Shortly after the Revolution, owing in part to the inability or unwillingness of the towns to maintain grammar schools, and in part to the wider appeal and greater usefulness of the academies, the latter institutions quite eclipsed the former, and became for about half a century the prevailing type of secondary school in the United States. They were usually endowed institutions managed by a close corporation, but were often largely supported by subscriptions from the neighborhood, and sometimes subsidized by the state. Located in small towns or villages, they served a wide constituency and made provision for boarding, as well as day pupils. Unlike the grammar schools, they were not originally intended to prepare for the learned professions exclusively, but, as time passed, they tended more and more to become preparatory schools for the colleges, instead of finishing schools for the middle classes of society. The academies were also the first institutions of secondary education to offer opportunities to women. Many of them were co-educational, and others, frequently burdened with the name of ‘female seminary,’ were for girls exclusively. Academies for some time likewise furnished the only means of training teachers for the elementary schools, and have generally played an important part in education in the United States. SUPPLEMENTARY READING Graves, _During the Transition_ (Macmillan, 1910), chap. XVII; and _Great Educators of Three Centuries_ (Macmillan, 1912), chaps. I and V; Monroe, _Text-book_ (Macmillan, 1905), pp. 442-460. An excellent edition of Milton’s _Tractate of Education_ is that by Morris, E. E. (Macmillan, 1895); of Montaigne’s _Education of Children_ that by Rector, L. E. (Appleton, 1899); of Locke’s _Thoughts concerning Education_, and of Mulcaster’s _Positions_, those by Quick, R. H. (Cambridge University Press, 1895, and Longmans, 1888, respectively); and of Rabelais’ _Gargantua_, that by Besant, W. (Lippincott, Foreign Classics for English Readers). The works of Castiglione, Elyot, Peacham, Brathwaite, etc., are also extant. For an account of the _Ritterakademien_, see Nohle, E., _History of the German School System_ (Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1897-98), pp. 41 f., and Paulsen, F., _German Education_ (Scribner, 1908), pp. 112-116; and of the academies, Brown, E. E., _The Making of Our Middle Schools_ (Longmans, Green, 1902), chaps. VIII and IX. CHAPTER XV SENSE REALISM AND THE EARLY SCIENTIFIC MOVEMENT OUTLINE In the seventeenth century scientific investigation developed rapidly, and led theorists to introduce science into the curriculum and to advocate a study of ‘real things.’ Bacon undertook to formulate induction, and while he did not understand the importance of an hypothesis, he did much to rid the times of _a priori_ reasoning.