tices who introduce cases for the tribe concerned, while if a public case he enters it on the register of the Thesmothetæ.* Then if the Thesmothetæ accept it, they bring the accounts of this magistrate once more before the law-court and the decision of the jury stands as the final judgment (pp. 89–90).

1. Are citizens imprisoned to-day for non-payment of taxes? 2. What two great safeguards against fraud do we see employed throughout the Athenian government? 3. Show how they would be effective.

VI. OTHER COMMISSIONERS.

The Council also examines infirm paupers; for there is a law which enacts that a person possessing less than three minas, who are so crippled as not to be able to do any work, are, after examination by the Council, to receive two obols a day from the state for their support. A treasurer is appointed by lot to attend to them.

The Council also, speaking broadly, co-operates in most of the duties of all of the other magistrates; and this ends the list of the functions of that body. There are ten Commissioners for Repairs of Temples, elected by lot, who receive the sum of thirty minas from the Receivers-General, and therewith carry out the most necessary repairs in the temples.

There are also ten City Commissioners, of whom five hold office in Piræus and five in the city. Their duty is to see that female flute and harp and lute players are not hired at more than two drachmas, and if more than one person is anxious to hire the same girl, they cast lots and hire her to the person to whom the lot falls. They also provide that no collector of sewage shall shoot any of his sewage within ten stadia of the walls; they prevent people from blocking up the streets by building or stretching barriers across them, or making drain pipes in mid-air so as to pour their contents into the streets, or having doors which open outwards; and they remove the corpses of those who die in the street, for which purpose they have a body of state slaves assigned to them.

Market Commissioners are elected by lot, five for Piræus, five for the city. The duty assigned to them by law is to see that all articles offered for sale in the market are pure and unadulterated.

Commissioners of Weights and Measures are elected by lot, five for the city and five for Piræus. They see that sellers use fair weights and measures.

Formerly there were five Corn Commissioners, elected by lot for Piræus, and five for the city; but now there are twenty for the city and fifteen for Piræus. Their duties are, first, to see that the unprepared corn in the market is offered for sale at reasonable prices, and secondly, to see that the millers sell barley meal at a price proportionate to that of barley; and that the bakers sell their loaves at a price proportionate to that of wheat, and of such weight as the Commissioners may appoint; for the law requires them to fix the standard weight.

There are ten Superintendents of the Mart, elected by lot, whose duty it is to superintend the Mart, and to compel merchants to bring up into the city two-thirds of the corn which is brought by sea to the Corn Mart.

*Six in number, were the junior Archons.

The Eleven are also appointed by lot to take care of those who are in the state gaol. Thieves, kidnappers, and pickpockets are brought to them, and if they plead guilty, they are executed, but if they deny their crime the Eleven bring the case before the law-courts; if the prisoners are acquitted they release them, but if not, they execute them. They also bring up before the law-courts the list of farms and houses claimed as state property; and if it is decided that they are so, they deliver them to the Commissioners for Public Contracts. The Eleven also bring up informations laid against magistrates alleged to be disqualified; this function comes within their province, but some such cases are brought up by the Thesmotheta. (pp. 92-95.)

1. How did the Athenians take care of their paupers? 2. Did the Athenians have a state religion? 3. Point out all the curious things that you note in the work of the commissioners and tell why they are curious. 4. How many of these things are regulated by our government? 5. How many do we consider it unwise to regulate, and why? 6. Was the treatment of thieves, kidnappers, and pickpockets wise?

The following magistrates also are elected by lot: Ten Commissioners of Roads, who, with an assigned body of public slaves, are required to keep the roads in order; and ten Auditors, with ten assistants, to whom all persons who have held any office must give in their accounts. These are the only officers who audit the accounts of those who are subject to examination, and who bring them up for examination before the law-courts. If they detect any magistrate in embezzlement, the jury condemn him on the charge of embezzlement, and he is obliged to repay ten-fold the sum he is declared to have misappropriated. If they charge a magistrate with accepting bribes and the jury convict him, they fine him for corruption, and this sum too is repaid tenfold. Or if they convict him of unfair dealing, he is fined on that charge, and the sum assessed is paid without increase, if payment is made before the ninth prytany, but otherwise it is doubled. A ten-fold fine is not doubled, how

ever.

The Clerk of the Pyrtany, as he is called, is also elected by lot. He is the chief of all the clerks and keeps the res olutions which are passed by the Assembly, and records of all other business, and attends at the sessions of the Council. Formerly, he was elected by open vote and the most distinguished and trustworthy persons were elected to the post, as is known from the fact that the name of this officer is appended on the pillars recording treaties of alliance and grants of consulship and citizenship. Now, however, he is elected by lot. There is, in addition, a Clerk of Laws, elected by lot, who attends at the sessions of the Council, and he too records all the laws. The Assembly also elects by open vote a clerk to read documents to it and to the Council; he has not other duty except that of reading aloud.

The Assembly also elects, by lot, ten Commissioners of Religion, known as the Commissioners for Sacrifices, who offer the sacrifices appointed by oracle, and, in conjunction with the seers, take the auspices whenever there is occasion (pp. 98-100).

All the foregoing magistrates are elected by lot, and their duties are those which have been stated. To pass on to the nine Archons, as they are called, the manner of their appointment from the earliest times has been described already. At the present day, six Thesmothetæ are elected by lot, together with their clerk, and in addition to these an Archon, a King, and a Polemarch. One is elected from each tribe. They are examined first of all by the Council of Five Hundred, with the exception of the clerk. The latter is examined only in the law-court, like other magistrates (for all magistrates, whether elected by lot or open vote, are examined before entering on their offices); but the nine Archons are examined both in the Council and again in the lawcourt. Formerly, no one could hold the office if the Council rejected him, but now there is an appeal to the law-court which is the final authority in the matter of the examination. When they are examined, they are asked first, "Who is your father, and of what deme? who is your father's father? who is your mother? who is your mother's father, and of what deme?" Then the candidate is asked whether he possesses an ancestral Apollo and a household Zeus, and where their sanctuaries are; next if he possesses a family tomb, and where; then if he treats his parents well, and pays his taxes and has served on the required military expeditions. When the examiner has put these questions, he proceeds, "Call the witnesses to these facts;" and when the candidate has produced his witnesses he next asks, "Does any one wish to make any accusation against this man?" If an accuser appears he gives the parties an opportunity of making their accusation and defence, and then puts it to the Council to pass the candidate or not, and to the law-court to give the final vote. If no one wishes to make an accusation, he proceeds at once to the vote. Formerly a single individual gave the vote, but now all the members are obliged to vote on the candidates, so if any unprincipled candidate has managed to get rid of his accusers, it may still be possible for him to be disqualified before the law

court.

When the examination has been thus completed, they proceed to the stone on which are the pieces of the victims, and on which the arbitrators take oath before declaring their decisions, and witnesses swear to their testimony. On this stone the Archons stand and swear to execute their office uprightly and according to the laws, and not to receive presents in respect of the performance of the duties or, if they do, to dedicate a golden statue. When they have taken this oath, they proceed to the Acropolis, and there they repeat it; after this they enter upon their office.

The Archon, the King, and the Polemarch have each two assessors; they appoint whomsoever they please to the post, but the nominees are examined in the law-court before they begin to act, and give in accounts on each occasion of their acting.

As soon as the Archon enters office, he begins by issuing a proclamation that whatever any one possessed before he entered the office, that he shall possess and hold until the end of his term (pp. 101-103).

1. What was the object of each of the questions asked of the newly elected officers? 2. What do the changes in the form of the procedure tell you of the development of the constitution? 3. Why did the Archons take oath standing on the stone? 4. What is the meaning of the proclamation of the Archon?

IX.

COMMISSIONERS OF GAMES.

There are also ten Commissioners of Games, elected by lot, one from each tribe. These officers, after passing an examination, serve for four years; and they manage the Panathenaic procession, the contest in music and that in gymnastic, and the horse-race; they also, in conjunction with the Council, see to the making of the robe of Athena, and the vases, and they present the oil to the athletes. This oil is collected from the sacred olives. The Archon requisitions it from the owners of the farms on which the sacred olives grow, to the amount of three-quarters of a pint from each plant. Formerly, the state used to sell the fruit itself, and if anyone dug up or broke down one of the sacred olives, he was tried by the Council of Areopagus, and if he was condemned, the penalty was death. Since, however, the oil has been paid by the owner of the farm, the procedure has lapsed, though the law remains. The State takes the oil from the shoots, not from the stem of the plants. When then the Archon has collected his oil for his year of office, he hands it over to the Treasurers, to preserve in the Acropolis until the Panathenæa, when they measure it out to the Commissioners of Games, and they again to the victorious competitors. The prizes for the victors in the musical contest consist of silver and gold, for the victors in manly vigor, of shields, and for the victors in the gymnastic contest and the horse-race, of oil.

All officers connected with military service are elected by open vote. The generals were formerly elected one from each tribe, but now they are chosen from the whole mass of citizens (pp. 110-112).

1. Why were the games so important? (See the extracts in the September MONTHLY). 2. Why was it such a crime to injure the olives? 3. Why should the oil be given to victors in gymnastic contests and horse-races? 4. Which was the better, the earlier or later way of electing a general?.

X.

ELECTION AND PAY OF MAGISTRATES.

Of the magistrates elected by lot in former times some, including the nine Archons, were elected out of the tribe as a whole, while others, namely those who are now elected in the Theseum, were appointed among the demes; but since the demes used to sell the elections, these magistrates too are now elected from the whole tribe, except the members of the council and the guards of the dock-yards, who are still left to the demes.

Pay is received for the following services: First, the members of the Assembly receive a drachma for the ordinary meetings, and nine obols for the "sovereign" meeting. Then the jurors at the law-courts receive three obols; and the members of the council, five obols. The Prytanes re

ceive an allowance for their maintenance. The nine Archons receive four obols apiece for maintenance, and also keep a herald and a flute player; and the Archon for Salamis receives a drachma a day. The Commissioners for Games dine in the Prytaneum during the month of Hecatombeon in which the Panthenaic festival takes place, from the fourteenth day onwards. The Amphictyonic deputies to Delos receive a drachma a day from the exchequer of Delos. Also all magistrates sent to Samos, Scyros, Lemnos, or Imbros receive an allowance for their maintenance.

The military offices may be held any number of times, but none of the others more than once, except the membership of the Council, which may be held twice (pp. 114-115).

1. Why was the new method of electing magistrates better than the old? 2. Why should a citizen be allowed to hold military offices any number of times, but not the others? 3. Were the officers well paid?

XI. THE JURIES.

The juries for the law-courts are chosen by lot by the nine Archons, each for their own tribe, and by the clerk to the Thesmothetæ for the tenth. There are ten entrances into the court, one for each tribe; a hundred chests, ten for each tribe; and ten other chests in which are placed the tickets of the jurors on whom the lot falls. Also two vases and a number of staves, equal to that of the jurors required, are placed by the side of each entrance; and counters are put into one vase equal in number to the staves. These are inscribed with letters of the alphabet beginning with eleventh

II.

(lambda), equal in number to the courts which require to be filled. All persons above thirty years of age are qualified to serve as jurors, provided they are not debtors to the state and have not lost their civil rights. If any unqualified person serves as juror, an information is laid against him, and he is brought before the court; and, if he is convicted, the jurors assess the punishment or fine which they consider him to deserve. If he is condemned to a money fine, he must be imprisoned till he has paid up both the original debt, on account of which the information was laid against him, and also the fine which the court has laid upon him. Each juror has a ticket of box-wood on which is inscribed his name with the name of his father and his deme, and one of the letters of the alphabet up to kappa; for the jurors are divided into ten sections according to their tribes, with approximately an equal number from each tribe in each letter. When the Thesmothetes has decided by lot which letters are required to attend at the courts, the servant puts up above each court the letter which has been assigned to it by the lot (pp. 115-116).

1. Do the law-courts play an important part in the life of Athens? Give all the proofs that can be found in the above extracts. 2. Were they more influential in Aristotle's day than before? 3. What subdivision of the Athenian people runs through the whole constitution? 4. Cite all the cases of it found in the extracts. 5. In what things do the Athenians appear to be undemocratic and illiberal judged by our standards? F. M. FLING,

CHE first principle to be insisted on by the teacher of English should be this: Do not affirm the obvious.

Children are always putting matters of knowledge, so to speak, behind them, and press ing on to the things that are before. The minds of children are very eager, and are bored much more quickly than of grown folk by what is in the least trite or stale. The normal child is in urgent quest for what is novel, for that which will yield fresh experiences. When held to the contemplation of an idea that is a day, or an hour, or perhaps only ten minutes old, his mind wanders to more attractive themes, though his lips may testify to some part of the proper and presumed attention.

A child learns pretty early that fish swim in water, and that birds fly in the air. After he has been in possession of such knowledge over night he is unwilling to give it consideration further, but taking it all for granted is excitedly in pursuit of new facts of the same kind. If a

The University of Nebraska.

in

live boy of four should chance absently to say aloud to himself such a sentence as "Fish swim in the water," he would laugh at himself and consider it quite a joke that he had been betrayed into saying a thing so stupid. The chances are no such idea would have come formally to his mind except as an echo from the sub-normal life of the school-room. For there are, or have been, text-books calling for work in English of this sort: "Supply the omitted. words in the following exercise: Birds the air. Fish in the water. Cattle in the pastures," etc. What is the pedagogical quality of work like that? and what the result of five or more years' teaching after this fashion? No student should be permitted to give utterance to meanings that are not the product of his full and normal mental activity. times, to escape the embarrassment of silence on suddenly finding ourselves face to face with an acquaintance, we say "It is a pleasant morning." or "it looks like rain," "it is very cold," etc. These empty truisms, upon a compelling occasion, do no harm, and do not tend to lower

Some

of

permanently the grade of attention thought. But if the student forms the habit of inditing meanings with only a portion of his intellectual energy, his diction will lack such pithiness and momentum as are characteristic of his spoken utterances. "Affirming the ob vious" is declaring facts formally that are too self-evident to warrant telling in the hearing of anybody, or if so told must occasion some de gree of self-abasement or conscious stultification. It is just as stultifying to write utternot representing fresh and organic thought as to express them orally. Indeed, be cause of the greater effort and more permanent effect of writing, the feeling of disgust over flat and stale written utterances is stronger.

ances

The feeling of dissatisfaction, however, over underwitted written work is not always acute or lasting. It is possible for the teacher, by prais ing compositions correct in grammar, and prop erly punctuated and paragraphed, though utterly devoid of organic and justifying sense, to make his pupil believe himself an accomplished writer. There is a perfunctory and a complete attention. The child at play and in other normal employment exhibits the latter. In school, and pre-eminently in theme-making, it may acquire the former. At length the very presence of the rhetoric teacher, the very feel of a “pen in hand." induces the weakened and incomplete mental attitude. When the mind wanders, when the best part of one's mental energy is employed elsewhere, strange things will sometimes find their way from pen to paper. Hence, largely, have come the themes and translations so bitterly complained of by English teachers. I have no wish to add to the choice examples of late given to the world. But two or three veracious illustrations will, I think, be edifying at this point.

A bright girl of ten, bidden by her teacher to prepare a "composition" upon the subject Idleness, stood up before her class and read this astonishing product of first-hand and organic thinking: "Idleness is a very bad thing. It is a very bad thing to be idle. Some men know nothing of God and the Savior, and worship idols." Outside of the school-room, or at least of that English class, the girl knew the differ ence between idleness and idols. If a school companion a mile away from the school-grounds had expressed himself orally, upon such occasion, to such effect, she would have laughed with conspicuous vivacity and loudness. Why

should English teaching deaden rather than enliven the natural mind, extinguish rather than intensify the out-door life of the soul? Shall we say the teaching is a good teaching, no matter what colleges may endorse it, which does that?

In a certain high school an examination was held last June on a term's work in literary biog raphy. One of the questions called for a list of the writings of Doctor Holmes. A bright and capable young lady in the eleventh grade, in which the examination was held, wrote The Autograph of the Breakfast Table as the first title. This student is not in the habit of affirm ing in a formal examination that the sum of the angles of any triangle is equal to two parallelo-, grams, for when the subject under consideration is geometry she is passably alert. When it is "English" her mind is elsewhere, and genuine thinking, or even remembering, is impossible. Perhaps the result would be the same if it were the custom to have classes in chemical biography before and instead of studying chemistry itself. A list of the inventions or discoveries of Berzelius and Bunsen and Sir Humphrey Davy might be as hard to recognize, if memorized by iteration, as a list of unread books. When this

young lady in the same examination attempted to recall the name of a very familiar poem, she astonished her teacher by quoting it as Kerchief Must not Ring To-night. Here is a consummation of a very significant kind. Is it too much to say, that had not devoted teachers worked anxiously, and the public purse been drawn upon liberally, for many years, the young woman could not have achieved this accomplishment of a benumbed attention?

The vital condition in goed composition work is that the pupil have in mind some potential idea, which shall have bred momentum towards definite and adequate erpression.

It is not one

What is a potential idea? which has been often expressed, and hence grown trite, but in general one not yet brought to conscious utterance. I am teacher of English, let us suppose, in a high school. The class suspect that I shall soon ask them to write compositions upon set subjects. Before they get into an unnatural frame of mind over the prospect suppose I say, just before the close of some ordinary recitation: "I have just been reading something by a writer of note concerning the real character of a gentleman, and I am disap

pointed. The author does not seem to have clearly in mind what he wants to say." Then, addressing the brightest pupil in the class, I ask, "Mr. Smith, what is your notion of a perfect gentleman? Do you have anyone in mind that answers pretty closely to your idea?" "Yes." "Could you tell me what there is in this man, what he is in the habit of saying or doing, that makes you think he is a gentleman indeed?" "Yes, I think I can," "Well, take a minute to think it over and we shall see how your idea agrees with ours." In the meantime the rest of the class, even to its slowest member, will begin to have a "potential idea" concerning the same matter, and feel some desire and even momentum towards giving it definite expression. Suppose I then say to Mr. Smith: "After all, it is scarcely fair to assume that you can express yourself satisfactorily at such short notice. Write succinctly what you have to say, and hand it in to-morrow morning." The student will not now feel that he has a composition to write, and no matter what wrong rhetorical habits he may have formed, is in small risk of producing anything of the sort. If he has had training in "effects," or has sagacity enough to resort to them without instruction, he will hand in something after this sort:

I have been asked to interpret my idea of a perfect gentleman, and I think I can. A gentleman, in the first place, is always considerate, and never harsh or overbearing. I know a man who is always taking care not to deprive other people of their rights. I saw him once at the post-office, when he was in a hurry to get a dollar's worth of stamps, insist that a ragged little fellow who was ahead of him, and had been pushed out of the line, should have his turn.

He

wanted only a single stamp to put on a dirty-looking letter he was holding in his hand, but that made no difference to this man. I know also that this man, when he is at home among his workmen and his horses, spares them as he spares himself.

A gentleman, I think, always treats everybody in the same way under all circumstances. When I was a pretty young boy, five or six years old, I thought a minister I knew was about right, for he used to notice me and sometimes make a good deal of me. One day he happened to see me when there were some older children with him, belonging to a family higher up than mine, and he didn't speak to me, or notice me at all. I never could think quite so well of him after that.

A true gentleman will treat his wife and children just as well as if they were strangers. I know a man who at his table thanks his eight-year-old boy for passing him things just as if he were the son of another man, and a good deal older.

More than all, a gentleman has a refined mind, and does not swear, or say vulgar things. He seems to expect other people to treat him right, and they generally do. I suppose it is because they look up to such a man, and are afraid of losing his good opinion.

Of course there are many things lacking, and many things to be corrected in an exercise of this kind, but these are matters easily attended to. First of all, it is the product of genuine thinking, and in so far is of supreme value.

There can be no substantial amendment of form if the matter is not organic and normal. When this "interpretation" has been read before the class, the conditions will be ripe for other writ ing, and, indeed, from all the remaining members, on the same theme. That would be a vastly better way to get proper matter into proper form than is usually employed, but it is not the way I am going to suggest in a later paper. L. A. SHERMAN, University of Nebraska.

1,532,856; adding to this the enrollment in special schools and reformatories, 418,000, we have a total enrollment in the schools in this country of 16,415,197, truly a wonderful army. Sixteen and one-half millions of the young people of America in our schools is a splendid showing.

Looking at this report in another direction every wide awake member of a board of education must be greatly interested. A fourth of one per cent. we find in the so-called special schools. A little less than one per cent. will be found in the private schools. Look at it: nearly 99% of our students in the public schools, col