The words of Franklin never grow old; they have the freshness of to-day and have held their power since the hour of their utterance. In 1853 Epes Sargent made a collection of the writings of Franklin, and the volume enjoyed an extensive sale. This volume has now been reprinted, and is again in handy form, suited alike for the old and young. The papers are published under the title of FRANKLIN'S SELECT WORKS, and consist of a memoir of Franklin, his autobiography, political and philosophical papers, correspondence, etc. Boston: Lee & Shepard. Price 75 cents.

THE RIVERSIDE LITERATURE SERIES is commendable for its effort to popularize choice works by the best authors. Convenient size, good paper and clear print, with a price within the reach of all, 50 cents for yearly subscription to four numbers or 15 cents each, places the works of Hawthorne, Longfellow, Whittier and a host of other classical English writers before a multitude of readers. The latest number is THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH, by Charles Dickens. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

Mr. George B. Kilbon has had charge of the manual training lessons in the schools in Springfield, Mass., since 1886, and his work has been of an entirely original and novel character. He has developed a system of wood-working which resembles no other system now in use, and which has the merit of sat isfying all the demand which educators have made for a distinctly American system of wood working. Mr. Kilbon has not modeled his system on lines that are to be found in either of the two prominent systems now in use in some schools, namely, the Russian system and the Swedish system or Sloyd, but he has made a system which is essentially new and which may eventually come to be recognized as the American system. In his book, Wood WORK, he gives in sixteen lessons, the fundamental exercises of his system, in a simple form. The arrangement is from the easy to the difficult by successive steps and is designed to give boys of twelve years and upward primary command of the use of a set comprising the principal wood-working tools. The lessons are abundantly illustrated with carefully made drawings, and every operation is minutely detailed. All interested in manual training and in a system which is plainly adapted to American schools and American needs will find Mr. Kilbon's book a most suggestive and helpful manual. Boston: Lee & Shepard. Price 75 cents.

There is no more perplexing subject at present in the public schools than drawing. There are systems of drawing galore, but the ordinary teacher finds that whatever system is used there is more or less unsatisfactory work done. The fault largely lies with the teacher who is ignorant of the principles of drawing, but who follows directions as laid down in the drawing books. To aid these teachers, and to give a frank explanation of the principles of what should underlie the drawing in our schools, Prof. Anson K. Cross, of the Boston Normal Art school, has prepared a little work under the title of DRAWING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Professor Cross tells what should be and should not be done by the teacher; tells what results are to be striven for, and how these results may be known; gives explicit directions as to methods, and maps out a course of drawing for the grades of the grammar school. The book contains much that will be new to teachers, and is one of the most practical and immediately helpful of manuals for teachers. Boston: A. K. Cross, Normal Art School.

Following the discussion of the introduction of some of the high school subjects into the grammar schools come speedily text-books designed for use in these subjects in the grammar schools. In some of the text-books there is a painful evidence of the effort the authors endured in trying to "write down" to the immature minds, but in the main the books are helpful tokens of a new and satisfactory series of books for grammar pupils to use. Prof. Paul H. Hanus, of Harvard University, has published a little pamphlet of fifty-two pages, which he styles an essay, under the title of GEOMETRY IN THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL. Prof. Hanus briefly discusses the question of the introduction of this subject into the grammar school and gives cogent reasons in support of the proposition. He then gives some illustrative class exercises and an outline of the work for the last three years of the grammar school. Prof. Hanus has approached this subject in the right spirit and manner, and his essay is a most valuable and pertinent contribution. It should be read by all teachers of the grammar school. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co. Price 25 cents.

The American Book Company has just added two admirable selections to its series of English Classics for school. One of these contains three of Ralph Waldo Emerson's essays, the most important of which is that on the Scholar with which he electrified and made memorable the Harvard commencement of 1837. These essays are full of Emerson's quickening spirit. The other booklet contains Sohrab and Rustum, a strong poem by Matthew Arnold. The brave young Sohrab stands forth from all the Tartar hosts and defies the bravest of the Persians. He is slain by Rustum, the dread Persian warrior, who is his own father. The story is told with great power, pathos and artistic skill.

Mr. W. S. Lyon has edited with notes, vocabulary and appendices, Genin's LE PETIT TAILLEUR BOUTON. It is a charming little story and easily read in the first year of the French class. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co. Price 25 cents.

PERIODICALS.

The Cosmopolitan for September reached a total edition of 211,000 copies, making it the largest edition for this month of any magazine in the world. The World's Fair was treated in this single number by twelve different writers, making the most complete account of the great Exposition that has as yet appeared." Electricity at the World's Fair" is the title of the opening article in The Popular Science Monthly for October. It is by C. M. Lungren and is finely illustrated.-Both The Century and St. Nicholas will have serial stories this year by the great humorist, Mark Twain.--Rev. Howard MacQueary has a remarkable article on "Moral and Immoral Literature" in the September Arena. Other articles are of the usual high order of merit.The most notable contribution to The North American Review for September is a review of the political situation by Ex-Speaker Reed.—The magazine field has been most successfully entered by that recent contestant for popular favor McClure's Magazine which is well-edited, bright, and interesting.

EDUCATION,

DEVOTED TO THE SCIENCE, ART, PHILOSOPHY AND

LITERATURE OF EDUCATION.

VOL. XIV.

NOVEMBER, 1893.

No. 3

LITERATURE AS A MEANS OF MORAL TRAINING

IN THE SCHOOLS.

PROF. CHARLES F. BRUSIE, KENYON COLLEGE, GAMBIER, OHIO.

T

a recent number of THE FORUM, Professor Palmer has contributed a valuable article on the teaching of morals in our schools. The paper is a delightful bit of common sense amid much of nonsense on the subject with which we have been overwhelmed, and our gratitude is due to the author for thus clearing away the mist so as to enable us to view the question in the proper light. I am confident that few will fail to appreciate the force of Professor Palmer's conclusions; and all who follow his reasoning must at once see how inefficient, and, sometimes, even harmful, is much of the so-called ethical teaching that is now finding a place in the secondary schools of the land.

But although it may be unadvisable to teach ethics in our secondary schools, and impossible directly to give instruction in morals, to hear classes in the twelve manly virtues-yet it is of the utmost importance, as Professor Palmer has said, that moral character be built up in our boys and girls. The question then, which confronts every teacher, every one who is connected directly or indirectly with systems of schools for the young, is: how is this moral training to be given? how is it to be so adapted to circumstances and the nature of children that the best results may be obtained, that the boys and girls of our schools may feel their responsibility in their relations one to another, their dependence as

creatures of a divine Creator-for whether or not we approve of religious teaching in our public schools, the American people do affirm the sovereignty of God.

First of all, in the consideration of this question, it is necessary for us to remember that there are in every boy and girl the possibilities of moral character, and that it is the province of the teacher to draw out and develop these possibilities, and not to pour into the assumed vacuum in the child's nature the hypothetical overflow of his own morality. This is the true meaning of education— educere, to lead forth. It is evident, then, that, for the healthy development of the better nature of the child, there are needed. influences that are morally and pleasantly stimulating. Such a stimulus is, of course, best to be found in the earnest, God-fearing, child-loving teacher, with sympathy so broad and varied that it is ably to touch at all points human nature as it exists, infinitely diversified, in the young life of our children.

In this age of push, of material progress, and hurrah! does the moral character, the magnetic, stimulating, uplifting influence of the teacher who is to guide our child through the dangers of school life receive the recognition that is its due? We look askance at the teacher who cannot give us the minutest detail about the Mikado's Empire or the Dark Continent; who does not see fit to cover the black-board with dots, and dashes, and brackets to indicate the divisions and sub-divisions of one of Milton's serial sentences; we overlook entirely that loving nature, that devotion to duty, that strong manliness or womanliness that would be invaluable in the moral inspiring and training of our children. The sine qua non of the true teacher cannot end with intellectual attainment.

I wish to speak more particularly, however, of the means outside of himself that the teacher has at his disposal for the moral training of the child. Incongruous as it may seem, the same spirit. that is building our railroads and booming our western towns is dictating to the teacher here. Public opinion, or at least a certain amount of it, is insisting upon the study of Mathematics and Science as the important part of the curriculum in our public schools. But, as President DeGarmo says, "We shall have our labor for our pains if we search for the embodiment of ethical truths in nature or in natural science." If natural laws do have their counterpart in human life, yet it is only by analogy and, for

our purpose, that analogy ends just where the moral nature comes in. While the study of science, under the direction of a strong and inspiring teacher, may do much toward fortifying the moral heights already reached, yet for touching the sensibility and moving the will of the child, that force is necessary which throbs with human feeling and proclaims the power of human will.

It is no novelty to turn to history for this force. Undoubtedly the teachings of history may be made potent factors in the development of character. Here are recorded the ups and downs of humanity, and it may not be impossible to trace out for the child the relation between the good and the evil, to show the moral necessity of war and crime, and how the fatal struggles between man and man avail for the advancement of the right and the purifying of men; but at best this is a difficult task. The correct interpretation of history calls for the deepest intellectual and moral insight. Mistakes are easily made by the teacher, mistakes that may prove fatal to the efficiency of the instruction. Moreover, the field of history is so vast, and the units necessary to be used in estimating historic values so great, that it is almost impossible for the child clearly to grasp the real relation between cause and effect, separated, it may be, by centuries.

If however, the teachings of history, as we have it, are of doubtful value, as means of moral training, the same teachings are yet available, idealized but true, in the masterpieces of literature. May we not, then, turn to literature with reasonable hope that we may here find a channel through which even the profoundest ethical truths may gradually find their way into the mind of the child, there to bear fruit in intuitive right action.

I know that this is dangerous ground. I know that my claim will be called visionary by some and absurd by others. American ideas, even in regard to so intangible a subject as ethical truth, are substantial, well-fed creatures, not at all to be taken with the thought of sailing off over the boundless seas of literature in search of a golden fleece, of whose existence, outside the limits of our own time and territory, patriotism-if nothing else-should prompt a denial. To many of us there is nothing outside of, or above, the body. Our little world revolves about the infinitesimal centre of food and drink and clothing. For us poetry is a thing of air, and music is a myth. But, however closely in our devotion to material interests we may tie ourselves down to what we are pleased to