GENERAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION-THE EXTENT OF EDUCATIONAL REPRESENTATION AT THE EXPOSITION. THE VALUE OF EDUCATION IN SCIENCE AND ART SHOWN BY THE GREAT EXHIBITIONS- THE GENERAL The first universal exhibition taught this important lesson-that the most advanced nations were those in the midst of which, for the longest period and in the freest and most generous manner, science and art had done their work of enlightenment. The next succeeding ones not only enforced this lesson but added the important deduction, that prosperity and enlightenment are not accidentally coincident, but necessarily so; sustaining to each other the relation of effect to cause. When, therefore, the time came for determining the plan of a fourth universal concourse, in the spirit of a noble philanthropy that did honor to our common humanity, it was proposed that this great principle of progress should have practical recognition in the form of a separate division, or group, the scope and purpose of which warrant the designation happily given it by the Imperial Commission, of the "Department of Social Science"-a department whose office should be to set this grand law of development before the nations and in the most solemn and authoritative manner to commend it to the observance of all. If Napoleon III had signalized his eventful career by no other shining act done in the interest of humanity, the imperial decree which opened Group X, and created "the New Order of Recompenses," "with a special view to the amelioration of the moral and physical condition of populations," should of itself place his name on the page of permanent history in letters of light, and insure to his memory the benedictions of mankind. What may be styled the educational department of Group X, of the late Exposition, was embraced in two classes, (89 and 90,) appropriately placed at the head of the group, as relating to a subject thus acknowledged to be first in the logical order of such as directly concern the social improvement of man. But, inasmuch as the group itself could have no definite assignment of place, owing to the diverse nature of the objects exhibited, it followed, as a consequence, that the exhibits in the educational department were distributed throughout the entire Exposition palace and grounds, thus making their inspection and comparison a protracted and somewhat difficult task. The number of exhibitors in this department, properly catalogued, was no less than one thousand and ninety-five, distributed by nationalities as follows, the order of mention being that of the local succession of countries in the Palace: Table showing the comparative number of exhibitors in Classes 89 and 90. * Exhibitions made, but not catalogued; number not known. The real number of exhibitors was considerably larger, as many of them made entry in other classes, to which the articles shown were also appropriated. The objects themselves numbered many thousands, one entry-as that of a school-house, for instance-often including many individual articles collectively shown by the nation, society, or individual making exhibition. The variety of objects was only less than their number, extending through the whole range appropriate to the work of education, and affording ground for a discussion of every educational theme, from the material appliances essential to the infant school up through every grade of intermediate schools, general and special, to the scheme of the royal academy or university. In the Park were school-houses, with furniture, apparatus, and numberless appliances, together with several pavilions, embracing a multitude of educational appliances used in schools of agriculture and mechanical industry, and the no less numerous products of the handiwork of the artistic or scientific skill of the pupils. In the Palace were numerous halls, alcoves, and attractive corners, filled with charts, maps, atlases, globes, orreries, slates, copy-books, contrivances to aid in teaching children to read, write, and calculate; text-books from the primer to the calculus and the classics; schemes and reports of educational institutions of every grade and character; copies of annals published by educational societies, institutions, and states; the implements used in gymnastic exercises, and the appliances requisite to instruction in the arts of design, architecture, painting, and sculpture. Some of the halls embracing these, and countless other objects equally appropriate to the educational department, were very beautifully and effectively set off by portraits, busts, and statues of distinguished teachers and patrons of education in all countries, as well as by the inscription of the names and living words of such as, by their labors for the diffusion of knowledge among men, have made them immortal. Of the relative importance of the exhibits made by the different nations, some idea may be formed from the following: Table showing the number of prizes, of different grades, awarded to the exhibitors from various countries, in Classes 89 and 90. In order to illustrate the extent of representative objects of the different kinds appropriate to Classes 89 and 90, as well as to convey an idea of their relative value in the estimation of the juries, the following |