s a nation to what we
are, and which now underlies our whole existence, is a knowledge that
has got itself taught in nooks and corners; while the ordained agencies
for teaching have been mumbling little else but dead formulas."

But we may hope for better things. We may, some of us, live even to see
liberal education divest herself of exclusive restrictions and
eighteenth century idealism and walk hand in hand with twentieth century
progress; this will be when the "overwhelming influence of established
routine" shall give way to practical knowledge and love for the
ornamental in education shall no longer override the useful.

E. P. Powel, in The Arena for April, most beautifully and expressively
contemplates the schools which are to be. He says: "I will picture what
I believe to be the common school of the twentieth century. There will
be handsome schoolhouses in abundance, placed in the center of large
gardens. The children will study books half a day, and things the other
half. The brain will not get any more training than the hands. Manual
culture which is already a part of the school life of a few towns, will
be a part of school life everywhere. The school will have its shops and
its gardens--and to use tools will be the chief end of culture. Man got
away from the monkey by his power to make and use tools. He goes back to
the ape when his hands have to be cased in gloves and his brain is
ashamed of decent labor. In these school-gardens botany will be applied
to horticulture. In the shops our boys and girls will learn to create
things. The trouble with education now is that it divorces knowledge
from work--the brains from the hands. In the twentieth century the glory
of American education will also be a thorough knowledge of economics,
civics and history, applied to good citizenship. Colleges will surely be
a part of the common school system, and just as full of modern life. I
believe we shall see the day when boys and girls who are in the common
school together; without damage, can be co-educated in all other grades
of school life. The farmer will then not have a separate and specific
college for agriculture, while the rest have one for 'mental culture;'
nor will college boys in those days be ashamed to look ahead to farming
as a profession. There is no occupation that requires so much wit and
educated tact, and so much positive knowledge as farming. When we get
the schools, we shall get a style of farming that will