mate inference appears rather to be that History, as commonly taught to young children thirty years ago, was unsatisfactory, and not that more satisfactory results may not be obtained by more satisfactory methods.

Indeed, Preceptor himself suggests a method which must be undoubt edly more interesting, and the results of which are likely to be more permanent, than those of the old text-book teaching. "Begin," he` says, "if you are to begin early at all, with the soldier, the policeman, the tax-gatherer, and-if you live in London-with the Palace of Jus tice, Westminster Hall, and the Houses of Parliament. The use of the soldier and the policeman will be one of the necessities of the body politic most easily comprehended by children, and the need of paying them supplies a natural introduction to the consideration of taxes.

"Then, since soldiers and policemen must be paid, roads repaired, lighted, and swept, the questions will arise, Who is to keep the money which the tax-gatherer collects from us? Who is to settle how much money shall be collected? Who is to tell the soldiers what enemy is to be attacked, and when? Who is to make rules for the policemen,' that they may know when to take people up? And who is to decide what is to be done with the people thus taken up? Shall it be one ruler, or fifty rulers, or shall all the rich people rule, or shall all the people, without exception, meet together and rule?

"Here, by way of inculcating the need of some kind of rule, 1 remember drawing for some young people (in very rude and rough* sketches) a picture first, of 'no ruler at all,' depicting a rabble in wild' confusion fighting among themselves; second, a picture of 'one ruler,”' Solomon seated on a throne deciding the case of the disputed child; third, a picture of fifty men in armor, stout and comfortable, surveying the execution of a lean poor man on the chopping-block before them. After these pictures followed others, of the tax-gatherer calling for the dog-tax (a mistake of mine, by the way) with the dog looking out of the window; of a ship putting into the docks, and the custom-house” officers collecting their dues; of a law court with a judge and jury trying the accused; of a disciplined army contrasted with an undisciplined mob of armed men; of a representative assembly of some 400 or 600 making laws, addressed by an orator, with one hand in his pocket and the other holding his hat; of a vast popular assembly,' such as in Athens, met for the same purpose, and being harangued by a speaker of Demosthenic action—and so on. What may have been the residuum of all this in the minds of my pupils I do not well know, for I had not leisure to continue the study of History with them when they grew a little older; but I remember that the lessons appeared to be interesting, and my impression is that they disposed the young people to approach the study of History as something very different from a bundle of dates or statistics, and also (which is not unimportant) as something different from a series of picturesque biographies."

Certainly it would be an interesting experiment to try the effect of a course of Historical lessons of this kind on young children. There seems no reason why boys of ten years old should not understand them and retain at least parts of them. Even a boy of eight or nine can understand the use of a soldier, a policeman, a law court, and a legislative assembly, and can be taught to divide the functions of government into law-making, judging, and law-executing, or, in other words, the legislative, the judicial, and the executive. He can even understand, either then or not much later, how, in some nations, these functions have all been discharged by one, in others by two, in others by three, bodies; and it will not be difficult to make him understand the advantages of assigning them to three; so that the same men may not both make laws and execute them, or make laws and judge those who are accused of breaking them. In this way, when he is introduced to the history of a new nation, he may be trained from the first to ask, Who made the laws? Who judged? Who executed the laws? and to classify nations in the same way in which he would classify birds, beasts, and fishes. And thus he will be prepared to estimate the importance of historical events by their influence on the legislative, judicial, and executive functions of the state; and he will be better able to understand the motives of the kings and statesmen with whom the study of History is to bring him into contact.

Nor need we stop here, if we are to accept Preceptor's further suggestions, which have at least the merit of being vivid, though many will pronounce them unpractical. "Set before the pupil," he says, "a large picture illustrative of the feudal times, showing the exaction of fines for the right of holding markets, the tolls taken at the gates of every city, at the passage of every bridge, at the boundaries of every petty feudal lord; and make the child understand how restrictions of this kind-checking commerce, hampering industry and enterprise, diminishing comfort, and preventing that leisure which enables people to think of other things besides bread-winning-might thus indirectly hinder the diffusion of knowledge, taste, and art, and enforce a people to remain in brutish ignorance. Or by reference to the paper-tax or the window-tax (the latter of which might be simply and forcibly illustrated) in our century, show how a nation, by an injudicious burden, may be mentally or physically enfeebled.

"Then point out how important it is that laws should be wise and just, and how unwise laws (as well as unjust laws) have, for the most part, been made for the poor by the rich and powerful, who did not belong to the poor for whom the laws were made, and therefore did not understand what the poor needed. Hence let the child understand how important it is that the poor should have a voice in the framing of those laws which they themselves are intended to obey.

When this course is completed-which may be described as Historical Statics-I should proceed to teach them something of Historical Dynamics. Nor should I begin with the details of English His

tory; for, indeed, early English History is much more difficult for children to understand than the history of Xerxes, Alexander, Attila, or Charlemagne. As, therefore, in Geography, after teaching the pupil about the elements of land and water, you passed to the map of Europe, so in History I should pursue the same course. To do justice to it, especially with a large class, one should have very large pictures (or dissolving views would be still better) each illustrated with a few striking sentences, not a word of which would ever require to be retracted, so as to produce on the mind of the child, through ear and eye together, a quite indelible impression.

"Failing dissolving views, we should have a series of brightly-colored maps exhibiting the changes that have passed over Europe and Asia Minor since the time of Xerxes to the present. There should also be pictures, not only of the decisive battles, but also of various incidents or objects that may be best suited to let the boy into the secret of the character of the nation or period that he is studying: Greek sculptures; Roman camps and armies; German forests; the death of Alexander; Cæsar crossing the Rubicon; the martyrdom of the Christians under Nero; the Nicene Council; the sacking of Rome by Alaric; a squadron of Huns with Attila; Mohammed purifying Mecca; the Saracens invading Spain; Charlemagne crowned by the Pope; William the Conqueror at Hastings; Henry IV at Canossa; Michael Schwartz inventing gunpowder; Columbus encouraging his crew; Luther burning the Pope's bull; the Armada; Plassy; the execution of Louis XVI; Waterloo.

"If in this way the principal epochs in European history could be once vividly impressed on the pupil's mind in their chronological order, he would certainly find no difficulty at all in retaining their relative positions in his mind, and probably find very little difficulty in committing to memory the exact dates of the most important events. This definite outline, besides being of subsequent value when the pupil comes to the study of the history of nations, is also of immediate use in giving precision and order to the study which ought now to begin, I mean Historical Biography.

Biography, no doubt, is not history; but the life of a man is so much more attractive to children than the life of a nation that the indirect historical teaching of the former is often far more effective than the direct teaching of the latter. The same remark applies to novels. They may occasionally take liberties with chronology, and distort or adorn a fact; but in accustoming children to fill up historical outline with color, and in dissipating the notion that history is 'a dry study,' they are of such great value that a systematic course of novel reading may well be made an adjunct to the study of historical text-books, at all events for the young."

1 See the very copious Descriptive Catalogue of Historical Novels and Tales, compiled by H. Courthope Bowen, M.A. (London, Stanford, 1882); also Bulletins of Boston Public Library, Historical Fiction, and English Prose Fiction, 1875-77.

In favor of Preceptor's novel suggestion that the outlines of European history should precede the study of English history, thus much may at least be said, that it is in accordance with the ordinary method of studying Geography, where Europe (in outline) generally comes first, and England second. And certainly the succession of picturesque and striking scenes suggested by Preceptor might do for history what the pictures of tropic and arctic regions (see § 54) were intended to do for Geography. The difference, however, is, that while any boy can understand a mountain or a glacier, it is not so easy for the young to realize the importance of the death of Alexander, or Cæsar crossing the Rubicon, or Luthur burning the Pope's bull; and it is just possible that, in very young and dull children, Preceptor's pictures, though they might give pleasure, might cause some bewilderment as well. Yet, on the whole, in the hands of a good teacher, who could temper enthusiasm for his subject with sympathy for his pupils, it seems not improbable that such a preliminary course might be of use.

When the pupil (with or without the previous training suggested above) is introduced to the more detailed study of the history of his native country, a text-book will, for the first time, be placed in his hands. Here must be repeated what was said above as to the use of text-books in Geography, that the main use of the book should be to enable the pupil to revise, amplify, and master what the teacher has said, and not to dispense with the teacher's saying anything. A textbook cannot very conveniently (without the aid of different sizes of type, which are perhaps somewhat confusing to children) touch lightly enough on unimportant incidents, or give to narrative so picturesque a shape as a teacher can give in oral instruction. On the other hand, if a teacher relies entirely on oral teaching, he will find that, unless his pupils are above the average in retentiveness, only a small residuum.of his lessons will remain in their memory.

The best plan seems to be to begin with a short sketch or Primer, which will contain none but the more important features of the period under study; then to supplement this by reading biographies, and by giving extracts from larger histories bearing on the more important epochs; and lastly, to revise the history of the period in a larger textbook.

In the learning of dates, Memoria Technica should be rejected, for the reasons given above (§ 50), but great care should be taken by sight, sound, and association, to fix the more important dates in the memory. None but very important dates should be at first required; but these should be thoroughly mastered. The reasons for their importance should be explained; and hints may be given to help the learner to remember the sequence (§ 51); but when the repetition is once begun, there must be no appeal to reasons; they are to be learned and repeated by ear, like the Multiplication Table. Then the less important may be grouped round these as centers.

But the minor

dates must not be so numerous nor so often repeated as to interfere with the central ones, which must be repeatedly revised. The dates of the accessions of sovereigns are of importance where the personal character of the sovereign has had so much influence as to make a great change in the history of the nation; but as they have not always this importance, it is a pity to make these first dates committed to memory by a child. The dates of the signing of Magna Charta, the summoning of Montfort's Parliament, the Black Death, the recognition of English in the Law Courts, the death of Chaucer, the publication of the first printed book in England, the defeat of the Armada, and the loss of America, are very much more important than the dates of the accession of Henry I or Stephen.

Not much can be done to show the beginner how the English language and literature have changed and grown with the English nation. But whatever is done should carefully avoid the danger of cramming." The text-books which relate that "in this reign Sir Thomas More wrote his celebrated Utopia," and there make an end of it, are hardly to be blamed if regarded as mere outlines and skeletons of history, suggesting to teachers what they should teach, and to pupils what they must revise of the instruction received from their teacher; but they are manifestly in themselves inadequate, and the information given in the sentence last quoted is, by itself, clearly of the nature of "cram." If, therefore, the teacher mentions any author at all, he ought to give such a sketch of him and his surroundings, illustrated, perhaps, by one or two characteristic anecdotes, as will enable his pupils in some sort to make a mental picture of the man. Then he may read a short extract from his works which shall have some kind of unity and interest.

For example, after telling his pupils that the History of Utopia means the "History of Nowhere," he may illustrate the "no-whereness" of the book by reading the passage which describes how the Utopians esteemed gold as less valuable than iron, making fetters of it for prisoners and playthings for children. Similarly, in dealing with Chaucer, instead of describing all the characters of the Canterbury Tales at the same length, and all very briefly, the teacher should give the shortest possible summary of the poem as a whole, and then read the description of the Knight or of the Clerk in full.

Some notion, also, of the changes of the English language may be given by writing down for one's pupils a few sentences in the New Testament from translations of different periods, thus:

1. A.D. 1000 and fellen gyrdel waes ymbe his lendenu.

A.D. 1150 and fellen gyrdel waes embe his lendene.

A.D. 1380 and a girdil of skin (i.e. fell) about his loins.

2. A.D. 1000 and he bodede and cwaeth (compare the later quoth), Strengre cymth aefter me.

A.D. 1150 and he bodede and cwaeth, Strengre kymth ȧefter me.