the average child are merely instinctive and not deliberate expressions of itself; and a wise treatment of them will divert the activity of which they are the expression into other channels. By such means, too, right habits of thought will unconsciously be formed. The ferm Habits is often erroneously applied to actions alone, but habits of thinking and feeling are equally common and equally important. We may define Habit as a fixed disposition, due to practice, to act, think, or feel in a certain definite way. In course of time habit becomes, like Coleridge's north wind, "tyrannous and strong," as automatical as instinct: the former being the outcome of individual experience is acquired; the latter is inherited from the experience of the race. Habit to a large extent does away with the necessity of thought, and therefore, in so far as a man acts habitually, he ceases to act rationally. A man should therefore be able if necessary to break his habits, especially those of thought and feeling, for habit dulls the power of feeling. Repetition of action is the beginning of habit; the more complex the action the greater the number of repetitions necessary. Unbroken repetition is essential if you wish to form a habit, unbroken discontinuance if you wish to get rid of one. For the formation of any habit, good or bad, some strong motive force is necessary, by means of which is produced an inclination in the child's mind towards the thing aimed at. Nature endows the child with a strong desire to imitate, and so the habits of walking and speaking are formed. As already pointed out, a long series of repetitions is necessary, in which no exceptions should be allowed to occur; for each exception makes the formation of the habit a longer and more difficult process. The actions which come most natural to us are those which are the result of long practice; and these in course of time are done without any conscious effort on our part. In the case of walking, we never have to pause to think of the different muscles employed.

There are two habits which should from the very first he impressed on young children-the habits of obedience and of truthfulness. Even in the smallest matters implicit obedience should be expected. In children well brought up obedience to proper authority becomes a habit, and one that will have a good and not a weakening effect on the self-respect and independence of the character; for it is strikingly true that he who knows not how to obey knows not how to command. True liberty consists in obedience, for to be a free and honest man one must obey both the

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civil and moral law. It is essential that this manly and self-respecting spirit of obedience should be evoked in childhood. "It is quite a mistake to adopt the modern system of allowing children to treat their fathers and mothers on terms of equality, to let them express an opinion whenever they please, and ask the reason of everything. There is no equality between a man and a child, between a father and his son. Any apparent equality allowed to exist is one wholly unfounded on truth." Children are much more observant and discriminating than is commonly supposed, and do not resent a firm and consistent but affectionate discipline. The present Archbishop of Canterbury is ford of recalling how, when he was a master at one of our large public schools, he overheard one of his pupils confide to a friend his opinion that Temple was a beast, but a just beast. If you wish to make a child selfish, petulant, discontented. and miserable, indulge all his whims, humour all his weaknesses, and deny him nothing. In every way, and in all cases, there is no worse rule than a weak one. Above all things, should the parent and teacher aim at being consistent; avoid coercive measures so long as it is possible rightly to do so; do not treat the same offence at one time with leniency and at another with severity. Be sparing of commands, but when once given see that they are carried out to the letter. Again, to quote Herbert Spencer, "Consider well beforehand what you are going to do; weigh all the consequences; think whether your firmness of purpose will be sufficient; and then, if you finally make the law, enforce it uniformly at all costs. Let your penalties be like the penalties inflicted by inanimate Nature-inevitable." Carry this out in the very smallest matters; train your children to be regular in rising and in going to bed, punctual to meals, tidy and clean in their person and dress, polite to friends and acquaintances, simple and easy in deportment; thus, by kindly, firm, and consistent treatment, they will become thoroughly well-governed creatures, no longer swayed by their own whims and fancies.

Children know nothing about the transcendental distinction between right and wrong; and very little good, and possibly much harm, will arise from an attempt to inculcate in a young child the necessity of truthfulness on definite religious or moral grounds. Just as in the history of the race conscience and the ethical idea was one of the latest of human attributes to be evolved, so in the individual history of each child the idea of moral obligation is one of comparatively late growth. The idea of morality is altogether too

To him a lie conveys no

abstract for his comprehension. idea of shame; it is often merely the shortest way out of a difficulty; and a great mistake is made by those who expect the same standard of morality from a child as from an adult. Try to explain to him the direct results of untruthfulness-its cowardice; make him see how contemptible lying is, but do not attempt to arouse in him a precocious and therefore unhealthy sense of sin. Insist on accuracy in the smallest details, and, slowly perhaps, but surely, the habit of truthfulness will become a second nature to him, and that perhaps long before he understands the morality of the question. Of course, the most you can do is to help or hinder the child; for the ultimate end must depend on himself. He will have sooner or later to fight his own battles. and win his own spurs. It is a noble and inspiring idea which Emerson has expressed-" God gives every man the choice between truth and repose. Choose then one or the

other; you can never have both." We are told that the truth requires two people-one to speak, the other to hear; . and to the parent sensible of his great responsibilities the words of Carlyle will come home pregnant with the most serious thoughts" Ill stands it with me if I have spoken falsely; thine also it was to hear truly. Farewell."

It may be that, in dealing with this subject. I shall be judged by married people to have trespassed on their special preserves; and to be showing great audacity in expressing an opinion on a subject of which, in the nature of things, I must be about as conspicuously ignorant as a Hindoo is of skating, or of wireless telegraphy. Kaffir a Charles Lamb, in one of his most delightful essays"A Bachelor's Complaint on the Behaviour of Married People "--pathetically calls attention to the same contemptuous treatment. As, however, I am convinced of the profound importance of the question to all teachers, I am willing, in the interests of my profession, to run the risk of being told that "fools rush in where angels fear to tread"; and, with much trepidation, but in all earnestness, commend the subject to the thoughtful consideration of parents and teachers.

OBSERVATIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL
PATHOLOGY.

By the RT. REV. DR. DELANY, Bishop of Laranda.

[Abstract.]

THIS paper deals with certain phenomena which have been observed to emerge into consciousness in states of high fever, but short of delirium. It would seem, too, that, as a necessary condition to their appearance, the fever must have been due to, or at all events accompanied by, acute inflammation of the right face under the eye and along the nose. Then, on closing the eyes, objects spontaneously appear, as if located just where the floor or wall. or other obstacle, would intercept the line of vision were the eyes open. These visual phenomena reveal a character which appears to distinguish them specifically from sights recalled by a conscious effort of memory. They come without effort, whereas the attempt to recall the same objects when recognised is accompanied by effort, and followed by extreme lassitude. They seem steadily fixed, whereas those consciously recalled are unsteady; they are as distinct in detail as objects actually before the sense. Sights of conscious recollection, on the other hand, are vague and shadowy, but chiefly they appear actually present to hand, whereas the other class of phenomena always appear not present. The mind is conscious of going out to them-of their being past, and having been elsewhere. The result of these and other comparisons appears to justify the conclusion that those abnormal spontaneous phenomena are due to impressions made through the external senses, but unattended to, and so not at all perhaps affected by reflex consciousness. Their emergence later on would be due to purely physiological action, induced by high temperature. And the fact that they reveal a character specifically distinct from presentments of the same external objects, as an act of conscious recollection, seems to justify the inference that mentalisation accompanies and determines conscious impressions; and hence that knowledge of external objects must postulate a factor-the mind-over and above the objects themselves, and the merely material organ of sense impression. The argument is not advanced as necessary to establish the action of mind, but as a concession to the lowest form of sensism.

A PLEA FOR ENGLISH LITERATURE IN

PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

By PERCY FRITZ ROWLAND, B.A., Oxon., Late Lecturer at Canterbury College, University of New Zealand.

[Abstract]

In the culture of the fields with a view to their yielding in due season the earth's kindly fruits, no uniform standard is, indeed, attempted. It is admitted as a condition precedent that there is good land and land less good--land under any given economic conditions suitable for the highest culture; other land, suitable only for humbler uses. But at least that amount of culture is given to each kind of land, by which the community (so far as is foreseen by the individuals to whom the initiative is entrusted by Fors Clavigera), is likely to reap the fullest benefit.

Now, of all fields, there is none so rich as that unfathomable marvel of the universe, the human mind. And however greatly it differs from all phenomena of the creation, rooted as deeply in the spiritual as it is in the physical world-it comprises, like the earth, rich soils and poor; soils that will only pay for cultivation up to a certain point, soils that will repay with more than even Tasmanian fertility, the highest culture which can be given.

A community can never attain the Platonic ideal of Justice each man doing that for which he is best fit-nor the Christian ideal of Duty-each individual making the best use of his talents-until every child in the State receives as much culture as he requires if he is to render to the community the most efficient work of which he is capable.

Now, of whatever parts right culture consists-and right culture for a carpenter is admittedly different from that for a Professor of Latin-it will not generally be denied that in many respects the best way of teaching all to think and feel, is by teaching them something of what the best men and women have thought and felt, set down in the best way. The record of a nation's best thought and feeling, set down in the best way, is called its literature. And yet to-day, in Australasia, as in other parts of the English world, ninety-nine hundredths of the children leave school without the slightest attempt having been made to give them this most vital part of culture. In secondary