit should be formed during school life.

MR. DISCURT, Pittsburg, Pa., spoke briefly of the high-school library of Pittsburg, which he said contained 7,000 or 8,000 books which were practically useless. An entire class of pupils will be given the same topic to look up in the library, and this creates a demand so much greater than any possible supply that the majority of the pupils turn away discouraged and without securing material or making progress. He said that a school library handled in this way, without judgment and appreciation of the conditions under which pupils must work, is perfectly useless.

MISS SHROYER, Dayton, Ohio, said that in their high-school library there had been the same difficulty, but a meeting of the teachers and the librarian had been held, the matter had been thoroly discussed, and now pupils are assigned different topics and there are sufficient authorities for all.

MR. SCOTT, Boston, Mass., in presenting the subject of the Library Post Law, said that it is hoped that in the near future library books may be circulated thru the mails at a one-cent-per-pound rate, as magazines and newspapers are circulated now. In this way an easy connection with a great library would be possible to any who might desire this. He detailed at some length the work of the committee, which is now making every possible effort to secure the passage of an act of Congress providing for these special mail

rates.

HOW TO MAKE THE LIBRARY USEFUL TO HIGH-SCHOOL PUPILS

ROBERT H. WRIGHT, HEAD OF DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, BALTIMORE CITY COLLEGE, BALTIMORE, MD.

So long as education is progressive there will arise new problems, questions that need special study. These subjects never come to the front until after they have been thought over and talked about for a long time by many teachers.

How to use the library was one of the first problems that presented themselves to me when I entered this profession. I soon found that one of the greatest aids to me in stimulating my classes was from the use of outside books. This set me to thinking, and I admit freely that my thought moved very slowly from how the library may serve the teacher to how it may be useful to the pupils.

The library stands in a twofold relation to the teacher. If he has trouble creating interest in his subject, his salvation is in the library. On the other hand, if he can create more interest in his work than the text will satisfy, he can send his pupils to the library for collateral reading. In either case the question may be the same, to-wit, how the teacher may use the library to get the best results as teacher from the standpoint of teacher. I do not mean that the pupil is not benefited. He is. And if the man can never advance to a higher ideal than that, he will still be far superior to the average teacher. But there is a higher aim than, How shall I use the library to help me teach? and that is: How shall the pupils use the library to help them grow? When this point is reached, we lose ourselves in those taught and become real teachAnd this is the question that confronts us this morning.

ers.

The fundamental principle of all pedagogy may be summed up in the one word "interest." The teacher must be interested in his subject, the student in his work; for without these the teacher cannot teach and the student will not study. We will grant the first; the second often has to be created, and the library is of untold help in this creation. This necessitates an examination of the library. It should contain a collection of books of such a nature that the pupil can find in it help to him in any of his studies. The books should be grouped under their several heads in some such way as follows: Take history for example. All the ancient history should be in one collection, European in another, English in a third, American in a fourth, biography in a fifth, etc. There should be a trained librarian who must be familiar with all the books. Lastly, the students must have free access to the shelves. Yet all of this is not enough, tho we too often think it is.

I knew an old man who by the means of engines, pipes, and shafting arranged a machine for perpetual motion. He had everything necessary but the power. But he did not realize that engines, pipes, and shafting within themselves cannot generate power, and so he died a poor man-having spent his means, energy, and life in a vain endeavor. So it is too often with us and our libraries: we have the equipment and expect that to make the machine go. Just as old Mr. Armstrong failed to take the last step with his machinery, just so we too often fail to put in the power. Just as today you may pass his old homestead and find pieces of pipes, etc., scattered hither and thither, just so we may pass into many schools and find library books scattered about and of no use to anyone. I have seen fragments of each of these perpetual-motion machines-utterly useless; and in each case it was because the last and most important step was never taken. The reason is

the same with both inventor and teacher: they think the machine is so constructed that it will generate within itself the motive power necessary to run it and turn out beneficial results. Nothing is useful except as it is used. It is by doing that we learn to do. We cannot hope to get from our libraries any more help than the energy we put into them. We need not expect to get students interested in libraries without making them use these libraries.

It is the duty of each teacher so to familiarize himself with the school library that he can assign topics, and, when necessary, give the references. This necessitates a personal knowledge of every book in the library on his subject.

Experience has taught me that the high-school teacher has a double problem to solve in connection with the use of the library. Pupils come to us who do not know how to acquire knowledge from books; others come who can acquire knowledge from the text, if the teacher follows the methods described in The Art of Teaching (White); but neither of these classes can acquire knowledge from books other than their texts. I think this is an evil that should be corrected in the grades; but, so long as it is not, it is a problem for the high schools. This problem should be solved in the first year. With this handicap the teacher will find much trouble in getting his pupils to master the details necessary for them to get the best results. He must get them interested in collateral reading. This can be done in several ways. The best is by assigning to each a subject suited to his stage of mental development. In each case give the title of the book and the author, and in some cases it is best to give the page. I have met with very good results from telling some interesting story to the class, then giving reference to the book where the story may be found. This year is the one in which the pupils have to learn how to learn in the library, and so they need the librarian. They have to learn where the books on different subjects are, how to use an index, etc. In short, they have to learn the library, and then how to use it. The librarian should be kept busy with the first-year pupils. I do not object to the method described in Dr. White's The Art of Teaching, pp. 127 and 128. But after the first year for the librarian to get the books and open them on tables for the pupils is to take from the pupils one of the very things the library is intended to cultivate, i. e., the power to find data upon a given subject.

After the pupils have acquired the power of using the library, which should be done during their first year in the high school, then it is well in the subsequent years to use a variety of methods, differing somewhat in each branch of their work. I shall give the methods I use in history.

1. Give reference to a book that explains fully some point of the text. Have it read and a verbal report made. This gives a clear setting of the fact, and explains what is often not clear to the mind of the pupil.

2. Give reference to some special treatise on some period; say, Fiske's The Critical Period in American History. This has the same general effect as the first. I do not object to the use of historical novels. In fact, I find them of much value in explaining certain periods of history.

3. Assign topics, giving references. Have each reference looked up— letting the pupil find the books-and a report made in which the pupil tells what each author says. This broadens the view and helps the pupil to see the point in its many-sidedness. This helps wonderfully in teaching American history in connection with the events that led up to the Civil War. It enables the pupil to see that there are two sides to many questions, and that men may differ conscientiously; that each may believe with perfect honesty that he is right. History cannot be properly taught without this double point of viewwithout collateral reading.

4. Assign topics to look up, but do not give references. This leaves the pupil to himself and tests his power to get data unaided. Here he learns to use books of reference, indexes, etc. This is training him in research work and preparing him for the kind of work he is to do in after-years. It gives him his very best library training.

5. It is well to allow him some choice of subjects. Let him choose his own subject. In this way you can see his natural tendency in your subject. By this means I have found some pupils very fond of constitutional history; others, of the social side; while others still who are fond only of the more stirring events, such as military and naval exploits. This knowledge is necessary for the teacher in order properly to direct the pupil's reading.

These, in brief, are the methods I am using, and they have given fairly good results. It is necessary to have reports made; otherwise you do not know whether the pupil has done the work; and if every pupil is held responsible for the main points in each report, the best results are attained. This means the use of notebooks, and I think this the only satisfactory way to use notebooks.

There is still one other phase of this question that I must mention. Besides those books needed in connection with the class-room work, there should be a collection of newspapers, magazines, and periodicals sufficient for the pupils to keep up with all the current events of history, art, science, etc. There should be books, too, on all subjects that tend toward the cultivation of the fine arts-music, painting, sculpture, the sciences, etc. The pupils should be allowed to use the library for two hours each afternoon as an intellectual recreation hall; where they can come and browse about in the alcoves and upon the shelves, reading anything that appeals to the passing fancy, and in that way take a mental outing. By so doing they become fond of the library, and soon learn to spend their spare moments with great minds, instead of loitering upon the streets looking for amusement. It gives an opportunity to those who have developed a fondness for some one subject, in a measure at least, to feed that desire. It enables them to add to their general culture and to broaden their mental concepts, and also to keep up with what is going on in the world. These hours are to some the happiest hours of the day, and perhaps as beneficial as any.