selfishness and wealthy meanness. There are some unpopular duties connected with all public situations-duties from which selfish syophancy shrinks, but which honest patriotism performsduties which often commence under the opposition and abuse of many, but issue in the satisfaction of success and amid the gratitude and applause of all. In regard to large central school houses in cities, towns, and villages, after the noble examples of the Boards of Trustees in Hamilton, London, Brantford, Brockville and Chatham, &c., it is remarked in the last Annual School Report for the State of Massachusetts-"In small cities and towns it may often be found more economical to bring all grades of schools into one building, than to be at the expense of purchasing several sites and erecting as many houses."

16. The remarks of some persons convey the idea that School Trustees are despots, trampling upon the rights and sacrificing the interests of the communities in which they live. Such remarks are as foolish as their imputations are unjust. The interests and burdens of Trustees are identical with those of their neighbours. The fact of their having been elected Trustees, is an avowal by their constituents that they are the most proper persons to be entrusted with their educational interests. If Trustees in any instance neglect or betray those interests, they can be superseded, on the expiration of their term of office, like all other unfaithful representatives of the people; and while in office, they have a right to the forbearance and support which the importance and difficulties of the office demand. Unlike most other public officers, Trustees work without pay; they may sometimes err; and who does not? But if there is any one class of public officers entitled to more respect, more confidence and support than others, it is Trustees of Public Schools,the elected guardians of the youth of the land, the responsible depositaries of their most vital interests. And if there is any one class of public officers in the selection of whom the people should be more careful than in the selection of others, it is School Trustees. The welfare of youth, and the future progress and greatness of Canada require, that the best, the most intelligent, the most enterprising, public-spirited, progressive men in the land should be elected School Trustees.

EDUCATION for an AGRICULTURAL PEOPLE.

BY E. NOTT.

In all countries, and especially our own, the agricultural people is the people. Magnify as we may, each other interest-commercial, manufacturing-they form but small fractions of the massthemselves proceeding from and intimately bound to the agricultural population and receiving their character from it. Increase our commerce and manufactures as we must, they can never employ a tythe of the community. Our increasing millions must be chiefly agricultural, forming the nation and governing the nation. Yes, governing the nation. In all countries, and especially our own, weight is as numbers. The agricultural population do and will, directly or indirectly govern the country. The farmers will regulate or distract manufactures or commerce-will secure or disturb our civil policy. If they originate no governmental acts, when they do but act or decline acting upon propositions of good or evil, their decision forms the issue of every proposal. If the breath, whether of patriotism or factions, whether of wisdom or folly, proceeds from some other region, it blows in vain until it moves the level surface of society. On its agitation or quiet, must depend the result. Whether good or bad are now prevalent among us, the agriculturists have welcomed; whether they have been missed, they have rejected, whether it is to be feared or hoped for, awaits their decision. In proportion, therefore, as we discover the just principle of education for an agricultural people, do we prepare for the welfare of the whole mass.

Of course the first direction is, that education should be such as to guide and aid labour to the best account; such as at once to make agriculture more easy and more productive. I am sure that the general impression of society on this subject, as well as almost universal practice, is very defective. Agriculture needs and admits an appropriate education, which may be gained without teachers and without any schools: but is more likely to be begun and after

wards well pursued in proportion as it should be aided by teachers and schools. Let the rudiments of agriculture be taught; let the Let proper books for gaining further knowledge, be pointed out. the connexion of mechanical and chemical philosophy with the labours of the field, be understood. Let the prejudice against "book learning" be discarded, and our rural population would rise rapidly to better method, and to a more comfortable state of life; while a proper study as their own profession, would greatly improve their faculties and make them more and more capable of all other knowledge.

But a proper education regards more the securing wealth and health and life and limb, than the mere supply of the animal necessities, even the making life as agreeable as possible. That is not deserving the name of education which provides only for a livelihood a boon secured by mere instinct to the meanest animal. Education of man must provide for the well being of man-for the refined enjoyment of man-for the higher senses of the body and for all the faculties of the mind. This is true not only in the higher classes -against which if we had them by hereditary descent, I have nothing to say; but it is true of the working classes. The working man is not educated properly as a working man-unless he is trained to the enjoyments of a man.

I need not dwell at large upon what is perfectly obvious, the pleasures which an improved and improving mind will find in reading and in conversation and in those reflections which belong only to improved and improving minds. They are but savages themselves who claim that savage is as happy as civilized life, and that the well informed and studious are no happier than the boor in his chosen ignorance. The happiness of improved and improving minds is within the reach of the agricultural population, and that is not a proper education for them which does not furnish them this happiness. Reading, reflection, conversation, such as belong to improved and improving minds, are the peculiar boon of the country. The absence of variety, of objects to stimulate curiosity, leaves the mind free to read the works of the wise and the good of all nations and all times, given to the farmer as they are in his own mother tongue-his accustomed solicitude and quiet give scope to his own reflections upon this growing knowledge.

But when I speak of an education, to make rural life as agreeable as possible, while I require suitable reading, reflection, couversation, I am desirous to insist on one particular more likely to be left out of view; I mean that agricultural education should prepare the people for their own peculiar enjoyments, to take delight in rural life, and especially in their own rural home.

As to the general delight in rural life, it can hardly fail to follow, from that study of agriculture for the purposes which wẹ have already commended. I am not afraid to say, that there is no employment of man so likely to grow in one's affections, as he endeavours to learn to carry it on to the best advantage, as agriculture. Other employments are regarded more for their profits; but this, from step to step, as one tries to improve it, more and more interests and delights the mind, while its results are ever furnishing the finest pictures to the eye.

But I am yet more desirous to see cherished a special fondness for one's home,-for the endearing scene, its rocks, its rivers and hills and vales, its orchards and groves, as they were to the eye of childhood, and as they will remain to the eye of old age, and for that new and improving scenery with which industry and taste will adorn the cottager's acre, and the wealthy landlord's domain. To regard field and forest and hills and valleys and rocks and rill and rivers; to be capable of investing the home of labour or of wealth with new and changing beauties, to delight in gardening, husbandry and tree planting, to love with a cherished fondness the ancient and growing beauties of a home; to acquire the capacity of leaving it with reluctance even at the call of necessity and duty, and the consequent power of making another home the source of similar enjoyment. These, though missed sadly in our rural districts, are most important objects of rural education.

Let the love of nature and of home and of country revive every where and bless our eastern lands, and establish families and communities in beloved homes even to the farthest west. Thus shall our country assume in the progress of its rural civilization the outward form of Paradise, which can never be given to brick and mortar of the city; thus become the quiet garden of a peaceful and virtuous population.

Miscellaneous.

From the last Annual School Report of the State of New York.

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION.

The one

The idea of universal education is the grand central idea of the age. Upon this broad and comprehensive basis, all the experience of the past, all the crowding phenomena of the present, and all our hopes and aspirations for the future, must rest. Our forefathers have transmitted to us a noble inheritance of national, intellectual, moral and religious freedom. They have confided our destiny as a people to our own hands. Upon our individual and combined intelligence, virtue, and patriotism, rests the solution of the great problem of self-government. We should be untrue to ourselves, untrue to the memory of our statesmen and patriots, untrue to the cause of liberty, of civilization and humanity, if we neglected the assiduous cultivation of those means, by which alone we can secure the realization of the hopes we have excited. Those means are the universal education of our future citizens, without discrimination or distinction. Wherever in our midst, a human being exists, with capacities and faculties to be developed, improved, cultivated and directed, the avenues of knowledge should be freely opened and every facility afforded to their unrestricted entrance. Ignorance should no more be countenanced than vice and crime. leads almost inevitably to the other. Banish ignorance, and in its stead introduce intelligence, science, knowledge and increasing wisdom and enlightenment, and you remove in most cases, all those incentives to idleness, vice and crime, which now produce such a frightful harvest of retribution, misery and wretchedness. Educate every child "to the top of his faculties," and you not only secure the community against the depredations of the ignorant, and the criminal, but you bestow upon it, instead, productive artizans, good citizens, upright jurors and magistrates, enlightened statesmen, scientific discoverers and inventors, and the dispensers of a pervading influence in favour of honesty, virtue and true goodness. Educate every child physically, morally and intellectually, from the age of four to twenty-one, and many of your prisons, penitentiaries and alms-houses will be converted into schools of industry and temples of science; and the immense amount now contributed for their maintenance and support will be diverted into far more profitable channels. Educate every child-not superficially-not partially-but thoroughly-develop equally and healthfully every faculty of his nature-every capability of his being-and you infuse new and invigorating element into the very life blood of civilization -an element which will diffuse itself throughout every vein and artery of the social political system, purifying, strengthening and regenerating all its impulses, elevating its aspirations, and clothing it with a power equal to every demand upon its vast energies and

resources.

These are some of the results which must follow in the train of a wisely matured and judiciously organized system of universal education. They are not imaginary, but sober deductions from well authenticated facts-deliberate conclusions from established principles, sanctioned by the concurrent testimony of experienced educators and eminent statesmen and philanthropists. If names are needed to enforce the lesson they teach, those of Washington and Franklin and Hamilton and Jefferson and Clinton, with a long array of patriots and statesmen, may be cited. If facts are required to illustrate the connection between ignorance and crime, let the official return of convictions in the several courts of the State for the last 10 years be examined, and the instructive lessons be heeded. Out of nearly 28,000 persons convicted of crime, but 128 had enjoyed the benefits of a good common school education; 414 only had what the returning officers characterize as a "tolerable" share of learning; and of the residue, about one-half only could either read or write. Let similar statistics be gathered from the wretched inmates of our poor-house establishments, and similar results would undoubtedly be developed. Is it not therefore incomparably better as a mere prudential question of political economy, to provide ample means for the education of the whole community, and to bring those means within the reach of every child, than to impose a much larger tax for the protection of that community against the depredations of the ignorant, the idle, and the vicious, and for the support of the imbecile, the thoughtless, and intemperate ?

SCHOOL SUPERVISION-LOCAL SUPERINTENDENTS. Within a year or two, much has been said and written in reference to the subject of school supervision, and the feeling is rapidly gaining ground that a better and more efficient mode may be adopted than that now in practice. As a general thing, the schools of Massachusetts do not receive that watchful and auxiliary supervision which their highest usefulness would seem to demand. This, from the very nature of the case, must be so. The whole business is usually entrusted to men whose time and attention are much engrosssed in other concerns. They may be and usually are, among the best men in the community; but they are also men who have many professional cares or business engagements, and, consequently, they cannot devote very much time or thought to the interests of the schools. We contend that in order that any important department be well looked after and cared for, it should receive direct and primary attention; and we contend, also, that our schools are of sufficient importance to receive the best and first attention of good men as supervisors. Hence we believe that the true method is to entrust the main duties of school superintendence, in large towns and cities to one man who shall consider it the business to which his best thoughts and energies are to be given. A man thus situated would feel that he has something to do, and he would be likely to do something. He would do much to encourage and stimulate the teachers and pupils, much to arouse parents, much to awaken a general and wholesome interest in the whole subject of school education, much to secure a wise and economical expenditure of the means appropriated to educational purposes. We never felt more confident of the good results of this mode of supervision than we did in a recent visit to the town of Gloucester, in Essex County. For nearly two years the schools in this place have been under the supervisory control of Thomas Baker, Esq., (with a counciling board or committee,) and we feel assured that during this period as much has been done, and well done, as in any town of the commonwealth. School-houses have been erected and improved, and the whole cause has received an impulse which will be felt for many years. In no place have we seen more comely and convenient school-houses, and we are sure that in no place has money been more judiciously expended or more freely granted than here. It affords a strong proof that the people are ready and willing to pay liberally when their attention is rightly awakened, and when they see that the means appropriated are economically and wisely used. Mr. Baker has worked heartily, and accomplished much, very much good for the schools and for the town. It was our purpose to allude to his specific duties and to his general operations, but want of time and space forbids. We will only add now, that if any have doubts as to the advantage of the mode we have alluded to over the mode in general use, we would refer them to the town of Gloucester, with its present excellent mode and excellent superintendent.-Massachusetts Teacher.

THE TEACHER'S QUALIFICATIONS AND MODE OF
HEARING CHILDREN RECITE.

At a County Association of Massachusetts Teachers held in June last, one of the questions discussed was, "the best method of conducting recitations." The following is the substance of the remarks make by the teachers and members present:

Mr. Tillinghast began the discussion by remarking that "the first great duty of the teacher in regard to recitations, is a through preparation upon every lesson to be recited. Many complain of a want of time for such preparation; their duties are so onerous and multifarious, that careful preparation is almost out of the question with them. He did not understand such persons. Mr. Pierce, formerly principal of West Newton Normal School, in addition to all the duties required of him as principal of the school, including general supervision of the school, correspondence with strangers, &c., always found time to examine carefully every lesson before hearing it recited.

Mr. Spear thought that a wrong notion prevails with reference to what constitutes a thorough understanding of the subject of a lesson. It seems to be thought that if a scholar can repeat the words of the text, he understands the subject. Nothing can be more false. As a result of the teaching to which this opinion gives rise, we see the pupils in our district schools, beginning the subjects of geography and grammar in precisely the same place at the com

mencement of many successive terms. During the winter school they will pass over a certain amount of ground, but before the next winter, the language which they have committed to memory has vanished from their minds, and they know as little of the subject as they did before beginning to study it. With arithmetic, it is not so to the same extent, because in this science the pupil is obliged to think somewhat in order to perform the examples.

Rev. Mr. Norton thought that much evil results from a want of independence from text-books on the part of the teacher. Recitations are not so animating when conducted by a text book, as they would be if the teacher, by preparation, made himself so thoroughly acquainted with the subject as not to need one. Neither can the questions asked by the teacher be varied as much as they should be. He illustrated his remarks by allusion to a college examination which he once visited, in which the professor was prevented from noticing several cases of cheating that occurred, by having his eye confined to his book.

Rev. Mr. Bradford gave some of the results of his experience in teaching the French language. He thought the proper course to pursue in teaching reading is to drill a long time on a few lines. Rev. Mr. Aldrich thought that difficulties would arise under the system of drilling recommended by Mr. Bradford, from the fact that very frequently teachers are not good readers. He spoke of the necessity of perfect self-control in the teacher. Enthusiasm is also necessary to the teacher; he must feel a strong interest in his school. Mr. Sturtevant alluded to some of the difficulties of thorough drilling. Parents are often dissatisfied with it. But he thought that generally such difficulties were temporary.

Rev. Mr. Brigham mentioned some of the incidents of his college life. He spoke of Rev. Dr. Nott, as one who was always independent of his text-book. We attempt to accomplish too many things in our schools. Teachers should be required to teach but few subjects at a time.

NORMAL SCHOOL TEACHERS-THE SCHOOLS SHOULD BE SUPPORTED BY THE RICH.

At a semi-annual meeting of the Plymouth County Teachers' Association, held the 13th and 14th June, 1851, at North Bridgewater, Mass., His EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR BOUTWELL, was one of the Lecturers, and in the course of his address, His Excellency made the following remarks, which deserve the attention of all parties concerned in Upper Canada :

"Before the establishment of Normal Schools, we had two classes of teachers for our common schools: one class came from the colleges, and these, as a class, were incompetent, and failed, because teaching was not their business; they were devoted to other pursuits. Others grew up among the schools, and although these infused much energy into the schools, yet as a whole, they met with no success, for the want of thorough mental training. We have now established Normal Schools for the purpose of raising up a profession of Teachers, and when the profession is formed, we must support it with money; for after all, it is very much a matter of money. Good abilities cannot be commanded without good salaries. It is said that we now pay liberally; that from one million to one million five hundred thousand dollars are annually expended for schools and school-houses in the State. But let us consider what would be the state of any property, if the masses of the people were not educated. It would evidently be insecure, entirely at the mercy of an illiterate, unprincipled mob. Now the property of the State amounts to six hundred millions of dollars, and the holders of it are interested in its security. Although the poor man derives incalculable advantage from education, and from living in an educated community, yet, comparatively he is little benefited. The education of the whole people is peculiarly advantageous to the wealthy. Property holders then should be the warmest friends of popular education, and should be willing to pay a fair per centage for the security which is so valuable to them."

PUNCTUALITY.-"I give it," said the late Rev. Dr. Fisk, "as my deliberate and solemn conviction, that the individual who is habitually late in meeting an appointment, will never be respected, or successful in life."

BIRDS OF PASSAGE.

BY MRS. HEMANS.

Birds, joyous birds of the wandering wing!
Whence is it ye come with the flowers of spring?
"We come from the shores of the green old Nile,
From the land where the roses of Sharon smile,
From the palms that wave through the Indian sky,
From the myrrh-trees of glowing Araby.

We have swept o'er the cities in song renown'd,
Silent they lie with the deserts round!
We have crossed proud rivers, whose tide hath roll'd
All dark with the warrior blood of old:
And each worn wing hath regain'd its home,
Under peasant's roof-tree or monarch's dome."

And what have you found in the monarch's dome,
Since last ye traversed the blue sea's foam?

"We have found a change, we have found a pall,
And a gloom o'ershadowing the banquet's hall,"
And a mark on the floor as of life-drops spilt,
Nought looks the same, save the nest we built!"

Oh! joyous birds, it hath still been so ;
Through the halls of kings doth the tempest go!
But the huts of the hamlet lie still and deep,
And the hills o'er their quiet a vigil keep,-
Say what have you found in the peasant's cot,
Since last ye parted from that sweet spot?

-"A change we have found there-and many a change!
Faces, and footsteps, and all things strange!
Gone are the heads of the silvery hair,
And the young that were have a brow of care,
And the place is hush'd where the children play'd,
Nought looks the same, save the nest we made !"

Sad is your tale of the beautiful earth,
Birds that o'ersweep it, in power and mirth !
Yet through the wastes of the trackless air,
YE have a Guide, and shall we despair?
Ye over desert and deep have pass'd,
So may we reach our bright home at last.

THE TRUE PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT, BOTH IN FAMILIES AND SCHOOLS.

There is no one subject connected with the training of children, whether in the family circle or the school-room, of more importance than that of their government or judicious control. By the government of children, we mean all that management which is required to secure their ready and willing obedience. A failure in this not only retards the progress of the child in the acquisition of any species of knowledge, but it endangers both its happiness and usefulness through life. And yet, on no subject are errors more prevalent, or fatal mistakes more frequently made. This arises from the fact, that very few of those who assume the responsible duties of theparent or the teacher, ever make the art of managing or governing children the subject of serious study and reflection. Hence this most important part of their work is controlled, in a great measure, by mere accidental circumstances, and influenced by all the fickleness of passion and prejudice; or what is scarcely more censurable, it receives no attention at all.

There is nothing which would contribute more to human happiness by increasing the diffusion of useful knowledge and preventing vice and crime, than the proper attention of parents and teachers to the subject of governing children. We are not of those who think it possible to lay down fixed rules applicable to every case which may be presented to the parent or teacher, or who hold that moral suasion alone, is at all times sufficient to secure obedience. But we are fully satisfied, that all ready and genuine obedience must have its basis in true respect and affection for those to whom the obedience is rendered; and hence, the arts of pleasing and governing are closely allied, if not identical with each other.

Children, like adults, always act from motives. Consequently the true theory of government consists in the presentation of motives to right action, in a form so attractive as to uniformly overpower all those of an opposite character. To carry this rule into practice with complete success, requires certain qualifications on the part of the parent or teacher which cannot be dispensed with. First, he must uniformly present to the children under his care, an example of right action in his own conduct. He must present in himself that uniformity of temper, that purity of language, that diligence, and that constant uprightness of character which he wishes them to acquire. Children are apt imitators long before they become

good reasoners.

Hence example exerts far more influence over them than mere precept.

This is a rule of the utmost importance; and yet how few, comparatively speaking pay any heed to it, or even theoretically acknowledge its existence. In this respect, many, very many, find themselves when too late, in the same condition as a friend of ours, who, when expostulating with his only son for neglecting his studies to frequent the billiard-room and other kindred places, and pointing out the bad associates and immoral influences he there met, received the following reply: "Father, I am sure the billiardroom is not so bad a place as you represent, for it is only a few days since I saw Maj. M., Squire W., and yourself all there playing."

What a rebuke was this to parental indulgence and how strongly it marks the inconsistency and folly of those parents and teachers who attempt to control children by precepts, unsupported by their own example ?

Second, the teacher or parent should possess in himself that combination of tenderness with firmness, which while it enlists the sympathies and wins the affections, at the same time, commands the respect of all those around him. This combination of qualities is much more frequently seen in the female than in the opposite sex. And to this union of valuable qualities they owe all that superority in controlling children without resort to harsh measures, which they are well known to possess. Indeed nothing can render the motives to right action so effective and controlling in their influence over children, as their presentation by one whom such children already love and respect. And the reverse is equally true: so much so, indeed, that it were better to keep a child out of school altogether, than send him to a teacher who could neither win his affections nor command his confidence. We could not be understood as representing that affection and respect, even when coupled with a good example,are, under all circumstances, sufficient to ensure prompt and willing obedience on the part of children. For there are times and circumstances when these will fail, and when a proper use of the rod becomes indispensable to the maintenance of good government; when, indeed, the omission of its use would not only necessitate a failure in the government, but would also deprive the parent or teacher of that very respect and confidence on which his usefulness so much depends. With judicious and enlightened parents, such a resort is rarely necessary; but not so with teachers who almost always have placed under their care a greater or less number of children who are either badly governed or not governed at all, at home. With such, the most skilful teacher will often be forced to chose between a resort to physical force and a prompt dismissal from school. For it would be as reasonable to expect the leopard to change his spots at our bidding, as to expect children who are left without control or feelings of respect at home to become respectful and obedient as soon as they cross the threshold of a school-house, any further than such qualities are exacted by fear of physical punishment.

The third requisite on the part of the parent or teacher, is, that he should establish no rule for the government of children without a plain and easily comprehended reason therefor. If all intelligent beings act from motives, such motives should never consist in the mere arbitrary or unexplained commands of another. But every rule or command should be accompanied by a plain reason, which should constitute the chief motive to obedience or action, while the rule or command itself should appear as a mere expression of the reason or real motive in the case. There is nothing more difficult than for one intelligent will to exact from another, obedience to its simple arbitrary dictates. While on the other hand, it is comparatively easy for one will to influence another in almost any direction provided good reasons are assigned as motives to action.

We wish parents and teachers would bestow due attention on this subject; for there is no more fruitful source of crime and misery in this world, than the defective training of children.-Literary Review.

SMALL CHILDREN IN SCHOOL.

Among the difficulties which teachers of summer schools have to encounter, is the attendance of small children-children who are too young to attend school for the purpose of learning. Often they are sent with their older brothers and sisters, sometimes to gratify the desires of the child, and too frequently that their parents inay be rid of the trouble of taking care of them at home, Really,

one is sometimes inclined to believe that some parents think the more children teachers have to govern and watch, the happier they are, from the way they send their "toddling wee things" for them to take care of. However pleasing may be their pranks at home, and however much their smiles may add to the cheerfulness of the domestic hearth, they are too much a cause of disturbance at school to render their presence desirable.

Sometimes teachers suffer such young children to attend school out of respect to their parents, while they are themselves conscious that it would be better for the school, and the children, too, to keep them away. Such a course does greater harm to the child than good to the parent. Children are often sent to school for the purpose of learning when they are too young. Usually, the age of five is as soon as a child should be placed in school and when they can be properly taught at home, it is better to wait till seven or eight before subjecting them to the confinement of the school-room. It is said of the Rev. John Wesley, that he was not taught the letters till he was five years of age, and that on his fifth birth-day his mother taught him the alphabet, and the next day to read the first verse in the Bible.

Young children are generally confined too long at a time in the school-room. One-third of the usual number of school hours should be spent by them in the open air. They should be allowed two recesses each half day of not less than fifteen minutes each. In addition to this, it is frequently desirable to dismiss them half an hour earlier than those pupils who are old enough to learn lessons. Even were health not taken into account, such a course would be the better policy, for the pupil would not become so tired of confinement as to hate the school-room and all its associations. By this plan, they will not only love the school better, but learn faster than when confined six long hours each day. Then, when the health

of the child is considered, a still stronger argument presents itself for less confinement. Small children should be provided with slates and pencils, and taught to make letters, and to draw the forms of simple objects. Thus, they may be furnished with a means of entertainment which will not only prevent them from engaging in play, but which may soon become a medium of teaching them to read and spell.

From the Free School Journal.

HINTS ON THE DAILY EXERCISES OF THE SCHOOL. We would recommend to Teachers to commence their exercises with the small pupils, before they become wearied with sittingthat they exercise them as frequently as possible, and that their exercises be brief.

That each pupil be exercised at least once each day in Mental Arithmetic; that each pupil be supplied with a slate and pencil ; that the black board be used daily in each recitation; that each pupil be exercised daily in Map drawing, both on the black board and on paper; that every pupil who can form letters with a pen be required to write short sentences each day and present them to the teacher for correction, thus educating all in the important art of composition; that the importance of physical education should be more regarded, and the laws of health be familiarly explained to the members of the school: and that they insist on frequent visitations from their patrons, and hold a public examination at the close of the term. A TEACHER.

PARTIAL SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION.-Among the heathen nations, the Persians, in the time of Cyrus, considered the virtues, especially justice and gratitude, as the main object of education; among the Athenians, accomplishments in arts, sciences and letters, were the end; and among the Spartans, obedience was the sole principle of instruction, because that would preserve the ascendency of the laws. Yet neither of these answered their designs. Persia acquired some of the milder virtues, but failed in strength and hardihood; Athens found that neither art nor science would avail against depravity of morals and Sparta found that it was not enough to secure obedience to laws without considering their nature and effect; Persia fell a victim to luxury, Athens to licentiousness, and Sparta to tyranny. Such are the lessons of antiquity, and its splendid wreck remains an example to warn us against the dangers of partial systems.

But under the new light which the Christian system has thrown

over the power and destiny of the soul, a different view has been taken of the end and means of education. We consider the object of education as twofold:-one to improve and strengthen the mind itself, the other to endow it with whatever is valuable or auxiliary in the duties of life.-E. D. Mansfield.

PARENTS AND TEACHERS.

"This is one great difficulty which we schoolmasters find in doing our duty to boys, and at the same time satisfying their parents. Parents wish their boys to be pushed on; the conscientious master prefers to keep them back till they are well grounded; because he knows that this will be of most benefit to them in the end. Parents like to see some visible sign of their progress; the master, who watches the opening of their mind, knows that they are often making most progress when no great results are perceptible. We all know that in building a house, a great part of the work is done underground. When the foundations are brought up to the level of the soil, a superficial observer might suppose that very little had been done; and yet in reality great progress towards building the house would have been made. Just so in education; a great deal may be silently going on, which is not seen above-ground-a great deal of foundation-work, upon which the future structure is to be rared. But parents are too apt to be impatient, and expect the structure to be reared before the foundation is laid. And schoolmasters are sometimes too ready, nay almost obliged in self-defence, to yield to this feeling of parents. They will send the children home with strings of hard names of places, and a smattering of two or three sciences, and a number of specimens of fields measured and maps copied, and account-books with swans and stags and German-text flourishing all over them. This is all very well; but it is no criterion of real progress. When a boy is really able to do his sums, there is no reason why his account-book should not be finished off in a neat and ornamental manner; and when he has mastered the art of land-surveying scientifically, let him make as many maps, and measure as many fields as he pleases. But what I object to is, the loss of valuable time in mere outside show. A conscientious schoolmaster is often obliged to run the risk of offending parents, and appearing to bring their children less forward than his competitors, because he will not give in to their plans, and sacrifice the sure and gradual development of his scholar's faculties to what is entirely superficial."-Gresley in a late English Publication.

PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY.

"Would we look for one who is signally the pest and bane of his land, our eyes will pass by him who is summoned to her bar for breach of her laws; she has a more insidious foe-a foe whose harm is more sure, more extensive, and more abiding; they will fix on him who might have blessed her in his sons, but who has originated evil dispositions, and cradled evil tendencies at his home, has corrupted the fount of honour and virtue there, and thereby has marred it in her senates, her cities, of her marts."

"Parents owe a debt to ages yet unborn; for who shall say at what point in the stream of time, the personal character of any individual now on earth shall cease to influence? A sentiment, a habit of feeling once communicated to another mind, is gone, it is beyond recall; it bore the stamp of virtue, it is blessing man and owned by heaven; its character was evil, vain the remorse that would revoke it, vain the gnawing anxiety that would compute its mischief; its immediate, and to us visible effect may soon be spent; its remote one who shall calculate? The characters of the dead are inwrought into those of the living; the generation below the sod formed that which now dwells and acts upon the earth; the existing generation is moulding that which shall succeed it; and distant posterity shall inherit the characteristics which we infuse into our children to-day."

"Happily childhood introduces and perpetuates domestic happiness in maturer years. It opens the way for friendship between parent and child when the days of inequality and dependence shall have passed away. It is the base of true and lasting powerpower, whose seat is in the heart. It must be so, for it is allied with all that commands reverence and engages love, with all that brings man into near and hallowed connection with his God, the connection which throws sanctity over human ties. Coleridge

writes, 'No emperor hath power to prescribe laws for the heart.' The poet is right, but a parent has such power."-The Parent's Great Commission,- -a London Publication.

ESSENTIALS OF SELF-EDUCATION.

There are certain essentials to self-culture, which it may be well to place distinctly before the mind. These may be classed as follows, viz:

1st. FREEDOM.

2nd. PRACTICAL THOUGHTFULNESS,

3rd. ACTIVE EMPLOYMENT OF A USEFUL CHARACTER. 4th. CORRECT HABITS.

5th. ENERGY; and,

6th. PERSEVERANCE.

With these six conditions or qualities, men are thoroughly armed for self-education, while the absence of either would do very much towards vitiating the result, in case the attempt were seriously made. It is superfluous to state, that in our best instructed communities, but few are well educated, and, even in those who are commonly so regarded, inequalities and contradictions of so anomalous a character not unfrequently betray themselves as to fully negative the truth of their being so cultivated.-Eclectic Journal of Education.

MENTAL EXCITEMENT.

Bad news weakens the action of the heart, oppresses the lungs, destroys the appetite, stops digestion, and partially suspends all the functions of the system. An emotion of shame flushes the face, fear blanches it; joy illuminates it; and an instant thill electrifies a million of nerves. Surprise spurs the pulse into a gallop. Delirium infuses great energy. Volition commands, and hundreds of muscles spring to execute. Powerful emotion often kills the body

at a stroke. Chilo, Diagoras, and Sophocles died of joy at the Grecian games. The news of a defeat killed Philip V. The doorkeeper of Congress expired upon hearing of the surrender of Cornwallis. Eminent public speakers have often died in the midst of an impassioned burst of eloquence, or when the deep emotion that produced it suddenly subsided. Largrave, the young Parisian, died when he heard that the musical prize for which he had competed was adjudged to another.

Ere business distracts, and the labours of the day commence, devote at least one hour to some literary pursuit, some classic page, some incident of history, some charming truth of philosophy, some song of the old poets, some chapter of the inspired scriptures, that however much absorbed you may be during the day, still the light and loveliness of knowledge may surround all your labours, and you may not be compelled to say, like the Roman General of old, "I have lost a day!"

POWER OF EARLY Influences.-Among the cliffs of the Andes, a child's hand may turn the course of the Amazon. But let it flow onward three thousand miles, swollen by the influx of a thousand tributaries, and there is but one power in the universe that can turn it from its broad and deep-worn channels. So the mind, in the beginning of its career, is yielding, and takes its direction from the slightest influences. So, too, when the channels of thought and feeling have become broad and deep, it spurns controul, and bows to nothing but Omnipotence.