the varying standards of high schools large and small, those teachers who protest most against the "deadening effect" of the required books are usually just those who fear that hard, word-by-word study of a masterpiece will kill appreciation; consequently they are frequently not prepared to say just how intelligently their pupils read. Any teacher who has fairly tested the amazing capacity of the average mind of high school age for the misapprehension of the meaning of words, will accept the painful necessity that at times reduces Milton to the level of a text-book.

That intensive study of the required books kills appreciation, however, is mere assumption. Not every high school graduate appreciates good literature; and of course one who does not, naturally blames the "dry" and "uninteresting" study of the prescribed books; but how test what his appreciation would have been if led in the pleasant primrose paths of easy reading, or how prove that the teaching which he calls bad, granted it was so, was primarily determined by the books read, and not by the capacity and personality of the teacher?

I think most people who do appreciate literature will own to a training in exact, hard study of texts at some time in their career. Literature, we are told, should be inspiring. It should be, for knowledge is inspiration. But the acquirement of knowledge must precede the inspiration.

I have made it a point to ask the question of well-known and successful English teachers from various parts of the country, and in nearly every case I have been answered that the entrance requirements in English do not hamper the best ideals of the work. Nor do I see any reason why any fertile-minded head of an English department, who has ideals of what his work should accomplish, cannot shape a course that serves those ideals, and find plenty of place in it for the specific college requirements. And if the ideal results at which he aims are solid and sound, those students who approximately attain them will have no trouble in passing the examinations.

Let us admit that the colleges have some right to say what shall be required of those who enter their gates, and let us be honest enough not to lay all our failures at their doors, and to see that what they now ask in preparation in English is, after all, practically what the non-collegiate walks of life also require.

Foreign Notes

FRANCE

The August number of the Revue Internationale de L'Enseignement has an interesting review of higher education in the Philippines as developed through three centuries. Among the sources from which the account has been drawn particular reference is made to the articles in the report of the United States Commissioner of Education, prepared by Mr. R. L. Packard. The article covers the period of the American occupancy of the island which it says, "has not only given a new impulse and direction to the ancient institutions founded by the Spaniards, but has also organized in the Archipelago a school system truly worthy of a modern nation."

The efforts of the present government have not been limited to the development of primary and secondary schools. A bill for the establishment of a university was adopted by the legislature in 1908, a Board of Regents appointed to carry the measure into effect, and an appropriation of 100,000 pesos ($50,000) placed at its disposition for this object. The complete development of the university is delayed in order that the standard of secondary education may be brought up to that recognized in Western nations. Meanwhile the Philippine Medical School has been established, the classes having been opened for instruction in June, 1907. Although the University of Saint Thomas had its faculty of medicine it was wanting in the equipment required by the present state of the profession, and the number of accredited physicians was far too small for the needs of the population. In 1905 it was estimated that there was only one doctor in the island for every twenty-one thousand inhabitants.

In view of the contemplated university the author of the review before us says:—

Higher education in the Philippines is represented by two establishments, differing fundamentally in their origin, history, methods and language of instruction: The university, Saint Thomas, under private management, Catholic and Spanish; the university of the Philippines, of which only the medical section has yet been organized,—a state university, secular and American. The rivalry, or at least the concurrence, of these two institutions cannot fail to be interesting and instructive, representing as they do, under the same social conditions, two races differing widely in their ideas and tendencies.

The International Dentists' Federation was held in Paris in March of the present year, and the occasion was made memorable by the inauguration of a monument to the American dentist, Horace Wells, whose claims to be recognized as the discoverer of anæsthesia thus received important emphasis.

The society of higher education in France has recently conducted an exhaustive inquiry into the conditions of higher commercial education in the principal countries of Europe. The results of the investigation have formed the subject of a series of reports, the last of which appears in the July number of the Revue Internationale, which is the organ of the society. This report, prepared by Professor Feilbogen of the University of Vienna, deals with the higher commercial schools of Germany and Austria; it gave rise to an animated discussion in the society, which is also reproduced in the number of the review. referred to.

Although France itself can boast of several commercial schools of the higher order it is acknowledged that the country is inferior to Germany in respect to the equipment of its commercial representatives in foreign countries. On account of this inferiority measures have been taken by the Minister of Foreign Affairs to provide for the recruitment of the diplomatic and counsular service, by a body of men thoroughly trained in commercial science.

The University of Paris is taking an active part in the movement for promoting closer relations with the universities of Latin-American countries. For this purpose the great special schools of France, which have their seat at Paris, have formed a society to which the University of Paris has made a contribution of 500 francs.

LATIN-AMERICAN COUNTRIES

The University of La Plata, Argentina, marked the recent organization of a new section of philosophy, history and letters by inviting M. Rafael Altamira, the distinguished professor in the University of Oviedo, to deliver a course of lectures upon methods in historic study and research. The nineteen lectures of the series were delivered before a mixed audience of students and hearers. The first seven lectures were devoted to the discussion of methods in general as applied to history; these were followed by seven lectures discussing the application of the principles and methods laid down, to the particular history of Argentina. The series closed by a consideration of comparative history, and of history in its relation to philosophy, sociology and ethics.

TECHNICAL EDUCATION

Technical education in one or the other of its three recognized grades-primary, secondary and higher-is a subject of universal interest. Official reports, national and municipal, educational journals and daily papers are full of the topic, and bills for the extension and larger endowment, or the reorganization of this department, are pending in the legislatures of several nations.

Russia, which is backward in the matter of popular education, has a well-organized system of technical training, and the schools of this class are rapidly increasing. The government contributes freely to the work, and the liberality of private citizens in this respect has become proverbial. Among recent contributions for this purpose, exceeding one million dollars, may be noted, the donation by Th. V. Tchigeoff, railway contractor, amounting to two and one-half million dollars, for five industrial schools; and the donation by N. P. Trapeznikoff, gold-mine proprietor, of nearly one and a half million. Several smaller donations ranging from fifty thousand to five hundred thousand are also reported.

The municipal technical school of Manchester, England, received for the last scholastic year above $50,000 from the Board of Education, the largest grant paid to any school of this type. The grants from the Lancashire and Cheshire County Councils amounted to $8,000, and the fees of students to $45,000. The total expenditure was $210,000, the rate payers of Manchester supplying the difference between this sum and the total of the receipts specified.

The alumni of the higher commercial schools of Madrid at a recent congress agreed unanimously that the schools which they represented ought to complete the preparation required for business life, and that only such students as wished to enter upon diplomatic or administrative careers should be expected to pursue additional courses of instruction in institutions of a different class. It was agreed also that efforts should be made to secure for graduates of the commercial schools additional scholarships enabling the holders to visit foreign countries. in order to become familiar with their commercial methods and demands.

A. T. S.

1

Book Notices

The Durable Satisfactions of Life. By Charles W. Eliot. Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. Price, $1 net.

This book evidently sets forth those sources of satisfaction which the author has experienced in his own long and fortunate life. They are good health, domestic happiness and the joy of work. These are unquestionably satisfactions to any one who is in like manner fortunate enough to possess them. The book is disappointing, however, to one who has been led by its title, and perhaps by preconceptions based upon the eminence of its author, to expect a revelation, or, at least, a fresh statement of the real and fundamental satisfactions of life,-those belonging to man as man, to men as children of God, and as brethren of each other. For the satisfactions of belief in God as a person and as our loving father; of love for our fellow-men impelling us to service for others to the point of real self-sacrifice; and of victory over sin, in ourselves and others, by the might and power of God's Holy Spirit,—these are not even hinted at in this volume. It gives a fair statement of about all the satisfactions a man may expect to get, if he is fortunate, in a material world out of things material. But there is little comfort offered to those who do not happen to have good health, or who have not happy homes, or who are out of work. These must turn again to that old gospel of the Nazarene, which is as good, as fundamental, as "durable" now as ever, and which meets the deeper needs of man as man, whether he is rich or poor, fortunate or unfortunate. President Eliot's book is interesting,—especially the chapter which describes the typical life of John Gilley, a humble Maine fisherman. Yet even in this simple man's life the reader will feel that undoubtedly there were deeper experiences than any that are recorded in this brief biography. The deepest and most durable satisfactions of life are found not in what we get but in what we give. Only indirectly, as implied in the durable satisfaction of work, are the latter referred to in Dr. Eliot's volume.

A Descriptive List of Trade and Industrial Schools. The National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, 20 West 44th Street, New York City, has just issued its Bulletin No. 11, which is "A Descriptive List of Trade and Industrial Schools in the United States." The materials for this catalogue have been compiled by Edward H. Reisner, the Secretary of the Society. The contents fall into eight divisions,-the most important of which are those on Intermediate Industrial Schools, Trade Schools (Day Courses), Technical Schools (Day Courses), Apprentice Schools and Evening Schools giving (a) Technical and (b) Practical Shop Courses. The pamphlet was published as the result of a general demand for a tabulation of the main facts and features of the administration and curricula of the industrial and trade schools at present in operation in this country. As a majority of the existing Intermediate Industrial Schools have been inaugurated within a period of two years, the facts relating to this section are of particular interest to those concerned with modern educational movements.