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as the handmaid of thought, designed to introduce, and adorn, and im press it, but not to take its place. When employed as an end—a primary object of attention-it becomes a mere sensual enjoyment; and although one of the most innocent, the example of Italy, and the effect which the opera songs introduced among some of the musical societies of Switzerland show that the soul may become intoxicated and drowned in this, as in other pleasures of the senses.

STATE OF INSTRUCTION IN FRANCE.

At the close of the year 1836, it was stated by the Society for Elementary Instruction in Paris, that among fortyseven States, in which the condition of public education had been ascertained, France held only the twentyeighth rank. There are 14,000,000 of adults who cannot read ; 800,000 boys, and 1,600,000 girls who receive no instruction, and 2,700,000 children under six years of age, for whom no asylums are provided. There are 10,000 villages (communes) or associations of villages, in need of schools, which are still destitute of them. Only one in fifteen of the inhabitants of France enjoys the means of instruction. The instruction in most existing schools does not reach the point usually called elementary, and schools of a higher degree are very few in number. There are few model schools, teachers' associations, or other means of improvement. There is at present a serious reaction by those who oppose the diffusion of light among the people on political and religious grounds, (against the improvements which have been made.) Still much is constantly done to improve existing schools, and to establish new ones, and individual and enlightened benevolence is unceasing and active in the cause.

FEMALE INSPECTORS OF SCHOOLS.

The minister of public instruction in France directs the appointment of female inspectors for the schools of girls, in the same manner as male inspectors for the schools of boys. The obvious reasons are assigned for a course which it is singular should never have been adopted among us. 1. The mothers ought to be represented as well as the fathers in the establishments designed for the education of their daughters. 2. There are portions of the course of instruction, which they only understand. 3. There are subjects in reference to the regulation and discipline of the School, in which they alone are competent to judge, and where the ignorance or thoughtiesness of male instructors and guardians, often produces, or permits serious evils. 4. In short, it is a part of their natural vocation to watch over their daughters in all situations, and they are far more capable, and disposed to examine minutely into those details, on which the formation and delicacy of the female char

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acter so much depends. These ladies are required to be chosen among those who possess the requisite knowledge and zeal; and, in Paris, they are authorized to sit and vote in the meetings of the Committee when the state of their own schools is in question.

MISSIONARIES OF EDUCATION.

To the Conductor of the Annals of Education.—

I have read with much interest the articles you addressed to the American Lyceum, on the subject of Missionaries of Education,' and was gratified to see the views which the now 'Foreign Editor' has so often expressed and urged, so ably maintained. I am fully convinced that it is the only mode of bringing the cause of education home to the hearts of all, and I would appeal to the illustration he presented of the success of the societies who employ missionaries (or as they are usually termed agents,) to explain and impress the importance of their objects, and the comparative feebleness of those who sit still and wait for the world to call for light, and to purchase and read their appeals and statements. Let a society for education be formed with but half the zeal and effort of the American Temperance Society, and we may safely calculate on a far greater number of reformed teachers than of drunkards, and of rebuilt or improved school houses than of abandonded distilleries. Similar calculations of 'profit and loss' moral, physical, social and pecuniarycan be made and enforced, and the obstacles to be overcome are far less. -Who will go?

But it seems to me you have placed one obstacle in the way, unnecessarily. You say, 'No man ought ever to be appointed to the office of missionary or teacher of any kind, who is not in the best of health.' I am aware that you sometimes use the oriental style, and announce an absolute principle, as if it had no exceptions and no variations, and leave it to your readers or to time to make the exceptions; and I presume this may be the case here. Surely you do not mean to say that such feeble men as Doddridge, Martyn, and many other worthies of the the Church should have been forbidden to act as public teachers, and the world thus have been deprived of a river of blessings, which will probably follow their works to the end of the world! Would you have shut out Brainard from his field of labor, and Judson and Newell from theirs, for this reason? Would you have excluded the late Dr Porter of Andover, and many other excellent departed,' from their office? Would you have forbidden Emerson to open a school, from which New England is every day reaping rich fruits, on account of feeble health? I will not name the living-but let me beg you to look round among the best teachers and missionaries of all lands you know, the men who are doing most to promote the cause of humanity and education and religion and morals-those who are most efficient in laboring for the cause to which you are devoted, and tell us, if you really mean that all among these who were not in the best of health ought not to have commenced their labors; whether you see reason to regret it; and whether, as a consequence, you mean that they ought to abandon the field? Will you at least grant absolution to all such if they abandon at once their painful, wearing, almost gainless occupation for some one less laborious and more profitable and agreeable? Indeed I understand that even you, sir, are not in the best of health'-that your countenance, too, has some traces of the mark' you speak of; but you surely do not mean to have us understand that you regret your decision, or think it right to

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give up your efforts for the various good objects you have attempted to sustain with so much zeal.

There, is, however, a question of a more general nature, on which I should be glad to have your opinion. If all who are not in the best of health' give up such occupations, and resort to those in which they can enjoy more health and ease and opportunity of getting the good things of this world, will there be no physical and moral difficulties in supplying their place? A physician who claimed that he had examined the physiology of the human frame and its tendencies more than most men living, told me, that among the inhabitants of a retired village in New England, in a healthy situation, he estimated that there was not one in 100 who could be considered in health. Was this estimate probably correct? If so, can we expect any greater proportion in the whole of our country? and whence are we to obtain the multitude who are needed to supply the pressing intellectual and moral wants of our country, who shall be 'in the best of health?'

But let it be supposed that we find them; are those who have the best of bodily health always disposed or prepared to be the most useful? Will not the greater number of this minority (for I presume in this community it is a minority at least) be rather disposed to enjoy and improve their health, and taste the good things of this world, and enjoy the sweets of entire independence rather than expose that health to the chances of which you speak-and undergo the privations and submit to the restraints on their movements and habits and feelings which the life of a missionary or teacher of any kind necessarily involves? And if they consent, can you count upon them as ready to do it with that patience and humility and forbearance with the infirmities of others which is needed? Besides, we all agree, whatever our religious opinions are, that some how or other the moral nature of most mature men is 'out of joint;' and that there is often a chastening, purifying, elevating influence upon the soul, exerted by bodily infirmity is too fully proved both by experience and the declarations of the Bible to admit of doubt. Does not God often prepare men for special usefulness in this very way, and in excluding such from all share in useful effort? Are you sure that you will not shut the door against one who has been chosen and qualified by Divine wisdom?

There is another point on which you must allow me to ask an explanation of expressions which, according to the current language of the world generally, have a meaning that I presume you did not intend to convey. You say, Disease is the effect of sin, &c., and it seldom or ever happens that the individual himself is not guilty of a large share of it.' 'Cain is not the only trangressor on whom God has fixed a mark or brand.' Now the catechism of those who speak most familiarly of 'sin,' among us, says, 'Sin is a transgression of the law of God,; i. e. the written law-and connecting this with the 'brand' of Cain, leaves the impression according to the common modes of speaking, that you really suppose most invalids have brought their infirmities upon them by some positive course of criminality. I can scarcely believe this to be your meaning; but at all events, I wish for the sake of many readers you would explain yourself inore fully; and hope that it may give you occasion to show us more clearly what are the 'sins' which produce the disease that is desolating the ranks of our useful men. To our country a remedy would be more precious than a sovereign antidote to the cholera itself.

Y.

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Juvenile Music.

THE BOY AND HIS SHADOW.

Furnished for the Annals of Education, by LowELL MASON, Professor in the Boston Academy of Music.

We promised in our last, to present the reader with an outline of some of the Lectures recently delivered before the American Institute of Instruction, at Worcester. The fulfilment of this task we have attempted in the following pages. What we have done, however, is hardly entitled to the name of an outline. The truth is, we have merely sketched a few of the principal thoughts of the various lecturers, in our own language, and as we understood them. Sometimes we heard but part of a lecture; in such cases, the sketch will of course be imperfect; and they are far from being perfect in any instance. We were obliged to catch the thoughts and record them hastily, without even the benefit of short hand. While, however, we cannot hope to do full justice to any individual, we trust no one will find cause to complain of injustice. We present the 'Sketches,' partly because they are really interesting, and their doctrines deserve to be attentively considered; partly because we have been urged by some of the friends of education to do so; and partly, by the exhibition of a synopsis of the Lectures to bespeak public attention to the volume which we understand is soon to be published. Of the Lectures of Prof. Mulligan, Pres. Adams, Mr Parker, Mr Russell, Mr Picot, and Mr Mariotti, we have not, as it will be seen, attempted a sketch, and with some of the others, we have done very little.