l stimulate a critical analysis of the statements in the text, and
send the student to class keen for an intelligent discussion.

Ordinarily, when a class is averaging three or four pages of the text
daily, it is an error for the teacher to point out in advance certain
dates and statistics that need not be memorized. Such selection should
be left to the student. During the recitation the teacher will discover
what dates, statistics, and other matter the student has selected as
worthy to be memorized, and if correction is necessary it may then be
made. It dulls the edge of the pupil's enthusiasm to be told in advance
that some of the text is not worthy to be remembered. Furthermore such
instruction does nothing to develop the student's sense of historical
proportion, for it substitutes the judgment of the teacher for that of
the pupil.

Advance questions asking explanation of statements made in the text, or
by other authors dealing with the same period, insure that the lesson
will be read understandingly and that the author's statements will be
carefully analyzed. Such declarations as the following are illustrations
of statements whose explanation might profitably be required in
advance:--

1. "The Constitution was extracted by necessity from a reluctant
people."

2. "Oregon was a make-weight for Texas."

3. "The greatest evil of slavery was that it prevented the South
from accumulating capital."

4. "The day that France possesses New Orleans we must marry
ourselves to the British fleet."

5. "The cause of free labor won a substantial triumph in the
Missouri Compromise."

6. "The second war with England was not one of necessity, policy,
or interest on the part of the Americans; it was rather one of
party prejudice and passion."

_The conditions in other countries will add to his comprehension of the
facts in the lesson_

In so far as the next lesson requires an understanding of the history or
conditions of another country, the attention of the class should be
directed in advance to such necessity. Special references or brief
reports may be advisable. A few well-selected advance questions will
send the class to recitation prepared to discuss what otherwise the
teacher must explain. A few questions on the character of James II, his
ideals of government, the chief causes of the revolution of 1688, and
its most important results will