children from early youth to the use of tools, and give them a thorough training in the mechanic arts.

The Ecole municipal d'Apprentis, already described, cost the city of Paris $150,000, and the working expenses amount to $12,000 a year. Each of the two hundred and twenty-one pupils passes through the school on the average at a cost of $55.50 per annum. The return to Paris, for her investment in this and kindred institutions, is the art and taste displayed in her fabrics, which assure her wealth and magnificence. Her workmen can design a carpet, decorate a wall, paint a picture, carve a table, engrave a jewel, embroider a screen, mold a vase, and add a grace and finish to every article of use or beauty, until she has become the acknowledged mistress of the world in the department of art-industry.

In the condition of the United States a much less outlay would be incurred for the public schools. They train the understanding until it becomes a reservoir of varied knowledge-the most complete system of mental development ever devised for popular instruction. Beyond doubt this can answer an admirable purpose, for it is an established principle with us that educated men and women excel those who are not so in whatever branch of work they engage. But what course are the graduates to take? Has this superb education given them the information they most need in this industrious world? Now comes the test. Here school-life ends; its motives, its preferences, and its work are now to be displayed in an entirely different order of things. Surely, one would think, after so many years of study, embracing the whole educational period of life to most of them, some of these

acquirements can be embodied in works useful and skillful, and that it would subserve the general purpose of uniting one portion of the body with the whole in its use, and that it would extend its helping power to all the parts, and summon them into the harmony of co-operation in a life of self-help and self-reliance. Does not the result of observation and experience warrant much of the sarcasm we hear, and draw from all the true friends of our school system an ardent desire for the introduction of such reforms and improvements as will infuse and impress upon all the pupils the living practical knowledge of the useful and the true? Professor Runkle, in noticing this deficiency, and in pointing out the proper remedy, remarks: "Suppose, now, that the same student had the opportunity during his school course, say till eighteen years of age, to go through a well-arranged series of mechanic art-shops under competent instructors; what are the chances that upon graduation he would not enter upon that pursuit for which he felt himself best fitted, and which held out the best prospects, not only for the pressing present, but for the future? That a course of education forms habits as well as tastes, is obvious; and it is unreasonable to expect that pupils educated almost exclusively through one set of closely allied subjects should show a partiality for pursuits with which these subjects have only the most remote, if any, connection."

If these views of the distinguished professor be correct, then there must be some defect in our system of instruction, and that defect must consist in limiting the studies to the intellect alone, and the exclusion of every element of practical or manual teaching. Perhaps this course, which is derived from the by-gone centuries, might

still answer, were it not for the wonderful development of the useful arts, and the imperious needs which they impose for industrial and educational improvements. Mechanic art is one of wider application to-day than any other branch of knowledge taught in school or college. To all men a knowledge of it is important, and to a vast number of pursuits it is indispensable; nor does it impart useful knowledge only, but confers also a most valuable discipline upon the higher faculties, for one of its ends is intellectual. Let it stand, therefore, in its proper rank with other studies, and be rated just as it compares with them in elevating and instructing the mind, and imbuing it with that kind of knowledge which will increase its powers and promote the usefulness and happiness of mankind.

CHAPTER XV.

Question of expense considered-Cost of workshop at Gloucester-At the Dwight School, Boston-Estimates of Mr. Chaney-Mr. Leland's school at Philadelphia-Of the Industrial School at Montclair, New JerseyEstimates of Mr. Royce-Of the Spring Garden Institute-Helpless condition of the graduate, growing out of an exclusively intellectual training-Natural substances are fitted by industry for use-Cost of support for public schools--Object of education-Manual skill and knowledgeHigh-schools-Professor Runkle's remarks upon high-schools-Manual training; its advantages-Mechanical art-Multiplicity of talent-The benefit of generalizing illustrated by botany and chemistry-Applied to mechanic art-Drawing in all art-Generalizing tools-The use of machinery-Has not superseded the necessity for skilled workmen— Machinery has multiplied employments-Illustrations of the powerloom, printing-press, steam-engine, and cotton-gin—Effects of machinery in reducing prices and increasing conveniences-The demand for perfection of workmanship-Examples of well-paid skill-Inventions and industrial ambition-The forces of matter made useful-Machine-tools -Hand-skill still required-Building, carriage-making, etc.—The useful arts co-operative-The use of machinery not art-The trained artisan thinks while he works-Connection of science with useful art-The mechanic the true demonstrator-Science-schools in Great Britain-In the United States-In public schools-Education in the rudiments of science a necessity-Laboratories and workshops attached to highschools-Not to teach a particular trade, but the underlying principles of all trades—Objection answered-System illustrated—Mr. MagnusCity and Guilds of London Institute-Finsbury Technical College-The system adapted to our public schools.

WE have somewhat considered the question of additional expense, and have contended that a course of indus

way

trial training might be devised which would make its by degrees into various forms of work without much increasing the public burden. This has been the experience in such schools as have tried the experiment of teaching some of the minor arts and the rudiments of mechanical industry.

In the special report of L. H. Marvel, superintendent of the Gloucester public schools, in estimating the expense of the industrial school there, he remarks that a room similar to the one at Gloucester can be fitted up for a carpentry-class at an expense of $500. In such a shop, thoroughly and completely equipped, one teacher can instruct four classes each day, and twenty classes each week, of sixteen members each, and the actual cost of instruction would not exceed $800 annually, allowing forty weeks for the year. The expense of stock would not exceed fifty cents for each pupil. Upon this basis the per capita expense of instructing three hundred and twenty pupils would be about three dollars a year. Probably the expense would be greater, if forging and casting were added.

The school committee of the city of Boston, in co-operation with the Industrial School Association, have made a practical trial of a workshop in connection with a public school. One of the rooms of the Dwight School building was fitted up for the purpose. A carpenter was employed as teacher. The session continued from January to May, 1882. The total expenses incurred in equipping and continuing the school were $712. The principal of the school, in speaking of the great success of the enterprise, concludes in these words: "I consider that the results go far to prove that manual training is so great a