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say the turning epochs in our own history-the Norman Conquest, Magna Charta, the wars of England and Scotland, the Reformation, the Commonwealth. The least satisfactory compilations are those that are neither wide enough to give a general grasp of the world's history, nor minute enough to exhibit the historical forces at work.

Ancient History has been hitherto associated with classical studies, and thus introduced into a later stage of the pupils' course; being scarcely at all mentioned, except by select episode, in primary instruction.

The teaching of history almost appears to defy Method. Any and every method would seem to apply, if we may judge by the variety of views that are entertained. The mistake is that the precise situation of the teacher is too little taken into account. He brings forward history, in the first instance, not for its own sake, but to help him in other branches. Thus history shares the fate common to many compositions, including the Bible itself. It is used simply for learning to read and spell. It is the vehicle for some of the first lessons in right and wrong, good and evil. It serves the use assigned to it by Goethe, to inspire enthusiasm, which might receive a wide interpretation, and imply the passions generally. In all this, there is scarcely anything of the distinctive functions of historical composition. The rules of method in these exercises are to be sought in other connections.

History proper starts with the idea of a nation or nations, and therefore supposes some knowledge of the structure of political society. This, I have remarked, must be the theme of distinctive lessons, which will be

all the easier, according to the advancement made in Geography, whose finale, Political Geography, is the true opening of history. When we understand what a nation is, we are prepared to follow its movements, changes, progress, and these are what history has to record. The narrative of events, to be of any value, should proceed upon the understood characteristics of the nation, and should throw back light upon these, like the mutual play of structure and function in Biology.

It would take a much higher acquaintance with political science than teachers usually possess, to conduct historical teaching upon any such method of mutual dependence. The pupils can reach the heights only by very slow steps, and it is entirely at the teacher's discretion, what explanations he should introduce at different stages, or at what stage he should take this view of history at all. Leaving the very earliest teaching use of history, there is the intermediate use as animated chronology, or the succession of the great leading events of the world, in their order of date; which is the setting of all superadded knowledge. The teacher can easily rise above the hard enumeration of dates, and the bare mention of dynasties, the rise and fall of nations, and other epochs, to a more exciting narrative of the circumstances attending the more momentous events. The four ancient monarchies, the fall of the Roman Empire, the rise of the modern nationalities, the Crusades, the capture of Constantinople, the Thirty Years' War, the Wars of the French Revolution, the advance of European Colonization,-have to receive their fixed dates, so as to make a chronology, and to this may be added some very general statements of the agencies that operated

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such vast changes. Historic record is exceedingly elastic; it can be given justly on many scales: a very comprehensive view of the rise of the Greek power in the ancient world, and of its subversion by Rome, may assign the reasons or causes in an intelligible, interesting and correct, although greatly abridged, account. To be able offhand to vary the scale of the record is one of the arts of the teacher. He works upon a compilation, generally too minute for his purpose, and he must know how to contract it; on other occasions, he may throw in the intermediate particulars, so as to enlarge the scale. This is only repeating an operation needed in Geography, as well as in other things.

The highest form of history is represented in the great works on the subject, ancient and modern. In these the structure of Political Institutions is more or less fully set forth, and the events treated on the deepest laws of political cause and effect. This kind of history is in alliance with the most advanced Sociology or Political Philosophy of the time; and, as it is too extensive in its scope to be made a branch of a regular teaching, except by selection, the philosophy must count for more than the narrative. In fact, in the higher teaching of schools and colleges, history should be reduced to a science, and the narratives merely cited in exemplification of the principles. It is impossible to treat of all history; and epitomes or compendiums, upon the plan supposed in the earlier stage, would give no satisfaction; the only principle of selection is the exemplification of the theories of political cause and effect. The historical details, as given in the exhaustive histories of Greece and Rome, in the ancient world, and of the great nations

that make up the modern world, are overtaken afterwards by private reading. To repeat these in Lectures would be a waste of time, and must be at least very fragmentary; and unless the portions actually comprised are chosen by accident and caprice, the ruling consideration must be historical causation, given under some system not at all difficult to shape in the present state of political science. The questions even now asked in connection with history, at the higher Examinations, prove that there is no difficulty in conceiving a suitable culture for the most advanced stages of education in this department.

Universal History having grown to interminable dimensions, it passes the compass of any single mind, and would be a useless acquisition. Like many other subjects in the present state of knowledge, including the chief sciences-Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology—it has to be taught upon some principle of selection. This is not difficult to state. What has already been prescribed as representing the early stage of history lessons, is supposed first of all. Next is the theory of Political Society, and a comparative view of the leading Institutions. Lastly, there should be some compact body of Principles embracing the historic forces, with their exemplifications in special portions of actual history. More than one period would be desirable; and the ancient and modern world should both be represented.

The fact that history presents no difficulty to minds of ordinary education and experience, and is, moreover, an interesting form of literature, is a sufficient reason for not spending much time upon it in the curriculum of

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school or college. When there is any doubt, we may settle the matter by leaving it out.

A very searching historical enquiry into modern events brings out such a variety of opinions in practical politics and still more in religion, as to make an obstacle to the introduction of the subject into the higher schools and colleges. This difficulty is felt in Germany, where professors are more outspoken than in England; it also occurs in connection with the Irish Roman Catholics in the Queen's Colleges. A history of the Reformation could scarcely be thorough, if it offended neither Protestants nor Roman Catholics; a history of the first centuries of the Christian era, if it dissatisfied nobody, would be worthless to everybody.

SCIENCE.

The Methods of teaching Science are as extensive and various as the field itself. They involve, in the highest degree, all the devices for the perspicuous communication of knowledge, as well as the more special devices of imparting generalized or abstract notions and truths. The teacher is usually supposed to have before him an exposition already shaped. He may of course modify the pre-existing exposition, and be a book to himself; but a convenient line may be drawn between the art of writing an expository work of science, and the art of bringing home the truths in actual teaching.

The methods of inculcating the abstract idea were incidentally sketched at an earlier stage. These methods are complete, as far as concerns the central fact of science -the generality or abstraction; only they do not include all that pertains to the teaching. Next to the