now.

What wonder that under such instruction, they became a nation of dreamers, and that they have utterly neglected for so many long centuries to see with their eyes and hear with their ears those truths of nature which are so obvious that even the brute creation—not being metaphysicians-recognize them! That their ethics was, however, of a high order may be seen from the following quotations from the Laws of Manu, the standard of the Ancient Brahmins: "Devising means to appropriate the wealth of other men, resolving on any forbidden deed, and conceiving notions of atheism or materialism, are the three bad acts of the mind. Scurrilous language, falsehood, indiscriminate backbiting, and useless tattle are the four bad acts of the tongue...... He whose firm understanding obtains a command over his words, a command over his thoughts, and a command over his whole body, may justly be called a triple commander. The man who exerts this triple self-command with respect to all animated creatures, wholly subduing both Just and wrath, shall by those means attain beatitude.”

2.

And this, of a later date, from the Ethics of Buddhism: "There are three sins of the body. 1. The taking of life--murder. The taking of that which is not given-theft. 3. Impurity. There are four sins of speech: 1. Lying. 2. Slander. 3. Abuse. 4. Unprofitable conversation. There are three sins of the mind: I. Covetousness. 2. Malice. 3. Skepticism. There are also five other evils that are to be avoided: 1. The drinking of intoxicating liquors. 2. Gambling. 3. Idleness. 4. Improper associations. 5. The frequenting of places of amusement.

The education of women among the Ancient Hindoos was of such a nature as to fulfill to the highest degree the ideal of that class of modern writers who are so terribly alarmed lest she be educated out of a state of dependence on man, and thus lose something of herwell, of her traditional viny nature, as it were. The Brahmins gave her no opportunity to sacrifice any of her poetic charms in such an unwomanly way. They made it a great disgrace for her to learn to read; and when the "sturdy oak," to which she had so beautifully clung, was stricken down, she was very graciously permitted to attach her tendrils to the rough projections of his funeral pile and display her charms and graces from its summit.

China. We pass from India across the Himalaya Mountains and find ourselves among the teeming millions of the Celestial Empire. Here we find conservatism crystallized. As the people are to-day, so they were ten centuries ago,--and as they were then, so they

were, substantially, in the days when blind old Homer wrote the Odyssey and the Iliad. Since the days of Con-fut-see, (Confucius,) they have deemed it sacrilege to advance beyond the precepts of that sage, and even he only compiled, at a time when Rome was still without an alphabet, the writings of those who had so long preceded him that their works had been well nigh-forgotten. But in spite of their iron-clad conservatism, the Chinese have stumbled upon some of the greatest discoveries of the civilized world. Here gunpowder and the use of fire-arms were known while all Europe was still armed with the primitive bow and spear; and here, too, the printing press was known and used at a time when such a thing had not been dreamed of in the West, and when but few, even of the kings of nations could trace in the mirky darkness of the times the characters of a written page.

Schools have existed in China from time immemorial. A boy, before entering school, was given a course of home-training, consisting of reverence for parents and ancestors, repeating precepts of morality, committing extracts from the Chi-King, counting to 10,ooo, and a careful drill in the proper use of his native language. At the age of five or six he was sent to school, where, upon entering, he was required to make obeisance first to Con-fut-see, and, secondly, to the next greatest man, his teacher. The school exercises consisted mainly in writing the Chinese characters, practice in the fundamental principles of arithmetic, lessons in morals and manners, chanting odes from the Chi-King, and in the narrating and explanation of Chinese history by the teacher. Returning home, it is said the young heathen were required to salute, first, the domestic spirits, second, their ancestors, third, their parents, and, lastly, any strangers who might be present. It might be profitable to compare the deportment of these lads with many of their Christian fellow urchins thirty or forty centuries later-but then comparisons are odious. The course of instruction in the primary schools extended through from three to five years, according to the aptitude of the pupils, for in those days it had not yet been discovered that all minds may be made to fit the same mold, and thus be all carried through a long course of study in the same time.

These lower schools were supported by local authority rather than by the state at large, but it seems that most of the male children were permitted to attend. Female children were, however, not admitted, but it is said that most of them were taught to read, write and sing at home. There was a higher course designed for the

children of the nobles, the wealthy, and such of the children of the poor as had distinguished themselves in the common schools. In addition to this, there was a seminary in each large city, to which admission was gained through the governor. After a prescribed course of study, the graduates of these institutions were again examined; and if they sustained the severe ordeal, they were permitted to enter the Imperial College at Pekin. Here, after a further three years' course of study, the students were again subjected to a still more severe examination, and the few who passed were then appointed to some office in the government. This was civil service reform with a vengeance. But long as was the Chinese course of study, it seems to have been well-nigh valueless, except in strengthening the memory. It containd little or no mathematics beyond the rudiments of arithmetic, it included no language except their mother tongue, its history was so interwoven with the fabulous as to render it worse than useless, for all practical purposes, and its science was for the most part unworthy of the name. The course

seems to have consisted mainly in the parrot-like committing to memory of long lists of meaningless names of sages and herves, either real or apocryphal; and it is recorded that the childlike AhSin was as skillful then in blandly tucking away in his spacious sleeves astonishing quantities of keys to things he did not understand, as was his illustrious namesake of more modern times, when examined by William Nye regarding his knowledge of the history of certain kings and queens. One of those ancient sinful keys is now preserved in the library of Harvard University,-doubtless as a warning to the faculty that if they put that in their curriculum, which is to be blindly memorized, they need not be surprised if Young America resorts to the same dark ways, and eke the same vain tricks, as did his almond-eyed brother of the "Middle Kingdom" two thousand years ago.

SECOND YEAR-IOWA TEACHERS' READING CIRCLE. The State Board of Iowa Teachers' Reading Circle, at the recent meeting in Des Moines, recommend for second year the following course of reading: 1. In history-The latter half of medieval history and modern history. II. In science-Ist. That Watt's on the mind" be transferred to the first half of the second year. 2d. Some work in political and social science. IV. Some work in professional history or literature. v. That as history is the main or central study for the first year, especial emphasis shall be given in the second year to the works in science.