most effective form in which knowledge can be communicated to children. We have found that lessons on objects should precede all other kinds of instruction; and it is very natural that children should take most interest in drawing the objects about which they are otherwise learning something. Any teacher can try the experiment for himself, and he will find that while children will be delighted to spend hours every day in trying to draw blocks, posts, houses, cats, or cows, they will soon grow tired of making lines, triangles, or circles. Nature thus indicates that the first lessons in Drawing should be in a concrete form. What if it be said that objects are not as simple as lines, or that it is impossible for a child to draw them correctly, the answer is ready, that in this way they learn everything else. Children do not first learn the elements but the wholes of things. Let them commence learning to draw as they commence learning other things, and it will be found that what is natural is the most effective. Children will even spend much time in "playing Drawing," if provided with proper materials. It is, doubtless, proper that pupils somewhat advanced should analyze figures, and commence with straight lines; but I am here speaking of instruction to beginners.

As with the Abstract method, the spirit of the Concrete method can be best appreciated from a series of exercises.

FIRST CLASS OF EXERCISES. - The Pictures of Objects. It is more easy, and, I think, more interesting, for children to draw the pictures of objects than

the objects themselves. The first lessons should consist of the outlines of the simplest objects, such as boxes, books, posts, gates, doors, houses, &c.; but, although more difficult, no harm can result from suffering children to attempt to draw cats, horses, fowls, dogs, human figures, &c.

SECOND CLASS OF EXERCISES.-Drawing the Pictures of Objects from Memory. In the preceding class of exercises, it is presumed that the pupils have books or cards from which they copy the pictures. This done, it will be found of great advantage to reproduce them from memory. Drawing pictures from memory is more difficult than copying pictures; but its disciplinary advantages are proportionably greater.

THIRD CLASS OF EXERCISES.-Drawing real Objects. - Having copied the picture of an object, and reproduced it from memory, the pupil is well prepared to draw the object itself. For this purpose schools should be furnished with sets of model-objects, corresponding to the pictures upon the drawing-cards, or in the drawing-books. In the absence of these, however, the teacher need be at little loss to find things suitable for lessons with the world full of objects about him.

FOURTH CLASS OF EXERCISES.-Inventive drawing. -To succeed in the higher departments of Inventive Drawing, requires a highly cultured imagination, and a correct taste; but even children may be taught to draw objects and combinations of objects

that are not copies of anything they have ever seen, and even to design the simplest kinds of monuments, gates, pleasure-grounds, landscapes, houses, &c. Indeed, this kind of work is done by children who have been well taught, with intense interest; and nothing can be better calculated to cultivate ingenuity, or give opportunity of growth to the budding imagination.

These four classes of exercises indicate all that is peculiar to this method. The method is particularly adapted to children, and aims only to communicate a popular knowledge of the art of Drawing. Pupils receiving instruction in Drawing up to the point indicated in the preceding exercises, according to this method, can enter upon the analysis of forms and their composition, as contemplated in the Abstract Method, with great profit. Thus here, as everywhere else, principles will be found to underlie appearances. The Concrete Method merely contemplates the imitation of appearances, while the Abstract Method contemplates, in addition, the study of principles. With pupils who are prepared for it, the two methods may be combined.

The time is now come when something must be said of Shading, Shadow, and Perspective.

Pupils will readily appreciate the effect of Shading if the teacher first draw the outline of a simple object, and then shade it. They may then engage in imitating the Shading of pictures, and, finally, practice the Shading of real objects. Much may be done in this way, according to the Concrete Method,

to improve the pupil's taste and increase his skill, before he could learn the laws of Optics upon which the distribution of light depends. When the time comes for learning these laws, .they must be learned and applied after the spirit of the Abstract Method, by commencing with the simplest and proceeding to the more difficult.

What has been said of Shading applies equally well to Shadow.

Distant objects do not appear to the eye under the same angle as near ones, and as Drawing must be true to nature, objects should be represented as they appear. Hence the necessity of Perspective in Drawing. Some idea of the nature of Perspective can be imparted to learners by calling their attention to the appearance of a long street, bridge, or hall, trees planted on each side of an avenue, or a railroad track. Illustrations of Perspective Drawing should be given by the teacher upon the blackboard. The pupils must be required to imitate a progressive series of models. It is all important to train the eye to judge accurately of Perspective, as it is impossible to take time to apply particularly all the laws of Perspective in drawing an object. Ruskin and other celebrated artists confirm this view. When the pupil is prepared for it, however, he should be made acquainted with these laws, and learn to demonstrate their truth.

It is only necessary to say further in regard to methods of teaching Drawing that, as in writing, they must have reference to the training of the muscles employed as well as to the conception of form. As in writing, too, the pupils should be

taught in classes; the blackboard should be in constant use both by the teacher and pupils; good models should be at hand for imitation; convenient tables and seats, and suitable apparatus, should be provided; and great care should be taken in the correction of errors.

III. Vocal Music.

Vocal Music, when rightly considered, is linguistic in its nature, and closely related to Reading. The principal points of resemblance between them are that the words used in Vocal Music, as in Reading, are required to be correctly pronounced, and properly appreciated both in respect to thought and feeling; that while Speech is more the language of the intellect, and Song exclusively the language of the feelings, both are used for the purposes of communication by all races and conditions of men. The affinity of Speech and Song is so close, that they are sometimes combined in a kind of composition called Recitative. The most marked differences between Reading and Singing are that in Reading the common sounds of the voice are used, while in Singing these sounds are modified and receive the name of tones; that "no idea, thought, term, proposition, or meaning, is directly conveyed in Song;" and that Speech has no fixed clef for comparing one note with another, and can, therefore, neither give pleasure by presenting a melodious succession of notes, nor by observing their harmonious relationships.

The Study of Vocal Music is too much neglected, and it will not therefore be amiss to state some of