around the class. Such early training in reading as I have described is the best possible preparation for the more elaborate expression demanded by the higher literature. And we shall not have a true, honest vocal interpretation of literature until we return to this early honest reading. I say "return," for, so far as my knowledge goes, there is a plentiful lack of it, at present, in the schools.-Corson.

A LARGE part of the number of those who leave school before graduation might be saved, if held to their work by personal love and magnetism of some teacher. President Gilman of Johns Hopkins University gave a good definition of what makes an educated person when he said every man should be taught how to provide for a household and every woman how to manage one. One reason why the world is not reformed is because every man is bent on reforming others, and never thinks of reforming himself. Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do that day which must be done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to work and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance, self-control, diligence, strength of will, content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know.

Nor the greatest man is the most independent. The highest is that which needs the highest, the largest that which needs the most. Not the largest or strongest nature feels a loss the least. An ant will not gather a grain of corn the less that his mother is dead: a boy will turn from books, play, dinner, because his bird is dead.-George Macdonald.

A bigot cares more for a straw pointing his way than for a hurricane blowing another way. -Exchange.

HE that will not permit his wealth to do any good to others while he is living prevents it from doing any good to himself when he is dead, and by an egotism that is suicidal and has a double edge, cuts himself off from truest pleasure here and highest happiness hereafter.-Colton.

THE key note was struck by Gladstone when he said: "What is really wanted is to light up the spirit that is within a boy. In some effectual degree, there is in every boy the material of good

work in the world; in every boy, not only in those who are brilliant, not only in those who are quick, but in those who are stolid, and even those who are dull." Now if every teacher in the land did but fully realize the truthfulness of this statement, it would be a grand stimulus to him to put greater effort than he has ever done before to develop in the boy the power to do something and to be something in the working world.

GOOD advice is more easily given than taken. Many a superintendent who thinks himself quite competent to give good advice to his teachers in their methods of work is not himself open to the receiving of good advice from his teachers. well to bear in mind that he who cannot accept advice graciously, is not likely to be able to give advice acceptably.

It is

IN the February Atlantic, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop gives "Some Memories of Hawthorne," especially her childish recollections of her father's life in England, from which we take the closing sentences: In our early experience of English society my mother's suppressed fondness for the superb burst into fruition, and the remnants of such indulgence have turned up among severest humdrum for many years; but soon she refused to permit herself even momentary extravagances. To those who will remember duty, hosts of duties appeal, and it was not long before my father and mother began to save for their children's future the money which flowed in. My father's rigid economy was perhaps more unbroken than my mother's. Still, she has written, 'I never knew what charity meant till I knew my husband.' There are many records of his having heard clearly the teaching that home duties are not so necessary or loving as duty towards the homeless."

ious to have the schools under their charge visited by those who, next to the pupils themselves, have the deepest interest in the success of educational work. A Cheltenham director, who recently made a few remarks on the relation that parents bear to schools, spoke truly when he said:

The object of Parents' Meetings is to bring about a closer sympathy between patrons and schools, and keep them in touch with the new methods of school work. If the children are not taught today as the old folks when they were young, it does not follow that the teaching is not as good as formerly, but a wider study of the problems of education and a deeper insight into the true nature of the child enable the teacher of to-day to do his work in a more rational manner. That man is foolish who claims that a cold, rattling, swaying stage-coach is better than a passenger train. With the parents' hearty co-operation, the schools will continue the good work they are now doing, and increase in power to do it well."

FROM the correspondence of the Carlisle Volunteer, March 18th, we take this paragraph: "In speaking of Governor Ritner and his son, I am reminded that it would be a notable tribute to the Governor's memory and to that of his compeers, Thomas H. Burrowes, Thaddeus Stevens, and Charles B. Penrose, the champions of our free schools, to erect a suitable monument. I recollect when quite a small boy to have heard that Governor Ritner received many petitions not to sign the revised free school bill. A number of the petitioners not being able to write their names made their mark, on seeing which the Governor said he wanted no better evidence that the people of Pennsylvania needed a little more education."

Dr. Burrowes was Secretary of the Commonwealth under Governor Ritner, and it was then that he organized the Common School System of Pennsylvania. A few weeks since a noble portrait of him, richly framed in gold, was placed in the Department of State on Capitol Hill, in commemoration of his distinguished service in that office-just sixty years ago! Hon. Wm. F. Harrity, who was Secretary of the Commonwealth under Governor Pattison, was desirous of securing such a picture for this department, but none could be had at that time. General Frank Reeder, the present Secretary, under Governor Hastings, was glad to learn from

the Memorial Committee that so fine a picture could now be had, and courteously offered to pay for framing the portrait in a manner suitable for his department. Of course the committee appreciated the courtesy of this generous offer.

DID you ever hear of a man who had striven all his life faithfully and singly toward an object, and in no measure obtained it? If a man constantly aspires, is he not elevated? Did ever a man try heroism, magnanimity, truth, sincerity, and find no advantage in them—that it was a vain endeavor?—Thoreau.

TALK over a pupil's misconduct alone with him. One good private talk with a pupil is worth twenty reprimands in the presence of the school. It is worth everything to get the pupil's point of view, to let him state his side of the case fully and freely. Listen to all he has to say, and then tell him frankly and kindly where he is in the wrong. He will trust you after such a talk as he never will if you "jump on him" before the school for every misdemeanor. Half our disciplinary troubles come from the outraged feeling of misguided pupils, that they have no chance to tell their side of it.

THE order by the President extending the civil service to printers and pressmen in the executive departments is another marked advance in the progress of civil service reform at Washington. During the past few months the Weather Bureau and the Bureau of Animal Industry in the Agricultural Department have been placed under civil service rules. The Government Printing Office has come under the same system, and, following it, the printing offices in all the various executive departments are taken out of politics and placed upon the basis of merit. These additions to the civil service list practically complete the work which the advocates of civil service reform have been urging for so many years, so far as the executive departments in Washington are concerned. With very few exceptions all the employees of the great departments and bureaus, with the exception of laborers, messengers and scrub women, are now under the protection of the civil service, and as vacancies occur they will be filled by certification from the eligible list in possession of the Civil Service Commission. Little by

little during the past eight years the gross discrepancies in the representation of States in the civil service have been wiped out, and in appointments now made and which will be made for years to come, the various States will have allotments of clerks in proportion to their population. The District of Columbia has naturally the greatest excess of employees in the civil service, and for some time past no residents of the District have been permitted to attend examinations, and vacancies occurring by the death, dismissal or resignation of District of Columbia clerks have been filled by appointment from eligibles certified up from the several States. There has been a most marked advance in the progress of the extension of the civil service during the administrations of Presidents Harrison and Cleveland, and when President Cleveland's successor takes possession of the White House he will find little to do in the matter of further extending a system which now covers nearly all the employees of the Government engaged in clerical work and in services requiring professional knowledge in the various departments.

MANY things that are essential in fact are not essential for the age of the child when he is learning them. Mathematical geography, for instance.

A MAN may be an eternal failure, although his footsteps glitter with gold and his words sparkle with knowledge. That man is the most successful in the divine kingdom who sets in motion the greatest amount of spiritual power, power for the glory of God, whatever may be the opinions or rewards of fallen mortals.-Reid.

CHURCH and school in Germany are considerably agitated over the proposed introduction of what is there called a "school Bible." This is practically an excerpted edition of the Scriptures, intended to be used chiefly in the schoolroom and for family reading. It is claimed that there are, in many parts and portions of the Scriptures, references to the relation of the sexes, oriental imagery and the like, which are unsuitable for children; and it is also maintained that the Scriptures at times mention evils and sins without condemning them, and that in the interest of morality these sections should not be read by children. A whole literature from theological and pedagog

ical sources has sprung up in recent months, the liberally inclined as a rule favoring the introduction of such a book, the conservatives and confessionals opposing it.-Meriden Journal.

I BELIEVE that no one is fit to teach in the schools who has not the soundness of character and the cultivation of mind to be worthy of admission to the best of American homes; that the teaching service is not competent unless it possesses scholarship broader than the grade or the branches in which it is engaged, and beyond this is specially trained and prepared, and over and above this is in touch and hearty sympathy with the highest purposes and aspirations of the American people; and that even then it ceases to be competent when it ceases to be studious and fails to know and take advantage of the world's best thought and latest experience in the administration of the schools.-A. S. Draper.

THE director of one of our large corporations was in the habit of prowling around the office. One morning he happened to come across the dinner-pail of the office boy. His curiosity led him to take off the cover. A slice of home-made bread, two doughnuts, and a piece of apple-pie tempted the millionaire's appetite. He became a boy again, and the dinner pail seemed to be the same one he carried sixty years ago. Just then the office boy came in and surprised the old man eating the pie-he had finished the bread and doughnuts. "That's my dinner you're eating!" said the boy. "Yes, sonny, suspect it may be; but it's a firstrate one, for all that. I've not eaten so good a one for sixty years.' There,' he added, as he finished the pie, "take that and go out and buy yourself a dinner; but you won't get so good a one,' and he handed the boy a five-dollar bill. For days after, the old man kept referring to the first-class dinner he had eaten from the boy's pail that he had found somewhere in the corner.

"WHEN I was a boy," said an old man, "we had a schoolmaster who had an odd way of catching idle boys. One day he called out to us: 'Boys, I must have closer attention to your books. The first one that sees another idle I want you to inform me, and I will attend to the case.' 'Ah!' thought I to myself,

'there is Joe Simmons that I don't like. | I'll watch him, and if I see him look off his book I'll tell.' It was not long before I saw Joe look off his book, and immediately I informed the master. 'Indeed!' said he; 'how did you know he was idle?' 'I saw him,' said I. 'You did? and were your eyes on your book when you saw him?' I was caught, and I never watched for idle boys again. If we are sufficiently watchful over our own conduct, we shall have little time to find fault with the conduct of others.

IT is said that a celebrated Indian chief, when for the first time taking in his arms his baby boy, gave expression to the following beautiful sentiment: "Little child, thou camest into the world weeping when all around thee smiled; contrive to live so that thou mayest leave it smiling while all around thee weep."

DUTY walks with bowed head, as if always tired; faith has a way of looking up, and it sees things duty never sees.

THEY who are the most persistent, and work in the truest spirit, invariably are the most successful; success treads on the heels of every right effort.

SOME one has said concerning the ideal teacher: "So far is he from treating all children alike that he never treats even the same child in the same way two days in succession, knowing by feeling rather than theory that no one-especially a child is the same person two days in succession.' What tact, then, is necessary to train the young mind-tact directed by love, emboldened by sympathy.

"MUST be"-does some new teacher say who does not find the school room all her fancy and normal school ideals painted for her. "But supposing it isn't?" she asks again, "What then?" My dear young teacher, if the schoolroom is irksome to you; if the voices of the children and all their little, clinging ways "make you nervous;" if day after day brings no improvement and the year ahead looks like an eternity to you, go to your best school friend-some earnest, experienced teacher, perhaps and tell it out frankly and ask for help-you need it. No cause for discouragement if you have a teacher's heart in you and only mourn your inability and want of skill; closer

study of and sympathy with the children will bring you out all right, in time. It is possible you are needing more individual discipline than the children, and that true progress will not begin for either of you till you are fitted for your work "so as by fire."-Primary Education.

ONE country teacher, who was successful in keeping children interested in their work, tried, among others, the following plan with good results. Instead of the customary reward cards only, she used pens, pencils, rubber erasers, and other school supplies as tokens of studiousness and good conduct. Many of her pupils were from poor families, and she found them eager to supply themselves with these necessary articles; whereas, before they had become so used to the everywhere present colored cards, that they showed no great desire to obtain them. "Variety is the spice of life," even in such small affairs as school rewards.

TEACHERS' classes properly conducted may lead to the following advantages: "They enable the superintendent to detect genius, draw it out, and use it to advantage. They introduce the student spirit into the teachers' work; this spirit alone can give strength and value to such meetings. They give opportunity for free discussions, and for the development of the spirit of give and take, so necessary in a school department. They give unity and purpose to the work of the department."

No doubt many have wasted much valuable time in trying to master the intricacies of psychological phenomena before they were prepared for such a course. No one can master such a subject who has not acquired some power of thought. To one who is not prepared for it, it is uninteresting and even repulsive, and a permanent dislike is often created by its study too soon. Power to think, to concentrate, to dig out for one's self, is necessary to a full appreciation and enjoyment of such a study. It is acquired only by pursuing a suitable course of study.

No problem seems to be greater than the one that confronts the world growing out of the possession of reading. The Catholics see this more clearly than the Protestants. They prefer to know the young person is able to recite the Catechism rather than to know that he is drawing

better educated in literature and languages, with greater activity of thought, more vivacity, quickness of appreciation, and greater facility of happy expression of her thoughts, than most girls her su

facilities for acquiring information, the result is very puzzling from a merely materialistic point of view.

HELEN KELLER.

BY CHARLES D. WARNER.

IE story of Helen Keller is too well

only excuse for increasing the publicity of it, which she and her judicious friends have never sought, is the exceedingly interesting mental and moral problems involved in it. A child of great apparent promise and most winning qualities, she became deaf, dumb, and blind at the age of nineteen months. Thenceforward, till her seventh year, the soul within her was sealed up from any of the common modes of communication with the world. It could only faintly express itself, and there seemed no way that knowledge could reach it. What was it during that silent period? Was it stagnant, or was it growing? If it was taking in no impressions, usually reckoned necessary to education, was it expanding by what used to be called "innate ideas"? When her teacher, with infinite patience, tact, and skill, at length established communication with her, she found a mind of uncommon quality, so rare that in its rapid subsequent development one is tempted to apply the epithet of genius to it. It was sound, sweet, responsive to a wonderful degree. The perceptions, if I may use that word, were wonderfully acute; the memory was extraordinary; in short, there was discovered a mind of uncommon quality. Was it really a blank that the teacher had to work on, or was there a mind in process of developing, independent of contact with other minds? The development or the growth was very rapid. Helen Keller is now fifteen, and

Another train of thought is suggested by her character and disposition. She is what her infancy promised. Great amiability and sweetness of disposition have been preserved in her intellectual development, and I believe that she is the purest-miuded human being ever in existence. She has never known or thought any evil. She does not suspect it in others. The world to her is what her own mind is. She has not even learned that exhibition upon which so many pride themselves, of "righteous indignation." Some time ago when a policeman shot

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panion, she found in her forgiving heart no coudemnation for the man; she only said, "If he had only known what a good dog he was, he would not have shot him." It was said of old time, "Lord, forgive them, they know not what they do!" course the question will arise whether, if Helen Keller had not been guarded from the knowledge of evil, she would have been what she is to-day. But I cannot but fancy that there was in her a radical predisposition to goodness.

I said that Helen is what her infancy promised. This point needs further explanation. Up to the time, at the age of nineteen months, when illness left her deaf, dumb and blind, she was a most amiable, tractable child, not only winning and lovely, but with apparently an even, sweet temper and an unselfish disposition. From that date until, in her seventh year, when Miss Sullivan found means to communicate with her, she had been isolated from the world. She could only express herself as an animal might.. She could only be influenced by physical means there was no way of telling herwhat to do or what not to do but by laying hands on her. She could make signs. if she were hungry or thirsty. Her soul was absolutely shut in from influence or expression. In this condition she began to be more and more like a caged bird, beating its wings and bruising itself against the bars, to its physical injury. When Miss Sullivan took her it was al