Poynters' Cards for the Standards. (Blackie and Son.)—These sets of
cards are prepared "in order to provide as far as possible such examples as may give proper education to the eye and mind of the very young child, and at the same time be sufficiently interesting to encourage perseverance." The theory that the pupil should be taught to consider the principle on which the form is con- structed more than the mere measurement of the parts, is the right one, also that the general lines of the construction of designs should be blocked oat, and the form gradually constructed upon them ; but when these forms and designs consist of equilateral, isosceles, and scalene triangles, or parallelograms and pentagons, it is difficult to believe that children can be interested in drawing them. There are, no doubt, minds which may ; but a child with any degree of artistic) faculty would rebel against such teaching, and in such cases these designs must do harm, for the first thing to be aimed at in teaching is to interest the pupil, and encourage powers of observation. Of °aurae, where the child is being trained for design, and to pass the standard, this freehand-drawing must be mastered ; then the spirit of emulation will be needed to help him through. We may add, though we discourage the use of these cards in ordinary teaching, that it would not hurt the teacher, even one who does not hold the certificate of the department, to be perfect in these drawings.
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