again, are so lethargic that they require great effort on the teacher's part to induce them to take an interest either in mental or manual occupations.

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At first there was a very natural objection on the parents' part to allow their children to attend these classes; they will not admit that there is any brain trouble, only that the child is dull and just queer at times, and very aggravating at times, which they seem to think can be cured by a good thrashing.' couple of weeks ago a girl was brought to me who was twelve years old, and was more imbecile than the child usually admitted, and whilst I was hesitating as to her admission, the mother said: Her father says she's been to that school for over seven years, and she ain't learnt nothing, and why should she leave now?' She must in a short time become an inmate of our institution.

The teaching in the classes is objective throughout— each teacher has about twenty pupils who are instructed in Scripture, reading, writing, arithmetic, singing, recitation, drawing, colour work, varied occupations, including many kinds of fancy work, modelling in clay, and basket work. If the pupils remain after fourteen years of age, more extended forms of manual work must be taught, especially for the boys. Our older girls learn cookery and laundry work, and I am looking forward to their training in the housewifery classes which the Board are now starting.

Roughly speaking, the pupils can be classed in three divisions: (1) Those who profit by the special training sufficiently to return to the normal school, and will become self-supporting; (2) those who are very feebly gifted, but can be taught sufficient to make them partially self-supporting; (3) those so incapable that they should be removed from their families and placed

in a home where they would have lifelong guardianship, for there is no doubt that the will power and moral control of such are so weak as to make them a positive danger to society.

I prefer the child as a pupil at seven years of age, when the character is plastic and more easily moulded, and when it can therefore more profitably benefit by its course of training. The teacher must be clever and patient, fond of children, and with sufficient knowledge of psychology to know how best to treat the mental dulness and various abnormalities of each pupil.

The schoolroom should be large, airy, and well lighted, plentifully supplied with good pictures, and a piano to aid in the singing and drill exercises. Common objects should abound, and the furniture should be simple in make to avoid accidents. Always an open fireplace where a fire could be readily lit, as so many have feeble and low circulation and rapidly feel a falling temperature.

Attached to each school there should be special managers, who by their sympathy and interest in the work could encourage both teacher and pupil. In a few instances there are now ladies who visit the homes, send the children to the country, advise the parents as to medical treatment, even going themselves to the hospital with them, and providing suitable situations when they leave school.

Next week a' Guild of Old Scholars,' through the kindness of a lady manager, is to be opened, and thus we hope to keep in touch with our pupils, so as to not only assist them, but to be able justly to estimate the value of the movement. On the roll at the present time it is estimated that 528 will become self-supporting, 355 partially self-supporting, and 146 utterly incapable.

It is this latter class for which further provision must be made.

Mr. Diggle, in a Presidential Address, says: Care for all children as children, and not for the apparently strong and useful of their number, is the outcome of Christian civilisation. We do not look upon them merely as the means of perpetuating the human race. In the weakest and frailest amongst them we discern the latent capacity for a higher life, and precisely because in their case the physical organism hides rather than exhibits the true child, the duty is more clearly laid upon us of assisting the child to break through the barrier of hostile physical defects. In the performance of that duty the State has learnt to place a right value upon even imperfect human life, and the laws of Christian communities increasingly reflect in that regard the common sentiment of their peoples.' The object of all education is to give a full and happy life, and so its blessings have gradually during the past sixty years very justly been extended to the humblest child, and no one ventures to ask, Is this poor life worth saving? but, How best can we succour its weakness and relieve its necessities? More schools, similar to the Royal Albert at Lancaster and the Earlswood in Surrey, are urgently needed for the training of the higher imbecile, and small residential homes for those sufficiently capable to be taught a trade or trained as servants. Voluntary effort is needed for this, for it is England's boast that

The dreams of yesterday are the realities of to-day :

New occasions teach new duties.

Time makes ancient good uncouth.
They must upward still and onward
Who would keep abreast of truth.

E. M. BURGWIN.

A charming demonstration was given by the children of South London, members of the Guild of Play, under the direction of Sister Grace, to whom the Guild owes its origin. The following paper was read by her in explanation of her work :

The Guild of Play is a new comer to the realms of philanthropy and education. 'I pray you, therefore, as a stranger, give it welcome.'

Sister Grace

A month ago, at our Settlement May Festival, we appealed to the philanthropic world. We had no need of words; the happy faces of the children told their own story and pleaded their own cause. Everyone loves to see the happiness of little children, and we are sure we have only to make ourselves known to win sympathy, and perhaps help.

But to-day we appeal to a smaller audience, and we feel that here there is some need for us to explain and

justify our existence. We plead for the recognition of our Guild from an educational point of view.

If we trace the history of education we shall find that in early stages of society there was little or nothing, in a technical sense, of what we call education. Children, in their play, mimicked the work of manhood, and, through their mimicry, learned their life-work.

It is only gradually that education became separated from life. Even in Athens, in the time of Pericles, there were no public schools, and the sons of her noblest and richest citizens were taught nothing but gymnastics and music (music including the repetition of poetry, and chiefly the poetry of Homer)-in other words, games and fairy tales.

That was the Gentile theory of education.

In Florence, to quote Mr. Ruskin, the traditions of Faith and Hope of both the Gentile and the Jewish races, met for their beautiful labour: the Baptistery of Florence is the last building raised on the earth by the descendants of the workmen taught by Dædalus; and the Tower of Giotto is the loveliest of those raised on earth under the inspiration of the men who lifted up the Tabernacle in the Wilderness.' And in the Cathedral of Florence is what Mr. Ruskin calls the Vaulted Book, whereon are painted the seven Earthly and the seven Heavenly Sciences that formed the old Florentine system of manly education. The first of these seven Earthly Sciences is Grammar, more properly the 'Grammatic Art,' the art of Letters or Literature, the art of faithfully reading what has been written for our learning, and of clearly writing what we would make immortal of our thoughts. And to the old painter, with his wild, weird, mysterious Etruscan instincts and ancestors, Literature meant the Bible, legend, poetry, myth-it