important points require attention. First, the terms should be brief. It is not necessary that a term should contain within itself its own definition, nor that a name should embody a full description of the article. A name, or a technical term, is a conventional thing. It depends for its meaning, not so much on the etymological sense of its component parts, as on the definition given, and the usage built on this definition. A good technical term siezes the prominent idea for its basis, and then depends for its full meaning on a comprehensive definition. Long and complex terms are not only lumbering in practice, but they are wanting both in dignity and in unity. Technical terms should be so chosen as to be convenient and pliable in use. Brevity will greatly conduce to this end, but this is not all. Much depends on the composition of the words themselves. Such terms do not always stand alone, as they do in a di tionary, but must be used in the construction of sentences. Sometimes they are the subject, and sometimes the object, and sometimes we wish to give them a verbal or adjective form. Take for example the term induction; we speak of the principle of induction, of inductive electricity, of an induced current, &c. Hence it follows that such terms cannot be properly made from a merely theoretical standpoint. They should be tried or used for sometime, in the teaching or discussion of a subject, before they are finally adopted. It is important that such terms should preserve their analogy with other terms of the same class. For example the term su ke i was formerly taken for "a prime number," but it is out of analogy with all other similar terms. We have su a fractional number, f ch'ng su oréig su a factor, ken su a root, and so on. This term should be changed for another in which the leading character will be a qualifier of the word su, and so preserve the analogy, and conduce to convenience and perspicuity in use. pei su a multiple, Another important point in relation to technical terms, is that they should be carefully and accurately defined. Nothing is so important in a school book as the definitions, and in nothing is this more important than in regard to the terms used. The Chinese are not accustomed to the appearance of new terms in their stereotyped language, and are peculiarly liable to stumble at them, or to mistake their meaning. Good definitions of new terms inserted in connection with their first introduction in treating of any subject, will greatly conduce to perspicuity, and lighten the work of the teacher. When for any reason new terms different from those previously used by other writers are adopted, attention should be called to the fact, and if necessary reasons given for the change, and always, when different terms have been used by others, the other terms should be mentioned as synonymns. This will give the student a key to the under standing of other books, besides the one he has studied. Good school books for China should not be mere translations. Simply to translate an English school book literally into Chinese is by far the easiest way to make a book, but it is not by any means the best way. It is safe to say, we will not have good school books in China until we have something very different from mere translations. An exception might perhaps be made in favor of books on sciences of which the Chinese know nothing at all. Yet even here the book in Chinese should have such a peculiarly Chinese character, as is inconsistent with simple translation. In most cases no doubt a good foreign school book should be made the general basis of the Chinese book. All figures and illustrations, however, should be drawn as far as possible from things with which the Chinese are acquainted. The book should also be specially adapted to the place it is to fill in China, that is it should be so constructed as to make the Chinese feel that it is a book for them. For example a Chinese geography should give such prominence to China as comports with the fact that it is a Chinese geography. The same is true of a general history. Mathematical works should have examples illustrating as far as possible business as it is in China. The same general principle applies more or less to all branches of science. Those who make school books should first make themselves familiar with what has already been done on the same subject, whether by Chinese or by foreigners. Labor has already been lost in China from not attending to this principle. Some years ago I met a gentleman who had nearly completed a book on one of the sciences. I asked him what he thought of a book on the same subject prepared a short time before, by one who was confessedly his superior as a Chinese scholar. He replied that he had not examined it. I have reason to think he treated native books much in the same way. He evidently had supreme confidence in his own genius. He invented his terms and made his book, independently of what any and every one had done before him. Such a spirit will not make a good or useful school book, while it will certainly bring confusion into the terminology. No man is so wise that he cannot profit by the labor of his predecessors. Familiarity with what other foreign writers have done on the same subject, will enable him to improve on them, and in case of differences to give students such hints as will enable them to understand all books on the same subject. Familiarity with what native writers have said on the same subject, will enable him to avail of the resources they have provided, and to combine native and foreign ideas and methods, so as to make the student master of both at the same time. He will also be prepared intelligently to refute the mistaken notions of the Chinese. The writer who shows a proper acquaintance with, and appreciation of, what China has already done, prepossesses the student in his favor, and makes his book popular. Few if He who makes a school book should himself be a teacher. any good school books have ever been made by others than teachers. This is perfectly natural. The need of the book is felt chiefly by them, and thus they are led to try to supply the need. Their experience both teaches them what a good book should be, and qualifies them to make such a book. A good school book cannot be prepared from a purely theoretical standpoint. It needs to be modified by the experience of actual practice in teaching. This is especially the case in China, where both the field. and the language are new. To insure a really good practical school book, the first draft should be taught through to a class, and then revised in the light of this experience. To make a good school book is labor, not play. It is not likely that any one will do such work for pastime, or for the mere love of doing it, and if they should, it is not likely their book will be worth the cost of printing. School books for the Chinese should be made as plain as possible. In the west the marked tendency of recent years has been to make text books on the sciences plain and simple. There is a very great contrast in this respect between the books of the present and those of one or two generations ago. If plainness be desirable in English, it is still more so in Chinese. The subjects in many cases, and the methods of treating them in all cases, will be new, and hence the greater necessity of taking special pains to be plain and simple. Both the Chinese language and the Chinese mind are peculiarly averse to receiving anything new, and unless it is made specially plain, it will not be apprehended. It will not do to presume too much on the quickness of the pupil. In China as elsewhere the majority of students are mediocre, and school books should be made to suit them. Not only should the method be plain, but special pains should be taken to make the style clear and perspicuous. This will be all the more difficult to accomplish, seeing precision and perspicuity are not qualities peculiar to Chinese, especially to the Wen-li. For North China all primary books had best be in mandarin. This, to say nothing of other advantages, will enable the student to study these branches before he could read the books if in Wěn-li. It is one of the serious drawbacks of the Wen-li, that the pupil has to be a scholar before he is able to read his text book. In the last place school books should be interesting. Plainness in method and style will go far towards securing this. But this is not enough. Special pains should be taken to make the books interesting and attractive. For this purpose pictorial illustrations should be freely used. Pictures are both troublesome and expensive, but they will pay for all this, and more. Nothing adds so much to the attractiveness of a book as good pictures. Pictures are often necessary to the proper understanding of the subject. They are more needed in China than in the west, especially in all matters relating to science and the mechanical arts. In the west machinery is to be seen on every side,-factories, mills, engines, and machinery of every kind. In China these things are only heard of, and so in the absence of the things, we must call in the aid of pictures, to explain and illustrate the description. Without this aid we will fail to convey any adequate idea to the mind of the learner. In many branches historial facts and incidents can be used with good effect to add interest to the subject, as well as to convey important information. Let it not be supposed that such things are more excresences, that scientific facts and principles alone should find place in scientific books. Nothing is an excresence which elucidates a subject, or serves to fix it in the mind. If not convenient to insert such things in the text, they can often be inserted with good effect in the form of foot-notes. In some branches puzzles and curious questions, or remarkable facts and phenomena in nature can be introduced with good effect. To do these things, and to do them in such a way as to engage the attention of Chinese students and interest them in the subject, will require much careful thought and investigation. Let not such labor be deemed wasted. The success of a book depends on its being made interesting to the student, and adapted to fix the subject in his mind. The importance of a good series of school books for China cannot be overestimated. The success of mission schools depends, in no small measure, on having good and suitable text books. Without them much labour is wasted by teachers, imperfect instruction is given, important branches are omitted altogether, and the Chinese student lacks the important aid of a text book to keep by him in after life for reference. There is a widespread desire in China to learn western science and methods of education. In order to facilitate this, the first and most essential requisite is good school books, and next to them Chinese teachers who are trained and qualified to tea h them. IN MEMORIAM, REV. CARSTAIRS DOUGLAS, A.M., LL.D. BY REV. WM. MCGREGOR, A.M. THE the loss of one who, as regards age, seemed still to have before him many years of usefulness in China. To us it seems as if he had been taken away in the middle of his days, and when the acquirements and experience of the past had qualified him for being of still greater service to the work of Christ in the future. But the work Dr. Douglas actually accomplished during the twenty-two years he laboured in Amoy might well be the work of a lifetime, and has secured for him a permanent place in the history of missions in China. To indicate the nature of this work I shall briefly notice it in three departments. 1. Evangelistic and Pastoral work. When Amoy was opened by the war of 1842 it was first occupied by the London Mission and the missionaries of the American Board, whose work soon passed into the hands of the Reformed Church of North America. In 1851, Mr. Burns, the first missionary of the Presbyterian Church of England removed from Canton to Amoy. In 1854 he had to go home to Scotland, and next year returned to China, accompained by the Rev. Carstairs Douglas who, after graduating with distinction at Glasgow and afterwards studying theology in the Free Church College in Edinburgh had just decided to give himself to the work of the Gospel in China. Mr. Burns having remained at Shanghai, Mr. Douglas came on to Amoy alone, and found, on his arrival, that Mr. Johnstone, who had came out to join the mission a year before, had already left on account of ill health. During the first ten years of their work the missionaries of the L. M. S. and the Reformed Church had naturally concentrated their efforts on Amoy itself. During the three years he spent in Amoy Mr. Burns had visited various places on the mainland and left fruits of his work at Pechuia and Bay-pay. From this time work on the mainland began, and into it Mr. Douglas on his arrival threw himself with all his strength. Being provided with a mission boat suitable for the navigation of the channels and estuaries about Amoy, he occupied a large portion of his time in exploring the country around, everywhere preaching the Gospel and distributing books. Other missionaries joined the mission, outstations were opened where Christian congregations met for worship, and work which at first was simply evangelistic gradually assumed more of a pastoral character. But in pastoral and evangelistic work our brother was equally at home. While occupied in visiting the outstations connected with the mission, preaching, teaching and examining candidates for baptism he was ever on the outlook for opportunities of preaching the Gospel to the heathen. By the wayside while he travelled, in a boat with fellow passengers or passing through a town or village, wherever an audience could be found he was ready to avail himself of the opportunity. beside all waters' was with him not simply a felt duty, but still more an uncontrollable impulse. How diligently he laboured in instructing the native congregations, how their spiritual condition and the trials to which they were exposed weighed upon his mind, those who were much with him would realise, and only He to whose footstool he ever carried their case can fully know. To 'sow How much blessing from the Lord has rested on his labours is indicated by the fact that when he came to China there were in connection with the mission only two stations just opened and that, when he died, he left it with six hundred and forty communicants and about an equal number of adherents, distributed among twenty-four native congregations. Of these congregations eight are organized with office-bearers of their own, and one supports its own native pastor. An attack of sickness having led him to take a sea voyage to Formosa, he embraced the opportunity of preaching the Gospel there, and was so impressed with its claims as a mission field that, on his return on furlough soon after, he pressed them on the home church. In consequence of his representations it was decided to undertake mission work in Formosa, and he came back to China accompanied by Dr. Maxwell appointed to that field. Accompanied by him, he paid two visits to that island. The second of these visits was of some length, and at its close he left Dr. Maxwell settled at Takao and the Formosa mission of the English Presbyterian Church fairly started. |