HINTS TO TEACHERS.

THE history of the United States may fairly be said to begin with the fall of Quebec, for just as soon as it was determined that the English were to be masters of the continent, the spirit of self-government began to assert itself, and agitation did not cease till the colonies were organized as States, and the States composed a Union. All that precedes the fall of Quebec, therefore, is treated as Introduction to the history. But in studying history one is constantly pushing back farther and farther to the beginnings of beginnings, and in order to give some satisfaction to this craving for getting at the source of things, two supplementary chapters have been added which give in outline the condition of Europe before the discovery of America, and the physical characteristics of the continent as affecting historical development. Where the students of this history are mature enough, it is advised that these two chapters be studied first; and I strongly recommend that in all cases the class read over these chapters at the outset of their study, and that the teacher, reading with them, make running comment on the text.

The plan of the book is designed to help the student to a logical conception of the history of the country; for one of the great advantages gained by the study of history is the strengthening of the logical faculty, the practice of answering the whys of events. Thus, following the Introduction which shows the ways leading up to the Union, there are two books, one devoted to the establishment of the Union which took place when the new nation was rendered finally independent of Europe, the other devoted to the development of

Again, each book is

the Union, a process still going on. divided into chapters, designed to group the great topics of the book, and each chapter is broken up into sections, representing the succession of topics; under these sections there are sometimes given unnumbered sub-sections, indicated like the main ones by heavy-face type, and for convenience in seeing distinct statements, these sections are often broken up into paragraphs.

It will be found of advantage to give to each part, to each subdivision, indeed, a thorough review before proceeding to the next. For this purpose a series of aids to the pupil has been provided. At the end of each chapter will be found questions covering the paragraphs in the chapter. They are questions which cannot be answered by yes or no; they require the pupil to know what he has studied, and very often to have thought carefully about what he has read. They do not exhaust the subject, -any skillful teacher can vary and multiply questions indefinitely, but they serve the purpose of enabling a pupil to try himself. The best questions are those which grow out of the recitations of a pupil, and the series given in this book should be taken as containing rather suggestions than a hard and fast set of questions. It is advised that these questions on the text be not used by the teacher in hearing the recitation, but for purposes of review. Along with each of these series is another briefer series, to be used, as the title Search Questions implies, to quicken the student's interest in the period just studied. There are numberless by ways which a school history cannot explore; no history will answer all the questions which spring up in the mind of an intelligent reader, but the life of historical study consists first in mastering the material placed before one, and then in pushing on, in exploring the territory laid open. These Search Questions are not idle conundrums, and they do not often refer to what may be called the mere curiosities of history; but they are designed to start the student upon research, and upon using the books whose titles are jotted down at the foot of the page.

At convenient landing places Topical Analyses have been introduced to aid still further in securing a thorough and fresh examination. It will be observed that they are not mere straight-away indexes to what has been passed over. Every good teacher knows how desirable it is to get rid of a parrotlike repetition of an author's words in a text-book. These Topical Analyses break up the narrative into natural groups of related facts, and enable one to get cross sections of the history; they furnish good subjects for compositions and debates; they give starting points for new inquiries; and, above all, they help to test the student's knowledge of the text, by compelling him to follow a new order, and to use his own language in stating facts and causes.

It is important to bear in mind that a capital opportunity is afforded by the study of history for the cultivation of the faculty of expression. A word for word recitation of the chapter is not to be encouraged. It is a feat of the memory, and may be quite unattended by any real appropriation of the passage recited. But pupils should be encouraged to use, when they recite, finished sentences, and not be allowed in a careless fashion to fall into a broken, halting, ungrammatical way of tumbling out facts; a scholar who recites in this loose manner will not really know what he is reciting half so well as when he has trained himself to frame neat, clear, and compact statements. For this reason, a teacher should not only make much of perfection of the spoken answer, but should use the history work as the basis of literary work. To aid the pupils, a number of subjects for composition and debate have been provided after each chapter. They are suggestions only, but they may serve to prompt other subjects also. Especially it would be well to call frequently for the writing of biographical sketches. Outlines of leading facts have been given both in the text and footnotes, and by means of these, encyclopedias, and regular biographies, very interesting studies of the lives of men of importance can be drawn up.

The debates which are suggested afford an excellent oppor

tunity for training in expression, and for bringing out the knowledge of the debaters, and the accuracy of their information. It is a good plan to let two of the class act as leaders and choose sides just as in any game; then to give the two parties time to divide up the subject, and to work by themselves over the treatment of it. During the debate, if careful rules are regarded, it should be a part of the game for the opposite side to ply the debater with questions. Debates conducted before the whole school not only train the debaters, but serve as an excellent quickener of the wits of those who listen.

The study of civil government may be promoted by an organization of the school or class into a Debating Club with officers and a constitution.

The maps, large and small, offer good opportunities for special examination and review. In reviews of this kind, it is not necessary to draw the map upon the board. Let the pupil have the map before him. By a little practice he will become very expert in the needed preparation for these special exercises.

It may be a disappointment to some not to find the facts of this history regularly marshaled under the separate administrations. There is no doubt an advantage in such an arrangement. It helps the memory by associating the succession of facts with successive quadrenniums, which in turn are named after the Presidents in their order. On the other hand, there is a degree of artificiality in such a disposition of history. The changes in administration have been of consequence, sometimes of great consequence; but it is likely to give a mistaken notion of the relation of administrations to the development of the nation, to mislead one as to the true cause for the effects produced, when the incidents of the history are fixed by the law of association with certain persons at the time holding office. I have, therefore, while noting the administrations in turn, treated them as parts of the incident of history rather than as four-mile posts. But for the convenience of those who wish to use them as centers about which to group history,

I have made out full tables, following the topical analyses; and it would be a fresh exercise of a review order to call for a recital of historic facts under each administration. These can be gathered not only from the text itself, but from the Chronological Tables appended to each large group.

Finally, a word should be said of the use to which the copious Index may be put. The familiar use of an index is to find the page readily where a person or an incident is treated; the history becomes a good book of reference when it is equipped with a good index. But there is a further use which so full an index as the one here given will serve. It brings together many scattered references to some one subject which is not treated once for all in a single passage, and it may be made the means thus of a further review. Suppose, for example, a pupil is writing a biographical sketch of a character in history. By reference to the index he will very likely find incidental references which otherwise might escape him. Or again, if one wished to trace the relations of France with this country, the entry under the general head of France would enable him to follow the thread from the fishermen of Brittany to Maximilian.

Thus I have tried to make every part of the apparatus of the book reënforce the teacher in his effort to use this History as a work to instruct, to train, and to inspire the pupil in the acquisition of that great and important task, a knowledge of the nation in which he is a freeman and in whose destiny he has a part.