Bishop's One Thousand Mile Walk across South America, Headley's D. G. Farragut, O. M. Mitchell, 5 each; John Ericcson, Larcom's An Idyl of Work, Tarbox's Israel Putnam, Tenney's Bees, Butterflies, etc., 3 each; Parton's Captains of Industry, Tenney's Sea-Urchins, etc., 2 each.

Feb. 2, 1889. Coolidge's Mischief's Thanksgiving, 17; Alcott's Rose in Bloom, 14; Coolidge's Nine Little Goslings, Abbott's Marco Paul in Maine, 13 each; Coolidge's Eye Bright, 12; Marco Paul in Vermont, 9; Alcott's Jo's Boys, 8; Bolton's Girls who Became Famous, Marco Paul in Erie Canal, Marco Paul in Springfield Armory, 8 each; Alcott's Hospital Sketches, Marco Paul in New York, 7 each; Marco Paul in Boston, 6; Abbott's History, Paul Jones, Bolton's Poor Boys who became Famous, 4 each; Livermore's My Story of the War, 3; Abbott's Water and Land, 2; Force, Light, 1 each.

April 1. Stowe's Pussy Willow, 14; Queer Little People, 6; Hawthorne's Wonder-Book, Kingsley's Greek Heroes, Robinson Crusoe, 5 each; Irving's Alhambra, 4; Farmer's Famous Queens, Trafton's An American Girl Abroad, 3 each; Farmer's Famous Rulers, Hawthorne's Twice Told Tales, Irving's Knickerbocker's New York, Parton's Horace Greeley, 2 each; Abbott's Columbus, Hale's Light of Two Centuries, 1 each.

May 1. Baker's Soldier and Servant, 12; Hale's 10 × 1 = 10, 10; Jenner's Two Young Homesteaders, 7; Alcott's My Boys, 6; An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving, Jimmie's Cruise, Shawl-Straps, Eggleston's School Master, Eliot's Stories from Arabian Nights, 5 each; Alcott's Cupid and Chowchow, My Girls, Marston's Frank's Ranche, Sidney's What the Seven Did, Who told it to me, Warner's Being a Boy, Whitney's We Girls, 4 each; Diaz' The William Henry Letters, Monroe's The Story of Our Country, Phelps' Gates Ajar, Rand's Little Round Top, Sidney's Five Little Peppers, Warner's My Summer in a Garden, 3 each; Diaz' William Henry's Friends, Forestier's Echoes from Mistland, Holmes' Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, 2 each; Anderson's America not discovered by Columbus, Cooke's My Lady Pokahontas, Parton's Butler in New Orleans, 1 each.

I forbear comment, as each reader can make such comments as the occasion may require. Any one curious, or interested, by equating the time in which each volume has been in the library, can easily ascertain the relative popularity of particular books, and

of classes, in this community, among the children attending school.

In addition to the use made of books, of which no record is. kept, a very important and constant use is made of many books during school hours. The members of the class in United States History consult Bancroft's History of the Colonization of the United States, the set of Encyclopædia, and other biographies of those persons prominent in American history, which are in the library. The class in English Composition, and all the pupils in preparation for rhetorical exercises, use the library constantly, also very many of the most popular books have been read by many of the pupils of my room, at their seats, at intermissions, or after lessons are learned, of which use no record has been kept. Record was kept of the use of books out of school, only.

EDITORIAL.

AT

T Haverford and Amherst colleges interesting changes in examination methods have recently been carried into effect. The long and formidable final examinations have been abandoned, and in their place have been adopted frequent brief examinations occurring at intervals during the year. It will be noted that this is not an abandonment of examinations, but a change in the manner of conducting them. Nevertheless it is a most important event in the development of collegiate methods. To both instructors and students it should work to advantage. To both it should bring relief from drudgery at a season of the year when a great access of labor is least desirable, and to both it should equally furnish a more reasonable stimulus to persistent work during the months when steady application is most to be encouraged.

In primary and secondary schools, of course, almost every day's lesson is an examination, not merely of what has been prescribed to be learned for that special occasion, but, indirectly and incidentally, of all that has been taught before in the subject. It is, in truth, the mark of a good teacher to keep a perpetual informal review on foot, and to cause his classes to feel that any past acquisitions are always liable to come up in new connections. Where the teaching in any classroom is observed by the inspecting authorities to aim successfully at such results, any formal, periodic examination becomes unnecessary, and if any such examination is imposed it will probably be done in consideration of the needs of other classrooms where the daily work does not reach so high a standard. Supervision is not yet so fully developed that the way is clearly seen to exempt individual teachers from tests which other teachers in the same system seem to need.

But in the upper, or collegiate grades, especially since university methods have begun to be introduced somewhat extensively, the erotematic procedures of the schools cannot be used so as to keep an informal review in constant operation, and periodic examination tests seem therefore in these grades to be indispensable. No pupil slips through a grammar or high school without doing at least some fair modicum of the theoretically prescribed work of the school. In universities, on the other hand, it is possible for the student to decline day after day the proffered instruction, trusting to a spurt of work under the guidance of a coach" barely in season for the grand inquisition at the end of the year. From the nature of the case, the college can do but little else

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during term-time than offer an opportunity. The school offers every day an opportunity and sees to it that the opportunity is not refused.

It would be an immense gain to the colleges if those students who have worked faithfully and assiduously during the term could, by some unmistakable sign, be so clearly distinguished from the rest that they could be exempted from the long hot-weather writing of bulky manuscript, and the instructors be released from the thankless, sweating, stupefying task of reading and marking vast masses of written matter that need never have been called into existence. But as this consummation can, as yet, be only devoutly wished, the Haverford and Amherst plan, as pointing out a way to free the examination system of its most oppressive features, should be carefully considered, and its working, as to both instructors and students, observed.

The advantages of dividing the examination-test are obvious. Procrastinating students are obliged to work more frequently. The grand crush of drudgery that now comes all at once in the weary days of June may be entirely done away with. The various instructors may arrange their examinations at different times, so that there shall be absolutely no special season set apart for cessation from regular work and devoted to cramming. If the occasional examinations are made to come at times unforeseen by the students, the lazy man is completely thwarted in his schemes for putting off his application to toil till the last moment.

In the high schools it would seem there should be no need of grand final examinations at the end of the year. The school year almost invariably ends in June, in hot weather. A wise forethought will surely not plan to put the severest mental strain at precisely the moment when all external circumstances conspire to make this strain still more severe. It would seem feasible to plan that all supervisors' examinations should be completed in May, but that pupils' accounts should not close till just before the end of the year. In Boston the year's work counts equally with examination results in determining final promotion and other honors. The teachers keep their daily records in their own ways. It could easily be required that every pupil, in order to "graduate," should attend school to the end of the year. This would secure attendance during the last days, when it is so fashionable to withdraw on various pretexts. Would primary and secondary education suffer if the month of June were allowed to glide by a little more tranquilly both for the teachers and the taught? Excitements enough attend the close of an American school year even when all removable ones are done away with. If school regulations conspire with the infinite irritants of the "graduation" season to make this season yet more feverish, is it not proper to consider how some portion of this summer frenzy can be abated?

A

LL good American citizens must regret the tone of a certain few Roman Catholic papers, in their opposition to our public school system. This opposition is as senseless and foolish as it is wicked and slanderous. The following is an extract from The Catholic Review of June 1. It would be a great mistake to suppose that the sentiment here so forcibly expressed echoes the opinion of the great body of Catholics in this country. The views of a large body of American citizens, members of this church, are diametrically opposite :

"The public school of necessity gives only one-half an education. It will suit pagans perfectly, but not Christians. If the pagans choose to support it with their own money no Christian can object, but we do most decidedly object to pay towards the support of pagan institutions. The public school system is essentially pagan, to tax Christians for its support is unjust, and, therefore, we hit it whenever it shows its hypocritical head."

THEO

HE Summer Schools have been unusually well attended this season, and by a high class of teachers. The Martha's Vineyard Summer Institute numbered over three hundred, coming from nearly every state in the union, and the general verdict was that the instruction given was of the very best. The Connecticut School at Niantic was very large and entirely successful. The National Summer School at Round Lake was largely attended and very satisfactory. Good reports are also given of other schools, but it was not the good fortune of the editor to see them.

HE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF INSTRUCTION held its Sixtieth Annual Meeting at Bethlehem, N. H. The attendance was large, the weather good, the air cool, and everything conspired to make the gathering pleasant. President Littlefield presided. with promptness, ease, and grace. The papers showed a high order of thinking. Certainly America is making rapid progress in education. Without instituting comparisons, it is safe to say, that great. interest was manifested in the papers read by Pres.-elect, E. B. Andrews, of Brown University, and Dr. William T. Harris.

THE

HE large educational gatherings the past summer were eminently successful. The National Educational Association meeting at Nashville was a decided success. The papers were good, the discussions healthful, and the attendance large. The department meet