literature, general history, industrial and commercial geography, iron and wood work for boys, and cutting and fitting for girls. One foreign language is also included. Additional courses pertaining to local industries may be authorized by the minister, upon the demand of local committees supported by the academic inspector and approved by the departmental council.

In the adjustment of the programmes regard is had to three specific purposes, namely, the moral, the intellectual, and the physical development of the pupils. The distinction has been recently emphasized by separating morals from civics, and classifying the latter with geography and history—that is, among the intellectual branches. The daily programmes of the schools are developed by the departmental councils with a view to uniformity so far as is possible in all the schools of a department. In the case of Paris and other large cities, it is now customary for the departmental authorities to determine simply the proportion of time to be assigned to each subject, leaving the arrangement of the daily programme to the directors of the individual schools. In the provinces this freedom would be simply embarrassing, but the time-table arranged by the council of any department is subject to modifications in individual schools with the approval of the primary inspector, who is familiar with all the schools of his district.

It will be seen by a careful examination of the time-tables given below that the study of the native literature and language in the threefold form of reading, grammar, and language lessons occupies a larger proportion of the time than any other branch. The importance of making language and literature the center of the programme was emphasized by the school council of Paris in 1889 when the revision of the programmes was under discussion. The council decided at that time that special branches absorbed too much attention, and that it was therefore desirable to increase the time assigned to general subjects—in particular to instruction in the native language. The influence of the Paris council naturally carries great weight in respect to all such matters.

In order to comprehend the full scope of the French primary school, it is necessary to consider the actual extent to which the principal studies are carried. This is indicated by the programmes and time-tables here presented, namely: (1) The official programme for the higher section of the primary schools; (2) the time-table for the Paris schools; (3) the time-table of a small village school.

OFFICIAL PROGRAMME OF THE HIGHER SECTION OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

Reading and French language.-Expressive reading; review of French grammar and syntax; elements of etymology; practical exercises in language, oral and original, memorized and written; grammatical and logical analysis of sentences.

Arithmetic.-Percentage with its applications to problems in interest, discount, and partial payments, ratio and proportion, metric system.

Geometry.- Elements of plane geometry and the measurements of solids (for boys, applications to simple problems in surveying, use of the surveyor's level).

History.-Review of French history; extended study of the modern period; brief compendium of general history.

Geography.-Extended study of the geography of France, physical and political geography of Europe; summary of general geography; French colonies.

Civics.-Political, administrative, and judicial organization of France. Science.-Elements of natural science; elements of physics and chemistry. Manual training.—Boys: Construction from drawings (side elevation); work in wood-planing, turning; work in iron-filing, trimming, and finishing objects just from the forge or the furnace. Girls: Sewing, repairing garments, cutting out, knitting, crocheting, and netting; use of the sewing machine.

Drawing.-Geometrical drawing and perspective; free-hand drawing from flat copy or relief; elementary notions of the orders of architecture; geometric designs; mixing colors and application of colors.

Singing.-Continuation of previous course; exercises in intonation and in the scales; duet and concert singing.

The full programme of morals for the three divisions of the school is given below. The programme of physical exercises is here omitted, as the details convey little more than is covered by the general term. It is obvious also that no programme can convey a clear idea of the language instruction, which is extremely thorough, and in the opinion of all impartial critics eminently effective, whether judged by the written and oral speech of the pupils or by their expressive rendering of classical selections. As regards the sciences it should be added that oral lessons with practical illustrations are the chief methods of instruction, although text-books are used, especially in the higher division.

a"Les écoles et les œuvres municipales d'enseignement, 1871-1900," par F. Lavergne, pp. 35, 37. b Not including the noon intermission of 1 hours.

School with a single master-Commune of Mosnes (Indre-et-Loire) Daily time-table)-Continued.

THE OFFICIAL PROGRAMME OF MORAL INSTRUCTION IN THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS OF

FRANCE.

[Abridged from the original.]

(1) General instructions and explanations—aims and characteristics.-Moral instruction is intended to complete, to elevate, and to ennoble all the other instruction of the school. While each of the other branches tends to develop a special order of aptitudes or of useful knowledge, this study tends to develop the man himself; that is to say, his heart, his intelligence, his conscience; hence moral education moves on a different plane from the other subjects. Its force depends less upon the precision and logical relation of the truths taught than upon intensity of feeling, vividness of impressions, and the contagious ardor of conviction.

The aim of moral education is to cause one to will rather than to know; it arouses rather than demonstrates; it proceeds more from the feelings than from reasoning; it does not attempt to analyze all the reasons for a moral act; it seeks before all to produce it, to repeat it, to make of it a habit which will govern the life. In the elementary school it is not a science, but an art-the art of inclining the will toward the good.

The role of the teacher.-In respect to this subject as to the other branches of education, the teacher is regarded as the representative of society. It is of the highest importance to a democratic secular society that all its members should be initiated early, and by lessons which can not be effaced, into a feeling of their dignity, and into a feeling not less deep of their duty and of their personal responsibility. To attain this end the teacher is not to proceed as if he were addressing children destitute of all previous knowledge of good and of evil; he will remember that the great majority of them have received or are receiving a religious instruction which familiarizes them with the idea of a God of the universe and a Father of men, with the traditions, the beliefs, the practices of a worship, either Christian or Jewish; that they have already received the fundamental ideas of morality, eternal and universal; but these ideas are still with them in the germ. They await ripening and developing by appropriate culture, and this culture it is for the teacher to give. His mission is, then, limited. He is to strengthen, to root into the minds of his pupils, for all their lives, through daily practice, those essential notions of a morality common to all civilized men. He can do this without making personal reference to any of the religious beliefs with which his pupils associate and blend the general principles of morals. He takes the children as they come to him with their ideas and their language, with the beliefs which they have derived from their parents, and his only care is to teach them to draw from these that which is most precious from the social standpoint, namely, the precepts of a high morality.

Proper objects and limits of this instruction.-The moral teaching of the school is, then, distinguished from religious instruction without contradicting it. The teacher is neither a priest nor the father of a family; he joins his efforts to theirs to make each child an honest man. He should insist upon the duties which bring men together, and not upon the dogmas which separate them. He should aim to make all the children serve an effective apprenticeship to a moral life. Later in life they will perhaps become separated by dogmatic opinion, but they will be in accord in having the aim of life as high as possible; in having the same horror for what is base and vile, the same delicacy in the appreciation of duty, in aspiring to moral perfection, whatever effort it may cost, in feeling united in that fealty to the good, the beautiful, and the true, which is also a form, and not the least pure, of the religious sentiment.

Methods. By his character, his conduct, his example, the teacher should be the most persuasive of examples. In moral instruction what does not come from the heart does not go to the heart. A master who recites precepts, who speaks of duty without convictions, without warmth, does much worse than waste his efforts. He is altogether wrong. A course of morals which is regular, but cold, commonplace, dry, does not teach morals, because it does not develop a love for the subject. The simplest recital in which the child can catch an accent of gravity, a single sincere word, is worth more than a long succession of mechanical lessons.

On the other hand, it is hardly necessary to say, the teacher should carefully avoid any reflection either by language or expression upon the religious beliefs of the children confided to his care, anything that might betray on his part any lack of respect or of regard for the opinions of others.

The only obligation imposed upon the teacher, and this is compatible with a respect for all convictions, is to watch in a practical and paternal manner the moral development of his pupils with the same solicitude with which he follows their progress in scholarship. He should not believe himself free from responsibilities