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On the whole, the changes made in both works are believed to be improvements which will enhance their value and usefulness. They are printed from new electrotype plates on good paper, and are substantially and neatly bound.

THE SCIENCE OF GOVERNMENT in connection with American Institutions. By JOSEPH ALDEN, D.D., LL.D., late President of Jefferson College, and Author of Elements of Intellectual Philosophy, etc. New York: Sheldon & Company. 1866. Educators begin to recognize the fact that American citizens are as a class lamentably ignorant of the fundamental principles which underlie their political institutions. The examinations of applicants for teachers' certificates show that not more than one teacher in four can even name the three Departments of the National Government or give the simplest statement of their relative functions. If this is true of teachers, what must be true of the great body of our people? The remedy for this state of things, all agree, must be found in the schools. In them must be imparted to our youth a knowledge of those distinctive and elementary principles of the Constitution which animate the nation and control the administration of the government. Nor is this a difficult task. Neither the mechanism nor the principles of government are as difficult to understand as the mechanism and the principles of the globe which make up the science of geography. What is wanted is an elementary manual which shall The work before us present the subject in a simple and, comprehensive manner. claims to be such a manual. It unfolds the origin and necessity of goverment, its object and sovereign power; the different forms of government; and the nature of representation in a republic. It then presents a succinct history of the formation, the gradual development rather, of the United States Government. The next one hundred and twenty pages are devoted to a simple exposition of the Constitution. Then follow three chapters which treat respectively of the constitutions of the different States, of international law, and different kinds of law. The whole is comprised within less than two hundred and fifty pages of clear and open type. We are least pleased with the first four chapters. We read them with the wish that the treatment of the several topics they present, had been more logical and exhaustive. The chapter on suffrage is, as an argument, specially weak, and, in our judgment, had better have been entirely omitted. The work would meet our ideas of a text-book better if it contained less of argument and more of analysis and method; still we can heartily commend it as the best treatise of the kind we have yet examined. Let it be widely and thoroughly used in our schools.

APGARS' GEOGRAPHICAL DRAWING-BOOK. A New and Improved System of MapDrawing, designed to be used as a Primary Geography by Beginners, and as a Companion Geography by those who wish to acquire the Art of Drawing Maps from Memory. By E. A. & A. C. APGAR, Authors of Geographical Charts and HandBook. Philadelphia: Published by J. B. Cowperthwait. 1866.

The title-page of this work gives its design, but an examination of its contents can alone convey an idea of its unique character. It is not only a complete manual on map-drawing, but it also presents in detail a method of teaching geography on the basis of map-drawing. In connection with the map of each country, is presented, for study and recitation, a brief description of its physical characteristics. The drawing of the map and a description of the objects located upon it afford the drill in local geography, the aim of which is to impress the map-picture of the country indelibly upon the mind of the learner. The work is designed for pupils sufficiently advanced to enter intelligently upon the study of maps. Teachers will find it a very suggestive and instructive manual, and we commend it to their attention.

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The question was recently asked in one of our journals: "Is teaching a knack or is it a science?" Probably most teachers would claim for it the higher rank, and show that it is indubitably both an art and a science. Passing by the technical exposition of the theme, we propose to offer a few general considerations which may indirectly bear upon the question.

In the first place, we remark that the art of teaching differs in no respect from other arts as regards the qualifications necessary for the success of its professors. No one doubts that painting is an art, that its rules are founded upon scientific principles; but it is notorious that masters in all the schools both merit and receive commendation for their works, however much the schools to which they severally belong may differ. It is also a matter of common remark, that imitators fail of assured success, except the doubtful one of being good imitators. This fact is also noticeable in music, in letters, and even in the mechanic arts. The utmost that instruction can do, is to inculcate some few general rules of practice, a few cautions against natural errors, and exhibit the various tricks of manual dexterity which experience has shown to be useful. In other words, he who expects to attain pre-eminence in any art must be an originator, or, to say the least, he must be

able to adapt the results attained by his predecessors, so fully and completely that they shall be to all intents and purposes his own. There have been many methods of teaching presented to the world, which, in the hands of their inventors, have accomplished all that could reasonably be expected of any system, but which have signally failed when practiced by other men.

It is of no slight interest to one who has given any thought to the subject to learn what were the methods by which men eminent in arts, in letters, and in statesmanship, were trained. Of course, the best examples for our purpose will be found in those cases where we can trace the actual effect of the plan pursued. In the great schools, this is clearly impossible, for they furnish us only the average result, because the proportion of their graduates who afterward attain eminence is so small, that we may fairly consider the success of the distinguished few to have been reached in spite of their training, rather than on account of any peculiar virtue in it. We have accounts of the early instruction of Montaigne, Pascal, Niebuhr, Buckle, Pitt, and others, who were educated mainly at home, and which, therefore, furnish, the isolated examples that we need. At first sight, nothing can appear more different than the methods of study to which these men were subjected-in fact, some seem to have studied without system; but in one thing they all agree, that the youths were stimulated to continued industry, if not by the example, by the constant interest and untiring efforts of their parents. As we read the life of Niebuhr, it seems as if we were really striking the roots of the matter, that the main thing in education is to inspire a sort of enthusiasm in the pupil for his studies. How far this can be done without the aid of parental counsel and zealous co-operation, is a serious question, entirely overlooked in our present system of schools, whether secular or religious, in which, as a general rule, too much responsibility is thrown upon the teacher, and far too little assumed by the parent. It is easy to see that enthusiasm can not be expected in a teacher who does not clearly apprehend his duties, and who only imperfectly comprehends the methods he pursues, and, further, that he can not arouse enthusiasm in his pupils without being himself zealous, for enthusiasm is contagious, not endemic. Given then two men, one learned, pedantic and torpid, the other deficient in knowledge but anxious to know more

and to impart his knowledge, and it will not be difficult to predict which will excel in teaching.

So far as the personal qualities of the instructor are concerned, whether stupid or intelligent, showy or solid, sluggish or active, the teacher is born, and not made, as truly as any poet can be. Natural genius is also required in all that pertains to the government of the school. No military academy in the world has ever made, or can make, a successful commander out of a weak, timid, and vacillating man. The best it can do is to make him a martinet in routine and accomplished in regimental tactics. So no teacher can control his boys without something of the talent which characterizes a great captain. Weakness and irresolution, strength and decision of character are innate. The teacher's eye and voice are by far the surest indication of his value. Let there be the slightest evidence of wavering in either, and who will detect. it sooner than the school boy? There will be no need of frowns, bluster, or blows, if the pupil recognizes his master in the steady resolution of the face. Subordinate to these qualities is an indefinable tact which some men possess of guiding and influencing others without perceptible exertion or manifest purpose; a quality which belongs alike to statesmen and to leaders in polite society, but which attains its purpose as surely over an undisciplined throng of boys as over the ignoble mob.

To this extent teaching is a knack. This knack had Arnold, Pestalozzi, Hamilton, Nott, and others eminent in teaching. It implies the possession of at least two of the qualities mentioned, viz: the ability to govern well and the power of awakening enthusiasm. The success of these men verifies the old proverb that a good scholar goes beyond his master, and explains the seeming paradox that so many eminent teachers are inferior scholars, while profound scholars are often worthless as teachers.

Now, to what extent is teaching a science? Manifestly so far as it develops latent talent, or aids it in the acquisition of knowledge. This it may do in various ways. Some methods of presenting a given subject are universally acknowledged to be the best possible, and these methods may be learned and applied by every one. For instance, a bungler might be supposed to attempt to lead a tyro who had no knowledge of geometry, over the pons asinorum; the artist would prepare the way by sundry axioms,

postulates, and lemmas. Genius may often blunder in the sad school of experience, before it reaches the certain path. Science warns the traveler from many an impassable bog, by exhibiting the errors of other men. Enthusiasm, unfettered, may run wild. Science develops the laws which command success. Then, again, science details many a useful hint regarding the economy of time; the best means of securing thoroughness, or of rousing flagging interest; and many a purely mechanical trick in the management of classes, which will amazingly benefit the teacher of mediocre talent. It considers questions which ordinary experience reaches only after a lapse of time, of apparatus and experiments, of the comparative merit of systems, of the methods of analysis and synthesis, of the presentation of the abstract or the concrete, or of the relative value of lecturing and recitations, and the like. In these and many other ways, teaching fulfills the definition of a science in that "it is knowledge so classified and arranged that it may be conveniently taught, easily learned, and readily applied."

For the development of the science of teaching, educational journals and normal schools are established, teachers' institutes and conventions organized. Incidentally, normal schools impart instruction of a high grade in the studies which their graduates are expected to teach. How fully these various agencies attain their ends, is an open question. Too often normal schools and institutes are merely academies, except in name; too often they are under the control of men abounding in hobbies of little practical worth; too often under men who have no peculiar qualifications for their responsible position. Doubtless, some will be failures; but with honest effort some must succeed in every sense of the work.

A METHOD OF TEACHING ELEMENTARY GEOMETRY.

BY T. E. SULIOT.

A long time ago, I sent to the MONTHLY a description of the way in which I thought geometry might and should be taught, in order, from the very outset, to elicit the inventive power or geometrical faculty. I will now, for the benefit of our less experi

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