Do they yield to the suggestions of their own good sense in any proposed plan of operatien, or do they consult with everybody and then please nobody. Is the law of love or the principle of fear the engine of their government? Do they accomplish mostly by moral suasion, or do they seek to implant useful knowledge in one extremity, by dint of sundry blows administered to the other? I have small sympathy with the cudgel, and whether as cudgelor or cudgelee, I always begged most sincerely to the excused Such an instrument would find a much more appropriate place in a real Irish row than in a district school. The young are inclined to love, to confide, and are much easier drawn by the cords of affection than driven by the switch. It is this fact, and the action based upon it, that tends to give the mistress an advantage over the master. She understands more fully the force of that principle, and it is more natural, and therefore easier for her to submit herself to its guidance. Many of the brute creation are influenced by gentleness, by evidences of regard, and tell me not that man, especially in the spring time of his being, is incapable of that influence.

so many instruments that are subject to the will, and can be employed either to fathom the depth of science, or to devise the means to rob a hen-roost. It is of the very nature of these powers to act; and to act too, in reference to objects that are lofty, as well as to those that are low. The mind is equally at home among the great, as it is among the small, things of creation. Always then keep the mind active, and susceptible to higher sources of enjoyment. Bring it as frequently as possible into direct contact with great truths that will infuse into it their own kindred energy. If you have descended the mountain slope to the narrow valley where lies your field of labor, re-ascend as often as possible, to the mountain summit where you will breathe a freer air, and enjoy a wider range of vision. By these means your mental susceptibilities will be kept alive for high purposes; you will be enabled to compare the relative situation of your own little valley with numerous others that are smiling around you; and you can descend again to your labor with new ideas, new plans of improvement, new notions of progress, new methods of culture, and fresh incentives to effort. But it is not alone the teachers. It is also their methods of instruction that is important. In the selection and employment of the right methods of instructing lies the great secret of the teacher's art, We, who have swayed the sceptre of the pedagogue

and what son or daughter of New England, who has wandered away from her own rock-ribbed region, has not? we know full well, that teaching is an art to be learned by study and practice. It will not certainly be expected that I should undertake here to unveil the mysteries of this art Let me simply ask your attention to one or two principles connected with

Many start with the assumption that physical force is the great agent by which to compel obedience to law, and emulation and competition the mighty engine of progress in learning. They are both great mistakes. And mistakes too, the more fatal because they occur almost at the starting point of human existence. The effect of the one is to mar the body, and spoil the disposition; that of the other to plant a nest of vipers around the heart. It may be true that the successful competitor can revel amidst the most delightful emotions. But to say nothing of their doubtful character, and more than questionable agency, is there nothing it. to be considered in the blighted hope, the blasted One is that the mind, in this respect like the body, prospect, the disappointed expectation, the rankling is so constituted as to receive, as aliment, those various envy, and often bitter hatred of those who fail? The truth is, that the relations established by God between mind and its sources of supply, are, when left undisturbed, just as intimate and as influential as those between the body and its meaus of growth. The mind as naturally loves knowledge as the stomach does food, and it is no more necessary to stimulate the one by competition than it is the other by condiments. They both pervert the action of the very powers which they temporarily stimulate. I am not here to say that these agents should be, in all cases, entirely dispensed with. That in the present state of things may be impossible. But the great principle of moral suasion for guidance, and love of knowledge for its own sake, for progress, should be held up as of de sirable attainment, and to be reached and mastered at the earliest possible period of time.

kinds of knowledge which are in relation with its powers. Nor is it simply to receive. Those who act upon the assumption, that all that is necessary or desirable, is to effect a lodgement of knowledge in the memory, so that it can be brought forth and produced only because it is remembered, are laboring under a great mistake. Our right conception of this principle can be aided by analogy. How much would the body be benefited by the reception of food into the stomach and the allowing it to remain in that organ, which in this respect, answers the purpose of the memory? How much would it be benefitted by allowing that organ to bring it forth and again produce it? Clearly none at all. While the stomach was thus actively employed in receiving, retaining and again producing the food it was originally fitted to receive, the body would be wasting away under a fatal marasmus. There is one danger to which all teachers, especially That food must be subjected to the action of the those in district schools, are particularly exposed; and gastric and other juices; must be digested; must be that arises out of the principle that the mental powers chymified in the stomach; chylified in the lacteals; are found to shape themselves so as to be accommo- sanguified in the blood vessels; and then the process dated to the situation of their possessor, and to become of nutrition is ready to commence, and the thousand limited in their range of action to the objects in refer- little architects can build up their various structures of ence to which they are exerted. To teach others re-bone and brain, of muscle and nerve, until the perfect quires a superior mind to descend and to place itself physical man walks forth the joint result of their livby the side of an inferior one; to bring itself down to ing masonry. the level of its capacity; otherwise it would fail to be understood in its efforts to instruct. The danger is that having once got there, and being compelled so much to remain there, the mind would at length become incapacitated for acting in a higher sphere, and thus the teacher's circle of thought would constantly

So, also, the mind must first learn to digest. The facts, principles, knowledge, received into its capacious stomach, the memory, must not be suffered to be retained there inactive, or again simply brought out in their original state. The mind would dwindle and die under such a process. The great object should be to teach the mind itself to act upon the facts, princiNow this, like most other evils, can be easily avoid-ples, knowledge thus received. And that action is ed if taken in time. The remedy consists in always accomplished by making them subjects of thought, of making a right use of the mental powers. These are reading, of conversation, of familiar lecture, and more

become narrower and narrower.

especially by currying them out into all their different it must nevertheless be subjected to the test of the varieties of application. The parts of a machine are principle contained in those words of freedom, "By much easier and better comprehended by obse: ving their fruits ye shall know them." As you go forth, their agency in the action of the machine itself, than therefore, on your goodly errand, remember, that this by studying them separately and alone. institution not only sends along with you its blessings and its wishes for your welfare, but that it also looks to you for the full and faithful performance of your whole duty in common justice to itself, and to the great interests you have undertaken to advance. At the close of the Address, the following lines,

So also are facts and principles best understood by seeing in what manner they actually contribute to a joint result; to the onward progress of the race, or the majestic movements of nature. This is accomplished much easier and more effectually by the living teacher, than by the book. He can achieve it mostly by famil-composed by Miss ANN J. HAWLEY, of Warren county, iar talk or lecture, thus bring the mind of the pupil in were sung:direct contact with his own; warming it into life and activity, and infusing it into his own spirit and energy. In this manner and by these means the whole mind is nourished and increased in growth and strength.

Another principle is that mind, in this respect also, like the body, requires different kinds of aliment in differen stages of its growth. Does the mother ever think of trusting meat into the stomach of her infant? Certainly not, because it would be too weak to digest it. So, also, is the infantile mind entirely incompetent to receive and digest very complex ideas or abstract truths. The first acquis tions of the young mind naturally relate to physical objects and their sensible qualities. The assent to complex ideas, generalities, and abstractions, is never without its difficulties. In pushing the young mind up to the comprehension of these too early, it sometimes unfortunately acquires a distaste for every species of learning. This may be avoided by administering the right kind or aliment at the right time and in the right manner. Those studies should be the earliest resorted to, which afford to youth the most pleasant inducements in their prosecution. The young mind will more readily climb up to the comprehension of generalities from the analysis of a beautiful flower, than from the solution of a problem in mathematics. Thrs the steps of stages should not only be gradual, but pleasant, by which the mind may be led on to make higher and still higher attainments, until it has reached the limits of human capacity.

It should not be forgotten that the great object in teaching is not to create any new powers or faculties. It is simply to unfold and develop those that already exist. To bring them into relations with the kinds of knowledge to which they are adapted, and to teach them to act upon it. When the mind has learnt how to use its powers, and to rejoice in their use, it has fairly started on the career of improvement.

It is a subject of great and increasing congratulation among the people of the Empire State, that they have built up so successfully among them an institution having for its special object the instruction of teachers in the science of education and the art of teaching.

The Normal school is the gift of the Nineteeth Century. It may be said to have barely commenced the performance of its mighty mission. Although, in this State, doubt and difficulty and opposition shrouded its origin, yet it soon became apparent that its creation was due to a great public exigency, which could only be satisfied by its continuance. Its intimate and necessary connexion with the Common School System renders it a subject of absorbing interest. Its agency not only in qualifying teachers for the proper performance of their high duty, but also in e'evating the standard of school iustruction itself is becoming perfectly obvious to all the friends of education. One extremely favorable indication is a small but continual rise in the price of wag s, thus showing that the public are appreciating more and more fully the value of this kind of service. It must be constantly born in mind, that however strong may be the reasons for an institution like this,

We ask not honor, wealth or fame,
Not these, a monarch's pride;
We do not wish an empty name,
'T will not with us abide.
Nor yet in beauty's circle gay
Do we desire a part;
There is no other boon we crave
But purity of heart.

For beauty'll quickly fade away
Like a fair and lovely flower;
Honor and fame will soon decay,-
Frail creatures of an hour;
And riches, too, will soon take wings
And from us, aye, depart;

Oh! give us but a competence
And purity of heart.

For what can calm the dying hour
When all seems dark and drear?
Has wealth or fame the magic power
The drooping heart to cheer?
No! nothing can, when death appears,
Such holy calm impart

To him who leaves this vale of tears,
As purity of heart.

Then may we ever strive to shun

All that pertains to guile,

And be prepared when death shall come
To greet him with a smile.

Oh! naught in all the earth of air,

In science or in art,

Oh! nothing's so divinely fair
As purity of heart.

The VALEDICTORY was delivered by MORDAUNT M GREEN, of Madison county.

VALEDICTORY ADDRESS.

BY MORDAUNT M. GREEN, MADISON COUNTY. FELLOW STUDENTS:-In attempting to-day to address you, I do it with the fullest confidence that I cannot add to the interest of this occasion. Assembled, as you are, with the conviction that you must part probably never to meet again, it is impossible to repel the tide of past scenes that rush hurriedly upon your recollections. The hopes and fears, the joys and sorrows, the anxieties and aspirations which you have experienced since you entered this school, are recalled with the most striking vividness. You recollect the anxious countenances of your friends as you left, perhaps for the fisrt time, the family circle, to seek among strangers that which would enable you to perform more faithfully and profitably the duties which you had so nobly assigned yourselves. You remember the doubts and perplexities that haunted you before your respective situations in the school were announced.

You remember the moments of discouragement you have experienced while consuming the midnight oil over some intricate formula or abstract theory. You remember the encouraging words of your teachers, as you related to them the history of your anxieties and perplexities. You remember their kindness and attention to you while laboring under the influence of disease, and the anxious inquiries of

Your schoolmates, as they assembled and found your You go forth from this Institution as teachers. You go accustomed place vacated. These, and a thousand not to consult the chances of fortune, and pursue the similar recollections, are crowding upon your memo-path which pecuniary advancement may indicate, but

ries.

To those who are not Normals, these may seem unimportant reflections; but you will recognize them as important features in the scenes in which you have participated since you met in this school. Your situation differs widely from that of the students of any other Institution; differs, not only in regard to the object that brought you hither and the peculiar features of the education you here receive, but in the social relations which you here sustain. You came from different, and many from distant po tions of this great State; left the old familiar haunts of childhood, so dear to every feeling heart; forsook the thousand allurements of society and friends, and came here, ignorant of the tastes and of those who were to become your associates, and shares of your friendship. With feelings you will never forget, you for the first time entered the precincts of this building. The mys teries of the Normal School were soon to be unravelled. As you hoped, you found teachers who met you with a welcome smile and a friendly hand; you found others in the same situation with yourselves, laboring under the same embarrassments; others, who were prompted by the same motives, who came for the same glorious purpose.

your profession is chosen, and you go to perform its various and complicated duties; that cannot be definitely pointed out, but to discern which may often require a most careful and right examination; duties that will affect not yourselves and your prosperity alone, but the character and usefulness of the rising generation.

In every relation which you may sustain, you will exert an influence. As in nature every force has its full power in its own direction, so will the full force of your influence be felt, though surrounded by opposite and modifying circumstances. The character of this influence, it is in your power to control. You are about to enter, as it were, a new world. You have been the taught; you are now to be the teachers. You have been accustomed to look to your teachers for counsel and advise, but you are to be the ministers of kindness to others, and the advisers and dictators of the youthful mind.

The child who receives from your hand his first faint impressions of science; who looks trustingly to you for what is good and right, and whose highest ambition is to be at some future time what you now appear to him, drinks in every word you utter; treasures in the memory every act you perform. Not a gesture, not a look but leaves its impression on his character and disposition. Observe his spirits sink as his quick eye discerns in your look the evidence of disapproval, or rise with warmth as he is conscious that you are pleased with his behavior. Be careful, then, that you condemn him not without the strongest evidence. One rash or careless act may forever chill his generous feelings.

the soil.

"Scratch the green rind of saphing, or wantonly twist it in The scarred and crooked oak will tell of thee for centuries Even so mayst thou guide the mind to good, or lead it to the

to come;

marrings of evil,

For disposition is builded up by the fashioning of first impressions."

A common object naturally suggests common means or its accomplishment. Your object was education. You came not here to while the careless hours away merely to be considered the pupils of a boarding school; you came not here as the children of wealthy parents whose education is too cften estimated by the cost of gaining it; but you came here the avowed friends of education and earnest desirers of its promotion. You desired it not, as the miser, who "gets for the sake of getting," but you desired it for your own benefit, and for the purpose of benefitting others. You resolved not to live for yourselves alone. The opinions of your associates were asked, and your own freely expressed. Pursuing the same studies for the same purpose, the inquiries you would make of your teachers were similar, and an answer to one would To discover the tendencies of your influence, will often answer those of the whole class. Whatever was require more than ordinary care. It is not like the offered relative to the great object, teaching, was alike bursting forth of the long confined waters of some acceptable to all. In whatever arose that would affect rock-bound fountain, exhibiting its effects as it passes, the profession, you manifested a common interest. but it steals forth over the mind, as age steals over the As you had no old associates with whom to converse youthful frame; its effects are apparent ere its advance of the "affairs of home," your correspondence with has been discovered. Thus, to be successful teachers, each other was confined principally to transactions you must be constant and unceasing in the discovery that had occurred since your acquaintance here. The of duties, and prompt and cheerful in their perfor school was the topic. Its object, its tendencies, its mance.-You have chosen a profession, to adorn scenes and its regulations, were the subjects of your which will require, on your part, continued effort. daily conversation. Your pursuits differing so widely Your success depends, not upon the performance of from those around you, you formed but few exterior some great and mighty deed, heralded by the shouts acquaintances, and became, as it were, a Normal com- of popular excitement; you live not in the echo of munity. Not an exclusive, isolated community. song or self adoration; no blood-stained banner waves whose cohesion depended on the frigidity of its boun- its reeking folds to proclaim your deeds to staring mildaries, but a community whose lines of conduct were lions; but your success depends upon the silent workconverging to the same point; a community in which ings of a well-directed influence; you live in the afexisted common sympathies and common aspirations; fections of your pupils, in the confidence of your asa community whose heart strings vibrated in unison. sociates, and in the grateful remembrance of the comIn these relations you have passed through the difmunity around you; your influence will be exhibited ferent stages of advancement, and having faitr.fully in the characters of those who receive your instruction discharged the duties required of you by the regula- and will be transmitted on the waves of generations tions of the school, you are met here to-day to receive that may arise and die away on the boundless ocean the customary testimonials, and tid adieu to your of eternity. teachers and to each other.

But ere the bands of this association are broken, let us indulge in a few reflections on the relation you are about to sustain to the world, and more especially to that portion of it whose characters you are to mould.

But aside from the duties naturally arising as teachers of the young, you as Normal graduates, have others that demand a share of your attention. You love this Institution. On you and those who have gone out before you depend, in a great degree, its

Go forth then to your labors with cheerful hearts, and though fortune may seem to smile at instead of on you, though the pride of aristocracy greet you with a frown or not at all; and, though your title on the records of society be nought but "teacher," heed it not Be assured the time will come, when society shall mete you a just reward; when an adequate tribute shall be paid to the teachers's profession.

I would not, fellow pupils, on this occasion, call your attention wholly to the obligations by which you are surrounded. You are met here for the last time, and the lengthening shades proclaim that even this meeting must be of short duration.

Associated with this reflection is the certainty of parting, and I need not say that it is a painful certainty. It must ever pain the feeling heart to contemplate the breaking up of fond associations But the thought of parting with schoolmates is not our only cause of sorrow; blending with it, and giving it a deeper shade in the memory of one* who was but just now among you; one who had looked forward to this farewell occasion with the same pleasing anticipations, mingled with the same lingering regrets. But a few days since, you were cherishing the pleasing reflection that your circle had not, during the present term, been broken by the hand of death; but in the midst of your rejoicing, he was among you, silently marking his victim. She was selected, and the chill messenger bore her spirit forever away from these scenes of earth. Yet her memory and her example live. She was prompt and faithful in the performance of every duty enjoined by the relation she here sustained. An experienced and successful teacher, she was surrounded with flattering auguries of future usefulness. But she is gone. -She fell among friends, kind and sympathetic, but the pressure of a sister's hand and the softening tones of a mother's voice, could not unite to soothe the agonies of departure. Alas! they knew nought of her illness until her form was enshrouded in the habiliments of the grave. But they have the consoling reflection that she died with the fullest confidence in a peaceful eternity beyond the tomb; and her last request to her friends was, that they be prepared to meet her in that happier world, to part no more forever.

The

der the reflections it brings a source of true and lasting pleasure.

Before we leave, allow me to tender to you, gentlemen of the Executive Committee, the gratitude we owe you for the interest you have ever taken in the Normal School; and believing that its prosperity depends much on your efforts, we earnestly hope that your success may be as great as we believe your interest is sincere

To you, our teachers, I would fain express what we all feel, but time and my inability forbid. I will say, however, that for your kindness and patience in imparting instruction; for the generosity you have exhi bited in all our relations; and for the zeal you have ever manifested in the promotion of our welfare, you have the gratitude of thankful hearts. We go forth to impart the principles received under your instruction, and may our conduct be such as will elevate the profession we have chosen. In our fireside circles, in our intercourse with the world, in the labors of our profession, we will remember you.

Could I check the wing of time, gladly would I dwell on the reflections peculiar to this occasion. But it is impossible. Every pulsation of your throbbing hearts is the knell of a departed moment. Every effort made to detain it, but records its passage. moment that shall witness your separation is fast coming, and seems to approach with accelerated velocity. You are now congregated, a Normal School; to-morrow's setting sun will leave you by a hundred happy firesides Freed from intellectual toil and the stifling atmosphere of the city, you go to seek, for a while, the pleasures of former days, and breathe the free air of the field and the forest. Yet often will the wing of fancy waft you back to these halls; often will you live over again the scenes that have here transpired; often will the echo of the cheerful song reverberate through your minds; often will you be congregated here to join again in the morning exercise, or listen to the weekly lecture These and a thousand other reminiscences, will lure memory back to its former haunts, and renthea A. Loveland, Delaware county.

Mis

To you, our Principal, on whom has devolved more especially the care and guardianship of the Institution, we return our most heartfelt thanks. Though your station is one of more than ordinary responsibility, you have discharged all its duties faithfully and satisfactorily: and with expressions of the fullest confidence in your wisdom and that of your associate teachers, and of our warmest wishes for the success of the Normal School, we bid you adieu, with the strongest emotions of friendship. Then followed the