f
material, fabrics, shape, size and pattern; how to establish a
communication from one part of a building to another; how water and light
are to be had most readily. All these things should form the subject of
school study and inquiry.

The means of locomotion, how streets, roads and paths should be laid out
and maintained; the construction and use of carriages, cars, wagons,
tramways, railroads, ships, steamers, propelling power; where bridges
should be built, and how; viaducts and embankments to cross valleys,
cuttings and tunnels to penetrate hills and mountains; these, too, simply
at first, and afterwards in more elaborate detail, should form subjects of
school instruction, the rules determining the selection of each and the
methods of their construction not being preached in lectures, _ex
Cathedra_, but evolved by a patient questioning of nature, by experiment
and the Socratic method of inquiry. Exercise of the limbs under the
direction of a skilled instructor, so that all the muscles of the body may
be duly trained, and a healthy body built up to support a healthy mind.
The kinds of recreation to be selected, whether bull-baiting,
cock-fighting, rat-catching or prize-fighting, should be preferred to
games of skill and strength, to the drama, literature, works of art,
public walks, gardens, and museums; the comparative influence of all these
upon the health, strength, courage, activity, humanity, refinement and
happiness of society; how people may be led to prefer such as tend to
general well-being to those which have a tendency to brutalize and debase.
All these also should be dwelt upon in the school.

How stores of food, of clothing, of fuel and of the materials for building
may be collected and preserved; how present labor may be made to supply
future wants, and the thought of future enjoyment be made to sweeten the
present toil. How the means of instruction and of amusement may be
secured. How all engaged in supplying one need of society co-operate with
all who are engaged in supplying its other needs. What form of government
is best, and how it may be best administered. How upright judges may be
secured, justice administered, and society protected against internal and
external foes. These and all the other subjects enumerated would, if
handled by a true teacher, be found most attractive to children.

The names given to the subjects at which we have glanced are: Natural
History, the Mathematical and Physica