_The Tendency of Evolution._--The public elementary school becomes continually more uniform in character; it tends, that is to say, to become the common school for all children of a certain age, irrespective of the wealth or position of their parents, and to lay the foundation upon which will build all middle and higher educational institutions. Schools of this character are already to be found in Denmark and in the United States of America. The public elementary school need not necessarily give religious instruction. Since the schools administered by the religious organisations are of comparatively little value, it is necessary that the public elementary school should be open to all children, irrespective of their creed. A further step in development is for the public elementary school to abandon its inappropriate efforts to give religious instruction. Private schools are only for the children of the well-to-do. In the majority of _Gemeindeschulen_ a conservative and narrowly orthodox religious spirit prevails. A proportion of the local authorities are unwilling or unable to make the material sacrifices requisite for the proper carrying on of the elementary schools, and for this reason these schools vary greatly in efficiency. To prove this, it suffices, in various countries, to compare the State schools with the _Gemeindeschulen_, and the town schools with the village schools. It is absolutely essential that it should be established on principle that every child, not excepting the children of the well-to-do, must attend a public elementary school, and that neither attendance at a private school nor private domestic instruction can be accepted in lieu of such attendance--if only for the reason that not until this obligation is universally enforced will the richer classes acquire a genuine interest in the public elementary schools. To this it is objected that the elementary schools are already overcrowded, that their hygienic conditions are unsatisfactory, and that the society of the poorer children would not be good for the richer ones. But if all this is true, the only reasonable conclusion we can draw is, that it is time that these defects in the public elementary school were abolished. If, for the reasons given, the elementary school is unsuitable for the children of the well-to-do, it is no less unsuitable for the children of the poor. For the rest, each child is influenced by all the others. The rich child may learn much that is beautiful and good from the poor one, the latter often learns much that is evil and hateful from the former. The children of the well-to-do must learn in their earliest youth to know the people, for it is their mission to lead and they must accustom themselves to intercourse with the people.