"3. Every pupil, before leaving, shall give a probationary lesson, to show to what degree he possesses the art of teaching.

"4. After the examination is over, and exact accounts of the pupils leaving are given by the director and all the masters, a certificate shall be delivered to each pupil, signed by the director, the masters and the commissioners.

"5. This certificate shall specify the knowledge and talents of the pupil; it shall state whether he possesses the art of teaching, and whether his moral character renders him fit for the office of primary schoolmaster. It shall include, besides, a general opinion of his character and attainments, expressed by one of the terms, excellent,' 'good,' 'passable,' and answering to the numbers 1, 2, 3.

"6. This certificate only gives the pupil a provisional power of receiving an appointment for three years. After that time he must undergo a new examination at the normal school. But any pupil who, on leaving the establishment, obtained number 1, and has, in the course of the tree first years, been teacher in a public school, shall not have to pass another examination. No others can take a situation, except provisionally.

"7. These new examinations shall not take place at the same time as those of the pupils who are leaving; but like those, always in the presence and under the direction of the commissioners of the school board.

"8. In the first examinations the principal object is, to ascertain if the pupils have well understood the lessons of the normal school, and learned to apply them; in the last, the only object of inquiry is the practical skill of the candidate.

"9. The result of this new examination shall likewise be expressed in a certificate, appended to the first, and care should be taken to specify therein the fitness of the candidate for the profession of schoolmaster."

For which reason, the pupils on their departure receive a certificate, the first page of which describes their talents, character and morality and the two following contain an exact account of the results of the examination on all branches of study.

Those who have not obtained appointments in the interval between the two examinations, shall present this certificate

to the superintendents and school inspectors of the places where they live, and, on leaving that place, shall demand a certificate of conduct, which they shall produce at the time of the second examination. Those who have been in situations during the three first years, shall produce certificates from their immediate superiors.

All the pupils cannot be appointed immediately on their leaving the school: but a great number of them are proposed by the director for vacant places, and are sought after by the royal government, by superintendents, magistrates, &c.; so that at the end of a year we may calculate that they are all established.

I can answer for the perfect fidelity of this description of the normal school of Potsdam; and in the long visit and minute investigation of this great establishment which I made in person, I came to the conviction that the representation I have now submitted to you, sir, and which was drawn up in 1826, was, in 1831, below the reality.

I saw this scheme in action. The spirit which dictated the arrangement and distribution of the tuition is excellent, and equally pervades all the details. The normal course, which occupies three years, is composed, for the first year, 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. This is what is called formal instruction, in opposition to the material or more positive instruction of the second year, in which the pupils go through special studies of a very solid kind, and learn considerably more than they will generally be called upon to teach. The third year is entirely practical, and is devoted to learning the art of teaching. This is precisely the plan which I take credit to myself for having followed in the organization of the studies of the great central normal school of Paris, for the training of masters for the royal and communal colleges. At Potsdam, likewise, the third year comprises the sum of the two preceding, and the pupils are already regarded as masters. In this view there is a primary school annexed to the normal school, in which the students, in their third year, give lessons, under the superintendence of the masters of the normal school. The children who attend this primary school pay, or rather the town pays for them only four thaler (12s.) a year; there are 170.

They are divided, according to their progress, into four classes, which are taught by the twenty or five and twenty students, or apprentice masters, in their third year, with all the ardor of youth and of a new vocation. I was present at several of these lessons, which were extremely well given. A master of the normal school frequently attends one of the classes, and, when the lesson is finished, makes observations to the young masters, and gives them practical lessons, by which they can immediately profit.

As appears from the prospectus, the musical instruction is carried to a very high point. There are few students who have not a violin, and many of them leave the school very good organists and piano-forte players. Singing is particularly cultivated. The course of instruction embraces not only a little botany, mineralogy, physical science, natural history and zoology, but exercises in psychology and logic, which tend to give the young men the philosophy of that portion of popular education intrusted to their care. I was

present at several lessons; among others, one on history and chronology, in which, out of courtesy to me, the pupils were interrogated on the history of France, particularly during the reign of Charles IX., and Henry III., and Henry IV.,—a period of which protestantism is so important a feature. The young men answered extremely well, and seemed perfectly familiar with the dates and leading facts. I say nothing of the gymnastic courses, as Prussia is the classic land of those exercises.

What struck me the most was the courses, called in Germany courses of Methodik and Didaktik, as also those designated by the name of Pædagogik: the two former intended to teach the art of tuition, the latter the more difficult art of moral education. These courses are more particularly calculated for the acting masters, who come back to perfect themselves at the normal school; for which reason they are not entered in the table, or prospectus, which exhibits only the regular studies of the school. These courses are almost always given by the director, who also generally gives the religious instruction, which here comes in its proper place,— that is, first.

I ought to add that all the students of the school at Potsdam had a cheerful happy air, and their manners were very good. If they brought any rusticity to the school, they had

entirely lost it.

I quitted the establishment highly satisfied with the students, full of esteem for the director, and of respect for a country in which the education of the people has reached such a pitch of prosperity.

For the Annals of Education.

ART. III.-THE SCHOOLMASTER'S KINDRED.

WE have stood at the fountain, whose waters have gone forth far and wide, to enrich the earth. We have paid due reverence to the memory of the first, and greatest Master. Let us not forget the long line of his successors, who have reflected more or less truly and brightly the glories of their First. It stretches back to a distance in which are visible only, here and there, the top-most heads. The useful obscure have their own reward. They have done their work well, and rest quietly in the peace of a good conscience and the security of finished labors, and need nothing of the applause or envy of the world.

Our brotherhood has partaken of the degeneracy of the whole human race. "There were giants in those days." Yet though we are pigmies, their blood is in our veins. We are in the same honor, though we sit on a lower form, with the Masters of the Academy and of the Grove. Socrates and Plato reduced their vast wisdom to the level of common minds, even as we do, in our measure. Aristotle was the preceptor of a prince, and in our day all are princes. In the ages we call dark, when yet day light shone, did not Scotus and Aquinas rejoice in the cognomen of Schoolmen? And are not we in the same category? The wisest of all ages have been of our craft, from Pythagoras who loved truth and lived on beans, to Seneca who loved thrushes and lived delicately, and Johnson who kept a school and was a bear. Kings too, have honored and been honored by fellowship with us, from Dionysius of Syracuse, to Louis Philippe of France.

As much force as a man has in him, so much is he worth. Who can estimate the merits of a Plagosus Orbilius? Horace owed no less to him, than to Mæcenas. Was not Parr

too, the flagellant, a hero to be matched with the rock-flinging warriors of Homer?

If he who makes is of more worth than the thing made, then was Busby more than a whole bench of Bishops, and the old crone who has flogged a dozen senators, may stand up boldly, and claim reverence of them all.

Let not us, who remain, and on whom the mantle has fallen, dishonor our noble blood by timorous misgivings. A faint heart will not serve our turn. To evoke and lay spirits is no mean office. Our secret is worth more than the alkahest, or a magic wand. The elements obey only words of power.

For the Annals of Education.

ART. IV.-TEACHING GEOGRAPHY.

THE great art in teaching geography consists in causing the conceptions of the learner to expand in due proportion. The study is often made a mere matter of memory. The child whose notion of dimensions and distances is, as yet, very weak and imperfect, is compelled to learn many things of which he has no adequate apprehension. But the effort, which is thus toilsome and painful, may be relieved by judicious and seasonable aid.

I have a class of children who have recently begun to learn geography. They came to me with all the elementary notions, which when properly combined and matured, make the accurate and perfect geographer. They understood what is meant by length, breadth, heigth and depth, distance and direction. They had seen stones, and brooks, and trees, and hills. We started with just so much knowledge. Our first lessons were out in our own fields. We verify by an inspection of the hill opposite, and the creek before us, the plain or undulating surface around us our notions of mountains, rivers, and surfaces. We dwell upon them till we are sure that every one has an accurate conception of the meaning of such terms, which are often used in the study of Geography.

We then take up our own State, and after a general study of its outline and principal features, we go very minutely