this passion for realizing the nobler pictures which pass before the mind. However we may conceive religion, its essential part in the life of men cannot be denied. In these days when theological formulæ are being revised or translated into the new "language of the times," the thoughtless may fancy that religion is passing; but those who peer deeper see that the fundamental facts of religion, ideals of righteousness and fervent purpose to realize them, were never more potent than today. Religion as the passion for perfection, seeking the divine truth, and pressing ever toward loftier planes of individual and community life, is a permanent force in social evolution.

I need not dwell upon the meaning of “better living." Life is to be judged finally by the imagery, the ideals which pass in ceaseless panorama before the minds of men. In so far as these pictures present the richer, nobler aspects of conduct and aspiration, existence passes over into living. Thus again we reach the assertion that the most fundamentally practical task of every people is to produce and diffuse the imagery which will inspire its citizens to the highest aims.

Truth, purpose, and effort, then, are the necessary factors of achievement, of practical accomplishment. In a general way, this is no time for nice discriminations. Science, philosophy, and religion stand for these three things: science gathers facts and formulates laws; philosophy unifies these into a theory of life; religion transforms this theory into dynamic power. Not one of these factors can be neglected. Each is essential. The absence of science means ignorance and fanaticism; the neglect of philosophy leads to mental anarchy; the decline of religious fervor spells apathy and stagnation. We rejoice in the conquests of science because they contribute to an ever truer philosophy of living, a more and more accurate picture of what is, a loftier and more imspiring vision of what may be. Philosophy — and with this I include théology - becomes increasingly a social philosophy. All knowledge is brought to bear upon the common life of men, not only to produce more goods, but to give each one a more vivid image of himself as a member of society. Thus the old artificial individualism yields to a truer picture of social solidarity, and the person thinks himself in terms of his fellows. Religious enthusiasm, a zeal for righteousness, seizes upon this new ideal and infuses new fervor into daily duty, civic loyalty, and public service.

This in brief outline is the mighty movement by which deeper learning passes into richer living. Let us not overlook this fundamental task - - the most vital and practical which we can further. Nor should we waste time in idle disputes as to the relative value of science, philosophy, and religion. It is vain to give precedence when all are essential and interdependent. Science furnishes materials for the ideals of life and conduct which philosophy creates and which religion urges into action.

These ideals are the practical forces which bring things to pass. They are the ends which mechanism serves. They are, in Watson's phrase, "the things that are more excellent."

The grace of friendship, mind and heart,

Linked with their fellow heart and mind;

The gains of science, gifts of art,

The sense of oneness with our kind;

The thirst to know and understand,

A large and liberal discontent,

These are the goods in life's rich hand,

The things that are more excellent.

N. C. SCHAEFFER, state superintendent of public instruction, Harrisburg, Pa.— Teaching consists in getting another to learn. The word "learning" may mean the activity by which the mind acquires knowledge, or it may mean the results of that activity and thus be synonymous with the knowledge imparted at school. Using the term in the latter signification, we may say that, as applied to better living, all learning falls under three categories.

First, the learning that exerts no influence upon living. In the days when Cicero

spoke and Vergil wrote, there were men so rich that they dissolved pearls in goblets of wine to make the drink more costly. The names of these millionaires are almost forgotten. To teach their names exerts no influence upon the lives of the students. What application to life can be made of the knowledge implied in questions like the following: Name the English king who died in a carriage; the spy who was caught in the attempt to carry a message in a silver bullet to General Burgoyne; the soldier who escaped at the battle of Thermopyla. Is it the duty of the superintendent to exclude from the curriculum all knowledge that does not conduce to better living?

Secondly, there is the knowledge that is helpful in bread-winning, in money-making. Talk against bread studies as much as you please, the struggle for existence compels most pupils to seek knowledge that will be of use in making a living. When man's powers are exhausted in the struggle for existence, as during war, the very name of letters is a mockery. The demands of the body must be met if there is to be leisure for the things of the mind and the higher life.

Thirdly, there are kinds of learning or knowledge which conduce to the higher life of thought, faith, hope, love. That which makes life worth living is love of kindred and friends, of home and country, of truth and of God, and of all that is highest and best in God's universe. The kind of knowledge, for instance, that stimulates patriotism is of supreme importance in the curriculum. The lessons in civil government should beget a love of country that will make the boys and girls willing to contribute their share of tax for the support of the government and the education of the people. Education is the common religion of the American people. We all repudiate Herbert Spencer's doctrine that the taxation of one man to educate another man's children is robbery. We all firmly believe in taxation for school purposes, but we prefer to let the other fellow pay the taxes, even if it is necessary to do this thru the coffers of a corporation. Tax-dodging has become a fine art. The school should inculcate the knowledge which bears upon this and other duties of a citizen.

Learning may signify the activity by which knowledge is acquired. The test of good teaching is thinking. In the act of learning, thinking gives rise to permanent knowledge. No one has been fool enough to advocate the introduction of chess into the curriculum, altho a game of chess begets intense thought. Good teaching cannot rest satisfied with learning that culminates in mere knowledge. Knowledge of history must be applied to life's duties: its lessons must cause a pupil to love his country, make sacrifices in its behalf, and, if necessary, die in its defense. Thru the transformation of knowledge all learning should conduce to better living, not merely to the enjoyment of physical comforts, but also to the enjoyment of the things of the mind and the higher life. This is the problem that keeps the superintendents awake at night, and is of infinitely more consequence than the little details of supervision to which some would confine the discussions of the Department of Superintendence.

MRS. VIRGINIA C. Meredith, St. Anthony, Minn.— Dr. Kiehle sounded an important note when he spoke of the education of woman for the duties of the home and motherhood. The home protects the child. The home is an important institution; the women who are to direct the affairs of the home should receive special and ample preparation for their work. The knowledge woman possesses regarding the economy of the home will determine the proper expenditure of money for the needs of the home; hence the importance of a careful training for a wise direction of home affairs.

SUPERINTENDENT FREDERICK TREUDLEY, Youngstown, O.-I wish to speak of the spiritual frontage of life. All living that is possible to the individual is organized from the plains of life. Women should know more of the lives of real spiritual characters and possess their strength in order to perform the functions of mother in developing child life in the home. Fathers should remember the duties of the home and society, and by their conduct should quietly and unconsciously shape the lives that come under their influence.

INFLUENCES THAT MAke for GOOD CITIZENSHIP

HENRY P. EMERSON, SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION, BUFFALO, N. y.

Last September I observed for half an hour the proceedings in the trial of Leon F. Czolgosz, the murderer of President McKinley; I heard the prisoner say, in answer to the usual questions in regard to his age, occupation, and education, that he was born in the United States, and had attended public and parochial schools. Taken in connection with his oft-repeated assertion that he considered it his duty to kill the president, this answer naturally made a deep impression upon at least one person who had given over twenty-five years of his life to the work of training the young. Believing, as I always have, that a public school is in itself a social community where the child learns, if he learns nothing else, the necessity for subordinating his individual will to the welfare of the whole, I determined to learn more, if possible, as to the school life of the assassin. Eminent alienists declared him sane, but all that he said or tried to say bore evidence of illiteracy and neglect. His very appearance indicated weakness of mind and body. He seemed to me a type of character that some of us have become familiar with in city truant schools. Czolgosz stated that he had lived in Cleveland, Detroit, and Alpena. Replies which I received from the public-school authorities of the above-named places make it evident that no public school, and probably no parochial school, is responsible for this abnormal and defective character. He attended an evening school in Cleveland for a few weeks only. So far as I have been able to learn, this is the only schooling he ever had. But, even if no school is responsible for Czolgosz, it is a serious question whether the communities in which he lived while he was of legal school age were not responsible for his lack of training. Our compulsory-education laws are based on the theory that a community, for its own protection, as well as for the good of the child, must make it impossible for any boy or girl to grow up in ignorance, a stranger to the ennobling influences which every good school exerts.

Without regard to who was responsible for such a product as Czolgosz, the terrible tragedy of last September ought to give new importance to the question whether we are doing all we can in the direction of moral training and preparation for life; whether we are doing all we can to make the young appreciate the necessity for government as a guaranty of law and order and liberty; whether we are imparting right ideals as well as information; whether we are giving as much thought to the work of inspiration as to the work of instruction.

I admit that any attempt to secure these higher results in education is sure to meet with obstacles. In the first place, there are always timid souls who fear that the conscience is to be interfered with. A leading

newspaper of one of our large cities has recently asserted that it is dangerous and un-American to make any attempt to influence the character of the young. Such people somehow confuse religion and morality, and claim that it is the business of the state simply to teach facts. They would secularize education to such an extent that even the emotional nature is left untrained and atrophied.

One obstacle is found in the lack of co-operation on the part of the home. I am naturally an optimist, and it is hard for me to believe that people at large are less moral or live upon a lower level than thirty years ago; but it is plain that there is less moral instruction in the home; that there is more frivolity; that life is taken less seriously than a generation ago. You will remember how forcibly Herbert Spencer sets forth the inability of the average parent properly to train the child, the bungling and often cruel methods adopted to enforce discipline in the family. He evidently believes that, as a rule, the parents are more at fault than the children. Certain it is that when we consider the selfishness, dishonesty, and brutality of men as recorded in the newspapers and in police courts, and then remember that many of these people are charged with the training of families, we cannot wonder that the schools do not always succeed in turning out good men and women. The proper province of the school is to strengthen and extend the work of the home in the training of character, but, if this important matter is neglected in the home, it is all the more true that the welfare of the country is in the keeping of the schools.

Another obstacle in the way of this higher kind of education is found in a mistaken notion of school discipline. No school can exert a proper influence on the character of the young if the teacher is a mere martinet who looks upon good order, not as a means, but as an end. Moral training will never result from mere precision and perfection of system. Rigid courses of study and programs and electric bells will not alone build character. There must be at work the power and personality of a large-minded and large-hearted teacher interested in the welfare of the children. The school that runs like clock-work is not necessarily the best. To the ordinary lay mind fine buildings, showy architecture, steam heating, and expensive sanitation are the all-important things about a school system. They are important, but, after all, they amount to very little apart from the life and character of the teachers. Machinery is helpless unless the right motive power is applied. There is a tendency in all teaching to drop into mechanical methods, to become narrow and bookish, to make more of words than of the reality behind the words, to forget that the letter killeth but the spirit maketh alive; and a school or system of schools is successful in the best sense only in so far as it overcomes this tendency.

We turn to a pleasanter phase of the question when we consider the

influences that help in the making of good citizens. Every good school does a work that we can hardly overestimate in building character. Habits of neatness, order, and punctuality; respect for, and obedience to, properly constituted authority; the training in attention when attention is necessary; lessons in application, in industry, and systematic method of doing things; the mutual concessions which are essential in school lifeall these are training in character and preparation for citizenship. The simple fact that children form the habit of dressing for school, of keeping clean, of being on time, of performing certain duties at fixed times and in regular ways these things influence character.

Every recitation, if conducted in the right spirit, affords opportunity for direct or indirect building of character. Biography, history, and literature afford the best means of moral culture, but the teacher who understands how to handle children can make them feel and enjoy the moral power of a principle in arithmetic or a rule in grammar. Any study, if rightly treated, is productive of ethical influence. Wherever the teacher succeeds in inspiring a love of truth, and honest effort in search for it, there character-building is going on.

A school should give the young something elevating to think about. It should awaken an altruistic sentiment, an interest in the general welfare apart from selfish considerations. Such a school will be a power for good in the community, altho no preaching is done, and the children never suspect that the teachers are trying to influence them. The power of such a school is felt thruout the whole neighborhood, because it sets in motion a general waking-up process, interesting the parents in the work of the school, furnishing topics for conversation at home, and generally arousing an interest in higher things.

In Buffalo we have been giving elementary instruction as to our city, state, and national governments, with a view to illustrating the moral principles which underlie good citizenship. Our object is not merely to give information, but to inculcate a high standard of public duty, the obligation of civic pride, a sense of the dangers arising from official selfishness and corruption, the need of placing public interest above private gain. We try to show the necessity for good government, that is, good management of a city in order that it may be clean, healthful, and beautiful, and to emphasize the wickedness of squandering the people's money in bad work. The necessity for taxes, that is, money to carry on the government, is easily shown in a city by referring to the need of public schools, of a fire department, and of police protection-things which the children are daily familiar with. In showing that the business of government requires a vast outlay of money for buildings, salaries, etc., which is collected from the people in taxes, the teacher is expected to bring out the fact that taxes are trust funds, and hence should be spent more carefully than private funds. The last year of the grammar-school