a combination of scientific and chemical knowledge, to say nothing of mechanical skill, which experience and ingenuity, unguided by science, are utterly unequal to. The rude stone hatchet of the North American savage is a more ingenious instrument than the modern axe, and probably no living man could make one like it. We see in it the highest reach of experience and practice, without the light of scientific knowledge.

The inquiry may be raised whether the arts which science nas already invented would continue without the further cultivation and maintenance of the same science. We answer, No. Where science dies out, the arts which have sprung from it are soon forgotten. The pyramids and temples of Egypt have survived both the knowledge and the art which erected them. The petrified nations of the East, as China, for instance, where science was cultivated ages ago, but by degrees declined and disappeared, have made no progress for generations past, except the little which has manifestly resulted from the light recently forced upon them by the aggressive march of the modern civilization, and appear to be as ignorant of ever the monuments of their earlier art as their own mummies. For ages all progress has been at a stand-still; and it would require but little aid from the imagination to regard them as human fossils. And there is nothing at all incredible in the thought that this should be so. For the stream cannot continue full, after the fountain has become dry. Science is the fountain of art; experience and skill are its channels. Keep the fountains full, and the channels will not be wanting. Dry up the fountains, and what was once a flowing river, with its banks crowned with bloom and verdure, becomes an empty ditch or a stagnant pool.

While, therefore, the public attention is directed to, and their interest quickened in the Common Schools, it should be in no narrow spirit, but with a liberal appreciation of all the relations and interdependencies subsisting in the great system of public education as a whole, that

each part may be strengthened by all the others, and all grow and advance together.

SCHOOL GYMNASTICS.

BY DIO LEWIS, M. D.

I selected the bean bag games to appear first in these contributions, because they are simple and the apparatus cheap. Besides they are very fascinating, and will serve to overcome suspicions and criticisms which all new things

must encounter.

No. 18. Turn your back to your partner, and bend backwards so that you can see him. He bends back so that he may see you, and then you throw the bag to him as represented in Fig. 11. Always cry, ready! that he may not be kept waiting too long in an uncomfortable position.

No. 19. Face your partner, and throw from the posi tion represented in Fig. 12, holding the bag on the back of the hand.

No. 20. Same as the last, except the left hand is employed.

Figure 11.

Figure 12.

Figure 13.

No. 21. Face your partner, and throw the bag around the back and over the opposite shoulder, as shown in Fig. 13.

No. 22. Same as the last, except you use the other hand.

No. 23. Each couple having ten bags; you throw to your partner, and he catches as many as he can hold, folding his arms. (Fig. 14.) This one will not ordinarily be played in class, as the number of bags will scarcely be sufficient.

No. 24. The two classes will stand as represented in Fig. 15. Place ten bags on a chair or box at the feet of the first player of each class. The leader gives the word, one, two, three, and the two classes compete in passing the bags over their heads backwards, to the foot of the class, when they whirl round and immediately pass them back. The class which has the entire ten on the chair or box at its head first, counts one in the game. It is usual to make the game three, five, or ten.

No. 25. Let the two classes face each other again, and pass the bags as in the last, except that they are carried along in front as high as the chest, being careful not to stoop forward.

No. 26. Let the bags be placed at the head of one of the classes. We will call this class No. 1; the other class No. 2. The first player in class No. 1 throws a bag to

the first player of class No. 2, who throws it back to the second player in class No. 1, who throws it back to the second player in class No. 2, who, in turn, throws it to the third player in class No. 1, and so on, working it down to the foot of the class.

But one bag is not allowed to make the trip alone; all follow, one after another, in rapid succession.

In this game the bags are all thrown from the chest with both hands, as represented in No. 1 of the bag exercises. (See Dec. No., page 359.—Eds.)

No. 27. The whole company may now be divided into trios, each trio playing with three bags, as represented in Fig. 16. Each one throws the bag to the player at his right hand, and at the same time catches the bag thrown from the player at his left..

Figure 16.

To secure the proper distance between the players for this game, they should take each other by the hands, and pulling hard, they will have the right positions. Each player must look constantly at the one from whom he receives the bags, and never for a moment at the one to whom he throws. If they forget this rule, the bags will soon fall to the floor.

No. 28. Same as the last, except the bags are passed

the opposite way.

No. 29. The company is again divided into couples, and each plays with two, three, four, or more bags. A throws a bag with his right hand to B, who catches it with his left hand, and immediately changing it to his right, throws it back to A, who catches it with his left, and changing it to his right, throws it back again to B. (Fig. 17.) Two, three, four, or five bags, can be made to perform this circle between two players at the same time.

Figure 17.

The bags, in this as in all other bag exercises except one, should be thrown and not tossed.

No. 30. Same as the last, except the bags are thrown with the left and caught with the right hand.

No. 31. Now the players will stand in two classes again, the classes to be six feet apart, and the players in

each party to be six feet from each other.

Place six bags Upon the word one,

on a chair at the head of each class. two, THREE! the first player of each class seizes a bag, and runs with it to the second player, who carries it to the third, who in turn rushes to the fourth, and so on to the foot of the class. But one bag is not allowed to make