COURSE OF STUDY IN THE HIGH SCHOOL OF NEW LONDON.

DEAR SIR: Some of our friends in New London have informed you of the state of our High School, and of the interest taken by the people generally in the subject of Education. I propose to give you a few remarks on the general plan pursued, without entering more into detail than is absolutely necessary to elucidate the subject.

Few of our scholars expect to enter college, and the object to be attained, and which is kept steadily in view, is to give them an education that will fit them to engage in the ordinary practical duties of life; one that will render them good salesmen, good mechanics, successful merchants, and influential in whatever branch of business they may be engaged.

This, therefore, was the first question to decide. What kind of general education is best fitted to make active business men? and the answer determined the course to be pursued. The ordinary modes of instruction, in deference to public opinion if nothing more, ought to be continued so long as no valid reason for changing them exists. They have been sanctioned by long usage, have been more or less successful, and change without a clear definite object to be attained would not and ought not to be tolerated. But on the other hand deference to long established usage must not be carried so far as to prevent improvement, or to leave us behind the age. The schools here were not what they should be; that was evident. How should they be made most efficient for the purposes to be accomplished?

The great object of education is always said to be to discipline the mind; a very loose phrase, and one that is often misunderstood, or at least not fully comprehended. Leaving the moral qualities out of view, VOL. X., No. 6.

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as we are now speaking only of intellectual cultivation, there are two branches to this discipline of mind that form the great practical objects of education, and these are power of thought and facility of expression. The first has been supposed to be best attained by a course of mathematical instruction. My own belief is, that those studies are appropriate to young scholars, but that they are taught somewhat too exclusively; and that a higher developement of the mental faculties can be produced by the actual exercise of the reasoning powers. I do not propose to discuss the peculiar mode in which that object is to be pursued. For the ordinary class of scholars up to the age of fourteen, the mathematics are a good discipline in that respect. Those who are engaged in the education of older students ought to consider this subject carefully. It is for them to decide whether a perpetual attention to the relations between x and y, and the constant recurrence of the exercises of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, does not after a time tend to cramp and confine, rather than instruct and develop the powers of the mind. We can only say that we found these to be some of the studies ordinarily pursued, and did not think best at once to change them.

But in regard to those exercises which conduce to facility of express-ion, we had no hesitation in attempting a change, which though in appearance slight, was in reality fundamental. To give a scholar the pow~er of expressing himself clearly, to enable him to utter every thought of his heart, and to pour forth ideas as fast as they can be formed in the prolific brain of man; to give elegance to ordinary conversation, and fluency and eloquence to public speaking, requires early and long continued and careful attention. Exactness of expression cannot be attained without clearness of idea, but good ideas often fail of their full effect, for want of a proper clothing of forcible words. The advantage of bestowing this power over language has not as I believe received its proper share of attention from the teachers in our public schools; and it is only within a few years that some of the instructors in our colleges influenced by the spirit of the age to take a step in advance of the routine system of their predecessors, have begun to pay attention to a subject of such vital importance. Such an improvement ought not to be confined to colleges. The minds of children are fitted to learn the meaning and acquire the use of words; and instruction can be turned into this channel more profitably to them than in almost any other direction. It is in reality the first branch of education; it is teaching the use of the tools they are to work with; and the earlier they begin to learn, the greater will be their facility in handling their weapons.

The influence of the man depends much very much on his attainments

in language. Who has failed to notice that those who have this power will often succeed where men of greater soundness fail; that the slow and cautious thinker is overborne by the versatility, the agility, and even by the noise of the out-spoken and fluent converser; that men of sense and women of taste give up their judgment to the persuasions of the plausible and easy talker, that in every station of life the man whose power of language is good is the successful man, that the merchant and the salesman depend for their success as much upon this faculty as upon the more solid qualities of depth of thought and skill in plan, that the mechanic has constant occasions for its use in his explanations, his contracts and his orders, that every man who has a bargain to make can do it with more facility and success by means of practice and knowledge in this department, that every man who wishes to please individuals, or to become popular with the multitude is to a great extent dependent upon this one quality, and that to the professional man it is the sine qua non to any marked success. For reasons such as these we considered it incumbent on us, so to arrange our measures, that this great want of every man in the community should be supplied.

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Happily the means of doing this were at hand in the studies already pursued. It was only necessary to change in some degree the mode of instruction, and the object could be gained without shock to the prejudices of the community. The study of Latin was made the basis of direct instruction in this accomplishment; but the constant and well remembered injunctions of our old instructors, "translate literally" der word for word" were disregarded as belonging to the errors and follies of by-gone times. We adopted the principle of requiring the scholar to give the exact sense of the Latin passage in the best and most expressive English. If he failed, or if his companions in the class could produce better expressions, they were called upon to correct him, and if they fail, or differ in opinion, the teacher is at hand to correct faults, to temper discussion and to decide doubtful points. This is an exercise which requires the utmost stretch of the powers of the scholar's mind. It is a lesson in language, but it is at the same time an exercise of the understanding. It is very different from translating good Latin into bad English, both in its difficulty and in its effect on the mind. Let any teacher try for himself and notice how many of his own verbal translations are sufficiently accurate and elegant to be put on pa per, and he will then perceive that if his pupils are compelled to give clear expressions to distinct ideas, they must acquire not only power over words and phrases, but an expansion of their reasoning faculties, an improvement of the understanding, not always communicated by the

study of mathematics. Taught in this way, Latin is eminently a practical study, useful in the business of life, drawing out all the powers of the young mind, and worthy of being pursued by persons of maturer age; but as taught on the old plan of literal word-for-word rendering, it is distasteful to the scholar. He sees no beauty in it, he is conscious of no accruing benefit; and the words "discipline of the mind" as applied to it, come to him as an unmeaning term.

These are the reasons why strict attention should be paid to the study of that language in all our high schools; and it appears to me, that teachers, by directing their attention to the wants of the business man as a member of the community, and to the qualities most in requisition in the various pursuits of life, would be able to produce a system of instruction much better adapted to our age and country, than the present one. Where every study has a practical bearing, it must be evident that the business of education will be more easily carried on; that the advancement made must be greater; that time will not be lost in perfecting a kind of general discipline of the mind, which might much better be employed in exercising its particular powers; and that the pupils themselves will be conscious of their progress, and will be encouraged to exertion by their own sense of it, as well as by the encomiums of their friends.

Then too, if we wish our daughters to become accomplished and elegant, they must be taught not merely to play on the guitar or piano, to draw, to paint and to dress. These, to be sure, are accomplishments; but there is something higher, more useful, and more becoming to women; and it is the art of conversation. With her, the use of language is an instinct; to use it well, is the greatest of accomplishments. To talk, is not always to converse. A charm may be thrown around the simplest narrative, merely by the use of good language; and it is a charm always at hand. The husband must feel its influence; children growing up under its example, cannot fail to speak with propriety. Slang expressions picked up from the streets, meet with no tolerance when the mother of the family converses well. Boarding school phrases, the attempted prettinesses of the incipient Miss, receive no grains of allowance. The authority of the mother will be greatly enhanced by her close attention to proprieties in expression. These will give her a quiet dignity, before which the rudeness of boys and the affectation of girls must become abashed; and this great accomplishment, used as it will be for the entertainment of the family, will stamp its impress on the children. Such, in few words, is the bearing of this kind of education on woman; and its importance, as conducing

to the happiness of the domestic circle, can scarcely be over-estimated. This is the system that we have begun; and its influence on teachers and scholars is beginning to be appreciated. We do not consider a knowledge of Latin the end to be attained; it is only the means. Comparatively useless in itself, it is the road to an object of the highest importance the command of language; without which no man can be said to be properly educated.

I might extend these remarks and illustrate other important points; but I fear my communication is already too long. If my suggestions shall have any effect towards leading teachers to a closer scrutiny, into the tendencies of the various studies, and to an improvement in the economy of instruction, I shall have gained an important object. To those who are engaged in the business of teaching, a right theory upon this matter is of the highest moment. L. B.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF TRINITY COLLEGE.

At a very early period in the history of the Diocese of Connecticut, after its complete organization by the consecration of SEABURY, its first Bishop, in 1784, a seminary of sound learning and Christian education began to be considered as a desideratum. The earliest step in this direction, was the founding of the Cheshire Academy. The first measures for establishing which were taken by a Convocation of the Clergy of the diocese under Seabury, held at East Haddam in February, 1792. This institution, which was incorporated with limited privileges in 1801, was designed to serve as the foundation of an institution of a higher character, as soon as a Charter conferring full Collegiate powers, could be obtained from the State. In this view it was often spoken of as "Seabury College."

Unavailing efforts were made to enlarge the powers of the Academy in 1804, and again in 1810. In one instance only were they so far successful that an act granting a Collegiate Charter was passed by a decided vote in the House of Representatives, but rejected by the Council (Senate.) Vacancy in the Episcopate, and afterwards, the establishment of the General Theological Seminary, were among the causes which led the Churchmen of Connecticut to defer their project for founding a College, to happier times, which seemed to dawn with the adoption of the State Constitution in 1818; for Bishop Brownell, who was consecrated in 1819, was enabled shortly after to carry the