E.—ll,

should lead, direct, and control the work, but should be careful not to put his hand directly to it. In order to be able to follow with advantage the course of instruction, the pupil ought to have reached a point. ofVclevelopment usually attained about the age of eleven. One word as to the main differences between wood-sloyd and ordinary carpentering, with which it is very apt to be confused., These lie—(l.) In the character of the objects made, which are usually smaller than those made in the trade. (2.) In the tools used : the knife, for instance, the most important of all in sloyd, is little used in ordinary carpentry. (3.) In the manner of working : the division of labour employed in the trades is not allowed in sloyd, where each article is begun, carried out, and completed by the same pupil. (4.) But the fundamental difference is in the object of sloyd, which is not to turn out full-blown, or half-blown, or even quarter-blown young carpenters, but to develop the faculties, and especially to give general dexterity, which will be useful whatever line of life the pupil may afterwards follow. As individual instruction is generally required, and as this manual work cannot be taught simultaneously, the same teacher can only superintend a limited number of pupils at the same time —generally speaking, there should not be more than twelve. As to the choice of models: (1.) All articles of luxury are to be excluded. (2.) The objects made are to be of use at home. (3.) The children should be able to finish them entirely without help. (4.) The articles should be made of wood only. (5.) No polish should be used. (6.) As little material as possible should be employed. (7.) The children should learn to work both in the harder and softer woods. (8.) Turning and carving should only be sparingly employed. (9.) The models should develop the sense of form and beauty, and the series should therefore include a certain number of modelled objects, for instance, spoons, ladles, and other curved articles, which are to be executed with a free hand, and chiefly by eye. (10.) By means of going through the whole series the pupils should learn the use of all the more important tools. (11.) In the choice of models care should be taken that each one prepares for the next. Classification of Models. — (1.) The series ought to progress without a break from the easy to the difficult, from the simple to the complex. (2.) There must be sufficient variety. (3.) Each model must be so placed in the series that the pupil shall be able to carry it out entirely without the direct help of the teacher, by means of what he has already made. (4.) The models should constitute such a series that at each step the pupil may bo able to make not a passable, but a correct work. (5.) In making the first models only a few tools are to bo employed, but as the series is carried out new tools and new manipulations are to be employed. (6.) The knife, as the fundamental tool, is to be the most used in the beginning of the course. (7.) For the first models rather hard wood should be employed. At the beginning of the series the models should be capable of speedy execution, and objects which require a considerable time should be gradually reached. Let us now sec whether sloyd, if the foregoing conditions be carried out, may be regarded as a factor in education, whether considered physically, mentally, or morally. It is essentially a form of work which calls forth every variety of movement, which brings all the muscles into play, and exercises both sides of the body. It is so arranged that the children can work with the left hand and arm as well as with the right in sawing, planing, &c. Thus all the muscles are strengthened, a more harmonious development attained, and there is less fear of their growing up crooked. There is no reason to dread their becoming left-handed; in more delicate manipulations the right hand will always remain the better of the two. Does sloyd forward the mental development ? Surely work which draws out and exercises energy, perseverance, order, accuracy, and the habit of attention cannot be said to fail in influencing the mental faculties; and that it should do so by cultivating the practical side of the intelligence, leading the pupils to rely on themselves, to exercise forethought, to be constantly putting two and two together, is specially needed in those days of excessive examinations, when so many of us are suffering from the adoption of ready-made opinions and the swallowing whole, in greater or smaller boluses, the results of other men's labours. We want whole men and women, the sum-total of whose faculties is developed, who have learnt to apply their knowledge not only in the emergencies, but in the daily occurrences of life ; and this readiness, this steadiness of nerve, the ordered control of that wonderful machine the body, the cultivation of the practical side, can only come by exercise, and this is given by means of sloyd. Let us also remember that all skilled work, hqwever humble it may appear, is brain-work too. If any one doubt this, let him try to make, from first to last, some complete object, however insignificant—bo it the modelling of a leaf, cube, or even ball, or the making of a wooden spoon, and he will assuredly gain a new respect for handwork, not only from its usefulness, but the skill it requires. What does sloyd do for the moral training of the child ? It implants respect and love for work in general, including the rougher kinds of bodily labour. In the fierce competition which exists in all civilised countries —and nowhere fiercer than in our own —which springs in so many cases from the desire to push on to some fancied higher level of life, what a clearing of the moral atmosphere would be effected if the rising generation could be imbued with the feeling, deepening as they grow up into conviction, that it is the man who dignifies or degrades the work, that all labour which proceeds from a noble motive is of equal worth, and that the right work for each one of us, and, consequently, the noblest, is the work we can do best! But this is not all which sloyd effects in the way of moral influence. It tightens and strengthens the bond between home and school. Everything which the child makes is for home use, is prized there as his own honest work and the product of the skill which he is gaining at school. Among the working-classes the actual use of the things made by the children—-besides the wholesome pleasure and pride they call forth—is found to do much in the countries where sloyd is practised to reconcile the parents to their children remaining at school even when they are beginning to be of use at home and to be able to earn something. They have tangible proof in the objects brought home that their children are learning something which makes them useful and

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