SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS.

This book has been written with three classes of persons constantly in mind. These are students who are studying the American Government in Colleges, students who are studying it in High Schools, Academies, or Normal Schools of high grade, and teachers of History and Civics in Elementary and Secondary Schools. Its adaptation at once to college and secondary school students will be explained further on; but here it may be remarked that teachers in schools who are using a book of lower grade than this one, often want, and perhaps still oftener need, a book of high grade for their own study and improvement. Still further, the book is adapted, it is confidently believed, to the wants of several important classes of persons who are outside of schools altogether; young men and women carrying on private study, members of improvement societies and reading clubs and circles, editors and political writers and speakers desiring a manual of political information for handy reference, and intelligent citizens generally, who so often find it necessary to enlarge or to refresh their knowledge of the government under which they live.

It will be a service to all these classes of persons, and particularly to teachers, to state the cardinal features of the work.

I. The range and variety of topics introduced, the fullness of Knowledge furnished, and the discriminating judgment shown in the selection of both topics and material. A large circle of reading and study has been drawn upon; books of history, volumes of statutes and law reports, treatises on political science and on constitutional law, reports of the public departments and bureaus, monographs, publications of learned societies, lives and works of public men, etc. There is not now before the public a volume of equal size, if indeed of any size, that will favorably compare with THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT in these particulars.

II. The manner in which the matter has been distributed and organized. First, mention should be made of the grand divisions of the subject: The Making of the Government, its National side, and its State side. Particular pains have been taken to present these in proper proportion and equipose. Next is the careful distribution of the matter in chapters embracing distinct subjects. It will be observed that there are no “continued" chapters. And finally, the handling of the paragraph. The author has constantly made it a point to seize clearly some single topic, or phase of a topic, to make it the unit of treatment, and then to mark the paragraph off from all

other paragraphs by giving it a distinct title and number, thus arresting and fixing the attention of the reader upon the successive units of thought. When once the student has taken in the scope of the chapter, or large division of the chapter, if there be such divisions, the next thing for him to do is to grasp firmly the idea conveyed by the title of the paragraph before him, proceeding thus in order. At this point, as in the case of other books similarly constructed, the inexperienced student needs some assistance from his teacher. "Side heads," as these titles of paragraphs are called, serve as handles by which to seize the salient features of the subjects treated; and many an excellent treatise suffers from want of them, offering no projections upon which the student can easily lay hold, but only a smooth surface.

III. The adaptation of the book, as is believed, to the needs of students and other persons who, for various reasons, wish to give different amounts of time to the subject, pursuing it, some more and some less thoroughly, and so to different grades of schools, as the College and High School or Academy. Owing to the importance of this third topic, it will be well to go somewhat into detail.

1. The Introduction deals with the leading conceptions and terms of Political Science; it is not an integral part of the book, and teachers can make more or less use of it, or none at all, as they may elect.

2. Some teachers who have taught the making of the Government as a part of history, will wish practically to limit their instruction to the Government as it is under its National and State aspects. These should either omit the Introduction and Part I. altogether, or touch them but lightly.

3. Others will wish to teach the National Government, with merely incidental reference to the States. These should omit Part III.

4. Still others may wish only a Manual of the Constitution, with matter on the two other topics to which they can refer their students. These will find such a manual in Part II.

5. Two kinds of type have been used throughout. The main propositions, making up the skeleton of the discussion, are put in the larger type; the subordinate propositions, devoted to an enlarged view of the subject, or to the illustration of particular topics, in smaller type. The result is that nearly all the chapters contain a double view of their subject,—the one more compendious, the other more elaborate; or, in other words, two books have in reality been put inside the same covers. Take for example Chapter I., the subject of which is, "The Thirteen English Colonies Planted." The series of paragraphs, "The Right of Discovery,' ""First Divis

""

""Col

1on of North America," "London and Plymouth Companies,' onies planted by Companies,' ‚”“Colonies Planted by Proprietors," "Voluntary Colonies," Agency of the Home Government," "Classes of Colonists,” “Ideas of the English Colonists," and the "Rights of Englishmen," furnish an outline to those who wish merely an outline. The special treatment of the Southern Colonies,-Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia; the Northern Colonies, embracing the Plymouth Company, Plymouth, the Plymouth Compact, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire; the Middle Colonies,—New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware,—will enlarge the field and meet the wants of those who wish a fuller view of American Colonization. Or take Chapter III., “America Independent." The paragraphs in larger type will give a limited view, while these in connection with those in smaller type will give a comprehensive view, of the movement for independ

ence.

The obvious conclusion is this: If the time allotted to the subject, and the ability of the pupil or class, are sufficient to justify the attempt, all the matter can be presented; but if the time allotted to the subject, or the ability of the class, does not admit of such extended treatment, then the work can be easily limited to suit circumstances. What the author regards as good reasons for teaching the Federal Government before the State Governments, at the stage of progress that this work represents, are presented in Chapter XII. Those teachers who do not concur in those reasons, or who have some special end to gain, can reverse the order of Parts II. and III. If Part I. is to be studied at all, no matter how hastily, it should be taken before the other two, or either of them.

A competent teacher of the subject of Government will naturally turn his mind to its pedagogical side. The question will arise, What is the educational value of the study? To this question a few remarks may be directed.

Below the college, at least, the principal end of the study should be practical. The study of government is the pursuit of political knowledge, and such knowledge is valuable, first of all, for practical purposes. The art of politics, or of government, is one of the most important arts. It concerns, and should interest, everybody. Man is a social being; he lives in, and must live in, society. But society cannot exist without government, and this want again is met by man's political nature. Still more, he attains his fullest perfection, in that social condition which we call civil society, or the state; and this condition involves government of an elaborate and highly organized form. These ideas have been duly set forth in the Introduction. However, the point is not there made, or at least is not insisted

upon, that the successful operation of a highly organized government intimately depends upon the education and character of the citizens. Aristotle insisted that education must have regard to the constitution, and that it is the great means of uniting the state. "The citizen should be moulded,” he says, "to suit the form of government under which he lives. For each government has a peculiar character, which originally formed, and which continues to preserve it. The character of democracy creates democracy, and the character of oligarchy creates oligarchy; and always the better the character the better the government." He argues further that " women and children must be trained by education with an eye to the state, if the virtues of either of them are supposed to make any difference in the virtues of the state. And they must make a difference; for the children grow up to be citizens, and half the free persons in a state are women." Montesquieu also argues that education should be relative to the principles of government. "The laws of education are the first impressions we receive, and, as they prepare us for civil life, each particular family ought to be governed pursuant to the plan of the great family, which comprehends them all." While these remarks apply with force to governments of every kind, they apply with greatest force to a democracy or republic, where the people themselves do the governing, either directly or indirectly. No people that has been moulded by an exclusively monarchical or aristocratical society, and is familiar only with the correspanding institutions, can carry on a free government. In his Farewell Address Washington insisted that the more potent public opinion is in any country, the greater the need of its being intelligent; and he might have added, and particularly upon political subjects.

Attention may be directed to three points especially. The first is that the American pupil should be taught his rights under the government; the second is that he should be taught his duties as related to those rights; and the third is that a spirit should be created that will lead him to insist upon the one and to perform the other. Unless the great body of citizens living under a republic shall measurably conform to this standard of activity, that is, insist upon their rights and discharge their duties to the state, the republic cannot long be maintained. Professor Bryce, in the article that is referred to below, lays deserved emphasis upon this point. He says that teachers should not be deterred by the abstractness of the subject "from trying to make the pupils understand the meaning of such terms as the nation, the state, and the law." "You need not trouble yourself," he goes on to say, "to find unimpeachable logical definitions of these terms; that is a task which still employs the learned. What is wanted is that he should grasp the idea, first, of the com

munity-a community inhabiting a country united by various ties, organized by mutual protection, mutual help, and the attainment of certain common ends; next, of the law, as that which regulates and keeps order in this community; next, of public officers, great or small, as those whom the law sets over us and whose business it is to make us obey the law, while they also obey it themselves." This counsel is directed to the teacher of the school; and it is not going too far to insist that the pupil who leaves the elementary school at the close of its course of study should be well grounded in these ideas. Such teaching will not fail to develop in good measure that high civic spirit which has been so characteristic of the great commonwealths and which is so essential to good government.

But government, or politics, is more than an art; it is a science as well. Strictly speaking, the exclusive pursuit of the study as a science does not look directly to practical ends, but rather to disciplinary and culture ends. Now the aim is the formation and the adorning of the mind. To a degree this advantage will attend the work below the college, if it is properly done, since the guidance value and the disciplinary value of study to a considerable extent overlap. In the college or university this second end will come much more distinctly into view. It may perhaps be assumed that the student has sufficient political information to answer the direct ends of citizenship; but he should not assume that the study has no further interest, for it is a great instrument of mental improvement. It would be strange indeed if such a book as Aristotle's Politics should have less disciplinary and culture value than a book dealing with birds, insects, or fishes.

A second pedagogical question may arise, viz. : What methods of teaching should be employed? This question is dealt with, as far as it relates to this book, in Chapter XII. For the rest, it will suffice to refer the reader to a few authorities who deal with that subject. Unfortunately, the quantity of pedagogical literature that deals directly with the study of government is small.

Compayré has a chapter entitled "Morals and Civic Instruction," in his Lectures on Pedagogy. Mr. Herbert Spencer pays some attention to teaching politics in his essay, "What Knowledge is of Most Worth?" which constitutes the first chapter of his well-known work entitled Education. Mr. C. F. Crehore has an article, "The Teaching of Civics in Schools," in Education, Vol. VII., (1887) p. 264 ; a second article, "Foundation Principles of Government," p. 546 of the same volume of the same publication; and still a third, "Jenkins's Bend: A Primary Study in Government," p. 547. Mr. J. E. Vose is the author of two articles entitled, "Methods of Instruction in Civics," found pp. 531 and 617 of the same volume of Education. Mr.