Committee on Nomination of Officers:-J. P. WICKERSHAM, Pa.; C. C. ROUNDS, Maine; J. D. RUNKLE, Mass.; Mrs. M. A. STONE, Conn.; GEO. G. MCKAY, Md,; THOS. R. PRICE, Va.; T. M. MARSHALL, W. Va.: M. B. FRANKLIN, Texas; E. S. JOYNES, Tenn.; W. H. BARTHOLOMEW, Ky.; E. T. TAPPAN, O.; W. A. BELL, Ind.; J. L. PICKARD, Ill.; A. ARMSTRONG, Iowa; WM. F. PHELPS, Wis.; R. D. SHANNON, Mo.; S. R. THOMPSON, Neb.; J. O. WILSON, D. C.; P. FISH, Ark.

Mr. J. F. BLACKINTON, of Boston, Mass., was then introduced and read an address entitled

SILENT FORCES IN EDUCATION.

[Mr. BLACKINTON declined to furnish his Address for publication. The following report of it is from the Louisville Courier-Journal.]

Among the silent forces helping or hindering the teacher, the lecturer spoke of the disposition which nature has implanted in the heart of the pupil, the pupil's health, home influence, the social atmosphere in which the pupil lives, the character of the books which the pupil reads, the character of the teacher. Mr. BLACKINTON began as follows:

The great and good events of this world come not with observation. They are the effects rather of unseen forces acting through the lapse of ages, slowly, silently, surely, working out their great results.

In the material world the devastation of the tornado, the sudden upheaval of a mountain, or the bursting of a planet, are local, exceptional, destructive. Such are not the processes by which a universe of star-dust has been converted into a perfected cosmos. For unnumbered ages the silent work has been going on, while the imponderable forces of nature have been marshaling their effective hosts; while atom and molecule have been playing their part; while sun, and planet, and satellite, and system have been evolved; while dew and rain, frost and snow, ocean and glacier, have silently worn, and crumbled, and dissolved, and crushed, and polished, bringing order, harmony, and beauty out of disorder, chaos, and confusion.

In the realm of mind we trace like causes and results. The forces that have shaped the destinies of mankind, that have moulded the thought and determined the civilization of the race, have not wrought by the violent upheaval of philosophical systems, the sudden revolution of religious faiths, or the noisy demonstrations of reforming crusaders; but rather by the slow germination and silent maturing of seed which had lain dormant for centuries. The world's greatest reformers and benefactors have not moved in the storm and the tempest, but rather in the gentle breeze and the silent dew; they have not spoken in the thunder and the earthquake, but in the still small voice that penetrates the soul and moves the heart.

In no department of intellectual life are these truths more apparent than in the work of education. And here let us not lose sight of the truth so often enunciated and enforced, but, alas,so often forgotten, that education is not attainment, not the storing up of facts, not the acquisition of knowledge, but the power to use all the faculties of mind and heart to the best advantage. It affects not the intellect alone, but the heart,

the life, the character, and the teacher has done most to accomplish this work, not by direct attempts to mould the character and influence the life of his pupil, but by touching some hidden spring, waking some latent power, setting in motion some self-acting force, which discloses to the possessor new powers, new fields of beauty and sublimity, and carries him upward into higher spheres of knowledge and culture.

Now, every teacher must, more or less often in his experience, have met this fact that, while he is using all the outward appliances which the schools have placed within his reach, while he is bringing to bear all the external resources of his art to lead his pupil to the desired goal, some unseen force is silently leading the pupil in the opposite direction, nullifying all his efforts and destroying every vestige of his own beneficent work. Again, this secret force will prove an unexpected auxiliary, seconding the teacher's efforts, stimulating the pupil to surprising exertions, and enabling him to accomplish unlooked-for results. It is therefore of the highest importance that the teacher learn to recognize these silent forces, to determine how far he himself is responsible for their working, and as far as possible, to control and guide them.

The lecturer then spoke of the teacher's temper, his manners, and the expression of his face, and continued as follows:

Finally, I come to speak of the most powerful of these silent forces, the character of the teacher himself. By character, of course, I mean the sum of all the qualities, intellectual and moral, that distinguish the man. That also by which, objectively, he characterizes, or, according to the etymology of the word, marks and furrows with ineffaceable signs the minds over which he has an influence.

Have you walked on the moraine of an Alpine glacier and seen the huge, misshapen masses which the icy current, in its onward flow, has thrown aside and left behind? Have you witnessed, deep furrowed in the solid rock, the everlasting record of its Titantic power? Or have you marked the graceful column standing erect on the frozen stream, beautifully grooved and polished as by the hand of an artist? So have you seen, on life's broad current, the marred and broken wrecks which have been thrown aside and left behind, bearing the deep, unsightly scars made by some rash, unskilful hand. So have you marked the stately character, erect and manly, bearing the marks of the skilful master, rounded and polished by the hand of the faithful instructor.

In concluding his elaborate address Mr. BLACKINTON said:

But this enumeration of the silent manifestation of character would be incomplete if I neglected to allude to that nameless, indefinable quality, that unconscious outflow of the innermost life, that moral magnetism, that something that no modesty can put aside, no hypocrisy conceal, which, without recommendation of clique or church, without a formulated creed or confession of faith, faithfully mirrors the inward life and attracts or repels all within the sphere of its influence. Who of us can not recall some teacher of our youth, charged with all the learning of the schools, whose knowledge of the subjects taught was profound, whose analysis was clear, whose power of imparting truth was unrivaled, whose voice, measured by the standard of the elocutionist, was perfect, but who never

waked one thrill of emotion in our hearts, never roused one aspiration for true greatness in our souls. Again we recall another, with a less brilliant intellect, perhaps, but whose very atmosphere, we knew not why, waked a new life within us, whose very presence, we knew not how, was an inspiration to goodness. Nor is this force any less real, because it can not be expressed in words. The greatest effects in nature and in art can not be bound up in definitions. Nature in her loftiest moods lays her finger on our lips and bids us be silent. Behind the work of every great orator, artist, or poet, there hangs the shadowy prophecy of something more eloquent unspoken, something nobler unaccomplished, something sublimer unwritten. So in the life of every good teacher there is something better than the lesson he has taught, something nobler than words of instruction he has spoken. Who has ever walked through the close at Rugby, or seen the oak pulpit rising above the seats in the little chapel, that has not felt the silent presence of one whose life was better than any lesson in classic lore he ever gave, grander than any sermon he ever preached. Ah! my friends, this magnetic sympathy is more than intellectual attainment, better than culture, higher than genius. It allies with the divine and the eternal. Would we know its power we must become humble students of the Divine Master. I once stood, at the close of an autumn day, on the top of a lofty eminence, just as the shades of evening were beginning to gather over the landscape. Before me was spread out that great plain, which for thirty-five centuries, has been the battle-field of the world; on which Saul and Gideon, the Crusaders and Napoleon fought for supremacy. Just before me rose the beautiful Mount of Transfiguration; on the left, embosomed in the surrounding hills, lay the quiet sea, on and around which were performed most of the mighty works of Him who spake as never man spake. At my right stretched the mountain range on which the prophet of Jehovah confounded the priests of Baal, while directly at my feet lay the little village where were spent the boyhood and youth of the great teacher. Soon the darkness of night gathered over all around me-Esdraelon, Tabor, Genessareth, Carmel, Nazareth, faded from my sight. But the presence of Him whose feet had trodden that plain, whose life is an ever-abiding inspiration; whose star for eighteen centuries has been the light of the world, seemed to overshadow me, while from out the darkness seemed to come the sublime words: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Teachers, when at last the shades of night have gathered around us, when the tasks we have given, the lessons we have taught, the words we have spoken, shall have been forgotten, may the silent influence of our lives remain the bulwark of truth, the evangel of purity, the inspiration of goodness.

At the close of the address, a duet, by Misses Beringan and Board, was given as an interlude.

The following was then read by the Secretary:

This certifies that on the 13th of July, 1877, Dr. M. B. FRANKLIN was elected, by the Texas Educational Association, delegate to the National Educational Association which meets in Louisville, Ky., Aug. 14th, 1877. WM. H. ALLEN, Secretary T. E. A.

Prof. THOMAS R. PRICE, M. A., University of Va., read a paper on the following subject:

THE STUDY OF ENGLISH AS INTRODUCTORY TO THE STUDY OF LATIN AND GREEK.

[This paper has not been received. If it should come to hand it will be published in another place. For page see Table of Contents.]

The Association then listened to a song by a chorus of ladies and gentlemen.

H. B. PARSONS, of Louisville, read Father Blake's Church Collection. Adjourned to 9 A. M., Wednesday, Aug. 15.

WEDNESDAY MORNING, AUG. 15th, 1877.

The meeting was opened with prayer by Dr. H. A. M. HENDERSON, of Kentucky.

The Committee on Programme reported as follows, which was adopted: 1st. That for want of time no papers can be received in the General Association which are not included in the programme.

2nd. That the reception of such papers and other questions in the several departments be referred to the Executive Committee of the respective departments.

3rd. That in the absence of Mr. DICKINSON, of Mass., Prof. STARK's paper on "The Place of English," be read in the General Association Wednesday morning.

The committee to which was referred the address of the President recommend:

1. That the discussion thereof, and of the general question of "The Relations of Education and Labor," be made the special order for the final meeting of the General Association at 8 P. M., on Thursday evening, after the transaction of necessary business.

2. That in view of the importance of this discussion the Association decline, with thanks, the tender of an excursion on the Ohio River, on Thursday afternoon; and further, that we specially invite the citizens of Louisville and all persons interested in this important subject, to attend and take part in the discussion thereof, at the final meeting on Thursday evening.

The report was adopted.

On motion of Prof. ALEX. HOGG, of Texas, the following department was organized:

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION.

In order to effect a better and more uniform system of Special Rates upon the various Railroads and other methods of conveyance to secure, so far as possible, some definite concert of action upon the part of the authorities of the various lines of transportation for the next annual meeting of the Association :

Therefore,

1st. Be it resolved, by this Association, that a committee of seven be appointed by the President to be known and styled as The Department of Transportation."

2nd. That one of them, by appointment, shall be the President of the department, and that the remaining six shall act as chairmen of the six districts to be hereafter determined, and they shall have power to appoint an assistant or assistants to aid them in properly arranging and perfecting this department.

W. M. MARRINER, of Louisville, Ky., was appointed Assistant Treasurer. The Secretary read the following:

To the President of National Educational Association :

This will inform you that at the late session of the State Teachers' Association of Missouri, Dr. R. D. SHANNON, Superintendent of Schools for this State, was duly elected delegate to represent Missouri at the next annual session of the National Teachers' Association, to be held in Louisville, Ky.; and A. W. TERRILL, President of Hardin College, was elected Alternate to the same.

Respectfully,

Mrs. J. M. GREENWOOD,
Cor. Secretary of S. T. A. of Missouri.

Prof WM. F. PHELPS moved to adopt the following resolution:

Resolved, That no Paper, Lecture, or Address, shall hereafter be read before this Association, or any of its departments, in the absence of its author, unless in the judgment of the presiding officer thereof such absence is the result of the most unavoidable and justifiable cause.

On motion the resolution was referred to the Board of Directors, with power to act.

Prof. W. R. WEBB, of Culleoka, Tenn., was then introduced and read the following paper:

THE RELATION OF THE PREPARATORY OR GRAMMAR SCHOOL TO COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY.

[This paper was returned at the request of the author, for revision, but the revised copy has not been received at this date, September 21. It will be published in another place, with Prof. Warder's discussion of it. See Table of Contents for page.]

The following resolution offered by Supt. J. L. PICKARD, of Chicago, was adopted:

Resolved, That the President announce a Committee on Resolutions to which shall be referred all Resolutions introduced by members of the Association.

Committee on Resolutions:-J. L. PICKARD, of Illinois, JOHN HANCOCK, of Ohio, J. D. RUNKLE, of Massachusetts.

The President announced the following Committees:

Committee on Teachers and Teachers' Places :-ALEX. HOGG, of Texas, W. A. BELL, of Indiana, Mrs. M. A. STONE, of Connecticut.