44 



gilded, and actual wheat and maize glued over their appropriate 

 places of production. I feel sure the maker of the map glued 

 that information into his mind quite as firmly. The less 

 printing or writing necessary on a map the more useful educa- 

 tionally it will be. The making of relief maps by piling up 

 cardboards cut to contour lines, as practised by pupils in 

 Switzerland, or by modelling in plastic material as adopted 

 in America, is also excellent. 



It seems to me that Geography is commonly learned in spite 

 of, rather than by means of, the ordinary rote-work method. 

 If the pupil has not a map before him, he must (to learn it 

 intelligently) carry a map in his mind ; this implies, I think, 

 a quite unnecessary mental strain. The well-known method 

 of starting the geographical ideas of the pupil at the school- 

 room door, and spreading out gradually into the world at large, 

 might be called Nature's graphic method, and by it the science 

 would be learned pleasantly and well. It would perhaps have 

 been adopted before now, if it were not the fashion to have 

 so much to do that there is no time to get even a little bit 

 well done of everything that is necessary. We receive from 

 Nature a hint of the appropriateness of this expanding method in 

 the common schoolboy's trick of writing his address as A. B., of 

 C. street, Belfast, Ireland, Europe, The World, Space. 



The application of the graphic method to other studies will 

 suggest itself. In all cases the charts should be made by the 

 students themselves so as to increase their interest in them and 

 impress the contents in the memory. 



The optical lantern ought also to be a frequent adjunct to 

 teaching. To read of Thermopylae is interesting. To see a 

 view of the place itself would greatly increase this interest and 

 would aid the memory. Now that photography has so vastly 

 improved and cheapened the production of lantern slides there 

 should be no real difficulty. 



As has been pointed out over and over by various authors in 

 various ways, the acquirement of knowledge should begin with 

 the particular and obvious, and proceed through the general to 



