The "word" alone used to be the means of instruction in our elementary schoolbooks. The "picture" was a secondary thing, standing in the margin of the word as an ornament to it and a filler of its empty space...

Such was the state of things until a short time ago.

What gives cause for rejoicing is that authorship for our elementary schools should be taking a new direction, differing greatly from the earlier one, making the picture the foundation of the work of authorship aimed at teaching children, and setting the word in its natural place as an instrument for explaining that foundation, commenting upon it, and conversing about it.

And the rejoicing is doubled when we see this new direction taking its course, first of all,

in the teaching of history — in this splendid series upon whose preparation a group of history teachers in the national institutes have labored, with the assistance and supervision of the artist Mr. Radwan al-Shahhal.

"The Illustrated History of Lebanon," the first part of which appeared a few days ago, is a noble work deserving of high esteem. Not one line of its artistic plates was set down on paper except after study of the age which the picture aims to express. We do not doubt that our Lebanese schools will profit greatly by it, and that fathers will do well to place it in their children's hands — whether it is prescribed in their schools or not — so that they may grow up loving their national history and taking pride in it.