Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 37.djvu/63

Rh the elements of psychology, logic, morals, and metaphysics, with a study of the principal schools of philosophy and the various philosophical authors. In connection with the last-mentioned branch of the course, as is natural, considerable prominence is given to the French philosophical writers, and one hour per week of the nine is expressly devoted to the Latin and Greek authors. This course of philosophy, admirable as it is, and interesting as (perhaps) it may be to the average youngster of seventeen years, can in no sense be properly classed as an adjunct to the mother tongue instruction, except in so far as history, geography, or any other branch of study, carried on in the vernacular, can be so considered. In the programme it is very properly classified by itself.

Referring to the courses in modern languages, there is certainly here no question as to where the preponderance lies. In the French lycée the living languages are made prominent from the preparatory year, and the strength of the course developed in the first three years. The total is 1,000 hours, or 11·7 per cent of the whole hours, compared with 380 hours, or 4·9 per cent only in the Boston Latin School. Latin and Greek, which naturally form the piéces de résistance of the French classical course, are, as one might expect, much more prominent than with us. The Latin is begun in cinquieme, the pupil eleven' years of age, with ten hours of recitation per week, and is continued with reduced hours for six years, giving a total of 1,500 hours, against 1,293 hours at the Boston Latin School. In the last year (classe de philosophie) the technical study of Latin is omitted, but, as above stated, one hour per week of the nine allotted to philosophy is devoted to Greek and Latin authors, the original texts being freely employed. Greek is begun in the second term of the fourth year of the course, the pupil twelve 'years of age, with two hours per week for the rest of the year, and is continued through the classe de rhétorique. Taken together, the Greek and Latin recitations of the French course occupy 2,340 hours, contrasted with 1,805 hours in the Boston Latin School.

The importance attached to drawing in the French scheme of instruction is shown by the considerable time devoted to it. This is in most striking contrast to the almost general neglect of this important branch of education, not only at the Latin School of Boston, but at nearly all classical fitting schools in the United States. In the French lycée 7'9 per cent of the whole course is devoted to drawing; in the Boston Latin School the percentage is 2·9.

Among the various illustrations of the difference of the two