I 9 2 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



These museums form very noteworthy objects in the 

 Zurich schools. Among the objects we found there 

 were simple chemical and physical apparatus, chemical 

 specimens, geographical relief maps showing the Alps 

 and their glaciers, typical collections of commonly 

 occurring and useful rocks and minerals, excellent 

 botanical models, as well as collections of insects, care- 

 fully labelled, a complete herbarium, zoological and 

 anatomical specimens and models ; the collection, in 

 fact, serving as a type of what such a school museum 

 should be. Many of the specimens were collected and 

 arranged by the teachers. 



All the school subjects were taught intelligently and 

 well. We were specially struck by the clean and tidy 

 appearance of the boys, and there was difficulty in 

 realising that the school consisted mainly of children 

 of the lower classes of the population. Indeed, so 

 struck was I that on one occasion I said to the master, 

 " These are surely children of the upper classes ? " 

 To which he replied, pointing to the two first children 

 on the front bench : " That is the son of a chimney 

 sweep, and his neighbour is the son of a road 

 scraper." 



In the Canton of Zurich by far the larger propor- 

 tion of the taxes is spent on education, and on asking 

 a local manufacturer how it came about that the tax- 

 paying classes were satisfied with the system by which 

 they paid for the whole of the education of the poorer 

 classes for these latter are not taxed at all he 

 replied : " Education is our only remedy against 

 socialistic action and the only safeguard which capital- 

 ists have in this country. The poorer classes take 

 education as a boon, and we provide it as an insurance 

 against revolution." 



The following is another instance of the value 



