stitute human life. The actions and precautions by which, from moment to moment, we secure personal safety, must clearly take precedence of others. Could there be a man, ignorant as an infant of all surrounding objects and movements, or how to guide himself among them, he would pretty certainly lose his life the first time he went into the street, notwithstanding any amount of learning he might have on other matters. And as entire ignorance in all other directions would be less promptly fatal than entire ignorance in this direction, it must be admitted that knowledge immediately conducive to self-preservation is of primary importance.

That next after direct self-preservation comes the indirect self-preservation which consists in acquiring the means of living, none will question. That a man's industrial functions must be considered before his parental ones, is manifest from the fact that, speaking generally, the discharge of the parental functions is made possible only by the previous discharge of the industrial ones. The power of self-maintenance necessarily preceding the power of maintaining offspring, it follows that knowledge needful for self-maintenance has stronger claims than knowledge needful for family welfare-is second in value to none save knowledge needful for immediate selfpreservation.

As the family comes before the State in order of time-as the bringing up of children is possible before the State exists, or when it has ceased to be, whereas the State is rendered possible only by the bringing up of children; it follows that the duties of the parent demand closer attention than those of the citizen. Or, to use a further argument-since the goodness of a society ultimately depends on the nature of its citizens; and since the nature of its citizens is more modifiable by early training than by anything else; we must conclude that the welfare of the family underlies the welfare of society. And hence, knowledge directly conducing to the first,

must take precedence of knowledge directly conducing to the last.

Those various forms of pleasurable occupation which fill up the leisure left by graver occupations-the enjoyments of music, poetry, painting, etc.-manifestly imply a pre-existing society. Not only is a considerable development of them impossible without a long-established social union, but their very subject-matter consists in great part of social sentiments and sympathies. Not only does society supply the conditions to their growth, but also the ideas and sentiments they express. And, consequently, that part of human conduct which constitutes good citizenship is of more moment than that which goes out in accomplishments or exercise of the tastes; and, in education, preparation for the one must rank before preparation for the other.

Such, then, we repeat, is something like the rational order of subordination: that education which prepares for direct self-preservation; that which prepares for indirect self-preservation; that which prepares for parenthood; that which prepares for citizenship; that which prepares for the miscellaneous refinements of life.

PROMINENCE AND INTEREST.

[Prominence is a valuable medium by which there can be aroused in the listener a keener interest. In "King Robert of Sicily, in proportion to the intensity of defiance in the line, "There is no power can push me from my throne," so is the interest increased in the outcome.]

The Jew.

ZEBULON VANCE.

The Jew is beyond doubt the most remarkable man of this world, past or present. Of all the stories of the sons of men

there is none so wild, so wonderful, so full of extreme mutation, so replete with suffering and horror, so abounding in extraordinary providences, so overflowing with scenic romance. There is no man who approaches him in the extent and character of the influence which he has exercised over the human family. His history is the history of our civilization and progress in this world, and our faith and hope in that which is to come. From him have we derived the form and pattern

of all that is excellent on earth or in heaven.

Though dead as a nation-as we speak of nations-they yet live. Their ideas fill the world and move the wheels of its progress, even as the sun, when he sinks behind the western hills, yet fills the heavens with the remnants of his glory. As the destruction of matter in one form is made necessary to its resurrection in another, so it would seem that the perishing of the Jewish nationality was necessary to the universal acceptance and the everlasting establishment of Jewish ideas. Never before was there an instance of such a general rejection of the person and character, and acceptance of the doctrines and dogmas of a people.

We admire with unlimited admiration the Greek and Roman, but reject with contempt their crude and beastly divinities. We affect to despise the Jew, but accept and adore the pure conception of a God which he taught us, and whose real existence the history of the Jew more than all else establishes.

The Jews, under most adverse circumstances, made their mark-a high and noble mark-in every department of human affairs. Christian clergymen have sat at the feet of their rabbis to be taught the mystic learning of the East; Senates have been enraptured by the eloquence of Jewish orators; courts have been convinced by the acumen and learning of Jewish lawyers; vast throngs excited to the wildest enthusi

asm by Jewish histrionic and aesthetic art; Jewish science has helped to number the stars in their courses, to loose the bands of Orion and to guide Arcturus with his sons.

Jewish literature has delighted and instructed all classes of mankind, and the world has listened with rapture and with tears to Jewish melody and song. For never since its spirit was evoked under the shadow of the vines on the hills of Palestine to soothe the melancholy of her king has Judah's harp, whether in freedom or captivity, in sorrow or joy, ceased to wake the witchery of its tuneful strings.

Time forbids that I should even name the greatest of those who have distinguished themselves and made good their claim to rank with the foremost of earth. No section of the human family can boast a greater list of men and women entitled to be placed among the true children of genius—going to make up the primacy of our race-in every branch of human affairs, in every phase of human civilization. Mr. Draper says that for four hundred years of the Middle Ages-ages more dark and terrible to them than to any others--they took the most philosophical and comprehensive view of all European people.

On the whole, and after due deliberation, I think it may be truthfully said that there is more of average wealth, intelligence and morality among the Jewish people than there is among any other nation of equal numbers in the world! If this be true-if it be half true-when we consider the circumstances under which it has all been brought about, it constitutes in the eyes of thinking men the most remarkable moral phenomenon ever exhibited by any portion of the human family. For not only has the world given the Jew no help, but all that he has ever received, and that but rarely, was to be left alone.

L

PROMINENCE AND IMITATION.

[Perhaps in no way is a thing made to stand out so prominently as by its imitation, and this fact demands most careful consideration. When and in what degree to imitate is one of the most vital questions in expression. Imitation embraces the reproduction of character, imitating the voice, the dialect, the attitude, the gesture, the appearance, dress, manner, walk; the reproduction of actions such as stumbling, striking, throwing, struggling, and the like; the reproduction of shape, dimensions, direction.

Imitation restricts the listener's imagination. To reproduce a man's exact voice, to show by imitation how a man walked or bowed, to reproduce precise length or shape or size, prevents the listener from using his imagination. Imitation says to the listener: “What you see is a literal reproduction of the thing itself in all detail. Nothing is left for you to do but to use your eyes and ears.''

To know when and where to imitate becomes a comparatively easy matter if a student will first determine the author's united aim What does he wish to make most prominent? In describing Scrooge, Dickens says: "Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, ‘My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?'"' Here the author is not desirous of making prominent the manner in which these words could be spoken, but the matter. Therefore there is no imitátion. On the other hand, in the description of the death of little Joe (Dickens), it is clear the author wishes to make prominent the personality of little Joe, hence imitation of Joe's manner is warranted. The rule that must guide the speaker is: Leave to the listener's imagination everything which the speaker's imitation would fail to fully convey or would misconvey or overconvey, or which in itself is self-evident, and as a corollary of this decrease imitation and increase suggestion in proportion to the culture of the listener.

Throughout each selection under this heading the student should determine carefully whether imitation is demanded, and if so, the kind and degree.]

Dialect and Humor.

MELLVILLE D. LANDON.

All dialects are funny. Why? They are a language deformed. I could tell you a simple story in plain English,