It is a sentence, declarative, complex, of which "It is" (or he studies) is the principal proposition. Studies is modified by the adverbial prop. “if he studies," an adverbial element, third class. Studies is also modified by "when he is alone," an adverbial element, third class. GEO. O. KEAN.

It is a complex, declarative sentence, of which "it is (done)" is the principal proposition. "If he studies" and "when he is alone" are the two subordinate propositions. B. F. FINKEL.

Q. 12, p. 32.—(1). A participial adjective has no governing power; a participle with the construction of an adj. has all the governing power of the verb from which it is derived.

(2). A participial adj. may be modified by an adv. element only; a participle with the construction of an adj. may be modified by an objective or an adv. element, or both.

(3). A participial adj. always precedes the noun upon which it depends; a participle with the construction of an adj. always (in natural order) follows the noun upon which it depends.

QUERIES.

J. W. SHAFER.

1. If the earth's axis were inclined 17 degrees, where would be the middle of each zone? ADELAIDE.

2.

Which are the oldest and which the youngest mountains on the western continent ?

3.

ID.

What is the name of the man who rang the old bell at the announcement of Independence?

4. What and where is Pitch Lake?

A. D. F.

E. K. A.

5. One edition of the Eclectic History of the U. S. states that "Grant was included in the plot of the conspirators that murdered Lincoln, and probably escaped death through declining the latter's invitation to join the party at the theater." Is this statement true? If so, why does it not appear in later editions of the book? L. F. J. 6. Should a school examiner propose questions not answered in any of the text-books used in the county in which he examines? Why or why not? A. D. F.

7. A wagon tongue is 41⁄2 inches square at one end and tapers to 21⁄2 inches square at the other end. How many feet board measure does it contain ? W. A. M.

8. Divide the fraction & into two parts such that the numerators taken together will equal the denominators taken together. F. J. B.

9. Find two numbers such that the difference of their squares is a cube and the difference of their cubes is a square. B. F. F.

IO. The time which an express train requires to travel 120 miles is only of that required by an accommodation train: The accommodation train loses time enough in making stops to run 20 miles: The express train loses only 1⁄2 as much time in making stops and travels 15 miles an hour faster than the accommodation train: find the rate of each train per hour. P. A. W.

II. The length and breadth of a ceiling are as 6 and 5; if each dimension were one foot longer, the area would be 304 sq. feet: what are the dimensions? Arithmetical solution. E. M. H.

12. I sold two knives for the same price: on one I gained 20 percent, on the other I lost 20 percent: I lost 2 cents by the transaction. Find the cost of each knife.

G. S. F.

13.

They are too many to be sacrificed but not strong enough to

15. Whom say ye that I am? Matt. 16: 15. Dispose of "whom."

S. F.

POINTS WORTH REMEMBERING.

The development of the intellectual powers is more important than the acquisition of knowledge.-Thring.

It is what a pupil does himself, not what is done for him, that ed-. ucates him.-Payne.

In all the work of education, the habits that are formed are more important than the knowledge gained.-Hewitt.

"What a learner discovers by mental exertion is better known than what is told him."

The child should be told as little as possible, and induced to discover as much as possible.-Spencer.

The teacher's part in the process of instruction is that of a guide, director, or superintendent of the operations by which a pupil teaches himself.-Payne.

The education of a youth depends not only on what he learns, but on how he learns it.-Payne.

Mere knowledge is not power; and mere knowledge is not education.-Thring.

The custom of writing incorrect sentences for children to correct is a vicious one.

-Parker.

EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.

The MONTHLY is mailed promptly before the first day of each month. Ina most cases, it should reach Ohio subscribers not later than the second or third of the month. Any subscriber failing to receive a number within a few days of the first of the month, should give prompt notice, that another copy may be sent.

Requests for change of address should be received before the 25th of the month, and the old as well as the new address should be given.

In response to the suggestion of Dr. Burns, of Dayton, in a recent issue of the MONTHLY, Supt. Clemens, of Ashtabula, gives us in this number a very interesting sketch of pioneer life in the north-eastern corner of the State. Who will be the next to respond?

Educational circles in England are considerably agitated over the question of providing means of superannuating aged and incapacitated teachers. The subject has received attention at the hands of the Royal Commission, and several prominent school boards have had it under consideration. The Executive of the National Union of Elementary Teachers has been called upon to prepare a practicable scheme for consideration at the Easter session of the Union, with a view to its subsequent adoption by Parliament.

The necessity for some provision of the kind seems to be conceded, but there is diversity of views as to where the burden of such provision should rest, some claiming that the whole expense should be met by the government, while others maintain that teachers themselves should at least share in the cost.

We may not be sufficiently familiar with the conditions ont of which has arisen the seeming necessity for any provision of this kind, to form a just judgment; but from the American standpoint, we would be opposed to any such system of professional mendicancy. The State should pay her teachers fair living salaries and leave them to look out for themselves as other people do.

Per an

We cannot quite agree with Dr. Hancock on the question of colored schools. We do not think it would be wise for the Legislature to take any steps backward in this matter. In the action of last winter, we foresaw, as others did, the hardship to colored teachers of which Brother Hancock speaks. They must bear this as an incident of the onward march of their race. gusta ad augusta. The day will come when a dark skin will be no bar to teaching in any position. We can imagine the horror with which some will read this statement, but they may outlive this as well as other wicked preju dices. Character and fitness for the work, and not the shade of the skin, should determine who are to teach the children of this nation.

If there are in Ross County twenty colored teachers, who, "in intelligence and success, compare not unfavorably with their white co-laborers," what save a wicked prejudice excludes them from any school to which their white colaborers are admitted? White teachers may and do teach colored children :

why may not well qualified colored teachers teach white children? What should hinder? Many a high-born white child in this country has been nursed and nourished at the breasts of a negro woman; and negro children have been, in many cases, the playmates of these same high-born white children. Men with dark skins are not denied the privilege of paying their full share of taxes in support of free schools and other governmental institutions, nor of mingling their warm African blood with the blood of their white comrades on the battle field in defense of their common country. Why draw the line just this side of the teacher's chair?

The abolition blood in the writer's veins impels him to accord to our colored fellow-citizens all the God-given rights and privileges of our common humanity.

SOME THOUGHTS ON TEACHING GEOGRAPHY.

When I first thought of writing upon the teaching of Geography, I put the subject away as too old, although I have never been in the habit of selecting subjects particularly new, because the old questions are the ones we still meet daily. I seemed to hear some one saying, "What can be said about that, which we do not know?" But the subject "would not down." I heard a good talk upon it two weeks ago; then a teacher honestly confessed in my hearing what seemed to me a heresy in regard to the teaching of Geography; and yesterday I received from a superintendent an excellent outline which he had prepared for the use of the teachers in his schools. One thing is patent to every thoughtful observer. Teachers do not always live up to all the light they have. Many practice what they would be unwilling to attempt to defend in theory. Some perpetuate errors in teaching because they have been educated under the same system under which they are now teaching, and, even when they see good suggestions in an educational paper, feel a timidity about trying what they have never seen in actual practice. There was a time when I did not believe that there were any schools in Ohio, in which the descriptive text of the geography was memorized. Now I know that in more than one school in the State, carefully written manuscript informs the superintendent when he reads it after an examination, "Mountains, as you have learned on a preceding page, &c.". Is it possible that only the memorizing of words will prevent pupils from giving such a definition as I once heard when attending an examination at a Young Ladies' Seminary: "A volcano is an elongation of fire, smoke, and melted lava". Perhaps this definition is surpassed by the one once given by a high school pupil:-"Latitude is the number of years that has elapsed since the birth of our Savior."

There can be little advancement made in the discussion of the proper method of teaching any subject until there is some agreement as to the ends at which we aim. These should be the same in graded and in ungraded schools. Of course, that throws out the motive of preparing pupils solely for the examination which is so narrowing in its nature as to cramp both teacher and pupils. Just so rapidly as that becomes the all-engrossing motive of any teacher is she preparing herself for an intellectual coffin; and, if it were not for the children she may drag in with her, I should feel tempted to let her be buried and to write over her, "Requiescat in pace."

Thinking high school teachers have long lamented the deadening effect upon

the intellect of this measuring teaching by the success in cramming for examinations. We hail with joy the stand that has been taken by some of our leading superintendents within the last year or two. It would be an interesting and valuable work if their utterances on this subject within the last two years should be collated.

I cannot forbear quoting briefly from the last report of Sup't J. J. Burus, of Dayton.

"The factitious importance of high percents, a superstition in which pupil, parent, and teacher join, and which makes it almost impossible for the superintendent so to prepare for the examination as to have its real purpose carried out, makes it a time of excitement injurious in some instances to health, and injurious in all instances to sane habits of study. (The italics are my own.)

An exclusive memory test of exclusive memory teaching, in any grades above the lowest, encourages the narrowest kind of teaching and relegates thinking to the limbo large and broad' of unused capacities."

Now, while I know that many teachers practice this word-teaching of geography, both common school and physical, I have never heard but one argument other than the preparation for examination urged in its behalf. That was that it should be taught in that way in order to strengthen the memory. We can remember much that is valuable, many facts are a portion of our intellectual resources, that cannot be given at all in the words of an author. 1 am willing to grant that it is a desirable thing to be able to commit to memory certain things in the words of the author. But what things? Definitions until the mind is so disciplined as to be able accurately to mark boundaries of thought. Choice thoughts of great minds which are so expressed as to be crystallized into gems. This determines the extent of word committing that should be demanded from our pupils. How much of geography comes under this head? Let it be granted for a moment, however, that the descriptive part of our geographies is worth this word memorizing. Do the pupils remember geography so taught? It is the universal testimony of those who instruct these pupils a little later in their course that their inability to recall that geographical knowledge of service in the study of history or in general reading is pitiable. Perhaps, if some one knew just the particular spring to touch that would start the pupil on the right page, he might run along until he would strike what is desired. But so far as the school training goes with pupils so taught, the only idea of geography is that it is something which they are to go over and over and over again, watering the way sometimes with tears, sometimes reach ing the destination of success at a final examination, sometimes falling short of it, but all the time feeling that geography is a "hard road to travel." Teachers who so slavishly work at the text do not make at all the wise use of the maps for which they are designed. Pupils have little or no idea of comparison between different continents even after a study of physical geography, which properly taught fascinates teacher and pupils alike. At one time a teacher of General History, wishing to begin the study of Greece with the geography of that country, and wishing to show the influence of a great amount of sea coast in proportion to area upon the civilization of a nation, turned to a class,—a class too, that had studied geography at least four years with a textbook, and asked "Which of the continents has the greatest amount of seacoast in proportion to its area?" to find not one able to answer. Of course, one