548 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



means prizes. Next, the minor schools and private schools have 

 to follow suit. And at last the smallest preparatory school, where 

 children in nursery-frocks are crying over qui, quce, quod, has to 

 dance the same tarantela. 



For this state of things the remedies seem to be these : Let 

 examinations be much fewer — they are ten times too numerous. 

 Let them be much more free — they are over-organized, over-regu- 

 lated. Give examiners more time, more discretion, more room. 

 The more the teachers are themselves the examiners, the better ; 

 the less examining becomes a profession and a special staff, the 

 better. Do not set examiners to test teachers as well as stu- 

 dents ; do not set up mechanical rules whereby to test the exam- 

 iner. Believe that it is possible to learn without any prize, 

 money, or reward in view. Trust the teacher ; trust him to teach, 

 trust him to examine. Trust the examiner, and do not set up a 

 mill. Above all, trust the student. Encourage him to study for 

 the sake of knowledge, for his own sake, and the public good. 

 Cease to present learning to him as a succession of races, where 

 the knowing ones may land both fame and profit. — Nineteenth 

 Century. 



SKETCH OF JOHN" B. STALLO. 



JOHN B. STALLO is among the notable examples which this 

 generation presents of men who, while busy in professional 

 and public affairs, have at the same time shown themselves mas- 

 ters in scientific and philosophic thought. His published essays 

 have given him place among the foremost thinkers and critics of 

 his time, while he has achieved an equal eminence in his career 

 of law and politics. In introducing the first of a series of his 

 articles which afterward resulted in the " Concepts," the late Prof. 

 Youmans remarked in the " Monthly " for October, 1873 : " It has 

 long been the honor and boast of the British bar that Mr. Justice 

 Grove, the author of ' The Correlation of Forces,' belonged to it ; 

 it is equally to the credit of the legal profession in this country 

 that a member of it has cultivated scientific philosophy to such 

 excellent purpose as is proved by the articles we are now pub- 

 lishing." 



John Bernard Stallo is of German origin, and was born at 

 Sierhausen, Oldenburg, March 16, 1823. His ancestors, on both 

 his father's and mother's side, were schoolmasters, and all of 

 them persons of only moderate means. He inherited, particularly 

 from his father's side, a thirst for knowledge and an inclination 

 to scientific studies. These traits were particularly marked in 



