and claim that man, by inventing language, creates a still more wonderful reality. For he produces a sort of counterpart to the general process that appears in chemism, in plant life, and in animal sensation. He gives an appropriate form to universals. Words make fast the fleeting manifestation that goes on in the lower orders of being. Words as tools of thought make possible the grasp of a deeper reality in the universe, which the inorganic cannot compass, nor the plant, nor the mere animal. For thought can grasp the process in which the individuality of the lower order of beings is immersed. Thought can perceive particular things in their causes, and it can think a unity of all causes in a final cause.

We have to return to our first statement, or the statement of the philologist, and entering our protest say, therefore, that religion is not a disease of language nor a disease of any kind. But religion is an insight into the final and deepest order of being-the truth which is under all seeming or imperfect being, whether inorganic, or plant, or animal, or human.

Neither is thought to be called a disease of language because it deals with generalities. For the general process which is revealed in the changes that inorganic matter undergoes, and which take on new forms in plant and animal life, is first seized as the deeper reality by philosophic thought become possible thru language. Thought reaches this deeper reality underlying all actualities, and it joins the voice of religion in saying that the deeper reality is a divine personal reason that reveals itself in the world. That absolute reason has a divine purpose which is the creation of personal beings-training them to individuality in the cradle of time and space.

In the light of this divine purpose, all imperfect realizations, such as the inorganic, may be seen to be more or less appearances having each some fragmentary or imperfect form of being that does not fully and. adequately explain itself, altho each step above the inorganic is a nearer approach to the absolute reality. Reversing the biologic standpoint, those lower forms of existence may be called disease. Plants, just because they do not possess feeling and sensation, may be said to be diseased. Then, too, the animal that is less deeply diseased because he possesses sensation and locomotion as well as nutrition - the animal is diseased because he does not possess language. He cannot reach religion or thought.

But man is more healthy and less diseased than any other being on earth, because he can form some adequate idea of the divine purpose of the world, and by that reach ultimate ideals thru which to guide his life. By his thought he can see what the fullness of reality means.

According to biology as it is, many, or indeed all, of the higher facts and activities of man may be regarded as diseases of vital functions. But, on the same ground, life itself may be regarded as a disease forced on the inorganic.

This use of the analogy, however, which makes life itself a disease, leads us to suspect the truth of the biologic view of religion and philosophy, and suggests to us the necessity of turning around the measuring process. We must interpret the lower from the standpoint of the higher. The lower is the incomplete and imperfect being. The higher is the more realized being, the more perfect, and it explains to us the existence of the lower by showing its purpose.

The analogy of the lower order of being does not suffice to explain the higher orders of being. The scale must be inverted before the human can be understood.

DISCUSSION

DR. G. STANLEY HALL followed Dr. Harris' paper in discussion, saying first that he failed to see in it any practical application to the work of superintendents. Again, he believed that modern psychology today almost repudiated the old phrenology of bumps. Expert students of brain localization still differ much as to the extent of even the centers for the upper and lower limbs, eye, and speech, which are best established, and some reject all further localization; but, despite Hollander's absurd book to the contrary, there is essentially nothing in common between modern brain studies and phrenology, which is essentially dead today so far as localization of function is concerned, while its conception of faculties is, if possible, more outgrown and worthless.

As to biological analogies, Dr. Hall held that one of the greatest advances toward a spiritual conception of the universe was the slow but progressive substitution of these life-forms of thought for the old mechanical forms. To bring this about was one

of the chief endeavors of Lotze, one of the greatest of modern philosophers. The study of life-forms has given man a vast number of new figures, tropes, forms of thought, terms by which we can both grasp and express the phenomena of life and mind with progressive clearness and accuracy. No one who knows biology can possibly speak of it as Dr. Harris does. For myself I will only say that I associate the divine logos, or word, more and more with the great bio-logos, or spirit of life, that has brooded over the universe and developed all the ascending orders of existence. The fact that students of the mind and soul are casting off the old mechanical conceptions of the world and the machine logic that hammered them out, substituting vital thought-forms, is an immense step upward and onward toward a true spiritual view of the universe.

DR. HARRIS.-The same old trouble that met the phrenologist comes now to the experimental psychologist. The question is: How much does the school exercise the brain? In how much does it give power for the solving of the problem of humanity? We should put the whole brain to school, as Professor Woodward would say if here. As manual training does much in that line, let us have manual training.

In the study of past life, the study of man as an animal, and of other animals in reference to man, is necessary to find what has been done in all these ages. The study of prehistoric man is good for many purposes, but not for the drawing of lessons in education. As we go back, we shall find a period of walking on all fours, a period of fish life perhaps man was a microbe some time.

The books of life are biological, of course. When the child comes to school, the teacher asks him what he has been learning in reading, arithmetic, etc., and wishes him to go on getting power. He does not care so much about his age or really how far he has advanced. If the child is nine, and understands algebra and geometry, the teacher

does not say:

"You are in the period of arithmetic." Neither would the teacher undertake to grade a person anywhere on the basis of age. In the grammar school are those who do not seem able to get hold of geometry or algebra, and yet they may be mature in body.

There is a great deal written about adolescence as extending from the age of twelve to thirty, more or less. It is evident that it is not possible to tell much from a biological classification what you should put in the course of study. In the writings I have read it is suggested that this period is the period of sentiment. Would the psychologist say that adolescence is the period of the imagination? Children from the age of one to twelve are more imaginative. Adolescence is the age of thinking. From the standpoint • of biology, one to twelve is the age of dolls, and, therefore, to be consistent, every child should be put to playing with dolls. I think the good teacher carefully avoids the imaginative with the adolescent children.

ROUND TABLE PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS

A. ROUND TABLE OF STATE AND COUNTY
SUPERINTENDENTS

FIRST TOPIC: INSTRUCTION IN THE ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE IN RURAL COMMUNITIES

L. D. HARVEY, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, MADISON, WIS. [AN ABSTRACT]

This question is one that is attracting attention in a number of states, especially of the north-central group. There is a general feeling that elementary agriculture should be made a part of the course of study in rural schools. Last winter a bill was introduced into the legislature of Wisconsin making such instruction compulsory. This bill was quietly killed. The amount that can be accomplished in this line in rural schools is very limited, for two reasons: in the first place, the majority of children are too young to comprehend the subject; in the second place, teachers lack sufficient training to accomplish practical results. This may not seem a very optimistic view, but it is based on results in countries where it has been tried; for in not one instance has it been a success. In 1872 Canada tried the plan, which proved a dismal failure. Later it was tried again, with like result because of lack of preparation of teachers. Ireland, France, Prussia, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, and Finland have had nearly the same experience. But in these countries the work done in schools higher than the elementary grades has been successful.

In the north-central states there is at present a feeling of unrest in rural communities, often a demand for elements of agriculture. The farmers themselves do not know exactly what they want, but ask for something practical. There is a feeling that the pupils of rural schools (and 90 per cent. of them complete their education here) are not fitted adequately to meet the responsibilities of life, especially farm life. A number of the strongest educational men of Wisconsin insisted that a compulsory law be enacted for securing this instruction in rural schools. But this would amount to nothing unless teachers were trained to make the work efficient.

In district schools the conditions are very different now from what they were twenty or thirty years ago. Instead of young men and women, we find children, a great majority under fourteen years of age. In eighteen schools visited recently, only ten pupils over fourteen years of age were found. The same condition prevails in other states. The first thing needed is that parents send their children to school longer. The courses in our present rural school cannot be extended, but a school may be provided giving a kind of training not found in schools now organized, a training for rural life, an opportunity for intellectual life on the farm. At first this may be considered on a money basis, but after a practical interest is aroused, higher motives may and will follow.

I would advocate a class of secondary schools to meet the needs of those completing the course in rural schools. As an illustration, in Wisconsin, county schools of agriculture and domestic economy are being founded. These have a two-years' course, which may grow into a longer course, designed to meet the needs of boys and girls from the farm. These schools undertake three lines of work: first, the elements of agriculture, including the study of soils, relations of crops to soils, and similar practical topics; second, the study of plant life on the farm, from the economical as well as the scientific standpoint, beginning with the seed and continuing to its care before marketing the product; the same course is pursued with regard to animal life; the use of farmers' tools is also taught; third, such high-school branches of practical value as may be carried along with the above. In these schools girls are taught domestic economy, practically applied to such home problems as preparation of foods, selection and adaptation of foods, with the scientific basis of the same; the ventilation, lighting, and heating of the home. Two counties have voted liberally for the erection of such schools. Similar schools are found all over Europe, adapted to the particular needs of various communities. From these country schools the plan will work down into rural schools in suitable form. This year Wisconsin will try a six-million-dollar experiment. Last year there was a loss of six or seven millions due to the smut in oats. The prevention of this would cost one cent per bushel on seed. The plan of prevention will be put in an Arbor Day Manual sent out to all the teachers, and thru them reach the farmers.

DISCUSSION

MRS. VIRGINIA C. MEREDITH, State Agricultural School, St. Anthony Park, Minn.I agree with Superintendent Harvey as to giving instruction in rural schools. Minnesota has an agricultural high school in connection with its university. Here are five hundred students, one hundred of them girls. There is a six-months' term, which is one of the foundations of its success. A nine-months' term trains the taste away from the farm. Most states have an agricultural college, but no training to make boys and girls eligible for admission. The greatest obstacle in the way of such training schools is their expensive equipment. In the Minnesota school, girls are given the same instruction as boys. Girls also learn something of sewing in connection with a knowledge of fabrics, and of cooking and of foods. The cause of families leaving the farm is often the dissatisfaction of the women, who do not sympathize with farm work because they do not understand it. The future of farming depends largely on what women put into the farm home.

Young men attended this school ten years before girls were admitted, their admission coming by request of the young men. It is a good thing to keep boys and girls together at work, especially at work for the farm.

Here is an illustration of what one of our students accomplished after leaving our school: A girl of twenty began teaching in a country school. In addition to her regular work she gave lectures on plant life; also instruction in sewing, which the boys wanted as well as the girls. As a result, the attendance in this school was the best in its history,

and the teacher's wages were raised by the board without request on the part of the teacher. If she had added cookery to her subjects, how many homes she might have affected in that community!

In physiology the child learns that the skin is an organ of excretion, and immediately forgets it. The fact would be of some practical benefit if taught in connection with home life, including bathing, changing and airing of clothing, airing of beds, use of sleep, etc. Many agricultural high schools are needed in each state, fitting the boys and girls for the life they will lead. Girls often become property owners, and hence have a right to know how to take care of the farm.

SUPERINTENDENT SCHAEFFER, of Pennsylvania.- From what area do the students come? Answer: From hundreds of miles, even beyond state limits.

SUPERINTENDENT BARRETT, of Iowa.- Are these students enrolled in the college? Answer: No, there are about forty students in the college proper.

SUPERINTENDENT CARRINGTON, of Missouri.-In Missouri the state is trying to prepare teachers in such subjects as nature work, preparatory to the work of the more advanced schools. Summer courses in the elements of agriculture are offered to teachers. In twelve weeks much is learned that has proved beneficial to ordinary rural schools, improving and modifying the work as a whole. In southern Missouri a fruit experiment station has been established. This year a summer school will offer a course in horticulSome work is also done in the normal schools, each of which has an agricultural department.

ture.

SUPERINTENDENT J. W. OLSEN, of Minnesota.- Do district officers show appreciation of these efforts by offering and paying teachers thus prepared better wages? Answer: Salaries are raised, and such teachers are in demand.

SUPERINTENDENT ROBERTS, of Peoria, Ill. I was much disappointed that the leaders both led away from the subject of agriculture in the rural schools. Superintendent Harvey pronounced the work in the district schools a failure. I think something can be done in a simple, practical way in the rural schools to awaken the interest in the community before they are ready for high school or county school. Many boys never will get to either. There should be something done to get the work down to the district school as an incentive to go on to higher work. An experiment was tried in Illinois; work was planned at the university and outlined and presented to the teachers. Seventy-five per cent. of them tried to carry out instructions. The course was very simple, including such subjects as the kind of chickens raised in the district, lists of vegetables raised in the neighborhood, the baking and boiling of potatoes, garden work, keeping accounts, etc. This work can be done in rural schools.

SECOND TOPIC: THE FINANCIAL PHASE OF THE CONSOLIDATION OF RURAL SCHOOLS

CHARLES A. VAN MATRE, COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, MUNCIE, IND. To the end that knowledge and learning be generally diffused thruout a community, the various states have provided for a general and uniform system of common schools, to be supported by a public tax. Schools have been established in each community within convenient walking distances of the homes. Owing to the uneven distribution of the population, some communities may have very large schools, in which the per capita cost is small, while the adjoining communities may have small schools, in which the per capita cost is comparatively large. A school of fifty pupils may be maintained at practically the same expense as a school of ten. The principal items of expense are tuition, fuel, supplies, repairs, and buildings. A small school must have the same provisions as a