few important topics in
each of these epochs, we should make a still more abundant use of the
_biographical_ and _literary_ materials furnished by each. The
concentration of school studies, with a historical series suggested by
the culture epochs as a basis, would utilize our American history,
biography, and literature in a manner scarcely dreamed of heretofore.

We shall attempt to illustrate briefly this concentration of studies
about materials selected from one of the culture epochs. Take, for
example, _the age of pioneers_ from which to select historical
subject-matter for children of the fourth and fifth grades. It
comprehends the biographies of eminent navigators and explorers,
pioneers on land and sea. It describes the important undertakings of
Columbus, Magellan, Cabot, Raleigh, Drake, and others, who were daring
leaders at the great period of maritime discovery. The pioneer
explorers of New England and the other colonies bring out strongly
marked characters in the preparatory stage of our earliest history.
Smith, Champlain, Winthrop, Penn, Oglethorpe, Stuyvesant, and
Washington are examples. In the Mississippi valley De Soto, La Salle,
Boone, Lincoln, and Robertson, are types. Still farther west Lewis and
Clarke, and the pioneers of California complete this historical epoch
in a series of great enterprises. Most of them are pioneers into new
regions beset with dangers of wild beasts, savages, and sickness. A
few are settlers, the first to build cabins and take possession of land
that was still claimed by red men and still covered with forests. The
men named were leaders of small bands sent out to explore rivers and
forests or to drive out hostile claimants at the point of the sword.

Any one who has tried the effect of these stories upon children of the
fourth grade will grant that they touch a deep native _interest_. But
this must be a genuine and permanent interest to be of educative value.
The _moral quality_ in this interest is its virtue. Standish, Boone,
La Salle, and the rest were stalwart men, whose courage was keenly and
powerfully tempered. They were leaders of men by virtue of moral
strength and superiority. Their deeds have the stamp of heroism and in
approving them the moral judgments of children are exercised upon noble
material. These men and stories constitute an epoch in civilization
because they represent that stage which just precedes the first form of
settled society. In fa