of human nature, and of the laws of mind, will be of great service to them in their various relations to their fellows. The power of suggestion is much greater in the affairs of actual life than we are apt to suppose until a little thought has been given to the matter. This power will be most readily seen by an illustrative example of contrary suggestion.

Some years ago, a book, written with a good deal of literary skill and taste, was published in England and republished in this country. It had, at first, only a moderate sale, and excited no great degree of interest. After a little time a portion of the clergy and some other good men began to feel that the religious influence of the work was bad, especially upon the young, and upon any whose religious principles were not very thoroughly settled.

In one of the smaller cities, with which I happened to be acquainted, the clergymen, after consultation, entered into an agreement to deliver a discourse, each in his own pulpit, upon a certain Sunday, setting forth the character of the book and warning their congregations against its evil influence, advising them to have nothing to do with the volume. The result was just what would have been anticipated by one who had given even a little study to the laws of mind, and to the natural inclinations of young men and women. During the following week it was extremly difficult for

the booksellers to supply the demand for the book. More copies were bought in a single day than had been bought in the preceding two months. Similar movements, with similar results, took place in some other parts of the country.

This example shows how the best of intentious may bring about the very thing which they desire to prevent. The members of the congregations referred to, were not worse than other people. They simply did what the dominant idea, suggested by the discourses, impelled them to do. Examples of this sort are not uncommon. Teachers should be well enough informed to avoid similar blunders, and to help others to avoid them also. I do not intend to advise that a community be never warned against bad publications, but the warning should not be so made as to increase the evil.

Guyau says, "Every recognized profession, every social status, may be psychologically defined as a totality of constant and co-ordinated suggestions which urge to action conformably to an idea or general type present to the thought." Put into a little plainer language, it may be said with truth, that every profession, every occupation whatever its nature, suggests that which is befitting to itself in character and behavior. Any badge of social rank and position suggests conduct, manners, and speech, appropriate to the rank or position. It should be remembered that the force of

habit is to be taken into account; but habit itself, in one important aspect, is little else than an everpresent and always active, though often unconscious, suggestive force, created by the suggestive power of established custom.

For certain positions and occupations tradition, law, or policy has prescribed perfect uniformity of dress. A few schools require their students to wear clothing of a particular cut and color. The sug

gestive power of a uniform is well known and generally recognized. This power is employed, with equal facility, for good or evil, to elevate or degrade. The uniform is sure to render the wearer nobler or baser, to make him more manly or less manly. It will influence him in one way or the other.

Examples of the evil results of this suggestive force are found in many prisons, and in some reformatory institutions, so-called. The peculiar style of dress adopted in such establishments is frequently offensive to the taste, and consequently is a constant source of irritation. But this is not the most serious objection to a prison uniform. It is an ever-present reminder of evil-doing; it suggests companionship with the outcast, and conduct in accord with the association. Its compulsory use, when all the inmates of the institution have the same style of dress, is to be condemned on ethical grounds; it is a serious obstacle in the way

of reformation of character and life. The degrading suggestive influence of the uniform in prisons and reformatories may be considerably lessened, possibly in a large degree removed, by having, not a single uniform, but several varities of the dress, one for the lowest and basest criminals, another indicating good conduct, and still another denoting a high degree of excellency in behavior and peculiar trustworthiness. Without some such suggestive differences the uniform can have only an influence for evil rather than good.

The suggestive power of the uniform in an army has always been recognized. It is not a childish love of display which clothes the soldier in a distinctive garb, and indicates rank and position by some suggestive device, like the straps on the shoulder or the arm. The cut and color of the coat are constant reminders of position, duty, responsibility, and are powerful incentives to appropriate conduct. Behavior which is out of harmony with the uniform is a shame and disgrace. The dress constrains, restrains, inspires and dignifies.

An excellent illustration of this suggestive force is found in Colonel Higginson's "Cheerful Yesterdays." Speaking of the white soldiers in the army in the great civil war, he says, "Very few of them enjoyed serving in the ranks; they felt that it was a step downward.” The uniform, without marks of distinc

tion or rank, suggested that they were in a subordinate position.

"On the other hand, the negroes, who had been ordered about all their lives, felt it a step upward to be in uniform, to have rights as well as duties; and their ready imitativeness and love of rhythm made the drill and manual exercises easy for them; and they rejoiced in the dignity of guard and outpost duty, which they did to perfection.

* It was necessary to keep constantly before the men, that they were much more than slaves, to appeal to their pride as soldiers."

The human nature of the negro, however, showed its relationship to white human nature, when they were placed, for the first time, under officers of their own color. They recognized, from the suggestive force of lifelong habit, the right of a white man to command them. They felt it no degradation to obey the orders of white officers. But it was not easy for them, at first, to yield unquestioning obedience to a colored officer. This, from the power of old associations, sug– gesfed personal humiliation and something of degradation. As soon, however, as they learned to distinguish the officer from the man, and to recognize the insignia which indicated and suggested legitimate authority, they became proud to serve sergeants of their own race. The idea of degradation disappeared.

Other potent suggestive forces,

in civil and political life and society, are found in statues, tablets, and monuments of various kinds. A statue of Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, or John C. Calhoun, suggests a long, important and exciting period of American history, and battles of intellectual giants in the Senate of the United States. A statue of William Lloyd Garrison suggests a long and bitter warfare against the monstrous system of American slavery; the mob of Boston gentlemen, the publication of the Liberator, and the final triumph of freedom and right over oppression and wrong. The statue of John Brown suggests the story of "Bleeding Kansas," the foolhardy attack at Harper's Ferry, the death on the scaffold, and the opening of the great and bloody drama of the civil war.

The monument to Abraham Lincoln suggests the terrible years from 1861 to 1865, the liberation of five millions of slaves, and the martyr's death of the great President, with the lessons which all these events should teach to the young men and women, the boys and the girls of the present day. The monuments of Gettysburg suggest the invasion of the North, the terrible conflicts, the final defeat of the army of General Lee, and the turning point in the contest between freedom and slavery. It is unnecessary to mention more illustrations of such suggestive forces; these are sufficient to indicate their won

derful power, and their educational value.

Every one has, at some time, felt the suggestive power of old books and papers, especially if these are related, in some way, to personal experience in early life. An illustration of such suggestive influence came to me a few days ago. I chanced to find in rummaging among cast aside relics of the past, a bound copy of a paper called "The Log Cabin," published by Horace Greeley during the great political campaign of 1840. I was then a boy in New Hampshire, and just old enough to enter into the excitement which pervaded every neighborhood of the State. The paper, more.than fifty years old and yellow with age, suggested the names of scores of men, famous as statesmen and orators in that day, whom the young people of this day have hardly heard. of, and whose fame has passed away.

Space allows me to call attention to only one other suggestive force. I refer to the influence of pictures, either in public halls or in private homes and in the school room. All are aware of the worth of pictures in these places, but their real value has never been fully estimated by parents and teachers. They are mute, and yet they speak to the very soul of those who sit before them and study their character and beauty. The right sort of a picture in the school room is sometimes of more value than the teacher, and in the home more influential for good than the parents themselves. In concluding I venture to express the hope that this somewhat disconnected and rambling article may suggest a good many things which have not been said, and which may be of greater value to the reader than the article itself.

-Rudyard Kipling.

While the Jungle Books were not designed by their author as a text-book in pedagogy, they have in them as many nice precepts for school management and for intelligent instruction and mental development as almost any books with which I am acquainted. Join to the text which I have given above this other statement "The Law of the Jungle, which never orders anything without a reason" and see how much may be accomplished by keeping them constantly in mind in the schoolroom.

Don't let anyone delude you, my young teacher friend, into the belief that obedience is an old-fashioned virtue. It is the law of life,physical, mental, and moral. I

know nothing that is so clearly taught by natural and mental science as that success comes only as the reward of obedience to law. And as the parent stands for law to the little child, so the school teacher in a minor degree should stand for the embodiment of law in the schoolroom. Every command when given even in the form of a request should be implicitly obeyed, but the teacher should see to it that it is characterized by a "sweet reasonableness." And since there is something in the nature of the sons of Adam somewhat restive under repeated prohibitions or constant proddings to action, let as many customary acts of the schoolroom as possible be handed over to the region of habits. The particular kind of ranks of some city schools may not be at all the best plan of having the pupils in an ungraded school come into the schoolroom or leave it at the close of a session; but there is a best way even there and the teacher should plan a system and enforce a method kindly but firmly until it becomes a habit requiring no special effort. I shall never forget a visit I paid one afternoon to a country school. The teacher, a very pretty young woman, taught reasonably well; and there was no serious evidence of