cube root, while on the other hand, geometry is fre quently grateful to such minds, because it is the science of pure logic. One of the most evident deteriora tions in modern school training is the disuse of men tal arithmetic, to which half a century ago a great deal of attention was given. This is one of the most useful and quickening studies of the old commonschool curriculum, teaching the pupil alertness, selfpossession and the power of reasoning, and yet it receives very little attention now-a-days. In place of this, teachers of grammar waste precious hours in teaching the new-fangled abstruse rules of gram matical analysis, which tend to make a precisian of the scholar, as they have made a pedant of the in structor, and to drive all vigor and idiom out of the language. Most of the skillful grammar teachers of this time write a very poor style, and very often an ungrammatical style. Grammar is best taught by association with people who speak grammar, and the most skillful analyst under the modern rules will invariably speak bad grammar if he associates with ignorant people. The effort of the new educators is to have the public schools so arranged that if a scholar shows a fondness and talent for a particular branch, he should be afforded an opportunity for gratifying that taste and developing that power, and if he exhibits stupidity in another branch he should not be condemned to pursue it. Growing out of this idea is the call for a modification of examina tions. There should be no uniform and inflexible system to which all must conform, but the course of examinations should be modified according to the ascertained tastes, talents, and consequent drill of each scholar. For example, it is absurd to require that every candidate for the Bar must have passed an examination in the higher mathematics or sci ences, or that a candidate for the degree of civil en gineer must have been found not deficient in the dead tongues or mental philosophy. But the most im portant modification suggested by the advocates of the New Education is that matters should be so ar ranged that a bright scholar shall not be restrained to the snail's pace of a stupid one, and that the dull one shall not be overpressed in the endeavor to keep up with the bright one. Great suffering and injus tice are worked by the contrary and prevalent sys tem in all schools. The superior mind is bored and depressed, the inferior one is discouraged and dazed. In life's battle they prove about equally successful, leaving out of the account those who have some measure of the genius which books and training do not furnish and cannot much enhance. But with a system of education properly adapted to the different natural powers of the pupils all kinds would be bettered; the uncommon would not be impeded, the common would be encouraged; the one would not be
tempted to aim low, the other would be inspired to aim high. There is a vast difference between the best education and the greatest education. Many of the most educated men have dismally failed in life, because their specialty has not been ascertained in the process, and many of the least educated have gained distinguished success because their teachers have had the wisdom to discover their strong points, and to direct their efforts toward educing and devel oping these. A prominent idea of the New Educa tion is the discouragement of the practice of cram ming the memory. The memory is best trained in sensibly, and not by subjecting it to great strains. When the Easy Chairman sees a child who can name the sovereigns of England in their order, or recite five hundred verses of Scripture, he feels sad, for he knows that this is not the way to make a historian or a clergyman. All feats of memory should be dis countenanced. If the child is properly educated, the memory will take care of itself, for one always remembers what he is interested in. It is not intended here to depreciate education. Education is useful and necessary, but beyond an el ementary point it is not indispensable. It cannot put much into a man, but it may draw much out of him. It cannot make genius. It does not always confer morality. The best thing it can do for any human being, after it has taught him to read, write, spell and cipher, and given him some knowledge of gram mar, geography, physiology and geometry, is to stir up in him a taste for reading; in short, to develop the capacity of self-education. Except in technics, how small a part of every man's education is acquired at schools! Those who have done the most marvelous things, and gained the greatest fame, have nearly al ways been men of imperfect or limited education, in the academical sense. How much was learned in schools by Shakespeare, Michael Angelo, Beethoven, Columbus, Luther, Cromwell, Napoleon, Washing ton, Lincoln, Marshall? When it comes to discover ing worlds, conquering kingdoms, overturning reli gions, freeing nations from bondage, or establishing new laws, education cuts a small figure. But educa tion is useful for common men, and while they should not be treated as incipient geniuses, yet they should be so trained as to aid and not hamper the genius that possibly may be in them. Nothing is more erroneous and mischievous than for a parent to bring up a child in the notion that he must follow the father's vocation. Some respect should be paid to every strongly expressed preference or keenly evinced talent in the young. In this way the son who is fit for the judicial bench may be promoted from the father's shoemaker's bench, and one who is only fit for a cobbler, may be prevented from botch ing the administration of justice.
