EVELYN. 310 EVENING SCHOOLS. lng himself with gardening till the Restoration. A trusted Royalist, he was much employed by the Government, though he was given no high office. He was one of the first and most valuable mem- bers of the Royal Society. In 1694 he removed from Saves Court to Wotton, where he died, February 27, 1706. Evelyn wrote upon a great variety of subjects — art, architecture, gardening, and commerce. These works, of which there are about thirty, have little permanent value. His Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees, was long a standard work. He owes his present celebrity to the Diary, which covers about seventy years, and these the most dramatic in the history of England. The book is of inestimable value. Scott said he had "never seen a mine so rich." The Diary was first published in 1818-19. The sixth edition, with Life by Wheatley, appeared in London (1879). EVENING GROSBEAK. See Grosbeak. EVENING PRIMROSE. See (Enothera. EVENING SCHOOLS. Schools found in England, the United States, and the leading Con- tinental countries of Europe, whose principal ob- ject is to provide either elementary or special in- struction for those who are unable to attend day schools on account of the necessity of earning a livelihood. They supply three classes of wants: ( 1 ) Primary instruction, for the illiterate, ju- venile or adult ; ( 2 ) vocational training, com- mercial or industrial; (3) the desire for some higher, liberal culture on the part of the masses generally, and especially of those who have en- joyed few or no opportunities for advanced in- struction in the ordinary schools. The evening school, from being a place for mere primary instruction, is rapidly becoming more and more either a vocational or a higher-culture school. Such schools are the mechanical institutes and workingmen's colleges in England, the Prussian Fortbildungsschulen, the various classes of courses for adults, the evening work in the apprentice schools in France, and the evening high schools and such institutions as Cooper Union in the United States. In Germany the evening schools may be said to spring from the old Sunday-schools, which in 1760 began to give, in addition to religious in- struction, some training in primary work. Late in the eighteenth century cities took up the task of supplementing the somewhat meagre education that some of the poorer children had received, Berlin being the first to found a free school for manual workers. In 1844 fhe Prussian Cultus- ministcr issued a circular calling attention to the need of such schools, but, although this was im- mediately followed by considerable activity in the matter, it soon languished. Eventually, how- ever, their number increased, and their position became more definite. They extended the time of instruction to from four to eight hours a week. occupying evenings usually. With the rapid development of industrial and commercial life, and the elaboration of the school system, they turned more and more to giving instruction in technical and commercial matters. Their curric- ulum, originally confined to German and arith- metic, came to include elementary geometry and drawing, then history, geography, and natural cience with bookkeeping, correspondence, etc. i !>. ■-!■ Fortbildungsschulen or continuation -ehools attempt to fit the course of study to the occupa- tions of, the school locality. Those in the cities are classified as industrial, while those in the country emphasize subjects of study relating to agriculture. They are often connected with schools for special trades or occupations, ami in fact such schools are classified under continuation schools frequently. Many of them do not carry on their work in the evening. In Prussia, if we include the trade and commercial schools, there are over 3000 continuation schools at present, and in the rest of Germany about four times that number. Although schools for the education of adults had existed in France as early as 1709, the no- tion of having evening schools for this purpose seems to have been introduced from England in 1820, when such an institution was established in Paris. After 1803 the movement was extended, and in 1867 there were 35,000 such classes in France. A decline in number followed, but re- cently they have again been on the increase, numbering, in 1897-98, 30,184. The classes for women are separate from those for men. The work is (1) for illiterates, or (2) a review of primary work, or (3) preparation for special vo- cations. To gain this last end these have a variety of kinds of instruction. In 1876 the Comili d'eneijiiimieiiieiit des Eludes Commcreiales began the establishment of commercial evening schools, while the Societe Polytechnique and the SocietS Philotechnique, founded in 1830 and 1848 respect- ively, are now ottering evening instruction in commercial branches, industrial and constructive arts, and mathematics. In addition there is a considerable movement in the direction of Univer- sity Extension courses, which are held in the even- ing. In general it may be said that the French evening schools do not attend quite so much to liberal and ethical training as do the German continuation schools, but emphasize more specific industrial and commercial work. In England the first evening school proper for instructing boys and girls who had to work all day for a livelihood was founded in 1806 at Bris- tol by the Benevolent Evening Schools Society. The first school established exclusively for adults was in Bala, Merionethshire, in 1811, by the Rev. T. Charles. Similar schools were founded in Bristol in 1812, and in London in 1816. In a few years they existed in thirty towns. The Government began to grant for their support cer- tain allowances out of the public fund for edu- cation. These were, however, very sparing until 1861, when a revision of the code permitted day- school teachers to teach in the evening schools. Aid to teachers was withdrawn, but capitation grants were made on the average attendance, and for successful examinations. The result was a great increase in the sums obtained for such schools as were devoted to review work, etc., and as also had paid certificated masters instead "I voluntary ones. At the same 1 hue the schools devoted f" illiterate adults were left largely to the care of private beneficence. This type of school, however, is becoming constantly less and less necessary, while the evening continuation school is developing into a more and more elab- orate institution. Until 1 six) its curriculum was confined to elementary subjects, and no aid was granted to pupils over twenty-one. At that time, however, and cs| ially by the code of 1893, the course was enlarged, the attendance of persons
