THE EETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 107 



curious customs described and pictures shown of the hard 

 wood forests, the laurel, azalea and rhododendron ; an ac- 

 count was given of the ascent of Mt. Mitchell, the highest 

 mountain east of the Mississippi, being six thousand seven 

 hundred and eleven feet. 



Monday, Dec. 15, 1890. Mr. John T. Prince, of New- 

 tonville, delivered a lecture on "Common Schools." He 

 gave first a brief history of the Massachusetts School Sys- 

 tem, answered the criticism sometimes made against it and 

 described what was done in the best of schools, showing 

 that the children in these schools are preparing well for 

 the duties of life in a proper training of the body, intel- 

 lect and will ; the formation of a good character being most 

 important of all. 



These results are attainable in all schools under proper 

 conditions : the employment of teachers well qualified for 

 their work by proper training and supervision of skilled 

 superintendents. 



Monday, Jan. 12, 1891. Mr. Sylvester Baxter, of 

 Boston, lectured on "The Evolution of a Nation." After 

 referring to the great social developments and changes 

 which are now taking place in the world and which are 

 the natural outcome of what has gone before, the lecturer 

 proceeded to say that these changes should be helped not 

 hindered; that the principles of evolution were always 

 the same, and that one great factor in evolution was the 

 friction of individual particles which at last taught the 

 lesson that only by working in unison could the welfare 

 of the whole be obtained. Mr. Baxter referred to Mr. 

 Bellamy's book "Looking Backward" which he said pointed 

 out the direction in which social development naturally 

 lay and which, judging by the notice which had been given 



