St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-07-10

wonderful portraitures of character and
nature. The paper treated of the heroes
of Dickens creation-chosen from hum
Bile walks of life, from the workshops
and the counting rooms. 1t is shown
that surroundings of sin and corruption
and crime cannot always stifle the di-
vine intuition of noble manhood. The
tender and loving care of the author
was to reveal the divine in the child's
home. Extracts were read in illuStra-
tion of the point, and in Illustration of
Sam Weller'S education i'll the 'Pick-
wick Papers," Dickens was negative i'll
his style of portraiture of character He
dealt in caricature and Stlangly over
drawn fOllies and crimes and grOtesque
eXaggeration; and Notwithstanding this
tendency to eXaggeratiOn. there is the
striking resemblance of the reality.
The paper cited the fact that the pub
licatiOn of the story of 'Nicholas
Nickleby" had aroused the anger of the
Yorkshire teachers until they actually
threatened the author. In treating of
educational themes Dickens did not
write what education ought to be,
but rather what it ought not
to be. 1t is strange that of English
authors he should have written most of
education who had least of it. His ed
ucatlon was of the intuitive genius.
The deep sympathy which the author
had for mankind, its sorrows and
wretchedneSs. was the topic Of graphic
eulogy by the essayist. The memories
of the miseries of Dickens own child
hood were stronger than his pleasures
and joys. land it is not surprising that he
should have portrayed parents and
teachers in dark colOrs. The great lit
erary man had no literary education.
The innate power of the child's genius
triumphed over poverty and lack of edu-
cational opportunities. The educational
themes of Dickens works predominant.
nicholas Nickleby" was written to deal
a crushing blow to the Outrages of the
boarding schools of Yorkshire. Without
love and sympathy there is no educa-
ton. The school becomes torture and
the home Jail.
Common School Branches From
Professional Point of View" was the
topic of an interesting, though tech
nical paper by Miss Isabel Lawrence,o of
WinOna, MINI. She gave it as her con-
clusion that the problem of the work
of the normal schools will not be solved
until the vast and more difficult ques
tion of uniting knowledge shall have
been accomplished. So long as the
OOuf VI GilC uial oCHOOl
ties impart knowledge not from pro-
feSsional point of view, so long must
the work of the normal schools prove
practically failure. The eSsayist held
that all members of the faculty should
teach the method of impartng knowl-
edge by teachers TO pupils, instead of
pursuing the system now in vogue OF
only one member doing so. There is
surplus of teachers capable and fitted
for teaching the higher grades, while
there are but few-a marked scarcity
that are qualified to teach the
elementary branches. 1t was also
argued that the teacher should
inform the pupil upon the main
facts, thereby furnishing to his mind
the groundwork or basis, and that the
child should then think out the balance
himself. In so doing these facts are
indeiibly impressed upon the memory
of the child. Miss Lawrence thought
that too little attention is paid to the
gradients from the study of thought to
the expression of. thought. and she
urged a systematic study OF the analy-
ses of sound English literature after tine
study of elementary principles. ~
The discussion of the above papers
will take place this afternoon, directly
following Prof. Harris paper. The
president announced the following COM
mittee on nominations, who are to re-
port to-day: Joseph Baldwin, of Texas;
III. Ii. Seeley, of Iowa. and L. G. Lord,