EDITOR'S TABLE. 



Ill 



giving to the coffee public-house a distinc- 

 tively class designation, or one wliich might 

 appear to connect the house with any par- 

 ticular social or philanthropic movement. 



" The plan of partitioning off portions of 

 the ground-floor, or setting apart rooms for 

 reading, smoking, or other purposes, though 

 occasionally useful, does not always work 

 well. Men like being in a crowd ; isolation 

 is not to their taste ; and an arrangement of 

 this kind is apt to lead to overcrowding of 

 particular rooms while others may be almost 

 unoccupied. The only other exception to 

 the foregoing rule is where a room can be set 

 apart for the accommodation of women and 

 children, or for youths. Wherever a room 

 especially for women has been opened, as 

 in some of the Liverpool houses, the boon 

 has been highly appreciated. It should be 

 understood that men accompanied by their 

 wives may use the women's room, and ev- 

 ery encouragement should be given to men 

 who may be disposed to bring their wives 

 and children to the coSee public -house. 

 Women should be encouraged to avail them- 

 selves of the public rooms when no other ac- 

 commodation has been provided for them." 



There is everything to commend and 

 nothing to condemn in this mode of 

 promoting the work of temperance. 

 It proceeds upon the assumption that 

 there is no use in trying to shut up 

 dram shops until something else has 

 been provided to take their places. 

 Various causes lead to the formation 

 of intemperate habits, but perhaps the 

 most powerful are social influences. 

 Men are gregarious, and as they are 

 cultivated they become more social and 

 crave companionship. They meet to- 

 gether, and wine favors geniality and 

 convi\dality. If men are to be deliv- 

 ered from this temptation, they must 

 be furnished with a substantial equiva- 

 lent, or places where they can come 

 together and have some social enjoy- 

 ment without the temptation of intoxi- 

 cating drinks. Eeform here begins at 

 the right end. Its spirit is not ascetic, 

 but sympathetic, and it cannot fail to 

 be well received by large numbers who 

 would not bo influenced by bare moral 

 inculcations. 



It is to bo hoped that the experi- 

 ment that has proved so successful in 



Liverpool will be tried in New York 

 and other American cities, under such 

 modifications as the changed circum- 

 stances may call for. The desirable- 

 ness of some systematic movement of 

 the kind is undoubted •, and if it will 

 do positive good, and pay its expenses 

 and yield a liberal profit, there ought 

 to be no difliculty in getting capital for 

 it, whatever may be the difliculty in 

 finding competent and trustworthy man- 

 agers, who will not steal the funds. 



THE PROGRESS OF RATIONAL EDUCA- 

 TION. 



It is often impatiently asked wheth- 

 er the world is really making any ad- 

 vance in more reasonable views of men- 

 tal cultivation. The old errors live on 

 with such a persistent vitality, after 

 they seem to have been cut up by the 

 roots, that the question is naturally 

 raised whether this is a sphere in which 

 common-sense has any chance against 

 tradition and superstition. Yet there 

 are many indications of a decided and 

 healthful progress in the direction of 

 greater liberality and the increasing 

 control of enlightened principles. Take, 

 for example, the matter of discipline. 

 It has long been the pretext for con- 

 serving whatever is old and established 

 in the schemes of academic and colle- 

 giate study. Greek, Latin, and classical 

 studies must be kept in the ascendant 

 because of their unrivaled and exclusive 

 potency in mental discipline. The sci- 

 ences and practical studies must be re- 

 sisted and repressed to give scope for 

 those venerable studies that have such 

 a wonderful eflBcacy in disciplining the 

 mind. "When it is proved that this is a 

 groundless claim — when it is shown 

 that the discipline afforded by classical 

 study is grossly defective, that it leaves 

 some of the most important parts of the 

 intellect not exercised at all, and when 

 it is proved that modern science has 

 high claims on still broader disciplinary 

 ground, what does it seem to avail? 



