inspectors of primary instruction, and of a council nominated by the minister of public instruction. It includes a museum and a library for the collection of all material which may aid the work or the researches of persons engaged in primary instruction. Its collections comprise school furniture, scientific apparatus, illustrative material, etc., historical and statistical documents, text-books, pedagogical works, and educational journals. It seeks by timely publications to make known the best methods of instruction, and the best models for the construction of school-houses, plans for class rooms, etc.

The Musée Pédagogique has become also a center of preparation for aspirants for the various examinations which admit to the higher grades of the teaching service. Regular conferences are held in its halls which give these aspirants the benefit of lectures and lessons conducted by specialists.

The museum is open to the general public every Thursday and Sunday from 10 to 5 o'clock. For persons having cards of admission the library and museum are open every day excepting Monday from 10 till 5 and the library from 8 to 10 in the evening.

The library includes a circulating division which is free to all persons engaged in teaching. The request for the privilege of taking books is addressed to the minister. Foreigners properly accredited can share in the privilege.

Special schools are maintained by the state for the instruction of recruits in the marine service. The demand for elementary instruction for this class has diminished under the decision of the minister of marine in 1883, prohibiting the enlistment of illiterates.

The existing provision comprises elementary schools, training ships, and a normal course for the instructors.

The care of the state extends to illiterate criminals, for whom instruction is provided in the penitentiaries.

Many agencies auxiliary to the work of education receive their impulse from the general government, but depend for their development upon the action of localities. To this category belong the local funds (caisses des écoles) for the aid of indigent pupils, the purchase of prizes, etc., required by the law of March 28, 1882. In 1887 such funds were reported from 50 per cent. of the communes. The Paris fund amounted to $234,521.

School savings banks (caisses d'épargne scolaires).-The government has shown great sympathy with the efforts made by teachers to establish school savings banks. The number of these banks increases each year, and in 1887 reached a total of 22,383, with 478,173 depositors and deposits amounting to $2,531,662.

Adult classes.-Classes for the instruction of adults form an important part of the provision for popular education.

In 1886-87 such classes were maintained in 7,443 communes, or 20 per cent. of the whole number. They were attended by 184,612 pupils, of whom 156,590 were men and 2,802 women. As compared with

1881-82 the total shows a decrease of 411,710, or very nearly 70 per cent., a change which is undoubtedly due to the increase of primary schools and the operations of the obligatory law. Since 1882 the adult classes have been distinguished as elementary and complementary; the former being for illiterate adults, the latter for the continuation of studies.

The elementary classes comprise only 30 per cent. of the adult pupils. These statistics do not include the auditors attracted to public lectures, of which no estimate can be given.

Local school attendance committec.-The law of March 28, 1882, provided for the formation of local commissions (commissions scolaires) to keep watch over the matter of school attendance and report violations of the law.

The law of October 30, 1886, re-enforced the provision, but the commissions have so far practically failed.

Teachers' conferences.-Conferences of teachers are held in all the departments, and serve, like the teachers' institutes of our own country, to foster professional zeal. In addition to the local conferences there is an annual conference of teachers, held generally under the auspices of the minister of public instruction. The subjects for discussion are announced beforehand, and the papers presented and the deliberations generally are characterized by breadth of thought, lucid and logical treatment, and finished style.

Mutual aid societies, established by the voluntary action of the teachers, exist in seventy-eight departments of France.

In 1886 an association was founded at Paris, under the patronage of the minister of public instruction, for the care of the orphans of elementary teachers. This association, known as the "Euvre de l'Orphelinat de l'Enseignement Primaire," receives gifts and appropriations from the state and departments, the communes, and private individuals. It does not maintain an orphanage, but provides for the care of orphans in their native places.

Many private societies exist for the maintenance of scholastic institutions, the improvement of methods of instruction, and the increase of public interest in the general progress of education. Some of these antedate the present Republic, others are of recent origin.

The Polytechnic Association was founded in 1830 by the graduates of the Polytechnic School, for the purpose of conducting preparatory courses of industrial and technical training. The courses are generally open to both sexes; a small number are limited to women. Such are courses for training in the cutting and fitting of garments, decorative painting, the making of artificial flowers, and commercial courses for young girls.

The number of courses maintained in Paris is very large, and the work extends to the suburbs of the city.

1 For very fall information as to benevolent or mutual aid associations maintained in connection with primary schools in France see Monographies pédagogiques, Tome V.

The most interesting and important of recently formed societies is the Alumni Association of Paris students (Association générale des étudiants des facultés et écoles supérieures de Paris).

The society is under the protection of the general council of the Paris facultés, and is presided over by the rector, to whom its property is remitted in case of its dissolution. It forms a means of union between the professors and the students, and between the students of the different facultés.

A fund is accumulating for the ultimate purchase of a building for the permanent home of the society; its temporary quarters are convenient and commodious. The library of the society, which is open from 8 o'clock in the morning until midnight, comprises 2,000 volumes and 200 current journals. Here gratuitous lessons are given in law, science, languages, etc. Receptions to distinguished foreigners, dramatic entertainments, etc., promote social and intellectual comradeship. A fund is also maintained for the assistance of students; medical attendance is furnished without charge, and arrangements are made with many merchants for reduction of prices to members of the society.

The honorary members number about 400; they pay an annual fee, and have all the privileges of the society, but no voice in its adminis tration. The active members number about 3,500; they pay an annual fee of 18 francs ($3.50).

Besides the income from fees and gifts, the society has an annual subvention of $400 from the city of Paris.

The Society for the Promotion of Physical Culture (Le comité pour la propagation des exercices physiques dans l'éducation), founded at Paris in 1888 under the presidency of Jules Simon, promises to work important changes in the general system of education for young men.

That the state attempts no monopoly of education is abundantly proven by the multiplication of private societies, and the decided influence which they exercise over educational methods and ideals.

It is a significant fact that while the policy of the Republic opposes both directly and indirectly the scholastic work of the church, it has had the effect of stimulating all other forms of private and local activity. Paris, especially, is in a ferment of educational effort. Here the public system in all its grades reaches the highest perfection; here all kinds of auxiliary agencies have their most vigorous development. It would be impossible to suggest even in this place the resources which the capital devotes to the diffusion of knowledge or the various modes in which these are applied. So far as regards public elementary schools, the city draws nothing from the state, meeting the entire expenditure from its own budget. For current expenditure alone, the municipal appropriations in 1888 were $3,970,702. The increase in this respect. since 1877 has been enormous, amounting in 1888 to 150 per cent. of the whole appropriation at the beginning of the decade.

CHAPTER V.

BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE SCHOOLS OF GERMANY, AUSTRIAHUNGARY, AND SWITZERLAND.

Introduction-Historical view of the schools of Prussia-Definition and characterFinances Supervision; local supervision; duties of inspectors-The teachers; preparation; examination; appointment-The schools; compulsory attendance; schoolhouses-Instruction; course of study; methods of teaching—Grading and examination of pupils; discipline-Supplementary institutions; special schools—Variety in school organization in the different countries-The schools of Hungary-Secondary schools in German-speaking nations—Courses of study, illustrated by four charts-Languages, history and geography, mathematics, natural sciences-Graphic presentation of statistics of Prussia, Austria-Hungary, and Switzerland—Summary of statistics of Prussia, Austria-Hungary, and Switzerland.

INTRODUCTION.

The German Empire as such has no public-school system. All public educational institutions in Germany are founded and maintained by the separate states and free cities that constitute the empire, or they are the result of private or corporate efforts. Hence, to know the German schools accurately would necessitate the study of the school systems of each kingdom, duchy, principality, and free city in Germany. But since Prussia, the largest state in the empire, plays a leading rôle among the many states, and its school system is the type of those of other states; furthermore, since in Prussia we have to look for the beginnings of that marvelous result of modern civilization, "The public school called into existence, partly supported, and wholly directed by the state,"—it would seem as though a statement of what is found in Prussia supplemented by occasional reference to other countries would suffice.

I. HISTORICAL VIEW.

During the sixteenth century the necessity of instructing children in religion gave rise to what is now known in Germany as the "People's Schools." There had been schools, of course, ever since Charlemagne's "schola palatina," but not until the time of the great church reformation (A. D. 1517) were efforts made in behalf of teaching the masses, not until then were the lower and lowest strata of society drawn into the pale of influence of such schools, though it was done on Sundays only. Naturally the lower schools were servants of the church which

had called them into life. In 1529 Luther's catechism appeared, and it became the first text-book. In 1540 a Saxon ecclesiastical decree estabblished day schools. This was imitated in all the German Protestant states. In the cities the schools had a more fertile soil, since the cities had all through the Middle Ages been the centers of culture, the asylums, so to speak, of poetry and art, education and religion, commerce and industry. Many ancient "writing schools" had been preserved there. These became nuclei of new schools, called "citizens' schools." Wittenberg even established a "girls' school" in 1533, the first girls' school known in the history of education. Johann Bugenhagen, in Braunschweig, the intimate friend of Martin Luther, was especially active in behalf of schools, by publishing regulations for "German schools," embracing country schools, city schools, Latin schools, and "girls' schools" (German schools, in contradistinction to classical schools, in which Latin was the medium of instruction). These schools were even at that early day supported (a) by the communities, and (b) by tuition fees. Bugenhagen's instructions were also copied in the free citiesLübeck, Hamburg, and Bremen. Wherever the Reformation found a foothold schools sprang up, and if it had not been for the terrible Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) the schools in Germany would have developed into a healthy system quite early; but that most destructive war ever known in history checked the growth of the German school system, as it paralyzed all the political and social life of the nation.

It is not necessary to follow the development of the German school system through all its various stages; suffice it to say, that it remained the handmaid of the church until the time of Frederick the Great of Prussia, about 1760. With far-sighted policy he endeavored to make the school what it subsequently became, the powerful auxiliary of the state, at all times, alike during political disaster and prosperity. Ever since that time the Prussian "people's school," and with it that of Saxony, Würtemberg, Bavaria, etc., has remained under state government, and, mirror-like, it has reflected the different phases of political life of the German nation. Since Frederick could not raise the means for support of the schools, owing to his wars for the possession of Silesia, he was not very successful in his attempts at school reform, but it will remain one of his chief merits that he saw the necessity of a consistent system of public instruction assisted by state aid, and called into existence by the state when the communities failed in this regard. During the reign of his successor, Frederick William II, a mistake was made by limiting the matter of instruction to a minimum, and paying almost exclusive attention to religious instruction. But in 1799 the government at Berlin infused new life into the public (or people's) schools, and established the principle "that instruction in religion in these schools should confine itself to the general truths of religion, and the morals underlying all church parties; in other words, it should be Christian, but nonsectarian." This principle is still adhered to.