answer for their good conduct and application, they are all, without exception, bound to live in the normal school, and to take their food there, paying to the director the sum of 12 thaler (17. 16s.) per quarter.

Each pupil costs the establishment 100 thaler a year. In paying, therefore, the yearly sum of 48 thaler, required by law, he defrays only half his expenses. A bursar is entitled to lodging, firing, board, candles, and instruction. A half bursar pays only 24 thaler a year. He has then only to buy his clothes, to pay for his washing, his books, paper, pens, ink, and whatever is wanted for music and drawing.

With respect to lodging, they are distributed into five large rooms, with stoves, appropriated to the pupils; and they live and work, to the number of eight, twelve, or sixteen, in one of these rooms, which is furnished with tables, chairs, drawers, book-cases, bureaus, and piano-fortes. Their beds and chests are put in two dormitories. Each sitting-room, each bed-room, has its inspector, chosen from among the pupils, who is responsible for its order. It is the duty of one of the pupils belonging to the chamber to arrange and dust the furniture every day. Neglect in the fulfilment of his office is punished by the continuance of it.

So long as the pupils remain at the normal school, and behave with propriety, they are exempt from military service.

All the pupils are bound to pursue the course of the normal school for three years; their acquirements and instruction would be incomplete if they did not conform to this regulation.

10. EDUCATION OF THE PUPILS BY MEANS OF DISCIPLINE AND OF INSTRUCTION.

In the education of the masters of primary schools, the wants of the people must be consulted.

A religious and moral education is the first want of the people. Without this, every other education is not only without real utility, but in some respects dangerous. If, on the contrary, religious education has taken firm root, intellectual education will have complete success, and ought on no account to be withheld from the people, since God has endowed them with all the faculties for acquiring it, and since the cultivation of all the powers of man, secures to

him the means of reaching perfection, and, through that, supreme happiness.

To sustain and confirm the religious and moral spirit of our pupils, we adopt various means. We take particular care that they go to church every Sunday: they are not compelled to attend exclusively the parish church of the normal school; but on the Monday they are required to name the church they went to, and to give an account of the sermon. Every Sunday, at 6 o'clock in the morning, one of the oldest pupils reads, in turn a sermon, in the presence of all the pupils and one master. At the beginning and end they sing a verse of a psalm, accompanied on the organ. A prayer, about ten or fifteen minutes long, is offered up every morning and night, by one of the masters. They begin with singing one or two verses; then follows a religious address, or the reading of a chapter from the Bible, and in conclusion, another verse.

To obtain a moral influence over the pupils, we consider their individual position, their wants and their conduct. Much aid in this respect is derived from the weekly conference of the masters, and particularly from the quarterly report (Censur) of the pupils, or judgment on the application, progress, and conduct of each. This is written in a particular book, called the report-book (Censurbuch,) and forms the basis of the certificates delivered to the pupils on their leaving the establishment; as well as of private advice given at the time.

The means of correction adopted, are, warnings, exhortations, reprimands; at first privately, then at the conference of masters; lastly, before all the pupils. If these means do not suffice, recourse is had to confinement, to withdrawing the stipendia or exhibitions, and in the last resort, to expulsion. But we endeavor, as much as possible, to prevent these punishments, by keeping up a friendly intercourse with the pupils, by distinguishing the meritorious, by striving to arouse a noble emulation, and to stir up in their hearts the desire of gaining esteem and respect by irreproachable conduct.

It is on the interest given to the lessons that especially depends the application of study out of class. Certain hours of the day are consecrated to private study, and each master by turns takes upon himself to see that quiet is maintained in the rooms, and that all are properly occupied.

At the end of each month, the last lesson, whatever the branch of instruction, is a recapitulation, in the form of an examination, on the subjects treated of in the course of the month.

As to the branches of knowledge taught, and the course of study, the following is the fundamental plan :

In the first year formal instruction predominates in the second, material instruction; in the third, practical instruction.* The pupils having then about ten lessons a week to give in the annexed school, (lessons for which they must be well prepared,) follow fewer courses in the school.

Our principal aim, in each kind of instruction, is to induce the young men to think and judge for themselves. We are opposed to all mechanical study and servile transcripts. The masters of our primary schools must possess intelligence themselves, in order to be able to awaken it in their pupils ; otherwise, the state would doubtless prefer the less expensive schools of Bell and Lancaster.

We always begin with the elements, because we are compelled to admit, at least at present, pupils whose studies have been neglected; and because we wish to organize the instruction in every branch, so as to afford the pupils a model and guide in the lessons which they will one day be called upon to give.

With respect to material instruction, we regard much more the solidity, than the extent, of the acquirements. This not only accords with the intention of the higher authorities, but reason itself declares that solidity of knowledge alone, can enable a master to teach with efficiency, and carry forward his own studies with success. Thus, young men of delicate health are sometimes exempted from certain branches of study, such as the mathematics, thorough-bass, and natural philosophy.

Gardening is taught in a piece of ground before the Nauen gate; and swimming, in the swimming-school established

* Formal instruction, consists of studies calculated to open the mind, and to inculcate on the pupils good methods in every branch, and the feeling of what is the true vocation of a primary teacher. Material instruction, or more positive instruction, occupies the second year, in which the pupils go through the special studies of every solid kind, much of which they may never be called to teach. Practical instruction, or instruction in the art of teaching, occupies the third year.

before the Berlin gate, during the proper season, from seven to nine in the evening.

Practical instruction we consider of the greatest impor

tance.

All the studies and all the knowledge of our pupils would be fruitless, and the normal school would not fulfil the design of its institution, if the young teachers were to quit the establishment without having already methodically applied what they had learned, and without knowing by experience what they have to do, and how to set about it.

To obtain this result, it is not sufficient that the younger men should see the course gone through under skilful masters, or that they should themselves occasionally give lessons to their school fellows; they must have taught the children in the annexed school for a long time, under the direction of the masters of the normal school. It is only by familiarizing themselves with the plan of instruction for each particular branch, and by teaching each for a certain time themselves, that they can acquire the habit of treating it with method.

11. ANNEXED SCHOOL.

The annexed school was founded in 1825, and received gratuitously from 160 to 170 boys. The higher authorities, in granting considerable funds for the establishment of this school, have been especially impelled by the benevolent desire of securing to the great mass of poor children in this town the means of instruction, and of relieving the town from the charge of their education.

The town authorities agreed, on their part, to pay the establishment one thaler and five silber-groschen (3s. 6d.) a year for each child. On this condition we supply the children gratuitously with the books, slates, &c. which they want.

The annexed school is a primary school, which is divided into four classes, but reckons only three degrees: the second and third classes are separated from each other only for the good of the pupils, and for the purpose of affording more practice to the young masters.

The first class, with the two above it, forms a good and complete elementary school; while the highest presents a class of a burgher school, where the more advanced pupils of the normal school, who will probably be one day employed in the town schools, give instruction to the cleverest boys of the annexed school.

The most advanced class of the students of the normal school to be employed in the school for practice, is divided into five cœtus, or divisions, each composed of five or six pupils. Each division teaches two subjects only during two months and a half, and then passes on to two other subjects; so that each has practical exercise in all the matters taught, in succession.

As far as possible, all the classes of the school for practice attend to the same subject at the same hour. The master of the normal school, who has prepared the young masters beforehand, is present during the lesson. He listens, observes, and guides them during the lessons, and afterwards communicates his observations and his opinion of the manner in which the lesson was given. Each class has a journal for each branch of instruction, in which what has been taught is entered after the lesson. As far as possible, the young master who is to give the next lesson, witnesses that of his predecessor. By this means, and particularly through the special direction of the whole practical instruction by a master of the normal school, the connection and gradation of the lessons is completely secured.

It is requisite that every pupil of the normal school should teach all the branches of the lowest class in succession; for the master of a primary school, however learned he may be, is ignorant of the most indispensable part of his calling, if he cannot teach the elements.

12. DEPARTURE FROM THE NORMAL SCHOOL; EXAMINATIONS; CERTIFICATE AND APPOINTMENT.

The pupils quit the normal school after having pursued the course for three years; for the lengthening of their stay would be an obstacle to the reception of new pupils.

But they must first go through an examination in writing and viva voce, as decreed by the ordinance of the minister of public instruction and ecclesiastical and medical affairs of which we give an abstract.

"1. All pupils of the primary normal schools in the kingdom shall go through an examination on leaving.

"2. The examinations shall be conducted by all the masters of the normal school, on all the subjects taught in the house, in the presence and under the direction of one or more commissioners delegated by the provincial school board.