sound-table, which might have been thought tedious and liable to provoke inattention and playfulness, has undoubtedly interested them, and they have apparently themselves felt that they were acquiring a new power.

The teachers, too, have shown interest and even enthusiasm ; and have been ready to take extra trouble to fit themselves for a somewhat novel task.

It is at present too early to speak with confidence of results, as no boy has at present passed through more than a third of the course. It seems, however, to be pretty clearly demonstrated that it is not impossible to teach good French pronunciation at school. We do not for a moment mean to assert that the pupils have learnt in a year to utter even simple sentences like French boys, but if their pronunciation is far from being perfectly French it is no less remote from being what one of our correspondents has called "hideously insular."

Some of the recitations have been very promising, and would lead anyone to believe that English boys can be taught under favourable circumstances in English schools to speak French in such a way as to be intelligible to Frenchmen and not to offend their ears. The vivá voce examinations have been particularly satisfactory, and the boys have certainly gained a power of speech beyond what is usual with the average English schoolboy. This is partly due to the fact that the lessons have been conducted in French and partly to the opportunities that many of the boys have had of conversing with the foreign governess at meals and on other occasions. Such conversation, when supported by systematic teaching of conversation in school, will be found to produce very satisfactory results.

It has been asserted in some quarters that reading from phonetic script must necessarily greatly confuse the pupils and cause them difficulty when they come to deal with ordinary spelling. This fear has certainly not been justified by our experience, indeed we believe rather the opposite to be the case. In introducing the new method it was necessary at first to give extra time to viva voce at the cost of written work, and the latter has no doubt to some extent suffered, but the first step passed, the written work will of course receive due attention.

The examinations are five-fold:

A. Viva voce.

B. Exercises.

C. Dictation.

D. Grammar.

E. Translation.

Each one of these is limited according to the vocabulary, inflec tions, and constructions occurring in the portion of the book offered for examination. In this way we think the danger of scrappy conversation" will be avoided.

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It any are disposed to try the method, but feel deterred by feeling that the task is beyond the strength of their teachers, they may still accomplish something if they only take the trouble to master the proper use of the sound-table, and to study the extremely ingenious methods of question and answer (enabling a teacher of moderate skill to conduct the lesson in French) to be found in such books as Rossman and Schmidt.

E. P. ARNOLD.

FABIAN WARE.

THE TEACHING OF MATHEMATICS IN PREPARATORY SCHOOLS.*

The study of mathematics in preparatory schools, though obviously not extensive, is nevertheless of the utmost importance. Limit in the number of subjects, limit also in the range of these subjects, there must necessarily be; a limit easily ascertained when the proportion of time that may be fairly devoted to mathematics and when the thinking capabilities of an average boy of 12 to 14 years are fully considered. Assuming that the days of specialisation are gone for ever, assuming also that "Preparatory" is strictly interpreted to mean "under 14," the range of study is "cribbed, cabined, and confined" within very narrow bounds.

Our considerations will naturally fall under two heads:

(a). Preparation for public school entrance.

(b). Preparation for public school scholarships.

And yet it must not be concluded that these heads represent two distinct branches of education; for all practical purposes of teaching they go hand in hand. No preparatory school master, who aims at sound work, makes any distinction between possible candidates for scholarship and the ordinary rank and file as represented by the average boy. Though the former will always outdistance the latter, yet the process of education must always remain the same, the only tangible difference being that the one is capable of a more extended course than the other, and this difference is fully provided for in the more advanced work of the higher classes to which the average boy rarely or ever attains.

The curriculum of a preparatory school is nothing if not sufficiently elastic to admit of a different classification of boys according to individual attainments and capabilities in each individual subject. Thus the same boy may be in one set for classics, in another for French, in yet another for mathematics; this is a fact that must be fully grasped in any study of English secondary schools. Under any other form of classification a boy will be almost certainly taking one of two courses; either he will be doing work which is insufficient for his requirements, which means losing time, or he will be going too far ahead, in which case he will inevitably become inaccurate and unsound. It is quite clear that an independent classification for each individual subject is of the greatest advantage both to masters and boys: to the former in providing them with a class as level as possible in knowledge and powers, to the latter in affording means of steady uniform progress in every subject that is required of them.

In the lower forms boys, whether their goal be entrance or scholarship, will naturally work together, the more clever boys being slightly younger than the rest of the class. And this

* We much regret that Mr. Allum died as this paper was passing through the press, and that it has not therefore had the advantage of receiving his final corrections.-ED.

system will continue all through the school, so that by some law of gravitation the average boy will not rise either so quickly or so high as his more gifted schoolfellow; it is therefore this fact alone rather than the wishes of the parent or the aim of the boy that eventually will decide whether a boy will have a reasonable chance of a scholarship. In a well-organized preparatory school the boys of the highest form reach the standard of public school scholarships by the time they attain the limits of age (12-14), and it is quite certain that, if any alteration is made in the length of the working day, it is in the direction of curtailment rather than in that of extension. A fresh brain is capable of more good work than one that is fatigued and dulled by a long period of hard exertion. The brain must have rest in order to grow, while a long period of severe strain would probably retard the growing process to such a degree that the brain power of what might under other conditions have been a forward boy of 14 is little, if any, more than it was two years before.

Scholarship classes, as apart from highest forms, are perfectly unnecessary and harmful the wheat and the tares must grow together all through the school; the weaker boys will be left behind only by their inability to acquire knowledge as quickly as their other contemporaries.

By no means also let there be any specialisation of subjects to the neglect of others. True education is an impartial and, as far as possible, an equal development of all faculties in due proportion. It is quite true that some young boys show special taste for classics, others an aptitude for mathematics, yet better educational results are obtained-by which I mean more thinking power-by a judicious latitude of curriculum, than by devoting a preponderance of time and effort to the exclusive development of any individual study.

In the case of young boys mathematical genius is by nature limited, and though it is far more conspicuous in the case of some than of others, yet there will be no perceptible retardation of the mathematical power latent in the individual, if work which is more advanced than the juvenile mind should be permitted to attempt be deferred to years of greater discretion. Of course, this by no means precludes the extension of the usual limits in the case of a boy with a more than average taste for mathematics; provided only that the time devoted to the subject be not extended, good results only can accrue from more advanced work in the case of one able to receive it. Special ability for classics or for mathematics can be met by special credit in the form of marks in the weekly, monthly, or terminal totals.

At the present time the public schools that offer scholarships for special subjects, e.g., classics or mathematics, may be counted on the fingers of one hand, so that there is a large and important consensus of opinion on the part of public school headmasters, which should go far to strengthen the hands of preparatory school headmasters in offering the most stringent opposition to specialisation. Does the principle of specialisation produce a