sion will be granted to the children of parents in distressed circumstances, who seem most likely to profit by the education offered.

Girls will be admitted on the same conditions as boys.

III

THE COURSE

The ordinary course of education proceeds, no doubt rightly, on the assumption that the ordinary boy cannot think for himself; that he requires to have his mind made up for him; to be given as much information, useful or otherwise, as he can digest, but to be trained to think and act on lines laid down for him by others-whether by William of Wykeham or some more modern educationist. The boys who pass through such a training happily may emerge with many valuable qualities, such as integrity, industry, and prudence, but they are nature's undermen, and they are most likely to prosper in subordinate positions, and along regular grooves.

There are other boys in every generation, and must be till the race is exhausted, who have minds of their own, and the fine edge of whose intelligence is only blunted by the ordinary curriculum. These boys require to be led, not driven, to be given reasons rather than rules; to be helped to learn, rather than to be taught.

It is for this latter class only that the course of St. George's School is designed, and therefore it is of a much less formal character than that of the ordinary school. The course may be divided roughly under two heads, corresponding to the two meanings of the word educate to bring up and to bring out. The training, beginning with the body and animal functions, is directed to make the boy a healthy, honorable man, agreeable to himself and others. The teaching, addressed by turns to the reason and the imagination, aims at helping him to discover and develop his own faculties, so as to make the best use of life.

TRAINING

1. Health. Active out-door games will be preferred to drill and formal gymnastics, but the scholars will not be allowed to regard games as the serious business of life, at school or afterwards. Scouting and exploration will be combined with education in geography, history and natural science.

2. Manners. It will be taken for granted that every boy wishes to be a gentleman, and to be taught how to become one. In the early years of school life good behavior will be enforced by corporal punishment in the case of boys whose character requires it. As fast as the scholar grows able to understand them, the higher motives which should inspire conduct will be explained to him; and if they prove insufficient, he will not remain at the School.

3. Ethics. At a suitable age the scholar will begin to receive practical instruction and advice on the conduct of life. The character of the world in which he has to play his part will be explained to him without cant on the one hand, or cynicism on the other; and he will be warned against the pitfalls that await him in business, in society, and in his own character.

Throughout his school life each scholar will be invited to come to the Master at least once a week, and to confide his troubles and difficulties to him in the character of a friend. The purpose of these talks will not be to extract confessions of wrongdoing from the boy, but to comfort and cheer him with the knowledge that the Master cares for him, and wants to understand and help him.

TEACHING

1. Practical Accomplishments. As much time as is found necessary in each individual case will be given to the strictly necessary tasks of reading, writing and reckoning, to which singing, drawing and typing will be added in most cases. Boys not of a mathematical bent will not be asked to take up algebra or the more advanced rules of arithmetic. Geometry will be taught in the practical forms of drawing and mensuration. A

knowledge of weights and measures will be imparted, as far as possible, in concrete form, and not by means of tables.

French and German will be taught in conversation until such times as the scholar himself feels the need of grammars and vocabularies. Boys who show an aptitude for these or other languages will be strongly advised to pass some time at a school in the countries where they are spoken.

Latin and Greek will not be taught except in connection with English philology.

2. Knowledge. The scholar will receive a general introduction to the field of knowledge, according to the following plan, and will then be aided in studying those subjects which most appeal to him:

3. Cultivation. True cultivation must begin with the language in which the scholar thinks. In learning to express himself clearly he learns to think clearly. The English language is fortunately free from anything worth learning in the shape of grammar, but its duplicate vocabulary, half Dutch and half Latin, renders philology a very important part of education.

Literature should form rather the recreation than the task

of an intelligent boy. The scholar will be advised and assisted in the choice of books, and his critical taste will be aroused in due course; but he will not be asked to encumber his mind with the rubbish of scholasticism.

The history of his own country will be studied in connection with that of Europe and the world. The scholar's memory will not be burdened with useless dates and names, but he will be taught to think in centuries, and to remember events by their logical connection with each other.

On approaching modern times the scholar will require some explanation of the great controversies, religious and political, that have divided, and still divide, his own and other nations. Very great care will be exercised to put the facts before him with fidelity, and the principles involved with fairness, so as to guide, but not to influence, his future choice among competing sects and parties. The Master's aim throughout will be to lead each boy to select the associations in which he can be happiest and most useful to himself and others, and he will consider that he has failed in his object if his scholars are found hereafter all holding the same opinions and pursuing the same ends.

Confucius was once asked why he had given contradictory instructions to two different disciples. He explained, "The first was too slow; therefore I urged him forward: the second was too hasty; therefore I held him back." That is the whole secret of education, considered as an art, and not only a science; and in so far as it is an art, what is best in it must elude the theorists. and the training colleges, and the true teacher must be born, not made.

DRY-FARMING

Two Letters

[The following letters are clear and self-explanatory. They seem of such interest to a growing section of the community that full publicity is desirable.-EDITOR.]

To the Editor of THE FORUM.

DEAR SIR: I have been greatly interested in reading an article which appeared in THE FORUM'S May issue, under the caption of The Golden Fleece, from the pen of Paul S. Richards, who signs himself a Wyoming sheep-man.

As Mr. Richards is a sheep-man and the writer is not, it would be distinctly out of place for me to criticise any of his statements in regard to the sheep and wool situation in Wyoming or in the West; but as Mr. Richards is evidently, from his own statements, quite ignorant of the facts in connection with dry-farming and the development of this system, and as I do know something of the facts, I take the liberty of criticising in the most severe terms the attitude of Mr. Richards toward dryfarming. While there is a shadow of the truth in the writing of Mr. Richards, his statements are so devoid of accuracy that I believe that it is due to the readers of THE FORUM to know the facts in the case.

Never in the history of the development of dry-farming or of the West itself has there been any statement made by any person presumed to have good judgment, that the rainbelt line was moving westward, although the line of civilization-of actual farming-has moved westward in response to the cry of the people for more land. The invasion of the actual farmer into the West was an affront, and seems still to be an affront to the livestock man of the old school. Mr. Richards might have gone further in his statement and have shown how hundreds of homesteaders have had to fight for their rights to prevent the invasion of their homesteads and the destruction of their crops by livestock. He might have told how the homesteaders were frightened away from the West, or from their established prop