-BY

Prof. B. JEPSON, Director of Music in the Public Schools of New Haven, Conn., for twenty-five years.

A progressive series of music lessons embodying an entire course, from the first year of music study to the highest class of the high school. It embodies the best results of a long and valuable experience in schoo! work. Its aim is to teach children not only how to sing, but also to make them readers of music Its plan is to present and elaborate one idea at the time, and to give, in connection with each chapter, explanatory notes setting forth exactly what the teacher is to do.

This system is most economical because (1) It consists of four books only. (2) It requires no charts (3) It can be taught by the regular class teachers, so that the expense of a special instructor is dispensed with.

It is productive of the very best results, and wherever the system is given a fair trial, as in New York City, New Haven, Conn., Bridgeport, Conn., Hartford, Conn., New London, Conn., Troy, N. Y. all the pupils read and sing at sight independently. In the city of New Haven, where Professor Jepson teaches in the public schools, his pupils, taken from any part of the city, sing oratorios and other classical music with the ease and certainity of trained choristers.

The series was recently adopted at Toledo, Ohio, Pottsville, Pa., Phoenixville, Pa, and Passaic, N. J.. and has been in continued and successful use in a large number of the most important places in the United States.

The American Book Company also publishes LOOMIS'S PROGRESSIVE MUSIC LESSONS, a popular and successful graded course of six books.

Specimen copies will be mailed to any address on receipt of price. Correspondence in reference to examination and introduction of music books is cordially invited. Send for the Music Section of our Descriptive List. It contains full descriptions of all our Music and Song Books, and is mailed free on application.

New York
Cincinnati

Chicago

American Book Company

[Please mention the Educational Journal of Virginia.]

Entered at the Post Office at Richmond, Va., as Second Class matter.

FOR

Virginia Schools

ARE SUCH SUPERIOR AND POPULAR BOOKS AS

HOLMES' NEW READERS, VENABLE'S NEW ARITHMETICS, MAURY'S GEOGRAPHIES,

ETC., ETC.

OFFICIALLY ADOPTED BY THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION.

NEW BOOKS and new editions, embodying methods of teaching now most approved in good schools; helpful to teachers; stimulating to pupils. HOLMES' NEW READERS, among bright and attractive School Readers, are pre-eminent in their choice selection of material, careful grading, helpful subsiduary exercises and language lessons, and beauty of typography and illustrations. Get them.

VENABLE'S NEW ARITHMETICS, a two book course, avoiding untried theories, embody the best methods of teaching numbers now prevalent in good schools, and provide an abundance of carefully graded work, attractive for variety and practical value. Get them.

MAURY is the foremost contributor to the great progress of recent years in school geographies, and the editions of MAURY'S GEOGRA PHIES, with supplement of Virginia special geography, take the lead in interest of text, excellence of maps, and prompt recognition of geographical changes, new census figures, etc. Get them.

For further information concerning these and other valuable text-books,

address

UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING CO.,

66 and 68 Duane Street, NEW YORK.

April, '91-1 yr.

It is important to learn early to rely upon yourself; for little has been done in the world by those who are always looking out for some one to help them.

We must be on our guard not to confound self-reliance with selfconceit, yet the difference between the two cannot easily be defined in words.

ness.

The difference is something like that between bravery and foolhardi

The self-conceited person takes it for granted that he is superior to others. The self conceited girl thinks that she is handsomer, more graceful, or more talented, than other girls; that her work is nicer, or that her composition shows more genius. Whatever is to be done, she thinks that she can do it better than another, and that her way is always the best. The self-conceited boy looks upon himself and his exploits in the It is hard to correct this, because all that such self-conceited persons do seems to them so nearly perfect that they are liable to grow more and more conceited.

same way.

It is one advantage of going to school that girls and boys are apt to have the conceit more or less taken out of them, because they are often thrown among others who are superior to them, and because their companions have little patience with such pretence.

Self-reliance is very different from this. The self-reliant person is often very modest. He does not say about anything that is to be done, "I am so strong and wise that I can do it." He says, "I will try, and if patience and hard work will do it, it shall be done."

One way in which a person may become self-reliant, is never to seek or accept help till he has fairly tried what can be done without it.

Some scholars, if they come to a problem that seems hard, run at once to the teacher, or an older friend, or perhaps even to another scholar, who is brighter or more self-reliant than themselves, in order to be told

how to do it. Always try it yourself. Even if it is nothing more important than a conundrum, do not wish somebody to tell you the answer till you have fairly tried to conquer it.

It is a pleasant feeling that comes from having done a difficult thing one's self-a feeling that those never have who are helped out of every hard place.

It is like the feeling that one has after having climbed a steep mountain. There is a healthy pride in having conquered the difficulty of the ascent. There is also the comfortable feeling that comes when the muscles have been used without being unduly strained. There is a similar pleasant sensation when the mind has been exerted successfully, in learning, for instance, a difficult task, or solving a hard problem.

One who has overcome one difficulty is ready to meet the next with confidence that it, too, will yield to his attempt.

See how much such a person has gained. In later life, while others are hesitating what to do, or whether to do anything, he goes forward and accomplishes what he undertakes.

It is often better to do a thing by a way that is not the very best than not to do it at all.

Self-reliance is as important in thought as it is in action.

Some people find it hard to make up their minds. They run to one and another to get advice. Perhaps it is in regard to nothing more important than the color of a dress. Perhaps the bits of advice they receive conflict with one another; then such people are worse off than they were before.

No person knows better the real value of advice than he who is selfHe has measured his own powers so often that he knows where he needs help.

reliant.

When advice comes from those who have wisdom and experience, it is to be taken thankfully.

So far as people in general are concerned, it is often hard for them. to put themselves in your place sufficiently to give the advice you really need. The very fact of having to do a thing often suggests the best way of doing it. Your own thought in regard to anything you have to do is thus often better than that of the companion whose advice you seek.

It is pleasant, and sometimes helpful, to talk over our plans with a friend; but we must remember that it is we ourselves who must make the decision.

Did you ever think why it is that so many of the great men of our country are found among those who began life in hardship and poverty? Many of them grew up in what was, when they were young, the western frontier, where they had to work hard; where they had no schools, and few comforts and conveniences. They have come from these circum