636 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



order to witness work of this nature at a neighboring manufactory or 

 workshop. Now, he beholds a school which is a workshop in itself ; 

 where the boys, instead of having to content themselves with looking 

 on, are permitted to take an active part. He sees whole classes of 

 children interested in arithmetic, algebra, and geometry, and listening 

 to talks upon geographical and historical subjects with evident rel- 

 ish. In his day the allurements of geography were by no means so 

 strong as those of foot-ball ; and he never could get himself to look 

 upon mathematics with that ardor of affection which he was wont to 

 bestow on mumble-the-peg. 



By what arts, it may be asked, do the teachers at this particular 

 school succeed in suddenly awakening the interest of children in sub- 

 jects which heretofore have not particularly attracted them ? By mak- 

 ing them interesting instead of tiresome. How many children will be 

 attracted by the statement that Africa is the division of the world 

 which is the most interesting, and about which the least is known ; or 

 that Afrigah, from which its name is supposed to be derived, is said to 

 mean " colony " in the ancient Phoenician, and, having been given by 

 the founders of Carthage to their territory, is supposed to have spread 

 to the whole continent ? 



But children are ever ready for stories and the relation of exciting 

 adventures, and through this faculty, it has been found, they may be 

 led on from one event to another of African history, from one point to 

 another of African topography, till, finally, what heretofore they may 

 be said to have regarded as an unpalatable dose, is successfully admin- 

 istered in the form of a sugar-coated pill. 



Instead of beginning at the commencement of African history, at 

 least at the point where our knowledge begins, and gradually working 

 forward through all the dry details, the contrary course would be pur- 

 sued at the Workingman's School. The children would be told about 

 Stanley and how he found Livingstone. This would naturally lead to 

 Livingstone, and to why Stanley went in search of him. Then would fol- 

 low the mission that brought Livingstone to Africa ; the Nile, and the 

 various conjectures regarding its source, and the reason of the world's 

 impatience to know it ; the Niger, and the interesting story of the find- 

 ing of its course by Richard Lander, after his master had failed in a 

 similar attempt. Egypt and the Suez Canal would be gradually worked 

 in, as well as the history of the Continent of Africa and its relative 

 position on the earth's surface. 



By such a course, it has been found, connected ideas are given of 

 geographical points and historical incidents and eras. The mention of 

 ancient Greece to one so instructed would mean something more than 

 a portion of land included in the most easterly of the three peninsulas 

 in the south of Europe, and which, beginning at latitude 40° north, is 

 bounded by a chain of mountains extending from the Thermaic Gulf 

 on the east, and terminating with the Acroceraunian promontory on 



