"two," and they made the second piece; then the third, then the fourth. If every letter is analysed in this way and written, at first, piece by piece, it does much to explain the excellence of the German school writing.

The great error was leaving too much space between the two down strokes,—the adult reader can verify the tendency by making this letter himself-and this, with other less common mistakes, was corrected on the board. I was again impressed with the good writing of young children, and, when we remember that there are no municipal infant schools, we have cause to ponder. The first notion, that infant school writing-we are now speaking of the four and five year old children—has no value as a preliminary training, is probably the wrong one. I incline rather to the notion that the analysis of the letters is more attended to than with us when the children enter the senior schools, and that this explains their superiority; but I am not sure that this constitutes the whole explanation.

Hamburg. Primary School. Writing.

In a girls' school in Hamburg the writing was beautiful throughout. It is not easy to estimate the quality of writing with which one is not well acquainted, and one easily overestimates the quality of the German script; but the conditions of comparison are satisfied by the Italian script, which both countries use; and I think that one who is well acquainted with the writing of English and German schools would assign the palm to the latter.

Leipsic.-Primary School. Class VII.-Composition. Second School Year. Children seven and eight years old.

The object lessons are made the basis of little exercises in written composition. In this class, however, the sentences are copied from the blackboard, so that there is no composition, strictly speaking. In the class above, the children rewrite at home what they can remember of the sentences formed in class. The following specimen in their exercise books was the composition for August 26, 1902:—

The Goat.-1st Exercise

The goat is a tame animal. It is also called Geis. The young goats are called Zicklein. The male goat is called he-goat. It lives in the stable.

2nd Exercise

The goat has a slender form. It is covered with long, rough hair. It has a beard and horns. The goat has divided hoofs and chews the cud. It gives us milk, cheese, meat, and leather.

Leipsic.-Higher Elementary School. Class IV.Composition. Girls, aged ten to eleven years.

The lesson began with a "declamation "-Die Kapelle, by Ludwig Uhland.

The teacher picked out the hard words from the next section to be read, and wrote them on the blackboard. The selection is interesting as showing which

words presented difficulty to children of this age and social upbringing. They were—

"Eroberungen.”

"Markgrafen."

"Vorgänger."

"Dienstleute."

"Benutzung."

"Strafzügen."

"Räuberbanden."

The recitation was extremely good, and not in this case, as so frequently in Germany, over declamatory. The perfect discipline and extremely quiet voice of the teacher may have accounted for this.

Then followed the composition.

It was called Das Gewitter, which was the title of a poem previously read.

The teacher asked a series of questions, the answers to which formed a fairly connected narrative. The answers were as follow:

The Storm

Before the storm the air is cool and the sky is black. A few heavy drops fall from the sky. Now it rains more and more. The birds fly to their nests. The traveller hastens home. The fisher sets his sails for home. The mother looks out of the window. The grandmother prays that no harm may come to her dear ones.

Then the children went through the little narrative again orally; and afterwards took down a few leading words from the teacher, preparatory to writing out the composition in full at home.

H

CHAPTER XII

HISTORY

Frankfort.-Primary School

History begins in the fourth year of school life, when the children are from nine to ten years old.

Lesson on the Thirty Years' War.

(Class III. Boys, ten to eleven years old.)

Teacher. When did the war begin?

When did it end?

Whom was it between?

What kind of a war was it?

What religion was the Kaiser?
In what countries was the fighting?

Who had the larger army?

Who were beaten ?

What religion were the people compelled to follow ?

I give the questions which indicate the outline and, in some measure, the scope of the lesson, or rather, perhaps, what was aimed at in the way of permanent acquisition.

Berlin.-Primary School. Class II. Seventh School Year. Thirty-two girls present. Nine were eleven years old; fourteen were twelve years old; seven were thirteen years old; two were fourteen years old.

Most of the children in this class had history books which they had bought, and which they always carried with them; but the purchase of the history book was not obligatory.

The lesson opened with a series of questions on the dates of the important events dealt with in the preceding lesson.

The leading points in the lesson proceeding were :

Könige aus dem Fränkischen Hause. (Kings of the Franconian House.)

Konrad's Wahl. (Konrad's choice.)

Heinrich im Kampf mit den Sachsen. (Henry at war with the Saxons.)

Der Sieg des Königs. (The king's victory.)

Gregor VII. (Gregory VII.)

Heinrich IV. im Kampfe mit Gregor. (The contest of Henry IV. with Gregory.)

Canossa.

The attention was excellent, and the subject-matter very clearly apprehended. No information was given without being immediately questioned upon, and toward the close of the lesson individual children stood up and gave oral accounts of various sections of it. I inquired how far this power was general, and the