parents and teachers. How often we hear commands given by teachers and an utter indifference manifested, on the part of parents, as to whether the commands are obeyed or not. The young child should never be terrified or threatened, but when a command is given that command should be obeyed. Otherwise the child is trained to positive disobedience. But the teacher who leads and seldom commands is most often obeyed, and that most cheerfully. How little do teachers generally know the nature and attributes of the mind, and those of us who have tried for years to study its resources feel still that we know but little; and not unfrequently this ignorance is as fatal to the human mind as that of the man's who mistook the diamond for a pebble and shivered it to atoms. And we kindergartners, looking in every child for a diamond, feel no disappointment if it be only a pebble, but burnish it to its utmost brilliancy; and by and by it grows brighter and more precious in our eyes than the diamond itself, because we have perfected its possibilities. How strange it is, at this enlightened age, that the faculties of the mind are so little studied by the majority of teachers. We ourselves think and feel and reason and contrive and love and hate, and what are all these operations but the workings of mind, which is so active and so perpetually unfolding in early childhood. To do justice to the children under our care we should strive for a combination of cheerfulness, good sense, knowledge, kindness, impartiality and untiring patience. It is hard, I know, to meet all these qualities, but by aiming high we at least shall be more apt to reach what is required than if we rest satisfied with what is easily grasped. In our intercourse with children from day to day let us remember that whatever acts upon the senses of a child interests him, attracts his observation and becomes a means of education. The caressing of a cat or a dog in the presence of a child develops the sympathy which children so easily experience for animals; and, indeed, if the natural stimulus to any of the emotions of the soul be presented, the child will have no choice in the matter-the feelings will start into activity as vision does when the eye is penetrated by rays of light. As we cannot by an effort of the will cease to see or hear while light and sound reach the eye and ear, so it is impossible to suppress the emotions when the object is present. Shall we not, therefore, strive to bring every worthy ideal to bear upon the young child's mind. To teach him to love-for with this first sweet lesson the path would be made plain to those virtues which spring from and strike their roots deep into the kindly soil. And here let us remember that although we cannot create the soil, we can bestow the fostering care of the gardener who gives to the tender and sickly plant just the nourishment and guidance it needs. And be assured in this, your divine work :

San Francisco.

"The good begun by you shall onward flow
In many a branching stream, and wider grow."

M. E. ARNOLD.

TEACHING ASTRONOMY BY ILLUSTRATION.

In The Schoolteacher, published in Winston, N. C., we find some of the ways in which a teacher can drill a class in celestial observation. Nearly every one knows, or ought to know, that the sun rises higher in the sky at noon in the summer than in winter, but if you have a stake firmly set in the ground, and once a week, at noon, mark the end of its shadow, the fact will be very evident to a class. Again, take them out at smnset to the same spot once a week, or as often as convenient, and notice how both the time and place of sunset change through the year. While the shadow lengthens, the time of sunset comes earlier, and the place of sunset moves southward, and vice versa, Then, again, light a lamp in a dark room, and using a convenient globe for the earth, carry it around the lamp, always keeping its axis pointed toward the Pole star, which every teacher is assumed to know. When it is north of the light you have the phenomena of winter in the northern hemisphere, long nights and short days, a very oblique sun at noon. West of the light will give us spring; south, summer; and east, autumn. If carefully thought out in advance by the teacher, he cannot fail to make it clear and interesting to the children.

Then do not buy an orrey or any device to explain the solar system, but calculate the sizes and distances apart of the bodies of the solar system on any convenient scale, and allow your boys to mark out the one on the ground, or at least attempt it, and let them see that if the sun is a twelve-inch globe, the earth is only a little grain of shot one hundred feet away. They can find out also about the other planets, and when they have done this, let them know how many miles away it would be to the nearest star on the same scale.

They can also on the nights when meteors are abundant watch for them, and so ascertain the fact that they radiate from certain fixed points in the heavens. Good nights for this purpose will be April 19, August 10, October 19, November 13, December 12, and those immediately adjacent, provided the moon is not shining.

Another point for children to watch is the motion of the moon around the earth as seen among the stars. This can be done on two adjacent nights. Notice the place of the moon on the two nights. The change will be very evident. The watch can be kept up most of the time for a whole lunar month, and its length ascertained quite approximately by noticing when the moon gets back to the same place among the stars.

The planets, especially Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, can be

watched in the same manner for motion among the stars, and gradually it will be seen that these motions, complicated as they are, are the results of the earth's motion around the sun and a similar motion of the planet itself.

These are only some of the ways in which a careful and skillful teacher can induce habits of observing celestial phenomena among his pupils They do not need to be mature pupils to see these things, and when they come to study text books of astronomy they will appreciate them far better for their previous work. Moreover, they will have a resource about them all their lives which will be for them a great pleasure. The heavens are with us wherever we go on the earth, and to see and appreciate the celestial scenery is one of the most exhilarating accomplishments a man can have. Instead of being mere objects of wonder, they become intelligible factors in creating the no longer mysterious changes of the seasons and skies. Reverence and devoutness are begotten and superstition clears away.-The School'eacher.

SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS IN LIGHT.

By two very simple experiments, the decomposition and recomposition of light may be shown to children. 1. Darken the room if possible, leaving a small aperture for the sunlight to pass through. Hold a cut-glass bottle-stopper with six faces or less in the sun rays. When held in a certain position a many-colored spot will be formed on the paper. Have the pupils look carefully at this spot and name the colors. At first they will say red, yellow and blue; but point to the different shades and elicit the names of the seven colors if possible without telling them. Tell the pupils this little rainbow is called the solar spectrum. Next have them learn by experiment how the rays of light must pass through glass or any transparent body in order to have all its colors separated. Hold the stopper so that rays pass through two parallel sides, then through two that are not parallel. They will make the inference. Have them make the following statement orally and in writing: "The glass stopper divides the sunlight into seven colors: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red. This combination of colors is called the solar spectrum." 2. Paint on a round piece of cardboard all the colors of the rainbow. Through the center of the circle insert a rod and rapidly whirl the card; instead of the seven colors a white card will be seen. It is not necessary to paint all the seven colors; red, yellow and blue will produce the same effect. Lead the children to state and write: "White light is produced by the union of the seven colors of the solar spectrum.' -N. Y. Journal.

IRA G. HOITT, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, :

:

DISTRIBUTION OF STATE TEXT-BOOKS.

PROVISIONS OF THE LAW JUST PASSED.

EDITOR.

An Act to amend an Act entitled an Act to provide for compiling, illustrating, electrotyping, printing, binding, copyrighting and distributing a State series of school text-books, and appropriating money therefor, approved February 26, 1885.

[Approved March 15, 1887.]

The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. Section 6 of said Act is hereby amended to read as follows: SECTION 6. All orders for text-books shall be made on the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and shall be accompanied by cash, in payment for the same, at the price fixed by the State Board of Education as the cost price at Sacramento; provided, that if the books are to be shipped by mail, the cost of postage shall also accompany the order. The following persons shall be entitled to order books:

1. County Superintendents of Schools, for the use of teachers, parents, and pupils in their counties only.

2. Principals of State Normal Schools, for their own and for the use of the pupils in their respective schools only.

3. The Secretary or Clerk of any school district in the State, whether incorporated or operating under the general law of the State, for the use of the pupils in such district only; but no books ordered by the County Superintendents, or Clerks of District Boards of Trustees, or Principals of State Normal Schools, shall be sold at a price exceeding the cost price. at Sacramento, with the actual cost of freight and cartage added.

4. Any retail dealer who shall first transmit to the State Superintendent of Public Instructión an affi lavit duly subscribed by him, in substance as follows, to wit:

"In consideration of receiving for sale, upon the inclosed or upon any future order, the series of school text-books, or any part thereof, published by the State of California, I hereby agree that I will not sell the same to any person or persons for the purpose of being sold again, or to any person or persons beyond the limits of the State of California; and

that I will not sell said series of text-books, or any part or portion thereof, at a price exceeding the price to the pupil fixed by the State Board of Education."

Said affidavit shall be endorsed by the County Superintendent in the following words, viz.:

in

"I hereby certify that (A. B.) is a regular retail dealer in school books C. D., County Superintendent."

County.

It shall be the duty of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to furnish, at once, to each County Superintendent, for the use of any dealer in his county who may apply for permission to sell the books of the State series, printed copies of the affidavit, together with the list of prices of such books fixed as the cost price at Sacramento and the price to the pupil; and any dealer who shall fail to comply with the conditions of such affidavit shall forfeit his right to any further purchase of said books from the State. And it shall be the duty of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to report to the State Controller, ou or before the fifth day of every month, the number of books sold by him during the preceding month, and pay the moneys received for the same into the State Treasury. It shall also be the duty of the Superintendent of State Printing, on or before the fifth day of every month, to report to the State Controller the number and value of the books shipped by him on the order of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the number and value of the finished books on hand.

SEC. 2. Section Seven of said Act is hereby amended to read as follows:

Section 7. It shall be the duty of the Boards of Supervisors of the counties, or cities and counties, in this State, to provide a revolving fund for the purpose of enabling the County School Superintendents to pur. chase the State text-books; all moneys to be taken therefrom to be replaced by the moneys received from the sale of said books to the scholars of the public schools of his county, either by himself or by the teachers of the public schools, or the Clerks of Boards of District Trustees.

SEC. 3. Section Ten of said Act is hereby amended to read as follows: Section 10. All school books compiled by the State shall be furnished to the public school children of the State at the cost of printing, publishing and distributing the same; said cost to be ascertained and fixed by the State Board of Education, on or before the fifteenth day of June of each school year; and it is further enacted, that the cost of distribution shall be take to be the cost of postage required for mailing each book.

SEC. 5. All Acts or parts of Acts inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed.

SEC. 6. This Act shall be in force from and after its passage.