$114 in all-more than a hundred volumes have been put into the book-case.

Thus in two years, from Dec. 23, 1882, to Dec. 23, 1884, $290 worth of books have been added to the resources of our school. This result implies work on the part of the teacher and sympathy from school patrons; neither can do much without the other. If the teacher perform the one and enlist the other, success must follow.

Only teachers who have so labored understand the greatness of the work, and they have probably found their only but all-sufficient reward in the pleasant words of commendation so often heard, and in seeing the avidity with which the books are read by both parents and pupils. The record shows that in the aggregate nearly 1,000 volumes have been drawn. This, of course, has little reference to the books added in the past month. They are nearly always returned in a condition which shows that they have been read. Better yet, daily recitations and class-room conversation give abundant evidence that the mental food which the young minds have digested has nourished and enlarged their souls. Their intellects are sharper, and their character foundations are being so broadened and deepened that, as they grow up, they can not but become better and more useful men and women.

The subjoined catalog is given with the hope that it may help some fellow-teacher to start another library, or add to one already existing.

BOOKS OF REFERENCE.

Chambers's Encyclopedia, 10 vols. ; American Additions, 4 vols.

FICTION.

Scott's Novels, 24 vols.; Dickens's Novels, 22 vols.; Miss Alcott's Works-My Girls; My Boys; Cupid and Chow Chow; Shawl Straps ; Eight Cousins; Little Men; Little Women, Part I, Part II; Henry VIII and Katherine Parr; Frederick the Great; Adam Bede; The Mill on the Floss; A Brave Lady; A Noble Life; John Halifax; Tom Brown at Oxford; Tom Brown at Rugby; Alhambra; Bracebridge Hall; Wolfert's Roost; Cast up by the Sea; A Long Look Ahead; Hard Cash; Rienzi; Last of the Barons; Kenelm Chillingly; Deer Slayer; Pathfinder; Pioneer; Last of Mohicans; Hypatia; Aurelian ; Jane Eyre; Uarda, Vol. 1, Vol. 2; Ten Times One is Ten; Nelly Kinnard's Kingdom; Don Quixote; Sevenoaks; Tanglewood Tales.

HISTORY.

History of English People, 4 vols.; Hist. of Rome; Hist. of Greece; Hist. of U. S.; Hist. of France; Hist. of Germany; Hist. of Egypt; Hist. of Our Own Times, 2 vols.; Parkman's Histories, 8 vols.; Spanish Papers, 2 vols. ; Grenada; Knickerbocker; Remark

able Events in World's History; Romance of Revolution; Camp Fires of Napoleon; History of Culture; Age of Elizabeth; Massacre of St. Bartholomew; The American State; Boy's Froissart; Knightly Legends; Hist. of American People; Era of Protestant Revolution; The Crusades; Old Times in the Colonies; Boys of '76; Boys of '61; Fifteen Decisive Battles; Readings from English History.

POETRY.

Whittier; Scott; Longfellow; Bryant; Lowell; Saxe; Cooper; Pope; Shakespeare; Tennyson; Bret Hart; Owen Meredith; Boy's Percy; Dream of Adirondacks.

TRAVELS.

Wallace's Russia; Baker's Turkey; Gould's Germany; Mexico and Lost Provinces; Sandwich Islands; Wild Life under the Equator; Lost in the Jungles; Twenty thousand Leagues under the Sea; Astoria; Bonneville; England Without and Within; Greater Britain; Bits of Travel at Home; Bits of Travel Abroad; Wreck of the Chancellor; Around the World in Eighty Days; Desert of Ice; First Impressions of England; Views Afoot; A Woman's Experience in Europe; My Irish Journey; At the North Pole; Life on the Nile; Through Cities and Prairie Lands; Zigzag Journeys in Classic Lands; Zigzag Journeys in the Orient; Boy Travellers' in China and Japan; Boy Travellers in Siam and Java; Boy Travellers in India and Ceylon; Robinson Crusoe; Hans Bunker, or Silver Skates; Two Years before the Mast; Stories of Discovery; Stories of Adventure.

SCIENTIFIC.

Polar Seas; Wonders of Science; Fragments of Science; Evolution; What is Darwinism; Magnetism; Fairy Land of Science; How to Get Strong; Forms of Water; Volcanoes; Light Science for Leisure Hours.

BIOGRAPHIES.

Lives of Columbus; Goldsmith; Mahomet; Washington; De Soto; Jackson; Fenimore Cooper; Irving; Vasco De Gama; Pizarro; Magellan; Sir Francis Drake; Lincoln; Calhoun; Patrick Henry; Jefferson; Alexander Hamilton; French Leaders; Self-made Men; Celebrated French Sovereigns; Plutarch's Lives; The Four Georges; Classic Mythology; About Old Story Tellers.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Character; Thrift; Getting On in the World; On the Threshold; Crayon; Salmagundi; Sketch-book; Traveller; Manual of English

Literature; Specimens of English Literature; Gold Foil; Timothy Titcombs Letters; Tim and Tip; Left Behind; Diddy Dumps and Dot; Paul Grayson; Mr. Stubb's Brother; Raising the Pearl; The Moral Pirates; Toby Tyler; Autocrat of the Breakfast Table; Boy's King Arthur; Gladstone's Gleanings from Past Years, 7 vols.

THE MEANING OF WORDS.

BY HARRIET E. STEVENS, NEWARK, 0.

Three ways of bringing mind in contact with mind are granted to us : by look and gesture; by the inarticulate cry; and by words, written or spoken. Of the meaning conveyed by the first two, we are seldom in doubt. But when we come to consider words as representatives of thoughts, they are often misleading.

In a broad sense, words and their proper, complete meaning, make up education. These symbols and the thoughts that fill them out, occupy our attention from the kindergarten through the university-aye, all through life. How important is it then, that we educators look to it carefully that these signs of mental activity be well filled out and abounding in life. Is there not a common short-coming at this point? Generally, the teaching of the definitions of words is quite well done, I take it; but that there is to some extent a failure to round out and give soulful meanings to them, I am convinced. Is it not possible to have some words, at least, so taught that they can not be seen without calling up before the mind, living, full images?

In order that we may be able to make a clear distinction between the definition and the real meaning of a word, as here used, let us consult experience. Suppose sometime when we are reading well-written thoughts, in which every word is suggestive of lively, pleasing images, we come to a new word and are compelled to consult the dictionary for its definition. The faint, lifeless idea called up by this stranger, compared with the expressive faces of the old friendly words that have woven themselves into the warp and woof of our mental being, suggests the wide difference between the mere definition and the actual signification of words. Until we can get our pupils beyond the translation of words into other words, and can lead them to see and feel their meanings in lively mental pictures, we have failed to make them realize and understand the true use of these symbols. Of course it takes a life's experience to make us fill out the concepts of some words,

but, in my judgment, our pupils could be taught a much greater fulness of meaning than they usually are.

That the definitions of the dictionary are sufficient for many words we are called upon to interpret, is no doubt true, but that a vocabulary acquired from this source exclusively or mainly, can express a living, warm soul, we do not believe. There is a soul in words that can never come from the dictionary; nor is it an easy task to get this spirit embodied in certain symbols, always thereafter to be called up by them. Never until this "animus" of words is comprehended, can the youth cull from the list those that will most sincerely and most effectively serve him as his life's vocabulary.

But let us look at this subject from the point of pleasure. Some favored soul catches glimpses of the deeper, more inspiring side of life, and gives them to the world in words. They are read by two persons: the one pronounces them fine and says much in their praise, but they fail to move his nature to its depths because he cannot give the words in which they are clothed a soulful translation. The other reads and fills out the words with their broad meanings, until his spirit is in per. fect sympathy with the author, and he is raised to the same lofty height of noble aspiration. Can we doubt which enjoys more? Is this question of happiness such a small one that we can lightly overlook any means that promotes it?

One word vitalized with deep meaning may awaken a chord of sympathy that will vibrate, in kindred souls, for a lifetime. Surely our access to sympathetic souls is not so easy that we should do aught to make it more difficult. When we feel the real union of sentiment and true companionship consequent on the exchange of ideas by means of heavily laden words, then is it that we realize to its fullest extent the paramount value and pleasure of using words full of meaning. Is it not a common experience of earnest souls that they keep some words in reserve, fearing to utter them lest their full signification should not be understood? But when they do find a life beating in unison with their own, to whom they can give fearlessly their rare words, how intense the delight!

I claim that we can do something towards making the stock of living words the common property of a greater number, and the duty is imperative. We teachers are urged by considerations of our pupils' sincerity, their pleasure, and their highest well-being, to make greater effort in this direction. I suggest a few ways in which pupils may be trained to a fuller appreciation of the significance and force of words: First, Teach fewer words and teach them more fully. The words of our language may be divided into two classes. A somewhat large

class includes the words we seldom meet and more rarely have occasion to use. But little, if any school time should be given to the study of such words. In relation to them, the best thing a teacher can do for his pupils is to cultivate a dictionary conscience and habit. However much time the average pupil in our common schools may give to these words, they are likely to remain outside of his vocabulary.

The other class contains the more common words from which a large part of every one's vocabulary is made. This class constitutes the great field of language culture in the common school. These words should be studied and used until every one speaks with a fullness of meaning. It matters little to the average mind whether his words be of Latin, or German, or Saxon origin. The matter of chief importance is a correct knowledge and use of them.

A second way in which we may give fuller meaning to words, is by freely using the imagination of the pupil in picturing the idea suggested. In this way his incorrect ideas may be exposed, and he must be lead to repeat the operation until the picture is correctly painted. third aid, and by the way a most powerful one, may be found in each teacher using freely the words that mean most to her, and in encouraging each pupil to adopt and fill out the words that express most of his thought and life. By applying exactly the right words to the conduct of our pupils, a wonderful signification attaches to them.

Fourth, We believe that a gain in sincerity accrues to the pupil by requiring him to use the right word in the proper place. In order to do this he must understand the full meaning of the word he employs. For example, the words coarse and rough are often carelessly interchanged in their application to character. According to the true meaning of these words, this is a great error, the two words meaning very different things. In a rough person we often find surprising depths of tenderness, but a coarse nature springs from a cold, often a cruel heart. The difference is very wide.

Lastly, By impressing upon our pupils strongly the sacredness of words, we may do much to intensify their meaning. How often are we shocked by hearing words we hold too dear and too sacred for common use applied in the most trivial way! Are we not called upon to check this trifling and profane use of words? May we not at least lay up a few words in the "holy of holies" of the growing soul, to which it will turn for the expression of its noblest, truest thoughts, and which will ever prove inspiring and full of meaning when uttered or heard?

It is our duty to study those matters in which it is our duty to act.