awakens, sooner or later, the desire to share in the stores of knowledge which human intelligence has won, in the insight into the working of the forces of nature, which it has acquired and applied to industry, in the arts which ennoble and support human action; in short to participate in the spiritual treasures which are, as it were, the birthright of those born under a luckier star. This desire, which opens to the diligent the way to material prosperity and inner contentment, seems for society as a whole an important incentive to industrial progress, and turns the discontent of the slaves of machinery into happiness of men conscious of their own success. The more the old order changes which held the work people in the narrow bonds of tradition, the more is customary prescription replaced by education and independent judgment, by insight into existing conditions, by special excellence within a particular sphere. For this reason, the elementary school, however efficient and methodically correct its action may be, cannot suffice for the happiness of the masses, nor for the preservation of society. The instruction must come into close contact with the life of the future citizen, and must be at the command of everyone desirous to learn, as long as he seeks it. But the seeker, born amid such conditions as these, needs guidance. Public libraries, newspapers, magazines help him the more he pushes forward, but without expert assistance he hardly finds the beginning of the path.

“This is the object of the Continuation School.”

It is somewhat difficult to define the limits and scope of the continuation or Fortbildungsschulen. Conditions vary in the different German states and especially do they vary in the various kinds of continuation schools. Definition is made even more doubtful when we find that the limits of certain schools overlap. It may be said that students are regularly admitted from fourteen to sixteen years of age. Not infrequently however, boys and men of more mature years take advantage of the courses offered. Instruction is carried on during the week-day evenings from six to eight o’clock and on Sunday mornings.

Prussia leads the other states in the number and character of her supplementary schools, the system having its fullest expression in Berlin. The fact became early apparent that preparation, whatever line the boy was to follow, was necessary, and this thought is confirmed in the many skilled laborers in Germany to-day. In Prussia, as elsewhere, it was found that boys many times left the common school before they became proficient in any line of book work. The causes were various; poverty, indifference, sickness, overcrowding, poor enforcement of the compulsory attendance laws,—all these conspired to make supplementary schools necessary. In the older provinces very little attention was given the continuation school prior to 1875, and almost as much could be said of those provinces which were acquired in 1866. In 1844 a report issued by the Department of Public Instruction makes mention of the usefulness of such schools, while two years later a second report has only slightly more to say on the subject. This lack of interest may be attributed in large measure to the non-financial support of these schools by the government.

Several problems had to be faced in working out the scheme. Certain definite relations between the primary and continuation schools must be observed; those coming into the latter with an inadequate underschool knowledge must be looked after; provision must be made for students of lesser as well as of more mature years; all classes of occupation must be given attention; these and many other difficult questions were to be met and overcome.

“Three principles,” says Mr. Bertram, “have contributed to the solution of this problem—free choices between the courses provided, free enjoyment of the preparatory courses without fee, and the selection of the teachers according to their attainments in a particular branch and their ability to adapt their instruction to the needs of the pupils or participants in the course.”

In certain sections, Nassau and Hanover for example, state aid came early to the continuation school. In 1874 an increased appropriation resulted in the betterment of the schools then existing and in the further establishment of like institutions. Here the communities must meet the cost of building, heating, lighting etc., and one-half of all the expenses not covered by the actual tuition. Since 1878 there is a fairly general acceptance throughout the Empire of the statute providing that all employes under eighteen years of age must be allowed to attend a continuation school, the period of attendance to be determined by “competent authority”. This naturally leads the Public Instruction Department to be free in its financial support.

It will be understood that in most cases six hours per week is the attendance required and that only those who have left the Volksschule or lower school and are not attending any higher institution are admitted. In Saxony a somewhat different condition exists. Children who have not made satisfactory progress in the Volksschule must, perforce, attend the continuation school for two years.

The writer of this paper was thoroughly impressed with the work of the Sunday classes as seen in Leipzig, Saxony, during the summer of 1899. His first introduction to such work was made, when on joining a group of boys, several of them carrying draughting-boards, he was conducted by them to their school. The general character and deportment of the boys, the spirit and enthusiasm manifested by them, and the thoughtful and intelligent quality of the work produced, fully justified in his own mind, the validity and worth of the Sunday class instruction.

As between the schools located in the cities and those in the smaller towns and country places, there is some slight difference. They may be classified as (a) rural or (b) city schools, on account of their location. The distinction lies rather in the arrangement of their curricula, the needs of the students in the particular locality being kept in mind. In the rural schools the programme of studies is somewhat general, comprising the German language, arithmetic, mensuration, nature study; and in some instances may be added to these, geography, German history, drawing, gymnastics and music. This programme is elective to the extent that the capacity and previous education of the pupil are considered, and too, the ability of the teacher, local conditions and the time spent by the individual student. Such schools are admonished not to take on the character of technical institutions, but rather to continue the general education begun in the Volksschulen. Only under certain conditions is less than four hours per week of instruction permissible.

In Prussia the city continuation schools are of two grades, each grade made up of a number of classes. In the lower grade schools, instruction is given in accordance with the particular trade or calling the pupil is to follow. In the upper grade, work is much the same, proficiency being the chief additional feature. When six hours of work is the minimum, language, arithmetic, elementary geometry and drawing, form the body of the course; while penmanship, geography, history, grammar and nature study all are taken up in connection with the reading work. Business forms are not overlooked. In the more fully equipped schools where the teachers are prepared for such branches, higher mathematics,