tervals. At the close of the school year, the Local School Board (Schulrath) examines the school or schools of the town. The County Board holds examination of a certain number of schools every year, making the circuit of the county in three years. The State Board of Education conducts the annual State Examination of teachers who wish to obtain a certificate that enables them to apply for a permanent position. **

The Third Reader.

BY H. C. KINNE, SAN FRANCISCO.

It has latterly been the height of fashion in California to indulge in disparaging remarks as to the merits of the State text books. A gathering of teachers or educational officials would apparently be considered derelict of duty if it failed to pass the usual condemnatory resolutions, couched in stereotyped phrase. The State readers have been especially selected as a target for adverse comment, and as the work of preparing these books was mainly performed by myself, it may not be improper for me to come into court and traverse the indictment against them. Just for this time I propose to call attention. to the case of the Third Reader. In forming an opinion in regard to a work of this character, we naturally compare it with other works of a similar nature which have met with general acceptance and approval.

For the purposes of this comparison I have selected the Fifth Readers of the Bancroft and McGuffey series. These series were recently in use in a great portion of the State, and so far as is known, there was never the slightest breath of objection to them as being of inferior quality. The lynx-eyed critics, who are now so numerous and so noisy, failed to discover any flaw in these incomparable literary jewels. It is, therefore, safe to consider them as the embodiment and incarnation of supernal excellence.

The subjoined table explains itself. It was formed by first scanning the contents of the State Third Reader, and noting down the names of the more prominent American authors and orators, extracts from whose works were to be found therein. The figure following each name shows the number of extracts from that particular author. The Bancroft and McGuffey books were then examined in order to find the number of extracts from the same authors:

I respectfully request that this table be examined and re-examined carefully. It may appear somewhat of a revelation. Here we have the fact, that while the McGuffey reader contains but twenty selections from this list of American authors, and the Bancroft reader contains but twenty-six selections, the State Reader contains no less than forty-three selections, or nearly as many as the other two books combined.

I offer no apology for quoting from the speeches of Daniel Webster. They are massive and enduring monuments of American eloquence. They are most glorious Union utterances. They are the purest and truest inspirations of genuine patriotic fervor. They crown the deeds of the fathers with imperishable radiance, and they illumine the skies of the future with a transcendent glow. As the

centuries roll away they will be treasured more and more as relics and mementoes of the spirit that dwelt in the hearts of the American people in the youthful days of the Republic.

Neither do the quotations from Edward Everett need any apology. Mr. Everett stood in the front rank of American statesmen. He occupied political positions of the highest importance. He was equally prominent in the literary world; and while his speeches may not have the rugged strength that characterizes those of Daniel Webster, they are nevertheless models of polished and ornate rhetoric. This fact will be rendered apparent by an examination of the pages of the State Reader.

It will be useless to refer to the Bancroft and McGuffey books, for nothing from Mr. Everett is to be found in them. The State Reader contains speeches by Henry Clay and Sargent S. Prentiss, none of which are found in the other books. Mr. Prentiss was an orator of great magnetic power. The opening paragraph in his speech on New England, delivered in New Orleans forty-five years ago, was a veritable poem in the beauty of its imagery. It will be observed that the first six names in the foregoing list of American authors are those of men eminent in public life.

The State Reader contains fourteen speeches by these American statesmen, the Bancroft reader contains seven speeches, and the McGuffey Reader contains one. In the eyes of our unprejudiced, impartial, and presumably American critics, this circumstance may be one. of the grounds on which the charge of inferiority against the State Reader is based.

We will now form a second table which will contain the names of some of the more prominent English authors:

NUMBER OF EXTRACTS FROM EMINENT ENGLISH AUTHORS.

These figures are entirely admissible and convincing evidenceThey throw a flood of light upon the character of the charge so freely made, that the State Reader is destitute of merit. Here we have the fact, that while the McGuffey book has thirteen selections from this list of authors, and the Bancroft book has twenty-six selections, the State Reader has no less than fifty-five selections, or far more than the other books combined.

It will also be seen that McGuffey has no selections from Sir Walter Scott, or John Milton, or Lord Byron, or Charles Mackay, or Thomas Gray. The Bancroft book has no selections from Robert Southey, or Jane Taylor, or Dr. Johnson, or Thomas Moore.

Neither Bancroft or McGuffey have any selections from Mary Howitt, or Joseph Addison, or Sir William Pitt, or Henry Kirke White, or Charles Phillips, or De Quincy, or Spurgeon, or Thomas Dick, or Sir Samuel Baker, or Macaulay, or Charles Wolfe, or Thomas Campbell.

The foregoing lists of authors are but a portion of the whole number. The State Reader contains extracts from the works of a hundred other writers.

The State Reader contains one hundred and nine poetical selections, while Bancroft has but fifty-five and McGuffey has but fiftynine. The State Reader has nearly as many as the other two books combined. And right here, I will challenge any and all persons in

the pedagogical profession, or out of the pedagogical profession, in the State of California, or out of the State of California, to produce a reading book which contains a finer, more brilliant, and more diversified collection of the gems of English poetry than is to be found in the State Third Reader.

The State Reader contains ninety-four selections in prose, while Bancroft has seventy-seven, and McGuffey has fifty-eight. In the opening portions of the State reader the prose lessons are of a comparatively simple character; but they gradually take on a more elaborate and pretentious form. And the prose contents of the State Reader are not to be surpassed in point of excellence. There is not a dull, heavy, stupid selection in the book. The narratives are lively, graphic and thrilling. The essays are forcible, logical and rhetorical. The oratory is the cream of all to be found in the Anglo-Saxon tongue.

But some one says that the selections in the State Reader are "worn out." My beloved friend, is it not quite possible that it is your precious self that is experiencing the pangs of dilapidation ? "Worn out," indeed! So is the alphabet "worn out." So is the multiplication table "worn out." So is the history of the discovery and settlement of America "worn out." So is the Declaration of Independence "worn out." So are the name and fame of George Washington "worn out." If you have under your instruction a class of pupils who have been in attendance upon school for 500 years, it may be presumed that they have traversed the entire range of English literature so often, that like yourself they are thirsting for new sensational novels from the pen of Rider Haggard or Rudyard Kipling. But you must remember that every decade witnesses a complete eviction of the tenants of the school-room. Every decade gathers an entirely new generation within the school-room walls, and strange as it may seem, it is, nevertheless, a positive fact that to the sixyear-old child, who for the first time crosses the threshold of the school, all literary productions are entirely new, whether ten centuries or ten seconds have elapsed since those productions made their appearance in the world.

Strange as it may seem, it is a positive fact that the boy who is not yet born will find the life of Julius Cæsar just as new as the life of Napoleon Bonaparte. He will find the life of King Philip, of Macedon, just as new as the life of King Philip of the Wampanoags, and he will find the life of the Wampanoag as new as the life