AT the outset I desire to express my deep appreciation of the honour of being invited to lay before your Association some of the investigations into educational practice which I have undertaken during the past few years. I ask only that they be regarded aa any scientific experiment, as a search for some true principles, and that at any stage of that quest failure was to be welcomed as warmly as success, as affording suggestions for further enquiries. That the experiment has been attended with a measure of success does not make me ready to proclaim it as the ne plus ultra : I submit the facts to your judgment in the hope that they may afford material for a profitable discussion and stimulate some abler investigators to pursue the matter further.