comforts and civilization upon past achievments in mathematics-laying stress upon the building of bridges and highways and tall buildings and the varied and extensive uses of electricity. I wish to emphasize the necessity of not giving such lectures too often, for many college students are suffering from an overdose of lectures. An occasional short topic presented by a member of the class, telling of the life of a mathematician adds a human touch. Old text-books and manuscripts on mathematics may be used to advantage in leading the students to a conception of mathematics as a real, live, and growing subject which is closely interwoven with the civilization of the day. To be specific:-I recently succeeded in arousing much interest in an English text on general mathematics written more than a century ago. The students in trigonometry were delighted with the quaintly worded problems on heights and distances and their water-color illustrations. They solved some of the problems themselves and then compared their solutions with those in the text. The students' mathematics club has been a most efficient enlivener of our mathematics work. It brings together the students in an informal way and gives them an opportunity to hear and present elementary papers on the practical application of mathematics, on the lives of famous mathematicians, on mathematical puzzles and recreations, etc. Indeed, two of my students wrote a short mathematical play, which was performed before the club in February 1919 and was published in The American Mathematical Monthly in June of that year. A vocational conference has great possibilities. Our students get up a general conference once a year. Here is an opportunity for the teacher who is in close touch with things outside academic circles, if she is asked for suggestions of a suitable speaker in industrial mathematics. If the teacher is willing to entertain the speaker and give the stu dents an opportunity to meet her socially, the conference may be made very helpful to the classes in mathematics. These are a few of the devices that I have used. Perhaps you have others that you like better. But yours and mine will be worse than useless if we consider them as anything more than means toward an end. They are simply the outward manifestations of something much more fundamental and far-reaching. In the last analysis there are three allpowerful factors in humanizing our course:-these are the class, the subject matter, and the teacher. How can the class be used as a humanizing factor? The class becomes a humanizing factor when the teacher really knows each individual member. When a new class enters your class-room, do you not look at each individual student and ask yourself, "Why did you come to college? Did you have a definite purpose? If so, how can I lead you to work toward its fulfillment? If you had no purpose, how can I arouse you and find you an ideal? What are your weak points and how can I help you to overcome them? What are your strong points and how can I assist you in developing them? How can I adapt this course in mathematics to attain these ends?" Now please do not think that I am advocating the preparation of a questionaire to be handed to the new student. No, indeed, for I think that the new students are rather bewildered by the superabundance of questionaires that come to them from various sources. My idea is rather that the teacher should have such questions tucked away in her own mind and should seek to gradually acquire answers by various indirect methods. The second factor in humanizing the course is the subject matter. It is absolutely necessary to make study and learning bright and attractive and pleasant. We all grant that. But let us not in our mistaken zeal imagine that we can accomplish this end by making it soft and easy and requiring no hard work on the part of the student. The teacher must really do hard work on her teaching herself and she must expect that the students will study hard, too. There is a joy in mastery, that is a very real human joy-one thoroughly appreciated by the active young persons in our class rooms. It seems to me that the educated young woman is one who will not only get all the truest joy and pleasure out of life but who will also be able to do effectively and without friction something which she does not want to do and she will do it at the time when it ought to be done. The third factor in humanizing the course is the teacherthe real teacher. It seems to me that there are three essential qualifications of a real teacher. 1. Scholarship. She must know her subject thoroughly. In addition she should know some allied fields-say physics and astronomy-and she must be thoroughly familiar with some of the industrial applications of mathematics; for example, insurance and statistical work in economics, biology, etc., or that fascinating field of electrical engineering. But scholarship alone does not guarantee success in teaching. More than one person with a doctor's degree and a record of successful research is a flat failure in the class room: 2. Technique of teaching. The teacher must know how to teach. She must know how others have tried to teach mathematics and she must learn the strong points and the weak points of the various methods. She must be familiar with the new work in psychology and with educational measurements, etc. 3. The really great teacher has the rather elusive something which is also possessed by the musician or poet or sculptor or painter; in other words the really great teacher is an artist; an artist working with materials which are far more interesting, but far more difficult to handle than stone or canvas. In conclusion, let me say that if we have a real teacher who knows the class and teaches the subject, that course will be humanized whether it be in freshman or the senior year, whether it be a course in mathematics or a course in English, and whether it be given in a woman's college or a man's college. Outline Study of "Christabel” (SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, 1772-1834.) By ESTHER G. HARROP, CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA. Samuel Taylor Coleridge belonged to the period in English Literature which is known as the Romantic Revival. Roughly speaking, the period lies between the dates of 1780 and 1830, and is one of the three divisions into which the history of English Literature falls in the 19th century. The characters of the period may be best expressed by giving a slight review of the Classic School, which was its immediate predecessor, and contrasting this with the Romantic School. The Classic School wrote in stilted, extravagant language, was elegant in form, and took its subject-matter largely from the great Greek and Latin authors. It scorned Nature. On the other hand, the Romantic School took as its motto, "Follow Nature." Its disciples aimed to get back to Nature in theme and treatment; they desired to attain simplicity in language and treatment of subject-matter. There was no copying of old stories, and there were many and varied rhyme schemes introduced. There had been several writers in the early part of the period who were endeavoring to effect a change, but it is generally acknowledged that Coleridge and Wordsworth definitely began the movement. While they were in Somersetshire, in 1797, they formed a lasting friendship, from which mutual benefit was derived, and together they planned the publication of a joint volume of verse. The book was to be called, "Lyrical Ballads." Wordsworth was to furnish the poems which were to be on nature topics, while Coleridge was to furnish those which were on supernatural topics. The following quotation shows their belief as to the two cardinal points of poetry: "The power of exciting the sympathy of the reader by a faithful adherence to the truth of Nature, and the power of giving the interest of novelty by the modifying colors of the imagination."-Biographia Literaria. While interested greatly in the supernatural, Coleridge at the same time was of great note as a literary critic. As such he helped much in breaking down the prejudice against which Wordsworth had to struggle, and his lectures on Shakespeare helped to promote a revival of interest in that author. He may, therefore, be called the great critical mind of the Romantic Revival, for most of his work was a protest against the formalism of the Classic School, and by reason of his creative work he may be characterized as "the supreme asserter of the rights of the imagination." Poetry with Coleridge was but one of many pursuits. In his earlier days he spent most time with it, and in later times he was occupied with political, religious and critical questions. He seemed, in some ways, to be waiting for an inevitable tomorrow to finish some of his poems, and the tomorrow never came. So we have "Christabel" unfinished, but the two parts which we do possess are of wonderful beauty and power. His work is characterized by mastery of rhythm, descriptive color, and an atmosphere of wizard twilight. B. CHARACTER OF "CHRISTABEL.” I. CLASSIFICATION OF POETRY. A. Epic.-Poems which must contain a narrative. (a) Metrical Romance-Lady of the Lake. (b) Tale-The Brook. (c) Ballad-Christabel. |