E. C. & J. BIDDLE. No 6. So. Fifth St., Philadelphia. Publish the following works designed for the use of Schools and Colleges. Lynd's First Book of Etymology. Lynd's Class Book of Etymology. Oswald's Etymological Dictionary, with Key. Fiske's Eschenburg's Manuel of Classical Literature. Vogdes' U. S. Arithmetic. Key. 46 First Part U.S. Arithmetic. Ring's 3,000 Exercises in Arithmetic. Key. Alsop's Algebra, Second Edition. Key. Johnson's Moffat's Natural Philosophy. Peale's Graphics, The elementary principles of Hill's Drawing Book of Flowers and Fruit. Fruit. Outlines of Sacred History. Tregor's Geography of Pennsylvaina. L'Abeille pour les Enfans. Lessons for beginners in Sandford aud Merton, in French. IN PRESS. Alsop's First Lessons in Algebra. SERIES OF ETYMOLOGICAL CLASS BOOKS. 1. THE FIRST BOOK OF ETYMOLOGY. By James Lynd, Prof. of Belles Letters, in Delaware College. prepared with care, with reference to the wants of scholars Very respectfully, your obedient servant, C. M. Saxton, New York; H. H. Hawley & Co., Utica; Hall & Dickson, cock, Syracuse; Alden & Markham, Auburn; O. G. Steele, Buffalo; and by Booksellers generally. CLEVELAND'S COMPENDIUM OF ENGLIS LITERATURE. A COMPENDIUM OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, chronologicali arranged, from Sir John Mandeville (14th century) to W. Cowper (ose of 18th century); consisting of Biographica Sketches o. the Authors, choice selections from their works; with Notes xplanatory and illustrative, and directing to the best Editions, and to various criticisms. Designed as a text-book for the highest classes in Schools and Academies, as well as for private reading. By Chas. D. Cleveland. Adopted as a text-book in the Public Grammar Schools of Philadelphia; the Public High School Hartford; and extensively in Academies and private Seminaries throughout the Union. From Rt. Rev. Alonzo Potter, D. D. PHILADA., Dec. 9, 1847. Having, some years since, meditated a similar undertak ing, I can appreciate, in a measure, the difficulties with I which you were called to contend, and the skill with which you have surmounted them. The selections seem to me to be made with much taste and judgment, and I cannot but regard this volume as a very valuable addition to our School Literature. The interest with which a young kinswoman, in whose hands I have placed it, is studying it, is an earn est of the reception which it must meet in the more advano 2. THE CLASS BOOK OF ETYMOLOGY. By Profes-ed classes of our higher schools for both sexes. Sor Lynd 3. AN ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. By John Oswald. New edition, with a key by Prof. Lynd. This series has been adopted, in whole or in part, for use in the Public Schools of Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, Brooklyn, Troy, Utica, Hartford, Charlestown, &c. &c. From Professor J. S. Hart, Principal of Philadelphia Central High School, author of an English Grammar, Class-Books of Prose and Poetry, an Exposition of the Constitution of the United States, &c. gro eme ALONZO POTTER, BOSTON, March 7, 1847. My Dear Sir-I ought long ago to have acknowledged your very agreable present of the Compendium of English Literature. It is just the thing I had been wishing to see, and I thank you for it. I have examined the Compendium with great care, and have found it better suited than any other volume I have seen, to be a text-book in the study of the History of English Literature. In size it is of a right medium, not being of hopeless length, but yet long enough to make a deep impres sion, and to give a fair view of the writings of the inore prominent of the English writers in prose and verse. The biographical notices are judicious, and the extracts are made specimens of the treasures of our incomparable English lan with taste and discrimination, and present most attractive guage. ful and interesting that I hope it will obtain the circulation I have adopted it in my school, and have found it so use which it so richly deserves. Respectfully yours, GEO. B. EMERSON. Published by E. C. & J. Biddle, Philadelphia, and for sale by the booksellers named in the advertisement next preceeding. CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, Philadelphia, June 15, 1817. GENTLEMEN, I have examined with unusual satisfaction the First Book and Class-Book of Etymology, by Mr. James Lynd. These books both in their plan and execution. give evidence of having been prepared by one practically acquainted with the difficulties of the subject, and able suc cessfully to meet them. I have long considered the study the one of primary importance, and I am free to say, that I beink Mr. Lynd's work the greatest advance that has yet tegen made towards a practical and efficient method of ching it. The conviction has been for some time gaining und, that the study of the analysis of words into their elnts, of the meaning of these elements and the method of combining them-in other words, the study of Etymol ogy Is essential, especially to the mere English scholar, to a pro per nd intelligent comprehension of the language. These LARGE number of first rate agents, to whom a liberal com era ises, also, like all rational exercises connected with the mission will be paid for every ew School they will estabstuerc of language, have been found to be one of the most lish, and or every pupil added to an established school. Teacher effidvient means of diciplining the youthful mind. But hither furnished on application. The best recommendations are requir to cserious difficulties have been experienced from the wanted. All communications must be post paid. of text-books precisely adapted to the necessities of English E. H. WILCOX, Proprietor. scholars; and many teachers have omitted what they be August 1st 1848. 126 Nassau st., New-York lieved to be an important branch of primary instruction' because no method of teaching it had been presented that seemed sufficiently practical. Mr. Lynd's hooks, will go far to remove this difficulty. They are evidently Clerk of A Wanted Immediately. AMMOND'S POLITICAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK, vol 3d, think, H just published and for sale, price $2 25, by, bucano HALL & DICKSON. Aug. 1st., 1848. District. THE DISTRICT SCHOOL JOURNAL Is published monthly, and is devoted exclusively to the promotion of Popular Education. EDWARD COOPER, EDITOR. TERMS.-Single copies 50 cents; seven copies $3 00; twelve copies $5.00 twenty-five copies $10 00 payable always in advance. All letters and communications intended for the District School ourual should he directed to the Editor Syracuse N. Y. Post Paid. Printed on the Power Press of BARNS, SMITH & COOPER, At the Office of the Daily and Western State Journal. [From the Albany Evening Journal.] THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL EXAMINATION. The Examination of the Pupils was close and se vere. But the Students passed through the ordeal with honor to themselves and credit to their Teachers. There were forty-six graduates-twenty-nine ladies and seventeen gentlemen-from 33 counties. They go out from the institution thoroughly disciplined, and fully qualified to enter upon the important duties of the profession which they have chosen. The Principal of the School, Mr. PERKINS, by his devotion to its interests, by his enlightened judgment, and by the proof which he has given of his ripe scholarship, has fully justified the confidence reposed in him. The high character which the institution had acquired under the supervision of the lamented PAGE is safe in the hands of his worthy successor. The School is no longer an experiment. Its utility is fully established. It is now permanently identified with the Common School System of the State; and so long as it maintains its present high character, it will be as popular with the people as it is useful to the great cause of universal education. Thursday afternoon the exercises were opened by Prayer by the Rev. Dr. J. N. CAMPBELL, and singing by the Pupils The following Poem, by Miss Sarah A. Dempster, of Fulton county, was then read by Miss E. C. Hance. If we had a production to be read in public, and wished it to sound well, we would surely secure the services of Miss Hance : POEM. The night was still and calm as dreamless sleep, [No. VIII Beside a little stream that wandered on Of light came beaming from th' eternal throne Then sent it back again and swelled for aye And thus we stood: her long damp hair, uncurled, Of man that's one unending round of change," "Oh! for a dialect to tell thee All glorious power, all majesty sublime! "Ye think me mad that thus I herald forth With me back to our early friendship days; Ye looked for then? And has there not been stirred We parted when there dwelt no cloud Upon the sunlit sky, The glowing things of earth to shroud As they went dancing by, Upon my brow the light of youth In childlike beauty played, And on my heart the seat of truth By holy hand was laid. I loved the beautiful and bright. The harmless, buzzing things, That in the gorgeous summer light, Went past on rainbow wings. I worshipped the pole, clustering gem That rest on yonder blue, Like new-formed sparkling diadems Of pearly-shining dew, There roamed not through the whole wide earth A sound I loved not well, Whether of sadness or of mirth Its province was to tell. But, oh! to revel in the love Of numbers and to roam Among long-buried spheres, to pore That told me of a cavern wild, In whose recess the earth, A monster, eyeless, unformed child Lay dreaming at its birth; And of some hissing snake-like forns And breathed ten thousand crawling worms, Oh! fancies strange as these were my delight; Around the the old hearth-stone no joy for me, Alas! for hearts that lose the love of home! And then through long still summer days I dreamed And one lone night, when stars were flashing here A story ran, that from the olden time 'T had been the meeting place of ghost-like forms, But oh! I mingled with the white-robed throng And joined my voice in their sweet minstrelsy And love and wonder swayed their sceptre there; My weary, restless spirit stilled, For, oh! its void was more than filled, And I stayed one moment on tireless wing To drink my fill of the brimming spring, 'In the boundless deep of eternity;' And then I plumed my wings for flight again, And soared where mortal form had never been, And blew my trumpet loud and long In my excess of ecstacy, To bid the fair and snowy throng Join in my rich sweet minstrelsy. For ye must know that high above the rest There's not a sound in all the sky There's not a hope in spirit breast And God whose home is every where, Think, then, how pure are those that stand 'Twas there I saw the one ye loved so well, I care no more. A beacon light is gleaming in yon sky, 'I charge thee with prophetic tone to walk right on- | know, and what he can do; where lie his stores of To bid despair kneel down before thy stera and To hurl aside with conscious might the giant from thy way, And knowing all thy power, walk on in darkness I tell thee train the young immortal mind Than worlds of wealth. And when thy duty's done, And thou shalt find sweet slumber on the breast Singing by the Pupils. Second, That we next ascertain the powers, physical, intellectual, and moral, by which the one is to be attained, and the other performed, and Third, That we apply to each one of these just that precise course of culture and training that will enable each, with the least amount of effort, to attain the one and perform the other. It may be all summed up in the application of discreet and judicious e lture to every active and thinking power, with the view of enabling man to master all that lies within the limits of his capacity, and to act up to the highest responsibility of his being Now the first obvious remark here is, that this culture would be completely thrown away upon the aged. They haved passed entirely beyond its reach. It would be almost entirely thrown away upon the man or woman in mid life. The modes of thought and feeling, and the habits of action then formed and in full operation, and energised, as they are, by the streams of influence that flow out fresh from life's full fountain head, utterly preclude even the hope of so bestowing it as to effect in them any very considerable After which, AMOS DEAN, Esq., delivered the follow-change. ing Address to the Students: ADDRESS. The only fit subject for this culture is the young. The young--and what scul stirring associations clusThis earth with all its various uses and purposes, is ter around that term. The young-to whom the langto us what we choose to make it. It is all run in the uage of the cradle and the lessons of the tomb are mould of mind, and is to it what the painted bow of equally accessible. The young-the rising hope of Heaven is to the descending shower and the glittering earth, for whose benefit man has been toiling on ever sunbeams. In the calm and serene aspect, it stretches since the creation, and now presents the accumulated its many colored arch along the verge of the horrison, experience of almost six thousand years to admonish, and is then truly the signal of peace. But in the to warn and to guide. The young-whom posterity troubled storm of the ocean, where the blackening are to hold responsible for the performance of high cloud above frowns upon the tumbling surge below, and holy trusts, of trusts increasing in magnitude and that beauteous bow becomes inverted, and mirrors importance as the experience of the world accumuupon the brow of Heaven, the tempests of the deep. lates its lessons. The young-who are soon to step So also to a well regulated mind, one which com-upon life's thronged arena, upon whom the chains of prehends and acts upon the true philosophy of life, habit have never yet been rivited, whose course and this world is a world of beauty, grandeur, sublimity destiny depend so essentially, so almost entirely upon and goodness. Over all its physical objects and themselves Oh that we might redeem, that we mi ht aspects are thrown an ideal, inoral and religious man-save, that we might enlighten, that we might ennoble tle; and all the acts and violations of its gifted tenant, the young, is the language both of age and of infancy, become invested with the deep and abiding interest the cry that bursts forth spontaneously from the tomb due to immortal natures. When the several sanctions, and from the cradle the physical, political, social, moral and religious, which influence human volitions, are all strictly obeyed, the conscious soul drinks in their pleasures, and always has its ever growing capacities for enjoyment full. And how shall this be done? At what time, in what place, by what means? The ime embraces all that period intervening between feeble infancy and that stage of life when mind. soul, and body are surrendered up to the dominion of When, on the contrary the penalties of these sanc-habits which have acquired so much strength as to tions are incurred, and the material frame withers under the influence of disease, or wastes within a prison's walls, or wanders a solitary outcast from society; or when the immortal nature withers beneath the terrible inflictions of i self and its God; then indeed, everything without, in like manner, answers to everything within, and the torturers of body and soul are seen painted in the landscape, glassed in the ocean, mirrored in the heavens, and interwoven in all the varied forms of human action. The ear can then hear nothing but discord, the eye see nothing but tor-office and function, and must perform them faithfully ture It becomes then an enquiry of the highest possible importance, by what means this well regulated mind, that can act upon this true philosophy, can be attained. What must be given for its purchase, and on what terms can it become the property of the race. exert a perfect control. The length of that per od will differ in different individuals. One fact, however, holds true universally: and that is, that this surrender is gradual; that the efficiency of culture in modifying the man and influencing his destiny is inversely as his age; that in this respect he resembles a pyramidical structure, having large portions around its base open to thesun-light, and but a single point at its summit. The place is principally the nursery and the school room Each one of these has its own appropriate to make a perfect man. With the first, we have here nothing to do, except to remark that the transfer of the young from it to the school room is generally done a great deal too early.-The idea o sending children to school, at a very tender age, for the reason that by so doing they are got rid of at home, is one in which the thing done is as ill-judged as the reason for it is untenable. For this assertion I have my own reasons; First, That we form some definite idea of the but for want of time, and from some slight apprehenhuman capacity; that we ascertain what man cansion that you night pass the same severe judgment We answer-that the terms, and the only terms are upon them that I have upon that just mentioned, I farbear to state them. the creation. His works are constantly addressing every sense we possess, and are appealing to us through the touch, and the taste, and the smell, and the eye and the ear; let then the perceiving, reasoning and reflecting mind no longer remain ignorant of their higher purposes, or inattentive to their various teachings. The means are principally parental and school instruction. With the first again we have nothing to do, except to remark, that it stands to the second in the relations of a child to its parent.-Who are the fathers and mothers of this generation? They were the school boys and school girls of the last; and the There are, to speak of no others, two obvious beneschool children of the present, with all their thought-fits arising from this institution One is the general less levities and smiling faces, and gladsome gushings diffusion of intelligence and knowledge; the creation forth of young life, are to be the fathers and mothers of a loftier tone of moral senti.nent; the gift of a of the next. More than that. They are to be the power to appreciate the higher uses and purposes of progenitors of the whole world that is yet to come, things; all tending ultimately to form and sustain a and the remotest generation that shall tenant this orb, pure and high toned public opinion, that engine so is to send back upon them its blessing or its curse, ac-powerful for good or evil in all the workings of free cording as they have influenced its destinies for weal governments. Thus by the wide diffusion of these means of happiness and enjoyment, their sum total must be vastly increased. or woe. Another is that it affords abundant opportunity and every reasonable facility, to minds originally vested with the elements of power to become quickened into life, and to awake to a knowledge of themselves. We know not what mighty energies, or what giant powers, may be slumbering immediately around us. The child who is now collecting his rudiments of knowledge in yonder school house, may yet make a discovery in some department of art or industry, that shall completely revolutionize human affairs. It is therefore perfectly apparent that around the institution of the common school cluster interests momentous for the present, and full of consequences for the future. And yet this is no time hallowed institution It has been late in making its appearance upon the stage of action. We have still amongst us him who gave its present form. who by blending in proper proportions, state patronage with voluntary individual effort, imparted to it at once the elements of power, progress and perpetuity. This lateness of its or gin is one among the facts going to show that man's capacity for development is inexhaustible; that We in truth, little know where sleeps the head to new ideas and new institutions will continue to be which mankind may be the most extensively indebproduced and organized, so long as man continue to ted. It may be pillowed in poverty, and want and deștibe man; and that these new ideas and institutions tution may be the inmates of its dwelling; the coldwill ever spring up at the call of necessity, and beness of neglect, or the smile of derision its encourageadapted to the occasion or exigencies that requires them. and support with a power more than human, and with their kindly aid it pursues onward its noiseless and unobtrusive tread, until the first intelligence we have of it, it sends up its pointed rod to protect our dwellings from the thunderbolt, or pushes afloat its steamship to gladden our waters. ment to effort. It goes forth alone and unnoticed. The man of business, and of pleasure, and of politics, It is, to a great extent, on the possibility or proba- passes by regardlessly. He has no eye to see, nor ear bility of realising from this institution all it seems to hear, nor tongue to encourage. Nor are these refitted to furnish, that the hope of the world now hangs. quired. Their place is more than supplied by the ten Were not the schoolmaster abroad amongst us, we thousand glorious influences, that come up fresh and might well doubt the perpetuity of all those institu- invigorating from every part of this vast temple, the tions which are mainly dependant on light and knowl-universe, where God is worshipped. These sustain edge. That little moral castle, the school house, is of an importance, infinitely outweighing the princely palace, or baronial hall. There are sown the seeds of knowledge; there are first manifested the elements of power; there are aroused the hitherto dormant energies of thought; and how important is thought. It is its noiseless progress, that by its still but efficient development of great principles, laws, and wide spreading truths, has given man such a clearness of vision into the arena of nature, and control over her operations as to enable him to employ her most active agents, in his own service, to push forward the enormous vessel by the expansive power of her steam, and to send abroad through space his various communications on the wings of her lightning. Let then the energies of thought be successfully aroused. Let the American mind be awakened to a sense of its wants; to a knowledge of its powers; and to a just appreciation of its rights, privileges and perogatives. Let there be instilled into the minds of the young an irrepressible desire of knowledge; a desire that will originate sea.ching inquiries into the operations, reasons, causes and effects of things; that will ask of the volcano how and why it lights up its blazing beacon fire; of the earthquake, wherefore its convulsive heavings of thestorm cloud and what mission it is designed to accomplish; and of the blood, on what rosey errand it is sent into every part of the living system. Wherefore should the mind be idle while dwelling in the midst of a universe of wonders; while inhabiting a world which is in fact only a splendid work shop, in which God has been laboring ever since A single invention, or the discovery of the simplest principle, may be of infinitely more value to man than the creation or dismemberment of an hundred empires. Take, for instance, the principle of representation in government. Would all the wealth and power, and influence of the world combined, purchase of us that principle? No. Because without it that wealth and power, and influence would be divested of value. Without it they might indeed be roses, but they would be roses growing upon a grave, and utterly valueless to the unconscious dust beneath them. The extent to which these benefits are secured by this institution, will depend mainly upon the teachers and their methods of instruction. The teachers, and who are they? Are they from among and of the people? Have they come up to this great work with a full conviction of its importance? Do they realize the greatness of their mission? Are they satisfied with simply being useful, and are they willing to relinquish larger spheres of action, in order that they may be come more efficient in smaller? Have they possessed themselves of sound principles of their own by which to be guided, or are they to receive them from others upon trust? Do they stand upon the strength of their own "rendered reasons," or do they pin their faith upon the sleeves of others? |