requires graphic expression, in connection with the regular work of the school. And he is not overwhelmed with the grammar of art. There is assuredly some attention given to technique, but it is the minor, not the major, part of the art instruction. The French children use drawing continually, as our children use language, and with as little thought of the technique of drawing as our children take of the grammar of language. In other words, the French child uses his drawing; and, although he gets formal, technical instruction, it is only incidental to the larger purposes of the study.

"In most of the schools, and particularly in those having the more advanced grades, one finds admirably equipped studios, with special arrangements in the adjustment of light and desks, abundance of casts and models, photographs and other reproductions, and books on the history, theory and practice of art. Indeed, the French child. is not only taught to draw, but it is made familiar with forms of beauty in great masterpieces. I recall a lesson with some photographs that I once saw in Paris, in what would correspond to about the eighth school year in this country. The school, it seemed, was studying the Madonnas in art through photographs, pictures and visits to galleries. The lesson of this particular day was a study of the Madonna as an individual figure, that is, the Virgin without the child. The photographs were large in size and the lesson conversational in character. There were some well-directed questions on the part of the teacher as the different photographs were presented; but the answers of the children evinced critical insight that is rare and artistic feeling that was delightful to note.

"The first photograph studied was of Fra Bartolommeo's Madonna enthroned with the saints, the original of which many of the children had seen in the Louvre, the great national picture gallery at Paris. Reference was then made by the teacher to the panel of the Madonna by the Van Eycks in the national gallery at Berlin, and a small reproduction of the same passed about the class. The coronation of the Virgin was discussed from a photograph of the fresco in the Louvre by Angelico da Fiesole. Another photograph was that of Murillo's Immaculate Conception, the original of which nearly all the children had seen. And the fine sentiment pervading the expressions of the children showed how deeply they felt the beauty which the artist had portrayed.

"Training children to read good pictures to know and interpret the great masters-by means of photographs and other reproductions seems to be no inconsiderable part of the art instruction in France. And this familiarity with good art trains the critical faculty and enables the French children to see faults in pictures as readily as our children detect errors in the use of language.

"In the Musée Pédagogique, the great national educational museum at Paris, occupying thirty rooms in a large building, and equipped by the government with all the best teaching appliances, one finds a room devoted to art instruction. And here you find beautiful marble and plaster casts of famous sculpture, a wealth of historic ornament, models of classic architecture, splendid collections of photographs of the great masters, in other words, the materials and appliances France wants used in her schools. The collection is made by the government as a model of the best aids to be used in art instruction. And what a lesson it teaches the teachers of the nation!

6

"Connected with the Musée Pédagogique is a splendid pedagogical library, numbering over fifty thousand volumes, many of which pertain to art instruction. It has also a circulating department for the use of teachers and students of education in the more distant places of the Republic. Books are sent and returned through the mails free of postage, and I found that one of the most popular divisions of this circulating department was that of beaux-arts, and that such books as Bayet's Précis de l'histoire de l'Art' and Pecant & Baude's 'Entretiens sur l'Art' were in general demand among those preparing to teach and supervise schools. This marked interest in the history, theory and practice of art is possible only in a country where art instruction is of a high grade, where art education is a part of moral development, a piety of the senses,' as Dr. William T. Harris so aptly characterizes it, that sees the beautiful and realizes it in works of art.'"

BOSTON, Jan. 10, 1896.

G.

MANUAL TRAINING.

SPECIAL REPORT BY HENRY T. BAILEY,

STATE SUPERVISOR OF DRAWING.

REPORT.

In the report of the State Board of Education for the year ending Dec. 31, 1871, occur these words :

One of our leading citizens who has devoted much time and thought to this subject says that "provision for the prompt, speedy and ample or the better education for the manufacturing or mechanic operatives of Massachusetts is not only an investment promising a vast pecuniary return, but is to-day a necessity of self-preservation for the State."

This leading citizen" evidently voiced the conviction of a majority of the people, for about that time a resolve was passed by the Legislature, by which the Board of Education was directed to report "a feasible plan for giving in the common schools of the cities and larger towns of this Commonwealth additional instruction especially adapted to young persons who are acquiring practical skill in mechanic or technical arts, or are preparing for such pursuits."

The introduction of drawing as a required study in all public schools, by act of May 16, 1870, had been the first step in this direction. The second, as the Board saw it, was suggested in the closing paragraph of the report:

While the Board do not think it feasible or advisable to give technical instruction in the common schools, other than drawing, and perhaps needlework to girls, inasmuch as none of the branches now taught in those schools can be dispensed with, for the graduates of the common schools are the only ones properly fitted to enter the technical school, they would suggest that the State authorize all cities and towns having a population of five thousand and over to establish free technical schools for instruction in such branches of knowledge common to the leading industries of the entire State as may from time to time be prescribed by the Board of Education.