vernment and commerce of a
country. The will should be an undisputed monarch of the whole mental
life. It is the one center where all lines of communication meet.
London is not so perfect a center for the commerce and finance of
England as is the conscious _ego_ (smaller than a needle's point) for
all its forms of experience.

Besides the central trunk lines of knowledge in history and natural
science there are branches of study which are _tributary_ to them,
which serve also as connecting chains between more important subjects.
Reading, for instance, is largely a relative study. Not only is the
art of reading merely a preparation for a better appreciation of
history, geography, arithmetic, etc., but even the subject-matter of
reading lessons is now made largely tributary to other studies. The
supplementary readers consist exclusively of interesting matter bearing
upon geography, history, and natural science. It is a fact that
reading is becoming more and more a relative study, and selections are
regularly made to bear on other school work. Geography especially
serves to establish a network of connections between other kinds of
knowledge. It is a very important supplement to history. In fact
history cannot dispense with its help. Geography lessons are full of
natural science, as with plants, animals, rocks, climate, inventions,
machines, and races. Indeed there are few if any school studies which
should not be brought into close and important relations to geography.
Again the more important historical and scientific branches not only
receive valuable aid from the tributary studies but they abundantly
supply such aid in return. Language lessons should receive all their
subject-matter from history and natural science. While the language
lessons are working up such rich and interesting materials for purposes
of oral and written language, the more important branches are also
illustrated and enriched by the new historical and scientific subjects
thus incidentally treated.

An examination of these mutual relations and courtesies between studies
may discover to us the fact that we are now unconsciously or
thoughtlessly _duplicating_ the work of education to a surprising
extent. For example, by isolating language lessons and cutting them
off from communication with history, geography, and natural science, we
make a double or triple series of lessons necessary where a single
series would answer the purpose. Moreo