AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

THE literature of education is now admittedly large and is growing daily. In the Central Pedagogical Library at Leipzig, founded twenty-five years ago in honor of Comenius, there are 66,604 books and pamphlets on the subject of education. The Musée Pédagogique at Paris, founded in 1879 by the French Government, contains 50,000 pedagogical books. The national pedagogical libraries of Belgium, Switzerland, and Russia each contain over 15,000 volumes. In the city of Berlin there are two such special libraries— the one containing 16,000 and the other 14,500 volumes. In the South Kensington Museum in London there are 10,500 books on the subject of education; and the Teachers' Guild of Great Britain and Ireland has a pedagogical library of more than 6,000 volumes.

In America no less than in Europe there has been marked development in the collection of books on education. The library connected with the Bureau of Education at Washington has over 50,000 books and 150,000 pamphlets on education and subjects more or less directly allied to education. Movements have recently been organized to establish State educational libraries in Massachusetts and New Jersey, and county libraries in New Jersey and California. Colleges and universities are segregating the books in their collections bearing on education, and giving special attention to the acquisition of pedagogical books. These activities make possible and desirable the publication of a systematic Bibliography of Education.

More than sixteen years ago the author began the collec

tion of an educational library. Its growth was not rapid, and the character of the books such as the needs of a busy teacher and superintendent of schools might require. Five years ago the collection-then numbering about twelve hundred books and pamphlets-was catalogued with a view to publication as suggestive to others engaged in educational work; but it seemed expedient to enlarge the scope and include other desirable and available books and pamphlets bearing on the subject. And in this form the work is now presented. It contains in all the titles of 3,200 books and pamphlets.

Except in the matter of works of reference-encyclopædias and bibliographies-the selection has been limited to publications in the English languages supposed to be obtainable in the ordinary course of trade. The numerous excellent bibliographies in the French and German made the inclusion of titles in these languages unnecessary. But the standard foreign works of reference have been given; and to such readers as desire to consult the large and rich educational literature of France and Germany, the author has pointed to sources of information. As much care has been taken to secure the titles of British books as of American, in the belief that it is helpful to teachers in all English-speaking countries to know the best books on education in the mother tongue, without regard to political boundaries.

The periodical literature is both too large and too distinct to be included in such a bibliography. To give merely the most important periodical references on the different subjects treated in this book would make a work of four or five good-sized volumes. Moreover, a satisfactory bibliography of periodical literature can only be made by a large number of specialists working together.

For convenience and economy of space, the titles have been grouped into classes and these broken into sections and subsections. Any plan of classification is necessarily more or less artificial, and the justification of the classification of the present book is the fact that it is based upon the materials with which the author had to deal. A book con

taining matter belonging to two or more classes was placed where it seemed to have the largest bearing, and no title was repeated. But cross references have been given to show where such related subjects may be found. The full index at the end of the book must be the reader's chief guide.

The author wishes to express his obligations to other bibliographies of education which have helped him, especially Hall's, MacAlister's, and Sonnenschein's. Willing tribute is also paid to the university, public, and special libraries where he has worked in the preparation of the present book -to the university libraries of Stanford, Harvard, and Clark in this country, and Jena, Paris, and Leipzig in Europe; to the Boston Public Library, where the work was completed; as well as to the British Museum, the library of the Musée Pédagogique in Paris, and the Pädagogische Centralbibliothek (Comenius-Stiftung) in Leipzig.

To Dr. Henry Barnard, to whom the book is dedicated, and whose activity in the publication of good educational literature covers more than a half century, the author is under larger obligation than to any other one person. In Dr. Barnard's home and under the inspiration of his kindly direction the author received his best lessons in the literature of education.

Numerous friends-specialists in their several departments-have examined different portions of the book, and in many instances suggested additions or omissions, and given important descriptive and critical notes. The author's thanks are especially due to Dr. William T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education; Professor Earl Barnes, of Stanford University; President Walter L. Hervey and the members of the faculty in the Teachers' College, New York; Mr. Alex E. Frye, Geographer, Boston; Professor Fred N. Scott, of the University of Michigan; Mr. Joseph C. Gordon, Acting Superintendent of the Volta Bureau, Washington; Dr. George E. Shuttleworth, Director of the Ancaster House for Mentally Deficient Children, Richmond, England; Director M. Anagnos, of the Perkins Institution for the Blind, South Boston; Professor Mary Sheldon

Barnes, of Stanford University; President G. Stanley Hall and Dr. W. H. Burnham, of Clark University; Mr. Wilbur S. Jackman, of the Chicago Normal School; Captain R. H. Pratt, Superintendent of the Indian School at Carlisle; Mr. Henry T. Bailey, Supervisor of Drawing in Massachusetts; Mr. William W. Speer, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Chicago; Professor Henry A. Todd, of Columbia University; Dr. Edwin M. Hartwell, Director of Physical Training in the Boston Public Schools; Miss Lucy Wheelock, Kindergartner, Boston; Professor Martha Foote Crowe, Chicago University; Miss Emily B. Parke, San Luis Obispo, California; and Principal H. B. Frissell, of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute.

The author is aware that deficiencies and omissions will be discovered; but the preparation of an accurate and complete bibliography is no easy task. As Anthony à Wood has so well expressed it: "A painfull work it is, I'll assure you, and more than difficult, wherein that toyle hath been taken as no man thinketh, and no man believeth, but he that hath made the triall." And he will be duly grateful for corrections sent him and for any additional titles which should be included in such a bibliography.

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL,

WESTFIELD, MASS.

WILL S. MONROE.