if he can make the demonstration for himself ; his faculties are 

 to be trained and developed, not forced in other words, there 

 is to be no cramming. Disgusted with the pedantry of the in- 

 structors of his day, and enthusiastically advocating a more ra- 

 tional method, Rousseau was an extremist, and his theories are 

 often impracticable, and his views one-sided and exaggerated, 

 but though his book was fiercely attacked and bitterly de- 

 nounced, it contained too much of truth to be borne down by 

 mere invective, and its effect was far-reaching, and has lasted 

 long. Much that his Emile contains, which raised a violent op- 

 position when it first appeared because so new and so radically 

 different from received ideas, seems to us to-day quite common- 

 place, because so evidently true and so generally accepted. 

 Basedow, and Pestalozzi, and Froebel, were followers of Rous- 

 seau, and their writings gained for those of their predecessor a 

 wider audience than otherwise they would probably have se- 

 cured. To them chiefly we owe our Kindergarten systems and 

 object-lesson teaching, and Pestalozzi's romance of Leonard and 

 Gertrude may be read with great profit by educators to-day. 

 The good that these deep-thinkers and clear-seers have done, 

 and the effect of their work upon educational methods at home 

 and abroad, can hardly be overestimated. Herbert Spencer, in 

 his admirable essays upon education, re-states and emphasizes 

 much for which they labored to secure a hearing more than a 

 century ago, and the effect of their teaching is seen in the meth- 

 ods now pursued in our schools for the young, and in a scarcely 

 less degree in our higher institutions. The general introduction 

 of the laboratory method of instruction in our academies and 

 colleges shows that the youth of to-day are no longer expected 

 to learn from books and lectures alone, but are taught to inves- 

 tigate, to prove the truth of fundamental propositions, and to 

 think for themselves after they have learned to reason. Thus 

 are the observing and reasoning faculties trained, the habit of 

 original thought developed, creative work becomes possible, 

 and original investigation a not uncommon pursuit. Doubtless 

 when we survey the past, we are ready freely to admit that 

 "there were giants in the earth in those days." The Keplers 

 and Newtons, the Lavoisiers and Davys, may not be easily 

 matched if we call the roll of learned men to-day, but never- 

 theless it is true that there never was a time when so large a 

 number of the community were so well educated, and so well 



