assume the circumstance and terror which have been considered the inseparable attributes of a good pedagogue.

After this particular description of the exercises, lest their variety and number should leave upon the mind an idea of confusion and disorder, some description of the general principles upon which the exercises are conducted, may be necessary. In the first place, then, no pupil is allowed to be idle; and it is the duty of the master so to arrange the lessons, that a class shall be continually under his care; and that class must not contain one of the monitors whose turn it is to be on duty. To enable him to do this, there is a set time for every recitation of every class. Monitors of arithmetic, for instance, recite to the master, and then go to teach arithmetic clasWhile they are doing this, the monitors of grammar recite to the master, and are ready to teach classes, by the time the arithmetic classes have finished their exercise. While the monitors of grammar are teaching their classes, the monitors of geography are reciting to the master, and are ready to teach their classes, as soon as the classes are dismissed by their grammar monitors. In this way, a constant succession of fresh monitors is provided; and the frequent change of exercises, prevents the children from being fatigued.

ses.

There is a different classification in every branch of study; and, in classing the pupils in one branch, no regard is paid to their rank in another. Hence it not unfrequently happens that a monitor of reading teaches her monitor of arithmetic, or a monitor of spelling has in her class her own monitor in geography. In this way, every child has a fair chance to rise, if her genius leads to excellence in any thing. In common schools, a good arithmetician or reader cannot be first in the class, unless she is superior in every other branch studied by her class.

It may be worth our while here to compare the amount of practice obtained by each child in our school, with that of schools on the common plan. Let it be premised that the master is, during the time of school, as busily engaged as any master on the other plan can be. Our school consists, say, of eighty pupils, who attend five hours in the day, not including the afternoon school taught by a female. Five hours, supposing the master never to be interrupted in his labors, and the scholars allowed no recess, will, on the old plan, give each the personal attention of the master, just three minutes and three quarters. But, if the master be interrupted, all the exercises must stop of course. On the monitorial plan, supposing the classes to consist of six, each child will be actually practising fifty minutes; and, if the master is interrupted, the exercises of the school go on, as if nothing had happened. But even this estimate falls far short of the truth; for in some exercises, writing

on slate or paper, for instance, every child is engaged all the time. To this should be added the extraordinary attention required in such small classes, compared with that of large ones. If, in a school of only eighty pupils, the advantage is so much in our favor, it will be doubled in a school of one hundred and sixty, and so on. (To be continued.)

REVIEWS.

A Sermon delivered on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Boston Female Asylum, Sept. 23, 1825. By F. W. P. Greenwood.

Boston, 1825. pp. 20.

The Duties of an American citizen.

Two discourses delivered in the First Baptist Meetinghouse in Boston, on Thursday, April 7, 1825, the day of Public Fast. By Francis Wayland, Jr. Second Edition. Boston, 1825. pp. 48.

We take up these publications together, not because they are naturally connected by subject or by occasion-the topics of a political fast can have little in common with a charity for female orphans-but because they afford a striking illustration of the state of the times, and of the strong hold which the great subject of education has upon the attention of society. They indicate how much it is a universally engrossing concern, when occasions of every sort are caused to bend to it, and topics of the most opposite character are made to meet in this. A few years since, the anniversary of an asylum for female orphans, would have merely called for an exposition of the duty and beauty of charity, in order to warm the hearts of the audience to an immediate almsgiving. But now, it opens before the preacher the vast field of universal education; and he incites the hearers to high emotions and large views, and makes them to see in the occasion, not only an opportunity of relieving a few defenceless children, but one link in that lengthening chain of civilisation and happiness, which is yet to bind together all the scattered families of man. Time was when the recurrence of the annual fast led not a step beyond exhortations to repentance, and denunciation of sin. If politics were made the theme, it was a denunciation of the government or the opposition, and led the mind but very little higher than the ordinary newspaper disquisitions of the week. But now, the preacher extends himself to a survey of the general politics of the world, and the prospects they

unfold to the human race; and returns from the survey, not to rail at rulers either American or foreign, not to rhapsodise in the common places of patriotism-but to proclaim the importance of education, and to make his people feel their connection with the fortunes of their race, and their duty to exert themselves in training the rising generations for the new exigences of the times.

We say that this is an indication of the state of the public mind. And it also helps to form, and direct, and animate, the public mind. The pulpit is an engine operating regularly, uninterruptedly, and with direct action upon the mass of the community, rendering the church a sort of universal primary school, where the opinions and feelings of men, from childhood, are disciplined and formed, and where influence is readily exerted upon the public sentiment. The world cannot long stand where it is, if this great instrument is brought to bear universally and actively upon this subject, and thus to prepare for, and second, and stimulate, the labors of the press. The pulpit and the press are the two great engines of moral power by which society is governed. Let one take his stand upon these, and he can move the world. They create and direct that public opinion which is the legitimate sovereign, and which can never be dethroned. They are the mighty masters, the preceptors of society. That cause cannot go backward which they are united to maintain. And they, at this moment, with all their thousands of voices, are united in proclaiming, that the education of the coming races of men, is that upon which the political and moral salvation of mankind is to depend. The proclamation which they make is responded from every corner of society; and there will soon not be a fireside at which the plans of human improvement thence proceeding, will not be "familiar as household words." The impulse has been given, and is felt everywhere. Abroad, it is witnessed in that wonderful nation, which, having outridden the storms of half a century, stands eminent in intellect as in power; whose national councils, from overruling the affairs of kingdoms and the destinies of monarchs, have been turned to building schools in the villages, and finding instructers for the poor; and whose great statesmen, having retired from the ambitious contentions of political warfare, are collecting the mechanics of the nation into seminaries, and devising modes of diffusing instruction to every order throughout the land.* It is seen, also, in the other nations of Europe; in the rising republics of the new world, which have been erecting their seminaries with their independence; in the struggling states of Greece, where

We have now lying before us the nineteenth edition of Mr. Brougham's "Practical observations upon the education of the people, addressed to the working classes and their employers :"-full of interesting and encouraging matter.

letters are reviving with liberty; and among many of the uncivilised tribes of the world, whose children are learning to throw aside the savage, and attach themselves to books and arts. By this great and growing attention to the subject, is evinced the universal persuasion that education is to form the strength and hope of the future; and thus the way is preparing, we devoutly trust, for the day, when the physical force of the nations shall be subject to the intellectual, and the affairs of men be ruled by appeal to reason rather than to arms.

The share which the pulpit is to have in effecting the improvements which we anticipate, cannot be small; and we have been rejoiced to find, in every quarter, a disposition among the preachers of religion to give their effective aid. And this not only indirectly, by their influence on the general standard and tone of morals, but directly, by express discussion of the subject and by applying the authority and principles of our faith to this particular object. We do not see, indeed, a good reason why any topic connected with the character and improvement of man, upon which it is necessary that public opinion be rightly guided and healthy, should not be distinctly urged from the desk, for the purpose of influencing and directing that public opinion. We should suppose, that the wider the range of topics the preacher could bring into connection with the truths and sanctions of revelation, the more widely would he be able to extend the authority of that revelation, and cause the leaven of its principles to be diffused throughout the whole texture and mass of human concerns.

We should be glad to meet frequent examples of as sensible and powerful exposition of this important subject, as are presented in the discourses before us. Mr. Greenwood, in his usual plain, but beautiful and energetic simplicity, and with a happy adaptation of his text, insists that education should be extended to all classes, that it should be a religious education, and that the consequences would be incalculably beneficial, alike to the individuals and to the community. Isaiah liv. 3. 'ALL thy children shall be TAUught of THE LORD; and GREAT shall be the PEACE of thy children.' Under the first head, he argues the equal right of every individual to receive the highest cultivation which his circumstances in life may allow, and puts down with indignation the notion that any class of rational beings is born to a merely physical existence and perpetual servitude. A more selfish, pernicious, disgraceful principle, in whatever terms it may be muffled up, never insulted human nature, nor degraded human society. It is the leading principle of despotism, the worst feature of aristocracy, and a profane contradiction of that indubitable Word, which has pronounced all men to be brethren, and, in every thing which relates to their common nature,

equal.' He argues further, that the whole influence of human genius never can be secured to the world for its advancement and happiness, except every individual mind be fostered and brought into action. Wherever there is an unimproved mind, there is an unknown amount of lost usefulness and dormant energy.' Hence the obligation to extend, to the utmost possible limits, the advantages of knowledge. Hence the duty of that benevolence which provides for the mind; and not for the mind only, but for the heart and the character. Education must be based on principle, and mingled with religion.

"The education of all youth should be strictly a religious education. I do not mean by this, that children should be bound down to the reading of the Bible, chapter by chapter, and the regular rehearsal of a catechism, and the mechanical repetition of a few hymns,-and that it then should be taken for granted, that their religious education was complete. I would reach after something far more definite, solid, and practical. I would insist that they should be made to understand the laws of God, and to see and feel their application to their own bosoms and their own daily conduct; that they should be well grounded in all their personal and relative duties, by those who are well qualified to instruct them; that each individual should be enabled to form for himself a set of clear and immoveable principles, from which should perpetually spring up the practice of honesty, sobriety, industry, humility, benevolence, and all the consenting virtues. *** 'I would repeat, that a mere lip religion will not do, will not answer the purpose. Religion must bear down, as it were, with a nicely adjusted pressure, on all human actions and events; it must be woven in through the whole texture of life and conversation; or it is a useless thing. When properly inculcated, however, it is the very first and most important thing, and nothing else is valuable without it. A variety of well digested knowledge will indeed happily prepare the way for its reception and efficacy; but if it be absent, all possible knowledge is "as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal." Religion is the only sure foundation of virtue; and what is any human being, young or old, rich or poor, without virtue' He cannot be trusted, he cannot be respected, confided in, or loved.— Religion is the only sure index of duty; and how can any one pursue an even or a reputable course, without rules and without principles? Religion is the only guide to true happiness; and who is there so hardy as to assume the tremendous responsibility of withholding those instructions and consolations, which dispel doubt, soothe affliction, make the bed of sickness, spread the dying pillow, and open the gates of an effulgent futurity ?'

This connection between the cultivation of the intellect and the firm establishment of the religious principle is of the utmost consequence to be kept in view; since it is only by securing this, that it can be made certain that the new powers which education shall give to the inferior classes, will not be employed to the detriment of society rather than to its advantage. By combining with it the powers of religion, this danger is avoided, and the moral safety of society is provided for just in proportion as its intellect is advanced. Under these limitations, then,' says Mr. Greenwood, that is, that education be not a smattering, but be thorough and also religious,