ethical ideals, stimulate right emotions, and thus train moral character; that by means of it the pupil should become more facile and precise with tongue and pen; and that when school ends for him, he should step forth the possessor of sufficient knowledge, sufficient interest, and sufficient power to warrant a continuance of historical study by private effort. It is hoped that the final outcome of the pursuit of history, even in the secondary schools, may be a constant application of the lessons of the past to the problems of the present, the tendency to see all things in historical perspective. Certainly there are few richer gifts which these schools have to bestow.

A natural result of this enlargement of purpose is a change to methods more adequate and more varied. A text-book is used, as before, to give a thread of continuity to the whole work, but it is no longer the exclusive reliance. Collateral reading is added in some variety. Atlases and maps are studied and reproduced. Objective illustrations, — pictures, weapons, specimens of dress, household utensils, and other realia,are utilized as in the natural sciences. Then, in the class-room, tests are applied to determine the reaction of the pupil's mind on this material : intelligent application is stimulated in a variety of ways, by requiring written summaries of assigned collateral reading, by calling for continuous oral statements of the course of events within a particular period, by short, sharp questions about definite facts, by impromptu or prepared discussions upon debatable questions. Skill in selection is trained by topical work, skill in judgment by instituting comparisons and searching for causes, skill in expression by the acceptance of none but wellwritten papers or recitations made in correct form.

Inasmuch as there are differences of mental power among children in the secondary school, ranging in age as they do from thirteen to nineteen years, some care must be taken to adapt our aims and methods to the order of mental growth established by nature; otherwise we shall be found demanding bricks without straw, or failing to utilize the full capacity of the learner. Obviously with the younger classes stress should be laid on the cultivation of the memory and the imagination, and with the older increasingly upon the logical processes; but during the whole period an appeal can be made by a discriminating

teacher with safety and with hope of profit to all the activities which have been mentioned.

But the teacher who welcomes the enlarged hopes concerning the study of history and values aright the more modern methods, finds certain difficulties confronting him as soon as he essays the broader instruction. Not to enumerate them all, let us mention one that is obvious. A well selected working library should be provided, wherein quality is of even more importance than quantity, desirable as is the latter; and even a well chosen library is seen to be a bewildering field into which to turn boys and girls, to say nothing of some bewildered teachers. But so great is the advantage that may be derived from collateral reading, and from the ability to use books wisely as to contents and economically as to time, that no difficulties ought to be regarded as insurmountable until enough books of a suitable kind are obtained and efficient guides to their use have been found.

Such a book and such a guide, combining a double office of helpfulness, teachers of the history of our own land will henceforth have in this Source Book of American History. It is a compilation, to be sure, but the judgment displayed in the character, the length, the order, and the annotation of the selections reveals an unusual understanding of the needs of teachers and pupils in the secondary schools. The extracts are above all interesting in themselves, and for their liveliness will attract the attention of many who care more for literature than for history as such. They also throw a flood of light on the setting of historical episodes, helping us to see with the eyes of our forbears, and making the times of which they speak living scenes, almost visible before our faces. They come to our consciousness with the force of fresh testimony from eye-witnesses, and therefore imbed themselves within the memory and move the emotions as no narrative at second hand can possibly do. The stories they have to tell are often quaint in style, but they are easy to comprehend, and never so long in any case as to be tedious. The hard thing, indeed, will be not to read them all at a sitting, and so to diminish the freshness of their force when we desire them, on closer study, to yield their full aid in mental discipline. They whet our appetite and at the same time point to laden tables, whither we may turn at

our leisure, or our need, for ampler feasts. The antique form of the more ancient documents is retained for the sake of accuracy and of distinctness of impression; yet nothing is left obscure for lack of due explanation. Their range covers the whole period of our history; their variety is as broad as the capacity of youth for appreciation; the marginal comments are terse and sensible. One can scarcely conceive of a more efficient or more timely gift to historical instruction in the secondary school.

Let us turn now to some consideration of the uses of which this little volume is capable as a means of realizing the aims of modern history work. We cannot, however, treat the matter exhaustively or otherwise than by the merest suggestion, which every teacher must amplify according to his judgment.

Since school instruction is mainly through class work, and since ordinarily all members of a class find it convenient to consult their most used books at one and the same time, there should be supplied as many copies of the Source Book as there are members of the class. A less number will be helpful, but will not yield the full service desirable. Among the younger pupils its first use is to minister to the stimulation of interest and the development of historical imagination. As maturity warrants, it may be employed in a search for motives, in comparisons, and in the determination of logical relations. In classes of all ages, it may be made the means of illuminating the narrative of the text-book, of stimulating curiosity so as to lead students farther afield, and of cultivating intelligent reading and competent expression. An appropriate selection from this volume should be made a part of the assignment as reading collateral to the text or to the topic under consideration, and the definite time for its completion should be stated. When that time arrives, in connection with the ordinary recitation, the pupils should be led to reproduce the picture given in the selection read, to mention what new facts have been gleaned from it, to indicate what they like or especially dislike in the narrative, and otherwise to comment upon their reading. At times they should be asked to present written summaries of the incidents mentioned or the personal characteristics described. Later on this written work may take the form of comparisons and of

inferences drawn from them. For instance, in the first selection, Columbus shows us the simple, credulous spirit of the West Indian natives, and their liberality toward the newcomers, whom they deemed "beings of a celestial race." In the sixth selection, Champlain recounts the cruelties practised on enemies by his savage allies, the Hurons. In the ninth, Spelman makes a third contribution to our knowledge of the customs of the natives. Later we have other pictures of them by the Sieur de Tonty, by an unknown Puritan, by Peter Kalm, by Patrick Gass and by Commissioner Morgan. These varying accounts, as they come in due course, will lead to natural comparisons and discussion, all tending to make definite a composite portrait of the Aborigines, and to increase intellectual power. With somewhat older students, it will not be hard to stimulate a deeper search into the content of these pages. Many will be interested to see if they can find from the documents themselves, without accepting any hints from the notes, whether the several authors of the nine selections numbered from 53 to 61 were in heart "for us" or "against us" in the Revolutionary War; and they will be glad to give reasons for their opinions. The admirable topics which appear in the first introduction will abundantly furnish suggestions for severer requirements.

Yet after all the sight of this Source Book may elicit from some hardworked teacher the frank objection, "But it takes more time!" No better answer was ever made than by the late and lamented Mary Sheldon Barnes: "Good friend, it does; and it takes more time to solve a problem in arithmetic than to read its answer; and more time to read a play of Shakespeare than to read that Shakespeare was the greatest dramatist of all the ages; and more time, finally, to read the American Constitution and the American newspaper, and make up your mind how to vote your own vote, than it does to be put into a 'block of five.' But what is time for?"

IV. The Sources in Normal Schools

PERHAPS

BY PROFESSOR EMMA M. RIDLEY

IOWA STATE NORMAL SCHOOL

ERHAPS no subject has undergone a greater transformation in the last few years than history. This is without doubt due to an appreciation of the personal element in history,—to a realization of the fact that the makers of past history were human beings, men and women like ourselves, with the same mixture of good and bad impulses and motives, the same hopes and fears, the same ambitions and desires. We at last can say with Emerson: "We sympathize in the great movements of history, in the great discoveries, the great resistances, the great prosperities of men, because their law was enacted, the sea was searched, the land was found, or the blow was struck for us, as we ourselves in that place would have done or applauded."

In the study of history, as in other subjects, two things are to be considered, —a mastery of the subject-matter and the development of the pupil's mind. The bare facts and dates may perhaps be obtained and even the memory developed under the old text-book system, but it is impossible to get into the spirit of the period studied, or to develop the reason, judgment, imagination, by any such process. Some more stimulating influence is needed.

Until very recently the stimulus of first-hand acquaintance with even a few sources was not possible for schools, even for Normal Schools, because it was a long and costly task to get together a sufficient library of sources to be really representative. Such books as this solve the problem for they put into the hand of the individual pupil a body of material brief enough to be used in the time usually allotted, and yet full enough to preserve the continuity of American history from its beginning to the present time.

The reader of the Source Book will at once be struck by the liveliness of American history. The accounts of the discoverers and explorers are not less exciting than the tales of the Arabian Nights. The effects of lives of struggle and adventure are seen in the reckless,