The illustrations are often quite unsuitable. They need not be by any means elaborate, but they should be good of their kind. They should aid in the realisation of the story narrated, or the scene described, and exactly embody its ideas; unless they do this they are worse than useless, so far as their true purpose is concerned. They should be bold in design, well drawn, and suggestive rather than full.

The printing should be as clear as possible and not overcrowded, and the type should be sufficiently large to allow the child to read it easily at some little distance. The increasing short-sight among children is said to be partly due to badly-printed books.

General strength of binding is an important quality, not only on account of the increased durability and consequent less expense, but also from its effect upon the child's habits. It can scarcely be expected that he will take much trouble in preserving a book, which despite his efforts comes rapidly to pieces, and then seems no longer worthy of care. A dog-eared, dirty volume, with broken back and loose leaves, is a standing bad influence on a child, decreasing his respect for books, and rendering him careless in his treatment of them. Anything which will tend to prevent this is worth consideration.

We may conveniently group the special qualities of reading-books as follows:

(a.) The earliest, or conceptive stage.-The books for this stage will need to be specially written, so as to secure the proper introduction of new words, and the repetition of those previously used. The ideas must be familiar, and such as are likely to interest little children. They must be expressed in a pleasant, simple, direct way, by short sentences, and be arranged

in lessons which can each be easily mastered in a brief period. A personal element should run through all the lessons, and a few pretty little poems, on such topics as can be readily appreciated, should be scattered here and there. In all cases the lessons should be as natural as possible, and a little beyond the child's mode of expression. Simplicity must not be confounded with silliness or babyishness.

(b.) The middle, or interest stage.—The readingbooks of the second stage introduce the child to a much wider range of ideas; he has to make use of his own experiences to enable him to understand those of others. Many suitable extracts may now be found, but some of the lessons will yet need to be specially prepared, and lucidity both of thought and expression are still matters of great importance. Anecdotes, short moral tales, fables, deeds of heroism, adventures, descriptions of manners and customs, and of interesting objects will all be found useful. The great thing here is to interest the child in reading.. The personal element may be less frequently introduced, but plenty of food must be provided at this stage for the imagination. There is frequently a good deal of affectation in the books of this stage, especially in the stories. Many of the latter either give warped ideas of greatness in human conduct, or encourage a sickly sentimentality opposed to all healthy moral feeling; and there is not unfrequently an artificial gloss, a goody-goody tone, and an unreality in the moral consequences and punishments of vice, which a child readily detects as being unlike actual life, and views with suspicion and distaste. The poetry is frequently unsuitable, being either too childish or too difficult. It should be mostly of the ballad or descriptive type.

Such poets as Wordsworth, Scott, Cowper, Goldsmith, Thomson, and many others, will supply suitable ex

tracts.

(c.) Upper, or information stage.-The lessons may here be considerably longer, especially in the advanced books. The work is more intellectual, and excellence and variety of style are much more important. We have to train to continuous reading, and cannot do this by a collection of short scraps or mere dry epitomes. Stories will be here only occasionally introduced, and much more attention given to matters of fact, but emotional elements must not be absent. Descriptions of scenery, short biographies, historical incidents, accounts of great discoveries, brief essays on general subjects, explanations of natural phenomena, and suitable lessons in elementary science will form the bulk of the subject-matter. The poetry

should be of an increasingly higher type, but not too difficult. Many of the selections, both of prose and poetry, found in the books in common use, are of too difficult and classical a kind for children to grasp their meaning, or feel proper interest in them.

The special readers for teaching such subjects as geography, history, natural history, botany, &c., partake much more of the nature of simple text-books, and will be in many respects unlike the general readers. The topics to be treated should be selected with great care, and should, as far as possible, be connected. Graduation of language must not be forgotten, but graduation of subject-matter is here of still more importance. The lessons must not be too long, should be treated in a simple, engaging way, be well illustrated, and present few difficulties in words or expression. The latter should be left for the most

part to the ordinary reading books. The object here is to train the child to master the facts by reading, and anything which would unduly break the continuity of thought, or distract attention from the matter, should be avoided.

The remaining books necessary for school use comprise principally arithmetic books, grammars, atlases, copy books, manuals of the specific subjects, and a few good reference books for the use of the teachers. Many good standard arithmetics are now published, providing a large number of well-graduated examples. The grammars for the use of children are not so satisfactory, but several good examples exist. They should give exact definitions and a very clear account of the elements, should not be burdened with a large number of exceptional cases, and should have a numerous selection of suitable exercises. Atlases should be clearly drawn, and should contain, as nearly as may be, just the information needed in studying the geographical text-books. Many are confusingly and uselessly full of names. Many varieties of copy books are in use; some with single copies, some with more; some making large use of the tracing method, some scarcely any. In one case, too, a sliding headline is used. The teacher will, of course, be guided largely in his selection by the style of writing he approves, but careful examination should be made before adopting any set. Many contain the letters wrongly formed, in some the slope is far too great, some vary greatly in style from book to book, and others are objectionable from the great variety of ways in which the capitals are made. The manuals for the specific subjects are often well drawn up, but run too much on the lines of the larger treatises, and too little in ac

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cordance with the order most teachers would adopt in instruction. Every school should have its small stock of reference books for the use of teachers, independent of the school library. There should be one or two carefully selected treatises on each of the subjects taught in school, a good dictionary, and, if possible, a cheap but trustworthy encyclopædia, such as that published by Messrs. Chambers, which is excellent.