a supply of high school teachers such as could meet the requirements that might be imposed by the Board of Education. In the first place, as has often been suggested, the state might set apart one or more of the normal schools for the especial purpose of training high school teachers maintaining the same entrance requirements as normal schools and colleges and having a four or possibly a five years course of preparation including practice teaching. This course is open to many objections: it is not certain that the type of student most desired as a high school teacher would be found in attendance. In fact, the experience of some other states suggests that only young women would attend such a school. In the second place, the amount of equipment and qualifications of a faculty able to compete on the academy side, with existing colleges, would be extensive and costly. It seems doubtful whether the state should embark in an enterprise of this sort in view of the wide range of college facilities already available. A second plan often suggested is to set apart one of the normal schools as a training institution for high school teachers but to require college graduation as a condition of admission and to confine the course to one year of graduate professional study and practice teaching. This plan has more to commend it than the last and is the one to which the state should resort if it should find itself unable to procure the co-operation of the colleges in developing their own facilities for professional training. Especially when the financial conditions concerning the employment of teachers in small high schools are improved, then this should present itself as a possible solution of the problem. More promising, however, should be the co-operation of the existing colleges themselves. Most of these are already turning their attention to their functions as preparatory institutions for teachers and especially in their education departments are the problems of secondary education being studied. What is needed from the state is the set of standards and such encouragement as will put a premium on a fuller and better preparation for high school work. If the college should assure a graduate who wishes to take up teaching that the state puts a premium on the well equipped candidate, these departments would find themselves much strengthened. It is obvious that the co-operation between the State Board and the college in this field would have to be of a personal and somewhat intimate nature. It should be conceded that the State Board in the exercise of its possible certificating powers could not and should not rely wholly upon formal written examinations. These have a tendency to formalize preparation for the examinations and to defeat the ends of the better professional preparation. Much more preferable would be the plan of having the State Board accept the statements of heads of departments or college presidents as to the range and degree of fitness of the candidate in respective subjects or groups of subjects; the State Board having a sufficient acquaintance with the standards of the college and its methods of administration, to be able to accept these credentials at their face value. Under these circumstances, the Board would be able to reduce its written examinations to a minimum and could reserve its function partly to passing on the personal and purely professional aspects of the prospective teacher's preparation. A system of certification based largely on credentials as outlined above, would have the immediate effect of professional preparation. The demands of the state on the one hand and the possibilities of the colleges on the other, could be brought into harmony and the gradual policy of elevating professional standards, developed. While, as suggested above, a comparatively small number of the high school teaching force of Massachusetts would be immediately affected by the proposed plan, it should be apparent that in the course of time, all college graduates seeking teaching positions in public high schools would undoubtedly avail themselves of the opportunity to get a state certificate. Again, since the smaller high schools serve as the recruiting stations for the larger ones in the matter of teaching force, it is also apparent that within a few years a large number of high school teachers would have been obliged to meet the requirements specifically imposed for the 'state-aided high schools. Some plan similar to the above seems inevitable in view of the increasing need for better preparation of high school teachers and in view of the increasing disposition of the colleges to recognize the training of teachers as a part of their professional functions. Examination Questions for Dicken's "Tale of Two Cities." MAUD ELMA KINGSLEY 1. State Dickens's position among English novelists. Show how his novels differ from those of the two great novelists who were his contemporaries. 2. Describe that method of style and treatment which is the source of Dickens's popularity as a novelist. 3. In what respects does A TALE OF TWO CITIES differ in style and manner of treatment from Dickens's other novels? 4. Discuss the title of the novel. Of what does the "Tale" consist? Identify the "Two Cities". 5. In what period is the scene of the story laid? How long a time does the action of the story cover? 6. Give a brief description of the French Revoluton. At what point during this uprising does A TALE OF TWO CITIES open? What phase of the Revolution does the novel graphically describe? 7. Describe the peculiar chain of events which connects the lives of a few "simple, private people" with the outbreak of the French Revolution. 8. Describe the Bastille. Describe those scenes of the story which are connected with the Bastille. 9. Name the four events which form the introduction to the author's story of the French Revolution. 10. Give a character sketch of Sidney Carton and relate his story. What supreme act of devotion closes his life? 11. Describe the various circumstances which bring the entire circle of friends to Paris in the time of the Terror. 12. Describe the circumstances under which Darnay is imprisoned and condemned to death. By whose agency are these events brought about. 13. Describe the closing scene of the story. Describe the vision that rises before Carton at this moment. 14. Under what circumstances is the little sewing-girl brought into the story? What impression does she produce upon you? 15. How does A TALE OF TWO CITIES compare with other historical novels which you have read? 16. Define the following names and state the circumstances under which each is mentioned in the course of the story:-Guillotine, tumbril, the Dover mail, Faubourge St. Antoine, the "register," Jacquerie. 17. Give the title of each of the "Books" into which the novel is divided and state the significance of each. 18. What part do the following characters play in the novel?-Jerry Cruncher, Mr. Lorry, Gabelle, Stryver, Barsad. Of what class is the Marquis St. Evremonde a type? 19. How is the future history of the characters in A TALE OF Two CITIES brought to the knowledge of the reader? 20. What is the plot of the novel? Who is the moving principle of this plot? In what part of the novel is the plot revealed? 21. Describe the storming of the Bastille. Thrilling as the episode is, what is its trifling use in the plot development? 22. Describe in detail Madame Defarge both as to character and personal appearance. Of what class is she a type? 23. What are the chief literary excellences of A TALE OF Two CITIES? Point out characteristically humorous situations, scenes, and descriptions throughout the story. 24. Describe in full the following scenes and state the bearing of each on the story: The Broken Wine Cask, the Prisoners at La Force, At the Grindstone, the Camagnole, Jacques V. Telling his Story. 25. From the novel, what do you learn of the condition of France in 1775? What impression does A TALE OF TWO CITIES make upon you? T Editorial HE situation of the small college at the present time is not an enviable one. Its problem is serious, causing much anxiety to the officers, alumni and friends of many such institutions. On the one hand, there is a great hue and cry in some quarters to the effect that the type of education furnished in these smaller institutions is not fitting their graduates to earn their own bread and butter, much less to become highly productive citizens in the commercial and economic sense. On the other hand, the larger endowed universities and state colleges are able, with their superior resources, to afford more and better courses, abler professors and a more nearly complete equipment of apparatus and accommodations for their students. Moreover, they lay the emphasis upon that which is practical rather than merely cultural. Therefore their halls are crowded, while the small colleges are growing languishingly smaller and less able to do the work they have undertaken to do. The days of the latter seem to be numbered. They appear to have outlived their usefulness; and many are ready to say, "Let them die !" It is quite refreshing, under these circumstances, to find a group of able men from different walks of life, including some expert educators, taking a bold stand on the opposite side. It has been seriously proposed to the Trustees of Amherst College to have this institution take a distinctive position as the representative of individual culture and training for professional life, including not only the ordinary so called learned professions, but also that of statesmanship, or at least public leadership. The plan involves the practical discontinuance of the scientific course and the abolishment of the degree of Bachelor of Science (B. S.); also the concentration of funds and energy on the lines of broader culture and classical learning. A large increase in the salaries of the professors is recommended, which will attract the ablest men to the professorial chairs. It is proposed to have competitive examinations for admission and a high standard of scholarship. The movement is in accord with many of the best traditions of this historic "small college." The suggestion comes from the class of 1885, which at its twenty-fifth reunion last June, appointed an able committee to look into the plan. This committee has made its report in a |