4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



coloring. A speaker goes to tliem from one of the nniversities 

 and explains the extension plan. If the impression produced be 

 favorable and the question of ways and means do not hinder, the 

 meeting results in the formation of a local center, and a per- 

 manent secretary and a board of managers are aj)iDointed. A 

 subject is then chosen, and application made to one of the central 

 offices for a lecturer. In many cases a particular lecturer is 

 asked for, as the extension men are coming to have pretty widely 

 known reputations, and the public naturally selects the most 

 popular. The question of finance now comes in. The universi- 

 ties supply qualified lecturers, arrange courses, and hold examina- 

 tions, but the expenses must be guaranteed by the local centers. 

 The work does not pay for itself, but then no scheme for higher 

 education ever does. The receipts from the sale of lecture tickets 

 may generally be counted upon to meet half the expenses of the 

 course. The rest must be provided for in some other way, com- 

 monly by subscriptions or by some larger benefaction. The uni- 

 versity fee for the twelve lectures is about £45, and the local ex- 

 penses will generally amount to about £20 more. This is for a 

 single course. Where more than one course is taken, the propor- 

 tionate expense is somewhat less. 



In most cases the local center is an outgrowth from some 

 library association or institute, and has already much of the 

 needed machinery in the way of hall and books. The course is 

 duly advertised and as strong a local interest enlisted as possible. 

 The audience is made up of all classes, the more miscellaneous 

 the better. The extension movement recognizes no class distinc- 

 tions. It includes the gentry, mechanics, school-teachers, bar- 

 risters, tradesmen — all, indeed, who will come. The work differs 

 from that of the school, as it is primarily for the education of 

 adults, and its methods have men and women in mind as the 

 material. 



And now the lecture begins. It lasts for about an hour, the 

 lecturer endeavoring not so much to present the whole of the 

 subject-matter of the evening as to give a distinct and helpful 

 point of view from which his hearers may look at it for them- 

 selves. It seems to me that this is a most hopeful feature of the 

 extension work, and one which brings it into direct line with 

 the best of modern educational practice. It is the spirit of the 

 new education to proceed always by appealing to the self-ac- 

 tivity of the taught rather than simply to their capacity for 

 receiving. 



If the lecturer be skillful, the hour seems very short, for the 

 feeling is abroad that here is a man thinking out loud and suggest- 

 ing a whole lot of new thoughts which will make one distinctly 

 the richer. It is a pleasant sensation, recalling the very cream of 



