14 
HEREWARD THE WAKE. 
By JOHN HOLDEN. January 28th, 1890. 
Mr. Holden remarked that this story by Charles Kingsley had 
always exercised a strong fascination over him. It was first read 
during that stage of boyhood when everything in the shape of a 
story is eagerly devoured. It was charming then, and the charm 
of it has been increased by the many pleasant hours that he 
has since passed with Martin Lightfoot and his master roaming 
through rural England. 
Mr. Holden thought that the writing of ‘‘ Hereward”’ would 
be as congenial a task to Kingsley as the writing of ‘*‘ Westward 
Ho!” In each case he was dealing with a district he loved. 
One thing was certain, Kingsley had a strong affection for the 
Fens and the counties adjoining, and if any one wanted a fine 
piece of descriptive writing, full of valuable historical information, 
he should read the chapter entitled, ‘‘ Of the Fens,”’ with which 
Kingsley prefaces the story. 
Mr. Holden gave an abstract of the story, illustrating the 
principal incidents by quotations, and enabling those who were 
not acquainted with the tale to form an idea of the character of 
Kingsley’s hero, and the state of England during the early years 
of the conquest. 
USEFUL EDUCATION. 
By SWIRE SMITH, Member of the Royal Commission on 
Technical Education. February 4th, 1890. 
To every thoughtful man the most absorbing question which 
he has to face every day is that which centres in his 
immediate means of existence. In order to live he must work, 
and the object of education is to fit him for work and the 
duties of citizenship. To put the matter in another way, it has 
been said that half a man’s labour through life is required for 
the payment of his food. Hvery child starts out in life with 
certain physical, mental, and moral powers and qualities, and 
upon the cultivation of those qualities largely depend its future 
position and comfort in the world. Yet in our elementary 
schools we pass all our children through a cast-iron system, 
represented by a number of standards, and each child's ability 
is tested entirely by the standard that it can pass in reading, 
writing, and ciphering, and upon those “ results’’ the teacher 
