vest.

Then in the spiritual realm it asserts the very same law: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make his paths straight." "Circumcise your heart." "Repent." "Believe," these are preparative acts. But what does it say of the growth? "Be still and know that I am God." "The wind bloweth where it listeth, ye hear the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Both of these great witnesses harmonize in evidence as to the truth of this fact. Again, it must be noted, that since growth is spontaneous after the receptivity and environment are provided for, that you cannot force a growth of anything. The limit of your effort is reached whenever you have plowed the ground and sowed the seed. It needs no argument to enforce this doctrine. No physician has any prescription for growth.

Now the other witness says: "Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his height ?" "Behold the lilies of the field (not look alone at the lilies because they are beautiful but to see how they grow, and learn a lesson), they toil not-that is, they do not try to grow-yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them.”

We could multiply proof upon proof from the evidence of both of these witnesses, that this is the true theory of a natural evolution. It is just as absurd to try to make a thing grow as it is to attempt to make the tides come in or go out faster, or the sun to rise or set sooner or later, or the winds to blow at a greater or less speed. Your whole duty both to God and man is complete when you have prepared the soil and sowed the good seed. The balance of a growth or evolution you dare not attempt to control, for it is governed by an inimitable law of God, over which you have no control. True, you may prevent evolution by neglect, refusing to plow the ground and to sow the seed, in which case degeneration will take the place of evolution, as we have heretofore shown. Again, you may contravene this law in a positive way. Even after the ground is prepared, by sinfully sowing the seeds of degeneration. "The wages of sin is death," which is degeneration.

their pu

growth is True you

We have met teachers who condemn themselves because pils do not seem to grow. They never stop to think that always a mysterious something that they can never see. can tell that there has been growth of body, mind and spirit, but this is to be determined by the fruits. This is especially so of a spiritual growth. Christ said, "That which is of the flesh is flesh and that which is of the spirit is spirit ;" but he also said that "if we sow to the flesh we shall reap corruption, but if we sow to the spirit we shall reap life everlasting." Also, "By their fruits shall ye know them."

Now, how are we to tell whether degeneration or evolution is the product of our teaching until we see the fruits? The only hope we can possibly have as to the harvest is our confidence in the condition of the ground when the seed was planted and in the quality of the seed which we sowed.

Now, as environment is such a very important factor in our growth, let us consider that a little. By environment we mean the various elements that surround a body. The teacher, whether conscious of it or not, is a very important element in this environment. The pupil, whether conscious of it or not, is hourly receiving and assimilating every principle that is presented to him by that environment. Suppose the teacher is taking a contagious disease; the pupil receives and assimilates the germs of the disease, because it forms a part of his environment. Now the teacher and pupil are both unconscious of this process, yet the effect is certain. Just as certain as though both had deliberately planned it. This law holds true as to any other quality of the environment presented to the pupil by the teacher. Contact means contagion. Like begets like. "As in water face answers to face, so the heart of man to man." If a teacher supposes that he can carry a vicious and depraved nature into the school room and not innoculate his pupils by it, he certainly deceives himself. A vacuum is a thing unknown to head or heart. Both must be filled by something. Both are always, during our conscious moments, in a receptive condition to receive something. That something is always determined by our environment. If the environment is good, then good is received, if evil, then evil is received. Now if it is once received it is almost sure to be assimilated. The best of us cannot wrestle with a pot without getting more or less soiled. What must we expect of the innocent child who is unconscious of such evil in his environment, and has no training in the mode of refusing to receive and assimilate evil when it is presented by his environment. In such case you have sown the seed of degeneration; you can not, by any possibility, escape the responsibility. God and nature can neither be cheated nor mocked. If you sow to the wind you can only expect the whirlwind. Never forget that you, as well as your pupils, are human. Both are amenable to the immutable laws of nature and God. There are only two possibilities open to you as well as to them. No impure fountain ever yet sent forth pure water. If you are degenerating, so surely you will infect your pupils with it. If you are growing, they will grow by contact with you. This is an inevitable and imperious law of our being. You must first purify self if you

would elevate your fellow man. We have heretofore shown that you can not avoid teaching something; even the falling of a leaf, if it attracts attention, teaches something; by how much more will you teach, think you, when you are in continual contact with one who looks up to you as a model of perfection. What an awful crime it is for any one to beguile and mislead an unsuspecting child, sowing the seeds for its destruction while it is putting its faith in you to lead it into the pathway of a higher life.-W. Va. School Journal.

PEDAGOGICAL CHAIRS IN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES.

BY B. A. HINSDALE.

[Paper presented to the Normal Department of the National Educational Association, San Francisco, July 20, 1888.]

The subject of this paper is not pedagogical instruction or even Pedagogical Chairs in general, but such chairs in Colleges and Universities. The existence of such Chairs in Germany, in Scotland, and in the United States creates the presumption that they are not due to ignorance, but to intelligent, conscious choice. They may be vindicated both on theoretical and practical grounds. Of the first, these may be urged:

1. So long as the University investigates and teaches the ideas, habits, customs, and religions of the lowest savages, it is hard to see why it should not do the same for the educational ideas, theories, systems, and methods of the most civilized nations.

2. One function of the University is research, another is teaching; it makes the first the subject of investigation and teaching; why not the second?

3. Education is a science belonging to the moral group; and so long as the University teaches the other sciences of the group, it cannot pass this one by without discrediting its own work and virtually denying its own name.

4. Education has a history that should be made a part of general culture; much more should it be made a part of the professional training of teachers.

The practical arguments may be thus grouped :

1. The scientific investigation of teaching, even if no immediate attention were paid to the art, could not fail to advance the art.

2. University professors hold their chairs by reason of their ability as teachers, as much as by reason of their learning; and nowhere else may the science, history, and art of teaching be taught so properly as where the art flourishes in its highest forms.

3. The conditions of pedagogical study are the best that exist anywhere; a varied curriculum; teaching of a high order in all branches of liberal, and many branches of technical study; the library; and a learned and cultivated society.

4. A third function of the University is to furnish society with teachers; and this it cannot do unless it provides professional instruction. 5. The Pedagogical Chair and the teaching profession need the strength and recognition that the University will give them. Teaching needs this recognition, and is entitled to it as much as divinity, law, and medicine.

6. Teachers are but few of the whole number of persons interested in the subject. All persons need instruction in the education of children.

The argument is reinforced by the study of the history of the Mediæval Universities in which the Bachelor, as well as the Master, was required to teach. This is now impracticable; but the University can furnish professional training.

The nearer the College comes to the University standard of work, the more these arguments will apply to it, as well as to the University.

WHAT CONSTITUTES SUCCESSFUL TEACHING.

I. A teacher should have a good mental outfit. He should be well informed, and to his stock of information there should be daily additions from varied sources. He should especially read books and papers devoted to educational work. Better read too much than too little.

2. Discipline in a school must be maintained at any cost. The teacher must be master in the schoolroom. Theoretically, one may be opposed to corporal punishment; practically, he need not express a positive opinion. But the teacher must control the school.

3. The teacher must be persistent in exacting thorough work. A careless oversight on the part of the teacher does not tend to exact

ness on the part of the pupil. Vigilance should not be relaxed nor what are termed small things be overlooked.

All mathematical problems, however simple, solved by the pupils, should be explained by them, that the teacher may be assured the problems are thoroughly understood.

5. The teacher should avoid telling the pupils too much when questioning them. They should be compelled to depend upon their own ingenuity and draw upon their own resources as much as possible. It is thus they receive benefit, and grow in mental power.

6. In giving directions to his pupils with regard to work to be done, the teacher should not find it necessary to repeat. The pupils should be disciplined in the matter of giving quick and intelligent attention to every remark made to them by the teacher. So valuable time is saved and a good habit cultivated.

7. Very long lessons should not be assigned. Better too short than too long. When very long, the preparation cannot be thorough. Parents are largely to blame for the fault of long lessons. Too many of them have the idea that getting through a book is equivalent to mastering its contents. But the teacher should go slow enough to do thorough work.

8. In questioning pupils, the teacher should be patient. Give them time to comprehend the question in every instance. Put it in a different form only when assured that the first cannot be understood. The art of questioning is a somewhat difficult one to acquire, but is of very great importance. A question may suggest the answer, or it may be so obscure as to confuse the pupil. The former error is most common and should be especially guarded against. 9. A teacher should not talk too much in the schoolroom. He should not talk much about discipline, and the children should do most of the talking about the lessons. He should also be very judicious in according praise or blame. Compliments should not become cheap, nor should censure be too harsh.-Educational Review.

I.

STATE BOARD QUESTIONS.

(Used in the examination of teachers at the last meeting of the Board.)

ARITHMETIC.

A field in the form of a trapezoid, 64 rods long, has its ends 564 rods and 371⁄2 rods, respectively. It was sold at $62.50 an acre. The buyer, having no money, borrowed the necessary sum