ciples of the National Government. These branches might be taught in the grammar schools, just as well as in the High School."

In consequence of this suggestion, the Controllers adopted a resolution, adding the "History of the United States" to the list of studies required for admission to the High School.

Finding that the measure adopted was still inadequate to the exigency, Mr. Hart, again, in September, 1849, brought the whole subject before the attention of the Controllers in a special report, from which the following extracts are made :—

"In several of my annual reports, and particularly in that for the year ending July, 1846 (pp. 86-88), I have called the attention of the Controllers to the necessity of providing in some way for the steady increase in the number of applicants for admission to the High School. This increase is caused by the natural growth of the population, the improvement of the lower schools, and the constant extension of the whole school system.

"When the High School was opened in 1838, the number of pupils in all the lower schools was less than 18,000. It is now more than 40,000. From a careful examination of the early records of the Controllers, and also those of the sectional Boards, I believe the lower schools have advanced in other respects quite as much as in numbers. The second, and in some cases even the third divisions of the grammar schools are now as far advanced intellectually, as the first divisions were before the organization of the High School. Yet our terms of admission have remained nominally unchanged. I say nominally, for there has been of necessity a real change. While we continue to examine on the same branches that we did in 1838, we ask questions that are more difficult, requiring on the part of the applicants a much more extended study of those branches.

"It will be readily perceived from the nature of these branches, that there is a certain point beyond which the course heretofore pursued in our examinations ceases to be profitable or proper. Arithmetic beyond a certain point runs by a natural sequence into algebra and mensuration, the latter consisting mainly of the practical applications of arithmetic to mechanical and commercial business, the former being only arithmetic generalized. The study of the elements of algebra and mensuration is in fact, as every well informed teacher knows, the best and shortest method of perfecting a pupil in arithmetic. After learning thoroughly the easier parts of arithmetic, the most expeditious way of learning its higher problems is, not to study them alone, but to study them in connexion with the elements of algebra and mensuration. The elements of algebra and mensuration, and the whole of

arithmetic, may thus be acquired together, in the same time that arithmetic alone would require if pursued by itself to completion. There is in like manner a natural, though not quite so intimate a connexion between writing and drawing, grammar and rhetoric, geography and history, the history of the United States and its constitution and form of government.

"The removal of some of these simpler studies from the list of those pursued in the High School to the list of those required for admission, seems therefore to be desirable in itself, as well as demanded by the increasing number of applicants. Such a change would benefit the High School, by enabling us to add new studies to the course or to pursue farther some of those already adopted. It would benefit still more the grammar schools by introducing there some very important branches now virtually excluded from them.

"Changes of the kind contemplated should be gradual and prospective in their provisions. To add suddenly a large number of studies to the requirements for admission, would tend to discourage the grammar schools by overloading them with duty, and to embarrass the High School by causing a temporary deficiency in the number of applicants. The Controllers during the last school year made a useful beginning by a resolution requiring that in all examinations subsequent to July, 1849, the candidates be examined in the History of the United States, in addition to the studies heretofore required. This addition I am sure will not be sufficient. I would therefore respectfully suggest the adoption by the Controllers of a resolution requiring candidates for the High School to be examined, in February next and at all subsequent admissions, in the Constitution of the United States; and in July next and at all admissions subsequent to that, in the elements of algebra and mensuration. I have suggested these branches in preference to some others that might be named, because they seem on the whole to be the simplest, and the ones most intimately connected with the studies already pursued in the grammar schools.

"Whether other studies shall be required, and how soon they shall be added to the list, we shall have better means of judging a year hence than now. A change of the kind contemplated can hardly fail to give a favorable impulse, which will be propagated through the whole series of lower schools.

"I should be loth to believe that important improvements are not in store for all our schools, from the High School down to the primaries. I have great confidence also in the belief that improvements hereafter are to be obtained in the same manner that all improvements heretofore have been, I mean, by a constant process of improving

upwards. The primaries are to be improved by elevating the secondaries, the secondaries by elevating the grammar schools, the grammar schools by elevating the High School. The whole system, in short, is to be improved by every part rising equally, gradually, and constantly. The mode of improvement which I have suggested, seems to be that which with the least action secures the largest results. As a small angle of divergence at the top of a pyramid affects materially its solid contents, so a small amount of legislation, judiciously applied to the top of our system of public schools, and addressed primarily to only four or five hundred of its pupils, may enlarge materially the intellectual advantages of its whole forty or fifty thousand."

The adoption of this line of policy by the Controllers, and the perfect ease with which the measure was carried into effect, settled entirely the question of the adequacy of the one High School to supply the wants of an ever increasing population.

The transfer of so considerable a number of studies from the High School to the grammar schools, gave a fitting opportunity for extending the course of the former. Among the studies which Mr. Hart had long wished to see placed on the footing of an integral part of an English education, was the Anglo-Saxon. In 1849 and 1850, with the consent of the Controllers, he introduced this study into the High School course, in connexion with his lectures on the early English literature. As there was no one else at hand to undertake the task of instruction, he set himself courageously to work to learn the language, in the midst of his other multiplied duties, and taught it with most gratifying success to several classes. Some prejudice, however, having been awakened in the public mind, against this study, he was obliged in 1854 to yield to the popular clamor, and to abandon the course, just as it had become fairly developed. The experiment on this subject in the Philadelphia High School, was regarded with much interest in all parts of the United States, and its very unexpected abandonment, after such a noble progress had been made, was learned by many of the most enlightened friends of education with sincere sorrow. Mr. Hart's views on this subject are set forth with so much fulness in the paper on "The English Language," before referred to, that it is not necessary to dwell upon it farther in this place.

Professor Hart has been busy with his pen. Having access to the editorial columns of nearly all the daily papers of the city, he has seldom allowed a week to pass without some contribution to the general current of public opinion. In the numerous local controversies, which have necessarily grown out of the development of a general system of popular education, he is understood to have availed himself very largely

of this means of allaying opposition, and of propagating correct views. His thorough investigation into the early history of the public schools of Philadelphia, in preparing his course of lectures on that subject, gave him rare facilities for such a purpose.

Besides these anonymous, but not least important labors, his annual reports have furnished a vast amount of statistical information of the greatest value for general educational purposes. These reports, if collected, would form several large volumes. The information which

they contain, is presented with a compactness and perspicuity that have made them models of their kind.

Mr. Hart's first work in the preparation of school books was the editing of "White's Universal History," in which he added several chapters to that part relating to the discovery and settlement of North America. This was in 1843.

In 1844 he discharged the duties of editor of the Pennsylvania Common School Journal.

During the same year, he prepared and published two reading books, which have been popular, namely, "The Class Book of Poetry," and "The Class Book of Prose."

In 1845, he published two other popular school books, namely, "English Grammar," and "A Brief Exposition of the Constitution of the United States."

Mr. Hale, the philologist to the United States Exploring Expedition, under Captain Wilkes, prepared for the government a large quarto volume on the languages of Polynesia. It was a learned work, containing some fifteen or more grammars and vocabularies of the different groups of languages with which the Expedition was brought into contact. Mr. Hale being in Europe at the time his manuscript was going through the press, the difficult task of editing it was intrusted by the Government to Mr. Hart, and occupied no little of his time in the years 1845 and 1846.

In 1847, his "Essay on Spenser and the Fairy Queen," already referred to, appeared contemporaneously in New York and London. It was a sumptuous octavo, of 514 pages, and was received with marked favor. A new edition of it was issued in Philadelphia, in 1854.

The severest literary labor, which he has at any time undertaken, was the editing of Sartain's Magazine. This was a monthly periodical, established with a view to high literary excellence, and enlisting in its service writers of the first class. Its success was immediate, and for that time very great, reaching in its second year a circulation of thir thousand. Mr. Hart, in addition to his other engagements, dis

charged the editorial labors of this magazine for two years and a half namely, from January, 1849, to July, 1851, writing all the editorials, reading all the proofs, reading and deciding upon the manuscripts offered for publication, amounting often in a single month to enough to fill the magazine for a year, and conducting the entire correspondence with the contributors. It was his boast, on leaving the office, that he had on no occasion kept either printer, publisher, or contributor waiting for an hour.

His connexion with this magazine brought him into familiar acquaintance with most of the living writers of the country, and made comparatively easy his next task, which was a publication on the "Female Prose Writers of America." This was issued in 1851. It was a large octavo volume, of 630 pages, printed in beautiful style, embellished with portraits, and containing original biographies with extracts. The work was well received, and has been reprinted once or twice since.

His latest publication is an introductory Latin reading book, entitled "Epitome of Greek and Roman Mythology." It appeared in 1853.

During his connexion with the Philadelphia High School, Mr. Hart has had numerous offers to go elsewhere. In December, 1844, he was invited to the presidency of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Blind. He has repeatedly had overtures to become the president of a College, and once to be the Chancellor of a University, with a large increase of salary. Thus far, however, with a wise moderation, he has uniformly declined all offers of the kind.

Mr. Hart was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in January, 1844. He received the honorary title of Doctor of Laws from Miami University in Ohio, in 1850.

For several years past, Mr. Hart has given a large amount of time and labor to the Sunday school cause. Feeling how much he is himself indebted to this beneficent agency, he endeavors to discharge some part of the obligation thereby laid upon him, by doing whatever may be in his power to extend its benefits to others. On Sunday, both morning and afternoon, he superintends a large Sabbath school, numbering fifty teachers and between three and four hundred scholars. On this school he has brought to bear all the fruits of his long experience as a professional teacher and governor of youth. Besides this, he is an active manager of the American Sunday School Union, to which he gives from two to three afternoons a week all the year round.