will increase and gather power through coming generations. We say that man has five senses. Through them we reach, influence and fashion him. It is a curious fact that every distinctive age in the history of mankind has been characterized by the special cultivation of some one sense over the other. To-day the sense of sight is the shrine at which we worship, and beauty of form and color must delight us at every turn.

When we say a thing is beautiful, we mean to the eye. We borrow every useful adjective to describe the pleasure we derive from seeing. That of hearing is so slight we need no modifiers. Sight is the shrine at which we worship to-day. But there is one sense left for the future which, when fully realized and developed and wedded to the others, will yield the acme of cultured pleasure. When we have obeyed the command, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear," hearing and sight which are mental shall put down the other senses which are carnal, and thereby the fashion of our souls shall be made better.

What is to cultivate this neglected sense of hearing again? Music. But it is a source of growing wonderment that in the face of the fact that music is rapidly spreading, entering home, school, and public place, it is not better understood. The capacities and peculiar adaptabilities of music for every condition of the human family have now been established. We must therefore hasten to rescue the intellectually blind and deaf lovers of music till they can hear voices, though they fail to interpret what is expressed; and this is a teacher's work. The greatest need in the art culture of to-day is education in the art of listening to good music.

The lesson brought to you to-day is a call to awaken to the needs of the hour. The low and humble in England, Germany, or Italy sing as naturally and often as they speak. We have forbidden music in our churches, and forgotten it in our homes, while they have fostered it at every turn, even by royal patronage and subsidy, quite beyond our reckoning. Education means the development of the whole man,-not the fashioning of his mind to the neglect of body and soul, nor yet of mind and body to the neglect of the soul alone. We develop the body; We develop the body; we also zealously over-do the mind work. But who is charged with over-developing the soul of his pupil? That undying

reality within which the conscientious teacher of the future will reach and fashion by such studies as develop memory, feeling, emotion, and their expression, of which studies music is the pioneer.

Music is the highest form of expression known by man in earth or heaven. Apply it first to your own soul growth, then prove it in the school-room. It does its work far easier than most subjects. Proof enough of its utility is found in the fact that over 90 per cent. of all pupils develop into singers, and that all children, when once started right, sing as naturally and beautifully as they walk and breathe. There is proof enough of its humanity in the fact that the blood of every nation tingles under its charm. There is proof enough of its spirituality in that its aid is sought by the worshiper of every creed. There is proof enough of its genuineness in the fact that, though you may deny him its pleasures in home and school, the boy buys a Jew's-harp, and the poorest laborer lightens his task by song.

Have you singing in your school? By all means. It were a great shame to let it take long periods or become a bore as a "subject," but if you adopt it in the high spirit, you will be thankfully astonished at what you have wrought. Watch that tired class sing a song from memory after an hour's work on an examination. See the knit brows give way and lines of care fade out, as by magic! Take an opposite case. A class has not had enough work, and is noisy. Let them start a song, and watch the effect. Not one sound or motion! The pupil who is singing is still. ing is still. Is a class cold? Singing will warm them. Is the room made too dark and dismal for study by a sudden shower? Singing will cheer it. Are teachers and pupils cross to each other? One song is a swift and positive cure. "The devil never comes where good music is," said a reform schoolmaster.

Permit the interpolation of a few practical points here. Do not be frightened by the great talk of methods in music. Remember the best in music, even more than in anything else, is invisible, and a living reality.

Attempt little in music. Allow nothing to divert you from the main idea the first year, which is right voice development, and through it the training of the

ear.

Master this problem yourself, for yourself, and you are ready. Aim at the voice, but let the pupil think sounds from

the first. Stick to what you may term primary methods in your music, through every grade of work. There is nothing else in school music. In songs, the reverse. Have no namby-pamby jingles. Any song worth singing is worth remembering-and who would memorize any but the best? Judge a song by its literary worth and musical simplicity. The grandest songs I know are of smooth and simple melody and short compass. Teach music in good-nature always. Find a way to insist on recitation and attention in the subject without resorting to direct compulsion. A tone with no joy in it is worthless. Train your own ear to pitch, and keep every moment's work in the best range for the pupil, regardless of the written pitch. Do not shun minor. It should occupy the same amount of attention as major, but no course" offers

such material. Remember, to be able to write music from dictation is always a fair test. There is no education in anything less than this. It must come, and come before sight-singing, as a character will be meaningless till the thing symbolized has been grasped mentally by the child. Attempt no "effect" with young singers. Sentiment and emotion come last in the study. Enthusiasm you should always have. Never attempt motion songs if you value the music. Music itself is a far higher form of expression than pantomime. Acquaint yourself with all individual cases at all peculiar, but always in the confidence of and sympathy with the pupil. Sing as often as possible -twice a day at least. Note how much worse it goes on Mondays because of the break. Learn to drop work and sing a moment any time. Never attempt singing without perfect order, however, especially as to position. Insist on position -erect, active, vivific. Control your pupils' tastes. Do not let them make the mistake of deeming an old song a wornout song. Not one new song in twenty is of any permanent value. Be content with a small stock of choice, well-learned old songs-say six patriotic, as many social, and another dozen semi-spiritual, for opening and other exercises. Should it not form a short segment of that circle of harmonious development" for the first six years of school? The evolution of the American race is going on at a tremendous rate. What is needed is not business, or money-making methods, but a quieting, culturing, cooling outlet to

66

our energies. Shall not the human soul claim a right to a moment of quiet for instruction in this art of peace?

never.

Music is the decoration of a thought, and should crystallize into emotion. Music is the final decoration of all sentiment. Words often fail us, but music From the time that the morning stars sang together at the prospect of the birth of another planet (our earth) until the cup of man's realization is full and the last requiem of the universe has died away, music shall never fail in expressing the unspeakable emotions of God's creatures. Memory fails, but one breath of melody is ever sufficient to set in motion the revolving wheels of recollection, and heart-throbs long buried return. Utter the grandest words known to intellectone breath of song outlasts them all. There is no such invoker of the ghosts of the past as an old song. Every picture of love and hatred, of promise and disappointment at a mother's knee, return in a shower of tears.

Music is a condensed form of expression-another higher form of words; for words limit, while in this more emotional expression the wings of our imagination are set free. Again come the sturdy words of Carlyle "See deep enough, and you will see musically,"-echoed by Ruskin, "All one's life is music, if one sets the strings rightly, and in tune."

Your success in this life of music first lies in knowledge-its metaphysics; then in imagination-its sentiment; and lastly, in feeling--its emotion. Try it; it will fashion you anew; it will cultivate your mind; it will vivify your body; it will enlarge your soul; it will add a line of beauty to every form, color to every landscape, joy to all life, and glory to your memory. Neglect it, and though you may here have a perfectly developed body, fat purse, and perchance a well-stored mind, you run sad risk of having a lean soul. Mind, memory, money, and the very body itself, may fade and pass away, but "the soul shall live forever."

Then cherish music until your very soul and life are attuned to the harmonies of the universe, until the music of the spheres rings continually in your ears, until the flutes of the field birds, the harps of the mountain forests, the great ocean organ, and even the diapason of Jehovah's thunderings, charm, not fright, your listening ear, until "the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into

singing, and all the trees of the forest clap their hands" in celestial symphonies. God grant that we may all cultivate this art of earth which which we shall use in Paradise; that with hearts and hands and voices united we may go up into this mount of transfiguration and bring to earth the kingdom of Heaven; that we may fashion our souls here below by its transcendent beauties, and prepare our voices to join in that new song with the heavenly chorus, the number of whose voices is ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, chanting: "Blessings and glory and honor and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, forever and ever."-N. E. Journal of Education.

THE HOME LIBRARY.

T'education every home requires a li

HE fact is that in these days of diffused

brary quite as much as it requires a parlor, a reception-room, a chamber, or a kitchen. A place to keep books in is one of the first essentials in imparting a tone of thorough refinement to a house. Yet to have the books themselves is more important than to have the special room which is their casket. A corner of the drawing-room, with a table and an easychair, pens and ink, and a few low shelves, make a capital library. In some charming homes, drawing-room and library are combined, and the books elbow the bric-❘ á-brac and the soft divans and cushioned lounges.

What sort of books will you have in your home library? Remember, you need not buy them all at once. A library is like a garden. It grows by cultivation. Like the family to whom it belongs, it develops day by day, year by year. It is like a house, it must needs possess foundations, well-hewn and strongly laid.

compendium of familiar quotations and a reader's hand-book. The very best attainable lexicon should be in some accessible spot where the children and young people may form a habit of consulting it whenever doubt arises as to the spelling, pronunciation, or precise shade of meaning of any word, whether a word in common use or one seldom heard. This is scholarly exactitude, not pedantry.

In a good and well-chosen home library there will by degrees enter separation and adjustment. adjustment. One shelf will hold volumes of history, another will be devoted to biography, another to poetry, to travels, to essays. The book-loving boy or girl will insensibly acquire so intimate an acquaintance with the books that he or she can put a hand on any wished-for volume without long and bewildered search. The backs of the books will regard the family in a friendly fashion, and some, brown, fat, shabby, faded, much read, and often made the companions of daily life, will have an individuality never the portion of any but friends of the family.-Harper's Bazar.

STORIES FOR THE SCHOOL.

MISS WILTSIE tells us in her book, "The Place of the Story in Early Education," that the old stories fed the patriotism of the people, nourished the morals, and sustained the courage of men and women.

The story, if rightly used, will do as much for the child of to-day as for that of Greece and India centuries ago. It may be used in many different ways. Let the teacher read and the children reproduce. This makes an excellent exercise for language.

Devote the first fifteen minutes of each day to telling a good story or reading a chapter from some good book, and in a very short time you will find that tardiness and absence, which cause much annoyance in the country schools, have largely disappeared.

The very best way of teaching morals is by means of the story. Watch the school-room, the play-ground, each indi

Among other books of reference a dictionary of dates is indispensable; so is a

that needs correcting, let the next day's story adapt itself to that point.

If you will make daily use of a story you will find this the best way of cultivating the imagination or adding to the

you?"

THE GOLDEN TOUCH.

A long, long time ago there was a very rich king, called Midas. This old king had a little daughter named Marigold, whom every one loved and whom the old king himself loved better than anything in the world except his gold; for I must tell you that King Midas was fast becoming a miser, and was heaping up in his dark cellar the most immense pile of yellow, shining gold that any one had ever seen. All he cared for the lovely crown he wore was that it was made of gold and precious stones.

There was a time, however, when this old king had loved all the beautiful things God had made, especially the bright flowers; and little Marigold had the prettiest, sweetest rose-garden ever seen, that the old king himself had planted for her, and which she loved better than all things else except her papa.

King Midas, however, kept loving his gold better and better, and soon the time came when he thought of nothing else, and spent all his time trying to add to the glittering heap in his dark cellar. Every morning he would go and look upon it, handle it, and wish there were more of it. He would spend whole days in this dark, damp, ugly dungeon where he kept his wealth; lock himself in and talk to and play with his gold, for by this time he had learned to love it better than anything else in the world, even his dear little daughter Marigold.

One morning he had locked himself into his cellar and was talking to his sparkling goblets and handling his bright, shining dollars, when suddenly he saw the queerest little man standing beside him. He was a tiny fellow, but had such a bright, happy face, the old king thought at once that he had come to do him a favor.

This queer little fellow soon began speaking and said, "You must be very happy, King Midas. You have piled up more gold than any one else ever saw."

The king said, "I have done pretty well, but to be happy I should have to live a thousand years and pile up gold all the time."

"I see you are not satisfied;" said the

King Midas thought a long time, then replied, "I should like everything I touch to turn into gold.”

"Very well," said the stranger, "tomorrow when the sun rises you will be able to turn everything you touch into gold." The old king looked up quickly, but the little man had gone.

King Midas thought that day a very long one, and ever so many times during the night he waked to see if it were yet morning. At the first appearance of the sun he was ready for it. Eagerly, hardly daring to hope, he touched the curtain. Breathlessly he waited. It was, indeed, changed to his beloved gold. The power to change all things to gold was really his. He sprang from his bed and was soon busy touching everything within his reach. As he laid his hand upon one thing after another and saw it change to glittering gold, he could hardly contain his delight.

Very soon all around him was gold, bright gold, and the sun, rising higher and higher, shone in upon it and almost dazzled the old king with its brightness.

King Midas went to breakfast, touching everything as he walked, and laughing to see it change at once into gold. He thought of his little daughter, and said to himself, "She shall have the finest breakfast service of any little girl in the land." land." Then he touched cup, plate, spoon, and chair, and all their beauty was quickly changed into the same yellow gold.

The old king was well pleased and began his breakfast. But alas! The rich, brown coffee had no sooner touched his lips than it was changed to gold, but this time burning, blistering gold. The golden egg was gold sure enough, and the rich, mealy potato was a mass of gold that burned and scorched until he was forced to cry out in agony.

While he sat there dismally wondering how he was to get his breakfast, he heard little Marigold crying loudly. In another instant the door opened and she ran to him with her hands full of the roses she so loved, all turned to hateful gold; for King Midas, thinking to please his little daughter, had visited the rose-garden before coming in to breakfast.

King Midas, anxious to comfort her, and forgetting, alas! that all he touched must turn to gold, drew his little daughter to him and kissed her upon the cheek.

Instantly, but too late, he remembered. With what agony he waited! how he hated the very sight and thought of gold as surely, too surely, he watched the sweet, rosy face, always so full of affec

PRIMARY SPELLING LESSON.

BY ELIZABETH SHARE.

color with yellow teardrops standing upon the cheeks-the beautiful brown ringlets taking the same tint, the sweet little form growing hard, until no little daughter, but a golden statue, stood before him.

While King Midas sat in his agony of grief and despair he suddenly beheld the same little figure that had come to hiri the day before in his treasure-room. He spoke at once to the king. "How do you like the Golden Touch?" said he. Take it away, take it away, I hate the very name of gold," cried the king, in agony. "I would not give a crust of bread, a cup of cold water, or one small dimple in my little daughter's chin for the whole big earth, if it were one lump of solid gold; but alas, none of them can ever be mine again!"

The old king looked so dreadfully unhappy that the stranger felt very sorry for him, and said. "King Midas, I will give you one more chance. If you are really tired of the Golden Touch, bathe in the river that flows back of your palace and it will leave you. If you have turned anything into gold that you wish changed back you have but to sprinkle it with water from the same river."

King Midas did not wait for another word. Snatching a pitcher that stood upon the table he ran with all speed to the river, watching as he ran the hateful yellow color as the earth changed to gold at every step. Never before did the old king take such a bath or so enjoy it; then filling his pitcher to the brim he sped back to his little daughter only stopping by the way to sprinkle a few of the roses, and laugh as he watched the dread yellow give place to the lovely red and pink.

When he dashed the water upon the golden statue his very heart was gladdened as he saw the rosy color come back to the dear cheek, and felt the precious arms clasp him about the neck.

Never again did King Midas wish for gold. In fact, he hated the very color of it, except as he saw it in little Marigold's ringlets, and was always contented with the beautiful things God has made for all of us, and his little daughter's love.Northwestern Journal of Education.

dren from seven to nine; a teacher who is earnest, and interested in her work. On a side black-board is this list of words: Calf, thief, wolf, pony, story, knife, wife, motto.

"First class face side board." Quietly and promptly the division seated on that side of the room turns toward the board where the spelling lesson is seen. "Children, I want you to tell me the word that means more than one of each of the objects these words name. As you give them, I will write them opposite these words on the board." "Charlie," the teacher simply says in answer to the score or more of hands that fly up to signify readiness to respond. With Charlie to start, rapidly others are called upon. In a marvelously few seconds, one might almost say, the second list is complete. Occasionally as she writes, the teacher puts in a note of warning. "See where the iis in this word." Watch what I do with the y in this." "This word is one of the hard ones-look sharply."

The list completed-"We will look over this new list together. What will you remember about the word thieves?" "The i before the e." "Right. What about stories?" "The i in place of the y before es." "Yes." "O, Miss C-,' exclaims one child, "there is an es at the end of every word!" Miss C― gives him due and glad credit for his discovery. Then she says, "Look silently at each word until its picture is in your mind." With intent faces the children study the words-one can see there is thought work being done. "Are you ready?" Miss C-." In a flash the list of plurals disappears from the board. "Class, face. Take pencils. From the list of words on the board you may write the ones we just made and studied-work."

"Yes,

Shortly the slates are ready for inspection. We find a great many perfect ones. The mistakes were greeted with, “You will watch closer next time, won't you?" "You didn't think when you looked at the words."

What did the lesson illustrate?

First. Every lesson in spelling should aim directly at the formation of two habits, that of correctly seeing words and that of accurately reproducing them.