in a university than those connected with the acquiring of information. In the meantime we are interested in the nature of the text-book that has been evolved by the diffusion of knowledge and the multiplication of printed matter. Not every text-book is meant to take the place of the teacher. At the present moment there are more text-books being printed for school use than ever before in the history of the world. But the way in which they are used is quite different from that of the old times. No doubt, even yet, in dealing with the teaching of foreign languages we have the pupils provided with a standard book in a certain language, which book is used in the good old-fashioned way as a "text" on which pupil and teacher alike work as the basis of their studies. Further, it has to be admitted that in a less legitimate way teachers of poor attainments and low ideals of their profession supply their pupils with text-books in various subjects, and use these text-books as the authority. Such teachers depend upon the books for the information the pupils have to acquire. The text-book is the master, and the teacher the mere expounder of what is to be found there.
But the really well-informed and capable teacher uses the text-book in a totally different way. For him it is an aid, and not a master. It supplies the broad outlines of the subject and fills in the necessary details. It saves the teacher from the mechanical labour of writing out lists and putting on the blackboard long tables of facts that are important in them-
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