These apply: "Build thou more stately mansions, oh, my soul! As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 'Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by Life's unresting sea." "The fruit, when the blossom is blighted, will fall; The sin will be searched out no matter how small; So what you're ashamed to do, don't do at all.” "It was the little rift within the lute That ever widening slowly silenced all; Or little pitted speck in garnered fruit, That rotting inward slowly mouldered all." Teach pupils to glean from heartaches, and sorrows and all seeming failuresbrightness, and show them how to store strength. Give the story of Scott's life, and tell of the heartaches that inspired his nature, and brought out many a sweet strain. Exalt honest labor. Make it a crown. These quotations are espcially good as character props: "Is it raining, little flower? Too much sun would wither thee. The sky is very dark, 'tis true, Every time you miss or fail, "Aim high! He who aims at the sun although pretty sure not to hit it, will shoot higher than he who aims at the ground." "I know a place where the sun is like gold, One leaf is for hope, and one is for faith, And God put another in for luck If you search you will find where they grow. But you must have hope, and you must have faith, You must love and be strong-and soIf you work, if you wait, you will find the place Where the four-leaf clovers grow." "Upon the wreckage of thy yesterday Believe in God-in thine own self believe. Give morals first, then the beautiful companion, manners. Polish the inside, then give kind little ways of showing the finish. Will pupils rebel when you give them forms of grace? No, they delight in each exercise. I am going to show you how to correct general errors. This morning we are going to learn the happiest way to say "yes," and "no." We do not say "yes ma'am" or "no ma'am" any more. We say as pleasantly as we can, "yes," and let the person's name to whom we are speaking follow, or we may say a sentence if we wish. If we know how to say "yes" all alone very nicely, it may be said this way. We will put these replies on the blackboard, and then we will practice. I will ask the questions and you may reply from the board: "Did you put the book in the library?" "Yes, Miss Brown." "Yes, Dr. Smith." "Yes, I did." "Yes." "Will you lower the window?" "Yes, Miss Brown." "Yes, I will." "Are you able to solve the problem?" "No, I can not solve it." "No, Miss Brown." We will practice these all day, and I shall try to say, "Yes, John," or "No, Mary," just as pleasantly as I am able, for I was taught to say "yes ma'am" and "no ma'am," and it may be difficult for me to change. Teach boys that a salutation to a lady or an old gentleman should be accompanied by a raised hat. Write salutations on the blackboard and when the boys and girls are ready to leave the building at noon or at night practice. Teach the boys to raise the hat when leaving a lady, and to raise the hat if the lady with whom he is walking or driving bows to a friend. It will be impossible to give all the exercises necessary to enable the pupil to be well graced. I will give you a few general hints: Do not forget to train in using the fork. This is very difficult to teach, for very few hold the fork correctly. Use the fork in taking the meat from the skin of a potato. Put the spoon into the saucer, not into the cup when drinking. Say "Pardon me," if you wish pardon, and "Excuse me," if you wish to leave the table, the room, or a person. Do not clean the finger nails in company. Do not cross the legs in company. Do not sit when you are talking with a person who is standing. I cannot give you the hundreds of suggestions that are necessary. There are "Home Manners," "School Manners," "Manners in the Street," "Manners at Table," "Manners in Society," "Church Manners," "Manners at Places of Amusement," "Store Manners," "Manners in Correspondence," etc., etc. I wish to say just a word on the latter. Teach pupil to be very careful not to censure when they write, to speed a ready note of sympathy in time of trouble, to be prompt in acknowledging a gift and to give a word of appreciation for the care taken in preparing something to please. I hold in my possession a letter of worth. It is from a great and busy man. It is filled with kindness and consideration. I am going to let you read it. WEST PARK, N. Y., June 16, 1901. My dear Miss Blank: Yours of last December with the letters from your children, the drawings, etc., etc., has only this day reached me. I thank you many times for your thoughtfulness. I have read the letters and the essay on the bee with real interest. I send my love to the children and to their teacher. I hope you will all have a delightful summer. I shall put up the pictures in my cabin called "Slabsides." Very sincerely, JOHN BURROUGHS. These books and papers have helped me in carrying on the work: Success, Ladies' Home Journal, Woman's Home Companion, "Lessons on Manners," by Julia Dewey; "Manners Maketh the Man," by the author of "How to be Happy though Married," an English author; "Practical Life or Ways and Means," by Mrs. Julia McNair Wright, and "Arthur Bonicastle," by J. G. Holland. "Arthur Bonicastle" is invaluable. It puts before the boy and girl the highest type of manhood and womanhood. I know of no better book to read to pupils. It corrects the habit of story telling; it searches out grave, secret wrongs; and at last brings together as companions beauty in strength, and truth not veneer. Teachers, read a country's destiny in the faces of the braves before you and remember that, "Self conquest is the greatest of all victories," and that, "The golden threads of truth and the silken threads of love, twisted together, will draw men on with a sweet violence whether they will or not." Pardon others often; thyself never.-Publius Syrus. A WORD FOR BOYS AMOS W. FARNHAM, State normAL SCHOOL, OSWEGO, N. Y. AFTER several years' absence from the village of H., I returned to it, and found that time had wrought the greatest change among those whom I had left as children. One day I was in the store of one of the leading merchants, when a youth came in. He did his errand and went out. Something in his manner led me to ask who he was. My friend, the merchant, said: "You will be surprised. when I tell you that he is Mr. M's son." Then he went on to say: "For years I have watched the children of this place grow into their 'teens.' I have more than once marked a boy in knee breeches, and told myself that when he was old enough I would try to secure him for one of the departments of my business. But as he outgrew his short pants he also outgrew the summer terms of school, the Sunday school, and parental instruction. He began to smoke cigarettes, to swear, to stand on street corners, to sit on store steps and swap small talk with senseless simpletons. Then I have had to bid good-bye to my boy, and transfer my hopes to another." Just then a lady came from her carriage into the store and asked my friend to show her some summer silks. He passed along to serve her, and I was Since then I have said to more than one The School Teacher's Creed 1 Believe in boys and girls, the men and women of a great to-morrow; that whatsoever the boy soweth the man shall reap. 1 Believe in the curse of ignorance, in the efficacy of schools, in the dignity of teaching, in the joy of serving others. 1 Believe in wisdom as revealed in human lives as well as in the pages of a printed book, in lessons taught, not so much by precept as by example, in ability to work with the hands as well as to think with the head, in everything that makes life large and lovely. Believe in beauty in the schoolroom, in the home, in daily life and in out-of-doors. 1 Believe in laughter, in love, in faith, in all ideals and distant hopes that lure us on. I Believe that every hour of every day we receive a just reward for all we are and all we do. 1 Believe in the present and its opportunities, in the future and its promises and in the divine joy of living.-Amen. -EDWIN OSGOOD GROVER. For the School Room RADIUM AND RADIOACTIVITY CHARLES SHEARD, ASSISTANT IN THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE Article I was published in Vol. VIII, No. 5, of AMERICAN EDUCATION. ABOUT a hundred years ago John Dal BOUT a hundred years ago John Dalton put the atomic theory of matter upon an experimental basis. Previous to that time it had been but speculative and theoretical. Conclusions drawn from his work have led scientific men from that day to this to believe that matter is of a complex nature, being made up of invisible and indivisible, ultimate particles called atoms. That which was at first but a mere hypothesis gradually grew into a theory and has fairly assumed the status of a law; for these particles of matter have been looked upon as the characterizing features of the units of physical division, the molecules. The science of chemistry has been founded and built upon this theory as its cornerstone, for it is defined as a classification of the laws regulating and governing the combinations and conduct of the atoms. Thus hydrochloric acid, HCl, has been considered a compound, the physical unit being the molecule, the chemical components being atoms of hydrogen and chlorine. The atoms, of which there are seventy or more varieties as far as we at present know, have given rise to as many different elements. These last are divisions of matter which cannot be further simplified and hence are molecules composed of the primordial atoms. It is not a little interesting that the new century should bring in theories and discoveries which tend to shake our belief in some of the so-called fundamental principles of science, among them the atomic theory. The finding of the X-ray, the discovery of radiation in its various forms and the theories of electrons and ions may be said to be epoch-making events in science. As a result of this activity along a comparatively new line of research work much progress is being made toward the solution of the most vexed of all physical questions: What is the nature and the constitution of matter? Some physicists of the present day, notably Ostwald, the celebrated Danish chemist, go so far as to say that the atomic theory must be discarded as useless. This is the extreme, however. That which has stood the tests of scientific methods for over a century cannot be easily displaced by theories and experiments which are yet but in the making. "The very fact that not only helium, but oxygen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen have been found in radium bromide shows how essential it is to the solution of the problem that a fair quantity of pure radium should be experi mented upon before any satisfactory theory can be formulated."* Professor Rutherford, in the opening chapter of his book, says: "While the experimental results have led to the view that the constitution of the atom itself is very complex, at the same time they have strongly confirmed the old theory of the discontinuous or atomic struċture of matter. The study of the radioactive substances and of the discharge of electricity through gases has supplied very strong experimental evidence in support of the fundamental ideas of the existing atomic theory."† Let us now turn our attention to a consideration of the proofs, both theoretical * Bottone, S., Radium and All About It. |