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years of age, to go through a well-arranged series of mechanic-art shops, under competent instructors : what are the chances that upon graduation he would not enter upon that pursuit for which he felt himself best fitted, and which held out the best prospects, not only for the pressing present, but for the future ? That a course of education forms habits as well as tastes is obvious, and it is unreasonable to expect that pupils educated almost exclusively through one set of closely-allied subjects should show a partiality for pursuits with which these subjects have only the most remote if any connection. American boys and girls are not peculiar in this respect. The same tendency is noticed and complained of abroad, when, in fact, it ought to be expected. What, then, is to be done ? Will anything short of educating the hands and head together answer ? As the State cannot afford not to educate its children, it cannot afford not to so educate them as to make them the most serviceable to the State as producers and citizens." In Germany —unlike Sweden, where industrial instruction is completely isolated from the other general branches of learning—we demand an organic assimilation, a thorough connection with the general system, so as to produce a solid indissoluble whole. I shall advert later on to this idea—the concentration and assimilation of instruction—when I have done with the origin and development of the movement. There is not the least doubt but that the first impulse did not proceed from Germany, but from Denmark, where the movement assumed a character different from ours : it was rather economical than pedagogical. It was desired, during the long winter evenings, to draw off the rural population from habits of indolence and from the publichouse, by which the peasants were morally and economically ruined. Gambling and drinking were to be put down by inducing and encouraging the people to occupy themselves at home with some useful trade, and thus to learn to appreciate the comforts and amenities of domestic life; and, while enjoying the blessings of industry and economy, to curb their passions and inordinate instincts. To further this purpose an agitation was set up throughout the country ; a propaganda was instituted for the so-called " domestic industry." The General Danish Home Industrial Society was founded in Copenhagen, in 1873, to regulate and control the various branches scattered over the country. But it soon became evident that the strongest lever in the propagation of domestic industry would be the elementary school, for the youthful generation would be more amenable to practical and useful occupation than those long since addicted to gambling and drinking ; it was easier to educate the young to diligent labour than to charge the habits of the old. The school was also in this instance the hope and guarantee of the future. Hand in hand with the agitation for home industry proceeded the agitation for work-schools, and it was in this dual form that the movement made its way from Denmark to Germany, from Copenhagen to Bremen, and thence to Leipsic. Here it will be necessary to trace the steps that have been taken in the introduction of mechanical instruction in Leipsic, because in this manner I am persuaded that the progress of the movement in Germany will be best understood. Our commencement was of the most modest description, and the Leipsic school takes the lead perhaps of all similar establishments in Germany. I am fully convinced that, wherever manual instruction is to be introduced, it must be carried out on lines analogous to those adopted in Leipsic ; for this reason I beg to give a resume of the experience we have gained in connection with the subject. For the 18th November, 1879, a lecture on self-occupation and domestic industry was announced to be delivered before the Utilitarian Society (Gemeinnutzige Gesellschaft) of Leipsic by Mr. Lammers, of Bremen, who by personal experience was acquainted with the Danish movement. (See Beport of the Proceedings of the Gemeinnutzige Gesellschaft, 1881. Appendix I.) Having, from my time of apprenticeship as engineer, and from my studies at the Polytechnical School of Dresden, taken a lively interest in all questions of utilitarian import, and having during my residence at the University of Leipsic given instruction in the training seminary of the late celebrated Professor Dr. Ziller; having besides, on leaving the University, as family tutor, frequent opportunity of imparting technical instruction, I very naturally took a special interest in the coming lecture. In the lively discussion which followed I was induced to participate by communicating to the meeting my experience on the matter. It was at last decided to take the question into earnest consideration : a committee of eight members was elected, to be intrusted with the practical execution of the project. As chairman of this committee I had ample opportunity of studying the subject of manual education in all its bearings. On the 27th January I made a report of our transactions to the society, and laid before it the decisions arrived at by the committee. They were unanimously accepted, the society granting at the same time the means of founding a school and workshop for manual instruction. I was charged with the organization, and, in order to direct the interest of the public in general to the matter, I published an expose of the lines on which the organization was to be carried out. This paper appeared under the title of " Supplementary School Education by means of Practical Manual Training." Leipsic, 1880. (Appendix II.) In it is to be found all that can be said pro and con on the subject of technical instruction in schools. It is, as it were, the programme of the activity displayed during the last five years by hundreds of pupils and more than a hundred teachers, distinctly showing the difference between the German and Danish methods. From the very beginning we took particular care to exclude all tendencies to special industrial purposes. The end we strove to finally attain was the amalgamation of manual instruction with the general instruction of our public schools. Thereby we hoped to create a counterpoise which would be supplementary to exclusively theoretical training ; and for this reason such practical occupation was preferred as stood in some connection with the public schools. We could not but admit that a mere mechanical imitation of the Danish scheme of house-industry would bear no fruit under conditions so essentially different; and our doubts have been corroborated by experience, for no establishments founded on the Danish principle have been able to hold their ground in this country. Our winters are not so long, and even during the cold season the peasant does not altogether cease agricultural labour; he does not live in such a state of isolation as the peasant in the thinly-scattered farmhouses of the north. For a moderate price our peasants are able to buy better and more elegant appliances than they 4—E. Id.