who ought to be gathered into these "Homes" and started on the road to honor and usefulness. Take care of the children, and adults will need neither prisons nor poor-houses. Let "Children's Homes" be established in every county.

The following is the law providing for the organization of separate school districts:

AN ACT

Supplementary to an act passed March 14, 1853, entitled "An act to provide for the reorganization, supervision and maintenance of Common Schools."

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That any sub-district, or any two or more contiguous sub-districts, containing not less than two hundred and seventy-five inhabitants, may become a separate school district in the manner hereinafter provided; but the provisions of this act shall not extend to or include any city, town or incorporated village, now governed, as to schools, by any special law, or by the Akron law, "or by the law for the better regulation of the public schools in cities, towns, etc., passed February 21st, 1849," and the acts amendatory thereof and supplementary thereto.

SEC. 2. That in order to the organization of such separate school district, written or printed notices shall be posted up in at least five of the most public places within the boundaries of the said proposed separate school district, signed by at least six of the freeholders resident therein who shall be qualified electors, requesting the qualified electors resident within the said proposed separate school district to assemble on the day, and at the hour and place designated in said notices, then and there to vote for or against the adoption of the provisions of this act; which notices shall be so posted up at least ten days next prior to the day designated therein for the said meeting.

SEC. 3. The electors assembled at said time and place shall proceed to appoint a chairman, assistant chairman, and clerk, who shall be judges of said election. The electors in favor of the proposed separate school district shall write upon their ballots "School," and those opposed thereto "No School;" and a majority of the ballots so cast shall determine the question whether or not the said proposed separate school district shall be created.

SEC. 4. Should a majority of the ballots in the said election be found in favor of the separate district as aforesaid, the electors shall at once proceed to elect three members of the Board of Education, one for one year, one for two years, and one for three years, who shall hold their offices for the terms herein specified, and till their successors are elected and qualified; and annually thereafter the electors shall elect one member of the Board of Education for the term of three years.

SEC. 5. The Board of Education so elected as aforesaid shall at once proceed to the discharge of all the duties devolving upon them as said Board of Education of said separate school district; and the said Board and said separate school district shall thereafter possess all the powers now granted by law, or which may hereafter be granted, to separate school districts created by the act passed March 14, 1853, and the acts supplementary thereto, or amendatory thereof, and in like manner be held responsible for the performance of all duties required therein.

SEC. 6. Any separate school district created under the provisions of this act, shall be entitled to all the school property or funds belonging thereto; and it is hereby made the duty of all officers having custody of the same to transfer said custody to the Board of Education of said separate school district; and the offices of said officers so surrendering their trusts are hereby abolished, so far as the same may relate to the separate school distrtct created as aforesaid. SEC. 7. This act shall take effect on its passage.

PASSED APRIL 9, 1867.

Editorial Department.

Our readers will be glad to recognize in this number the well-known initials of Hon. E. D. Mansfield-one of the ablest writers in the country. He is engaged to write a series of practical articles for the MONTHLY. The second paper will appear in the July number. We are glad that so many of our contributors bear in mind the fact that nineteen-twentieths of their readers are directly interested in elementary or common-school education.

COLLEGIATE STUDIES.

Two addresses have lately been delivered on this subject, which are worthy of careful consideration. The first, in the order of time, was delivered by Dr. Jacob Bigelow, of Boston, before the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the other, by John Stuart Mill, of London, at his inauguration as Rector of the University of St. Andrews. Neither of these gentlemen is satisfied with the usual curriculum; both agree in recommending a wider range of scientific studies, and are equally emphatic in declaring that Greek and Latin receive far more than their due proportion of time and study, although both place a high estimate on the value of the classics, as a means of training and discipline, as well as furnishing solace, delight and profit through the wealth of their literatures. In both addresses it was held that students might be taught to read the dead languages in less time than is generally thought necessary; and it was also implied, though not expressly so stated, that facility in translation is, after all, the main object of their study.

Dr. Mill urged the necessity of scientific studies as a means of training and discipline, "to fit the intellect for the proper work of a human being, the ascertainment of truth." He used very severe language in condemning "the laborious idleness wasted away in the English classical schools," especially in writing Latin verse. He emphatically commended the study of language as an invaluable means for determining the value of words, and praised the writers of Greece and Rome for their exact use of the right words in the right places. At the same time he discouraged the introduction of the modern languages into the ordinary course of study. A good part of his address was devoted to religious education, in which he held that the instruction should rather be an historical development of religious truth, than the dogmatic expression of the views of the teacher.

As might have been expected, Dr. Bigelow, throughout his address, presented the utilitarian view of the question. The scientific studies are valuable because they are instinct with new life and vigor, and are the only highways to

material progress. He urged that students should be admitted to college with less preparation in the classics. He urged his belief that much time is wasted in becoming familiar with the customs and mythologies of the ancients, and censured the fictions of their poets as not consonant with modern taste and propriety. He placed little value on the classics as furnishing us with the derivation of words, urging with great force that the actual meanings of words must be gained from their accepted use in the best writings of the day. He also urged the study of the modern languages, and demanded a new basis of distributing what he calls "the educational loaf."

Both these addresses are valuable contributions to the discussion of the most serious educational problems of the time, and the opinions advanced can not fail to have weight from the ability and acknowledged position of their authors. The practical question which follows, from the view of the question presented by these gentlemen, is simply this: "What are the minima of attainments which can be accepted in the various departments of study for admission to college, and as pre-requisites to passing to purely university studies, or such as seem specially profitable to the individual student?" Doubtless some studies are imperatively required in every scheme of liberal education; but where the range of study is so vast, and time so limited, students are forced to step aside from the general highway and follow special paths. Every day the demands of "specialties" are becoming more urgent, and it seems absurd to insist that all shall follow the same path further than is absolutely necessary. If the place of divergence can be ascertained, let each student follow his bent thence as he may into philology, chemistry, geology, metaphysics, history, or belles lettres. It will not be long before Admirable Crichtons and Cyclopedia Humbolts will be impossible to be realized, because the range of science will be extended beyond the ability of any one man to master in his lifetime. In fact, the sciences have attained that growth already that it requires a man of more than average ability to keep himself informed of the latest discoveries and developments of a single one.

GUYOT'S SYSTEM OF GEOGRAPHY.

In determining the merits of any method of instruction, our first inquiry should relate to the correctness of its fundamental principles-the soundness of its philosophy. If this bears examination, if the principles of the method are found philosophical, we may then scrutinize its details-may determine how far these principles are practically embodied and carried out. We purpose to pursue this course in a brief examination of Prof. Guyot's new method of geographical teaching, as embodied in his system of wall-maps and text-books. In examining the philosophy of this method our inquiry is two-fold: 1. Does it conform to the order and mode of the mind's development? 2. Does it conform to the nature of the subject taught?

In pursuing the first inquiry we find that the method is based on the doctrine

of Pestalozzi, that "there is a certain sequence in which the faculties spontaneously develop, and a certain kind of knowledge which each requires during its development." The faculties which attain full activity earliest, are held to be the perceptive or observing faculties, the physical agents of which are the senses. In simultaneous action with these are the conceptive or retentive powers, which apprehend and retain the ideas and images received through perception, and a little later is developed that higher conceptive power by which the mind creates new images and forms notions of things beyond the range of the senses. The next group of faculties to reach full activity is the analytic, by means of which we analyze, compare and classify our knowledge. Still later is developed the reasoning powers, by which the mind rises from facts to generalizations, deduces and grasps general principles and laws, and discovers the causes and relations of phenomena.

Thus we have three successive stages in the natural process of mental evolution. In the first the perceptive and conceptive powers are most active; in the second, the power of analysis and comparison; and in the third, the power of reason. It is to be observed, however, that these three stages of mental evolution are not separated by any well-defined boundary. All the faculties of the mind act, in a greater or less degree, from early childhood, but they attain full activity successively. A child in the perceptive stage analyzes and reasons, but the action of these latter powers is feeble and brief. Every mental process, not intuitional, begins with observation. The starting point is sense-knowledge.

If the order of mental evolution is as above stated, and we think it is, it follows that Geography, as well as every other study, must be so taught as to furnish the mind at each successive stage of its development with appropriate knowledge and exercise. In the perceptive stage, the child must begin with observation, and gradually rise to the conception of the images created by the imagination and the simplest deductions and generalizations of the reason. In the analytic stage, knowledge may be presented abstractly, and the powers of the pupil be appropriately exercised in the fields of analysis and classification. In the last stage, we may rise to an investigation of the causes and relations of phenomena, and the laws and principles which underlie and control them; in short, we may reduce our knowledge to a science. So much for the tuitional principles involved in Guyot's geographical method.

We come now to consider the nature of the subject taught, with a view of determining the order of study which this nature necessitates. It is evident that the study of Geography as a science must be preceded by a preparatory course of instruction, which shall furnish the mind with those primary ideas and concepts which lie at the basis of all geographical knowledge. The first step in this course is the faithful study of nature as presented to the child in its little world of home. Back of all pictures, maps, or other representations, must be the careful study of a portion of the earth's real surface. Its hills and plains, its brooks or river, its ponds or lake, its fields and forests, its animals and people, its climate and seasons-these, as they are observed by the child, can alone present those living pictures, those geographical units, by means of which a just conception of other lands and climes can be obtained. The subject of study in this preparatory step is nature herself. She is her own map

and text-book. The duty of the learner is to observe, describe and symbolize her visible forms.

The second step in this preparatory course is to lead the child beyond the range of his senses to those regions of the globe which present what may be called great geographical types. Here the power of conception or imagination must be addressed. By means of pictures and simple descriptions, the imagination is to be aided in forming correct conceptions of the leading forms of land and water, as mountains and mountain ranges, plateaus, plains, deserts, oceans, lakes, rivers, etc., together with the great characteristic types of climate and productions. These living conceptions, it is to be observed, can only be formed by the study of these great physical types as they exist in nature, and the starting point in each instance is the primary concept formed through actual observation. General verbal descriptions and definitions will not When a distinct and vivid conception is formed, then the inward picture or image may be represented by an outward sign or symbol. Thus only is the child prepared to see in the symbol the thing symbolized-the one pre-requisite in the study of maps and globes. These two introductory steps, both of which fall in what is regarded as the perceptive stage of mental development, prepare the way for the study of geography as a science. That these two steps are based on sound philosophy will not, we think, be disputed.

answer.

The study of geography as a science involves the study of the globe as a wonderful mechanism, and a comprehension, in part at least, of its grand organization and function. In what order must this task be prosecuted? The study of the globe has, according to Guyot, three natural steps: 1. The study of it as a whole to determine its form, the arrangement of its continents and oceans, and their general character. 2. The study of each of the continents separately, to determine the form and arrangement of its great physical features, as mountain systems, plains, table- lands, and river systems. 3. The study of the several continents and oceans in their relation to each other, to discover the laws which pervade the whole, and to combine all into a well-connected organization. The first constitutes what he calls the perceptive stage; the second, the analytic; and the third, the synthetic or scientific.

The natural dependence of the several parts of the study necessitates, as he claims, the same order of treatment. The forms of contour and relief, which determine the drainage of a country, must be studied before the river systems; the climate before the distribution of plants and animals, which it controls; physical geography before ethnographical, political and statistical, which it regulates. The attempt to teach the facts of climate, the distribution of plants and animals, or the location, boundaries and characteristics of nations, before the physical conditions which govern them, is to reverse the law of natural dependence, and make geography as a science an impossibility.

This is the precise point where Guyot's system departs radically and fundamentally from the common method. It completely reverses the order in which the subject is usually presented. Political geography, which is commonly first studied, is placed at the end of the course, and the "geography of nature" is made the foundation and frame-work of all geographical knowledge. Instead of maps representing the political divisions of the earth, there are placed before