per week for theoretical instruction, and at least two hours per week for practical instruction.

2. The practical course in infantry shall embrace small-arm target practice, and, as far as possible, all the movements prescribed by the drill regulations of the United States army applicable to a battalion. Instruction in artillery shall embrace, as far as practicable, such portions of the United States drill regulations as pertain to the formation of detachments, manual of the piece, mechanical maneuvres, aiming drill, saber exercise and target practice. Instruction should also include the duty of sentinels, and, where practicable, castrametation. Such instruction shall be given by the professor of military science and tactics personally, or under his immediate supervision.

3. Theoretical instruction shall be by recitations and lectures personally conducted and given by the professor of military science and tactics, and shall include, as far as practicable, a systematic and progressive course in the following subjects: The drill regulations of the United States army, the preparation of the usual reports and returns pertaining to a company, the organization and administration of the United States army, and the elementary principles governing in the art of war.

IV. REPORTS.

He shall render a quarterly report to the Adjutant General of the Army of the whole number of undergraduate students in the institution capable of performing military duty, the number required by the institution to be enrolled as military students, the average attendance at drills, the number absent, the number and kind of drills, recitations and lectures, or other instruction had during the quarter, and the number of students reported for discipline. Copies of all reports and correspondence will be retained by the professor of military science and tactics and transferred by him to the officer who may succeed him, or forwarded to the Adjutant General's office should the detail expire. On the graduation of every class he shall report to the Adjutant General of the army the names of such students as have shown special aptitude for military service, and furnish a copy thereof to the Adjutant General of the state for his information. The names of the three most distinguished students in military science and tactics at each college shall, when graduated,

be inserted on the United States Army Register and published in general orders.

The military department shall be subject to inspection under the authority of the President of the United States; such inspections to be made, when practicable, near the close of the college year. The inspecting officer shall, upon his arrival at the institution, report to the president or other administrative officer, in order to obtain from him the necessary facilities for the performance of his duty. A copy of the report of inspection will be furnished the president of the institution by the War Department."

Young men taking military instruction assume no obligation to the government in reference to future service or anything whatever. In some of the states, laws have been passed giving graduates of these military colleges certain advantages in regard to the state national guard. For instance, in the state of Pennsylvania graduates of colleges at which an army officer is detailed, who have served four years and who have held the rank of captain for at least six months and who are residents of the state will, upon proper application, made within one year after graduation, be appointed brevet second lieutenants in the National Guard of Pennsylvania. This law acts as an incentive to a good and faithful performance of duty, and it would be well if a similar or better law were in force in all the states.

In the college year ending 1893 there were over 15,000 college students under military instruction at the different colleges to which officers are detailed. Who can estimate the effect upon the country of the training and discipline which these young men have received?

[CONCLUDED NEXT MONTH.]

NATURE STUDIES.

REV. WM. M. THAYER, FRANKLIN, MASS.

What educators call "nature studies" receive more than their just share of attention. We do not believe that they are entitled to so much time and study as are accorded to them now in the curriculum of our public schools. They seem to have been taken up, in the first place, because certain great men and women-poets, authors and scholars caught the inspiration for their life-work from their environment. They were born and reared where grand scenery awakened admiration and wonder, enthusing them with higher and nobler thoughts and aspirations than otherwise would have been possible. Because this was true of a few geniuses, it is, unfortunately, concluded that all young people may become similarly inspired by the study of Nature. In consequence, time that is indispensable for the fundamental branches, without which neither boy nor girl can be fitted for the practical duties of life, is devoted to "nature studies."

When Chief Justice Marshall was a young man, he made a journey through that part of Virginia in which Patrick Henry was born. Deeply impressed by the mountain scenery, he exclaimed, "What a grand sight! How soul-inspiring and thought-producing! No wonder Patrick Henry was an orator ; no wonder he was eloquent; how could he have been otherwise, reared amidst such sublime scenes as these!" An old farmer, standing by, said, "Young man, those mountains have been there ever since Patrick Henry was born, and there has been no orator like him since."

The farmer was a philosopher. He saw that the whole population of that region, for several generations, had been "reared amidst such sublime scenes" without waxing eloquent at all, and, therefore, young Marshall's remark was pointless to him. If that wonderful scenery could grow orators, a crop of only one needed explanation. He believed that Henry was a born orator, and his environment might have helped to develop his gift; and that the reason no more orators appeared on the scene was because they were not born.

This is a very instructive fact. Those "sublime scenes might have inspired Henry to nobler deeds, and they might not. It is quite certain that the exciting and stormy events of his youth, culminating in the struggle for American independence, brought him to the front as a patriot, statesman and orator, as the late civil war made General Grant out of the unknown leather-merchant of Galena. The call "to arms" aroused the genius that was in Grant. The "battle cry of freedom" fired the soul of Henry, and his eloquence gushed out.

Evidently Patrick Henry did not take much stock in the idea that "sublime scenes" made him what he was. For, he said to a young man, seeking his advice about the study of law, "Study men, not books." He was himself a student of human nature, and not of dame Nature. Herein lay his power as pleader and public speaker. He did not mean to say that books are of no account. His pleas and speeches are positive proof that he was a careful reader of history, biography, science and literature. At least, he never dreamed that mountain scenery inspired his eloquence. He must have known more about it than anyone else.

There is more theory than fact in the present view of the value of "nature studies." Here and there a poetic and aspiring soul is lifted into a grander career by the beautiful and sublime in Nature, while the great majority of dwellers amidst the same environment plod on, living in the common-place way! Genius is easily inspired to noble action; but the vast multitude of men do not possess genius. Great souls may receive a mighty impulse from a hint of Nature; but the rank and file of human souls are not great, and it is well they are not. The falling apple was both a revelation and inspiration to the genius of Sir Isaac Newton, but it meant nothing to the thousands who beheld its fall. He discovered the law of gravitation in it; all other people discovered nothing. Tempests had burst upon the world with lurid lightnings from the days of Adam down to Franklin, who, of all the population, in all the generations, saw that lightning and the electric fluid were identical. The eye of Franklin's genius was sharp and piercing, while the mass of people had no genius to be sharp.

"Woodman, Spare That Tree," is a fine poem: Morris never wrote a better one. He told the history of it as follows:

Riding out of town a few days ago, in company with a friend, an old gentleman, he invited me to turn down a little romantic woodland pass not far from Bloomingdale. Your object?' I inquired. Merely to look once more at an old tree planted by my grandfather, long before I was born, under which I used to play when a boy, and where my sisters played with me. There I often listened to the good advice of my parents. Father, mother, sisters, all are gone; nothing but the old tree remains.' And a paleness overspread his fine countenance, while tears came to his eyes. After a moment's pause he added, 'Don't think me foolish. I don't know how it is; I never ride out but I turn down this lane to look at that old tree. I have a thousand recollections about it, and I always greet it as a familiar and well-remembered friend.' These words were scarcely uttered when the old gentleman cried out, There it is!' Near the tree stood a man with his coat off, sharpening an axe. 'You are not going to cut that tree down, surely?' 'Yes, but I am, though,' said the woodman. What for?' inquired the old gentleman, with choking emotion. What for? I like that. Well, I will tell you; I want that tree for firewood?' 'What is the tree worth to you for firewood?' 'Why, when down, about ten dollars.' 'Suppose I should give you that sum,' said the old gentleman, would you let it stand?' 'Yes.' 'You are sure of that?' 'Positive.' Then give me a bond to that effect.' We went into the little cottage in which my companion was born, but which is now occupied by the woodman. I drew I drew up the bond. It was signed, and the money paid over. As we left, the young girl, daughter of the woodman, assured us that while she lived the tree should not be cut down. These circumstances made a strong impression upon my mind, and furnished me with the materials for the song I send you."

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That old gentleman was one of a thousand-a a sort of domestic genius among men. While many men are drawn to the old homestead by precious memories, he is the only one among them, of whom I ever heard or read, paying ten dollars for the life of a tree. And only a genius, like Morris, could ever have been inspired by the scene to do something immortal.

It is not wise to formulate a system of culture for the many that is based on a class of facts pertaining only to the few. The "old education," that drilled pupils in the three R's, referring