mentary education may be pursued at another time. First let us examine his mode of teaching the alphabet. The letters are given in the order "most suitable to the easy action of the organs of speech, vowels and labials first, dental and lingual letters next. ABEIOUY PMDTSZ WHLRNF VKG XC Y as a consonant, and J Q are not taught until the child comes to words of three letters "because it requires two letters to exemplify its sound." Each letter is made a separate lesson. The child is first taught A, and then is made to find all the A's it can, in order to make it perfectly familiar with its shape and name. Then it is taught B, in the same manner, and then in the B lesson. The learner is shown the combinations of A and B. B-A ba, A-B ab. As soon as these are spelled several times, it is made to sound ba and ab at sight, without naming a letter. When this is done often enough to fix the reading of it in the mind, he is then required to spell the words off the book. Dr K. says, "learning to read at this early stage is a matter of great moment to a child, as it enables him to sound the combination of letters at a glance, and makes reading a simple and easy business to him." In order to make a variety and to arrest the child's attention, he is asked what combination sounds ba, what ab, &c. When the pupil comes to the S lesson, the preceding letters with their combinations enable him to read such lessons as these: By it, it is up, so am I, &c., in which not one letter is anticipated. Thus it proceeds to the letter J, and to each of these lessons is affixed an oral lesson to unfold their thinking powers, and to teach him to describe objects by analysis and generalization. All the reading lessons as they proceed, are made up of the words previously learned, not a single word is anticipated.

The third section contains words spelled which have meanings, and here every word is required to be orally explained by the teacher, if it be not already understood by the child, questions are asked on the word and minute directions are given as to the kind of questions which the child is required to answer, varying with the nature of the word, and the thing, state or action signified by it. The teacher is requested to give orally all the derivations formed from the words as a preparatory step to words of two or more syllables. To these columns of words that have distinct

meanings, are added reading lessons in which every word spelled is applied in a phrase simple and easily understood, in which there is not a single word that has not been made already familiar to the child. Words of one syllable all of them sufficiently simple to be brought within the understanding of a child occupy more than one half the book.

There is no system better adapted to the infant mind than oral instruction made suitable to its wants and capacities. The child's intellect should be attentively studied and in all that we teach, great care should be taken to keep progress with the gradual progress of the mind. But as teachers cannot yet be procured who are willing to undertake the labor, all that can be done is to find books as nearly allied to oral instruction as we can. The habit of looking at "printed words or visible language without thinking," is fraught with the most ruinous consequences to the mind. And as Dr Keagy observes, "spelling books as they are usually constructed and used have for more than a century past been the greatest barrier to intellectual improvement." But in his excellent work we have the best substitute for a judicious and thoroughly educated teacher that can be obtained. And if it were only better known, it would soon maintain that place in all our academies and common schools that has so long been filled by others so far inferior. A MOTHER.

ART. V.-AMERICAN EDUCATION.

AMERICAN EDUCATION. By Rev. Benjamin O. Peers. New York: John S. Taylor.

For the Annals of Education.

It is not our present purpose to make an analysis of this volume, or criticise any of the positions taken in it. This we may do hereafter, remarking however, as we pass, that the views of the author are evidently the result of mature reflection, and merit the serious attention of all the friends. of American education. We trust the volume will be extensively read. It can hardly fail to be extensively useful.

We choose rather, now to offer some suggestions touching the true uses and necessities of Common Schools in our

country, and the position they ought to hold in a system o American education. Undoubtedly, common schools, which have heretofore been much neglected, are now beginning to absorb, if possible, almost the whole of public attention; and there is danger lest those who frame systems of education to be adopted by our several States, shall imagine their workis done if they have provided the means of elementary instruction for the majority of our population. The common school system, however complete in itself it may be, is by no means independent, and will not work alone. The machinery will not move orderly, till an impulse is given from above as well as from below.

Of the importance of popular education, and we mean by that phrase, the education of all the people, we need not speak. It is evidently necessary to our political well being, and therefore what every class of men may justly claim at the hands of government, that all shall receive that amount and kind of instruction which will fit them for the intelligent discharge of all their duties to the State. The community may with no more justice complain of lawless and disorderly citizens, if it has not given them the means of becoming intelligent and virtuous, than may the father of an ill-trained and misgoverned family, if his sons are rebellious and his daughters a shame to him. If it be the duty of the State to provide education for one class of citizens, it is in like manner her duty to provide education for all who are to bear any office, or discharge any trust under her, and useful to her. Yet we in this country have given to "popular education," the meaning of only "Common School education." Let us see then, how far this Common School education extends, who enjoys it, in what degree it meets all the necessities of the State, and how far the adoption and execution of such a scheme is a discharge of all the duties of the State.

And, first, as to the extent of this education. The limits are not yet well defined, even, we believe, in the minds of its most judicious advocates and friends. There is however a tendency, very observable, to include a great variety of studies, and to push the amount of attainment far beyond any mark heretofore conceived. We judge, however, that it will prove unwise to attempt to provide any kind or degree of education for any class or classes of men which will

reach far beyond the true duties of their sphere. In this, as in every other department of political economy, governments must learn to regulate the supply to what is nearly the actual demand. No system of common education, however lofty its aims or costly its arrangements, can ever raise the body of any nation to that degree of knowledge and cultivation, that will enable them to discharge to the full, the duties which the theory of our government imposes on its citizen. They may be trained to such a degree of wisdom and virtue as wisely to select and to control the depositories of power. But never will they be raised high enough to enable every man to form a right and well grounded judgment on many momentous, yet perplexed topics of public affairs. How can men, to whom the daily business of life is and must be all engrossing, judge of complicated subjects, the tariff for example, which require for a just investigation of them, the widest view of principles, and an infinity of minute discussions ?

Our object is not to find fault with those who would enlarge the scope of the common mind, or multiply its knowledge, but to affirm our conviction that the Common School system, however wisely planned and working however well, cannot in the nature of the case, furnish the means and materials which shall enable all her citizens to discharge all their duties.

Touching the persons who enjoy its advantages. They are those who must need its influences, in whose happiness lies the happiness of the state, the moment and the balance of the whole. Yet not all of them are to be learned and wise. It is enough if in the honesty of a good conscience, and the quietness of a peaceful happiness, they pass through life receiving and doing good. Those who are to occupy the places of honor, and have the conduct of affairs, and in whom, after all that can be said of the sovereignty of the people, resides the real and the actual supremacy, as they have a different lot and other duties, need a different and superior training. If the State needs other services than can be rendered by the average mind and cultivation of its citizens, it were no difficult or obscure process of reasoning by which we infer, that the State is bound to seek out that better mind, and provide for that higher cultivation. We would not be understood to undervalue common schools, or

to doubt the propriety of any measures adopted or proposed respecting them. But to suggest to those most engaged in these matters, that it may be well, now, in the outset of their efforts, to survey accurately the whole ground, and form their schemes with regard to all the wants not only of the people but of the Commonwealth,-that Common Schools are only the ground plan and foundation of a wise and general system; and it were not well to lay the foundations without some clear notions of what the superstructure is to be;-that if no regard is had to the condition present and prospective of other means and institutions of learning, some steps now taken must be retraced, or the harmony of the whole system be impaired ;-in short, that it is more easy, more economical, more wise, to arrange the parts of a scheme of universal education with reference to each other and the whole, there to create each separately, and then reduce or swell it as unforeseen exigencies may require.

We purpose, if we are allowed, to examine in another article, the expediency of bringing all means of instruction in the State under the control or at least supervision of the State. H. M.

MISCELLANIES.

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF INSTRUCTION.

THE tenth Annual Session of the "American Institute of Instruction," was begun in this town on Thursday, August 23, the first meeting being held in the Town Hall at 8 o'clock, A. M. The Hon. Wm. B. Calhoun, President of the Association, occupied the chair. After the proceedings of the last annual meeting had been read by the Secretary, Thomas Cushing, Jr., the usual preliminary business was transacted. A Committee, consisting of Messrs. Emerson, Dillaway and Mann, was appointed to wait upon NOAH WEBSTER, and invite him to attend the meetings of the Institute, and participate in its proccedings. Subsequently, this committee reported that Dr Webster had left town, before they had had an opportunity of presenting to him the proposed invitation. On motion of Mr Emerson, the Institution passed a unanimous vote, constituting Dr Webster an honorary member of the Association.

At 10 o'clock, the Institute adjourned to Rev. Mr Peabody's church. After the meeting had been opened with prayer, by Mr