PREFACH.

—e

Attention is mvited to the following features of this book :—

Text.— The aim has been to use language suited to pupils of primary grades. Open
the book at any page, and see whether the author has hit the mark.

The subject is treated topically. The day of patchwork teaching has passed. Teachers
have long been asking for a text-book based on the topical study of the earth. This book
holds the earth as a unit before the mind, and relates all study to that unit. The memory
is thus aided and much time is saved.

The underlying principle of this work is comparison. Glance at the little maps on
pages 29 and 33, and this thought will be made clear. Each part—ocean or grand division
—§is shown in its relation to the whole and to the other parts.

The text on PEOPLE centers in child-life. The word race has a deeper meaning than
is taught by the size of cheek bones or the texture of hair. This book leads pupils ito
the homes of the races. Read to a child one of the stories on pages 55 to 72, and note
the result. .

Plants and animals are studied in their relations to climate and physical features. Here,
again, the earth is the unit of study. Belts of heat, and not mere zones of light, are made
the basis of this work.

Every child should know a great deal about his own state and about his own country.
The various editions of this book present special state texts, while the body of the book
treats of the leading industries of the United States as a whole. The cruel and senseless
“study of countless details concerning the separate states is here replaced by a general view
of the resources and industries of the whole nation. This work has been laid before
thousands of teachers, and the author has yet to meet the first teacher who does not
welcome the change.