than seek occasion of quarrel. He must evoke the malign passions occasionally, in order to sound all the notes of our emotional nature; but more suitable subjects should be found than the scientific mode of viewing the world, even though that mode has sometimes a disenchanting effect. The two first lines might be dispensed with, and the two last might then

run on

'Twas then I dreamt of gems and gold

Hid in thy radiant bow.

The continuation of the fancy of childhood is well sustained by the choice of the glittering objects -gems and gold-and by the kindred metaphor "radiant," which brings to view an attribute of the sun-the sublimest object of the physical world.

The fourth stanza carries on the strife between poetry and science; the force and elevation of the language going far to atone for the unseemliness of the quarrel.

When science from Creation's face

Enchantment's veil withdraws,
What lovely visions yield their place
To cold material laws.

"Creation's face" belongs to the language of the sublime, from the comprehensiveness of the word, and the personification implied in it. "Enchantment's veil" expresses a high intensity of human pleasure, and is, from that cause, pleasing, if not vulgarised by a commonplace setting. "Lovely visions" also expresses delight, and is eminently poetic, being the poetry of our affectionate nature. The final touch

"cold material laws" gives us a kind of shudder, and is of itself a disagreeable suggestion, but for the use made of it, namely, to excite a burst of indignation against science. The objection to the whole is that we cannot work ourselves up into a sense of the injury done us by science, sufficient to justify a copious and luxurious outburst of indignant passion. In the conjunction, "cold material," there is a harmonious fitting of the two words, arising from the kindred emotional meanings: and harmony is always poetic.

The fifth stanza takes a higher flight

And yet, fair bow, no fabling dreams,
But words of the Most High,

Have told why first thy robe of beams
Was woven in the sky.

Several of the arts of elevated style can here be exemplified. The bold Apostrophe is the setting of the whole. The strain is not markedly sublime, and not markedly pathetic or tender; it is the energetic assertion of a truth, enhanced by the power of contrast, and rendered touching by the emotional force of the several epithets employed. The opinion so strongly maintained is not very fortunate, seeing that it refers to one of the oldest difficulties in the Mosaic narrative, which has never been satisfactorily cleared up. Poets have no right to dogmatise where com

petent authorities express doubt; but, waving this objection, the stanza is a masterpiece of language; and every point admits of being rendered illustrative. The energetic contrast, "no fabling dreams" heightens the force of the assertion; and it is a case where contrast is not superfluous. The fine figure in the two last lines can be studied as an elegant and elevating similitude. The phrase "words of the Most High" as a figure for the Bible record, is in itself grand, and is brought in so as to avoid the tameness of familiarity.

When o'er the green undeluged earth
Heaven's cov❜nant then didst shine,
How came the world's gray fathers forth
To watch thy sacred sign!

The poet here turns our thoughts to the significance of the bow, as an assurance against the re-flooding of the earth; and sets forth a poetic circumstance yielding the pathos of devout feeling. The most venerable representatives of the race, after the flood, "the world's gray fathers," are summoned to do homage to the sign. "The green undeluged earth" is a poetic condensation, which may be expanded in prose-"When thou didst shine, as Heaven's covenant, o'er the green earth, never again to come under a deluge-to be flooded." epithet "sacred" chimes in with the general

effect.

And when its yellow lustre smiled O'er mountains yet untrod, Each mother held aloft her child To bless the bow of God.

The

A new picture is here given made up of epithets and circumstances, intended to enhance the glory of the object, and to make still farther use of the pathos of devoutness and gratitude. The combination "yellow lustre smiled" is somewhat forced, but yet within the licence of poetry. The action of smiling would, no doubt, be better suited by something more personal than yellow lustre; but the emotional meanings of the words are not in any way discordant. The circumstance-"O'er mountains yet untrod"

may be supposed to refer to the time immediately succeeding the flood, when the repeopling of the earth had proceeded a very little way-an inference that does not at once disclose itself. The more obvious suggestion of mountain solitudes would not conspire to the intended effect. The figure of the two last lines has undoubtedly the beauty of pathos, but fathers" in the previous stanza. A bolder and does not add much to the effect of the "gray more successful flight awaits us in the next

stanza.

Methinks thy jubilee to keep,
The first-made anthem rang
On earth, delivered from the deep,
And the first poet sang.

Bating the extravagance of the sentiment, the stanza is very grand, both from the ring of the language and the choice of the circumstances.

It is a little absurd to suppose that, for fifty years, the thoughts of men had only one stirring topic, namely, the avoidance of another deluge; that there was nothing besides to furnish inspiration to poetry: still, the choice of circumstances contributes to heighten the grandeur of the subject, provided only we do not begin to feel that it is overdone. The poet himself does not feel so, for he grows warmer with his theme, and rises to a still higher flight in the stanza that follows.

:

Nor ever shall the muse's eye Unraptured greet thy beam: Theme of primeval prophecy,

Be still the poet's theme!

The loftiness of this sentence arises from the strain of exultation of the poet, drawing upon the dignity and greatness of his art, and expressing it by choice and compact language. We hear of the "Muse" in the poetry of all ages but it never loses its associations of dignity and charm. The personification in the two first lines is vivid and terse. The effect approaches the sublime, rather than the tender mood. The two last lines derive their force from the magniloquent reference ("primeval prophecy") to the old subject, the prediction to Noah, and from the bold apostrophe-" be still the poet's theme." We have next two exquisite stanzas, cast out of the permanent adjuncts of the bow, and independent of the connection with the deluge.

The earth to thee her incense yields,
The lark thy welcome sings,
When, glitt'ring in the freshened fields,

The snowy mushroom springs.

The beauty here ranges with tender feeling. The selection of circumstances fitted to enter into harmonious combination is everything that a poet could wish. The first line is a poetic rendering of the vapour that is the first source of the rain; it is poetized by the metaphor "incense," redolent of perfume and associations of sacredness. The introduction of the lark is the addition of one of our permanent charms; having, if not a special adaptation to the occasion, at least a general coincidence of effect, when the rainbow is viewed on the side of beauty, rather than of sublimity. The two last lines gather in a new circumstance from the rain-the bursting out of the mushroom growths in the fields. If this incident were viewed in its naked aspect, it would fail to lend the expected agreeable additions to the grouping; but as expressed in the poet's phraseology ("glittering and snowy"), and dignified with his impressive metre, it answers his intentions in composing a group of heightening accompaniments to the main theme.

How glorious is thy girdle cast

O'er mountain, tower, and town,
Or mirrored in the ocean vast,
A thousand fathoms down!

A truly magnificent stanza: the sublimest in the piece. The figure-Exclamation, is the setting

of the whole: (the verb "is" in the first line might be omitted in conformity with the usage of the figure). The sublime aspect of the rainbow, from its celestial dimensions and span, is here done justice to once more; improving upon the two first lines of the opening stanza. The vastness of the embrace is pictured forth by the choice of the most conspicuous and grand of the objects of the earth-"mountain, tower, and town;" a grouping which, if not a climax, neither is it an anticlimax: a town, in one view, has not the sublimity of the mountain, but it has a counterbalancing importance from its aggregate of objects and interests. But for the highly effective emphasis of the word as closing the line, "city" would be preferable from its greater dignity of associations: as in Milton's description from the mountain of temptation"cities many and high-tower'd."

The two last lines bring in the ocean with imagination. The wide ocean is one of our greater effect, although with some licence of most sublime terrestrial objects; and its character in that respect is helped out by the powerful epithet "vast"; while the line has the poet's usual energy of metre. The "mirroring" is an expansion of the image of the bow, but unfortunately not true to fact in the ordinary state of the ocean's surface; the "thousand fathoms down" is a splendid expression for what might happen in a very rare moment.

The poet returns once more to the historical aspect of the bow; and embodies it with the poetic touches of the two concluding stanzas. As fresh in yon horizon dark, As young thy beauties seem, As when the eagle from the ark First sported in the beam.

The

This is legitimate poetic thought. phenomena of the world that are naturally imperishable or undecaying can be placed in effective contrast with the numerous examples of decay that we are destined to experience. The negative of such a painful circumstance as perishability and mortality constitutes a high and impressive merit, and enters into our permanent phraseology of laudation. "The eagle from the ark" plays an expressive part, as did the previous introduction of the lark, contributing to the sublime aspect of the subject, which the poet handles alternately with the other.

For, faithful to its sacred page,
Heaven still rebuilds thy span,
Nor lets the type grow pale with age
That first spoke peace to man.

"Heaven" is here impressively endowed with its double function, namely, as the source of Bible inspiration, and as the prime mover of the natural world. The benign aspect of sublimity is well exemplified in the union of the different strains; while there is an iteration of the negative of decay, coupled with the benign reference to the goodness of Heaven as its cause.

Eminent Practical Teachers.

DAVID STOW,

Founder of the Training System of Education.

BY JOHN R. LANGLER, B.A., F.R.G.S., Of the Westminster Training College, Ex-President of the National Union of Elementary Teachers.

VI.

HE Sympathy of Numbers was recognised by Mr.

THE Stow as a chief instrument in the intellectual

advancement, and especially in the moral regeneration, of the people. Example, indeed, is more powerful than precept, but sympathy is more powerful than either, or both combined.' Forty years ago children had not even the negative advantage of compulsory attendance at school. They were not, during any portion of the day, deprived of the evil training of the streets, and their habits were being formed under the mighty influence of a sympathy which was then 'all on the side of evil.' To lay hold on this principle and turn it to good was, as we have seen, the object Mr. Stow had constantly in view, and the classification of children in distinct departments, the 'raised gallery,' the simultaneous method of instruction, and, particularly, the uncovered schoolroom,' were all devised by his untiring ingenuity to secure this desirable result. The Sympathy of Numbers is, of course, chiefly felt in large centres of population, and it was to our large towns that the Moral Training System was designed to be primarily and specially applicable. Children naturally associate for any pursuit, innocent or mischievous, with others of about the same age, rather than with those who are much older or much younger. Right precept-mere precept-is powerless in the presence of such association, when precept, example, and sympathy are united on the side of wrong. The 'trainer' who by his conduct secures the confidence and sympathy of his children can use this influence always in favour of what is right, and experience has confirmed the theory which Mr. Stow endeavoured to establish: The play-ground and the gallery conjoined, under proper management and superintendence, afford the most perfect sympathy.' This principle of our nature was utilised in the Glasgow System, not only in connection with moral training, but also, as before stated, in the intellectual processes. Teaching is not training' is the first fundamental principle of Stow's System, and the Sympathy of Numbers is the second. The oral training lessons, whilst they secure to infants and others unable to read a vast amount of intellectual instruction, at the same time tend to establish the sympathy which is held to be vital to the Moral Training System,

No one, however unacquainted he may have previously been with the principles now explained, will be surprised to find that Mr. Stow set the highest value on Infant Schools. 'You will acknowledge that the Infant or Initiatory School is not the lowest, but the highest in the scale. A man who makes a good infant trainer never fails in making a first-rate juvenile trainer. A rough gardener may raise coarse plants, but only an experienced one can be be trusted with exotics' (Hint 139). This point has been named in connection with the power of simplifying any subject of instruction. It must not, however, be understood

from this quotation that men are to be preferred to women as trainers in Infant Schools. A 'Criticism Lesson in the Initiatory Department' was to all students the most dreaded, because the most difficult, test of true teaching power. Not a few graduates have quailed before the infants, who, in spite of all their efforts to make a point plain, 'wouldn't understand.' The mere scholar, unpractised in the art of teaching, could not present simple ideas in simple language, and many an amusing scene will readily recur to the memory of all who have witnessed such struggles. As about one-third of the children in our schools may be considered as infants, the importance of infant teachers to the community demands the attention which Mr. Stow always claimed for it.

In concluding this brief consideration of the cha racter of the Training System, it may be well to remember that, unlike some schemes of education, it was not in its origin the practical application of some preconceived theory. It was developed by degrees during an effort to benefit, both morally and intellectually, the sunken masses. It was the result of the experience of a highly intelligent and strongly sympathetic Christian gentleman. The history of its development has been imperfectly sketched. We have also noticed, as the features of the system named 'distinctive' by Mr. Stow, the use of the Sympathy of Numbers for moral and intellectual purposes, the Bible and other oral training lessons, the picturing out in words,' and the systematic use of the 'uncovered schoolroom,' and of a raised gallery.' Reference has been made to some details of method which were adopted in daily school work.

It only remains to commend to all who are entering on the study of education, or who intend to become practical teachers, to read Mr. Stow's own work, 'The Training System.' For the student's purpose its arrangement might have been advantageously different, but every young teacher will nevertheless find in it hints of great and permanent value. The principles of the system are of general application, and 'results' such as have attracted the attention of philanthropists will doubtless follow wherever such training is adopted, These 'results,' however, cannot all be tabulated, and the most important of them are likely to be entirely overlooked. It is an unwelcome fact that at present mere mechanical results are often more highly valued than true educational work, which cannot ordinarily be recorded. It will not be so always.

Archimedes, in considering the power of the lever as a machine, is said to have exclaimed:

Δὸς ποῦ στῶ, καὶ τὴν γῆν κινήσω.

('Give me where I may stand (sto), and I will move the world.')

The name of the founder of the Training System recalled this enthusiastic outburst of the mechanician of Syracuse to the mind of the writer on the completion of his short course of training at Glasgow. With a similar enthusiasm fully shared by his fellow-students he entered on his work as a practical teacher, and he still believes that the Moral Training System, resting on the fulcrum of revealed truth, is a lever capable not only of raising the classes for whom it was first designed, but of lifting the whole community to a higher level of moral power and intellectual life.