MANUAL WORK. 377 



And it has shown also what can be obtained, 

 without over-pressure, if a rational economy 

 of the scholar's time is always kept in view, 

 and theory goes hand in hand with practice. 

 Viewed in this light, the Moscow results do not 

 seem extraordinary at all, and still better results 

 may be expected if the same principles are applied 

 from the earliest years of education. 



Waste of time is the leading feature of our 

 present education. Not only are we taught a 

 mass of rubbish, but what is not rubbish is taught 

 so as to make us waste over it as much time 

 as possible. Our present methods of teaching 

 originate from a time when the accomplishments 

 required from an educated person were extremely 

 limited ; and they have been maintained, not- 

 withstanding the immense increase of know- 

 ledge which must be conveyed to the scholar's 

 mind since science has so much widened its for- 

 mer limits. Hence the over-pressure in schools, 

 and hence, also, the urgent necessity of totally 

 revising both the subjects and the methods of 

 teaching, according to the new wants and to the 

 examples already given here and there, by sepa- 

 rate schools and separate teachers. 



It is evident that the years of childhood ought 

 not to be spent so uselessly as they are now. 

 German teachers have shown how the very plays 

 of children can be made instrumental in convey- 



