be used to arouse interest in the history which they suggest and recall. However, as McMurry points out, we are in a peculiarly favourable position in Canada, because we have in our own history, in the comparatively short time of 400 years, the development of a free and prosperous country from a state of wildness and savagery. The early stages of our history present those elements of life that appeal strongly to children--namely, Indians with all their ways of living and fighting, and the early settlers with their simpler problems and difficulties. The development of this simpler life to the more complex life of the present can be more readily understood by children as they follow up the changes that have taken place. (See McMurry, _Special Method in History_, pp. 26-30.) Of course, at every step appeal must be made to the experiences of children, as the teacher knows them. In Civics, however, the beginning must be made with conditions that exist to-day--schools, taxes, the policeman, the postmaster, etc. The beginning of the real teaching of history may then be made at the beginning of Canadian History, as this will enable the child to go gradually from the simple, or individual, to the complex, and will also allow the teacher to make use of whatever historical remains may be within reach. CHAPTER II GENERAL METHODS IN THE TEACHING OF HISTORY There are many methods used in the teaching of history. A brief description of the principal ones is given for reference merely, since their best features are incorporated in a combination of methods, which is strongly recommended to teachers, and is described fully in succeeding pages. 1. _Methods based on the arrangement and selection of the matter_: Chronological, Topical THE CHRONOLOGICAL METHOD The matter is chosen according to the "time" order, beginning at the first of the history, and the events are taught in the order of occurrence without any marked emphasis on their importance, or without considering whether a knowledge of the event is useful or interesting to the class at this stage. Such an arrangement of matter is more suitable when the formal study of history is begun. THE TOPICAL METHOD In studying a certain period of history the events are arranged under topics or heads; for example, the period of discovery in Canadian History may be arranged thus--Discoveries, Explorations, Early Settlements, Indian Wars--and the study of each of these pursued to completion, contemporary events belonging to other topics being neglected for a time.