47 



ordinary mother. The breeding and training of horses or 

 donkeys are matters which require knowledge and a special 

 apprenticeship. For the genus homo, however, the one and 

 the other would seem not worth the serious attention of people 

 in general at all. 



Next, for citizenship, we want history, not mere narratives of 

 kings and queens and battles, but history of nations from which 

 some idea may be formed from past phenomena regarding the 

 results of present action. We want also economics and social 

 science. 



The last division, that relating to refinements of life, though 

 last in point of mere necessity, is by no means of small impor- 

 tance otherwise, and it has already had attention at a former 

 portion of the paper. 



In the description of our proposed school I have referred a 

 good deal to American models, especially to Philadelphia 

 schools. There are in The • Century for October last three 

 papers on American Educational Institutions, one of which 

 describes the Philadelphia Manual School, to which I have 

 referred, and gives a splendid idea of the success of its training 

 as a factor in general culture. I think a good deal of the 

 excellence of these Philadelphia Schools is to the credit of their 

 exceedingly able superintendent, Mr. James MacAlister, whom 

 I have already mentioned ; a gentleman whose enthusiasm in the 

 cause of education I found most infectious, and who, although I 

 visited him unintroduced, was good enough to give me nearly an 

 hour of his valuable time in explanation of their aims and methods. 

 A good deal also is due to the existence since 1881 of a body of 

 some two hundred of the more cultured men and women of that 

 city under the title of the Public Education Association of Phila- 

 delphia whose object is, as stated in its Report, "to promote the 

 efficiency and to perfect the system of public education in 

 Philadelphia." 



Are we not here in Belfast rather behind Philadelphia in 

 this respect ? Do we as a general public, or as individuals, take 

 that intelligent interest in this all-important subject which from 



