The complete international alphabet which is subjoined requires more signs but this suffices in French.

French.—kɑ̃tquand ynune fwafois ɔ̃on lilit kuramɑ̃couramment l ekrityːrl’écriture fɔnetikphonétique iil syfisuffit dde kɛlkəzquelques œːrheures purpour aprɑ̃ːdrapprendre aà liːrlire l ekrityːrl’écriture ɔrdinɛːr.ordinaire.

In English we want θ ð for th in thick & then, ɕ for ch in hue, ŋ for the guttural nasal, ʌ for but, a vowel not quite the same as seul, æ for at—

English.—nau ðə pɔint ai wɔnt tu get æt iz hweðəɹ ðe seːm deskripʃən kæn bi givn.

(now the point I want to get at is whether the same description can be given.)

German.—vɛn viːr uns in unserm lɑndə rɑif dɑfyːr hɑltn di ɑlgəmɑinə høːərə bilduŋ ɑusʃlisːliɕ auf di mɔdɛrnə kultuːr tsu gryndn.

(Wenn wir uns in unserm Lande reif dafür halten die algemeine höhere Bildung auschliesslich auf die moderne Cultur zu gründen.)

COMPLETE ALPHABET

Phonetic alphabet as illustration

HISTORY AS AN EDUCATIONAL SUBJECT.

By Dorothea Beale.

Definition.The second subdivision of Part I. is of great educational value. “History,” writes Dr. Harris, “reveals the higher self of man as organised in institutions. For the first time man comes to know his substantial self, when he comes to study history. His little self beholds his colossal self.” The Man “writ large” of Plato.

Enlarges sympathies.“History,” writes Dr. Martineau, “enlarges the sympathies, opening fresh continents of character to mental survey, throwing human tones upon the ear in language unheard before; it acts upon the judgments of conscience like foreign travel upon those of perception; it imparts a breadth of view unattainable within a narrow circle. The smaller the scale of the personal lot, the more precious and needful are the friendships of history.

“The ground plot of a man’s own destiny may be closely shut in, but if he can find his way through vanished cities, hear the pleading of justice, visit the battlefields where the infant life of nations has been baptised in blood; if he can steal into the prisons, where lonely martyrs have waited their deaths; if he can walk in the garden or the porch, where the lovers of wisdom discourse; if the experiences of his own country consecrate the very soil—he consciously belongs to a grander life. Hence the advantage which human studies possess over every form of science, the sympathy with man over the knowledge of nature. They are an enlargement of moral experience, and call into continual exercise the sense of right and wrong.

“In watching the drama of history, the soul may be purified by ‘pity and fear’. ‘Here we find examples for judgment, examples of patient suffering, that touch the springs of pity; of selfishness and cruelty that gnaw the heart with honest indignation, of heroic faithfulness that flings across the soul a breeze of resolution, of saintly love that diffuses the very atmosphere of heaven.’”[17]

Supplements the teachings of science.In history as in science we learn facts that we may trace laws, and history corrects by a larger outlook the erroneous judgments deduced from a limited experience. History too seems specially useful as a complement to the teaching of science. In physics we find inexorable law. Admiration and fear may be excited, but we look on the inevitable; we pass no moral judgment. History and biography show us the Divine government adapting itself, so to speak, to the necessities of man, an education of men and of man, we study a mystery which attracts and baffles us; we are able to predict our world’s path in space and time, unable in reference to those larger regions beyond our “little systems”—regions, however, in which we must believe the same laws, physical and moral, to be working.

Gives an outlook beyond time.History corrects the judgment of the world; in its pages we look only at dead men, and we call him happy, not who has been successful, but him who has left the world better because he has lived, and so history reverses the pernicious teaching which puts before the young success as the main object of life, and shows us the difference between noble and pitiful ambitions. The heroes of history are those who endured hardness and lived and died for others, a Heracles, a Theseus, a St. Louis, a Gustavus, a Washington. The villains are those who lived for self, in ease and splendour, and self-indulgence. We find in these, and still more in those in whom the lights and shades are less strongly marked, encouragements and warnings for our own life, and help in interpreting the lives of those around us. How tawdry looks the field of the cloth of gold in the light of a later century! How silly seem those courtiers who carried their “manors on their backs”! “He is worth so much” has a different meaning for the dead and for the living; the dead have not, they are. Each noble life has left the world richer in spiritual energy, in the power of self-sacrifice, in great ideals, in true riches; there is a treasury of saints, not of a transferable righteousness, but of a transforming, a transfiguring. We can see that no noble life has been lived in vain. “In the sight of the unwise they seem to perish, yet is their hope full of immortality;” the corn which falls into the ground and dies bears much fruit.

Reveals progress through the ages.Lastly if we include in this study not only the history of men and of societies, but of the intellectual and moral life of man as a whole, not his descent but his ascent, history forms a subject of surpassing interest and energising hope. We find there enacted upon the largest theatre the daily recurring drama of the contest of light with darkness. We learn how man’s eyes have been gradually opened to the wonders of the visible universe, and his soul lifted into the regions of the invisible, his intellectual conceptions enlarged, his higher being developed, and his desires purified; history which discourages, as we look at a narrow tract, strengthens our faith in a Divine order of progress, as we take in the larger regions of time; the waves seem often to recede, while the tide advances, the stars seem to retrograde, but it is because our little world oscillates in space; and so our faith is strengthened, and our hope increased, and we learn not patriotism merely, but we catch something of that enthusiasm of humanity, which shone with unclouded brightness in the Son of Man.

Cultivates the judgment.Another use of history, rightly taught, is to train in habits of justice and truthfulness, though it is too often written to serve party ends. It is not easy to be just. The hearts of the young are naturally drawn out to those who suffer. If the Eikon Basilike was not true, we are inclined to say it must have been true, as we look upon Vandyke’s picture, see the calm face of the martyr, or read the verses:—

Stirs right enthusiasm for heroic men.We must, however, not let our sympathy with suffering blind us to the fact that Charles failed in his duty as a king—that had he been successful in what he attempted, England must have suffered from the evils under which France subsequently groaned. We must point out that it was his incurable deceit which brought him at last to the scaffold. But neither, on the other hand, must we ignore the fact that Cromwell trampled on the rights of men, that his was a lawless Government too. We would not, however, have that sham impartiality which paints all men of one colour and height, which is incapable of conceiving a hero, and contemplates crime with calmness, remarking there are always two sides to a quarrel. Need I say that throughout, the teacher must stir noble enthusiasms, a worthy emulation, admiration for true manliness, for virtue, rouse sympathy for the oppressed, zeal for right—show that the history of each nation is that nation’s Bible—the Book which tells of the Heavenly Father’s care for it, as manifested in the incidents of its life? If addressing higher classes, the teacher will point out, as opportunity offers, that each had a work to do in the world, Hebrew, Greek, Roman, as Miss Wedgwood has shown so well in the Moral Ideal.[18]

Shows the disintegrating power of unrighteousness.The young must learn, too, that the great principle is found everywhere, that what we sow we must reap in the moral as well as the physical world—that the selfish neglect of the poor brought about the Black Death and gaol fevers, that the selfishness, rapacity and immoral greed fostered by England’s unjust claims on France, brought its own punishment; this was seen when the Hundred Years’ War ended in the internecine strife of the fifteenth century, and led to the extermination of a selfish aristocracy. So too the degradation of the higher classes, say in the eighteenth century in France, which led them to regard the lower classes as scarcely human, brought about the fearful retaliation of the Revolution. Or again the wealth of Spain, filling the nation with pride and haughtiness, was actually her ruin; by persistently destroying or expelling, by war or persecution, all the nobler spirits, the nation was degraded in a few centuries. Of course these latter lessons will be more suited to a higher class, but something of it may be taught early.

Questions of right and wrong will ever be arising. What ought to have been done under such circumstances? Is rebellion ever justifiable? and when? What forms of government are best? is there an absolute best? We shall see how short-sighted is crime when we come to the murder of Cæsar, of Henry III., Henry IV., William the Silent. The teacher will not omit to look at the historical clock, when asking whether acts were right or wrong. We must do justice to devotion, while pointing out errors and crimes; we must be warned by seeing that wrong deeds are often done by those who mean well; we must learn that though error and ignorance is evil, and we must fight against both, yet that good often comes of the honest working out even of mistaken opinions; that through illusions we gain the vision of truth.

Teaches by experience.The many experiments of the past show us too that evils which exist in a community cannot be cured by merely changing a form of government, or getting rid of this man or that man by violence; to do this is only to sow dragon’s teeth. A nation is made up of individuals, and only by individual virtue can salvation come; so people now seek to bring about the well-being of nations by education rather than by revolution, because freedom without sense to use it is an evil, and a nation that is truly free will deserve and obtain free institutions. As Mazzini says:—

Teaches the solidarity of man“We must convince men that they are all sons of one sole God, and bound to fulfil and execute one sole law here on earth; that each of them is bound to live not for himself, but for others; rights can only exist as a consequence of duties fulfilled, and we must begin with fulfilling duties in order to achieve rights. We can obtain our rights only by deserving them through our own spirit of love and sacrifice. If we seek our rights in the name of duties, we shall obtain them. If we seek them in the name of egotism, or any theory of happiness and well-being propounded by the teachers of materialism, we shall never achieve other than a momentary triumph, to be followed by utter confusion.”

One may point out the gradual progress which, with occasional recessions, has, we trust, been made. One may stir in the young patriotism, and an enthusiasm of humanity, and make them feel a desire to do what they can to amend the evils of their own time.

and the duty of each to the community.Lessons of political economy seem to me more important for girls than the legislative contests of constitutional history. They cannot enter into these with the keen interest of boys, who may themselves one day be lawgivers. All should be taught that a selfish, wasteful citizen is a disgrace, a sort of moral caterpillar—learn that selfishness, sensuality, falsehood, under whatever disguises, are detestable, whilst a self-devoted life is a heritage for ever. We should especially recognise the faults of our own nation in past times, and in the present too; we should desire the elevation of the degraded classes, and each should feel that his life and example has at least some power, that each of us is responsible to men as well as to God, that it is by noble enthusiasms, by self-devotion, by giving up one to another that human society is possible.

History, like geography, can be approached two ways:—

Methods of approaching the subject.1. We may take the map of the world, indicate its leading features and its political divisions.

2. We may take a small tract, realise by description the form and beauty, the flora and fauna, the temperature, the snowy peaks, the rushing rivers, the silent stars, think it all out, until we feel at home in the land, work up through details of topography to clear conceptions.

In teaching history, I think we ought to take some kind of time-map, mark out in it a few of the most prominent recorded facts, tell something of the heroes, after whose names tracts of time have been called, trace out a few of the leading empires, give landmarks.

With juniors.Then we may, after showing the position of a certain period in the world-chart, work it up in detail. The way in which each period should be treated will depend much on the age of the class. With young ones, the teaching will be more narrative and biography; the memory and imagination will be chiefly called into play. Some outline or short history should be read by the child, the most prominent events, etc., should be entered in a special historical map. The chronological, as well as the geographical atlas, should always be at hand. The teacher should go quickly round the class, asking each child a few questions, just to ascertain whether the work has been properly prepared, then she should fill up herself such parts as will come home to the class. For young classes, though some passages from good histories may be read, the teacher must be prepared to give a great deal viva voce. Little children do not take in so well what is written for older people, the words are not adapted to them, nor the mode of expression. Besides, the teacher’s eye is occupied, she does not see whether she is holding the attention of her class. True, her words may not be quite well chosen, but she will be able to make the narrative more life-like to those whose minds she knows. But she must on no account try to learn it up. If she would relate well, she must conjure up the scene before her own mind, carefully paint in the details, and then describe her own vision, watching the children to see if they, too, take it in.

But all must not be told; as far as may be, children should be led to anticipate. Thus in a narrative of a campaign, generally so dry and unprofitable, the children should be led to consider what were the aims, what would be the best way of carrying out operations, what posts would be occupied, which leader chosen, how the money would be raised, etc. They will take great delight in finding out these things, and not easily forget what they have discovered; it will accustom them to read in an intelligent way, so they will be able to predict to some extent what people are likely to do.

With senior classes.The elder classes should read some large history, if possible some original authority, and thus learn to read for themselves, to examine the statements set before them, and to sift evidence. The characters of Richard II. and Richard III., of Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth, of the Stuarts and Cromwell, of Laud and Bacon, will form good exercises in the discussion of probabilities, and teach caution and moderation in the judgments of daily life. For elder classes, too, we may make great use, not only of Shakspere, but of the best historical novels. For the teaching of higher classes I may point to the following papers and add also a chapter on time-maps.

TEACHING MODERN HISTORY TO SENIOR CLASSES.

By Alice Andrews.

Introductory.In teaching history our aim should be not to miss the “spirit” of the period we are taking. We have to inquire what forces are at work moulding the character of the nation, and to estimate the results they produce. We have to find the place our period holds in building up the national history. Each period has a heritage from the past, each hands on its legacy for the future—of warning from failure or from a success which is more disastrous than failure—of encouragement from victories, not necessarily of the battlefield, and which perhaps were won at the cost of noble lives willingly, even joyfully, offered.

There have been periods of ignoble wars, such as the Hundred Years’ War, when Englishmen were brutalised by murder and rapine, ruining a people too deeply sunk in misery to defend themselves. And retribution overtook the nation as it overtakes the individual. Our own Wars of the Roses were the fruit of the unjust wars in France. There have been periods of ignoble peace, when “peace with dishonour” might have been England’s motto, when foreign troops were subsidised to protect the shores that Englishmen were too craven-hearted to defend themselves, when enthusiasm was ridiculed as “mock patriotism,” and political reformers were nicknamed “boy patriots”. Corruption was reduced to a system, and Walpole believed that every man had his price. The Church was paralysed by spiritual deadness.

Individual men stand out as warnings or examples. Richard II. appears first as full of noble impulses, a born leader of men, but his crime determines his life. To rid himself of the man who knows his crime, he banishes Norfolk for life; the other, who suspects it, he banishes for a term of years, and this is reduced at the intercession of old Gaunt. Either the punishment was, or was not, just. If just, it ought not to have been reduced on petition; if unjust, it ought never to have been inflicted. Henceforward Richard rapidly deteriorates: he seizes Gaunt’s lands in spite of his promise to the absent Bolingbroke, in spite of the warning of his uncle York:—

Richard has himself set the example of disregard of others’ rights, and makes it possible for Bolingbroke to return in the name of justice and raise the country against the king.

Previous knowledge.The teacher of history in the older classes ought to be able to assume a correct knowledge of the most important facts and dates at least in English history. These are very easily learnt in childhood and most difficult to acquire by older girls. Those who have been trained on the historical chart are acquainted with the main characteristic of each century, and the principal events in it, and have no difficulty in grouping fresh knowledge round central well-known facts, just as the geographical student can fill in with increasing completeness a map from memory. Comparatively few are trained in any knowledge of foreign history, and I have known not a few grown-up girls find the greatest difficulty in mastering the leading names and events in French and other European history. In this respect other nations are beyond us. Foreign girls, both French and German, are trained to connect the history of their own country with the general course of events, and know the facts of European history as a whole. The absence of this knowledge in English girls makes the study of foreign policy unnecessarily difficult to them.

Continuity of history.In outline history, paint with a thick brush. “One can’t see the wood for the trees in it” might too often be the criticism of the pupil on a lesson. The conscientious teacher tries to omit nothing, the consequence in the pupil’s mind is blind confusion. The principle of selection rules here if anywhere. We must aim at avoiding the defect which Lord Acton denounces as “the want of an energetic understanding of the sequence and real significance of events, which ... is ruin to a student of history. It is playing at study (he continues) to see nothing but the unmeaning and unsuggestive surface as we generally do.” We want instead to trace in broad outline the continuity of history—for instance, look at the Wars of the Roses in this light. How do they stand in relation to constitutional development? While the nobles were at war, the commons were gaining victories, bloodless it is true, but more lasting than any gained on battlefields. It was a time of immense constitutional development. And yet these victories were practically worthless for the moment. What advantage was it to the victim of the “overmighty subject” that the Statute Book provided for his rights and liberties? The “Paston Letters” give a vivid picture of the impotence of the ordinary subject to get the law enforced. What the country needed was strong government, not political privileges. “Constitutional development had outrun administrative order,” had outrun, that is to say, the general point of development reached by the nation at large, and the Tudors came in, so to speak, on the programme of strong government. The Tudor rule represented the two great principles of orderly administration and even-handed government. It needed a dictatorship to accomplish the task. The task was completed at the Armada, and the country took back the trust at the accession of the Stuarts. That the Stuarts failed to recognise this, was the cause of the long constitutional struggle that culminated in the Civil War. Once more constitutional development proceeds, but now the nation is keeping pace with it.

Topical or sectional arrangement.The subject of sectional as opposed to chronological teaching seems to belong here, for upon it depends the very essence of clearness in teaching. If pupils have before them the time-map, or chronological chart, already referred to, the teacher can with greater freedom treat the subjects sectionally, for before the eye of the pupil are grouped all the parallel events in each square representing some definite space of time. To teach chronologically may seem more accurate perhaps, but really too often produces hopeless confusion in the mind of the pupil—the thread is lost in taking up many different subjects, e.g., in Elizabeth’s reign, I would take as separate sections her relations with Scotland, necessitating a review of Scotch affairs generally, and the series of plots for releasing Queen Mary; Elizabeth’s policy with regard to (a) the Anglican Church; (b) Roman Catholics; (c) Protestant Nonconformists; her Irish policy; her foreign policy illustrated by her “courtships”; the domestic history of the reign and so on. The different sections touch sometimes, but it only adds to the interest to illustrate the new section from one already known. So in the Seven Years’ War, I would not follow the course of events for each separate year on the Continent and in America and in India, but I would take the whole course of the war in Europe, explaining why it was not only justifiable but a stroke of genius in Pitt, to do what he had himself denounced in the “Hanover-troop minister,” and by utilising foreign troops for England’s war on the Continent, set her free to follow her true interests in the colonies, and I would trace as separate sections the laying of the foundations of her world-empire in India and in Canada.

Syllabus of lessons.This method of teaching presupposes that a scheme has been drawn out for the course. If possible the scheme should be given to the class in the form of a syllabus of the lessons. If printing is too expensive, it is worth while to cyclostyle copies oneself. The value the class attaches to them is sufficient reward for the trouble, and they become a model to the girls on which to arrange their own study of history in post-school days. Examples of such a syllabus for English history and French history lessons will be found at the end of the paper.

Illustrations: (a) Historical atlas.The historical map ought to be the inseparable accompaniment of the history lesson, and in this respect there is nearly everything to be wished for. Good wall maps with bold colouring in which the outlines of different territories can be seen from a distance, and in which the names are clearly printed in English, have yet to be found. To use a modern map in doing French outlines or other continental history is most misleading, and yet too often this is all the teacher has at hand. There is Sprüner of course, but even if the school can afford these expensive maps, they are not very satisfactory for the ordinary class; the colouring is not distinct, and the map is so overcrowded with names that it is difficult to find at a glance the places one wants. They are rather for private and minute study than for class work. The publisher’s explanation is that there is not a sufficient demand to make it worth while to bring out historical maps, an incidental illustration of how little attention is given in English schools to continental history, while a class map of the Roman Empire can be found everywhere. At present the teacher is forced to make her own maps. If she is happy enough to have old pupils with a talent for map-drawing, she can gradually make a collection of maps enlarged from those in good histories; the maps in Kitchin’s History of France are invaluable for this purpose, but Kitchin provides nothing for the periods of the Italian expeditions, and these have to be adapted from Sprüner.

Gardiner’s Student’s Atlas provides what is necessary for the pupil in the English history class; there is a small cheap German atlas for general history (Putzger, 2 marks), but it is not very satisfactory for the ordinary English schoolgirl, the difference in the names is puzzling. What is wanted is a student’s atlas for continental, especially French history, at a reasonable price.

But even given the atlas, it remains for the teacher to find an unfailing receipt by which to ensure its use.

(b) BlackboardNot the least part of the value of a syllabus in the hands of a pupil, is the saving of time it makes in the lesson, otherwise the blackboard must be used for unfamiliar names and words. The merest glance through a pupil’s rough notes of French history will be a sufficient proof of this.

(c) First-hand acquaintance with authorities.Besides the text-book, which every pupil should possess, no teacher of older girls will be satisfied unless they read at least passages from the authorities on the period. The difficulty is to provide a sufficient number of copies for a large class, or any copies at all, beyond those possessed by the teacher or the school: this difficulty, however, may be met. There are always girls who are glad to have good books suggested for Christmas or birthday presents, and who begin a really nice library of their own in this way. But a class-library can be formed without much trouble. The nucleus of a class-library being made by the necessary books for one year’s work, the girls can be asked to leave a similar legacy for their successors. A list of books wanted, with their prices, can be prepared, and it will be found that several will combine to give really expensive books, and in this way the class can command the use of sets of Stubbs, Froude, Gardiner, Ranke, Lecky, etc., besides smaller books like the Great Statesmen Series.

Since it is impossible for girls with their limited time to read the whole of the big histories, the teacher will find it a valuable practice to dictate the numbers of the pages (in one or more volumes) bearing upon her lesson, which the girls should read. They are thus trained to use authorities, and this is being recognised more and more as of the first importance. There was a time when girls depended entirely upon their notes, and the misspelling of names of historians showed that their knowledge of great writers was second-hand. But when they get a first-hand acquaintance with historians like Froude, Gardiner, Seeley, Ranke, Lecky, they are insensibly being trained to be satisfied with nothing but the best.

(d) Contemporary writings: chronicles.The period should be studied by the teacher, and to a certain extent by the pupil, in contemporary writers. Chronicles are delightful reading. Who that has once learnt to know Saint Louis of France in the pages of his faithful seneschal, can fail to breathe the very atmosphere of the time? De Joinville shows him what a later preacher called him, “the most loyal spirit of his age”. Again no weighty dissertations on the small account in which human life was held in the Middle Ages would be so convincing as the incidental contemptuous remarks of the courtier-chronicler Froissart. The exquisite courtesy to a De Ribeaumont was quite compatible with the halters for the six citizens of Calais. And to take one more illustration quite late on in the centuries—what a gulf separates ante-Reform times from our own! How expressive of the haughty landed aristocrat are these words of the Duchess of Buckingham after condescending to listen to the Wesleyan preaching: “I thank your ladyship for the information concerning the Methodist preachers. Their doctrines are most repulsive and strongly tinctured with impertinence and disrespect towards their superiors, in perpetually endeavouring to level all ranks and to do away with all distinctions. It is monstrous to be told that you have a heart as sinful as the common wretches that crawl the earth. This is highly offensive, and I cannot but wonder that your ladyship should relish any sentiments so much at variance with high birth and good breeding.”

Full lists of contemporary writers will be found in Traill’s volumes on Social England, which as “a record of the progress of the people in Religion, Laws, Learning, Arts, Industry, Commerce, Science, Literature and Manners, from the earliest times to the present day,” meets perhaps the greatest want of the ordinary teacher, to whom no one general history of social progress was before accessible.

(e) Historical pictures.As illustrations there are also historical portraits, contemporary pictures of historic scenes, and pictures of costumes. Most schools now subscribe to the “Art for Schools Association,” and can make a very good portrait gallery of their own. The splendid collection of historical costumes designed by Mr. Lewis Wingfield for the Healtheries can still be seen, I believe, and a few of them have been reproduced by him in a book with descriptive letterpress. Exhibitions, like the Tudor and Stuart, are most valuable to the realisation of history, and visits to historical buildings are within the possibilities of most, and add great zest to many a holiday both for teachers and girls. It is impossible to forget the circumstances of the Dauphin’s coronation at Rheims, after staying where Joan of Arc stayed and standing in the cathedral, where she witnessed the fulfilment of her mission.

(f) Historical poems, Shakspere’s plays, historical novels.Passages from historical poems or from a Shakspere play often add to the interest of a lesson; as the challenge-scene from Richard II., the trial-scene from Henry VIII., Milton’s sonnet on the massacre in Piedmont, Spenser’s Gloriana and the false Duessa for Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots. And in quite modern history Mrs. Hamilton King’s Disciples, Swinburne’s Songs before Sunrise, Mrs. Browning’s Peace of Villafranca, all give expression to the passionate longing for freedom of Italy.

Perhaps nothing makes history more real than a good historical novel. Bulwer-Lytton’s Last of the Barons makes the figure of Warwick as lifelike as that of any minister of our own day. Edward IV., Clarence, Richard III. have each their individuality, and so has that shadowy prince who was killed at Tewkesbury, while Isabella Neville stands out for ever distinct from her gentle, timid sister Anne.

John Inglesant gives the very spirit of the Charles I. period—cavaliers and ladies coquetting with the classics in the learned Oxford halls, the devotion, even to the death, of the Jesuit-trained John Inglesant, and the midnight apparition of the murdered Strafford to the king, for whom he had laid down his life.

It is quite worth while to put up a list of historical novels bearing on their period, for older as well as for younger classes.

Home-work: (a) Viva-voces.How are we to test the work done by the pupils? Lord Acton quotes from Sir W. Hamilton: “I must regard the main duty of a professor to consist, not simply in communicating information, but in doing this in such a manner and with such an accompaniment of subsidiary means, that the information he conveys may be the occasion of awakening his pupils to a vigorous and varied exertion of their faculties”.

By means of viva-voce questions and paper work, the class should be tested between each lecture. The object of the teacher is to find out with as little expenditure of time as possible, that the work set has been thoroughly done. I know no better means of doing this than by what are called written viva-voces. The teacher prepares two sets of questions called respectively A and B. The alternate girls write the answers to the A and B questions in small exercise books which they keep for the purpose. They rule two margins, the left-hand for the number of the question, the right-hand margin is used by the corrector. Ten minutes can test an hour’s lesson. The books are changed so that the Bs correct the work of the As, and have to attend to the answers of the questions they did not do. The teacher repeats aloud the answer to each question. Each corrector signs her name and puts the mark obtained. The teacher, when she looks through the books afterwards, can thus bring home any careless correction to the right person, and anything like favouritism in correcting is prevented. This viva-voce work ensures accurate knowledge of facts, and I have known girls find it sufficiently useful, to continue the same system among themselves after they have gone up to the university.

(b) Essay-writing.The most valuable exercise for the pupil is the writing of essays. These may begin on a subject already dealt with in class (care being taken that the essay is not a reproduction of notes of the lesson), but the pupil will soon be trained to read and think out for herself subjects which she has not previously heard discussed. She will learn experimentally what Lord Acton calls, “those shining precepts which are the registered property of every school, that is to say, learn as much by writing as by reading; be not content with the best books, seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites; keep men and things apart; guard against the prestige of great names; see that your judgments are your own and do not shrink from disagreement; no trusting without testing; be more severe to ideas than to actions; do not overlook the strength of the bad cause or the weakness of the good”.

The giving back of the essays ought to be a very valuable lesson. Happy passages should be read aloud, weak passages criticised, each paper estimated as a whole, and the pupil ought to leave the class, feeling that if the work were to be done again, she at least understands the general drift of the subject and could treat it more adequately than before.

I venture to illustrate my meaning, the subject set being a discussion of the policy of Francis I. in his relations with Charles V. The essay should show that Francis I., like his predecessors in the Italian expeditions, Charles VIII. and Louis XII., failed to realise in what direction lay the true interests of France, with regard to the new problem of balance of power. By entering into personal rivalry with Charles and striving for territorial conquest in Italy, Francis lost the opportunity which should have belonged to France, of controlling the European situation. If he had only been content with securing gateways into Italy and making alliances with the northern Italians and German Protestant princes against Imperial encroachments, he would have gained the casting vote in European affairs and have held the key to the problem, which it was not permitted to France, till the time of Richelieu, to solve.

Post-school work.A word or two as to the way in which the teacher can help her old pupils to read history. There are a fortunate few who pass on to the universities. An increasing number can attend University Extension lectures and become members of a local Students’ Association. But it is those who are not within reach of any local organisation, who are glad of a little help. To these, when they first leave school, an old girls’ Reading Society is generally welcome. The regular reading it requires is a training in methodical arrangement of time, and schemes of reading, with plenty of choice, are a help to those who have hitherto had all their intellectual work arranged for them. Teachers have sometimes found it possible to take up parties to the Summer Extension meetings. Parents are willing to let their daughters go with responsible guardians, and the preparatory reading is a great interest, besides the stimulus that the lectures themselves give to subsequent work at home.

Conclusion.The educational value of historical study does not belong to this paper, but I end by quoting three passages, which are full of encouragement to the teacher of history. They are referred to by Lord Acton in his famous lecture at Cambridge.

“The study of modern history is, next to theology itself and only next in so far as theology rests on a divine revelation, the most thoroughly religious training that the mind can receive.” (Bishop Stubbs.)

“History is full of indirect but very effective moral teaching. It is not only, as Bolingbroke called it, philosophy teaching by examples, but it is morality teaching by examples. It is essentially the study which best helps the student to conceive large thoughts. It is impossible to overvalue the moral teaching of history.” (Sir J. Fitch.)

“The object (in history teaching) is to lead the student to ... take interest in history not as a mere narrative, but as a chain of causes and effects, still unwinding itself before our eyes and full of momentous consequences to himself and his descendants, an unremitting conflict between good and evil powers, of which every act done by any one of us, insignificant as we are, forms one of the incidents, a conflict in which even the smallest of us cannot escape from taking part, in which whoever does not help the right side is helping the wrong.” (Mill. Inaugural Address.)

SPECIMEN SYLLABUS OF ENGLISH HISTORY.

Foreign Policy of Elizabeth.