that its effects were the results of evil agency. The reports that by its means subterranean water-courses or buried minerals have been discovered are generally rejected as mere rumors, or as instances of self-deception or even fraud. I confess I have myself been quite a skeptic in regard to the matter, but I have now what I consider good reasons for recanting. Being recently in the company of a few geologists on the Yorkshire Wolds, it was stated that one of our company was able to discover hidden water or minerals by means of the magic rod. Our friend cut out of the hedgerow a fork of hawthorn shaped like a long V. Holding a prong in each hand, with the apex downward, we soon had an opportunity of seeing that 'there was something in it.' Here and there as he slowly walked along, the apex of the branch curled upward as if alive. I knew the gentleman too well to suspect that he was cheating us, but, in order to see that he was not self-deceived, I placed my hands around the muscles which must have moved had the contortions of the rod been due to the unconscious muscular contractions. I quite satisfied myself upon that point.

"I then requested him to close his eyes, and I led him over a small rivulet that was running down the hill on which we were walking, and the moment he reached it the rod commenced its remarkable movements. As soon as I touched it with my fingers it resumed its natural position. For water it moved away from him, but for metals it swung round in the opposite direction. To test this, a botanical case made of galvanized iron was brought near our necromancer, and the rod at once flew up. Our friend related many discoveries that he has made during the last twenty years. Generally he used hazel. Copper wire shows the same peculiarities, and this we were able to see at the time. When standing on a non-conductor, such as broken china, the effects were not produced. Our comrade is a student of science, and has not sought to make money by his gift, and this, of course, makes it impossible to doubt his integrity.

He has plans of wells that have been sunk in various places, as the result of his indications, and in one instance he was instrumental in discovering a disused and forgotten gas main. As he found out quite accidently that he possessed this faculty it may be that some of your readers may make a similar discovery in regard to themselves, and, as Abraham Cowley puts it, may amuse themselves by searching with fond divining rods among the dead for treasure buried.'"Scientific American.

IT IS not the work, but the worry which kills. There is no tonic for the body like regular work of the mind, though this is, unfortunately, not often appreciated or not allowed by the physicians to whom anxious mothers take their growing daughters. There is nothing so sure to steady the nerves of the fretful and excitable child as regular school work in the hands of a real teacher. Many a child who is celebrated for dangerous fits of temper at home becomes entirely transformed under the influence of such a school, till her nearest relatives would not recognize her if they should ever take the time and trouble to visit the school-room.-Anna C. Bracket, in Harper's Magazine.

THE private school may be more fashionable than the public school; it is certainly superior in nothing else. The typical pupil of the private boardingschool is the philistine child. He has plenty of money, and spends it freely on what only harms his better nature; he is shallow and sordid, but he makes great pretenses, and is supremely satisfied with his littleness. The typical pupil of the

public school is the boy who is not rich and is not very cultivated. His code of honor or of manners is not burdened by conventionalities; he values your son for his manliness and pluck, not at all for the shape of his collar or the size of his cravat. He is uncouth; but when once real refinement is brought to him, he admits its charm and is anxious to win some of its richness. Is it not better for your own son. if you be a rich man, that he avoid this lifeless, conventional boy of fashion, and find a playmate in the bright, hearty, it may be rough, boy from the middle class or from the home of poverty?-Charles Lewis Slattery, in New England Magazine.

AN educational theorist discovered some time ago that it was a waste of time to teach the alphabet or spelling to children, and that time could be saved by teaching them to read words by sight, to recognize the words themselves without regard to their component parts, the letters. This was accepted in some quarters, and the work-a-day world is beginning to get the fruits of the new idea. Dr. William C. Prime relates his experience with a "well-educated" girl brought up on this system, whom he wanted to employ as an amanuensis. Although she was intelligent and had some knowledge of literature, she could not spell a word she had not seen nor divide a word into its syllables, and was useless as an amanuensis or for ordinary clerical labor. Dr. Prime adds as comment: "It has never occurred to the theorist that writing is one of the arts of utility, and is not a merely ornamental accomplishment. To write for practical purposes one must understand language. To understand language one must understand words, and no one can understand words without being taught their syllabic construction," - Philadelphia Ledger.

99 66

Boys know as quickly when a teacher is unnerved as when a ball battery is demoralized. There is no normal science, no training school art, no psychological wisdom, that is of any avail under such circumstances. The teacher who pins his faith to his philosophy in September is very apt to come to grief. Welltrained teachers complain bitterly that they cannot get a good school at once, and propound the worm-eaten "Chestnut,' How is one to get experience if no one will let him have a chance to try?" If one lacks the nerve to hold the school in his hands, it is of no avail that he has a fine education or a professional spirit. It is not enough that one has self-possession. He must also have training and professional zeal; but he must have the power to stand before the school in perfect command of himself and his class. In short, he must not get "rattled." Keep yourself well in leadership the first month, and you will usually remain master of the situation till July.—Journal of Education.

You may read books of natural science, especially those written by the ancients-geography, botany, agriculture, exploration of the sea, of meteors, of astronomy-all the better if written without literary aim or ambition. Every book is good to read which sets the reader in a working mood. The deep book, no matter how remote the subject, helps us best.-Emerson.

READING, writing, and cyphering are the three fundamental arts which every person can learn, and which ought to be taught in our primary schools. But for forty years the schools have been neglecting these arts more and more, substituting in their place studies which properly belong to the high-school; namely, orthography, orthoepy, calligraphy, analysis, and theory of numbers. Instead of learning to read, write, and cypher, the child learns to jabber bad

metaphysics about rhetoric and numbers. What is needed in the common schools now is a reformation so complete that it might almost be deemed a revolution. The school authorities need to see that logical drill belongs only to the later period of school life; that the attempt to teach children in the primary school to understand the reason of every step is terribly injurious every way. It is grasping at a shadow and losing the substance. It is this false method of teaching which has made our modern schools so inefficient for practical ends, making premature and ineffectual logical gymnastics take the place of familiarity with the processes of arithmetic.-Thomas Hill.

It was not so much to his improved modes of teaching, or by any of the strict exercises of the school-room, as to his kindly sympathy, his personal influence, his own character, that Dr. Arnold owed his power and reputation. He labored to inculcate proper sentiments, to give high and noble aims, to infuse something of his own thoughtful, earnest spirit. It is this personal influence which is the stamp and crowning excellence of the teacher, an influence unseen, perhaps, and unobtrusive, but all-pervading; free from the slightest taint of suspicion or distrust, yet checking insubordination before the thought of it has taken form; exacting a faithful performance of duties, yet encouraging by its inspiration before despondency has attained a conscious existence; soft and gentle as a mother's hand on the brow of a sick child, yet holding the reins of authority and controlling the very motives of action like the hand of fate; an influence under which the pupil should acquire those habits of thought and feeling which shall prove his safeguard and his most efficient means of success, as well while in school as in whatever department of life he may choose to assert and maintain the worth of true humanity -Howland.

IN a form of government like ours, the only hope of its continuance and stability is with an enlightened and moral people. Hence, the importance of training the pupils of our schools to habits of virtue and integrity. I do not mean by this that teachers should have set times for delivering lectures, with wearisome platitudes on the importance of practising the cardinal virtues; but let them take advantage of the every-day experiences of the school-room and playground to illustrate the evils of wrong-doing, as well as the benefits of right action and noble conduct, thus striving to develop and strengthen in their pupils a desire to act from a high moral purpose. But, above all, let the teachers strive by pure lives and correct examples to mould the characters of their pupils in accordance with their highest ideal. In this way may we hope that the youth of our schools will be better prepared to meet the temptations of early and later life.-H. M. Harrington.

I HAVE observed that a reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure till he knows whether the writer of it be a black or a fair man, of a mild or choleric disposition, married or a bachelor, with other particulars of a like nature, that conduce very much to the right understanding of an author.—Addison.

SCOLDING is mostly a habit. There is not much meaning to it. It is often the result of nervousness and an irritable condition of both mind and body. A person is tired, or annoyed at some trivial cause, and forthwith commences finding fault with everything and everybody in reach. Scolding is a habit very easily formed. It is astonishing how soon one who indulges in it at all becomes addicted to it and confirmed in it. It is an unreasoning and unreasonable habit.

Persons who once get into the way of scolding always find something to scold about. If there is nothing else, they fall a scolding at the mere absence of anything to scold at. It is an extremely disagreeable habit. It is contagious. Once introduced into a family, it is pretty certain in a short time to affect all the members. People in the country more readily fall into the habit of scolding than people in town. Women contract the habit more frequently than men. This may be because they live more constantly in the house, in a confined and heated atmosphere, very trying to the nervous system and the health in general; and it may be, partly, that their natures are more susceptible and their sensitiveness is more easily wounded.-Anon.

As A general thing we are too chary in praising and encouraging the efforts of the youngt-too free in criticising and depreciating them. Many a child's powers in various directions are thrust back into inactivity by the cold, unappreciative reception they meet with. Children quickly adopt the sentiments of their elders, and soon learn to put the same value on their own powers that others do. The parent, the teacher, and the employer can easily teach lessons of self-depreciation which may cling through life, and forever prevent the development of powers that under more favorable auspices might have proved a blessing to the community; or, on the other hand, by cheerful encouragement and wholesome commendation, they may nourish many a tiny germ of ability and talent that may one day come to be a mightly influence, a perceptible power, in the world.— Anon.

WHO can sufficiently estimate the effect on the mind of the pupils at a time when the mind begins to grasp the reality of things-if then we have a teacher competent to go outside the text-books and put before the pupils the real acts and presence of great men and great women who have helped to make history? The text-books, good as they are, are but skeletons of topics and methods. Let the teacher's mind be so large, so luminous, so tender as to clothe these forms with the power of action. Yes, our teachers need to reinforce themselves constantly with new light, new knowledge, and new illustrations. We ought, in all our schools, to give such full and adequate compensation as would enable teachers to do this.—American Journal.

IF some modern alchemist could discover a combination by which the teacher is warranted more than a twenty-five per cent. chance of returning to the situation last occupied, his name might be placed upon the list of great benefactors. This uncertain tenure exists not only at a destructive cost to the district, but a direful disadvantage to the employed. The problem is not one wholly to be solved by the teacher, but by the community and the State. When school committees have sense enough to see that in nine out of ten cases, by putting two dollars into one pocket from the hiring of cheaper teachers, they take ten dollars out of their other pocket, we have one auspicious outlook; and when the State begins to open its eyes to the fact that legislative enactment is essential in this direction, we have another hopeful sign; and whenever the nation realizes that in all justice and mercy every teacher who has given the best energies of his life to the cause, retiring from the profession with empty purse and broken health, is a far more worthy subject for a pension than any unwounded soldier can be, a third step has been reached. As we see the niggardliness of some country districts in making appropriations for teachers' wages, we wonder at seeing the schools in as good condition as they are; and we are

not astonished to see so little disposition in the teacher to make teaching a lifework. A case came under our notice during the past year, where a patron of a certain school vigorously opposed an appropriation for teachers' wages; and, upon investigation, it was shown that his share of the tax he fought so eloquently, was just six cents. Pay teachers well while in service, and pension them when used up in the service, is a righteous demand.-W. L. Morrison, in Wisconsin Journal.

THE measurable products of school-work may be tested by examinations and entered in grade books, but the highest results of the teacher's labors cannot be so estimated. True, we may see that one child has made remarkable progress in language, another in skill of hand, others in habits of truthfulness, neatness, order, and punctuality, and make these results needful for promotion. The highest success, the developed power, the fixed habit, that is of positive value to the child, is and must remain a partially unknown quantity. And yet knowledge is indispensable. It is what the developed power is to work upon. But this is not all; besides power and knowledge there must be aspiration. To measure human beings we need several measuring rods.-School Journal.

THE MEANING OF AI.-The common, every-day expression of the English speaking race for supreme excellence is A1. Its origin is peculiar. In 1716 Edward Lloyd, of London, began to publish a weekly shipping paper known as Lloyd's List. In this, as at first published, the vessels were assigned to classes designated by the letters A, E, I, O, U, which referred to the vessels' hulls, while the letters G, M, B, meaning "good," "middling," and "bad," related to the vessels' equipment. Thus the class A G denoted a first-class ship, with a good outfit, while U B was the designation given to a ship of the lowest class with a bad outfit. In the register printed in the year 1766 it is observed that the numerals 1, 2, 3, 4, were adopted for the first time in describing the condition of the vessels' equipment, the Roman capitals A, E, I, O, U, remaining unchanged as representative of the classification of the hull. This is the earliest record extant of the familiar term A1.—Our Times.

EDWARD EVERETT HALE puts into the mouth of an old lady a most sensible piece of advice, as applicable to teachers as to mothers. When asked how she had succeeded in bringing up her children she replied, simply: "By doing the best I could every day." There is a world of wisdom in this. She did not worry and fret over what she feared might happen to her boy after he had left her care, but simply did the best she could while she had him with her. If teachers would go straight forward in their duty to the children in their charge, without so much wondering about the opinion the parents will have of the year's work, the results would be better.-Southwestern Journal.

SOME CAUSES OF FAILURE AMONG TEACHERS.- -1. False conceptions of the work of teaching. (a) Inability to embody a high ideal. (6) Two low a conception; a belief in police regime in the school-room.

2. Lack of professional training. Failure to gain this a result of lack of a true conception of education.

3. Lack of spiritual qualities which fit one to guide children.

Suppose a teacher has reached the conviction that her work is a failure. What shall she do?

1. Leave the work and seek other employment.

2. Give up her ideal, and work mechanically by force of will.