Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-07-28
OUR BOOK TABLE.

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY-Au-
gust. William Jay Youmans, editor. ID. APP
Pleton & Co.. Bond street. New York. Yearly
subscription, So.
The acause of education is COM
mon cause There can be no strata OF
human society that is not more or less
affected by the education or nOn-educa-
ton of those who form it, and yet much
as has been said and written, and as
much of experimentation as has been
made, the best plans formulated seem
theoretic and to fall short of the import
ant and ever increasing demand for an
education of the masses that shall meet
the three-fold necessities OF the social
body-the education Of heart, head and
hand. Professor c. H. Henderson, in u
well written article, takes up ''The
Spirit of Manual Training - viewing
this kind of education as means
to attain desired end, and
the reader is lead to hope that in schools
where this is taught remedy for many
exIstant defects in the system Of educa-
ton has been found. His estimate of
the function of schools is certainly just
and clearly defined. He says:
The school is a means and not an end. It
serves a purpose. It is not, like the state or the
church, an organism and possessed of Hfe. One
feet school ought to be- he can at best only
specify what results it should produce. Like all
other tools, its function is to form and to
fashion. machine Is not valued for its pro-
portions, its color, its material but for its sub
Serviency to the work required, and for the
character Of its products The point demands
emphasis, for educators too frequently look 10
the symmetry of the school itself instead of TO
the harmony of its results. They forget that
different materials require different tools Tor
their working.
He asserts, and with reason, that the
school can never be stable, but like
nature it must pass through births and
deaths or else be thing OF no life;
that it must be regarded a tool, plas-
tic one that may be sharpened and
changed; that it is ever to be regarded as
a means TO an end, that end, the best
rounded progress of the race, to be kept
ever in view. The questions concerning
schools thus resolving itself into these:
''What effect has the institution upon its
pupils? What sort of men and women does II
make ont OF them? 1t is not what studies are
taught or what accomplishments are impaired,
or what extent Of information Is bestowed.
These considerations have their proper imPor-
tanCe, but they are secondary; the real test IS
deeper. The standard so lar has been too MS
terial. We want now something more spiritual.
It is q truism 10 say that the function OF the
school is not to instruct, but to educate; but it
is d truism which has not yet been taken sutt-
GENTLY TO heart to be translated into 4 fact. -
Professor Henderson hopes much from
manual training schools and begs that
they be not COMPOUNDED with industrial
schools for their object is not to make ar
tisans, but men, full men, and to in
augurate an educational system that
shall develop character and so train the
bov that he shall find his master in him
self, who, ever present, shall from the
heart Judge righteous Judgment.
One Of the most interesting articles 10
those who delight IN historical studies is
contribution from the pen of II. Gustave
LIE Bon, 1.-The influence of Race in His
tory, = translated from the Revue Scien-
tifque. Appropriately near is 1.-The
Stone Age in Heather Sweden, - that
is illustrated by pictures of the various
stone implements and structures of that
period.
THE Observation-Disclosures John B.
Walker, editor. New York. Office, Ne. 36S
Fifth avenue. Terms, enc year s.. 20.
Despite the gruesomeness of the
frontispiece, which is the illustration of
the hanging of Phillip Spencer and his
two companions, for the Indication OF
whose memory Gail Hamilton has plead
so earnestly in three consecutive papers,
this number of the magazine has cheer
ful interest. No naturalist can turn the
leaves and not be attracted to 'tThe
Children OF Arachne, - by Emily Blanch-
ard. and to those who have not made it q
study this well-illustrated sketch of their
habits viii be interesting. The de-