Nature thinks God's thoughts after Him, and acquires just that sort of culture that this selfish, grasping, material age stands most in need We believe that Nature study can be amply justified on the side of utility, for the eye that is informed and reinforced by a sympathetic heart is better prepared for true investigation than the eye that moves in obedience to a cold and calculating intellect." So said Professor Brumbaugh in a recent address at the Philadelphia Normal School, where, by the way, some splendid work along this line has been inaugurated. But not alone for its utility is such study to be commended. The uplift of heart and the broadening of vision is worth more than dollars and cents. We pity the narrow soul of the hard old New England farmer who said of his wife's window garden, that he "didn't see what good them plants were, you couldn't eat 'em nor drink 'em." Let a child learn the life lessons of the plants and stones and bugs and animals that make so much of the content of human environment, and he cannot help being a better and a greater man than otherwise. We welcome the dawn of a more sunshiny day in our school rooms than that of a former generation.

E recently enjoyed the opportunity of hearing a lecture by Congressman Morse, of Massachusetts, in answer to Robert Ingersoll; and, also, of visiting Mr. Morse's home and extensive factories at Canton, Mass. ; all of which suggests some reflections on the opportunities offered by the genius of our free American institutions to the young people in our public schools. Mr. Morse is an American pure and simple, and of the best type. He is a self-made man, who, with his own natural abilities and such aid as was furnished by the public schools of Massachusetts and New York, has made for

himself a place of conspicuous influence and usefulness, and built up a business that gives employment to hundreds of men and women. He illustrates the saying that "there is always room at the top," and the principle that pluck, enterprise and character command the respect of the public.

Mr. Morse was born of New England parents, at South Bend, Indiana, May 25, 1841, and came to New England with them in early childhood. He is a direct descendant of Samuel Morse, the Puritan, who settled in Dedham in 1635. He entered public life as a member of the Legislature in 1876 and has since served in the state Senate and in the Governor's Council, and has four times been elected a Member of Congress. Last November he received the largest plurality given any member of Congress from Massachusetts save one, and he has been frequently mentioned as a leading Republican candidate for Governor of his State. He is a man who has a remarkable faculty for getting upon the right side of all public questions. He has valiantly championed the free public school, restriction of immigration and legislation for the protection of chastity, temperance and other measures of moral reform. He is a ready and natural orator, and impresses his hearers with the feeling that he is a man of the people, one whom they may safely trust. In these days, when so much is being done in the schools for the inculcation of the principles of good citizenship, we commend the study of such living models.

THE SPIRITUAL INFLUENCE OF THE TEACHER. MISS HATTIE LOUISE JEROME, WORCESTER, MASS.

We mean the

By spiritual we do not mean religious influence. inner motive power which is transmitted from the teacher to the pupil. Call it what you will,-influence, spirit or atmospherethere is nothing of greater importance than this subtle something which pervades the room and determines the character of the class.

If you recall your own school days, you will remember the vast difference which existed in the same school under the influence of teachers of varying motive or disposition.

The spirit of the teacher determines the character of the class. She can sway the emotions of her pupils at will-if her self-command be sufficiently strong. One who can rule herself can govern others. Learn spontaneous obedience to the dictates of your own best self, and you can develop spontaneous obedience to that same person in your pupils.

THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OF NATURE STUDY. HENRY LINCOLN CLAPP, MASTER GEORGE PUTNAM SCHOOL, BOSTON.

In the March number of EDUCATION, a well-known writer presented an article entitled "Nature Studies," in which the views expressed were apparently so far from the true conception of the nature and purpose of nature study that other views seem to be called for, in order that members of school committees and teachers who have read his article may not be prejudiced against nature study.

The gist of his views was expressed as follows: "What educators call nature studies' receive more than their share of attention. 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.'"

In other places in the article it is plainly implied that nature studies, as studied in our public schools, mean "grand scenery" and "sublime scenes," these terms being used. This is an inference drawn from a well of unknown facts and conditions, and, therefore, it needs filtering. It may be logic, but it is not the truth. The conclusion may follow from the premises, but the premises are wrong. As it appears to me, the subject of nature studies has been completely misrepresented, though not intentionally.

"Grand scenery" and "sublime scenes" furnish material for the work of painters and poets, but they have no more to do with the nature studies of the common schools to-day than Daniel Webster and Wendell Phillips had to do with teaching infants to talk.

This institution was founded in 1855 by Alfred Holbrook, who through the intervening forty years has presided over it, without the loss of an hour by reason of sickness. During these forty years the school-year has consisted of an average of fifty weeks, with no vacation.

President Holbrook is a son of Josiah Holbrook, an Eastern educator well remembered by many as a co-worker with Horace Mann, Samuel May and others in educational reform.

On February 17th, last, his entrance upon his eightieth year was enthusiastically celebrated by the students and faculty of the institution, and prominent citizens of Lebanon, many of whom have been under his instruction.

Lebanon is celebrated as one of the most beautiful, quiet hamlets of the West. Here Tom Corwin lived, reared his family, and is buried. General O. M. Mitchell spent his boyhood here. The village is most widely known, however, as the seat of this institution, to which over one hundred thousand (100,000) students, young men and women, have come from all of the States of the Union. Its beautifully shaded streets are thronged the year through, and especially during the summer months with "Normalites," as they are called.

The "Summer School," lasting through eight weeks of June, July and August, is the educational mecca of hundreds of teachers, superintendents and professors who seek within its busy precincts renewed inspiration, instruction and recreation.

President Holbrook has established and maintained educational ideas which have subjected him and his followers to lively opposition and severe criticism. For instance, he has been said to maintain a "shed boarding school" under which young men and women are herded like so many cattle, for the single purpose of squeezing money out of them. The venerable president rather enjoys such characterization, since, he says, "shed-boarding schools" and "palatial-boarding schools" expresses about as well as any epithets could the difference between his system and the other systems. He claims that an embarrassment of wealth is doing more harm to education than an embarrassment of poverty.

Those who are acquainted with him and his work know that he is thoroughly sincere and conscientious, and so heartily yield him their respect, even if they cannot grant him their approval.

The chief criticism upon his work is, perhaps, that he grants college degrees for courses of study, which are thought, by many, to be unreasonably short. To this he replies, that he exhorts his graduates to attach "Lebanon " to their degrees to prevent false impressions, and so place themselves entirely upon their own merits, believing, as he does, that worth, not a degree, makes the man.

Adelbert College of Western Reserve University is to begin at once the erection of a new library building. It is the gift of Mr. H. R. Hatch of Cleveland. It will have capacity for about 125,000 volumes besides large spaces for reading and study rooms. It will be built of stone. Western Reserve University is to establish its first summer schools July 1st. Schools will be opened in all the leading subjects taught in college. They are for the special use of teachers. Some of the most distinguished teachers of the University will give instruction. The time of the school is July 1-27. President Thwing is also arranging for a summer school of Theology to begin the first of July and to continue through the ninth. It will be modeled after the Oxford Summer School of Theology of last summer. Among the lecturers will be Principal Fairbairn of Oxford, who was at the head of the Oxford Summer School and who will lecture every day. Among the others who will give lectures are Rev. Dr. A. H. Strong, President of Rochester Theological Seminary, Professor Arthur C. McGiffert, Ph. D., of Union Theological Seminary, Rev. Dr. B. W. Bacon of Oswego, Rev. Dr. George A. Gordon of the Old South Church, Boston.