an excellent one with which to practice for
power in the points mentioned.

Epaminondas is a valuable little rascal
from other points of view, and I mean to
return to him, to point a moral. But just
here I want space for a word or two about
the matter of variety of subject and style
in school stories.

There are two wholly different kinds of
story which are equally necessary for
children, I believe, and which ought to be
given in about the proportion of one to
three, in favor of the second kind; I make
the ratio uneven because the first kind is
more dominating in its effect.

The first kind is represented by such
stories as the "Pig Brother," which has now
grown so familiar to teachers that it will
serve for illustration without repetition here.
It is the type of story which specifically
teaches a certain ethical or conduct lesson,
in the form of a fable or an allegory,--it
passes on to the child the conclusions as to
conduct and character, to which the race
has, in general, attained through centuries
of experience and moralizing. The story
becomes a part of the outfit of received