reading lesson, little realized that they themselves established conditions that begot in their pupils weariness and disgust and covert rebellion. Yet there are teachers today who have trouble chiefly because, by their own restlessness and lack of composure, they give the impression that they are looking for trouble. St. de la Salle, the founder of the Christian Brothers, indicated twelve virtues of the good master; among them are gravity and reserve. Both are really virtues, in art, in literature and in life, and notably in the teaching profession.

Would that we could remember and realize that we are all day long before so many pairs of restless, observant little eyes that our every move and our every posture are noted and at times made the subject of not particularly favorable comment! Would that some lecturer at summer institutes, instead of devoting all his time to Norse mythology or the status of elementary schools in the Philippines, might take up this matter of personal deportment and present to the assembled teachers the actual facts in the case! Sadder but wiser would that audience be.

It is necessary that both teacher and pupils move about the room, and therefore it is necessary that both teacher and pupils should know how to walk. Another painfully elementary matter is this, but one, I am sorry to say, too often disregarded. The more obvious caricatures of the act of walking I prefer not to discuss; but there is a particular form of misrepresentation that is all too prevalent. I mean moving about on tip-toe. A teacher sometimes fancies that when the children glide about like so many stealthy, comic-opera villains good order is observed and the virtue of silence reigns. Better results might be obtained by having the children crawl on their hands and knees; but the real objection to both methods is that both are unnatural. A normal, healthy boy walking on tip-toe is about as much at home as a normal, healthy cat walking on walnut shells.

"Shame itself!" hissed Lady Macbeth in the ear of her troubled and vision-seeing spouse. "Why do you make such faces?" Has not the query a definite and pertinent application to many teachers who, though composed and reserved so far as gestures and bodily movements are concerned, yet sin grievously against decorum and gravity in their unfortunate habit of facial contortion? Control of the facial muscles is certainly one of the most important of what we call the material conditions of successful teaching. Unconsciously the teacher acquires the habit of wrinkling the forehead, even the nose; of pursing the lips, of opening the eyes too wide-in general, of total lack of self-control. Vanity itself ought to cure us of this defect, for the man or the woman who lacks facial repose is never beautiful. Through the window of the countenance the soul shines forth, we are told; but I am loth to believe it, for through some faces that twitch and gyrate shines an unlovely thing.

While touching upon the material conditions dependent on personality of teacher and pupils, I think it opportune to say a word concerning tone and manner of speech. And here more must be said of the teacher rather than of the pupils, for if the teacher's voice is low and musical and under control, the children will unconsciously acquire some of its most desirable characteristics. Distinctness of articulation often has to be taught specifically; but in general the other essentials of conversational voice culture can be imparted indirectly.

The teacher who grumbles deep in his throat and he who talks so loud that, apparently, he fancies he is addressing the mob from the bema in ancient Athens, both are offenders. The tendency to talk too loud is, however, the more prevalent. Besides being a waste of energy and sometimes an overt act disturbing the public peace, this fault has an irritating effect on a class and betrays lack of self-control. It may spring from nervous

ness or from over-enthusiasm or from a zeal not according to knowledge; but whatever its causes, it indicates a weakness of character, an absence of poise.

Worst of all is the habitual use of the nagging tone. Some teachers I know could contribute splendid specimens for an illustrated lecture on this subject. They may actually be saying, "Very good, Willie," or "Your work has pleased me very much"; but the tone in which they speak, the peculiar inflections they use, seem to indicate that what is really in their mind is something like this: "I am weary unto death of everything and everybody; I suppose you're doing the best you can, but your best isn't worth much, and I feel sure that you're going to do something dreadful at any moment." On the other hand, even a severe reprimand given in tones bespeaking the presence of a cheerful human being will have its desired effect and yet leave no sting.

The final material condition is regularity. A good teacher is not only as regular as the clock-he is more regular than most clocks. The perfection of the holy virtue of obedience said to reside in leaving a letter half formed or a syllable half uttered should find its practical application in the work of the classroom. To begin a lesson promptly and to end it promptly, to assemble and to dismiss the class at approximately the scheduled second-all this is perhaps an ideal; but it is a very worthy ideal. A more persistent effort to tend to it, if ideal it be, would save untold annoyance to ourselves and to others.

St. Mary's College, Oakland, Cal.

LESLIE STANTON.

CARDINAL GIBBONS MEMORIAL HALL.

At the close of the meeting of the Board of Trustees on Thursday, October 12, the cornerstone of the Cardinal Gibbons Memorial Hall was laid by His Eminence, the Chancellor of the University, in the presence of a large gathering of bishops, priests and people representing nearly every diocese and every State of the Union. This ceremony formed the central feature in the academic celebration of the Cardinal's jubilee, and, in a certain sense, the national celebration also, since the people in all parts of the country have contributed towards the building and, while aiding the development of the University, have paid to the Cardinal the most acceptable tribute that could have been offered. It is extremely gratifying to him that the permanent memorial of his priestly and cardinalitial jubilee should take the form of a Hall on the grounds of the University and especially that it should be devoted to the service of our Catholic people as a residence for lay students.

On the other hand, this occasion is significant as showing that our people, as time goes on, have more accurate ideas of what is at once appropriate and practical in connection with such celebrations. They have come to realize the value of education for its own sake and its necessity for the cause of religion; and they understand that the most fitting tribute to personal worth is the furtherance of those large beneficent designs for which the recipient of their tribute has lived and labored. It was the Middle Ages, the Ages of Faith, that gave Oxford and Cambridge those halls and colleges which have grown more beautiful during the centuries and which in their outward forms are still the most graceful expression of the academic spirit. They bear the names or perpetuate the memory

of men who were equally devoted to the Church and to learning. Most of them were ecclesiastics, some were bishops, all were men of sound practical sense. They were concerned for the interests of religion not merely in one parish or in one diocese but in all England, or rather in the whole world, since the universities of that day were in the highest degree cosmopolitan. Thus all the nations of Europe were the beneficiaries of the great English founders of Merton and Balliol, of Wykeham and Balsham and Gonville; and the names of these men will live long after the last trace of the structures which they built has disappeared.

What is more important, there is still strong in the Catholic Church that love of intellectual and spiritual things which created the universities of old. It was manifested at the inception of the Catholic University and it has proven its efficacy at each new phase of the University's growth. It has never been more timely or more energetic than in projecting and constructing the Gibbons Memorial.

It is less than a year since the erection of this Hall was decided upon, and barely six months since the work began. That it has advanced so rapidly is due chiefly to the activity of the Association which had charge of the undertaking and which included in its membership prominent representatives of the clergy and laity, with the following officers:

President and Treasurer, Rt. Rev. Owen B. Corrigan, D. D., Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore; Corresponding Secretary, Very Rev. George A. Dougherty, D. D., Vice-Rector of the University. Executive Committee: Baltimore-Samuel S. Bennett, Charles J. Bonaparte, Rev. Fred. Bott, C. S. S. R., Joseph W. Brooks, Rev. M. F. Foley, Frank Furst, Michael Jenkins, Jerome M. Joyce, Philip C. Mueller, Rev. James A. Nolan, Thomas O'Neill, T. Herbert Shriver, William C. Sullivan, Rev. John T. Whelan, James R. Wheeler, George Yakel. Washington-D. J.