the demand of the Senate, that he should withdraw his troops from Egypt; then contrast the change in national character made in a few years by the conquest of the East. Greece, Macedonia and Syria came under Roman power, and now are sown those seeds of national decay which bore such disastrous fruit. The ancient Roman nobility is superseded by a nobility based upon wealth; the fair fields of Italy are turned into sheep walks, and the labor of Italian peasants and artisans is done by the slaves which, in immense numbers, have been brought from the conquered provinces, and the poorer Roman citizen has nothing by which he can gain money but his vote; then followed that era of bribery and corruption which preceded the overthrow of the Republic and the establishment of the Empire. Jugurtha uttered a most significant prophesy when he said, "A city for sale," and it is not surprising a few years after to see the three most powerful Romans meeting at Lucca and coolly dividing between themselves the Roman World.

From the history of our mother country we can also learn important lessons, for we find that every insurrection, every civil strife, was the direct result of the attempt of those in power to oppress the weak. The uprising of the peasants in the reigns of Richard II and Henry VI against the encroachments of the nobility were analagous to the rebellion of the colonies against the unjust taxation levied by Parliament. The resistance of Parliament to the aggressions of the Stuart Kings and the great Reform Bill of 1832 were only more advanced conditions of the same idea.

The mistakes which governments have made are the “red lights" of History, the danger signals which the older nations of the world have hoisted to warn those who come after them of the whirlpools into which they have been drawn, or the rocks on which they have been destroyed. If we would profit by these lessons, we must teach our youth to study the philosophy of events as set forth in History. There is another light in which the study of History is most valuable, and that is as an auxilliary to the study of Literature. Clio and Calliope go hand in hand. History furnishes the theme which the poet touches with a live coal from off the altar of his genius, and it glows with immortal brilliancy.

Without the Trojan War where would Homer have found the subject for his great epic? and without Homer, who would have transcribed for us the pictures of the Heroic Age?

Bannockburn, Flodden, Culloden, Waterloo, Balaclava, are they not indelibly impressed upon our minds because Burns, Scott, Camp

bell, Byron and Tennyson have immortalized them? disassociate the works of Shakespeare, Macaulay, Carlyle and a host of others from the histories which have been so largely the sources of their inspiration.

If, as has already been quoted in the editorial department of this magazine, "the sentiment of patriotism must be kept fresh and living in the hearts of the young, through quick and immediate contact with the sources of that sentiment," the study of History must be pursued, for, by contrasting the condition of our own country with that of others, our youth will learn to value their heritage of liberty, and will learn that there is a greater treasure than sordid gold; that bribery and corruption are the blackest of crimes, and will be taught such lessons of patriotism as will enable them to act wisely and well their parts in their nation's history, and transmit unimpaired to coming generations the blessings which they have inherited.-Pacific Educational Journal.

Professional Training Schools, the Need of the Hour.

The history of our normal schools is the inside history of the progress of education in the United States. Established by prolonged struggles, maintained by continual contests, they have been the central point of onward movement. Circumstances have made them, at the best, but half measures for the training of teachers. State normal schools are excellent high schools, and a little more. The general standard of admission is that of graduation from grammar schools-eight or nine years' course. Two years are spent in regular high school studies; the third year a partial course in pedagogics and methods is begun; and the fourth year, psychology, pedagogics, methods and practices form the principal work. Compare this with preparation for other professions-four years high school, four years college, and then the law, medicine, or theological school. Rarely can a pupil study psychology with any profit until the high school course is finished. Very few pupils can grasp the laws of mind until they are more than twenty years of age. Without psychology any comprehension of the science of education is impossible. Without this science, imitation of methods is the only resort. One in ten or twenty, by inherited or acquired power, may have the strength to understand principles; such graduates go on with their studies and make efficient teachers.

The need of the hour is the establishment of purely professional training schools-schools that would take rank with the best law and medical schools. The normal schools themselves suffer greatly for lack of strong, broadly-educated, professionally trained heads. A principal of a New England academy, without a spark of professional training, goes into a great western territory to take charge of a normal school and help lay the foundation of the educational system in a new State. In another profession he would be called a quack; in ours it is almost a necessity, because trained, efficient teachers capable of taking the lead in education, are exceedingly scarce. Few superintendents and principals have had any training for their work. A graduate of Harvard or Yale is just as well fitted to enter the law or heal the body, as he is to take the head of a school. In some large cities, Boston, for instance, which has one of the best training schools in the country, many women teachers know far more of the science of education than their principals.

There is a crying need of safe leaders in education. There never was in our history comparatively a tithe of the earnestness, enthusiasm, and general awakening in the cause of education as there is at present. This vast energy is spending, and will continue to spend itself in the superficial study of methods, devices and general details of management and organization, unless there are means offered for a far deeper and broader study of the laws of human growth and the principles of teaching which spring from them.

The present normal schools, struggle as they may and do, cannot well grow into the needed professional schools. The rural districts look upon them as convenient, cheap and good high schools; and rural legislators will continue to hold them to that line of work; the normal element must necessarily be secondary.

Let New York or Pennsylvania, for instance, found one professional training school, find a head first-a very difficult task-give the principal two or three excellent assistants, take a whole village or small city for a practice department, admit upon a rigorous examination only graduates of colleges, normal schools and high schools, of full four years' courses; admit, too, teachers who have made themselves efficient by three years of successful teaching; make the school the central point and place of meeting of the county superintendents; allow them to spend all the time they can command in study at the school. The course is indicated by the term professional training school. History of education, psychology, pedagogics, and methods should make up the curriculum.

bell, Byron and Tennyson have immortalized them? We cannot disassociate the works of Shakespeare, Macaulay, Carlyle and a host of others from the histories which have been so largely the sources of their inspiration.

If, as has already been quoted in the editorial department of this magazine, "the sentiment of patriotism must be kept fresh and living in the hearts of the young, through quick and immediate contact with the sources of that sentiment," the study of History must be pursued, for, by contrasting the condition of our own country with that of others, our youth will learn to value their heritage of liberty, and will learn that there is a greater treasure than sordid gold; that bribery and corruption are the blackest of crimes, and will be taught such lessons of patriotism as will enable them to act wisely and well their parts in their nation's history, and transmit unimpaired to coming generations the blessings which they have inherited.-Pacific Educational Journal.

Professional Training Schools, the Need of the Hour.

State

The

The history of our normal schools is the inside history of the progress of education in the United States. Established by prolonged struggles, maintained by continual contests, they have been the central point of onward movement. Circumstances have made them, at the best, but half measures for the training of teachers. normal schools are excellent high schools, and a little more. general standard of admission is that of graduation from grammar schools-eight or nine years' course. Two years are spent in regular high school studies; the third year a partial course in pedagogics and methods is begun; and the fourth year, psychology, pedagogics, methods and practices form the principal work. Compare this with preparation for other professions-four years high school, four years college, and then the law, medicine, or theological school. Rarely can a pupil study psychology with any profit until the high school course is finished. Very few pupils can grasp the laws of mind until they are more than twenty years of age. Without psychology any comprehension of the science of education is impossible. Without this science, imitation of methods is the only resort. One in ten or twenty, by inherited or acquired power, may have the strength to understand principles; such graduates go on with their studies and make efficient teachers.

The need of the hour is the establishment of purely professional training schools-schools that would take rank with the best law and medical schools. The normal schools themselves suffer greatly for lack of strong, broadly-educated, professionally-trained heads. A principal of a New England academy, without a spark of professional training, goes into a great western territory to take charge of a normal school and help lay the foundation of the educational system in a new State. In another profession he would be called a quack; in ours it is almost a necessity, because trained, efficient teachers capable of taking the lead in education, are exceedingly scarce. Few superintendents and principals have had any training for their work. A graduate of Harvard or Yale is just as well fitted to enter the law or heal the body, as he is to take the head of a school. In some large cities, Boston, for instance, which has one of the best training schools in the country, many women teachers know far more of the science of education than their principals.

There is a crying need of safe leaders in education. There never was in our history comparatively a tithe of the earnestness, enthusiasm, and general awakening in the cause of education as there is at present. This vast energy is spending, and will continue to spend. itself in the superficial study of methods, devices and general details of management and organization, unless there are means offered for a far deeper and broader study of the laws of human growth and the principles of teaching which spring from them.

The present normal schools, struggle as they may and do, cannot well grow into the needed professional schools. The rural districts look upon them as convenient, cheap and good high schools; and rural legislators will continue to hold them to that line of work; the normal element must necessarily be secondary.

Let New York or Pennsylvania, for instance, found one professional training school, find a head first-a very difficult task-give the principal two or three excellent assistants, take a whole village or small city for a practice department, admit upon a rigorous examination only graduates of colleges, normal schools and high schools, of full four years' courses; admit, too, teachers who have made themselves efficient by three years of successful teaching; make the school the central point and place of meeting of the county superintendents; allow them to spend all the time they can command in study at the school. The course is indicated by the term professional training school. History of education, psychology, pedagogics, and methods should make up the curriculum.