no dispute. Questions there may be, and are, about the best ways of realizing the end, or just how much the end shall include; but there is no question as to what the school in its main features shall stand for. But the high school occupies no such assured place."

This condition is due to the fact that the high school is attempting to prepare pupils to pass the entrance examinations to college and at the same time to serve as a final preparation for those who do not intend to pursue their work further. In its first capacity it has before it the work of the academy. So long as the preparatory work was done by the academy, the college could very properly demand in the matter of studies whatever was thought best. It could with propriety fix the standard as to both quantity and quality of work, and the courses were determined by the regulations controlling the admission of students to college. In its second capacity to serve as a final stage for those who do not go to college - the high school has another duty to perform. It must provide for this class an education "free, far-reaching, and fully adequate to the wants of the people." Organized for the purpose of allowing the masses to continue in instruction beyond the elementary stage, the primary object would seem to be to prepare boys and girls for the duties of active life.

The greatest usefulness of some high schools has been checked because they have settled down to do the college side of the work that confronts them. This has led an authority in educational affairs to express the belief that a declaration of independence should be made by the high school. The same authority declares it is neither proper nor dignified for secondary schools to continue in a condition of dependence on the college.

Although independence occupies a prominent place in the hearts of all true

Americans, wisdom suggests that a complete separation in this case is not advisable. If it is true, as is granted by most educators, that educational improvement works from the top downward, surely some connection with the college cannot but prove helpful to the high school. The kind of work required has in many instances stimulated the high schools to conform in a degree to college ideas and methods. There is impressed upon them the experience of men of larger scholarship and wider training than most principals and teachers possess. Thus the fact that these schools have attempted to do college preparatory work, benefits not only those who intend to go to college, but even those who do not or cannot attend further.

But there is constituency to which the high school is responsible, by whom it is supported and controlled, and to whose demands it must turn a listening

ear.

Whether the demands of this class are more reasonable than those of college men or less so, their rights must be respected and their desires, in part at least, satisfied. These patrons being closely allied to the business world demand that there shall be more studies bearing directly on business life than would be granted by those who look at the course from the standpoint of the college. They argue, and justly so, that in the preparation of a course of study, we must have in mind not the conventional college requirements but the needs and capacities of pupils under eighteen years of age. The objection to yielding too much to local demands is that thorough training and sound scholarship are liable to be sacrificed. These advocates usually oppose the study of any language but English, and claim that a knowledge of higher mathematics makes a salesman no more efficient. The parent who expects his son to become a machinist will favor the study

of mathematics and physics but would have nothing to do with subjects not bearing directly on the pupil's prospective work.

At this point college pressure may prove valuable by aiding to remove such contracted notions concerning education. Learning involves largely comparison and discrimination and he who knows but one subject does not know even that. Psychologically, the best way to gain a knowledge of a subject is to study it along with kindred subjects. We must not forget the side of culture. What we want is not "narrow men" but "broad men sharpened to a point." It was not the design of the Creator that man should be a mere machine. Не was not created to perform a certain amount of work in a given time and then fall to pieces. He is to be educated not because he is to be a merchant or a mechanic or college professor, but because he is a human being. In the language of W. H. Venable, “Let him first be a man."

But that the high school may give to its students the best service possible, it should maintain a close relation to higher institutions, but that connection cannot be brought about if the changes are to be made by the high school alone. President Eliot, I understand, has announced that Harvard will admit unconditionally to college any student who has completed a good four-years' high school course, no matter what the tastes and purposes of the student may have led him to elect in such course. A resolution adopted at a recent meeting of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools practically supports this plan. It is difficult to understand how the college, by such arrangement, should sacrifice any of its dignity or should not continue to receive students just as competent to do the work. For ability should be the

prime consideration in determining the fitness of a student to enter upon any given work. The tendency is toward a correct and satisfactory solution of this apparently difficult problem. With each discussion an additional ray is added so that we shall eventually stand surrounded by sufficient light to see clearly the path of duty to both high school and college.

The position of the high school in the system should make it a potent factor in determining the quality of work done in the elementary schools. Requirements for admission should be such as to incite the lower grades to earnest work and accurate scholarship within their sphere, and the development of power and correct habits of study. In this way the high school will serve to strengthen elementary work and to maintain a high standard in the lower grades. It is a fact that where high schools and colleges are wanting, work in the lower grades is not of a high order, and where high schools exist, the result is the same if this power is not exercised. As the influence of the college is thrown back upon the high schools, so the influence of the high school should be thrown back upon the elementary schools.

The place which the high school occupies in the system makes it a power whose influence should not be limited by corporation lines. In touching the rural school problem, I am aware that it has not yet been satisfactorily solved. It is, however, before the minds of both educators and people, and wholesome changes are being slowly made. In educational affairs there is a marked conservatism in this country and in nothing do our people show better judgment. It was Emerson who said, "Wisdom attempts nothing enormous and disproportionate to its powers, nothing which it cannot perform or

nearly perform." So when innovations are attempted it is a hopeful sign that the changes are not radical ones.

The enactment of the Boxwell Law a few years ago created a condition that may be productive of great good. By this measure every district school in the State is placed in touch with the high schools of their respective counties. Formerly much of the work of the district schools was marked by divided aims or no aims at all. Now if they wish to accept the advantages offered by this law, they may sustain almost the same relation to the high school as the lower grades in the city sustain. By such relations some of the best ideas of the high school, college, and business world will be thrown back upon these schools and those who do not advance beyond them will be benefited thereby and better equipped than they otherwise would be.

In summing up we would say the high school may properly serve as a preparatory school for those who intend to go to college, although that is not its chief purpose. The high school must not be a mere servant to, or dominated by, the college. It must keep in mind the needs of those for whom it is to be final, and in the attempt to serve this part of its constituency, must not separate itself from the college but remain sufficiently near to receive the advantages derived from contact with institutions for higher education. Each high school should be closely allied to the elementary school not only in its own city but in the surrounding territory. When such relations are realized, the wisdom of the founders of the high school will be understood and the people will cling with love to the organization, uphold it with enthusiasm, and see the full triumph of their highest hopes.

"Oh the East is East and the West is West;

And never the twain shall meet Till earth and sky stand presently At God's great Judgment Seat."

The oldest question is the newest question. The problem of the fortieth century B. C. is the problem of the twentieth century A. D. For milleniums the population, civilization and religions of the globe have moved westward. In the coming century, religion, education, civilization and commerce will flow back eastward. The first

movement was led by a Jewish pilgrim, Abraham, who became the first emigrant for religious motives. The last movement is being led by missionaries and teachers acting under religious impulses. Closely following the missionaries are the traders, and upon the heels of commerce civilizations are pressing.

Britain, Russia, Germany and France to-day are looking eastward instead of westward. If the United States is still facing westward, she is straining her gaze across the Pacific in order to catch a glimpse of Hawaii and the Philippines.

"But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Caste nor Clan, When Christ, or Trade start round the globe,

To meet a brother man."

The world will become a neighborhood in the twentieth century. What race, civilization and religion will become dominant among the neighbors? Three possibilities lie before us: (1) The Yellow race occupy the great middle belt of the globe between the white races of the poles and the black races of the equator. Hence the Chinese may master our mechanical arts and especially the art of war and by sheer force of numbers may pour over Europe and America as the Huns and Goths poured over the Roman Empire in the Middle Ages; (2) The rapid growth of armies and navies indicates a revival of the military spirit; hence Russia, which has just reached the military stage of civilization, whose army is pronounced by William of Germany the most formidable upon the globe, may become the Suzerain of Asia and the over-lord of Europe; (3) It is possible that Christianity, education, inventions and commerce may make rapid strides, and that the world-neighborhood may be permeated during the twentieth century with the industrial spirit under the leadership of the Anglo-Saxon races with the English speech.

This solution of the problem is strongly presented in the brilliant book of the late Mr. Pierson, entitled "National Life and Character: A Forecast." He thinks the Chinese are even superior to the English as colonizers. They have established great communities outside of the Chinese Empire in the Orient, and in these foreign communities they slowly supplant the natives. They are imitative and soon learn the art of handling machinery; hence, in addition to manual labor, they now operate great steamship lines and

large factories in the east. They are born traders and are monopolizing the retail and wholesale business in foreign ports. In Jahore they outnumber the natives two to one. In the Malay states they outnumber the Malays. They are flourishing at Hong-Kong and Singapore. In Hawaii they are supplanting the Hawaiians. They have encroached upon the labor market of Australia, and even on our Pacific coast they have threatened the supremacy, not only of the Irish toiler, but of the American merchant and banker. Their empire contains four million square miles of territory, numbers four hundred million souls, has lasted four thousand years. The Chinese have the toughness and elasticity, the easy adaptation to all climates and conditions, the docility and fearlessness which will make them under able generals magnificent soldiers. If China masters our inaterial civilization and especially the art of war before she becomes imbued with the spirit of Christianity, even the western continent may suffer from an oriental invasion.

Emigration has been the law of nations from the time when Abraham started west from Mesopotamia down to the landing of the last Jew on the wharf at New York this morning. Steam and electricity are furnishing means of transportation unknown in former ages. The population of Asia is nearly six times as dense as the population of the western continent.

With the pressure of physical want behind the teeming millions of Asia, with our rich soil and attractive climate before them, and with facilities for transportation which the travelers of former ages never enjoyed, what reason have we to suppose that the law of emigration, which has operated for forty centuries will be suspended in the twentieth century A. D.? Hence Mr. Pierson anticipates that while the white race may be the teachers and leaders of the Chinese for a time, yet, that the des

tiny of our globe will rest in the hands of the yellow races.

While Mr. Pierson thus makes a strong case, we think he neglects to estimate properly the strength of the forces which work for our higher civilization and for Christianity. The law of the survival of the fittest holds true in the human as well as in the animal and vegetable realms. Under this law we have seen the Turkish Empire lose more than half its territory and population within the last quarter of a century. Thank God for Turkey's loss of half her empire and pray for the completion of her overthrow. The world is now astonished that with eighty-five thousand Armenians massacred since 1894, the "sick man of Europe" baffles the Great Powers, and the Assassin is still upon the throne. But the temporary lease of life which Turkey has secured is due not to the suspension of this law but to its operation. Human forces like the forces of nature move along the lines of least resistance; and the lines of least resistance have been found during the last five years not in Turkey, but in Africa and in Asia. Mohammedanism is indeed corrupt, but she is not so utterly weak as the superstitions of Africa, or the empty forms of Confucianism and Buddhism among the Asiatics. Mohammedanism is a strange mingling of truth and error. At its best it was a second edition of Judaism and proved even stronger than a corrupt form of Christianity. It indeed upholds slavery and polygamy to-day. But with its doctrine of one God, Maker of heaven and earth, with its belief in a divine theocracy for the government of the nations, with its conviction of a divine providence which shapes the destiny of all and makes sure the reward of the faithful, Mohammedanism is vastly stronger than are the polytheistic and pantheistic faiths which dominate Africa and Asia, and which, along with Mohammedanism, are being subjected

The

to the pressure of modern civilization. If Japan with her Buddhism contradicts our inference, she is the exception which proves the rule; and Japan has become stronger than Turkey because she has adopted, if not Christianity, at least the results of Christianity. Great Powers have turned temporarily from Turkey to Africa and Asia because they see among their enervated hordes greater prizes within easier grasp. The most widely spread religion among the Chinese is Ancestor Worship. Facing backward and reverencing the past, the Chinese have become the least progressive people upon the globe. No railroad can be built throughout the empire without force,, because the movement of the cars interferes with the movements of the spirits. If a son wins fame and honor, his father receives the titles. If he wins victories in battles, his father is made the commander. No prophet with a present message can gain a hearing among the people, because the Chinese look for sacred messages only in classics centuries old. The hands of the dead are upon the empire paralyzing one of the strongest people of the earth.

Worse still, the trained young men of China the very class which in Europe and America lead in progress and reform are mortgaged to the side of conservatism. The aristocracy of China is an aristocracy of learning.. The rulers of the empire are drawn from the graduates of Pekin. Learning is the royal road to political preferment. the scholars of China are the inheritors of all civil, political and social honors. One might as well expect the heir to a throne to lead a revolution for a republic as to hope for the educated young men of China to destroy the privileges they are eager to enjoy. Only by a miracle will a Chinese scholar become a reformer.

A glance at the recent history of the Chinese Empire will confirm our esti