versant in history and geography, that I should, if possible, conceal from him the existence of the numerous school manuals on these subjects.

We will suppose that a parent meets with a book which he thinks will be both instructive and enter taining to his children. But the book is a large one, and would take a long time to get through; so, instead of reading any part of it to them or letting them read it for themselves, he makes them learn the index by heart. The children do not find it entertaining; they get a horror of the book, which prevents their ever looking at it afterwards, and they forget the index as soon as they possibly can. Just such is the sagacious plan adopted in teaching history and geography in schools, and such are the natural consequences. Every student knows that the use of an epitome is to systematise knowledge, not to communicate it, and yet, in teaching, we give the epitome first, and allow it to precede, or rather to supplant, the knowledge epitomised. The children are disgusted, and no wonder. The subjects, indeed, are interesting, but not so the epitomes. I suppose if we could see the skeletons of the Gunnings, we should not find them more fascinating than any other skeletons.

The first thing to be aimed at, then, is to excite the children's interest. Even if we thought of nothing but the acquiring of information, this is clearly the true method. What are the facts which we remember? Those in which we feel an interest. If we are told that So-and-so has met with an accident, or failed. in business, we forget it directly, unless we know the person spoken of. Similarly, if I read anything about

Addison or Goldsmith, it interests me, and I remember it, because they are, so to speak, friends of mine; but the same information about Sir Richard Blackmore or Cumberland would not stay in my head for four-and-twenty hours. So, again, we naturally retain anything we learn about a foreign country in which a relation has settled, but it would require some little trouble to commit to memory the same facts about a place in which we had no concern. All this proceeds from two causes. First, that the mind retains that in which it takes an interest; and secondly, that one of the principal helps to memory is the association of ideas. These were, no doubt, the ground reasons which influenced Dr. Arnold in framing his plan of a child's first history-book. This book, he says, should be a picture-book of the memorable deeds which would best appeal to the child's imagination. They should be arranged in order of time, but with no other connection. The letterpress should simply, but fully, tell the story of the action depicted. These would form starting-points of interest. The child would be curious to know more about the great men whose acquaintance he had made, and would associate with them the scenes of their exploits; and thus we might actually find our children anxious to learn history and geography! I am sorry that even the great authority of Dr. Arnold has not availed to bring this method into use. Such a book would, of course, be dear. Bad pictures are worse than none at all: and Goethe tells us that his appreciation of Homer was for years destroyed by his having been shown, when a child, absurd pictures (Fratzenbilder)

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of the Homeric heroes. The book would, therefore, cost six or eight shillings at least; and who would give this sum for an account of single actions of a few great men, when he might buy the lives of all great men, together with ancient and modern history, the names of the planets, and a great amount of miscellaneous information, all for half-a-crown in 'Mangnall's Questions'?

However, if the saving of a few shillings is more to be thought of than the best method of instruction, the subject hardly deserves our serious consideration.

It is much to be regretted that books for the young are so seldom written by distinguished authors. I suppose that of the three things which the author seeks, money, reputation, influence, the first is not often despised, nor the last considered the least valuable. And yet both money and influence are more certainly gained by a good book for the young, than by any other. The influence of Tom Brown,' however different in kind, is probably not smaller in amount, than that of Sartor Resartus.'

An improvement, I hope, has already begun. Miss Yonge's 'Golden Deeds' is just the sort of book that I have been recommending. Professor Huxley has lately published an elementary book on Physiology, and Professor Kingsley has promised us a 'Boys' History of England.'

What we want is a Macaulay for boys, who shall handle historical subjects with that wonderful art displayed in the Essays'-the art of elaborating all the more telling portions of the subject, outlining the rest, and suppressing everything that does not

conduce to heighten the general effect.

Some of these essays, such as the Hastings' and Clive,' will be read wi h avidity by the elder boys: but as Macaulay did not write for children, he abounds in words to them unintelligible. Had he been a married man, we might perhaps have had such a volume of historical sketches for boys as now we must wish for in vain. But there are good story-tellers left among us, and we might soon expect such books as we desiderate, if it were clearly understood what is the right sort of book, and if men of literary ability and experience would condescend to write them. At present, teachers who have a 'connection' make compendiums, which last only as long as the 'connection' that floats them and literary men, if they wish to make money out of the young, hand over works written for adults, to some underling, who epitomises them for schools. Of Mr. Charles Knight, who has done so much for sound education, I should have expected better things; but he tells us in a volume of some 500 pages, called 'Knight's School History of England,' condensed from his large history under his superintendence, that he trusts no event of importance in our annals has been omitted. This seems to me like trusting that the work is valueless for all purposes of rational instruction.

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If in these latter days the individual withers, and the world is more and more,' we must not expect our children to enter into this. Their sympathy and their imagination can be aroused, not for nations, but for individuals; and this is the reason why some biographies of great men should precede any history.

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These should be written after Macaulay's method. There should be no attempt at completeness, but what is most important and interesting about the man should be narrated in detail, and the rest lightly sketched, or omitted altogether. Painters understand this principle, and in taking a portrait, very often depict a man's features minutely without telling all the truth about the buttons on his waistcoat. But, because in a literary picture each touch takes up additional space, writers seem to fear, that the picture will be distorted unless every particular is expanded or condensed in the same ratio. As a model for our biographies, we may take Plutarch's Lives,' which should be read as soon as boys are old enough to like them.*

At the risk of wearisome repetition, I must again say, that I care as little about driving useful knowledge' into a boy, as the most ultra Cambridge-man could wish; but I want to get the boy to have wide sympathies, and to teach himself; and I should therefore select the great men from very different periods and countries, that his net of interest (if I am allowed the metaphor) may be spread in all waters.

* There is no profane study better than Plutarch: all other learning is private, fitter for universities than cities; fuller of contemplation than experience; more commendable in students themselves than profitable unto others. Whereas stories are fit for every place, reach to all persons, serve for all times; teach the living, revive the dead; so far excelling all other books, as it is better to see learning in noble men's lives than to read it in philosophers' writings. Now for the author... I believe I might be bold to affirm that he hath written the profitablest story of all authors; . . . being excellent in wit, learning, and experience, he hath chosen the special acts of the best persons of the famousest nations of the world.'-Sir Thomas North's Dedication to Queen Elizabeth of his translation of Plutarch.