had a personal as well as a professional interest in the professor's work and words. Professor Smith is a positive man, a man of positive views; his utterances may need discussion and limitation before being agreed to; but no man does or can fear judicious and candid criticism less than the professor. He could not agree with Professor Smith in his strictures on the general course of instruction, which criticisms would be opposed by all the wisest and best of American educators.

After a few more remarks, the resolution offered by Mr. Wilson at the opening of the session was reported and adopted unanimously.

EDUCATION AT THE PARIS EXPOSITION.

The PRESIDENT announced that Dr. John D. Philbrick would now address the Department on "Education at the Paris Exposition."

Having pleaded in excuse for coming before the Department without a carefully prepared paper, want of time since his return from abroad to prepare such a paper, and the fact that he had not engaged to prepare one, his name having been placed upon the programme without his knowledge or consent, he proceeded to speak at length without notes. For publication, however, the following abstract of his remarks is given:

I. OUR OWN EDUCATIONAL EXHIBITION.

As Congress made no special provision for an exhibition of education at the Paris Exposition, it was for the Commissioner General to decide what should be done in regard to the matter. He took an enlightened and liberal view of the subject, but found himself unable to set apart for this purpose more than a limited space and a small sum of money; and the time left for preparation was exceedingly brief. The prospect was unpromising. Some leading educational men, whose opinions were entitled to the highest respect, deemed it under the circumstances unwise to attempt to make an exhibition; in the view of others, there were considerations which seemed to render a fair measure of success possible. These considerations were the assurance of the wise counsel and efficient aid of Commissioner Eaton, the offer of the use of the machinery of the Bureau of Education for communication with educational authorities, reliance upon the prompt and cordial coöperation of educational officials, and the expectation of obtaining a considerable proportion of the most characteristic and valuable of the materials comprised in the exhibits of the States represented at the Centennial. The anticipations based on these considerations proved to be well founded. It was necessary, of course, to make the plan of the exhibition conform to the circumstances, and, consequently, in the choice of materials such objects had to be selected as would involve little or no expense, require but a short time in the preparation, and occupy the smallest possible amount of space. It was determined to prefer quality to quantity, to make a representation of the best things in each category without

regard to State lines or sections of the country rather than an exhibition en masse of things good, bad, and indifferent from every quarter. It was not, however, considered best to limit it to any one department or grade of education, but to make it, if possible, as comprehensive in scope as the official scheme itself of the educational department of the exposition, comprising the elementary, secondary, and superior grades of instruction, both general and special. In a word, the aim was to make a comprehensive, select, representative, national exhibition.

Four kinds of materials enter into the composition of an educational exhibition:

1. Illustrations of educational buildings with their furniture and fit. tings.

2. Illustrations and specimens of appliances and apparatus for instruction and training.

3. Scholars' work, literary, scientific, mechanical, and artistic.

4. Educational literature, embracing all printed matter bearing directly on education.

All these kinds were represented as fully as the space would permit. School architecture was illustrated by models, by framed drawings and paintings for wall display, and by portfolios of drawings, photographs, and engravings. In the department of apparatus and appliances for teaching the collection was limited chiefly to the elementary grade. Scholars' work ranged through all the grades, and the amount was very large. But I regard the collection in the department of educational literature as the most interesting and valuable part of the exhibition. It comprised about 2,500 bound volumes. The text book division was very full. It contained specimens of most of the text books issued at the present time by American publishers. The most important contribution to this department of the exhibition consisted of the reports and other publications of the Bureau of Education; in fact, these documents alone would have made an exhibition of which I should have been proud. Probably no one publication in the exhibition was more characteristic or more creditable to the country than the grand and I might say monumental Report on Public Libraries in the United States, which was the product of the Bureau of Education.

In the preparation of new materials for the exhibition, foremost in merit among cities were Washington and Cincinnati, and, among States, Kansas; the superintendent of schools of Wisconsin is entitled to special acknowledgments for his zeal and energy in collecting and forwarding materials.

The location assigned for the exhibition by the Commissioner General was excellent. The installation was not an easy task; the problem to be solved was to pack as much material as possible in a given space, and at the same time to pay due regard to the interests of individual exhibitors, to the demands of classification, to the convenience of visitors, and to the necessity of rendering the exhibition, as a whole, comely

in appearance, so as to produce a favorable impression upon the numerous observers who, in passing, paused for a moment only to get a general impression of the assemblage of objects presented to view. On the wall, above the maps, charts, and architectural illustrations, was placed in large gilt capitals the legend embodying the most characteristic fact in our school system: "L'instruction publique est gratuite dans tous les États de l'Union." This inscription was gazed upon and spelled out with absorbing interest by myriads of French peasants, and I have often heard French schoolmasters remark, on reading it, "That is what we are coming to." It was the hope inspired by the success of the new republic, and indeed the common republican sentiment made Frenchmen and Americans at the Exposition brothers.

But the exhibition was mainly intended, not for popular effect, but for the study and appreciation of experts. Inside our barriers we had no room for the general crowd, but we had space enough and a warm welcome for all inquiring educational men and women. These came in unbroken succession from the day of opening until the closing hour. We had something in our wide range of materials to present for examination to almost every inquirer. Teachers were generally most interested in our text books, and of text books our remarkable collection of geographies attracted the most attention. Well might they be interested, not only in the handsome text and superior illustrations of our geographies, but in the contrast which they afforded to the European geographies in respect to their impartiality in the treatment of foreign countries. I am told that a geographical text book was in use in England in 1878 in which the text devoted to the United States is limited to one sentence, stating that it is a country lying between Canada and Mexico; and the geography I found used as a text book in one of the best schools of Paris contained only about a third of a page of text on our country, of which the statistical part was quite obsolete. The very complete collective exhibit from the city of Washington was a very valuable feature in the exhibition, and was studied with much interest. Perhaps no part of the exhibition on the whole attracted more attention than that which related to the higher education of women. The institutions which represented this department of our system of instruction were Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary, Wellesley College, and Vassar College. A great number of copies of pamphlets relating to the organization, courses of study, statistics, &c., of these institutions were gratuitously distributed to visitors coming from every civilized nation.

The object of our exhibition was not to obtain prizes nor to glorify our system of education, but to contribute our quota of means to the grand enterprise designed to promote the general welfare. Still, it would be an unpardonable affectation to pretend to be indifferent to the judg ments pronounced upon our merits by competent and impartial experts. I own that I take some pride, under the circumstances, in the fact that our little exhibition was found by the three juries on education to con

tain objects worthy to receive one hundred and twenty-one awards, consisting of 28 gold medals, 44 silver medals, 24 bronze medals, and 25 honorable mentions-a number of awards greater by twenty-eight than was received by any other country except France. To the above awards should be added six decorations, bestowed in recognition of merit in connection with the exhibition, namely, one cross of the Legion of Honor and two gold and three silver palms of the University of France.

The materials of our exhibition were, earnestly sought after by the educational representatives of several countries, but it seemed to me proper that in disposing of them France should have the preference. In this view the Commissioner General, and I think Commissioner Eaton, fully concurred. Accordingly, with the consent of the contributors, the greater part of the exhibition was offered to the French minister of public instruction, to be placed in the pedagogical library and museum which he had recently established in the Palais Bourbon in connection with an educational bureau of statistics, after the model of our National Bureau of Education, with M. Buisson as the chief. This offer was accepted by Minister Bardoux, in a grateful letter, in which he signified his intention to set apart a hall for the separate installation of the materials presented as a permanent American exhibition of education. Two rooms were actually appropriated to this purpose. In the distribution of materials, Japan had a moderate share, and a small quantity was sent to Italy, England, and Scotland.

For whatever success the exhibition had, the credit is primarily due to Hon. Richard C. McCormick, the Commissioner General, not only in consideration of the fact that he took the responsibility of deciding that an exhibition should be made, but also because of his cordial and intelligent coöperation in its direction. And his merit in this connection was properly recognized by the international jury by the award of a gold medal. The assistance and coöperation afforded by the Bureau of Education and its worthy chief were of very great value and could not have been dispensed with. The aid afforded by numerous individuals in sending desirable contributions cannot be mentioned here in detail, but the list of the awards and the special catalogue of the exhibition taken together show approximately the true roll of honor in connection with this enterprise. I say "taken together," for in the nature of things it was not possible for all objects to receive their just recognition by awards.

II. THE EXHIBITIONS OF OTHER COUNTRIES.

The countries besides our own making considerable exhibitions were France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Japan, Italy, Spain, Canada, and the Netherlands. Several other countries had exhibitions of less importance. Unfortunately none of the German states was represented. The French exhibition far exceeded all others both in extent and in variety of materials. Besides the general exhibition under the auspices of the minister of public instruction, the city of Paris fur

nished an admirable exhibit, and several important classes of special schools were exhibited separately by the ministers having charge of their administration. The Belgian exhibition, which was installed in an extensive annex, was very full and complete, and was admirably organized. The Austrian exhibition was less extensive, but in quality and arrangement was unsurpassed. Switzerland was especially strong in the elementary grade. The exhibition from Japan was very remarkable for the evidence it afforded of the rapid educational progress which has recently been made in that interesting country.

Looking at the exhibitions as a whole, there were two features which were especially conspicuous: first, the multiplicity and variety of appliances for intuitive instruction; and, secondly, the representation of systems and institutions for industrial education.

III.-FACTS, LESSONS, INFERENCES, AND GENERAL CONCLUSIONS.

Education is eminently an experimental science, and, although it may never be advisable for one community to copy the system in its details of another community, it is chiefly by the comparison of systems, organizations, and methods, rather than from theoretical speculations, that progress in education has been brought about. One of the causes of the superior development of education in Germany is doubtless to be found in the fact that the numerous systems of instruction existing in the states constituting the German nation have afforded peculiar facilities for the study of comparative education. In this respect our own country possesses unequalled advantages, which, by the machinery of the Bureau of Education, we are enabled to utilize.

So the chief utility of a universal exhibition of education consists in the means it affords for comparison and for obtaining information respecting the results of experiments in every department of education.. In this respect the Paris Exposition was without doubt superior to all the universal expositions which preceded it. To report on the lessons. it furnished was not a part of my engagement, that duty being assigned. to a gentleman of excellent qualifications for the task, General Chamberlain, president of Bowdoin College and United States Commissioner to Paris for the State of Maine. However, I applied myself while at Paris. none the less earnestly to the study of educational problems, being greatly stimulated and encouraged in this work by the exceptional facilities afforded for it.

I shall here attempt nothing like a complete and orderly statement of the facts, lessons, and suggestions derived from studies and observations. in connection with the last Paris and the two preceding universal expositions. I present only a few facts and conclusions relating more especially to the educational questions at the present time more or lessagitated among us.

1. The crèche, or day nursery for the care of children under three years. of age whose mothers go from their homes to work, is an institution the