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Story's Commentaries, Chs. xlvi-xlviii; James G. Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress (to 1881).

3. Judson S. Landon, Constitutional History and Government, Lect. vii to end; Moorfield Storey, Charles Sumner [in preparation in 1895]. 4. Simon Sterne, Constitutional History and Political Development, Ch. vi; T. K. Lothrop, William H. Seward; Albert Bushnell Hart, Salmon P. Chase. [Last two in preparation in 1895].

5. Henry Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, III, Chs. xxxiii-l (to 1869); J. W. Burgess, History since the Peace of 1815, II [in preparation in 1895].

6. J. C. Ridpath, Popular History of the United States, Chs. lxvii-lxxii (to 1887); Wm. H. Barnes, History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress [18651867].

§ 57. Topical Reading.

In Parts II and III of this work will be found a series of topics covering, in general, the whole field of American history. These may be used in connection with courses of lectures or lessons (§ 7), or in the preparation of written work. The effort is to digest and classify the more valuable part of the immense literature of the subject. As a guide to the reading these topics may be used either before or after set lectures; if used afterward they will serve to group the material about the lecturer's notes (§ 62). Elaborate systems of notes will naturally be so arranged as to bring the lecturer's material and the material from the topical readings together into one part of the notes.

This system, more than either of the two previously described (§§ 55, 56), makes the student acquainted with a variety of books, and is especially convenient in leading direct to the sources.

§ 58. The Conference System.

The principal obstacle to the establishment of a system of collateral reading, in connection with the proper use of a text-book, is to be found in the difficulty of properly testing such work. Written examinations give little aid here unless all the members of a class read on one narrow field, as in the method described in § 66. Where the supply of books is adequate, and the subject

susceptible of division into suitable topics, this is probably the best method to adopt. When these favorable conditions do not prevail, or when a college teacher feels the need of a better acquaintance with his class, the "conference system' may be employed. This method consists in giving out references to books, or parts of books, at the beginning of each month, or other convenient unit of time. Sometimes all students are required to read in the designated books on one topic, with an option as to other topics; more often, reading on several topics is required; but there is almost always a considerable choice given both as to topics and books. The amount of reading required is stated at so many hundred pages an amount which the teacher may regard as a reasonable requirement in addition to the study of the text-books, map-making exercises, and work in the class-room. The list of "General Readings" given in § 56 fits in well with this method.

After the students have had a chance to make a substantial beginning in this reading, appointments for conferences are made at only a few hours' notice. At these conferences each student is alone with the instructor or assistant for fifteen minutes, a period sufficiently long to enable a practised questioner to assess with some degree of accuracy a student's intelligence, power of application, and diligence. There is also time to help the well-meaning though plodding student, or to give an unpleasant five minutes to the lazy or negligent pupil. The instructor may set a student to a certain specified task to be performed within certain hours, and in this way, by special drill, train a well-meaning student to overcome his lack of application or slovenly habits of thinking or reading, these being the besetting sins of our American youth at the present time. The instructor should keep a careful record of these conferences, to which he can at once turn and refresh his memory as to the needs and shortcomings of successive students at later meetings. The number and frequency of these conferences can be apportioned according to the student's needs; the bright, hard-working pupil requires slight assistance, and may be left to work out his own salvation; and, on the other hand, the young person of dormant mind and no habits of work can be

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held rigidly to account. The method requires a good deal of the instructor's time, but not more than a properly conducted system of written work demands; and the personal contact with intelligent, and sometimes aggressive, young persons, is much more invigorating than the perusal of large masses of written examination papers, essays, weekly papers, special reports, etc.

§ 59. How to use Books.

Many persons who have read widely have little notion how to go to work to find a book on a given subject, or how to reach a specific point within a book when found. As has been already suggested in the paragraph on the use of libraries (§ 16), the first thing is to learn how to use catalogues. Some libraries print separate parts for the authors and subjects; others, like the Boston Athenæum and the Cleveland Public Library, have but one alphabet, in which appear both authors and topics. The approved method is to break the general subjects up into small topics, and to distribute these in their alphabetical place, with numerous cross-references.

In noting the title of a book for which search is to be made, the author's full name, if obtainable, should be set down; then a sufficient extract from the title to identify the book; and then it is usual to add the place of publication (sometimes the publisher) and the date. These particulars all add to the probability that the right book and the right edition will be found. Sometimes the necessary particulars are not stated in the catalogues examined; but are obtainable from some other printed catalogue. The title on the outside of the book, "binder's title,” . is not taken into

account in bibliographical work.

Having secured the book, the next step is to get at its contents. The titlepage is often so descriptive as to tell at a reading whether anything on the specified topic is to be found within. The preface is, or should be, a guide to the author's purpose and point of view. A good table of contents opens up the work at once; and a single index of persons and subjects, with brief intimations of the particular thing to be found at a particular page, is like punctu

ality, "the politeness of kings." If contents and index are both defective, there may be no resource but to turn the leaves, and in such a case rapid skimming is advisable.

some

In making notes upon books and writing down references it should be remembered that there is no other proper form of reference than the name of the author, with the significant part of the titlepage title of the book, volume, and page or sectiontimes chapters. Any briefer labor-saving form will return to plague the user; and general references to back up specific points are more than useless, — they are offensive. A little care taken while the book is in the hands may save time, trouble, and vexation.

If the book is not likely to come into the hands again it is well to take full notes, including any quotations that may be needed. If the book is common, or can be had at any time, it will often serve the investigator's purpose to make skeleton notes with references, to be filled out later. Whenever a quotation is made it should be carefully protected by quotation-marks; it should be literal, so far as it goes, in punctuation, spelling, capitalization, and italicizing; every addition of the note-taker should be included in brackets; and omissions should be denoted by ellipses. Less careful methods may cause a confusion of original and quoted matter, or may result in misrepresentation.

§ 60. Talks by Teachers.

In school work the lesson must be directed, enlarged, and enforced by the teacher. Here his superior knowledge and ability to group material, and his power of clear statement, may come in to supplement the text-books. If recitations are to be more than repetition, however (§ 39), the teacher's part must not be a mere "pour in" of additional facts. To the old difficulty that teachers talked too little to their pupils in history, may succeed an over amount of talk, in which the whole matter is arranged and subdivided so that the pupil has nothing to do but to open his mouth and swallow the lumps of wisdom. Talk must not take the place of quick, sharp question and answer, or of the thought-provoking

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inquiry as to the causes and effects of the events passing under review.

The teacher may often describe places or scenes to which there is allusion in the text, may bring in parallels from other fields of history, may add the illustrations and incidents which give life to the story and cause it to be remembered. He should not often take up the whole time with information or comment. The object

of the teacher is always to teach pupils to think about what they read or hear, rather than to force upon them the passive reception of historical matter. In general, lecture methods are out of place in lower grades, and admissible rarely in secondary schools. The "talk" should be occasional, pointed, and a clear addition to other available material.

§ 61. Formal Lectures.

In college work the lecture has an important place, though always in connection with reading and written work. In many historical fields the material is little organized, and good general books are few. In such cases- especially in advanced a set of carefully prepared lectures may be the only means of clearing up the subject. The reading in such cases is intended to fill out the details, and to complete the view of important phases — though even here a good general book serves to keep the connection of the parts of the subject in mind.

courses

Where there is already a body of available literature on a subject, the lecturer hesitates to repeat the outline facts which appear in common books; he likes to throw upon his hearers the responsibility of reading the narrative for themselves; the lectures then serve to bring out the principles, to show the relation between the parts of the subject, to point out causes and effects, and to elucidate motives. So far as the lectures are thrown into a connected narrative form, it will be to illustrate the course of the history, and to correlate the different books.

In the lectures, also, it is possible to use more freedom than in printed work, to bring in the little incidents which are typical of character or manners, to accentuate evidence on a disputed point.