Munich, and to persons who obtain special permission from the minister of the interior. Books are delivered between nine o'clock and one. The whole number of printed works contained in the library, without regard to the number of volumes, is stated at over 400,000. In addition, there are about twenty-two thousand manuscripts. The department of incunabula contains upwards of 1,500 volumes. Visitors at the Library are not allowed to go to the shelves where the books are arranged, without being accompanied by one of the librarians. For the gratification of strangers, however, a large number of the rarest and most curious books and manuscripts are displayed in glass cases, where they can be conveniently seen.

The library has no collection of coins, medals, statues, paintings or engravings, for there are extended collections of all these objects e'sewhere in Munich. Printed books and manuscripts are the two main divisions of its property. The former of these are arranged upon the shelves into twelve principal classes, which are still further sub-divided into 180 classes. The twelve main divisions are the following: 1. Encyclopædic Works, with 11 suoordinate classes; 2. Pilology, with 18 subordinate; 3. History, with 40 subordinate; 4. Mathematics, with 8 subordinate; 5. Physics, with 13 subordinate; 6. Anthropology, with 4 subordinate; 7. Philosophy, with 3 subordinate; 8. Asthetics, with 15 subordinate; 9. Politics, with 6 subordinate; 10. Medicine, with 8 subordinate; 11. Jurisprudence, with 16 subordinate; and 12 Theology, with 38 subordinate divisions.

The manuscripts include 580 in Greek; 268 in Oriental languages; 313 in Hebrew; 14,000 in Latin; 4,000 in German; near 600 in French; about 500 in Italian: with some in Swedish, Slavic, English and other languages; in all, as we have already stated, not far from twenty-two thousand.

Among the objects brought out for the gratification of casual visitors, are specimens of the different materials which have been employad in the manufacture of books. Among those in the possession of the library are tablets of wax, parchment, veilum, papyrus, paper made from the filaments of bamboo, cotton paper of about the 12th century, papier de chiffe, of the year 1338, the oldest of that kind in the library, palm leaves, &c.

Among the more remarkable manuscripts may be mentioned a Breviary of King Alaric, of about the 6th or 7th century; a Latin version of the Gospels, of about the same date; the Sermons of St. Augustin in Anglo Saxon characters of the 8th century; a Latin manuscript of the 9th century, remarkable for a poetic fragment in German which is there inserted; a Sermon of St. Augustin, once possessed by Louis le Germanique, and distir guished for a fragment of poetry in German on the margin, written, it is supposed, by the son of Charlemagne himself. Besides these, which would interest the most casual inquirer, there are others of great value to scholars, and many, which, though less old than some we have enumerated, are distinguished by the exquisite skill with which they are written and embellished. Among early printed books may be found the first printed Bible (in Latin), the work of Guttenberg and Faust, at Mayence, between 1450 and 145; a Latin Psaltery of the year 1459, upon vellum; Le ·Rational de Durand, of the same year, printed by Faust and Schöffer; the first books with dates which were printed at Augsburg, Nureberg and Munich; an attempt at stereotyping made in 1553; the works of Virgil, of which the entire text is cut upon copper.

HOW PARENTS CAN HAVE A GOOD SCHOOL. No more weighty obligation can exist, than that which rests upon every parent in the matter of the education of his children. Fathers and mothers are always ready to acknowledge this duty, and are not generally backward in professions of a desire to perform it. It is an every day remark: "I mean to give my children a good education, if I don't give them a cent of property." But how many consent to act up to the spirit of that remark, when a suitable test is applied? How many there are whose hearts are troubled, if, at the end of the year, they find they have not increased the sum total of their property as much as they had hoped, but who feel no sorrow because their sons or daughters have remained at home during the whole or a part of the year; perhaps lending their feeble aid in adding to the hoarded pelf, perhaps in idleness-fruitful source of all evil. "I can't afford it," is the assigned, but avarice is the real reason of the existence of so many poor and unprofitable schools. Is it not strange?-yet it is true-that many a man is too poor to send his children to a good school, who, at the end of the year, finds a way to buy articles of luxury. Plenty of men there are, who fird means to indulge in luxuries of the table and of dress, in patronizing the strolling buffoons, of a circus or perhaps in the purchase of many things useless or even hurtful, but who will not send their children to school, unless they can induce the teacher to take half price, or can find a half-price school.

Now, this is all wrong. Acknowledging the superlative importance of giving their children the best education which circumstances will permit, men must learn to regard the accumulation of money not as an end, but as a means; and that money ought to be expended.

First, In building good school houses. By this we do not mean what is usually meant. Most school houses are as far from being good ones, as can well be conceived. A house that will keep out the rain on ordinary occasions only, and that is comfortably warm, except in the coldest days, we regard as something that ought to be abated as a nuisance; yet they can be found.

Let the house be so large, if possible, as to allow six or eight feet square for each pupil who is expected to be placed in the school. Less room will answer, if the people are, in truth, not able to expend so much in a house; but ample room prevents confusion in a variety of ways. Children will not whisper, if they are placed far apart. This is an evil habit not to be tolerated in any school, no school in our opinion, can be a profitable one, if it is frequent. But we believe it next to impossible to prevent communication, if pupils sit near each other. It cannot be done without a degree of harshness, on the part of the teacher, which will injure the child as much as the habit itself. Besides it is unjust to place temptation in the child's way, and then punish him because

he sins.

This large amount of room is needed also, in order that those who are engaged in study may not be interrupted by recitations going on in the same room or by individuals passing to and fro.

Furnish each pupil or two pupils with a suitable desk and chair. Let both be well and strongly made, that there may be no creaking and jarring at every motion. Cover the desk with some kind of strong, thick cloth, to prevent wearing out books, and to prevent noise by moving books and slates. The chair must be easy to sit in, and not an instrument of torture. Children need just as good chairs at school as they have at home. Many a parent, who would hardly ask his son to sit on a block at home, will send him to school to sit on a backless bench, not a whit better. It is impossible to teach a child who is in pain, or uncomfortable from any cause.

Let the room, at least, be neatly ceiled and painted; or, better still, let it be plaste ed and white-washed. Take great care to have a good floor-firm, that it may not jar under the tread of many-of such a nature that it can be kept perfectly clean and neat. In short, a school house in its interior, should be equal to a parlor. So much the better, if it be finely carpeted and curtained, and adorned with beautiful pictures and maps. It cannot be too elegant, if anybody has money enough to pay for it.

The second thing for which money must be expended, is the employment of a teacher. Patrons may rest assured that a small offer, will, in all likelihood, bring a small teacher. "If all that can be made" is offered, the teacher who comes will either try to make but little, or he will determine to make the most of the chance; and either thing will ruin the school. The true way is, to offer such a salary as will induce a competent man to take the place, and render him anxious to retain it, which he will think he can most surely do by the performance of

all his duties.

But in selecting a teacher great care should be exercised by those on whom that duty fa ls. It is of no use to try to obtain a genius for the schoolmaster. Suh men are scarce, and when found, they don't make good teachers; perhaps because the processes of their own thought are too rapid for the comprehension of pupils, and they fail to adapt themselves to the capacity of most children. A man of common sense, generally, makes a first rate teacher, because quite as much sense is needed to teach and convince others, as is needed to do any thing else. An honest man the teacher ought to be. If he is not, he will not faithfully perform his duty, and he will be sure to make his pupils untrue. It is best to select a man who has adopted the profession of teaching as a lifetime business. If he has only concluded to teach for a year or two, intending afterwards to become a lawyer or a doctor, or a minister, his thoughts will often turn to subjects not connected with his school. Or if he has some other business, as, for instance, a store or a farm, he will be tempted to cut short a recitation now and then, that he may gain time to post his books, or try a newly purchased horse. It will never do for him to be an avaricous man; since, in that case, he may confine himself too much to the subject of Interest or Profit and Loss. He must not be a lazy man; particularly, he must not have a lazy mind. If he is afflicted with this disease, the little ladies and gentlemen will have to find their own way through all intricate passages. He must be a healthy, industrious, and liberalminded man; a lover of learning and a lover of his profession.

Money will be needed, also, to purchase books. It is bad economy to send a pupil to school with a few sheets of poor paper, badly ruled, and that only on three sides, with a piece of newspaper or brown paper stitched on as a cover, for a copy book. An old bottle, upset by a breath, or some such contrivance, does not make a good inkstand. Pedlars sometimes sell very poor steel pens, no better than a greenquill, since with neither can any person write well; much less can a child learn to write with them. This matter of writing apparatus is better left to the teacher who can supply his pupils at a cost much less than that which the parent will incur in furnishing even the poorest stationery.

Lastly, the parent has something to do that does not cost money,

COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE OF PUPILS.

Much has been said of European States enforcing by law the attendance of children upon school. All that has been asserted is correct. We have been told that in Switzerland, the oldest Republic in the world, "compulsory attendance" worked well. Now, as I happen to be a Swiss, and know something of the state of things there from actual observation, I take the liberty of saying a few words with regard to that country. The extracts read, state existing facts; but many of the circumstances and conditions, which tend to modify or explain them, are generally omitted in such reports. It is true that school legislation and effective school organization in the majority of the Cantons of Switzerland, commenced after the revolutions and political commotions of 1832. Yet some Cantons had school laws and even that of compulsory attendance (if my memory serves me rightly) much earlier, one as early as 1805. One thing is certain, that an increased interest in the cause of popular education and strong etorts in behalf of its improvement and elevation, were almost universal in Switzerland long before that period. Teacher's conferences and educational societies, the intercouse of the pastor and the school-master with the people, prepared them for the ready concurrence in most of the improvements introduced into the schools, and they also prepared them for a willing submission to the law, which compels parents to send their children to school. This law was then only the expressed legalized will of the majority of the citizens. Had it been otherwise, I could scarcely account for the fact, that, at least in my native Canton, (the Canton of the Grisons,) I never heard of a case, where it was necessary to enforce the law.

Now that there is need for such a law in our country-who would deny it! As long as there are thousands of the future citizens of our Republic growing up without education, adequate to the duties which will devolve upon them-as long as history continues to teach us with unerring certainty, that the welfare and stability of the State and the Republic, especially, rest upon the intelligence and virtue of its citizens, -as long as there are parents amongst us, who are willing to wring their subsistence from the bones and marrow of their offspring, and others, who covet the wealth, purchased by the degradation and lect of those who are their own flesh and blood, and whom they are in duty bound to educate in accordance with the God-appointed destiny of their natures;-so long there is need for such a law.

neg

I moreover believe that the Legislature has an unquestionable right to pass such a law; the reasons for this have been enumerated by others who preceded me; I need not repeat them nor need I add any. And yet, I consider it inexpedient that our body, should at the present time urge its passage by the Legislature. Rather, but let us recommend the subject to the earnest consideration of the friends of education-let us go home and discuss it in the public journals, in Teachers' Institutes and Associations, among our friends and acquaintances everywhere-let the county-superintendents return to their respective spheres of labor, and use the privileges and advantages of their position, in order to impress their fellow-citizens with the necessity of this measure; and rest assured, that in a few years the people of Pennsylvania will not only be ready for it, but will, as a people through their proper organs, demand its passage, and sustain its enforcement at all hazards.-Rev. C. R. Kepler.

WHO ARE TRAINING OUR FUTURE RULERS? Looking over the scraps in our editorial drawer, we find the following: "We should like to know who are training the minds of those who are to preside over this great people thirty or forty years hence." This inquiring glance toward the future is suggestive of many thoughts. What are the mothers in our country doing toward training their children to become intelligent and noble citizens of this vast country? Are they training their boys to become office seekers and politicians, or true men; men who shall be qualified to honor any situation to which they may be called-whether to stand in the councils of our nations, or to fill the sphere of an intelligent citizen. The men who are to fill all these places which to-day are occupied by others are now boys, and you, mothers, are moulding their characters and guiding their minds; you are polishing the gems that are to glitter in the future history of our country.

There are boys now in some humble families, in obscure towns far away from great cities, whose voices shall yet be heard in our legisla. tive halls. Mothers, you are training these boys. Perhaps some of these may be the son of that mother who reads this in a rude cabin at the far West. Do you not, mothers, often muse on the future career of your sleeping boy, as you watch by his cradle? Would you have him fill an honourable position in society, and prove a blessing to his country and age? Mould that plastic mind with principles of virtue, purity, intelligence, and with the love of God. Guard his expanding pow ers, and teach him to avoid error of every kind; inspire him with a love of country and a love of mankind; help him to early lay the foundation for a character of sterling integrity. Such are the great lessons which will qualify youth for the responsibilities awaiting them in life,

no matter how high their station may be. These are the lessons, too, which should be instilled into the minds of children by mothers. "Who is training them?" Reader perhaps it is yourself. How, then, shall your duties be performed? May "Faithfully, thoroughly," be your answer. The Student.

THE POWER OF KINDNESS.-TO TEACHERS AND PARENTS. The following article, from M. D. G., of Indiana, conveys an important lesson to teachers and parents relative to their treatment of refractory boys at school. Its lesson is embodied in the incident related, and we hope will be read with much profit.

Power of Kindness.-"There comes the teacher!" exclaimed several voices, on the first day of school, as the "new teacher" approached the scene of his winter's labors. Anxiously they had waited his appearance, for various were their thoughts respecting the strange incumbent. Former teachers had ruled with an iron hand, and cases of severe dis cipline were frequent. With such precedents, it was natural that the assembled school should view with mingled distrust and fear the stranger who was henceforth to hold the reins of government. Nor is it surprising that unkindness had engendered the belief that severity was a predominating trait in the character of every teacher. Hence those who had long been subject to severity, which had blunted all their finer feelings, regarded the opening of school as the commence ment of a series of flagellations, frequent and severe. Regarding this as their destiny, their conduct was shaped accordingly. They seemed to be governed by the adage: "No name without the game."

Pre-eminent among them was one whom we will call James. He was without friends, save an uncle with whom he lived, who treated him with great severity, at home, and invariably gave a prejudicial statement of James' ungovernable disposition to the teacher of the sohool, adding, that the only means of control were frequent punishments, to which course, in conclusion, he advised him to resort. Under such treatment, at the age of sixteen, James bore without shame, the ignoble distinction of "the worst boy in school."

The teacher kindly greeted those assembled at the door, and enter. ing, followed by the scholars, he very mildly requested them to be seated. The friendly manner in which he addressed them favorably af fected their feelings toward the teacher. The scholars were soon seated, when, after a few introductory remarks, the teacher proceeded to adadvancement, etc. He had heard of James as a very bad boy, and had dress each scholar, making inquiries as to name, studies, state of Placing his hand gently upon the boy's head, he said with the utmost been led to fear that he would, as previously, be a source of difficulty. kindness, "Well, my son, are you desirous of doing all you can during the school?" Such language was unexpected; it fell like gentle music on the ear accustomed only to tones of harshness, it soothed his turbulent spirit, enkindled in his soul aspirations to which he had ever been a stranger, and melted his heart, while his eyes were suffused in tears.

James was sub ued.

Though till then content to be at the foot of his class, with no desire to excel in anything save turbulence, James had a well-balanced mind, capable of appreciating and retaining scientific principles. The impetus given his intellect and energy by the kind and encouraging words of his teacher was destined to work wonders in his subsequent career, transforming the idle, unmanageable boy into a studious and attentive scholar, the first in his class and the school. Nor was this all. Fired with zeal, he applied himself assiduously to the cultivation of his mind as opportunity presented; and grappling with and overcoming obsta cles, which many in similar circumstances would have considered insurmountable, he pushed on till he graduated with honor at one of the most respectable literary institutions of the Empire State.

Subsequently he established a select school in Western New York, which has since grown to one of the most flourishing academical institutions in the State, where hundreds of youths have received instruction, qualifying them for the task of imparting knowledge to the rising generation. Such is the result of kind words. Go thou, and do likewise.-The Student.

MORAL INSTRUCTION-NEATNESS.

Moral improvement, as well as intellectual, is one of the great objects to be attained in our schools, and one that ought frequently to be urged upon teachers and pupils. It is true, that moral culture forms a part of home education, but it is also as true, that it cannot be safely separated from the intellectual training of our schools. The immutable principles of right and wrong, the various moral obligations of man, and a becoming respect for things sound, should be instilled into the minds of youth, that they may, in after life, become the governing pow ers of all their motives and actions. Children should be taught to despise and condemn an act of injustice or meanness; while those of benevolence, kindness, and integrity should be called to their notice to be admired and imitated. The scholar who is not made better and wiser in these things, whose moral character is not improved and

strengthened, while at school, is receiving an education that promises him but little good, and which will, at least, render him dangerous to the community.

The capacity of children to understand that some things, are right, and that other things are wrong, is susceptible of developement much earlier than their ability to exercise their mind in a process of reasoning. This fact ought to elicit the utmost caution, in bringing such influence to bear upon children in early youth, as shall make favourable and correct impressions.

We would like also to see courtesy and neatness take a more promiment place among the things taught in our schools. They are both intimately connected with or form a part of, moral instruction, and are necessary to a person's happiness and success in life. We believe it is as much the duty of the teacher to see that pupils treat each other with kindness and civility, and that they are neat in their habits about the school-room, as it is to give instruction in reading, or in any other branch. A child that is allowed to grow up saucy, boorish, and impudent, without correction, gives little promise of becoraing a man or woman fit to enter decent society, or that will have any respect for the civilities of life. We are likewise strongly inclined to believe, that boys and girls, who at school have no pride about keeping their desks clean, their books neat and well arranged, and the floor about them free from papers and litter, can hardly be expected, when they become men and women, to have order and neatness characterize their office and workshop, their kitchen and bureaux.-Michigan Journal of Education. S.

FAILURES IN EDUCATION.

The first error is in placing the child under the instruction of unskilled and inexperienced teachers, under the belief that any one will do to teach a child to spell and read-a sad mistake. It requires more skill, more tact, more knowledge of the science and art of teaching to conduct the first few years of a child's, school exercises than it does to fill a professorship in a college. What horticulturist would suppose that an inferior gardener might answer to take care of the plants while they are smail and young, though he must have one of a superior order to train them when they have nearly obtained their growth? A child placed in one of these little noisy schools, which yet, as in the days of Ichabod Crane or Oliver Goldsmith, furnish food for mirthful satire learns much that the parent does not bargain for. He acquires a drawling or sing song tone in reading, a bad pronunciation, an improper manner of holding his pen and shaping his letters, and habits of idleness and mer tal inertness, which may never be unlearned, and which will prevent his receiving the full benefit of his after instruction under able educators.

Another prominent error is

The Forcing System.-Where children are put to studying books written in language they cannot read, or do not understand. For instance: children that cannot read intelligibly or intelligently in a common school reader, are get floundering amid the well-worded sentences and nicely balanced phrases of a history of 350 pages, or buried amid the polysyllabic words and difficult combinations of a revised philosophy, or simplified chemistry, to say nothing of a voluminous geography and highly concentrated grammar. The labor thus forced on a child is intolerable; and when it is remembered that a child of the above attainments is expected to do the most of the studying at home, unassisted by the teacher, it is not to be wondered at that so many "dislike their books." Poor things, how can it be otherwise? Rayless, pathless, hopeless, they stumble through the scholastic session, the mind ever on the rack, the thirsty spirit ever unsatisfied.

Parents are mainly to blame for this. Their anxiety to have their children advanced to the study of the higher branches, induces the teacher to violate his sense of propriety. The writer has frequently lost pupils by refusing thus to gratify paternal vanity at the expense of the child; and time and again has he been annoyed with "Pa says he wants me t study Grammar,' "Ma wants me put in spelling," "Pa says, why ain't I studying dictionary," "Ma don't want me turned back," &c., &c. Poverty, stern task-master, compels many teachers to yield the point rather than risk losing the pupil. If you would have the Teacher interested in his labor, let him work on is own plan. he should know best-it he does not, he is not fit to teach."

Setting Lessons.--Another evil is carelessness in assigning the lessons to be studied. Too much caution can not be exercised in setting lessons adapted to the capacity and attainments of the pupils, in seeing that they know what and how to study. If the pupil is not a fluent reader, the lessons should be read over at the time of assigning, so that the correct pronunciation may be required, in place of leaving the pupil to guess at a wrong one when studying. One or two lessons, not calling for more than an hour's application, are enough for home study. This will make seven hours of daily mental toil, enough for the majority of boys and girls. The effect of poorly learning a lesson is ruinous to the child. By the habit of missing he comes to think it a small thing to fail at recitation, and soon loses all self respect, all regard for his reputation as a scholar.

ever.

Some

Want of Reviews.-A lesson once said, is generally passed by forNew lessons engage the attention of the pupil, and soon the few landmarks of the earlier lessons are effaced, the connection of the present with the past is overlooked, and the labour of weary days dis appear "like snow-flakes on the river-a moment there, then gong forever." There should be daily, weekly, and quarterly reviews in all schools. The motto should be "not how much, but how well." Irregular Attendance.-This neutralizes the benefits to be derived from the best arangements, and the labors of the best teachers. persons seem to suppose, that if a child has once entered the path of learning, progress is inevitable; and that howover far from the teacher, either in body or mind, there is a kind of magnetic influence, by which he is to be reached, and the teacher is held accountable for his improvement. So far is this from the truth, that a child may attend, school a whole year, yet so irregularly, or at intervals so far apart, that it will be fortunate, if at the end of a year, he knows as much as at the commencement. Irregular attendance acts more unfavourably on some minds than upon others. Those who are strongly inclined to learn, will readily overcome the evils arising from absence. But thosed who are indifferent to study, will lose by their absence, not only the lessons of the day, but what is of far greater consequence, the interest," however small, which they may have previously felt. The boy who stays from school in order to hunt, or fish, or dance, will not only feel! a positive disinclination to study his arithmetic when at school, but a positive inclination to resume his hunting, or fishing, or dancing. The girl, too, who is kept at home for the fitting of a mantua-maker, may not only lose her interest in study, but is liable to feel that the adjust ment of her dress is of more importance than the improvement of of her mind.

Late Attendance.-A considerable portion of each school day, during the winter, is lost, from the constant disturbance caused by the ingress of the tardy. The worst feature of this is, that the loss falls upon the diligent and innocent, as well as on the lazy and guilty. The disturbance caused by opening and shutting doors, and passing over the floor, distracts the attention of the class and teacher, and renders the recita tion partial, unconnected and unsatisfactory. Want of diligence and activity on the part of the parent, or child, or both, causes the evil It can easily be remedied if the parent wills it.

Want of Pecuniary Support.-No intellectual labor is so poorly paid as the teacher's, and no avocation is more exhausting to the sys-s tem-more life destroying." A good teacher should receive a remunes! ration so ample, as to enable him to live respectably; to avail himself; of books, social influence and travel, to such an extent as shall better: qualify him for his profession; and to place him, if he practice a wise economy, out of the reach of harassing anxiety about the means of support."

Want of Hard and Persevering Labor. Whatever may be the talents and attainments of a teacher, he will fail if he does not work hard. In no pursuit is unwearied industry more necessary to success. Let no one attempt teaching who wishes to shun labor. The teacher must labor not only when he is establishing his school, but he should cont: tinually strive to make himself a better teacher, every successive dayo and year. He must labor, too, where the immediate results do not appear to the common observer, or scarcely to himself bas vad Want of Professional Pride-Too many take up the vocation of teaching as a stepping stone to something else; a means of supporti while they study law or medicine. Of course their hearts are not in their business, their duties are drudgeries, their success a matter of indifference. Such teachers will always fail.

Want of Qualification.―There is no vocation requiring so many enobling qualifications as teaching. The capable teacher must possess a sound education, joined with a cultivated taste. He must have patience, not that disposition of passive endurance of evils, but that never tiring principle that will enable him to perform cheerfully for the tenth time, that in which he has failed for the ninth, and to repeats over and over and over again, instruction to a dull but well-disposed pupil. He must have uniformity of disposition, for want of which he may punish to-day what was similed at yesterday." He must have self-control, capacity for governing, fondness for teaching, capabilities or tact for instructing, judgment, taste, firinness, mental activity and varied learning.-Chronicle and Sentinel.

School Government should be regarded as the means for attaining a lofty end, not the end itself. As the wise legislatorians to secure the happiness of the people, and not at the mere exercise of authority so, the intelligent teacher regards his power as the servant of his good intentions. With this view he enters his sphere as the child's truest friend, not as an evil genius sent to inflict "hard lessons" and useless restraints; as an older brother; full of kindness and sympathy, not as the domircering tyrant, #hoin it is treason to love. The teacher should secure the respect and esteem of the scholars. This cannot be accomplished by weakly humoring their faults and short-comings; but by a firm and manly deportment; by showing himself equal to any