knowledge; it is the key to any library. Elihu Burritt, the learned blacksmith, one of the world's self-educated men, went so far as to say: "One needs but to know the alphabet to know all languages."

Plutarch says: "Books have brought some men to knowledge and some to madness." The reading of good books has brought them to knowledge.

Hugh Miller, working in the English quarries, thought upon the curious formations and fossils which he found in the rock. He wanted to know more about them; he worked and read, and at his death left an enviable record as a geologist. C. C. Frost, a cobbler, was dyspeptic. His physician recommended out-door exercise. He took long walks in the woods, became interested in botany, and studied Latin, French and German, that he might read the best works on the subject. He was honored by the degree of A. M. from two New England colleges, and became a recognized authority on cryptograms.

N. E. Atwood, a fisherman's son, became interested in the fish he caught in the Atlantic. He made them a study, gained much from reading and observation, delivered a course of lectures before the Lowell Institute, and was frequently consulted by Professor Agassiz.

Henry Wilson, from the age of ten to twenty-one, went to school just twelve months. Yet during his term of bondage as a "bound boy" he read a great many books-some say a thousand—and became an influential man in the councils of the nation.

Theodore Parker, whose father could not afford to lose his work from the farm, fitted himself for Harvard, and passed his examinations; but instead of becoming a student, he remained at home, working and studying. He became one of the widest readers and deepest thinkers, "the Jupiter of the pulpit."

Robert Collyer, after he was eight years old, worked the bellows and anvil thirteen hours a day. He had a hunger for books, and read while blowing the bellows or while walking, and in the evenings by candle-light or fire-light. He says: "Give a boy a passion like this for anything, books or business, and you give him thereby a lever to move his world and a patent of nobility, if the thing he does is noble."

This passion elevated George S. Boutwell from a grocer's clerk to the governor's chair; Henry N. Hudson from a journeyman carpenter to an eminent Shakespearean scholar; "Pig-Iron Kelly" from a jeweler to a leading protectionist; Charles O'Connor from a poor boy to the leading lawyer in New York; George Wilson from a workhouse lad to a college professor; and Caleb Cushing from poverty to the Supreme Bench.

It influences life. The French historian, Michelet, was roused by reading a Virgil, and an odd volume of Racine, picked up at a stall, made the poet of Toulon. Faraday's genius was awakened by the books he read while serving as an apprentice to an English bookseller. James Gordon Bennett, Sr., was turned from the priesthood to America by reading Franklin's Autobiography. Scott's love of story-writing dates from his ownership of Percy's Reliques. Goethe claimed the Vicar of Wakefield laid the foundation of his career.

It forms character. Hazlitt has said that the intellect only is immortal; that words are the only things that last forever. The thoughts are the closest of all companions. Let them be pure. Good reading will keep them pure. It is a powerful antidote for evil. It lifts one away from the low qualities of his nature and ennobles and inspires him.

Boys and girls thus employed are furnished with the elements of healthy

character, pleasant amusement, and charming companionship. Their character is disciplined not only by the sentiment of the book, but by the fact that they are usefully employed.

Robert Collyer's books kept him from the roughs and drink; Hugh Miller's geology enticed him from drink; Thomas Hood's reading kept him from the ring, dog-pit, the tavern, and the saloon. He says: The closest associate of Pope and Addison, the mind accustomed to the noble though silent discourse of Shakespeare and Milton, will hardly seek or put up with low company and slaves. It is the best of companionship. A good book is the best of the author's life. The poorest boys can, by reading, have as their companions the noblest men of all time; better companions than the richest man can collect around his board, closer friends than his-silent friends, who will enter their thoughts and become one with them, lifting them into purer and better lives, inspiring them to become

true men.

Recently there died in Arkansas, W. M. Shelton, a hermit for many years. Disappointed in early life, he had removed to Arkansas, with his nearest neighbor thirty miles away. But he took and kept as his companions in his rude log cabin, Shakespeare, Milton, Dante, Homer, Hugo, and other eminent authors.

Judge Bleckly of Georgia, moved from society into a lone cabin on the mountain; he took as his companions, Spencer, Gibbons and Thoreau.

Carlyle, in his lonely lodgings in Edinburgh, praised "those companions, so steadfastly and unassuming, that go or come without reluctance."

Stanley always takes books into the wilds of Africa, and once, when compelled to throw away almost everything else, he kept his Shakespeare and his Bible. Reading affords one of the best means of quiet recreation: it is better than the deadly narcotic for producing peace of mind and body.

Dean Hook always had a novel at hand upon which to spend a little time, because it did his mind good.

Metternich read for an hour or half an hour before retiring, choosing discoveries, travels, and simple narratives-something apart from his business.

Plutarch tells how Brutus used to read far into the third watch, and Shakespeare depicts him as reading the evening before the fatal battle of Philippi.

Napoleon, in all his marching, had books forwarded from Paris by his agents. Garfield found in books a relaxation from military duties and congressional tasks. When half through his college course, he suffered from mental dyspepsia. Moderate novel reading was prescribed as a remedy. Its recreation cured him. Gladstone returning home after his political decapitation, is found reading Dante under a tree.

Napolean III. read Bulwer's Last of the Barons the night before his surrender to the Germans.

Dr. Holmes often reads "pillow-soothing authors" for a half hour or so before retiring, to bring in easy going, placid thoughts.

Men value its influence. Robert Collyer thinks its value cannot be overestimated.

Gibbon" would not exchange it for the glory of the Indies."
Fenelon would not accept all the crowns of the world in its place.

Macauley "would rather be a poor man in a garret, with plenty of books, than a king who did not love reading."

When one sees the power of books, he feels like repeating with Charles Lamb, "Grace before reading," not "Grace before eating."-American Teacher.

Mute Teachers.

BY WILLIAM M. THAYER.

A gentlemen stood before the statue of Dr. Franklin in City Hall Square, Boston, telling his young son by his side how the printer boy became the renowned statesman and philiposopher. When the father completed his story, his son inquired, "What was this statute erected for?" Many fathers would have treated the inquiry as too puerile to be answered. Many others would have replied, "It was erected in honor of his memory." But this wise father answered: "That statue is a teacher for you and all the boys and girls living. It tells you of a great and good man who was once a poor boy like yourself, who worked his way upward and onward until he helped to establish our republic. I think of his industry, economy, honesty, and perseverance, when I look up into his bronze face, and I am inspired thereby to strive to be a nobler and ́more useful man. And such should be its influence on you and all the boys who see it."

Did not this father open a new text-book for his son? How many Boston boys have passed and repassed, again and again, the statues of Franklin, Webster, Mann, Andrew and others, thinking only, and perhaps being told only, that they were erected in honor of the illustrious dead. As if it were chiefly for the benefit of the dead that these memorials exist! What do Franklin or Webster care for a statue, whether in bronze or granite? What difference does it make to them whether admiring friends carve them in brass or in marble? Their careers are ended; they are dead. Though dead, they still speak; their careers are not dead; and their statues are designed to keep their deeds fresh before the living. Even looking into their sightless eyes and gazing upon their cold, mute lips, becomes life and history to the beholder. They live in deed again. Set up along the busy marts, they interrupt the rushing, rapid current of business, and compel men to think of noble examples. Like interjections thrown into composition, they break up monotous things and arrest attention. Teachers, indeed-the highest use to which a good or great dead man's life can be put !

Here is a good school for our young people. If they will but look upon our statues in public places as public teachers, they will really be in school when they are out of school. It is not lost time to study biography by the way-side. Lives that are worth living are worth repeating; and a statue repeats such a life. Hence it is that sculpture becomes the hand-maid of religion and education.The American School.

A Pedagogical Exegesis.

1. A child is inquisitive. It is forever asking questions and will not rest satisfied until it has an answer. The answer often stimulates further questioning. This is evidently natural. Let us, as teachers, then, not only allow, but ourselves follow God's plan and ask much; of God himself, of our superiors, of booksthat is, let us look closely, and constantly question why the statements are made;

of things, that is, let us cultivate our sense of perception; lastly, let us ask ourselves much, for by self-examination we come to the knowledge of our own ignorance and this is wisdom, the mother of all knowledge.

2. Memory is two-fold-retentive and reproductive. We could not know even what our senses teach us if we did not retain former impressions. To be sure then that we may retain we must grasp the perception or conception fully, clearly, and exactly; and this can be done only by vivid attention. We must then link it with other impressions, if we would wish, at any future time, to recall it readily. Of what use were it to retain, if we could not reproduce the matter retained? Let us, then, not only cultivate the power of close attention, so that a lasting impression may be made, but let us also constantly recall and review, so that memory may become both tenacious and ready.

3. Much asking, much investigation, will gain knowledge for us; vivid conceptions will help us retain, and constant reproduction will equip us with ready weapons for further intellectual struggles. If, in addition to this, we undertake to teach others, we teach ourselves in the best possible way; for we will wish to be correct in our teaching and this will renew our attention, deepen our investigation, and quicken our comprehension. The responsibility will give the matter more importance and compel us to become learners in our efforts to make others learn. Let us, then, teach others what we know. If we can make it clear to them, we may be sure it is clear to us.-E. D. Shimer.

D

Notes.

THE Caspian sea lies 85 feet below the level of the Black sea, and is the greatest body of water in the world lying below the sea level. It is remarkable not only for this fact, but for the changes that have occured in its level. About the first century of our era, there is no doubt that the level of the sea stood 85 feet above its present horizon, and, of course, spread over a vastly more extensive area than at present. The Russian Geographical Society has printed a treatise, written by N. M. Philipof, on these remarkable changes of level. Since the early part of the Christian era, a general and gradual decline of the level of the sea has taken place. In the eighteenth century, however, there appear to have been a few periods when the level rose. From the beginning of the present century there has been a fall, but since 1865, judging from recent observations, the level has been higher. Lieut. Sokolof, a naval officer, while working in the Caspian region, from 1843 to 1848, collected much information. He found that in the present century the level had steadily fallen, just as in the last century it had risen, causing great apprehension among the inhabitants of an inundation and giving rise to the belief in periodical variations every thirteen years. Lerch, while in Baku, in 1734 and 1747, found submerged buildings which had stood on dry land thirty years before, and he mentions a saying of the Persians that the sea rose and fell alternately every thirty years. Mr. Philipof has made a special study of the whole question. Inquiring into the causes of these changes of level, he finds a variety of influences at work, such as wind driving the water towards certain coasts, temperature of the air causing in summer evaporation and consequent

fall in level and in winter cold producing a rise in level. Rivers, rain and earthquakes are also among the active agencies, causing fluctuations from month to month and from day to day.-Goldthwaites's Geographical Magazine.

SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHERS.*

I. Good teachers continually improve; and when they cease to grow, their usefulness soon ends.

2. Neither teacher nor pupil should have anything at school that would detract from school work.

3. Avoid much speaking and loud talking.

4. Order can better be secured by quiet and coolness on the part of the teacher than by impatience and excitement.

5. True order is that which is maintained by the least effort on the part of the teacher.

6. In discipline, be uniform and consistent; teaching by example more than precept.

7. A silent teacher makes a silent school.

8. Begin and change exercises in silence and in order. It is always better to sacrifice a few moments than good order.

9. Study the character, disposition, and peculiarities of the pupils, and adapt the course of teaching and discipline to them.

10. In giving orders, signs are generally preferable to words.

THERE are certain primary elements and means of knowledge which it is in the highest degree desirable that all human beings born into the community should acquire during childhood. If their parents or those on whom they depend, have the power of obtaining for them this instruction, and fail to do it, they commit a double breach of duty-toward the children themselves, and toward the members of the community generally, who are all liable to suffer seriously from the consequence of ignorance and want of education in their fellow-citizens. It is, therefore, an allowable exercise of the powers of a government to impose on parents the legal obligation of giving elementary instruction to children. This, however, can not fairly be done without taking measures to insure that such instruction shall be always accessible to them either gratuitously or at a triflying expense.— John Stuart Mill.

GENERAL education is a debt due from property to citizens. Government can do much for the betterment of economic, moral and social conditions, without attacking the rights of property or becoming dangerously paternal. Property has its duties as well as rights. Limiting the government strictly to the administration of civil and criminal justice is pushed to dangerous extremes when it permits parents to choose illiteracy for their children. The maximum of education gives minimum of government and maximum of liberty. De Tocqueville said: "The greatest despotism is an untaught public sentiment." The Talmud says the world is saved by the breath of school children.

The first duty of government is self-preservation, and the noblest function of statehood is to develop and use to the maximum degree the brain-power of

Selected by JOHN AKELS, Principal Second Intermediate School, Cincinnati, Ohio.